Gigabyte Motheboard

paulusdu

I've just spashed together a cheap (ish) pc for an uncle of mine. Looks good, but its having a strange issue.

PC Spec is

- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3,AMD 770, DDR2, ATX
,Socket-AM2+, Solidcaps, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16

- 2.00 301111 Corsair Value S. PC4200 DDR2 1024MB
128Meg x 64, CL4, 533MHz, 240-pin

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz Socket AM2
1MB, BOXED w/fan

1 IDE HD and 1 SATA HD

1 IDE DVD Writer

450w Sharkoon PSU

Problem is that the pc will boot up, i start to install windows, 15 minutes in, it will just shut itself off. I'll turn it on again, and it might last 10 minutes, and gradually decreases that it will shut off before i can even get into the BIOS, so i am thinking that it has to be some temperature issue, but all the fans (cpu and 2 case fans) all seem to be working fine.

Any ideas ?

Spear

paulusdu wrote: »

I've just spashed together a cheap (ish) pc for an uncle of mine. Looks good, but its having a strange issue.

PC Spec is

- Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3,AMD 770, DDR2, ATX
,Socket-AM2+, Solidcaps, PCI-Ex(2.0)x16

- 2.00 301111 Corsair Value S. PC4200 DDR2 1024MB
128Meg x 64, CL4, 533MHz, 240-pin

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.2GHz Socket AM2
1MB, BOXED w/fan

1 IDE HD and 1 SATA HD

1 IDE DVD Writer

450w Sharkoon PSU

Problem is that the pc will boot up, i start to install windows, 15 minutes in, it will just shut itself off. I'll turn it on again, and it might last 10 minutes, and gradually decreases that it will shut off before i can even get into the BIOS, so i am thinking that it has to be some temperature issue, but all the fans (cpu and 2 case fans) all seem to be working fine.

Any ideas ?

I have two of those boards and haven't seen this occur (Linux likes these boards on a different note). The fans may be running but the interface between the HSF and CPU may be bad. Clean it and put on some decent thermal paste. Alternately the PSU may be overloaded or overheating, though 450W should be enough for that.

paulusdu

Good idea, i'll head to Maplin and grab a tube and give it a try, although i did use decent paste when i built it, but sounds logical.
I agree on the 450 PSU, it should be more than enough for the CPU and drives.
And i haven;t read a bad review of these Motherboards either

c0rn

Next time you can bootup take a look in the bios and check your cpu temp, this is not always accurate for all cpu's (should be good for yours) but at least it should give you indication if your cpu temp is way to high. I have seen this happen before when the heatsink doesn't have a good connect with the cpu.

I have seen heatsinks look and feel like they are connected good but sometimes removing and hooking it up again will do the job.

Also try and run Memtest on your computer, but normally if you have faulty memory you see this during windows install and that the installation can not or is missing files (but not always). When and if you do run Memtest, unhook all your components that you don't need (e.g harddrives, dvd). This is not a must but at least you can narrow it down quicker that way.

If you can try and hook up a other PSU as this can also make you computer very unstable if it is faulty. You check your voltage in the bios, though a digital multimeter is always better to use of course.

I would say from the description you gave that either you cpu is getting to warm or even your northbridge/southbridge. This can be because of many reasons. Faulty PSU giving way to much volt to some component or that a heatsink is not connect correctly as I said before. Check the two heatsinks that you have on your motherboard to see if any of them are loose.

One really inportant thing to think about when building a system is to watch out for static as this has killed more computer parts then I would like to count. If you don't have a antistatic armband (and how many people do?) just touch a radiator or the metal part of your kitchenbench before you start as they always are grounded (you don't have to hold your hand on them).

If you are really unlucky something could be faulty with your stuff (and I hate when it is the motherboard, hard to find when it is sometimes).

Hope this helps. Get back to us and say if this helped or not. I am guessing that people here can hit their clever heads together and help you.

/c0rn

P.S sorry for the long post.

bogwalrus

I recently got a gigabyte board where it kept turning on and off in a loop before it gets into bios. So basically it just kept shutting down before the bios screen. The solution to fixing this problem was to take out everything and leave your bare mobo just plugged into your psu and turn it on (even leave out the cpu). Then leave it on for a few secs. After you do this averything works normal and it doesnt keep shutting down no more. Dont ask me why.

bogwalrus

i forgot to say (from my research on my own boards problems etc) that gigabyte boards are pretty poorly put together and not alot of research goes into the testing of these boards. They build them and do very little prototype tests before they mass produce them. This results in a number of overlooked flaws and poor boards. They have been accused of covering up major problems by not accepting that they exist. A good example being the ddr3 ddr2 compatability with bios on some of the s-series boards.

paulusdu

Good call on the temp, but im geting a bit confused on why its getting so high. I can;t seem to find the operating temp on the Gigabyte website, but the alarms on the bios are based around 60oC - 90oC.

I've taken off the heatsink and cleaned up the old termal paste and re-applied some more. But system shut itsself down again after 15 minutes again.

Went into the Bios and checked out the CPU temp monitor, it jumped from 60oC to 95oC in a few minutes so i shut it down,

More searching on the web threw up nothing, so back in the BIOS, there is a CPU Smart Fan Control, so i have knocked this off, on the guess that maybe the fan just wasn;t spinning at enough RPM's. Disabling this runs the fan at its maximum speed.

Its been running in the BIOS for the last 15 minutes and the temp has stayed at 30oC, so i'll keep it running and post back how i get on with it

c0rn

I would maybe invest in a new cpu cooler if I was you. The stock coolers are ok for everyday use most of the time but a third party cooler is always better.

Peats have some good ones if you dont feel like ordering one but the prices are not always the best. Any of the Zalman ones would be ok, like this one.

Of course you can always find better ones but they should do just fine.

When it comes to Gigabyte motherboards all I can say is that I am running one now (my first one) and I am loving it. I used to mostly use Asus boards (some Abit and MSI as well) but thought I should give Gigabyte a try and this one is doing the job I want it to very nicely. Of course I can't speak for all Gigabyte boards but most of the time reviews are good. There will always be bad apples no matter what make you get (some more then others).

/c0rn

TerrorFirmer

My last three boards have been Gigabytes and I love them, and I've not seen a bad review for a GB board in absolutely ages. Every budget class is well looked after.

Those temps are dreadful for stock cooling and about double what they should be; how are you applying thermal paste exactly? Also, I've never used am2 but if it's anything like the ****ty push pin s775 standard it's very easy for the heatsink to appear rock solid secure but not be properly mounted on one side...so check that out as well. This caught me one time with a core 2, the heatsink appeared to be on properly but was not locked one one side... I was booting@90c and climbing!