ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[donpipo]

Sorry to resurrect an old debate but I wanted to share some information with long-time users of the P5W DH, in this thread I've taken real good advices and info...
Last post about this is dated 2008, but this is still giving me headaches!

I've experimented using EZ_RAID1 port with RAID_SET jumpers taken apart (and EZ-Backup mode change enabled on next reboot). ICH7R is set to [Raid].

While the EZ_RAID1 port might be recognized as the missing ICH7R port, and the connected hard drive correctly identified and working, I came across an issue: reading and writing may take ages, as if the drive was not responding. A simple 10MB file copy may even take 5 minutes! Even Windows won't shut down.
I've used this "no jumper" setup before to temporarily attach a drive before and did not noticed the problem. I was running XPand maybe no RAID, can't remember.
Today, I'm running Windows 7 with latest Intel drivers, with a RAID1 on ICH7R SATA3 and SATA4 ports, a system drive on SATA1.

Edit: The culprit is JMicron driver! Thanks G40RoCkEt for having pointed this, I would not have even been thinking that the driver of a separate controller could cause problems with a specific port on another one!

Removing the RAID_SET jumpers is a clear mistake, as the Sil4723 chip seems to keep interacting in a bad way on the connection, at least when ICH7R is configured as Raid.

Edit: Actually, this can be still true, but JMicron driver once uninstalled and back to Microsoft generic AHCI driver, the problem seems gone for good.

I've also taken a look at the manual: it says that you must put the jumpers in RAID1 configuration, plug the drive on EZ_RAID1 and leave the EZ_RAID2 free, in order to setup a RAID10 with 4 drives using ICH7R...
So this might not be an issue in others modes than [Raid].

Now that I have putted the jumpers back to RAID1 mode, the problem is gone. The drive attached alone to the EZ_RAID1 port is performing as expected, not as it would on a regular ICH7R port, but without issues.

Edit: I've experienced some random freezes since with iaStor problems showing up in event manager. Reverted back to Matrix Storage driver 8.8.1009 as advised by Intel communities forums -> Problem still here (note better general responsiveness!). JMicron driver uninstalled, problems gone!

Voila, that's all for my report.

Edit, I'm investigating whereas it's a problem with the driver or a version of the driver or even a problem under Windows 7 with the driver. I'll post my results here

Hope this can still help, even it's a bit late!

Cheers!
Alex.

[G40RoCkEt]

donpipo,

Before i put my new ssd 80GB and change my configuration to ACHI, i have RAID0 with bios set at RAID and use the ezbackup port1 and the jmicron too with w7 x64.

RAID set Jumper removed too,

I never lost perfomance in my drivres except if i install the new jmicron drivers.. wich have some kind of problem.. my drives became very slowww.

So, now i have ACHI mode and use the same dvdrw in ezbackup port.. All fine and RAID set jumper removed too.

More recently i noticed if i install the new and recent intel chipset drivers i have problems with the ssd and hard disk, became slow, very very. So i uninstall matrix drivers and voilá.

All is perfect now. By the way, my W7 index pontuation in disk with the SSD now is 7.8

With my old RAID0 (2 x 320GB WD AAKS) was 5.9

[donpipo]

Well, I didn't expect the JMicron driver to interfere with EZ_RAID1 port, so I haven't even attempted to uninstall its driver...

I've thought that I need this driver installed for hotplugging and "removing safely" my eSATA drives (old XP time), until I've actually tried Microsoft generic AHCI driver shipped with Windows 7... Although not as responsive with hotplugged drives in recognition time, this driver does its job well! My problem is now fixed... I think.

So, yes, as checked by removing JMicron driver completely, it's a JMicron driver issue.
It causes severe problems when the jumpers are removed. Issues with the jumpers back to original RAID1 mode position aren't bad as they are with them removed. But they are

Do you remember which JMicron driver version was working OK with jumpers removed?

Message edited because of findings.

[G40RoCkEt]

donpipo, use the jmicron drivers from your P5W CD drivers.

I think that works very well.

[DeGier[nl]]

Oii finally my account got activated,been reading this thread on and on for a while to make my decision wether I would upgrade my p5w dh deluxe rev 1.02g from an e6600 to q9550 or not. I was able to buy a cheap q9550 and so I did. Let me show you the setup :

P5W DH Deluxe
Q9550 + artic freezer
ATI 5770
4x 1gb kingston pc6400 ecc
2hhd in raid 0
taga 480w psu


