ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

Hi, perhaps BenchZowner should also run articles on other Tech Support depts, such as ATI, wasted my time, told me to RMA a perfectly good graphics card, Realtek, none existant, Lian-Li, also non-existant, CT, a joke.

From my experiance Asus wasn't perfect by a long shot, but performed better than those. I'm really not sure, for a free service, whether there is any better..
ChrisC

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Originally Posted by AMD_Deluxe

hi m8s !

i have a question ..

what is the real vcore when i set the vcore in bios to 1.485?
i have readed that the real vcore is at 1.485 -> 1.43V .. is that right ??
cpu-z shows me 1.213V ... seems to be a bug !!!
everest shows 1.49V .. i dont think that this is the right vcore

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:confused: :confused: :confused:

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Originally Posted by iadstudio

Not sure why you're having problems with the memory ratio but if you can't reach 2:3 with your clock try 4:5. From What I've heard, that's the preferred ratio if you're not at 1:1. IF your clock is 385 then 4:5 might be 850ish? I wouldn't sacrifice CPU speed for memory, at least not with these chips. Try 435x8 (if you can reach that) and go with 1:1 or 4:5 before you back your chip down.

This was my first OC experience so I though the Corsair8500 was the best choice but I was wrong. If I could do it over I would get some ultra low latence pc2 6400 sticks. Can't complain too much though, I get a 14.6 sec super pi 1m with my current settings. Gotta love the P5W !!! Clock for clock it (and a few other ASUS 965/975 boards) really does outperform most boards.

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Thx for the info. I am able to reach the same ~3500mhz wall no matter if I use 8x or 9x, so I'll do that when my mem arrives. The biggest thing of importance for me is gaming at the moment, since my video-production/dvd-authoring is once in a blue-moon kind of thing, so I'll 3dmark06 it and see how it goes.

Appreciate it!

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Originally Posted by Krusty

to nickfd:
Thanks for the explanation. I wonder does Linux handle multi-core processor better?

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You betcha! Gentoo for life (if it moooooooves, compile it)!! :cool:

Unfortunately all workstation apps and all games use directx calls to windows, and Wine/Cedega is quite a bit behind in their compatibility. They've got a lot of functions coded in, but not enough for us to be able to use everything.

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Originally Posted by NghtShd

That's a great tip if it really works. One of my biggest gripes with this board's design is the use of the SiliconImage port multiplier on the ICH7R. Have you verified that it is really turned off and not running in RAID 1 (which I believe the manual says to use if you are running a single drive on an EZ port)? Does NCQ work on a drive connected this way?

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If you remove all the jumpers for the ez-raid siliconimage controller, it will completely pass through the one port will act exactly as an ICH7 port. You will get NCQ and everything that you get as if you were plugged into an ICH7 port. However, if you force the jumpers to "big"(bug) mode, it will show up as "External Drive" and I'm not sure whether or not it will have NCQ.

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Originally Posted by AMD_Deluxe

:confused: :confused: :confused:

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You can see just in the past few pages several discussions about this topic alone. It's related to vdroop, and it varies depending on load, how much voltage you're putting into the vcore, and some magic formula that we have no idea.

If you want to resolve it, you can solder in a potentiometer/resister and follow the instructions, or do the pencilmod from a few pages prior.

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Originally Posted by cuke2u

Hi, perhaps BenchZowner should also run articles on other Tech Support depts, such as ATI, wasted my time, told me to RMA a perfectly good graphics card, Realtek, none existant, Lian-Li, also non-existant, CT, a joke.

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We will be evaluating companies from time to time.Usually there'll be a new evaluation in the horizon every 4th week.
The next company under evaluation's already picked up & we're starting the evaluation process next week :D

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Originally Posted by iadstudio

I use a firewire backup drive and it works fine. Nice transfer rates too. I actually ran out of USB. I only have SATA drives in my machine though. Did you say you have IDE? Shouldn't matter which type is in the enclosure though.

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Yeah, it's IDE and I've had the same issues with different drives installed in the enclosure.

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Originally Posted by grudgelord

I've seen delayed write failures occur frequently with cheap USB enclosures. In most cases, if you change only one component (either the computer/motherboard, the usb/fw enclosure, or the drive that lives in the enclosure) the problem ceases.

Case in point: I have a cheap USB enclosure in which I installed an old 200GB Maxtor drive. When I tried to use it with my laptop I'd get DW failures. I replaced the drive with another Maxtor 200GB (identical model) and it functioned fine. Fearing that the first drive must be failing, I installed it into a different USB enclosure and tried it with the laptop... it worked fine.

During my troubleshooting of the issue I discovered that compatibility issues between drive, controller and interface can occur, especially with cheaper chips.

I know that you are using FW instead of USB but I believe the issue is the same as it comes back to the IDE controller chip. So, no, I don't think it's your firewire port.

