GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

[gpatz]

Hi all,
Decided to upgrade Wife's Computer with new MOB. Have always preferred Gigabyte and had my old Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU 2.40 65nm as a hand me down for her. The orignal MOB I had the CPU always had minor issues and it finally died on me trying to get it running while installing it on her computer. I installed a new GA-G41M-ES2H in which the CPU was compatible, installed new Corsair 2048-8500C5G which S/B compatible since the C5D is listed on Gigabyte's sight, and installed new PS to 500W and a 24 pin power connector. When I fired it up I get the usual single beep and the Start up screen has the Energy Saving Star logo, Dual Bios in the right of screen and the little blue Award Modular bios logo only on the screen. It hesitates for several seconds and starts to load the text one letter at a time till it slowly enters all text. Once all the text is entered it reboots repeating the sequence once again over and over again. I tried to enter the Bios to reset the default settings and it will not enter the Bios , just reboots. I also cleared the CMOS, no help there. I returned the MOB and exchanged it for another one thinking it was defective, same result with this one. I decided to upgrade and boost the speed up 2.93 CPU to Core 2 Duo E7500 54nm to see if that made a difference, nada. One other thing that I have noticed is with the first CPU it was identified at the wrong clock speed 2.13 and the new CPU is at 2.26. With this being a weekend I am unable to contact support.
Has anybody encountered this problem before? Am I overlooking something so simple that I do not see it. In all the years that I have built and upgraded my computers I have never ran across this problem.

[Piece]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

I'm guessing you're running a pci-e x16 graphics card, remove the pci-e graphics card and connect directly to the onboard video and it should boot right up. the pci-e slot has a bandwidth limitation of x4 which seems to cause problems with some video cards. As long as your not gaming the GMA X4500 onboard video will perform surprisingly decent.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

Also, sounds to me like you need to update the BIOS, especially now that you have the newer 7500 installed.

Please update to the latest BIOS using only one stick of memory in slot one. Use Qflash to update, here is a guide >>

http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/bios-flashing-how-qflash-guide-27576/

Let us know if you need more advice on this

[Piece]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

I also own this board and received the same symptoms as gpatz when my PNY Geforce 210 video card was installed in the pci-e slot and since have had to run from the onboard video to avoid boot issues. The motherboard is rev. 1.0 on bios F1 (description: first release), to my knowledge there is no update for the bios at this time.

[gpatz]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

You are right Piece, it is my PCI-E X16 causing the problem. Thanks for the response.

[gpatz]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

As a matter of fact, that is exactly the same vid card I have.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

You are right, there has not been any BIOS updates for this model, that could be part of the issues with this card. Sounds like this card may just have some compatibility issues.

So you guys both may want to send in a report on this and ask them to forward this issue to the BIOS engineers for testing, they may get you a beta BIOS to correct this >>
GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Technical Service Zone

[Piece]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

I find this to be a marketing deception... Just because they are physically using a PCI-E 16x port doesn't mean that they can market it as such, if the bandwidth is limited to 4x it needs to made more apparent. If you click on specs at a website such as Newegg it shows that it is a PCI-E 16x just like any other Motherboard. Hopefully a BIOS update fixes it.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

Ya I see what you mean, Gigabyte lists it as x4 though >>
GIGABYTE - Product - Motherboard - Specification - GA-G41M-ES2H (rev. 1.0)

[Piece]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

Thanks for the link to the Technical Service Zone, i sent the form in. Yeah I see where the website states that it's x4 but honestly who would of ever thought they needed to go to the manufacturer's website to verify if a x16 port is x16... lol

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-G41M-ES2H Start Up Screens boots SSSlow and reboots loop

Ya, I think retailers should not be allowed to note x16 unless they specify the right specs.

You may want to email them about it to save others from this hassle, they may not be aware of the correct specs