GIGABYTE DS3 FAQ by CrazyJohn /FAQ on 1st page/

[CrazyJohn]

CrazyJohn’s Gigabyte DS3 FAQ ;] ver 1.6.0.0
Chinese version /by hicookie/:
http://www1.oc.com.tw/forums/msgexce...allfrom=219667
http://www.pcdvd.com.tw/showthread.php?t=644390


GigaBytes website - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...me=GA-965P-DS3


Since GigaByte is making a lot of a progress in fixing issues, and the faq is being written from the very early appearance of DS3 on the market, some issues are already fixed by a new bios (some 7600GS, D9 problems). Be sure to first upgrade your bios, then check whether the issue is still present, if so read more. Links to bioses, betas and retail, are at the bottom of this FAQ.


TRY ALSO GIGABYTE’S MEMORY THREAD BY CRAZY JOHN:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=1689710









[Q] Will my Nina+ fit on DS3?
[A] Yes, there is no need to worry, everything works fine. AFAIK Ninja+ is the best air cooling solution for Core2Duo. People on E6300 fsb 490(x7) 1.5VCore get <70*C load with a low rpm fan. There may be better but they are all louder and more expensive...

[Q] Is it normal that my chipset is soooo damn hot?
[A] Yes and no, on stock settings, the radiator is very, very hot. And it’s quite ok. When o/c’ing it’s good to replace the radiator with an active cooling or to put some fan. 80mm 5V will do.

[Q] Why can’t I overclock at all?
This issue is often mistaken with the issue below. Be sure to read this explanation.
Symptoms of no o/c’ing at all (may be one, may be all):
Cannot change PCIe bus speed, after changing to anything from Auto the system resets in POST before mem testing.
Cannot change fsb because system resets as above.
Changing any V in BIOS doesn’t make any difference in o/c.
Changing timing in BIOS doesn’t make any difference in o/c

Changing in my mind means ex. 267fsb (stock 266), 265fsb and so on. These are slightly (and more significant) changes which cannot be done. This is not a problem of >450fsb or sth. This is a problem of no o/c at all!
This is not a problem of a fsbwall – this is not for you if you have already overclocked even a 1Mhz!

[A] There are several possible causes of this problem:
ONE – BIOS:
look below at disabling the Legacy USB storage detect option in BIOS and UPGRADE your BIOS.
TWO – VGA:
Your VGA card is probably making MB not to overclock. Try buying some crappy PCI /not PCIe/ VGA 1MB card (or 2, 4 MBs ) and putting it in, booting with only PCI VGA. It worked for me, I could overclock and when I finished I put my 7600GS inside. Everything is working quite ok If not, just try another video card but a different model.
THREE – RAM:
This is the least well known issue today. I guess... replace ram and see if it helps o/c’ing... If so... just buy new sticks ;/ Sorry

[Q] What should I do to overclock more? – a fsbwall
[A] First of all Disable all special features in bios, if you don’t use LPT, disable it. The chipset would very appreciate you not to have to be working so hard Then Disable in Advanced BIOS Features everything starting from Limit CPUID Max to 3, ending at Virtualization Technology (including these two mentioned). Then at Integrated Peripherals disable Legacy USB storage detect – it’s an option which is required only if you have na USB hard drive. Set PCIe to 100Mhz, timings to 5-5-5-15 (or other high timings your mem is working with), set x2 for mem speed, set +0.1V for MCH, set 1.5V (or higher) for CPU – to see if it’s not a cpu fault. You may also disable everything under PC Health Status menu... Finally, unplug all USB devices. Hope it helps! If no (for those >450fsb) it means the system overlockability has ended or mother board doesn’t like so much your ram or vga... Try then borrowing, and replacing to see if it works...

usb mouse - zero overclock
no usb mouse - FULL OC potentional

For those of you with a wall at 380-390Mhz, I got past that wall by fitting a 40mm fan to the northbridge heatsink. The board now does 450mhz without a problem. Might be an alternative to RMA.

update: some people report new F4 bios to rise fsbwall for them

[Q] Why the hell do I see CAS3 (CL3) in CPU-Z while I set in bios CL4/CL5?
[A] Some say the MB makes all ram boot at CL3, some say it’s a bios issue when telling the data to the programs under Windows. I guess it’s the second. Mainly because not all memory could boot at CL3 and what is more, there are highly no memories that would boot at ~500fsb with CL3 So it’s pretty much a bios issue, which we hope to be fixed soon. Just don’t worry update: get bios F4E (or never), it fixes the CAS problem.

