Issue(s) with Gigabyte 99FXA-UD5

[JohannesV]

Hi there,

I was wondering if you could help me with the following:

Last Saturday I installed my new motherboard from Gigabyte, the 990FXA-UD5 into my computer, together with 8 GB of

RAM, two new sticks of 4GB each in the in the manual advised slots, 1 and 2. When I powered it up, it gave me three

long beeps, cycling in pairs of three and it would just sit there at that. So, after reading on Inet to reseat the

sticks, that's what I did, to no avail, unfortunately. Then I took everything out and I reseated everything again.

This went on until I had reseated the RAM into the slots no. 1 and 3 and then it gave me one short beep and booted

up fine. Next time I rebooted, it gave me the three beeps again, so the whole cycle started again, until I

ultimately had seated hem again in 1 and 3 and it seemed to be working again. Then Win7-64 didn't feel like

installing on my SSD, so I took out all, except one of my two Graphic Cards and only the SSD plugged in. The three

beeps were back again. Only this time it was weird: when I had the case laying on its side, it booted up find, but

when I put it back on its feet, the three beeps were there. And they were gone as soon as I laid it back on its

side. Finally, I got it to boot while standing up. Then, yet again, sth strange happened: I merely tapped on the

top of my V8 CPU fan from CM (it was just that),powered it up and it booted and even Win7 now decided to install on

the SSD. After the install, I plugged everything back in and it worked. This went fine until the next day I had to

visit a friend and stayed away for a few hours. Upon returning home, I powered up my machine and the three beeps,

followed by a short startup beep, were there.

What happened since then is following: I get three cycles of three long beeps, followed by a short ("normal") beep

and after that I get the normal startup beep only and the machine boots up normally. All fine, weren't it that the

system seems to be unstable and freezing up irregularily, I get kernel power error msgs and today while restarting

after yet another freeze, I suddenly get the Main Bios Checksum error! msg which then backups from the other bios.

Weird with this is that it has set my version of the bios back to F3, where I had just flashed it to version F9 two

days ago.

Can anybody tell me what is going on as I don't know what is happening? The system is not overclocked and runs at

stock values, the memory, although 1600, runs at 1333 unganged mode. I am suspecting the RAM, but it may as well be

the PSU, although @750 Watts it should be strong enough to run my system (correct me if I am wrong). Here are my

specs:

- Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD5;
- CPU: Phenom ii x2 550 (soon to be replaced, I guess);
- Memory: GEIL "Dragon Ram" 8GB (2x4GB) @ 1600 (specs; runs at 1333);
- HDD's: 1 SSD OCZ Agility 3 60GB; 2x Samsung 500GB; 1X Seagate 500GB;
- Graphics: 2x ATI RADEON HD 4650 (I am not really a gamer, so these should satisfy my needs where the occasional

game is concerned);
- SoundCard Soundblaster XFi Xtreme Music (soon to be replaced)
- Optical Drives: Generic DVD-ROM; LG DVDRW
- PSU: 750 Watt Thermaltake Toughpower

If you would be so kind to let me know what the issue(s) is (are) that I am experiencing and what I can do to fix

it, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much! Sorry about the long story - I just felt that I needed to

add what happened leading up to my current state.

[JohannesV]

Whoa, nobody?

I do appreciate it's a long story, but I will summarize: new build beeps 3 cycles of 3 long beeps, then starts up normally and is (somewhat) unstable. Does not happen when I lay the case on its side or when I reseat the ram first in other slots (which won't start up) and after that in the original slots. Get different error msgs, including checksum errors. Specs are in my previous post.

Anybody, pls? Your help is greatly appreciated! 

[autotech]

A couple things you can try. First and easiest is to only use 1 stick of ram see what happens. Next if it still happens borrow some ram from someone else and try it. Go into bios and make sure ram is at 1600 and correct timings and voltages.

If that still doesnt work try running ram at 1333 if that still has no difference build it out of case you might have a grounding issue. Try that report back and use stock cooler on cpu for the time being.

Turn off any power saving features in bios also.

[stree]

That PSU is way more than you need, probably get away easily with a 450 watt.
Have you reseated all the PSU to motherboard connections? Is the PSU mounted with the usual steel screws?  the PSU must be grounded to the case, hence the metal threaded fixings which must be good and tight. Been known for people to try to soft mount them like Case fans to cut down vibration/noise.
You say it booted when you tapped the CPU cooler fan.....Is that connection good? In the right MB connector ( marked CPU obviously, but it will fit in other places!)
If it was me I would try another PSU, some other RAM, reseat all cables and maybe try another CPU cooler or at least another fan on  the same heatsink.