Foxconn BloodRage Issues / BIOS Bugs Thread

[BenchZowner]

Woah, lot's of work now
I'm gonna get some food in and then I'll try to reproduce everything

[Raja@ASUS]

Are you on a rev 1.0 board Bill (my sample is)? Some of the power issues described may be different and or non-exsistent on rev 1.1 and 1.2.

regards
Raja

[BenchZowner]

I spent 1 1/2 minutes looking all over the board for the revision... can't seem to find it
Wanna give me a hand here ? :X

[Raja@ASUS]

Sure Bill - sorry my bad, should have said it killed me looking for that too and that was when i knew where it was supposed to be, lol.

The floppy connecter at the bottom edge of the board, look above that and slightly to the left, you should see it in tiny writing..

Gary has a 1.0 and 1.1, but is away so I can't get him to confirm my Uncore bootup limits until he gets back..

regards
Raja

[BenchZowner]

OMG WTF ROFLMAO.
And I was looking around that corner some minutes ago
It's rev 1.0.

[OverClocker_gr]

It's rev 1.0.

[saaya]

Think I am having the same RAID problem. No matter what I do I can't run RAID on this board either on the P03 or G15 BIOS. When I enable RAID it won't boot to Vista CD and gives me a no system disk error but all 3 drives work fine when in IDE mode.

thats normal, on jmicron you can enable raid and still boot with a single hdd and use the old non-raid windows install. on intels controller thats not possible, and on the marvell it doesnt work either i think.

as soon as you enable raid on ich10 or previous intel raid southbridges, you have to install a fresh copy of the OS.

but thats not the problem your having ocer_gr right?
you enabled raid0 and THEN installed windows, and it worked fine, BUT when you disable jmicron then it wont work anymore, correct?

the video is ok.Probably its its somehow blocked from the network at your work.

They are cycling.
Boot-b8-b9-00-E8-02-b9-00-E8-02 and the overclock recovery.

thats what happens when you want to change the cas latency?
weird.. hmmm ill try to reproduce this asap

I am with G15 bios running 200*20; 8x rams, 16x uncore and 18x qpi.

LOL, really?
what cpu? 920 or 965? retail or ES? it must be a bios bug, cause with 22x qpi multiplier i can boot fine, and if i increase the uncore ratio i can boot fine with 18x qpi multiplier... i was using 12x cpu multi btw, maybe that has to do with it too...

When i have raid enabled on ich10 i cant boot from sata dvd rom.

Attached file is the .thp

thanks!

About VTT, i talked to the engineers yesterday, like raja said, the vtt reading pad reads the actual vtt, the bios reading and bios setting are off... ill check if we can adjust them

[BenchZowner]

I'm starting the "listed issues" check now.
Gonna try everything and report if I'm having the same issues or not

p.s. I've read your PM Sascha, will check that as well

[BenchZowner]

One thing I forgot to mention before.
It just crossed my mind again
It looks like there's a "hole" in between 2.21V and 2.25V Memory Voltage.
2.21V works fine.
2.22V and 2.23V are giving me noPOSTs, and overclock recovery.
Gonna check it out again with both the G13 and the G15 BIOSes to confirm.

[OverClocker_gr]

but thats not the problem your having ocer_gr right?
you enabled raid0 and THEN installed windows, and it worked fine, BUT when you disable jmicron then it wont work anymore, correct?

not exactly,i installed windows with G13 and the jmicron was disabled.with G13 i dont have this problem.(the raid is at ich10 not on jmicron)
With G15 if i have the jmicron enabled, windows boots normaly,if i disable it,just before i get the windows loading bar it reboots instantly.

Also with G15 if i have enabled the raid @ ich10 i cannot boot from sata dvd-rom.

thats what happens when you want to change the cas latency?
weird.. hmmm ill try to reproduce this asap

exactly

LOL, really?
what cpu? 920 or 965? retail or ES? it must be a bios bug, cause with 22x qpi multiplier i can boot fine, and if i increase the uncore ratio i can boot fine with 18x qpi multiplier... i was using 12x cpu multi btw, maybe that has to do with it too...

920 retail.
i ll try your settings and i ll report back.

[BenchZowner]

I took some measurements with both BIOSes ( G13 & G15 ).
The results are weird.
The last few measurements with the G13 BIOS might be just a bit off because the DMM's battery was getting lower.
CPU Voltage ( Vcore ) measurements


I'm trying to flash the secondary BIOS chip with the G15 now so I can switch from G13 to G15 with a single "click" in the BIOS, but it looks like my secondary BIOS chip is now failing! Some addresses seem to be 'dead'

[Touge180SX]

not exactly,i installed windows with G13 and the jmicron was disabled.with G13 i dont have this problem.(the raid is at ich10 not on jmicron)
With G15 if i have the jmicron enabled, windows boots normaly,if i disable it,just before i get the windows loading bar it reboots instantly.

Also with G15 if i have enabled the raid @ ich10 i cannot boot from sata dvd-rom.

I have the exact same problem. If I try to boot from the Vista CD in my SATA CD-ROM with either P03 or G15 BIOS (didn't try G13) it will not detect the CD and give me a Disk Error or no OS installed Error.

I took some measurements with both BIOSes ( G13 & G15 ).
The results are weird.
The last few measurements with the G13 BIOS might be just a bit off because the DMM's battery was getting lower.



I'm trying to flash the secondary BIOS chip with the G15 now so I can switch from G13 to G15 with a single "click" in the BIOS, but it looks like my secondary BIOS chip is now failing! Some addresses seem to be 'dead'

With G15 I also notice a huge difference from the BIOS setting to the actual CPU-Z VCore reading. Something like .05-.1 volts!

[Raja@ASUS]

I'd stick with G13 really, G15 has a startup VTT issue too, that can prevent bootup above certain VTT voltages.

[Touge180SX]

Ok, here is the RAID problem I am having. When I put ICH10 to RAID mode in the BIOS, regardless if Jmicron SAS is enabled or disabled, when it gets to the part where it should load from CD to start a fresh OS install, it gives me a DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. When I put the ICH10 back to IDE mode everything works fine. I have the two HD's that I want to RAID plugged into SATA 0 and SATA 1 spots. I have tried everything and can't figure it out! I am probably missing something stupid but... any ideas? It did the same thing on the P03 BIOS that came with the board and I have not tried G13.

[saaya]

not exactly,i installed windows with G13 and the jmicron was disabled.with G13 i dont have this problem.(the raid is at ich10 not on jmicron)
With G15 if i have the jmicron enabled, windows boots normaly,if i disable it,just before i get the windows loading bar it reboots instantly.

hmmm ok... weird... almost like windows was waiting for the jmicron controller and if its not there then it causes a problem...weird...
did install the jmicron driver? if you remove it, can you then boot with jmicron disabled?

Also with G15 if i have enabled the raid @ ich10 i cannot boot from sata dvd-rom.

but with G13 it works, right? hmmm

I took some measurements with both BIOSes ( G13 & G15 ).
The results are weird.
The last few measurements with the G13 BIOS might be just a bit off because the DMM's battery was getting lower.

thats vtt, right? looks like only minor fluctuations, same voltages for both bioses, right?
I think the reason why G15 cant boot with high vtt is because of the bootup procedure...

I'm trying to flash the secondary BIOS chip with the G15 now so I can switch from G13 to G15 with a single "click" in the BIOS, but it looks like my secondary BIOS chip is now failing! Some addresses seem to be 'dead'

wow, really?
I sent you that board and before i did i flashed both bios chips...
Hmmm can you remove them and swap them?
Maybe the pins are just not making good contact?
And id recommend you to use the lower 2 bios settings to switch between the bios chips with the jumper, when you do it via the bios option then it might get confusing

if default bios is 1 but you select 2, then try a setting that doesnt work, oc recovery kicks in, and you will see bios1, not bios2. that can be really confusing So either check which bios chip your on atm once you enter bios, or use the jumper.

I have the exact same problem. If I try to boot from the Vista CD in my SATA CD-ROM with either P03 or G15 BIOS (didn't try G13) it will not detect the CD and give me a Disk Error or no OS installed Error.

hmmmm so you installed windows on raid0 on ich10 sata ports and it works fine, but when you connect a sata cdrom then it doesnt detect the cd drive in bios and you cant boot to windows anymore hmmmm

With G15 I also notice a huge difference from the BIOS setting to the actual CPU-Z VCore reading. Something like .05-.1 volts!

the actual vcore is what you can read in hwmonitor, the default vcore detection doesnt seem to work properly and detects a default vcore of .1v less than it actually is. so it thinks default vcore is 1.2v for example, but really its 1.3v. when you then set it to 1.3v its actually 1.4v

ill ask the bios engineers to bring back the vcore reading into the voltage menu until the vcore detection works properly on all cpus

I'd stick with G13 really, G15 has a startup VTT issue too, that can prevent bootup above certain VTT voltages.

Yes, id recommend you guys G13... G15 seems to clock memory better but it doesnt coldboot with high vtt.

