The Unofficial Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R P35 Board Thread

[Philbee]

Will do.

Just pulled the two new sticks and placed them in Channel 1/3. (2 GB)
Selected clock enable and reboot, ok so far, reboot again.
set FSB to 400 x 8 and are now at 3.2GHz as we speak.

Ram is 800MHz on a 2x multi

Ill get some photos happening.

 

[mrfatboy]

You should also try just putting in your 2gig new memory. Maybe it's a bad batch.

 

[Philbee]

Originally posted by: mrfatboy
You should also try just putting in your 2gig new memory. Maybe it's a bad batch.

Thats what Ive done, just the two new sticks at 2GB.

The photos show the OC Im running ATM, I could enable the Clock and change it.

With 4GB I cant enable the Clock at all, it just wont let me. By that I mean I can choose to enable it, but once it counts the ram it reboots and disables.

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/4619/mit1ql8.jpg <---top half of page
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/7797/mit2ir5.jpg <---bottom half

from memory it does ok at 4-4-4-12 as well. Essentially these are the setting Ive had it on for the last month or so, but I think Vcore was about 1.35v

Ill put the 4GB back in and take photo, without OC of course

 

[mrfatboy]

I think I see your problem. You need more volts for your CPU to overclock. Adjust your CPU voltage control up. I did a search and see people needing 1.328v and up to achieve 3.2 OC for a q6600. Do a search on Q6600 OC'ing and follow their instructions.


see if that helps and report back

 

[Philbee]

Originally posted by: mrfatboy
I think I see your problem. You need more volts for your CPU to overclock. Adjust your CPU voltage control up. I did a search and see people needing 1.328v and up to achieve 3.2 OC for a q6600. Do a search on Q6600 OC'ing and follow their instructions.

see if that helps and report back

I think we're a post behind each other or something

The original crux of my problem was the inability to even enable HOST CLOCK CONTROL with 4GB without it rebooting, let alone overclocking.

In regards to Vcore, when I hit 3.6GHz I think it was running ~1.5v so I know all about that.

But check this out, this will blow your mind! :Q

I put the original 2GB kit I bought back in....BUT (this is naughty and I should have known better) I didnt reset the clock.

Guess what, Im now running 4GB at 3.2GHz.

wtf!

I then tightened it to 4-4-4-12 and as Im still typing it seems to be okay. Being 4:30am its a little late for some real testing, Im actually quite surprised its still running at stock Vcore, however it crashed out of an 8MB superpi so Ill be playing with that tomorrow night!

Time for bed, I still dont know wtf happened there, but Im glad it got working, in its own bizzare kind of way.

Thanks for your help mate, it means alot coming to a new forum and having someone try and help you out. kudos to you!

 

[mrfatboy]

The original crux of my problem was the inability to even enable HOST CLOCK CONTROL with 4GB without it rebooting, let alone overclocking.

I sort of thought that was what you were saying but it seemed too bizarre and I thought I was misunderstanding you. Plus I have never heard of that happending before. It sounds more like a bad bios but who knows. I am glad that you got it working tho.

cheers

 

[wpcoe]

Per the Intel Intel spec sheet for the E6750, the "Thermal Specification" for that chip is 72°C. I had thought that that was the max for the "core temps," howeverI just read an online Tom's Hardware article "Core 2 Quad and Duo Temperature Guide", which says:

Intel`s Thermal Specifications:

* The thermal specification shown is the maximum case temperature at the maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) value for that processor. It is measured at the geometric center on the topside of the processor integrated heat spreader.

Is that correct, that the Thermal Specification refers the max temp for the processor's "external" temp sensor and not the "internal" core temp sensors?

 

[B00m00]

Hi Guys,

I seem to expiencing massive probs with this board.....

I have a Q6600 and 4 x 1gb of Crucial Ballistix PC8500 with Vista Ultimate 32-bit

The problem is the memory

One issue is that the board does not detect the cottect speeds, but thats ok as i can set the timings manually right.

