Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with AMD processors => Topic started by: blocks_off on October 16, 2009, 03:22:19 pm
-
Support Options
I am just wondering what options are available to me. In August I bought the components from Ebuyer (UK).
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 164047
1 x Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P 790FX Socket AM3 DDR3 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 158607
1 x Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 HyperX Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-27) 169240
1 x PowerColor HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card 164557
1 x Sunbeam Transformer Black Full Tower Gaming Case - No PSU 150302
1 x Hi-Power Black 800W 14cm Blue LED Fan PSU - 20+4pin 4x SATA 4x PCI-E 135197
1 x Samsung SH-S222A 22X DVD±RW DL & Ram IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM
1 x Hitachi DeskStar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM 150256
Obviously I am out of the 28 day period with Ebuyer, but I have been trying everything to resolve my issue!
Basically, the system suffers from freezing/locking up. There is no telling when this will happen. It has been known to freeze within 10 minutes of logging
on, sometimes it will run fine for 8 hours without any problem. I cannot say that any particular application will cause the freezing. It has done so when
using IE, playing mp3's, burning a DVD or playing flight-sim. Yet strangely, the other day I had the freeware utility heavy load running for 2 hours and the
system was fine.
When the system freezes, nothing will respond. Sometimes I will have to power off the PC, other times I get a BSOD with stop 0xf4 (general hardware from what
I've read)
I have made sure that all of my drivers are upto date from the Gigabyte website.
I am currently running Bios version F7 but the behaviour has been no different when using the versions F4/F5/F6.
Can someone please take a look at the above from a compatibility point of view. i.e. would you expect any problems with this combination?
Any reply is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Carl
-
Would first try running a memtest then a Hitachi HDD diagnostic.
-
Hi
The system originally had a different disk, but still had the same problems. I've since ghosted the whole disk onto the newer Hitachi. Can we eliminate the disk?
Memory. What utility should I use? I have tried prime95 / heavyload - each has run for around 3 hours each without any issue. Something I tried at the weekend. Setting the memory speeds manually. I have tried 800,1066,1333,1600 - instead of freezing now the system becomes sluggish (again no telling when it will happen!). Types of behaviour is say moving the mouse from one side of the screen to the other moves very jerky. But task manager just looks normal. i.e. no process has suddenly started hogging the cpu for example.
I am just wondering if there is maybe a compatibility issue with the ram? It's not listed on Gigabytes QVL.
Thanks
Carl
-
To test memory use memtest http://www.memtest.org/#downiso (http://www.memtest.org/#downiso) burn the iso to cd using something like nero, then set BIOS to boot from CD. Also have you tried doing a fresh install of Windows?
-
Hi thanks for input so far.
Memtest worked fine - left it running for 3 passes. Will certainly try a fresh install, however I have pre-ordered Win7 so long term I planned to upgrade. However, is it worth exploring the memory timings? From what I've read, I've picked the wrong RAM - fair enough it down grades to 1333 anyway, but i wonder if there are any timings that I may need.
Carl
-
Also try testing each stick individually with memtest. If its passing that aswell then is unlikey to be a problem with timings I wouldn't of thought.
-
i would suggest checking if voltage rating of your memory meets the value set by the mb and if not then to change it manually in bios
freezing can be caused by faulty PSU, generating some improper voltage peaks
-
blocks_off,you have new BIOS today F6h:
http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=3005
-
Thanks for replies again,
I will test the ram as suggested by oggmonster
As far as voltage goes, again, I will take a look at the settings.
ex58 - confused by these bios versions. Forgive the question but is F7 higher than F6h?
Thanks
Carl
-
looking at the versions numbers it is, but when you have a look at the issue dates you will see F6h seems to be newer one.
all it looks like gigabyte made mistake in numbering or placing of these bioses
-
Hi All
F7 is the latest bios, the website contents has been corrected, sorry for confusion, hope you'll forgive ;)
-
Hello,
This may be significant. I have just had a few hours using the pc - internet, downloads, moving data around, no heavy use & no issues. The system then becomes sluggish, I manage to bring up task manager and all 4 cpu's look like they are being hammered!! At this stage, just 2 tabs in one browsing window were open. I then managed to load Easytune, and on the CPU tab, within the clock section we have CPU speed 15857mhz and BUS speed 991mhz (these were varying but no more than 1000 away from CPU speed). After a reboot they are as I would expect - e.g. 3220 and 201.
I have no manual settings in the BIOS - but to be safe I rebooted and loaded the fail safe defaults. But as I say, nothing was set to manual. I never intend to overclock this machine either.
Has anyone seen this before?
Re: the suggestions of the 20th - I have not yet tried these (been away).
Thanks
Carl
-
Memory has tested fine (by installing 2gb at a time, and testing individually).
Not sure how to change the speeds manually (voltage) - Kingston wont give me any figures other than what's on their datasheet, all they say is 1333,9,9,9 but I feel I am missing a figure. They also give the voltage of 1.5 but I can only add to the voltage manually - I don't seem to have any option to subtract.
