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my 965P-DS3 rev 2 DOA

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splat

splat

ASCII Moderator
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Joined
Apr 6, 2002
got my new DS3 yesterday from newegg and I was excited to see it was a Rev. 2. I took my time cleaning out all the dust from my computer. I cleaned my d 805 and heat sink for some new AS5, got all the cables hidden the best I could, plugged everything in. After 2 hours of disassembling and reassembling (i stopped for ice cream, beer, and to play with my dog a few times), I was ready to boot up. When I pressed the power button, the screen came up to "Scanning BIOS Image in Hard Drive..." and the hard drive light was active...then the light went off and the computer hung there. I rebooted to get the same thing. I cleared the CMOS, rebooted, got the same thing. Tried a couple more renditions of clearing the CMOS but got the same result. So, I turned to google and after reading a few pages I found, decided the BIOS was corrupted, and since I didn't even get to boot up the machine once, it never got to put a clean copy of the bios on my hard drive for it to recover from.

So, it is being sent back to Newegg today. I'm quite sad I spent basically my entire night working on it just to figure out it was DOA.
 
WOW

This is a pentium D/pentium 4 problem they have with this board. It has happened twice to me. Once on the rev1 and once on the rev2. Some combination of FSB and memory speed probably put it into the 4:5 ratio and killed it like mine. That 4:5 ratio is what killed mine. I got exactly the same messages after setting the memory multiplier to 2.5 and saving it.

I have all my components running in a backup motherboard with no problems, so I know it isn't them. I sent mine back to newegg today too. I would suggest you don't put a pentium D or a pentium 4 in it. I haven't heard of this happening to anyone with a C2D.

I'm sorry it happened to you, but I am actually glad to see that it happened to someone else with a pentium d. That way I don't second guess whether or not I did something wrong.

Good luck to you!
 
That sucks man. I have had 2 gigabyte boards in other systems before this one but this board, the ds3 obviously was rushed and still does not have all its i's dotted. Having also a POS one on my first board I may seriously have to look at asus on the next build. Its just not worth the frustration even if the board works great, when it works.
 
i never even got the system booted once to get in to the bios to change any settings. The very first boot it went right to that BOOTBLOCK screen trying to load a copy off my hard drive. But since I never successfully booted the system before, there was no "good" copy of the bios on the hard drive to recover from, and that screen does not let you put in a cd or floppy for it to grab a new bios off, too.

So, if it is a pentium D problem, then it is a problem with the stock bios from Gigabyte. jph1589, it sounds like you were able to boot at least once with you pentium D before you manually changed a setting that made the bios fail. That was not the case with me.
 
splat said:
i never even got the system booted once to get in to the bios to change any settings. The very first boot it went right to that BOOTBLOCK screen trying to load a copy off my hard drive. But since I never successfully booted the system before, there was no "good" copy of the bios on the hard drive to recover from, and that screen does not let you put in a cd or floppy for it to grab a new bios off, too.

So, if it is a pentium D problem, then it is a problem with the stock bios from Gigabyte. jph1589, it sounds like you were able to boot at least once with you pentium D before you manually changed a setting that made the bios fail. That was not the case with me.
Click to expand...

Yes i realize that, but my pentium d had a fsb of 800 at stock. Yours is 533. That is why I think it happened. I think it automatically put you into a 4:5 divider because of the lower FSB speed. And from what i've seen that divider is a killer with a pentium d installed. I may be wrong, but I would bet if you install that cpu and memory in another Ds3 it will happen again. I'm really just grabbing at straws trying to figure this out before i install another board.

On the other topic, do you have a link that describes how that backup bios functions? I haven't been able to find a clear explanation of it anywhere. I'm trying to figure out if mine didn't create the back up because my boot volume was Raid0 on the GB controller instead of the ich8
 
Other possiblity

The other possibility is that it put the memory on the normal automatic multiplier, which I believe is 3. In either case, your memory wouldn't run that slow.

This is all assumption though because GB doesnt' have documentation that goes into this much detail. It makes sense if you think about it. The default multiplier is 3. That would put your memory speed at 400mhz to start out since your FSB is 133.3. Your 667 memory wont run that slow. So it wouldn't even post. I think that before you do this again, you may need to get a stick of 533 to start it with the first time.

I'm not trying to be a PITA, I just hate to see anyone go through the crap i've been through and i'm still not sure why it happens to me. I just know i'll never set the memory multiplier to 2.5 again.

$$edit........533 memory would at least down speed to 400 if it needed to. Then you could set the multiplier the way you want it and install your other memory. Whatever you do, dont set it to 2.5 LOL!!
 
