UD3R freezes before I can access bios and won't load windows.

[kennedam]

Hello,

I've read several  posts that contain elements of my issue but not the full scope so I'm creating a new thread.

I'm not sure where to begin except to explain that I have a custom built computer with the following specs

X58-UD3R rev 2.0
I7950
12GB Corsair XMS 1600
EVGA GtX480
Phoenix SSD 100GB
Corsair HX1000w PSU

When I first built it the computer booted fine and I installed windows and the world was a lovely place. After a week I first noticed that Windows would freeze on the boot screen, and after scanning several forums I figured out the problem and moved on. Later my ud3r would randomly freeze and not post. But after several restarts it would load windows, usually on the 3rd time. Then the problem got worse and I decided to reset the mobo by taking out the battery and i reinstalled windows. That worked for a while and then one day my computer crashed and all hell broke out.

When I tried restarting the ud3r it would freeze in bios and then recently will freeze before I can even enter bios. After numerous restarts I get lucky and I'm able to boot from CD and I've tried to reformat my hdd and install windows again. I've tried clearing the cmos booting with one stick of ram removing the battery and I'm not sure what to do.

I'm trying to get to a clean slate with my ud3r but I don't know what else to do. I can't even access the bios setup or the boot menu because the mobo freezes.  any tips will be well received

thanks,

Andrew

[onemilimeter]

Have tried with just 4GB memory?

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum Andrew.

Follow these instructions to clear the CMOS and put your computer back to it's basic configuration.

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 ten minutes 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 and then press F10 to save and exit.

Next can you post what memory modules you actually have and their details please?

[Lsdmeasap]

I agree, I would try with less memory until you get going and can then setup your BIOS properly for 12GB.

Try with 6GB and if that continues to give you hassles just use 2.   When using 3 modules or less the memory must be in the white slots only.

[kennedam]

ram details Corsair XMS3 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 1.60v ver2.3a

thanks for the advice...

I tried to do the whole uplug the power remove the battery clear the cmos routine which didn't work. I've tried doing that before (multiple times) and it somtimes would work but most of the time it wouldn't and It hasn't in this case.   However I tried the one stick of ram and I was able to get into the bios and load optimized defaults. But once I loaded the optimized defaults the computer restarted as normal but now it won't let me get back in to the bios or load windows, weird... it just does that boot cycle thingy

I do have two hdds one SSD drive for boot and one drive for my larger files. I've unplugged the non boot drive to see if that had any effect. It did not... but my cdrom started spinning. That leads my to believe that for some reason It can't find windows on my ssd and is trying to boot from my cdrom drive. However I did have the windows 7 cd in the drive and it still didn't boot.

I

Not sure where to go from here...

thanks,

[kennedam]

hey guys ! this might shed some light on things.

so I unplugged both my hdds and put my windows 7 cd in and it booted just fine with the CD.  Do you think the windows on my sdd is some how corrupted ?

[Lsdmeasap]

It very well could be corrupted windows install, or something on the drive is faulty.

Is this windows install a clean or recent install, on this board only?

[Dark Mantis]

You might need to update the firmware on your SSD.

Are you using the latest BIOS on your motherboard?

[kennedam]

yes mobo came with latest update and yes windows is a fresh install of a reformatted hdd so i think i'm good there/

 um i'll check my firmware on my ssd. interesting note

okay so I let my computer sit for a day because i was about to pull my hair out... i left everything plugged in but then I started up the computer and for no apparent reason in worked with both my ssd hdds and crdom plugged in.

this while seemingly good news worries me because there is nothing consistent about the way my computer is acting.

somtimes the computer will boot and restart without any problems... then sometimes it gets hung up when I restart... then somtimes it freezes at the windows login and restarts and then sometimes it freezes on verifying dmi pool data or on the post screen.

I'm not sure if any of this errors are consistent with a major problem that I'm not aware off ? 

[Dark Mantis]

The way it is behaving it would seem like a BIOS issue. I know that's not much comfort as you are already running the latest version.

[kennedam]

well after some messing around and some resets I finally was able to get things to work with a combination of several suggestions and retries. So thankyou to everyone who commented.

anyhow I now have the new windows freeze issue where W7 will freeze on the welcome screen. I looked around and I guess its a compatibility issues with gtx480 and ud3r. I guess there is two options for potentially fixing it. Either a flash to FD or changing PCI-E  wattage. Anyhow know how to change the wattage with the ud3r bios or had any luck flashing the bios ?

thanks !

[Dark Mantis]

I am glad that you seem to be getting there and maybe a BIOS update will do the trick. I wouldn't go messing around with the PCIE voltage without knowing exactly what you are doing.