[ale] Defective MoBo?

[Ron Frazier]

Scott,

I haven't been following this discussion too closely, but I thought I'd
throw in my two cents regarding getting this board to work.  By, the
way, if you wanted to switch brands, I have an MSI board that I'm
running that I really like.  It has numerous indicator lights to show
the status of everything, and a 2 digit LED display that shows the CPU
temperature when it's not doing POST.  The board has nice heat sinks and
heat pipes.  I'm not selling it, but they're readily available from the
standard suppliers.  I got mine from Fry's.  Ubuntu likes it just fine.
However, I will say that I'm not sure I have driver or kernel support
for all the ports, like HDMI and firewire, etc.  Other than that, it
works great.

If you want to, or have to keep your board, I think you should go back
to a very basic level and try to verify whether it is or is not working
properly.  You may need access to another computer and the Internet to
get this done.  Troubleshooting will also help you make your case to the
manufacturer if it's defective.

Strip the computer down to the minimum components.  Motherboard, power
supply, RAM, CPU and cooler, on board graphics, monitor, keyboard.  For
the moment, no HDD and no CD drive.  Boot it and hit whatever keystroke
gets you into the BIOS.  Check the BIOS version and compare it to the
company website from another machine.  If it's very old, you may want to
flash the BIOS.  However, you can still do more troubleshooting.  If the
BIOS won't boot at all, you have serious problems, possibly the CPU,
RAM, or the MB.  We could address that if necessary.  Hopefully, BIOS
will boot.  If it does, at least you have basic functionality of CPU and
RAM and most of the MB.  There is usually a setting in there somewhere
that says restore safe defaults and restore optimum defaults, or
something like that.  Select the restore safe defaults setting.  Also,
there may be a quick boot function, which may omit some of the power on
self tests (POST).  If that function is there, turn it off.  Now, save
the settings and reboot.  If you can see it on the screen, try to
observe the memory test.  It should pass without errors.  Verify that
you can get into all the menu options of the BIOS and at least observe
them without changing.  Check the status screens and verify that it's
recognizing the CPU properly, and that it's showing the right amount of
RAM.  If all this works, this is a positive sign.  Find the BIOS setting
that allows booting from a  CD.  I would set the boot order to HDD, CD,
USB.  Save the settings and shut down.  If the computer tries to reboot,
let it stabilize before turning the power off.  Reconnect the CD drive.

Use another computer to download the ISO and create a boot disc for the
Ultimate Boot CD ( http://ultimatebootcd.com/ ).  Put this disc in the
drive and try to boot it.  You may have to press a function key to get a
menu to boot the CD.  However, if you set the boot order as discussed,
and there is no HDD, the CD should boot.  It will probably just show a
prompt that says boot: .  Press Enter and you should get a menu.  Go to
the CPU tests section and run some of those.  Once you're convinced that
the CPU is working OK, go to the memory test section and run memtest86+.
(I think this is also available on Ubuntu live CD's.)  Let the system
run through at least one complete sequence of exhaustive tests, which
may take an hour.  Even if that works, I would set aside time later to
let this test run for 24-48 hours and you want to see NO errors.  I had
a problem with memory glitching out once and it would crash the machine
every few hours.  You can continue testing other components after the
first complete batch of memory tests, but don't neglect to run the long
test later.  (Also, later, you can run something like prime95 to stress
test the system and check for overheating.)  Next test the graphics.

If all this is working, you've got a pretty functional computer.  Next,
I would think about shutting down and reattaching the hard drive and
mouse.  Now, boot a Ubuntu live CD or something similar.  In this case,
it may try to boot the hard drive, so you'll probably have to press a
function key to get a menu to boot the CD.  If the CD boots, select Try
Ubuntu.  Run Disk Utility and run an extend SMART diagnostic on the HDD.
If the machine is still running at this point, you're pretty certain the
motherboard is working, although it could still have defective
components.  Report your results back here, and I or someone else can
help you iron out the details of getting a functional Linux
installation.  This would include getting the right drivers, and the
right proprietary drivers, if needed, and the right configuration.  I'm
not an expert in that department, but there are many here who are.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to contact me if I can assist.

Sincerely,

Ron

On Thu, 2011-01-20 at 14:23 -0500, Scott Castaline wrote:
> Can some one tell me what the following messages are saying or what is 
> actually happening?
> 
> [2.0269701] general protection fault 0000[#1] SMP
> last sysfs file: /sys/bus/pci/drivers/radeon/uevent
> . a whole bunch of stuff
> . scrolled off the screen
> . paused at this point
> worker 147 failed while handling '/devices/pci 0000:00/2222:00:03.010000 
> - fast scrolling started again so was not able to get rest of line
> 
> I also got once;
> [.6182001] Fixing recursive fault but reboot is needed
> 
> I also occasionally got the following 3 lines;
> 
> boot device found
> 
> boot device found
> 
> Boot has failed, sleeping forever
> 
> These occur when I try to boot with the BIOS set to initialize video 
> from any slot besides the onboard video.
> 
> The board is a Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H rev 2.1 and BIOS FF. If someone 
> on the list has this board you can contact me off list, I'd like to do 
> some comparisons to see if something is set wrong in the BIOS or at 
> least be able to go back to Gigabyte support and say that that someone 
> else is running it in a similar configuration with no problems so 
> obviuosly mine is defective, please RMA it. I've been going round robbin 
> for 2 weeks with them and they keep coming back with install Windows and 
> see if you can boot, then we will consider it.


-- 

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
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mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier

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linuxdude AT c3energy.com