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Thanks for the info. I tried switching drives and the second drive did the same thing. I thought maybe it was the cheap power supply that came with the cheap enclosure, so I tried powering the drive from the PC's PSU but that didn't help. USB works great on this same enclosure, though, and firewire works great on this enclosure using my PCI firewire board, so I was leaning heavily toward blaming the motherboard. I was hoping it wasn't totally broken, just not as robust at handling flakey firewire-ide bridges and I guess maybe that's the case, which is good news (relatively speaking).

My firewire card has a 4-pin molex power connector (which I have hooked up). I wonder if it could be a power issue? Maybe I should try running without the power connection to see what happens.

Edit:

Tried without the power connection to my firewire PCI card. The card still worked but the drive didn't get detected at all, so I suspect that it may be a lack of adequate power on the built-in firewire port. I know this firewire-ide board gets power via the firewire port, because even with its power supply disconnected it powers up and is detected.

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Originally Posted by nickfd

If you remove all the jumpers for the ez-raid siliconimage controller, it will completely pass through the one port will act exactly as an ICH7 port. You will get NCQ and everything that you get as if you were plugged into an ICH7 port. However, if you force the jumpers to "big"(bug) mode, it will show up as "External Drive" and I'm not sure whether or not it will have NCQ.

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Based on what I've read over the past few months of owning this board, any configuration in which the SIL is alive you get no NCQ or SMART. That's great news about enabling the direct ICH7 port connection by removing all jumpers, though.

Update:

I just had to try it, so I removed the jumper and moved the second drive in my array to the second EZ port and it booted with NCQ working on both drives, so thanks again for the tip. One of my complaints about this board is no more.

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Originally Posted by NghtShd

Based on what I've read over the past few months of owning this board, any configuration in which the SIL is alive you get no NCQ or SMART. That's great news about enabling the direct ICH7 port connection by removing all jumpers, though.

Update:

I just had to try it, so I removed the jumper and moved the second drive in my array to the second EZ port and it booted with NCQ working on both drives, so thanks again for the tip. One of my complaints about this board is no more.

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I was surprised and happy about this as well. Glad we aren't forced to use that crappy controller, but too bad we can't tweak some things to convert the JMicron to ICH7 as well. :)

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Originally Posted by nickfd

I was surprised and happy about this as well. Glad we aren't forced to use that crappy controller, but too bad we can't tweak some things to convert the JMicron to ICH7 as well. :)

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I wonder why this isn't documented (I read the RAID section of the manual multiple times and I don't recall this info)? I wish I had more SATA drives to test this configuration with.

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Originally Posted by Phoenix_TT

Perhaps increase the MCH v to 1.65. Also what memory do you have ? What's your cooling like and do you have an aftermarket HSF ? You may need to pump more CPU vcore, if you are prepared to do so, but make sure you have some decent cooling.

What are you using to test stability ? Also you say "crashes doing the weirdest things" can you expand ?

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Memory is OCZ DDR2 PC1000 @ 550 5-5-5-10 (well, right now, timings can be tightened, but I'm trying for the CPU right now...), cooling is water, so it can handle the heat, but I think it's dumb to pump 1.7+....

@grudgelord: Change your avatar! That's how I find where my post was, I was so confused :lol:

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Originally Posted by NghtShd

I wonder why this isn't documented (I read the RAID section of the manual multiple times and I don't recall this info)? I wish I had more SATA drives to test this configuration with.

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Yeah.. I actually found this out in a posting on the Asus forums. I'm surprised they didn't include this in the manual as well. I currently do have 4xSATA drives hooked up to the ICH7 and it works without a problem.

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Originally Posted by Shpoon

Memory is OCZ DDR2 PC1000 @ 550 5-5-5-10 (well, right now, timings can be tightened, but I'm trying for the CPU right now...), cooling is water, so it can handle the heat, but I think it's dumb to pump 1.7+....

@grudgelord: Change your avatar! That's how I find where my post was, I was so confused :lol:

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pc1000?! You need PC6400+ to get any kind of performance and/or stability out of this board if you want to even think about overclocking.

Can you please post all the details of your hardware with voltages, as well as detailed symptoms and problems you've run into?

Actually he has PC2 8500 he means DDR2 1000MHz........

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Originally Posted by ThorLite

Actually he has PC2 8500 he means DDR2 1000MHz........

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Hahah, sorry, I didn't mean to type "PC", thanks :p:

I'll take some pictures later on of my bios settings.

(If you're wondering about the ram, it was the same price as the PC6400 after rebate and price match, I AM NOT rich enough to buy it normally ;))

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Originally Posted by BenchZowner

Finally! The time has come!

http://www.benchzone.com/page.php?al=asustek_evaluation

[ awaiting for my friend Ian @ TheInquirer now :D ]

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Great article, I hope Asus take note.

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by Shpoon

I can get 3.1 @1.325 stable, 1.3125 (BIOS all) semi-stable (crashes doing the weirdest things).

3.2+ needs an insane amount...can't even reach 3.3....at 1.55V, it doesn't even post...

FSB: xxx
Memory Voltage: 2.15V
CPU Vcore Voltage: xxx
FSB Termination: 1.5v
MCH Chipset Voltage: 1.60
ICH Chipset Voltage: 1.2
Freqs are 33.33 and 109.

