Gigabyte: Please fix annoying GA-965P-DS3 behavior in BIOS

I'm hoping that someone from Gigabyte reads this. This is a
continuation of my reports about the new GA-965P-DS3 that I got today.
The bios has one characteristic .... I'm confident in calling it a bug
..... that is very annoying. This is the F5 BIOS.

This motherboard has CPU fan speed control to slow down the CPU fan
speed when the CPU is running cool and doesn't need the fan. In fact it
has several modes, I've tried them all, they all have this problem.

The motherboard also has an "alarm" that it sounds when the CPU fan is
not running. Very loud, annoying and obnoxious (as it should be).

Here's the problem: Amazingly, as powerful as it is with 300 million
transistors, the Core 2 Duo E6600 runs very, very cool (it really does,
the heatsink generally feels COLD). In fact it runs so cool that the
fan control OFTEN turns the fan completely off for short periods (a few
seconds). Zero RPM. Dead stop. And it does this in both modes (the
"Intel" mode and the "legacy" mode). And that in and of itself is not a
problem.

But, guess what, "dead stopped" is below the alarm threshold. (Well,
Duh !!) So, at very regular intervals (more than once per minute) the
CPU fan alarm goes off, because the fan is, in fact, not running.

Hey, Gigabyte guys: when the fan is stopped BECAUSE THE BIOS TURNED IT
OFF BECAUSE THE CPU WAS ***COLD***, the very same BIOS that turned the
fan off shouldn't be turning on the alarm !!! Capiche?

Sure, you can disable the alarm entirely. And sure, you can disable the
fan speed control (fan would then run at 100% full speed continuously).
But neither of those should be necessary. The fan speed control and
the fan alarm, which are both part of the same BIOS, should be "talking
to each other" so that you don't get an "alarm" because the CPU is
running COLD.

Pleas fix for the F6 bios.

Thanks.
Barry Watzman

 

Hi Barry,

You could disable the fan alarms in BIOS settings, but be sure to have the
CPU temperature monitor alarm enabled (probably for 70C threshold.) This
should clear up your issue.

 

Yes, I fully realize that disabling the alarms is an option, but that
doesn't change the fact that it's stupid behavior on the part of the
BIOS. It's like the BIOS' right hand (alarm) doesn't know that the
BIOS' left hand (fan control) is doing.

 

Like getting keyboard error, press F1 to continue on POST screen when
your keyboard won't work or isn't plugged in?

 

Pretty much all recent motherboards that include advanced auto-fan
speed/thermal control options, will exhibit identical behavior to what you
had mentioned IF the BIOS is also set to have a fan warning alarm enabled.
If you have temperature threshold warnings enabled (and you should on all
motherboards with this capability) for the CPU (and MOFSETs on some boards)
you shouldn't have to monitor fan speeds at all. If your temps start to
climb or you get a thermal threshold alarm, you should know enough to check
fans and heatsinks.

Hope this helps.

 

I set the CPU fan to run full - it's quiet anyway. (I don't like the
way it stops and starts - I'd hate to think that with a bit of wear, the
fan might stop one day, and 'stick' and not start up again). So as
said, I run it flat out.