Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 Problem - Posting

nkarnold · 13 Oct 2007 at 00:02

I've just purchased

- Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 (rev 1.0) motherboard
- Intel E6600 Quad CPU
- Ninja Plus Rev b Cooler

As an upgrade for my games rig.
the other components retained from my exisiting rig

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4
Enermax 850W PSU
BFG GTX8800 Video card.
SB X-FI

So here goes.

I ripped out the old motherboard and assembled the new mobo, cpu and cooler, installed the video card, sound card etc.

All went well, posted up first time. So I went into the BIOS and just monitored temps for 10 mins and they were around 40.. So ok.. I now upgraded the bios to F6 using QFlash and that went fine, apart from at the end, it said press Enter to restart and upon pressing enter the PC switched off.

Switching back on.. Dead screen. CPU fan twitching, Case Fans blowing ok.

I thought i'd barfed the board. After stripping it back to bare minimum of CPU, Video and 1 Mem stick.. Still no joy, So I tried to clear CMOS, still no joy, so I removed the battery (after seeing a simlar problem on a DS4 mobo in another thread). Left the battery out for 30 mins.

After putting the battery back in, all was OK.. It posted again, (relief). So I went into the BIOS and confgured RAID, and I set the FAN warnings ON, I also told it to INIT the PEG (not PCI slot) first. (no overclocking settings at all). After pressing save and exit. Same problem.. PC powered down and upon restart FAN started twitching.

What I've found now is. If i remove the Video card, the CPU fan starts up to full speed. If I put the video card back in. CPU fan just sits there twitching.

I tested the 8800 video card in another PC.. it's fine.

I'm sure its a BIOS issue, so I've taken out the battery again for 30 mins, but now it won't post when I put the battery back in (like the first time above). I'm going to leave it for a few hours and re-try, but if anyone has any suggestions, it would help me greatly.

Other things i've seen are.
- When you get into the BIOS, set the memory voltage to the desired value. I do know that my Corsair memory wants 2.1 at least. (I intend trying this, if I can get back into the BIOS)

- I haven't got the additional 12V molex connector to the motherboard connected, as it states in the manual, for dual graphics cards. But as I have a 8800GTX, i'm going to try this next.

Thanks in advance

ns400r · 13 Oct 2007 at 06:24

When you change certain bios settings such as (but not limited too) the FSB the system will shutdown at the next restart. This is by design to allow the CMOS to reset and load the new setting. It should then automatically restart.

As foir the CPU fan, if you have the Speedstep e.t.c. still enabled in the BIOS, then the CPU fan may not start up as soon as you power on the system. This is because the CPU may not be at the required temperature to need the wxtra cooling from the fan. It will turn on as soon as it is deemed to be warm enough.

Both of these features should be mentioned in the manual.

Make sure you have the correct voltage configured for your memory.

nkarnold · 13 Oct 2007 at 08:38

ns400r said:
When you change certain bios settings such as (but not limited too) the FSB the system will shutdown at the next restart. This is by design to allow the CMOS to reset and load the new setting. It should then automatically restart.

As foir the CPU fan, if you have the Speedstep e.t.c. still enabled in the BIOS, then the CPU fan may not start up as soon as you power on the system. This is because the CPU may not be at the required temperature to need the wxtra cooling from the fan. It will turn on as soon as it is deemed to be warm enough.

Both of these features should be mentioned in the manual.

Make sure you have the correct voltage configured for your memory.

I cannot get back in the BIOS.
After leaving the battery out all night, still no joy.

I'm going to test another Video card in it.

With the vidoe card in.. CPU FAN doesn't move now, but case fans power up
With video card out, CPU fan starts and I get BIOS BEEPS, saying no video card.

nkarnold · 13 Oct 2007 at 16:10

UPDATE. I've discovered what the problem is.

Potentially its the PCI-E bus.

I can POST and get in the BIOS, when i put a very old Matrox PCI video card in a PCI slot. comes up every time.

So i cleared the cmos, just to make sure and yep, it starts up with the old PCI card in, with default factory BIOS settings.

With the old PCI card in, the CPU fan starts up about 2 seconds after power on.

Now i put back in the 8800, which i've confirmed works in another rig, and it has the same problem.. CPU fan doesn't start. Nothing on screen. No BIOS beeps. (chassis fans still come on) - Tried it with a NVidia 7800 (confirmed as working OK).. same result as the 8800. No POST

Looks like the PCI-E slots/bus is shafted.

Think I will RMA the board.

Cob · 13 Oct 2007 at 16:29

Have you tried both PCI-E graphics slots?

nkarnold · 14 Oct 2007 at 16:17

yep. both the 7800 and the 8800 in both PCI-E slots.

