Modded Biostar TPower I45 BIOS

Yep, I said I would, and now I have had a little chance to play around with the TPower here is the first mBIOS for it :D

Changes

- Updated built-in Memtest 86+ module to V2.11
- Changed some default settings
- Default vDIMM is now 2.064v
- Replaced P6 Microcode module

Some may be wondering why default vDIMM is 2.064v. The answer is simple, I noticed GKX and GMH Micron D9 modules don't play nicely with the TPower on stock voltage, even though their fine in my P5Q Pro, so to circumvent the no boot problem with these modules I upped the default vDIMM a bit.

How To Update The BIOS

1. Place a floppy in the drive and run Dr. DOS
2. Place AFUDOS and TPower2.rom on the floppy
3. Restart and at the DOS prompt type the following;

AFUDOS.EXE /iTPOWER2.ROM /PBNC /N

Thats it! Just hit enter and let the utility do its thing.

The BIOS has been tested and it all works perfectly, just remember to load setup defaults after the flash. The package includes all necessary tools to update the BIOS via floppy disk.

DL LINKY

Awesome, so does this mean all currently released LGA775 CPUs are supported?

I don't know about all, because I dont have like 70+ CPUs :p: but a good majority should be fine at least.

Right, so what will improve?
Will and ovberclocking improve? Or stablility?
Can you reduce the vDIMM, or can you only increase?? as my Crucial actually runs better at 1.986v
Thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GeorgeStorm

Right, so what will improve?
Will and ovberclocking improve? Or stablility?
Can you reduce the vDIMM, or can you only increase?? as my Crucial actually runs better at 1.986v
Thanks

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Sounds like you can still increase/decrease the vDIMM as necessary. He just defaulted it to 2.064.

Yep everything is still adjustable, things like stability I have no idea about (hence where all you ppl come in :p: ) Theres more work I want to do on this BIOS, at least try and make it half decent by fixing its bandwidth issues. Read and Copy everest results are totally sub-par, especially Copy results. Their sub-par to the tune of at least 2GB\s.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ket

Yep everything is still adjustable, things like stability I have no idea about (hence where all you ppl come in :p: ) Theres more work I want to do on this BIOS, at least try and make it half decent by fixing its bandwidth issues. Read and Copy everest results are totally sub-par, especially Copy results. Their sub-par to the tune of at least 2GB\s.

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When I enable C-State I get much better copy times.:yepp:
I am going to give this bios a try when I get home. I really appreciate your effort in this.

When you give the BIOS a try give us some before and after numbers :up:

Here is bios 710 with c-state on

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/9558/bios710ez8.jpg

Bios 710 c-state off

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6939/cstateoffga2.jpg

Modded bios C-state off. There is a difference in l2 cache speed :)

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6...tateoffle4.jpg

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/771/11044iz1.jpg
:up:

mind to post the bios ss??

I use 489x9 as my 24/7 settings. i am going to go down the list in the voltage settings.

Vcore-.150
ddr-.400
chipset- .300
fsb-.250
.63
.63
.59
1.6

Things look good so far :up: Maybe its just me with the poor Copy results in everest, but theres no reason why my P5Q Pro should destroy the TPower by some 3GB\s :eek:

thanks ,testing and later i will post results.

*Sigh* I think, if anything, this TPower truely was ONLY made for the E8400, I cant get my Copy results in everest better than around 6.7GBs nomatter what.

Do you have DDR Enhance mode disabled? Disabling it causes what you describe.

--Matt

Pretty sure its not, but I'll check, thanks :up:

So, this BIOS doesnt have smaller voltage increments?
I think I might try it anyway, does it offer any improvements over the one I have, (one that came with the board, which I bought just after christmas....)

Theres small improvements in various areas. Finer voltage granularity isn't something thats easy to do. It may not even be possible.

Sounds like I have to try that one out. Has anybody tried the max OC. Any changes?

All s775 CPU's are supported? Like Celerons and Pentiums. If it is so, you are my hero!

mmm i guess that celerons and pentiums have electrical diferences with core 2 duo socket 775,i'm right?

Therefore I am a bit cautious...

I havent Tested Celerons or P4s, simply made changes which may help with C2D compatibility. If some P4s and Celerons work, then added bonus.

