GA-P35C-DS3R problems

[tcfrey]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Thanks for the input Dave. I gave it a try on both .3 and .4. Still blue screened. My Raid is now verifying/repairing for a few hours because of the unexpected reboots.:-| The 4 gig did work at the recomended clock before rma'ing the cpu and motherboard back. Now, 1066 works with 2 sticks installed with everything set to optimized defaults. I have used every iteration of slots and memory to test for a bad stick. Everything works fine as long as there is only 2 installed. By the way, at 800 w/4gig, windows experience index is 5.9. At 1066 w/2gig, windows experience index is 5.6. WEIRD!!

This is my first gigabyte board purchase. I had been a faithful ASUS customer since the 486 days. I have never had this kind of trouble building a system. I guess this is what I deserve for being unfaithful;-( I'm going to run at these lower settings untill it quits working. When it quits working, back to asus I go.

Thanks again

[pakman916]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Okay everyone. I'm no expert, but here's my experience...updated...

So I RMA'd my board from the retailer. They cross shipped me a new board and I installed it right away. I turned the computer on and BIOS booted (I was having issues with the BIOS with my first board). I set up the BIOS to the settings I thought were correct for my board. My Ballistix RAM needs 2.2v so I set the memory to +0.4 (I was told stock is 1.8v)

I'm not going to post all my settings because I'm lazy, but after saving and exiting the BIOS, SAME PROBLEMS as with my first board! But this time, I'm getting different rebooting and lights are flashing.

For a while, I couldn't even get into the BIOS. Then the BIOS reverted back to the default bios (I think it resets if it doesn't boot after a certain number of times). This time, I change just a few settings (AHCI, boot order, usb keyboard...etc) BUT I didn't touch any of the memory/processor settings. Computer booted all the way. And it's been working for 1 hour now!

I'm starting to think there is something wrong with the memory bus. Why do I say this? Because if you read reviews about the other Gigabyte P35 boards, they don't seem to be having similar issues. But this is the only hybrid board (DDR2/DDR3). And for some odd reason, if you skim reviews from Newegg and other forums, this board is problematic.

Anyway, I'm running some stress test overnight and I'm going to leave everything at stock settings to see how stable my system is. If it will run stable for 24 hours, I'm going to start playing with some of the advance settings and see if I can figure out what the problem is. My memory is rated to run at 2.2v 4-4-4-12. Currently, it is at 1.9v 5-5-5-18 (default).

Could someone else try what I'm doing and see if it fixes your issues. Maybe we can get Gigabyte in on this...

[webaccount]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I had this problem after a month when I put my system in standby/hybernation, the next day it wouldn;t boot and went into the endless cycle described by other people in here. My system was running E4300 OCed at 3.3 Ghz, 2 Gb of Crucial Balistix PC800 at 2.2v OCed at 918Mhz/4-4-4-12, ATI 1950xt. The BIOS version was F5



Sent it to Gibabyte and they sent it back after 3 weeks and now it's working again, same OC settings as before and everything seems stable

Now I don't dare to put it in standby anymore fearing the **** board will die again and I will lose another 3 weeks

Had I known about this problem I wouldn't have bought it

My advice to you if you're thinking about buying this is spend a few more bucks and buy ASUS or Abit, my first gigabyte purchase and already I lost all confidence in them

[Jackrip5]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

These Problems are very stange indeed but if u want a board with ddr2/ddr3 support AND the ICH9R then your choice is VERY restrictet, i mean NO ASUS , NO ABIT , NO DFI , but one MSI (and this one is practically out of stock everywhere ).
Greetings

[tcfrey]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Is DDR3 truly ready for prime time? Reviews I've seen indicate not and it is still very expensive. However, since I have ddr2, I'm not sure I even need the ability to go to ddr3. Anyway, as pakman indicated earlier, there appears to be a problem with the memory bus that could be because of the combo ddr2/ddr3. Makes sense to me. My next board will not have this feature. By the way.... Are any of you folks seeing your system temp on the p35c-ds3r between about 49 - 51C? thats what mine is and I think it is kind of high.

[mrfatboy]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Okay everyone. I'm no expert, but here's my experience...updated...

