Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Thread

[lenzo]

Originally Posted by Hansolo1

Ok... all excited putting together this system all purchased from Newegg as usual. Keep in mind my last system build (5 years ago) was probably when some of you were still in middle school. But I have digressed

Current system:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2.0, bios F7
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 (still stock cooling)
GeIL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
GIGABYTE GV-NX96T512H-B GeForce 9600GT 512MB
2X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA
ePOWER EP-520XP-C1B ATX12V 520W Power Supply
And all the other fun stuff.

Current Problem(s)

1) Anyone getting strange beep codes at start-up? I mean codes not listed in the Manual. However every time it still posts and boots WinXP just fine. I have had these combinations:
-long, short, long, short 7x
-long, long, short, long
-VERY long but unlike above it terminated at windows boot
-lately it does not even give the short beep which is supposed to indicate OK

Most times it is just fine and does the short beep.

2) Trying to overclock and starting off very slow and methodical as usual. Bios accepts no overclocking of FSB. As soon as I save and exit it goes through a series of 3 power downs then boots with normal Turbo defaults. My first change was to go from 266 to 270. That should have been doable without a Vcore change, shouldn't it?

3) I do not have the option to set the CPU multiplier higher than 9X as I have read many doing with the Q6600 and this board. I can set it lower. I have used the CTRL+F1 to show more settings. Is this only a feature of the F8b bios?

One thing I do have is all 6 USB ports occupied
External HD (plugged in not turned on usually), Zip Drive, 2 printers, RF Wireless receiver for Mouse and Keyboard, USB port replicator to monitor with 15n1 memory card reader.

From what I have been reading the problems posting after Overclock may be related to USB legacy issue. I'll be testing that but any other suggestions.

I only want a moderate overclock I can live with always on. Close to 3Ghz and stay air cooled would be nice.

Sounds like you need to jump in bios and "disable" Smartfan, also change the thermal warning default temperatures. The Smartfan will throttle the cpu hsf on and off automatically. It happened with me. You'll be good to go and your cpu fan will run all the time. The beep was a warning alerting you the fan wasn't on.

[Coelocanth]

Originally Posted by Hansolo1

Ok... all excited putting together this system all purchased from Newegg as usual. Keep in mind my last system build (5 years ago) was probably when some of you were still in middle school. But I have digressed

I wish. 5 years ago, I was looking at the backside of my thirties. Now I'm looking ahead and seeing '50'. Yikes!

Current system:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L Rev 2.0, bios F7
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 (still stock cooling)
GeIL 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit
GIGABYTE GV-NX96T512H-B GeForce 9600GT 512MB
2X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA
ePOWER EP-520XP-C1B ATX12V 520W Power Supply
And all the other fun stuff.

Current Problem(s)

1) Anyone getting strange beep codes at start-up? I mean codes not listed in the Manual. However every time it still posts and boots WinXP just fine. I have had these combinations:
-long, short, long, short 7x
-long, long, short, long
-VERY long but unlike above it terminated at windows boot
-lately it does not even give the short beep which is supposed to indicate OK

Most times it is just fine and does the short beep.

Something very odd there (not that you haven't guessed that already). Try a couple things: make sure your voltage to your RAM is set to the factory recommended (default is 1.8 volts on this board).

Make sure your video card is seated properly and double check that you have your PCIe power connector (6 pin) attached to the card as well. Not having it connected is usually the cause of a very long beep on many boards.

Maybe check your PSU as well. I realize (or assume) it's new, but it's worth checking to make sure you didn't get a dud. I'm not familiar with that brand either, so don't know if it's reliable or not.

2) Trying to overclock and starting off very slow and methodical as usual. Bios accepts no overclocking of FSB. As soon as I save and exit it goes through a series of 3 power downs then boots with normal Turbo defaults. My first change was to go from 266 to 270. That should have been doable without a Vcore change, shouldn't it?

Set Performance Enhance to Standard, not Turbo. See if that makes a difference. One thing to note: normal behavior for this board is for it to power down, then back up when you make a BIOS change. Not 3 times though.

3) I do not have the option to set the CPU multiplier higher than 9X as I have read many doing with the Q6600 and this board. I can set it lower. I have used the CTRL+F1 to show more settings. Is this only a feature of the F8b bios?

The Q6600 is locked at a 9x multiplier. You cannot go higher, only lower. I don't know where you've been reading that people are getting a higher multiplier, but they're inaccurate reports as far as I'm aware.

One thing I do have is all 6 USB ports occupied
External HD (plugged in not turned on usually), Zip Drive, 2 printers, RF Wireless receiver for Mouse and Keyboard, USB port replicator to monitor with 15n1 memory card reader.

