gigabyte MA785GM-US2H and BIOS F12A

[profJim]

I'm very impressed with Asus' approach with their "no dead pixel" policy. Even one dead or bright pixel during the warranty period will be covered under the warranty. Now you don't have live with bad pixels if the number of bad pixels is less than a certain amount. I think that I paid about $225 - $250 for my monitor and now similar Asus monitors are in the mid $150 price range.
BTW, you've been a very bad boy by not including your detailed hardware setup in your forum signature.
Some forum member include details for two or three of their computer systems.
Using a gaudy signature color scheme is not necessary.
I like to think of my signature as tastefully over the edge.

**edit** I just noticed that you have 23 visitors viewing your thread right now, wanna charge and admission fee?

[rtalcott]

Well...I'm a hardware junkie..a detailed listing would take too much space! I regularly troll for throw away hardware...working or not...fix it...put Linux on it and give it away to anyone who needs a computer but may not be able to buy one.... so I have LOTS of stuff flowing through here and I have always collected hardware..but...I did add a bit of the inventory to the signature...I prefer LOTS of cheap hardware to a lesser number of more exotic stuff...hardware changes so fast...OTOH I have a really nice working collection of classic HP, Textronix & Fluke metrology and power supplies...it ain't new and digital but it's great for my vacuum tube audio stuff!

I started out with toggle switches and paper tape on a PDP-8...things have come a long way...

I mostly use the 1920x1200 display which is on my primary machine which for some strange reason has the slowest cpu and the oldest version of Ubuntu that I am currently running. I think this display is 25.5" diagonal and it's a nice size for documents or spreadsheets...drawings etc...or if I'm running something in a VM I can make the window large enough to be useful. I've been 100% Linux for going on 6 years and I could NOT imagine going back to Windows....right now I'm working with a couple very early stage tech start-ups trying to get them going and if we do I am going to strongly push to be non-Windows from the beginning.

Hopefully I can stumble on to a solution to this BIOS problem. I suspect that someone has run into it...probably would help me with gigabyte if I could find someone else having the same problem.
rt

[profJim]

Have you tried booting using an optical drive and the F12A bios?
I know that you want to use a USB for booting, but the optical test might be worthwhile.

Going a little further off topic:

Quite a few years ago, when Red Hat was THE distribution to have, I bought the retail version (with manuals) to install on my system. Needless to say, I never got around to installing it.

I just had to check out Metrology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Maybe metrology can help answer the age old question: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I like old stuff too.

After checking out your blog, I'll mention my Newegg hardware upgrade order I placed this morning. About 4+ years ago, I bought a brand new, discontinued Canon PowerShot A620 7 MP digital camera on close-out. It has been a superb full featured "budget" camera that was rated as best in class by several top tier digital camera review sites. Some of its features include:

• 7.1 MP
• 4x optical zoom
• 35 - 140 mm (35 mm equiv.)
• F2.8 - F4.1 (wide). F4.1 - F8.0 (tele)
• 1cm macro mode (Wide), 25cm (Tele)
• 1/1.8" Type CCD
• Vari-angle LCD screen (swing out, tilt and swivel mount)
• Real Image Optical Viewfinder
• optional partial or full manual mode

The maximum file size for a single movie clip is 1 GB, and 2GB is the largest size SD card that can be used. The A620 is still going strong, but the 4x optical zoom is too limiting for my scenic photography. I was thinking of buying the 1.75x Canon tele-converter to boost the optical zoom to 7x, but found it hard to justify spending about $125 for the converter lens and adapter ring. I've been looking at buying a new budget optical mega-zoom camera, but didn't want to give up any of the A620's features. To make a long story a little bit longer, I found my almost ideal digital camera:
Panasonic DMC-FZ47K Digital Camera, major features include:

• 12.1 MP
• 24X Optical Zoom
• 25 - 600 mm (35 mm equiv.)
• Optical Image Stabilization
• 1cm macro mode (Wide)
• 1080i (not P) movie recording
• SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card

It has every feature I want except for the articulating LCD screen.
For $250 - $300 more, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ150 has an articulated LCD screen, a couple of significant performance enhancements and several additional features. With my new "aim 'n shoot" camera, I have no doubt that I'll be able to get a really nice close up photo of Bambi hiding in the woods. An added bonus will be making small reptiles look like they're Godzilla. Too bad I don't have a 3D HDTV to display pseudo 3D photos that I will be able to shoot.

