DOA motherboard? your opinion is very appreciated ...
 

Hi,

I've just finished building a new machine to replace my laptop who just died, and I think I may have got a fried (DOA) motherboard from new egg..

Mobo: BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
SSD: OCZ Agility 40GB
Video: ZOTAC ZT-40707-10L GeForce GT 440 (Fermi) 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
PSU: SeaSonic SS-350ET Bronze 350W ATX12V V2.31 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - OEM

I need to ask opinions to be sure before I start the RMA process...

Symptoms:

1- I used the machine for about 15 minutes and noticed it was very slow to get past the post test.. about 45 seconds. At first it wouldn't see all 4 cores of the CPU but at some point after a reboot it could see all 4 cores..

2- The network card was working fine until some point when i went to try to connect to the web and no longer could get access to the internet nor I could renew my IP with the router .. Machine seemed totally disconnected. Same with the PXE boot.. it said "link failed check cable" or something similar. /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart times out as well..

3-When booting, the Linux kernel says "the sata port is slow to respond, please be patient"

Final symptom: there are absolutely no lights on the network card and plugging this machine to a switch, the associated p[ort light is off.. But strangely Linux still detect it with ifconfig & lspci

lspci:
So is this card bad? What else it could be? Looks to me the network adapter is bad.

Any ideas?
Thanks

It would help if you would give us some info which hardware is in that machine, at least exact types of:
- CPU
- Motherboard
- RAM
- PSU
- BIOS version

Please see post #1... Sorry for that, Ive posted from my android phone and being so buggy, it failed to capture the additional info when I clicked submit...

Please ask if you need more.

Im getting bad feelings... From the newegg reviews:

Seems like a nice machine. Normally the mid-price BIOSTAR boards aren't that bad, although I am not a fan of them. If possible I would return that board and go for a decent mid-price board from ASUS or Gigabyte. If not then it seems that you have to go the RMA way.
Other than that, nice combination of components.

TobiSGD, I appreciate your response.

I have decided to rma the motherboard with newegg and get a refund. If I send the parcel tomorrow I think its reasonable to expect the refund to be processed only mid- end of April.

In the meantime I'd like to buy a replacement mobo at a local store.

Can you help picking a choice?

I need 1 or 2 pci-e 2.0x16
Support 8 gb ram
support all other hardware as described in my first post
Not more than 75$ US..
I'd prefer.Asus as well. Big fan here.. I should have purchase an Asus... oh well!

Tomorrow ill start searching and post back.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Two PCIe-x16 wouldn't make much sense, they are normally used to run two graphics cards in SLI/CrossfireX mode, which:
1. only makes sense when you play games in very high resolutions with ultra high settings
2. don't make sense when using cards like the GT440
3. need a much bigger PSU.

What is the intention of having a second PCIe-x16 slot?
Anyways, I had a look at Newegg and motherboards in your wanted price section are not the ones I would buy. I would either go for the ASUS M4A88T-M (AM3 only, 80$), the GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3 (AM3+, 85$) or the ASUS M5A97 (AM3+, 90$). If you don't go for Newegg you night find these boards possibly cheaper, I don't know much about the US hardware market.

*blinks* A BIOSTAR A880G+ that goes for $60 combined with a Zotac GT 440 that goes for $80? Why would you spend more on what is just a basic video card than on the motherboard? That doesnt make much sense to me.

I would try running it without the video card, using the onboard video. If you've got a biger PSU, try that as well.

As for the network problems, check the cable. Try a different LAN cable if you have one. If that doesnt work, go into the BIOS, turn off the network chip, reboot to the OS. Reboot again, go back to the BIOS, turn the network chip back on. Has been known to work on occasion.

SATA 'slow to respond', make sure you are using AHCI. If you are already using AHCI, try changing back to 'IDE mode' (or however the Biostar BIOS puts it). Then do the whole 'reboot, back into the BIOS' thing and change it back to AHCI.

I'd really doubt that you would get any decent boards for $75 form local stores...depending on what your local store is. If you have a full ATX case, and are lucky, you might be able to find a AMD AM3 770 or 870 chipset board in that price range.

