GA-P35C-DS3R problems

[x2srj]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Right I've reverted back from F9 (which Yanus from on here emailed me) to F4; my machine now succeeds on all memory tests.... so seems more stable..

How do I change the voltage; I can only see an option to add 0.1, 0.2 and so on...

cheers guys..

This is from CPUZ... my memory should be running at 1066 right?



Slot 3 runs identical..

[neillyth]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

hi peeps,

Ok here's my update which may answer some questions x2srj.

So far so good. Gigabyte inform me that the mobo default for 1066mhz ram is 2.0v not 1.8v as suggested so I wouldn't advise anything more than +0.2v when adjusting DDR2 RAM voltages. Those 2.3 ish voltages some people are reporting with F8+ look like they could be actuals!

Anyway thanks to blargh and others here is what worked for me.....

specs: P35C-DS3R v1.1 Bios F4, Q6700 @ 2.66, PC8500c Crucial Ballistix RAM 4x1gb

Loads of issues as stated before, eventually loaded Vista64 with only 2x1gb RAM, DDR2 voltages set to +0.2v timings set to 5-5-5-15, speed 1066mhz.
Windows memtest pass. Vista experience 5.8, 5.8 on memory.
I tried the 4x1gb, system failed to boot, windows mem test fail after 50% pass 1.

So, in BIOS


CPU Clock Ratio 10x
CPU Host Frequency 266 (stock)
PCI Ex Freq Auto
CIA2 Disabled
Performance Enhance Standard
System memory multiplier 3.00
Mem Frequency 800 (adjusted by mem multiplier)
High Speed DRAM DLL Settings Option1
DRAM timing Manual
Cas Latency 4
DRAM Ras# to CAS# Delay 4
DRAM RAS# Precharge 4
Precharge Delay(tRAS) 12
ACT to ACT Delay(tRRD) Auto
Rank Write to Read Delay Auto
Write to Precharge Delay Auto
Refresh to ACT Delay 56
Read to Precharge Delay Auto
tRD Auto
tRD Phase Adjustment Auto

System Voltage Control Auto (set to manual to adjust to +0.2v then put back to Auto)
DDR2/DDR3 Overvoltage control +0.2

I have the 4x1gb with the above settings and for the FIRST time it all works!! Even after a Windows Memory test it reported no errors!! Happy Days!!

I can't pretend I know a lot about PCs and could probably improve RAM performance if I had a clue what I was doing hehe but it works and for now thats good enough for me. Everest System stability test reports average DIMM voltage at 1.96 not 2.32 or so as it was with BiosF8 although speed has been lowered since. But more imortantly after 8 mins its still going as I type and thats the longest I have managed with 4x1gb!

X2srj if the above is no help and you don't get any joy I would RMA but I hope you get your system working again. However, keep in mind that others are reporting issues with other brands of P35 mobo so tread with care if buying a replacement.

I am only sorry to those that don't have the same RAM because the above may not work, but it's worthy of taking the time to write here as this forum has been a massive help to me.
I only hope this helps others. I'll post any updates if I have any. Thanks again to Blargh and others for continuing to assist others. I can't be ars*d to RMA or spend more of my hard earned on another mobo so the setup for now will have to do, unless Santa brings me a new one :P
However, I would like to voice my bitter disapointment to Gigabyte as obviously there are issues and a lot of hassle and bad feeling could be avoided if they were honest and posted work arounds, in plain language so even PC noobs like myself have a chance..enough said I think..

Good luck all and keep up the good work.

[Kingme24]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Hi,

I'm new to the boards, but have been keeping an eye on this thread for awhile. I have the same board in question and the exact same memory.

The reason why you aren't having any issues with your memory anymore is because you are lowering the speed of the memory to 800mhz. With that FSB and that multiplier, 266* 3 = 800mhz. The rated speed for the Crucial Ballistix 8500 are 1066mhz. I have found that by going with 333 * 3 (on my q6600) works stable and will pass all tests including memtest86. However, this shouldn't be considered a "fix" because i'm still not getting the rated speed out of my memory. There are obviously some issues with this board and memory (incorrect voltages, instability) etc.

Anyway, just thought I would put what is working for me, you may want to try to go with higher mhz with slightly higher timings as you won't gain any real world performance with the timings, but actually will with higher speeds.

Perhaps change to 9x with FSB of 300 and 3.2 memory multiplier. That would give you higher memory speeds and slightly higher cpu speeds, and i'd be willing to bet you will still be stable. The magic number for me is 1000mhz.

