Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

[godto]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

hard code your ram in .. don't use auto .... 5-5-5-15( what ever your ram spec is) .. trfc = 68 is high .. probably need 46-56 only .. static read start with 9 ... your ram is 800 .. use 800 to start in diver strength ...

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

I'll hard code those settings, thanks.

Well, so far without having to do the single-stick method and auto timing, we've managed to get the system to where it'll boot and install Windows onto the RAID. It's installing now, so my fingers are crossed (no shutdowns thusfar). I know what caused a shutdown before (installing that USB wireless device) so I'll try that and if it causes a shutdown, we'll go back and tweak the settings some more. If it doesn't cause a shutdown, I'll go ahead and start installing the system drivers and keep an eye on it.

LSD, if you see any of the settings in one of my previous posts that could be tweaked further before I respond again, let me know. Godto suggested that I lower one of the timing settings from 68 to around 56.

I'm hoping this works. If I can get the system stable at stock, *maybe* we'll play with overclocking it. For now, I'm happy with what I've got after being a whole year without a decent computer after our 4 year old AMD Athlon 2800+ bit the dust after a power surge (at least that's what we think it was). We've been using my 5 yo son's eMachine in the meantime...anything is an improvement over nothing!

I'll be back with updates.

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

UPDATE: Well, it gets past the initial blue-with-white-text setup screens and reboots. Then Windows XP gets to the colorful setup screens (the "Installing Windows" 39 minutes to complete part). When it gets to "Installing devices", the green status bar goes across almost half way and the PC turns off. Somewhere there's some device it doesn't like with the current BIOS settings.

I made the changes Godto suggested and it shuts off in the same spot. The RAM is now hard coded to 6-6-6-18, trfc = 56, static read is now 9 for the two channels, and driver strength is now 800. All the rest of the settings I posted at 2:41 EST are the same.

Getting closer, I think... What next?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

Install with only one stick of ram, and only your one needed CD drive, and your GFX card. To rule out all other hardware

You are sure you have the correct settings for your disks right? If you are not sure, post a pic of integrated peripherals page

And you are using the correct F6 driver right? I mean installing via F6 correct one, and then choosing the correct one when presented with the choose driver part of F6? Just checking

There should be NO Hard drives listed in standard CMOS page. If you see your drives listed there change them to NONE then Auto/NONE inside like shown here >>>




*EDIT*

Sorry, just noted you added Integrated Peripherals to the above settings >>>

All looks good for now except this >>>



Integrated Peripherals
SATA RAID...................................:[Enabled] << This is what you want to set to RAID.. See below comments

SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode.............:[Enabled]

Code............................................:[Auto] << Code? Whats this


Onboard SATA/IDE........................:[RAID]
Onboard SATA/IDE Control Mode.....:RAID << These are for the Gigabyte (purple Ports) are you using those ports? If so you need to use the gigabyte F6 drivers not the intel ones. You should however use the Yellow Intel ports (Put your RAID Disks at 0 and 1 port) and use the Intel F6 driver

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

Yes, I'm using the two purple Gigabyte ports for the HDD raid. I'll switch it to the yellow ports and see what happens. There are no HDDs listed Integrated peripherals page in the BIOS. I've got two IDE CD drives set to cable select mode; should that really matter how many I have connected? I'll disconnect the one I'm not using just in case.

I've only got the GFX card, two HDDs, and two CD drives connected as it is. Well, and the USB mouse. I've disabled the serial and parallel ports to free up the IRQs since the board didn't come with the optional external ports assigned to these connections. I'll go down to one memory stick, the GFX card, one CD drive, and will remove the USB mouse and will move the HDDs to the yellow raid. Should I disable the onboard (Gigabyte) RAID just to rule that out?

Thanks!

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

Back to the drawing board...

Well, I removed one of the IDE DVD drives, set the primary DVD drive to 'master', went down to one memory stick in slot 1, moved the RAID to the yellow Intel controller, and left the MCH voltage at 1.260V (Manual) and Windows managed to install past the 'installing devices' part. But then the PC shut off again as I was entering in the system name during setup (~30 seconds after the 'installing devices' part ended).

