Possible problem with MSI P67A-GD65?

Ren.182

Ren.182

Ren.182

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Joined
2 Mar 2006
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754
Location
Birmingham, England
Hi all,

Got a problem with my computer and hopefully someone will be able to help me out here. First off here is my build:

Intel 2600k @ stock speeds
MSI P67A-GD65
Corsair XMS3 8GB RAM (2x4GB)
Ati 5850 1GB
2x Spinpoint F1 1TB HDD
1x Seagate 2TB HDD
1x Sony DVD RW (SATA)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

So here is the problem:

Last night I was just browsing the internet (had a few other programs like Steam, Mumble, iTunes etc running in the background, nothing too taxing. Then suddenly chrome froze and my pc started running really slowly. I waited a min and it came back and was fine for another minute then my whole PC started running slowly. Explorer kept crashing and it was pretty much unusable.

I decided to restart. It posted fine and got to the windows loading screen, The glowing window never appeared and the pc hung here. Another restart, got to the windows loading screen, the glowing window appeared but the pc just stayed here again.

Another restart then it started having problems even getting to the motherboards logo showing up. It does it's ram checks etc then before the mobo logo appears a flashing "_" appears at the top left of the screen and numbers/letters show up at the bottom right.

First off there are numbers like "99" "98" etc... these go by pretty fast so are hard to make out. Then "A3" appears and stays on the screen for a varied amount of time (anything from 5 secs to 1 min). Then "A2" appears at the bottom left and it will stay there for anything from 30 seconds to 2 or 3 minutes.

"A2" disappears and then the motherboards logo shows up and disappears. Then another "_" appears at the top left and nothing happens.

Now I've tried taking out all SATA devices and the boot process happens as it should, very quickly, no "99" or A2 or A3 or anything. Obviously widows wont load since there are no hard drives present.

If I have the hard drives plugged in sometimes they show up in the BIOS, sometimes only one or two show up. The DVD drive never shows up.

So I'm guessing there is something wrong with my motherboard. It doesn't have the latest BIOS version installed since I've not had a problem since I built the PC 2 months or so ago.

Does anyone have any ideas what has caused this and how I can fix it?

If you need to know anything else please let me know and I'll get the what you need on here asap.

Sorry for the large post, just wanted to give you all the info I can.

Thanks for any help, greatly appreciated!

Cheers.
 
Leave any other drives disconnected and then connect your boot drive into one of the top two white sockets on the motherboard.

The ones nearest the 24 pin power connector.
 
Nah I didn't get it from OcUK, but I can always send it back to the company I got it from if needed.

I'll try the single drive in the top white sockets now. I'll update in a few mins when I've tried it.
 
Seems to work. My windows seems like it has failed, but I had it on another drive too (which didn't work before) and that's working fine.

Didn't use the top 2 ports since the drives weren't as fast as the ports. Hopefully it'll stay working this time. Thanks for the tip!

Is it worth updating the BIOS for this board? Or shall I leave it if it works from now on? (dont fix what aint broke etc...)

Cheers :) (sorry for double post)
 
Ren.182 said:
Seems to work. My windows seems like it has failed, but I had it on another drive too (which didn't work before) and that's working fine.

Didn't use the top 2 ports since the drives weren't as fast as the ports. Hopefully it'll stay working this time. Thanks for the tip!

Is it worth updating the BIOS for this board? Or shall I leave it if it works from now on? (dont fix what aint broke etc...)

Cheers :) (sorry for double post)
Click to expand...

Well it looks like it is broken.

The potential fault with the B2 revision motherboard you have was a possible failure of the SATA 2 ports. These are the black ports you were using before.

It looks like your SATA 2 ports have failed and you'll need to RMA the motherboard.

The fault doesn't affect the SATA 3 ports which is why I suggested trying one of those.
 
Ahh I see. Very annoying. Looks like I'll be RMA'ing this then. Am I likely to get the B3 revision in return? Or is this down to the supplier?

Thanks for the help!
 
Ren.182 said:
Ahh I see. Very annoying. Looks like I'll be RMA'ing this then. Am I likely to get the B3 revision in return? Or is this down to the supplier?

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Yeah they're sending out B3 revision replacements now. There was a link to MSI's website where you can sign up to get the B3 revision but it's stopped now and it just says to RMA the board through the retailer instead.

This was the link if your interested to see it first hand.
 
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Which he would still be entitled to a B3 revision as earlier revisions carried an inherent fault, so accept nothing less than a B3 revision. Just incase your retailer had some old stock knocking about and you got an earlier revision off them by mistake.
 
Ok, cheers for the info guys. I'll dig out my invoice and get on the phone to them. I'll make sure I get a B3 revision too.

Very helpful as always guys! Much appreciated!
 
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