GA-870A-UD3: Fails to POST, 3 long beeps/3 long beeps+1 short

[Pepe_Botella]

Hi, im posting here because I've come up with a problem recently regarding booting.

 The rig's components:

 GA-870A-UD3
AMD Phenom II x6 1055t + Cooler Master Hyper 212+
G.Skill Ripjaws 1600 cas9 DDR3 4x2gb - Running @ 1333 with stock timmings
OCZ Fat4lity 750w Modular PSU
Sapphire HD 5670 512mb GDDR5
WD Caviar Black 640gb SATA3

 The rig's BIOS Config: All @ defaults, memmories/proccesor/voltages all running at auto/stock, BIOS updated to F4

 The problem: When I builded the rig, it ran just fine under both W7 x64 and WinXP x32. Upset about the fact that the memory modules won't run at stock specifications on default (they were running at 1333@cas9 timmings), I've tried to raise them to 1600 without touching the voltages. This came up with system unstablity and several failed memtest86+, so I left them all on auto, as it made the rig run OK.
 After some months of running fine I came up with troubles regarding booting, so I tried plugging the SPEAKER so I could hear if there were any beeping. Just as I expected, the speaker continously was giving a secuence of 3 long beeps, ever even getting to POST screen. Searching in the user's manual, I found out in Troubleshooting Section that "continous long beeps = bad inserted VGA", so I gave it a try and asked a friend to lend me his and try booting with it. It didn't solve the problem. I left the issue unsolved as these errors at booting weren't happening so frequently, but then, as the weeks went by I found harder and harder to boot normally (the very first times this happened it was just a matter of turning power OFF, then ON again and boot fine), because sometimes I could get to POST but the pc just got stuck there, without even loading the OS. As if this wasn't enough, I started to have random BSODs on W7 and reboots + 3 beeps, so I countinued looking for a solution.

 As I already tested the rig with another VGA and had the same problem, I went for the RAM and started to try different combinations of modules in different RAM slots. First I removed all modules and tried booting, so I could check if the SPEAKER gave another kind of beeping this time, now it was 3 long beeps + 1 short. Trying only 1 module at a time (so, leaving the other 3 slots free), I found that RAM modules 1 through 3 were having the same beeping (mostly just 3 long beeps, the 3 long+1short seldomly happened) and not booting problem in Slots 1 and 3, that made me thing those were the issue. Then I tried the fourth module on, and it I could boot normally on the 4 slots :/ . This made me rethink the problem, as now I thought the RAM modules might have gone bad. I cleaned both slots and modules (the firsts were very dusty, in fact), made sure the RAM insertion was ok and made my little test again. All modules worked booted normally!
 Thinking the problem was gone for good, I plugged all the ram on the 4 slots, plugged the rest of the components and tried booting, all ok.

 Probably after a week or so I started having the same issue, again. Without being able to test the motherboard, RAM and VGA on another PSU and proccesor, I decided to send the first two to RMA. Yesterday I was told in the Warranty's place that all worked just fine. To make sure, I told them to make some more testing as the problem happens so randomly, it might just be a fluke. They said it was OK, and will give it another try. In the meantime I came to this forum to ask you what can be the real issue behind this? I'm really no tech savvy so I might be missing something you might know. I also don't have the final word regarding what exactly 3 long beeps mean, because as I said, the manual doesn't have a clue (it wasn't a bad VGA card insertion problem). So, if anyone would like to give me a hand with this, it will be really appreciated.

[Dark Mantis]

Often a series of long beeps means a memory failure. You copuld try removing one of ther modules and see if it still happens and if it does try swapping the sticks over. Insert the single module in to the first slot. You might have damaged the controller when you forced the 1600Mhz speed on it. They don't like anything over 1333.

[Pepe_Botella]

 So you think the problem might have started when I tried running the memories @ stock specifications? Besides the fact that it's a shame that you have to downgrade the performance of something that was supposedly to be supported by the mobo at stock, you think that by going bad the memory controller, the whole mobo became unusable? At first I thought that by raising the memory speed, at most I would just run into some BSODs, the system becoming unstable, etc, but no permanent damage to the components.

 As I have already posted, I did my little module testing, using 1 module at a time, on each ram slot, several times to make sure It just wasn't a fluke. The results were disappointing as I couldn't come up with any theory (after 2 rounds of testing each module, suddenly all of the started to work fine). I was even more confused when the problem arose, again, after a whole week of normal use, slowly becoming more frequent until it was unbearable.


 So what should I do? Because the RMA guys already told me everything was working fine. Do I tell them to try another set of ram on the mobo and check for errors to make sure that isn't my own RAM what is causing this issue? And in the meantime, test my ram on another mobo to be sure they are OK? I'm really confused by all this.

[absic]

The first thing I would try is updating to the latest F5a beta BIOS as this may cure your problems

If they persist, after updating to F5a, then I would probably RMA the CPU if nothing else just to make sure that it hasn't been damaged by running the RAM at 1600MHz. If it comes back as OK or if it is replaced, then at least you will know that the processor is not the cause of the problem.

If you haven't already seen this item it might be worth looking at: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2515.0.html