P55M-UD2 and HD 5870 combo random lockups...

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karsus

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since it was suggested, so i will post a new thread for this...

part of my problem is the "typical" huge mouse pointer out of the blue, and also the incredible slowness when viewing HD (like 1080p) movies with vlc player, which has been reported by other ppl in this forum as well as elsewhere like AMD official forum (yes, i did my research)

but my bigger problem is the random lockups, it is purely random, and also quite frequent, without me doing anything specific to cause it (i.e., even during idle), but the strange thing is, if i can get into a 3D game, like the latest Borderlands, before the pc locks up, then i can play for hours on end without any problem...

now, my spec is: gigabyte P55M-UD2, i5-750, Corsair DDR3@1333 4GB, Sapphire HD 5870, mobo driver is stock, and graphic driver is Catalyst 9.10 running on windows vista x64 sp2

i tried installing my old graphic card, Force 3D 4870, on this gigabyte mobo, same random lockups, and then i put this new 5870 on my old mobo, something from MSI, works perfectly... which led me to the conclusion that this gigabyte mobo is at fault

after reading posts on this forum and AMD one, i thought flashing mobo bios would help, so i flashed it to the latest (F4n), but it still locked up like 1 minute into vista...

so i'm at my wit's end here, can anyone help? Thanks
 
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ekoostik

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The fact that you are having random lockups makes this tought to troubleshoot. The problems I was having before only happened when I had video (e.g. Hulu) running at full screen. And it sounds like you have already taken the same steps I did which resolved my problem. The fix for me for the big mouse pointer / screen lockup was a combination of BIOS and driver updates. You have BIOS F4n, I just moved to that as well so that's good. Let's check your driver. Go into Device Manager, expand Disaply Adapters, right-click on your monitor and choose Properties. Then go to the Driver tab. What does it say there? Driver date and version?

The reason I ask you to double check is if you have Windows Updates set to download and install automatically it may replace your new drivers with an old version that it thinks is 'newer'. While you're at it, why don't you check you Windows Update settings and make sure it is set so you choose which updates to download and install.

After you installed, the new BIOS did you enter the BIOS and choose "Load Optimized Defaults"? After that, did you change any settings in the BIOS?
 
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karsus

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the driver date is 9/23/2009, and driver version is 8.661.0.0

after i flashed the bios, i did chose "Load Optimized Defaults", and i didn't change any setting in the bios, except when it boots it asked me whether to set the SATA control to AHCI or IDE, and i entered NO to use IDE

and this is the link for my corsair ddr3
http://www.alternate.be/html/product/details.html?articleId=82927&showTechData=true#tecData

sorry for the dutch, i'm from belgium :)

and, actually i just read another thread in this forum, someone was also using p55m-ud2, and also had this random lockup, and turned out one piece of memory is at fault... shame i don't have an extra pair of DDR3 to try, or maybe i could just use one instead of a pair?
 
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ekoostik

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Goedenavond! A numer of years back I spent some time working for a phone company in The Netherlands and Belgium. Sadly that's almost the extent of my Dutch and Flemish.

That link was good enough. I just wanted to make sure the RAM was appropriate for your system. And that's the driver version I'm running so I think you're good there, at least until they release a new one.


Yes that's a good idea. Try testing your system with just one stick of RAM. If you get the same problems, swap it out and try with the other stick. Have you run any tests on your RAM. If not, you should run something like memtest86+ http://www.memtest.org/

Try placing it on a CD and running memtest at boot from the CD. That is the easiest route.

I had to do some trouble shooting of my system when my optical drive was not cooperating and so had to run memtest from a bootable USB drive. It's a more involved process, but not as difficult as some people make it out to be. I used this page: http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/
You can find the instrucitons under the label "Making a Bootable USB Flash Drive". It's been a month since I did this but I believe I followed the instructions from steps 1 -4. After that, copy the memtest files onto the USB drive and reboot. You may have to enter BIOS and choose USB as the first boot device, if you can't select it as a boot device during start up.
 
bilbat

bilbat

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or maybe i could just use one instead of a pair?
Click to expand...
This is, indeed, the very first thing to try; download MemTest86+:
http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.iso.zip
Unzip it to an iso file, right click on the iso, select 'open with', and then 'Windows Disc Image Burner" - will make a comprehensive, bootable memory tester...
Enter the BIOS, go to the "Advanced BIOS Features" page, set one of "First/Second/Third Boot Device" to "CDROM", save, exit, reboot, and power down...
Place one stick in DDR3_1 (the white slot closest to the CPU), power up, place the newly created CD in the drive, enter the BIOS, do the "Load Optimized", save, exit, reboot to the memory tester and let it run at least a full pass - preferably overnight... If it passes, power down, swap sticks - same slot; repeat; this will qualify your RAM, and determine whether you might, indeed, have a bad DIMM...
 
