Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: mattym75 on October 14, 2010, 12:44:49 pm
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GA-X58A-UD3R bIOS fC1 (REV 2.0)
i7-950 at stock speed
6GB ram Kingston hyperX performance (KHX2000C9AD3T1K3/6GX)
GV-N480D5-151-B GTX480 1536 mb
PATRIOT SSD Torqx 128GB (Main) Latest firmware
seagate 120gb x2 (storage)
Samsung Bluray player
Power supply, Silent Pro M1000 (RS-A00-AMBA-J3) 80Amp 12v rail
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
All Drivers and updates are up to date.
I have been having problem with my computer when I power it on. It keeps on getting
stuck at the bios page and it sometimes detects some of my computer components. ie.
HDD, CD drives and total ram. This problem only happens when I use the gtx480 card, I
do have a spare ati 4870x2 2GB asus graphics card and it works fine. I thought it
might have been my new gtx480 card was playing up. I went to gigabyte in Clayton,
Austraila and they check over my computer system and gave me a new card. They were
great help and understanding of my situation. So I got home and and my computer ran
fine for about 4 hours. Played games, did a benchmark using futuremark and also used
windows computer performance and 7.6 out of 7.9 rating for graphics and gaming grahics.
Then all of a sudden the computer locked up and was forced to reset the computer and
was getting stuck on the startup bios page. grrrrr I spent the next 2 days trying
everything to get it to work. By trying out all the bios versions for the motherboard.
(fa, fb, and now fc1) Still no help. I did mangage to flash bios from a lucky startup
using the bios means of flashing and not thru the operating system. But when I pulled
out the gtx480 card and but in my ati 4870x2 the computer would run fine. For some
reason the motherboard and gtx480 card didnt like each other when card was slotted into
the pciex16_1. After a couple of days I thought to myself, why not put the gtx480 card
in the pciex16_2 slot and to my suprise the computer runs fine now, and it has been a
week running great.
Any ideas to why this problem has been an issue?
Another thing also, when I did the windows computer performance test again. It now
shows that graphics and gaming graphics both at the highest lvl 7.9 rating.
My futuremark stats
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dmv=2588905
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcmv=372017
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Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
I have read through your statement and it really doesn't make any sense the fact that the card will work fine in PCIEX16_2 but not in the recommended slot. You haven't got anything in the PCIEX8_1 slot have you because that shares bandwidth with the PCIEX16_1 slot and will reduce that slots speed to X8.
I though at first it was a power problem but on re-reading it your power supply is more than adequate assuming it is not faulty and then it wouldn't run well in the other slot anyway. Very weird. ???
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Thanks for the warm welcome. :)
The only card that is in is the video card. I am using the onboard sound, I did have sound blaster card and took that out when all the problem started. And have not put the sound card back in. I was thinking the same thing about the bandwith issue too or a conflict with IRQ. Its all new parts in my computer too. Except for SSD and HDD.
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Well I really can't see why the card should work in the no2 slot but not the default no1 slot.The only thing I can think of is if the no1 slot was physically damaged. :-\
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can it be that damaged enough to let a ati 4870 x2 2gb card work fine in slot 1, but not the gtx480 ?
It is all very strange. :(
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You are right it is very strange. When I say damaged it would only have to be a contact or two missing, dry joint or something like that. Nothing that was very noticable necessarily.
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hmmm, thanks for you help.
I dont know if I should just stick with it all and be happy that my system runs fine or should I be bothered with an RMA?
I cant really see myself getting another gtx480 and SLI them.
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Obviously that is a choice you will have to make. Personally I wouldn't be happy to have a board that was not 100% but against that you have to weigh up the agro of stripping it out and replacing it and then the rebuild. How long have you had the board?
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Good evening. I think I had almost the same problem in my system. After about two months of really hard time trying to find out what`s going on, I`m going to write the whole story. The first system was:
GA-EX58-UD5
i7 920 D0
Kingston KVR1333D3N9K3/6G
8800GTX by OCZ
WD 1500HLFS
WD 1001FALS
IDE DVD-ROM by ASUS
After 10 months of good stable work the first problem appeared - my graphics card haven`t resumed from sleep. After reboot there was no image, but the OS seemed to continue booting up, then, after a few restarts motherboard even couldn`t recognise my graphics card anymore (long beep and corresponding POSt code indication). So I bought a new graphics card - ZOTAC GTX460 768MB. Here the adventure starts.
