GA-X58A-UD3R: USB3.0,Prime95,and Hard Lock issues.

[Shanawa]

I received my NewEgg combo order last week and have been having issues since day one. Current issues are:

1) The two USB 3.0 ports in the back don't seem to work on boot but work in Windows. I've updated to the FD bios and may have to try the beta ones but am holding off atm. I tried pressing delete on the keyboard to enter bios but it doesn't work unless I use the USB 2.0 ones. Also if I am plugged into the USB 3.0 ports with my keyboard and mouse and I get a hard lock both devices lose power. If I use the USB 2.0 ports and get a hard lock power is still on to both devices.

2) Prime 95. I haven't overclocked my cpu and have tried fail safe, optimized, optimized with updated settings for the OCZ memory and I can't get a stable result. I've gotten 9 hours one time but ran it again and it failed in 1 minute. I can start it, get an error in 2 minutes then rerun the test immediatly and it will last for an hour. I've swapped out to my old Antec 650W PSU, used my old 260 GTX card, and  ran memtest86 on each of the 3 sticks individually for 1 pass and then ran all 3 for 9 hours and still no errors for the memory. I also checked the motherboard cpu slot and didn't see any bent pins.

3) Hard locks. I've only played Age of Conan mostly on my new pc and am getting hard locks on it.I tried reinstalling windows with the latest drivers and just the Nvidia 260.99 driver for both cards. I haven't had a lock on the 260 but prime 95 isnt stable with the 260 installed so I'm not sure if it's more than one issue going on. I thought maybe it was a voltage problem but I replaced the new 850W PSU with my old 650W PSU and the gtx460 still locks up.

I have a fresh windows 7 64bit install with the latest drivers from the website and FD bios.

Here are my current bios settings:











Any ideas?

Currently I removed the OCZ vertex ssd in case it was causing issues, only have 6/12 gb of ram installed, and am using my old video card and psu temporarily.

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
COOLER MASTER Intel Core i7 compatible V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro RS850-AMBAJ3-US 850W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
EVGA 01G-P3-1373-AR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked EE 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200 R4-LUS-07AB-GP 200mm Blue LED Case Fan
OCZ Vertex 2 OCZSSD3-2VTX120G 3.5" 120GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the gigabyte Forum.

After reading all you post and looking at your photos I am still no further ahead with determining the problem so far. I think the best thing is to build it up outside the case and try to keep it simple to start with.

Make sure that you observe anti-static precautions.

Lay some cardboard or use the motherboard box or similar that is non-conductive on the worktop and remove the motherboard/CPU/heatsink/fan/GPU/buzzer/one stick of memory/hard drive and PSU from the case and put it on the cardboard. Add the keyboard/mouse to a USB 2.0 port.

Clear the CMOS whilst you are there by removing the power cable from the mains supply and then press the power switch on the case for a few seconds just to drain any residual energy in the PSU capacitors.

Once done remove the motherboard battery for at least ten minutes before replacing it.
 
Next plug back into the mains supply and boot.
 
You will now need to enter the BIOS by pressing DEL and load Opimised BIOS Defaults.

Make any other changes to the BIOS settings to suit your self and then press F10 to save and exit.

Try and boot.

Listen for what sounds it makes.
If it is just one beep then allow it to continue to boot into Windows.

[Fatman]

Hi I was having a look at your bios and I would try the following seeing you have CIE and and EIST etc disabled


set your CPU to 1.35v (you can move it lower if need be)

QPI/VTT  to 1.300v

IOH CORE 1.200v

Try Command rate 1

If you XMP enabled try it without see how it goes


Also if still having issues try running your ram @1333 instead of 1600

[Shanawa]

Not much progress on that. I ran at optimized settings without changing anything except for AHCI since I installed windows with it since I am going to install windows on an OCZ vertex 2 ssd later. I had prime 95 running for 6 hours with those settings so then I started to run Age of Conan. 1 hour into it I got a hard lock. I tried disabling the advanced cpu settings like cie and eist and then putting in the 8-8-8-24 and voltage settings for memory with both 1333 and 1600 speeds and broke prime 95 in a minute. I tried Fatmans settings and everything failed under a minute.

Also when I wiped the cmos and started windows it said I had a non genuine version. I didn't want to activate it yet because of hardware changes that may happen. I reinstalled windows then the date updated and it was past 30 days so I got the non genuine thing again heh. So I had to reinstall windows again after the date was set. On the 2nd and 3rd install I could not get the USB3.0 drivers to install:



I'm at a loss. This combination of parts should work, it was a newegg combo that others have working. I'm tempted to RMA the board since it is having USB issues and maybe it's causing bandwidth issues as well? And why I can't get the system stable with 1333 or 1600 speeds boggles me.

[Dark Mantis]

Try inserting the other two sticks of memory then in the white slots also.

Just to check you are running Optimised BIOS Defaults now aren't you?

[Shanawa]

Yes, I guess I forgot to mention that I inserted all 3 sticks back in at midnight after 2 1 hour passes with just the one stick. It ran for 6 hours when I wokeup and then while prime95 was still running I started Age of Conan and played for an hour til hard lock with original bios settings which make the memory run at 1066 and 7-7-7-16 timings i believe

[Dark Mantis]

If I was a gambling man I would bet on it being a memory problem from the symptoms. I am afraid I don't know what to suggest from here.

[Shanawa]

Do you think its more a problem with the brand/model of ram ? I can either wait for my RMA's memory to get back which will be close to 30 days I'm guessing or buy a different brand and see how that goes.

[Dark Mantis]

The thing is it is easy for me to sit here and spend your money but that is the thing, it is coming out of your pocket so you have to make the decision. Persoanlly I have lost faith in OCZ memory recently as there seem to be an overwhelming number of problems with people using it. If you are convinced that the memory tests were done thoroughly and that there was no errors then the memory should be ok. Is there any chance you can borrow some from a friend just to test as that would be the best situation.