Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Thread

[ve9jmc]

well maybe i'll have to play around with the memory voltages a bit and see what happens.

[smokinbonz]

Got a question for you guys, Who uses HWmonitor and if you do does it display NB and SB temps, If you dont do you guys have a temp or hw monitor to suggest Thanks

[mtx]

I've gone thru 4 of these boards in 1.5 months. They keep dying on me.

I'm experiencing the "cold boot" issue more than ever now. My computer has been on for 90% of the past month because I'm afraid to shut down. It appears that when I shut down after having the computer on for 2-3 consecutive days, the motherboard fails to boot. Everything turns on but all I get is a black screen and no boot or POST. That is unless I take the battery out, reset CMOS, wait 12-24 hours, turn it on/off ~15 times AND THEN it finally boots and loads Windows...

But now it won't boot and I've tried it 30 times!

[identitycrisis]

My friend has the ds3r, and he experienced similiar results when his corsair ram was giving him troubles.. maybe try a single stick of ram in there?

[mtx]

Originally Posted by identitycrisis

My friend has the ds3r, and he experienced similiar results when his corsair ram was giving him troubles.. maybe try a single stick of ram in there?

I consider myself quite tech savvy, but I've just gone through 4 Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboards within 1 year. My fourth one just died 2 days ago presumably from some blackout(s). Here are my specs, which I have not changed in over 1 year. In fact, the only change I've made was upgrading my PSU from an OCZ GameXstream 600W to a Corsair HX620!

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4 of them)
Intel e6420 2.13 OCed to 3.2 (stable, tried & tested)
Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB DDR1066 (stock, running @ DDR800, default V)
EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
Corsair HX620
2 x WD Raptor 74GB
1 x Seagate 400GB
1 x WD 400GB
SB Audigy X-Fi
Windows XP Pro SP3 32b
-I do not have an APC UPS, but I use a surge protector

Timeline:

December 2007 - Bought the Corsair HX620

January 2008 - DS3L Board 1. Turned machine off, changed up some fan configuration in my case (I have 5 120mm fans in my Antec P180 and I was testing 5V/7V/12V to see which combo would give me a good combination of silence/performance). PC would never boot again.

June 12, 2008 - DS3L Board 2. I was browsing, MSN chatting and I suddenly hear a bang/pop. I see/smell smoke coming out from a capacitor on top of the CPU socket. Board dies.

June 27, 2008 - DS3L Board 3. Got it used but after a few days, I receive a "Bios Rom Checksum Error" message after POST and eventually I'm unable to boot. Board keeps rebooting indefinitely after 3-4 seconds and never enters Windows. I'm not sure what I did but I got it to stop rebooting but instead it would stay on a black screen and NOT POST.

January 12, 2008 - DS3L Board 4 (replacement board from Gigabyte for the blown caps which I ended up waiting for since Board 3 had bios problems). I left my PC on and during the middle of the night, we had 5-6 blackouts or more. I wake up in the morning and my PC would not boot. Took out battery for 12 hours, put CMOS jumper on for 5 minutes, still would not boot. PC just turns on and it stays on a black screen forever. I did the same thing again but this time I took everything apart and put the mobo on a box and just plugged in RAM, video, HDD, etc. but it's still a black screen. Board will not boot.

All my other components should be fine. I tried my video card, RAM on my cousin's PC, played some games for 2 hours and they worked. I tried my CPU, video card, RAM, PSU on my friend's PC (same DS3L) and it worked. However, his DS3L died 3 weeks later (summertime) :bigeyes:. I'm sure it was a coincidence but I don't know what to think anymore.

All I know is that ever since I got this new PSU, which was "supposedly" one of the best ones on the market, I've had 4 dead motherboards and 5 if you include my friend's.

I don't have the tools, nor the patience to test my PSU. After hearing about my computer problems (which I never really have until this past year), no one wants to put their hardware at risk. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the main culprit. Sure, one or two dead motherboards I'll let it go, but 4/5 dead motherboards within 1 year? You gotta be kidding me. I ain't buying Gigabyte again, but that don't mean my next motherboard won't die....

Somebody please help me.

[identitycrisis]

I didnt mean to to sound like I was questioning your tech abilities, and I wasn't. All I was suggesting, was that you had the similiar issues, i didnt know that your mobos died from different causes.

My friend bought 4x1gb of corsair ram, 2 sticks totally sucked and wouldnt boot in my ds3l, nor in his rig, but the other pair would only boot when he swapped around sticks in slots and did some voodoo magic. He sucked it up and bought a new 2x2 kit, now his rig is flawless...

and im sorry...4-5 boards is something else... not a bad manufacturer that keeps sending bad mobos.

Running through your list, the only one that points to a bad mobo is the bios checksum error. Messing with fan voltages, and leaving your pc on through blackouts can do those sorts of things...

and what caused your friends to "die"

I would also get my hands on a new PSU...

how old is the wiring inyour house? chances of severe under or overvolting being delivered to the psu. If you notice my rig, compared to yours theyre very similiar, and ive yet to have any problems...

**knocks on wood**

[mtx]

Originally Posted by identitycrisis

I didnt mean to to sound like I was questioning your tech abilities, and I wasn't. All I was suggesting, was that you had the similiar issues, i didnt know that your mobos died from different causes.