In today's Newegg Holiday Bargain Hunter email, the DMC-FZ47K is available for one more day with a $35 promo code discount off of their already low price. An added bonus; the camera has free shipping and their "Iron Egg" 60-Day Return & Price Guarantee. My new camera will cost about $18 more than I originally paid for my A620. I also bought 2 x 16 GB Mushkin class 10 SDHC memory cards and a Kingston SDXC compatible multi-card reader. An SDXC memory card would have been nice, but I really didn't want to spend about $100 for a single 48 GB or 64GB SDXC memory card. I suppose that if 24x optical still isn't enough, I can always buy a 2x tele-converter four years from now.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program, unless of course you feel the need to argue the merits of using an ancient high end, audiophile tube-type setup instead of the modern, "inferior" digital hardware.

Digital isn't necessarily inferior, maybe you can buy a really nice, used IPS monitor from someone who feels the need to have the latest and greatest hardware.

**edit**

...I prefer LOTS of cheap hardware to a lesser number of more exotic stuff...

There is a certain quality to quantity. (source unknown)

[rtalcott]

An A620? That's what I used for the blog photos...I bought one end of life for the same reasons you did....it was a nice optimum package...I like that Panasonic too...exactly which NewEgg email had the coupon? I could not find it in the ones I have...I looked at upgrading some time ago but I could not find anything inexpensive with a real viewfinder...the LCD is useless outside in bright light and takes way to long to use...I really do not know what it is good for...I am tempted by the Panasonic...with the $35 off that's a stunning deal...that camera is VERY nice...reminds me of my gigabyte boards...inexpensive BUT has all the features that I want, need and use. I wonder if the NewEgg emails are custom and mine didn't include the Panasonic...the only issue I have with the Canon is that I would like more wide angle since I do a lot of outdoors photos...the equivalent of a 28 mm on a 35 mm camera would be nice..better yet a 24 mm lens....I am also noticing that the coating on the lens is starting to delaminate...doers not seem to be showing up on the photos but it's a concern...

If the weather isn't too bad I may be out hiking today...with the right conditions of clouds + sun + snow there could be some good photos....did run into a Mother bear + cub once but we retreated so quickly I didn't have time for a picture....we were not willing to count on Mom's sense of humor!

I believe the machine will boot from a usb ROM...and I may end of going that route on a machine that I don't plan on using as a sandbox. I'm constantly playing with BSD & Solaris and running Ubuntu Alphas etc and it's convenient to run in a virtual machine but eventually it's nice to do a real install...the other thing I want to play with is Asterisk which is an open source digital PBX for VoIP...there is a nice package for that based on CentOS ( Nerd Vittles ). At this point Linux has come a LONG way...I started playing with early Red Hat in the mid 90's and it was (to me) a science project...barely got it running...got serious again in 2005 and by Ubuntu 6.10 (Oct. 2006) I was 100% Linux...there is a learning curve but the OS is much more solid than anything Microsoft AND your hardware doesn't get old...so the software budget goes to $0 which allows more fun with hardware and yes I do agree ( and very much like the saying) "there is quality to quantity!"....the gigabytes were $59 + free shipping from NewEgg.....4 ddr2 slots which I require..5 (6?) sataII, 1 IDE and a digital audio out which I also require and a complete set of video out's + an onboard AMD/ATI 4200 which works for me....can't complain...I'd like to find an AM3 board with ddr3 with those features that cheap...

