Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: BigA on February 18, 2011, 02:57:02 pm
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Hi,
Just hooked up this board last week. Everything was working perfectly until yesterday. First problem was that if I had an eSata or USB drive attached the BIOS would hang at "searching for IDE drives." I disconnected the drives and got to go through, but after a reboot it would not POST at all. Resetting the CMOS did not work. I had to pull the battery from the board as well. I finally got it to post, now the problem is that if I make any changes I will have the same problem and it will not POST or it will try to POST and keep rebooting. The BIOS will also occasionally freeze in the BIOS as well. I tried two different power supplies with only the 1 stick of RAM and the video card attached. Nothing is overclocked.
I can't even get to the point now to test the memory (which I don't think it is because I just switched from another board to this one and I never had problems with the memory). The error code on the LED is mostly 26, but I have seen 75 or 25 as well.
I am thinking it is the board because once I had everything working originally I ran Prime95 and Memtest overnight and it was working fine.
Thanks in advance.
A
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Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
Would I be right in assuming that you have 6 memory modules installed ?
Can you list the actual part number of the kit please ?
Have you set the timings and voltage manually for the memory ?
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I have 2 sets of TR3X6G1600C8D
When everything was running well I had them set to the XMP profile and they were running 8-8-8-24
with the voltage set to 1.66v. Problem is now I whenever I can get into the BIOS it doesn't let me save the changes. I tried setting them to 9-9-9-24 as well, but BIOS locks up or doesn't POST.
Thanks again.
A
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Yes that's what I thought you would say. Try loosening the timings by all means to start with 9-9-9-27 would be better.
If you have real problems getting into the BIOS or saving your settings once there try removing the second set of sticks and just leave in the ones in the white slots.
The main thing is though that you have filled up the memory slots and that has put a heavy loading on the memory controller and so you are going to have to compensate for thet by increasing the memory voltage. You can set this to 1.68v - 1.70v. Make sure that you increase the QPI/Vtt along with that as it mustn't be more than 0.5v less. I would suggest 1.20v to 1.40v. You will need to play with these values until you get stability.
If you get a BSOD with the 124 stop code this relates to the QPI/Vtt setting.
Check your memory multiplier and set your Uncore multiplier to twice the memory multiplier or twice plus 1 or 2. In other words if your memory multiplier is 10 then set your Uncore to 20 -22.
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Thanks, I will give it shot and let you know.
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Yes that's what I thought you would say. Try loosening the timings by all means to start with 9-9-9-27 would be better.
If you have real problems getting into the BIOS or saving your settings once there try removing the second set of sticks and just leave in the ones in the white slots.
The main thing is though that you have filled up the memory slots and that has put a heavy loading on the memory controller and so you are going to have to compensate for thet by increasing the memory voltage. You can set this to 1.68v - 1.70v. Make sure that you increase the QPI/Vtt along with that as it mustn't be more than 0.5v less. I would suggest 1.20v to 1.40v. You will need to play with these values until you get stability.
If you get a BSOD with the 124 stop code this relates to the QPI/Vtt setting.
Check your memory multiplier and set your Uncore multiplier to twice the memory multiplier or twice plus 1 or 2. In other words if your memory multiplier is 10 then set your Uncore to 20 -22.
Still having major issues. I was finally able to get the board to POST. It doesn't seem to matter if I use just one stick or 3. I upped the RAM and QPI voltage as suggested. Good news was that the settings saved and everything was working fine. I booted into Windows and ran few quick test and didn't have any problems at all, but as soon as I rebooted I had the same issue and it wouldn't POST again. I cleared the CMOS and went back in and adjusted the voltages a bit was able to POST again. I went into the BIOS and checked the voltages and saved, but then it wouldn't POST again. Seems to be the problem with the BIOS and POST. I have no problems at all in Windows. Everytime time I reboot your can hear the motherboard clicking trying to POST over an over. Sometimes is does and sometimes it doesn't.
I switched over from another board and I know my RAM can easily do 1600 at 8-8-8-24, but even when I relax the timings it doesn't help at all.
Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
A
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What PSU are you using and how old is it ?
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What PSU are you using and how old is it ?
I have the Corsair 750w one here http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-1/hx750w.html (http://www.corsair.com/power-supplies/modular-psus/professional-series-1/hx750w.html)
It's little less than a month old. When I had this problem initially, I hooked up my old 700w with just the video card and one SATA drive and still had problems.
Last night I reflashed the BIOS as well and after a reboot it took at least 3 minutes for it to POST. I went in Loaded Optimized Defauls and saved. It hung again. I had to power down and pull the plug for a minute. I had to power down 3 times to get it to POST.
Something is faulty that is for sure. Like I said everything was working perfectly for about a week and it was completely stable. Not sure what happened.
A
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When you have loaded the Optimised BIOS Defaults do you also disable the floppy drive and make the HDD the primary boot device. Also turn on quick boot and disable the full screen logo before saving and exiting.
