GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

[thekashyap]

Hi *,

I'm a HW novice when it comes to assembling.
Parts involved:
- GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Mobo (LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX) rev 2.0
- C2D E6750 (2.66 GHz, 4MB L2, 1333 FSB)
- mobo has no built in graphics card.
- SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3850 512MB (GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16)
- Transcend 2GB DDR2 800 MHz (single DIMM of 2GB)
- Seagate 80GB HDD 7200rpm
- 400 W power source (iBall LPE223-400, cabinate is this)
- PS2 keyboard
- USB mouse
- Dell 19" monitor (Dell E198WFP, Flat panel LCD)
- As we couldn't get past the first screen so the PC has no OS of course. :(

Problem is once everything was put together and switched on the PC, Gigabyte welcome screen appeared on the monitor (see the pic below). Pressing any key on the keyboard had no effect and that screen remained on monitor forever.



The assembler (I had a guy from a local [reputed] shop come and put it together) assured me that keyboard was properly connected and so on.. (one of the LEDs on the keyboard was on). Also at the boot time mobo gave one single short beep, which according to mobo manual means booting went thru fine.

After he gave up. I tried following 2 things I learned from all the forume:
1. Connected only RAM (in Channel 0, slot 1), CPU and VGA card to mobo and booted up. Same result.
2. Cleared CMOS for abt 10 minutes (had removed battery during these 10 minutes). Repeated step 1. Same result.

Unfortunately I bought the mobo in US (from newegg) and I'm in India. So far I've been unable to find where is this "Gigabyte support" in India.

Any help is appreciated..

Thanks
Kashyap

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

Your power supply may not be providing enough power. That is somewhat low wattage supply for your hardware. I'd go with at the bare minumun 500 Watts. 550 watts would be better, 600 watts would be best.

[thekashyap]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

We also tried with a 500W PSU (the assembler had got his own), same result. I'm currently suspecting the RAM, but haven't got any other DIMM to check with so..

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

I just noticed that your Video Card is PCI Express 2.0

Your motherboard doesn't support PCI Express 2.0.

Not all PCI Express 2.0 Video cards are backward compatible with the p35 chipset on your motherboard. Very few of them are.

Good chance that is the root of your problem.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

That is correct, and most people do not know it. P35 is not compatible with PCIE 2.0 >>>

In June 2007 Intel released the specification of the Intel P35 chipset which does not support PCIe 2.0 only PCIe 1.1.[10] Some people may be confused by the P35 block diagram[11] which states the Intel P35 has a PCIe x16 graphics link (8 GB/s) and 6 PCIe x1 links (500 MB/s each), for simple verification one can view the P965 block diagram which shows the same number of lanes and bandwidth but was released before PCIe 2.0 was finalized. Intel's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset is the X38 and boards are already shipping from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007.[12] AMD started supporting PCIe 2.0 with its RD700 chipset series. NVIDIA has revealed that the MCP72 will be their first PCIe 2.0 equipped chipset.[13] The specification of the Intel P45 chipset includes PCIe 2.0 .

Source
PCI Express - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You may also find this page interesting >>>
Can a PCI-E 2.0 card work on a regular PCI-E slot? [Archive] - techPowerUp! Forums

But you may still be ok, I have seen a few users with that exact board not have any trouble. You should be able to for sure get into the BIOS since you can see the screen you know it is working in 16Bit mode for now, which the BIOS is in. So if you have another older GFX card please install it. Look in your basement or garage or somewhere, surely you have one in a old PC you are not using.

If not you can try this until you can get a PCIE x16 ordered >>>

Do you have another PS2 keyboard to test with? DO you have any other USB Devices connected? Unplug your mouse and see if that helps for now

Yes, it could be the ram, do you have any older DDR2 to test with? Any speed will do

Can you try to clear the CMOS by the method I post here >>>

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/#post258596

Do you have a Older 775 CPU? If your board only has F1 BIOS version it may not support that CPU as it is listed for only F2 BIOS and above

[thekashyap]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

Hmm.. That's bad news.. :(

The whole point of me creating this new PC was to see what NFS feels like when you play highest quality. On my current laptop (from my office) it comes down to abt 8-10FPS. :). So one thing I want to keep unchanged is my HD3850.

After reading the links you posted, thanks a ton for those, I'm just praying that it's the RAM or the PSU. Hunting for a new mobo in India isn't anywhere as easy in Europe/US.

Homerdog seems to be running same mobo and CPU with 8800GT (PCIe2.0) though it's different RAM.

A couple of questions:
1. I tore off a few hair trying to figure out what's the PCIe version (1.0, 1.0a, 1.1,...) my mobo supports. I couldn't ! Is it an attribute of mobo or the chipset ?
2. Lets say RAM is the problem, could you suggest what to buy ? Here is the "official" supported list. I'm looking for 2GB right now. (going to use Win XP SP2).
3. Lets say I somehow manage to get into BIOS with minimal h/w and a clean CMOS. What next ? Do I change something ? Load Optimized Defaults and reboot ? I checked the required volts for what seemed like my RAM on Transcend site. Here is what I think is my RAM. They all seem to be expecting 1.8V, which AFAIK is what mobo would default to.
4. Is there a way to figure the BIOS version as well ? Without going into it of course.. :). Again none of the documentation say what come by defaults in the box.
5. I think I read somewhere that even 8800GT doesn't fill up PCIe 1.1 bus fully, so I take it that HD3850 won't either ?

A few answers:
1. I tried clearing the CMOS after reading your article. Basic differences between what you describe and what I did was I removed the battery and short-circuited for 20 minutes using a screw driver. I couldn't find a jumper. Same result.
2. I don't have a spare CPU or RAM to test out with, so I'll take it to my assembler's place and test it out with other grfx card, ram etc.
3. All USB ports were free, nothing else than "RAM (in Channel 0, slot 1), CPU and VGA card" were connected to mobo. And PSU, Keyboard of course. :)
4. I stopped connecting mouse after the first day.

[DavidDavisLeeSomething]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

You have PCIe version 1.0, same as my board

RAM recommedations: Mushkin, G-Skill are the best for Giga-boards but might cost a few more dollars. Kingstons are good but not recommended for heavy overclocking.

Stay away from Crucial memory. They used to be the best, but like Norton Antivirus they are down in the gutter.

The less you pay the less you play

okay

laugh it up.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P35-DS3L: Freezes at first screen

I have tested Transcend AXE ram in a P35, worked without issue. So I think maybe your PSU more then the ram. No older card to test with at all to be sure the board and PSU is ok itself?

P35 is PCI Express 1.1 >>

http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/prodbrief/pdf317304.pdf

or HTML >>>
Intel P35 Express Chipset

Ya, I would suggest Mushkin, G.Skill, Or Geil. If you could link me to the main place you shop I will look around and tell you which others would also work good in your board.

But please, if you can borrow a better PSU to test that aspect of it, and a older GFX card to be sure your Board is ok before you do anything else. As I said that ram works fine GA boards..... Unless you have DOA ram. Can you test that ram on another computer with Memtest86+ to be sure it is good

Yes, you would load optimized defaults, then save and apply and reboot. And yes Auto is 1.8v

No, no way to see BIOS version without getting into it

Good luck getting things tested, you should have them test Your card first in one of their PC's to be sure it actually works as well!