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E6600 woes
- Thread starter cerebrex
- Start date
while at fry's, check out oem e6600, it might be week 30... that's where I got mine, works fine. L630B something, default vid is 1.225, looks like an excellent clocker, at 1.325vcore which was default for my week 42 chip, I could bring it up to 3.3ghz, ran 8 hours Orthos stable (week 42 would go up to 3.06 @1.325v)... It runs hot but with your watercooling, it won't be a problem
I really don't want to spend another 300 bucks atm
I'm broke.Gigabyte has a great windows based flash utility. I have not flashed via floppy in years since I have not isntalled one in that long
I've heard bad things about that, everyone seems to suggest using a floppy for some reason, already got the disks now
I'll put them to use.I've heard bad things about that, everyone seems to suggest using a floppy for some reason, already got the disks now
Me and floppy's don't get along.. we go back a long way... the drive didn't work, believe it or not, so in a fit of rage I picked it up, and smashed it against my wall and it exploded.
anyways, I used @bios as Rapture recommended.. I didn't care anymore.. flashed to F10 and it worked (scary though, program stopped responding and had video errors in it) I'm at 3.2GHz again... I think there was something wrong with my old bios.. but im not sure.. im going to reboot and see if the cold boot problem is still there.
Okay, problems again, took me an hour to get the board to post.. i have to walk away and come back and try... 90% of the time it locks before it even posts even on failsafe... sometimes i can get the bios screen to load and it will lock up in the settings... dont expect to see any posts from me for a while, i assume the board is about to completely die and ill be replacing it with an aw9max in the upcoming weeks.
TheRapture
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 31, 2000
- Messages
- 6,885
That sure sucks. That is so reminiscent of my problem, before I found out I had a small grounding out issue on the back of the board. The fucker would post about 1 in 20 tries and when it didn't, I could put my ear close to the top of the cpu socket area by some little mosfet's and could hear a slight buzzing........what waterblock do you have? I assume it has a steel/metal backplate, are you sure it is not barely touching a solder point on the back of the board?
Z
Zinn
Guest
Man, I just read through this whole thread and I'm pretty sure that a better title would have been "DS3 woes" and a better place would have been the Intel mobo forum. I'm really surprised that you've been as patient as you have! I was having the exact same types of issues with my S3 board and I tried a lot of stuff to make it work, but at the point when I read that you drilled out the NB sink mounting holes my eyes just kinda bugged out
I lost patience long before that point and got rid of the board.My main problem with the board was yours: settings would work sometimes, but they wouldn't "stick" and the board would flake out and need to be reset. Before buying that board, I did the same research that you claimed to have done, so all the issues were that much more disappointing.
To make things worse, my following 680i board was more of a dud. It just wouldn't work with my memory and the whole thing turned into a terrible mess after an RMA. If you're still considering a 680i board, make sure that people are successfully using it with your exact model of memory. The issues it as giving me were some of the most frustrating I've ever encountered, and to this day I stand by my assertion that the EVGA 680i is the worst motherboard I have ever used in 10+ years of high-end PC building.
I'm currently on an ABIT AB9 QuadGT board, which is a little more expensive than the DS3, a little less expensive than the 680i, and a hell of a lot more stable and reliable than both of them. I had this thing going at 450 FSB at day 1 and the only thing holding me back from a 3.5ghz OC on my E6300 is cooling. I like this board
I've got to say again, I really admire your patience and your perserverence. But it really sounds like you've maxed out your options with the DS3 and the thing is just a dud (which happens). I think you might do well to settle for your 3.0ghz OC for now and start looking into a replacement for that board. I doubt the issue is something an RMA will resolve
Looks like you chose Abit as well... thou shalt not veer... how are the bios updates, any outstanding problems with them?Man, I just read through this whole thread and I'm pretty sure that a better title would have been "DS3 woes" and a better place would have been the Intel mobo forum. I'm really surprised that you've been as patient as you have! I was having the exact same types of issues with my S3 board and I tried a lot of stuff to make it work, but at the point when I read that you drilled out the NB sink mounting holes my eyes just kinda bugged out
My main problem with the board was yours: settings would work sometimes, but they wouldn't "stick" and the board would flake out and need to be reset. Before buying that board, I did the same research that you claimed to have done, so all the issues were that much more disappointing.
