ds3 problem? please advise

Ok, I think its a ds3-board problem. Here is my setup:
E6400 (413X8)@3.3GHz
965p-ds3 Gigabyte board
2GB Adata pc 6400
EVGA 8800 gts @ 650/2000
80-GB seagate SATA drive
Antec Truepower 2.0 500W
winxp pro sp2

All was well as of last night with temps steady like they always are and nothing new installed. This morning I turn on the PC and all the fans start, I hear the hdd's getting power, the computer light and HDD light on the front of the case come on (and stay on). My EVGA 8800GTS fan starts and speeds up to 100% (I know this because I have it set at 100% but it never accelerates to 100% until I boot into windows via riva tuner.)

And that is it. No signal to the monitor and no beeps. I reseat the video card, the ram, re-check all connections, ect. After turning it on and off 5 or 6 more times it starts. I get into windows. I browse the net a bit and then play oblivion where I notice performance is big time doggy. I strat cpu-z and see my o/c is gone. I am running the e6400 stock all of a sudden. I figure I will reboot the machine and re-clock it. Good idea but on re-starting the machine goes back into what it was doing before and will not boot. After once again messing with the case innards...and 5-6 times restarting, the machine boots.

And here I am. The ds3 is a revision 2 with the f7 bios. My first ds3 dies within 2 weeks and never did see my ram is dual channel. This one has been going great since christmas.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks.

well apparantly, this is the infamous cold boot problem. Odd because things were going so well since christmas. I am also reading that I will probably have to rma AGAIN!!!, because the supposed bios fixes are not fixes. The problem supposedly is physical on the board.

I will never, never get GB again.

I had a similar problem. My DS3 never saved clock changes, and if it did, it would just boot loop. Also, updating the BIOS was a hassle itself. I'm sitting here with a DS3 board that won't boot, and I can't seem to clear the CMOS. I've already purchased a new board (not Gigabyte), and I'm going to return my current DS3...however I still have yet to receive a response from their customer support.

I had a similar issue with my ds3. The ddr voltage would stay 1.8 no matter what I set it in the bios. Easytune would let me change it, but upon reboot, right back to 1.8v. I reflashed the bios to an older revision and now it seems to be working fine.

i have a similiar issue. My DS3 can remember the clock and voltage settings. However, if there is any significant change of the operating system ( updating video card driver), upon restart, there was no display signal. This can be simply solved by unpluging power supply or reseating video card, but after restarting, the overclock setting is disabled and MB set the CPU at stock speed. Should not be a CPU problem, at 2.7Ghz, my E4300 is stable at dual 32M super PI although no Prime or Ortho torture yet. If no system or bios change, it works OK. I have RMAed my video card, but the problem is still their. Some people suggested me its a power supply problem, and I'm ordering a new one. Don't know what will happen under the new power supply. If the problem is still there, maybe I must RMA my DS3.

I've had no problems with my DS3, none whatsoever. but not experienced signal loss like that. I'd say either the mobo is totally knackered or the PSU needs replacing.

Try these to see if you can make it boot consistently

- next time you get in, run "chkdsk", if that finds nothing, then "chkdsk /r" which will need to be rebooted but will ensure your HD has no hidden errors (takes over night)

- take one of the two memory cards out (swap them if it still won't boot)

- put in a different less capable video card

- unplug all internal components like USB (internal plugs), floppy, DVD and boot with just a HD

- reset the cmos

- down grade the bios version