X38 QuadGT

Baldrick1001

Baldrick1001

Baldrick1001

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Joined
18 Jan 2004
Posts
505
My current Gigabyte 965 DS3 version 1 is proving problematic, random freezes and the odd failure to boot -i have now ordered an Abit X38 QuadGT - whilst i was abroad with limited access to the web - PDA only.. Now that I have returned to blighty I have noted that the board has had mixed reviews- any views on whether the X38 will be a noticeable upgrade - specifically from a robustness perspective?

Cheers
 
Now that I have returned to blighty I have noted that the board has had mixed reviews- any views on whether the X38 will be a noticeable upgrade - specifically from a robustness perspective?
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How do you know the motherboard is your problem?

There is not anything that should make the IX38 more reliable than your P965-DS3, both should be stable boards and freeze free.

The only obvious issues I can see in your rig are the use of a Q6600 (do you have a supporting BIOS?) and the amount of hard drives (shouldn't be a prob though).

Failure to boot (if you don't mean literally not turning on) can also be memory, insufficient voltages (northbridge or memory), loose video card or a PSU.

Not trying to question your diagnostics here, just making sure you are sure what the problem is. Whatever components you buy they shouldn't suffer from freezes and boot failure (if it does then something is faulty!).
 
I have always had the occasional prob with the machine - sometimes when I use external HDD's I lose any internal HDD connected to the Jmicron SATA controller - to date I have done the following - I must emphasis that the failures to boot and the freezes are quite rare - hence why i haven't started again...



1, Upgrade CPU 6300 to Q6600
2, Upgraded Power Supplier - truepower 400w to Corsair 620HX
3, Upgraded GPU 7900CS to 8800GTS 512
4. Replaced master boot HDD
5. memtested RAM
6. re-installed windows
7. Added cooling


the Northbridge of the DS3 is very hot, despite no overclock
 
As an early adoptor of the Abit X38 Guad GT I can say its a nice board.
It can be a mare if you aren't familiar with Bios tweaking, which the board suffered from early doors, the Bios's were imature and often flakey.

Some general tips and notes can be found here:
http://www.clunk.org.uk/forums/reviews/861-abit-ix38-quad-gt-living-review-ii.html

The guys helped me when I had an issue or two, which it turned out was RAM failure there are some great bios settings to help you get the most of what ever chip you are trying to clock, I managed to get 3.4GHz stable on my Quad Q6600 Go...have a good read !
 
I have always had the occasional prob with the machine - sometimes when I use external HDD's I lose any internal HDD connected to the Jmicron SATA controller - to date I have done the following - I must emphasis that the failures to boot and the freezes are quite rare - hence why i haven't started again...
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Jmicron controllers tend to be poor and buggy on any board.

the Northbridge of the DS3 is very hot, despite no overclock
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The Intel northbridge runs pretty hot by design and with a Q6600 on P965 you are putting a heavy load on the board.

The IX38 will support a Q6600 (and the rest) well, you shouldn't have any problems reliability wise.
 
Ok,

well I received the Motherboard and installed it - i tried to use my current HDD with XP SP3 on it - it blue screened a number of times - i managed to get it working, however 3dmark2006 caused an error at the end of the test, when you press the button to look at the results.

I decided to do a fresh install - all has gone well - until, that is, I installed 3dmark2006 and the same error appeared - an issue with kernell32.dll - I can't get it to work - i can only find one other such problem on the web - and that was for the same motherboard - any ideas much appreciated.

I have installed all updates for windows Home edition SP3 - all updates to the motherboad drivers have been installed and that is it - the CPU has not been overclocked.

Spec as below - minus the 160 gig internal drive and the MB has changed to the IX38 QuadGT.

Many thanks
 
an issue with kernell32.dll - I can't get it to work - i can only find one other such problem on the web - and that was for the same motherboard - any ideas much appreciated.
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What is the exact error? We are talking about a program error aren't we? Not a BSOD?

Does everything else work, games and such?
 
it is a programme error - it appears after 3dmark has run and you need to click the link to see the score - the error that appears states that 3dmark06.exe has encountered a prob with kernel32.dll.

i have not installed any games as of yet - but feel confident that they should run as *** game demos in 3dmark run.

any help much appreciated.
 
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