Gigabyte P35 motherboards and DPC

I have GA-P35-DS3L and F5 bios(an older bios) fixed it.

I would try like the oldest 3 bios versions for your board maybe. It seems on my board as well as a friend of mine that the earliest bios versions didnt have the latency problem.

F5 is not the earliest on mine but it is like the 3rd earliest version.

Thanks - I'll give it a shot.

I have a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. F2 seems to reduce the DPC spike to around 20us but it does not allow an overclock. Newer revisions allow me to overclock to 3600. Anyone know if I could get both?

best!
Paul

I have a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. F2 seems to reduce the DPC spike to around 20us but it does not allow an overclock. Newer revisions allow me to overclock to 3600. Anyone know if I could get both?

Paul , I overclock mine to 3.2 on the F3h BIOS without any problems?

Hi all

Geez, I was just tipped on this issue. I've been very happy with my GA-P35-DS3, but I've had one problem which DSP latency checker has helped me identify:
While I have yet to be out of ressources in the DAW, when playing Battlefield 2 I've had the problem of instantly losing all sound upon a system hickup.
The screenshot tells why: Upon losing sound once again I alt-tabbed to DSP lat. and sure enough: a major stall had just occured.

I have yet to contact Gigabyte about this and would like to ask a few questions to you guys:

1) The newest bios out on Gigabytes website (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2627) for my board is called 13i. Does anyone know if this contains the fixes that people have reported in this thread concerning the 13b beta update? Has anyone tried it?

2) If I get the 13b bios must I flash it with a floppy? (I don't have a floppy drive.)
I saw one guy mentioning using a usb-stick, does that mean NOT using a floppy, at all? I've never done this operation before and dread having to do it all together, but on the other hand I obviously need this update.
Edit: Ohh, I see on Gigabyte's website the offline @BIOS-method, I imagine I should use that one?

If I get the 13b bios must I flash it with a floppy? (I don't have a floppy drive.)

You can install it from a download with the @BIOS Facility that comes on your Gigabyte Install Disc. I Was tired of plugging a Diskette drive into The board with every BIOS Update and Found that you can point @BIOS app to any Path and install the BIOS File from within windows like all motherboards these days.

Gaaahhhh will this thread never die.

I will lay you dimes to dollars that the problem has nothing to do with the MB, but due to the M-Audio driver.

For the record, the problem is not specific to one motherboard. It may or may not be fixed with a bios change. and the spike you show is just that the process has hung. Its not really telling you why.

As one person pointed out, the DPC checker is pretty much useless as its not really telling you anything.

Cheers
Shad

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen


I will lay you dimes to dollars that the problem has nothing to do with the MB, but due to the M-Audio driver.

The repeating pattern shown in your first image is caused by the BIOS, not the drivers.

Woa Dang,

Don't be afraid to update the BIOS, just be careful to follow the directions carefully. I use a USB stick with the Q-Flash function in the BIOS. I've read that it is much safer than flashing the BIOS from within Windows. You don't need to use a floppy drive. All of the info you need should be in your motherboard manual.

13b fixed DPC issues for me, on the GA-P35-DS4. The exactly bios version may be different for your mobo. The best thing is to check with Gigabyte support. I got 13b directly from them.

ORIGINAL: Dan DAmico

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen


I will lay you dimes to dollars that the problem has nothing to do with the MB, but due to the M-Audio driver.

The repeating pattern shown in your first image is caused by the BIOS, not the drivers.

I was talking about the crash spike....

No, its caused by the system event scheduler, which if your machine is set to PNP aware, is controlled by the OS, and the OS is using the HAL to bypass the bios because BIOSes are slow! Why do you think XP has reached its end of life? Because the kernel timer can no longer keep up with the speed of the hardware. Change the polling interval and you will see the spikes drop. You guys are using a sledge hammer to kill a fly.

Besides the fact that you sound really smart, you need to provide more information and instructions if you expect to help anyone. I don't have the faintest idea what you're talking about, but I do know the beta bios I got from Gigabyte eliminated DPC spikes on my system.

If there is a way to tweak Xp to solve the same problem, and if that way of approaching the problem is in fact superior, then I'd like to know why its superior and how exactly to do it.

