GA-P35C-DS3R Won't Post Naturally!

zpos

zpos

zpos

Associate
Joined
11 Jan 2004
Posts
1,445
I've had this motherboard since around August and flashed it to the F4G around that time. I had no issues with the PC and I've not interfered with any hardware since installation. The PC's been working fine.

The other day, I rebooted and the damn thing wouldn't POST. The fans and the lights were on. I removed the graphics cards, unplugged the hard disk, removed all the memory and it was happily bleeping at me when I did this.

In the end, I had to remove the battery, unplug the power chord, short the cmos jumper (which incidently is in a crazy place under my graphics card). It then booted up ok and I loaded the BIOD defaults and the PC kicked into action.

I put it down to a dodgy battery so I've just gone and bought a new one and but I get the same issue.

I can obviously get the PC on once I perform the above ritual, but its a royal pain having to do so. Anybody have any ideas as to what it is? The PC works fine once it POSTs so I'm not sure what's going on.

z
 
Eeek, great motherboard indeed!

I don't get to see anything on the screen. It never makes the first 'good' startup beep which indicates its firing on all cylinders. Trouble is when I go through the ritual, it's practically running on BIOS defaults and I have set the date/time clock in windows. I might try the sit patiently for a minute approach next time.

I'm glad I just leave my PC on until I absolutely need to reboot. My PS3 media sharing and Linksys wrt54gs combination kills my internet connection (another common problem). I have to reboot the PC to get it going again. Grrr.

I really really don't want to RMA my motherboard, that's just way too painful!

Is anyone else having similar issues with this motherboard not posting? Do you think their 12mth and 1 day out-of-waranty chip has activated too soon?!

z
 
Oh man, just what I didn't want to read... looks like the boards have some kind of inherent fault. Might try to flash it with a more recent bios. Otherwise will have to RMA it which is going to cause me nothing but grief.

z
 
Guess I should be grateful that at least I can eventually get into windows. I'm going to back all my data off just in case!

z
 
Well I flashed it with the latest bios and now the damn thing won't post no matter what I do. I'm sick of this motherboard. Anyone suggest an alternative motherboard?

I'll see if I can RMA it back, but I don't really want to fork out an additional £30 + vat if they decide that there is no fault with the motherboard.

Won't be touching Gigabyte again... thats two motherboard manufacturers already off my list (MSI being the other!).

Ho hum...

z
 
Thanks for the sympathy vote! I've requested an RMA so will see what happens.

Would like to hear what alternative motherboard I should go for tho.

z
 
When the power is on, if I hit the reset button I get three long beeps, a pause followed by continuous long beeps.

I don't get any beeps if I use the power button....

Any ideas?

z
 
Thanks for the motherboard recommendation.

I've been having all sorts of fun and games with the thing today. I've been experimenting with the RAM and managed to get it to boot into Vista safe mode. Something weird happens when I boot into normal vista - it starts up but then the screen goes off and the hard disk light stays on. Can't ping the machine at that point so it crashes or something.

For now, I'm frantically backing up my data. Once I get that done, I'll see if it is some kind of memory issue/vista issue. I might go back to a previous restore point too.

The show goes on....

z
 
No idea! Don't really understand what has suddenly triggered it. You'd think some kind of inherent fault would have manifested itself at build time rather than 3 months down the road.

I'm running memtest86 on each stick at the moment.

z
 
I feel your pain. At the moment I'm not convinced what is causing the issues. This is what I have gleaned so far:

1) Machine would not POST unless I removed battery/cleared cmos/unplugged power chord. I then flashed it with the F7 bios and no matter what I did, it would not post at all.

2) At one point I hit the reset button and it bleeped at me 3 times. It didn't do this when I powered it up with the power button apart from once when I left it off all night.

3) This led me to think that perhaps it was a memory issue. I think ripped out 3 of the four ballistix memory chips and lo and behold, it kicked into life (went past the POST). I managed to get all the way into vista but then it died on me (monitor went off, hard disk light on, couldn't ping it). A few times it just powered off after I logged into Vista - might be something in my startup which is bring it down? So I don't know whether it is a vista issue or whether it is still the motherboard. The POST issue has gone away completely tho!

4) The BIOS is running completely on the defaults. Do I need to change anything for the memory?

5) I've since tested all four of my memory sticks and one of them is reporting lots of errors on memtest86. I can get into safe mode ok with vista running on the good 2x1GB sticks. I backed up all my data at this point - result!

6) So I'm not exactly sure what is going on. Ok, one stick is faulty - fine. I can RMA that no problem. I might just re-install vista and see where I go from there.

