Help with Q6600 on a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R

Try different ram slots, instead of 1&3 or whatever try 2&4. On my Amd x2 system the ram in slots 1&3 caused instability and 2&4 worked great.
 
Try different ram slots, instead of 1&3 or whatever try 2&4. On my Amd x2 system the ram in slots 1&3 caused instability and 2&4 worked great.
That's a good idea.

Well, I tried, and now it's back to frozen before POST. And I can't seem to clear CMOS anymore. I've been trying to all day, been waiting from 1 minute to hours, too many times attempted, absolutely nothing. It just boots for one second and turns off, then 5 seconds later again, and again.. When I reconnect a HDD it boots up and freezes before a POST beep - all fans and lights running at full speed but it just never stops, frozen.

I'm getting worried about the battery holder breaking from me having to take out and replace so many times. I've also been using a jumper, nothing.


Awwgh.. What should I do now? :(
I don't even know what to google now..
 
RMA the board. I wouldn't be putting up with that for much longer.

Eh, soundes like everything was fine and the more he messed with it, the more problems creeped up. I think the problems are self inflicted...
 
Your control voltage is 1.27? That sounds odd. I thought base voltage was 1.3. I am currently running about 1.35 I believe in order to maintain 3.01Ghz. (I have the same board and processor). I did have to use the manual RAM timings as my ram (OCZ Gold) was not properly detected.
 
Your control voltage is 1.27? That sounds odd. I thought base voltage was 1.3. I am currently running about 1.35 I believe in order to maintain 3.01Ghz. (I have the same board and processor). I did have to use the manual RAM timings as my ram (OCZ Gold) was not properly detected.

VID varies from chip to chip. My VID is 1.275, which is all my chip needs to maintain 3.0. I've seen some VID's as high as 1.325, and as low as 1.225. It all luck of the draw.
 
If you're willing I'd do this...

1. Disassemble everything and reassemble it together (make sure to clear CMOS after reassembling).
2. Start off with stock speeds and measure temperatures from there first, if you're not comfortable with the temperatures, I'd say it's time to replace something.
3. Up the clocks much slower (example: 5-10 MHz a day) and stability test.

It seems like you've been pushing your CPU way too quickly and haven't really let it break-in.

Also, in regards to temperature make sure you're applying the thermal pastes like this: http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf
 
Wow, i didnt know the voltage varied from chip to chip, i guess i got real lucky on mine. Im doin 3ghz with 1.20 volts (what is detected as the stock voltage). My true should be in today and i would really like to see what it can do. But back on topic im out of ideas besides an rma. Try to swap parts if u can but i would look at replacing something soon.
 
I run the exact same board and cpu. Heres my settings. Maybe I can help.

First of all, are you using the latest bios? Get the F11 bios off the gigabyte site. This bios version has been the most stable for me.

Also, how are you resetting the cmos? Are you placing a metal object, like a screwdriver, on the two cmos pins? Thats how I do it and its described in the manual.

CPU Host Freq: 360
CPU Clock Ratio: 9x
PCI Express Freq: 100
C.I.A.2 - Disabled
System Memory Multiplyer - 2.0
High Speed DRAM DLL Setting: ----- no idea what this is. Its not available on my bios
Performance Enhance: Extreme --> this made it more stable for me somehow
Voltage: Manual, all at normal.
CPU Voltage Control: 1.2875 <-- increase if it wont post
RAM: use your default voltage

This should get you 3.24~

what are your ram timings? You should try 5-5-5-15 as well.
 
I also have your same exact setup and I fail Prime95 every time but I am stable everywhere else. My quad runs hot and my Tuniq is cool to the touch everywhere (reseated it at least 8 times with new thermal paste each time, and lapped both HSF and IHS, so it's not contact)

It's either the motherboard or the processor
 
23 hours of no battery and completely powerless, and it didn't clear anything.

But I got it working!
After trying random things I got it to progress on booting normally then I turn it off, turn it on, and beep, POST! Whoo-hoo! (And I reseated the RAM in the 2&4 instead of 1&3 before this, so I still have it in 2&4.)
But now I'm scared to shut down.... lol

Windows works full speed and CPU usage is under 3% mostly.
39C, 37C, 35C, 35C is what HWmonitor shows me - this is of course idle on stock 2.4GHz.