Last edited:
ah ok, i see what you are saying. The bios defaulted my chip to the 133mhz clock, giving it 533mhz fsb, which is normal. It also tried to run my memory at stock 667mhz, by setting the ratio to 4:5, to get 133*2.5*2=667. And based on your experience, when you manually set the ratio to 4:5, that makes the bios not load. It is too bad I do not have any other intel chips or ddr2 sticks to test this with.

as for how the hd backup works, i have no idea. I did see a post on some other forum about some one needing to clear their CMOS twice before it would properly grab the backup and boot. which btw, clearing the CMOS on this board is a huge PITA. The zalman heatsink on my 7950gt vid card keeps me from being able to get my fingers in to remove the battery or short the jumper.
 
Right.

That is it exactly with the memory. I was off on my calculations on my last note, but you got it perfect. Not enough coffee yet.

Yeah they moved the cmos jumper on the rev 2 so that you have to take out your video card to use it. Big PITA.

You won't get anyone at GB to talk about this intelligently. I assure you of that. If you do luck into someone, get the name and keep it LOL.
 
so your other guess is it defaults the ratio to 1:3, which would make my memory try to run at 800mhz (133*3*2=800). I haven't been able to test this memory out, so I have no idea if it can or cannot post at that speed.

I would think that it would underclock the ram by default, something like 1:2 (133*2*2=533) like the 945p boards seem to do. I guess i can buy a stick of ram locally to boot the system first, flash the bios, change some settings, then return that ram.
 
found some info on the hd recovery in the manual, downloaded from www.gigabyte.com.tw:

Xpress Recovery2 is designed to provide quick backup and restoration of hard disk data. Supporting Microsoft operating systems including Windows XP/2000/NT/98/Me and DOS, and file systems including FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS, Xpress Recovery2 is able to back up data on hard disks on PATA and SATA IDE controllers. After Xpress Recovery2 is executed from CD-ROM for the first time, it will stay permanent in your hard disk. If you wish to run Xpress Recovery2 later, you can simply press F9 during system bootup to enter Xpress Recovery2 without the CD-ROM.
Click to expand...

but i'm not sure if this is the same as the bios image is says it is trying to find in the BOOTBLOCK screen.

oh, and farther down, it says "Does not support RAID/AHCI hard drisks"
 
Thanks

splat said:
found some info on the hd recovery in the manual, downloaded from www.gigabyte.com.tw:



but i'm not sure if this is the same as the bios image is says it is trying to find in the BOOTBLOCK screen.

oh, and farther down, it says "Does not support RAID/AHCI hard drisks"
Click to expand...
That is a different thing and I did know that didn't support raid. Probably a safe bet the bios backup doesnt either.
 
i was trying to find a listing of supported memory modules on their site, but I couldn't find anything...the closest thing I found was on the Specs sheet saying "Use supported memory"
 
I had a feeling

I had a feeling I'd find it eventually.

Page 11 of the DS3 Rev2 Manual at the bottom.

(Note 1) To use a DDRII 800/667 memory module on the motherboard, you must install a 1066/
800 MHz FSB processor.
 
jph1589 said:
I had a feeling I'd find it eventually.

Page 11 of the DS3 Rev2 Manual at the bottom.

(Note 1) To use a DDRII 800/667 memory module on the motherboard, you must install a 1066/
800 MHz FSB processor.
Click to expand...

ARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH
 
You know.......

The up side to this is that the prices are coming down on the Core 2 duo's in the next month and you will be able to pick one up that will be perfect for that board and memory. That is what i'm going to do. I"m not putting my pentium d back in the next one.

All those people like me who were going to get the E4300 need to change their plans though. That one wont work with 667 memory in this board either.

Edit.........the E4300 may work but it will probably have some of the same problems that the pentium d had due to the 800 fsb.
 
Last edited:
I've been contemplating what my move will be.

  • option 1: buy a ddr2-533 stick at compusa, use it to clock up the fsb to accept my ddr2-667, then hope i never have to clear the CMOS or flash the bios again
  • option 2: buy good ddr2-533 that will OC well, effectively becoming ddr2-667 or better and sell my current ddr2-667 sticks
  • option 3: sell my d 805, ram, and il8, then buy a c2d & ddr2-800 (roughly $400 as of last night if i was to upgrade to 2gb ram)
  • option 4: sell my s939 rig which i was planning on upgrading to a opty170 in the next few months once the prices fell more, and buy the c2d and new ram

not quite sure which option I'm leaning towards right now, but the whole purpose of me asking for the DS3 for christmas was to see if I could get this d 805 to run at 4ghz+ stably on air, so I'm kinda disappointed that I might not see that.
 
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