GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R Boot Failure

M

Maxtr0sity

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 24, 2005
Messages
286
So my new rig works fine for about a week. Spec in sig.

I turn it off for the night, press the power button to boot next day. Powers up, sits 5 seconds, no POST, no signal to screen, shuts off. 3 second later, it boots up by itself, hangs for a few seconds, shuts off. Repeat.

I've let it sit for a good 10 minutes going through this cycle, no avail.

I disconnect the power supply, paperclip short 2 terminals, the fans work so I'm ruling out pwer supply. All the peripherals are off, only leaving CPU/heatsink on. Problem persists. Cleared CMOS, nothing. No POST.

Many of you will tell me to RMA it, but stupid me, I've thrown out all the boxes. Anyone have a clue? I've checked all the capacitors, none are discolored/disfigured, no OC either.
 
all i can say is try taking out the power to the wall...clear the cmos ( let the jumper there for like 5-10mins) take out jumper and put back power n try. Might be a messed up bios. does the ds3r has dual bios?
 
I'm not sure what a dual bios is, but I don't think it does.

I've just tested the case powering mechanism, that works fine, so the problem is still on the mobo. I'll reset CMOS pins right now but I doubt it'll do much.

Question: the computer should POST without RAM correct?
 
CMOS reset did nothing.

So I fooled around, I took off a 2x2 power connector and left the 2x12 power connector on. The fans spun up and it didn't shut off! Problem, I'm guessing I will still need the 2x2 power connector correct? I don't think the system will boot with only a 2x12 ATX power.

Anyone help?
 
1 last thing you could try is replacing the mother board battery. Sometimes a dead or dying battery can cause goofy things to happen to a pc.
 
Maxtr0sity said:
Question: the computer should POST without RAM correct?
Click to expand...
Nope, no POST without RAM. Many motherbaords will just give you a series of beeps if no RAM is detected. Others will just sit there.

Having said that, check your front panel connections. I read recently (I'm finishing up a build with this same board for my wife) that there's a ground issue if you don't have the Power LED hooked up to the case (http://forums.anandtech.com/message...RDFRM=&STARTPAGE=11&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear). Also note that the "+" pin switches around on the motherboard pins. Some will be oriented one way, other will be opposite. Just look closely at the diagram in the manual and make sure they're all connected and on there correctly (though I wouldn't think polarity should matter than much for a simple reset switch, etc.).

I know, sounds odd. But I'm just reporting the oddness, not vouching for it.

After that, I'd start suspecting RAM or RAM voltage. Maybe try some RAM that is rated for lower voltage in case it's just not getting the voltage it needs to even POST. Might also try one DIMM at a time.

After that, I'd start suspecting the video card.
 
It's a new motherboard, the battery should be fine and I really don't think it's the issue here. I've left it out, left it in, no change in behavior.

RAM/RAM voltage shouldn't be an issue either since the rig was working for almost a full week prior without any hitches. I've swapped out the RAM with individual sticks, no luck either.

The front panel connections I've taken off completely. Right now, I'm turning on the computer by just shorting the two connectors on the mobo with a screwdriver (essentially the same thing with a button).

I did some additional testing.

If I take out the CPU, the motherboard powers, and remains on. Didn't hook up video card to POST, doubt it will. I've removed as much as the peripherals as possible, but the mobo simply won't stay on! Just my luck, the Gigabyte site is down.
 
reading on newegg reviews this appears to happen. I'm not sure what the cause or the solution is, but it's one of the reasons why i'm not jumping on purchasing this board. Hopefully someone can figure out why this is happening and how to fix it.
 
I have the DS3P which is very similar to this board and it supports the dual BIOS. Take a look in the Gigabyte manual. Last but not least, all Gigabyte boards that I've purchased have come with a one year warranty. You could try talking to the vendor first to see if they'll accept it back without a box. It might be a long shot, but all you have to lose is a phone call. Otherwise, you might try getting in touch with Gigabyte directly and see if they'll send you a new board. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
 
Exactly what I'm gonna do today. Apparently this problem isn't just me, few other people have posted about it. What a relief.
 