My system boot up correctly, but I couldn`t install graphics driver - there was a BSOD with something like the system can`t find the device associated with the driver installed. After about two reboots a lot of HDD logical errors appeared, and CHKDSK begun running in closed cycle, rebooting system again and again. Then I tried to reinstall the whole OS Win7 x64 Pro. With no success, I couldn`t even start copying system files, nothing was happening for more then 10 minutes after the first greeting and language selection. Then I changed HDD to my spare one Samsung 120GB leaving the only one HDD connected. Nothing, everything the same. So I sent GA-EX58-UD5 to the warranty service thinking that the southbridge behaves very suspicious.
Same time I bougt this GA-X58A-UD3R rev.2 motherboard. So I assembled everything again. It was again a very long lag before Windows installation started, but after all everything worked fine. Then after three weeks my system just hung in the desktop, stopping everything, no screen refreshing, even no error was logged. The next day this situation repeated, then it started to be really frequent. This time I changed my PSU to Corsair 750W - nothing changed, system was keeping hanging. I reflashed to FB, then the first start was double, after it the system looked stable, but the video was working in x8 mode instead of x16 according to GPU-Z. Next morning the system started normally, video was in x16-mode but after two minutes everything hung up again... I tried to change graphics card slot to PCI-E 16_2 with no success. But if the graphics card was in PCI-E 8_1 slot everything was stable and worked fine. By that time I was sure that something was wrong with this video ZOTAC GTX460.
So I borrowed 8400gs from my friend. I inserted it in PCI-E 16_1 slot. Windows stopped booting showing only animated splashscreen with logo, safe mode didn`t work.. So I tried to reinstall Windows 7 x64 again. Nothing.. after copying the system files and rebooting everything was stopping showing only Win7 logo animation. In some attempts it continued the installation but then was stopping again for 5 minutes and even longer. Then I tried to downclock my processor below it`s stock frequency (the system was never overclocked) and set x14 multiplyer. Then the Windows installed correctly with no lags and no problems. So I changed my processor to a new one i7 930 D0 assuming there was the problem. I think the only mistake was to assemble the system with ZOTAC GTX460 again. It was woking fine for 4 days, then - again the same hangups.. Changed video to 8400gs - the same, lags and downclocking helps. Tried with the only stick of memory, different ones. memtest86 showed no errors. Tried different HDD, different cables. Tried GA-EX58-UD5 again, it returned from service (wich is in Moscow) with "no problems" - they tried it with GTX480 and it "worked fine". But with 8400gs i still couldn`t install Win7 x64 on it. So I assembled everything together again with GA-X58A-UD3R and brought it to my localshop where this GA-X58A-UD3R was bought a month ago. They couldn`t install Win7 on it with the same problems - a lot of sata errors in any modes, they also tried 8600GT video with no success. So they sent my GA-X58A-UD3R to Gigabyte to complete the investigation. This time I`m waiting for any result. And I still don`t know what to do with GA-EX58-UD5...
Thanks for Your attention. Sorry for my english, I`m russian by the way.
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Hi Viccctor and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum. Nzdrave!
Please don't appologise for your English it is impeccable.
Well I read and then re-read your account and still couldn't see anything that yopu could have done differently. It is just one of those weird faults that will end up being caused by a system fan (only joking, but you know what I mean) :-\ The only common denominator is the GPU.
The only other thing I can think of is that these cards are more power hungry than a lot of people imagine and if you get the chance try it with a 850W or larger single 12 rail PSU and see if that cures it. I know that in theory your 750w should be fine but this wouldn't be the first one I've had that was down to a power supply.
Anyhow let us know how you get on.
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Thank You for Your rapid reply, Dark Mantis.
I know, it looks like a PSU problem, but then I have no idea why my system worked fine for almost one year with TT 600W PSU and 8800GTX (which is really hot card). My current PSU is Corsair CMPSU-750TX with one 12V rail 60A max load... If it is not enough for GTX460 it should be enough for 8400gs anyway. Do You think there is some serious inrecoverable motherboard failure caused by overloading the PSU with GTX460? I also tried to change PCI-E frequency when my hangups become more often. Did it because the system sometimes started to hand up even during POST or on HDD detection stage (the same situation as topicstarter mentioned). So if I try 100Mhz instead of Auto the system can't POST. If I try 97MHz the system still unstable. If I try lower then 95MHz the system looks the way more stable. The same is with downclocking the CPU (all other settings - Auto). I believe this is not actually the southbridge problem, but it really depends on PCI-E clockgenerator. Is it possible that faulty GTX460 damaged this clockgenerator somehow?
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If you seriously want to get to the bottom of this I would suggest starting from scratch and building the system up outside the case on the worktop. Lay some cardboard or other non conductive material down first and then put together the motherboard, one module of memory in the first slot, the CPU/heat sink/fan, a buzzer or speaker and the PSU. When done try booting and see what beeps it emits when it tries to POST. Obviously it will fail as there is no graphics card but it will at least enable you to test the basic build.
