GB-7N400 Pro2 (rev 2) Memory & SATA problems

Adept

Built 2 identical systems -
GB-7N400 Pro2 (rev 2) FC BIOS
Athlon XP3200+
1GB (2 * 512) Kingston KVR400X64C3A/512 (DDR400 PC3200 DIMM 3-3-3)
40GB WD JB PATA on IDE3
200GB WD SATA on SATA0
SONY DRU-700A on IDE1
Liteon combo drive on IDE2
ATI X800 Pro 256MB
450W PS
WINXP SP1a + MS Security Update CD (Feb 2004) + updates

Only problem (at this stage) is memory will not run at 400MHz! Set it to 333 in BIOS so that I can load OS. No Problems fully configuring PC -
10GB C partition NTFS on 40GB PATA drive
200GB D partion NTFS on SATA drive
30GB E partition FAT32 on 40GB PATA drive
all drivers, XP + updates & standard apps loaded OK

Much research - upgrade memory to KVR400X64C25/512 (cl 2.5) - no joy

Upgraded BIOS to FF using @BIOS utility (ie under Windows) - memory problem NOT fixed, but have now lost SATA drive. SATA controller (Sil3512 BIOS 4.3.33) initialises, but does not find the drive. WinXP has the controller, but no drive)

Switched BIOS back to (saved) FC. No fix.

Read forum strings re @BIOS problems, and used QFLASH to flash both FF and FC, but still no joy with memory speed issue & still no SATA drive.

Reported problems to GB - email not read yet (only 36 hours at this stage).

(thanks to Spinner for making me a subscriber, rather than a leach)

any suggestions....

Spinner

Welcome to Short-Media buddy.

Attached is the BIOS I promised you. The revision FF with the latest SATA controller BIOS v4.3.47. Flash it, reset your BIOS and/or yank out your CMOS battery for a good few minutes so it resets fully.

The memory problem-

1) Try one stick at a time.
2) As a basic measure get Docmemory from the downloads section here at Short-Media and confirm both your modules are fine and in good working order.
3) Try them in a different slot config.

The SATA drive problem-

Currently, as you have described, the SATA controller would appear to be functioning fine, I'm inclined to point the finger at the hard drive itself before I start going on my usual SI 3512 witch hunt. So that being said...

1) Check SATA cable (think basics)
2) Try a different socket on the mobo
3) Disable all USB controller ports not directly stuck onto the mobo. i.e everything but the ones soldered to the back plate.
4) Try alternative hard drive jumper configs.
5) If you have another SATA supporting computer at your disposal, test the drive in that.
6) Make sure you've tried using the SATA controller in both RAID and BASE modes (Should be an option in the BIOS). RAID is the standard mode, which uses the controller fully (it works just fine for single disks as well as RAID'd pairs), BASE mode I suppose is best described as being a passive mode and is the simplest option for single disk setups but not always the best. I always recommend running the SI controllers in full RAID mode. But try both.
7) Download and start using the latest drivers for you controller. v1.0.0.50 from the Short-Media downloads section. (This won't have any effect, but its good practice to have the latest drivers).

Flash to the attached BIOS, reset as described, do the rest of the above and then post back.

Tip - Sometimes when using third party controllers (e.g SI 3512, HPT 372), updating their bios (you would have done this when you flashed to mobo bios revision FF) may make the hard drive lose its partition table. It's obviously not supposed to do this, but I've seen it happen. At the moment I don't believe this to be the case in your instance, because the SATA controller is also not detecting the drive. But just remember for future reference that just because My Computer doesn't display a hard drive, doesn't mean it's not there, it just means it hasn't been setup e.g with a partition(s). So instead of using My Computer to check for hard drive presence, go to Disk Management instead (My Computer - Right Click - Manage).

Spinner

Adept

Update (I think I’ve covered everything). Thanks again Spinner.

Note – I built 2 identical systems. “sysA” has the memory and SATA problems, “sysB” has the memory problem only. The SATA problem occurred when I upgraded sysA’s BIOS to FF using @BIOS under WinXP.