IAmATeaf · 15 Oct 2007 at 14:01

Can you set the PCI-E frequency to 101 with the PCI vid card plugged in and try again. The other thing that fixed it for me and don't ask me why, but it was to remove the main PSU to mobo power connector and then plug it back in.

nkarnold · 17 Oct 2007 at 20:40

IAmATeaf said:
Can you set the PCI-E frequency to 101 with the PCI vid card plugged in and try again. The other thing that fixed it for me and don't ask me why, but it was to remove the main PSU to mobo power connector and then plug it back in.

RMA in progress, will update when the new one is picked up tomorrow
Can I ask, whats the theory behind upping the PCI-E freq to 101.

I'd already removed the PSU mobo connecter (8pin and 20pin ones)

Cheers

nkarnold · 19 Oct 2007 at 00:33

FIXED:

Problem FIXED:

Took the mobo back, it posted fine on the bench at the store.

Problem = Enermax 850 Galaxy PSU.

The PSU above, I'm using fine on my pre-upgrade ASUS P5 WS PRO mobo, when connected to the P35-DQ6, it simply doesn't let the system post with PCI-Express cards in.

I replaced the PSU with a Coolermaster 850 and it worked first time.

As I say the enermax works fine powering the same GFX card in another rig.

Cob · 19 Oct 2007 at 12:20

Odd.

Glad you got it sorted

cerveau · 25 Nov 2007 at 12:37

Hi,

Ive just built a new rig using:

Gigabyte GA-P35T-DQ6 rev 1.0 F4 Bios
Enermax Galaxy 1000W EGX1000EWL ATX2.2 Modular PSU
EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra SuperClocked SILENT 768MB GDDR3

QX6850
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler
Corsair 2GB DDR3 DHX 1333C9DHX Twin3X (4x1GB)
Creative X-Fi Elite Pro

It was ok for about a week, then it developed a problem similar to yours.

Which is, that it never boots up from a cold start on the first attempt.

The first time you hit the power switch, the case fans blow and the
cpu fan led blinks, USB Mouse and keyboard dont light up and There is no
display.

However, hitting the power switch to turn it all off and then immediately switching it back on, and it all boots flawlessly.

The OS doesn't boot into safe mode and shows no evidence of the improper
start, as it all happens during the POST.

During all this, the psu buzzer and led (power guard?) are always normal ie green and silent.

I have tried many BIOS settings, reverting to factory defaults and Optimised
defaults but I cant work out whats going wrong.

I can only really test this once a day as it only happens on a cold start,
subsequent power-ups even after its been off for 30 mins work first time.

I cant understand why it was ok for the first week, or what Ive changed
that would cause it.

I dont know if this is a fault or just a BIOS setting, if it is a fault which
component is causing it.

Thanks

Bludgeon · 26 Nov 2007 at 18:44

nkarnold said:
Problem FIXED:

Took the mobo back, it posted fine on the bench at the store.

Problem = Enermax 850 Galaxy PSU.

The PSU above, I'm using fine on my pre-upgrade ASUS P5 WS PRO mobo, when connected to the P35-DQ6, it simply doesn't let the system post with PCI-Express cards in.

I replaced the PSU with a Coolermaster 850 and it worked first time.

As I say the enermax works fine powering the same GFX card in another rig.

humm
i seemed to have had a similar prob using a enermax noisetaker, having to try loads of things to get it to pwr up. rma to enermax (on there advice even after telling them it worked fine in another comp) and the new ones fine.
just wondering if theres an issue with enermax and gigabyte?

cerveau · 27 Nov 2007 at 23:26

Bludgeon said:
humm
i seemed to have had a similar prob using a enermax noisetaker, having to try loads of things to get it to pwr up. rma to enermax (on there advice even after telling them it worked fine in another comp) and the new ones fine.
just wondering if theres an issue with enermax and gigabyte?

Yes, there is an issue with Enermax Galaxy PSUs and Gigabyte P35 DQ6 and P35T DQ6 motherboards.
(It also affects MSI P35-Platinum boards too)

Ive had this problem for 3 weeks, I could have avoided all that pain if Id only
looked in the Enermax PSU box because inside was a piece of paper and
a "Special 24P motherboard cable" - hidden amongst all the other modular cables.

The issue is to do with "Special current timing requirements" at power up.
In case you have you such power up problems, use the enclosed special
motherboard adapter. - Thats what the paper said.

The cable is a 24 pin and fits between the native PSU 24 pin motherboard
power cable and the 24P motherboard connector.

It has a 4p Molex (connected by only 2 yellow) attached to it, This 4P with only
2 yellow wires fits into any normal PSU 4P molex, then you connect another
PSU 4P molex from the same cable into the additional power 4P molex on the
motherboard.

Ive added this cable as per the instructions, and my PC now powers up first time.

I just need to test for another day or so to be absolutely certain but it
"seems" to have done the trick.

Thanks to the Enermax boys, Im just relieved to have it power up first time now.