Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: shirtwearer on March 07, 2011, 11:46:57 am
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Hi all
Just a quick query about my GA-X58A-UD3R
I recently built a system (full specs at bottom) and theres been a constant issue thats been bugging me, basically whwnever i turn my pc on its fine for about 3 seconds and then it shuts down, then 2 seconds later it automatically powers back on and boots up into windows normally.
Now everything other than this works fine, windows boots normally with no errors, memory is working just fine (checked with memtest), cpu temps are normal, updated to latest bios revision and reset the cmos.
So is this normal and am i just worrying for no reason, or is this the precursor to something much worse?
INTELCOREI7/950
GA-X58A-UD3R
Corsair 6GB (3x2gb)
Western digital 2TB
Nvidia GTX260
Creative Titanium XFI
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Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
I am guessing that the hard drive is a Green version ?
If so that could well be the cause of your problem as they are not made for booting from as they are slow to start and keep trying to power down.
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Yes it is a gren version, checked as soon as i got back from work
well this sucks :-[
But more importantly will this do any short or long term damage to my pc?
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No just the fact that they are no good for boot drives. Fine for data storage but you will need to get yourself a faster drive to use for your C:\ drive. If you can afford it a small SSD is the best way to go but if not try a WD Black or a Samsung F3 etc. Doesn't need to be massive as you only want it for Windows and programs.
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i see. i've been wondering about this myself. I was rather worried about this. however in my case, the boot drive is wd caviar black.... (2x Black, 1xGreen)
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You could try putting a hard drive delay in the BIOS of a few seconds and see if that does the trick.
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You could try putting a hard drive delay in the BIOS of a few seconds and see if that does the trick.
any suggestion how many secs is okay?
(PS. To be honest, I was worried maybe my CPU overheats, or unstable PSU.)
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Probably 3-5 seconds would be plenty. It is only if the drive is a little slow to initialise and it gives it a chance to wind up first without getting left behind.
Of course there ar other possible causes but if it was a case of the CPU overheating it would keep doing the on/off/on/off circuit. PSUs are normally pretty good as long as they are decent makes and either work or not.
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I'll try 5 secs. I doubt about CPU overheating too, because it only did that once at any time.
I am not in position of trying it now. My Windows 7 SP1 install failed (I heard it is related to Ultimate versions with all language packs installed), which left me with non-functional computer (all data saved because it is in different HDD). I zero-ed my HDDs, and took the opportunity to upgrade 500GB green HDD to 2TB green HDD (I guess from reviews, 2TB has lower RPM speed - the speed was stated as "Intellispeed" instead of RPM unit, but lots of them believe that the speed is 5200rpm). So, now I guess I need to set the HDD delay.
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I didn't realise it was a WD Green drive at first and they are no good for booting from. You will need a Blue or a Black if you want to stick with WD if not try the Samsung F3 they are good.
I have even heard them described as 4800 rpm.
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I can reproduce the behavior in the original e-mail whenever I leave my BIOS memory settings set to AUTO. I have to configure my RAM manually in order to avoid the initial 3 second power-cycle issue you guys are talking about here.
Here's what I found, in case it may help...
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,3425.msg37781.html#msg37781
Read down that thread because I had to make a small correction.
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Yes it is also possible that badly configured memory could cause a start/stop/restart scenario.
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Also noted that when I turn off the computer while it is booting up (before "Starting Windows"). The next time I turn it on will have start->stop->restart sequence. Also happened when I changed from WD Green 500GB to 2TB (the first boot with 2TB Green installed). Also happened when I turn off the power completely for a long time.
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Well if you turn off the computer while it is booting (still in the pre windows stage) you can corrupt the BIOS which will the cause the system to go to the Backup BIOS to boot the next time which involves copying it across to the Main BIOS for the actual boot sequence.
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Check your bios version - for Rev 2.0 boards you need to flash to FE or later to fix the start-stop-start on bootup.
My board had this behavior when I first installed my system and several bios updates later it was fixed.
Just to be sure, does it do this when you boot after the AC supply was off or does it do this on every boot?
For bios updating use Qflash and a memory stick wit the bios file on it - check around to make sure you have all the info for a proper bios update.
Cheers
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Also if you do have to update your BIOS make sure thta you synchronise them both afterwards so if you have a BIOS crash it won't copy over the old Backup BIOS version.
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Also if you do have to update your BIOS make sure thta you synchronise them both afterwards so if you have a BIOS crash it won't copy over the old Backup BIOS version.
I did not know that you could do this - are there any guides here that show you how it is achieved?
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Yes certainly.
To check, go into the BIOS and on the MAIN page press F9 for system info. You should see both BIOS versions listed, if they do not match please update the backup BIOS to match the current.
To do that, reboot and where you would normally press DEL to enter the BIOS, instead press Alt + F12, this will flash the Backup BIOS with the MAIN BIOS contents. Do not worry when you see a recovery comment, that is normal and means it is flashing the backup BIOS
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Great - I will have a look at what you have suggested.
Thanks for your help again.
Edit - Just checked the bios and the Main is FE and Backup was FB (original)
Rebooted and pressd Alt F12, now both are FE
Is this documented in the manual?
Also is there a command to copy the Back-up to Main?
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No it is not laid out in the manual as it is not something that you would want everybody doing as a matter of course. As a normal rule the Backup BIOS is there simply as that and as such you don't want users flashing both BIOSes at the same time in case they have a future problem. There are of course certain instances where this is advisable though.
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Yeah - good advice DM.
Need to be very certain updated Main bios is stable before updating the Back-Up. So far FE has proven very stable on my system and it resolved the only problem I was having with this board (Cold boot up).
At this stage I have no real need to update my bios, however, if I do, I will certainly heed your warning.
Thanks