Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

[Groonx2]

BEEP! or quite often a stumbling db-BEEP8 GB of RAM

• DDR2 +0.3V to now equal 2.100V
• Northbridge +0.1V to now equal 1.200V

I would very much appreciate more detailed BIOS help if that might correct the startups. I'm guessing (or hoping) that that is where the problem lies.

For those with the same system or following this thread closely, the Gigabyte manual for this GA-MA78GM-S2H version 1.1 and its Award BIOS is available as a download at
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Manual Download

Thank you.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

I would set more NB Voltage for 8GB for sure maybe 1.25-1.3, and try setting your trfc to 195 or 327Ns, if you have it in auto it may be using 127 which would be too low

Please do (Always when you buy new ram or build a system) test each stick with the latest Memtest86+ one by one as you never know you may have a faulty module >>>
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

try setting your trfc to 195 or 327Ns, if you have it in auto it may be using 127 which would be too low

Er—would you perhaps spell out this part, because I don't know the abbreviations. (If it refers to fan control, I have set both the case fan and the CPU fan to constant full speed.)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

It is a Memory Setting (Refresh to Act Delay) Should be named out at trfc in your BIOS in the MIT Section.

If you cannot find it or are not sure, post a pic of your memory page. But it is the only setting that would have 105. 127, 195, 327 as options

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

I changed the NB from +0.1V = 1.200V
to
+0.2V = 1.300V

and I did a cold start after 10 minutes with no power. The results were unchanged, with a hang of 0:01:01 [1 minute, I second].

[Edit:] I did a second cold start after 4 hours with no power. The results were a hang of 0:01:29.

Then I changed the Northbridge back to its former +0.1V = 1.200V setting, as I saw no improvement.

I have not been able to locate the trfc Refresh to Act Delay in the BIOS. As far as I can see by looking through both the BIOS and the manual, no such settings exist on this mobo/BIOS.

Thank you.

[Zyxmon]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

I have not been able to locate the trfc Refresh to Act Delay in the BIOS. As far as I can see by looking through both the BIOS and the manual, no such settings exist on this mobo/BIOS.

Have you pressed Ctrl-F1 on the main BIOS screen? After it go to M.I.T. Then you can find memory timings there.

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Thanks, Zyxmon. At least now I know which section it should be under. But I still don't see anything that looks like lsdmeasap's advice to modify tRFC so:

Yes, using Ctrl+F1, I tried pressing every category that allowed me to expand it, and maybe I just missed seeing it.

I thought it would be in Memory Clock, or Set Memory Clock??? I just don't see it.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

You must press Control + F1 on the MAIN Page of the BIOS and THEN go into the memory section of the MIT page and you should for sure see it.

If you still do not find it, please post me a image of your MIT page and any inner memory realated pages you can access by hitting enter within that page.

It should be on the same page as all your other memory timings such as >>
CAS Latency Time
tRCD
tRP
tRAS

TRC
tRRD
tWTR
tWR
tRFC
tRTP

[Zyxmon]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Groonx2
I have GA-MA78G-DS3H. It is similar to your board. Here are the settings for my mobo -
Press Enter on "Dram Configuration"

http://www.zyxmon.org/tmp/dram2.jpg

and you'll have the page that looks like

http://www.zyxmon.org/tmp/dram1.jpg

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Okay, that did it. So strange, I tried very hard to find it before. Oh, well. . . .
Thank you very much for pointing me right to it.

This morning I have had some success, but at the moment I'm still exactly where I was before, because I took everything back after getting a BIOS popup that I didn't understand.

Having Zyxmon's guide to finding the controls, I set all 4 trfc settings
from 127 to 195
and later I reset them all
from 195 to 327
and later I reset them all
from 327 to 127

I also set the NB voltage control up, so:
+0.2V = 1.300V
and back down again to
+0.1V = 1.200V

In between I did a lot of cold starts. I got hangs of about 10 seconds on the cold starts, but I have always got hangs of about 10 seconds when the cold start came after a short downtime of just a couple of minutes.