I am afraid I am going to bed now but we can continue tomorrow if you wish.
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Obviously that is a choice you will have to make. Personally I wouldn't be happy to have a board that was not 100% but against that you have to weigh up the agro of stripping it out and replacing it and then the rebuild. How long have you had the board?
I bought the board on the 30th of August 2010.
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I bought the board on the 30th of August 2010.
So basically you are out of the thirty day warranty by the shop then so you would probably have to RMA the board unless the shop was still willing to exchange it.
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I bought the board on the 30th of August 2010.
So basically you are out of the thirty day warranty by the shop then so you would probably have to RMA the board unless the shop was still willing to exchange it.
I will have to RMA it. The shop I go to only give 7 days for an exchange. I will put it in for an RMA over the next couple of weeks. I just about to finish the last week of nightshift and head back to dayshift for the next 2 months. :)
Thanks for your help.
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You are welcome of course. Please let us know what happens though. ;)
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If you seriously want to get to the bottom of this I would suggest starting from scratch and building the system up outside the case on the worktop. Lay some cardboard or other non conductive material down first and then put together the motherboard, one module of memory in the first slot, the CPU/heat sink/fan, a buzzer or speaker and the PSU. When done try booting and see what beeps it emits when it tries to POST. Obviously it will fail as there is no graphics card but it will at least enable you to test the basic build.
I am afraid I am going to bed now but we can continue tomorrow if you wish.
I`m not sure if I have enough time to completeb all required tests this month. Anyway, I hope to receive the testing results for my GA-X58A-UD3R soon. I believe it can give me some points for locating the problem. Thank You for trying to help me. If my system failed because of motherboard failure, I think it was better to write here about it, so the information about some similar cases of this strange problem could help Gigabyte ingeneers to resolve it or, at least, keep it in mind.
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Fair enough viccctor, these things can take a lot of time and not everyone has enough spare to play with their computers. If you want to try later just post again and we will see what we can do then. ;)
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Hello again. Finally decided to make everything clear for me with GA-EX58-UD5 rev.1
So, yesterday I assembled my system on the cardboard box on my table. By now I already tested all my RAM with memtest86+ 4.10 stick by stick in the first white slot for more than 3 hours and more than 7 passes each one with no errors. This time I put all my RAM (which is Kingston KVR1333D3N9K3/6G set of 3) in white slots an it is running with memtest for almost 2 hours and 2 passes completed with no errors so far. All BIOS settings set to optimised defaults (except Boot from USB storage to run memtest from my pen-drive), memory is running on 1066MHz. So i did it just to make sure that there is no RAM problems in my system. Though I didn`t expect any problems with memtest because this memory worked with this processor (i7 920 D0) and with this motherboard exactly for almost one year running under Win7 x64. So the next step is to try to install Win7 x64 using my old HDD Samsung SATA II 120GB. Will try to disable all controllers except the main ICH, setting it to AHCI and native mode. Will use external USB-DVD-RW.
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Hi viccctor
OK so far so good. Which graphics card are you using?
Go into the BIOS and disable the floppy drive.
Make sure that your boot drive isn't a WD green drive and connect it.
Is there any reason why you want to use AHCI as the only real benefit is the HotSwap ability? If not use IDE mode as it's more stable.
Connect your external optical drive and install Windows.
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The graphics is 8400gs by ZOTAC with no external power needed. Floppy is already disabled. Will write You back soon.
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Ok, here is the result...
I succesfully installed Win7 x64 in AHCI mode in port 0 of ICH10R SATA controller. But after I installed all required drivers and Win7 installed 2 updates (yes, i plugged in LAN cable once I was in desktop) and rebooted. After Win7 splash animation was CHKDSK attention message, then checking, correcting some errors, reboot, CHKDSK again, reboot etc. The HDD behaved strange - it seemed that heads were parking themselves after evry 5-6 seconds, then resumed working. Have not tried it in IDE mode now, but tried it many times before, HDD will stuck after the first reboot during Win7 installation.
Will try to install Win7 using GSATA, disabling ICH10 SATA if possible.
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OK we need to try and eliminate things that could be at fault. I take it the disk you are using at present is the Velociraptor, yes? If so change it for the other drive and see if you have the same problem.
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OK we need to try and eliminate things that could be at fault. I take it the disk you are using at present is the Velociraptor, yes? If so change it for the other drive and see if you have the same problem.
