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    Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

    My board is hanging randomly (running Win7 Pro / Ubuntu). Sometimes it just restarts as if the computer were turned off and then right back on. Other times Win7 locks up hard, and only the reset button (or power button) works. Lockups happen at random times, it does not matter how long the computer has been running.

    My PSU is a Seasonic M12-II Bronze Evo edition. It is probably in use for only a year. I have a UPS that is only a few months old, and a surge suppressor on the circuit breaker panel in my house.

    Right now, the board has never failed in Ubuntu, but I have only run Ubuntu for a short time (1%) compared to Windows (99%).

    Which is more likely - a PSU problem or a motherboard problem? I don't overclock and have plenty of ventilation.

    System:
    Gigabyte 970A-UD3 motherboard, 16 GB RAM
    AMD Athlon 8150 CPU
    Original BARAM CPU cooler with generic fan
    Gigabyte 6770 PCI-E video (completely passive cooled with giant fins, but I added a 120mm fan)
    some wifi card, maybe ASUS PCI-N15
    Samsung 850 EVO 480GB SSD
    (I think I have a Sound Blaster AUDIGY2 plugged in but it is not really being used)


    These lockups and restarts began only a day or two ago. Any help is greatly appreciated - I can't keep up my financial records if my spreadsheet (and computer) randomly freezes!

    EDIT: I thought this was related to upgrading my router, but that doesn't make sense. Router failure would make Windows throw a 'network not reachable' message. I thought a recent Firefox update could cause this, but that that would still let me go to Win7 task manager and kill FF. And since some of the freezes were restarts, this points to a problem bigger than the OS - a hardware problem.
    Last edited by Hondaman; 10-24-2016, 05:45 PM.

    #2
    Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

    Run Memtest86+ a few passes and report back your results.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

      Thank you! I'll try that and post the results. It might take a week because of my busy schedule, but I'll run it.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

        I switched from the Seasonic PSU to the OCZ Mod X-Stream Pro 600. The lockups and reboots stopped happening. I ran memtest for 12+ hours. When I returned to my house, memtest said the memory had passed.

        This weekend I'll wire in one more exhaust fan, near the VRM area. Then I'll put the cover back on the tower case.

        I should not have lockups from a high quality PSU. But I am glad we found the problem.


        Thanks!

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

          Originally posted by Hondaman View Post
          I switched from the Seasonic PSU to the OCZ Mod X-Stream Pro 600. The lockups and reboots stopped happening. I ran memtest for 12+ hours. When I returned to my house, memtest said the memory had passed.

          This weekend I'll wire in one more exhaust fan, near the VRM area. Then I'll put the cover back on the tower case.

          I should not have lockups from a high quality PSU. But I am glad we found the problem.


          Thanks!
          I got that PSU.
          http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg305.pdf

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

            Originally posted by Hondaman View Post
            I switched from the Seasonic PSU to the OCZ Mod X-Stream Pro 600. The lockups and reboots stopped happening. I ran memtest for 12+ hours. When I returned to my house, memtest said the memory had passed.

            This weekend I'll wire in one more exhaust fan, near the VRM area. Then I'll put the cover back on the tower case.

            I should not have lockups from a high quality PSU. But I am glad we found the problem.


            Thanks!
            I've some Seasonic's with bloated caps, but these seem to be a bit different. The EVO series seems to have problems with the output coils. There's quite a few complaints of DOA units.

            Since this is a good PSU, I'd open the cover, post some pics and let's see what we find.

            System instability is usually caused though by ripple in the line from bad caps, however there are a lot of other things like unstable voltages can cause this. If I were you, I'd open it and see what you find, you've got nothing to lose.
            Popcorn.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

              The 870A had a bug where the computer crashed at 1333mhz speed. If you get the crash again, try reducing it to 1066mhz.
              "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

              -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                Update: Another nearly identical board (UD3 or UD3P) died in November 2017, after only one year of use. (fans didn't come on "extra fast" for the first 2 seconds. No "single beep". Monitor did not wake up.) Changing PSU, OS and maybe the wireless card made it "flaky" or "not flaky". So I think it was the board. Two theories:

                1. Look at the reviews for the GA-970A UD3 and GA-970A UD3P on Newegg. Later revisions of the UD3 have worse reviews. Poor soldering?

