ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[w2richwood]

i see no resson to go to 4gb of ram less you go vista 64 bit

[Brahmzy]

i see no resson to go to 4gb of ram less you go vista 64 bit

That's exactly why I went with 4gb's....

I've fought off Vista for too long. Time to just bite bullet and get used to MS's next OS. I really do like it better than XP. It IS slower in a lot of things and XP is so polished and refined - lean and mean.

If you're goin' Vista though, it's silly NOT to go x64. The driver support is SO much better than XP x64 was/is.

[w2richwood]

are most of your games compatable with vista 64 bit
Rich

[willwill02]

But this didn't happen under Bios 1101 so your answer is still not directed towards my question.

I understand I need a 64bit OS to see all the ram--that's not the question. If the previous bios I was using DID NOT appropriate any memory, and the OS I am using now "sees" 3GB of ram BEFORE I flashed to 1506 without appropriating 1152MBs of ram---how can I get that appropriated ram back?

This is a BIOS/Motherboard question--not and OS question.

Hi all - new member, first post.

I've just bought and installed 4 gig of G-Skill 800 MHz memory, and am having problems - no errors, as such, but I have a problem with the mboard.
I know about the 32 bit memory hole, and that I'd only ever see 3.2 or something - but -

I can't turn the memory remap feature on as my OS (Vista) is only 32 bit. And with the remap disabled, the motherboard is appropriating 1.53 gig for my 2 graphics cards.
So only 2.5 shows up in Windows.

1 x 2 headed ATI Radeon X1950XTX - 2 x 512m heads = 1024
1 x 2 headed ATI Radeon X1300 - 2 x 256m heads = 512
Totaled up: 1536 Meg appropriated and unavailable to any OS.

Vista shows 2560 meg RAM.

If I enable the memory remap feature, the BIOS shows 0 appropriated, 4096 available to OS, but Vista 32 bit shows 2048 meg only.

Burner27 said in this thread that when he had BIOS version 1101 installed, it didn't appropriate anything - but with the latest BIOS, it does.
I'm running the latest (2302)- and I am going to have to try each anterior version one by one until I get to one (hopefully before I get to anything as old as 1101) that doesn't appropriate any RAM to give my system a chance to see 3.2 gig of the 4.

It's frustrating - if it didn't have this RAM to appropriate when I only had 2 gig, why on earth would they code a BIOS that needs to knick my RAM just becuase I put MORE in? It makes no sense - more and more people are using dual graphics cards - and this board has two PCIe slots!!!
If the board didn't appropriate when I only had 2 gig RAM, then it doesn't NEED to, thus this appropriation is unecessary and wrong!

I don't suppose any of you happen to know from which BIOS version this started? Otherwise I'll be flashing my board about 25 times over the next few hours.....

Many thanks if you find the time to reply to this.

Cheers

will

CPU E6600

[yoggi]

After much time and effort I noticed that u can only downgrade from Bios 22xx to 2004 using version 6.x of Asus update. Asus doesn´t know this apparently.

Anyway the Asus support send me Bios 2403.

Dear Valued ASUS Customer

Please try the attached BIOS which should contain a fix for your problem.
If it works or you notice anything wrong please give us feedback and we will look into it.

Best Regards
ASUS TMSS Support



U might want it, the Onboard sound auto activation is fixed according to this guy as I asked about it.


I have NOT tested this bios myself and have no idea if it´s a beta bios.
It´s not listed on asus website. Asus update confirms this bios is from Yesterday 8/11.
http://files.filefront.com/P5W+DH+AS.../fileinfo.html

[Gig4moller]

Cool, waiting for the first experiences before I will try this bios myself. I'm getting annoyed by this auto onboard sound activation with 2302

[crishan]

The first results from German forum 'forumdeluxx' are encouraging:

Users are reporting that Speedstep works again plus that it is again
possible to disable the onboard sound

http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/show...7&postcount=50
http://www.forumdeluxx.de/forum/show...0&postcount=61

Both in German; sufice to say, they're happy with it so far.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I'm using 2302 now and never noticed onboard audio turning on. How is this happening? Are you by chance going into the bios and see it as enabled or something else?

[Eastcoasthandle]

As far as I am concerned this MB is best used with the EXX00 series CPUs at 1066 FSB vs EXX50 CPUs at 1333 FSB when it comes to OC. With a E6700 OC'd 3.4 I could do 4:5 on the ram. With a E6850 OC 3.4 or 3.6 I can only do 1:1. The dram frequencies are so high in the BIOS you would need a 1333 Ram in order to get anything other then 1:1. Problem is, 1333 ram are only found in DDR3 not DDR2. The P35 or X38 is a perfect fit for the EXX50 series of CPUs at 1333 system bus while the P5W DH is a perfect fit for the 1066 CPUs.

This is the main difference between the aging 975 powerhouse vs P35 or X38. Over clocking capabilities will very from one chipset to the next however the most noted difference that matters most is that the P35 and X38 are designed to use 333 FSB CPUs that are entering the market.

