E5200 R0 support for GA-EG45M-UD2H?

[Pirppuli]

Hello,

I just built a new HTPC using Gigabyte's GA-EG45M-UD2H motherboard and an Intel E5200 stepping R0 processor. I updated the BIOS to the latest available version (F3) when putting the computer together. Everything is running at rated speeds and voltages (no OC).

From the start the computer has suffered from seemingly random reboots about every 30 mins to a few hours or so. No BSODs, it just reboots. Memtest86+ and Orthos don't report any errors. Also, I see exceedingly high DPC latencies (normally 300 us to 1000 us, spiking to 4000 us), which causes stuttering in DVB video, under Vista 32-bit. 64-bit seems a lot better, though.

After noticing that the E5200 stepping R0 is not on the mb's CPU support list, I replaced the CPU temporarily with my old E6700 C2D. So far, with the E6700 all problems seem gone. When can I expect a BIOS update for the motherboard with support for the R0 stepping of E5200?

TIA,

Pirppuli

[Lsdmeasap]

How long are you running Memtest and Orthos?

What is your full specs and the settings you are using, maybe I can see something off causing your Random reboots

*Pre-Post EDIT*

Sorry, I reply as I read. I see you narrowed it down!!!

I will ask My Contacts about this for you, if I do not reply back to here or PM you within a few days please PM me to remind me to see what they have replied to me about this.

Email has been sent to my Contact, I'll keep you informed

[Lsdmeasap]

They replied that it should be ok, but they will test it out as soon as they have time (Busy lately with getting ready for P55)

So is there anyway you can test this CPU in another board to be sure it is ok?

[Pirppuli]

Lsdmeasap,

Thanks for all your help so far. Unfortunately, I don't have another MB I could test the CPU with. The Abit AW9D-Max I use with the E6700 is too old to have proper support for 45 nm CPU's.

This is the system configuration:

MB: Gigabyte EG45M-UD2H w/ BIOS F3
CPU: Intel Dual Core E5200 Stepping R0 (sSpec SLB9T)
Memory: Kingston Valueram 4GB (2x2048MB) 800MHZ DDR2 (KVR800D2N5K2/4G) running in dual channel mode
Case: SilverStone Milo ML02B-MXR
PSU: External 120 W brick included with the case
HSF: Silverstone Nitrogon NT07-775 Low profile
HDD: QNAP TS-439 over gPXE/iSCSI
Optical drive: Samsung Super WriteMaster SN-S082H/BEBe Slim DVD+/-RW Drive
TV tuner: TechniSat CableStar HD 2 DVB-C PCI
OS: Windows Vista x86 & x64 SP2 (tried both)

The system draws about 45-90 watts depending on load (measured at the plug).

Last weekend I rechecked all the cables connecting to the MB - I even temporarily disconnected the reset switch - and did a longer test run with the old processor. After ~18 hours the system rebooted. I suppose that takes the CPU out of the equation. Too bad it takes so long for the reboots to occur.

After the last run I manually set PCIe frequency to 100 MHz, tRFC to 57, and upped MCH core to 1.3 V, as suggested in another post. All these setting were previously on "Auto". Now I'll just have to wait to see if it's stable. What troubles me is that the system itself gives me no clues as to what happens. There's nothing shown on the screen or recorded into the system event log.

Last things to test:

1. a real internal HDD
2. another PSU
3. memory: I have 2x1GB G.Skill PC6400 I could try
4. disconnect the DVB-C card to see if it makes a difference, although I think I already tried this

[Lsdmeasap]

PSU included with the case may be part of the issue? I NEVER Suggest using those, maybe if only for a week or so while you waited on a proper supply to arrive. Not sure at all if this would be the issue or not, but I do suggest you not use a free PSU that comes with any case.

Hmm, you say real internal Hard drive? Does this mean you are running your system from an external drive? If so, that could be another big issue, something again not suggested as those should be used for storage only really.

Yes, I would remove the DVB-C Card to see if this is an issue as well, many random cards can cause random issues so I would for sure test to see if this is an issue.

[Lsdmeasap]

Official report from the BIOS Engineers is in.

They have tested some R0 CPU's and they say this is not the issue and that the BIOS's have supported those CPU's for some time now, they just have not updated the CPU Support list I suppose.

So at least now you can rest assured it is not the CPU that is incompatible. Hopefully you can narrow it down with this information and maybe some of my thoughts above.

Good luck, and if you have any further info to provide about your testing maybe I can help you more to try and narrow it down. Hope you can get another PSU to test with, and an internal drive as well if you did indeed have your OS on that external one.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

[Pirppuli]

A quick update to let you know the outcome of all the testing I did. I'm fairly confident that the problems I had came from having to copy the Vista system image from a physical hard drive to the iSCSI target (installation would not continue, I would only get "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk." when trying to select the iSCSI disk). Apparently, the Gigabyte BIOS does not provide the same support for network drives as my old AW9D does. I had to disable Vista paging executive manually in the registry to make the system run stably.

After the crashes were sorted out, I concentrated on getting the best media playback from the board with Vista x64 & MediaPortal. EVR appeared unusable because of constant stuttering even with ReClock enabled. VMR9 worked better - I still had a small stutter every second or so - but it does not provide HWA. I tested the video with the latest Gigabyte driver and later ones that Intel released, and even an internal HDD instead of the iSCSI one: no differences. Plus, MediaPortal has bad issues with newer BDA drivers, which makes using Vista x64 & 4 gigs of memory challenging. So, back to the drawing board.

I purchased a GA-E7AUM-DS2H MB, which I knew I could use with Win XP (on an internal quiet HDD) and still get HWA. I've not finished configuring it fully, yet, but so far the video playback looks much better than on the GA-EG45M-UD2H. The only "problem" I have is that the integrated graphics seems to reserve over 1 gig of RAM for its own use. If I select 256 MB for it in BIOS, I only have about 2.3 gigs left for the OS & programs. The same thing happens is Vista x86, as well.

Maybe I'll give the GA-EG45M-UD2H another try when the BIOS and drivers mature a bit more.

Thanks for all your help. :)

[tamiroquai]

Hi there,

I am have the same MB, with qx9650 cpu. I installed hauppauge hvr-1200 (dvb-t) card and suddenly started getting these sporadic reboots.
If I moved the card to the peg slot, it stopped rebooting, but I lost ability to use DVI/HDMI
I got response from GIGABYTE, and they said it might be compatibility with the TV card. I then purchased another card, this time from GIGABYTE (thinking that they have to be compatible with them self, and Oops I still get those restarts every few minutes.
If I don't open the media center with a TV channel, then I don't get these restarts.
Any suggestion, I am lost here...
Please help
I read in this thread the you disabled paging or so to get it stable, is that right? how do I do that

Appreciate any help

[tamiroquai]

btw, I have the same kingston memory dimms, I run win7, My BIOS is F3 and I downloaded all newest drivers.
suggestions?

[Lsdmeasap]

Gigabyte sells TV cards? Can you link me to a model online?