ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[Brahmzy]

Don't expect all E6600's to do 3.6GHz stable at all - any voltage.

My week 23 wouldn't do it. My week 27 does.

What about 3.4GHz? What does it take to get there? I think 3.4GHz is a great OC - an even 1000MHz OC.

In fact, I have since backed mine down to 3.4GHz as my 24/7.

Now I just need to figure out how to cool and OC my new 8800GTX.

[ntvh]

My week 26 does OC at 3.6 GHz @ 1.4v after c/o BIOS 1506.

[DutchBBQ]

1602

http://web54.nsi24.miniserver.de/wbb...tachmentid=126

It is suggested that this BETA BIOS 1602 includes:
-Fix CPU Temp (previous versions showed too low temperatures)
-Update Kentsfield Quad Core uCode

However, some users determined and reported that the Fix CPU Temp actually has NOT been fixed the temp monitoring problem!

I'n not in for this beta-bios-version!

[Burner27]

My point is that the Bios leaves a certain amount of space for those devices for XP x32, However if It sees a 64 bit NT loader program then that reserved space isn't needed by Windows XP x64, as x64 can load them above ones ram.

You're talking OS level again. The BIOS does not know what OS you are running and cannot dynamically determine that. I could be running Ubuntu Linux for all it knows. The point is the OS did not determine what this problem was nor did it cause it. The problem was never at the OS level, which you keep insisting is the problem.

[AndrewZorn]

Don't expect all E6600's to do 3.6GHz stable at all - any voltage.

My week 23 wouldn't do it. My week 27 does.

What about 3.4GHz? What does it take to get there? I think 3.4GHz is a great OC - an even 1000MHz OC.

In fact, I have since backed mine down to 3.4GHz as my 24/7.

Now I just need to figure out how to cool and OC my new 8800GTX.

i am struggling for 3.3ghz. i mean, sure its 900mhz and all (IF i can stabilize it) but i mean come on, i didnt buy a P5W DH and Team memory to get the same overclock as those on E6300 + ASrock boards, etc... yet again, premium hardware + bad luck = bad luck...

[thorlak]

Hi everyone, sorry for my english it’s not very good. I don't know if this is really the place for this post but the title of the thread says Problems + Fixes... so I think it maybe right here, if not, tell me please.

It’s been one month since I’ve built my new computer and I have a problem which I couldn’t have fixed yet.

My systems specs are:

CPU: Intel Core2Duo e6600
MotherBoard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
RAM: 2x1GB DDR2 TeamXtreem 800Mhz (4-4-4-10) – Before I had 2x1GB DDR2 GEIL 800Mhz (5-5-5-15)
Primary HDD: Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Data HDD: 2 x Western Digital 320GB in Raid 0
Power Supply: Hiper HPU-4M670-SU (Version 1) – Before I had Tacens Valeo Pro 600W
Graphic Card: Ati Sapphire X1900XT 512MB

The problem:

When I turn on my computer it makes 4 beeps (1 large and 3 short), and I get no POST screen (no signal on the monitor) but the fans are working. If I let it run a while in this mode and then restart it the computer boots well and then I can play, work, etc, with no problems. (Sometimes it takes me up to 3 or 4 restarts to boot it well).

Regarding to AMI bios beep codes: 1 large and 3 short mean: Memory test failure A fault has been detected in memory above 64KB.

I’ve tried inserting just one stick of memory in every slot of the motherboard (I’ve tried with all sticks I have). I thought it was a memory problem so I bought a new pair of Team Xtreem memory (before I had GEIL memory) and the problem persists.

I’ve also tried updating bios (first I had 1201, then updated to 1407 and yesterday I’ve updated to 1506). But nothing of this solved the problem.

I thought it could be a PSU problem so I have also tried changing the PSU (before I had Tacens Valeo Pro 600W) now I have Hiper HPU 4M670 which is supposed to be compatible with my graphic card
My computer passed satisfactory all tests I have run on it (BurnInTest Pro, Memtest, 3DMark06 and PCMark05).

