Official GIGABYTE X38-DQ6/X38T-DQ6 Info/BIOS Thread

[Alcibiades]

I am at my WITS END! ... Sometimes when I power it on it will post, sometimes it won't, I tried instaling vista and it had some kind of weird error just loading in to the installation screen about winload.exe not being able to be loaded. Then I get some crazy weird trap exception error messages in the bios screen. It was just white text on black background during the bios post. It completely froze and I rebooted again and now the damn thing just sits here turning on off on off every second. Everything just spins up and starts and it just powers off again and cycles.
I've tried using just one stick of memory and reconnecting everything carefully but it appears this motherboard is

This just happened to me. Ive had the board for 4 months with no problems. Today it suddenly reverts to default fsb settings. No matter what I set, the board keeps booting at an fsb of 266mhz for my q6600. Any ideas? This isnt a stability problem, it wont even let me underclock the chip.
It happened today with the f9a bios. Updating to the f9d bios doesn't help.

Guys, If you pull out you cmos battery, can you boot?
use the clr cmos jumper on the board as well.
do you have any spare ddr2's you can use, buy some cheap ddr2 and test it then return 'em to your reseller, or borrow from a friend.
if you are getting errors booting up os, run memtest from boot disk and make sure you can pass tests 5 and 7 if you can get it to boot that is

I think the following info could be very useful
sounds like your primary and backup bios could be corrupted
and there might also be corruption on bioses on hdd
see red highlight below

How does Quad BIOS work?
Situation 1: Primary BIOS corrupted, backup bios okay
START
DualBIOS checks
both chips.

No message will
be shown if both
chips are working.
Power On
(BOOT UP) Both BIOS
chips are
working
(1) Primary BIOS Failed to boot

(2) System reset & backup BIOS activated
(3) Backup BIOS realize that main BIOS is corrupted
(4) Backup BIOS invoke 　　　　to recovery main BIOS
by copying backup to main BIOS
(5) Reset System
BOOT UP
Completed
　FINISH
Note:
The above processes are carried out automatically without waiting end-users to press any key.



Situation 2: Primary BIOS corrupted,
　　　　　　backup BIOS corrupted but capable of booting from boot block.
START

Power On
(BOOT UP)
(1)Primary BIOS Failed to boot
(2)System reset & backup BIOS activated
(3)Backup BIOS also find himself being destroyed
(4)Continue to boot from boot block and System search for "Saved" BIOS image in HDD hidden partition
(5)If matched BIOS be founded in HDD hidden partition, recovery BIOS from image saved in HDD
(6)The backup BIOS is recovered and Issue system reset
(7) Restart System (8) Backup BIOS realize that main BIOS is corrupted
　　(8) Backup BIOS invoke　　　　　　　　to recovery main BIOS by copying backup to main BIOS


(9) Reset System

BOOT UP
Completed
　　 Note:
　　　From step (4) to (6), it is the process of 　FINISH



Situation 3: Primary BIOS corrupted, backup BIOS corrupted but capable of booting
　　　　　　from boot block, no matched BIOS found in HDD hidden partition.

　START
Power On
(BOOT UP)
(1) Primary BIOS Failed to boot
(2) System reset & backup BIOS activated
(3) Backup BIOS also find himself being destroyed
(4) Continue to boot from boot block and System search for "Saved"
BIOS image in HDD hidden partition
(5) If no matched BIOS be founded in HDD hidden partition, BIOS continue to search for CD-ROM
(6) If matched BIOS image found in CD-ROM drive, that image will be programmed to
the still running backup BIOS image
(7) system reset will be issue continue to boot BOOT UP
Completed
FINISH

So if you can find your motherboard installation cd, put that in your cd-rom drive and try booting.
Always make sure your bios settings are rebooted on failsafe defaults before flashing to a new bios, ie. NO OVERCLOCK when flashing!!!

[HeadShotWI]

I've tried all the tricks with pulling the battery, pulling the ram out, shorting the connectors under the battery, resetting the cmos.

It posted about 3 times ok (when it first arrived)and then splashed this crazy looking characters and errors during post and refuses to post since.

This is the 2nd board they have sent me. The 1st one was DOA, this 2nd one at least posted a couple times and now it is dead. I am furious with gigabyte and this quality control. They are checking in to sending me an X48 supposedly but once again I need to send them this board back over a week and wait another week for whatever new crap board they send me.

No matter what I do this thing just endlessly reboots. It's been 7 weeks and now they want me to wait another 2 weeks for 1 way shipping each way of this board and a new board.

When does this become unacceptable service? What as a consumer are my options? I don't want this gigabyte junk anymore. I want my money back so I can buy a better quality board from a better quality manufacturer....

I feel so helpless.

[-Acid-]

I've been reading this thread since the start can people please post up there settings in bios which bios they are using and i will try to help them.

Ive been running this board with a quad @ 4.2 since it came out.

[stasio]

New bios
X38T-DQ6-F7E
X38-DS5-F7D

[Muertus]

Last BIOS for X38-DQ6 is: F9F ?

And one qustion - which bios is best for X38-DQ6 for OC Q6600?

thx for help

[il menne]

Does dell perc 5/i sas megaraid card work on ga-x38-dq6 ( betabios f9f ) ?

[catawalks]

So, is this thread now dead? Or does anyone know why the F9F bios puts the auto core voltage to 1.55 on a q6700 when you overclock it even the slightest? With the old F7 it actually used to vary the voltage depending on how high you set the fsb. Just me perhaps?

