GA-X58A-UD3R problem with GV-N480D5-15I-B

[Dark Mantis]

You are welcome of course. Please let us know what happens though.

[Viccctor]

If you seriously want to get to the bottom of this I would suggest starting from scratch and building the system up outside the case on the worktop. Lay some cardboard or other non conductive material down first and then put together the motherboard, one module of memory in the first slot, the CPU/heat sink/fan, a buzzer or speaker and the PSU. When done try booting and see what beeps it emits when it tries to POST. Obviously it will fail as there is no graphics card but it will at least enable you to test the basic build.

I am afraid I am going to bed now but we can continue tomorrow if you wish.

I`m not sure if I have enough time to completeb all required tests this month. Anyway, I hope to receive the testing results for my GA-X58A-UD3R soon. I believe it can give me some points for locating the problem. Thank You for trying to help me. If my system failed because of motherboard failure, I think it was  better to write here about it, so the information about some similar cases of this strange problem could help Gigabyte ingeneers to resolve it or, at least, keep it in mind.

[Dark Mantis]

Fair enough viccctor, these things can take a lot of time and not everyone has enough spare to play with their computers. If you want to try later just post again and we will see what we can do then.

[Viccctor]

Hello again. Finally decided to make everything clear for me with GA-EX58-UD5 rev.1

So, yesterday I assembled my system on the cardboard box on my table. By now I already tested all my RAM with memtest86+ 4.10 stick by stick in the first white slot for more than 3 hours and more than 7 passes each one with no errors. This time I put all my RAM (which is Kingston KVR1333D3N9K3/6G set of 3) in white slots an it is running with memtest for almost 2 hours and 2 passes completed with no errors so far. All BIOS settings set to optimised defaults (except Boot from USB storage to run memtest from my pen-drive), memory is running on 1066MHz. So i did it just to make sure that there is no RAM problems in my system. Though I didn`t expect any problems with memtest because this memory worked with this processor (i7 920 D0) and with this motherboard exactly for almost one year running under Win7 x64. So the next step is to try to install Win7 x64 using my old HDD Samsung SATA II 120GB. Will try to disable all controllers except the main ICH, setting it to AHCI and native mode. Will use external USB-DVD-RW.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi viccctor
OK so far so good. Which graphics card are you using?
Go into the BIOS and disable the floppy drive.
Make sure that your boot drive isn't a WD green drive and connect it.
Is there any reason why you want to use AHCI as the only real benefit is the HotSwap ability? If not use IDE mode as it's more stable.
Connect your external optical drive and install Windows.

[Viccctor]

The graphics is 8400gs by ZOTAC with no external power needed. Floppy is already disabled. Will write You back soon.

[Viccctor]

Ok, here is the result...

I succesfully installed Win7 x64 in AHCI mode in port 0 of ICH10R SATA controller. But after I installed all required drivers and Win7 installed 2 updates (yes, i plugged in LAN cable once I was in desktop) and rebooted. After Win7 splash animation was CHKDSK attention message, then checking, correcting some errors, reboot, CHKDSK again, reboot etc. The HDD behaved strange - it seemed that heads were parking themselves after evry 5-6 seconds, then resumed working. Have not tried it in IDE mode now, but tried it many times before, HDD will stuck after the first reboot during Win7 installation.

Will try to install Win7 using GSATA, disabling ICH10 SATA if possible.

[Dark Mantis]

OK we need to try and eliminate things that could be at fault. I take it the disk you are using at present is the Velociraptor, yes? If so change it for the other drive and see if you have the same problem.

[Viccctor]

OK we need to try and eliminate things that could be at fault. I take it the disk you are using at present is the Velociraptor, yes? If so change it for the other drive and see if you have the same problem.

No, as I wrote two posts before the HDD this time was Samsung 120GB - well worked in my previous system for 3 years. The same situation was with Velociraptor two weeks before with GA-X58A-UD3R. So now the MOBO and HDD are changed but the problem persists (it doesn`t depend on CPU used, I checked everything with i7 930 D0 before). The only common thing in all cases is that all troubles have started when I inserted that GTX460 first in GA-EX58-UD5, then in GA-X58A-UD3R...

[Dark Mantis]

Are you still using the same power supply? (Sorry if I have asked any of these questions before)
Is there any other items that have been common throughout?

[Viccctor]

No, even today I tried both TT 600W and Corsair TX750. Two months of struggle past, and today the only common thing is the RAM, but it worked well on this MOBO and thoroughly tested by now. The GTX460 mentioned before is returned to seller two weeks ago and I have my money back. And as I said before that video card in my opinion initiated all the problems.

Couldn`t install Win7 x64 using GSATA controller. Tried to tweak PCI-E frequency. At 90MHz set manually system can`t start, stops at code 26, then after poweroff starts and stops at code c1. At 95MHz I managed to install Windows, installed updates, then, after MOBO drivers installation there was a problem starting realtek sound driver after reboot. Tried 93MHz - the same situation as with 90Mhz. Set 100MHz manually, after booting in Windows there was a problem with another driver, and there was also clicking sound (head parking?) from HDD every 3-5 seconds. Now I`m sure this is mainly PCI-E -related issue. Do You know where phisically the PCI-E clock generator located?

[Dark Mantis]

No I can't help you with the location of the clock generator I'm afraid we don't have access to that level of information. I don't know where to go from here. I don't like giving up but at the moment I can't think of anything to account for the problem. I will discuss it with my collegue tomorrow and see if we can come up with anything.

[Viccctor]

Checked today both Samsung and WD HDDs used trying to install Win7. Did it using external USB docking station with AMD Athlon XP based computer. Both had partition table corruption making HDDs inaccessible for Partition Magic 7.0 installed on my old PC. Fixed it with gparted live USB fash drive.

[Dark Mantis]

Have you tried to install Windows since repartitioning them?

[Viccctor]

Have you tried to install Windows since repartitioning them?

No, but every time i did the clear installation at first I deleted all partitions on HDD making installation on unallocated space. By doing this I let Windows to create required partitions, right? By the way, at first I tried to repair partition table using gparted on X58 mashine in ICH10 SATA controller, the second (?) attempt was sucsessful. But when I plugged this "repaired" HDD (it was Samsung) in my AMD mashine it was inaccessible with corrupt partition table. I assume that any operation with HDD data on my X58 mashine leads to file system or partition table corruption. Of course I can try to install Windows again, I`m just worrying a bit about posiible inrecoverable errors on my HDD. Two weeks ago I saw personally when just repartitioned and formatted HDD (WD HLFS) lost it`s partition table after first reboot during Win7 installation as we did diagnostics of GA-X58A-UD3R (it`s still in service) in my local shop.