To make things worse, my following 680i board was more of a dud. It just wouldn't work with my memory and the whole thing turned into a terrible mess after an RMA. If you're still considering a 680i board, make sure that people are successfully using it with your exact model of memory. The issues it as giving me were some of the most frustrating I've ever encountered, and to this day I stand by my assertion that the EVGA 680i is the worst motherboard I have ever used in 10+ years of high-end PC building.
I'm currently on an ABIT AB9 QuadGT board, which is a little more expensive than the DS3, a little less expensive than the 680i, and a hell of a lot more stable and reliable than both of them. I had this thing going at 450 FSB at day 1 and the only thing holding me back from a 3.5ghz OC on my E6300 is cooling. I like this board
I've got to say again, I really admire your patience and your perserverence. But it really sounds like you've maxed out your options with the DS3 and the thing is just a dud (which happens). I think you might do well to settle for your 3.0ghz OC for now and start looking into a replacement for that board. I doubt the issue is something an RMA will resolve
Z
Zinn
Guest
You asked me about the BIOS but I'm just going to do a brain dump about the board if you don't mind.
The latest beta BIOS is okay. For overclocking, it is nothing short of awesome. The level of control the board gives you over all of the features and system monitoring is phenomenal. This is the first motherboard I've owned where the Windows overclocking / bios tool isn't a complete waste of time. Also the first board that lets me choose the FSB strap in BIOS.
On the other hand, I have to run the beta BIOS in order to even be able to boot the thing. The board with stock BIOS just didn't play nice with my IDE hard drive, and even now there are a couple of issues with my IDE DVD burner (I can't burn DVDs through Explorer, I have to use Nero or a similar tool)
Really, the IDE issues are the only problems I have with this board. Vdroop isn't too bad, (not nearly as bad as some ASUS boards I've used where voltages would bounce all over the place), the Port 80 LED display is nice for debugging a failed OC, the overall quality and layout is great.
The board has several blue LEDs on the backside that dance around and put on a light show. I found this very annoying as my PC is in my bedroom and the moving lights would be a distraction when I was trying to sleep. Luckily the BIOS lets you control the movement patterns, turn off all of the LEDS or just set all of them to "Always on."
Oh there's this cool switch on the back that lets you clear CMOS without pulling any jumpers. NICE!
Probably the most curious thing about the board is its ability to run 500 FSB at the 1066 FSB strap, yet still maintain very low northbridge temperatures. After dealing with the Gigabyte S3, my first inclination was to slap more cooling on the chipset, but this thing barely heats up, and it's not because the heatpipe cooler sucks. I'm not sure how they did it... perhaps the NB is running on a lower transistor size than first-run 965 chipsets?? But the board most definitely goes higher than my S3 and I'm RAM limited to find out how much higher. You are not going to be stuck at 334 FSB here. More like 515+ (more than most sane people with E6600s will ever need)
I'm not advocating that you necessarily run out and buy this board. The problems with IDE and the fact that you still need to run a beta BIOS are kinda lame. But I definitely think this board is worth considering, I've been wildly successful overclocking it (and I'd take it over 680i any day!)
The latest beta BIOS is okay. For overclocking, it is nothing short of awesome. The level of control the board gives you over all of the features and system monitoring is phenomenal. This is the first motherboard I've owned where the Windows overclocking / bios tool isn't a complete waste of time. Also the first board that lets me choose the FSB strap in BIOS.