New actions -
1. Tested memory using DocMem (OK), 1 stick at a time (OK @ 400MHz), different slot configurations (OK @ 400 MHz in non-dual-channel configurations). Tested both sysa (@ FC & FF) & sysb (@ FC only).

Conclusion – Kingston KVR400X64C25/512 will not work in dual-channel mode even though the Kingston web site says this is the right memory for this mobo.
2. Connected the recalcitrant SATA drive (in sysA) to working second PC (sysB) using the original SATA interface cable, and leaving the drive powered by sysA. Drive recognised by SATA controller and appears in WinXP.
Conclusion - SATA drive OK, SATA interface cable OK, power supply to drive (from sysA) OK.
3. Used a new SATA interface cable in sysA - nothing
4. Did not try different jumper settings on the drive because it works in sysB
5. Tried in both RAID and Base modes @ FC, FF, & modded-FF – no change in behaviour. In RAID mode, the BIOS detection routine tells me there are no drives attached.
6. Used latest drivers for both Base & RAID @ FC, FF, & modded-FF – nothing (as expected).

When I first flashed the BIOS to FF I used @BIOS. On all other occasions since, I have use Q-Flash. Thinking about it, it makes sense that flashing the Sil3512 BIOS (as part of the FF upgrade) under Windows (ie the SATA interface is available to Windows at the time), would be pretty impressive (if it worked!).

Still nothing from GB – they haven’t even read it!!! Suggestions anyone?

Spinner

Adept wrote:

Update (I think I’ve covered everything). Thanks again Spinner.

Note – I built 2 identical systems. “sysA” has the memory and SATA problems, “sysB” has the memory problem only. The SATA problem occurred when I upgraded sysA’s BIOS to FF using @BIOS under WinXP.

New actions -
1. Tested memory using DocMem (OK), 1 stick at a time (OK @ 400MHz), different slot configurations (OK @ 400 MHz in non-dual-channel configurations). Tested both sysa (@ FC & FF) & sysb (@ FC only).

Conclusion – Kingston KVR400X64C25/512 will not work in dual-channel mode even though the Kingston web site says this is the right memory for this mobo.
2. Connected the recalcitrant SATA drive (in sysA) to working second PC (sysB) using the original SATA interface cable, and leaving the drive powered by sysA. Drive recognised by SATA controller and appears in WinXP.
Conclusion - SATA drive OK, SATA interface cable OK, power supply to drive (from sysA) OK.
3. Used a new SATA interface cable in sysA - nothing
4. Did not try different jumper settings on the drive because it works in sysB
5. Tried in both RAID and Base modes @ FC, FF, & modded-FF – no change in behaviour. In RAID mode, the BIOS detection routine tells me there are no drives attached.
6. Used latest drivers for both Base & RAID @ FC, FF, & modded-FF – nothing (as expected).

When I first flashed the BIOS to FF I used @BIOS. On all other occasions since, I have use Q-Flash. Thinking about it, it makes sense that flashing the Sil3512 BIOS (as part of the FF upgrade) under Windows (ie the SATA interface is available to Windows at the time), would be pretty impressive (if it worked!).

Still nothing from GB – they haven’t even read it!!! Suggestions anyone?

OK well, there is no reason to believe your method of flashing is at fault. Sadly, it looks like Gigabyte have let you down. I never ever recommend their motherboards because of all the issues people seem to be having with them. We could troubleshoot till the cows come home, but if it were me, I would just save yourself the hassle and just get yourself a new motherboard, not a Gigabyte I might add.

Going by what you have said that would seem like the only logical course of action. Gigabyte seem to lack the ability to make their boards 1) easy to setup 2) easy to get working. It's as if they've just stuck the chips on the mobo with superglue and just left it at that.

No other hardware component seems to be at fault, the motherboard is the only believable culprit at this point.

Cheers

b0wz

Spinner wrote:

Welcome to Short-Media buddy.

Attached is the BIOS I promised you. The revision FF with the latest SATA controller BIOS v4.3.47. Flash it, reset your BIOS and/or yank out your CMOS battery for a good few minutes so it resets fully.

