I've encountered the strangest problem. After updating my BIOS from version F4 (see below for hardware details) Vista throws a BSOD before fully booting. It's a different message every time, but IRQ is the most frequent (but it refers to a different process each time). I've tried reinstalling Vista- I have absolutely no problems until after the software is fully loaded and the system boots into Vista for the first time. The solution? When I take out one of my dual channel RAM chips and go single channel everything works perfectly. When I put the RAM back in and downgrade to BIOS F4, everything works perfectly. I've tried most BIOS versions between F4 and F14 with the same result. I like some of the features of the newer BIOS updates- any ideas? (aside from trying (buying) new RAM, of course. BTW- Memtest86=no errors, and I've tried both fail-safe and optimized BIOS settings).
Just wanted to post an update- everything is working perfectly! > ) I wrote to Gigabyte tech support and he advised me that the default DDR2 voltage is 1.8V for current BIOS versions, but my memory is rated for 2.00-2.10V. All I had to do was increase the DDR2 voltage by +.2 in the BIOS M.I.T. and it's smooth sailing. I actually think my system is running faster under this new BIOS than it was before. It also appears to be dynamically scaling my processor performance (I'm guessing primarily for temperature reasons).
You know, I'm really starting to fall in love with Gigabyte. I've used MSI, Abit, and Soyo boards- and of all these I've been happiest with the features of my Gigabyte board. I also think it's been the most stable. I think it's funny how people advocate buying a name-brand PC as the way to go because of the (limited time) tech support. I bought this board 1-2 years ago, and all I had to do to get help was shoot off an email. I don't know of any PC company that would still provide tech support 2 years later without charging an extra fee.
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