In my mind, Gigabyte recognized a bug in their BIOS and fixed it. Are you implying that they made their motherboards slower in order to quiet some complainers? If so, please explain in more detail why you think so exactly.

All these things are there for the finding if a person takes the time to look. Latency of this type is the least of our concerns. One fellow posted a topic recently with an article about where latency that effects us really occurs. And it isn't DPC.

Where in the chain does having these polling intervals actually effect anything? In this entire thread, and the others like it, not one person has demonstrated a genuine problem that you can actually tie to polling that is in the normal range as shown by the DPC application (IE around 2ms). There are 310 posts in this thread trying to fix a problem that does not actually effect anything. Its like everybody is OCD (obsessive compulsive). You all keep cleaning a spot that is already clean...

What I am trying to suggest is that there is no problem.

The worst that was seen (on machines not in an error state) was a difference of 1MS. This is not even detectable by a human being, and it is not cumulative. Its perfectly normal behavior (and having slightly longer latency in this area can actually be beneficial to overall system stability).

The spikes that are way out of whack, those that shoot up to the 25ms second range (or off the scale like the crashed application) are not due to polling. They are due to the system being in an error state. Of course the DPC application will show a huge spike... the app crashed and hung a driver. Does the application tell you what driver hung, does it tell you which device is not responding to the poll? Unless your DPC application is different than mine, the answer is "no".

WRT Gigabyte: unless they included a "we fixed the DPC spike problem" in their release notes for the bios, saying that Gigabyte has admitted a problem is purely conjecture. The segment of the market that would even care about this is so small as to be trivial. Gigabyte sells some 10 million motherboards a year (based on the 2006 annual report) - weigh that against a couple of hundred people with a DPC spike of 2ms... do you honestly think they care?. If it makes you feel better about your system, great. But, I will again lay dimes to dollars that its purely coincidental.

Cheers
Shad

You still haven't told us one single helpful thing. You're obnoxious Shad, go away.

LOL - Actually, thats what I feel about you and the other nonsense spewers here.

This is the part that is useful:

"What I am trying to suggest is that there is no problem."

Show me a real problem with the polling latency, and I will do just what you ask. Otherwise, take your own advice bub.

Cheers
Shad

Why do you feel that you need come into a thread that is not for you and combat people and create conflict about it? Myself and a few others have benefited from this thread and really if you aren't interested all you have to do is view other threads and ignore this one, rather than come in here bloviating, obnoxiously condemning people with your condescending attitude and criticizing the very thread itself. Go away. Maybe you'll have more fun at skateboard camp.

So I am guessing that means you can not actually show me a real problem?

Why? I will tell you why. Because there is so much misinformation being tossed around this place. This is disservice to those members who come here looking for real solutions. There is a large amount of baseless snobbery about products and methods by people who clearly have no idea about what they are talking about. Wrong information about sound devices, video devices, operating systems and so on.

I will continue to provide correct information so that those people who want the right information are not mislead. Information based on verifiable facts, not conjecture or wishful thinking.

Cheers
Shad

You're welcome to believe whatever you want, but I have personally participated on the gigabyte forum, received direct emails from their developers with a beta bios that eliminated the DPC spiking issue. I am not the only one. Some people reported improved performance with the new BIOS. I myself did not compare. You can believe what you want, but you are creating conflict now based on your preconceived notion that you are right and those of us experiencing these improvements are wrong. It must be nice to think you are so smart that everyone else should be corrected all the time. And its not really very helpful to anyone. If the Beta bios that was sent to me did not help anything, it certainly didn't hurt anything and did eliminate the DPC spikes. Honestly, its not open for debate and its you that is wrong. And I don't have any desire to sit here and debate with smarty pants like you either. I can only report the positive results that I got by communicating with gigabyte, receiving BIOS updates and eliminating DPC spikes. I have no idea why you feel that you need to come into here and declare that everyone is not as smart as you and stupid for even considering this. Obviously Gigabyte did take the issue seriously enough to respond to our inquiries and send us BIOS's that seem to solve the problem.

Whether or not it makes much significant difference to overall performance is most definitely debatable, no arguments there, but I know I am much happier now with my 25usec DPC latencies compared to the 2000usec spikes I was getting before. But if nobody had pointed it out to me I probably would have just kept on using my Gigabyte mobo, whistling while I go and not worrying about it.