Btw, an interesting thing our engineers found is that some cpus dont like to boot with high vtt. the same cpu will refuse to boot with high vtt in different boards, while other cpus boot fine. If you have problems booting with high vtt increase the X58 IOH 1.1v VCCA voltage to 1.2v or 1.3v

Update on the PSU problem btw, it seems that it can be fixed by BIOS!
We are still testing and researching this problem, ill let you know when i get more details


Welcome to XtremeSystems Trembledust
G13 and P03 are similar but not the same, and yes, they are newer than P02
And yes, the bios names and structure was changed a bit in G13, so thats why your not seeing the same options. And some boards are shipping with G13, some are shipping with P03 and some with P02 it seems, depending on when they were built and if they were updated by the distributor/shop or not.

I dont know about that superpi time... im not an expert in that at all... is the memory and 3d performance fine otherwise?

Ok, here is the RAID problem I am having. When I put ICH10 to RAID mode in the BIOS, regardless if Jmicron SAS is enabled or disabled, when it gets to the part where it should load from CD to start a fresh OS install, it gives me a DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. When I put the ICH10 back to IDE mode everything works fine. I have the two HD's that I want to RAID plugged into SATA 0 and SATA 1 spots. I have tried everything and can't figure it out! I am probably missing something stupid but... any ideas? It did the same thing on the P03 BIOS that came with the board and I have not tried G13.

when you want to create a raid array you have to enter the intel raid tool first as far as i know. so set it to raid mode, then hit ctrl+i and then create a raid0 array... then set the DVD drive to first boot device, boot from CD/DVD and i think you have to hit F5 to install the ICH10 raid driver otherwise it wont detect the HDD... does that work? theres a pretty good guide in the Manual on how to set up raid iirc, does that help you?

[Touge180SX]

Saaya, it doesn't even give me the option to boot from CD and goes straight to the DISK BOOT FAILURE error. I went into the BIOS, set ICH10 to RAID, saved and exited. Hit CTRL-i and set up my RAID0 with the 2x 250GB HD's and exited. Says nothing about booting from CD and goes straight to that error, even after a reboot. If I try to boot from Windows CD in IDE mode everything works fine and Vista sees all of my HD's but just won't work if I try IDE mode.

[saaya]

you mean it wont work in raid mode, right?
hmmm what about AHCI mode?
i remember there was something about ICH detecting an optical drive in raid mode hmmm

[BenchZowner]

I'm still a little green when it comes to oc'ing so sorry if this sounds like a noob question. I was fiddling around with the new board I received and noticed that some of the bios options shown on pics of the bios shown on other sites dont match up exactly with my bios options. This is the case especially with anadatech's pre-review of this board. I noticed they had options under their bios which I am not seeing on mine (system turbo, CPU Bclock, etc). The article stated that the board they were on was using the G13 bios which is suppose to be the bios the retail boards are suppose to be shipped with. I received my board this Tuesday and saw that the bios version is stated as P02. Board is said to be a rev. 1.0. I figured I got a board that just wasnt flashed with the latest bios so got the G13 bios and tried to flash using Foxconn Liveupdate. Program indicated that the bios I had on my board was a newer version then the G13 I was attempting to flash with, but in the posts I have read so far seems like P03 = G13. Wouldnt P02 be an older bios then? Also I ran super PI with 1m and got 12s. Huh?? On my old 9550 yorkie at 3.8ghz I got like 10s. I heard the performance diff from x48 to x58 wasnt that big but that cant be right @ super pi. I'm running Vista 64bit SP1 with 6gbs of g-skill 1600mhz ram, 150gb raptor drive, 500gb WD drive, 320gb WD drive in external enclosure connected via esata, CPU and vidcard (4870x2) on water. Im thinking it might be setting up something wrong in the bios (ram = 8 8 8 19, 1330mhz, 1.68v) or, I got a bad chip (920 oc'd to 3.4ghz per cpu-z). Anyways the fact that bios is saying p02 and p03 seems to be the latest bios is bugging me a bit. Anyone can shed some light on this for me? Sorry again if this is sounding noobish. Thanks.

This is not exactly a BIOS issue or bug, please delete this post and create a new thread if you need assistance.

You should update your BIOS to G13 (Click me!) and the options should be there for you afterwards.

Oh duh. My fault. Im suppose to run Pi with 32m on these chips not 1m. My fault. But still isnt 12s still slow for these chips with 1m? Eh anyways the p02 bios is still irking me. Says its a 12/1/08 build. Even some of the bios options in my manual dont match with the options I have on the board. Not alot of options but a few. And the fact I dont have the BClock option is reaaaaally irking me. Where are u man??????

