New motherboard?

I've had some issues with my booting a while, and come to the conclusion that is probably is the motherboard. 
(The screen is black at coldboot - have to restart and everything is fine. I've seen some few other people on the Gigabyte forum having the same issue)

I have the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v2.0.
The problem is, there seems to be a problem to source x58 (LGA1366 socket) motherboards. At least in Norway.

So, I have to either get a new MB or to change a lot of components. 

The DAW consists of:

Gigabyte UD3R MB
Intel i7 920 CPU D0 Bloomfield
OCZ Gold 12GB 1600mhz RAM
Nvidia NVS450 GPU
Corsair AX950 PSU
Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler


It is in a Fractal Design R3 case, so it has some space. No need for a miniATX or anything like that :)
An other "must have" is to have a Texas Instrument Firewire chip. Not a 100% must have, as I can buy this separately. But I like to have it tight integrated. 

So, what do you say, should I: 
a) try to aquire a new 1366 MB 
b) change to another MB and CPU (might also need to change the ram?)

if I go for option a) - anyone have a good alternative? I've heard good things of the Intel DX50SO MB.

if option b)
what should I go for? 

Thanks fireberd.
Checked Asus - they actually have a few 1366 (x58) MB's listed on their website, basicly several revisions of the P6T7 motherboard.

Thinking to check a bit furter though, it seems those MB's were produced in 2009 :)

They also seem to have VIA FW chips and dont have USB 3.0 either. (not a must - but I hope to have this DAW a couple of years)

ya ive had good luck with gigabyte, but theres always a few bad mobo's in a bundle, not as in QC but as in a series, once in a while theres a bad series.
I have an HP laptop like that the DV1000 series, the mobo's were a recall even (the largest in HP history.)
sorry to hear man. best of luck in the future, just don't get turned off by gigabyte, there still good mobo's  :0

kristoffer


I've had some issues with my booting a while, and come to the conclusion that is probably is the motherboard. 
(The screen is black at coldboot - have to restart and everything is fine. I've seen some few other people on the Gigabyte forum having the same issue)

I have the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v2.0.
The problem is, there seems to be a problem to source x58 (LGA1366 socket) motherboards. At least in Norway.

I switched from Gigabyte to Asus Sabertooth. Works fine. My problem is I sank lot of money in I7 950's. Then more in ssd's. No X58 board will run ssd's at more than 50-60% of their top speed. I feel kinds cheated but on the other hand the system is plenty fast enough to run everything I do. 

John

John6528

kristoffer


I've had some issues with my booting a while, and come to the conclusion that is probably is the motherboard. 
(The screen is black at coldboot - have to restart and everything is fine. I've seen some few other people on the Gigabyte forum having the same issue)

I have the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v2.0.
The problem is, there seems to be a problem to source x58 (LGA1366 socket) motherboards. At least in Norway.

I switched from Gigabyte to Asus Sabertooth. Works fine. My problem is I sank lot of money in I7 950's. Then more in ssd's. No X58 board will run ssd's at more than 50-60% of their top speed. I feel kinds cheated but on the other hand the system is plenty fast enough to run everything I do. 

John

I think I get pretty good speed of my SSD's - which SSDs do you have? 
I've only got 3 discs (2xssd and one HDD) so I only use the Intel chipset for the discs though. I've managed to not use the Marvell chipset as it is not recomended. (highly unstable to use)

Kev999


Have you considered that a blank screen could be due to a faulty graphics card.  It may be worthwhile trying a different card before ditching the motherboard.

Yes, I have changed from my Matrox GPU (QID) to the Nvidia NVS450.
Same behaviour :)

kristoffer

John6528

kristoffer


I've had some issues with my booting a while, and come to the conclusion that is probably is the motherboard. 
(The screen is black at coldboot - have to restart and everything is fine. I've seen some few other people on the Gigabyte forum having the same issue)

I have the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R v2.0.
The problem is, there seems to be a problem to source x58 (LGA1366 socket) motherboards. At least in Norway.

I switched from Gigabyte to Asus Sabertooth. Works fine. My problem is I sank lot of money in I7 950's. Then more in ssd's. No X58 board will run ssd's at more than 50-60% of their top speed. I feel kinds cheated but on the other hand the system is plenty fast enough to run everything I do. 

John

I think I get pretty good speed of my SSD's - which SSDs do you have? 
I've only got 3 discs (2xssd and one HDD) so I only use the Intel chipset for the discs though. I've managed to not use the Marvell chipset as it is not recomended. (highly unstable to use)

OCZ Vertex 3. I get 350mb/sec with the vertex 3 which I understand is as good as it gets with X58 and Marvel. How do you NOT use the Marvel chipset? 

John

It is not the worst issue to have - but I've had the mobo for 2 years and the retailer has accepted to exchange/give me a refund. 

Hi Kristoffer,


If you've ruled other culprits out (sure it's the motherboard)... then it's time to swap it out.   

I got my money back for the Gigabyte (havent sent it back yet but they approved my RMA)  and have recently got a good deal on the Intel DX58SO2 (60$, which I think is a good price  )
 
So - when I receive the new Intel board - do I have to reinstall everything or is there a smarter route? 
Since about everything will have new drivers I mean. 
 
For instance, install from a DAW backup image from my WHS?

Well, received my DX58SO2 yesterday and I decided to try to just change the motherboard. 
And IT WORKED! 
 
Didnt even get a bluescreen! 
 
Just "plug&play" actually. Strange, as I was quite sure I had to install just about everything (both my OS drive and my programs drive) 
Well, happy days now :) 
 
And, just for the record. The strange cold boot failure is gone. So it actually was the Gigabyte mobo. 

Yep, I've installed the USB3 driver and SATA driver. 
 
I've disabled most other unwanted stuff in the BIOS (internal soundcard, LAN etc) so the HD driver wont be installed :)
 
FW driver did either install itself, or it is the same (I had to go into properties and change for legacy driver though)
 
And I tried to install the "intel-chipset-driver-package" from the intel site (from the DX58SO2 download section) but the installer told me I have a more recent one. 
 

I'm not sure, won't every Mobo that have intel chipset share the same driver package? 
Thats my impression 

Check the boot order for the dives and the controllers in BIOS.  Sometimes, it defaults back to IDE when you're trying to boot from SATA.  Good luck.