From what I have been reading the problems posting after Overclock may be related to USB legacy issue. I'll be testing that but any other suggestions.

That may be something to investigate. Keep us updated.

I only want a moderate overclock I can live with always on. Close to 3Ghz and stay air cooled would be nice.

Hopefully we'll be able to help you get your problems sorted and you'll be able to get your OC. Good luck and keep us posted.

[rcf22]

Originally Posted by Hansolo1

2) Trying to overclock and starting off very slow and methodical as usual. Bios accepts no overclocking of FSB. As soon as I save and exit it goes through a series of 3 power downs then boots with normal Turbo defaults. My first change was to go from 266 to 270. That should have been doable without a Vcore change, shouldn't it?

One thing I do have is all 6 USB ports occupied
External HD (plugged in not turned on usually), Zip Drive, 2 printers, RF Wireless receiver for Mouse and Keyboard, USB port replicator to monitor with 15n1 memory card reader.

From what I have been reading the problems posting after Overclock may be related to USB legacy issue. I'll be testing that but any other suggestions.

That sounds similar to what the problem I encountered was, although mine didn't go through 3 power downs. After saving and exiting BIOS, it would post, power down, and power back up with the FSB locked to default and memory multiplier back to AUTO. Try unlocking the FSB (checking enable on manually set FSB) and see if it can boot then, or if it still does the reboot. If it does, here is what I would recommend doing:

1) Unplug any USB devices you don't need to boot up (I was able to boot successfully by just unplugging my HDD, leaving in a wireless keyboard/mouse receiver and printer/scanner combo)

2) Disable com and serial ports in BIOS

3) Set all voltages and timings to automatic, and do a modest overclock like you tried above (just 3-4 notches). Sometimes if you are setting manual voltages, something can be incorrect that you're not aware of.

Let me know if any of those helps. A CMOS clear to restart at default never really hurts either Something could've been changed inadvertently that you would never think to check.

[ve9jmc]

Originally Posted by crackzattic

well i dont no bro maybe its just vista, my old AMD brisbane hated vista and i could run XP beautifully

what i had to do was format my drive as well as reset the Cmos and remove the battert as well as unplug the PSU. after all that i was able to get my Over clock to show up again. then i made sure once i re-installed Windows Vista that my overclock remained. and it did.

[crackzattic]

Originally Posted by ve9jmc

what i had to do was format my drive as well as reset the Cmos and remove the battert as well as unplug the PSU. after all that i was able to get my Over clock to show up again. then i made sure once i re-installed Windows Vista that my overclock remained. and it did.

sweet bro im sure that was a pain but im glad it worked out for you

[jcharlesr75]

I installed my new DS3L last night and have been folding in native 64-bit SuSE all night with no problem. With my crappy MSI it wouldnt make it through the night without rebooting. Also I havent had to add any voltage from the factory settings, but i had to add a little more(+.6v) memory to get my mem to the specified 2.2v(2.144 read). So far i am quite impressed with the systems stability and im going to slowly try adding more fsb till i get to 500mhz. There are some voltages that im not familiar with in the bios, they are probably just marked differently than on my MSI.

[losttsol]

Originally Posted by jcharlesr75

I installed my new DS3L last night and have been folding in native 64-bit SuSE all night with no problem. With my crappy MSI it wouldnt make it through the night without rebooting. Also I havent had to add any voltage from the factory settings, but i had to add a little more(+.6v) memory to get my mem to the specified 2.2v(2.144 read). So far i am quite impressed with the systems stability and im going to slowly try adding more fsb till i get to 500mhz. There are some voltages that im not familiar with in the bios, they are probably just marked differently than on my MSI.

That is good to hear. I hope it works out well for you. I don't think you can beat this board for the price.

[jcharlesr75]

I has proved already that you cant. The MSI board is equal in features for 40 bucks more(when i bought it originally). I think the key here is better power management. There are more capacitors and they are of better quality. Im quite curious to see how much i can get out of this thing with out killing it totally...

[losttsol]

The only real complaint on this board is the vdroop under load. That is not that big a deal until you get way up there with your voltage. I run 1.48125v in BIOS which gives me 1.36v in CPU-Z so there is a decent gap there, but it stays there stable under load which is the main thing.

[jcharlesr75]

The MSI had really bad droop too, i got a feeling its more the bad parts(caps) than anything else. I updated the bios a few times and the droop got better, but i couldnt add more than 1.42v to the cpu, then under load it would crap out and there wasnt anything that i could do about it. Im sure that the power regulation was just not there at all.