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karsus

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@ ekoostik: hey, Belgians speak french, too :D

@ ekoostik and bilbat : thanks for the reply, i will probably tried plugging in only one memory first, then onto this memtest, hopefully i can have some test results tomorrow... thanks again
 
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cpharris

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Just to let you know I have the same motherboard and i5 CPU, but with a 5850. I have also been getting lock-ups and crashes at idle. And like you, once I get into a game or benchmark, it runs great!

I have removed the video drivers, and found my system was still freezing randomly, and have been playing with the memory settings and voltages to try and see if I could stabilize my system. The odd thing is LinX, OCCT and Prime95 run fine for hours, but it will still freeze at the desktop, or web browsing, etc...

It's driving me mad, and when I think I've solved it, I get another crash a few days later! :(
 
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karsus

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@ ekoostik and bilbat: sorry i wasn't able to perform the test yesterday, but i finally had the time to do them today, so basically, i just plugged in the memory one at a time, and then ran the memtest from a bootable usb stick, 2 passes for each, and they both passed without error.
With some vague hope, i booted into vista, with one single memory... for a minute i almost thought it is ok, cause it seemed to be running without lockup for a bit longer than usual, but then when i opened some HD video file, it just unabashedly locked up on me :-(

so... i think the memory is ok, or so the tests told me, what else can i do?

@Fatbird: hmm, maybe i should try that, or maybe simply turn off the "Turbo" mode?
 
bilbat

bilbat

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Take a look in your BIOS, and tell me if something's there (just an offhand hunch); at the main BIOS page, do a <CTRL><F1>, hopefully the screen will kind of 'flicker', see if you get a new menu item named "PnP/PCI Configurations"? If you do, look there for a "PCI Timing" item (or something close to it0, that will be 'defaulted' to 32, and can be changed to 64 or 128... If not, I'll try to disassemble a BIOS and see, a - if it's still there at all, and b, can I maybe 'unlock' it...
 
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karsus

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i pressed ctrl+F1 in the bios main menu, it did flicker, but nothing new appeared, not the "PnP/PCI Configurations" at least, and I also looked through the mobo manual, this function is not mentioned anywhere in it as well... so I wonder how can I access it?

also, I should also mentioned that originally I bought a CoolMaster fan, but it had a bad screw, so I had to settle with the original fan that came with the CPU, so in the bios i can see the CPU temp is around 50 C, is this normal?
 
bilbat

bilbat

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Well, the <CTRL><F1> trick has been around for a long time, and has never been documented; if you have become fairly familar with your BIOS (familiar enough to recognize 'new attractions'), it might be worth having a look through each page after the <CTRL><F1>, to see if any 'interesting' new options appear - it's different with each BIOS, and, often, with each BIOS revision... Meanwhile, I've dl'd F4n, and will take it apart and look at it...
 
bilbat

bilbat

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Acck! Problem! Went to open the BIOS, and discovered the BIOS size has doubled, from 8Mbit (1M file size), to 16Mbit (2M file size), and my damned tool (ModBin6r2.04.01) won't even open it! Now, I have to unpack an X58, and see if they're the same - puts a definite 'kink' in my plans :heink: ; I'm pretty spoiled by being able to 'track all over' my BIOS, unlocking 'hiddden' menus, changing defaults, and the like... Will piss me off to no end if I'm permanently hobbled with 1156/1366 platform :cry:

First thing I discovered while looking was that, the guy I'd go to for help (Stasio, over at TweakTown, Xtreme, et al), was the first guy reporting this - which means, I'm (at least for now) outta luck - if he dunno, I certainly haven't a clue! I could look around in FlatAssembler, or the InteractiveDisassembler, but there's a major difficulty involved: there's a 'trick' to disassembling a piece of software... If you start disassembling at a random location, say the first word, the disassembler doesn't know whether a word is an instruction, or a piece of data which simply randomly happens to coincide with an instruction, and thus you get pretty much nonsense out of it! The trick is to know your target operating system; in windows, there are a number of repetively used function 'calls' that are always made the same way, so you search for a particular three or four word 'sequence', that tells you 'here's a valid entry point' - and then the disassembly 'makes sense' (at least, to some degree, and with a lot of poking, fiddling, and educated guesswork); similarly, the 'linux guys' know intimately how a linux program makes calls and returns values, so they can 'find their way around'; the problem this presents is that I know next to nothing about how a BIOS is actually coded, so I'll have the devil's own time trying to figure out heads from tails!