Cleared the cmos and start running...first boot I kept everything stock no problems. I read about the half Multiplier which the p5w dh not supported and the vcore (no less then 1.4) so it kinda downclocked itself to 8x354 something. Tried some games and no problems, perfect stable. But my old e6600 ran a good time for 8x400 quite stable (a crash once and a while) so I actually wanted/thought to try the q9550 to get around that speed also. After rasing the speeds (in steps) for 200mhz to approx 3000mhz modern warfare 2 start crashing, very weird though the benchmarks gave no problem. The moment I set back the speeds, modern warfare 2 kept crashing so what I did was cleared cmos and then i While rebooting got back in windows. Then I saw Cpu-Z and core Temp say 8.5 x 333 speeds? The mboard says mp of 8 ? Weird!?
Anyway i can't get a single mhz more out of this q9550 or modern warfare is unstable,which is kinda disapointing thought I had it also with the e6600. Tried all bios settings possible mentioned here,raised the vcore to 1.4 (lowest possible but nada), raised mch etc etc also bought some second hand 2 x 2gb memory to test if the mboard would accept a better fsb with 2 dimms but without result. It runs stable now but just to get a little bit more bang for the buck Any1 perhaps got some tips which I might have missed? Weird that all games I played before MW2 gave no problems for the e6600 at 3200mhz and now I can't OC a single mhz or the game starts lagging like hell

[ThorLite]

Change your PSU and get a cheap P45 board...

[secretworld]

Yes, was in same boat on a P5W. Now running P5Q (vanilla) Q9550 @3.62ghz 425FSB at really low volts. 100% stable.
My P5W runs a Q6600 at 3ghz, won't go higher....

[pc1x1]

I am having a weird issue guys,

every time It gets to boot on Win 7, the computer suddenly restarts, also sometimes the usb ports work and sometimes they don't. Think maybe my mobo is finally dying? I don't think its psu, because it starts, it just gets to Windows 7 screen, and restarts automatically. Alot of times, the keyboard (usb) won't be powered. Then it just hangs in the Windows Start up recovery screen, doesn't go further. Sometimes after hours of trying, I can boot into Windows, but this is completely unuseable. Data is backed up. I am not sure if its a hardware issue or software, but I suspect, hardware is starting to go, and thats corrupting the software.

I am close to getting a cheap P45 board, but cash is low, would prefer to keep this going a bit longer. Would like your opinions. I have a Q9550, thats been stock clocked at 2.66ghz.

Safe Mode does not work, computer shuts down, couple seconds after.
Repair does not work, just hangs.
Normal also does not work .

[secretworld]

Did you try memtest from floppy or cdrom? Sounds like a memory issue, but could be caused by a setting in bios too (or indeed a dying mobo)

[Mavke]

As I am a bit stuck, I am hoping someone can help. I just reinstalled Windows XP and also Windows 7 just to be sure, but now the two Marvell gigabit Ethernet connections no longer have a MAC address. Yes I have done already an enable/disable of the network adapters and re-installed drivers but still no MAC address. It is annyoing as I just cleaned up the PC and made it ready for a friend who needs a new machine. Is there some way to get to the MAC address by reading out something directly from the Marvell chips or whatever?

MAC address for both: 00-00-00-00-00-00
And every single way with "ipconfig" or registry which I found on the internet didn't resolve this, except spoofing the MAC but I don't want that as these should have a MAC and I want to somehow a tool that can read it directly from the hardware or another solution. Thanks.

[Yolanda]

It's soft bug with Windows, Mac is written in hardware and can't be erased. I advice you to install latest Marvell drivers and then, if MACs will be zeros, type any static MACs in drivers.

[pc1x1]

Did you try memtest from floppy or cdrom? Sounds like a memory issue, but could be caused by a setting in bios too (or indeed a dying mobo)

Yea I did the Windows Memory Diagnostics and it seemed to be fine.

Going to boot with two ram sticks now.

Took them out, and it booted, dunno if its coincidence or not, but at least its on, going to prepare a back up. just in case.

Not sure if its ram sticks or not yet, or just mobo, cause Ill put them back on again. When I did Memtest didnt see any errors, may have to run it again.

[pc1x1]

Update:

Ok it booted with two ram sticks, still not sure if its mobo or the ram. Guess got to play the swapping game I suppose.

[Mavke]

It's soft bug with Windows, Mac is written in hardware and can't be erased. I advice you to install latest Marvell drivers and then, if MACs will be zeros, type any static MACs in drivers.

Thanks but I have tried that installing new, old, beta drivers and nothing works. And it worked before just fine, so how can that be? Cause I re-install my PC every year at least once, and only this time I am having this issue...

[secretworld]

Update:

Ok it booted with two ram sticks, still not sure if its mobo or the ram. Guess got to play the swapping game I suppose.

What Volts are you running? Maybe upping the North bridge voltage a little would fix it. 4 sticks usually need this.

