Hi I have just done a rebuild using a Gigabyte EP43-S3L with an E7400 C2D and a Silver Power SP-SS500 PSU. At present I am using 1GB of XMS2 5400 RAM as the RAM I bought for the build is back for an RMA. I am re-using an HIS X1950 GPU The machine is very unstable with graphics crashing frequently and on Steam games only software rendering will work. What I wanted to ask you guys is about a message in the BIOS. On the Intelligent Tweaker page of the BIOS when the Robust Graphics Booster is selected there is a message in the Item Help window that reads as follows "Warning: VGA graphics card is not guaranteed to operate normally" This is in red. It is there regardless of the Robust Graphics Booster setting. Are there any BIOS setting that would get things right and remove this message and hopefully sort out the machine. cheers Paul
Is the GPU inserted properly into the slot? Is it receiving sufficient power? Sounds like you might have a dodgy PSU to me.
gigabyte have this thing in the bios Put it to auto or disable or some thing Otherwise try to load the VGA with ATI TOOLS and load the CPU and see if it crash.. if so it means your PSU is BAD like what oasked Said Good luck
Have you overclcocked the processor? if so you have to make sure to lock the PCIExpress frequency or it will rise in line with the FSB frequency... hence causing instability. this is roughly whats being said above by ComputerKing i think PM me if you want me to explain it a bit better!
Thanks for those ideas guys. Some further info on the points you raised. The CPU clock ratio is set to 10.5 and the BIOS shows the CPU frequency as 2.80Ghz which is the stock speed of the E7400. The PCI-E frequency is set to Auto. I could post a pic of the BIOS if it would help. I put in my old X800 instead of the X1950 and that seems to work well with no instability, which does make me suspect the PCI-E power feed from the PSU. Is there any way I can test its output, I do have a multimeter but no other test kit. In the mean time I will test the X1950 in another machine.
i know on some Mobos (mine included) there is sometimes no "off" option, or "locked", only "Auto"... so with that in mind, under the PCIExpress frequency option, is there an option to lock it, or set it to its default value, as opposed to leaving it at Auto, where it may increase with the FSB? hope that makes sense, ive just got in from a long days work
I tested the X1950 in another machine and it works fine and the X800 continues to work with present BIOS settings. So I now really suspect the PCI-E power output of the PSU. Can anyone tell me how I can SAFELY test its output with out frying either me or the PSU. I want to be sure so I can do an RMA on it.
I put the X1950 in the new machine and read the voltage to the PCI-E power plug and that was rock solid on 12.2V and never went below 12.18V. I ran the CPC benchmarks which worked well but the system would not run Source games like TF2 or CoD4. TF2 crashed the whole machine on the start screen while in CoD4 the game would start but the graphics would crash right away. As before the X1950 runs DoD Source fine on my other machine GA-945PL-S3, 6400 C2D with 2GB of XMS2 6400. I am out of ideas, any clues anyone?
Running out of suspects I have now tried another PSU which did not solve the problem and another hard drive with a fresh Windows install. That did not sort the problem either. Could the PCI-E slot be faulty?
Tried updating the BIOS to the latest version? Which ATI drivers are you using (which version number)?
The BIOS is version F7. I am a novice at BIOS updates so am wary of making things worse. The ATI driver is the current version 9.3 direct off the ATI drivers site. This is my third Gigabyte board and the other two have been very reliable, more so than the two Asus ones I have.
have you set the PCI-e frequency to 100mhz NOT AUTO as suggested ?? maybe disable the robust graphics booster ?? maybe the rail cant supply enough since silver power is a cheap brand and you have a 500W model. AMD says 450W or greater maybe when your GPU is actually trying to do some work it cant get enough power adnsimply collapses hence y it only crashes in games.
I have to disagree with that one. My current Gigabyte board is working brilliantly, and my parents had the same Gigabyte board in their computer for 8 years with no problems at all. As with all these manufacturers, quality is best judged on individual models rather than the whole brand - as for the most part they're all reliable. Anyway, back on subject.... Which other PSU did you try (when you still got the same problems) with the X1950xt? Did you use the PSU from your other machine? If you still get the same problems it must be the motherboard. Having said that, I'm beginning to think that my initial thoughts were correct - the PSU is probably the culprit here.
late to the party, i know. but gigabyte makes very good mobo's. used probably close to 100 or so in my builds, and have rma'd maybe 3, and knowing what i know now, not sure they were the problem.
The other PSU I tried is a Hiper Type R 560w which drives the X1950 well in the other machine so its proven to do the job. The PCI-E bus has been tried at Auto and 100mhz and as the X800 works ok I think this is not a problem. The robust graphics booster cannot be disabled, the most neutral setting is Auto. Hey Trig ever seen a BIOS message like the one I have? "Warning: VGA graphics card is not guaranteed to operate normally" Thanks for all your thoughts guys
Total BS with a horse S*** topping. When you compare gigabyte to all other motherboard manufactures gigabyte comes out top for reliability. There boards last for years even when overclocked. within the gigabyte bios, on the right hand side listed in red writing is warnings of what might happen if certain options are enabled. Did you check the PCI-E cable whilst it was unplugged, because the result may be due to no load on that rail, so when connected to the GFX card the output might be dropping right off. I need to think about the problem for a little longer before i post anything else. I would also like to point out one thing, i am not using a gigabyte board right now because the DFI i am using offered more options for value compared to any other gigabyte availble at the time. Still got my P35C-DS3R in its box waiting for a system rebuild.
is there a feature on there called performance enhance? if so, what is it set at? if it is not set to standard, set it to standard. other than that, i couldn't say. i havent seen that message myself. what drivers are installed on the other machine that had the card working fine? otherwise, it just seems like something about the way the bios is interacting with the pci-e slot and that card. doent make much sense. can you get ahold of another card with a pci-e power connection?