back on the off track track...Ubuntu is a fairly easy install now and even better than Windows because everything comes on a downloadable LiveCD ( Download | Ubuntu )...or burn it to flash...boot it up and use it without touching your hard drive and run..it's slower from the cd/flash but it's there...a great way to try...I like the desktop much more and I have had an easy time with all the installs on either my hardware (gigabyte and ecs + an old P4 soyo) as well as all the junk I've been given...HP, eMachines and a bunch of white box stuff. It's also great that an install is 30-45 minutes (assuming a reasonable internet connection) and 1 reboot....no serial numbers to put in and that's a complete install...as in OS + Office + just about everything else you could imagine at a cost of $0...if you run across an older working machine that is going to be tossed that's a great candidate for an install...my Soyo has a 3 GHz hyperthreaded P4 and it's running 12.04 Alpha and it is reasonably fast...it's not an engineering workstation but for everyday home/office use it would be fine...Linux seems to get faster....12.04 Alpha is significantly faster than 11.10 which I had running on that machine...that board is close to 8 years old...if you are a gamer then Windows is the solution...Linux has come a long way even in the last 5 years I've been using it BUT there is a learning curve and it does require more out of the system admin than Windows but I've found it to be faster and more stable than XP which was the last Microsoft OS I've had extensive experience with...limited experience with Vista and I was really unimpressed...I loaded 7 in a Virtual Machine and played with it...wasn't interesting enough to put time into...developer edition of 8...that was ugly...MAC 10 whatever OS in a Virtual Machine also not interesting...Open Solaris is a really different world..same for BSD...steep learning..I think BSD is worth the effort..it should be great for infrastructure if I ever get a start-up going...

I like my vacuum tubes AND analog reel to reel recorders although I listen to digital every day out of the PC...take the digital out into an outboard digital to analog converter and into an amp ( a slightly tweaked Hafler xl-280 solid state) and streaming sounds quite good....but there is nothing like those glowing glass bulbs!

[rtalcott]

No hiking today....my hiking buddy has too much to do...so...upgraded the last machine...this one...to F9 from F5...this is the first board of the four...the oldest rev. 1 motherboard. Took the flash...rebooted to Optimum Settings...turned on Virtualization and tried booting a flash disk with an Ubuntu LiveCD on it...the machine recognized the drive and booted ubuntu from flash...all machines are now at F9 and I see an AMD Phenom 965...which is the fastest cpu this BIOS will support...are getting harder to find...NewEgg had them at $129 but they no longer carry them..

[cank]

Just thought I'd let you know I was having the same problem with my Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H that I am trying to turn into an HTPC running OpenELEC XBMC. I was going to use an old copy of Vista but wanted something lighter. Anyway, I have a Rev. 1.0 board and could not boot from USB.

I Flashed to BIOS F9 using Q-Flash from a usb drive (which I was surprised worked) that showed up as Floppy B, or Disk B??
Made sure I loaded Optimum settings and turned on Virtualization, then made sure first boot drive was USB-HDD.
Restart into F12 boot menu but USB still not visible, however, when I ESC, it began to Boot from USB driver!!!!

I also had two USB sticks:
Micro 512 MB cruzer
Patriot 4 GB XT
The Patriot could not be recognized in the BIOS(to flash or to Boot from) not matter how I formatted it.
The Micro was reformatted to FAT32 in Win 7 and worked to Flash the BIOS and Boot from.

Thanks for the great info.

[Lsdmeasap]

Nice to hear you eventually got evertthing going the way you wanted!

Thanks for posting your USB info for others. If you leave first boot device set to your normal OS hard drive, you can just use F12 and choose HDD+ and then you'll see your USB on the next screen as long as Legacy USB Storage is enabled in integrated peripherals. Ya, some USB sticks just are not compatible, often it's the larger ones.

[rtalcott]

THANK YOU! Mr. C! This is a great hint and I will see if it works for me...F12A gives me access to many more cpus but I need my ability to boot from usb on 4 of these boards..one rev 1, two rev 1.1 and one rev 1.3.

Again...Thank You!
rt

Just thought I'd let you know I was having the same problem with my Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H that I am trying to turn into an HTPC running OpenELEC XBMC. I was going to use an old copy of Vista but wanted something lighter. Anyway, I have a Rev. 1.0 board and could not boot from USB.

I Flashed to BIOS F9 using Q-Flash from a usb drive (which I was surprised worked) that showed up as Floppy B, or Disk B??
Made sure I loaded Optimum settings and turned on Virtualization, then made sure first boot drive was USB-HDD.
Restart into F12 boot menu but USB still not visible, however, when I ESC, it began to Boot from USB driver!!!!

I also had two USB sticks:
Micro 512 MB cruzer
Patriot 4 GB XT
The Patriot could not be recognized in the BIOS(to flash or to Boot from) not matter how I formatted it.
The Micro was reformatted to FAT32 in Win 7 and worked to Flash the BIOS and Boot from.

Thanks for the great info.