The symptoms:

The matter is that all I have described before just happens when the computer has been some time turned off, I mean when it is working, if I turn it off and in five or ten minutes I turn it on, it boots well. If I turn it off and half an hour later I turn it on the computer makes the beeps and doesn’t boot well.

I don’t know what else to try or to do, the problem is still there and I would like to fix it as soon as it is possible.

I would appreciate your help.

[Liquid3D]

Maybe I missed it, but what operating system are you using? Isn't this a problem (for those watching the thread) that could have something to do with RAM Throttling? It seems people have this setting Disabled

In the DRAM settings I'd also suggest running the memory at SPD - Enabled
make sure the ECC is Disabled

And I would drop the memory divider to 533MHz just to see what effect this has.

Also what FSB speed are you running? 266MHz 333Mhz?

By the way WELCOME and your English is excllent, very, very, concise post

[OldCoot]

I built the rig in the sig a few weeks ago. I'm very happy with the performance and the OC is Orthos stable at 22.5 hours, the longest that I've let it run.

I had a problem with S3 standby from the very beginning. Stock clocked or over clocked it would crash coming out of standby 100%. Hibernate would crash and restart sometimes going in and would crash and restart about 50% on resume. Very frustrating. I was blaming the video drivers since my previous build (AMD/nvidia) would sometimes not reinitialize the display coming out of standby and it definitely changed behavior with different video drivers.

Yesterday I found http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889673 and installed the hotfix. Standby works perfectly ever since! I have not tried hibernate again, since standby works so good now.

I hope this helps others who were frustrated by this issue.

I have the same problem. I have 2 drives in RAID0 on the SATA 1 & 3 connectors, a burner on the Intel IDE port, and added 2 IDE drives on the JMicron IDE ports.
Everything works fine until the system goes into 'Standby' (sleep) mode. When it resumes, the drives on the JMicron IDE port have disappeared! The only way I can get them back is to reboot.
I had the 1305 BIOS, switched to the 1503 BIOS and same issue.
I did the Microsoft 'hotfix' and it did nothing.
Any suggestions?

[SKiLL3D]

I have the same problem. I have 2 drives in RAID0 on the SATA 1 & 3 connectors, a burner on the Intel IDE port, and added 2 IDE drives on the JMicron IDE ports.
Everything works fine until the system goes into 'Standby' (sleep) mode. When it resumes, the drives on the JMicron IDE port have disappeared! The only way I can get them back is to reboot.
I had the 1305 BIOS, switched to the 1503 BIOS and same issue.
I did the Microsoft 'hotfix' and it did nothing.
Any suggestions?

Try reading the Manual - Asus does recommend SATA1 for Optical Drive...Try your RAID at SATA3+4. Maybe that will fix something, but dont expect too much. Jmicron is crappy - u better disable it and buy ANY cheap PCI-IDE-Controller if u really need the IDEdrives.

iLL

[Potato Salad]

i am struggling for 3.3ghz. i mean, sure its 900mhz and all (IF i can stabilize it) but i mean come on, i didnt buy a P5W DH and Team memory to get the same overclock as those on E6300 + ASrock boards, etc... yet again, premium hardware + bad luck = bad luck...

Ha ha I like that line Premium Hardware + bad luck= Bad Luck..
That's great..
I hear ya, that's what usually happens to me aswell..DAMN

[thorlak]

Maybe I missed it, but what operating system are you using? Isn't this a problem (for those watching the thread) that could have something to do with RAM Throttling? It seems people have this setting Disabled

Hi Liquid3D, I'm using Windows XP Professional. Ok I'll disable RAM Throttling (I hope it works ).

In the DRAM settings I'd also suggest running the memory at SPD - Enabled
make sure the ECC is Disabled

I've tried before with SPD enabled and the problem persists

And I would drop the memory divider to 533MHz just to see what effect this has.

Also what FSB speed are you running? 266MHz 333Mhz?

I'll try to change the memory divider too. I'm running FSB at 266Mhz (I haven't done any overclocking on the computer).

By the way WELCOME and your English is excllent, very, very, concise post

Thanks!!!

