EX58-UD5 not starting up (new build)

[peterh337]

I posted this elsewhere but it is more appropriate in this section.

I am building a new machine. This MB is being used because I need a winXP/win7 dual boot and this MB is the last "good" one which came with XP drivers. I bought it on Ebay, original packaging, unopened, never used. I also bought the CPU and RAM on Ebay, supposedly "fully tested". Yes... I know, but this is where I am right now.

Memory is G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB 2X4GB Dual Channel DDR3 2133MHz PC3-17000 DIMM XMP.

CPU is i7 970 3.20GHz 6 Core Socket 1366 i7-970.

With all 8GB memory (both sticks) it sequences through various codes (on the 2 digit LED display) and ends with b8.

With the memory removed it just does 88 C1 quickly and then settles on b2.

I took a video of it with the memory in place (a 4GB module in each of DDR0 and 1) and it is here
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4n3uazqm8ajxdrk/AADRYFyxMTgq4uIYuVQFdu8-a?dl=0
along with a couple of pics of the LEDs.

I did a google on the error codes and found various forums e.g. here
http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/39229-gigabyte-award-x58-bios-led-debug-codes.html
but nothing makes much sense to me. The code "b8" (showing at the end of the video) is listed in some places as suggesting the BIOS is the wrong version...

With just one stick installed (in DDR1 - in DDR0 I get a continuous beep) it shows the same error code sequence.

No video comes out, out of either of two video cards I have tried, and on either of the two video outputs of each. No beeps on the speaker unless I put the single stick on DDR0.

The PSU is a brand new 750W FSP AURUM CM.

I am using a PS/2 connected keyboard, not a USB one, to give myself a better chance of getting into the BIOS. But there is no indication that the keyboard does anything. Pressing End in particular (supposed to enter the flash utility) does nothing.

I have also used the Reset BIOS button. And put in a fresh battery.

I am also doing this with a 4GB USB flash stick in a USB port, with the BIOS update on it, because the BIOS needs flashing for the CPU I have there.

In the other thread (CPU section) it was suggested that these motherboards can flash an BIOS update even if the CPU is not fitted. That would amaze me (hardware/software developer since the 1970s) because it would imply there is another CPU somewhere. And some CPU must be running to generate the error codes above...

I would really appreciate any help...

 

[boju]

Possibly F3. I can't find confirmation regarding original version, i've only seen 3rd party reference to F1.

 

[boju]

That 920 from ebay is CO part # SLBCH written on the cpu.

http://www.cpu-world.com/sspec/SL/SLBCH.html

 

[peterh337]

Great - thanks. I bought another (also SLBCH) 920 CPU and will report on what I find. If it doesn't work, I will have to get rid of all this stuff, back on Ebay.

I have seen a number of these motherboards for sale, always with a 920 CPU. It makes me think there is something funny going on... but surely Gigabyte's compatible CPU list is not just fiction? They must have tested the ones they list...?

At the time, this was a very expensive MB.

 

[boju]

You would think so. But given the 970 is not working we went for the earliest 920 version being CO to give you the best chance of starting the motherboard if it is indeed cpu compatibility problem. DO could have worked who knows, seems like it does with other people posting specs.

 

[boju]

I can understand the 970 requiring a bios update but not for the 920, albeit going by Gigabyte's bios update history for this board and specifying F3 Bios for the DO stepping creates a bit of doubt.

 

[peterh337]

However, the 970 is obviously running *right now*, because one needs a lot of working code to detect RAM (and to read the EEPROM chip on each module), video card, beep the speaker, drive the 7-segment LED display, etc.

 

[boju]

Hopefully yeah.

When the 920 comes, use the 1333 memory first with it.

 

[peterh337]

I'd like to make sure I am not doing something else that's stupid:

I have 3 video cards I can test with:
GTX750
Radeon R7 240
No-name AMD HD 5450

All of these have two video outputs (DB15 and DVI) plus HDMI.

In a new build PC, which of the two outputs would you expect to see the BIOS screen to come out of?

I have a DB15 monitor, and a DVI to DB15 adapter which on the digital side has 10 small pins plus one big one:
http://peter-ftp.co.uk/screenshots/2016-05-24-072322.jpg
Googling suggests that this adaptor will work only with video cards which output analog signals on the DVI connector. I am not sure if all do, so I am also buying a digital to analog converting adaptor.

During the above tests I have always tried both outputs, to make sure (and have two different monitors) but...

 

[boju]

Has that adapter ever worked with DVI before? That plug has missing pins, i've never seen that before.

http://dave.harris.uno/dvi-connectors-explained/

this is what you should be using

Do you have a TV with HDMI?

Try that.

Bios should show on all outputs.