The show stopper is the 4gb! The system works fine with 3gb installed, but as soon as the 4th stick goes in then its bluescreen time within about a minute of booting - windows reports having 3.6ish gig installed.

Everest reports that PAE is active (so i should see the full 4gb right??)

Interesting though Everest also reports that the memory is PC-800, but i know for a fact it isnt.

3gb works like a dream, Ive tested all the mem sticks and all the m/b slots - all passed

any ideas??

 

[B00m00]

Ok got an update, I have it running stable with 4gb - but I have had to reduce the clock to 400mhz (DDR2-800)

I found this post http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/...roblems-upgrading-help

Which has this....

The problem in general is that with unbuffered RAM, the more DIMMs installed, the weaker the signals to each DIMM, since they all share the same signals without any buffering or regeneration. If you are already pushing your system near the edge (e.g. by OCing the FSB), then running 4 DIMMs instead of 2 may push it over the edge. Running the memory bus at DDR2-667 instead of DDR2-800 in effect lessens the tolerances on the signals and pulls the system back from the edge.

Im not OCing anything though

The mem will run at 533(DDR2-1066) with 3 DIMMs only but not with 4 DIMMS.

wtf??? Surely a default setup should handle 533 no probs??

 

[barbaroja9]

Originally posted by: B00m00The problem in general is that with unbuffered RAM, the more DIMMs installed, the weaker the signals to each DIMM, since they all share the same signals without any buffering or regeneration. If you are already pushing your system near the edge (e.g. by OCing the FSB), then running 4 DIMMs instead of 2 may push it over the edge. Running the memory bus at DDR2-667 instead of DDR2-800 in effect lessens the tolerances on the signals and pulls the system back from the edge.

Thanks, this is very informative. I am glad I bought 2 of 2gb each.

 

[fausto412]

Hey guys, i am running f8 bios on my p35c , did anybody notice that High Speed Dram DLL Settings [option 1] is no longer an option in the bios. i was going to give that a try to see if i could overclock higher but it is not there. not that they ever explained what the freaking thing did.

 

[cwall64]

Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

 

[mrfatboy]

What fausto said

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

One other question, how is everybody normally setting the SATA controllers in the BIOS? ACHI? I just disabled the Gigabyte ones, since all I needed was one for the WD 750 Gig drive and one for a SATA dvd burner? No RAID or anything.

On the install note, I switched over to trying to install Ubuntu 64 and the first time before the adjustments you suggested it just rebooted, but now it is further along than before, it seemed to always crap out on disk activity, but now it is almost through with the format and install.

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

One other question, how is everybody normally setting the SATA controllers in the BIOS? ACHI? I just disabled the Gigabyte ones, since all I needed was one for the WD 750 Gig drive and one for a SATA dvd burner? No RAID or anything.

On the install note, I switched over to trying to install Ubuntu 64 and the first time before the adjustments you suggested it just rebooted, but now it is further along than before, it seemed to always crap out on disk activity, but now it is almost through with the format and install.

don't worry about sata controllers, default works fine. i'm trying to get you to get up and running. there is a lot involved here in the grand scheme of things, i've read a gazillion pages in forums here, anantech, tomshardware, xtremesystems...and i'm giving you the quickie fix here but trust me, we can fine tune the crap out of this.
you cpu voltage is fine, the bios does a good job of figuring that out on auto for default speeds. the problem is your ram wasn't getting enough voltage. go to ocz and do like i said once you have the voltage running at or slight above the OCZ specification then you can adjust the multiplier and timings to get it to run at spec speed. or you can get a cuop of cofee and stay up all night reading up on BIOS settings and forums.

 

[mrfatboy]

I have my bios SATA option set to IDE.

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

One other question, how is everybody normally setting the SATA controllers in the BIOS? ACHI? I just disabled the Gigabyte ones, since all I needed was one for the WD 750 Gig drive and one for a SATA dvd burner? No RAID or anything.