On the other hand, I have to run the beta BIOS in order to even be able to boot the thing. The board with stock BIOS just didn't play nice with my IDE hard drive, and even now there are a couple of issues with my IDE DVD burner (I can't burn DVDs through Explorer, I have to use Nero or a similar tool)
Really, the IDE issues are the only problems I have with this board. Vdroop isn't too bad, (not nearly as bad as some ASUS boards I've used where voltages would bounce all over the place), the Port 80 LED display is nice for debugging a failed OC, the overall quality and layout is great.
The board has several blue LEDs on the backside that dance around and put on a light show. I found this very annoying as my PC is in my bedroom and the moving lights would be a distraction when I was trying to sleep. Luckily the BIOS lets you control the movement patterns, turn off all of the LEDS or just set all of them to "Always on."
Oh there's this cool switch on the back that lets you clear CMOS without pulling any jumpers. NICE!
Probably the most curious thing about the board is its ability to run 500 FSB at the 1066 FSB strap, yet still maintain very low northbridge temperatures. After dealing with the Gigabyte S3, my first inclination was to slap more cooling on the chipset, but this thing barely heats up, and it's not because the heatpipe cooler sucks. I'm not sure how they did it... perhaps the NB is running on a lower transistor size than first-run 965 chipsets?? But the board most definitely goes higher than my S3 and I'm RAM limited to find out how much higher. You are not going to be stuck at 334 FSB here. More like 515+ (more than most sane people with E6600s will ever need)
I'm not advocating that you necessarily run out and buy this board. The problems with IDE and the fact that you still need to run a beta BIOS are kinda lame. But I definitely think this board is worth considering, I've been wildly successful overclocking it (and I'd take it over 680i any day!)
If abit has had any problems ever, it would be IDE issues... their controllers had a lot of problems back when XP was new... had to load the driver independently, and it was a big hassle... however the board was rock solid for overclocking. Considering my only IDE drive is my dvd burner, it isnt that important to me. Right now I'm split between the quadgt or the aw9max.
Here we go again, grab your wellbutrin.
I have flashed to the F11a Bios... it is currently in alpha stage, and not available on their website. Gigabyte has claimed this fixes the cold boot issues. I've had it flashed for approx 20 minutes.. here are the results (so far, for what that's worth):
Load Failsafe defaults
Flash to F11a, booted into windows, ran orthos @ stock voltage/fsb - verified stable.
reboot.
Overclocked to 3.0GHz (stable settings I've memorized - this OC has always worked) ran orthos - verified stable.
reboot.
Overclocked to 3.2GHz @ 1.40vcore - reboot on windows load, @1.425v - lock on desktop, @1.45v boot into windows. running Orthos momentarily - base:
This is where I'm at now, again I've made it to 3.2GHz. Now, if you've followed this thread, you would know that this really doesn't mean anything, it's happened before... if it runs in orthos stable for 5 hours... that really doesn't mean anything - because the motherboard will wipe it out and never even POST the exact same settings again. I'm about to begin orthos stability testing - I am starting at a lower than stable voltage as tested on my previous bios to see if voltage management has had any improvements across the new bios.
Since the initial flash to the first 3.0GHz OC, I have yet to experience the cold boot bug - however the settings I'm using I already know to be stable (at the motherboard's discretion of course). However, I experienced the same conditions after the last few bios flashes -temporary salvation.
A few minutes later failed:
I was seeing some outrageous vdroop... down to 1.33vcore during load... that seems a bit extreme to me... any thoughts?
I'm going to ramp it up to 1.4925vcore - as previous tests verified to be very stable.
I've rebooted and I'm now running Orthos.. I expect this to be stable - however I am running much more lax memory timings and less voltage across the fsb & vdimm.. I noticed my vcore was 1.21v after boot... I must have left some voltage throttling on in the bios or something.. that's really odd.
I have flashed to the F11a Bios... it is currently in alpha stage, and not available on their website. Gigabyte has claimed this fixes the cold boot issues. I've had it flashed for approx 20 minutes.. here are the results (so far, for what that's worth):
Load Failsafe defaults
Flash to F11a, booted into windows, ran orthos @ stock voltage/fsb - verified stable.
reboot.