Yes, I used the Intel IH10R drivers via F6/Floppy during Windows setup.

So, I swapped the memory sticks (other stick in slot 1) and set the MCH core voltage to [Auto] and now the PC turns off midway through the 'installing devices' part again. It doesn't seem to matter what stick I have in slot 1 but clearly the MCH voltage allows the install to go slightly further when set manually.

Here are my settings as they stand now:

MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)
Robust Graphics Booster ...............: [Fast]
CPU Clock Ratio ...........................:10x
Fine CPU Clock Ratio.....................:+0.0
CPU Frequency .............................:3.33Ghz (333x10)


Clock Chip Control
Standard Clock Control
CPU Host Clock Control..................: [Disabled]
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) ............: 333 Mhz
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) .........:100

C.I.A.2 ...........................................:[Disabled]


Advanced Clock Control [Press Enter]
CPU Clock Drive...........................: 800 mv
PCI Express Clock Drive................: 900 mv
CPU Clock Skew ..........................: 0 ps
MCH Clock Skew .........................: 100 ps

DRAM Performance Control
Performance Enhance...................: [Standard]
(G)MCH Frequency Latch...............: [Auto]
System Memory Multiplier ..............:[2.40B]
Memory Frequency (Mhz) ...............:800
DRAM Timing Selectable ................: [Manual]

Standard Timing Control
CAS Latency Time........................: 6 [Auto]
tRCD ......................................... 6 [Auto]
tRP'........................................... 6 [Auto]
tRAS.......................................... 18 [Auto]

Advanced Timing Control
tRRD........................................... 3 [Auto]
tWTR.......................................... 3 [Auto]
tWR............................................ 6 [Auto]
tRFC........................................... 56
tRTP........................................... 3 [Auto]
Command Rate (CMD) ....................:0 [Auto]

Driving Strength Profiles
Driving Strength ............................ 800

Channel A
Static tRead Value.........................: 9
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:1 [Auto]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:0 [Auto]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:0 [Auto]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:0 [Auto]
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:6 [Auto]
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:6 [Auto]
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:5 [Auto]
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:8 [Auto]
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:[Auto]
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:[Auto]
DDR write training..............................[Auto]

Channel B
Static tRead Value.........................: 9
tRD Phase0 Adjustment...................:1 [Auto]
tRD Phase1 Adjustment...................:0 [Auto]
tRD Phase2 Adjustment .................:0 [Auto]
tRD Phase3 Adjustment..................:0 [Auto]
Trd2rd(Different Rank)....................:6 [Auto]
Twr2wr(Different Rank)...................:6 [Auto]
Twr2rd(Different Rank)...................:5 [Auto]
Trd2wr(Same/Diff Rank)..................:8 [Auto]
Dimm1 Clock Skew Control...............:[Auto]
Dimm2 Clock Skew Control...............:[Auto]
DDR write training..............................[Auto]

Motherboard Voltage ControlCPUMCH/ICH[Auto] DRAMAdvanced Settings
Limit CPUID Max. to 3.....................: [Disabled]
No-Execute Memory Protect............: [Disabled]
CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)................: [Enabled]
C2/C2E State Support....................: [Disabled]
x C4/C4E State Support..................: [Disabled]
CPU Thermal Monitor 2(TM2) ...........: [Enabled]
CPU EIST Function.........................: [Enabled]
Virtualization Technology................: [Disabled]
Dual bios Recovery Source.............:HPA

Integrated Peripherals
SATA RAID...................................:[RAID]
SATA Port 0-3 Native Mode.............:[Enabled]
USB Controller...............................:[Enabled]
USB 2.0 Controller.......................:[Enabled]
USB Keybord Support..................:[Enabled]
USB Mouse Support.......................:[Enabled] (we have a USB mouse)
Legacy USB Storage Detect ..............:[Enabled]
Onboard SATA/IDE........................:[Enabled] Nothing's plugged into the purple SATA ports
Onboard SATA/IDE Control Mode.....:[RAID/IDE] The system sees the IDE DVD just fine

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

I read on another forum from back on 11/04:

"I hear in F4 and F5a the 2.40 memory multi does not work properly." (Bottom of page, one of last posts.)

