raju
08-28-2006, 12:51 AM
Hi,
Well many people have been trying out this pre-release bios without success. The best advice is still to wait for DFI to revise the Beta and wait for it's proper release.
But some of us are too unstable to be reasonable and wait...
Going by the advice that Kunaak gave in the DFI 975 thread by Coolaler on how to set up the board, I found that some things needed to be tweaked on my system to get 816 to work out of bios every time.
DISCLAIMER: Remember there is no warranty on your board if you use the 816 bios, if you don't want to take the risk - DON'T. This is xtremesystems remember, some of us end up killing a lot of hardware through experimentation, though the only board death I have heard of was with 814. If you can't afford to experiment then leave the board alone and wait for DFI's new bios!
I have 2 bios chips, one is flased with 0731 and the other has 816. That's why I took the risk of sussing out 816 so I could get it to work. It's very handy to have the extra backup chip on hand should things go pear shaped (good to have a bios removal tool too).
First thing after flashing to 816, is to reboot a hit del to enter bios,
1) First Enable/diable all the hardware peripheral settings that you normally use (CPU features, onboard hardware etc).
2) Get to genie bios and enter dram timing. In here you will find a whole host of new settings, enter your known ram speeds and remember to set 400mhz for the divider if you are going for over 350 fsb (safe entry level).
I also set Write to Precharge to 12 and Write to Read Command to 10 manually, however I only run at around 380 with 2gig, I'll leave the tweaking of those settings to the masters.
The other very important factor here is to set all the drive strengths manually to 3X, this is very important as the board WILL NOT post out of bios effectivley with your overclock if you don't do this.
Just shoot down the list and set all the drive strengths to 3x manually.
The other ram timing settings can be left on auto unless you know some of them specifically for your board.
3) Now exit dram timings and set oc mode to manual (thanks to Kunaak), and enter your previous know overclock settings manually - fsb, lock pcie to 101 and leave pci locked (it is important to set oc mode to manual as it will shut down the board when you first exit the bios to let the timings you have entered settle). On my board VFSb and Vmch are vmodded so they are always over stock, so I leave VMCH alone at 1.60v (mine is automatically 1.85 due to vmod) you may need to set your in bios, you also need to set your known voltages for vcore and memory.
Contrary to Kunaak I find I can set all voltages at once and the board will post straight out of bios the first time after flashing, hwever this only works if all dram drive strengths are at 3X.
You should now save and exit bios and the motherboard should shut down completley and then re start itself.
That's it, done, this works on my system every time with this bios, and I can now even go back into bios and reboot and also make fsb adjustment if I wish.
Importatntly, 2 gig overclocks don't gain much at all with 816 bios, perhaps 10fsb at best. Kunaak and co, managed to get better results using two 512 sticks.
On a side note there is no trfc setting I can find in bios even with 816, unless it is eluding my limited knowledge. Using memset I can see that the board likes to set trfc at 21, which is quite tight for those wishing to hit over 400fsb.
DON'T ASK FOR 816 BIOS, YOU WON'T GET IT FROM ME, I HAVE WRITTEN MY FINDINGS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY GOT THE BIOS AND HAVE HAD A FEW ISSUES STARTING UP WITH OVERCLOCKS.
regards
Raja
Well many people have been trying out this pre-release bios without success. The best advice is still to wait for DFI to revise the Beta and wait for it's proper release.
But some of us are too unstable to be reasonable and wait...
Going by the advice that Kunaak gave in the DFI 975 thread by Coolaler on how to set up the board, I found that some things needed to be tweaked on my system to get 816 to work out of bios every time.
DISCLAIMER: Remember there is no warranty on your board if you use the 816 bios, if you don't want to take the risk - DON'T. This is xtremesystems remember, some of us end up killing a lot of hardware through experimentation, though the only board death I have heard of was with 814. If you can't afford to experiment then leave the board alone and wait for DFI's new bios!
I have 2 bios chips, one is flased with 0731 and the other has 816. That's why I took the risk of sussing out 816 so I could get it to work. It's very handy to have the extra backup chip on hand should things go pear shaped (good to have a bios removal tool too).
First thing after flashing to 816, is to reboot a hit del to enter bios,
1) First Enable/diable all the hardware peripheral settings that you normally use (CPU features, onboard hardware etc).
2) Get to genie bios and enter dram timing. In here you will find a whole host of new settings, enter your known ram speeds and remember to set 400mhz for the divider if you are going for over 350 fsb (safe entry level).
I also set Write to Precharge to 12 and Write to Read Command to 10 manually, however I only run at around 380 with 2gig, I'll leave the tweaking of those settings to the masters.
The other very important factor here is to set all the drive strengths manually to 3X, this is very important as the board WILL NOT post out of bios effectivley with your overclock if you don't do this.
Just shoot down the list and set all the drive strengths to 3x manually.
The other ram timing settings can be left on auto unless you know some of them specifically for your board.
3) Now exit dram timings and set oc mode to manual (thanks to Kunaak), and enter your previous know overclock settings manually - fsb, lock pcie to 101 and leave pci locked (it is important to set oc mode to manual as it will shut down the board when you first exit the bios to let the timings you have entered settle). On my board VFSb and Vmch are vmodded so they are always over stock, so I leave VMCH alone at 1.60v (mine is automatically 1.85 due to vmod) you may need to set your in bios, you also need to set your known voltages for vcore and memory.
Contrary to Kunaak I find I can set all voltages at once and the board will post straight out of bios the first time after flashing, hwever this only works if all dram drive strengths are at 3X.
You should now save and exit bios and the motherboard should shut down completley and then re start itself.
That's it, done, this works on my system every time with this bios, and I can now even go back into bios and reboot and also make fsb adjustment if I wish.
Importatntly, 2 gig overclocks don't gain much at all with 816 bios, perhaps 10fsb at best. Kunaak and co, managed to get better results using two 512 sticks.
On a side note there is no trfc setting I can find in bios even with 816, unless it is eluding my limited knowledge. Using memset I can see that the board likes to set trfc at 21, which is quite tight for those wishing to hit over 400fsb.
DON'T ASK FOR 816 BIOS, YOU WON'T GET IT FROM ME, I HAVE WRITTEN MY FINDINGS FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY GOT THE BIOS AND HAVE HAD A FEW ISSUES STARTING UP WITH OVERCLOCKS.
regards
Raja