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen


This is the part that is useful:

"What I am trying to suggest is that there is no problem."

Show me a real problem with the polling latency, and I will do just what you ask.

Check my posts in this thread where I show the results of the Sonar benchmark test. There is a definite improvement with the beta BIOS that corrects the DPC spiking. Nothing else was changed, just the BIOS. So it isn't Windows XP causing the problem.

Dewdman is right. If you haven't experienced the problem - good for you. Leave those of us that have experienced it alone so we can find a solution. It's not your problem to solve.

ORIGINAL: dewdman42

Whether or not it makes much significant difference to overall performance is most definitely debatable, no arguments there, but I know I am much happier now with my 25usec DPC latencies compared to the 2000usec spikes I was getting before. But if nobody had pointed it out to me I probably would have just kept on using my Gigabyte mobo, whistling while I go and not worrying about it.

Which is EXACTLY what I was trying to say. Actually, I did say exactly that...

If it makes you feel better about your system, great.

And in what way does the benchmark reflect real world problems? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making benchmarks scream too - but I do realize that those minor changes really have little impact on performance in the real world.

And yes, as I posted a long long time ago - I have the spikes too on one machine. Do I care.. no. The polling spikes of 2ms have no significant effect on recording and monitoring latency (maybe on ancient machines).

And sure a new bios can make a system faster (I often use a custom bios for that reason). No debate there. Enough to make a difference in this case? Well, if there is no noticeable problem, then how can it effect it? I won't notice it more now?

However, I now realize that you guys are just having fun fixing this non-problem and enjoying the drama of it, so I will leave you too it.

Cheers
Shad

no, that is not what you did. You have attacked people for trying to eliminate the spiking in a way that you don't approve of. The reality is that some people have eliminated the spiking doing exactly the things you disprove. Some of them have reported perf gains. Whether or not its there is really non-issue. its a potential for perf gain and worth pursuing. now freaking go away dude and stop being a pest.

ORIGINAL: dewdman42

no, that is not what you did. You have attacked people for trying to eliminate the spiking in a way that you don't approve of. The reality is that some people have eliminated the spiking doing exactly the things you disprove. Some of them have reported perf gains. Whether or not its there is really non-issue. its a potential for perf gain and worth pursuing. now freaking go away dude and stop being a pest.

LOL.. what are you... 10 years old?

Flashing a BIOS, "dude", is a potentially dangerous thing to do, even for those who know what they are doing.

In many ways, you are advising people (even if indirectly) to fix a problem that does not really exist, just so you can have bragging rights and throw up "well my DAW only has 25 micro second latency". Especially when the latency you are talking about is not monitoring latency that actually is a factor in a DAW, but device polling latency.

And do not even begin to argue that "bragging rights" do not exist here, I have seen it more than once.

So, that being said, I will go away if you get real. If not, then I will continue to caution people against taking significant measures to fix a trivial problem (if its even a problem at all). If that means stepping on a few toes, so be it. I do not care what you think of me, but I do care that people are not mislead (even if unintentionally). If that makes me a bad person in your book, well, that is your problem, not mine.

Cheers
Shad

(roll eyes). Sick of this conversation. If I ignore you will you go away?

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen



And in what way does the benchmark reflect real world problems? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making benchmarks scream too - but I do realize that those minor changes really have little impact on performance in the real world.

On my system, I was unable to use a 64 sample buffer at all with ASIO drivers with the DPC spiking. With the beta BIOS, I can. That is a real world performance difference. I am able to detect timing differences related to higher latencies.

ORIGINAL: Dan DAmico

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen



And in what way does the benchmark reflect real world problems? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making benchmarks scream too - but I do realize that those minor changes really have little impact on performance in the real world.

On my system, I was unable to use a 64 sample buffer at all with ASIO drivers with the DPC spiking. With the beta BIOS, I can. That is a real world performance difference. I am able to detect timing differences related to higher latencies.

Uh huh. Riiight.

