GA-965P-DQ6 Bad Batch of Motherboards?

This one has me stumped. I build systems all the time, and have 4 orders
for Core 2 Duo systems with the new Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 motherboard. I got
2 of the motherboards from Newegg and the other 2 from ZipZoomFly. I have
an E6300, E6400 and 2 x E6600 processors to go with them, along with
DDR2-533 1.8v sticks from Mushkin for all of them. Two of the systems have
Mushkin 550Watt PSUs, and the other two have Antec TruePower2 550s. All 4
have different cases, graphics, optical, hard drives, etc.

The problem:
All four builds are giving me the same exact issue. When powered up for the
first time, all of them each power on for maybe 2-3 seconds, then power off,
then power on again for another 2 seconds, then power off again...and again
forever and ever, until I flip the power switch on the PSU. The only
activity seen when they briefly power on is that the CPU and case fans spin
for a moment. That's it...no graphic output, no BIOS beeps...nada.
Initially, these symptoms made me think that the motherboard was shorting
out or a faulty PSU.

What I've done to verify what's wrong:
1. Tried each motherboard outside of the cases as well as installed
properly in the cases, making sure that no shorts were happening. When
trying them outside of the cases, no case pinouts were connected. I just
shorted the power button pinouts briefly on each board to start them up, in
order to rule out faulty case power button connections.
2. Tried with no peripheral except CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 stick memory and
graphics card. Made sure that the CPU fan was plugged in properly on all
four boards.
3. Tried different combinations of known-good memory (single/dual channel)
in all slots in all boards, as well as different known-good power supplies
and graphics cards on all four boards. These are standard spec 1.8 volt
DDR2-533 memory sticks, chosen to run synchronously with the motherboard/CPU
1066 MHz Front Side Bus.
4. Checked all PSU connections to all boards numerous times, thinking I was
going insane. Each motherboard has a 24-pin ATX connector, 8-pin 12V EPS
connector and a 4-pin standard Molex connector for providing extra 12V to
PCI-Express graphics cards. All 4 power supplies (different reputable
models) have the proper 24-pin, 8-pin and Molex connectors, and they're all
plugged in securely and correctly in each motherboard. All graphics cards
have the 6-pin PCI-Express power cable attached to each card.
5. I even double-checked the UPS power sources that the power supplies were
connected to, to rule out the possibility of something being wrong with the
building's wiring. Other working systems, when plugged into them, work just
fine.

The only common denominator between all four builds is the motherboard and
the brand/type of memory, but each memory stick has been tested in other
systems...so I'm out of ideas, except to come to the conclusion that all 4
motherboards are DOA.

Anyone have any clues? I did see a couple mentions of the same problem with
the same board by Googling forum posts. There is this "CrazyCool heatsink
that Gigabyte puts on the back of the boards, possibly shorting something
else out on each board, but I'm not going to rip them off to find out

I'm just thinking: one board, even maybe two could be a possibility with a
new motherboard release...but 4 in a row from different distributors? I'd
very much appreciate any input anyone could provide.

These comments directly relate to the GA-965-DS3, but I suspect may also
apply to your board.

The gigabyte web site lists a single power up, pause, power down, power
back up as NORMAL after certain events and system changes (different
memory or bios flash).

My GUESS (and that's all it is) is that the memory is not compatible
with the BIOS currently present in the motherboard. Apparently there
are a huge number of memory compatability problems in the first 3 BIOS
revisions. It appears that these were fixed in the F4 release, but the
problem is getting the system up once with some compatible memory to be
able to update the bios to the F4 release. [again, this is for the DS3
version of this board].

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because I ordered one of the GA-965P-DS3
motherboards (from ZZF), and it's going to be here on Friday. I ordered
Corsair 512MB PC2-6400 (800MHz memory), and it's rated for a slightly
higher voltage.

I'd try a different memory, or even only one stick of the memory that
you have (instead of two).

I don't believe that you have 4 identically bad motherboards. Rather I
think that the motherboard is coming up, seeing something that it
doesn't like (and I'm guessing it's memory), shutting itself down, and
repeating this cycle indefinitely. And my bet is that what it's seeing
is memory that for some reason it doesn't like.

