Boot problem

[mtlmaks]

Hi,
I just updated my rig, Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P, AMD Phenom2 X4 945, 4GB G.SKILL DDR3 1333 (only 2GB installed right now), Powercolor AX4850 512MD3-PH.
The system works fine when it's running, but I have the problem that every then and when, the boot process hangs right after the POST screen, displaying only a forever blinking underscore, the moment where it would go into the bios if I you hit the del key. It happens whether I want to go into the bios, or boot normally. Sometimes I have to hit the reset switch 2 or 3 times before it boots fine again. No special beep codes, or anything else that would be unusual. Any idea what could causing that problem? Thanks!

 

[bilbat]

What BIOS do you have? GB says F2 to support that CPU:
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=3096
and F3 probably wouldn't hurt, as it notes "Update CPU ID(AGESA 3.5.3.0 for PhenomII /AthlonII AM3 CPU)"
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=3096
meanwhile, I am still trying to find out what "AGESA" is!

 

[mtlmaks]

Hi bilbat,

thanks for your reply. Actually I forgot to mention that I updated the bios from the stock version (don't know which one that was) to F3 (using @bios), and it still does the same thing...

 

[bilbat]

OK - that's good (but, FYI, try to avoid @BIOS in the future - it's sort of asking to have to RMA your MOBO - it screws up with pretty predictable regularity; the manual methods are more of a PITA, but much safer...)

Next question - do you have Seagate drives? There are a bunch floating around with bad firmware, and, applicably enough, it's generally referred to as the "Seagate Stutter"; the symptom is long, unpredictable pauses of inactivity, and is especially prevalent during the 'hardware discovery' phase of the BIOS' POST. Documented here:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931
you want to follow their directions pretty carefully - attempts to flash firmware to some drives not requiring it are known to render the drives inoperable...

 

[mtlmaks]

Hey,
thanks for the info on @BIOS.
Yes, my drive is a 250GB Seagate SATA drive, but it has worked without a problem in my old system for 2 years...

 

[bilbat]

Well, my only direct experience came with one of a pair of 1.5Ts; it worked fine for avbout three months and then started the peculiarities - my understanding of the problem is it occurs when the drive has accumulated enough error prone sectors to start trying to 'repair' itself; might wanna check the part nuber list...

 

[mtlmaks]

Hi,
it doesn't seem to be related to the drive, I did some testing, and it still does it randomly with different drives. Actually I filmed the (working) boot process to see in detail what's going on, since it all displays so fast, and the next screen, just after the one where it would hang, is a screen with some info on the processor and the ram, so maybe this is related...? Another thing that I noticed is that, whenever I go into the pc health status section of the bios, the pc will evenutally freeze, and I have to restart. I don't know, I get a bad feeling about that mobo, maybe I'll get another one, although I'm not very tempted by rebuilding and reconfiguring everything... :-/ Any suggestions?

 

[bilbat]

Can you capture frames from the video? Either post them, or email to bilbat@wi.rr.com, and I'll take a look see - maybe they'll tell me something relevant...

BTW - that's an amazingly good idea! I do industrials - sometimes machinery making 5 parts per second; the only way to diagnose (mostly mechanical - I never make programming errors! ) problems is to use high-speed (120 FPS) video recordings, and 'pick 'em apart', frame at a time...

 

[mtlmaks]

Hi,

these are first screens of the boot process.



After the POST screen, this is where it hangs, when it does, with this underscore blinking forever:


When it gets past that point (in a normal boot process), this would be the next screen. It goes by so fast that you can normally barely see it:


From there it's the usual boot process...


Gigabyte support doesn't really have an idea neither, and the tech guys from the store where I bought it think that it might be a hardware problem with the board, specially because of the systematic freezing when I go into the health status section of the bios. So I am more and more decided to return the board and maybe get an Asus board instead, even if I'm not very tempted by having to reassembe everything, and by having to reactivate Windows...

 

[mtlmaks]

Just a little update. I did a memtest yesterday, and the memory seems ok, no errors where reported.
I finally changed the board against a Asus M4A78T-E. I'll put everything together this evening, I hope things will work then, and that it's nopt a problem with one of the other components in the end... Another inconvenience is, that I'll have to reactive my OEM windows license. Also, I'm not sure if I'll have to reinstall windows, since it's a different chipset, or if a driver update will do... Any idea?
Anyway, thanks for your help so far bilbat