[Q] What is the problem with DS3 and nVidia cards?
[A] Some nVidia cards prevent this MB from overclocking at all Ex. Galaxy 7600GS Zalman edition 1.2ns, see the no overclocking at all problem.

[Q] What is the problem with DS3 and D9 memories?
[A] This, and other GigaByte MBs like DS4 and DQ6 are very fastidious. They, don’t like the best DDRIIs on the market nowadays D9 are known to be Winbond for ddr2 slots memory, tight timings, high frequency. GigaByte Mobos don’t like, for sure, Good Ram nonPRO 667 mem (D9). But these are only to be bought in Poland and/or Germany. The rest is pretty likely to be working well, but look below!

[Q] What is the problem with memories and DS3?
[A] Some memories require 2.0V to boot. Standard DS3 stock VDimm is 1.8V. Simply after a CMOS reset the system won’t boot... If you happened to have such mem, replace them. Or buy some shi++y lowcost mem and put it in to boot, change VDimm and replace with your modules to continue o/c.

[Q] Do I really need a VGA PCI card to overclock?
[A] It depends what is making your system crappy. Sometimes it’s a VGA, sometimes it’s a mem, sometimes these are bios settings. My personal search was: BIOS, VGA, MEM, ordered like that, because changing settings in bios, costs nothing, buying VGA was like 10zl (~3$). Luckily I didn’t have to replace ram.

[Q] What about undervoltage?
[A] Core 2 Duo CPUs have a a very great overlockable potential. They can boot even 150% times faster on the stock VCore. Sometimes it’s profitable to undervolt the cpu to get lower temp and still have system running stable.

[Q] My temps are high, so high... 50*C idle. What to do?
[A] This is an abnormal situation. Check your cooling, maybe put some new thermal paste and try another cooler... This is quite good: http://www.arcticsilver.com/as5.htm so is the Ninja+ cooler http://www.scythe-eu.com/products/cp...scnj-1000P.php.

[Q] Why is Gigabyte doing nothing to fix these issues? Can it be done only by a bios upgrade?
[A] Remember that Conroe is a brand new technology. It appeared on marked 2 weeks ago. They are doing their bests at GigaByte to make everything works. They have already fixed few issues, we are waiting for new bioses to several next be fixed

[Q] My MB keeps restarting after changing anything in BIOS, is that normal?
[A] As GigaByte says on their website it’s normal. It’a a part of intelligent overclocking system, which keeps system booting even if you set to high / tight parameters during o/c. If, lets say, you want to made it boot at 500fsb, it would reset 2-3 times and come back to stock settings, letting you know the fsb is too high.

[Q] My MB boots at 66Mhz fsb
[A] Upgrade your bios to F3 or F4. There was an fsb issue in F1 bios.

[Q] In windows there are only few IRQ in use – many devices use the same IRQ
[A] GigaByte posted to one of the XS forum members a reply saying there is nothing wrong in having few devices on one IRQ. The theory is different, however, noone has reported problems with having few devices on one IRQ on DS3. If you want, you can change in windows (Control Panel, System, Device Manager? – I’ve got polish windows )

[Q] My CD/DVD is working soooo slowly, what to do?
[A] There is a problem of not enabling DMA mode in windows on DS3. Firstly, check this settings under windows, select DMA and reboot. Then try to install newest drivers from GigaByte website. It should help. Next time installing windows, make sure you have got the newest drivers on fdd. Also make sure you’ve got newest BIOS. Mine has somehow fixed itself after upgrading bios and installing drivers from CD... I’m not 100% sure what causes this.

On the CD/DVD drive issue..I was having issues too, even after installing the latest firmware and software from cd. I updated from bios F2 to F4c and besides there being some windows problem which required a system restore in safe mode...the new bios in conjunction with latest firmware seemed to do the trick for playing DVDs with VLC, all three i tested work now. However...WMP seems to read there is no disc on the drive still, but this may likely be a software issue using wmp 9 installed with windows-i should update.

[Q] Where to get BIOS files?
[A] Try official GigaByte website, then for F4C, F4E (beta bioses) go here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=109719. Or there is a mirror by Cranox: http://www.cranox.com/Gigabyte/DS3/ thx!

[Q] Is it normal that the system will reboot during its first power on after BIOS memory setting changed ? (965P-DQ6, 965P-DS4, 965P-DS3,965P-S3) – FROM GB’S FAQ
[A] For 965P-DQ6, 965P-DS4, 965P-DS3, 965P-S3 motherboard, if the memory setting is not the chipset spec of 800/ 667/533 MHz in the BIOS setting during system installation, then the system will re-write the initial motherboard parameter when the first boot after BIOS seeting. After the re-write is done, the system will reboot. The shutdown and reboot after the first power on is normal situation.