Well then you're superhuman Dan. Most people are biologically incapable of detecting discrete differences in latency of about 25 MS or lower... this is the time it takes for a neurotransmitter to travel across the synaptic gap between neurons. For the most of us, two events that occur within that time (like a key press and the resulting sound) are perceived as one event. It takes about 300 milliseconds before your brain processes that information. This is 1st year Perceptual/Cognative Psych.

Maybe you can see why I am not overly concerned about a 2ms polling spike every 2 seconds or so (you guys act like these spikes are occurring on every clock cycle. Its not, its occurring every 6 billion or so). And, judging by my music, I am not seeing much problem there either. I can play just fine (other than my own lousy timing issues ). You can also now see why I think this is more to do with pride (that which I call bragging rights), than any real need.

Besides, I am still prepared to put money on the fact that the BIOS fixed something other than the DPC (like, perhaps, adjusting the PCI bus latency from 128 to 64 by default... which you could have done yourself in the bios setup screens (the common default it actually 64, but occasionally motherboard bioses are set higher to give peripherals like the sound card a longer time slice to process if the board is deemed "high perf - this can actually smooth overall system response). Polling spikes really have little to do with monitoring latency, as it is not related to this part in the manner you wish to ascribe.

Care to take me up on that bet?

This thread has been a fun read. I have a Gigabyte P35 board that's been sitting in the box for about eight months; I wonder what I'll find -- both with DPC and perceived latency or other issues -- if I ever put it in a chassis and fire it up.

Ok, guys, its me with the total loss of sound in BF2.

Thanks for your comments.

I had imagined all along that it was the M-Audio drivers since the BF2 application doesn't actually crash, I just lose all sound at the same instance as the latency checker reports the spike. While BF2 taxes the graphical components more than the DAW, I don't remember losing sound in FSX on this system, but I don't play that online. I wonder if the sudden massive spike might be related to my network connection, if a slight lag might make the game lose contact with the M-Audio drivers? The problem seems to occur less at night when there's perhaps less traffic.

Personally, I have no problems running lots and lots of tracks with VST's, no problem at all. I never just lose all sound running the DAW, and the latency pattern DOES NOT change at all whether I just browse etc (the top pic) or work in the DAW. So, really, it doesn't appear to be a problem with my work, - but as any semi-tweaker knows, if performance can be increased, heck, a topic looks interesting.
At the same time, it appears that a significant amount of people report that the BIOS update actually cures a problem with their sound, and this makes me quit keen on trying it out. I mean, can we agree that the (even the "unproblematic") spikes are unusual and undesired? It would be interesting to see screenshots of various mobos and a brief rundown on any audio problems encountered, although, perhaps not in this thread. We already heard of people with ASUS and Abit boards who also report this.

Thanks for the tip on flashing, I'll probably end up doing it.

Foxwolfen, I've just turned off my system event schedular and will give BF2 a go (yeah, tough troubleshooting:). But I'm not sure it'll be that easy, let's see.

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen



Uh huh. Riiight.

I've been trying to be patient with you, because I assume that most people who come to this forum are either seeking answers, or are providing assistance to those that are. But you are proving yourself to be on some sort of ego trip.

Listen carefully. No one is advocating that you or anyone else change your system if you are satified with your performance. This thread is trying to help people that are experiencing degraded system performance caused by DPC spikes. Gigabyte admits there is a problem and has released a BIOS that corrects the problem, whether you believe in it or not. It is not up to you to prove it doesn't exist or doesn't matter.

And if you cannot detect a 25ms latency, I don't know how you can record anything requiring tight timing.

ORIGINAL: Dan DAmico

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen



Uh huh. Riiight.

I've been trying to be patient with you, because I assume that most people who come to this forum are either seeking answers, or are providing assistance to those that are. But you are proving yourself to be on some sort of ego trip.

Listen carefully. No one is advocating that you or anyone else change your system if you are satified with your performance. This thread is trying to help people that are experiencing degraded system performance caused by DPC spikes. Gigabyte admits there is a problem and has released a BIOS that corrects the problem, whether you believe in it or not. It is not up to you to prove it doesn't exist or doesn't matter.

And if you cannot detect a 25ms latency, I don't know how you can record anything requiring tight timing.