The memory problem-

1) Try one stick at a time.
2) As a basic measure get Docmemory from the downloads section here at Short-Media and confirm both your modules are fine and in good working order.
3) Try them in a different slot config.

The SATA drive problem-

Currently, as you have described, the SATA controller would appear to be functioning fine, I'm inclined to point the finger at the hard drive itself before I start going on my usual SI 3512 witch hunt. So that being said...

1) Check SATA cable (think basics)
2) Try a different socket on the mobo
3) Disable all USB controller ports not directly stuck onto the mobo. i.e everything but the ones soldered to the back plate.
4) Try alternative hard drive jumper configs.
5) If you have another SATA supporting computer at your disposal, test the drive in that.
6) Make sure you've tried using the SATA controller in both RAID and BASE modes (Should be an option in the BIOS). RAID is the standard mode, which uses the controller fully (it works just fine for single disks as well as RAID'd pairs), BASE mode I suppose is best described as being a passive mode and is the simplest option for single disk setups but not always the best. I always recommend running the SI controllers in full RAID mode. But try both.
7) Download and start using the latest drivers for you controller. v1.0.0.50 from the Short-Media downloads section. (This won't have any effect, but its good practice to have the latest drivers).

Flash to the attached BIOS, reset as described, do the rest of the above and then post back.

Tip - Sometimes when using third party controllers (e.g SI 3512, HPT 372), updating their bios (you would have done this when you flashed to mobo bios revision FF) may make the hard drive lose its partition table. It's obviously not supposed to do this, but I've seen it happen. At the moment I don't believe this to be the case in your instance, because the SATA controller is also not detecting the drive. But just remember for future reference that just because My Computer doesn't display a hard drive, doesn't mean it's not there, it just means it hasn't been setup e.g with a partition(s). So instead of using My Computer to check for hard drive presence, go to Disk Management instead (My Computer - Right Click - Manage).

Spinner

Spinner, your a life saver......your bios with the new raid controller works fine on my GA7N400 rev2, running a new raptor in base mode, along with 2 ide drives on the regular channel (the old setup*factory*would not let me make the raptor a stand alone boot drive, not with out using an ide for it to plant boot ini crap on.....) now its great, to be able to drop and swap hard drives.....the way its suppose to be. Thumbs up to the forums and and Gents like Spinner, this stuff is far and few on the net for info and mod'd bio's. I evan set up my kt400 chipset board from Gigabyte- raid0 with 2 new hitachi's..........its like a new computer........long live raid!!!! new convert:)

ricovilarouca

I´m having the same problem. In that famous GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev.2
I´m trying to put 2 Kingston PC3200 512 DDR400 ValueRam CL3. They only work in 3-4-4-8, but still in an unstable way.
My FSB is set to 200 and my processor is a 3200+ (not overclocked).
I used the memtest86 (normal and plus) with both memories installed. It reported, in a first moment, 9868 errors. Then I rotate the position of the chips. The memtest reported then 8 errors. But if I put only one chip, the memtest report NO ERRORS!!! I´m really confused...
My BIOS is the FF. My PSU is a 450W. My cooler is the latest and biggest Volcano...
I spend more money to buy the Kingston because everybody says it´s a great brand...And now I read the Adept´s post concluding there´s no way to make that f@$#$# memory to work in the GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev.2...
I´m still looking for a solution...and really pissed off. I think I´ll try a Samsung memory...
Anyone knows another mobo brand and model that comes with firewire? It´s the only motivation to buy that Gigabyte mobo. :banghead:

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

I´m having the same problem. In that famous GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev.2
I´m trying to put 2 Kingston PC3200 512 DDR400 ValueRam CL3. They only work in 3-4-4-8, but still in an unstable way.
My FSB is set to 200 and my processor is a 3200+ (not overclocked).
I used the memtest86 (normal and plus) with both memories installed. It reported, in a first moment, 9868 errors. Then I rotate the position of the chips. The memtest reported then 8 errors. But if I put only one chip, the memtest report NO ERRORS!!! I´m really confused...
My BIOS is the FF. My PSU is a 450W. My cooler is the latest and biggest Volcano...
I spend more money to buy the Kingston because everybody says it´s a great brand...And now I read the Adept´s post concluding there´s no way to make that f@$#$# memory to work in the GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev.2...
I´m still looking for a solution...and really pissed off. I think I´ll try a Samsung memory...
Anyone knows another mobo brand and model that comes with firewire? It´s the only motivation to buy that Gigabyte mobo. :banghead:

