GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e

[MCGlausa]

Bilbat over at the Tom's Hardware forums suggested this was good place for Gigabyte-related questions, so I hope you can help me out!

I have recently purchased this motherboard and CPU. Having installed everything, the machine fails to POST. I removed everything except power supply, CPU, and CPU fan and PC Speaker (to listen for POST errors). Still nothing.

I tried a different power supply. I tried resetting the CMOS by shorting the appropriate jumpers. Still the same thing - power supply and CPU fans spin, but nothing else happens. I even removed the mobo from the case and set it on a wooden surface to ensure no shorting problems.

I notice that the 5050e doesn't show up as a supported CPU for this mobo, but I've found some forum posts suggesting that at least some people have this combo working. Google also shows the 5050e as being included on the CPU support list at gigabyte.com.tw. If I look at the HTML, it appears that the 5050e is "under testing".

Can anyone confirm that the 5050e does or does not work with the GA-M78SM-S2H? Any suggestions on a course of action?

[Nickel020]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e won't POST

I removed everything except power supply, CPU, and CPU fan and PC Speaker (to listen for POST errors).

I hope you've got some RAM installed. Also try some different RAM if you can

Maybe your board has an older BIOS revision that doesn't support your CPU yet, try a different CPU if you can and update your BIOS if it works with that CPU then try your CPU again.

Basically this sound like a bad PSU (unlikely, you tried another on), dead motherboard, dead CPU (happens very rarely) or incompatible RAM or some necessary power connectors form the PSU not connected.

[MCGlausa]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e won't POST

I hope you've got some RAM installed. Also try some different RAM if you can

I did try it with RAM at first. When that failed, I took out the RAM to see if I'd get the "Hey! There's no RAM installed!" error from the POST. Since I didn't, I'm figure it was either bad mobo, bad CPU, or unsupported CPU (though I've seen reports of that combo working).

In any case, I took it back to the store and they kindly replaced the motherboard and refunded the CPU (as they didn't have a replacement in stock). Now I'm just waiting for a 4850e to arrive, as all the local store seem to be really low on AM2 CPUs right now.

Thanks for your help.

[bigclaw]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e

I just purchased a 5050e and GA-MA74GM-S2 combo. Unfortunately, this board has the exact same supported CPU issue as yours. Its sister board, GA-MA74GM-S2H, has the 5050e listed as supported, though. I think the only difference between that board and mine is the HDMI interface.

There is a "recent" BIOS update (12/31/08) for my board that has a CPU ID update. The sibling BIOS update for the sister GA-MA74GM-S2H board apparently enabled its 5050e support. But for whatever reason, this board still has the 5050e as "under testing" in the hidden HTML.

I e-mailed Gigabyte, whose response was "unfortunately the processor has not been validated on this board due to chipset limitation". I find that curious because the sister H board has the exact same chipset too.

Since everything is purchased online, it's not cost-effective for me to return them all. I think I'm going to push my luck and try to install the thing anyway. If that fails, I have another AMD CPU to flash the latest BIOS. Failing that, I guess I'll swap the CPU; my other board does support the 5050e.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e

Let me know how it goes for you, if you still have issues I can check what the official status is of those CPU's for this board

Pretty similar board here with 5050e working >>

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ma78gm-s2hp-v2-0-fail-post-next-day-30260/

Several Similar boards (GM models) with 4850e working here

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-sata-hdd-issues-27533/

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-rev-1-1-doesnt-allow-dual-channel-28795/

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-problem-28391/

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-hdmi-missing-bios-27726/

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-ma78gm-s2h-rev-1-1-unable-install-any-os-27680/

[bigclaw]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e

Update: my GA-MA74GM-S2 board (which is different from OP's board but has identical issues) had no problem recognizing the 5050e. I upgraded to the latest BIOS afterwards anyway.

Thanks.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-M78SM-S2H with Athlon 64 X2 5050e

Any luck MCGlausa?