So I RMA'd my board from the retailer. They cross shipped me a new board and I installed it right away. I turned the computer on and BIOS booted (I was having issues with the BIOS with my first board). I set up the BIOS to the settings I thought were correct for my board. My Ballistix RAM needs 2.2v so I set the memory to +0.4 (I was told stock is 1.8v)

I'm not going to post all my settings because I'm lazy, but after saving and exiting the BIOS, SAME PROBLEMS as with my first board! But this time, I'm getting different rebooting and lights are flashing.

For a while, I couldn't even get into the BIOS. Then the BIOS reverted back to the default bios (I think it resets if it doesn't boot after a certain number of times). This time, I change just a few settings (AHCI, boot order, usb keyboard...etc) BUT I didn't touch any of the memory/processor settings. Computer booted all the way. And it's been working for 1 hour now!

I'm starting to think there is something wrong with the memory bus. Why do I say this? Because if you read reviews about the other Gigabyte P35 boards, they don't seem to be having similar issues. But this is the only hybrid board (DDR2/DDR3). And for some odd reason, if you skim reviews from Newegg and other forums, this board is problematic.

Anyway, I'm running some stress test overnight and I'm going to leave everything at stock settings to see how stable my system is. If it will run stable for 24 hours, I'm going to start playing with some of the advance settings and see if I can figure out what the problem is. My memory is rated to run at 2.2v 4-4-4-12. Currently, it is at 1.9v 5-5-5-18 (default).

Could someone else try what I'm doing and see if it fixes your issues. Maybe we can get Gigabyte in on this...

I have this board and it works great for me. I am Over clocking to 3.6 with some minor voltage tweaks. I find it strange that 2 boards are not working for you. I have a feeling it is something other than you board.

Can you list your exact system specs for us? Maybe your are looking in the wrong place.

[pakman916]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I listed my specs a few post back.

Well, see...I was thinking the same thing. Maybe it's my setup that is causing the problems. But after doing some reseach on Newegg, Anandtech forums, and now here, it looks like there are COMMON issues that several people are experiencing with this mobo. Typical story sounds like this : Board was working for a few weeks, suddenly errors, keeps rebooting, fan not spinning, yada yada. It's interesting because you don't hear as many issues with the other Gigabyte P35 boards. Just this one.

The other common issue is that people can't seem to figure out what is causing the problem. People have RMA via Gigabyte or tested their components in another system. I tested everything on a brand new replacement board from my retailer and it's still happening. Since setting my system to auto settings last night, I've been running Orthos and my wife has been watching videos on it all day, and I've had ZERO issues. That's 24 hours of stress testing with no errors. I'm going to change the memory settings to the correct settings for my Crucial Balistix which is 4-4-4-12 v2.2 and run the stress test again. I will bet it will error and give me problems. If that is the case, then it has to be the memory bus/controller.

FYI, when I first had issues with my first board, I purchased 2 sets of dual channel ram (4 sticks). I think 2 sticks went bad so I RMA them. I purchased another set to replace them along with the set I already had. So I'm 99% sure my memory is not the cause of these issues. Unless I had 6 bad sticks of ram. Which is unheard of for Crucial Memory. I'll update my findings tomorrow.

[pakman916]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Here's a quick update.

So I tried to set the memory timings and the voltages. Booted to windows then BSOD. Upon reboot, I couldn't get into the BIOS. After powering on/off my computer a few times, I was finally able to get into the bios. I put the timings back to auto settings but I forgot to put the voltage back down.

With the DDR voltage set to +0.3, the computer froze up after booting to windows with the same issues getting back into the BIOS. When I finally got into the BIOS, I changed the voltage to "normal". I decided to see if my processor was the issue. Like I said, I'm no expert, but I decided to try and overclock my processor. I figure if anything is going to crash my system, it would be an overclocked processor. I have an e4400 (2.0Ghz with x10 multipler running at 200FSB). I overclocked it to 266FSB (2.66Ghz).

Once again, this is with "Auto" Memory timings and "Normal" voltage. Believe it or not, my system is stable. I've only been running it like this for 15 minutes, but that's 15 minutes longer than when I had the CPU at stock and memory at it's specified settings. Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864AA804.

So I have determined that my mobo doesn't like me playing with the memory timing. I'm going to try a few more things with the memory and I'll post some more of my findings, but if someone else with this same board and issues (and same or different ram) could see if they have similar behavior, maybe we can get this issue worked out.