Go Kingston.....I run corsair stuff in my machines, but i have set up a few for freinds that buy there own stuf, the kingston stuff (twing pack or not) only seems to work in non dual channel form. Put both sticks in first two slots, not in the dual channel config. I have seen two Gigabyte boards with kingston memory, they say its dual channel capable, but it aint, put both sticks in slot 1 and 2 and you will be fine. b0wz

ricovilarouca

I think I´ll try the samsung...It´s the alternative brand my vendor works with. He told me he can exchange the Kingston in samsung ones. It can be an alternative to work in dual channell.
Do you think it´s better to have 2 Kingston in single mode than 2 samsungs in dual mode?

Thanks

Rico :banghead:

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

I think I´ll try the samsung...It´s the alternative brand my vendor works with. He told me he can exchange the Kingston in samsung ones. It can be an alternative to work in dual channell.
Do you think it´s better to have 2 Kingston in single mode than 2 samsungs in dual mode?

Thanks

Rico :banghead:

both board boards I worked on with the kingston ran just fine, I doubt you will see a lot of difference between dual channel mode, and the singal channel stuff. The bandwidth difference won't be that drastic.......the biggest bottle neck you will find will be the hard drives.....specially ide's, Sata be the way to go, or better yet, a raid array..........just depends on what you want to do with the computer (games-video editing-or just internet stuff) and how much you want to spend on it............The one board i worked on has a gig of the kingston ram, with a radeon 9800 aiw card, audigy sound card, two sata drives......non raided.....and it smokes right along, very fast computer. hope that helps......if your gonna do the video editing stuff, or dvd work, you might want to go dual channel, and do the raid 0 thing, if not, don't worry about, should be fine.

b0wz :Rocker:

ricovilarouca

Really thanks B0ws for your very usefull tips. But I´m in that last category: Video editors
My fears about to try the samsungs it´s to put them on and they DON´T WORK in dual channel too. Conclusion: No dual channel in the 7N400...Or a defective one in my mobo...

They guy shall give me the samsungs tomorow. It´s a sad situation...I was very happy to try the famous Kingstons for the first time...But I was unhappy.

Thanks again,

Rico :banghead:

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

Really thanks B0ws for your very usefull tips. But I´m in that last category: Video editors
My fears about to try the samsungs it´s to put them on and they DON´T WORK in dual channel too. Conclusion: No dual channel in the 7N400...Or a defective one in my mobo...

They guy shall give me the samsungs tomorow. It´s a sad situation...I was very happy to try the famous Kingstons for the first time...But I was unhappy.

Thanks again,

Rico :banghead:

My Corsair xms stuff runs great in dual channel mode on the Gigabyte board, 2-2-2-5 (2-2-2-11) seems to perform better on some things, but its great, i have a singal raptor 74gig in base mode, and had a 160 sata in the other spot, till i used it to raid 0 my game box...........but will soon get me another 160 to replace it........Good luck on the box.......

ricovilarouca

I´d like very much to have a pair of corsairs, but it´s out of my budget now...
It´s a very difficult brand to find here in Brazil too. And maybe because it´s considered the best they´re very, very expensive.
I have a 40Gb IDE for boot drive, and a 160Gb SATA as Base.
I didn´t understand very well what is the RAID, there´s RAID 0, 1...It seemed to me it´s like something to backup your data...But you told you gonna use a RAID for games...

If you could explain me something about it I´d appreciate very much.

And thanks again for the memory explanation. And wish me lucky with the samsungs

Rico :banghead: still hitting the wall with the head.

