Asus A8N-SLI bios updates and 1T problems...

[adrian]

Hello,

I was wondering what changes did Asus made in their recent bios versions:
1005.01 - 05?
How did the 1T problem manifested?

I have an Asus A8N-SLI with BIOS 1004 and it runs extremely well. I have 2x 512MB PC3200 Apacer factory timed at 3.0-4-4-8 working at 220Mhz 2.5-3-3-6 1T. I have bought this memory some time ago and wasn't intended to be oc it in any way. But as you can see it work's well.
My CPU is an Athlon64 3500+ working at 220Mhz - 2420Mhz. I have tried oc'ing it more and it runs stable at 245Mhz, but my RAM doesn't work there..
Testing with Sisoft Sandra Lite results in the folowing scores for my Memory: 6455/6402.

I've tested the system for the last 3 weeks and it's more than stable. My CPU temperature is 32-34degrees IDLE and 43-44degrees FULL LOAD for 5hr with stock cooling.

What other problems does the Asus A8N-SLI have?

[Major]

welcome to the Xtreme !!! :toast:

Good to see ya here !

As far as I know the 1t issue is about it. I think they will have a bios that addresses the issue out soon. ;)

[adrian]

welcome to the Xtreme !!! :toast:

Good to see ya here !

As far as I know the 1t issue is about it. I think they will have a bios that addresses the issue out soon. ;)


Thanks... :up:

I wanted to know what was the 1T problem... My system behaves normally, i think... changing 1T to 2T drops memory score when testing with Sisoft Sandra.
I'm asking this to know if my system has this issue or not... Are there working motherboards, or all of them have the 1T issue?

[Major]

I beleive its just a bios issue, memory produces errors when running at 1t at high clocks >250mhz but works fine at 2t at those clocks.

[Wh1t3w0lf]

Thanks... :up:

I wanted to know what was the 1T problem... My system behaves normally, i think... changing 1T to 2T drops memory score when testing with Sisoft Sandra.
I'm asking this to know if my system has this issue or not... Are there working motherboards, or all of them have the 1T issue?

It's not an "issue" but rather a limitation. It means that you can't overclock your memory past 245-250 Mhz. This happens on all the A8N boards, even on yours as you said it on your first post.

Note: This doesn't affect the HT bus as you can get pretty high with it. I can get to 310 stable and I don't see the reason to want more like the DFI which does 500+ HT. Ofcourse as I said you can't run 1:1 (DDR400 setting on bios) with this frequency. You must use a memory divider (e.g DDR333 setting on bios) and run the memory within the above limitation (245-250 Mhz),

[ajmiles]

The more and more BIOS revisions I see for the A8N SLI Deluxe the more I believe ASUS really can't/won't/aren't (delete as appropriate) working on this issue.

I've emailled them twice already and had a typical "overclocker phobic" response of "we can't guarantee overclocking speed, that's the way it's gonna be". Anandtech did a very good roundup of all the SLI boards out at the moment and tried overclocking them too. Surprise surprise they couldn't get the A8N stable at much beyond 250 like the rest of us.

What I have tried to do in leaving a comment on their article (I will soon email them) is to see if they can prod ASUS into giving us a response. They working closely with Anandtech in that review to provide them with a custom, beta BIOS to fix a dual 6800 Ultra issue they found, perhaps they could do the same for the 1T issue.

[adrian]

It's not an "issue" but rather a limitation. It means that you can't overclock your memory past 245-250 Mhz. This happens on all the A8N boards, even on yours as you said it on your first post.

Note: This doesn't affect the HT bus as you can get pretty high with it. I can get to 310 stable and I don't see the reason to want more like the DFI which does 500+ HT. Ofcourse as I said you can't run 1:1 (DDR400 setting on bios) with this frequency. You must use a memory divider (e.g DDR333 setting on bios) and run the memory within the above limitation (245-250 Mhz),



I have now understood the 1T issue.. Thanks a lot....I was confused because i haven't found at least 1 little problem with the board (software...)... and only 1 small hardware issue (that howling chipset cooler)...

Related to Wh1t3w0lf answer i can comment the following:
- when i have tested 245Mhz HT i was already using DDR333 divider and i've done it because my RAM is very weak...
- i could not get past 240-245 stable because i'm using a 360W PSU and i'm pretty sure that's the cause for system instability. The system doesn't throw any bluescreen or something.. instability is caused by video board which starts to flicker between black and image.

