Gigabyte X38/P35/P965 (DS* DQ* S3) Overclocking and General BIOS tweaking Guide

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Gigabyte X38/P35/P965 (DS* DQ* S3) overclocking and BIOS tweaking Guide

OK, everyone install the programs, several just unzip so just let it expand in place creating an sub-folder and then move the compressed download package down into its folder for safe keeping or trash it. If the program did a "normal" install trash the download package. Find or make a shortcut for each of the actual programs and place it on your desktop. Start each one and take a look if you have not used them before.

Updating the BIOS

First we are going to update the bios to the latest version (skip if not needed).
This procedure uses the flash utility built into the BIOS and a floppy drive (you can use a usb drive or the HD see the manual - only FAT file systems are supported) . Other methods are available but NOT recommended. The internet and windows based utilities have killed many a board. Do NOT update the bios with the machine overclocked. Get into the bios and reset to factory defaults, reboot and then flash.

• Prepare a floppy by doing a full format in the A: drive. If any bad sectors occur or any odd things happen, trash it and get another floppy disk. Use new ones if at all possible.
• Go to your "Bios and Drivers" folder and find the bios file you want to use, it should be named something like " motherboard_bios_ga-965p-ds3_f10.exe". Notice the BIOS version is part of the file name.
• Double click (or whatever) to run/execute the file.
• A window should pop up with an "install to" data bar and a "browse" button. Use the "browse" button to indicate to the extraction program that the A:\ is the destination (or wherever). I will assume the A: drive, use what you use. Click the "install" button.
• Open the A: drive in File Explorer and look at the file named like 965PDS3.F10, notice again the version is part of the file name, right click on it and look at the "Properties", It should be exactly 1MB (1,048,576 bytes) , If not ABORT, download again, and restart at the beginning of this section. do NOT proceed until this is resolved.
• Save anything you were doing and shutdown the machine and restart
• Start tapping the "Delete key" like a crazed woodpecker and get into the BIOS main screen.
• Open your manual GASP! and find the appendix concerning Q-Flash and follow the directions carefully. This is easy, do not panic. Ok. When finished the machine should reboot.
• Make like a woodpecker again, and when in the main BIOS screen select "Load BIOS Fail-Safe Defaults" and press "Enter" when prompted. Select "Save and Exit" from the menu and respond "Y" and the machine will reboot.
  Let it boot to windows. (**NOTE** DO NOT Let it boot to windows if you are Using a RAID setup, your RAID WILL FAIL)

STOP

A lot of people are having perceived issues with (mainly DS3's) and what is called the cold boot issue.

This issue seems to consist of 2 issues as far as I can tell.

Failure to boot, clear cmos does not work, board is boat anchor.

Bios settings not retained on reboot.
(Several users have found that legacy USB devices are the cause of this issue. Try removing all un-needed USB devices and see if the issue goes away).

Actually the second problem is the classic "cold boot" as first reported.

I highly recommend you install the Xpress Recovery2 untility with a small partition size. It appears the bios recovery utility is part of the Xpress Recovery progam and if the hidden partition exists, when flashing the bios a backup copy of the bios is put in the hidden partition. This might help avoid the issue of the board becoming unbootable. It is not clear if you are required to actually back up your HD data or not, I think not. However I cannot test this due to my hardware configuration. Note that the Xprerss Recovery will not work if your primary (boot) disk is a RAID.

Guess what Woody ? Peck away again at "Delete Key" and get the main BIOS screen but now we will have some fun.

[Lsdmeasap]

Gigabyte X38/P35/P965 (DS* DQ* S3) overclocking and BIOS tweaking Guide

The Gigabyte P35 boards and X38 use a bios and chipset that is so identical to the P965 this guide is perfectly usable for the P35 and X38, you might find minor differences and a few extra high end tweaking options but it will not be anything critical.

A Guide to Gigabyte Overclocking and BIOS Tweaks

DRAFT

If you follow the steps of this guideline you can expect to:

• Have a good set of tools installed to know exactly how fast and how hot your computer is running at all times.
• Verify that even at stock speeds you are getting as much out of your machine as you can.
• Get quite a bit of extra performance for free with no loss of reliability or stabiity with a minor or medium overclock. (with no major noise increase)
• Obtain the most from your machine possible without compromising reliabiity or stability.
• Some tips for making minor modifications to your board for maximum performance. If you have not built your machine yet, you should check that out first.

To do properly this will take some time, a lot actually, but it does not all have to be done at once.
And it is so easy a Cave...

I welcome constructive comments, suggestions for improvments and definitely let me know if you find any errors. I have a DQ6 it is very similar but its not a DS3 so a few things I have had to rely on others experiences.

This guide assumes you can get the board to boot at default "out of the box" settings and you can get into the BIOS without issues. It also assumes the OS is installed and the latest drivers video have been installed, Windows is completely updated and a working internet connection is available. This guide will also be helpful if you are experiencing random lockups or BSOD's (Blue Screen Of Death) as the first two sections will make sure your basic hardware settings are correct and tested.

We are going to reset your board to factory defaults and proceed in a methodical way that is assured to take you to the the non-bleeding edge of your boards performance. The manual is that little book that was in the box with the motherboard, go pull it out of the drawer, blow the dust off, and keep it handy please.

We are going to proceed in 4 phases:

• Preperation
  • Collection of Software Tools, Utilities, Drivers etc. -post 1
  • Tool Installation - post 1
  • Update BIOS - post 1
• Standard High Performance Setup With no Overclock - Recording the Baseline.
  • Memory Timings Example - post 2
  • Complete List of Recommended BIOS Settings - post 2
  • Settings to Record. - post 2
  • BIOS Clearing and Recovery Tricks.- post 3
• Small or Medium Overclock for Increased Performance With no Loss of Reliability or Stability
• High Performance Overclocking.

Preperation
We are now going to gather some standard tools and information we need. You may have some of them already and can skip that tool. I do not have Vista installed (and will not until SP1 arrives ;) ) and there is a work around that works with the Coretemp utility and should work with the others so they will run under Vista. As a last resort Gigabyte provides a tool we can monitor temperatures with but in general it is a bloated resourse hog and should be avoided if possible.

Collection of Tools.

• Make a new folder on your desktop and name it "OC Utils" or something like that.
• Download the following into the new folder. Please do NOT install yet.
  • Download cpu-z to monitor speeds and memory settings. The DL link is at upper right.
    CPUID
  • Download Coretemp to monitor temps. (updated to work in Vista :) )
    http://www.thecoolest.zerobrains.com/CoreTemp/
  • Download Orthos to stress test.
    Orthos_20060420.zip
  • Download Intel TAT (Thermal Analysis Tool) for extreme stress testing. (Download will start immediately.) - (Designed for XP, Dual Core CPU detection only)
    [url=http://www.overclock.net/attachments/downloads/36838d1165737331-intel-tat-tat.zip[/url]
  • Download MemSet to investigate memory sub-timings. Click the "MemSet" link in the first post.
    New memory tweaker for chipsets Intel. - XtremeSystems Forums
  • Download Memtest86+ to test memory. Different download versions at the bottom of the page. This utility is different than the previous ones. It contains its own operating system and you boot with it. I recommend the .iso file and burning a CD but the floppy version works just as well. You should use the one you have the best ability to create. Go ahead and create your Floppy or CD after the download, label it, and trash the downloaded file.
    Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
• Visit Gigabytes web site, find the product page for your exact board and bookmark it.
  • Go here: GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Main Page
  • In the "By Series" drop down box choose "GA-9xxxx "
  • In the "Model Name " drop down box find your exact MB and version.
  • CAREFULL! This is most likely NOT your board, see the "G" ? GA-965G-DS3
    This is the one with onboard graphics. Do Not use this unless this IS your board.
  • Once you are postive you are on the correct product page for your board, please click the "Drivers" link on the upper right. Let the page load. I have noticed at my screen resolution it appears nothing happened but if I scroll down I find the new information.
  • Bookmark (Add to Favorites) this page please. You will be coming here often.
• Make a new folder on your desktop and name it "Bios and Drivers" or something like that.
• Double check that this page is for your exact board and version. Carefully look over the list of drivers and paying careful attention to the operating system each driver is intended for, get the latest copy of each driver and download into the folder you just created. Make a note of the driver version number in your notes, this is a MUST as you will notice the version number is not present in the driver file name. Later when you come back it will be difficult to remember if you have the latest driver and this will save you a lot of clicking in hardware manager. For the Realtek Audio driver notice that if you are running Windows 2000,Windows XP,Windows Sever 2003 you need the Microsoft UAA driver and it should be installed first (but not now). If you never intend to run a RAID array there is no need to grab those but you should anyway (Hmm that makes a lot of sense /shrug)
• Please click the "BIOS" link on the upper right. Download the latest BIOS file for your board into the new folder. If you want some earlier ones grab them as well, some are reported to give better overclocking but for this guide we will leave that for your investigation after we do what we can with the latest version.

For reference only, in case we do get desperate, come back here and do this. But not now.

• VISTA - If using Vista download the utility EasyTune 5 from Gigabytes webs site but do not install, its going to be saved for a last resort, I have found tips for making better tools work under Vista and we want to try them first, but grab it while we are here.
  • (click the "Utility" link on the right hand side of page then click "Utility" link on the left hand side to get to it. Weird huh ? )
  • A Quick overview of how to use it is here:
  • EasyTune 5
  • (Play with it until you understand what is what and where is what. do NOT use it to attempt to overclock, find the temps and voltages, thats what we need to monitor.

Tool Installation

Note: Most of these utilities have been updated for use with Vista and the procedures below are not needed. I leave them in place just in case.

In order for some of these tools to install and work with Vista the following procedure has to be done. XP people should skip this.
64-bit Vista needs steps 1 and 2
32-bit Vista needs just step 2 (but if it does not work, restart and do steps 1 and 2
Here is a web page that describes what must be done:
ALCPU Forums :: View topic - Get Core Temp running on Vista x64 - A workaround

In case the web page is not available.

Step 1:

Restart your system, and start hitting the F8 key until you get to the Windows boot menu.

Select "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement"

Hit the Enter key and Vista will continue to load.

Step 2:

Go to your "OC utils" folder and right click on each program and select "Properties". In properties go to the "Compatibility" tab and check "Run this program as an Administrator".

64-bit Vista users will have to do step 1 every time they start Vista and want to use these programs.
32-bit Vista users and step 2 for 64-bit Vista users, I am not sure, you will find out quick enough