Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

[momaka]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

This is now starting to look like a memory controller issue. What I mean is a problem physically between the mem slots and the cpu socket or pins, could also be electrical in nature too. Based on what you described it is booting properly but loses the sequence just at the point where the ODD boot info would be loaded into RAM, hence the freeze.

Could be.

But what about using the SATA HDD and using an PATA (IDE) optical drive? Give that combo a try just to see if the same thing happens or not.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

But what about using the SATA HDD and using an PATA (IDE) optical drive? Give that combo a try just to see if the same thing happens or not.

Have done that already! - The DVD drive that i used, to install XP, was a PATA drive.
From post #33:

Finally installed XP x64 on SATA drive and couldn't get it to fault while running my checksum app on those two video files that are located on the IDE drive - So it appeard that the SATA ports were OK

No booting problem (or display problem) was experienced, that is, until the PATA drive was removed, and the SATA drive failed to boot all the way into windows (i.e. the welcome screen).

i, just now, have only the SATA hard drive and the PATA optical drive connected, and it loads the Windows XP DVD no problem (tested this four times).
Now continue installing windows.

[momaka]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Have done that already! - The DVD drive that i used, to install XP, was a PATA drive.
From post #33:

Ah okay.
I thought what you meant in post #33 was that you installed Windows from the DVD drive onto the SATA HDD, but kept the PATA HDD as well for the test video files and it all went bad when you took out the PATA HDD.
But I understand now.

So now that you installed Windows for a second time on the SATA HDD... does is still refuse to boot if you remove/disconnect the PATA optical after installation?

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Ok,
After the computer accidentally got switched off after 3 hours of the XP install disk formatting a 10 gig partition, and then at least another 6 hours of formatting (before i went to sleep), i moved it on to the copy files stage, and none of the files would copy, and i got an error message about no hard drive.
So rebooted into BIOS and this was confirmed.
Turned it off and removed cable from SATA1, into SATA0 port
Rebooted, and SATA drive was detected in BIOS.
Rebooted into PATA DVD drive and, this time, ignored the warning about installing XP in a partition that already contains another windows installation.
(So apparently it didn't format the drive after all of that?)

Finally got XP installed, and then installed the checksum app, and plugged in a USB stick with the video files.
Ran the app on those files.
The video faulted in a similar fashion as before.
On 6 successive reboots and running the same test, no fault whatsoever was observed.

Just out of curiosity, (and possibly unrelated) i then turned off the machine and plugged the SATA drive into SATA1, and, after booting, i got the message: "windows cannot start because hal.dll is missing or corrupt"
Then i plugged it back into SATA0 and got the same message.
How can swapping the drive from one SATA port, to the other, cause it to become "corrupted"?
Then i put the XP disk in, ignored the "press any key to boot from CD" prompt, and windows started normally.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

We need to know if the problem is a hardware or software issue.
Reflash the BIOS with a newly downloaded copy for that version of board but do not put the flasher or bios file on any other drive other than a floppy disk. Use drdflash.exe to make a dos bootable disk and then copy the flasher and bios file to the disk.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Ok,
After the computer accidentally got switched off after 3 hours of the XP install disk formatting a 10 gig partition, and then at least another 6 hours of formatting (before i went to sleep), i moved it on to the copy files stage, and none of the files would copy, and i got an error message about no hard drive.

WAS THE DRIVE YOU WERE COPYING TO PATA OR SATA?


So rebooted into BIOS and this was confirmed.
Turned it off and removed cable from SATA1, into SATA0 port
Rebooted, and SATA drive was detected in BIOS.

CORRECT.

Rebooted into PATA DVD drive and, this time, ignored the warning about installing XP in a partition that already contains another windows installation.
(So apparently it didn't format the drive after all of that?)

Finally got XP installed, and then installed the checksum app, and plugged in a USB stick with the video files.

WHAT DRIVE WAS XP INSTALLED ON, PATA OR SATA?

Ran the app on those files.
The video faulted in a similar fashion as before.
On 6 successive reboots and running the same test, no fault whatsoever was observed.

Just out of curiosity, (and possibly unrelated) i then turned off the machine and plugged the SATA drive into SATA1, and, after booting, i got the message: "windows cannot start because hal.dll is missing or corrupt"
Then i plugged it back into SATA0 and got the same message.
How can swapping the drive from one SATA port, to the other, cause it to become "corrupted"?
Then i put the XP disk in, ignored the "press any key to boot from CD" prompt, and windows started normally.

Are you using the SATA drive in IDE MODE? If not then you would need to install SATA drivers at the time of install by pressing the F6 key in order to load the sata drivers.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Are you using the SATA drive in IDE MODE

Yes i am - the other BIOS option is RAID, and i don't want RAID (Although i did try installing the VIA VT8237 SATA RAID preinstall driver, from http://www.gigabyte.co.nz/products/p...id=1919#driver using F6 and a floppy, but they were not recognized)

Reflash the BIOS with a newly downloaded copy for that version of board but do not put the flasher or bios file on any other drive other than a floppy disk. Use drdflash.exe to make a dos bootable disk and then copy the flasher and bios file to the disk.

Just done that.
Although it was previously successfully flashed before, using @BIOS, and again with a normal startup disk.
What difference would it make using drdflash.exe instead?

WAS THE DRIVE YOU WERE COPYING TO PATA OR SATA?

SATA

WHAT DRIVE WAS XP INSTALLED ON, PATA OR SATA?

