I'm not even sure where to begin with this. I have an EP35-DS3R that replaced an RMA's P35-DS3R, and I've had the same issues with both boards. I've spent countless hours trying to fix this and I'm at a total loss. I've been dealing with this for about three months.
Basically, I'm getting bluescreens followed by restarts a split-second later. And I'm also getting all kinds of other random problems. Numerous unrelated applications have crashed for no reason. Just a few minutes ago, Windows XP suddenly showed my graphics card as unrecognized after being on for two hours. I've had task manager refuse to run because it "required at least Windows 2000." I've had files disappear from my HDD, including half the contents of system32 at one point. This are just random examples of countless other bizarre problems.
After losing half of system32, I bought a new HDD and reinstalled XP there, with the same issues. Switching around RAM hasn't helped, and I doubt I have four different bad sticks of Crucial Ballistix memory. According to both Crucial and Gigabyte, the memory is supposed to be compatible with the board. I've even check the PSU with a multimeter, and the voltages were fine on all rails. And as I mentioned, I RMA'd the first MB (after it got stuck in a permanent reboot cycle) and still have the problems. The second board now won't post unless I only use two out of four DIMMs.
I've tried two different graphics cards, and I've removed every single PCI card, and still had the problems. I've used every BIOS setting and memory timing I can try to no avail.
I've even had both boards freeze on the BIOS screen a time or two. But I've also been able to run Memtest for over eight hours without a single error (and I've had it display multiple errors, but it may have been related to altered memory timings). I've run CPU Burn-In for over an hour with no errors. And I've used the computer for hours at a time with no issues.
The only thing I can think of at this point is to RMA the CPU itself (Q6600), but I'm just grasping straws at this point. So I'm posting this in hopes that someone might have some suggestions.
Basically, I'm getting bluescreens followed by restarts a split-second later. And I'm also getting all kinds of other random problems. Numerous unrelated applications have crashed for no reason. Just a few minutes ago, Windows XP suddenly showed my graphics card as unrecognized after being on for two hours. I've had task manager refuse to run because it "required at least Windows 2000." I've had files disappear from my HDD, including half the contents of system32 at one point. This are just random examples of countless other bizarre problems.
After losing half of system32, I bought a new HDD and reinstalled XP there, with the same issues. Switching around RAM hasn't helped, and I doubt I have four different bad sticks of Crucial Ballistix memory. According to both Crucial and Gigabyte, the memory is supposed to be compatible with the board. I've even check the PSU with a multimeter, and the voltages were fine on all rails. And as I mentioned, I RMA'd the first MB (after it got stuck in a permanent reboot cycle) and still have the problems. The second board now won't post unless I only use two out of four DIMMs.
I've tried two different graphics cards, and I've removed every single PCI card, and still had the problems. I've used every BIOS setting and memory timing I can try to no avail.
I've even had both boards freeze on the BIOS screen a time or two. But I've also been able to run Memtest for over eight hours without a single error (and I've had it display multiple errors, but it may have been related to altered memory timings). I've run CPU Burn-In for over an hour with no errors. And I've used the computer for hours at a time with no issues.
The only thing I can think of at this point is to RMA the CPU itself (Q6600), but I'm just grasping straws at this point. So I'm posting this in hopes that someone might have some suggestions.