GA 970A-DS3P issues

weird_dave · 24 Jun 2017 at 11:16

Seemed fine for a day then this morning, BAM, all the problems are back, so RMA it is. Installing the drivers just makes it worse

weird_dave · 26 Jun 2017 at 19:43

One final thought on this mobo before I send it back (I have an RMA number now), although I tried the GFX card in another PC, albeit only briefly, could it be failing in such a way as to screw up USB and SATA ports (and audio!)? I've just plugged in an older card to test with, so far so good but we've been here before...
I kinda hope it fails, because this card is too big for the case (GTX 260, I've had to take the mobo out of the case to test, lol).

Borealis · 26 Jun 2017 at 20:01

Some of the early USB3 boards had issues, particularly boards using the Etron chips. Yours is using VIA chips though, so it shouldn't be affected.

PCI-E is shared between both North and South bridges. The USB ports are split between the Northbridge and Southbridge. The SATA ports are exclusively run off the Southbridge. If you've got an RMA number now, I would return it. Worst case is that OCUK can't find a fault with it. Given the issues you've had, I would be surprised if they can't replicate at least some of them.

PS. Where are you based?

weird_dave · 26 Jun 2017 at 21:49

I'm based in Loughborough.
I've been putting this through network and local file transfers at high rate, no issues so far. I just don't want to RMA it only for OC not to find an issue with it, which is why I'm doing so much testing.

Borealis · 27 Jun 2017 at 10:07

So it's behaving itself at the moment?

weird_dave · 27 Jun 2017 at 12:34

It was this morning as I left for work, I set it off transferring another 300GB over the network. I have the afternoon off, originally to RMA the board! So soon I shall see if it's still OK. Either way this is going to cost me, either postage if it fails of a bigger case to fit the GTX260 (the other card is smaller a HD7850). I could drill the rivets and remove the drive bays I suppose, but then the case might also fall apart.

weird_dave · 27 Jun 2017 at 16:14

Yay! I think. All was well when I got home so I decided to add a 2nd SATA drive. It didn't seem happy with one of my older drives so I gave it a sparkly new one to chew on, many GB of transfers later and audio just gave the telltale sign of problems, sure enough, clicking anything with either button gives an hourglass, it's lost connections with drives.
One go with memtest just in case, then this mobo is going back, I think I've truly exhausted any possibility of it being the other components (the PSU is a new EVGA 850W and works fine in another machine).
I am using all 4 memory slots though, but so far so good with memtest, 33% through the first run (55 minutes so far, I want to cry!)

Borealis · 27 Jun 2017 at 16:22

Sounds like there is a board issue TBH if it's losing the connection to the drives. You've tried a new PSU, different power and SATA cables and it still does this!

weird_dave · 27 Jun 2017 at 16:36

Well, I am assuming it has lost connection, I can't actually tell because I can't click on anything to find out, anything which tries to access the disk (which is pretty much any action) hourglasses on me, eventually I get BSOD with either F4 or 7A, which I believe would indicate that it has lost the OS drive as a minimum. On top of this, it thinks I've unplugged the speakers (corrupt sound prior to this happening too).

weird_dave · 27 Jun 2017 at 17:55

As expected, passed. Now to find a box that isn't massively oversized, the one it and the CPU came in is huge!

orbitalwalsh · 27 Jun 2017 at 19:13

If they can't find a fault afterwards and it plays up again *fingers crossed not* , Gigabyte Reps on here could have a look at it at their RMA center as an extra back up

weird_dave · 28 Jun 2017 at 07:21

it's a scenario that could happen, it seems fairly happy until it sees more than one Sata drive, then it loses the plot fairly quickly. I don't know what overclockers do to test hardware, but I doubt they have the same facilities that the manufacturer would have.

orbitalwalsh · 28 Jun 2017 at 08:59

weird_dave said:
it's a scenario that could happen, it seems fairly happy until it sees more than one Sata drive, then it loses the plot fairly quickly. I don't know what overclockers do to test hardware, but I doubt they have the same facilities that the manufacturer would have.

you'll be surprised, im pretty sure OCUK would be able to hook up more hardware to test the system but guessing Vendors have the diagnostic kit to check deeper

weird_dave · 28 Jun 2017 at 18:17

Packing it up now, I've just spotted that the motherboard bag has a bit of tape folded over the edge, just where you would normally expect it to be sealed. I'm so not convinced this was a new board to begin with

ubersonic · 29 Jun 2017 at 15:33

I have the same board in one of my workstation, runs fine for me, are you using the latest BIOS? IIRC the originals weren't UEFI.

weird_dave · 2 Jul 2017 at 19:48

Yeah, there wasn't a later one, it was also OCs original suggestion. It just totally loses the plot when there's multiple drives attached. I also couldn't touch the Northbridge heatsink.

weird_dave · 5 Jul 2017 at 13:51

Woohoo!

The product MB-457-GI on RMA RMA###### will be sent to you on a new order with order number #######.

This will be despatched as soon as possible, subject to stock availability.

Only problem is, it's out of stock