GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

[mxcrowe]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

Yes, it is full S3 (suspend to RAM, in Linux). I haven't measured current draw or anything, but the system is off and quiet. Upon keypress, it wakes up immediately and operates without error. I can suspend to RAM and return multiple times, no problem. This hardware was not whitelisted for suspend to RAM under Linux, so I had to force it (s2ram -f), then fix the buttons in KDE to make it "automatic", but it does work. So as I've said several times, I believe this is an overlap of P45/43, Vista, and multiple sticks of RAM. And, it should be stated that the whole S3 thing seems like black magic to everyone in the business, so it's no surprise to find problems there.
HOWEVER, these memory incompatibility/instability issues with these Gigabyte boards are not confined to resume from S3. There is clearly something wrong, or at the very least, they are way too persnickety (sorry...sensitive). Even that I wouldn't mind, I mean, this stuff is complicated. But I really resent Gigabyte's total denial of the issue. After so many people have complained, they should at least acknowledge the problem and say they are working on a fix. Independent of technical issues, their customer/PR skills are zilch, in my opinion. I will NOT be a repeat customer for that reason alone.

[packrat88]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I know if I enabled my version of C1E (which is called Cool-n-Quiet) that the system operates at half clock speed most of the time. Since I overclocked to 2533, I figured it would be running at approx. 1250 mhz. After just checking my speed a minute ago, it appears that I am not running overclocked (still reads 1100 mhz - this is stock speed w/Cool-n-Quiet enabled). The system seems to have reverted back to stock speeds (after waking from S3). Being this is an AMD system, you be right about it being a Vista64 sp1 problem. Of course that would not surprise me (even though sp1 was supposed to fixed a lot of the sleep issues).
Looks like I need to do some more tests with my system......

[packrat88]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

Correction, I meant to say "you might be right about it being a vista64 sp1 problem."

[dklawson]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

All,
As recommended, I specifically spelled out this issue to Gigabyte Tech Support using their web interface so that they were aware how many people are having this problem. I'm very tempted to post the entire conversation I have had with Gigabyte since receiving this board. The most generous term I can come up with is *hopeless*. As far as I can tell, they have no interest in facing the issue directly. The sum total of their suggestions to me is essentially, "go out and buy several brands and speeds of memory and see if you have the same problem". Hey, maybe it's the language barrier... In any case, I am thoroughly unimpressed and at this point, would *NOT* buy another Gigabyte board. Just to balance out my negativity here, I should add that the folks from EVGA and SuperTalent have been very helpful and supportive, and I would not hesitate to purchase from them again. Free market forces at work, eh?

I have to concur with you mxcrowe. I had almost the exact the same experience. I was at least able to get one beta BIOS out of them, although it didn't fix anything. After that I was told to return my memory and buy only memory on their "supported" list. Their supported list doesn't even have a configuration equivalent to what I have (2x2GB 1066), so following their request would be impossible anyway. After I brought this to their attention they simply told me to exchange the board with my vendor.

With an average 2-3 day response time from their support and zero results, I've had enough. I'm going back to Asus. Thankfully, I'm still within the return policy at my vendor. What a headache!

[mxcrowe]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

Ok, I finally got a reasonable response from Gigabyte. Rather than the normal run-around, they sent me the F9b BIOS and asked me to test with that. After (carefully) flashing using Q-Flash via floppy, I set to fail-safe settings, rebooted, and tested. System BSODs immediately upon return from S3. Then I set optimal default and basic things like the correct memory voltage and tried again. Same result. I'm back to my normal overclocked settings, plus some memory timing tweaks from LSD, so I'll test further today, but so far, it is looking like F9b is not the silver bullet.

[jbrucegraham]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I really like my mobo but I also have a problem with resuming from S3.
After black screen, it will recover if I reset, but then it reboots and says "resuming windows" and takes several minutes to recover.

Config ep45-ds3r, e2180, 3G ram, Vista 32, f8 BIOS

Sounds like we need that BIOS tweak that you mentioned for the P35

Everything else is rock solid at up to 3GHz (50% oclock)

S3 problem is at all speeds including BIOS default settings.

Hibernate is fine.

[mxcrowe]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

@jbruce: That's essentially what I am finding also. Interesting that you are having the same symptoms with Vista x32 - I had thought it was an x64 issue. What kind of gfx card are you using? Please make sure you file your complaint with Gigabyte through the customer support section of their website. The more people who bring this to their attention, the better.

[chrispycritter]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I just became a member in this forum just to say that I too have an EP45-DS3R and vista64, SP1. I've owned the board for less than 1 week. My board also has the crash upon wake issue. ****GIGABYTE PLEASE FIX****

When I first put it together I ran the windows 'F2' key memtest overnight. It was stable, no errors at 3.6Ghz, 1800Mhz FSB all night long with 4GB of RAM. (sweet! I could only do that with 2GB of ram in the old 680i board)

The next morning I stopped the test, booted Windows and let the PC run idle and left for work. When I came home and 'woke' the computer from sleep my board went into a reboot loop, maybe 4-6 times?? When it came back my CMOS was reset to the year 2000 and only one of my 2 drives belonged to the RAID array. Doh! I ended up having to delete the array, and make a new one, and re-install windows.

I assumed the crash was overclocking related, so I ran the board without out overclocking... It still crashed upon waking, but not to the point of a CMOS reset. On my board this only seems to happen if it sleeps for a long time. Forcing the computer to sleep, then waking it within a couple minutes seems to cause no problems for me. If I let it sleep for ~8 hours it's guaranteed to crash upon wake. Originally on F6 bios, then upgraded to F9, same issue.