But what I got for the first time EVER was a popup so ambiguous it was useless, except as a possible warning. Taking it as that, I returned everything to where it was to begin.

The popup is headed BIOS error occurs
and that, by itself, means to me that there is a BIOS error. Which I don't want, so I set everything back—even though I doubted I was supposed to.

Under the heading, there is a list right now that looks like
Success Boot Record : Last Known Good [highlighted]
Success Boot Record 1) : 2 times
Success Boot Record 2) : 3 times
Success Boot Record 3) : 3 times

So, I suppose there are related adjustments that my BIOS would enjoy, if I am to modify those trfc settings.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Sounds like you tried to many different things at once, and not enough of the same all at once. Set all to 327 and up your voltages and you should be good to go

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

This afternoon I have modified things to these settings:

DDR2 to +0.3V = 2.100V
Northbridge to +0.2V = 1.300V
Trfc (all four) to 327

Other settings (default) which I see on the same BIOS page:

IT/2T Command Timing = 2T
Tw Tr Command Delay = 3T
Write Recovery Time = 6T
Precharge Time = 3T
Row Cycle Time = 25T
RAS to RAS Delay = 3T
Skip DQS
CKE Power Down Mode = Disabled
Memclock tri-stating = Disabled
Bank Swizzle Mode = Enabled

(SATA running in IDE Mode)

I don't really understand the BIOS popupup that says "Post error occurs!" and then lists a Default followed by various "Success" entries, plus Press Last Time Good. I think messages like that are useful to people who expect to see them, but I need subjects and predicates. So far I have just let the popups take their own choices what they want to do. On occasion they have come back around as many as 4 times, though generally it is just once per startup.

Further info appreciated. Lsdmeasap

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-boot-order-not-working-26482/

Now this current problem is similar except the monitor is on power-save/hang/standby just temporarily, for only a minute or three.

I am also reading BIOS A to Z from Tom's Hardware now.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Try row cycle time 30, and the rest of those listed above on Auto or set them manually higher

I have no clue what these are >>

CKE Power Down Mode = Disabled
Memclock tri-stating = Disabled
Bank Swizzle Mode = Enabled

So I wont comment about them as I am unsure. Are you a member of any Forums with AMD Specific Sections? If not I can link you to them, and maybe then you could get some better AMD Answers as I cannot really offer the best help at all with these boards

That BIOS popup means your settings failed and either defaults will be loaded or last known good

I can't really say about AMD boards, All I see is the issues with them myself. But then again that is the business I am in

Hey, Actually I found you a nice page about your board! 131 Pages, so surely you can find some answers there about these settings, if not you can join and ask for sure >>>
The Official Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H RS780 mATX Thread - AVS Forum

[billko]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

BEEP! or quite often a stumbling db-BEEP8 GB of RAM

• DDR2 +0.3V to now equal 2.100V
• Northbridge +0.1V to now equal 1.200V

I would very much appreciate more detailed BIOS help if that might correct the startups. I'm guessing (or hoping) that that is where the problem lies.

For those with the same system or following this thread closely, the Gigabyte manual for this GA-MA78GM-S2H version 1.1 and its Award BIOS is available as a download at
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Manual Download

Thank you.

I was reading the rest of the posts but I failed to see anything more about your HARDWARE issue. Have you tried troubleshooting that yet? Maybe the case is miswired so that the reset and power switches are reversed? This could be an issue because I believe the power and reset switches are different types. Maybe the motherboard thinks that you're holding the reset switch down because of that?

Even if it's not exactly that, you cannot rule out the possiblity that the two problems could be related.

I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, but it seems you've tried all the high-percentage stuff. The only things left are the unlikely suspects. I hope you can fix this issue!

Bill

[Groonx2]

Re: Power Up Temporary Hang ~ GA-MA78GM-S2H

Thanks :) to both Lsdmeasap and to Billko