GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

[FellowTraveller]

I'm having a weird problem regarding devices plugged into any of my PCI-E x1 slots on a GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 board. This system was rock solid until early this year when I started experiencing random reboot loops and BIOS resets. I backed off my overclock, but that didn't solve it. I experimented with different voltages and timings to no avail. RAM tested OK with memtest. I also borrowed a 750w Corsair PSU to test and that did not fix the issue.

I did notice that if I raised my PCI-E frequency from 100 to 102 the problem occurred less frequently, but did not eliminate it. Eventually I remembered the issues started when I added an Asus Xonar DX PCI-E sound card.

I noticed recently that by switching the Xonar from the PCI-E x1 slots to the other x16 Crossfire slot all of my problems disappeared. No reboot loops, BIOS resets, and I can set the PCI-E frequency back to 100 without issue. I don't think the Xonar is the problem since I tested the x1 slots with a PCI-E TV tuner card from another system and the problems returned.

Obviously, this board does not like any devices in the x1 slots. Not a huge deal since I'll probably be upgrading in the next few months, but I would like to use this board in my HTPC and I will need to use two PCI-E devices in addition to the GPU.

I haven't been able to find any info on this issue via Google and I'm left scratching my head. Was this ever an issue with P35 chipsets or is my board just finicky?

System specs: Gigabyte GA-P35 DS4 Rev. 2.0, Intel C2D [email protected] GHz 1.3375v, Mushkin DDR2-800 5-5-5-15, Antec True Power Trio 650w PSU, Powercolor Radeon 4870 512MB

[Nickel020]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

Did you try updating the BIOS? Issues like this with specific hardware combinations often occur and are also often fixedby updating the BIOS.

[FellowTraveller]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

I'm using the most recent BIOS f14. It also occurred on the last release, f13. I haven't tried an older BIOS than f13 since it might run into other issues because those are so old.

I should note that I can also run a regular PCI card alongside a PCI-E card in the second Crossfire slot and all is well. It's just using any PCI-E card in the x1 slots that causes problems.

I wish I had tested the x1 slots back when this board was current.

[Psycho101]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

You should be safe to use BIOS versions lower than F13 for testing purposes. If the release notes state that CPU support has been updated in any of them, then check which CPU's were added, as flashing the BIOS older than that one may not contain support for your E8400.

You say that you have tried backing off the OC, which is always a good idea, but have you tried setting everything to stock?

It is also possible that ICH I/O and ICH Core voltages could help if they are present. Try 1 tick down and 2 -4 ticks up on each and see if it helps, maybe combined with the 102MHz PCIe frequency, if that helps. Those combined may have a synergistic effect.

[FellowTraveller]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

Just an update on my situation. I rolled back to the old F12 BIOS and it seems to have cleared up the problem, even when using TWO PCI-E x1 cards. In fact, I'm even able to push my overclock a tiny bit and still have not had a reboot loop or BIOS reset in a few days since installing F12.

F12 was the last BIOS before the Gigabyte P35 DPC latency controversy hit. I'm wondering if the code changes they made in F13 and F14 to reduce latency somehow caused instability on the PCI-E bus. I have not been able to find other people reporting this so it might be peculiar to my board and revision.

[Nickel020]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

Glad to hear it's working! Unfortunately newer BIOSes don't always only fix things, sometimes they break things too :(

[Dewdman42]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

Glad to hear it's working! Unfortunately newer BIOSes don't always only fix things, sometimes they break things too :(

Wow glad I stumbled on this thread. I have the final firmware on my GA-P35-DS4 (rev 2.0) and yes the DPC latency issue matters to me. And I was spending all afternoon scratching my head about why a certain PCI-E board was not showing up. THis explains it. I plugged into an available PCI-E16 slot and it seems to work fine, so I am going to run with that unless anyone thinks it should not be working on that slot and I'm asking for trouble eventually?

[newshlt]

Re: GA-P35-DS4 Strange PCI-E x1 Issue

Just an update on my situation. I rolled back to the old F12 BIOS and it seems to have cleared up the problem, even when using TWO PCI-E x1 cards. In fact, I'm even able to push my overclock a tiny bit and still have not had a reboot loop or BIOS reset in a few days since installing F12.

F12 was the last BIOS before the Gigabyte P35 DPC latency controversy hit. I'm wondering if the code changes they made in F13 and F14 to reduce latency somehow caused instability on the PCI-E bus. I have not been able to find other people reporting this so it might be peculiar to my board and revision.

i had been suffering reboot loop on my p35-ds4 board 1.0@f14 bios, tested f13 still.
yes, only f12 bios can clear up this problem!! it's not a particular case!!
unfortunatelly, this board is too old without technical support now, there won't be new bios to solve it.