[sky]

oh man, i've been away from here for way too long - but it was a healthy experience for my wallet, so no complaints on that front

anyway. yesterday i got me a x9650, slapped it on the board, no go. i guess the old skills were gone, as i managed to screw up a few pins of the socket (genius, i know). once that was sorted i got it to booting, well sort of. the board had been on bios 1602 since forever it seems, and that wouldn't recognize the q9650 - no surprises there, really. so back in went the e6600es, cmos clear into windows. download and flash bios, rinse and repeat.

so yea i got the q9650 running. wanted to get it's clockspeeds to at least where the e66 had been. hopped into bios - w t f - minimum vcore 1.4v??? that is more than my e66 ever got. and that was 65nm, this is 45nm. so i stayed away from that, set everything to auto (mighty overclock, that, lol). and have been sitting at that. now i skipped over the thread and noticed that real vcore readings are way off compared to what is set in the bios. i think i saw some guy saying his vcore is set to 1.7v and he get's like 1.3ish for real.

so my quick question is, by how much is the selected voltage off compared to the real voltage? as of now i have no other means to measure vcore than usinc cpuz or some such tools. setting the vcore to auto (haven't done that in a decade) it sits at 1.216v for 3.150mhz. that e66 used to want 1.35v for 3.600 or 1.45v or so for 4.000. now this q9650 is said to have used 1.27 for roughly 4.000 so i'm kinda looking at 1.25v for 3600ish mhz - gotta keep an eye on temps though, as i couldn't be bothered to break out the wc or vpc cooling yet again.

any ideas - rough pointers will do. thanks guys

[Falkentyne]

Just set it at 1.4v in bios. Current steppings of Q9650 (is that a Q9650 or a QX9650, which won't go as high in mhz, but will do 4+ ghz with the unliked multi?) should have no trouble handling 1.4v if you keep the cooling down.

Your problem isnt the vcore, its the FSB with the quad on that board. Frankly, if you do a simple $100 switch with a UD3P, you may find yourself able to reach close to 4.4 ghz with that vcore, as long as it's the E0 stepping chip.

[mw818]

Greetings, i just had to replace my DVD drive, and picked up one that connected through SATA (my previous connected through IDE). My dilemma is that I currently have 4 SATA hard drives, with no raid setup; I would like to connect my DVD drive to the board somehow, I am currently using all 3 ICH7R sata connectors (at the bottom right of the board), and the JMICRON connector(above the PCI-E slot) .

My question is, is there a way to set up my system so i can plug my DVD drive into one of the EZ_BACKUP sata ports and have it run properly? Thank you for your time

-Mike

[Chrysalis]

there is way but I think will be easier using the jmicron sata port.

the ez-raid requires you to move/remove a jumper cant remember which.

[Chrysalis]

there is way but I think will be easier using the jmicron sata port.

the ez-raid requires you to move/remove a jumper cant remember which.

[donpipo]

EZ_RAID1 SATA port acts as the "missing" ICH7R port if you connect only one drive to it.
Beware, don't attach a hard drive on the EZ_RAID2 port with EZ_RAID1 empty, or all data on it will be erased.

If you don't use RAID, you may have to remove both the blue RAID_SET jumpers, then enable "EZ_RAID Mode Change" in BIOS.
That will disable the second EZ_RAID2 orange port, making you hard drive recognized as its former name rather than "External Disk".

The orange ports are designed to handle hard drives, so you should preferably move your hard disk from the JMicron port to the EZ_RAID1 port, and plug the DVD drive to the JMicron port.

Just my advice...

[kyton]

just upgrade my board with an extra ram 2x 1gb kingston ddr2-800. boot up half way in windows. Blue screen. put those dimms in another pc and they work fine. could it be that the board does not like them or do i need to adjust some voltages. had mem volt at 1.8 & 1.9v.

[Falkentyne]

1.8v is sort of low. Most 1 GB sticks work great at 2.0v. Some brands from back in the day won't boot at 1.8v but will POST at 1.8v to allow you to change the voltage. Try that. And try 4-4-4-12 timings. I've seen some that will accept 2.1v directly within the specs...

And to avoid OS corruption, you should DEFINITELY boot to a floppy/USB drive with memtest86+, just to make sure you can pass tests 1-5 cleanly. OS corruption (meaning safe mode won't even load anymore) is far more likely to occur from memory problems than from CPU problems.

[MINIz guy]

Hi all, long time no post. I've recently rebuilt my desktop and have bought Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Now before I install it, where and what drivers am I supposed to use? Asus Support shows no drivers specifically made for Windows 7.

Sorry for not searching if this is easy to find. Trying to search Windows 7 has the "7" not show up, bringing up all the OS posts. I just can't comb through them all!

[Mordor]

I installed win7 x64 on mine a few weeks back, and win7 had or found all the necessary drivers by itself. It is working nicely on mine sofar. I am not using the built in wifi nor any of the other special Asus features of the board, but otherwise you should probably be able to use the Vista drivers for those on win7.