DS4 - On Off On Off issue - any remedy?

MeatLoaf · 18 Apr 2007 at 19:08

Right, is anyone else having the constant boot cycle with a DS4 where the system powers up for a few secs then powers down again repeatedly?

I seem to get this everytime i power the system off. It happened when i put a new GFX card in a few weeks ago and again yesterday when i put an X-Fi in.

Once the system has actually posted it runs for weeks with no problems at all at the overclock in my sig.

Im on the latest F8 BIOS and its doing my head in. It took me 6 or 7 hours yesterday to get the system to post :mad:

The battery had been out for hours and the CMOS pins shorted for ages.

I did buy a 650i mobo to replace it but found it was a crap clocker so persevered with the DS4

IAmATeaf · 18 Apr 2007 at 21:51

I had this with my DS3P when I first powered it up, all I did was disconnect the PSU power connector and it sorted it out for me.

dod · 19 Apr 2007 at 13:29

I'm waiting for my DQ6 to be RMA'd for exactly the same thing

Spursboy · 19 Apr 2007 at 16:19

Im getting the same thing with my DS3. powers up, then restarts...time after time :mad:

Im at the stage now where im pretty much willing to try anything out to get this to work first time :eek:

IAmATeaf · 19 Apr 2007 at 20:02

Should add that I meant the PSU to mobo connector, just disconnected and reconnected and the board booted up for me.

ca9phoenix · 19 Apr 2007 at 20:04

check it's not the ram, lots of people with this problem with gigabyte boards and especialy corsair ram, if you gan get some geil try that, it worked for me!

MeatLoaf · 19 Apr 2007 at 20:18

ca9phoenix said:
check it's not the ram, lots of people with this problem with gigabyte boards and especialy corsair ram, if you gan get some geil try that, it worked for me!

Ive got geil already

IAmATeaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 10:35

What's your PCI-E freq set to? Some people have reported that setting it to 101 or 105 fixes this type of prob for them.

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 12:21

IAmATeaf said:
What's your PCI-E freq set to? Some people have reported that setting it to 101 or 105 fixes this type of prob for them.

I can alweays try that

But when it does happen and i clear the CMOS is should still come on as everything will be at default then. But that in itself could be a problem as my RAM needs 2.1v and only gets 1.8v by default

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 14:40

Well now i switched the PC off to install a wireless card. It was off for less than 1 minute and now were stuck in the on-off-on-off loop once more

Totally fed up with this board. tried everything i can think of and everything suggested in this thread and others ive seen in other forums and no joy at all.

dod · 20 Apr 2007 at 15:51

MeatLoaf said:
Totally fed up with this board. tried everything i can think of and everything suggested in this thread and others ive seen in other forums and no joy at all.

I was the same, my replacement was taking ages so I opted for the Asus Commando instead, we'll see how it goes. Annoying thing for me was it booted up perfectly at the first build with 4GB of XMS6400C4, although it set it to 5-5-5-15. Loaded up all my programs no problem, went into BIOS to set optimised defaults and it just died :confused:

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 18:46

Well after EIGHT hours of cmos clearing and finally removing my PCI cards its once again working.

Ive lost all failth in the board tho tbh, and want to replace it asap.

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 21:16

Im beginning to think it may be the RAM you know. Im going have to get a cheap stick to test with

dod · 20 Apr 2007 at 21:35

MeatLoaf said:
Im beginning to think it may be the RAM you know. Im going have to get a cheap stick to test with

I tried some generic stuff and so did the shop I returned it to, nothing apart from the on-off cycle. It was almost as if it wasn't even getting as far as recognising the ram, BIOS issue maybe?

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 22:55

Hmm, well ive done a bit more testing.

Reset everything to stock, CPU 1.86ghz - RAM default 667 @ 5-5-5-15

Switch on - POSTED

Install WiFi Card - POSTED
Install X-Fi - POSTED

Set FSB to 430 ( RAM @ 860 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v ) - NO POST

Set FSB back to 400 ( RAM @ 800 4-4-4-12 @ 2.1v ) - POST

Looks like its certainly a memory problem.

Im gonna switch off now and see if it comes back on. If i dont post in 10 mins you know its failed with mem at stock

MeatLoaf · 20 Apr 2007 at 22:59

Well i powered off - left its 30 secs - powered back on and wayhay its working great.

Looks like im going have to get an E6400 for 3.2Ghz

EDIT :

Just tried again at 430FSB and upped the vDIMM to 2.2v.

It switched itself off and restarted ok. Lets hope ive managed to solve this

bris · 20 Apr 2007 at 23:47

My DS4 is an absolute nightmare. Even the smallest overclock now causes the on off problem, in fact anything causes it. I had it orthos stable at 3.2 with a E6400 for over 12 hours but when I tried to play stalker it crashed and now back at default. I have had the problem from day one but when I rmad it they sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with the board. It decides when it wants to boot and it crashes frequently and it wont accept 4 sticks of ram but apart from that its great according to them. Needless to say I'll take my business elsewhere from now on.

MeatLoaf · 21 Apr 2007 at 08:57

What RAM are you using?

I ran 4 sticks without a problem before i swapped to 2x1Gb sticks.

Hopefully theres going to be a new bios release with the release of the new C2D chips.

Legionaire68 · 21 Apr 2007 at 22:45

Had same problem with my DS4. Loaded Vista RC1 got every working and overclocked and even had a few hours of BF 2142, turned it off and next day Start, Stop in a loop not even getting to bios. Changed all the components but nothing, RMA'd it to another retailer who charged me £20 to tell me it worked fine. :mad:

G_Wizz · 22 Apr 2007 at 01:37

Lol, so its not only me that has this problem. My DQ6 will not boot at all with a PCI-E graphics card, tried 3 different ones, all 3 work in my other DQ6. It boots every time with an old PCI card, can OC it and do anything no problem. I RMA'd it and they sent it back and said check your other hardware. Well I had already tried 3 cpu's, 3 sets of memory, 3 PSU's, 3 GFX cards all of which work on the other DQ6. After wasting around 20 hours on the thing they say I can send it back again. Anyways I still do not think the board is actually faulty, more that the bios is too sensitive to changes in hardware or settings. If they send it back again this time I will just get the 7lb hammer out.