New Build: BIOS problem

[banskt]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I was googling my way through and saw this nice community. I hope that somebody might help me through the crisis.

I assembled a new desktop yesterday. The configuration is:

Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-US2H
Phenom II X6 1055T
G.Skill 2*2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
Corsair VX450
500 GB HDD

When I powered it on for the first time, it came to a screen which reads. From now on, I will refer this screen as "unresponsive screen" -

Award Modular BIOS v6.00PC, An Energy Star Ally
Copyright (C) 1984 - 2009, Award Software, Inc.

GA-MA785GMTUS2H F3

Processor: AMD Processor model unknown
(CPUID: 00100FA0)






DEL:BIOS Setup F9: XpressRecovery2 F12:Boot Menu End:Qflash
11/30/2009-RS705-SB710-7A66BC09C-00

And, there it was, silent, no beep, no keyboard activity. I restarted a number of times, but everytime it went into the unresponsive screen. However, sometimes, when it was sensing that I was pressing the DEL button, it was going a little beyond. On the same screen it showed Memory checking ..... +512MB found...

Checking IDE drives...
1st IDE Master: None
1st IDE slave: None
...
...

...
3rd IDE slave: "hard drive number here."
...
...

Then the screen went blank, and after that it again returned to the cold, unresponsive screen.

I checked the power connections, processor placement, and other source of physical / manual errors.

When there was no way out, I connected the two pins of the CLR_CMOS, to reset the settings. Next time on boot-up, pressing the DEL key led me to the BIOS. I saved the "Load Fail-Safe Default" to the BIOS, saved and exit. On the next bootup, it showed me "BIOS is updating EC Firmware to the latest version! Do not shut down or restart". Then again it checked the memory and IDE drives, and went to a black (or, blank screen) followed by the unresponsive screen.

I restarted the system, and pressed the DEL button, it showed, "Prepare to enter setup..." , followed by a blank screen and a cursor blinking at the top_left corner.

I waited for 45 minutes for the blinking cursor to show some activity, nothing happened. I switched off the PC, reset the CLR_CMOS once again, and rebooted it, and allowed it to boot. I did not press any key from the keyboard. It went into a screen which said "CMOS checksum error..." It also showed a blue splash where it named the profiles I had created previously, and had the incstructions how to load the profiles, or to contiue with the last known good config. I preferred to continue with the last known good config. It went to a screen which shows an error message:
Sata detected in IDE mode, (geast of the message, could not note down the total message.)
press y to load SATA in the AHCI mode
press n to not show this warning again.
system will continue in ... seconds.

Actually, I have tried these things a lot of times resetting the CMOS every time, and have found that none of the options lead to a boot up menu.

Everytime it finally hangs with the unresponsive screen or the blinking_cursor screen.

Please help me out of this BIOS. I really do not know what to do next.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Do you have an older CPU?

You need an older CPU to flash the BIOS to F4 to support this CPU, F3 does not support this CPU and that is what it is showing as installed.

So that is the main problem, and probably your only one, so see if you can find or borrow an older CPU and you should be good to go

[banskt]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Thanks for the reply. I was really worried that the mobo might have gone bad. Now its really assuring to know that an update might fix the issue.

I do not have an old AMD CPU right now. Is there any other option to update the BIOS?

Edit: Does it mean that I have to install an OS using an old cpu, use the @BIOS to update to latest BIOS and then change the CPU?
Or, can I do it using the Qflash utility before installing the OS?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Na, it looks like it is good to me since it is posting for you, which is actually surprising that it does.

Most of the time an unsupported CPU wont even let you get that far.

No sorry, the only way to flash the BIOS is by using a CPU that is supported by the F3 BIOS or below, here is the list
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Socket AM3 - AMD 785G - GA-MA785GMT-US2H (rev. 3.3)

I suggest when you get a older CPU that you use Qflash or DOS to update the BIOS, DO NOT USE @BIOS Ever! Here is a guide, windows does not need to be installed

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

[banskt]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Well, I will find out an old CPU tomorrow and flash the BIOS.