Carl
-
Hi,
The figure your missing is in you first post specs,
1 x Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 HyperX Memory Kit CL9(9-9-9-27) 169240
9-9-9-27 ;D
-
Hi Thanks for the figures, but if I want to run this at 1333 i think their figure is 1.5v - however the base figure for the DDR3 voltage within the BIOS is 1.6v and there are only options to add to this, I cannot subtract. Is there a way to select 1.5v?
One area that I am still unclear on is alhough the board can support 1600, can the processor (phenom II 955) support 1600? And therefore should I be running the memory at 1333 or 1600?
Thanks
Carl
-
Hi Thanks for the figures, but if I want to run this at 1333 i think their figure is 1.5v - however the base figure for the DDR3 voltage within the BIOS is 1.6v and there are only options to add to this, I cannot subtract. Is there a way to select 1.5v?
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,588.0.html - it doesn't look like it, but if you find a way please let me know.
One area that I am still unclear on is alhough the board can support 1600, can the processor (phenom II 955) support 1600? And therefore should I be running the memory at 1333 or 1600?
Officially, Phenom II processors support DDR3-1333 (166MHz * 4 * 2) memory. Unofficially, they can also handle DDR3-1600 (200MHz * 4 * 2), which is sometimes erroneously listed (by Giagbyte, for example...) as DDR3-1666 in order, presumably, to look faster.
In real-world tests, the Phenom II range gains very little from the additional raw memory speed - there was a small enough difference between DDR2 and DDR3 speeds in the first place.
Finally, could I ask you to do a quick test for me? Power on your system from cold, whilst holding down the F12 button (which is supposed to bring up the boot menu) and don't release the key until the system has POSTed. I've gone through two different boards with two different processors, and even though Gigabyte Tech. Support claim to be unable to reproduce this, on my system following these steps locks-up the board with a green square and an "N" showing on-screen. I'm wondering if there's some odd interaction with some other hardware I have in the system, or whether this is (another) BIOS bug...
-
Hi Stuart
(Sorry for not replying sooner) I think I know the behaviour that you mean - I have seen it alot if I get a key stuck on boot. However, strangely, I don't get it with F12. How weird!!
Carl
-
Hi All,
What I am now noticing is the system freezing/needs a reboot due to becoming sluggish in the first few minutes use of each day.
e.g. Friday, one freeze after 5 mins - then 12 hours of solid use - flight sim x - moving data - ultimate defrag etc.
So even though I still don't have an answer from giga-byte re: the ram voltage, I am suspecting that the ram may not be at fault.
Any more thoughts on this please?
I do leave my pc off when not in use.
Thanks
Carl
-
Hmm - I've noticed on my system that Gigabyte's brain-dead BIOS will not spin up the CPU fan when the system is (literally) cold-started, and then it's own hardware monitoring system will sound the system alarms because the CPU fan isn't spinning fast enough. This never happens on warm-boots, because the CPU is already up to temperature. The only solution I've found to this is, unhelpfully, to disable CPU fan monitoring support(!)
Anyway - back to your problem ;) If the problem is reproducible from cold-starts only, that's probably significant - and the question is what's different? Two things I'd try immediately - do you still get a crash if, after having used the computer for a half-day without problems, you turn the computer off for 10 minutes before turning it back on? Also disable Cool 'n' Quiet in the BIOS, and see if this makes any difference.
Even though it's highly unlikely, if you have very good cooling then I'm wondering if Windows boots and finds the system and CPU fans either stopped or running slowly (because the system is cold), interprets this as a problem and clocks-down your processors cores - resulting in the sluggish performance.
-
Thanks for the reply Stuart.
Significant breakthrough - I was able to borrow a Quadro FX-3450 and had no problems whatsoever whilst running with this graphics card.
Now I've been a little silly - before removing the card, I looked at the SPD settings of the RAM and noticed for 1333 i need 9-10-10-25
I set that in the BIOS between a power down taking out the old card and refitting the Radeon 4870.
The reason I say I've been a little silly is because I've introduced two changes...
I've still not had any issue. I perhaps need to change the settings back and see if this makes the fault reappear. However, I'm just enjoying the system at the moment! I plan to move to Win 7 64bit next.
Cooling - I have the issued processor fan. I've read somewhere that it's a good idea to replace the issued fan, so when I order a new disk I'll look to a new cooling fan.
"do you still get a crash if, after having used the computer for a half-day without problems, you turn the computer off for 10 minutes before turning it back on?" No i would not get a crash having done this.
Also disable Cool 'n' Quiet in the BIOS, and see if this makes any difference. I'll see what setting I have.
Thanks
Carl
-
I've got a similar spec to you, but don't have any real problems. My machine is as follows.
GA-MA790FXT-UD5P board with Phenom II X4 955BE
8GB (4 x 2GB) Corsair DDR1600 RAM manually set to 1600 with timings and voltages detailed by Corsair.