Dan,

Actually... you listen carefully. Very very carefully. Now, I know you guys are very used to bullying the people you disagree with, but I am not so easily bullied.

"No one is advocating that you or anyone else change your system if you are satified (sic) with your performance." Horse pucky. That is exactly what you are doing.

I have read many people coming in and trashing a brand here based on nothing other than some mysterious spikes on some application that nobody has actually verified as being useful as a diagnostic tool. I am trying to be reasonable about a problem that one or two others who have some real hardware experience have also mentioned may not be a problem.

I mentioned more than once that we are not talking about monitoring latency, were talking about occasional brief spikes during system polling. This, at worst relates to noise and dropouts, not input monitoring latency, which is what this thread seems to lead people to believe. I have the spikes, and I run at 4-8 ms input monitoring latency. Therefore the DPC spikes are perhaps not the real culprit to your 64 sample buffer problem. This is what I have been talking about, over and over and over. So my main problem with this thread is the blurring of lines between two different types of events on a system, which is highly misleading.

I have put forth, three times now, a request that you show us where gigabyte admits this problem with DPC. Three times I have been ignored.

I asked if the release notes address the DPC issues. Do they verify that the bios had a problem with 2ms dpc spikes causing input monitoring latency problems (the 2ms "spikes" seem to be the common "problem" reported here - not the obvious anomalies where the spike are huge - I am not debating those, and I have said as much - nor am I debating that a new bios may have allowed you to get slightly lower latency out of your sound card)?. If they do, then please post the release notes and I will shutup and admit my mistake.

If they are not in the release notes, then you (guys) are asking me to simply take your word for it. This is hard to do. I am not really interested in going and tracking it down myself, but its looking like I will need to, just to prove a point, and that irritates the heck out of me. For what its worth, vendors give out beta's all the time, so the fact that they gave you one is no proof that they admit there is a problem with DPC causing input monitoring latency problems. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding; show me where it is officially written.

If this is an "ego trip", fine... believe what you want, but with repeated requests for verification of the claims put forth here, there has been no response, other than the usual Cakewalk forums "you suck for questioning us" kind of replies. And yes, I get pretty tired of those, and the people with 10 year old mentalities who do it.

Cheers
Shad

After deactivating system event scheduler, I still lost all sound after about 1½ hours of gaming. I guess I could install my onboard sound to see if its the M-Audio drivers specifically. Hate do pollute the comp though.

OK, lets cool it down to keep this thread valuable:

1) Latency in the DAW is obviously NOT the same as latency reported by DPC checker. Those are two different things.
2) It is clearly possible for some (including myself) to NOT feel any bad effects in the DAW despite a non-patched BIOS (I run at 2ms in FL8). Thus the latency reported by DPC checker does not necessarily entail a problem.
3) It appears that some people have done away with their problems with a BIOS update which ALSO affects the latency reported by the DPC checker. It would appear natural to assume that somewhere along the chain, something happened to some kind of data transfer.
4) Has Gigabyte support described to one of the receivers why the BIOS might help with stabilizing multitrack audio applications? If so, let's have a quote?

Unfortunately, Gigabyte support doesn't say anything other than "please try this beta BIOS". The fact the the BIOS eliminates the repeating pattern DPC spiking, and on my system, that has resulted in being able to use smaller sample buffers and latencies of 1.3ms leads me to the conclusion that the DPC spiking caused a problem for me. I started this thread because I had trouble getting low enough latencies out of my system and someone asked me to check the DPC latencies. It indeed turned out to be the problem in my system. There are obviously other things that can cause DPC spiking, but that is not what I have referred to in this thread. If you look at the very first post, you will see an image illustrating the repeating pattern that I refer to.

The fact that a BIOS change, and no other changes to drivers, etc can fix the problem leads me to conclude that it is the BIOS. Also, in reference to your suggestion that I may have a different setting somewhere in the BIOS setup with the beta BIOS, I don't. I wrote down every setting before flashing to the beta BIOS and set it up exactly the same.

