Booting problems with GA-EX38-DS5 Mobo, Bios F4

[KJILM123]

This board when it starts up it stops at the startup screen of Gigabyte and it has several pixels displaced on the screen on the left of the Gigabyte word. It means it has taken pixels away from one place and put it somewhere else. Left in this case on the screen. They are always there sometimes it is a few, some times 4 or 5. When it does not display the displaced pixels, it starts up to POST and in Windows. After rebooting same problem. I am using water cooling on processor. I have installed many fans for cooling through the case, front, side, top, and back, in push-pull configuration.

I have changed everything from video card, to memory and CD rom, HDD's, but only when it is cool it starts up but after reboot it get's stuck again. Is it the main board that is overheating ? (Northbridge, sometimes quite hot but not always.) Or is the Power supply the problem ? I changed also the power cables to the video card because it has several one's to try. I have reset the BIOS and removed the battery but no difference. Please advice what I can do or perhaps tell me what problem it might be. I have not found any problem similar on Gigabyte forum. This is also a first for me, since I have built many computers and have not seen this phenomonon happening.

Extra information:

Powersupply Corsair 750 Watt Not modular. Tried different cables on Video Card, same problem.
CoolIT ALC Watercooling Temperature 26-30 degrees. Seated properly, I have checked.
Intel 775 Q9450 12 MB cache processsor Normal voltages and all standard.
Crucial 1066 mhz 4 GB, 4 sticks all slots taken.
HDD's Samsung 1 TB, Seagate 1 TB
CD/DVD+-R/RW LG and Samsung
Case Xigmatek Midgard
Sapphire ATI HD 5750 Vapor X 1 Gb GDDR5, Tried different Video card, same problem.
Several Fans in Case Pull Push configuration, Front, Back Top and Side
Microsoft Business Keyboard and Mouse, PS2, Tried different Keyboard, USB, same problem.
No further attachments in any USB
LAN 1 GB x 1 connected
Sound, 1 Speaker set connected
All Software installed, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on both HDD's, is not the cause of hanging, since I tried to boot from HDD, still same problem.
Tried 3 different cases. 2 Full Towers and one Midi Case.

Tried Higher voltages, CPU, Memory, and others, no difference.

Not sure how Northbridge heat is, and Southbridge. Northbridge sometimes feels hot. Not all the time, dealt with 140 mm fan right on top of it from side of the Case.

Temperatures look ok. Not sure about the MOSFETS, SFC's or Capacitors, look all alright, no bulging or cracks.

Processor connectors not bend in any way or form.

Tried everything. No understanding why this is.


Please can anyone get back to me as soon as possible.

Thanks,

KJ


P.S. No beeping codes, just normal 1 beep.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

First thing is how old is your power supply ?

I don't think you mentioned what BIOS version you are running but the latest is F5B.

You could try clearing the CMOS in case it is corrupted at all.

Remove 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 fifteen 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 like disabling the floppy drive, disabling the full screen logo and making the HDD the primary boot device and then press F10 to save and exit.

[KJILM123]

Power supply is 2 years old.

If you see the subject line you will see I have put there BIOS F4.

F5B is beta BIOS, was not advised to use yet. Asked also if they would make it to Release Bios, was said they have no control over it since this is done in Taiwan by Gigabyte.

Done all that before. Can do it again.

[Dark Mantis]

Well if you are sure that it won't help then I guess that there is no point in doing it again as long as you did it properly the first time.

I would still suggest that upgrading the BIOS might well help. You can always return to your current BIOS if you find it doesn't work for you. When you flash the file though make sure that you disable the Keep DMI Data on the home page.

[KJILM123]

Going to do that now, but I even juggled with the RAM a bit in the slots. Still a no no. So far.

I am going to update to the F5B BIOS. Thanks.


KJ

[KJILM123]

I also can't help noticing that the RAM modules of Crucial are of different voltages. 2 with 2 Volts and 2 with 2.2 volts. However they are the same in looks colour and 5-5-5-15 1066  Mhz. And they have worked like this for years in this board. Since I have built this board in a new Case, as I said, I had this with the other cases, that is why I went to the Xigmatek Midguard. And.... I am writing this Email on the machine itselves with 2 GB in it now. I notice that if I stick the 2 volts ones in Slot I and III it seems to work. This is a bit of head scratching now. Because as soon as I plant the others one's in Slot II and IV I have trouble.

Any suggestion further ? Oh I still have not Flashed the BIOS, brb, ;-)

[KJILM123]

Ok Flashed the BIOS now to FB5, First noticed a little faster booting at the beginning. Going to replace the 2 other RAM sticks. Brb.

KJ

[Dark Mantis]

Right well that makes a lot of difference then. Next thing is to see which if any of your modules are faulty. This takes some time to do properly but is worth doing.

The next thing I would want to check is the memory. Please follow these instructions exactly.

I would suggest that you download and run the latest version of  Memtest86+ to check your RAM first.

Memtest86+        http://www.memtest.org/

Insert one stick of memory in slot 1 and run Memtest on it for at least 10 complete loops/cycles and if there are no errors then swap it over with the next one and continue untill you have checked all  modules.
 
If you have any errors the module is faulty.

If you have any faulty modules you will have to return the whole kit as they are matched.

Post back when you have done that with the results.

[KJILM123]

Ok Here is what I have done in the meantime. I took the other 2 and put them alone in the slots and guess what, Black Screen only. No booting at all.

Put all 4 in them then booting with shifted pixels and hang on the Gigabyte Logo Screen. But sometimes just booting clearly through that and Windows login and working until next reboot.

This is really strange because they always worked before ?? At least 2.5 years. How about that ? More head scratching here.