Gigabyte made ATi HD4670 graphics card
2 x IDE hard drive
3 x SATA hard drive
1 x solid state SATA hard drive
2 x DVDROM (1 is BluRay capable)
1 x Adaptec 29320A U320SCSI controller with SCSI ZIP drive
I very occasionally get a freeze during POST (normally when checlking the memory or drives) or during initial Windows boot, but a reset always fixes the problem. I suspect this is BIOS related as I'm still on F5 and I think its a clash between the SATA and SCSI drive controllers as I had to remove the SCSI hard drives and CDROMs I originally installed as they would go into a continual bus reset loop slowing the machine to a crawl, but that's another story. As my configuration is now it almost always boots first time and freezes and crashes are very rare. I'm running Windows7 RC1 64bit (will be upgrading to the official release in the next couple of months) along with Windows XP 32bit and SuSE Linux 11.1 4bit. I've also got a tiny partition with MS-DOS6.22 housing the boot manager!
Not only is the system stable with the processor at a stock 3.2GHz, if I change the multiplier I can get up to 4GHz and remain stable, although I'll admit I've only done this a few times for no more than an hour under normal loading. Possibly stress tested it would fail or get a bit too hot, but at stock speeds its quick enough so I'm saving overclocking for later on when it begins to feel sluggish.
I'm also running the stock AMD cooler as most replacement coolers are too big and overhang the memory slots, which is no good to me as I'm using all of them. The CPU generally sits around 30-35DegC, pushing up into the low 40's when worked hard. I may change the cooler later on if I can find a comact one, but I'll be specifically looking for one that blows air over the mainboard heat sinks. After all, there's little point having a cool CPU if the chipset begins overheating!
I've not had the fan not running problem, but I'm on BIOS F5 which does appear to use the minimum fan speed from EastTune6 (I'm set at 31%). I will probably upgrade the BIOS in the future, but as things are stable at the moment I don't see the point of messing it around. Just one thought. Have you tried installing EastTune6 (latest version) and manually set the fan controls to see if this has any effect on the fan? I'm just wondering if the settings in EastTune6 get written into the CMOS to be used when the machine is next booted. Certainly if you enable cool'n'quiet it uses the reduced voltages and processor speed controls on the next reboot even if you don't have cool'n'quiet installed or boot into a different operating system where cool'n'quiet is switched off! Again, this might be to do with the F5 BIOS, so manually setting the fan control using EasyTune6 may not work for you.
-
If you are using Easy Power Saver software then try the system after uninstalling this software. I had same problems before and resolve this problem with uninstalling this product.
-
I would recommend NOT installing any additional software supplied by Gigabyte with the motherboard. Most of it is fairly cr*p and will usually only add to your problems.
-
New beta BIOS:
GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - F8k (http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/12/20/2696817/M79XTUD5.8k.zip)
-
That should make a fair few people happy ;D
-
New beta BIOS:
GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - F8k (http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/12/20/2696817/M79XTUD5.8k.zip)
Thanks ex58
-
The 3450 uses a whole lot less power than a 4870. That power supply is a really cheap model and for the life of me cant find the 12 volt rail amps. You need 22 amps to power a 4870 and with the rest of the system id say a good 35 amp 12 volt rail would do.
Do you have a different psu that you can try that isnt so cheap?
-
The 3450 uses a whole lot less power than a 4870. That power supply is a really cheap model and for the life of me cant find the 12 volt rail amps. You need 22 amps to power a 4870 and with the rest of the system id say a good 35 amp 12 volt rail would do.
Do you have a different psu that you can try that isnt so cheap?
You are quite right. It must be one of the most common underlying problems with computer builds. People buy all the best components and then expect some really cheap crappy power supply to run them all smoothly. I cant understand what makes them think that way as it is one of the most important parts in the build. ::)
-
I found these specs for the High power 800w. Doesnt look very promising. :(
4x12v rails@20amps each. I dont think thats enough for a 4870.
I also have a similar system with no problems at all.
I have a Corsair TX850 for my 4870's. 70 amps on a single 12v rail. ;)
You should try a different PSU.
Output rating:
OUTPUT VOLTAGE OUTPUT CURRENT REGULATION
MIN(A) MAX(A) LOAD LINE
5 0.5 30 ±5% ±1%
3.3 0.5 30 ±5% ±1%
12V1 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V2 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V3 1 20 ±5% ±1%
12V4 1 20 ±5% ±1%
-12 0 0.5 ±10% ±1%
5VSB 0 3 ±5% ±1%
-
I found these specs for the High power 800w. Doesnt look very promising.
4x12v rails@20amps each. I dont think thats enough for a 4870.
I also have a similar system with no problems at all.
I have a Corsair TX850 for my 4870's. 70 amps on a single 12v rail.
Exactly! I had a very similar experience with this rig i am using now. I bought a Zalman Heatpipe 750 quality PSU and had no end of throubles trying to get a stable platform and in the end I swapped it out for a Corsair HX850 and no more probs. This I put down to the fact that the Zalman had 4x12v rails rated at 20amps each whereas the Corsair has one 70amp rail.