Chad, could you please run the Everest bench C-state on with the same settings (at this moment you have different CPU and Mem speeds). And run SPi 1M/32M with original and moded bios?
Thanks! :up:

Still no bios update since july! Is that even a month after they releaced the board? Why would anyone buy a biostar product after that?

Bug Biostar, see what they say. I'm having a real good look at the BIOS, but theres really not much a modder can do with it :shrug: Many things are intertwined which other P45 boards don't do with their BIOS.

Ket,
Are you able to do something similar to what was done with the memory voltage on the CPU vid? If the starting point on the VID was +.100 or so to begin with, there would be much more granular voltage controls at the vid ranges that people commonly run. For instance, I'm running +.250 and the smallest jump up from there is .05v. If there was a .1v buffer, I'd still have .025v increments to spare at that point.

--Matt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Still no bios update since july! Is that even a month after they releaced the board? Why would anyone buy a biostar product after that?

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Take a look here, http://www.lejabeach.com/Biostar/TPI45/ , there was a bios released in November

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Still no bios update since july! Is that even a month after they releaced the board? Why would anyone buy a biostar product after that?

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I don't think there have been any new steppings since that was released, and there aren't really any problems with the board that would need to be addressed by one. What exactly is it that you would expect to be in a bios update?

--Matt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mattkosem

Ket,
Are you able to do something similar to what was done with the memory voltage on the CPU vid? If the starting point on the VID was +.100 or so to begin with, there would be much more granular voltage controls at the vid ranges that people commonly run. For instance, I'm running +.250 and the smallest jump up from there is .05v. If there was a .1v buffer, I'd still have .025v increments to spare at that point.

--Matt

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I can change default values, but all that will happen when you select +.100 for example, is it "resets" to the lower voltage, not higher.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hstuehmeyer2000

Take a look here, http://www.lejabeach.com/Biostar/TPI45/ , there was a bios released in November

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P45AAB03 Beta.... not official.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mattkosem

I don't think there have been any new steppings since that was released, and there aren't really any problems with the board that would need to be addressed by one. What exactly is it that you would expect to be in a bios update?

--Matt

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Finer voltage granularity, thats what everyone wants. Would also be nice if Biostar fixed the PSB800 bug. If you set it manually to PSB800 the system will not POST. Tried and verified with my old E4400. Memory compatibility isn't that great either. This board can only just do 1200MHz with my Cellshocks, my P5Q Pro can POST @ 1300MHz.

I sold that board in less than a week. The fact that the vNB and vSB is linked is nuts, the board never even posted with my ram at its rated specs, you cant fine tune any voltages especilly the GTLs. The least they could do is work on memory compatibility.

i tested 3 bios yesterday,710 bios original,710 bios modded ( this thread bios) and the beta P45AAB03, easy to test, just put bios files in pen drive and next reboot and press F12,select the pen drive and folow the steps...well conclusion, bios 710 run fine, 710 bios modded, run very well,no problems and absolut compatibility with 4 gb ram and of course vcore default setting in 2.0 vdimm ...beta bios sucks absolut sucks!..overclocking troubles ( much) and 4-4-4-12 ram have problems with mem test around 45 minutes,5-5-5-18 no sense with 3,6 ghz ddr 2 800,so i come back to modded 710...is best bios that all i try.

bios 710 oficial ==== cache L2 everest latency 4.7 / 4.6 ns

bios 710 modded ( this thread bios) ==== 4.4 ns

bios P45AAB03 beta ==== 4.4 but many troubles,not recommended!

all testing 400 x 9 ddr2 800 with E8400

Thanks for the info :up:
Two sets of my mem are doing the same - 675Mhz and that's all :shrug: Kinda waird.

Perhaps its just me but something struck me last time I was sniffing through the TPower BIOS with AMIBCP, I had NEVER seen an option to disable on-board audio. I spent some time sniffing around with AMIBCP, and sure enough, couldn't find anything to disable the on-board audio. I actually went into the BIOS "realtime" as well, still couldn't find a option to disable on-board audio. Am I going blind or is there really not an option to disable on-board audio? Talk about potentially creating a real :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana: of a problem should somebody buy a decent audio solution.

Loaded the BIOS two days ago and it's been folding and benching just fine ever since. Very sorry I didn't have a chance to bench the difference. Just weren't enough hours in the day and I was so excited to have a new BIOS!

If you decide to delve back into it, the beta allowed one to disable the PATA controller. That would be nice to see in yours as well.

