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Gigabyte GA965P DS3 + Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium

M

MoreCowBell

Junior Member
Well, here it goes (get ready for this guys).


As of July, my computer consisted of a Core 2 Duo 6320, Gigabyte GA965P DS3 (rev 1.3, FSB of 1333MHz), 4GB PC6400 DDR2 RAM, 8600GTS, HT Omega Striker 7.1 sound card, a 320GB Seagate hard drive and Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium.
I had the CPU overclock to 2.7GHz (stable) and ran this system without one single problem until just last week.

Last week i decided to upgrade the system a tad......i replaced the 6320 with an 6750, added 4 more GB of PC6400 DDR2 RAM and replaced the 8600GTS with an 8800GT.

The update went good, ran some benchmarks, overclocked the CPU to 3.2GHz (stable, no problem) and started installing Bioshock, Crysis, COD4 and Orange Box.
Along with these games, i ran Windows Update (i have it turned off and i periodically update windows on my own) and downloaded a few updates, most of which were security and system fixes for x64 systems.
I also updated the drivers for my HT Omega Striker and get the newest Nvidia Video Driver (169.25 i believe).

After a bunch of restarts and configuring, i decided to run 3dmark06 one last time and.......it was running at half the FPS i had been getting just a few hours ago. The overall score i got was 5230, when the last time i ran it 3 hours ago i got in the 13000's consistently.
I rebooted and tried it again. Still was only getting about 5000.

Hmm......strange i thought. I ignored it for now and went on to itunes to listen to some music and.......my music started skipping and slowing down (literally slowing down, as in after 20 seconds of playing the song was in slow motion).
I tried the playing the songs in VideoLAN player and Media Player, same effect. And if i tried to play music or movies while using other windows (like firefox or just browsing my documents), then the problem would get worse and the mouse pointer would start flickering.


I immediately uninstalled my audio drivers and reinstalled. No fix.
I then set my overclocks back to default, still no dice.
I tried uninstalling and reinstalling my video drivers. No fix
After 4 hours of cursing and being upset, i reinstalled Vista completely.

Upon the download and installation of all my drivers and programs once i reinstalled Vista, the problem was fixed. 3dmark06 would give me a score around 13000 again and my music and videos would play fine.
But.........once i shut down my computer and turned it on later, the problem was back.
Tried booting back up without any overclocking, still had the problem.

Again, i uninstalled all my drivers and reinstalled them. Tried everything i could think of. No dice.


Finally, out of frustration i disabled my onboard audio completely (as i read that for some people the sound issue was caused by sound enhancements being enabled in the sound manager, so i decided to take everything out of the equation) but no use.
I then took out my Audio Card and booted up and, guess what, 3dmark06 gave me my 13000 score again and everything ran fine (i didnt have sound so i couldnt hear, but there was no slowdown or flickering again).

I then reinstalled the audio card into another PCI slot and booted up. The system was still working fine. Good i thought.
Well, upon shutting down and turning it back on later, THE PROBLEM WAS BACK!
So i uninstalled the audio card again and this time left it out. Upon reboot everything worked. Its the audio card, i thought. Well, once i shut down and turned it back on (without the card installed still), THE PROBLEM WAS BACK STILL!



AHHH!
I reinstalled the audio card and booted back up. The system worked fine again.
But again, upon restart or shutdown, the problem would come back, and stay back until i took out the sound card, booted up, shut down, reinstalled the card and turned it back on.

So as of right now, as long as i dont shut down my computer, my audio and video works fine and my system runs at full capacity (including my overclock of 3.2GHz).
But the moment i shut down, the problem comes back and stays back until i do the sound card removal and reinstallation trick.


I also tried using the Gigabyte SATA Controller (instead of the Intel primary one), but no dice.
My Hard Drive is running as IDE in the BIOS (rather then AHCI), but i dont see how that could be the problem.
I also tried booting up without any IDE drives (DVD ROM and DVD Burner) plugged in, still no dice.

Everything i have tried has not worked permanently. The best i can do is get it to work for as long as my computer is on, but as soon as i turn it off and back on, it goes back to sound skipping and lagging.




