MA790XT-UD4P/Phenom II X4 955 issues/BIOS Help

[HellboP]

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Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate (6.0, Build 6001)
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.2GHz
GPU:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
RAM: Corsair 2gb x2
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Here's the problem. http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/8916/beforea.jpg

CPU is running really slow, Cool n' Quiet is turned off, Vista running High Performance, BIOS was manually changed to 3.21GHz to no avail.

I've been doing a lot of research on the issue between these two products and everyone from tech forums, Newegg and AMD employees have told me to update my Gigabyte BIOS. I just wanted to make a post asking you, the actual manufacturers of the board, if you think I should update my BIOS. If so, what method should I use, and what version should I update it to? I hope for a helpful reply - I've heard horrible things about your tech support.

Thanks, H
HellboP

[Pottypete]

Hi,
This link will give you the various methods of flashing your bios,
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/HowToReflashBIOS.aspx
Regards

[mark rumsey]

I had something similar on my system before updating the BIOS (MA790FXT-UD5P). I think some of the older BIOSes and utilities don't fully understand the 955BE processor. Certianly the current version of CPUz doesn't know what AM3 is, and the versions if EasyTune and Easy Energy Saver supplied with the board were out of date and had problems. After updating the BIOS and downloading the latest versions of EasyTune and Energy Saver things are much better. EasyTune now correctly reports what the processor is and properly sets the fan speed and Energy Saver now works properly showing sensible power ratings. Which brings me to something important with the speed. If you have Energy Saver enabled it will override the BIOS and slow the processor and drop the core voltage when it believes the machine is idle. I think it actually does this by starting Cool'n'Quiet. If you select stealth mode when exiting it will remember the settings even through a reboot and the only way out is to stop Energy Saver running on the next reboot and disbale CnQ in the BIOS again when the machine is restarted. This could be your problem. I certainly had problems getting back to full speed running at all times once I'd used Energy Saver. However, its not necessarily a big problem seeing these low speeds. If you have the latest EasyTune running it updates the display about once a second (something the old version didn't do) and you will see the core voltage and CPU frequency/multiplier jump up whenever the CPU is subjected to a load. If the performance isn't noticably suffering having the CPU running this way does mean lower temperatures, lower energy consumption and potentially a longer life for the CPU.

[poisonsnak]

I've heard horrible things about your tech support.

I guess if you ask enough people you can find somebody who has had problems with any company.  I, for one, have nothing but good things to say about Gigabyte and their tech support.

For flashing the BIOS I use Q-Flash because it's really easy.  Put the BIOS on a USB stick (formatted in FAT32 - NTFS will not work), get into the BIOS with DEL, make sure "legacy usb storage detect" is turned on, and then push F8 for Q-Flash.  Right now I am running the F5 BIOS available here:

http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=3010

and I'm not experiencing your issue, although I am running a different CPU (x3 720 @ quad 3.2)

It seems weird that CnQ would even work at all if you have set the multiplier manually (I kind of wish it would still work with the multi set manually because I don't need this thing running at 1.4V and 3.2GHz all the time), but hopefully the BIOS fixes your problem.  If it doesn't, one thing you could try is bumping your cpu voltage up (or down i guess) by 0.025 V, because manually setting the Vcore should also override CnQ.