I have tried to refrain from personal attacks because I don't believe they are warranted and it just fosters unnecessary vitriol. But since you've opened the door... I believe that you are trying to help others, and therefore I give you the benefit of the doubt that you are sincere in your objective. But you also display a serious maladjustment in your personality that seems to require you to be correct all the time. I don't know how old you are, but from your behavior I suspect that I am old enough to be your father. So here's some fatherly advice. It's OK not to know everything. People will respect you more for displaying an honest willingness to learn than for being a "know it all". As Abraham Lincoln said "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

OK, great, so we know that we don't know what Gigabyte did to change the issue, - but they did something right in matters attaining to latency, one way or the other. I can't see in info on the Gigabyte website, so I guess I'll contact support, and ask for any change info, or even better, comments on the changes.
The reason I found this thread is because I recommended the mobo on a Danish audio forum, and someone mentioned that a latency issue existed, which I was not aware of. Personally, I imagine that I might benefit from the BIOS update, even if I haven't suffered latency problems myself. I only record one track at a time, however, and thus am unaware if that might give me problems in the future.

it is important to recognize that when people say there is a latency issue with the gigabyte boards, they mean DPC latency, not necessarily audio latency, though DPC latency could certainly impact audio performance in some way as Dan has measured in his tests. Specifically, Dan found that ASIO performance was rather drastically improved by fixing the DPC latency with the beta BIOS. he also observed, if I recall, that WDM audio performance did not seem to change. So this tells me that ASIO technology is somehow more effected by DPC latency problems than WDM technology is.

In any case, the only thing I wanted to point out is that the rumors you heard about latency problems are related to DPC latency, which is not audio latency. Nonetheless, there is definitely a rather consistent pattern seen by a large number of gigabyte users with this spiking DPC latency. And a lot of them solved the problem by either going back to a really old BIOS version or else they received a new beta BIOS directly from Gigabyte support which solved the problem. There are also a few people that tried the beta bios and still have problems, and those are the people that I think may have other issues to continue addresing.

The word we have is that Gigabyte went back to using old code for this beta bios, while still supporting new processors, etc.. So what can be inferred is that somewhere along the line in the development process, gigabyte upgraded the code of their BIOS and in so doing introduced some kind of bug that causes this DPC latency spike pattern that so many people have reported. This is why some people have gone back to a really old BIOS version (which is not available for download anymore) and the DPC spiking went away. Other people communicated with Gigabyte and received from them a bios, a different version number depending on which mobo you have. For me it was version 13b. And in many cases, that eliminated the DPC spiking. It did for me.

Unfortunately this beta bios also introduces a new bug, in that the vcore setting can't be changed with beta bios 13b. This is important for overclocking. So what some of us are doing is to flash to F12, set the vcore and then flash back to 13b and luckily the vcore setting sticks this way. I was able to flash back and forth a few dozen times and eventually acheive an overclock setup that is stable and the way I want it, so now its just on 13b and running fine, with no DPC spikes.

We do not know for sure if Gigabyte is going to release these beta bios releases as production releases. I sure hope so and hopefully with the vcore bug fixed.

In any case, you should go to TweakTown.com and look in the Gigabyte forum there. Several tech support guys from Gigabyte will sometimes answer questions there, there is one guy named "Janus" from Gigabyte who has responded to many of us and provided us with custom built bios. My impression is that he was literally building a custom beta bios for everyone that asked. or you can email him directly: janus.yeh@gigabyte.com.tw. There are a few threads related to the DPC spiking on that TweakTown gigabyte forum as well.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make sure your system is running smoothly so you can sleep better at night knowing that you are not leaving some unresolved problem on the table.

Gents,

Please allow me to apologize.

I do not know why this thread irritated me so much. Possibly because there was a lot of Gigabyte bashing going on up in the Sonar forum where the other threads similar to this one were.

It was unfair of me to take it out so harshly on you folks.

Cheers
Shad

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen

Gents,

Please allow me to apologize.

I do not know why this thread irritated me so much. Possibly because there was a lot of Gigabyte bashing going on up in the Sonar forum where the other threads similar to this one were.

It was unfair of me to take it out so harshly on you folks.

Cheers
Shad

Thanks, Shad. Apology accepted. I know you were trying to help.

I like this Gigabyte motherboard, and I'm impressed with their attempts to address the issue, especially since it only affects a small number of users, as you pointed out.

ORIGINAL: Dan DAmico
I've been using the beta BIOS (F4b) on my GA-EP35-DS4 for about a month without any problems.

