Gigabyte DS3L Problems

Lurking here for a few months. 1st post.

I've been trying to fix my system for a week now and am complete going bonkers.
Any advice or help is greatly appreciated. This is going to be long so bear with me.
I've been building my own boxes since before I was a Compaq Tech. My previous Athlon2700 was overdue for replacement so in Oct-Nov I bit down and built a whole new box.

It went like this:
Cooler Master Elite 330 Case
Cooler Master RPPro 650W Power Supply
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Intel C2D E6750 w/ Zalman CNPS9500
PNY 8800GT 512 w/ Zalman VGA1000
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400 2GB Kit
ASUS 18X SATA DVD
WD 250GB SATA HD

The whole thing went together like butter with Windows XP. I set it up to run 3.2Ghz with a simple FSB OC and that was it. Everything else stock. I finished Crysis, COD4, and basically the system was solid for 2 months. Until last weekend. It was a Saturday like any other. Turn the box on the morning. I watched Transformers (again) and walked away for a few hours. The only power manage I do is Monitor Sleep. I came back, woke up the monitor, and went to launch Firefox. Click.
BSOD O DEATH :O :O :blink:

I barely had time to read it. System self-rebooted. No video, no post. It self-rebooted again. and again, and again. I sat there stunned for a few minutes. A big fat WTFO. I turned everything off and waited a few. Power on.
I heard 2 Beeps, no video no post, self-reboot. No more beeps again. Just more no video, no post self rebooting madness. I pulled out the VGA and unplugged the driver. Same thing.

I suspected the Corrupt Bios, Bad Mem, or Bad CPU. I went through gigabyte support and got an RMA# for the board. Not wanted to wait I went out and bought another DS3L at Microcenter. Rev 2.0 this time and installed it. Now the problem still happens.
I bought OCZ memory listed on thier supported memory doc. Still problems.

Now for major poop grins, instead of constant reboots, the systems stays on. I get 1 beep everytime as soon as I press the button. BUT, the CPU fan does NOT spin. I plugged it into SYS and it works there. I took a stock Intel Fan and plugged it in, it doesn't spin.

I am majorally at the pucker factor stage and need help.

Gigabyte told me 1 Beep means success. And that the fan not coming on at all is Normal (I don't believe this at all) if the CPU has not heated up yet.

I am so going ape spit it kills me. What the hell could've happened?

You can also read more info (and same info) I posted at the XBit review they just did. I posted under Vader there.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/discussion/4565.html

The cpu fan headers are known not to work on thier boards.

Click to expand...

Really??

Anyway, yes, the sys and pwr headers work fine. And the cpu_fan worked fine until I put the new OCZ memory in. Prior to that it worked on both the Rev1 and Rev2 board all the time.

Before this is done, I'll probably have built a whole other system. Frack.
I'm kicking myself for trying to save $ by not going with the brands I've always used before.

I was just coming back to the GPU.

The fans started acting normal again for some reason. Still plugging around with it.

If it's my 8800GT that is really going to blow monkeys. It's a PNY. Since I removed the stock cooler I guess I'm hosed hey? What a pita. I didn't even overclock it. Does watching a DVD kill an 8800GT? Bah..

Looks like I'll have to swap PSU and CPU though to be really sure. Those are the only pieces left besides the GPU that I haven't replaced.

Edit:
Also, through out all of this drama, I've never been able to get Caps/Num lights to come on. Ever.

Gigabyte Responses

I've been through the Gigabyte Customer Service portal and gotten some responses, so thought I'd share. Turn on your Engrish translator for these

About the original constant reboot problem

Gigabyte said:

could be one of the components on board was unstable or shorted cause issue , test the board out side the case just connect 4 pin 12v power and 20 pin power to mother board then connect cpu heatsink fan to cpu fan connector ( without cpu , video card, memory not thing ) turn system on check if cpu fan runs and keep running if it shut off that tells could be bad power supply test with other power supply, if cpu fan keep running without shut off it self put cpu , video card, single memory back one by one until issue occured to find out which component shorted cause system stop turn on .

If tested board out side chase issue still persist please refer to our warranty

Click to expand...

About the CPU fan anonmoly

Gigabyte said:

P35-DS3L board has Smart fan features if cpu not reach certain point of heat cpu fan will not run or run slow ( when first power on cpu still cool )
system power get single beep that tell system normal boots if no display comes up on monitor please check video card to monitor connection , by the way test system with single stick memory ( put memory on slot close to cpu ) .

Click to expand...

So, with all that. I believe tomorrow I will go pick up the cheapest PCI-X card I can get.
Which is an ATi Radeon X600 SE 128MB for $30 at Microcenter.

If the system works I'm going to cry and curse.
And then debate with myself some more what do to.

Get another 8800GT so I can use my Zalman. Or
Get a 3870.

This is my 1st NVidia card and it sucks to have this happen. I was 9800Pro, 9500Pro, etc before this and never had a failed card. Heck, I still have my first 'gaming' Rendition card, I bet it still works. (mmm.. maybe I should dig it out of a the drawer and see if it's boots. It is PCI iirc, if I can find it, that was many eons ago).

Edit:
Installed X600, boot 1 beep, stays on. No video, post, or kb lights.
I am so pissy...

This is absolutely insane.

I've now changed everything except the CPU and still, 1 beep, stays on, no video, no post.

Completely insane. I feel ill.

FWIW,
CPU went out today on FedEx with RMA. Will see what happens.

I'm curious.
Do C2D's record their clock settings in some hidden Cache that Intel can read out?

You know what I mean?

I wouldn't be surprised.

GSUSHCHRIST!! FINALLY!!

Comrades I have finally fixed my system.

To make a long story short.
My 2nd DS3L (Rev2) also did not work right out of the box, and had the same symptoms. Even after getting a new CPU from Intel, I could only conclude that this 2nd motherboard was also defunct and that my original Rev1 board had the same problem.

So I took the 2nd board back to Microcenter and exchanged it for an ASUS P5K. Install my wares and 1st boot was like a ray of light from the gods. Thank Odin for ASUS.

Gigabyte, you can blow me. Never again.