I recently built a new machine with a Gigabyte GA-M770-DS3 board. It
is running XP and was stable for a week or so but now has major
problems and I am not sure where else to look for the problem. I need
to make sure that I find it soon before the Newegg return policy runs
out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The hardware is listed below. I put the machine together with no
problems and XP installed easily. Once the drivers, etc. were
installed from the Gigabyte CD, I then connected to windowsupdate to
get all the latest patches. The computer is running pretty basic
stuff: Win XP Pro SP2, Office 2003, etc. However, based on the latest
behavior I's say I can definitely rule out a software problem.
I first noticed the problem a few days ago. I was in the middle of
watching a video that I had downloaded from the pay service at
Amazon.com. About 20 minutes into the video I got a BSOD.
Unfortunately, the blue screen only stayed for a second or two and
then the machine immediately started rebooting. A little later the
same thing happened. After the next reboot it was stable for a few
hours. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it had tried to
reboot again but it said that it couldn't boot because one of th
esystem files was missing or corrupt.
At this point I assumed that I had gotten a bad hard drive. I shut the
machine off in order to wait until I had more time to deal with it on
the weekend. When I powered it up on the weekend it booted just fine.
Since I had already downloaded the Western Digital drive tester I
decided to run a full test. I watched it for about 1/2 hour and it ran
fine. I left for a few minutes and when I came back the machine had
tried to reboot again. However, this time the BIOS screen was all
messed up. The first several lines (video card, BIOS version, etc.)
were normal but then there were some "garbage " characters and a
couple of lines of inverse video and then more garbage.
I shut the machine down for a few hours and when I powered it back up
it booted fine again.
Normally I would immediately suspect a heat problem with this kind of
behavior. I downloaded the Gigabyte EasyTune Pro in order to monitor
temps and fan speeds. And BTW, I don't do any overclocking. The fans
were normal and the CPU temp never got above 110F. Normally it stayed
around 105F. I opened up the box and reseated the memory and all the
connectors but the problem is still the same. The last time it
rebooted, I didn't get the garbage characters but it hung just before
the device detection.
Here's the config:
- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
Drive
- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
enabling USB keyboard support.
>I recently built a new machine with a Gigabyte GA-M770-DS3 board. It
>is running XP and was stable for a week or so but now has major
>problems and I am not sure where else to look for the problem. I need
>to make sure that I find it soon before the Newegg return policy runs
>out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>The hardware is listed below. I put the machine together with no
>problems and XP installed easily. Once the drivers, etc. were
>installed from the Gigabyte CD, I then connected to windowsupdate to
>get all the latest patches. The computer is running pretty basic
>stuff: Win XP Pro SP2, Office 2003, etc. However, based on the latest
>behavior I's say I can definitely rule out a software problem.
>
>I first noticed the problem a few days ago. I was in the middle of
>watching a video that I had downloaded from the pay service at
>Amazon.com. About 20 minutes into the video I got a BSOD.
>Unfortunately, the blue screen only stayed for a second or two and
>then the machine immediately started rebooting. A little later the
>same thing happened. After the next reboot it was stable for a few
>hours. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it had tried to
>reboot again but it said that it couldn't boot because one of th
>esystem files was missing or corrupt.
Set Windows startup and recovery to not automatically reboot after a
crash.
>
>At this point I assumed that I had gotten a bad hard drive. I shut the
>machine off in order to wait until I had more time to deal with it on
>the weekend. When I powered it up on the weekend it booted just fine.
>Since I had already downloaded the Western Digital drive tester I
>decided to run a full test. I watched it for about 1/2 hour and it ran
>fine. I left for a few minutes and when I came back the machine had
>tried to reboot again. However, this time the BIOS screen was all
>messed up. The first several lines (video card, BIOS version, etc.)
>were normal but then there were some "garbage " characters and a
>couple of lines of inverse video and then more garbage.