On the install note, I switched over to trying to install Ubuntu 64 and the first time before the adjustments you suggested it just rebooted, but now it is further along than before, it seemed to always crap out on disk activity, but now it is almost through with the format and install.

don't worry about sata controllers, default works fine. i'm trying to get you to get up and running. there is a lot involved here in the grand scheme of things, i've read a gazillion pages in forums here, anantech, tomshardware, xtremesystems...and i'm giving you the quickie fix here but trust me, we can fine tune the crap out of this.
you cpu voltage is fine, the bios does a good job of figuring that out on auto for default speeds. the problem is your ram wasn't getting enough voltage. go to ocz and do like i said once you have the voltage running at or slight above the OCZ specification then you can adjust the multiplier and timings to get it to run at spec speed. or you can get a cuop of cofee and stay up all night reading up on BIOS settings and forums.

OK, OCZ claims:

800MHz DDR2
CL 5-6-6-18
(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
1.8 - 2.0 Volts*
Available in 2GB modules and 4GB (2x2048) dual channel optimized kits
Unbuffered
Copper Mirrored XTC Heatspreader**
Lifetime Warranty
240 Pin DIMM

So, setting the multiplier to 3.0 still did not change the voltage (1.696), so i set the DDR2/DDR3 OverVoltage Control to +0.2V and that got me to 1.824-1.840. Next steps?

 

[fausto412]

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

One other question, how is everybody normally setting the SATA controllers in the BIOS? ACHI? I just disabled the Gigabyte ones, since all I needed was one for the WD 750 Gig drive and one for a SATA dvd burner? No RAID or anything.

On the install note, I switched over to trying to install Ubuntu 64 and the first time before the adjustments you suggested it just rebooted, but now it is further along than before, it seemed to always crap out on disk activity, but now it is almost through with the format and install.

don't worry about sata controllers, default works fine. i'm trying to get you to get up and running. there is a lot involved here in the grand scheme of things, i've read a gazillion pages in forums here, anantech, tomshardware, xtremesystems...and i'm giving you the quickie fix here but trust me, we can fine tune the crap out of this.
you cpu voltage is fine, the bios does a good job of figuring that out on auto for default speeds. the problem is your ram wasn't getting enough voltage. go to ocz and do like i said once you have the voltage running at or slight above the OCZ specification then you can adjust the multiplier and timings to get it to run at spec speed. or you can get a cuop of cofee and stay up all night reading up on BIOS settings and forums.

OK, OCZ claims:

800MHz DDR2
CL 5-6-6-18
(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
1.8 - 2.0 Volts*
Available in 2GB modules and 4GB (2x2048) dual channel optimized kits
Unbuffered
Copper Mirrored XTC Heatspreader**
Lifetime Warranty
240 Pin DIMM

So, setting the multiplier to 3.0 still did not change the voltage (1.696), so i set the DDR2/DDR3 OverVoltage Control to +0.2V and that got me to 1.824-1.840. Next steps?

the multiplier for the ram doesn't change voltage. 3 may be too high, it should show you the speed the ram is at whenever you change the ram multiplier. 2.0 is same as 1 to 1 with FSB, FSB is bus that the CPU speed is based on. OK, OCZ rated that tram at 1.8 to 2.0 and that means it can work in the range but you may need to go to 2.0 to pass memtest. go +0.1 one more just to make sure you have enough. if your ram speed higher than 800 change the multiplier to 2.4 or 2.0 or whatever gives you 800. leave timings all on auto. at this point you should be able to install windows. what BUS are you running? CPU multiplier?

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

Originally posted by: cwall64
Help! I just bought this board (REV 2.0) with a Q6600, eVGA 8600 GT 256 megs, 8 gigs of OCZ (5-6-6-15) memory, with a Antec Trio 650 power supply. I flashed the board to BIOS F8, loaded the fail safe settings, and Vista x64 will not finish installing! It starts rebooting after the last step of install. I have run memtest86+ (8+ hours) and the windows memory diagnostic tool, both report no issue. I have changed out the video card with another (eVGA 8800 GTX). Any thoughts on next steps (before I get a 680i board that I have in another machine...)? All I am looking for is a machine to build VMWare workstation images on.
Chris

OK dude i will do my best to help you.
these boards have issues volting the ram. so let's start with just one 2 gig kit, set voltage +.2(should be ok for your ram, i have OCZ platinum rev 2), set ram multiplier to 2.0...that may underclock your ram but it should get you going, set ram timings to auto, they will be loose but you can fine tune later. we can fine tune after that works. try it and let me know.
btw...go in system health and tell me what voltages you see in there after you make the changes i just suggested.

