Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: TheNoof on September 07, 2011, 02:03:19 pm
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MODERATORS NOTE:
This was originally posted under this thread: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6712.0.html but I felt, in the interests of clarity and to avoid any confusion that it should be under its own heading.
I too had the exact same issue with my GA-990FXA-UD3. On a cold boot, everything would work fine. If I performed a reboot, either soft or power cycle, while the board was warm, I would get power, but no video. To get the system to boot again, I needed to let it cool down and then hit the power switch. Additionally, if I were to enter the BIOS setup, the cursor would be very slow to respond. I could hit an arrow key, count to three and then the selection would move to the next item. I returned that motherboard for an exchange. With the replacement GA-990FXA-UD3, I am having a different issue. Windows 7 will Freeze after 30 minutes or so.
My video card is an NVIDIA 8800GT, fresh from my old system and has never had any issue.
The CPU is an AMD 1100T.
I have 8 GIG of Corsair Dual Channel installed. (two sticks of 4 GIG each)
The power supply is a new RocketFish with all the right connectors.
My case is a full tower. It stands four feet tall and has LOTS of room for fans, cables, and drives.
The liquid cooling system is a Zalman Reserator augmented by a fan and radiator setup.
Ok then, here is what I have done to my system, trying to diagnose this issue;
- I keep all of the BIOS settings at factory default. No sense trying to OC something that doesn't work the way it should.
- The BIOS had been flashed to the latest version, using GIGABYTE's own utility. No change.
- I have installed a fan on the NorthBridge chipset. I found it was getting quite warm to the touch. The fan keeps it nice and cool. No change.
- All of my hard drives are from my old system. They are all SATA and in good working order. Main boot drive is SSD and less than 6 months old.
- My CPU is using a Liquid Cooling setup. It keeps the CPU at a very comfortable 22°C. No issues there.
- I downloaded the latest version of UBCD and ran MEMTEST 4.20+ on the 8Gig of RAM. No Issues there.
- While playing Plants vs. Zombies, I had the sound crap out on me and then, a couple of seconds later, the PC froze. I then disabled the onboard audio and installed my Sound Blaster Audigy II ZS. No change.
- I brought home an industrial sized fan, from work, took off the side cover and just blasted air into the case, to ensure EVERYTHING is being cooled. No change.
- My hard drives are sitting outside of my box now, to reduce ANY extra heat in the system. No change.
With all of that said, I am going to perform a couple more tests;
- I need to run a stress test on the CPU
- A good friend has a system with a 1090T CPU. We're going to try swapping that in.
- I have gotten a second 8800GT, for SLI purposes. I will replace my video card with that one first, to see if there are any changes.
- I am bringing home an ATI PCIe video card, again from work, to try that in the system, just in case there is some funny business going on between the ATI chipset and the NVIDIA video card?
What to do after all of this? I hope there WON'T be any "after all this" Still, I am at a loss as to what the problem is. I trouble shoot computers for a living and this is a real head scratcher. ???
--The Noof--
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
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Hi there,
when you say the BIOS is the latest version is that the F4 that was released on the 31/8/11? http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3894&dl=1#bios
Did you use the @BIOS utility to update the BIOS?
If you did then it might be worthwhile reflashing using the QFlash Utility instead. Remember to disable the "Keep DMI Data" Option before running the BIOS update.
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Id like to know his ram settings to see if he has it sent at ganged or unganged. and timings . Also if he is overclocking at all?
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My RAM is set at factory defaults, no over clocking. It's operating in UNGANGED mode. Slots 1 and 3 are populated.
My BIOS is at F2 (March 2011). I thought I upgraded that?
I installed my friend's 8800GT video card, alone. I then ran some stress tests, PassMark and FurMark. They both ran like champs. I played some video games, still running fine. I thought I was in the clear? I left the PC running and went out to run some errands. When I got home, the PC had frozen again. DAMN!
Tonight, I'll upgrade the BIOS and try the ATI video card.
