Is my Gigabyte motherboard dying? HELP!

[da2ca]

I have a Gigabyte GA-P35c-DS3R and i am having tons of problems.

Firstly it will not post when cold booted. The fans come on but it does not post. If i leave it with the fans running for a couple of minutes (let it warm up) then hit the reset button it will boot. This has been going on for a couple of months now and its about time i addressed it. Over the last couple of days though i have been getting a post error (3 long beeps) but i cannot find this error in the manual??

When booted i get the “blue screen of death” sometimes after a few minutes or a couple of hours. I get random program crashes especially internet explorer. There is no way i can overclock this thing anymore as i just get the BSOD, so everything is at stock.

What do you people think??? I am thinking motherboard?????

Thanks for any info/advice in advance,

Dave.

 

[The Sorcerer]

Did you try running the blend test via orthos for sometime? Also try using the new bios for gigabyte. Try booting up without the hard drive as well. If it does, connect one of the hard drive and see how it works, after that- unplug the first and plug in the second. Run orthos for around 4-5 hours.

 

[da2ca]

I have tested the ram one stick at a time running memtest (i am using 4 X 1gb ballistix) and no errors were found. If i try using more than one stick though i get memtest errors, boot up problems and crashes.

The pc was running fine for 8-10 Months before this problem started.

Dave.

 

[Youngie1337]

Really sounded like a RAM problem, try updating your BIOS and check for hardware errors on your HDD and maybe check volts on PSU.

 

[da2ca]

Really sounded like a RAM problem, try updating your BIOS and check for hardware errors on your HDD and maybe check volts on PSU.

Well i have just updated my bios.

This did not help as i thought i had killed my board doing the update :eyes: but it booted fine when i left only one stick in.

According to Everest my Hard drive is fine & as for power my 3.3v rail is @ 3.31, 5V @ 5.08 & 12V @ 11.92V

 

[da2ca]

Well after the bios update the PC will NOT BOOT with all 4 stick in not even after being left to warm up. I can boot ok with 1 or 2 sticks in single channel memory mode only???????

Me thinks its time for a new motherboard.... I have been offered an abit IP35 Pro Off Limits For £65 second hand... What do you think, Anyone know this board?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Youngie1337]

Yeah I guess time for a new mobo mate , not had any experience on this board, hope someone can shed some light for you .

 

[BUFF]

Well after the bios update the PC will NOT BOOT with all 4 stick in not even after being left to warm up. I can boot ok with 1 or 2 sticks in single channel memory mode only???????

This could be a RAM problem (Ballistix is known to have a relatively high failure rate) or it could be that after the BIOS update you haven't set the RAM voltage (2.2 iirc for Ballistix) & MCH voltage (usually needs an increase for 4 DIMMs) properly.

 

[da2ca]

This could be a RAM problem (Ballistix is known to have a relatively high failure rate) or it could be that after the BIOS update you haven't set the RAM voltage (2.2 iirc for Ballistix) & MCH voltage (usually needs an increase for 4 DIMMs) properly.

Will check now.

Ram voltage has not altered with the bios update still at 2.2V

 

[The Sorcerer]

That's odd. I have just completed updating windows and now I am getting random BSOD most of the time I restart. Mostly comes allright in last known good configuration.

 

[da2ca]

Well i have lost the pc for now. All the random boots killed windows. At the mo i am on the laptop while re-installing windows on the PC.

 

[k4p84]

Under no reason should you try to update bios if your pc is not stable. Simply since, if it, crashes so often it could crash during flashing, ie brick the board.

If you can get a new board give it a go but it could also be ram failing, you need to run memtest for days sometimes before the error finally shows.

Could be the cpu too, tried reseating etc?

ED

 

[SwaleSmith]

That's odd. I have just completed updating windows and now I am getting random BSOD most of the time I restart. Mostly comes allright in last known good configuration.

are you running vista 64bit by chance????

 

[The Sorcerer]

Vista ultimate sp1 32 bit.

 

[da2ca]

Just a quick update. I tried running one stick at a time and had no errors on any one of the four sticks but using any 2 though, through up an error instantly. So I bit the bullet and purchased a motherboard from these forums but the problem did not disappear. I borrowed 2 X 1gig OCZ ram... And guess what no more errors Grrrrr. Turns out it’s the ram at fault. So I will have to RMA the ram and probably put the board on a well known auction site to recoup some cash.

What’s a Gigabyte GA-P35c-DS3R worth these days?

 

[GavX]

I thought/hoped the Tracer RAM would be a bit moroe reliable than this, I have 4gb on my gaming rig and recently it does sem to be throwing a hissy fit at PC8500 with the stock 2.2v Glad you got your PC sorted, nothing worse than dead motherboards/RAM/components, I went through 5 motherboards this time last year... damn Enermax PSUs

 

[Flash]

not sure?

 

[da2ca]

throwing a hissy fit at PC8500 with the stock 2.2v

A direct quote from crucial support;

There certainly sounds as if there maybe an issue with your modules and we can certainly replace these under warranty.

We have recently changed the voltage of our BALLISTIX ranges as we were noticing a high return rate of the old version.

It is advisable to return all these modules and we will replace these with newer version.