Gigabyte S3 Cold boot NOT fixed

R

Ribby

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
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123
Ok this is for all the people out there having issues booting S3 and getting it to overlock at all. More specifically this lies with the rev 3.3 of the board (running the only available F8 bios).

See this link for the original discussion:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1166859

One thing to try is changing the PCI-E speed from the 100 default, and to add a slight .1 to .2 voltage change.

The result of this for some is that they are now able to overclock without a bios screen -> warm boot -> bios screen at default speed situation.

I have tried at both 101 and 102 PCI-E speeds while running .1v and .2v over normal voltages with no success. The result is the computer posting, getting to the bios screen at the overlocked amount (300*9) then the computer doing a hard shutdown only to boot back at default settings.

Using the "Cruise" option to let the motherboard automatically overclock itself results in windows crashing.

Another thing I have noticed that is likely linked to the motherboard is the HD light on the case staying solid and losing all window/application control. It is as if the device is being pulled from the system and only RAM is left to let the mouse move around. Leaving it to sort itself out results in eventually even the numberlock/caps lights freezing.

As I wrote this I experienced the said freeze - leaving the machine for a few minutes let it free up without any restart needed. I notice that enabling or disabling the onboard Yukon ethernet controller can bring on the freeze.

I have a hunch a number of rev 3.3 Gigabyte P965 owners are having these problems so take my experience so far for what it is worth.

I'm going back to the supplier tomorrow to get a replacement and will report back on my findings :)
 
Hi there,

You have the DS3 model, I'm actually using and talking about the S3 one. Is it possible to flash between the two models? I was aware of F9 and F10 bioses being out, however didn't think the risk would be worth trying it.
 
Correction - someone hosed theirs doing something like this with a S3 board so I'll give the idea a miss.
 
I dont care for that idea either.

OP thank you for giving it a try, it was worth a shot and so that +1 for the tip being bunk.

I have tried at both 101 and 102 PCI-E speeds while running .1v and .2v over normal voltages with no success. The result is the computer posting, getting to the bios screen at the overlocked amount (300*9) then the computer doing a hard shutdown only to boot back at default settings.
Click to expand...

WoW that is harsh!
 
I have a DS3 rev. 3.3 with F9 bios and a E6400. I didn't add any volts, just dropped the multi to 7 and raised fsb to 400 with memory set at 2.00. Booted up to 2.8 gig. Haven't turned computer off yet, so don't know if it will boot up again with overclock.
 
I am having more issues it seems :(

It seems once the computer is warm the HD light stays on and as noted above my mouse keeps going but system doesn't respond (can't move windows, drag anything, access anything).

I reboot and 95% of the time the HD light stays on and the main drive isn't there - I have changed controller plugs and SATA cables too.

If I leave the machine I can get back on again, but once the problem happens there isn't really a fix other than wait. I'm going to return the motherboard today and get one more replacement to see if it works.
 
Ribby said:
Correction - someone hosed theirs doing something like this with a S3 board so I'll give the idea a miss.
Click to expand...

they must have not known how to flash a bios or something.

s3=ds3. bios for s3 are 1 lower in terms of numericals but otherwise the same. So f8 s3 = f9 ds3. weird though that there's no f9 s3.

Then again, it could be that either f8 or f9 ds3 never made it to s3 so now s3 bioses are two apart.

But either way, nope, gigabyte won't ever fix cold boot.

But here's some tips.

You're being too conservative with pcie freq even still yet. A lot of people run around with 120pcie all day long. It's said that nvidia chipsets have a feature to run them at 125 when a nvidia card is detected. That said, I don't think 125 is safe for the ich8/jmc363, and sata corruption could occur. However, 110 is quite safe, and some have noted it to be more effective than 101/102.

Also, what voltages are you bumping? When set to auto, they should scale on their own. However, if you'd like to try, first off, make sure you have sufficient cooling on your northbridge, because it'll get extremely hot.

Back in the day, a lot of people mentioned cold boot issues being a little better with a set vmch of 1.55 (+0.3). When set on auto, and run around 400fsb, it should bring you up to here anyway iirc, but perhaps auto is flaky at bootup and causes more issues with coldboot.

vpcie +0.1v
vmch +0.3v
vfsb +0.1v
vdimm +0.4v
vcore 1.45v
110pcie
 
Hi Ziddey,

Thanks for the tips - I have an RMA on this board and will replace it in a few hours. Before I do this I will try the settings you recommended and report back on the result.

One thing I can't fix is the hard drive dropping off - no matter the cable and no matter the orange SATA plug used my main drive seems to disappear randomly causing the OS to not respond. I can leave it for a period of minutes and it will return normally, however having minutes of an OS not responding is useless.

When I restart the bios is slow and the HD activity light remains on. The ram checking is also extremely slow, and often I need to shut down the machine for a bit to have the main drive reappear - the bios doesn't often won't see it with just a reboot.

All the components in the PC are brand new - the main drive is a 150GB raptor and all scans for bad sectors comes up healthy.

I'll see how that overclocking, voltage bumping and raising of PCI-E speeds goes, and hopefully the new board will be a little healthier this afternoon ;)
 
hmm it sounds like if it's a hard drive problem it wouldnt be a bad sector issue. what does smart show you? anything bad?
 
what is your sata interface set to in the bios ?

and right under that is the sata native mode ? enable or disable
 
Ok I managed to get 20% through a SMART drive check before it hung - it did find bad sectors however.

The new drive will be back in a few days, the new mobo I have with me and will be setting it up tonight. I tried running the SATA in all the different modes - none changed the issue.
 
Ribby said:
Ok I managed to get 20% through a SMART drive check before it hung - it did find bad sectors however.

The new drive will be back in a few days, the new mobo I have with me and will be setting it up tonight. I tried running the SATA in all the different modes - none changed the issue.
Click to expand...
sounds like a bad drive
 
OK!

I am on a new mobo and am waiting on the raptor replacement, in the meantime I'm on a trust 120GB WD that I've had a couple of years. Everything is running well - I'll ghost to the raptor when it arrives.

I'm going to be trying out overclocking shortly, it will be interesting to see if this motherboard has the same issue as the last (this one is also a rev 3.3).
 
Ribby said:
OK!

I am on a new mobo and am waiting on the raptor replacement, in the meantime I'm on a trust 120GB WD that I've had a couple of years. Everything is running well - I'll ghost to the raptor when it arrives.

I'm going to be trying out overclocking shortly, it will be interesting to see if this motherboard has the same issue as the last (this one is also a rev 3.3).
Click to expand...

Definitely report back and tell us what is going on. I was considering an s3 myself for another machine I want to build, but now I'm not so sure. I want something that will at least run at stock speeds.
 
Ok same issue :(

I have a new motherboard, am running ram even at extremely slow speeds and still get the resets then booting at default speed.

I've tried upping the PCI-E to 101, 102, 110 and voltage +.1v and +.2v to no avail. I'm at a loss at what to do but am certain it isn't hardware holding me back - I can't even underclock!

My guess is the F8 bios absolutely sucks.

For reference here is my gear:

XFX 8800GTX
2x1GB Corsair C4 800mhz matched pairs (6400-C4?)
E6600
Enermax 620W

I have no idea what to do from here, I am pretty much convinced now that I will not be overclocking with this motherboard and will have to change it to another brand/model to actually be able to do any overclocking.
 
My guess is the F8 bios absolutely sucks.
Click to expand...


Your guess is probably mostly right. F10 seems to be pretty good for most, and should fix some of your issues. I know I had the F9 and it sucked ass. F10 fixed me right up.
 
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