[Alcibiades]

this thread will never die, just slow down a lot, looks like it dies but no, lt's alive!

so what's the final verdict on the X38-DQ6 everyone?
I'd give it the maximum score minus 1 or 2
it wasn't a legendary board, but it was and is a great mobo
Gigabyte ROCK

catawalks i'd flash the best bios for you, F7 did you say?
F5G and F5H if i remember were good ones for quads and higher ddr2 speeds
i'm on F9F but everything's on manual in bios
why do we keep updating our bioses? when the new ones are mostly about new cpu compatibility?
hoping for higher fsb better clocks with less juice but that's not gonna happen

bios matured nicely at about F5 release for quads everything after gave no gains at all really

[catawalks]

Sounds, like a plan. I'll check out the F5 bioses if I can find em. Definitely gonna go back to atleast F7 though. Also now that I've run into a wall with this Q6700 I think I'm gonna swap it out for my original Q6600 that I put in my girl's machine. I don't know why but I never even tried to overclock that thing, guess I just wanted a 10x multi, but that turned out to be a bust.

[papatsonis]

been using 2 weeks , F9D , no problem so far using my previous settings (9x356) , DPC latency spikes fixed

[Alcibiades]

F9D ... DPC latency spikes fixed

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

F9D winner!

[SiGfever]

What are your recommendations for a Q9300 "M0" with the X38-DQ6 for a 3500-3600 OC?

Do you guys have a "Template" that you can fill in for guidance?

[Alcibiades]

What are your recommendations for a Q9300 "M0" with the X38-DQ6 for a 3500-3600 OC?

Do you guys have a "Template" that you can fill in for guidance?

Check out supershanks' Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6 Blog

It has an index with some overclocked bios settings for you to try (using a Q6600).

Also I would only look at bios release F9D and later.

[Supershanks]

so what's the final verdict on the X38-DQ6 everyone?
I'd give it the maximum score minus 1 or 2
it wasn't a legendary board, but it was and is a great mobo

Wouldn't argure with that

[SiGfever]

Check out supershanks' Gigabyte GA X38 DQ6 Blog

It has an index with some overclocked bios settings for you to try (using a Q6600).

Also I would only look at bios release F9D and later.

Thanks for the link, I will pass it on.

[IFMU]

Wow, didnt realize this thread was still going so dayumed strong! lol

I see where you got the link sig... lol thank yeas!

Think I read the first 40 some pages (Keep in mind that I have pages set to view 40+ posts per page).

Question folks, I need to pull off the blasted graid drivers onto a floppy, but I dont have a floppy. Is there any way to do this with a USB drive on this board or no?

[freqy]

hello ( long time since ive been on ) im running 3.2 on air thanks to all the experimenting last year
'im hoping to go on to water does anyone have a link in their bookmarks for a nice easy step by step instruction on removing the crazy cool and heat pipes? im going for a fuzion v2 for my q6600..but as for the north bridge and south bridge etc im still not sure. any help would be great ive been googling and my eyes are beging to melt kinda like in raiders when the arc was opened. lol :P

peace freq.

[Dakkahun]

I believe you can find the instructions in the manual. here's the link" http://www.giga-byte.co.uk/Support/M...ProductID=2665

[freqy]

thanks

i did find a site with great pictures and text but i lost it however i copied the parts list to text fle..

resvoir EK-Multioption RES 250 Rev 2 £30

EK-NB/SB 5 Northbridge Water Block £22.99

EK-SB GA-X38 Northbridge Water Block ( for south bridge) £24.99

Black Ice GT Stealth 360 £37.99
>>>>>>>..
D-TEK FuZion v2 CPU Block £44.53 inc vat

(Optional Quad Core block insert is the most advanced Quad Core optimized cooling available.
Optional Nozzle Kit
Pre-Installed Chrome Plated 1/2" or 3/8" Hi-Flow Hose barbs included.)

Laing D5 Swiftech MCP655 £52

tube 12meter £28

barbs £12

coolant £8

y split £5

artic silver 3.5g £5

hose clips 10 £ 3


total aprox £273 ...

(without mosfet cooling)

[Muertus]

No news sw for this board?
:-)

chipset driver: ?
Lan driver: ?

pls can someone to write it?

[il menne]

Does dell perc 5/i sas megaraid card work on ga-x38-dq6 ( betabios f9f ) ?

I quote myself....

Perc 5/I works fine on my mobo but pinmod is required.

[Sommer]

Bought a secondhand x38t-dq6 and a xeon 3110. Overclocking are great for an old mb. This will hold me over to next summer.

http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=449704

[ThatGuy16]

Anyone have suggestions for getting my E8400 at around 4.3 stable?

I'm using the latest X38-DS4 bios, all the others act the same. So i'm not sure if this is user error, or im maxing out the board.

But anything above ~480+ FSB needs the performance level for my ram at 10 or above (should be 7 (using 2.00B strap)). And i cannot get anything stable because of it, I've played with FSB voltage, ram, cpu, MCH and nothing changes. Orthos always fails at around 5 minutes. Board limits maybe?

Anyone have suggestions?

With my "low voltage" chip, i'd like to get more out of it.

[Sommer]

Just for the record, have you tried loose timings and say 6x480 to 500fsb just to see that the board and cpu can cope with high fsb?

May have to set nb voltage high.

[freqy]

hi

i cant get my PCI soundcard off IRQ 19

im on f7 bios ive changed IRQ assignment from auto to irq 5 in the bios reinstalled card but in the control panel of xp it is still on IRQ 19 with lots of other things like gigabyte gbb36x controller universal host controller etc....



anyone know why the bios IRQ assingment has no effect on xp?

thanks for any help.