Can someone please help me?
I heard that installing an IDE driver other than Microsoft's fixed this problem for some people, but i cant even find an IDE/SATA Controller driver for my mobo.
Will someone please help me?

Greatly appreciated.


 
Normally reinstalling SATA drivers works ? the problem was present in the first vista releases, if i recall correctly Realtek?s sound was normally involved. Search for KB from Microsoft ? should be one addressing this problem.
 
When you say KB, do you mean search the Microsoft website for a hotfix (one that isnt available with windows update)?

Ill give it a shot.

If i were to reinstall the sata drivers, which ones should i use and where can i get them?
 
I havnt been able to find a single thing in the Microsoft KB.

This is really a bothersome and headache causing problem.
Anyone have any other insight?
Please?
 
Good Morning Mr. MCB.

Sounds like you have a conflict with the drivers for some of your onboard components. Do you have access to the 64 bit version of SP1? If so, install it, but only after putting a clean install of the OS on the machine. After upgrading with SP1, then begin to install each basic driver (chipset, SATA, SATA2, audio, etc), and check for the problem BETWEEN each of the driver installs. There is currently a Realtek version 1.87 audio driver that will work on your board and has some bug fixes built into it. Do NOT install any add-in cards (except video card) until you have a stable operating system. Only then should you begin to install anything else into the board, and only one item at a time, to see if any of them cause a problem. In essence, make totally sure that your OS works flawlessly in its native state BEFORE adding anything additional into the mix.

Make VERY SURE that you are NOT trying to install the RAID version of the Gigabyte SATA2 drivers!! If you mistakenly use the SATA2 RAID drivers instead of the "regular" SATA2 drivers, they will royally screw up the SATA disk IO functions, and the system performance will go to hell in a hand basket! Take it from someone who learned the hard way on that issue. In fact, the "regular" SATA2 drivers that come on the Gigabyte CD-ROM install disk will work just fine.

You mentioned that you have a 1.3 version board - did you mean to say a 3.3 version, since I am unaware that there were discrete revisions within the 1.0, 2.0 and 3.3 major versions? Your hardware inventory is good stuff, and appears to have been working correctly before you ventured into the latest "upgrade," so I'd tend to think you have a software conflict that's causing your problems. BTW, you should be able to get a good copy of SP1 on the Internet from various sources, just be careful where you D/L it from (If you belong to one of the more reliable boards, i.e., ShareOrDie.com, you can get a reference link for a good copy of Vista SP1 - both 32 & 64 bit - from there).

Best of luck, and let us know how you make out. Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle 😀 :beer:

 
When i said rev1.3 thats what i meant.........its the latest release of this particular Gigabyte board. It offers 1333MHz FSB, just like the 3.3, but has the same audio chipset as the rev1.0 board.

Do i need to do a clean install of Vista to put SP1 on?
*SIGH*


I know it is a driver issue also. The problem started happening only after i installed the lastest windows updates or my video card drivers or my audio card drivers. I do not believe it is the audio card drivers though, as the problem still happens even when i uninstall the audio card.
Is there any way to uninstall updates i already applied to windows (without reinstalling)?
 
Good Morning Again Mr. MCB.

Well, yes you can try to uninstall all the drivers from your existing install and then apply SP1, but I really think that is a rather inadvisable approach. To begin with, having a "clean" registry when you install SP1 is vital. That's why I suggested that you do the Vista reinstall with ONLY the video card installed, and then proceed directly to installing SP1 (don't even install any chipset drivers, etc). This will give the closest thing to a fresh install of Vista with SP1. Of course, you could also shop around on the Internet for a full copy of Vista with SP1 already embedded in the OS (such gems do exist out there in cyberworld), and that way you will have it all correctly installed from the beginning.

However, trying to effectively uninstall all the stuff that you've already installed before installing the SP1 patch is very risky, since whatever is causing your problem is already loaded on your machine, and you'll likely never be able to identify the exact problem (and consequently rectify or avoid it in the future). The step-by-step approach, although a bit time consuming, is nevertheless the time-proven method of solving your issues. In our impatient world we tend to seek an easy, even a "quick & dirty" approach to problem solving. In such instances, you might get the quick part, but you're sure likely to get the "dirty" part as well.