I have the same issue. PC worked like a charm for a few hours - long enough to install Vista (64 bit) and do a few admin (setup) tasks. Then it hung (ok, it's still Windows, so I figured it was a fluke). Rebooted, but nothing... No BIOS, no video, no nothing (including no beeps). Tried resetting the BIOS several times, tried with only 1 stick of RAM (and cycled through all 4 sticks). I didn't have the chance to try to overclock (I was going to try some mild overclocking), so I was setup w totally out-of-the-box BIOS. I am going to try RMA'ing to NewEgg.

All excellent components (PC Power & Cooling 610 watt power supply), Lian-li case, OCZ Platinum RAM.... I was building a pretty high end box for work & some gaming (8 GB RAM, Q6600 Quad core processor). Now I'll have a nice delay waiting for parts. I have heard some nightmare stories of waiting weeks for a new part to arrive via the RMA process.

Starting to wonder about my choice of motherboards. I was really attracted to the solid state capacitors as I like to keep my PCs a good long time and need reliability.

I'll post any results (positive/negative) with this situation...
 
I had an issue with Gigabyte board not liking certain SATA slots for my hardrives. After swapping them around to a different slot it booted up. I don't know if it is related to your issues, but perhaps it is worth a shot.
 
I would assume with your SATA issue, you would at least get the BIOS to come up... In my case, everything "appears" to power on - except no "feed" to the monitor, no beeps from the BIOS. I tried different monitors (at first), then swapped video cards (to another I know works fine). All fail. Pulled 3 DIMMs leaving only 1, then rotated all 4 DIMMs through that one slot, no go.... :confused:

I think the board is just shot. It's odd in that there seems to be a rash of issues just recently with this board. On paper, it really looks good (if you have no need of SLI).
 
I sent it back to Gigabyte to RMA it.

I'll keep you guys updated, unfortunately, the turn-around time is around 2-3 weeks.
 
oh boy. I have this same mobo. I hope I don't encounter these problems.
 
This is really weird. I bought the bottom of the friggin barrel P35. I don't even have solid caps and mine has been running like a champ. Overclocked as well.
 
anyone know what the percent rate of failure might be? I wanted to get this mobo, but if the rate is really high then i might pass
 
For that sort of thing you just need to start shopping around the different web forums like this one and checking the recent reviews at sites like Newegg.com. You can try to get an idea if a particular revision of hardware is or isn't up to snuff.
 
Through days of research, I've only found 1 reported case that matched my symptoms exactly on another forum. Looks like failiure rate is pretty low, I'd put it somewhere around 2-5%.
 
I misread this thread initially... I have the GA-965P-DS3 and have precisely the same issue mentioned here.

NewEgg is sending me a new one (I am paying for another, they will refund me when the original is received back at NewEgg). I have my fingers crossed (and legs, and my childrens fingers & legs, etc...). Hoping for a good board!

I too am amazed that I buy this board w/ solid state capacitors for "longevity" and here the thing last maybe 4-5 hours powered on. Enough time to install Vista 64 and do a few admin tasks...

:(
 
Just got my DS3 installed this morning. Stayed up long enough to run updates on Vista. Having same issues here. Sometimes it posts sometimes it doesn't. When it does post it starts to load Vista and then loses Video signal and reboots.
 
Sigh. I hope I don't regret buying this ga-p35-ds3r motherboard.

I'm staying up all night to put together this whole computer.
 
I think this is my first and last Gigabyte motherboard.

I understand some percentage of boards have issues... That's why I did not hesitate in buying the Gigabyte. But I am seeing comments of too many DOA boards, particularly with this "no video signal, no beeps" symptom. Gotta wonder if they received a series of one particular capacitor that was defective. I guess I'll make a final judgement when I receive my next one (from the RMA process).

I have had great experiences with DFI, MSI, ASUS, and Abit...