No, as I wrote two posts before the HDD this time was Samsung 120GB - well worked in my previous system for 3 years. The same situation was with Velociraptor two weeks before with GA-X58A-UD3R. So now the MOBO and HDD are changed but the problem persists (it doesn`t depend on CPU used, I checked everything with i7 930 D0 before). The only common thing in all cases is that all troubles have started when I inserted that GTX460 first in GA-EX58-UD5, then in GA-X58A-UD3R...
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Are you still using the same power supply? (Sorry if I have asked any of these questions before)
Is there any other items that have been common throughout?
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No, even today I tried both TT 600W and Corsair TX750. Two months of struggle past, and today the only common thing is the RAM, but it worked well on this MOBO and thoroughly tested by now. The GTX460 mentioned before is returned to seller two weeks ago and I have my money back. And as I said before that video card in my opinion initiated all the problems.
Couldn`t install Win7 x64 using GSATA controller. Tried to tweak PCI-E frequency. At 90MHz set manually system can`t start, stops at code 26, then after poweroff starts and stops at code c1. At 95MHz I managed to install Windows, installed updates, then, after MOBO drivers installation there was a problem starting realtek sound driver after reboot. Tried 93MHz - the same situation as with 90Mhz. Set 100MHz manually, after booting in Windows there was a problem with another driver, and there was also clicking sound (head parking?) from HDD every 3-5 seconds. Now I`m sure this is mainly PCI-E -related issue. Do You know where phisically the PCI-E clock generator located?
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No I can't help you with the location of the clock generator I'm afraid we don't have access to that level of information. I don't know where to go from here. I don't like giving up but at the moment I can't think of anything to account for the problem. I will discuss it with my collegue tomorrow and see if we can come up with anything. :-\
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Checked today both Samsung and WD HDDs used trying to install Win7. Did it using external USB docking station with AMD Athlon XP based computer. Both had partition table corruption making HDDs inaccessible for Partition Magic 7.0 installed on my old PC. Fixed it with gparted live USB fash drive.
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Have you tried to install Windows since repartitioning them?
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Have you tried to install Windows since repartitioning them?
No, but every time i did the clear installation at first I deleted all partitions on HDD making installation on unallocated space. By doing this I let Windows to create required partitions, right? By the way, at first I tried to repair partition table using gparted on X58 mashine in ICH10 SATA controller, the second (?) attempt was sucsessful. But when I plugged this "repaired" HDD (it was Samsung) in my AMD mashine it was inaccessible with corrupt partition table. I assume that any operation with HDD data on my X58 mashine leads to file system or partition table corruption. Of course I can try to install Windows again, I`m just worrying a bit about posiible inrecoverable errors on my HDD. Two weeks ago I saw personally when just repartitioned and formatted HDD (WD HLFS) lost it`s partition table after first reboot during Win7 installation as we did diagnostics of GA-X58A-UD3R (it`s still in service) in my local shop.
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Well I really don't know what to suggest Viccctor. I can understand your reluctance to gamble your hard drive again. It would seem to be a board issue in that it is not writing to the drives properly. Maybe you should RMA it too.
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Anyway, Thank You, Dark Mantis, for having concern in my problem. ;)
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Viccctor can you let us know what BIOS version you are running on the motherboard?
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BIOS is F9e
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Viccctor every time I think maybe I have the solution you sc**w me. I was discussing it with my collegue and he suggested a BIOS update but I think you have a newer one already.
I am right in thinking your board is an X58-UD5 , yes?
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GA-EX58-UD5 - F13m
is available at TweakTown Forum http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/28441-gigabyte-latest-bios.html
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Never mind :) There is some newer versions on official site. But this one used to work well for several months. And, again, with another MOBO (GA-X58A-UD3R rev.2.0) i tried FA, FB and FC1... Looks like I have a new useless and expensive toy. Even tried to RMA it two months ago, but testing in Moscow (if they ever tested it) didn`t show any problems. I still have a strange feeling that if I plug in some GTX4xx board it will work well. But, unfortunately, I don`t have this option. I think so because my system was stable with GTX460 first in 16x slot, then, after the system became unstable, it was stable again with GTX460 in x8 slot. But after all it had never been stable with 8400gs and 8600gt. May be this is because 8400gs and 8600gt don`t require an external power? So it can be a permanent power line damage of PCI-E expansion slots and the south bridge power line, if it is not the same line, may be, caused by faulty GTX460..
Will try F13m though
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Yes I think its worth trying. What have you got to lose? If it works you owe absic a bottle of Vodka.
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Tried F13m. To make the story short - there are the same problems.