Ok, so looks like the ram is identified wrong also. at auto it was set to CL 5-5-5-15, when the OCZ site says that it is 5-6-6-18. So, I made that change, and the multiplier to 2.0 (from auto 667 to 533) and DDR2/DDR3 reading is 1.696 VCore is 1.30. I have to run for the night now...

that's normal. but at that slow speed that doesn't matter much...you're underclocking the ram. but that ddr2/ddr3 reading is way too low. ddr2 ram runs at 1.8 default and yours it's probably rated higher. check with ocz site...add more ram voltage manually and keep checking system health in bios until it comes up to spec or slightly above if possible. that's probably what was causing your problems.

One other question, how is everybody normally setting the SATA controllers in the BIOS? ACHI? I just disabled the Gigabyte ones, since all I needed was one for the WD 750 Gig drive and one for a SATA dvd burner? No RAID or anything.

On the install note, I switched over to trying to install Ubuntu 64 and the first time before the adjustments you suggested it just rebooted, but now it is further along than before, it seemed to always crap out on disk activity, but now it is almost through with the format and install.

don't worry about sata controllers, default works fine. i'm trying to get you to get up and running. there is a lot involved here in the grand scheme of things, i've read a gazillion pages in forums here, anantech, tomshardware, xtremesystems...and i'm giving you the quickie fix here but trust me, we can fine tune the crap out of this.
you cpu voltage is fine, the bios does a good job of figuring that out on auto for default speeds. the problem is your ram wasn't getting enough voltage. go to ocz and do like i said once you have the voltage running at or slight above the OCZ specification then you can adjust the multiplier and timings to get it to run at spec speed. or you can get a cuop of cofee and stay up all night reading up on BIOS settings and forums.

OK, OCZ claims:

800MHz DDR2
CL 5-6-6-18
(CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS)
1.8 - 2.0 Volts*
Available in 2GB modules and 4GB (2x2048) dual channel optimized kits
Unbuffered
Copper Mirrored XTC Heatspreader**
Lifetime Warranty
240 Pin DIMM

So, setting the multiplier to 3.0 still did not change the voltage (1.696), so i set the DDR2/DDR3 OverVoltage Control to +0.2V and that got me to 1.824-1.840. Next steps?

the multiplier for the ram doesn't change voltage. 3 may be too high, it should show you the speed the ram is at whenever you change the ram multiplier. 2.0 is same as 1 to 1 with FSB, FSB is bus that the CPU speed is based on. OK, OCZ rated that tram at 1.8 to 2.0 and that means it can work in the range but you may need to go to 2.0 to pass memtest. go +0.1 one more just to make sure you have enough. if your ram speed higher than 800 change the multiplier to 2.4 or 2.0 or whatever gives you 800. leave timings all on auto. at this point you should be able to install windows. what BUS are you running? CPU multiplier?

+0.3V = 1.904V - 1.920V
multiplier
3.00 = 800
2.50 = 667
2.00 = 533

Robust Graphics Booster = Auto
CPU Clock Ratio = 9X
CPU Frequency 2.40GHz (266x9)
CPU Host Clock Control = Disabled
CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) = 266
PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) = Auto
C.I.A.2 = Disabled
Performance Enhance = Standard
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) = 2.50
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) = Auto

Remember previously I did run memtest86+ for 8 or so hours and there were no errors.

Could I be barking up the wrong tree, it seems that everytime it reboots is on disk IO. It will run off a live CD and hasn't rebooted from that...