Flash to BIOS G13.

thats vtt, right? looks like only minor fluctuations, same voltages for both bioses, right?

Nope, that's Vcore (CPU Voltage )

wow, really?
I sent you that board and before i did i flashed both bios chips...
Hmmm can you remove them and swap them?
Maybe the pins are just not making good contact?
And id recommend you to use the lower 2 bios settings to switch between the bios chips with the jumper, when you do it via the bios option then it might get confusing

I tried everything.
Forcing a specific BIOS chip from the jumpers ( tried both BIOS 1 & BIOS 2 forced ).
Set the jumper to "software select with BIOS 1 as default", tried software select with BIOS 2 as default.
And also tried selecting the BIOS chips from the BIOS as well.

I also removed and re-seated the BIOS chips making sure the contact is good.
Still having the flashing problems.

I swapped the BIOS chips, nothing again.

Used only 1 BIOS chip ( removed the other one ).
Tried with 1 BIOS chip in both slots, nothing again ( still flashing problems ).

Tried flashing with ALT + F2 @ POST ( Enter AWDFLASH ), but it doesn't load AWDFLASH no matter what.
It gets stuck at a AHCI BIOS ROM screen.

I'm gonna try flashing with Fox LiveUpdate, but that thing doesn't seem to report if it performed a full BIOS flash or if it skipped or failed to write any blocks, etc.

Flashing with AWDFLASH 8.83 from a bootable USB drive worked flawlessly before, and I don't remember having any failed to write blocks at all.
Now it fails to write 4 blocks if I remember correctly on both BIOS chips.
I'm gonna get some screenies up in a bit.

[Touge180SX]

That's exactly what happens I think. When I have it in IDE mode my CD Drive shows up as SATA but when I throw it in RAID the CD Drive goes to ACHI mode. What do I need to do?

[saaya]

bill, if all that didnt help then using another tool wont make a difference... the bios chip really seems to be damaged... lmk if you want me to mail you a fresh one, or maybe 2?

That's exactly what happens I think. When I have it in IDE mode my CD Drive shows up as SATA but when I throw it in RAID the CD Drive goes to ACHI mode. What do I need to do?

im not that experienced with raid, let me check with the engineers

[Touge180SX]

Flashing with AWDFLASH 8.83 from a bootable USB drive worked flawlessly before, and I don't remember having any failed to write blocks at all.
Now it fails to write 4 blocks if I remember correctly on both BIOS chips.
I'm gonna get some screenies up in a bit.

Bench, I have the same problem. When I flash with USB and AWDFLASH 8.83 it shows that the first two blocks fail, third one goes fine, fourth and fifth fail, then everything else is fine from there.

[BenchZowner]

Bench, I have the same problem. When I flash with USB and AWDFLASH 8.83 it shows that the first two blocks fail, third one goes fine, fourth and fifth fail, then everything else is fine from there.

Hmm... that's weird.
There's a ( small, yet existent ) chance of being wrong, and that it was happening from the beginning, but I'm not sure.
I think it was flashing the whole BIOS fully at first.

I'll supply Saaya with a video and some screenshots to forward them to their engineers.

I can't seem to find any info regarding the "failing" blocks, they could be recovery blocks, I can't be sure

[Touge180SX]

Ok, thanks! Now I just need to solve this RAID problem!

[Touge180SX]

Solved the RAID problem I was having but was quite weird:

I am running 2x 250GB WD Caviers and 1x 1TB WD Cavier Black. Once I unplugged the 1TB drive and just used the 2 RAID drives CD booted fine. Then, when the CD started, I plugged in the 1TB drive again and Windows detected all 3 and it worked fine. Not sure how that worked or if it is even a BIOS problem but maybe the Engineers will know more. Thanks for you help Saaya and everyone!

[BenchZowner]

BIOS Flashing "Issue" Investigation progress:

I used Award's WinFlash v1.92 to flash the BIOS chip 1 with the G13 BIOS.I updated everything, the BootBlock, the DMI Block, the Hole block and the main block.
After restarting the system and setting up the BIOS, I got into Windows and grabbed ( saved ) a BIOS Image from BIOS chip 1 to a file with WinFlash v1.92
I opened it with WinFlash and noticed the CheckSum, it's 9b38H whereas the original G13 BIOS's CheckSum is 8400H.

I'm going to try the same thing with the second BIOS chip ( BIOS chip 2 ) now.