As for the PCI timing function, one day (and I can't recall which BIOS rev it was after, that I finally discovered it - the 'PnP/PCI Configurations' page is not someplace I ever dink around with, especially after the 'unlock sequence', as the modern system of automatic interrupt assignments works great in 'auto', and it's also a great place to cause major disasters by screwing around with it...) I was idly poking around in my BIOS and saw a new item - and then discovered I could enhance stability of my whole multi-media sub-system, jus by 'bumping it up' (slowing it down...) one 'notch' - thought (hoped) we might find a similar facility here...
 
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ekoostik

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That seems high. What is the temperature in the room your PC is in? The temperature in the BIOS isn't terribly reliable because when you're in there your computer hasn't started doing anything yet. Hasn't loaded the OS, isn't taxing the cores. But still, I would expect a lower number.

Download some temperature monitoring software. I have used RealTemp recently, and it looks like they just released a new, non-beta version yesterday: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/Real_Temp/
Here's their main page: http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

Boot up your machine and let it sit idle for a while. What temperature does RealTemp report? Now load up your PC. Get some programs running like you normally use it and see what kind of temperatures get. Then if you have a stress test program like IBT or Prime95 get it going. What temperatures do you see now? If your temperatures really are idling over 50C we'll need to talk about re-seating your CPU fan. Are you using the stock fan or did you get an after market heat sink?
 
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karsus

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Well, this time i got into the system, and let it sit in idle for a while, monitoring the temperature from RealTemp, the temp is around 40 C, and then i just opened some 3D benchmark software, this time it jumped to around 50 C, but i still dont know how to interpret this... and, since the screw problem with the CoolMaster i bought, i'm using the stock fan that came with the cpu.

this is is getting frustrating, and since other gigabyte p55 mobos also are reported to have similar problem, i actually wouldn't consider RMA for another gigabyte mobo a good idea... so, ekoostik, would you consider the asus p7p55d or the msi p55-cd53 (or higher) a better alternative? given my current specs other than the mobo...
 
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ekoostik

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This is probably a long shot. But one more thing to check, this is a setting from within Windows. Go to start and run: msconfig. Or find and run the msconfig.exe program on your computer. This will launch a System Configuration window. Go to the Boot tab. Click on Advanced options. In the BOOT Advanced Options window that opens, is anything checked? Nothing should be, except under global debug settings where debug port and baud rate may be checked but also disabled. I have seen a couple other posters fix random lock-ups by entering this screen and discovering some fields checked that shouldn't have been, like number of processors or maximum memory.

I'm afraid I don't have any personal experience with either of the boards you listed. Asus has a better reputation. But I'd suggest you start with a price and feature comparison. I can try to weigh in more later.
 
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karsus

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just checked it, and saw everything normal in there... right before it froze up on me again, geez...

well, at least i didn't find any user of ASUS p7p55d or MSI p55-cd53 in this forum complaining about a similar problem as mine or the original huge mouse pointer, so probably i should just head out and snatch the first mobo from those two asap *sigh*
 
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karsus

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but i still like to thank everyone who posted in this thread, especially bilbat and ekoostik, u guys are great :)
 
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ekoostik

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You're welcome. Did you return the board? I haven't completely given up on your situation yet. But if you returned the board let me know and I'll let it go.

I did find another poster with issues that are not terribly different than yours. They were able to sovle their problem with the latest AMD drivers. Yes, they released another one just two days ago. You can get 9.11 here, and I would start with just the drivers, add the Catalyst Control Center if you want to after you've tested the drivers by themselves:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
 
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karsus

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i have got myself an Asus p7p55d EVO, and it runs like a breeze :D no lockups no crashes, even no huge mouse pointers... yeah i guess in a way the gigabyte just doesn't go with the rest...

but per your 9.11 driver suggestion, probably the new driver won't do it any good since i read from amd forum that days ago somebody already got their hand on a beta of 9.11, and nothing changed for their huge mouse pointer situation...
and i actually tried to update it on my rig with this new asus mobo, but it failed to install properly, half way through the screen just went black and never recovered... reset and tried it again, same thing, so now i will have to stick with 9.10, in which it really runs smooth without a glitch

thanks again :)
 
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