>
>I shut the machine down for a few hours and when I powered it back up
>it booted fine again.
>
>Normally I would immediately suspect a heat problem with this kind of
>behavior. I downloaded the Gigabyte EasyTune Pro in order to monitor
>temps and fan speeds. And BTW, I don't do any overclocking. The fans
>were normal and the CPU temp never got above 110F. Normally it stayed
>around 105F. I opened up the box and reseated the memory and all the
>connectors but the problem is still the same. The last time it
>rebooted, I didn't get the garbage characters but it hung just before
>the device detection.
>
>Here's the config:
>
>- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
>- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
>- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
>- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
>- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
>- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
>Drive
>- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
>- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
>- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
>I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
>enabling USB keyboard support.
>
>Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
they're within specs.
Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
After that, I may try a different graphics card.
>I recently built a new machine with a Gigabyte GA-M770-DS3 board. It
>is running XP and was stable for a week or so but now has major
>problems and I am not sure where else to look for the problem. I need
>to make sure that I find it soon before the Newegg return policy runs
>out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>The hardware is listed below. I put the machine together with no
>problems and XP installed easily. Once the drivers, etc. were
>installed from the Gigabyte CD, I then connected to windowsupdate to
>get all the latest patches. The computer is running pretty basic
>stuff: Win XP Pro SP2, Office 2003, etc. However, based on the latest
>behavior I's say I can definitely rule out a software problem.
>
>I first noticed the problem a few days ago. I was in the middle of
>watching a video that I had downloaded from the pay service at
>Amazon.com. About 20 minutes into the video I got a BSOD.
>Unfortunately, the blue screen only stayed for a second or two and
>then the machine immediately started rebooting. A little later the
>same thing happened. After the next reboot it was stable for a few
>hours. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it had tried to
>reboot again but it said that it couldn't boot because one of th
>esystem files was missing or corrupt.
Set Windows startup and recovery to not automatically reboot after a
crash.
>
>At this point I assumed that I had gotten a bad hard drive. I shut the
>machine off in order to wait until I had more time to deal with it on
>the weekend. When I powered it up on the weekend it booted just fine.
>Since I had already downloaded the Western Digital drive tester I
>decided to run a full test. I watched it for about 1/2 hour and it ran
>fine. I left for a few minutes and when I came back the machine had
>tried to reboot again. However, this time the BIOS screen was all
>messed up. The first several lines (video card, BIOS version, etc.)
>were normal but then there were some "garbage " characters and a
>couple of lines of inverse video and then more garbage.
>
>I shut the machine down for a few hours and when I powered it back up
>it booted fine again.
>
>Normally I would immediately suspect a heat problem with this kind of
>behavior. I downloaded the Gigabyte EasyTune Pro in order to monitor
>temps and fan speeds. And BTW, I don't do any overclocking. The fans
>were normal and the CPU temp never got above 110F. Normally it stayed
>around 105F. I opened up the box and reseated the memory and all the
>connectors but the problem is still the same. The last time it
>rebooted, I didn't get the garbage characters but it hung just before
>the device detection.
>
>Here's the config:
>
>- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
>- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
>- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
>- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
>- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
>- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
>Drive
>- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
>- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
>- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
>I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
>enabling USB keyboard support.
>
>Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
they're within specs.
Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
After that, I may try a different graphics card.
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
On Mar 18, 5:33*pm, Andy <1...@2.3> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:23:24 -0700 (PDT), mcbil...@yahoo.com wrote:
> >I recently built a new machine with a Gigabyte GA-M770-DS3 board. It
> >is running XP and was stable for a week or so but now has major
> >problems and I am not sure where else to look for the problem. I need
> >to make sure that I find it soon before the Newegg return policy runs
> >out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> >The hardware is listed below. I put the machine together with no
> >problems and XP installed easily. Once the drivers, etc. were
> >installed from the Gigabyte CD, I then connected to windowsupdate to
> >get all the latest patches. The computer is running pretty basic
> >stuff: Win XP Pro SP2, Office 2003, etc. However, based on the latest
> >behavior I's say I can definitely rule out a software problem.