[Liquid3D]

I trotally missed the SATA RAID respsones that looks to be much more of an astute assesment

[axemanrio]

thorlak, it sounds like the only thing that's changed is your MEMORY... you might want to check whether memory voltage is set to "Auto" in BIOS. If it is, overwrite the Auto setting with the rated voltage of your memory. Keep SPD enabled too. Let us know if this works.

[DarthVader]

Ever since installing a new PSU (an 800W Tagan Dual Engine) and updating to BIOS 1506 I have observed something that did not happen before. When I overclock my E6600 to 3ghz (with the memory voltage at 2v to get 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-833/835) the CPU fan seems to kick in at full pelt when being overclocked, which is something that never happened when I first overclocked many moons ago under BIOS v1101 or something.

Of course it is nice to see the cold boot problem seems to have been sorted but this constant whirling of the fan at full pelt can't be good - even when overclocked the CPU is not too hot and particularly not so given that winter is fast approaching. Is there any way to make the CPU speed lower for idle operations or am I stuck with it like this when overclocking?

[Pol1977]

Ever since installing a new PSU (an 800W Tagan Dual Engine) and updating to BIOS 1506 I have observed something that did not happen before. When I overclock my E6600 to 3ghz (with the memory voltage at 2v to get 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-833/835) the CPU fan seems to kick in at full pelt when being overclocked, which is something that never happened when I first overclocked many moons ago under BIOS v1101 or something.

Of course it is nice to see the cold boot problem seems to have been sorted but this constant whirling of the fan at full pelt can't be good - even when overclocked the CPU is not too hot and particularly not so given that winter is fast approaching. Is there any way to make the CPU speed lower for idle operations or am I stuck with it like this when overclocking?

I don't know why this is happening. You can use Speedfan, an excellent freeware application to control the fans connected to your motherboard. You can easily find and download it if you google for it.

How can you set your memory timings to 4-4-4-12 while overclocking? Don't you have to set memory timings to "by SPD" in order to go past 360-370 fsb? I guess you are using an FSB lower than 360, right?

[Durzel]

i am struggling for 3.3ghz. i mean, sure its 900mhz and all (IF i can stabilize it) but i mean come on, i didnt buy a P5W DH and Team memory to get the same overclock as those on E6300 + ASrock boards, etc... yet again, premium hardware + bad luck = bad luck...

If it makes you feel any better I bought a P5W64 (~£200), E6700ES (~£400) and modded Vapochill LS (~£450) and with it I'm getting 4.3Ghz so far. Yet, in 3DMark I get pretty much exactly the same score as running it at 3.6Ghz, so I've "wasted" money too.

[DarthVader]

I don't know why this is happening. You can use Speedfan, an excellent freeware application to control the fans connected to your motherboard. You can easily find and download it if you google for it.

How can you set your memory timings to 4-4-4-12 while overclocking? Don't you have to set memory timings to "by SPD" in order to go past 360-370 fsb? I guess you are using an FSB lower than 360, right?

Aye I've set my FSB to 334mhz and set the memory voltage to 2v (it's corsair stuff so it should do 2.1v with no problems so I hear). I have the timings set manually rather than by SPD.

[kaiguy]

How can you set your memory timings to 4-4-4-12 while overclocking? Don't you have to set memory timings to "by SPD" in order to go past 360-370 fsb? I guess you are using an FSB lower than 360, right?

Sorry to jump into this, but why are you assuming a 360 or lower FSB with those timings? I'm running fine at 400 FSB with 4-4-4-12...

[Liquid3D]

Ever since installing a new PSU (an 800W Tagan Dual Engine) and updating to BIOS 1506 I have observed something that did not happen before. When I overclock my E6600 to 3ghz (with the memory voltage at 2v to get 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-833/835) the CPU fan seems to kick in at full pelt when being overclocked, which is something that never happened when I first overclocked many moons ago under BIOS v1101 or something.

Of course it is nice to see the cold boot problem seems to have been sorted but this constant whirling of the fan at full pelt can't be good - even when overclocked the CPU is not too hot and particularly not so given that winter is fast approaching. Is there any way to make the CPU speed lower for idle operations or am I stuck with it like this when overclocking?