But at first it looked much better, my HDD (Samsung) worked more quiet (or may be not, now it was placed different on my table), Win7 installed, then updates installed with no visible problems after reboot, then after installation of realtek soumd was the first trouble running HD application on startup after reboot - reinstalled ok. But now HDD started clicking from time to time. So I scheduled CHKDSK after reboot, still checking (20mins) - plenty of errors, the sequence of errors detected looks somehow the same as in previous attempts.
So I think every time there are errors of the same nature (HDD space addressing/misplacing problem?), but the time they occur is random. There was also some bad clusters replaced by Windows in one file, this is not phisical drive error, right?
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There was also some bad clusters replaced by Windows in one file, this is not phisical drive error, right?
No I wouldn't expect so just corruption of the drives data being rewritten. Of course that could also be caused by the drive's cache memory or the data controller on the drive.
If I remember correctly we haven't checked the CPU socket pins so far. So maybe that would be an idea. They are very easilly bent and often give this sort of effect when bent. If you can't make up your mind about them try taking a couple of macro(close up) photos and post them here for us to check for you.
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Checked socket pins just before installing the CPU - looked ok. I`m reading this board for a couple of weeks already, so I`ve also checked GA-X58A-UD3R socked pins before I RMA`d it. I even made some photos (all UD3R). Looked ok.
Looked on my HDD`s S.M.A.R.T. There is 1 pending sector, no other errors. But HDTune says that the drive supports UDMA7, though it is running UDMA8, which is not supported. The same situation was before, when I checked my previous assembly. In normal conditions my HDDs (both WD) were running UDMA5 mode while UDMA6 was supported. After my system failed first time, sometimes, when I managed to install Windows, one or both of HDDs were running UDMA7 while UDMA6 was supported (regarding HDTune data). This can explain errors occurance.
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I even made some photos (all UD3R). Looked ok.
Post them and we can check them aslo.
Looked on my HDD`s S.M.A.R.T. There is 1 pending sector, no other errors. But HDTune says that the drive supports UDMA7, though it is running UDMA8, which is not supported. The same situation was before, when I checked my previous assembly. In normal conditions my HDDs (both WD) were running UDMA5 mode while UDMA6 was supported. After my system failed first time, sometimes, when I managed to install Windows, one or both of HDDs were running UDMA7 while UDMA6 was supported (regarding HDTune data). This can explain errors occurance.
Maybe, I'm really not sure but it does sound suspicious.
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Here is the photo.
http://picasaweb.google.ru/lh/photo/ATg3LY301o4aIAwTZqL6gg?feat=directlink
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The photo could have been a bit bigger Viccctor but I couldn't see any bent pins.
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By the way, have You clicked on the magnifying glass button at the top right corner?
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No to be honest I didn't notice it. I will check again.
Much better when you can see it without straining your eyes. Bloody clever these Russians ;)
Still looks fine to me. Can't see any bent ones.
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:)
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Finally, my system is dead again 8)
Every time I installed something - updates, drivers - there was a problem, HDD behaved strange (clicks, whistling), and, after reboot there was either driver problem or CHKDSK recovery runned with many errors found. Sometimes it rebooted normally, but there was clicking from HDD from time to time (single clicks - data link loss?). So it looks for me the F13m BIOS makes sense on my HDD behaviour, at least, this time everything went a bit further then usually. I managed to install all drivers (some from the second attempt), some test programs, I`ve tested my CPU with LinX (GUI Intel Linpack stress test version), Prime95x64 with no errors and at a good speed. So it looks the CPU and RAM are Ok. Then I scheduled CHKDSK for my HDD and rebooted, nothing happened, OS booted without checking anything. Rebooted again and`ve got this Stop 0x00000050 BSOD PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA. As I know, this stop happens in many many different situations, related I/O operations.
So I`m about to stop testing and leave this board alone, at least until I`ll have some information from service about my GA-X58A-UD3R board with the same issue.
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Fair enough Viccctor, I think you have gone above and beyond the call of duty, mate. It can be a killer trying all these things one after another but there are no short cuts. You just hope that you find the problem earlier rather than later. ;)
Please keep in touch though and let us know what happens when your board copme back.
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Hello again 8)
Recently I`ve got the answer from my local shop about my GA-X58A-UD3R board. They told me the official service center accepted this board as faulty, so I have my money back now. They also told me that my board was the first with this strange failure, but after they had 6 boards of this model returned with "even more weird" issues. After all everything looks like some strange motherboard power unit problem. This time I decided to go back to ASUS products, though they also have their own bugs.
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Hi Viccctor, Thanks for the update and sorry to hear that you are going back to Asus but I can't blame you after all these problems with this board. Good luck.