[Q] Is it normal that the system will reboot during its first power on? ( 965P-DS3 and 965P-S3 )– FROM GB’S FAQ
[A] For 965P-DS3 and 965P-S3 motherboard, during the first power on after the system is installed, the system will reset the initial BIOS and Chipset parameter based on the system configuration and then reboot the system. The shutdown and reboot after the first power on is normal situation

[Q] Windows crashes when I start Adobe Audition, Adobe Encore DVD, Adobe Premiere Elements, or Adobe Premiere Pro – FROM GB’S FAQ
[A] Please upgrade Realtek HD audio driver to latest version, and you can download this driver from Realtek website at http://www.realtek.com.tw

[Q] I cannot burn DVD-RW while I can burn DVD-R. I’m using Nero.
[A] Uninstall GigaByte drivers, and GigaByte software. Not sure, at the moment which particular one causes this. AND Update your bios to >=F3 Please PM me somebody.

Uninstalled gigabyte drivers except sound, lan and chipset, works fine.

yes it would seem such included ds3 software such as ETC, ET5, Icool, etc. dont do much other than make things more luckly to F up. I uninstalled them all but @Bios.

I think the dvd+rw (pioneer 111d) problem I experienced was actually the fault of bios f3 and not the drivers as I previously said.

I have a DS3. With my Celeron installed I could burn with Nero no problem. Once I put in my E6600 I couldn't burn anything and Nero would crash. From Add/Remove Programs I uninstalled the Gigabyte Raid Configurer, rebooted, and let XP search the internet for missing drivers. I chose the Gigabyte raid driver from the list XP found and now Nero 7 works fine.

[Q] I have disabled EIST but my multiplier keeps dropping. Why is my multiplier dropping? How to lock multiplier?
[A] This is an Intel function which reduces heat and power consumption in idle. May be problematic if you demand high core speed (more power) at once – it takes milliseconds for the CPU to ‘gain speed’ (up the multiplier) which is basically the time needed for bios to react – more power needed –> change multiplier
To disable it set in bios the EIST and C1E options both to disabled. I am not 100% sure which one does what, they are basically the same options The multiplier would lock. Check it ex. in CPUz under Windows. Please PM me somebody if you know the theory and can explain the EIST and C1E function.

[Q] I get so much of a vdroop, is something not right? My VCore drops to ~1.17V
[A]

this is Normal, the first part of your question, where the voltage drops from 1.325 to 1.312, is absolutely normal. every board on the planet, has some level of variation for voltage, the amount your seeing here, is perfectly fine.
it's the VDroop, that most Intel Boards suffer from, that drives people nuts... set 1.5 volts in bios... get 1.44 volts in windows, get 1.39 volts under load... thats a really annoying feature that every Intel board released for the last 5 years has had, its called "V-Droop".
there is no fix for this through bios.
the only partial fix to it, is called a VDroop Mod. Risky if your not familiar with a soldering iron, and not the most beneficial mod one can do either, but its a nice mod, if your serious about your overclocks.

the second part of this question deals with a feature called C1E State.
when thats enabled, the Voltage to CPU drops to about 1.175 volts or close, when the CPU is at Idle... even if EIST is disabled.
this is the second form of "cooling" options intel has on thier latest CPU's.

if you want your Max multiplier always active, and the Voltage to stay near 1.3 volts or whatever you set it to, disable EIST and C1E in bios.

[Q] How do I flash bios?
[A] First, read on GigaBytes website. Then use:

-Hook up a floppy drive to your DS3
-Copy the official BIOS file to a floppy
-Insert floppy
-Boot PC
-Hit "Del" to enter BIOS
-Hit "F8" to enter Qflash.
-Select "Flash from floppy"
-Follow onscreen prompts to flash.
-Reboot when complete
-Enter BIOS, load fail-safe
-Reset CMOS.

Done.

or @BIOS under windows.
BE SURE TO DO FLASHING AT STOCK SETTINGS, NOT OVERCLOCKED

[Q] Hidden BIOS menu? How do I enable additional settings?
[A] If you are noob please press ctrl+f1 and check what’s changed
If you are not and have noticed one menu extra go to: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=1669860 and read more. Right now it’s a mystery

[Q] DS3 is showing my DVD drive & DVD-RW as SCSI. Should I be worried?
[A] The DS3, like most 965P mobos, use a JMicron SATA/IDE controller chip that Windows sees as a SCSI device. This is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. - Fred_Pohl post nr 3 - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...05&postcount=3



Sorry for my bad English





And found on forum. THX GUYS!

i'd like to post my findings that i made today...hope it'll help...