One thing I noticed, in bios I kept seeing "PINH" on my hardware as a HDD with 0MB. IDE 4th, and it was Master, not Slave. No clue what this is. It was showing my 2 DVD drives, 2 HDDs, and PINH. But right before I got it working, I yanked the IDE cable out (which only has my 2 DVD Drives since my HDDs are SATA) and my 2 DVD drives and PINH were gone. What is PINH (motherboard read as a HDD with 0MB) doing on my IDE cable that has my 2 DVD drives?
This may be related to this, I had the computer turn on (but not POST) differently when I had a HDD connected or disconnected. And I had it freeze most of the time with a HDD, but less without any HDDs. Could "PINH" be in the middle of this? What is PINH?

Well I have windows running fine right now, but I really am scared to restart or shut down. I'll enjoy this until it either shuts down on me randomly (please no! :( ) or I absolutely need to restart for something VERY important.


RMA the board. I wouldn't be putting up with that for much longer.
Looks like I might need to if this keeps up. But I got the board a while ago, well over 5 months probably - I wouldn't be able to, would I?

If you're willing I'd do this...

1. Disassemble everything and reassemble it together (make sure to clear CMOS after reassembling).
2. Start off with stock speeds and measure temperatures from there first, if you're not comfortable with the temperatures, I'd say it's time to replace something.
3. Up the clocks much slower (example: 5-10 MHz a day) and stability test.

It seems like you've been pushing your CPU way too quickly and haven't really let it break-in.

Also, in regards to temperature make sure you're applying the thermal pastes like this: http://www.arcticsilver.com/pdf/appinstruct/as5/ins_as5_intel_quad_wcap.pdf
1. Have done before.
2. That's basically where this thread starts, but I've been doing that before this thread.

3 however.. Caught red handed. I did adjust the clocks fast, a few times from 2.4 to 3.2. (nothing higher than 3.2 however). Could this actually do any damage?

And yes, I've read through the pdf a number of times just to be sure. :p

I run the exact same board and cpu. Heres my settings. Maybe I can help.

First of all, are you using the latest bios? Get the F11 bios off the gigabyte site. This bios version has been the most stable for me.

Also, how are you resetting the cmos? Are you placing a metal object, like a screwdriver, on the two cmos pins? Thats how I do it and its described in the manual.

CPU Host Freq: 360
CPU Clock Ratio: 9x
PCI Express Freq: 100
C.I.A.2 - Disabled
System Memory Multiplyer - 2.0
High Speed DRAM DLL Setting: ----- no idea what this is. Its not available on my bios
Performance Enhance: Extreme --> this made it more stable for me somehow
Voltage: Manual, all at normal.
CPU Voltage Control: 1.2875 <-- increase if it wont post
RAM: use your default voltage

This should get you 3.24~

what are your ram timings? You should try 5-5-5-15 as well.
Thanks for those settings, gives me a stable target to aim for.

I am not using the latest bios. I am actually using F4 and haven't updated ever. (I guess I figured bios that come with motherboard will work fine :p ) Will try to update them. Could this possibly solve all my problems though?

I am clearing CMOS by using the black little jumper that comes with the mobo, and also by removing the battery. And lastest time after 23 hours it still didn't clear.

RAM timings are 5-5-5-18.

I also have your same exact setup and I fail Prime95 every time but I am stable everywhere else. My quad runs hot and my Tuniq is cool to the touch everywhere (reseated it at least 8 times with new thermal paste each time, and lapped both HSF and IHS, so it's not contact)

It's either the motherboard or the processor
That's what it seems like to me.. And from all that I've read, I don't think trying to lap the CPU and cooler(s) would help, much. So I won't even try.
 
Oh man, you're not on F11? Update that shit pronto tonto. Not all, but some people (including myself) have seen more stability out of the latest bios.
 
I had to shut down, and now it's back to 1 second startups. Argh.. And once again clearing CMOS does nothing.

How can I update my BIOS? I downloaded F11 and have read that I need to put the 2 extracted files on a floppy or cd. But what exactly do I do to update them?
Would it be olright to update them through WIndows, through Gigabyte's @BIOS software?

If ever I'll be able to get it to boot...
 
Ive used the @bios utility and it worked just fine. I would kill all unnecessary processes before u do this though. Also try to have a cleared bios if u can.
 
I have used @bios, the gigabyte software as well, and it works fine. But many don't recommend to do so via windows, for reason's im not sure of.

Just make sure you do it on default clock settings, so theres less risk of windows crashing on the bios update.
 
Ok, will be first thing I do once I get the computer running. I'll try through BIOS just to be careful. Well, if I can get it running again. :(

Any idea on what I can do to get it to POST? It's currently in it's 1 second run cycle again, and if I connect a HDD it keeps going but no POST or video.
Once I get around this annoying thing, it runs fine, getting out of this crazy cycle is the hard part..
 