>
> >I first noticed the problem a few days ago. I was in the middle of
> >watching a video that I had downloaded from the pay service at
> >Amazon.com. About 20 minutes into the video I got a BSOD.
> >Unfortunately, the blue screen only stayed for a second or two and
> >then the machine immediately started rebooting. A little later the
> >same thing happened. After the next reboot it was stable for a few
> >hours. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it had tried to
> >reboot again but it said that it couldn't boot because one of th
> >esystem files was missing or corrupt.
>
> Set Windows startup and recovery to not automatically reboot after a
> crash.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >At this point I assumed that I had gotten a bad hard drive. I shut the
> >machine off in order to wait until I had more time to deal with it on
> >the weekend. When I powered it up on the weekend it booted just fine.
> >Since I had already downloaded the Western Digital drive tester I
> >decided to run a full test. I watched it for about 1/2 hour and it ran
> >fine. I left for a few minutes and when I came back the machine had
> >tried to reboot again. However, this time the BIOS screen was all
> >messed up. The first several lines (video card, BIOS version, etc.)
> >were normal but then there were some "garbage " characters and a
> >couple of lines of inverse video and then more garbage.
>
> >I shut the machine down for a few hours and when I powered it back up
> >it booted fine again.
>
> >Normally I would immediately suspect a heat problem with this kind of
> >behavior. I downloaded the Gigabyte EasyTune Pro in order to monitor
> >temps and fan speeds. And BTW, I don't do any overclocking. The fans
> >were normal and the CPU temp never got above 110F. Normally it stayed
> >around 105F. I opened up the box and reseated the memory and all the
> >connectors but the problem is still the same. The last time it
> >rebooted, I didn't get the garbage characters but it hung just before
> >the device detection.
>
> >Here's the config:
>
> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
> >Drive
> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>
> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
> they're within specs.
> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
On Mar 18, 5:33*pm, Andy <1...@2.3> wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:23:24 -0700 (PDT), mcbil...@yahoo.com wrote:
> >I recently built a new machine with a Gigabyte GA-M770-DS3 board. It
> >is running XP and was stable for a week or so but now has major
> >problems and I am not sure where else to look for the problem. I need
> >to make sure that I find it soon before the Newegg return policy runs
> >out. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> >The hardware is listed below. I put the machine together with no
> >problems and XP installed easily. Once the drivers, etc. were
> >installed from the Gigabyte CD, I then connected to windowsupdate to
> >get all the latest patches. The computer is running pretty basic
> >stuff: Win XP Pro SP2, Office 2003, etc. However, based on the latest
> >behavior I's say I can definitely rule out a software problem.
>
> >I first noticed the problem a few days ago. I was in the middle of
> >watching a video that I had downloaded from the pay service at
> >Amazon.com. About 20 minutes into the video I got a BSOD.
> >Unfortunately, the blue screen only stayed for a second or two and
> >then the machine immediately started rebooting. A little later the
> >same thing happened. After the next reboot it was stable for a few
> >hours. I went to bed and when I got up in the morning it had tried to
> >reboot again but it said that it couldn't boot because one of th
> >esystem files was missing or corrupt.
>
> Set Windows startup and recovery to not automatically reboot after a
> crash.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >At this point I assumed that I had gotten a bad hard drive. I shut the
> >machine off in order to wait until I had more time to deal with it on
> >the weekend. When I powered it up on the weekend it booted just fine.
> >Since I had already downloaded the Western Digital drive tester I
> >decided to run a full test. I watched it for about 1/2 hour and it ran
> >fine. I left for a few minutes and when I came back the machine had
> >tried to reboot again. However, this time the BIOS screen was all
> >messed up. The first several lines (video card, BIOS version, etc.)
> >were normal but then there were some "garbage " characters and a
> >couple of lines of inverse video and then more garbage.
>
> >I shut the machine down for a few hours and when I powered it back up
> >it booted fine again.
>
> >Normally I would immediately suspect a heat problem with this kind of
> >behavior. I downloaded the Gigabyte EasyTune Pro in order to monitor
> >temps and fan speeds. And BTW, I don't do any overclocking. The fans
> >were normal and the CPU temp never got above 110F. Normally it stayed
> >around 105F. I opened up the box and reseated the memory and all the
> >connectors but the problem is still the same. The last time it
> >rebooted, I didn't get the garbage characters but it hung just before
> >the device detection.
>
> >Here's the config:
>
> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
> >Drive
> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>
> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
> they're within specs.
> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
In message
<2b8ed444-2a2d-4e46-8780-b8fb355a583e@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, mcbill20@yahoo.com writes
>>
>> >Here's the config:
>>
>> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
>> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
>> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
>> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
>> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
>> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
>> >Drive
>> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
>> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
>> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>>
>> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
>> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>>
>> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>>
>> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
>> they're within specs.
>> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
>> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
>Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
>also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
>power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
>fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
>
I would go along with Andy and suspect a marginal PSU.
Have you got the OS set up to stop the hard drives when they are idle
for long periods? The crashes seem to happen when the system is
unattended, or you were watching a movie (no KB or Mouse activity).
It may be that the PSU is fine when cold and can cope with the start up
load of the disks; hot it can cope with the steady state load. However
if a drive spins down once things are hot, the re-start load may be
enough to tip the voltages over the edge.
If the OS spins down the disks when idle, it may decide after a period
of time to spin them up (to do something for its own internal reasons).
Under those circumstances the system may simply crash when apparently
sitting idle. In fact its more likely to crash when apparently idle than
under load.
You will probably never see that without some form or recording
voltmeter, however one check you might do is to temporarily disconnect
one (or two) of the hard drives (power and SATA) or the optical. If the
machine is then stable, its probably the PSU that is marginal.
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
In message
<2b8ed444-2a2d-4e46-8780-b8fb355a583e@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, mcbill20@yahoo.com writes
>>
>> >Here's the config:
>>
>> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
>> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
>> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
>> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
>> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
>> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
>> >Drive
>> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
>> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
>> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>>
>> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
>> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>>
>> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>>
>> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
>> they're within specs.
>> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
>> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
>Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
>also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
>power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
>fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
>
I would go along with Andy and suspect a marginal PSU.
Have you got the OS set up to stop the hard drives when they are idle
for long periods? The crashes seem to happen when the system is
unattended, or you were watching a movie (no KB or Mouse activity).
It may be that the PSU is fine when cold and can cope with the start up
load of the disks; hot it can cope with the steady state load. However
if a drive spins down once things are hot, the re-start load may be
enough to tip the voltages over the edge.
If the OS spins down the disks when idle, it may decide after a period
of time to spin them up (to do something for its own internal reasons).
Under those circumstances the system may simply crash when apparently
sitting idle. In fact its more likely to crash when apparently idle than
under load.
You will probably never see that without some form or recording
voltmeter, however one check you might do is to temporarily disconnect
one (or two) of the hard drives (power and SATA) or the optical. If the
machine is then stable, its probably the PSU that is marginal.
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
On Mar 19, 5:24*am, Invalid <n...@wisty.plus.com.invalid> wrote:
> In message
> <2b8ed444-2a2d-4e46-8780-b8fb355a5...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
> mcbil...@yahoo.com writes
>
>
>
>
>
> >> >Here's the config:
>
> >> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
> >> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
> >> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
> >> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
> >> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
> >> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
> >> >Drive
> >> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
> >> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
> >> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
> >> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
> >> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>
> >> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> >> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
> >> they're within specs.
> >> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
> >> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> >Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
> >also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
> >power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
> >fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
>
> I would go along with Andy and suspect a marginal PSU.
>
> Have you got the OS set up to stop the hard drives when they are idle
> for long periods? The crashes seem to happen when the system is
> unattended, or you were watching a movie (no KB or Mouse activity).
>
> It may be that the PSU is fine when cold and can cope with the start up
> load of the disks; hot it can cope with the steady state load. However
> if a drive spins down once things are hot, the re-start load may be
> enough to tip the voltages over the edge.
>
> If the OS spins down the disks when idle, it may decide after a period
> of time to spin them up (to do something for its own internal reasons).
> Under those circumstances the system may simply crash when apparently
> sitting idle. In fact its more likely to crash when apparently idle than
> under load.
>
> * You will probably never see that without some form or recording
> voltmeter, however one check you might do is to temporarily disconnect
> one (or two) of the hard drives (power and SATA) or the optical. If the
> machine is then stable, its probably the PSU that is marginal.
>
> Regards
> --
> Peter R Cook- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
I powered up the machine last night. According to the Easy Tune
software, all the voltages, temps and fan speeds were good. I do not
have the machine set up for any kind of power saving scheme like
powering down the hard drives, etc. I even have hibernation disabled.
The first time I ran the memtest86 program, it ran for around 1/2 hour
without a problem so I then decided to boot it up and try some other
stuff. It ran fine for several hours doing videos, web browsing, etc..
I then shut it down and ran memtest again. After a short time (I don't
know exactly how long), the test halted.
This is very frustrating. I don't know whether or not to keep
troubleshooting or just RMA the power supply, motherboard, video card
and memory and start over.
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
On Mar 19, 5:24*am, Invalid <n...@wisty.plus.com.invalid> wrote:
> In message
> <2b8ed444-2a2d-4e46-8780-b8fb355a5...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
> mcbil...@yahoo.com writes
>
>
>
>
>
> >> >Here's the config:
>
> >> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
> >> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
> >> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
> >> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
> >> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
> >> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
> >> >Drive
> >> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
> >> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
> >> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>
> >> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
> >> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>
> >> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>
> >> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
> >> they're within specs.
> >> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
> >> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> >Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
> >also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
> >power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
> >fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
>
> I would go along with Andy and suspect a marginal PSU.
>
> Have you got the OS set up to stop the hard drives when they are idle
> for long periods? The crashes seem to happen when the system is
> unattended, or you were watching a movie (no KB or Mouse activity).
>
> It may be that the PSU is fine when cold and can cope with the start up
> load of the disks; hot it can cope with the steady state load. However
> if a drive spins down once things are hot, the re-start load may be
> enough to tip the voltages over the edge.
>
> If the OS spins down the disks when idle, it may decide after a period
> of time to spin them up (to do something for its own internal reasons).
> Under those circumstances the system may simply crash when apparently
> sitting idle. In fact its more likely to crash when apparently idle than
> under load.
>
> * You will probably never see that without some form or recording
> voltmeter, however one check you might do is to temporarily disconnect
> one (or two) of the hard drives (power and SATA) or the optical. If the
> machine is then stable, its probably the PSU that is marginal.
>
> Regards
> --
> Peter R Cook- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
I powered up the machine last night. According to the Easy Tune
software, all the voltages, temps and fan speeds were good. I do not
have the machine set up for any kind of power saving scheme like
powering down the hard drives, etc. I even have hibernation disabled.
The first time I ran the memtest86 program, it ran for around 1/2 hour
without a problem so I then decided to boot it up and try some other
stuff. It ran fine for several hours doing videos, web browsing, etc..
I then shut it down and ran memtest again. After a short time (I don't
know exactly how long), the test halted.
This is very frustrating. I don't know whether or not to keep
troubleshooting or just RMA the power supply, motherboard, video card
and memory and start over.