1. i'm still using the 7600gt to OC and to my surprise, when i switched it from DVI to vga output, the OC CAN be done. this may prove that probably my gfx actually have problem.

2. i'm able to OC using single channel of ram and not dual channel ie. using only 1 stick. i've ran dual channel to OC and it worked before, but somehow or rather, now only 1 stick will work with OC. both rams passed memtest. my opinion would be might be the value select ram is a bit too crappy to the board's liking.

3. try not to plug in USB mouse. my board is able to OC without USB mouse. Ps2 mouse will do just fine. this also applies to keyboard.

4. when i OC with all the above conditions, the enabling of usb legacy support doesn't really come into play. i guess it's not affecting mine.

that's all that i've found out for today. i'm still not OC-ing my board cos no PS2 mouse. btw, i'm getting another replacement gfx and hope to post more findings.

Warning :
DS3 Hates Forton Powersupply , no boot.

Gigabyte 965P-DS3 is Not Compatible with Fotron 350w Aurora & Fortron 500w BlueStorm (i think all Fortron )

Again my tips for those hitting FSB walls are
ONE: Try putting PCIE Freq. at AUTO. It has given me nearly 100FSB more than with it locked at any number.
TWO: Try lowering the vdimm if you have it at +0.2 or higher. I get my best results at 0.1V
All the other things I could say have been said many times already, but not these two.

MODS Use ONLY at your own risk !!!
Vdroop pencil mod - http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...hlight=ds3+mod


Disclaimer: I get no responsibility or whatsoever of using this FAQ. All changes are done at your own risk. If you happen to find an error PM me. If I did quote you and you don’t like this PM me. It’s impossible to ask everyone at the forum when using his/her idea or quoting them, sorry.

Updated at... look at the date below

[ClockCatcher]

Nice FAQ, now let's wait new BIOS revision from Gigabyte to fix these issues.
Yeah and sticky would be great.

[Khaotic]

I just intsalled the board today with a P4-640 that I had running on an Asus P5WD2 Premium - the 955 model. My CPU oc isn't the issue, its the southbridge - and the lack of features I'm finding. Intel says the 965P has the Storage Matrix (RAID) but I don't see the <CTRL-I> message to bring up the RAID controller. The IDE connector is attached to a Gigabyte controller and SLOW AS WORM DIRT. Putting my IDE CD-ROM drives on a IDE to SATA adapter doesn't work, the BIOS won't recognize them - no matter what jumper position the optical drives are in.
I'm loosing faith in this board. Help restore it.

[kiwi]

You can also add link to mods section, including pencil mods
http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3870&s=9

And some boards report wrong (higher) temps

Nice FAQ and I wish my german/french was like your english

[ferds]

nice FAQ!!
this will help me when i get my DS3..
thanks

[CrazyJohn]

@kiwi,
yeah and i forgot about the IRQ and DMA mode issues, i'll write it later

i wrote to the moderator to stick it i'll wait cause there's a time difference lately i've been speaking to a guy from canada, i was getting up while he was in the middle of the night

damn, found already a slight mistake will correct later

[Cranox]

Thx for the FAQ

[vsamaco]

I just intsalled the board today with a P4-640 that I had running on an Asus P5WD2 Premium - the 955 model. My CPU oc isn't the issue, its the southbridge - and the lack of features I'm finding. Intel says the 965P has the Storage Matrix (RAID) but I don't see the <CTRL-I> message to bring up the RAID controller. The IDE connector is attached to a Gigabyte controller and SLOW AS WORM DIRT. Putting my IDE CD-ROM drives on a IDE to SATA adapter doesn't work, the BIOS won't recognize them - no matter what jumper position the optical drives are in.
I'm loosing faith in this board. Help restore it.

You'll probably need to update your bios to fc4 => http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=109719. Did you make sure that you went into bios and set it to ide/raid? Also are the sata harddrive connected to the purple slot? If all that is done, there should be a prompt, after the first boot screen to press ctrl+g.

There is an issue with sata+raid that causes ide drive to operate in pio mode. Use the sata drivers on gigabyte website when your installing windows...

[Lestat]

pencil mod's hhmmmm

[dualshock]

i'd like to post my findings that i made today...hope it'll help...

1. i'm still using the 7600gt to OC and to my surprise, when i switched it from DVI to vga output, the OC CAN be done. this may prove that probably my gfx actually have problem.

2. i'm able to OC using single channel of ram and not dual channel ie. using only 1 stick. i've ran dual channel to OC and it worked before, but somehow or rather, now only 1 stick will work with OC. both rams passed memtest. my opinion would be might be the value select ram is a bit too crappy to the board's liking.