Cheers
--The Noof--
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It's just been brought to my attention that the BIOS link I gave above is for the wrong motherboard (for the GA-990FXA-UD3) and the latest version for your board is actually F3 that you can download from here: http://uk.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3907#dl
Thanks to Teknology9 for noticing this.
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No, you got it right the first time, for me at least. I have the GA-990FXA-UD3.
I've downloaded the right BIOS version and will flash it in when I get home form work. Thanks.
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I have upgraded my BIOS to 'F4'. I am still getting the same failure of Windows 7 (64 bit) freezing after about 40 minutes or so. Next step will be to install the ATI card.
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your ram running at unganged is right so if you have run memtest and it passed you can pretty much rule out the ram. Make sure it is running aat the right volts some run at 1.6 or 1.65 default is usually 1.5. Go to manufactures site or even newegg and look up that model # and see what the voltage should be thats the very last thin in ram it could be i believe as long as memtest passed id look elsewhere.
P.S. what hard drive are you using and what mode. sata, ide, achi?
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Ok then, I just tried my ATI X600, 128 Meg (It's all I had) and the PC still froze after 40 minutes or so.
I will check the Corsair site and then adjust the RAM voltage settings to the suggested values tomorrow. My Boot drive is a Mushkin 60 Gig and it is running as ACHI. I don't know the model number right now but will post later.
I will remind people though, I am running with all BIOS settings at default.
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Don't forget to check your Windows Power Saving settings as well as the ones in the BIOS. Normally if it is happening like that on a timed occurance it is to do with these settings.
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Regarding Windows power savings settings, I have checked and turned off Sleep mode and anything to do with Hibernation. I did keep the monitor control on though. It's set at an hour and doesn't seem to have any bearing on the problem. I didn't make any power savings changes in the BIOS though.
I am wondering if my problem doesn't occur at exactly some amount of time? I'm going to start running a counter and see if it fails at the same time, everytime?
To answer an earlier question; my memory is Corsair XMS3 Classic 8GB
Timing 9-9-9-24
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_611&item_id=032949
My Boot drive is a Mushkin Callisto 60GB Solid State Drive
http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_179&item_id=032462
The other two drives (storage drives) are Seagate 500 Gig. I've had them for a while and are performing fine.
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With regard to power saving options have you checked those that seem to be included with some Graphic Card drivers?
I'm not sure if they're present with NVidia but the ATI Drivers do have a Power Settings option, under Catalyst Control Centre, that caught me out as they can sometimes over-ride the settings made in Windows!
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Also in what dark said about power saving if your bios is at default then i am sure cool n quiet is enabled and there is one other power saving feature also. Turn them both off in bios and make sure ur ssd is up to date on firmware. Now i could be wrong but i think dark might be onto something with the power saving in bios. Going to restart now and see the name for the other.
c1e support to disabled and
away mode disabled
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I looked in the SYSTEM log in Win7 and I am seeing all kinds of critical errors. They are all pointing to a loss of power. Some of the time stamps coincide with the times the PC hang and others do not. When I disabled the "Cool n Quiet", in the BIOS, I get LESS error messages. The only time I get an error message is when the damn thing hangs (time stamp reflects). I think we're getting close to a solution? I have installed a stopwatch on my desktop. The PC hangs at just about 45 minutes. Sometimes it's a little more if I fiddle with the mouse as time passes.
I am also wondering if my power supply is powerful enough? I'm running 550W. It has all the right connectors and it's NOT powering my SLI cards right now, as I still have the old ATI 128Meg installed. I may upgrade to a 1KW to satisfy my curiosity.
Another thing I am thinking of trying is installing WIN XP (x64) and then WIN XP (x32), to see if there are any changes? I've got lots of spare drives hanging around.
So, to re-cap, Windows 7 (x64) hangs after about 45 minutes. When running a DOS based utility (MEMTEST 4.20) it can run for hours and NOT hang.
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You certainly should get a larger power supply for your system. There is no way that should be running all those components.