Please let me know if you find out anything more, as I'm in the same boat you are in.

[neillyth]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

If I leave everything set to Auto in BIOS, PC Health in BIOS was reporting 2.42v, Everest 2.37v for the dimms. TOO HIGH and they are running ~50c based on a temp sensor I attached.
If I "force" the SPD in BIOS to 800Hz (versus 1066) the voltage drops to 2.00 (in BIOS PC Health) and things appear to be much more stable (I'll post back in a day or so) and my temp dropped to 41c.
I'm using the F8 bios currently...
During the times my ram was at Mushkin, I had some generic Dell DDR2-800 sticks in place and the PC was totally stable.
My gut is telling me that we have overvoltage issues (at a minimum) relative to DDR2-1066 ram; is this worsened by ram w/EPP "profiles" (as mine has), and is this a BIOS issue or an issue with the P-35 chipset that "officially" doesn't support anything above 800MHz ram?
Obviously, other boards are pulling it off (1066 and higher) so I suppose it could also tie into voltage regulation as well as BIOS.
Thoughts?

mrfixit,

I think you are correct with both the Bios and P35 conclusion. The heat of my RAM when I first built my system was way too much, I couldn't touch it, I don't know the voltages because I wasn't looking as I didn't know what my issues where. However even as a noob I know that voltages=heat. The P35 and 1066mhz issue may be with earlier models as it would appear that recent models don't seem to attract as much forum activity or cries for help. Blargh has reported success at 1000mhz so I am not sure that 800mhz is the limit for this MB. I have no idea, but I would suspect that CPU and DDR2 overclocking and tweaking may compensate for this boards shortfalls for some people.

My 2p worth.

Ps...45 mins and Everest system stability test is still running on my adjusted settings and 4x1gb RAM, Result!! Although my vista experience score for RAM has dropped from 5.8 to 5.6 since lowering speeds and adding the extra 2gb RAM but...oh well...

Good luck all:)

[neillyth]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Hi,

I'm new to the boards, but have been keeping an eye on this thread for awhile. I have the same board in question and the exact same memory.

The reason why you aren't having any issues with your memory anymore is because you are lowering the speed of the memory to 800mhz. With that FSB and that multiplier, 266* 3 = 800mhz. The rated speed for the Crucial Ballistix 8500 are 1066mhz. I have found that by going with 333 * 3 (on my q6600) works stable and will pass all tests including memtest86. However, this shouldn't be considered a "fix" because i'm still not getting the rated speed out of my memory. There are obviously some issues with this board and memory (incorrect voltages, instability) etc.

Anyway, just thought I would put what is working for me, you may want to try to go with higher mhz with slightly higher timings as you won't gain any real world performance with the timings, but actually will with higher speeds.

Perhaps change to 9x with FSB of 300 and 3.2 memory multiplier. That would give you higher memory speeds and slightly higher cpu speeds, and i'd be willing to bet you will still be stable. The magic number for me is 1000mhz.

Please let me know if you find out anything more, as I'm in the same boat you are in.

Hiya Kingme24 and thank you for posting.

As you suggested I just went back and adjusted to 9x300 and 3.2. Everest failed at first at 3.45 mins, so i went back and set timings to auto.Windows mem test passed with no reported problems. A subsequent test on Everest stability test is currently running good at 7 mins+. The performance gain is noticeable with my vista experience score at 5.9 from 5.6 or 5.7. So thank you for the great advice!! Since though at 12 mins everest detected hardware failure, possibly memory but the windows memory test still gives me something to smile about, Ill continue with these settings for now.

Gigabye has informed me to try to underclock to 800mhz and if it still fails to RMA ....hmmm...anyway I am going to keep things as they are. One positive though, they are very quick at responding to my support query via thier website, shame they cant fix the problem though.

Thanks again for your post!

[fausto412]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Right I've reverted back from F9 (which Yanus from on here emailed me) to F4; my machine now succeeds on all memory tests.... so seems more stable..

How do I change the voltage; I can only see an option to add 0.1, 0.2 and so on...

cheers guys..

This is from CPUZ... my memory should be running at 1066 right?



Slot 3 runs identical..

that is not the proper place too see how your ram is running. check the memory tab, you should see 5-5-5-15 at 533 if it's running the ram at 1066. the tab you show ab ove is the one that shows you the spd chip's info from the ram kit. just an fyi...not the actual setting so check the memory tab and report back.

[Kingme24]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Hiya Kingme24 and thank you for posting.

As you suggested I just went back and adjusted to 9x300 and 3.2. Everest failed at first at 3.45 mins, so i went back and set timings to auto.Windows mem test passed with no reported problems. A subsequent test on Everest stability test is currently running good at 7 mins+. The performance gain is noticeable with my vista experience score at 5.9 from 5.6 or 5.7. So thank you for the great advice!! Since though at 12 mins everest detected hardware failure, possibly memory but the windows memory test still gives me something to smile about, Ill continue with these settings for now.

Gigabye has informed me to try to underclock to 800mhz and if it still fails to RMA ....hmmm...anyway I am going to keep things as they are. One positive though, they are very quick at responding to my support query via thier website, shame they cant fix the problem though.

Thanks again for your post!

This board is very strange when it comes to finding the sweet spot, when you went to auto settings i'm assuming it defaulted to 5-7-7-18? You might try backing down to just the 3.0 multiplier and the memory timings at manual 5-5-5-15 (thats our memory rated speed). I would really try to find the highest stable mhz you can get, so you can keep your 5.9 score in windows. I know the windows score doesn't mean that much, but 5.9 means you are getting better memory performance :)

[viper_880]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Does any 1 know a fix for this motherboard to stop resetting my overclock and sometimes when restarting from with in windows the computer first turns off then 3 seconds later .. instead of staying on and restarting ... also it does this in the bios when you exit or save changes sometimes it will do the same thing .. im using the latest f8 bios ..

** edit i did have reboot loop problems before but i havent had 1 for a while **

[Kingme24]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Does any 1 know a fix for this motherboard to stop resetting my overclock and sometimes when restarting from with in windows the computer first turns off then 3 seconds later .. instead of staying on and restarting ... also it does this in the bios when you exit or save changes sometimes it will do the same thing .. im using the latest f8 bios ..

** edit i did have reboot loop problems before but i havent had 1 for a while **

I've found that I get this problem when my overclock is at the border of being unstable. Try to backoff just a bit or try upping your voltages a bit more and it should go away. Atleast that worked for me

[viper_880]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

ok thanks ill give it a try ..

[fausto412]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Does any 1 know a fix for this motherboard to stop resetting my overclock and sometimes when restarting from with in windows the computer first turns off then 3 seconds later .. instead of staying on and restarting ... also it does this in the bios when you exit or save changes sometimes it will do the same thing .. im using the latest f8 bios ..

** edit i did have reboot loop problems before but i havent had 1 for a while **

the board has a dual bios implementation. when you apply settings and they don't work it will reset back to default or what it was at on last succesful boot. so when you say it waits 3 seconds that the board fixing itself after your error. happens to me...usually i found it to be a bad overclock on my ram or not enough volts on ram or cpu. i also have f8 bios and this happens on all bioses. only times i get the apply settings in bios-shutdown(normal)-reboot(settings don't work so it shuts down again)- restart at default settings or last ok settings...is when i screw up on my overclock. anyways the point i'm trying to make it's that this is normal but once you have a stable overclock it won't happen. this dual bios actually keeps you from having to manually reset CMOS. very convenient:)

ps. i know gigabyte does a poor job of letting users know the features of their boards.

[x2srj]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

hmm, I get issues still.. I'm going to return the board I think..

The issue is I can't turn the machine on sometimes without clearing the CMOS...

and it's constantly doing CHKDSK's whilst booting because of corrupt attribute files....

[neillyth]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Heyas peeps,

Thank you again Kingme24. My DS3R's 'sweet spot' is between 900 and 950mhz. At 900mhz and the timings you suggested I don't appear to loose much performance(vista ex:5.9 still) and it's as stable as ever! Nice one!
I don't know if Everest is a good utility to use to stress test but it appears to do the job.
X2srj hope the replacement does the job, good luck!

Thanks again all, and keep up the good posts.

[Kingme24]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Glad I could help... now I just wish we could actually run at 1066 :(

[ChrisD]

Re: GA-P35C-DS3R problems

Add me to the list of people getting the endless reboot. Had the board about 100 days before the problem has shown its ugly head.

I left memory on auto and tested the board overclocking. It went very well and was quite stable but I backed off and gave it a very conservative overclock in the end. Worked for about 3 months before the infinite boot sequence started.

I really want to like this board and like Gigabyte, but it is hard since Gigabyte hasn't responded to my tech support email and they don't seem to be addressing, or even acknowledging that an issue exists. From my research in the last few days, it seems like this is by far the most common problem that people are having with this board.