New DS3 problem?

[Fred_Pohl]

My DS3 came with the F1 bios. It booted right up with a E6400 and 2x1GB of OCZ EL Platinum PC6400 (2.0-2.1V) installed. I flashed to the F4C bios and now it won't even POST anymore. The fans start to spin but the board immediately shuts down. Clearing the CMOS doesn't help. I wonder what Gigabyte changed in F4C to cause this problem? I'm assuming it's related to the ram so I guess I have to go get some cheap DDR2 and see if it will POST with it. This sux.

[darkandlong]

I was under the impression F4C eliminated the RAM voltage issue?

Have you tried removing the battery also?

[ocZZZ]

post this in existing threads, no need for new thread every time on ds3. heh :/

[shawn1998]

Mine did that, it took about 25 times of cycling the psu power switch and hitting the power switch, it finally came up. After that, it powers on every time. It's not a ram issues, so don't waste your time with getting cheaper ram. Just keep cycling the switches, it'll come back (I hate this crappy board).

[Fred_Pohl]

I was under the impression F4C eliminated the RAM voltage issue?

Have you tried removing the battery also?

I thought F4C was supposed ot be better too.

Removed the battery. No difference. Tried ram in different slots, 1 stick, 2 sticks, no difference. Man I wish Gigabyte had included a Vdimm jumper.

Thanks Shawn, I'll keep trying that and see if it helps. This could be a very annoying mobo to OC if it can't even recover from a failed OC or cleared CMOS.

[eklipze]

fred_pohl. FLASHING BIOS not [shouldn't there be a pin 1-3] ?

[Lestat]

Mine did that, it took about 25 times of cycling the psu power switch and hitting the power switch, it finally came up. After that, it powers on every time. It's not a ram issues, so don't waste your time with getting cheaper ram. Just keep cycling the switches, it'll come back (I hate this crappy board).

ok you have no clue.


the problem is the fact that the ram is rated for higher voltages.
ok now, that ram is reported to boot ok. BUT the F3 and F4c NEVER took care of any ram voltage boot issues.
no one ever said or even hinted around that it took care of any.

gigabyte still needs to address the fact that the system boots with 1.8v only.

if you have an a different set of ram try that. but other people have reported the same thing. that the F4c caused certain rams to stop working. specifically i have seen 2 people i THINK say it was the ocz 6400. but cant be certain.

turning the pcu on and off and on and off and flipping the switches is something a total uneducated noob does, not someone with any common sense.

dont sit there and flip the switches off and on and on and off your doing more hard to your hardware than you can realize.

if it doesnt boot after a few times by itself or by turning the PSU on anbd off a few times STOP and reset the cmos.
you kiddies also gotta be aware that the system no longer resets itself to defualts if you overclock too far,,, it just reboots over and over then you MUST reset the cmos. this is a new bug introduced with the F4c bios.
if it still dont boot then you MUST try another type of ram. just regular elcheapo stuff works great. heck buy a crazy cheap stick of 256meg 533 or something off egay or newegg. just the cheap stuff is usually fine.
unless gigabyte fixes the booting issues with certain ram you will always be forced to swap ram.
but i have confidence in them that they will fix it.

[Fred_Pohl]

Update: Bought some 1.8V PC5400 today and this mobo still won't post. No beeps, nothing. Fans start to spin for 2 seconds before it simply shuts down. Removing the battery, removing ram, changing ram slots, PCI vidcard, different keyboard, etc. doesn't help. I called Gigabyte tech and they think the bios is corrupted. I'm not sure how this could happen as the flash to F4C was successful and it rebooted several times after flashing to F4C. The no-post problem didn't start until I cleared the CMOS. Oh well, I've never seen this before but then I've only built less than 50 computers in the last 20 years. It's just a hobby for me.

RMA time for DS3 #1. Hopefully I'll have better luck with #2. I'd hate to be the guy who reviewed it at Newegg and went through 3 of them before he got a good board.

Edit: I forgot to add that the Giga-tech told me that bios F4C didn't come from Gigabyte. I asked him about F4E and all he would say was that he hadn't heard of it. I have no idea if he's FOS or not.

