GA-MA790X-DS4 and X3 710 not POSTing

[royalj7]

Hey folks, I'm totally out of solutions and looking for some help.

I built a new system with the GA-MA790X-DS4 mb and the Phenom 2 710 and can not get the system to POST at all, no beeps or video. I flashed the BIOS to the newest version, F6, which is suppose to support the new AMD proc. The new components going into the system are:

AMD X3 710 CPU
GA-MA790X-DS4 mb
2x2Gb G.Skill DDR2 800 RAM
MSI R4850 512Mb Video card

Here is what I've tried"

1. Put 710 in another MB, a Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4, and the system POSTed no problem. Same power supply on both systems. (moving the two motherboards in and out of the case)
2. Put an old X2 3800 proc in the new MA790X MB and it POSTed no issues.
3. With the 710 in the new MB, switched out the video card I was using, MSI 4850, for a 7600GT and still no boot up.
4. Tried the new 4850 video card in old system (GA-M57SLI-S4 and X2 3800) and it booted no problem.
5. Removed one G.Skill stick in new system and no boot. Tried one stick in another socket, no boot. Tried a 1Gb Corsair DDR2 667 stick in new system and no boot.

Help! Any ideas or something I'm missing?

Thanks,
--jamie

[burtie]

Clear the CMOS with all your new gear in.

[royalj7]

Tried clearing the CMOS and no luck.

I then tried the next to latest BIOS revision, F5, and lo and behold, the system booted up all the way. However, the BIOS did not recognize the processor (which makes sense because Gigabyte's site says that version doesn't support the new AM3 CPUs). I then flashed back to F6 and again, no POST or anything. So I'm alittle confused and leary. The F6 BIOS has been out since last year, so I can't believe it just doesn't work. On the other hand, I don't want to leave my system with an "unsupported" BIOS rev.

Ugh :-) Any thoughts on how to get this board working correctly?

[jim]

Asked Gigabyte direct yet?

[MadduckUK]

oh arse, this is my mobo and one of my potential cpu's

[royalj7]

Yea, sent them an email around 8pm yesterday, no response of yet. I'm not exactly hopeful of them solving the problem, but maybe I'm a bit pessimistic

[scaryjim]

I then flashed back to F6 and again, no POST or anything. So I'm alittle confused and leary. The F6 BIOS has been out since last year, so I can't believe it just doesn't work.

When I looked earlier this week I could've sworn the latest stable BIOS was F7 - have you tried that one? Otherwise, I'd suggest sticking with F5 until Gigabyte release another update (The F9 is in beta, I think?) - I ran an unrecognised Sempron for about a year once before I got round to updating the BIOS and it didn't do any damage (well, not AFAIK)...

OK, ignore me, I've just checked back on the site and I was obviously still hungover when I last looked - must've got the wrong board / revision!

[burtie]

oh arse, this is my mobo and one of my potential cpu's

It's working fine here on the f6 Bios

[burtie]

Tried clearing the CMOS and no luck.

I then tried the next to latest BIOS revision, F5, and lo and behold, the system booted up all the way. However, the BIOS did not recognize the processor (which makes sense because Gigabyte's site says that version doesn't support the new AM3 CPUs). I then flashed back to F6 and again, no POST or anything. So I'm alittle confused and leary. The F6 BIOS has been out since last year, so I can't believe it just doesn't work. On the other hand, I don't want to leave my system with an "unsupported" BIOS rev.

Ugh :-) Any thoughts on how to get this board working correctly?

Well you have the latest bios for that motherboard which is the f6 bios. It's working fine on my motherboard which is the same as yours. I'd wait for Gigabyte to contact you or RMA the motherboard?

[royalj7]

Well, it's good to know it works with someones elses setup. I'm losing patience with the board...emailed Gigabyte over 24 hours ago and no response yet. My feeling is if you aren't going to do phone support, your email support should be pretty good. I'm thinking of going with the GA-MA790X-UD4 board. Basically the same but with the new 750 southbridge. Anyone have any experience with that board?

[MadduckUK]

It's working fine here on the f6 Bios

odd :/ oh well suck it and see i guess

[royalj7]

Conclusion to my little problem. I couldn't get the GA-MA790X-DS4 to POST with the X3 710 and the F6 BIOS no matter what I did. It's been 3 and a half days and I haven't heard anything from Gigabytes tech support, which kind of annoys me. I went and got another board, another Gigabyte ironically, a MA790X-UD4, and the system booted up perfectly. I'll be returning the DS4 board here shortly. The UD4 is very similar, except for a couple notable differences:
1. Upgraded southbridge S750 vs 600
2. Heat pipe cooling for the northbridge as opposed to just a heatsink
3. No serial port (I'm one of those folks who still needs one so I got an add in card)
4. Works with my CPU

Thanks for all the help.