My quick fix has been to just disable sleep in Vista's power options menu. I'd hate to have to re-install Vista yet again!! (between the old board and the new one, I've installed Vista about 6 times in the last week... Ugh)

Gigabyte EP45-DS3R, Intel Q6600 (G0), 2x1GB Patriot DDR2 1200, 2x1GB Corsair DDR2 800, Evga 8800GT SC, 2xWD 500GB Caviar striped, Samsung 20X DVD. All the latest BIOS' and drivers for everything. Antec 900 case and 650W neo-power

[imweasel]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I just became a member in this forum just to say that I too have an EP45-DS3R and vista64, SP1. I've owned the board for less than 1 week. My board also has the crash upon wake issue. ****GIGABYTE PLEASE FIX**** ...

Me too. I almost sent my brand new board back and thought it might be my brand new video card, but I put my 8800GTX in it and same thing. I tried PC6400 RAM and still had the issue. I also changed my sleep setting to power off to stop this issue. I have no problems on my XP SP3 load.

I did notice last night that there was a beta bios (F10e) posted at the official Gigabyte site - but I would rather wait for a release BIOS that hopefully will list in the release notes the fix to this issue.

[jbrucegraham]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

@jbruce:. <snip>.

What kind of gfx card are you using?

<snip>.

I just have a little fanless Asus ATI-3450 driving a Dell2707 for photography work.

I have F9 Bios now, no change too.

I measured power draw in S3 and it is very low (would not register on my ancient rotating watthour meter) so it would be nice to get S3 running.

[Blackbat]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I've been following this thread with interest for some time now. I've got an EP45-DS4 running Vista x32 and have the same S3 problem reported by others here.

[mxcrowe]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

Keep pestering Gigabyte about the fix for this. Use their online customer support interface. They usually reply once per day, which is tedious, but at least you can keep the issue front and center.
Their latest request of me is for the "lot #" of my motherboard, which they explained was on the printer port. As I could see nothing from the top, I was forced to take my entire mobo out of the case (an enormous PITA!). All I could see is a 3 digit code on the plastic part, which doesn't seem like a lot # at all to me. I wrote down every other number I could find and sent it to them. At least they are doing something...

By the way, since I flashed up to F9b (at Gigabyte's request to test this issue, which didn't fix anything) and have flashed back down to F7, the S3 problem is worse. I now can't use hibernate either, which was working ok before. Further, my dual-boot Linux O/S also will no longer go into "suspend to RAM" (same as S3). Extremely frustrating...feels like I'm going backward.

@jbruce - It would interesting to see what the power draw is when in S1 vs. S3. My contention is that S1 is a waste of time. Can you do that test?

[jbrucegraham]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

<snip>
@jbruce - It would interesting to see what the power draw is when in S1 vs. S3. My contention is that S1 is a waste of time. Can you do that test?

At stock speed, with speedstep enabled but no DES, my sytem is 80W at idle, 69W at idle with DES engaged almost to the max and 57W at S1 sleep, unmeasurable in S3

So S1 is not a waste of time, but very limited.

Also, To provide info to Gigabyte, you can get your mobo serial number from the cardboard box if you still have it. Mine is SN082300042713

I haven't contacted Gigabyte myself, I will just check the BIOS releases and in the meantime set my power scheme to quickly go to S1, then hibernate after about an hour. To me, this is an irritation but no dealbreaker.

For me, fixing S3 would save more energy than DES. I have not played with DES until now, but although the measurement above looks good, when I ran prime95 to see the DES savings under load I was amazed to see it was only burning 80W, but then I saw the CPU multiplier was stuck at 6 (instead of 10) and stayed like that when I turned off DES. I have to post this before I reboot to see if that fixes the behaviour.

[jbrucegraham]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

<snip>
For me, fixing S3 would save more energy than DES. I have not played with DES until now, but although the measurement above looks good, when I ran prime95 to see the DES savings under load I was amazed to see it was only burning 80W, but then I saw the CPU multiplier was stuck at 6 (instead of 10) and stayed like that when I turned off DES. I have to post this before I reboot to see if that fixes the behaviour.

The multiplier was stuck on 6 above because I accidentally changed to a Power savings power plan while playing with the sleep settings. All fixed now with mult at 10 under prime95 showing 100% on both threads. Load power is 116 Watts. With DES engaged with max CPU undervolting (setting 3) power is reduced to 105 Watts. Obviously not something you can do while overclocking but with the different profiles in the bios I probably will use DES for normal operation and turn it off when overclocking.

[mxcrowe]

Re: GA-EP45-DS3R unstable after sending to S3(STR) sleep state

I have played around with DES a bit, but the service continually crashes. I uninstalled it and good riddance...
I guess 57w is some reduction, but nothing like S3...plus the fans are still on and making noise. S1 is not an option for me. Hibernation saves me like 20 secs over a cold reboot. I have several other machines that just simply go in and out of S3 no problem. My HP Notebook (Vista x64) goes into S3 literally for weeks before I do a full boot, and shows no problems at all.
Yes, I have my serial number, no problem there. It is the Lot # that they were requesting. It would be helpful if you did contact Gigabyte - the more feedback they get on this issue, the more motivated they will be to resolve it. Plus, it shows them that this is not an isolated case.