But please keep us posted, and I'll post my experience with the board
that I get on this board on Friday or Saturday.

[Keeping my fingers crossed]


Samson wrote:

This one has me stumped. I build systems all the time, and have 4 orders
for Core 2 Duo systems with the new Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 motherboard. I got
2 of the motherboards from Newegg and the other 2 from ZipZoomFly. I have
an E6300, E6400 and 2 x E6600 processors to go with them, along with
DDR2-533 1.8v sticks from Mushkin for all of them. Two of the systems have
Mushkin 550Watt PSUs, and the other two have Antec TruePower2 550s. All 4
have different cases, graphics, optical, hard drives, etc.

The problem:
All four builds are giving me the same exact issue. When powered up for the
first time, all of them each power on for maybe 2-3 seconds, then power off,
then power on again for another 2 seconds, then power off again...and again
forever and ever, until I flip the power switch on the PSU. The only
activity seen when they briefly power on is that the CPU and case fans spin
for a moment. That's it...no graphic output, no BIOS beeps...nada.
Initially, these symptoms made me think that the motherboard was shorting
out or a faulty PSU.

What I've done to verify what's wrong:
1. Tried each motherboard outside of the cases as well as installed
properly in the cases, making sure that no shorts were happening. When
trying them outside of the cases, no case pinouts were connected. I just
shorted the power button pinouts briefly on each board to start them up, in
order to rule out faulty case power button connections.
2. Tried with no peripheral except CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 stick memory and
graphics card. Made sure that the CPU fan was plugged in properly on all
four boards.
3. Tried different combinations of known-good memory (single/dual channel)
in all slots in all boards, as well as different known-good power supplies
and graphics cards on all four boards. These are standard spec 1.8 volt
DDR2-533 memory sticks, chosen to run synchronously with the motherboard/CPU
1066 MHz Front Side Bus.
4. Checked all PSU connections to all boards numerous times, thinking I was
going insane. Each motherboard has a 24-pin ATX connector, 8-pin 12V EPS
connector and a 4-pin standard Molex connector for providing extra 12V to
PCI-Express graphics cards. All 4 power supplies (different reputable
models) have the proper 24-pin, 8-pin and Molex connectors, and they're all
plugged in securely and correctly in each motherboard. All graphics cards
have the 6-pin PCI-Express power cable attached to each card.
5. I even double-checked the UPS power sources that the power supplies were
connected to, to rule out the possibility of something being wrong with the
building's wiring. Other working systems, when plugged into them, work just
fine.

The only common denominator between all four builds is the motherboard and
the brand/type of memory, but each memory stick has been tested in other
systems...so I'm out of ideas, except to come to the conclusion that all 4
motherboards are DOA.

Anyone have any clues? I did see a couple mentions of the same problem with
the same board by Googling forum posts. There is this "CrazyCool heatsink
that Gigabyte puts on the back of the boards, possibly shorting something
else out on each board, but I'm not going to rip them off to find out

I'm just thinking: one board, even maybe two could be a possibility with a
new motherboard release...but 4 in a row from different distributors? I'd
very much appreciate any input anyone could provide.

Hi Barry,

I've e-mailed my rep at Mushkin to see if I can run over to their offices
(I'm very lucky that I'm local to them and have a good relationship with a
particular rep there) sometime today along with a sample system or just one
of the motherboards with CPU attached, to see if they'll let me try some
alternate memory on the spot before giving up. As stated in the original
message, I specifically am using standard 1.8v DDR2-533 to build these, so
as NOT to have the issues reported by others with higher voltage/speed
sticks. I do have higher spec'd memory, but was planning on powering up
each system and flashing BIOS versions on all boards with the 1.8v DDR2-533
first.

If you Google this mobo and this issue, seems like others are reporting the
same thing...and there's speculation that a large US shipment of Gigabyte's
similar DS3 version of this board ALL were faulty and being RMA'd by
Gigabyte...maybe the DQ6 had a similar faulty batch issue. We'll see.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
These comments directly relate to the GA-965-DS3, but I suspect may also
apply to your board.

The gigabyte web site lists a single power up, pause, power down, power
back up as NORMAL after certain events and system changes (different
memory or bios flash).