As always, it is a process of elimination. However, I bought the memory from one place and the rest of my gear from another so its not so easy to send the stuff back. I also don't have any other kit that I can swap out and test.

The fun continues....

z
 
Does anybody know what hardware diagnosis tools I use within Vista safe mode?

I can manage to get into safe mode ok so it will be useful if I could test the hardware to at least figure out why the system shuts down when I go into Vista normally.

z
 
Grrr left the PC in safe mode to copy files across from one HD to another. I left it running for a over four hours. I came back and it had happily copied the files over ok. I shut vista down and now......

... the damn thing won't even post ! No beeps, just my fans and my lights are on.

I despair... somebody, give me a sympathy vote!

z
 
The problem started when I had 4x1GB ballistix 5300 installed. Bear in mind I've not had any issues at all for 3 months. I've figured out one of the sticks is faulty (according to memtest86) so at the moment I'm just running 2x1Gb.

I've not touched anything at all in the bios apart from switching boot priorities.

Since my previous post, the PC has decided to let me boot up now but it still won't log into Vista unless I go via safe mode. In normal Vista logon, the monitor cuts out after around 20-30 seconds once I've logged on but the fans/lights/hard disk light remain on. I've disabled all that I can during the Vista startup and the vista boot log doesn't really tell me whats going on.

At the moment, I'm running the everest stability test and it's been running fine for 2hrs. I'll leave it running overnight.

I really have no idea what is causing the issue. I'll try to re-install Vista tomorrow and see how I get on.

z

PS Thanks for the shoulder to cry on. I guess PC's are like cars.. they know exactly when to let you down!
 
Thanks for all the moral support. Really appreciate it.

Well I ran the everest stability test all night and it reported no errors. The cpu was at 100% for most of the evening. At one point I thought it had crashed because it was unresponsive.. but this was due to it hammering the CPU - duh@me!

I'll try the +.1v thing bios and see how I get on. Of course this is assuming the damn thing posts when I turn it off..

The PC has run fine for 3 months, so I'd be surprised it was a compatibility issue with the ballistix.

Benm, you're right about the kit having a personality. It behaves so weirdly. If I RMA the motherboard, I'm sure it will come back with no fault found and big hole in my pocket!

Will keep my exclusive sympathy fan base posted ;)

z
 
Mixed results.

1) Changed the voltage to +.1v and it didn't make any difference
2) Change the timings to 4-4-4-12 and it let me log on to vista and play around for around 2minutes (this is the longest sustained time). It then shutdown and restarted.
3) Tried to re-install vista and get the following interesting message:

Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.

This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as an external usb drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as a hard drive or cd-rom drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.

If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacture.

Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured.

I wonder what that is all about. I'll double check all connections....

In the meantime it presented me with the option to check my RAM, so that's what I'm doing.

z
 
Windows memory test didn't find any issues with the 2x1GB sticks.

I changed the dvd drive sata from a purple port to an orange port but no joy with that when installed vista. When I was backing up my data I didn't have any issues and verified all the data was written correctly.

Both my hard drives are plugged into an orange. At the moment, I have one of the hard drives disconnected.

I'm running with Vista 64.

Remember I had no issues at all until recently when the PC suddenly stopped posting so I doubt it was a software issue that triggered the chain of events.

At this rate, I might try XP if I can find the old install disc somewhere.

Could really use some kind of diagnostic disc I could burn to see pinpoint the issue - I can dream..!

The only thing I haven't really tested is the graphics card. I know the PC screeches at me during post if I unplug the PCI express power cable. Interestingly, safe mode works ok but when I get into normal vista mode at 1920x1200 it shuts down the PC after a 20-30 seconds following startup.

Think someone should come up with a PC hire shop where you can go and hire out say, a graphics card for the day. Would cut down some of the grief!

z
 
Ok, some progress.

I changed the voltage to +.2v - don't ask me why, it was a hunch (probably the total voltage reported in the bios status screen was 1.875v). Anyway, this didn't make any difference when I booted up. It powered down after I logged onto vista.

I then went into the bios and disabled the two settings which make the CPU run at power saving mode. Don't ask me why!

I can now go into Vista ok - although I am somewhat nervous. For another yet to be explained reason, I decided to defrag my C:.. don't ask me why. I was feeling in a illogical kind of mood.

Haven't really tested anymore than this. The defrag has been running for 3hrs now which is good as the PC hasn't shutdown.

More news as I get it.

z
 
Nah, the OS has been on there since August. I backed up a whole bunch of stuff and copied some data across to another drive. So, it's looking kind of empty now so I thought I'd defrag it.

z
 
Ok, seem to have sustained a period of stability... going to retest my memory with the +.2v change just to double check the 'dodgy' memory.

Thanks,
z
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom