GA-P35C-DS3R problems

[breaker]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I went ahead and pulled my rev. 1.1 board today and replaced it with an ABit IP35-E I got from Newegg for $60 after rebate. Going to RMA the Gigabte board, see what I get back, but I'm pretty happy with the ABit board so far, OC'd my e8400 to 3.8Ghz so far, and it doesn't loose all my bios settings when I reboot when the FSB is over 400Mhz like the Gigabyte board did.

Hopefully Gigabyte can release a bios update that resolves a lot of these problems, it would be a great board if it wasn't for the issues that plague it, at least the rev. 1.1 version.

I heard Abit was good.

Hopefully the BIOS is better than Gigabyte's?

Does the board have all of the features you need / want?

[Krakn3Dfx]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I heard Abit was good.

Hopefully the BIOS is better than Gigabyte's?

Does the board have all of the features you need / want?

Bios on this board is great, and it still hasn't lost any settings when I have rebooted. Running my e8400 at 3.8Ghz with no problems at all. Overall, pretty happy with it. Their latest beta bios got rid of the double boot issues, and supposedly made it more 45nm compatible.

I'd still like to see Gigabyte sort out their issues with this board, personally, mine was running fine until I updated to the F10 bios to run the e8400, then it all went to crap, and killed 2GB of Crucial Ballistix I had in the process.

[viper_880]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

This board is nothing but trouble !! thats why i through mine down the bank and got a abit ip35 pro so happy i did overclocks like mad and it has a little lcd monitor on the motherboard to show p.o.s.t error codes :) over here its $ 200 aud but america on newegg its $ 150 i think

[dave_99]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Well, finally updated my P35C v1.0 board with the F10 bios from F2 to see if the stability of the board was improved, and now waiting for Crucial to send me an RMA number to return 2 fried sticks of Ballistix PC8500. The mem voltage auto defaults to 2.45! Sheesh what jerks does Gigabyte hire to develop their bioses? I didn't learn the first time with a Gigabyte board with bad caps. I just had to buy another, shame on me. No more.

[VorLonUK]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I see in my manual and on my actual board 2 bios chips so they are just telling you that so you will quit asking.

There is no hidden partition or backup bios file on my drive or I would be able to see it in several DOS utility's

Not with most utilities would you!

I recently thoroughly checked this out with GB and when I saw this question on here I decided to register.

Basically since May 2004 All Gigabyte motherboards have this feature where the bios witholds around 2113 user sectors (around 1MB) and creates an HPA (hardware protected area) on the Primary drive. Very few utilities see this. However Hitachi's Feature tool will and most Hard drive utilities that allow you to change the drive's capacity.

Another handy utility is MHDD (do a google - new to this forum, so not certain about the rules on linkage) which will highlight an HPA.

The best thing to prove that an HPA exists on a drive, is to look at the drives advertised user sectors (normally stated on the drive label) or the companies website. Then via loads of utilities out there, see what they report as the drives available user sector count. If the drive is OK anyway in itself and it is the primary drive too, you will see a reduction in the availability of user sectors, around 2113 less.

Gigabyte stores an iso image on the primary drive and as this area is not user accessible, it remains safe from viruses or unwanted manipulation.

http://tw.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/TechGuide_List.aspx?NewTechID=84

Express Bios rescue is the feature.

I've also confirmed this with GB in the UK & taiwan.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Well, Pm me one of those links or post I think it would be fine. As I do not see it with any of the million tools I have so I believe it is not there on mine at all

[VorLonUK]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Well, Pm me one of those links or post I think it would be fine. As I do not see it with any of the million tools I have so I believe it is not there on mine at all

I guarantee it's there! What make and model is your Primary Hard Drive? and I can then show you what utility to use and how to compare the user sectors available to the amount advertised by the drive.

Another thing to note is this:-

Often on Hard drive reports on the web you will see 320GB drives (for example) stated as having 625,140,335 LBA sectors - BUT this is whilst they are on Post may 2004 Gigabyte Motherboards.
If you check with all the major Hard drive companies and their specs for a 320GB drive, you will find the advertised Capacity is 625,142,448 LBA sectors.

The difference being the bios reserved disk HPA on Gigabyte MB's (primary drive only).

If you google post figures you will get plenty of results.

[breaker]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Gigabyte stores an iso image on the primary drive and as this area is not user accessible, it remains safe from viruses or unwanted manipulation.

One of the responses I got from Gigabyte was to use WinHex. I haven't done so yet, I remember this program from way back, but now it seems to have more features. The other tools you mentioned seem easier.

I have WD HDDs, so maybe Data Lifeguard would show something. BTW, HDD manufacturer tools run from floppy. CD-ROM, or USB stick are so handy for fixing "broken" drives.

What isn't clear about the Xpress Bios Rescue is when the BIOS is written to the HDD. Once? Every boot? After loading optimized defaults? Does it ever update the version if you flash the BIOS? Or maybe it checks to see if the HPA exists, then writes it there if not.

