Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: wikksmith on May 05, 2011, 03:03:55 pm
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Hello:
My PC froze while burning DVD; unable to open task manager or move cusor. After 10 minutes, I pushed the RESTART button on the front panel: it started to reboot but then shut down. I pushed the START button and it rebooted, but then shut down. I started it again, hit DEL to go into BIOS and got "Unexpected voltage change..." message. I loaded the failsafe parameters and hit F10. Now it tries to boot, shuts down, tries to boot, shuts down ... etc. I had to turn the PSU off to get it to stop cycling.
Any suggestions?
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3/Intel 2600k@3.4GHz/GSkill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM/EVGA 260GTX/Antec 630W/Lian Li PC-9F/Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1/Vegas Pro 10c
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Hi
It sounds like you have a major hardware fault there somewhere. What PSU are you using ?
It might be worth trying to clear the CMOS before doing anything else.
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.
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Thanks for the reply. I'll try clearing the CMOS.
The PSU is a Antec TruePower New TP-650 650W. Everything is connected through a UPS (APC BR1000G 1000 VA 600). Are you concerned that it's failing, or possibly underpowered?
wikksmith
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The PSU failing would be one reason for the problems you are having but of course there are others.
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OK.
I'll try clearing the CMOS tonight and see what happens.
in the meantime, what is the best way to shut down a PC that is frozen (i.e. no response with keyboard or mouse, just a clockwise-spinning icon)? Everything was working well until I tried to burn the DVD (with Vegas Pro 10c)!
Thanks, wikksmith
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Generally I prefer to do a hard shutdown with the power switch if in that situation but it is not an easy call.
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I had this happen to me a few times as well. When ever I installed drivers and a reboot was needed.
There is a new bios version F3 that adresses this problem.
If you havent tried it,might be a good idea. It worked for me. ;)
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Ripjaws:
Thanks for the info about the new BIOS version. What method do you use to upgrade the BIOS? Can you point me toward step by step instructions (I've built 4 PCs and they all work but have never updated the BIOS)?
Thanks, wikksmith
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Ripjaws:
Thanks for the info about the new BIOS version. What method do you use to upgrade the BIOS? Can you point me toward step by step instructions (I've built 4 PCs and they all work but have never updated the BIOS)?
Thanks, wikksmith
I followed the advice in the first post of this thread.
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,2441.msg39844.html#msg39844
I used the Q flash method .
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Hi
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.
I cleared the CMOS by this method but no luck: I was able to get into the BIOS but after F10 it cycled on and off without booting.
Any suggestions?
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OK. Next we will start trying to narrow it down then.
The next thing is to remove the motherboard form the case and test it on the workbench.
Make sure that you observe anti-static precautions.
Lay some cardboard or use the motherboard box that is non-conductive on the worktop and remove the motherboard/CPU/heatsink/fan/buzzer/one stick of memory and PSU from the case and put it on the cardboard. Add the keyboard and now I know you haven't got any graphics but try and boot. The system should try and then fail emitting a series of beeps. Please post what sounds it makes.
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OK - thanks.
I'll try it this weekend and post the results.
wikksmith
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I cleared the CMOS again and disconnected the CD/DVD drive (the last component operating when the system froze). I went into the BIOS and loaded the optimized defaults and changed the boot priority to start with the boot drive (Intel SSDSA2MH120G2XX ), which appears to be connected to the Master 1 slot.
PC Health Status shows the following:
Vcore 1.236
Vtt 1.076
Vcc 3.38
+12v 12.024
Vcc 5.083
DDR15V 1.52
CPU Temp 32
Other numbers:
CPU Freq 3493 MHz
Mem Freq 1596 MHz
It appears to recognize all 8GB of RAM
The BIOS version is F2
After hitting F10, the system stays on (instead of cycling on and off) and the screen reads “Loading operating system …” The debug LED reads “FF”
It sat like that for 10 minutes until I shut it down by hitting the case START button.
Suggestions?
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I am sorry but I am unsure where we are now. Have you removed the motherboard etc from the case now ?
FF means the boot has finished successfuly.
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Get that F2 bios updated. Like Ripjaws said "RESET" button corrupts the CMOS with early bios. Make sure you clear CMOS after the update.
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Thanks for the reply.
Unfortunately, I don't have a floppy drive! Since I can't get windows to load, I can't run @BIOS.
Please advise.
wikksmith
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You can use FlashSPI to update the BIOS without a flopppy drive as long as you have a small USB drive. Just download the zipped files on to the pendrive and then unzip them. There will be three files now one of which is called flashspi. You can use this to update your BIOS from one of the other files.
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OK - thanks.
When you say "small" flash drive, how small is small?
wikksmith
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Ideally 2GB or below but if you have only got a larger one try that.
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Get that F2 bios updated. Like Ripjaws said "RESET" button corrupts the CMOS with early bios. Make sure you clear CMOS after the update.
Ripjaws and nijel were correct: after updating the BIOS to F3, it boots normally.
Mamy thanks to everyone who replyed with suggestions. Oddly, I provided the same informaion to Gigabyte tech support as I did here - they never even mentioned the BIOS issue even though I told them I was running F2 and that the problem began with hitting the reset switch!
wikksmith
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Maybe they just aren't as hot as we are on the forum ;D
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Best to not use the reset switch if at all possible, it's known to cause many issues ;D
You should also flash your backup BIOS to match your MAIN BIOS, here's how
http://gigabytedaily.blogspot.com/2011/02/video-guide-how-to-update-your-backup.html
Also, F4 BIOS is out now
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/12/20/2696817/p67aud73.f4.zip
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Get that F2 bios updated. Like Ripjaws said "RESET" button corrupts the CMOS with early bios. Make sure you clear CMOS after the update.
Ripjaws and nijel were correct: after updating the BIOS to F3, it boots normally.
Mamy thanks to everyone who replyed with suggestions. Oddly, I provided the same informaion to Gigabyte tech support as I did here - they never even mentioned the BIOS issue even though I told them I was running F2 and that the problem began with hitting the reset switch!
wikksmith
Glad to hear you got everything sorted. ;)