[shawn1998]

ok you have no clue.


the problem is the fact that the ram is rated for higher voltages.
ok now, that ram is reported to boot ok. BUT the F3 and F4c NEVER took care of any ram voltage boot issues.
no one ever said or even hinted around that it took care of any.

gigabyte still needs to address the fact that the system boots with 1.8v only.

if you have an a different set of ram try that. but other people have reported the same thing. that the F4c caused certain rams to stop working. specifically i have seen 2 people i THINK say it was the ocz 6400. but cant be certain.

turning the pcu on and off and on and off and flipping the switches is something a total uneducated noob does, not someone with any common sense.

dont sit there and flip the switches off and on and on and off your doing more hard to your hardware than you can realize.

if it doesnt boot after a few times by itself or by turning the PSU on anbd off a few times STOP and reset the cmos.
you kiddies also gotta be aware that the system no longer resets itself to defualts if you overclock too far,,, it just reboots over and over then you MUST reset the cmos. this is a new bug introduced with the F4c bios.
if it still dont boot then you MUST try another type of ram. just regular elcheapo stuff works great. heck buy a crazy cheap stick of 256meg 533 or something off egay or newegg. just the cheap stuff is usually fine.
unless gigabyte fixes the booting issues with certain ram you will always be forced to swap ram.
but i have confidence in them that they will fix it.

No clue? Kiddies? Keep your insulsts to yourself. I bought ram that is rated at 1.8 volts for this very reason so keep your useless, crappy, condesending comments to yourself. Besides, I've read through many of your posts and believe me, you've moaned and complained about many things, only to be proven wrong. This is not my first build, in fact, I've probably done more than you. If you don't know who I am or what I know, then shut it.
If it is ALWAYS a ram voltage problem, then why didn't the Corsair ddr2 5400 rated at 1.8volts boot? Come on, genius, tell me why? Was it a ram problem? If so, you are STILL WRONG. It wouldn't be a voltage issue then, would it? Let's see, the Corsair is on the Gigabyte website as approved, compatable memory, so you must be right, I must be a noob, I must get a clue, I must be a kiddie (36 years old actually).

Just because you have had a problem trying to boot your specific machine with the wrong voltage-rated ram doesn't mean that EVERY OTHER PROBLEM is the same!!! You get a clue and realize that there actually may be other reasons as to why this may be happening. But, thank you, however, for your very narrow-minded response and opinion. It sure is a big help.

Shawn

[Fred_Pohl]

Update #2: My DS3 is alive! This is just too friggin' weird but after packing the mobo up for RMA I decided to give it one last try before shipping it back. On the first few tries it did the same old . Fans started to spin and then 2 seconds later the mobo shuts down, no beeps, nada. Then I started playing around with the power button. Instead of just pressing it, I held it down for several seconds and the damn mobo beeped and started to post!

All I can guess is that the bios was stuck in one of it's test reboot cycles and couldn't recover. Anyway it boots up everytime now and even boots with my OCZ Platinum in dual channel at 1.8V. Weird .

Usually I can throw a new system together in a few hours with most of my time spent routing the wires out of the way. This DS3 has been a new experience for me. So it seems that Shawn was correct afterall. Although it wasn't the frequency of cycling power on and off, the problem was fixed through cycling the power button. Live and learn...

[shawn1998]

Like I said, not all problems are the same. Glad it helped!

Shawn

[badboy]

I am glad you got it working. I am getting the 2x1GB of OCZ EL Platinum PC6400 tomorrow morning and I hope it works fine on my DS3.

[Fred_Pohl]

Like I said, not all problems are the same. Glad it helped!

Shawn

This was certainly one of the strangest problems I've seen but I'm just glad that it worked out without the RMA hassle. Thanks for your help!

[Fred_Pohl]

I am glad you got it working. I am getting the 2x1GB of OCZ EL Platinum PC6400 tomorrow morning and I hope it works fine on my DS3.

It seems to work for some but not for others. FWIW, mine passed a few hours of Memtest at 800-4-4-4-12 @2.1V. Might do it at 2.0V but I haven't tried it yet. Good luck with it.

[badboy]

It seems to work for some but not for others. FWIW, mine passed a few hours of Memtest at 800-4-4-4-12 @2.1V. Might do it at 2.0V but I haven't tried it yet. Good luck with it.

I will keep you posted on what happens. I got the memory and it will not go past the bios screen at stock speeds but will post in my P5WD2 at over 800mhz 4,4,4,15.

[Fred_Pohl]

I will keep you posted on what happens. I got the memory and it will not go past the bios screen at stock speeds but will post in my P5WD2 at over 800mhz 4,4,4,15.

Any luck?