3. try not to plug in USB mouse. my board is able to OC without USB mouse. Ps2 mouse will do just fine. this also applies to keyboard.

4. when i OC with all the above conditions, the enabling of usb legacy support doesn't really come into play. i guess it's not affecting mine.

that's all that i've found out for today. i'm still not OC-ing my board cos no PS2 mouse. btw, i'm getting another replacement gfx and hope to post more findings.

[CrazyJohn]

updated.

@dualshock i hope u don't mind

[dualshock]

no prob man...go right ahead, i hope it helped a lot of ppl...

[badboy]

Nice quide. But I need my 7950GX2, both USB mouse and keyboard because they work the best in the USB ports as they Logitech G7 and G15. If I try to use the in the PS ports they won't work. I have a E6400 at stock speeds and this sucker is faster in most of benchmarks than a 4400+ at 2.7ghz I had before I got this intel setup. I seem to can't up the FSB at all though.

[CrazyJohn]

about mpouse and keyboard - u know ps2 is not hot plug? a restart is needed, and a reinstallation of drivers

[zillaoc]

I would luv to see a list of working ram for the DS3...

I'm still deciding what to buy the ds3 >P5B dlux >or P5W DH...

"Me sits and waits"
"has no patience > reaches for credit card"
"hits self on head"

[CrazyJohn]

Corsair 667 on Elpida chips (what's the proper word for that?:|) works great with DS4 and DS3

[eklipze]

thx for FAQ it should help me when i get my DS3 and e6400 but i'm not sure if i picked a good ram. -- RAM= 5400 XTC Gold 4-4-4-12 OCZ

edit: the OCZ Gold 5400 is at 1.9V .. wil the ram boot ???

[korruptedone]

thx for FAQ it should help me when i get my DS3 and e6400 but i'm not sure if i picked a good ram. -- RAM= 5400 XTC Gold 4-4-4-12 OCZ

edit: the OCZ Gold 5400 is at 1.9V .. wil the ram boot ???

Best answer is to try and see. I'm getting some Corsair that runs at 1.9V for my build that starts on Thursday. I'll post how it works out after my finals are over.

[eklipze]

okay thx if your corsair boots out of the box i'm probably buying the same ram as you =P i was thinking PC26400 DDR2 800 5-5-5-12? corsair? am i correct?

[Khaotic]

okay thx if your corsair boots out of the box i'm probably buying the same ram as you =P i was thinking PC26400 DDR2 800 5-5-5-12? corsair? am i correct?

I was using Corsair PC2-6400 at 5-5-5-15 and not getting good results. I'm going to GUESS that my board was bad. I could not get a Windows install to start and overclocking went the same as a lot of folks. The sys would reboot back to default settings, and yes - i had an nvidia 7900GTX. And like someone else mentioned, I use USB 2.0 for my G15/G7 combo. Putting them on the PS2 just isn't going to happen. So I guess neither is an upgrade until the big POP happens and somebody makes a board worth the cardboard it's shipped in.

[|SiLA|]

every brand of rams with D9 chips has problem with it?i bought some ocz D9 chips just for this mobo and 6400 so i can go higher 1:1

[lopri]

Will my Nina + fit on DS3?

Isn't it Ninja?

[dualshock]

john, pls include the following to your faqs

for all who has problem not being able to OC at all, pls remove all your USB connections (working or not) and only plugged in the most basic connections, PS2 keyboard (pure pS2 not with converter) and VGA cable (not dvi and not converter).

[vsamaco]

I was using Corsair PC2-6400 at 5-5-5-15 and not getting good results. I'm going to GUESS that my board was bad. I could not get a Windows install to start and overclocking went the same as a lot of folks. The sys would reboot back to default settings, and yes - i had an nvidia 7900GTX. And like someone else mentioned, I use USB 2.0 for my G15/G7 combo. Putting them on the PS2 just isn't going to happen. So I guess neither is an upgrade until the big POP happens and somebody makes a board worth the cardboard it's shipped in.

I have overclocked my d805 from 2.6 to 3.8ghz using corsair 6400 cl5 and ds3 mobo. I had issues at first, but when I put settings to manual (pci-e, memory frequency, timings, vcore, vdimm), i was able to overclock w/o much hassle there after...

Oh yea, this is with fc4 bios and latest sata+raid drivers.

[eklipze]

hm..wow so much problems lol well if these 6400 rams are cuasing these problems probably i'm going to get some 1.9V DDR2 667 they're low volt and can run at about 800Mhz. = 400 mhz frequency so yeah thats about good too =D