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Sorry for butting in here DM, but I had a new corsair 750watt and it would not switch off with the power supply switch, so although corsair are great psu, which I have 2 of, they can still go faulty ::)
Hope you get the fault sorted,,,but I know you will coz your in great hands there with these guys
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Of course you are quite right Jannie. All makes have their problem ones and Corsair are no exception. I use a Corsair HX850 myself and it is faultless in the job it does but of course it could always fail and that is something we must live with. ;)
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When you have loaded the Optimised BIOS Defaults do you also disable the floppy drive and make the HDD the primary boot device. Also turn on quick boot and disable the full screen logo before saving and exiting.
Yes, and for now I have disconnected all my hard drives for testing.
I also tested each stick of RAM individually with Memtest at DDR16000 with these timings 8-8-8-24-1T. I have the performance enhance for the memory set to Standard for now. Each stick passed. I put in 3 sticks for triple channel at DDR 1066 and it passed as well. So escape from Memtest and of course it doesn't POST again. Then I get a warning how about an overclock at POST. Nothing is overclocked at all. I have the RAM voltage set to 1.7 and the QPI to 1.295. The ram voltage shows 1.68-9 in the BIOS.
I went back into the BIOS and set my RAM back to 1600 again with the same timings and went back into Memtest and have made two successful passes with these settings.
I am wondering if the board is under-volting at POST and setting it back to 1.5 somehow. The memory doesn't look to be the problem. I am guessing it has to be the board or power supply.
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Yes it is possible of course.
You say you are not overclocking anything but in fact of course you are...the memory. Anything over 1333 Mhz is an overclock and that is what the system is probably referring to.
I can't really think of any other constructive advice except to RMA the motherboard and see what they can find out.
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Yes it is possible of course.
You say you are not overclocking anything but in fact of course you are...the memory. Anything over 1333 Mhz is an overclock and that is what the system is probably referring to.
I can't really think of any other constructive advice except to RMA the motherboard and see what they can find out.
See that was what was weird, I got that overclock error when the memory was set to 1066. That's why I was confused a bit.
Starting to make some progress I think. I actually tested all 12GB of RAM installed and passed 1 round of Memtest. I have been able to reboot from Windows without problem now. I have the RAM set to 8-8-8-24-2T-88 tRFC. I made a few more adjustments and have Prime95 running now and so far so good.
Thanks again.
A
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Well fingers crossed for you and I hope that it all works out. ;)
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Well fingers crossed for you and I hope that it all works out. ;)
Okay, I was able to run Prime95 for 12 hours without error as well as Memtest. Problem is if my USB 3.0 drive is connected the BIOS freezes again. Is there specific setting in the BIOS that I would need to change or increase a voltage??
I am also getting cold boot issues as well. It will not POST off a cold boot.
A
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Well, it's officially the board. My USB ports are dead and so are the onboard NICs. Just wish I went with my gut instinct and RMA'd the board as soon as I started having problems. First Gigabyte board and unfortunately it happens. My EVGA board died a few weeks ago and I was hoping to have better luck with Gigabyte. I switched to them because they have the updated Intel ROM. No such luck I guess. Well. for the week it worked it was a great board, but off to RMA purgatory for the next 3 weeks probably.
Thanks for all that helped.
A
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Well sorry to hear the bad news but at least it is definite now and at least you can get something done about it.
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Well sorry to hear the bad news but at least it is definite now and at least you can get something done about it.
I am a glutten for punishment, so I did a bit more research and looked at the LED error code and every time I heard the click it would say 26 and then 2b, and 7f. 2b is a video card issue and 7f is an overclock unstable. But I guess what happens is the video issue rolls into the overclock after it keeps failing even though the overclock is the not the issue (Gigabyte should fix this if that is the case). I decided the swap the video card out with a Radeon 4890 I am currently selling. Sure enough no problems at al in the PCIE16 slot. Then I put the GTX 470 in a PCIE8 slot and it works fine. The problem is if that GTX 470 is in any PCIE16 slot the system will not POST most of the times and I receive the 26, 2b, and 7f errors; however, if I put it in a PCIE8 slot it works completly fine.
So basically, everything is working the GTX 470 in the PCIE8 slot. I have no idea why the USB and LAN stopped working. I am assuming they share the same bus with the PCIE lane. Is there a compatibility issue with the GTX 470 and these boards that you know of? I am thinking no. Either way, I am just going to replace the video card as that is much easier than the board.
A
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I ma not aware of any compatibility issue with that card but I guess it has to start somewhere! There seems to be many more problems with the nVidia cards than the AMD Radeons and that is one reason I tend to stick with them.
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I prefer the ATI cards, but I need the GTX 470 for Adobe Premiere CS5. It has the built in CUDA for rendering. I should have the replacement tomorrow. I will see how it works out. I contacted Gigabyte suppport to see if they heard of any issues as well.
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Please let us know how you get on as there might be other members in a similar position either now or in the future. ;)
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I received the replacement video card that has fixed the issue. It works fine in the PCIE16 slot. It was only a week old, but like everything else they can be defective too. Just glad it wasn't the motherboard. Good thing is that I feel like I am wiz with all the BIOS settings now with Gigabyte. I switched over from an EVGA board and it was a bit different.
So if anyone receives error codes 26, 2b (especially), and then 7f it mostly is the video card.
Thanks again.
A
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Happy to hear that the replacement sort the problem out for you. Now you can get on and enjoy using the system rather than ripping it to bits!