My GUESS (and that's all it is) is that the memory is not compatible with
the BIOS currently present in the motherboard. Apparently there are a
huge number of memory compatability problems in the first 3 BIOS
revisions. It appears that these were fixed in the F4 release, but the
problem is getting the system up once with some compatible memory to be
able to update the bios to the F4 release. [again, this is for the DS3
version of this board].

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because I ordered one of the GA-965P-DS3
motherboards (from ZZF), and it's going to be here on Friday. I ordered
Corsair 512MB PC2-6400 (800MHz memory), and it's rated for a slightly
higher voltage.

I'd try a different memory, or even only one stick of the memory that you
have (instead of two).

I don't believe that you have 4 identically bad motherboards. Rather I
think that the motherboard is coming up, seeing something that it doesn't
like (and I'm guessing it's memory), shutting itself down, and repeating
this cycle indefinitely. And my bet is that what it's seeing is memory
that for some reason it doesn't like.

But please keep us posted, and I'll post my experience with the board that
I get on this board on Friday or Saturday.

[Keeping my fingers crossed]


Samson wrote:

This one has me stumped. I build systems all the time, and have 4 orders
for Core 2 Duo systems with the new Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 motherboard. I
got 2 of the motherboards from Newegg and the other 2 from ZipZoomFly. I
have an E6300, E6400 and 2 x E6600 processors to go with them, along with
DDR2-533 1.8v sticks from Mushkin for all of them. Two of the systems
have Mushkin 550Watt PSUs, and the other two have Antec TruePower2 550s.
All 4 have different cases, graphics, optical, hard drives, etc.

The problem:
All four builds are giving me the same exact issue. When powered up for
the first time, all of them each power on for maybe 2-3 seconds, then
power off, then power on again for another 2 seconds, then power off
again...and again forever and ever, until I flip the power switch on the
PSU. The only activity seen when they briefly power on is that the CPU
and case fans spin for a moment. That's it...no graphic output, no BIOS
beeps...nada. Initially, these symptoms made me think that the
motherboard was shorting out or a faulty PSU.

What I've done to verify what's wrong:
1. Tried each motherboard outside of the cases as well as installed
properly in the cases, making sure that no shorts were happening. When
trying them outside of the cases, no case pinouts were connected. I just
shorted the power button pinouts briefly on each board to start them up,
in order to rule out faulty case power button connections.
2. Tried with no peripheral except CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 stick memory and
graphics card. Made sure that the CPU fan was plugged in properly on all
four boards.
3. Tried different combinations of known-good memory (single/dual
channel) in all slots in all boards, as well as different known-good
power supplies and graphics cards on all four boards. These are standard
spec 1.8 volt DDR2-533 memory sticks, chosen to run synchronously with
the motherboard/CPU 1066 MHz Front Side Bus.
4. Checked all PSU connections to all boards numerous times, thinking I
was going insane. Each motherboard has a 24-pin ATX connector, 8-pin 12V
EPS connector and a 4-pin standard Molex connector for providing extra
12V to PCI-Express graphics cards. All 4 power supplies (different
reputable models) have the proper 24-pin, 8-pin and Molex connectors, and
they're all plugged in securely and correctly in each motherboard. All
graphics cards have the 6-pin PCI-Express power cable attached to each
card.
5. I even double-checked the UPS power sources that the power supplies
were connected to, to rule out the possibility of something being wrong
with the building's wiring. Other working systems, when plugged into
them, work just fine.

The only common denominator between all four builds is the motherboard
and the brand/type of memory, but each memory stick has been tested in
other systems...so I'm out of ideas, except to come to the conclusion
that all 4 motherboards are DOA.

Anyone have any clues? I did see a couple mentions of the same problem
with the same board by Googling forum posts. There is this "CrazyCool
heatsink that Gigabyte puts on the back of the boards, possibly shorting
something else out on each board, but I'm not going to rip them off to
find out

I'm just thinking: one board, even maybe two could be a possibility with
a new motherboard release...but 4 in a row from different distributors?
I'd very much appreciate any input anyone could provide.

Keep me posted, and I will do the same. My board arrives Friday.