You make things much harder on yourself by having so many variables all the time. I mean by that that you have a problem but then you are talking about compounding the initial problem with using two OSes and reinstalling them ion a different manner, etc, etc. I would suggest removing one OS and just keep Windows 7. Keep everything as simple as possible. Then when you are happy everything is working as it should you can make changes but just one at a time and see how they go.
I would also advise you to disable ALL power saving settings in the BIOS and Windows.
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Dark,
I wouldn't install mulitple OS's on my failing system. I was only suggesting that I use some of my spare hard drives and install the other OS's on them and try them, in turn, to see if there are any differences in the problem?
I am going to get myself a larger power supply. It stands to reason that my relativily small power supply may not be providing enough current.
As it is now, I have hunted down as many power savings features as I can find, both in the BIOS and in Win 7 (x64) and turned them all off. I will check again for the 'C1E support' that was suggested by AutoTech.
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Ok my misunderstanding then and glad to hear that you are replacing the PSU as it certainly could be a contributory factor.
The C1E setting should be under the MIT section and Advanced Frequency Settings. It will be listed as CPU Enhanced Halt I expect.
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Hi,
the AMD C1E Support option is actually to be found under the Advandced BIOS Settings section of BIOS.
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Doh! :-[
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Doh indeed! ;)
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I've disabled the C1E setting. No change. The PC still hangs after 40+ minutes. Tomorrow I'll have a new power supply. I will post then.
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Have you checked to see what runs at about that time. Check for program updates and virus scans or anything else that is scheduled to start at a given time after loading.
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Well then, I haven't bought a new power supply, but I did install WIN 7 (x64) on a regular hard drive and it is working fine. I then thought about what difference there is between the SSD and the normal Hard Drive.
Diskeeper.
In my old PC, I was running Diskeeper 2011 on my WIN XP install because WIN XP doesn't handle an SSD very well. When I upgraded my PC with new hardware and Win 7, I figured, "Why not continue to run Diskeeper?" It seems Diskeeper may have been the culprit in hanging my system? I am now running my SSD in Win 7 (the same install that has been giving me grief) with Diskeeper disabled and it's now two hours in and no problems.
So far, so good. I will update in a little while and let you all know if it is still stable.
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That would sound about right and would fit with the problems you have been experiencing. It's always best to try and make things as simple as possible when faultfinding.
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I had a funny problem with my brand new Gigabyte 990FX UD5 that took me a few days to work out, the ram kept becoming unstable and I had to keep clocking it back to make it work after some fiddling" A slight flex of the gfx card, basically just touching it" would immediately reset my pc.
I doused the brand new pci express slot in switch cleaner and plugged the gfx card in and out a few times before it all evaporated, fixed the problem, now I can grab my gfx card and give it a slight flex- with no effect on my system, and my ram can now run at it's full speed which it never could before.
...
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It could have been a bit of contamination in the socket/slot that you cleared with the use of the switch cleaner. Sometimes there is some residue left over from the manufacturing process. 8)
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It could have been a bit of contaminatioon in the socket/slot that you cleared with the use of the switch cleaner. Sometiomes there is some residue left over from the manufacturing process. 8)
Yes a new one for me, So keep a can of switch cleaner handy when building new systems spraying all slots Liberally is probably a good idea, it was definitely contamination because I always give edge connectors of my gfx card, ram and pins on cpu a spray with switch cleaner before installation just to ensure any crap or finger grease is washed off. This is partly why the problem was so baffling...
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It's been my experience; PCI and PCIe slots are sensitive to even the slightest amount of dirt or grime. When I'm interacting with those kinds of cards, at work, I always give them a spray with the contact cleaner before putting them in the slot. Even on new units I do this. (we make hardware used in Radar, Sonar, Medical imaging...)
Back to the original thread now, my PC is still stable. When I think about it, I should have realized that 32 Bit Diskeeper wouldn't work so well in the 64 bit environment of Win7 (x64)
Oh well. Live and learned a lot!
Thank you all for your input. It is very much appreciated.
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Well glad to hear that it is all back to normal and working again. I expect the sales of switchcleaner have rocketed as well recently!