GA 970A-DS3P issues

weird_dave

weird_dave

weird_dave

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So I've bought a motherboard:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...0a-socket-am3-ddr3-motherboard-mb-457-gi.html

and a new CPU to go with it:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/amd-...hz-socket-am3-processor-retail-cp-39p-am.html

I have been getting freezes and odd sound playback (sounds like the audio is being routed via a ZX spectrum). Clean install of Win7. I have read on another forum that the HT and/or Northbridge speeds may be causing the problem, but details were a bit sketchy. I have lowered both to 2GHz (HT was at 2.4 and NB at 2.2). I've also lowered the CPU to 3GHz and the memory down to 1.066, just to err on the side of caution. so far so good, but it's early days...

It passes memtest and some simple benchmarks, but the problems seem to happen while not under load.
Are there known issues with this board that I have failed to find?
 
Could be a bad board. If it's not performing OK at stock speeds, then there is something wrong. I wouldn't have thought it should have been getting that toasty. My dad has an FX-6300 on a Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3. His Northbridge definitely doesn't get that hot.

It is the Northbridge heatsink that sits below the CPU. With an FX-8 series CPU, I'm more used to seeing people complain about the VRMs getting too hot (FX-8s seriously hammer the VRMs) - that's the heatsink to the left of the CPU.
 
That's good to know, ta.
I'm starting to suspect it's actually the SSD, running chkdsk at the moment (gonna take a while...). I saw something in the event log about resetting device port 0, it BSOD soon after than with 0x000000F4 (I might not have all the leading 0's ;) )
I also think it might be a driver causing it, the last batch of windows updates (over 200 of them :( ) installed earlier, with an updated AMD SMBus driver I believe.

Aaaand, CHKDSK finished and I have no idea what the result was :(
 
Had a Windows 10 update last week that caused my Nvidia drivers (latest version) to periodically BSOD for no apparent reason, great job Microsoft! Given how hot the NB is getting, it sounds like it could be a board issue but it's hard to say. What SSD is it? Crucial M4 by any chance? Those can act up after a certain number of read/write cycles unless you do a firmware update.

0xf4 suggests something to do with possibly the SSD/HDD not appearing. Could also be a corruption in Windows. A fresh clean install of Windows might fix it, if Windows got badly corrupted for whatever reason.
 
It is a fresh install, hence the 200 updates :(
The SSD isn't branded, SSDLife can't tell me anything about it either. It was working fine on my old system (until that died, hence buying this mobo/CPU, the GFX/Drives seemed to check out ok on another PC and I took a chance that the RAM was OK, it passes memtest on this new mobo)
It could be a windows corruption, I installed from a DVD which is getting quite old now.
I've downloaded AMDs driver install package, now to speed up failure by jinxing it, so far so good :D
 
It could be a corruption introduced when Windows was installed. It could also be a driver conflict like the one that caused my BSODs on Win 10.
 
I just can't get this bloody board to be stable.
Neither the box nor the motherboard bag were sealed, is it possible I've been sent a return? FFS, as I write this, the monitor next to this one has just got another lovely BSOD on it (Stop 7A, never had one of those before!).
 
Does sound a little bit odd if everything was unsealed. I've had the motherboard bag come opened before, but usually if that's the case, the box had a seal. 0x7A is something to do with being unable to read from storage BTW.

Given the issues you've had with this board and the sensible troubleshooting you've done, I'd say it's RMA time. If you bought it from OCUK, I'd recommend opening up a thread in the Customer Service forum. Every time I've had problems, they've responded pretty quickly.

It could be bad SATA ports, something iffy with the chipset, the BSODs are not pointing to one thing in particular. If the rest of your hardware worked fine before replacing the board and CPU, it's one of the two. My guess would be the board - CPU failures are far less common.
 
I've just tried to install W7 on a new (unopened package!) drive and a DVD with no scratches, but it says it cannot install to the disk - ensure the drives controller is enabled in the BIOS!
Definitely RMA time :(
 
Yup, sounds like there's an issue with the chipset/storage controller. Might be worth seeing if the drive appears in the BIOS/works in another system. It has been known for drives to turn up DOA! If the drive is faulty, you can RMA both back to OCUK at the same time.

I'm fairly sure this is the board screwing you around, but it's worth double-checking before you start trying to RMA something.
 
It's in the BIOS, windows install sees it, just won't install to it. I hit shift-F10 and did the old diskpart routine, no love there. I noted that it was GPT. Now, here is where it gets interesting, I went to the same stage with my SSD which I have installed to a good few times this week. cannot be installed as it's MBR! Mind is just about blown...
 
Yeah, RMA the board. If it sees the disk but won't initialise/install to it, something is wrong. You've now tried with both MBR and GPT with different drives and it's still messing you about. It's either the board or CPU. RMA the board first, as it's the more likely of the two to be faulty.

What will this system be used for once you finally get something that works properly?
 
I've created a webnote, will probably get an answer tomorrow.
I've not given up hope yet though as I've just spotted that there are 2 revisions of the motherboard, it may be that some of the drivers were for the wrong board (you'd think they just wouldn't install...)
 
Well, this is interesting. I've nearly finished all the updates and just have the sound, gfx and lan drivers installed. I had one hang during install where it brings up a fullscreen suggestion to upgrade to windows 10. I've now added a USB drive and SATA drive, done large folder transfers between them and over the network, all is ok, which of course will now jinx it. I'm seeing VBAN Receptor moan a bit, but that's not surprising as the network is being thrashed (I stream my game rig audio over the network using VBAN to the AMD box, I watch stuff on the 2nd PC as well as run game servers, this lets me mix the audio to the amp without adding any cables).
The only think in device manager which isn't happy is a USB device, probably the USB3 controller.

So, do I risk installing the mobo drivers?

There is a separate USB driver, but it isn't obvious to me which one to download:

VIA USB 3.0 Driver
[V4.20]
116.85 MB
2016/08/30

VIA USB 3.0 Driver
[V4.90A]
11.61 MB
2015/03/18

I have previous loaded the 4.20 as the date is newer.

Oh, and thanks Borealis, having someone listen to my issues has been really useful :)
 
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