Samson wrote:

Hi Barry,

I've e-mailed my rep at Mushkin to see if I can run over to their offices
(I'm very lucky that I'm local to them and have a good relationship with a
particular rep there) sometime today along with a sample system or just one
of the motherboards with CPU attached, to see if they'll let me try some
alternate memory on the spot before giving up. As stated in the original
message, I specifically am using standard 1.8v DDR2-533 to build these, so
as NOT to have the issues reported by others with higher voltage/speed
sticks. I do have higher spec'd memory, but was planning on powering up
each system and flashing BIOS versions on all boards with the 1.8v DDR2-533
first.

If you Google this mobo and this issue, seems like others are reporting the
same thing...and there's speculation that a large US shipment of Gigabyte's
similar DS3 version of this board ALL were faulty and being RMA'd by
Gigabyte...maybe the DQ6 had a similar faulty batch issue. We'll see.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...

These comments directly relate to the GA-965-DS3, but I suspect may also
apply to your board.

The gigabyte web site lists a single power up, pause, power down, power
back up as NORMAL after certain events and system changes (different
memory or bios flash).

My GUESS (and that's all it is) is that the memory is not compatible with
the BIOS currently present in the motherboard. Apparently there are a
huge number of memory compatability problems in the first 3 BIOS
revisions. It appears that these were fixed in the F4 release, but the
problem is getting the system up once with some compatible memory to be
able to update the bios to the F4 release. [again, this is for the DS3
version of this board].

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because I ordered one of the GA-965P-DS3
motherboards (from ZZF), and it's going to be here on Friday. I ordered
Corsair 512MB PC2-6400 (800MHz memory), and it's rated for a slightly
higher voltage.

I'd try a different memory, or even only one stick of the memory that you
have (instead of two).

I don't believe that you have 4 identically bad motherboards. Rather I
think that the motherboard is coming up, seeing something that it doesn't
like (and I'm guessing it's memory), shutting itself down, and repeating
this cycle indefinitely. And my bet is that what it's seeing is memory
that for some reason it doesn't like.

But please keep us posted, and I'll post my experience with the board that
I get on this board on Friday or Saturday.

[Keeping my fingers crossed]


Samson wrote:


This one has me stumped. I build systems all the time, and have 4 orders
for Core 2 Duo systems with the new Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 motherboard. I
got 2 of the motherboards from Newegg and the other 2 from ZipZoomFly. I
have an E6300, E6400 and 2 x E6600 processors to go with them, along with
DDR2-533 1.8v sticks from Mushkin for all of them. Two of the systems
have Mushkin 550Watt PSUs, and the other two have Antec TruePower2 550s.
All 4 have different cases, graphics, optical, hard drives, etc.

The problem:
All four builds are giving me the same exact issue. When powered up for
the first time, all of them each power on for maybe 2-3 seconds, then
power off, then power on again for another 2 seconds, then power off
again...and again forever and ever, until I flip the power switch on the
PSU. The only activity seen when they briefly power on is that the CPU
and case fans spin for a moment. That's it...no graphic output, no BIOS
beeps...nada. Initially, these symptoms made me think that the
motherboard was shorting out or a faulty PSU.

What I've done to verify what's wrong:
1. Tried each motherboard outside of the cases as well as installed
properly in the cases, making sure that no shorts were happening. When
trying them outside of the cases, no case pinouts were connected. I just
shorted the power button pinouts briefly on each board to start them up,
in order to rule out faulty case power button connections.
2. Tried with no peripheral except CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 stick memory and
graphics card. Made sure that the CPU fan was plugged in properly on all
four boards.
3. Tried different combinations of known-good memory (single/dual
channel) in all slots in all boards, as well as different known-good
power supplies and graphics cards on all four boards. These are standard
spec 1.8 volt DDR2-533 memory sticks, chosen to run synchronously with
the motherboard/CPU 1066 MHz Front Side Bus.
4. Checked all PSU connections to all boards numerous times, thinking I
was going insane. Each motherboard has a 24-pin ATX connector, 8-pin 12V
EPS connector and a 4-pin standard Molex connector for providing extra
12V to PCI-Express graphics cards. All 4 power supplies (different
reputable models) have the proper 24-pin, 8-pin and Molex connectors, and
they're all plugged in securely and correctly in each motherboard. All
graphics cards have the 6-pin PCI-Express power cable attached to each
card.
5. I even double-checked the UPS power sources that the power supplies
were connected to, to rule out the possibility of something being wrong
with the building's wiring. Other working systems, when plugged into
them, work just fine.