I moved to this motherboard because of explicit comments about it supporting 8 GB (an absolute requirement for me - I run multiple server VMs routinely).
 
Just called Gigabyte.

Apparently their system was a little behind and looks like I'll be receiving the board within 2-3 days!

The problem? Corrupted BIOS. They had to switch out the BIOS chip. Looks like I'll have to be ultra careful flashing.
 
Well the problem you had i also had.. Ran fine for about 3 weeks then bam--- on start up it woudlnt post and just kept retying to post.. start-- stop-- start -- stop.. I think this is going to be a big problem for gigabyte... Here is a thread over at tweaktown talking about it.. I have been starting to look around and seeing this problem happening in a number of other forums.. Not looking good.. Im thinking i might just get a abit IP35 Pro and call it a day.. Those owners are seeming to like those boards and not reading about tooo many problems..

http://forums.tweaktown.com/showthread.php?t=25051
 
What I meant was, in the future, better becareful flashing.

Personally, the failure rate is still pretty low. Their customer service is pretty nice about it too so I'd go with Gigabyte again. For their price, it's unbeatable.
 
I just assembled my new rig... with a P35C-DS3R. Initially I had the same problem - no booting, no image on the monitor, and no beeps. Until I finally tried running with only one stick of RAM - I have two Corsair XTC Platinun DDR2-800 5-4-4-15 2Gb sticks. I cycled both of them through all four DDR2 slots, and seems like one of them is shot. Damn, and I waited almost 3 weeks between ordering and receiving! Now looks like it will be a few more, since I will probably have to return both sticks for the RMA (meaning no RAM, no computer :mad: till I get the new - and hopefully flawless - sticks).

:(
 
First a disclamier, I havent done this as I have two actual bios chips on my board and so I have a backup automatically.

If you read the marketing BS, Giagbyte claims a "virtual" dual bios for the DS3 type boards called Xpress Bios Recovery. Dig a little further and you hit a wall as it is not explained either in the manual or on their site. Discussions with Gigabtye tech support (what I could decypher anyway) indicates that if you use the Xpresss Recovery 2 software the Bios recovery is a part of it. A copy of the bios will be written to a hidden partition on your hard drive. If the bios gets corrupted it will read the bios file (the old boot block loader method apparently) and try to recover itself. It could save having to send the board back. I would hope you could run the Recovery software and do some minor backup (read small) so you get the benifit of the bios backup without eating a lot of HD space. Other bad news is that raid is not supported so I cant even try it. Anyway, it might be well worth a shot ot fire up that Xpress Recovery 2 software just after OS install and see what options are available.

Several people with the cold boot problem (all OCing lost on a cold boot from power off state) have had luck with increasing the PCI frequency to 102-105 MHz and Gigabytes hate USB decices on boot (mice dont seem to be a problem). Just has many people have done the above with no help. /shrug. Send it back. Great boards and only a few have the problem but if you get one, it really doesnt matter how many have it, for some there is no cure that I have seen.
 
I think I got a bad motherboard...

Is this a sign of a bad mother board?

I turn the power on, all the fan lights go on, it brings me to the gigabyte screen and goes into a black screen listing a bunch of numbers and such and at the bottom it says
"Boot From CD/DVD"
"Disk Boot Failure, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"

Am I suppose to have some sort of disk in my dvd drive?
 
No, that sounds like a harddrive/software issue. If your mobo POSTS and doesn't crash on you, your mobo is fine.
 
Maxtr0sity said:
No, that sounds like a harddrive/software issue. If your mobo POSTS and doesn't crash on you, your mobo is fine.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? What do I do now?

I can't hit "tab" to access the options or anything.
I'm just stuck in the black screen telling me to insert a system disk and hit enter

Am I suppose to have a gigabyte CD In there or an OS CD?
 