BTW, the 770 chipset is older, but its the equal of the Biostar A880G+. Biostar used the cheap SB7XX southbridge with that board, which is only capable of SATAII speeds. The 770 chipset boards have the same southbridge, 870s should have SB8XX with SATAIII support. Both the 770s and 870s have the same CPU support in most cases, check that before you buy. IIRC there are some 770 and 870 chipset boards that only take up to 95watt TDP CPUs, so your X4 965 wont run.

Just not to have to use ati 's junk... 25 years making video cards and drivers, they still can't play well with Linux. I gave up and decided to go nvidia from now on. My htpc has a gt430 which does an excellent job.

Im not sure what will changing the power supply do..

For the network problem, ive already tried everything: a different cable, boot, reboot, play with the BIOS options, reset BIOS to factory defaults, try a new port on my switch, play with the rj45 port to make sure nothing obstructed the contacts or if they were lose.... dead.

For the slow link to respond, I also tried everything : Ahci, ide, reset BIOS, etc. Nothing to do.

Sorry to finish my post in a second post, but there is a annoying but with my Android phone : after a certain number of lines, the typing window stops scrolling down so I can't see what im typing...

Anyways I won't start complaining about Android here I would take all day.........

Of course ill double check the CPU is supported as well as everything else ..

When I said $75, it was more a guideline than an actual limit.

This is what they have at my local store : today ill try to proceed by elimination and get rid of a few choices ...


AM3+ ASUS M5A78L-M LX AMD760G $60.77 buy now

40061 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3+ ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AMD760G $66.95 buy now

35909 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3 ASUS M4A88T-M AMD880G $91.67 buy now

38992 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3+ ASUS M5A87 AMD870 $101.97 buy now

38993 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3+ ASUS M5A97 AMD970 $101.97 buy now

34401 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3 ASUS M4A87TD EVO AMD870 $108.15 buy now

34402 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3 ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 $112.27 buy now

37557 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3 ASUS M4A88T-V EVO/USB3 AMD880G $112.27 buy now

38989 ASUS TECHNOLOGIES AM3+ ASUS M5A88-M AMD880G $112.27

If you just wanted to avoid ATI/AMD you could have got a $35 G210, or even a $55-60 GT430. That would have cut your budget enough to get a better motherboard.

I'm actually running a HD 5450, and its fine with both the closed and open source drivers. I wouldnt call it junk at all, and that is about the cheapest thing ATI/AMD has on the market (even though they arent making them anymore AFAIK, production changed over teh the slightly better HD 6450).

Sometimes power supply problems can cause all sorts of issues. Since its seasonic and a decent power rating (far less than the real system requirements) I dont think it would be causing your problems, but if it was my machine I'd be trying a different PSU just in case.

I appreciate your feedback. I just have a grudge against ati since every time I tried an ati card under Linux, I had misc problems from low fps to poor video playback ...

There are not really any budget for this machine .. I got the GT 440 based on my experience with the GT 430.. as for the mother board, I just used newegg's until I filtered enough models and brands to pick one.. my mistake, I should have picked an Asus instead ..

I never thought biostar was not up there in quality .. lessons learned : ill get what im used to!

Pure opinion- Asus isnt perfect. I've seen more than my share of dead and DOA asus boards.

The price range and chipset makes a big difference. Price range varies, with some brands you are paying a fair % more for the brand name, and asus is probably the 2nd worst for that (not that gigabyte etc. are that much better, and supermicro takes the overpriced crown in many ways). The chipsets with ATI/AMD video onboard are cheaper, nastier and more prone to problems no matter than manufacturer.

I'd avoid the 760G and 880G chipset boards for that reason. Even if you do get one of them, avoid the M4A88T-M. Its got a horrible VIA 1708S sound chip.

M4A87TD EVO, its just a M4A87TD with slightly better heatsinks and power controls (for the overclocking set), a 2nd PCIe x16 slot (pretty pointless like TobiSGD said) and a JMB361 PATA+ SATA controller. Odd that the Evo is cheaper, they normally get a price premium.

I'd probably get a M5A97. If they didnt have a Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 or better yet a GA-970A-UD3 in the same price range. All support AM3+ ('bulldozer') CPUs that could be a nice upgrade in the future.

Member response
 

Hi,

My first suggestion is to try another PSU as cascade9 suggested.
PSU: SeaSonic SS-350ET is a good supply but I would considered a unit with more power.