Memory using SPD
DRAM ECC Mode: Disabled
Hyper Path 3: Disabled
DRAM Throttling Threshold: Disabled

Advanced CPU settings:
Modify Ratio Support: Disabled
Microcode Updation: Enabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Execute Disable Function: Disabled
Enhanced C1 Control: Disabled
CPU Internal Thermal Control: Disabled
Virtualization Technology: Disabled
Intel (R) SpeedStep (tm) tech: Disabled

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Hey Shpoon,

I saw an earlier post of yours with some of your settings, and pasted them here. I would surely use 1.65 for your MCH, and with pc8000/pc8500 memory, you know you need 2.2 vdimm, right? That may be your problem, so please try at least 2.2 and don't be afraid to go up to 2.4 vdimm with it for testing purposes.

I'd also like to know your temperatures on the cores while idle and in torture mode (prime95/orthos) when you're pushing voltage. You say you can't even reach 3.3v at 1.55 vcore, but have you tried 1.60+ vcore? I need to push that much voltage to hit any reasonable clock, and my coretemps are okay.

hi i just want to ask questions regarding super_pi
i dont know why i'm having error running dual instance of super_pi
i already tried different settings but no luck :(
i just want to do some stability testing

here's the error i received:
NOT CONVERGENT IN SQR05

do you have any idea how to get rid of it?


here's my settings.

FSB: 250-440FSB 6x or 7x multi
Memory Voltage: 2.3-2.4V
CPU Vcore Voltage: 1.55v
FSB Termination: auto
MCH Chipset Voltage: 1.85v
ICH Chipset Voltage: auto
Freqs are 33.33 and 100.

Memory using SPD & manual
DRAM ECC Mode: Disabled
Hyper Path 3: Disabled
DRAM Throttling Threshold: Disabled

Advanced CPU settings:
Modify Ratio Support: Disabled
Microcode Updation: Enabled
Max CPUID Value Limit: Disabled
Execute Disable Function: Disabled
Enhanced C1 Control: Disabled
CPU Internal Thermal Control: Auto
Virtualization Technology: Disabled
Intel (R) SpeedStep (tm) tech: Disabled

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 on Stockfan
Team Xtreem PC2 8000 2x512mb 5-5-5-15
Asus P5W-DH Deluxe 1804 bios
Enermax Liberty 500watts PSU

tnx in advance :)

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Originally Posted by DJSUB

hi i just want to ask questions regarding super_pi
i dont know why i'm having error running dual instance of super_pi
i already tried different settings but no luck :(
i just want to do some stability testing

here's the error i received:
NOT CONVERGENT IN SQR05

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To run 2 or more instances of SuperPi altogether, you need to run each instance from a different folder.

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To run 2 or more instances of SuperPi altogether, you need to run each instance from a different folder.

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tnx m8 it's working now :)
you're my hero :D

Just got the P5W DH and in process of installing it. Saw on a previous post that there is a problem with updating Win XP if you have a Creative X-FI installed. Has this problem been resolved with the later (latest) BIOS flashes or what?

Also, MB manual states that the board does not recognize a SATA drive untill XP SP1 is installed. Does this mean you have to istall Windows on an IDE drive first and then to use a SATA drive for boot drive you clone the IDE drive to a SATA drive?

Any other quirks or tricks I need to know?

Thanks for any help.

I did the pencil mod to controll the vdroop I get on this board and it worked! Thanks guys for all the instruction/pictures. I have my board set to 1.5375 and it would droop to 1.49-5v. Now it stays between 1.54 and 1.52. I even squeaked an extra 50mhz out of it now!

I can't get much higher though because it seems that when I raise the voltage the droop increases a bit. Either way, thanks for the help! can't complain about the results.

One question though, what happens if I put too much graphite on the resistor?

i have an issue with the setup im trying to run. the issue is that i have 2 seagate 120gb drives i want to use as storage, but vista ultimate see's them as one combined drive that is unreadable and unallocated and in disk management all the options to format/partition/etc are greyed out. whne i look at the properties it has the disk labeled the same way i had them about a year ago when they were raided together! is there something i need to change to get them to be seen as individiual drives? i have tried every combo of things i can think of, its drivin me nuts lol

right now i have AHCI selected in bios. on the red adapter is my raptor 150gb with vista, on the black next to the red is a wd 500gb backup drive. on the next black is a 120gb seagate, and on the ezraid 1 is the other seagate 120gb. i have removed both jumpers from the ezraid currently, but have tried this in all the jumper configs trying to get SOMETHING to let me access the drives. the only thing that would let me get on the drives is using the jmicron, but i can only see the one drive on jmicron and not the 2nd drive on either the black or orange connectors when i do this. the raptor and wd 500gb always show up just as they should.

is this because i have ahci enabled? does something in the mbr (i dont even know what that is really lol) of the seagates need changed?

help please:eek:

bellx1 have you tried booting with only 1 drive plugged in? Also you said they were raided last year, have you used them in a non raid situation since then or were they in raid last time you used them?