P965 DQ6 possible issues? Help/advice required

[lcandy]

Hi,

My specs are in my sig so I won't repeat them in the post. Bios is updated to F2.

The symptons I have are, when loading Windows XP, there is a 30 seconed black screen, between the bios post and the XP Logo. To remedy this, I thought I would update the drivers. This caused the DVD drive to dissapear and a tone more errors. Windows would load saying the GA336 (or something) was disabled, so I tried to enable it, reboots. I tried updating the drivers, it reboots. I rolled back the drivers and rebooted. Attempting to reconfigure the bios to make sure it was all ok, resulted in me needing to clear CMOS data (horrible, had to short out two pins!!!). The DVD drive was eventually fixed with installing the SATA II drivers that I put on the floppy disk before installing Windows. It now says a standard dual channel PCI IDE controller, rather than the gigabyte hardware it had before (exact name I cant remember, was a controller of some kind). So installing the latest chipset drivers was a big no no.

Additionaly, I have recieved slight jumping in games/tests, where frame rates drop drasticly, only to return moments later. This is not a constant problem, and may have been fixed with a graphics card driver update.

Finally, what really concerned me, after leaving the PC on for a few hours doing nothing. I came back, to find the mouse and keyboard were not responding. The lights on the mouse and the keyboard were also off. The system would only respond to the power button at the front.

Could anyone please give me some good advice on what to do? Or do I need to post more information? Many thanks.

 

[itneal2277]

First you need to update your sig to show you have some RAM b/c if you don't that is your problem. Also where did you get your drivers from? The only drivers I used from Gigabyte's site were the drivers for the Gigabyte SATA/IDE controller. For the chipset and Intel RAID drivers I went to Intel's site, for sound I went to Realtek's site, and for LAN I went to Marvell's site. I am currently running a setup close to yours with no issues while using these drivers. I see that you've updated your BIOS, did you restore defaults after you updated? Also I read in other post that you were having issues with heat, has this issue been fixed?

 

[lcandy]

The sig was updated at the time, to show the ram, then the removal of the ram and now the ram that's replaced it It was all a complete pain in the backside.

Just about all issues are resolved, I think. The southbridge controller was not installed or not installed properly. The ram was defective (possibly why the southbridge controller never got installed correctly). The heat issues are also solved.

However, the system isn't running perfectly well. Easy Tune 5 does not give me access to CIA MIB, or SMART FAN. Also, there's been a weird tendancy for the left arrow key (or something similar causing the same effect) to be perminantly on. Also using I-cool at any time causes the fan to completely stop working. I also posted a concerned thread in the cpu forum about the erratic fan behaviour.

To solve this, I went to the Gigabyte website which has changed. And now I can't find any reference to my board on there at all. The only thing I can see is "Quad SLI" advertised and no mention of a P965 chipset let alone this exact board. Whats going on?

This is at the end of a hard day, sorry if this is making little sense.

 

[itneal2277]

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2295&ProductName=GA-965P-DQ6

There is the link for the board. There is a new BIOS update as well, F3. Are you using the version of Easy Tune 5 that came with the CD? I think Easy Tune 5 is still BETA so you may want to get the newest version from Gigabyte's site. If it is still causing issues I wouln't use it at all (just OC through the BIOS). As far as erratic fan speeds this should be normal. With the default settings the fan will adjust speeds depending on temps. You can leave the fan at full speed by going into the BIOS and disabling the fan thermal control.

If you feel like drivers may still be an issue, I recommend going to the sites I mentioned in my previous post and downloading the most up to date drivers. If your up to it, I would do a clean install. With all the issues you have had, some may be glitches with your software (ie. registry). Trouble shooting software isn't my strong point and I often find it easier to just reinstall when there isn't much info on the hard drive.

 

[lcandy]

Thanks, but believe me, that page was not available at several points yesterday. A completely new site was in it's place and there was no mention of the board. Back to the same site 10 minutes later and it's back to normal! I thought I was loosing my marbles lol

I managed to get revision F3 last night. It didn't help the board correctly detect my memory. Furthermore, setting fan control to Intel meant the bios wouldn't get past a certain point, which solved my problem with revision F2. I had to keep it on Auto to get it to boot, go back to F2 and am now having no fan problems. Keeping fan control on Intel method means it spins at a fairly constant speed, varying more gradualy and does not spool up and down like a pongo stick - apparantly, that isn't "how it should be".

According to the folks in the CPU forum, that fan behaviour is not normal. Now with the more regular fan control, it's keeping my CPU at least 5 degree's cooler.

Installing the newer version of ET5 meant that it wouldn't load what so ever. The CD version works, but as you pointed out, maybe because it is beta is the reason most features are not available.

The install of Windows is only a day old and the 3rd install on this machine in a matter of a week. So other than a 2 weird problems with the input devices, everything's "fine". What I may just do now is wait for Gigabyte to get their finger out and start sending out proper patches and software that runs as it should. I'll have a look today for submiting bug's to them.

 

[Hando567]

heh i think i can state some things to keep you at peace of mind. I have the DQ6 also and my fan behavior is erratic aswell. (im also running an E6600 so this is very relevent) I noticed the problem when i first booted my CPU fan wasnt spinning at all so nervous i shut down my comp got a phone and called up gigabyte. tech said to turn it on and go into my bios and check my CPU temp. i did and it was at 29C but slowly warmed up and then the fan kicked on. tech i was talking to was very surprised at my temps and told me that the fan control automatically turns the fan off if temps drop to 30 or below. so that explains fan issue (and believe it or not im running slightly OCed at 2.7 and i only get to 38 under load) now as far as ET5 i ave no clue whats up with the updated version on there site because it dosent boot for me either but the CD one does. i also cant use smart fan or mib/mib2 so thats normal with the beta. other than that if everything is working you have a wonderful setup my friend.

EDIT:Im using BIOS revision F3