-breaker

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I use seagate drives, 250GB ones. 7200.10

And I have to say, I also do raid, So I am almost positive it isnt on mine for that reason, and I have checked my storage drive which is not raid, and nothing there either

[VorLonUK]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

First off it's definately there and it's in a bios controlled HPA designed so that you can't change it and/or easily see it. The HPA makes the drive look smaller to the forensic eye and hence forensic tools are usually used to find it. Otherwise the difference is so small (ie around 1MB less - MegaByte) that you woulsn't normally be alerted to something was on there.

I'm not sure what utilities will work on RAID setup's as with AHCI setups too a lot of the low level tools wont see the drives.

If you can use a utility like say Hitachi's feature tool or any hard drive tool that shows the LBA capacity of the drive (most do) whilst in RAID mode, then DRive 0 (ie your primary drive) will have a reduced sector count available.

If the tools won't work in Raid, then the only way you'll be able to prove the point to yourself is to check the drives in non raid, non ahci modes, so that you can see their entire setup.

One other good tool that will highlight an HPA (but probably NOT in raid) is MHDD as I've already suggested http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

Your 250GB drives should report 488,397,168 user LBA sectors - I bet one of them, the Primary drive is reporting less, ie around 2113 sectors less.

[VorLonUK]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

One of the responses I got from Gigabyte was to use WinHex. I haven't done so yet, I remember this program from way back, but now it seems to have more features. The other tools you mentioned seem easier.

I have WD HDDs, so maybe Data Lifeguard would show something. BTW, HDD manufacturer tools run from floppy. CD-ROM, or USB stick are so handy for fixing "broken" drives.

What isn't clear about the Xpress Bios Rescue is when the BIOS is written to the HDD. Once? Every boot? After loading optimized defaults? Does it ever update the version if you flash the BIOS? Or maybe it checks to see if the HPA exists, then writes it there if not.

-breaker

Breaker,

Try the utility I've already linked to. If you are not in AHCI or RAID mode then it'll work fine.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

The ISO bootable image works fine.

Use carefully though as it can write zero's to the drive. Unlike some other utilities, it can remap bad sectors, show SMART data, Set Capacity and show HPA's amongst many other features.
It is graphical/command line, but reasonably easy to use once you know the commands.
After selecting the target drive, the command "EID" (extended ID) will report back an HPA if there is one (which there is)
But against each of the drives on the main page before you select a specific drive for info, is an LBA summary.
If you have say two of the same size drives, you will notice that one drive reports a slighly smaller capacity, even though they are identical drives. If you swap the drives around in the PC, you'll then find the smaller capacity then appears on the other drive. basically the primary drive, or the Drive on port Drive 0 will have the slightly reduced capacity due to the Bios locked HPA.

Other tools that report LBA are available from Seagate, WDC, Hitachi etc.
Hitachi's Feature tool is handy as it shows the LBA

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Ya, that is kinda hard to get a IBM formatted Floppy, which IS needed to write that tool to disk with. A normal formatted floppy doesnt work.

But I am about to see what seagate tools shows. Having some issues with Hirens, and I think it is the RAID causing those issues, so no luck with that. I did use winhex and some other tools on Digiwiz MiniPE XT which show some larger difference then you are mentioning but I think that is caused by the MBR

I guess I could switch the drives from RAID to IDE just to run Hirens, but I am concerned that may mess the RAID up, any input there? I think I have done this before, but not so sure. Maybe I will just wait until reinstall time which is coming soon

[VorLonUK]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Ya, that is kinda hard to get a IBM formatted Floppy, which IS needed to write that tool to disk with. A normal formatted floppy doesnt work.

Both the tools I linked to, ie MHDD and Hitachi's feature have ISO image versions to create bootable CD's.

All you need is a utility (ie like the ones I have linked to) to read the available sectors on the drive, ie the capacity of the drive. That has nothing to do with formatting, mbr or anything else. The drive is sold with an advertised capacity and short of it having a fault, utilities that can read the LBA user sector count, should report the same advertised figure back.
Because newer GB Motherboards have the Virtual Dual Bios, the "Virtual" bit is created by the bios sectioning off a part of it for itself. The rest of the drive is then used in completely the normal way.

Because of disk HPA, law enforcement (as an example) need powerful disk tools to check in those areas. Because a disk HPA essentially takes that disk space away from the OS and ultimately the user, viruses, formatting and the like, it is totally robust and probably goes unoticed by most when it is used as a facility by the MB manufacturer (ie Gigabyte)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Ahh, well I dont have any extra CD's so I tried to grab the Floppy version, guess I will have to wait. I have a FBI Forensics CD, I just have to find where I stuck it in my CD mess.

[paulallen]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Posting this just so everyone knows the endless reboot issue with this board is alive and well. Typically, this GA-P35C-DS3R was about 6 months old when the dreaded endless reboot appeared. After trying all the usual fixes to no avail, I swapped the board for a new GA-EP35-DS3R - it works fine. Since no other hardware/software was changed, and given the many similar experiences recounted in this forum, the issue is obviously in the design of the GA-P35C-DS3R. Now I'm beginnning to wonder if I'm simply on borrowed time with this new Gigabyte board. Should I replace it with an IP-35E/Pro, P5KC, or something similar to avoid the frustration and expense of dealing with this problem again in the future? While Gigabyte boards do have 3-year warranties, the RMA process is so daunting that, for practical purposes, there's really no warranty at all.