Re: Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3
In message
<89ab77e8-9234-4d4d-84cc-4c2cfa990d54@u69g2000hse.googlegroups.com>, mcbill20@yahoo.com writes
>On Mar 19, 5:24*am, Invalid <n...@wisty.plus.com.invalid> wrote:
>> In message
>> <2b8ed444-2a2d-4e46-8780-b8fb355a5...@a1g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>,
>> mcbil...@yahoo.com writes
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> >> >Here's the config:
>>
>> >> >- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard
>> >> >- XFX GeForce 8600GT 256MB PCI X16 video card
>> >> >- Antec Earthwatts EA500 power supply
>> >> >- AMD Opteron 1218 Santa Ana 2.6GHz dual core processor
>> >> >- 2 x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 8500 memory
>> >> >- 3 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard
>> >> >Drive
>> >> >- 1 Seagate 500MB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
>> >> >- SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
>> >> >- SABRENT CRW-UINB 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader
>>
>> >> >I am not running RAID. The BIOS settings are mostly default other than
>> >> >enabling USB keyboard support.
>>
>> >> >Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
>>
>> >> I would start by measuring the power supply voltages to make sure
>> >> they're within specs.
>> >> Next I would run memtest86+ to check system memory.
>> >> After that, I may try a different graphics card.- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> >> - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> >> - Show quoted text -
>>
>> >Thanks for the suggestions. I'll run the memtest program tonight and
>> >also change the reboot option. What do you recommend for measuring the
>> >power supply? I did download Easy Tune in order to check the temp,
>> >fans and voltages. The voltages seemed OK. Should I use a voltmeter?
>>
>> I would go along with Andy and suspect a marginal PSU.
>>
>> Have you got the OS set up to stop the hard drives when they are idle
>> for long periods? The crashes seem to happen when the system is
>> unattended, or you were watching a movie (no KB or Mouse activity).
>>
>> It may be that the PSU is fine when cold and can cope with the start up
>> load of the disks; hot it can cope with the steady state load. However
>> if a drive spins down once things are hot, the re-start load may be
>> enough to tip the voltages over the edge.
>>
>> If the OS spins down the disks when idle, it may decide after a period
>> of time to spin them up (to do something for its own internal reasons).
>> Under those circumstances the system may simply crash when apparently
>> sitting idle. In fact its more likely to crash when apparently idle than
>> under load.
>>
>> * You will probably never see that without some form or recording
>> voltmeter, however one check you might do is to temporarily disconnect
>> one (or two) of the hard drives (power and SATA) or the optical. If the
>> machine is then stable, its probably the PSU that is marginal.
>>
>> Regards
>> --
>> Peter R Cook- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
>I powered up the machine last night. According to the Easy Tune
>software, all the voltages, temps and fan speeds were good. I do not
>have the machine set up for any kind of power saving scheme like
>powering down the hard drives, etc. I even have hibernation disabled.
>
>The first time I ran the memtest86 program, it ran for around 1/2 hour
>without a problem so I then decided to boot it up and try some other
>stuff. It ran fine for several hours doing videos, web browsing, etc..
>I then shut it down and ran memtest again. After a short time (I don't
>know exactly how long), the test halted.
>
>I took a picture of the screen:
>
>http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/n...0/IMG_1212.jpg
>
>
>This is very frustrating. I don't know whether or not to keep
>troubleshooting or just RMA the power supply, motherboard, video card
>and memory and start over.
>
As I suggested, try your tests with one or more hard drives
disconnected.
If it is a marginal PSU, then it may work on the limit, and fail when
something (anything) drives up the load slightly, or the mains power
drops slightly, or even a decent noise spike.
If it works with one or two disks disconnected, RMA the PSU - it does
have enough power available on ALL the lines doesn't it? Don't forget
to add in the case fans when computing the 12v load.
Problems with newly built Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 
Linear Mode
