Suggestions for replacement for Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mo-bo

[BionicJohn]

The issue is that on boot up, hard drive detection is erratic. I've changed the SATA cables but detection still seems to be as much miss as hit.

When the system's working, the HHDs all check out as healthy, so I'm suspecting the 4 year old mo-bo is on the way out.

[Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 0, SMART Status: Healthy
[Hard drive] (500.11 GB) -- drive 1, SMART Status: Healthy
[Hard drive] (640.13 GB) -- drive 2, SMART Status: Healthy

The mo-bo is a Gigabyte P35C-DS3R - last flash updated to F4 09/07/2007.

What I'm looking for is a newer replacement which will accept the essentials without problem, i.e.

Socket 775 for an Intel Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz processor
4Gb DDR3 RAM
NVidia GeForce 8600GTS vid card
Existing power supply
3 SATA hard drives and 2 DVD drives.

I'm being cheapskate as I've now retried with lots of time and little money!

So, what should I look at as straight swap for the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R (bar perhaps some new drivers)?

Cheers, John.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[rclarke250]

check this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128470

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121438

if you need 4 dimm slots, you don't say.

also have you given it any thought that is could be the power supply that's showing its age? You have a few things stacked on it. And you don't mention the size or brand of the power supply, something to check out at least.

 

[BionicJohn]

Cheers, rclarke250.

I'll check those models out and look for a UK supplier. Thanks.

I'm currently using 2 × 2Gb DDR3, so 2 slots is fine, but 4 gives some run for expanding.

I hadn't considered the 650W(?) power supply, though there's never been anything other than the SATA/IDE detection, and previously the on-board NIC which failed, to worry about. There's 6 or 7 USB devices attached plus two PCI cards including a more conventional NIC, and performance seems fine.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[FredWagner]

The USB devices pull power from the supply also.
If you disconnect the (external) USB devices, how does the drive detection at bootup work ? The 650W rating is total, but you may be pushing the limits on a couple of rails, or the USB bus.
I'm with RDClarke250, suspect the power supply.
If disconnecting the string of USB devices doesn't help, temporarily disconnect one or two of the SATA drives (if they're not RAID !), and see if the problem goes away. ? How old is the power supply? it might be that a new power supply of the same rating would work.

Fred Wagner

 

[FredWagner]

Another thought - are any of the external USB devices hard drives ?

Fred Wagner

 

[BionicJohn]

Funnily enough, it's booting up fine at the moment, and quickly.

USB devices at boot up:
LH Mouse
Canon Scanner
Logitech Camera
Two more USB ports on monitor
Bluetooth
Card reader
(No external USB hard drive)

3 HDDs and 2 DVD drvies.

No floppy disk drive.

http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

suggests my power requirements are under 400W.

The PSU is the same age as the mo-bo, say 4 years and a bit.


Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[FredWagner]

If it's working OK now, try to be aware of anything that changes when you have the problem. Could even be room temperature, humidity, or line voltage - perhaps sagging due to other loads in the vicinity.(Electic cooking appliances, air conditioners?) Are you using a UPS ? I've got a 650 (W or VA, don't remember!) unit from APC that was only $100 at Office Depot. My HP Tower PC $GB RAM, USB keyboard and mouse, only one HD and one DVD drive) and 20" LCD monitoronly pull 90 watts as indicated on the UPS monitoring software. A UPS that can monitor and compensate for line voltage variations, and provide a log, can be very useful.

Fred Wagner

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

Ebuyer is the best place and its generally cheap and delivery is excellent.

http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&store=2&cat=14&filtersubcat=658

ACSS - SME

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

for under 50 quid, you will be sorted.

ACSS - SME

 

[paparazi]

All the motherboards suggested thus far are small integrated mainboards, strickly budget and a step backwards from what you have presently installed.
Even though these boards are NEW they are based on older IC7 southbridge technology (yours is P35 board based on the IC9R southbridge)seems a shame to take a step 'backwards' in both form factor and chipset evolution.

Where abouts are you...I've still got my Asus P5W-DH Deluxe (which was removed and boxed up 2 years ago) this is a P45 ICH10R based motherboard next generation to yours, very high end 975X motherboard.
If you were in the UK.....seems a real waste sat in a box lol.

Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[BionicJohn]

I'm near Liverpool, between the Hoylake Lifeboat House and the Royal Liverpool Golf Course, less than 100m from the Irish Sea.

(Any one watch Candy Cabs? It was filmed in a neighbour's house -

)

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[rclarke250]

Actually Martin, my second suggestion is an intel board with an ICH10 based southbridge. I agree that the Gigabyte board is lower end, but I was looking at a cost effective replacement as the socket 775 technology is dead, and will only get more dead.

 

[hairlessupportmonkey]

follow my link to ebuyer, and there are loads of modern skt 775 mobos on the market still.

ACSS - SME

 

[paparazi]

Fair enough rclarke250 but thats ones out of stock and in the USA (BionicJohn is across the pond in the UK)
It's a shame there isn't a 4 sale section on here but I can appreciate it would attract unwanted attention.

Martin


On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[BionicJohn]

follow my link to ebuyer, and there are loads of modern skt 775 mobos on the market still.

Thanks for that, but most are DDR2 memory only.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[BionicJohn]

Since starting this thread, there's been no further re-occurrence of the non-detection problem.

I did open the case and make sure all the SATA data cables to the HDDs were properly located by pulling them out and re-fitting them. Maybe that helped?

However, this PC is getting a bit old and in need of an overhaul.

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[paparazi]

Time for Sandy Bridge me thinks......lol


Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[BionicJohn]

Time for Sandy Bridge me thinks......lol

And a new LGA-1155 motherboard equipped with a 6-series chipset?

I'll need to wait for when the Mrs isn't looking!

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[paparazi]

Or a quad AMD bundle for a budget buy...still going to be appreciably quicker than what you have.

Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[BionicJohn]

Got to fix the central heating first - looks like a failed V4073A motorised valve…

Liverpool: Capital of Culture 2008
Anfield: Capital of Football since 1892
Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.