My friend bought 4x1gb of corsair ram, 2 sticks totally sucked and wouldnt boot in my ds3l, nor in his rig, but the other pair would only boot when he swapped around sticks in slots and did some voodoo magic. He sucked it up and bought a new 2x2 kit, now his rig is flawless...

and im sorry...4-5 boards is something else... not a bad manufacturer that keeps sending bad mobos.

Running through your list, the only one that points to a bad mobo is the bios checksum error. Messing with fan voltages, and leaving your pc on through blackouts can do those sorts of things...

and what caused your friends to "die"

I would also get my hands on a new PSU...

how old is the wiring inyour house? chances of severe under or overvolting being delivered to the psu. If you notice my rig, compared to yours theyre very similiar, and ive yet to have any problems...

**knocks on wood**

NP, I didn't mean it like that either.

How could it be my RAM though? I've never pushed it past stock, in fact I'm running it @ DDR400 the entire time even though it's rated for 1066. Even if it was bad RAM, my PC would still be able to boot, or POST no?

I don't know what caused my friend's board to die, but he had the same thing. No boot, black screen.

The wiring in my house is OLD. Maybe 30-40 years. It could be an issue. But I thought the point of a surge protector was to protect me from these spikes.

Anyhow, I've never had a mobo die on me before. And before I was using "lower quality" components. AND before I was stressing my PC more with crazy high temperatured CPU/GPU overclocks and 10+ hours of gaming a day. Now I barely game 10 hours in a week and I barely care about my OC (my CPU 2.13->3.2 OC was as simple as upping the FSB and some small voltage).

[identitycrisis]

Well, my buddy didnt push his ram either...

and I still wouldnt discount your PSU...

A surge protector is supposed to protect you against large spikes of electricitiy, normal, or more several than normal power fluctuations dont trip a surge protector, you need a power conditioner for that.

I saw it a lot in home audio distrubution equipment... high or low voltage would cook the equipment... brown outs... etc...

[angrysasquatch]

I would check the psu if I were you.

Mine got killed by a metal clip I used to hold a fan on the NB heatsink. Shorted out something and the northbridge stunk up.

[kpo6969]

Originally Posted by mtx

I consider myself quite tech savvy, but I've just gone through 4 Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboards within 1 year. My fourth one just died 2 days ago presumably from some blackout(s). Here are my specs, which I have not changed in over 1 year. In fact, the only change I've made was upgrading my PSU from an OCZ GameXstream 600W to a Corsair HX620!

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (4 of them)
Intel e6420 2.13 OCed to 3.2 (stable, tried & tested)
Crucial Ballistix 2x1GB DDR1066 (stock, running @ DDR800, default V)
EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
Corsair HX620
2 x WD Raptor 74GB
1 x Seagate 400GB
1 x WD 400GB
SB Audigy X-Fi
Windows XP Pro SP3 32b
-I do not have an APC UPS, but I use a surge protector

Timeline:

December 2007 - Bought the Corsair HX620

January 2008 - DS3L Board 1. Turned machine off, changed up some fan configuration in my case (I have 5 120mm fans in my Antec P180 and I was testing 5V/7V/12V to see which combo would give me a good combination of silence/performance). PC would never boot again.

June 12, 2008 - DS3L Board 2. I was browsing, MSN chatting and I suddenly hear a bang/pop. I see/smell smoke coming out from a capacitor on top of the CPU socket. Board dies.

June 27, 2008 - DS3L Board 3. Got it used but after a few days, I receive a "Bios Rom Checksum Error" message after POST and eventually I'm unable to boot. Board keeps rebooting indefinitely after 3-4 seconds and never enters Windows. I'm not sure what I did but I got it to stop rebooting but instead it would stay on a black screen and NOT POST.

January 12, 2008 - DS3L Board 4 (replacement board from Gigabyte for the blown caps which I ended up waiting for since Board 3 had bios problems). I left my PC on and during the middle of the night, we had 5-6 blackouts or more. I wake up in the morning and my PC would not boot. Took out battery for 12 hours, put CMOS jumper on for 5 minutes, still would not boot. PC just turns on and it stays on a black screen forever. I did the same thing again but this time I took everything apart and put the mobo on a box and just plugged in RAM, video, HDD, etc. but it's still a black screen. Board will not boot.

All my other components should be fine. I tried my video card, RAM on my cousin's PC, played some games for 2 hours and they worked. I tried my CPU, video card, RAM, PSU on my friend's PC (same DS3L) and it worked. However, his DS3L died 3 weeks later (summertime) :bigeyes:. I'm sure it was a coincidence but I don't know what to think anymore.

All I know is that ever since I got this new PSU, which was "supposedly" one of the best ones on the market, I've had 4 dead motherboards and 5 if you include my friend's.

I don't have the tools, nor the patience to test my PSU. After hearing about my computer problems (which I never really have until this past year), no one wants to put their hardware at risk. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the main culprit. Sure, one or two dead motherboards I'll let it go, but 4/5 dead motherboards within 1 year? You gotta be kidding me. I ain't buying Gigabyte again, but that don't mean my next motherboard won't die....

Somebody please help me.

Change your ram, psu is fine. I run a HX520 with the same board.

info:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2629

Supports DDR2 1066* memory for outstanding system performance
* Please refer "Memory Support List" for memory support information.

I recommend G.Skill for this board for compatability.
If you want 1066mhz:

2x2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166

2x1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231144

bios settings:

http://www.gskill.us/166.pdf