Unofficial GIGABYTE X38T-DQ6 Info/BIOS thread ;p

[Isepick]

Many ppl were complaining of needing a new thread for just the X38T since the other thread seems to be dealing mainly with the X38, and frankly with GB releasing a new bios weekly for the DDR2 board, it gets confusing at times. So come on in and lets talk about the trials and travails of the X38T, what problems and bugs you've found with the different bios versions, and their fixes. I'm new to DDR3 myself, and so I'm hoping some of you out there with a bit more experience/knowledge of DDR3 can lend a hand. I know there has been some items covered in the other thread, but I thought it would be nice for those of us who own this motherboard to have a consolidated thread, vs. searching (at the time of this writing) 28 pages ;)

Anyhow, I found something interesting last night and managed to replicate the problem (and fix it). How many of you have flashed the bios to F4a and had it go into the endless reboot cycle? I did with my first one of these and rma'd it, thinking I had totally bricked it. Now I know a little bit better.

Friday I got my rma back, loaded with standard F2 bios. Could not get above 435 fsb, nor could I get over 1200 on the ram speed (I am using Corsair XMS3 1600). System either would not post or get into windows...So I flashed to F3h (F4a having caused me to rma in 1st place), and could finally get into the system @ 1600 with the rated 7-7-7-20. Unfortunately, I could not pass Prime with it (failed w/in 5 minutes.)

Here's the interesting part...I tried a different strap which put the memory @ 1333 mhz (400 fsb)...and got the continual reboot that I had when I had flashed to F4a! So I clear the cmos, power up and I'm back in the game...And decide to go ahead and flash to F4a this morning, and guess what? constant reboot!

Only this time, clearing cmos doesnt help...I eventually wind up removing both ram sticks, managed to get it to boot with only 1 stick installed, get into the bios to see the defaults, and guess what, memory is at 1333 mhz!!! So I change to extreme profile 1 which is 1600, and right now I am priming (2.5 hours so far, blend test, both sticks installed), with none of the problems I was getting before. Only thing is right now this board has my cpu underclocked (6 x 400 fsb, I have a Q6700)...and I am debating the wisdom of increasing that multiplier, b/c if I make this bios go back to its defaults, then I have to pray I can get it to boot like I did before with a single stick, I REALLY dont want to test that theory more times than I have to...

So, thoughts, ideas, criticisms....? This is a place for us to help each other, and hopefully I've given someone some useful info (DDR3 1600 ram does not play well at 1333 mhz on this mobo). Anybody else have any other issues, workarounds, etc, with the model "T" feel free to post, I dont want this thread to be about me, I want it to be about all of us ;)

Isepick

[Ace-a-Rue]

good idea!...it was hard to keep up with the differences in problems.

[dominick32]

I have been having problems with every bios on the board for weeks now. DDR3-1800 mhz simply will not pass memtest at stock frequency/timings. 1800 mhz 7-7-7-20

I have tried Corsair Dominator 1800's, Patriot Extremes 1866's, and Supertalent 1866's.

I know its the motherboard because they all fail at the same frequency 1740 mhz. Same error loop in memtest.

[Sampsa]

I tried this motherboard and Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (ES week 34) yesterday with my cascade and faced some serious problems. I first switched the cascade on, booted system to BIOS and followed CPU temperature to drop from PC Health. Evaporator temperature dropped to -111 Celsius and PC Health stopped updating CPU temperature after reaching -88 C. Everything seemed to be ok.

I raised Vcore up to 1,8 volts and booted the system, OK. Then I raised the multiplier one by one up to 12x. Next when I tried to change FSB from 333 MHz to 400 MHz, system didn't post anymore and it shut down. When I tried to power it on again, fans spinned only a sec and system shut down. Clearing CMOS didn't help and even heating the CPU up to -30 C didn't help system to post. When I removed the evaporator and installed stock cooler, everything worked normally.

[Sampsa]

btw, I've been running this board with QX9650 @ 450 MHz FSB and OCZ DDR3-1600 memory @ 1800 MHz 7-6-6-18 1T, too bad I faced problems under cold.

[Ace-a-Rue]

there is a cold bug for the QX9650...i thought it was higher than -88C...research a post by FUGGER where he mentions it...or you can PM him to find out where his was.

[Isepick]

@Dominick: Saw your other thread, didnt want to hijack it tho ;) Sorry you have not been able to resolve the 1740 mhz issue. This thing gave me fits getting to 1600, so I can only imagine how painful it is for you.

Update on the F4a bios: It is an evil piece of code that should not be used...I went back and did try to adjust the multiplier and found that the ability to do so was locked, as was trying to adjust anything on the MIT page in the bios. Weird, like I could adjust the first time and after that it became read only. So I've gone back to F3h for now...And having difficulties with the cpu clock, though memory seems stable (I used the settings the F4a bios automatically put in for the mem, works great prime stable blend 8 hours). But an 8x400 is hardly stable and seems to be sucking up a LOT of juice. Vcore is currently 1.5v, Vid is 1.275 which doesnt seem right for 8 x 400, but 2 ticks lower and I can't pass post...and I am really not sure how far past 1.5v I can take my Q6700. "Hardly stable" means small ffts run great for a couple of hours, but large ffts error out in 5 minutes. Can play Crysis for about 2 hours before it exits suddenly. Thoughts? advice?