I did a test online with Crucials Scanner. Guess what came out of that ?


DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-8500, DDR2 PC2-5300

Memory Type: DDR2 PC2-6400, DDR2 PC2-8500<~~~~ (this is what I have in there), DDR2 PC2-5300, DDR2 (ECC)

Maximum Memory: 8GB

Currently Installed Memory: 2GB

Total Memory Slots: 4

Available Memory Slots:  2

1GB

DDR PC2-6400 first bank  and look here ~~~> Second bank no description @ all.

Then what do we see next......

1GB

 EMPTY  EMPTY <~~~~ Which is correct.
 
The PC2 6400 I don't understand because it is clearly PC2 8500 RAM or 1066 Mhz which is 5-5-5-15 settings. Duh ! and I have had this processor before running with a 3,2 Ghz or with 400 speed aka 1600 Mhz FSB. Ofcourse I had the Memory divider back to 1066 Mhz in this case. Which was working fine.... as I said for long long time.

So much confusion here right ?


Ok, I am going to do this next week and send them off back to Crucial because it is clear to me that those 2 are sort of the culprit for now and I am fairly convinced something is wrong with them.  So far I know they have life time warranty.

Just bare with me for next week, let me get them shipped back to Crucial and get (specific) new modules WITH 2.0 volts !!!! and not 2.2 volts and see what happens next.


Grrrr, as if.... I have nothing else to do......

Update follows by next week for now, please bear with me.

KJ

[KJILM123]

Some info regarding this system.


Hardware monitor   ITE IT87
   Voltage 0   1.28 Volts      (CPU VCORE)
   Voltage 1   1.92 Volts      (DDR)
   Voltage 2   3.28 Volts      (+3.3V)
   Voltage 3   5.03 Volts      (+5V)
   Voltage 7   12.35 Volts    (+12V)
   Voltage 8   3.18 Volts      (VBAT)
   Temperature 0            34°C   (System)
   Temperature 1     23°C  (CPU)
   Fan 0      6250 RPM   (FANIN0)



Processor 1                 ID = 0
   Number of cores      4 (max 4)
   Number of threads   4 (max 4)
   Name         Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
   Codename      Yorkfield
   Specification      Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9450  @ 2.66GHz
   Package (platform ID)   Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
   CPUID         6.7.7
   Extended CPUID   6.17
   Core Stepping      C1
   Technology      45 nm
   Core Speed      3200 MHz
   Multiplier x FSB   6.0 x 400.0 MHz
   Rated Bus speed      1600.1 MHz
   Stock frequency      2666 MHz
   Instructions sets   MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T, VT-x
   L1 Data cache      4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   L1 Instruction cache   4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   L2 cache      2 x 6144 KBytes, 24-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   FID/VID Control      yes
   FID range      6.0x - 8.0x
   Max VID         1.213 V set to 1.30 V

   TDP Limit      95 Watts



Now no problem with running 2 GB 2 Stick RAM and rebooting. This is like singing the song "Crazy Horses" from the Osmonds. lol.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXO7-aAzUO4

KJ

[KJILM123]

Running Aida Extreme 64 bit Stress 100%  test. No problem.



Hardware monitor   ITE IT87
   Voltage 0   1.26 Volts  (CPU VCORE)
   Voltage 1   1.92 Volts] (DDR)
   Voltage 2   3.26 Volts  (+3.3V)
   Voltage 3   5.00 Volts (+5V)
   Voltage 7   12.35 Volts  (+12V)
   Voltage 8   3.18 Volts ] (VBAT)
   Temperature 0    34°C  (System)
   Temperature 1   34°C   (CPU)
   Fan 0      6081 RPM (FANIN0)



Processor 1         ID = 0
   Number of cores      4 (max 4)
   Number of threads   4 (max 4)
   Name         Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
   Codename      Yorkfield
   Specification      Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad  CPU   Q9450  @ 2.66GHz
   Package (platform ID)   Socket 775 LGA (0x4)
   CPUID         6.7.7
   Extended CPUID      6.17
   Core Stepping      C1
   Technology      45 nm
   Core Speed      3200.3 MHz
   Multiplier x FSB   8.0 x 400.0 MHz
   Rated Bus speed      1600.1 MHz
   Stock frequency      2666 MHz
   Instructions sets   MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T, VT-x
   L1 Data cache      4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   L1 Instruction cache   4 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   L2 cache      2 x 6144 KBytes, 24-way set associative, 64-byte line size
   FID/VID Control      yes
   FID range      6.0x - 8.0x
   Max VID         1.213 V set to 1.30 v

   TDP Limit      95 Watts


KJ
   

[Dark Mantis]

It certainly seems to be the other modules that are causing the problem. Did you try running them singly and using Memtest86+ on them ?

[KJILM123]

Can't run the other RAM sticks because they only give a black screen and no video. Which is very odd because they always used to work with the other one's. I will get in contact with Crucial on Monday or Tuesday and see if they can tell me why these RAM sticks are the cause of giving no video. There is still only one beep though. Which means they pass.


KJ

[Dark Mantis]

When you try them are you inserting them one at a time in the first slot ?

[KJILM123]

If you put 1 Stick in you get a series beeps and it still does not do anything. No boot, no access to CD/DVD ROM. That counts for both. The computer still works now with the other 2 sticks and this Email is written on it. So it is definitely those two RAM sticks. The only thing that is weird here is that they used to work with the other two. I could access all 4 GB and load over 100 programs into it as I did once a test. Ofcourse this was spreading over into the swapfile of Windows. It's for me a mystery so far. And I notice that nobody else is reacting on it. I guess they don't know the solution either.

KJ