 

[peterh337]

That adaptor came with an ASUS video card. I have used it, yes. It would appear that it just picks up the analog video signals and feeds them to a DB15. However I have also ordered another DVI to DB15 converter which claims to do D-A conversion, just in case (that one was about $15).
However if the video comes out on both outputs, that doesn't matter. I just recall buying a new PC for someone recently and the only output was via DVI; nothing on DB15, so clearly at least some video cards can be configured to drive only one connector of the two - quite apart from the ability to drive two monitors which AFAIK is something else.

SUCCESS: the 920 C0 CPU works! I updated the BIOS and all started up as it should. Video coming out of the DB15 (on the no-name video card). The G-Skill memory works too; 8GB showing. The i7-970 CPU worked after that too.

Motherboard now showing code 75.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.

I would like to get more memory. Should I buy more of the G-Skill, same type?

The MB manual talks about three modules (or some multiple of three) being better than two or four. I don't understand it However it seems clear that with four modules I can get 16GB RAM, and 3 channels, and it appears to auto-detect that.

 

[boju]

Great, so it was just the bios needing to be updated.

Yea 3x 4GB memory for triple channel. Are the Gskill 1333? If it is try keep it to that, there is no point going extreme speeds this generation, there are no benefits just more hassle trying to get things stable.

 

[peterh337]

The existing modules are
"G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB 2X4GB Dual Channel DDR3 2133MHz PC3-17000"
so I will get four more, for 24GB total, with the slots all populated.

BTW it is also possible that the old (Corsair) memory was required. I did not try the old CPU with the G-Skill memory, prior to upgrading the BIOS.

The next Q is whether win64 will work on this MB (as a dual boot with XP). The Gigabyte page
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2958#ov
offers them, but win7-64 is variously reported as having buggy drivers... The only reason for 64 bit is that a lot of video rendering software requires it.

 

[boju]

1) Should work, that board supports dual channel with 4 sticks. Populating slots 1,2,3&4 leaving the last two dimms.
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/358905/Gigabyte-Ga-Ex58-Ud5.html?page=16

2) If your Gskill's work, leave them in.

3) 64Bit will work with your motherboard. You have a 64Bit processor and will require 64Bit as you'd be aware to address more than 3.5GB system memory. Windows 7 is mature enough the drivers shouldn't be a problem and the only necessary drivers i can see there are for your chipset (inf) & lan.

 

[peterh337]

A little interim report:

The 3.5" diskette controller does not work. Tried it with 2 cables and 2 drives. The drive is basically alive but the OS says it doesn't see the index mark. This doesn't matter because the only context in which a floppy drive is actually needed is installing XP with a non-included HD driver (RAID, etc) and even then one can use a USB 3.5" floppy drive. I guess Gigabyte didn't test it (in the latest BIOS, perhaps). No problem.

The processor fan speed control works only in the "Voltage" mode, not PWM. I had a lot of trouble with getting this to work (neither mode worked till today) but magically it has just started to. The cooler is a Zalman one, brand new and pricey 4-wire. A google on
ex58-ud5 processor fan speed control not working
shows this is a known issue. People talk of a BIOS update but I am already on the latest one.

Win7-64 installed and runs fine, on drive d: (XP is on c: ). I didn't install any of Gigabyte's win7-64 drivers, and Control Panel / Devices shows no missing drivers, so clearly win7 came with everything. The only thing was the video driver for the GTX750, which was necessary (the display was very slow without it).

 

[peterh337]

Final report:

The new PC is running really well.

In win7-64, video rendering benchmarks (Vegas and Handbrake) show a 2.7x speedup over the same (win32 versions) apps running on a quad core QX9650 winXP-32 machine.

That is much faster than previous benchmarks done between the QX9650 machine and an i7 quad core (also 3GHz) machine which was running win7-32, where the win7 machine was only about 10% faster. So the 64-bit win7 is at least 2x faster than the 32-bit win7.

I had tried to make a cloned winXP hard drive boot on this MB but after days of effort gave up on it. I got stuck on the famous mup.sys bsod issue. There is something this MB which is sufficiently different to the P5K-E MB. I have not had this happen before in 15+ years of PC rebuilding...

So I installed a fresh win7-64 on c: and a fresh winXP-32 on d:

I did that because (a) I wanted win7 on c: (and recovering the cloned drive would have placed XP on c: ) and (b) I judged the mup.sys bsod issue to be probably intractable.

I ended up with two apps which simply would not run in win7 and especially not 64-bit win7 (Orcad SDT/386 and Protel PCB 2.8 - both very high value apps from the 1990s) and tried two different winXP VMs for them: Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware. Protel worked great in both. Orcad worked fully only in VMware (cursor / mouse driver issues).

I still have the winXP-32 install on d: but it looks like it won't be necessary. Well, maybe it will be for difficult driver issues which VMs tend to not handle well.

I have 24GB of the G-Skill RAM in there

An awesome machine which should do the job for 5-10 years.

To summarise, anybody buying this motherboard will need to buy an i7-920 CPU (of the right old version - see above) plus the Corsair RAM (above) and then update the BIOS, in order to do anything with it.

Many thanks to all those who helped.