If there is a way to set the FSB strap on a P5W DH to 333 I am all ears!

[Eastcoasthandle]

In the pic above, the Dram Frequency is set to 800, not 1000


This is the result of the bios settings using PC8500.



In order for the Bios to recognize your E6750 or E6850, etc you have to use the Overclock Profile and select 1333/DDR2/884 or 667. Or else, it would downclock your E6750 or E6850 when booting up at standard clock. Also, this is from bios 2302. I read there is a 2403 (or something similar) but I haven't found it yet.

[Brahmzy]

I'm noticing that dang onboard sound crap too. After every power off, then power on, the onboard audio is enabled again (visible in the BIOS.) 2302 needs to go NOW.

Where's 2303?

[Brahmzy]

Trying 2403 now........

UPDATE:

This BIOS is safe (from links above) and the onboard audio problem is fixed! WOOT.

[Eastcoasthandle]

I'm noticing that dang onboard sound crap too. After every power off, then power on, the onboard audio is enabled again (visible in the BIOS.) 2302 needs to go NOW.

Where's 2303?

What onboard audio? How did you know onboard vs sound card was turned on?

[crishan]

By simply entering the bios / Having it reapper in Windows (although I had it switched off earlier inside the bios) every friggin' time.

With the craptacular 2205, 2206, 2301 and 2302, the onboard audio plus the onboard serial would always reactivate themselves.
These bioses also had issues with Speedstep not working etc.

Apparently, the onboard-audio-bug would mostly happen to people who had the onboard audio switched to "off" before they were flashing 2205/2206/2301/2302.
That could also be a reason why Asus' bios writers didn't catch this bug.

[Grendel66]

Uh, I always had it switched off and it never switched itself on through all mentioned BIOSes. Weird.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Uh, I always had it switched off and it never switched itself on through all mentioned BIOSes. Weird.

This is how I updated as well. That's why I don't understand what's going on. One rule of thumb that I thought everyone knew is to go to default cpu and default ram settings before you update a bios. I wonder if that had anything to do with the problems some are having.

[w2richwood]

i always load defaults before flashing the reset cmos after flash and it always worked for me
Rich

[crishan]

OK, firstly, this is not a "made-up" bug.
It's funny how you're implying that people are making this up (although not quite
saying it out loud), while on the other hand, you're not making the slightest
attempt to read up on that bug on this particular thread.
There is a page counter to this thread, up on the right, you know.

Secondly, DUH, certainly I (we, who were plagued by this bug) know how
to load setup defaults.

Remember just because you yourself weren't plagued by this bug does not mean that others weren't!

Just entering 2302 into the search function would have turned up this:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=6033
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=6045
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...postcount=6097

Still (underhandedly) trying to call people liars?

[willwill02]

Hi guys.

As you may have seen from my post above on this page, I'm trying to flash my BIOS back to a much earlier one. The standard Asus DOS flash prog will let me regress a few versions but not to the one I believe I need. It says "the BIOS you are trying to flash to may not be compatible with this motherboard" Eh? They might be old, but they're all for this board. Don't get it.

I really need to do this as the damn BIOS is allowing the motherboard to 'appropriate' 1.6 gig of my 4 gig RAM, thus only allowing me 2.5 in windows. (All explained in my post above).

Is there a more powerful flash tool that I can try? The utility built into the bios system seems to be very buggy and slow; I used it once but wouldn't depend on it. DOS versions seem to be easier.

Many thanks!

Will

ps I know there's another thread within this thread about sound issues - did I post correctly by continuing in this thread rather than starting a fresh one? 258 pages of thread is about the longest I've ever seen....ta.

[lawrywild]

This is how I updated as well. That's why I don't understand what's going on. One rule of thumb that I thought everyone knew is to go to default cpu and default ram settings before you update a bios. I wonder if that had anything to do with the problems some are having.

No. I always flash my bios with defaults loaded, then load defaults again after the flash. Then restart and enter settings, and trust me, this bug happens.. EIST stays Disabled and Onboard audio stays Enabled. Started on 2205 and 2302 had it too. Have not tested 2403 yet, can't really be bothered, systems working well right now.

[Gig4moller]

Just updated to 2403, no problems thus far.

Also onboard audio is staying disabled now.

[Brahmzy]

Just updated to 2403, no problems thus far.

Also onboard audio is staying disabled now.

+1 - no more problems for me with 2403.

[pphx459]

I actually noticed that the bios kept enabling the sound a week ago, I was going to ask you guys about that, good to know I'm not the only one. So it's safe to use 2403 eh? Still thinking about it since the system is pretty stable atm..

edit: fux it, i'm installing it now..

edit: woot, sound problem fixed! Everything seems to be ok as well.

[Mr.X]

I don't want to create a whole new thread for this but I haven't been keeping up with the news lately and I've searched around but haven't found a definite answer:
Does anyone know for sure whether the P5W DH supports the new 45nm CPUs or not???

[w2richwood]

yes it will for sure with a updated bios 2403 i think it is
Rich