[Clark]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I just got my P35C-DS3R with E6750 duo and I am having problems also. When I put it all together, I booted into the BIOS and changed the system time and date. I then went to boot to CD and got an error. Reset the system and now nothing. It won't even get to the Gigabyte splash screen. System light is on, but no keyboard lights, nothing on monitor. I tried replacing everything I have spares of but I don't have a spare CPU or mobo. Any ideas? This is my first Gigabyte board, and I am wondering if I should switch back to Asus. Any thoughts? I noticed Gigabyte doesn't have any tech support on their web.

-Clark

[pakman916]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

First, I would make sure everything is plugged in correctly.

Second, Gigabyte boards has some safety features. I think if you power off and on a few times, it will revert back to default bios. If that doesn't work, you can clear CMOS using a jumper and the pins near the PCIe X16. If that doesn't work, your mobo is probably bad and you need to RMA to the retailer or via Gigabyte.

Third, if you don't need DDR3, I would suggest checking out the board without it because it doesn't seem to have as many problems as the P35C. But if you want DDR3, I would either wait for Gigabyte to figure out what is causing all these problems or find another board that will suit your needs. I like my board when it's stable. It would be nice if everything worked as designed. But more and more, I think there is something wrong with how the memory banks or configured.

[Clark]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Yeah, I tried all reset options and nothing. I only need DDR2, but I bought this mobo just in case I decided to go with DDR3. It got good ratings on tomshardware, guess I should have read more user reviews. I tried tech support, and while he was nice and tried to help out, we got nowhere. I am thinking about going with the P35-DS3P or go back to ASUS, any thoughts?

-Clark

[mrfatboy]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Definately make sure you plugged everything in correctly. Especially the power to you chip. I forgot that also and it did exactly what you described. Depending on what type of cooler you have you might have to take the board out and plug it in. Unless you have really small hands.

[pakman916]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Okay...so here's my update again...

I'm getting nowhere with troubleshooting. There is always the chance I have faulty parts, but I just find the probability of getting so many bad parts highly unlikely.

I mentioned that I was able to get my system stable by not playing with the overvoltage for the DDR2/DDR3. Although my ram is rated to run at 4-4-4-12 at 2.2v, I was able to keep my system stable at 4-4-4-12 but with the overvoltage set to normal. In EasyTune5, the memory voltage came up as 1.9v. I've read reviews that say Crucial Ballistix can run stable at 1.9v with no overclocking. But it's strange that when I push it to 2.2v, the system crashes.

I also mentioned that I RMA'd my first set of Ballistix and purchased a replacement set. I decided to put them in today since they are fresh and new and also tried to run them at the rated 2.2v. What do you know? My system is stable so far. Where I couldn't boot with my older set of ballistix, I was able to get the brand new ones stable.

What I find strange about this whole thing is, with my old set of ram, I was able to keep things stable as long as I didn't mess with the voltage. But with the new set, I can put the voltage to the correct setting.

Anyway, I still feel that all these issues with this board stem from the memory controller. It's odd that I was able to run on 4 sticks of Crucial ram for 1 month before seeing all these problems. And if my RAM is bad, I'm thinking the motherboard had something to do with it. Crucial isn't known to put out bad products.

So unless someone else can confirm my findings, I'm just going to have to wait another month to see if this new RAM will die on me. If it does, I'll be back here to post an update. Good luck everyone.

[squale]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Hi,
I'm new here and i found this thread with google because i have exactly the same problem here.
My P35C-DS3R boots and reboots and reboots and ... You don't get any post so you can not go into bios and flash it or change something about it. The hint with the "end" key does not function.
I changed Ram, Graphics, CPU, nothing helped.
I'll bring it back to the resaler. It worked only for 2 days.
Greetings

Me too ... new here and my P35C-DS3R (rev 1.1) worked only 2 days. Bios F4G, E6750. Return back to the french reseller 08/23/2007.
Same problem for my friend, P35C-DS3R (rev1.1), Bios F4i, Q6600 ... 10/11 days and reboots, reboots, reboots ....

Grrrrrr
Squale

[Clark]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

I did some more testing with tech support. If I reset/clear CMOS, it will boot one time into the CMOS. That is it. After one boot, it just stops. WTF! Guess I am gonna RMA it. A guy I work with just got this board today, I am waiting to hear how it went for him. I am just gonna get the P35-DS3P and hope that works.

-Clark