Man, are you SURE you don't have a piece of bad hardware in there somewhere? Try taking everything out and only booting with bare essentials. No harddrives, no optical drives, 1 stick of ram and the cheapest video card you can find. Check EVERYTHING. Make sure the harddrive PCB isn't grounding out to the case somehow.

You're system is haunted. You better call TAPS.
 
You're system is haunted. You better call Ghostbusters.

Fixed!

To the OP, at this point you may want to try running the mootherboard in a minimum configuration outside of the case. It makes it easier to deal with and eliminates the possibility of a short somewhere. Also it makes any more parts swapping super easy, and you would have to take out the mobo to RMA it anyway.

Take the motherboard, reset the CMOS via jumper, test with one stick of RAM, the CPU + cooler, and a crappy PCIE card, nothing extra connected, and see what happens.
 
Motherboard out on a cardboard box, crappy video card, CPU with cooler, 1 RAM stick, power button, and of course the power supply. Same thing. Starts for a second and dies. 4-5 seconds later again. And over and over again.

I hope it's the motherboard and not the ram, cpu, or power supply. I tested the power supply and it gives the right voltages, but you never know.. I went through two last year for an older sytem, and one of them seemed to be working fine until tested on another system.

Will try to RMA, Newegg probably won't since it's been so long, then I guess it's to Gigabyte directly..

Argh, that means it'll probably be at least another 2 weeks before I can have it working.. :mad:
 
Ok, fans spin without CPU, so that mean it's not the power supply. Problem still exists without any RAM, so it's not the RAM. I just tried a Pentium 4 processor and the problems still exists. Meaning it is definitely the motherboard, most likely the CPU holdster or something. And this would make a lot of sense with it working sometimes, turning off randomly, being under pressure and having high temps.

Gigabyte tech support was very helpful. Requested RMA. Will update this thread once I get it back or get a new motherboard.
 
It shouldnt even post with NO ram or cpu...
But anyhow, good luck with the RMA.
 
Yeah, I know. I was testing whether it was the power supply maybe.

Thanks, just got an email saying it may take up to 2 business days.. argh.
 
sup greenman.

I had almost the EXACT same problems as you describe, using DS3R/Q6600/G.Skill 2x2GB DDR2-1066.

I could NOT get my mem to work on slots 1 & 3, at least not reliably. 2 and 4 worked much better, I actually did my troubleshooting with slot 4. I ended up finding that the stick of ram that was merely flaky in my other slots, was completely inoperable in slot 4. System acted the same as if no mem was inserted at all for one particular stick. Ended up having to RMA the G.Skill. Problem solved.

I think I was running P05 at the time I was having problems.... couldn't swear to it though.

Just my experience.
 
Hmm.. did it work fine before the problem for you? And did it sometimes get out of the cycle and boot normally? Because it did for me..
 
Alright.. Got it all fixed. :)

RMA'ed the motherboard ($9), 3 weeks later I get it back in the exact same state, with the same problem. They tested the motherboard and it passed every test.
Thinking the only other thing it can be is the power supply. So I took it to a local computer shop ($35), they tested the power supply and told me the power supply is giving out an incorrect voltage and could have fried my motherboard. So I RMA the power supply ($10) and give them a call and they send me off another the next day. Recieve it, computer back up, but still extremely slow with CPU usage at 20%. Thought it was infected and did find a Vundo trojan, but that wasn't it. Turn off the computer, push on all the plugs, turn it back on, very slow, then bam, works fine. I look into the hardware more and I have some odd Cd-drive which I do not actually have in the system. I disconnect my 2 DVD-drives and the computer works fine, plug one in, works fine, recognizes it, plug in the other, and niether is found anywhere, though the power on them still works. And when they are both plugged in I get 20% CPU usage. So I threw one out.

This new power supply is very cool to the touch compared to my previous one (same model). So I guess I just had a bad power supply and it corrupted my DVD-drives, or something.
I mentioned "PINH" above, when I only have 1 drive connected and everything works fine, it doesn't show up! DVD-rom drive damaged I guess. It still reads and burns though.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright! Back on the OC scene!
My idle temp is 27C! (I still can't believe it!) At 2.4GHz. :cool:

34C idle now on 3.2GHz, and 56C load.

My normal CPU voltage is: 1.287
Right now stable at: 1.331

Is that too high? Anything lower is not stable.

CPU-Z shows me the Voltage as 1.280v.
 
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