May I suggest that before you do anything, uninstall your SATA2 drivers, and reinstall them from the Gigabyte install CD-ROM, and see if that makes any difference. If it does, then you're on the right track, and you may be able to save your present OS install. If it doesn't make a difference, then starting from scratch is probably you best course of action.

Let us know how you make out. Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle 😀 :beer:

 
I FOUND THE PROBLEM!!!

Its the Nvidia Display Driver.
If i uninstall the Nvidia Display Driver (169.25) and reboot, my music plays just fine. However, I cannot test 3dmark06, as i dont have a display driver anymore.

I tried the 169.15 driver, but it too causes the same problem.
I tried a 163 driver, but its not supported by my card (8800GT).

What do i do?
I heard that the new 174 driver for the 9600GT has been modified to support an 8800gt, but where can i find it for 64bit Vista?


Now that the problem is narrowed down, i just need to get a solution.
Thanks for the help so far
 
Hello Mr. MCB.

Since you have identified the nVidia video card (and its driver) as the "problem," then you can either try the latest Beta driver, Version 169.28, or remove the card and replace it with the older GTS card until a newer WHQL driver is available. Have you contacted the video card manufacturer to see if they have a proprietary version of the nVidia driver for their card?

The newest Beta driver (64 bit) can be obtained here: nVidia Beta 169.28 Driver (64 bit) .

Good luck on getting things back in proper working order. Best regards to everyone. TheBeagle 😀 :beer:

 
OK, so i tried the beta driver you posted, no dice.
I tried the 174.16 9600gt driver with a modded inf file to work with an 8800gt, no dice.
I tried the 169.25 omega driver, no dice.

I heard that the 163 drivers dont produce lag in vista (like the problem i have), but when i try to downnload the appropriate one for my card, the installer says my card isnt supported during install. Could i possibly mod the inf for this driver as well?


What the problem comes down to (finally, a specific cause), is that when i install a driver for the card and then run any type of 3d application, there is lag. Like when i installed the beta driver you posted, Itunes played ok while when i first booted up any my resolution was only at 600x800 because there wasnt much work involved. But as soon as i went to 1440x900 and played itunes, it started skipping a little. And if i open up another window or start resizing the itunes window, that is when it goes berserk and the sound pretty much freezes or is skipping so bad it sounds like white noise.
For some reason, doing the restart trick i was before circumvents this problem until i restart again.

That is why if i run vista without a driver installed, i can play movies and music and max out the load on my cpu and there wont be any skipping or sound distortion, because there is no 3d application being used by the drivers (windows drivers for graphics cards dont support 3d applications, even the vista screensavers).


I know it is not a graphics card issue, as when i do the restart trick, it runs flawlessly in 3dmark06 and crysis and bioshock for hours and hours.

And i cant put the gts back in as i already sold it to a friend.....*doh*


I will try emailing Nvidia, but aside from that, is there anyway to use past versions of forceware (and mod the inf), as i know the 158 forceware i used for my 8600gts never had this problem...........or would these drivers not even work for my card or any of the games i want to play?
 
I fixed the problem Beagle.

From what i can gather from reading the Nvidia forums, even though PCI-E 2.0 cards work on PCI-E 1.0 motherboards, they have some compatibility issues (mainly with 8800GT). My compatibility issue turned out to be that the video card was only running at a Bus Width Speed of 1x instead of the standard 16x.
To fix this, i had to do a little tweaking in my BIOS (if there is an FAQ where this can be posted, it might help for future reference).........

1.) I had to enable Graphics Booster and put it on Turbo setting (which allows for a bandwidth increase)
2.) I had to set the PCI-E Frequency Speed to 101MHz
3.) I had to set the PCI-E voltage to +0.1v
4.) I had to set the MCH voltage to +0.1v

All four of these steps had to be done, as doing any of them individually or only 2-3 together still caused a PCI-E Bus Speed of 1x.
I never would have thought of this except that i was so fed up i was just going through RivaTuner settings to find anything to fix my problem. Well, i saw under Diagnostics that it was running at 1x and BAM, it hit me.

Im so glad this ordeal is over. Time for Crysis!


Thanks for the help Mr. Beagle.
 
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