Q9450 C1 OC Bios Problem on Mars

[IcEMoCHa]

I have an Q9450 with C1 stepping running on Mars with P12 bios.. I have no problem OCing till 3ghz but when i try 3.2ghz it boots into windows and its orthos stable but when i enter the bios, the bios screen shows up and i cant move or do anything at the menu .. I can boot into windows normally but have to clear the CMOS to change any settings in the bios again.. 1 more thing i notice when i set the fsb to 375 which the processor speed should be 3GHz with 8x multi instead the bios is showing the processor speed as 3188Mhz.. I have tried reflashing the same bios again but results to the same problem... Any help would be appreciated.. :(

[LardArse]

I have an Q9450 with C1 stepping running on Mars with P12 bios.. I have no problem OCing till 3ghz but when i try 3.2ghz it boots into windows and its orthos stable but when i enter the bios, the bios screen shows up and i cant move or do anything at the menu .. I can boot into windows normally but have to clear the CMOS to change any settings in the bios again.. 1 more thing i notice when i set the fsb to 375 which the processor speed should be 3GHz with 8x multi instead the bios is showing the processor speed as 3188Mhz.. I have tried reflashing the same bios again but results to the same problem... Any help would be appreciated.. :(

more details, voltages memory settings etc pls list, btw p14 will be up soon.

[IcEMoCHa]

more details, voltages memory settings etc pls list, btw p14 will be up soon.

good to hear that ... whats the change done in p14 bios?..

ratio:1:2
fsb:400
Ram: 800mhz
vdimm: 2v
vcore: 1.26v
memory 5-5-5-15
NB : +0.1v
others default/auto..

if i go over 3ghz will stuck at bios menu when i enter bios..

[LardArse]

good to hear that ... whats the change done in p14 bios?..

ratio:1:2
fsb:400
Ram: 800mhz
vdimm: 2v
vcore: 1.26v
memory 5-5-5-15
NB : +0.1v
others default/auto..

if i go over 3ghz will stuck at bios menu when i enter bios..

1.4v vcore
nb: 1.65v
memory: 2.25v
pcie: 101mhz

[saaya]

hmmm its stable in windows but hangs in BIOS?
and below 3ghz the BIOS is stable? weird... i guess it needs the microcode update for 45nm?
abou the multiplier, sounds like it calculates with a .5 multi?
but in windows the cpu speed is recognized properly in cpuz and by windows itself?

[IcEMoCHa]

hmmm its stable in windows but hangs in BIOS?
and below 3ghz the BIOS is stable? weird... i guess it needs the microcode update for 45nm?
abou the multiplier, sounds like it calculates with a .5 multi?
but in windows the cpu speed is recognized properly in cpuz and by windows itself?

yeah it shows up in cpu-z as 3ghz but in bios its showing 3188mhz...

[IcEMoCHa]

1.4v vcore
nb: 1.65v
memory: 2.25v
pcie: 101mhz

tried that but the bios still hung up... its tested on other mobo that its stable at 3.2ghz with 400fsb on stock vcore...

[saaya]

i just talked to the BIOS engineers, could you check if the same problems happen with BIOS P11 or P10?
they want to check if maybe only P12 has these problems thanks! :toast:

EDIT: btw, ice mocha... very nice nickname :D

[saaya]

alright, you were lucky, the engineers happened to have some free minutes so we quickly threw together a 9450 c1 and mars.
You didnt disable the .5 CPU Multiplier :D So the BIOS showed the higher CPU clocks, BUT the half multiplier option seems to not work properly, so it didnt actually set the .5 multiplier which is why windows and all apps read it as 3ghz =)
They are going to work on getting the half multi option fixed now :p:

About the freezes in BIOS... very weird issue and we arent sure what this is about, but please try this:

1) Please turn off the PSU and remove the BIOS Battery for 10 minutes.
Then put it back in and load the optimized defaults.
Check if the problem is still there

2) Could you try a new BIOS flash and flash the same BIOS again using the windows tool?
It could be that the boot block wasnt updated or not updated properly when you flashed the BIOS.
After flashing the BIOS as always please load the optimized defaults.

3) Can you remove as much hardware from your system as possible and check if the problem still occurs?
Remove USB devices, pci cards, hard drives, sound cards etc. everything you dont need to enter BIOS
Please let me know if this solves the issue :toast:

[IcEMoCHa]

i just talked to the BIOS engineers, could you check if the same problems happen with BIOS P11 or P10?
they want to check if maybe only P12 has these problems thanks! :toast:

EDIT: btw, ice mocha... very nice nickname :D


alright, you were lucky, the engineers happened to have some free minutes so we quickly threw together a 9450 c1 and mars.
You didnt disable the .5 CPU Multiplier :D So the BIOS showed the higher CPU clocks, BUT the half multiplier option seems to not work properly, so it didnt actually set the .5 multiplier which is why windows and all apps read it as 3ghz =)
They are going to work on getting the half multi option fixed now :p:

About the freezes in BIOS... very weird issue and we arent sure what this is about, but please try this:

1) Please turn off the PSU and remove the BIOS Battery for 10 minutes.
Then put it back in and load the optimized defaults.
Check if the problem is still there

2) Could you try a new BIOS flash and flash the same BIOS again using the windows tool?
It could be that the boot block wasnt updated or not updated properly when you flashed the BIOS.
After flashing the BIOS as always please load the optimized defaults.

3) Can you remove as much hardware from your system as possible and check if the problem still occurs?
Remove USB devices, pci cards, hard drives, sound cards etc. everything you dont need to enter BIOS
Please let me know if this solves the issue :toast:

Thanks... Okay.. will try it and post the results...