Overclocked to 3.0GHz (stable settings I've memorized - this OC has always worked) ran orthos - verified stable.
reboot.
Overclocked to 3.2GHz @ 1.40vcore - reboot on windows load, @1.425v - lock on desktop, @1.45v boot into windows. running Orthos momentarily - base:
This is where I'm at now, again I've made it to 3.2GHz. Now, if you've followed this thread, you would know that this really doesn't mean anything, it's happened before... if it runs in orthos stable for 5 hours... that really doesn't mean anything - because the motherboard will wipe it out and never even POST the exact same settings again. I'm about to begin orthos stability testing - I am starting at a lower than stable voltage as tested on my previous bios to see if voltage management has had any improvements across the new bios.
Since the initial flash to the first 3.0GHz OC, I have yet to experience the cold boot bug - however the settings I'm using I already know to be stable (at the motherboard's discretion of course). However, I experienced the same conditions after the last few bios flashes -temporary salvation.
A few minutes later failed:
I was seeing some outrageous vdroop... down to 1.33vcore during load... that seems a bit extreme to me... any thoughts?
I'm going to ramp it up to 1.4925vcore - as previous tests verified to be very stable.
I've rebooted and I'm now running Orthos.. I expect this to be stable - however I am running much more lax memory timings and less voltage across the fsb & vdimm.. I noticed my vcore was 1.21v after boot... I must have left some voltage throttling on in the bios or something.. that's really odd.
heh, I think I'm having similar troubles, related to the mobo. CPUs I got are pretty good, orthos stable at 3.3ghz with 1.325vcore and 1.2875vcore (both L630B batch). Anything higher and I'm hitting a mobo fsb wall. Do you think your mobo might have an FSB wall, as well? Although mine does post consistently at the speed I find stable...
Might want to give the alpha F11a bios a shot, it seems to have propped my mobo up again..for how long... who knows.
I just HATE running these high vcore's.... it's absurd! that chip is practically cold under load. I just wonder if some setting could be causing me to have to run these voltages... it just seems like it shouldn't require this. The L640 batch sucks... the new plant must specialize in cutting corners.
Currently I'm typing this @ 3.36GHz - the highest I've ever booted into windows at. I froze on desktop @ 1.50v - upped to 1.525v to save myself the drama of several locks, I'll jump big increments, find stability, and click it down. - Still no cold boot issues. Orthos fails in mere seconds.. my vcore in windows via cpuz is 1.213v... wtf is this?! it doesn't throttle up under load like it did at 3.2GHz.. it stays there..locked...what could cause this?
same exact shit, all the way to 3.6GHz and then it took a crap and won't post anything over 3.0GHz... same.. exact... thing.
except, this time I called the processors bluff and put 1.60vcore to it.. and it posted at 3.2... and then I was able to back it down from 1.60-> 1.55-> 1.50-> 1.4975 and here I am in windows... wtf is up with that?
except, this time I called the processors bluff and put 1.60vcore to it.. and it posted at 3.2... and then I was able to back it down from 1.60-> 1.55-> 1.50-> 1.4975 and here I am in windows... wtf is up with that?
1.213 is what cpuz reports when going >1.44v in most boards with c2d. don't worry and use a different source to track vcore.
also, 1.6v I've found to not always work right. I've found the last reliable vcore to the highest 1.59xxv. Some have said it's even lower, so it may depend on the board.
well, even so it's ridiculous...
looks like that's all folks... goes to show cooling isn't the answer to everything... 17c idle - 44c load temp and I can't break 3.2GHz -- sad.
TheRapture
Supreme [H]ardness
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- May 31, 2000
- Messages
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I still think your cpu may be kinda weak.......maybe even a combination of a sketchy board AND a weak overclocking cpu.