My system has an Leadtek Geforce 6200, 2xSeagate 7200.7 Plus (NCQ), 1 DVD-RW, 3 PCI boards, 3x80mm Fans (including CPU Fan), 4USB devices.

I'm i right when i'm suspicios on the PSU for that kind of behavior ???? :confused: I've forgot to mention that i'm using a Chieftec 360W PSU.

Related to the other question of mine, can you tell me what visible changes did Asus do in the latest bios releases? Did anyone achived better performance using latest bios releases, and if so, how?? :toast:

[ajmiles]

- i could not get past 240-245 stable because i'm using a 360W PSU and i'm pretty sure that's the cause for system instability. The system doesn't throw any bluescreen or something.. instability is caused by video board which starts to flicker between black and image.

I don't think the flickering between black and image is a power supply problem. I too got this problem when approaching the ~248mhz limit. I have a Tagan 480W power supply and as soon as the screen flickered I backed down 2-3 mhz and it went away. As far as I can tell the memory starts generating errors and generally screwing up causing picture corruption.

Although 360W isn't a huge powersupply you aren't running SLI, and the video card you are using is not a huge drain of power. I would probably put it down to the "1T Issue".

[Wh1t3w0lf]

But he states he is using the DDR333 divider which means his ram is running at 204 Mhz (about 200 is the real freq depending his cpu clock speed). It can't be the ram frequency limitation of the board.

[adrian]

But he states he is using the DDR333 divider which means his ram is running at 204 Mhz (about 200 is the real freq depending his cpu clock speed). It can't be the ram frequency limitation of the board.

You're right. It's not a memory limitation problem. Problems with image flickering start's at about 230Mhz but are more more often at 240-245Mhz. Are u sure it's not from my PSU? I was going to change it with an Enermax or with an Antec. If it's not from my PSU, why can't i go over 220Mhz with my CPU (3500+ Newcastle)? I really don't believe that my 3500+ is limited to 2420Mhz (220Mhz).
Also i must mention that all the tests were done at standard VCore. And also i'm not so sure it's from Asus A8N SLI Deluxe. Running at 2640Mhz (240Mhz)- DDR333 divider alowed me to run SuperPI 1M, Sisoft Sandra CPU & Memory Benchmark without problems. The only problem was with video flickering.

Also please note that i'm using 20pin ATX connector...
What else could it be? :confused:

[jmas]

The more and more BIOS revisions I see for the A8N SLI Deluxe the more I believe ASUS really can't/won't/aren't (delete as appropriate) working on this issue.

I've emailled them twice already and had a typical "overclocker phobic" response of "we can't guarantee overclocking speed, that's the way it's gonna be". Anandtech did a very good roundup of all the SLI boards out at the moment and tried overclocking them too. Surprise surprise they couldn't get the A8N stable at much beyond 250 like the rest of us.

What I have tried to do in leaving a comment on their article (I will soon email them) is to see if they can prod ASUS into giving us a response. They working closely with Anandtech in that review to provide them with a custom, beta BIOS to fix a dual 6800 Ultra issue they found, perhaps they could do the same for the 1T issue.

I'm very interested in knowing the official version of the 1t 'issue' from ASUS. If you get an answer through Anandtech please let us know. I'm being tempted to go for a DFI....

Greetings

[MikeMurphy]

I found that the 1003 bios resolved my 1T issue (however the memory isnt over 250mhz 1:1). I had everything running at my current settings, but I had to use 2T. Then I flashed, ensured my timings were the same, and switched it over to 1T. It worked.

Right now I am hitting 270FSB with a DDR333 divider, so my ram is effectively running at 220mhz. It does however seem to be an absolute stability brick wall for me though. Even if I relax my memory timings, I cannot even gain 5mhz without it failing prime95 within 10 seconds, even with a very relaxed multi. Its really wierd.

And yeah I have the chipset fan issue too. After spending $250 on the board you would think they would have put a better fan on. Sometimes my BIOS takes a sh1t since the fan usually wont work when I first boot up.

[ajmiles]

The guy that wrote Anandtech's SLI Roundup article has passed my experiences, along with his to ASUS regarding the 1T Issue. This was a couple of days ago, I've not heard back from the author (Wesley) yet though, however he might be at the IDF, I don't know.

[OC_Is_Life]

Waht Bios is Last on Asus A8N-SLI non Delux ?

[adz]

I managed to work @ 245 1:1 1t but can't get over..as u said the only way is to set it at ddr333 and then the htt will go up!

[ajmiles]

1T Issue To Be Fixed? (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?p=743466#post743466)

Just in case you hadn't seen...

ajmiles