The only common denominator between all four builds is the motherboard
and the brand/type of memory, but each memory stick has been tested in
other systems...so I'm out of ideas, except to come to the conclusion
that all 4 motherboards are DOA.

Anyone have any clues? I did see a couple mentions of the same problem
with the same board by Googling forum posts. There is this "CrazyCool
heatsink that Gigabyte puts on the back of the boards, possibly shorting
something else out on each board, but I'm not going to rip them off to
find out

I'm just thinking: one board, even maybe two could be a possibility with
a new motherboard release...but 4 in a row from different distributors?
I'd very much appreciate any input anyone could provide.

The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You
have to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:18:35 -0400, Barry Watzman
wrote:

The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You
have to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.

Bootable floppy??? You only have to copy the new bios to a floppy,
boot your PC and start with F8 Q-Flash.

It can also be done with the DOS utility that is part of the bios
package. [Or, for that matter, it can be done [very dangerously] with
the Windows flash utility]


Udo Kammer wrote:

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:18:35 -0400, Barry Watzman
wrote:


The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You
have to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.


Bootable floppy??? You only have to copy the new bios to a floppy,
boot your PC and start with F8 Q-Flash.

I have the latest BIOS on a floppy (just the BIOS file, not the flash
utility files) and it's 1,024 KB. If you go into the main BIOS screen, then
press F8 to bring up the QFlash Utility, you can direct it to the BIOS file
on the floppy.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
It can also be done with the DOS utility that is part of the bios package.
[Or, for that matter, it can be done [very dangerously] with the Windows
flash utility]


Udo Kammer wrote:

On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:18:35 -0400, Barry Watzman
wrote:


The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You have
to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.


Bootable floppy??? You only have to copy the new bios to a floppy,
boot your PC and start with F8 Q-Flash.

I understand that, but had forgotten about it. I'm in the habit of
using the DOS flash utility, and, in fact, Gigabyte supplies one as part
of the zip file containing the bios itself.


Samson wrote:

I have the latest BIOS on a floppy (just the BIOS file, not the flash
utility files) and it's 1,024 KB. If you go into the main BIOS screen, then
press F8 to bring up the QFlash Utility, you can direct it to the BIOS file
on the floppy.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...

It can also be done with the DOS utility that is part of the bios package.
[Or, for that matter, it can be done [very dangerously] with the Windows
flash utility]


Udo Kammer wrote:


On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:18:35 -0400, Barry Watzman
wrote:



The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You have
to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.


Bootable floppy??? You only have to copy the new bios to a floppy,
boot your PC and start with F8 Q-Flash.

I know. I guess they assume someone will make a bootable CD with a floppy
image or something if they include the flash utility files and a
twice-the-normal-size BIOS file that won't all fit on a floppy. Either
that, or they just forgot that their newer enthusiast boards are beginning
to come with 1MB BIOS files instead of the standard 512KB.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
I understand that, but had forgotten about it. I'm in the habit of using
the DOS flash utility, and, in fact, Gigabyte supplies one as part of the
zip file containing the bios itself.


Samson wrote:

I have the latest BIOS on a floppy (just the BIOS file, not the flash
utility files) and it's 1,024 KB. If you go into the main BIOS screen,
then press F8 to bring up the QFlash Utility, you can direct it to the
BIOS file on the floppy.

"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...

It can also be done with the DOS utility that is part of the bios
package. [Or, for that matter, it can be done [very dangerously] with the
Windows flash utility]


Udo Kammer wrote:


On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:18:35 -0400, Barry Watzman
wrote:



The BIOS is so large that it will not fit on a bootable floppy. You
have to boot with one floppy and change the disk to flash the bios.


Bootable floppy??? You only have to copy the new bios to a floppy,
boot your PC and start with F8 Q-Flash.