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Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: Endorphin on April 19, 2011, 08:06:14 pm

Title: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 19, 2011, 08:06:14 pm
Hi All,
Im new to this forum and after some help if you dont mind.

I have been looking for a solution for hours..... but no joy.

I have been given a broken PC to try and fix by one of the guys at work.

It has a GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard with Intel processor, Bios is at F6

The Operating system is corrupt and will not boot, have tried a completely fresh install but it just hangs. (Vista)

The Main problem is I think the BIOS, when the PC starts it looks like foot prints or ! marks all over the screen, but they are in the same position each time.
When you enter the settings, you still have the footprints and some of the letters on the screen are incorrect, for the IDE drives, some say Master and some say Masuer and Slave and Slawe and many variations depending on which screen you look at.

I have tried to Flash the BIOS to try and get rid, but the Q-Flash or Q-Flasi as it appears on the screen keeps hanging after it has checked the flash file, the keyboard stops responding and you have to turn it off and start again.
I have tried using a 2 USB sticks, 1 @ 128M and 1 at 4GB both formatted to FAT32 but Q-Flash does not even see them, I disabled the floppy while trying this but Q-Flash kept saying "Update BIOS from floppy"

Any Ideas?
Title: Re: Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 19, 2011, 08:19:55 pm
Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

At first I thought about getting the BIOS to flash from the backup BIOS only problem there isn't one on this board. So next off try an extended clear of the CMOS and see if that helps.

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 one hour 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.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 19, 2011, 08:28:50 pm
Hi there and thanks for the assistance,

The PC is off and the Battery is out, Im due to finish my shift at work shortly so I will leave it overnight and try tomorrow, Ill let you know how I get on.

Have you seen or heard of the footprint thing before?
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 19, 2011, 08:45:28 pm
No not exactly. Do you mean they actually look like footprints ?

It might help if we could get some history on this machine.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 19, 2011, 08:48:58 pm
When the screen resolution is low, they do but when its higher it look like "!"

If its still the same tomorrow I post a pic to show you.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 19, 2011, 08:52:07 pm
Yes good idea. It sounds like a corrupt BIOS to me but we shall have to see. :-\
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 04:10:01 pm
Nope, Still no joy.

Here are some screen shots.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 04:19:34 pm
Hi

Can you show a bigger (whole screen shot) of the second one please ?
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 04:49:08 pm
Sorry, had to take it with my phone.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 04:54:59 pm
I would say that the GPU  is faulty as it is happening even as it is reading the nVidia BIOS.

Try checking it on another machine.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 04:56:57 pm
The GPU is a seperate one, I was thinking the same but when you install the operating system and go through all the install screens there are no errors on the screen at all.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 05:00:59 pm
Well you could try doing a BIOS update and see if that fixes it. Use QFlash to update your BIOS to the latest available version.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 05:03:21 pm
I have tried that from a USB floppy drive, it reads the ROM ok and says press Enter to continue butthe keyboard seems to be disabled after it has checked the rom.
I have tried doing it from a USB stick but Q-Flash does not even see that.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 05:34:06 pm
Ideally use a PS2 keyboard for doing BIOS flashes etc as it is safer and the keyboard will work from the outset. If you don't have access to one and can get into the BIOS you can amke sure that USB Legacy Devices is enabled and that should let you use the keyboard even before Windows loads the drivers.
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 05:36:51 pm
I did use a PS2 Keyboard and the USB Legacy Devices are enabled, would using a USB mouse cause a problem?
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 05:48:51 pm
I have just tried again and when the Q-Flash utility has finished the file check and says "Enter to continue" thats the points the keyboard gets dissabled, upto then its still active and useable.  ???
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 06:09:31 pm
Well I can't explain that apart from it would seem that the fault is within the BIOS. :-\
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 06:11:10 pm
Think it's FUBAR..... >:(

Thanks for your help Mantis
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Dark Mantis on April 20, 2011, 06:13:15 pm
You are welcome I just wish we could have done something about the fault. :-\
Title: Re: GA-965P-S3 rev. 1.0 Motherboard - Footprints in the BIOS
Post by: Endorphin on April 20, 2011, 06:24:57 pm
Oh well, you cant win them all.