[IcEMoCHa]

Okay.. i have done the 3 methods as mentioned by saaya.

1)Done that but problem still arises when i oc..

2)I flashed the bios to P14 using the windows tool and load optimized defaults but the problem is still there when i oc...

3)I removed everything except the keyboard and it didnt hung up when i oc to 3.2ghz.. and when i plugged in everything the bios hangs again when i oc... But when i removed my bluetooth dongle from it, the problem is gone.. after another restart i plugged in the bluetooth dongle again but the bios didnt hung up when oced.. weird eh?...

Maybe the tech support team should diagnose this problem... haha.. anyway

Thanks for everyones advice especially saaya's... :toast:

[saaya]

hmmmm so is the problem fixed now?
it could be that the usb bluetooth dongle was causing problems somehow...
did you plug it back into the same usb slot as it was in before?
maybe just removing it and putting it back solved the problem?
maybe some IRQ or something similar... no idea really :P :D

[IcEMoCHa]

hmmmm so is the problem fixed now?
it could be that the usb bluetooth dongle was causing problems somehow...
did you plug it back into the same usb slot as it was in before?
maybe just removing it and putting it back solved the problem?
maybe some IRQ or something similar... no idea really :P :D

Yeah.. solved the problem... thanks man.. haha.. i plugged the dongle back the same slot but no problem in bios.. :D

[saaya]

ok, good to hear! :D
should have a new BIOS for mars with .5 Multiplier fixed soon :)

[pal]

What about bios P16 for MARS, what is new?

[saaya]

sorry, there arent any changelog files so far... i asked the bios engineers to write changelogs from now on, so you guys have an idea of what is different in a new BIOS :)

[IcEMoCHa]

What about bios P16 for MARS, what is new?

Is there a P16 bios?... the latest is P14... u meant D16 right?... by the way saaya i notice something weird... my proc temp of core0,1,2,3 is around 38,27,37,39 idling... the core1 is 27 and i was thinking that it was a faulty sensor on the proc... but i notice something ... after reseting the bios ... the temp of core0,1,2,3 is now 37,39,28,39... the faulty reading from sensor moved from core1 to core2?... :shocked: any explanation?... or did i remember wrongly?... :confused:

[HDCHOPPER]

IcEMoCHa check out the real temp thread thier was a lot of post about temps swapping around from core to core on quads thier

[IcEMoCHa]

IcEMoCHa check out the real temp thread thier was a lot of post about temps swapping around from core to core on quads thier

not only on realtemp but also on other temperature monitoring utility as well... guess what... it just swapped from core2 to core3... :shocked:

[saaya]

Is there a P16 bios?... the latest is P14... u meant D16 right?... by the way saaya i notice something weird... my proc temp of core0,1,2,3 is around 38,27,37,39 idling... the core1 is 27 and i was thinking that it was a faulty sensor on the proc... but i notice something ... after reseting the bios ... the temp of core0,1,2,3 is now 37,39,28,39... the faulty reading from sensor moved from core1 to core2?... :shocked: any explanation?... or did i remember wrongly?... :confused:

hmmm the temperatures are read from the internal diodes... very weird... so whats the conclusion about this weird temp thing in the other thread?

[IcEMoCHa]

hmmm the temperatures are read from the internal diodes... very weird... so whats the conclusion about this weird temp thing in the other thread?

i read the realtemp thread.. the arrangement of the cores changes from time to time... not sure why is that happening... :shrug:

[saaya]

hmmm just for the temp reporting or for everything?
thats really weird... maybe its like a network thing, maybe sometimes one core happens to respond faster to the chipset or integrated crossbar than the other core?

[IcEMoCHa]

hmmm just for the temp reporting or for everything?
thats really weird... maybe its like a network thing, maybe sometimes one core happens to respond faster to the chipset or integrated crossbar than the other core?

hmm.. thats why its weird... hey do you know the points for measuring vcore on mars.? i tried measuring from the loadline but cant seem to get the correct point...

[saaya]

the mosfets on top above the cpu socket are also part of the cpu vcore pwm afaik, you should be able to meassure vcore on those mosfets, or, you can meassure it at the capacitor legs on the bottom of the board which is what some people prefer :)

[IcEMoCHa]

the mosfets on top above the cpu socket are also part of the cpu vcore pwm afaik, you should be able to meassure vcore on those mosfets, or, you can meassure it at the capacitor legs on the bottom of the board which is what some people prefer :)

care to point out which cap to measure from?.. if u dont mind... too many caps there... haha... probably gonna solder it to a molex connector for easy vcore reading... thanx.. :D

[saaya]

on the capacitors around the cpu socket you can always meassure vcore.
Actually any voltage can be meassured well on the leg of a capacitor or on the solder spot for a capacitor on the pcb

On the caps you will see one side is marked with a color, thats the ground side.
So if you meassure the opposite pin itll be vcore or whatever voltage the cap is holding steady/buffering.

i marked the spots here on this pic.
its 10pm and i only slept 5 hours every night in the past week, so no guarantees, maybe i mixed up the pins ^^
check it out and if it works you can solder a wire to the cap leg to read the voltage.

http://www.abload.de/thumb/foxconn-mars-board-bnx9.jpg (http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=foxconn-mars-board-bnx9.jpg)

[IcEMoCHa]

haha thanks saaya.. will try it out later... :D

[saaya]

your welcome, let me know if those spots work or i messed it up :D