[dinos22]

I tried this motherboard and Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (ES week 34) yesterday with my cascade and faced some serious problems. I first switched the cascade on, booted system to BIOS and followed CPU temperature to drop from PC Health. Evaporator temperature dropped to -111 Celsius and PC Health stopped updating CPU temperature after reaching -88 C. Everything seemed to be ok.

I raised Vcore up to 1,8 volts and booted the system, OK. Then I raised the multiplier one by one up to 12x. Next when I tried to change FSB from 333 MHz to 400 MHz, system didn't post anymore and it shut down. When I tried to power it on again, fans spinned only a sec and system shut down. Clearing CMOS didn't help and even heating the CPU up to -30 C didn't help system to post. When I removed the evaporator and installed stock cooler, everything worked normally.

a few of our Team.AU members have killed numerous boards so far and common settings that they think may have something to do with it are >1.8vcore + >-100C

try taking the battery out and use an older bios like F2/F3

you are VERY lucky that your CPU can work at those temps at boot

also those X38 boards will have OVP at around 1.85 or 1.9v set in bios >>> if you need the OVP removal guide i can email it to you....

i had that constant reboot due to OVP but that was with 1.9v set in bios for me

[andyddr]

btw, I've been running this board with QX9650 @ 450 MHz FSB and OCZ DDR3-1600 memory @ 1800 MHz 7-6-6-18 1T, too bad I faced problems under cold.

I'm running Bios F5j at the moment and cannot use the 1T command. Although I selected it in the bios it shows up as 2T in memset and the latest CpuZ. Does anyone know how I can enable 1T?

Otherwise this board is great for my needs.

[Richard Dower]

You might want to check out Revision 1.1 PCB for the X38T-DQ6.

[Rob94hawk]

I have Rev 1.0 and I just installed the F5 BIOS. Now the multiplier jumps from 6 to 8 and back and forth. When I enable XMP I get the constant reboot 3-4 times until finally it loads up.

With the F5 BIOS and XMP enabled the mobo autoset to 450x6 to get 1800 Mhz @ 7-7-7-20. Did not like this one bit, constant reboots.

Also, somehow after using Q-Flash Vista 64 now sees a Floppy A drive when there is no A: drive!

When I get the chance I'm gonna go back to F2.

[dinos22]

F2 is the best bios
downgrade and enjoy your board

[Hornet331]

I have Rev 1.0 and I just installed the F5 BIOS. Now the multiplier jumps from 6 to 8 and back and forth. When I enable XMP I get the constant reboot 3-4 times until finally it loads up.

With the F5 BIOS and XMP enabled the mobo autoset to 450x6 to get 1800 Mhz @ 7-7-7-20. Did not like this one bit, constant reboots.

Also, somehow after using Q-Flash Vista 64 now sees a Floppy A drive when there is no A: drive!

When I get the chance I'm gonna go back to F2.

just disable the floppy in the standard menu. :yepp:


F2 is the best bios
downgrade and enjoy your board


i dont think thats an option for yorkfield users?

[Rob94hawk]

F2 is the best bios
downgrade and enjoy your board

I was going to try the F3 BIOS but after these reboots from hell and my multipliers flip-flopping F2 was apparently more stable than I thought.

[Rob94hawk]

just disable the floppy in the standard menu. :yepp:


Funny about that. I wen't to device manager and uninstalled the floppy and you know what? It auto installed itself! :shrug:

[dinos22]

just disable the floppy in the standard menu. :yepp:




i dont think thats an option for yorkfield users?

why not

i tested Wolfdales without issues


Name: dinos22
Brand: Corsair Dominators 1800MHz CAS7
Model: DDR3-1800 7-7-7-20
Size: 2GB Kit ( 2x1GB )
Voltage: 2.20V
Timings: 7-7-7-20
Frequency: 1000MHz ( DDR3-2000 )
CPUz Validation:
Cooling: Air Cooling, 26C room temp
Motherboard: Gigabyte X38T-DQ6 bios F2 (first release)

Note: ONLY motherboards slots 1 and 2 are capable of decent MHz on RAM hence all single channel whether one or both occupied....slot 2 can go another 20 MHz more than one ......... i did both single stick in Slot 2 and two sticks in 1 and two slots 1M SuperPI 1000MHz 7-7-7-20


Screenshots:

1000MHz 1M SuperPi
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4500/1000mhz7772022vdimmcorsuw3.png

980MHz 32M SuperPi
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9683/980mhz7772022v32msuperpsw4.png

i had all the programs running in the background and it's single channel hence time penalty

[Rob94hawk]

why not

i tested Wolfdales without issues

Apparently this mobo has some big issues if Newegg pulls it from their store!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068

[dinos22]

Apparently this mobo has some big issues if Newegg pulls it from their store!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068

where does it say that

ppl writing reviews seemed to think it's ok

[Rob94hawk]

where does it say that

ppl writing reviews seemed to think it's ok

Why do you "deactivate" a top of the line mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068

Someone needs to do a little 411 on this but I think this is legit.

And yeah, it's OK until you start getting random reboots even with the F2 BIOS and a modest OC.

[dinos22]

Why do you "deactivate" a top of the line mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068

Someone needs to do a little 411 on this but I think this is legit.

And yeah, it's OK until you start getting random reboots even with the F2 BIOS and a modest OC.

because they are running out of stock and X48's are comin in very soon i'd say :shrug:

[Rob94hawk]

because they are running out of stock and X48's are comin in very soon i'd say :shrug:

Then they would say "out of stock" not deactivated. Maybe I'm overreacting. I hope you're right though.