In your case, I *think* I would be trying a different cpu, if that is the same, then try a different mobo...either way, one of them is a weak link it appears. Hard to determine WHICH it is though....
exactly, thats why I'm attempting to trade for an older batch on the for sale/trade section.
yeah but my CPU is lapped... really wouldn't help me, I can't swap them out.
You know, it's really time to take the gloves off.. I've been more than patient in trying to tailor to the needs of this piece of shit motherboard. This is by far, the worst product I've ever purchased, and no I don't think I'm jumping to conclusions, it's shit to the furthest degree possible. Read all 8 pages of this thread, and you will see I really do have the patience of Gandhi. This motherboard has failed at every single opportunity it has to screw up. It cannot save a single bios setting, if you leave the computer running (at any clock rate, even failsafe) it locks up after a few hours, and then when you reboot it, it won't boot, it just continually resets itself until you clear the cmos (with a button I had to wire into the motherboard, since if you want to do anything, you have to reset the cmos). Some days you can overclock to 3.6GHz, some days it won't boot with failsafe settings... some days it benchmarks and stress tests 3.4GHz, the next day none of the exact same settings even work. If you call gigabyte up on the phone, the customer service reps become angry at you for having problems, how dare you not accept our shitty hardware. And secondly, it's worth mentioning they can barely even speak the language. If you question ANY of their ridiculous run-you-in-circles reasoning, they instantly tell you to RMA the hardware. If you go to gigabyte's website, and click on "support" for "end users" you go right the RMA section, there isn't even a "FAQ" it's just instantly "RMA our mis-manufactured crap, we already know it's our hardware that is your problem."
I can't say enough bad things about this company. On every single overclocking, or computer gaming forum, you can find literally hundreds of posts about these motherboards having these same cold boot issues, all these incompatibility problems, etc.. etc.. etc.... Hell, even gigabyte knows it's a huge problem, they are frantically shitting out bios updates (what, were on bios #11 in 5 months? seriously, that's ridiculous) every OTHER week... no exaggeration.
I refuse to pay for this piece of shit, I'm packing it up tomorrow and sending it back to newegg for a refund and credit to an abit motherboard. If anyone purchases a DS3 you can got to be out of your damn mind.
Oh, and the very last thing that was un-tested... my processor? I ran it on a buddies AW9MAX this evening... at 3.8GHz.. after 2hrs in orthos, I pulled it out and came home to write this post. Now, it's rock solid evident what the real problem here is... gigabyte.
I can't say enough bad things about this company. On every single overclocking, or computer gaming forum, you can find literally hundreds of posts about these motherboards having these same cold boot issues, all these incompatibility problems, etc.. etc.. etc.... Hell, even gigabyte knows it's a huge problem, they are frantically shitting out bios updates (what, were on bios #11 in 5 months? seriously, that's ridiculous) every OTHER week... no exaggeration.
I refuse to pay for this piece of shit, I'm packing it up tomorrow and sending it back to newegg for a refund and credit to an abit motherboard. If anyone purchases a DS3 you can got to be out of your damn mind.
Oh, and the very last thing that was un-tested... my processor? I ran it on a buddies AW9MAX this evening... at 3.8GHz.. after 2hrs in orthos, I pulled it out and came home to write this post. Now, it's rock solid evident what the real problem here is... gigabyte.
And, poetically, moments after I made this post, I walked away to grab some water, came back and the screen was black with a cursor blinking... I reset the computer, it again started shutting down and powering on, so I reset the cmos (of course) and it posted, and then went to the black screen with the cursor... what's it doing now you ask? It's failing to show the DMI pool data now... unfreakingbelievable... it's shittiness runs on a logarithmic curve.
Every motherboard has its quirks..... My commando is no different, it can be running for a few days straight then if I reboot for some reason, sometimes itll boot, sometimes I have to unplug reboot ( goes to default ) and reboot again lol......
Which Abit are you looking at? the QuadGT? I heard its a good board but it has some bios issues, not sure if thats resolved yet...... I would take a look at the dfi 965 and 680i boards, they should be out soon.....