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

I´d like very much to have a pair of corsairs, but it´s out of my budget now...
It´s a very difficult brand to find here in Brazil too. And maybe because it´s considered the best they´re very, very expensive.
I have a 40Gb IDE for boot drive, and a 160Gb SATA as Base.
I didn´t understand very well what is the RAID, there´s RAID 0, 1...It seemed to me it´s like something to backup your data...But you told you gonna use a RAID for games...

If you could explain me something about it I´d appreciate very much.

And thanks again for the memory explanation. And wish me lucky with the samsungs

Rico :banghead: still hitting the wall with the head.

In the forums here, they have some great info on raids, as to what the different types are, and how they work
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=195
raid 1 is like a back up, raid 0 is for faster disk performance with large data blocks.

Bottom line, is it takes at least two hard drives to set up a raid array, i did not need it for my game box, the computer is no faster, game wise, but i was able to load xp in under 8 minutes........from the "windows will now take about 39 minutes to finish" screen. the pc also boots much faster then it did, less then half the time it took to boot off the old ide 80 gig drive i had as the boot. It just has a faster feel to it
b0wz.........

ricovilarouca

Heys B0ws, please save me again...

I put the Kingston in single channel. And now the computer don´t start up!!
It reads the memory and simply STOPS. No IDE, No SATA, No nothing...

What should I do? Put the modded BIOS?

Any configuration?

What a crap of mobo!!!

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

Heys B0ws, please save me again...

I put the Kingston in single channel. And now the computer don´t start up!!
It reads the memory and simply STOPS. No IDE, No SATA, No nothing...

What should I do? Put the modded BIOS?

Any configuration?

What a crap of mobo!!!

You hit the wall, sounds like its time to try the mod'd bios, but I am affraid you will have to wipe the boot drive to do so, i did. Just for giggles, thow the xp disk in the cd rom and see if it boots that way.......was funny, when i was playing with one of the gigabyte boards, before the new bios, if the windows disk was in there, and the boot to cd rom option was one.......it fired right up. Go figure, stranger things have happened, but it sounds like problems simular to what i had on both boards here. Try either one memory stick, or the boot to cd rom trick......go in and back up what you want, or need, then set it up new, better off in the long run that way. The sata drive, if you can swing it, would be the faster drive to put xp on as your boot drive, for back up reasons, you might even want to partition it and split it in half, make two 60 gig partitions on it, one for the os, and one for data. that way the next time you have to wipe it out, your data is still safe of the back up partition
Gotta luv Gigabyte for there almost support, and up to almost speed on the add on chips for there motherboards....The new SI bios for the sata stuff is worth the effort, made a big diffenence on my machines here, the more i play with the sata hard drives.......in fact i have a buddies machine here now, and i am looking at doing the same exact thing to his.....nf2 rev. 2 Gigabyte..........oh yea Good luck.....and Thank spinner for the Modded bios

b0wz

ricovilarouca wrote:

Heys B0ws, please save me again...

I put the Kingston in single channel. And now the computer don´t start up!!
It reads the memory and simply STOPS. No IDE, No SATA, No nothing...

What should I do? Put the modded BIOS?

Any configuration?

What a crap of mobo!!!

I forgot..........make sure you have the memory in the right slots, for singal channel mode, you have to have the memory in the first two slots in the board, the orange, and the blue.......slots number 1 and 2, don't put them both in the orange, or both in the blue slots. and it won't work with four sticks, the max for singal channel mode memory on this board is 3, and it can't be in the last slot (slot 4).....Good Luck.......hope this helps......chow :Rocker:

Marticus

Forgive the delayed reply; I only found the forums todayand had no reason to before. This is more informational than requesting support. Using this thread for my reply seemed appropriate, please me forgive if it is not. Enjoy.

I recently purchased non rev 2 7n400 pro 2 mother board and have wasted five days repairing, restoring, troubleshooting, et cetera. I found elsewhere on the web where someone received a reply from Gigabyte and suggested that they try the Geil or Corsair manufactured memory modules. I had been having similar problems with windows crashing. I also lost two partitions during this venture as the memory issues corrupted the boot sectors/partition tables. I was able to retrieve data using PC Inspector File Recovery (very nice freeware application).