And one more thing to know: shall i flash the bios directly to F6 OR F7B? or, shall i upgrade to F4?

Thanks for the nice tutorial. I will be following the USB drive flash method, since I do not have a floppy drive. This will be my first BIOS flash ... Any tips for a novice in flashing BIOS?

edit: my mother board is rev 1.1, not rev 3.3... i have found the list of CPU support from Gigabyte website. just thought i would mention the revision, if there is anything peculiar with this revision.

[Judge-dredd]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

just goes to show you intel does not distroy faulty CPU
they sell them to AMD to make the AMD Phenom II

just kidding yes your locky it posted at all

[banskt]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

I updated the BIOS to F7B.... and now it is behaving normally.

Many many thanks to all of you.

I have installed Ubuntu on the system, and have checked that things are working successfully.

However, when I try to load Windows XP, I get to the blue error screen:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDISK /F to check for hard drive corruption and then restart your computer.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

I have changed the SATA mode to AHCI.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[wazza300]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

you need to install ahci drivers from a usb stick before you install the os with xp,

[artdrivers]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Yes use the F6 key for more disk options when first running Windows XP setup. Install the AMD SB 710 RAID/AHCI SATAII controller drivers on a floppy. Then use the F6 option before installing Windows XP. ↓ Below ↓ is a PDF of your motherboard manual. Give it a bit to load. Instructions for the AHCI SATA instalation starts on page 77. http://download.gigabyte.ru/manual/m...-ud(s)2h_e.pdf
Let us know how that goes. ↓ Below ↓ is the Windows XP 32bit floppy F6 option RAID/AHCI controllers. http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...isk_m7x_xp.exe

[banskt]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

Thanks for all the help.

I tried to install the AHCI drivers but failed. I googled and decided to install using IDE and change back to AHCI later.

In the meantime, an interesting thing happened. I received my Windows7 DVD! So, I went on to install windows 7, it installed without hiccups in the IDE mode of the SATA hard drive.

Now, the question is - shall I change to AHCI or not? Does anybody have any real time experience of using AHCI and getting things faster? To be noted is that, this PC is going to be used mainly for adobe CS4 (mostly), and video edits(infrequently). There will be no gaming on this PC.

So, does it worth the pain to try and get into AHCI?

Thanks to all of you. I am really thankful to all of you for the quick responses. This forum is one of the best I have seen in a while.

[wazza300]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

theres no real benefit from ide to ahci if your running single hdd,but you should see slight improvement if in raid or a larger improvement with an ssd and ahci,if you want to enable it after os install then follow this reg tweak

1.Exit all Windows-based programs.
2.Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
3.If you receive the User Account Control dialog box, click Continue.
4.Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesM sahci

5.In the right pane, right-click Start in the Name column, and then click Modify.
6.In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
7.On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
After this you’ll have to restart your computer, go to BIOS and enable AHCI. When you log in to Windows again, you’ll notice the installation of drivers for AHCI. Another restart will be required to finish the driver installation

the above guide only works for vista/win7 for xp its a bit more complicated but i do have the guide if you want it

[artdrivers]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

I have run tests on both with this setup. As of now I have yet to see the difference but AHCI is suppose to have HotSwap support. Which may be nice to have with an SATAE harddrive. Without an SATAE harddrive it seems to be just a waste of time to me. The speed-test results were not much different. In my tests the faster was with the smart disabled in IDE mode, and it was a very minimal increase in speed.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: New Build: BIOS problem

You can't change to AHCI easily with XP, you need to install the AHCI driver during setup from a floppy disk.

AHCI also has NCQ with speeds things up, I find AHCI to be much faster on many things on Intel chipsets, it may not make such a difference on AMD though.

If you want to use AHCI you will have to do another clean install, and load the drivers during the install process.

Ahh, sorry I reply as I read. Yes in windows 7 you can easily switch to AHCI using the above mentioned method.