4 Bad Motherboards in a row?

[Rod Speed]

Well, the board's only been out in the USA for a month or so, and I
just received all of these mobos in when they became in-stock again.

So it isnt unlikely that they have a different bios.

It's not like it was old revision product sitting on Newegg's stock shelves
for months.

Yes, its likely that Gigabyte stuffed up with the bios.

Yep.

then why did a Newegg rep tell me yesterday that they had a pallete of over
200 defective Gigabyte motherboards (DS3 version) that had to be returned to
Taiwan for replacement, per Gigabyte's instructions?

Likely those have a bios that doesnt allow the bios to be
updated so the bad bios cant be flashed with the correct bios.

That would indicate to me some sort of batch run hardware issue, would it not?

Not necessarily, a bios that doesnt allow it to be
flashed with a fixed bios would get the same result.

That's the first place I contacted.

You should have said so.

I've heard no reply to 2 online service request forms filled out yet, but I'll
post back what they have to say when and if I hear from them.

Thanks for your support. Don't bother to follow this particular
thread any longer if you think the posts on it are coming from
drooling idiots with somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500+ system
builds under their belt; it will waste your time.

I'm quite happy to keep rubbing your nose in the basics,
like the fact that its pointless trying different memory when
it wont even whine about the lack of memory when you
try it with no memory or video card and has the same
symptoms as seen when there is memory and video card.

I'm just trying to get to the bottom of a motherboard quality/compatibility
issue that is causing problems for myself and other owners of this board.

Sure, but you appear to have a problem with the most
basic logic, and you may eventually be able to work out
those basics if your nose is rubbed in them often enough.

The number of system builds is completely irrelevant, there
are plenty of examples of those who manage to stumble
thru while lacking in the most basic diagnostic/logic skills.
They essentially waste some time but can get there
in the long run using a shotgun approach.

 

[Samson]

I'm quite happy to keep rubbing your nose in the basics,
like the fact that its pointless trying different memory when
it wont even whine about the lack of memory when you
try it with no memory or video card and has the same
symptoms as seen when there is memory and video card.

Sure, but you appear to have a problem with the most
basic logic, and you may eventually be able to work out
those basics if your nose is rubbed in them often enough.

The number of system builds is completely irrelevant, there
are plenty of examples of those who manage to stumble
thru while lacking in the most basic diagnostic/logic skills.
They essentially waste some time but can get there
in the long run using a shotgun approach.

OK...I spent an hour with Brian at Mushkin today (great guy, by the way.)
Problem solved!!

It was the memory! I was using their standard EM2-4200 (DR2-533) 1GB
sticks, which is spec'd at a standard 1.8v. They're based on Micron chips,
which seem to have issues with the new P965 chipset. He had some Infineon
chip-based 1 GB memory sticks (DDR2-533) with the same SPD latencies, and as
soon as we popped them in, the system booted up like a champ! Tried
DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 as well, and all OK.

If you want to use Mushkin, buy it direct from their website at
http://www.mushkin.com and specifically ask for Infineon chips, and you
should be good to go. Online retailers like Newegg and ZZF probably have
the Mushkin sticks with Micron chips.

This whole thing was so weird, because the constant power-off/power-on 3
second cycle was occurring even with no memory in the board with no BIOS
beeps, which would lead one to suspect the power supply, a shorted board, or
a hardware/BIOS issue with the board. It was just a simple case of
incompatible chips on the memory sticks.

I'm sure glad we got everything sorted out, and I do hope this helps some of
you others having this problem with the GA-965P-DQ6.

 

[Rod Speed]

OK...I spent an hour with Brian at Mushkin today (great guy, by the way.)
Problem solved!!

It was the memory!

I was using their standard EM2-4200 (DR2-533) 1GB sticks, which is spec'd at a
standard 1.8v. They're based on Micron
chips, which seem to have issues with the new P965 chipset.

He had some Infineon chip-based 1 GB memory sticks (DDR2-533) with the same
SPD latencies, and as soon as we popped them in, the system booted up like a
champ! Tried DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 as well, and all OK.

If you want to use Mushkin, buy it direct from their website at
http://www.mushkin.com and specifically ask for Infineon chips, and you should
be good to go. Online retailers like Newegg and ZZF probably have the Mushkin
sticks with Micron chips.

Maybe, odd that Gigabyte told them to return the pallet load tho.

This whole thing was so weird, because the constant power-off/
power-on 3 second cycle was occurring even with no memory in the board with no
BIOS beeps, which would lead one to suspect the
power supply, a shorted board, or a hardware/BIOS issue with the
board. It was just a simple case of incompatible chips on the memory
sticks.

That is one hell of an inditement of gigabyte that the bios is that ****ed
and that it got past the tests gigabyte did before shipping that bios.

 

[Rod Speed]

Be interesting to see what happens with the latest bios too.

 

[Samson]

Yeah, troubling to me too. By the way, these 4 boards all shipped with F2
version BIOS. I've flashed to F3 (latest official, although there are
various beta F4 versions floating around) and all seems solid so far with 2
of the boards undergoing testing under stock speeds/SPD settings. I'll play
around with tightening up timings/overclocking tomorrow to see how things
go, since the memory is rated 1.8-2.3v.

Brian (Mushkin) did say that a lot of Asus boards based on the 965 series
Intel chipsets were having similar issues; I can't comment, as the last Asus
board I installed had the nForce 4 SLI chipset, but I do know Asus'
reputation for their enthusiast boards being extremely finicky with RAM.

Anyway, hope this helps out someone else.

 

[Samson]

Yeah. The rumor mill says that they're really trying to broaden memory chip
compatibility with the various beta BIOS versions floating around. Of well,
things not too dissimilar to this often happen anytime the latest the
greatest comes out and all the board manufacturer's trip over one another to
try to be the first out the door with the new technology.

 

[Jan Alter]

Yeah, troubling to me too. By the way, these 4 boards all shipped with F2
version BIOS. I've flashed to F3 (latest official, although there are
various beta F4 versions floating around) and all seems solid so far with
2 of the boards undergoing testing under stock speeds/SPD settings. I'll
play around with tightening up timings/overclocking tomorrow to see how
things go, since the memory is rated 1.8-2.3v.

Brian (Mushkin) did say that a lot of Asus boards based on the 965 series
Intel chipsets were having similar issues; I can't comment, as the last
Asus board I installed had the nForce 4 SLI chipset, but I do know Asus'
reputation for their enthusiast boards being extremely finicky with RAM.

I appreciate you posting to share the problem and glad you kept us informed
of your findings. Sorry I missed your mentioning the PS when you first
stated the dilemma. Gigabyte ought to be shipping you a dozen boards gratus
for the sleuthing you've done, or perhaps the aggravation you've endured for
their lack of thoroughness.