It's nice to just have someone putting effort into a BIOS. Biostar sure as he** isn't. Didn't even get a response from a recent email to them, big surprise. Tried US support and they said to contact Asia. Quite useful all around. Anyway, thank you very much, Ket!

I'm testing a modded beta BIOS for the TPower as I type ;)

ket you are offically the man in my book, you come to the rescue when the m2f needed some tweaking and now the tpower... i was getting really aggrivated that i couldnt get my ram working @ 1066, but it fires right up with yours no problem. only thing im kinda iffy about is the speed step. im not sure if you changed anything here but my multi seems to be set @ 6 by default even though i manually set it to 10 in the bios and my core voltage jumps anywhere from 1.068 to 1.200v. im lookin at it in cpuz so it may not be 100% accurate though.

Sounds like you have something like EIST or speedstep enabled. Check the BIOS carefully, theres actually a option or two that for some reason need disabling in both places, under the CPU config menu thing and somewhere in O.N.E.

ED - Oh and about the modded beta I was testing.. its been scrapped. Setting +.350 for NB/SB voltage caused a no POST, something that isn't a problem in 710m.

I hav that board and my problem with the bios is Vmem at high vmem the jump is way to far is that corrected in this modded bios?

No. Voltage granularity as I explained in a previous post is not something a modder can fix easily (if at all) Biostar would need to get involved, but as Biostar suck.. all you can do is bug the hell out of Biostar.. maybe you will get lucky and your complaint about voltage granularity will make the "magic number" and they will release a new BIOS.

Seeing as this thread is not a month old, I'd take a shot an post here. I want to try your modded bios, but I've never flashed any BIOS before. You say I need to do it the old floppy way, but I don't have a floppy drive :P And the board has it's own flashing utility (you can install TPower2 from the driver/utilities CD, which includes the flashing application).

Anyway, I was hoping that you might be able to fix the RAID problem. I hate that every single time I boot up, I have to get told that the BIOS can't find any hard drives in the RAID controller. Well guess what, I don't have any RAID installed (I should edit my old sig :P)! And I've made 10000% sure that the BIOS knows that I only have 1 hard drive and that it doesn't use RAID.

Also sad that you can't make voltage granularity better :( It's seriously bad...

I'm not sure what your describing is a BIOS issue, I use only one HDD and never have any problems with RAID error messages. Have you tried resetting your cmos by removing battery and power as well as setting the jumper to "clear"?

It's a "problem" that I've had since the day I bought this motherboard. I'll go take a screenshot and edit my post. I've read that other people have had the exact same problem. I'll also add some screenshots of my BIOS setup.

edit:
Okay so the image is very bad (:banana::banana::banana::banana:ty light I guess, flash is off :P)
http://i41.tinypic.com/24qs31y.jpg
In case you can't read it :P

Quote:

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Adapter 1
Disks Information:
No hard disk is detected!

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Takes a couple of seconds and then it juts boots.

Bios settings:
http://i41.tinypic.com/dn0gt3.jpg
http://i41.tinypic.com/24waerr.jpg

from what i can tell that is actually the ATA raid. actually im guessing it would have to be b/c i have a raid setup on the ICH10 and it shows an intel storage array as my primary boot disk. the marvell controller still boots with my system as well though and i havent found anything that disables it.

vab206 is correct, that's the PATA controller. The only BIOS that gets rid of it properly is the beta Biostar released a while ago.

/begin rant/ Annoyingly, that's the last thing Biostar ever did for this board. It'll also be the last board I ever buy from them. One official BIOS since the product's release is atrocious. Even releasing the beta as an official release would be something. It's a good board, just has a few issues (PATA RAID delay, lack of voltage granularity <---that's my biggest beef) that could easily have been worked out if they gave a crap about their product. /end rant/

I say all of that to thank Ket for modding it. At least it was another BIOS to play with. Thanks Ket!!

Hi KET,

This BIOS works just fine... I get 635FSB on the newest BIOS and 630FSB on yours. The only thing missing from the newest BIOS is the NB PLL voltage setting, thats where the 5Mhz is hidden i suppose... It would be great if you could do the default vDIMM mod to the newest BIOS... Anyway im glad for this one as well Keep up the awesome work :up:

does some1 know already this bios supports P4's? or some1 have a link for a bios that does?