I've emailed Janus, but with no response... can you email me this beta bios? I tried to send you a PM but it says that your box is full....

flankp at gmail

Thanks in advance

---

I didn't wait long enough, I was emailed the f4b beta bios, less than 48hrs for gigabyte to respond. I'm happy. :)

ORIGINAL: flankp

I didn't wait long enough, I was emailed the f4b beta bios, less than 48hrs for gigabyte to respond. I'm happy. :)

Glad to hear you got it. Does it work for you?

ORIGINAL: Dan DAmico

ORIGINAL: flankp

I didn't wait long enough, I was emailed the f4b beta bios, less than 48hrs for gigabyte to respond. I'm happy. :)

Glad to hear you got it. Does it work for you?

I dont have the board yet :o

I'm building a new rig right after many years away, I have the ram, cpu, and mainboard left to buy (everything else is begging for my stimulus check)... which will be this week. I'll report back after I've got it up and running.

Finished specs:
Vista Ultimate 64
Sonar 7 PE - 32bit
EMU-1616m PCI
Antec 900 case
Antec TPQ-850 power supply
matrox P65-MDDE128F Millennium P650 128MB video card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Zalman 9500 LED cooler
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA
Intel Q6600 - will be overclocked to 3ghz
8 gig corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 ram
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 mainboard

I just wanted to have everything in a row so when it's assembled I can rock out. :)

Well, it turns out that a reinstall of the M-audio drivers did the trick in clearing up the problem with sound loss in BF2. Geez, I only reinstalled because the problem became worse, I remembered it as an "incurable", how newbish. A driver reinstall... Anyways, still have the latency "ladder", but am not too worried with my system. I mailed Janus for a bios a few days ago, didn't hear from him yet.

I am amazed BF2 even works with the M-Audio... that app has some of the worst problems I have ever seen in a game. However, when it does work, it also has some of the best sound effects that the M-Audio is completely incapable of reproducing (unless yours is a 5.1 with HW DS/EAX/OpenAL - which mine is not, its stereo only)

I had quite high DPC latency spikes on my GA-P35-DS3 v 2.1 board (with an E8400) 1ms "ladders"
I was thinking of sending my gigabyte board back today but I received the 13k bios after logging a problem with gigabytes tech support.
This is the link they sent me (it works at the moment)

GA-P35-DS3 v 2.1 board

http://ggts.gigabyte.eu/FileList/618226/p35ds3.13k

No more high latency! Hovering around 2-5 micros peaks to 45 when I open up sonar.

Hope this is a useful contribution

OK, running with the new BIOS that Dan DAmico sent me (thanks again), F4b, and there's a huge improvement. The latency spikes are more or less completely gone. From having spikes around 1600 us every other second I now have a smooth pattern that stays within 2-30 us. I've only had one spike the last half hour that went up to 2400 us, don't know why yet but it's just been one. (I'm not running Dynamic Energy Saver of course.) If you have the EP35-DS4 motherboard I recommend to try it out.

Here's a picture of my latency (before the spike...):

And here's the BIOS: ep35ds4.f4b

Edit: Ok, I occasionally have spikes around 2400 us, with about a five minute interval.
Edit2: IMPORTANT! You can't change the CPU voltage with these BIOS so beware. It'll keep the current settings as long as you don't clear the CMOS after flashing.

Beta BIOS v. F4h for GA-EP35-DS4 rev. 2.1: EP35DS4.F4H
Same results as F4b regarding the DPC latency. I don't really know what this version fixes. Maybe the problem of not being able to change CPU voltage, haven't checked.

Thanks for posting the 4H BIOS for the EP35-DS4. I hadn't been notified by Gigabyte.

I ran some quick tests, and it does indeed allow you to change the CPU voltage, and it will hold the settings. The max DPC latency was 15us, and most of the time it was between 4us and 6us. I'll post again after running it for a while to try to uncover any problems.

I'm glad to see Gigabyte is still working on this.

Sorry if this is a repost, too busy using the DAW now that my DPC spiking is fixed.


Thanks to Janus, and the Tweaktown forum, the fix for the GA-P35C-DS3R was BIOS F11.