Anyways, good luck.....
Which Abit are you looking at? the QuadGT? I heard its a good board but it has some bios issues, not sure if thats resolved yet...... I would take a look at the dfi 965 and 680i boards, they should be out soon.....
Anyways, good luck.....
yeah everyone says the DFI.. it's either that, the quad gt, or the aw9max... anything is better than this boat anchor...
but no, this board doesn't have "quirks" I can deal with "quirks" this board is trash, there's no question... you can't call all the problems I've had "quirks"... failing to function is no "quirk"
I hope the DFI boards won't be sold out forever.
TheRapture
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 31, 2000
- Messages
- 6,885
Who knows, just because you have a bunk board (or cpu) you might get another identical board and have great luck.
I swore years ago I would never buy Abit again because of getting two shitty KT7's in a row.....but eventually I did....and I got a nice Abit AN8 that is still working flawlessly right now at a friend's house.
Good luck in whatever you get, I hope that one does not have problems too.
I swore years ago I would never buy Abit again because of getting two shitty KT7's in a row.....but eventually I did....and I got a nice Abit AN8 that is still working flawlessly right now at a friend's house.
Good luck in whatever you get, I hope that one does not have problems too.
Oh, I'm flexible, and I'm not saying I'll never buy another gigabyte product... but at the moment, I've very very pissed off about this whole situation.... mostly mad at myself for going out on a limb and buying a product which I normally would not do.. and it bit me in the ass... so from that experience, and my initial intuition I'm going to go back to abit... for now... I'm not just stuck on one company.. I'm just really turned off by gigabyte... every aspect of the company aggravated me.
TheRapture
Supreme [H]ardness
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- May 31, 2000
- Messages
- 6,885
I think many of you may be blaming the board when in fact your cpu is just maxed out. cerebrex's issue is totally different, but if you board runs your cpu at say, 3200 or 3300 perfectly, but won't do 3400, well, it looks like the cpu is maxed. The cpu speed is not limitless after all
Ok, i got stable at 3.2Ghz. Now, orthos running at 3.3. And cerebrex, how did you flash your BIOS? I couldn't OC at all when i used BIOS utility from Windows. The MB was crazy and couldn't OC well. So, i flashed using floppy and things got changed.
they always change whenever I flash, and I begin to work my way up to the higher OC's my processor/hardware is meant for... and it freaks out and fucks up and won't do shit again. I've gone from F7 to F9 to F10, to F11a beta.... each time it gets stable, fixes cold boots... then I push it to 3.0GHz stable, 3.2GHz stable, 3.4GHz stable 3.6GHz stable and then it will crash, start cold booting, no longer boot ANY overclock which has already been verified as stable through tens of hours of orthos, etc.. sometimes it won't even boot on fail safe settings.. it will hard lock in the bios itself... ridiculous.
3.0GHz has seemed to be the most reliable of all my OC's.... I believe this all to be motherboard related through an arduous and intensely patient troubleshooting process you can see demonstrated in the pages before this. 3.0GHz proves to be just as stable verified through stress testing as 3.2GHz, 3.4GHz, etc.. however it seems to "stick" more often.. but even then it will fail to post on the same settings occasionally... and the system hard locks sometimes for no reason... normally only after 10 hours idle.. the system is water cooled, and nothing ever gets hot.
update: started bluescreening in vista for some reason... then the computer would no longer post... pulled out one of my ballistix sticks and it booted back into windows.. restarted, put it back in, wouldn't post. pulled the other stick out, put the stick in the primary slot.. wouldn't post... it would appear either my memory module suddenly blew itself up, or my motherboard has taken it's first victim... upon searching the net... there are many reports of this motherboard damaging memory...
*again, sets "piece of shit bar" even higher.*
*again, sets "piece of shit bar" even higher.*
lol my p5b just got better than ever. i put a water block on the northbridge and a fan on the south and now 500fsb is flawless
oh well. guess dfi will still be good for 1066strap and hardcore bios