 

[fausto412]

[/quote]

+0.3V = 1.904V - 1.920V
multiplier
3.00 = 800
2.50 = 667
2.00 = 533

Robust Graphics Booster = Auto
CPU Clock Ratio = 9X
CPU Frequency 2.40GHz (266x9)
CPU Host Clock Control = Disabled
CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) = 266
PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) = Auto
C.I.A.2 = Disabled
Performance Enhance = Standard
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) = 2.50
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) = Auto

Remember previously I did run memtest86+ for 8 or so hours and there were no errors.

Could I be barking up the wrong tree, it seems that everytime it reboots is on disk IO. It will run off a live CD and hasn't rebooted from that...[/quote]


set ram multiplier 3.0 and that gives you your stock ram speed. i have to say that i find that voltage at +.3 mighty low...usually these boards overdoit. odd...if you think it's an i/o error with the HD then try another but if possible i would look at exchanging the board where you bought it. or even RMA'ing it. those voltages are way too low for +0.3. have you tried different set of ram sticks? one at a time?

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: fausto412

+0.3V = 1.904V - 1.920V
multiplier
3.00 = 800
2.50 = 667
2.00 = 533

Robust Graphics Booster = Auto
CPU Clock Ratio = 9X
CPU Frequency 2.40GHz (266x9)
CPU Host Clock Control = Disabled
CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) = 266
PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) = Auto
C.I.A.2 = Disabled
Performance Enhance = Standard
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) = 2.50
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) = Auto

Remember previously I did run memtest86+ for 8 or so hours and there were no errors.

Could I be barking up the wrong tree, it seems that everytime it reboots is on disk IO. It will run off a live CD and hasn't rebooted from that...[/quote]


set ram multiplier 3.0 and that gives you your stock ram speed. i have to say that i find that voltage at +.3 mighty low...usually these boards overdoit. odd...if you think it's an i/o error with the HD then try another but if possible i would look at exchanging the board where you bought it. or even RMA'ing it. those voltages are way too low for +0.3. have you tried different set of ram sticks? one at a time?

[/quote]

Ok, question (probably wrong place to ask this), if I am going to take this back and exchange, is this still the board to get? Like I said, I do not need a gaming board, just a workstation type settup. It is replacing a old IBM Intellistation Z Pro that was a dual Xeon 3.2 dual core with a scsi subsystem, Quadro video card, and 8 gigs of ram, mainly used to build vmware demos.

 

[cwall64]

Originally posted by: cwall64

Originally posted by: fausto412

+0.3V = 1.904V - 1.920V
multiplier
3.00 = 800
2.50 = 667
2.00 = 533

Robust Graphics Booster = Auto
CPU Clock Ratio = 9X
CPU Frequency 2.40GHz (266x9)
CPU Host Clock Control = Disabled
CPU Host Frequency(Mhz) = 266
PCI Express Frequency(Mhz) = Auto
C.I.A.2 = Disabled
Performance Enhance = Standard
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) = 2.50
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) = Auto

Remember previously I did run memtest86+ for 8 or so hours and there were no errors.

Could I be barking up the wrong tree, it seems that everytime it reboots is on disk IO. It will run off a live CD and hasn't rebooted from that...

set ram multiplier 3.0 and that gives you your stock ram speed. i have to say that i find that voltage at +.3 mighty low...usually these boards overdoit. odd...if you think it's an i/o error with the HD then try another but if possible i would look at exchanging the board where you bought it. or even RMA'ing it. those voltages are way too low for +0.3. have you tried different set of ram sticks? one at a time?

[/quote]

Ok, question (probably wrong place to ask this), if I am going to take this back and exchange, is this still the board to get? Like I said, I do not need a gaming board, just a workstation type settup. It is replacing a old IBM Intellistation Z Pro that was a dual Xeon 3.2 dual core with a scsi subsystem, Quadro video card, and 8 gigs of ram, mainly used to build vmware demos.[/quote]

So, my next step is to put the memory and hard drive in the machine that works and see what happens. If it all works then I think that the motherboard will go back to the store...