Here's what everything looks like in my PC HEALTH:
VCore OK
DDR18V OK
+3.3V OK
+12V OK

Current SYS Temp 40 celcius
Current CPU Temp 25 Celcius
CPU FAN SPEED 528 RPM
CPU SYS FAN 2 Speed 948 RPM

Are those temperatures "good" for what I have?
 
Ok, turns out this mobo isn't dead or anything.

I've put in the gigabyte cd and hit "tab" on the giga window and "del" on the black window and I was able to get into my bios and such.
 
Hi there,
first sorry for my bad english I am from germany.
For all those with a cold boot bug that gives a short restart when starting your PC . Overhere we call it a On/Off bug.
When you shute down with win and seperate your PSU from the powernet a cold boot bug happens so don't left your PSU without power. Cost you maybe 15 bugs a year.
!! With some memory multi's like 2.5 or 3.0 the On/Off bug isn't there even when you shut down your PSU.
Figure that out by yourself.
It has to do with some resetting the Northbridge and you can loose your settings.
My DS3R running with a Max FSB of 541 x 6 Mem. Multi 2.0 a got a On/Off bug.
Now 24/7 settings 427 x 8 Memory multi 2.5 NO cold reset bug even with seperate the PSU from the powernet.
 
I have ga-p35-ds3r and it is driving me nuts. It will fail to boot properly 80% of the time. After pressing the power button it will reboot itself a couple of times, and it will reset the BIOS in the process. Thus, I have to change my overclock settings, again, and again, and again. It is a pure torture. My overclock is pretty mild (200->270 FSB) and is rock stable once the system manages to boot itself properly.
 
Love my DS3R. Have had zero issues with it. Sometimes Gigabyte boards can be picky about memory.
 
well, I had the same issue on ds3p (i didn't overclock, just lowered vcore in bios from default 1.2625 to 1.0685), the latest bios F6 seems to have the problem resolved, at least for me.
 
Maxtr0sity said:
So I fooled around, I took off a 2x2 power connector and left the 2x12 power connector on. The fans spun up and it didn't shut off! Problem, I'm guessing I will still need the 2x2 power connector correct? I don't think the system will boot with only a 2x12 ATX power.
Click to expand...

For future reference, the 4-pin ATX12V P4 connector is to power the CPU. So no, it won't post without that plugged in. You need the cpu/single stick of ram/vidcard/psu all plugged into the mobo for it to POST.

vietpho said:
I've put in the gigabyte cd and hit "tab" on the giga window and "del" on the black window and I was able to get into my bios and such.
Click to expand...

You don't need the gigabyte CD to get into the BIOS. The Gigabyte Splash screen logo on startup can be turned off in the BIOS. You just need to hit DELETE to get into the BIOS. The black screen with numbers is your POST screen.

You do, however, need something to boot off of. If you have built a new computer and dont have an OS installed, you'll need to boot off of the OS disc and install the OS onto your HDD.

Please start your own thread.

rontrain said:
Hi there,
first sorry for my bad english I am from germany.
For all those with a cold boot bug that gives a short restart when starting your PC . Overhere we call it a On/Off bug.
When you shute down with win and seperate your PSU from the powernet a cold boot bug happens so don't left your PSU without power. Cost you maybe 15 bugs a year.
!! With some memory multi's like 2.5 or 3.0 the On/Off bug isn't there even when you shut down your PSU.
Figure that out by yourself.
It has to do with some resetting the Northbridge and you can loose your settings.
My DS3R running with a Max FSB of 541 x 6 Mem. Multi 2.0 a got a On/Off bug.
Now 24/7 settings 427 x 8 Memory multi 2.5 NO cold reset bug even with seperate the PSU from the powernet.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!

Kangg said:
Love my DS3R. Have had zero issues with it. Sometimes Gigabyte boards can be picky about memory.
Click to expand...

I've had my DS3R for over a month now, and I love it too. I've tried 5 different ram kits, and they all work great (OCZ Gold, OCZ Plat., G.Skill NQ, Ballistix, Patriot LLK; all DDR2-800 2x1GB).
 
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