The same SATA drive as above.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

One thing that could cause the HDD sata or pata to not boot right would be the Master Boot Record on the drives. You should wipe the drives clean, zero-fill before reinstalling the OS each time because switching from one port to the other can cause corrupt MBR.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

The windows installation was not completing, it would halt, and give message about not being able to copy a file, with the option to ignore it. (and ignoring it, gave the same type of message for all subsequent files)
So i did as you suggested.
i used DOS KillDisk, on a USB stick, to wipe the SATA drive successfully.
When i tried the USB windows version of KillDisk - not long after the app eventually loaded, the video faulted.
So i plugged in a different hard drive, this time a different PATA drive - Same deal as above.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

The windows installation was not completing, it would halt, and give message about not being able to copy a file, with the option to ignore it. (and ignoring it, gave the same type of message for all subsequent files)
So i did as you suggested.
i used DOS KillDisk, on a USB stick, to wipe the SATA drive successfully.
When i tried the USB windows version of KillDisk - not long after the app eventually loaded, the video faulted.
So i plugged in a different hard drive, this time a different PATA drive - Same deal as above.

What is the make and model of the PSU that you are using on that motherboard and have you checked the caps in it?

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Have tried 3 different PSU's - that don't cause any problem with the other same model board that i have, and all voltages are within spec.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Have tried 3 different PSU's - that don't cause any problem with the other same model board that i have, and all voltages are within spec.

Have you recapped the other same model board?
Some photos of the bad board would be nice.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

The windows installation was not completing, it would halt, and give message about not being able to copy a file, with the option to ignore it. (and ignoring it, gave the same type of message for all subsequent files)
So i did as you suggested.
i used DOS KillDisk, on a USB stick, to wipe the SATA drive successfully.
When i tried the USB windows version of KillDisk - not long after the app eventually loaded, the video faulted.
So i plugged in a different hard drive, this time a different PATA drive - Same deal as above.

Interesting. The exact same thing happened to me while attempting to install Windows 7 on my Dell Optiplex 960 that has only SATA ports and no PATA IDE. I had to be sure to use the Legacy Mode to boot from the SATA optical drive. I would get the same copy fail error as you described above. That problem cleared up for after installing the SATA drivers while in the Windows OS after install.

Do you have a SATA optical drive to pair up with the SATA HDD? Curious to see what goes on with same types of matched hardware.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Have you recapped the other same model board?

No - It still has the original caps and is working fine: MBZ on the input, KZG on the output (so that's opposite of the faulty board) and all the 1000uf caps are MBZ, just like on the other motherboard.

Do you have a SATA optical drive to pair up with the SATA HDD? Curious to see what goes on with same types of matched hardware.

Tried that in post #36 and got intermittent problem as described - just tried again and got the same issue. Briefly put, the process can take more than a handful of restarts until it progresses to the "press any key to boot from cd" prompt rather than stalling that "boot from cd" line above and before it.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

No - It still has the original caps and is working fine: MBZ on the input, KZG on the output (so that's opposite of the faulty board) and all the 1000uf caps are MBZ, just like on the other motherboard.

Tried that in post #36 and got intermittent problem as described - just tried again and got the same issue. Briefly put, the process can take more than a handful of restarts until it progresses to the "press any key to boot from cd" prompt rather than stalling that "boot from cd" line above and before it.

In your #36 post in the last paragraph you were describing power off function of front panel on switch was erradict. I think you have a bad switch and should try to replace it. That would cause the restart problems you are having. I never did care much for those tiny switches because they ware out easily.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

I think you have a bad switch and should try to replace it

That has effectively being done - because i originally had another board https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showth...374#post642374 in the case and the switch was faulty, and the motherboard died.
Then i replaced it with a power switch that tested good and put the other (good) K8VM800M board into it, and it ran with no problems.
Then the other K8VM800M that was in another case, started to develop it's video fault, so i swapped these two boards out of their cases, in order to see if the video fault would disappear.
The fault persisted.
Since there is a video AND an IDE/SATA issue, and assuming the these two issues are connected, i'm thinking that the problem is somewhere either in the vicinity of the north bridge or the memory controller.

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

Have you replaced the tim under the Northbridge heatsink with fresh?

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

I do not know how many or how much experience you have in soldering caps on motherboards but you can try to reflow more solder to the caps that you replaced. Sometimes the top layer does not get completely heated well. Also you are having both Northbridge and Southbridge issues. This suggests a common connection wich could be PSU related such as Under/Over voltages, Ripple (RF Noise), Unsteady varying voltages.

[socketa]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

All of the output caps are connected in series - i checked continuity.
Not super awesome at soldering caps, but am OK, and have a hot enough station.
Stable output to CPU at 1.4V
i don't have an oscilloscope to measure ripple

No, i haven't replaced the TIM, and don't see what difference it would make, because it is firmly attached (thermal adhesive?) and gets roughly to the same temp as the one on the good board (which is luke-warm).

[Sparkey55]

Re: Gigabyte K8VM800M - What's causing this video problem?

All of the output caps are connected in series - i checked continuity.
Not super awesome at soldering caps, but am OK, and have a hot enough station.
Stable output to CPU at 1.4V
i don't have an oscilloscope to measure ripple

No, i haven't replaced the TIM, and don't see what difference it would make, because it is firmly attached (thermal adhesive?) and gets roughly to the same temp as the one on the good board (which is luke-warm).

Do you mean in parallel?
The northbridge heatsink should come off it might need some heat to break the bond of the tim. Does it use those press-in pins or wire spring clips to attach to the board? If this is a VIA Chipset board then it will most likely have a recessed surface wich means that it takes a better and more amount of tim that what is put on at the factory. Additional cooling is always better for them.