Need help with possible faulty motherboard

[DirtylceCream]

I just got the rest of my computer parts for my first computer build, and I'm running into some problems. Here are the parts I got:

Antec Sonata III w/ Earthwatts 500W Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

At first, I put everything together and connected all of the cables. I got a continuous loud beeping noise. The rear fan, hard drive, and dvd rom drive all turned on, but the heat sink fan just budged a little bit and then didn't move. After taking out some parts and unplugging some things to test if power supply was the problem, the beeping went away, but the heat sink fan was just budging every couple of seconds but still not moving. I then tried changing the connection to PWR_FAN instead of CPU_FAN (one empty pin socket hangs off the side) and then the heat sink fan magically started working. Is there something wrong with my motherboard, power supply, or heat sink? Would it be terribly bad if I just connected the heat sink to the PWR_FAN slot? I'm using this computer mostly for everyday use and some high end gaming.

 

[badge]

Check the Gigabyte MB product webpage and download and install the correct BIOS version that supports the E8400. You will need a processor supported by the BIOS your MB shipped with, C2D, Pentium D, ie. to flash the BIOS.

 

[HamRadio]

i just read in another part of the forum that apparently the old bios on that board is "good enough" to work with the E8400 to allow things to boot up and download the new bios and flash it. check in the CPU section of this board.

what version of bios does your board have? the one you want is F8a and if you ordered your board recently it may already have it.

long beeps mean you inserted or hooked up your graphics card wrong.

the PWR fan header is 3 pin and is actually there so that the motherboard can monitor the speed of the PSU's internal fan (kind of useless since not all PSUs even have this connector). I don't see any problem hooking up your 4 pin connector to it with one pin hanging over the edge. It just won't be temperature controlled based on the temperature of the CPU, and will run constantly at full speed providing you with extra noise and wearing out the fan's bearings (or sleeve or whatever).

The motherboard manual indicates that although the CPU_FAN header is temperature controlled, it should always provide some juice to the fan. What I wonder though is that since the 45nm chips are so much cooler than the 65nm chips, perhaps the motherboard is providing such a small amount of juice that the cooler's fan doesn't move. Some fans have a minimal amount of juice that they need to get started spinning. Perhaps you could try to get the fan started by spinning it a little and see if it continues. Perhaps as the CPU goes from room temperature to above a certain level the fan will have enough juice to get over the hump itself.

I'm not sure how long you would want to test it, but perhaps for a few minutes keep feeling the radiator blades of the cooler and if they start to get warm and the fan is still not moving on its own you know there is a problem. (and since you know the fan spins when connected to a different header, I guess that leaves the motherboard or maybe an old version of the bios as the problem.)

 

[akhilles]

Yup, update the bios ASAP to support Wolfdales.

The other thing is that DS3L doesn't spin the cpu fan until a few minutes later. Go to BIOS, monitor the cpu temp, when it goes up, the cpu fan will gradually start spinning.