Here are my specs (I can provide more detail upon request):
Gigabyte 7N400 Pro 2 (not rev 2) (upgraded to F11 BIOS)
2 x Giel 512MB PC3200 DDR (400MHz) (total 1 gig) (Dual Channel)
2 x 60 GB Hitachi Deskstar
2 Removable Drive Bays for the following 3 drives: (not using SATA)
2 x 120 GB Samsung
1 x 120 GB Seagate
Nvidia Geforce FX 5600 256MB
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (thoroughbred)

I have made several observations and have included a few here to aid others having similar issues.

* For some strange reason, and I have found this on other gigabyte boards, the MIDI and Game ports cause windows to crash. Disabling both in the BIOS seems to prevent these crashes)
* I found that the 333MHz DDR sticks don't work in Dual channel on this board, but the 400MHz DDR sticks do (I have only tried generic 333MHz and Geil 400Mhz)
* Only one generic 333 memory seems to work only in slot 1 and still a little unstable at that.
* It is recommended to use Geil or Corsair, I'm not sure about others. Geil PC3200 400MHz dual channel was only $12 more than the generic modules.

I am now able to run my system with no intervention and at the Turbo memory/cpu settings found on the appropriate BIOS configuration screen. I have not run it through extensive testing yet, but it seems to be performing well with the file transfer of 120 GB of anime from the drive with the messed up partition to a new drive.

I hope this information saves others from wasting several days attempting to resolve their issues.

Actually, I do have a question. Does the iTE ata controller have issues? At this point I am only assuming that the loss of data was caused by the memory issue and I wont be able to confirm that until I fix the bad partition; although I am certain that is was the memory. Also, is there a way to upgrade the iTE bios and is it necessary?

Oh yeah, and what is this hacked bios I am seeing on this thread. Is the SATA the only thing that was modified in that release? Are there any other benefits from using it, that is if it is compatible with the first version of this board?

I will follow up on this thread upon completion of the file transfer and repairs and when I have verified that it is working.

I recall having to deal with issues on my last gigabyte board, although not quite as traumatic, but at least I got everything working. The only other upgrade for this board will be going to an XP 3200+ and maybe add some more ram. But that will happen only when the price drops on that chip. If I upgrade again, it will be to a multi-cpu 64bit environment. Oh yeah, I also got a revision 2 7n400 board today, we shall see how that one works out for me.
By the way, what are the differences between the first edition and the second revision? Would I gain anything by using rev 2?

Gambatte ne!

b0wz

Far as i can tell, the bios files from spinner, or equito (both my hero's in the modd'ed bios stuffs) are up to date factory bios files, but with the up to date sata stuff that Gigabyte leaves old. I have both, a via kt400 and Nforce ultra board, one runs raid 0, and the other just runs a raptor and a archive (both sata). There is a huge difference in the old sata sil flash, and drivers. Neither one of my boards worked with the old stuff sata wise, at least not right. Now they both let me do the sata thing, the way it was suppose to be.

Marticus

By up-to-date you mean the latest firmware from the gigabyte site or something newer than that? This bios works for both the old board and the second revision? I don't know what is different except for the passive NB cooling on the second vs the fan on the first.

b0wz

the latest bios, minus the the newest sil. controler drivers and bios, thanks gigabyte.....i beleive what they do, spinner and equito, is add the latest sil. controller (flash) if i am getting this right, to the latest factory bios. I have two gigabyte boards in two systems, one is a kt 400 chipset, but the other is a Nforce ultra rev. 2

Marticus

Okay, well, I received another blue screen last night before I went to sleep. This damn board is unstable as hell. Also, I looked up the rev 2 bios, aparently the FF is two releases out of date and is different from the bios for rev 1. How muhc of a pain in the ass would it be to update with the sil firmware the FI and perhaps F11 for the older board? Spinner? My other question was to know if the iTE controller firmware can also be upgraded. Why did they ever switch from promise to iTE anyway? I was quite content with my last board. I should have stayed with it after I upgraded the memory. No, I had to have the dual channel memory... worst mistake of my life.