I've got the original F4 firmware and my memory multi is set to 2.40B. I'm getting very discouraged. It's been years since I put a PC together (with 15 years working in IT) and this is all Greek to me. I don't want to overclock my system...I just want it to run stable and quit shutting off!

On Monday I'm shipping the whole thing back to Newegg if I can't get Windows installed.

[VorLonUK]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

Could you just try setting the memory multiplier to 2.00x ? That will underclock the Ram to 667Mhz, providing the Cpu host frequency is at default (which looking at your printout it is).

It gives you another reference point in fault finding.

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

I put both RAM sticks in, set the multiplier to 2.00 as suggested and I also lowered the DRAM voltage from 2.0 to 1.84 and managed to finally get Windows installed. It still dies after logging in. During the first test after installing the OS, the PC shut off after I brought up Task Manager. Then I rebooted and lowered the Vcore. I got back into Windows and managed to install Easy Tune, rebooted and ran ET6 to get some preliminary numbers before the PC shut off on me yet again.

The CPU shows oscillating speeds in ET6: 1.9 Ghz and then 3.33 Ghz and back and forth. What's up with that?

I can list my new settings here tomorrow. I've been lowering the MCH Voltage, Vcore voltage, DRAM voltage, and MCH clock skew in an attempt to finally find where the system is 'happy' with mixed results. The PC always shuts down, however, no matter what I have it set to.

I'm finally home for the weekend and with any luck, can spend some decent time trying to get this system working before throwing in the towel.

Any ideas why ET6 would show a wildly oscillating CPU speed while sitting idle?

[pinoyboy24]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

its probably jumping around because you left C1 stepping and EIST on in the BIOS

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

You likely need more Ram voltage.

You need to disable C1E and EIST to turn off speedstep that is why your CPU speed is changing

Lowering volts is not going to help really until you find a stable high point. So yes, please do list your full settings again

You say you moved your RAID to the intel controller, did you delete and recreate your RAID array in the Intel RAID BIOS?

[mcsemel]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

SOLVED!

I finally had enough time to sit down with this PC and figure out what settings would make it stop powering off.

First, I reset the BIOS just to start back at square one.

Then the system went into the reboot loop. So, I pulled out one memory stick and booted successfully into the BIOS. I changed the PCI Express Frequency to 100, set the CPU PLL to 1.500v, the performance enhance to standard, set the RAID back up and set the memory timings manually to 6-6-6-18 with all other settings set to auto and rebooted.

That still caused the system to shut down while booting Windows.

So, as a last resort, I disabled C1E and EIST.

THAT worked. The PC has now been up for over 4 hours and hasn't shut off once. I've gotten Windows and all my apps installed and finally have a stable system set to stock settings!

I can only guess that the mobo was thinking the CPU was idle even though it wasn't and was either undervolting or overvolting to the point where the system became completely unstable. No matter what setting I changed in the BIOS, I couldn't get the PC to stay on. I don't know if it's a BIOS code problem or what but clearly C1E and EIST was causing the instability in my system. Since it's turned off when overclocking anyway, I decided those settings just weren't necessary even though I was simply running the system at stock.

Thanks Lsdmeasap and others! At the very least, your help has assisted me in understanding what all these new settings were for and I'll definitely be coming back to this forum if I ever get a wild hair and decide to try overclocking!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Problems with GA-EP45-UD3P powering off unexpectedly

Glad to see you are up and running!

Ya, there is likely/maybe issues with C1E and EIST but eveyone I know disables them before even setting disk settings so we likely just never hear about them as not many people use speedstep