Everything i got from the GB website (F1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 11e) gave 500-800µs at idle with spikes to 1000-1200µs every 5 secs. Removing Easytune helped a bit, but the F11 BIOS got me down to an even 5-6µs at idle, 20-30µs with a project running in Sonar.

Hope it works for you too. If anyone needs the file, PM me.

Regards

It looks like Gigabyte has finally released official versions of the new BIOS. I've been testing it for the past two days and everything seems fine. It allows voltage to be changed, so overclocking works, and the DPC latency spikes are gone. Standby (S3) works, too.

Thanks to all that contacted Gigabyte requesting a fix to the problem. They listened and stood behind their product. That wins big points in my opinion.

Thanks for letting us know Dan! can't wait to try it, but I can't seem to find it. Where did you find it?

Hi Dewdman,

Maybe I spoke too soon. They released an official version for my motherboard, the GA-EP35-DS4, which I downloaded here

If they haven't released the new one for your board, they probably will very soon.

Installed the official BIOS F4 and then the latest F5. Everything seems to work fine with the DPC latency now staying at 5-10us most of the time (when there is no disk activity).

The latest F5 is available at http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ProductID=2744.

This was F2:


This is F5:

Thanks for the heads up on the F5 BIOS for the EP35-DS4. I installed it yesterday - no problems yet.

New BIOS F6a for EP35-DS4 (rev. 2.1) is out. The website says it's a beta version.

It can be downloaded at http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_DownloadFile.aspx?FileType=BIOS&FileID=13926.

Hi,
ive been reading here with a lot of interest as i have had pretty much the same problems with my GA-81945G Pro - awful latency issues. ive tried flashing the bios with various versions available through Gigabyte but no joy.
Is there a Beta Bios available or some advice someone can give me to sort this out on a GA-81945G Pro ? driving me mental.
many thanks in advance

mike

infinity2009


Hi,
ive been reading here with a lot of interest as i have had pretty much the same problems with my GA-81945G Pro - awful latency issues. ive tried flashing the bios with various versions available through Gigabyte but no joy.
Is there a Beta Bios available or some advice someone can give me to sort this out on a GA-81945G Pro ? driving me mental.
many thanks in advance

mike

Welcome to the forum, Mike.

It would help if you told us more about your system, like which audio interface are you using. You're problems could turn out to not be your motherboard/BIOS at all. Also, if you're using the built-in sound chips instead of a real audio interface, you should expect latency problems.

Hi rstollen,
thanks for the quick reply and welcome :-)
Im running a pentium (R) D 
2.81GHZ
3gig of ram 
Windows xp sp 3
internal esata 500g Western Dig drive for audio
smaller ide drive for apps and os etc 

Im using a firewire motu traveler but have also experienced the same problem when i use the computer with my mbox mini.
ive disabled and enabled numerous bits and pieces in the device manager over time, testing them out to see if anything affects anything (firewire,dvd,network adaptors, on board audio, usb hubs, internal modem, etc etc!) but again no dice.

Ive used the DPC latency checker and before having flashed the bios and disabled a few things i was getting red spikes quite often whereas now the max seems to be around 519 which is better than before aobviously but the audio latency is still absolutley unbearable on sessions with say 5 vst insts (nothing mega heavy) and a few instances of waves eq's and basic compressors etc.
i dont get it! :-)


hope that helps....
any advice would be fantastic, ive been banging my head against the wall for months now until i camre across other people having the same problem.



thanks!

Mike - Are you using ASIO or WDM drivers? Assuming you are, did you already go though the routine of adjusting your latency buffers?

using motu asio drivers, yeah adjusted all latency buffers (on both sound cards)
same results when using mini mbox with digidesign asio drivers also 

cheers

Mike - I'm assuming you already checked which chipset your motherboard's firewire interface is using. Is it Texas Instruments (TI)?

yes its texas intruments

Well the last thing I can think of are applications that may be running. Maybe anti-virus, or drive indexing, etc. I'm assuming you've already used msconfig and disabled everything that's not absolutely necessary.

If that's not it, then I have no idea also.

haha, no probs, thanks for taking the time. i havent done the msconfig thing, trying it now, anything i should look out for?
cheers again