Persistent cold boot issues

domfjbrown · 17 Dec 2010

I *think* I'm on the native IDE setting (certainly, no issues with HDD performance!)...

I swapped out the RAM and no dice, so it's defo an incompatibility (power cycled, and perfect again as usual!)... However, according to Gigabyte's compatibility list for the board I have, this should fit the bill (another £60 quid, but the amount of blood and sweat I've wasted is about 5x that!) Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/4G HyperX / 4GB 1600MHz PC3-12800 DDR3 / Non-ECC CL9 DIMM Dual Channel Computer Memory - Computing at Play.com (UK)

Have to see if I get some chrimbo money...

If this works, I should be able to punt the Corsair RAM for a decent price, as it's definitely OK in itself.

BTW, is the 1.9/1.5v thing a red herring if you set the board to "Auto" for memory?

domfjbrown · 17 Dec 2010

Soz for additional waffly post, but noticed a Playtrade seller has this for £43 (damaged packaging, but seems potentially kosher). Wonder if it'll still be there on Tuesday...

Night Hawk · 17 Dec 2010

Well that's why I suggested a good look at the drive as well as the drive mode. Running a drive diagnostic along examing the board and supply even if found not to be regulating properly.

Besides a board issue of some type sudden dropoffs with supplies can be a cause for things. At startup that's where you typically see the largest pull on the supply especially during the post tests. And right as Windows starts loading device drivers.... the supply wimps out?

The other fright is finding out you have a bad cap on the board. You ruled out a bad dimm it seems.

domfjbrown · 21 Dec 2010

Thanks Night Hawk - I'm just hoping it's NOT the mobo or PSU (it easily comes out of sleep mode with no issues, and it does seem odd literally powercycling it immediately sorts it out...).

I've bitten the bullet and ordered that Kingston RAM (assuming they can fight through all the snow to get it to my house before New Year!!), as another person has this same combination confirmed as compatible (Is this compatible?) as well as on the relevant Gigabyte data sheet.

If I STILL have cold boot issues, I'll RMA the motherboard first, as the PSU seems really nice. I doubt I could get the machine to even power up with my old one (400 watt) so can't test that theory...

Watch this space...

Night Hawk · 21 Dec 2010

1.65v memory which is in the voltage range while the board will still tend the memory at 1.5v at the next lower speed. I ran Hyper X on the last build and that was good memory.

The board at the link supports DDR3 2200mhz memory where you wouldn't expect to see any problems with the Kingston on the one pointed to there. You would likely see the memory run at 1333 with the model you have however.

Memory listed as 1.5v is the preferred however for the Gigabyte boards while other makes like Asus, MSI, Abit wouldn't be as fussy? But the lower voltage serves to keep memory temps lower as well. Don't feel too bad if you do end up returning the board anyways. I just got done replacing board and supply on the last case rather then buying a used board from EBay since that will run Vista there.

domfjbrown · 17 Jan 2011

Well well well! After installing the first 2 2gb Kingston RAM chips and cold booting, it works perfectly. So I got another 4gb as well :) Ran Memtest86 from cold overnight and had 8 passes with 0 errors :) I got both sets of 4gig from the same seller on Play - £68 all-in for 8 gigs was pretty good for solving all my problems!

Now all I need is a SATA cable and I can then reinstall my entire system's software from scratch to sort out the registry. Thanks again for all the help, guys!