GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2 + SSD + RAID 1 (BSOD & Disk Boot Failure))

Confirmed by GA ~ Issues relating to SSD/HDD + RAID 0/1 SSD/HDD:
Update: BIOS versions FA, FB = Failure/no fix!

While I am "certain" this is a bad MOBO issue, I am curious if others are having problems with this MOBO:
1. BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) **
2. Random Shut-Downs **
3. Disk Boot Failure {fails to recognize primary SSD (OS drive), 10 minute cool down solves problem}
4. RAID 1 "stutter" reads {installed latest version of Intel 64-bit RAID software}

Basic configuration:
i7 930
GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2
SSD 128 GB (OS + Apps) - SATA II (port 0)
HDD 2x1TB in RAID 1 - SATA II (ports 2+3)
6 GB 2GBx3/DDR3/1600/Corsair Dominator
~H50 Fan
WIN 7 Pro x64bit
BIOS -> reset -> Optimized

I am "guessing" there was a bad batch of GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2 MOBOs. (**) The problems occur "typically" when 1. Awaking from Sleep and 2. Heavy accessing of the RAID 1 data.

Other "oddities" include no post if XMP is used, and OC to 3.52GHz + optimized DDR lights up the MOBO like a Xmas Tree and Prime 95 causes system to overheat within 5 minutes. The DDR3 is MOBO Certified DDR3.

BTW - RMA'ing 10 computers is a real PITA (pain in the a$$).
 

bilbat

Splendid
XMP is just 'problematic'; it doesn't always containg even a nearly optimized parameter set, and 'locks out' all other adjustments, much to the detriment of the system. 'Sleep' is also often a problem, mainly with machines that have anything but 'stock' parameter sets - can only be 'tackled' on a 'specific system' basis, once everything else is stabilized... If you'd like, I can give you a procedure, and a parameter set for the remainder, and then explain how to 'clone' them, assuming you're happy with the first.

Also need to know what drives you have in RAID1 - some drives, due to 'deep recovery cycling', are just not suitable for RAIDing - I stick with WD RE3s & RE4s, just for their excellent support & RMA policies (but they're pricey), others are known to work. Caviar Blacks will not... SSD brand might be helpful, too - these often require firmware upgrades, as the technology (especially for the controllers) is developing yet.

For an overview, try a read at the 'Sidestepping' XMP's limitations: section of Part IV - "Tweaking and tuning".

 
The RAID drives are Hitachi (1TB/7200/16MB), while not my favorites they are suited to RAID. Currently, they systems are ALL configured as "Optimized" and are not OC. XMP - yeah I agree but I still had the same "Xmas Tree" lights manually setting the timings + speed (OC I used 160 X 10 and Std 133 X 12); currently they are way under-clocked at 133 x 8 ("Optimized").

While I agree about the WD HDDs, my other choice was to choose SATA3 HDD (1TB/7200/64). I "personally" don't like having SATA2 SSD + SATA3 RAID; I assumed more problems crossing HDD controller types. Since the real muscle is on the Servers in my office.

Remember COST X 10 = Big Bucks! Example: Dedicated RAID controller + Expensive HDD....

For systems I build, it's a whole different world, and I take NO JOY in building 10 xerox semi-boring systems.
 

bilbat

Splendid
Yup - know the Hitachis will work - looking at a twenty drive array for a server here, and even for a 'one-off', WDs get pretty 'pricey' - checked with Areca!

Assuming we can get one to run OK, 'cloning' is fairly easy - the GBs have a 'save CMOS parameters to BIOS' ( <F11> ), that will also work to save to a USB stick (usually), or a floppy (always!). Then you can just xfer 'em, easily and quickly - so you wanna be really happy with the first one, as going back & changing one item in nine others will amount to a major PITA! here's the scoop: do the <DEL> at the boot to enter the BIOS; notice, at the bottom, the <F11> "Save CMOS to BIOS" - hit this, and you should get a menu that will show a number (the count varies by BIOS) of empty 'slots', each of which will store an entire set of BIOS parameters, to be re-loaded from the corresponding <F12> "Load CMOS from BIOS"; this is a wonderful overclocker's feature. What I do with it, is to save my 'baseline' working parameters, so if I change something that 'irritates' the board, and forces a reset of all the parameters to defaults, or, even worse, get so screwed up I need to do a 'clear CMOS', I can get back to my starting point with no effort, and without having to remember 85 separate settings! Another thing it prevents is two hours' troubleshooting, having forgotten a change to a crucial parameter - like, "wait a minute - didn't I have the Trd at seven?!" It's pretty self-explanatory, and I alway urge people to start right away by taking the time to give the 'slots' names that mean something: in two hours, "Try2" and "Try3" will not be very helpful, but "450@+10MCH" and "450@+15MCH" will! Another use is for 'green' settings; overclocks, as a rule, do not 'play well' with green features, such as 'down-clocking' and 'down-volting'; with the storage slots, you can set up one profile, say "Green", with all the settings at 'stock' values, and all the 'green' features enabled; another, say "Balls2Wall" with a full overclock, and all the 'green' stuff turned off... Another neat feature of this 'slot' system is, for most BIOS, the mechanism itself will keep track of which ones have booted successfully, and how many times (up to, I believe, a max of five)!

Here's what I would do: [:isamuelson:8]

Pull off anything USB, except kbd & rodent...

Take out all but one DIMM, in DDR3_3 ('middle' white slot)...

Power up; do a 'LoadOpt', then enable XMP...

Pencil & piece of paper (or a handy nearby system running Excel ;) ); write down all memory parameters - not just CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS, all of 'em...

Disable XMP...

"Advanced CPU Features" sub-page of "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of BIOS:

"CPU Enhanced Halt (C1E)" to "Disabled"
"C3/C6/C7 State Support" to "Disabled"
"CPU Thermal Monitor" to "Enabled"
"CPU EIST Function" to "Disabled"
"Bi-Directional PROCHOT" to "Enabled"

"UnCore & QPI Features" sub-page of "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of BIOS:

"QPI Clock Ratio" ...don't know what this is for a 930, just know that 'straightforward calculation' from frequency to GTs isn't straightforward! Anyhow, reduce by one "notch'"...
"Uncore Clock Ratio" to "X21"
"Isochronous Support" to "Enabled"

"Advanced Clock Control" sub-page of "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of BIOS:

"Base Clock(BCLK) Control" to "Enabled"
"BCLK Frequency" to "160"
"PCI Express Frequency(Mhz)" to "100" (not 'auto')

"Advanced DRAM Features" sub-page of "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of BIOS:

"Performance Enhance" to "Standard"
"System Memory Multiplier" to "X10"
"DRAM Timing Selectable" to "Expert"
...now set ALL the RAM timings you wrote down earlier when XMP was enabled...

" Advanced Voltage Control" sub-page of "MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)" page of BIOS:

"Load-Line Calibration" to "Standard"
"CPU Vcore" ...start around 1.225 - 1.250V, test there, will depend on performance vs thermals...
"QPI/Vtt Voltage" to "1.250V"
"DRAM Voltage" to "1.66V"

On the "Advanced BIOS Features" page:

"Quick Boot" to "Disabled"

On the "Integrated Peripherals" page:

"USB Storage Function" to "Disabled"
...disable any hardware you're not using: 1394, eSATA controller, SATA3 controller...

...and that should do it!

...save your setup to an <F11> 'slot', <F10> save, exit reboot...

I should point out that getting two reboots in a row here is perfectly normal behavior; it seems that, when you change certain settings (and we don't exactly know which ones - the only sure one I know is Trd - if you change it, I think you get the 'twin' reboot) it boots once to 'see where it's at', recalculates its remaining 'auto' settings, saves them, and then boots again. Three reboots in a row, however, usually indicates that the board was 'given indigestion' by your settings, and is going back to defaults. This sometimes goes astray, and it doesn't get back into proper operation - for example, at this point, mine will sometimes 'lock' itself into 111MHz x a six multiplier - and take a week to do a whole boot - that's time to do a CMOS reset, and use your 'stored' <F12> profile to get back to where you were...

Power down, & add other two DIMMs - give 'er a try...
 
The "problem" is not in the BIOS, the problem is the MOBO (physically). The info I stated above suggests nothing else, plus I ruled-out the memory after running Memtest for 2 hours. If the system cannot run stable with DEFAULT "Optimized" settings then something's bad wrong! You don't get Disk Boot Failures & Immediate Shut-Downs - "Randomly" where the primary HDD (SSD) is missing...in the BIOS startup from one moment to the next.

