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View Full Version : Asus P5WDH to P5K-E/Wifi - Getting Started


pee4
08-23-2007, 06:57 AM
I bought the Asus P5K-E/Wifi. Previous motherboard was Asus P5WDH.

I had to flash the bios to the latest version or I got a "CPU microcode" error during post, but I was able to use the Q6600 G0 to do it (regardless of the microcode error). I did the flash from a USB stick because the bios is too large for a floppy disk.

Next (to avoid a reinstall) I tried to boot my old WinXP installation on the new motherboard and this was fairly successful. First I installed a PCI SATA controller in the P5WDH. Then I installed the drivers for it. Then I transferred the hard drive to the SATA controller and booted windows (still on P5WDH) and installed the latest Intel Chipset Inf drivers on my WinXP installation. After I shutdown, I took both the PCI controller card and the hard drive across to the P5K-E and booted up with the hard drive still on the PCI controller card. WinXP booted and I was then able to install the P5K-E motherboard drivers.

Most things seem fine. I have an intermittent rogue process that's pinching 10% cpu every 10 seconds - not solved yet. This is probably because I didn't reinstall windows. I have had one Blue Screen Of Death (cause unknown and not something we are used to with the P5WDH).

Minimal overclocking attempts at this stage. On the P5WDH I couldn't get more than 3.15 Ghz out of the Q6600 G0. But on P5K-E/Wifi I have booted into Windows and used it at 3.6Ghz - but it's not 4xPrime stable, but I haven't had a chance to work on that yet.

I absolutely HATE the USB mouse - I am used to PS2 which I find a LOT smoother than USB.

Vcore = Auto works a lot different on this motherboard compared to P5WDH. The system will automatically increase Vcore to whatever it likes.

Norton Ghost hates the JMicron controller and I've had to buy a SATA DVD drive and disable JMicron in the bios in order to use Ghost.

Hope that helps some one.

Nathanael
08-23-2007, 07:05 AM
You should try Universal restore by Acronis ;) .

If your USB mouse isn't smooth, it's probably defective.

pee4
08-26-2007, 11:56 AM
You should try Universal restore by Acronis ;) .

If your USB mouse isn't smooth, it's probably defective.

Hi

I'd find it difficult to give up on Ghost. I've been using it for many years. I've disabled JMicron for now. But I've written down the name of the Acronis product for future reference.

I've plugged the mouse in to another PC. Seemed to work a lot better than on mine. Hmmm....

Thanks

Cya

pee4
08-26-2007, 11:58 AM
I bought a P5K-E/Wifi for my step father. He had it for just one day, then it wouldn't reboot after bios settings are changed. It's currently being left overnight with the bios battery out etc to see if we can revive it. I think it's broken....

pee4
08-27-2007, 09:29 AM
I bought a P5K-E/Wifi for my step father. He had it for just one day, then it wouldn't reboot after bios settings are changed. It's currently being left overnight with the bios battery out etc to see if we can revive it. I think it's broken....

It was the Apacer 6400 RAM. I replaced it with Corsair TwinX XMS 6400 C4 2x1GB. It's working again now.

pee4
09-05-2007, 12:55 PM
SITUATION UPDATE:

As it turns out the transportation of WinXP from P5WDH to P5K-E/Wifi wasn't such a good idea. It's worked well for me in the past with other motherboard swaps but not this time. Random "Blue Screens Of Death" caused me to do a fresh install of WinXP SP2.

The machine is now running well.

The intermittent rogue process that's pinching 10% cpu every 10 seconds is caused by having an unpowered hard drive attached to ICH9R via SATA data cable. This rogue process is what caused the USB mouse stutter problems.

I bought a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme heatsink. The machine is now running the Q6600 G0 at 3.6Ghz (1.4875 vcore in bios, 1.46 real at idle, 1.44 real at load). I stopped it after 25mins running 4xPrime95 Small FFT's with no errors.

I have multiple hard drives mounted in my case, and I use power switches to turn on/off whichever drives I desire to use. Unfortunately the drivers for ICH9R do not like this scenario. If there is a drive switched off but still connected to ICH9R with a SATA data cable, it cause the operating system the mouse to stutter as the "system" task takes about 10% cpu every 5 seconds.