Did I just get two defective boards in a row...

W

WiLLiSTER

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
2,702
Alright, so I bought a [url="http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394&Tpk=ga-ma785gm-us2h]Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H[/url] (rev 1.1, brand new) from newegg. I put on a Phenom II X2 550 and threw in my 4x1gb sticks of Corsair xms2 DDR2 800. After getting everything set up, I powered on and got 3 long beeps and a short beep. Couldn't find any documentation on that code, so I pulled the memory out and left one stick and booted. Works fine, swapped stick1 with stick2. Works fine. Long story short, all 4 sticks were confirmed working in slots 1 and 3 (dual channel). The board wouldn't post as long as there was memory in slots 2 or 4 (or both). RMA'd to newegg for a replacement.

New board (same rev and brand new again), throw everything in there and again it won't post, but this time I'm getting continuous long beeps which is "Graphics card not inserted properly." That would be fine and dandy except there isn't a graphics card and it's fixed once again by removing ram from slots 2 and 4. My system is pretty barebones (mobo, cpu, ram, 1hd, 1optical) as of now and everything seems to be pointing to the motherboard being faulty again, but I wanted to get a bit more input before I'm out a week without my computer again.

Edit: Wanted to add that I don't see anywhere that it might be shorting from the risers/screws and after swapping my ultra 400something watt power supply with a corsair 650w, the problem remains the same.
 
I just built the same board with an unlocked 550 and 4x2gb sticks of ram with no problems.
 
Actually sounds like the board is not picking up the timings right at all from the memory. What you may have to do is boot with one stick, set all timings manually shut down put other sticks in and see what happens this is just a suggestion to try. Also are you using the factory heat sink or other there have been times where people lose the ability to use all mem cause of heatsinks being tightened down to much. Also you could see if there is a bios update for it, beings it will post with one stick you could flash it for sure. Try reset cmos while booted with one stick also. You can take it out of the case try booting it that way, that will eliminate shorting. Just some suggestions for you, two motherboards doing almost the same things bad motherboards possibility but two very unlikely.
 
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Tried manually setting timings, voltage, and bumping other voltages like the nb with no luck. Factory heatsink is being used, I'll look into borrowing another cooler. As for the bios, I'm running F7 which seems to be the most recent. I considered going to F6, but I'll leave that as a last resort. I'll pull the board out of the case tomorrow and test for shorts. Thanks for the suggestions :)

thesmokingman, I'm sending you a pm. Curious as to what parts you're using.
 
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Pulled the mobo out today and recounted the risers only to find that there were 9 in there and the mobo only has 8 spots. Don't know how I miscounted that last time, but the problem has been resolved :p
 
I did that same thing a long time ago on an upgrade. I felt like such an idiot cause it took me 1 month of completely unstable performance before I finally realized the problem was me and motherboard risers grounding out on the AGP.

Glad the solution was found quickly in your case.
 
I'm glad to hear that the problem wasn't with a possible bad batch of motherboards since I just ordered one of those for a system I'm building for someone. That would have really sucked.

 
Thats a great board, I run one in one of my HTPC's. Glad you got it sorted out. These unlocks are the best "bang for the buck" value in the PC market right now I think.
 
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