The RAID is configured properly, and I am only running a handful of updated recent/commercial apps that Windows didn't balk about - I am fairly certain it's not an app issue. Now, if I suffered lock-ups and "bizarre" BSOD then I'd think otherwise. Even the Techs felt bad MOBOs is the issue.

As far as memory is concerned, I know how to precisely set the CAS timings, speed + multipliers in 30 seconds in the BIOS; the point was XMP agrivated me since these sticks are "supposed to be" XMP ready...and Certified for MOBO.
 
The SN are close ----35XX. My "Big Assumption" is physical damage, Crushing in my case, other large shipments can be damaged (shock, water, etc...) easily; all of the MOBO boxes had some crushing. I'm ran 5/10 and 3 (60%) had these bizzare issues, and I DO NOT have the time to test them all. We are replacing ALL of the MOBOs with Asus P6X58D-E at N/C.

ALL of the MOBO boxes look about the same...

UD3R003.jpg
 
G

Guest

Guest


Hello I was thinking of getting the same mobo. Are you saying that gigabyte corp confirmed it was their own fault of releasing a batch or it was because of the packaging?\
Thanks
 
From above, REV 2. Out of an order of 10 60% were bad. After the fiasco I went to Asus P6X58D-E and none have had any issues; I kept 1 or 10 {GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2} to play with but never could get it to work and it just got worst over time...

Basic configuration:
i7 930
GA-X58A-UD3R rev 2
SSD 128 GB (OS + Apps) - SATA II (port 0)
HDD 2x1TB in RAID 1 - SATA II (ports 2+3)
 

psike

Distinguished
Sep 22, 2010
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18,510
I too was experiencing random BSOD -with a raid1- on a X58A-UD3R , I checked everything, RAM , HD checks, I did a bios upgrade a week ago and this night my Raid1 system just stopped working, I booted an hour ago and in stead of one drive Windows shows 2 drives.
Thank god I didn't blow up,
Right now I'm making an image of my drive on a spare disk to be extra sure I don't lose data, but after reading this post it looks like there is a serious issue with this MOBO,
 

the-ninth

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
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18,510
Hi,

I also have similar problems with my GA-X58A-UD3R but only if I connect the SSD to the Intel SATA controller.

My setup:

SSD: OCZ Vertex 2 Extended 120GB
HDD: 2 x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1000GB (HD103SJ) in RAID 0

When I connect the SSD to SATA0, and the two HDDs to SATA1/2, then the computer does not wake properly from sleep in Windows 7/64 Bit. I get either a blue screen or other major issues immediately after the computer wakes up from sleep.

When I connect the SSD to the Marvell controller (SATA6), then everything works fine.

Cheers, Robert

 

the-ninth

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
20
0
18,510
I raised the issue with support and they gave me BIOS revision FE1, which is not available yet on the website. But the problem persisted.

However, when playing around, I found that I do not even need to put the SSD to the Marvell controller. It is sufficient to change the order. The two HDDs on SATA0/1 and the SSD on SATA2 works fine. The SSD on SATA0 and the two HDDs on SATA1/2 make trouble when waking up from sleep mode.

Further I found that the behavior is quite consistent. When the PC wakes up from sleep the first time, there are driver crashes: audio and network is gone and also there seems to be an issue with graphics. When I put it to sleep again, I get a blue screen on the second wake up.

I don't mind having the HDDs first on the controller, but I'll still follow-up with support to see if they come up with anything.

Cheers, Robert
 
The problem was: 1. Work environment using mission critical data ; 2. Jerry-Rigging in an office environment ; 3. No BIOS 'fix' or Jerry-Rigged BIOS was available in July 2010 4. Mature Intel vs Immature Marvell drivers & chipsets -- again in an office environment.

Also, bench with ATTO the SSD: 1. SATA3 vs 2. SATA2 vs 3. Post Jerry-Rigged BIOS.

If 'I' have a bunch of MOBO failing and determine it a confirmed problem - I would have been CRAZY to keep the MOBO's! All the replacement ASUS P6X58D-E work PERFECTLY!