                2. The board was only made for a 120W CPU. I was using a 120W CPU. Perhaps running the board "to its limits" took some time off its life.

                Sorry for not posting sooner. I switched to a board board rated for up to a 220W AMD CPU, and the VRM area runs cooler.
                Last edited by Hondaman; 02-27-2018, 06:33 AM.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                  Originally posted by Hondaman View Post
                  Update: Another nearly identical board (UD3 or UD3P) died in November 2017, after only one year of use. (fans didn't come on "extra fast" for the first 2 seconds. No "single beep". Monitor did not wake up.) Changing PSU, OS and maybe the wireless card made it "flaky" or "not flaky". So I think it was the board. Two theories:

                  1. Look at the reviews for the GA-970A UD3 and GA-970A UD3P on Newegg. Later revisions of the UD3 have worse reviews. Poor soldering?

                  2. The board was only made for a 120W CPU. I was using a 120W CPU. Perhaps running the board "to its limits" took some time off its life.

                  Sorry for not posting sooner. I switched to a board board rated for up to a 220W AMD CPU, and the VRM area runs cooler.
                  Thanks for the update... I'm playing around with an M3A78-EM which is still working well.

                  Don't forget to hack the BIOS with the latest microcodes and OROMs, as Gigabyte probably abandoned it years ago.
                  "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

                  -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                    Originally posted by mockingbird View Post
                    The 870A had a bug where the computer crashed at 1333mhz speed.
                    Really?! That sounds like a bug I would expect with a DDR 3 socket 775 motherboard, LOL.
                    ASRock B550 PG Velocita

                    Ryzen 9 "Vermeer" 5900X

                    16 GB AData XPG Spectrix D41

                    Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 6750 XT

                    eVGA Supernova G3 750W

                    Western Digital Black SN850 1TB NVMe SSD

                    Alienware AW3423DWF OLED




                    "¡Me encanta "Me Encanta o Enlistarlo con Hilary Farr!" -Mí mismo

                    "There's nothing more unattractive than a chick smoking a cigarette" -Topcat

                    "Today's lesson in pissivity comes in the form of a ziplock baggie full of GPU extension brackets & hardware that for the last ~3 years have been on my bench, always in my way, getting moved around constantly....and yesterday I found myself in need of them....and the bastards are now nowhere to be found! Motherfracker!!" -Topcat

                    "did I see a chair fly? I think I did! Time for popcorn!" -ratdude747

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                      Clarification: The original post (and post #3 and #4) complained about Gigabyte board #1. It lasted several years. A month after the original post, it died (around Thanksgiving holiday, late November 2016). Gigabyte board #2 and #3 were NIB (new in box) and DOA (dead), so I immediately installed board #4 (I think that was the only UD3-P). It lasted a year, until late November 2017.

                      (Board #2 and board #3 could not be returned because they were eBay, and sitting on my shelf for a while.)

                      Now I have the AsRock GA-970/3.1. The same chipset, RAM, CPU, hard drives, etc. as the other board, so I can use the same Windows 7 license. Also, the VRM area is made for 220 watts. It is cooler than the Gigabyte VRM area when powering my AMD 8150 CPU.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                        Hmmm... I wonder if it's the AMD (NB) chipset that is dying. Seems like many socket AM2 board and later with their chipset became a lot less reliable.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Gigabyte GA-970 UD3

                          Originally posted by RJARRRPCGP View Post
                          Really?! That sounds like a bug I would expect with a DDR 3 socket 775 motherboard, LOL.
                          Yes. Absolutely. The crash was completely unpredictable. The system could be running perfectly fine for days and then all of the sudden experience a BSOD. Took me months to trace it down to that.
                          "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

                          -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

                          Comment

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