As far as I know Dual Engine for the 800W model (indeed all Dual Engine models) refers to Dual transfomers, one transformer handles the 3.3V 12V1, and 12V3 "taps". The other transformer the 5V, 12V2, and 12V4 "taps". The rail assigment may be such that raising the memory voltage and Vcore taxes the 3.3V, 12V1 and 12V3 activating the cooling fan.

As an experiment I'd try leaving the overclock as is, and simply dropping the memory voltage as well as memory timmings on SPD and Auto respectively. If this stops the fan spin-up then you've found your no longer over taxing those particular rails, hence that transformer and it's simply a design aspect of the Tagan Dual Engine. The 800W certainly isn't their lowest power rated Dual Engine model, however; they may have made an error in simply reducing power without re-assinging transformer tap assigment as wattge dropped. In other words that combination may be fine for the 1KW model, but at lower voltages certain rails might have been assigned to different transformers for a more effective design.

I'm getting a little in-depth on the PSU design, however; the fact the fan is spinning up is a result of a temp increase somewhere in the PSU. If it were a temp increase from other components in your system in which the PSU was then drawing that heat air through it, the fan RPM increase wouldn't be immediate, but have a slight delay.

[Pol1977]

Sorry to jump into this, but why are you assuming a 360 or lower FSB with those timings? I'm running fine at 400 FSB with 4-4-4-12...

Most memory sticks have what they call "safety settings" programmed in their SPD. My GSkill 6400 4-4-4-12 ram "works at 2.0-2.1 V at those settings but has SPD programmed to 5-5-5-15 for people not knowing how to set manual voltage and timings and for crappy motherboards" (quote from GSkill technical support).

So, I assumed that to have 4-4-4-12 you must be able to set the timings manually, something you cannot do if your FSB is higher than 360-370 MHz with the BIOSes floating around at the moment.

If your SPD is set at 4-4-4-12 there is no reason you can't run at these settings and have 400MHz FSB

[kaiguy]

Most memory sticks have what they call "safety settings" programmed in their SPD. My GSkill 6400 4-4-4-12 ram "works at 2.0-2.1 V at those settings but has SPD programmed to 5-5-5-15 for people not knowing how to set manual voltage and timings and for crappy motherboards" (quote from GSkill technical support).

So, I assumed that to have 4-4-4-12 you must be able to set the timings manually, something you cannot do if your FSB is higher than 360-370 MHz with the BIOSes floating around at the moment.

If your SPD is set at 4-4-4-12 there is no reason you can't run at these settings and have 400MHz FSB

Thanks for the explanation. I'm actually surprised then that my sticks have the 4-4-4-12 setting in SPD, but I guess it's possible. I have my BIOS set for manual timings at 400 FSB, but maybe it's just reverting to SPD, or, somehow, I'm just lucky with the revision pf my mobo.

Food for thought, I guess.

[cadaveca]

MY sticks(Crucial Tracer) are not SPD programmed for 4-4-4-12 400mhz, but are EPP profiled for such(SPD is 5-5-5-18 400mhz/4-5-5-18 333mhz). maybe that's what make the difference...I have no issues running manual timings @ any FSB speed, unless on 4:5 divider

[DarthVader]

As far as I know Dual Engine for the 800W model (indeed all Dual Engine models) refers to Dual transfomers, one transformer handles the 3.3V 12V1, and 12V3 "taps". The other transformer the 5V, 12V2, and 12V4 "taps". The rail assigment may be such that raising the memory voltage and Vcore taxes the 3.3V, 12V1 and 12V3 activating the cooling fan.

As an experiment I'd try leaving the overclock as is, and simply dropping the memory voltage as well as memory timmings on SPD and Auto respectively. If this stops the fan spin-up then you've found your no longer over taxing those particular rails, hence that transformer and it's simply a design aspect of the Tagan Dual Engine. The 800W certainly isn't their lowest power rated Dual Engine model, however; they may have made an error in simply reducing power without re-assinging transformer tap assigment as wattge dropped. In other words that combination may be fine for the 1KW model, but at lower voltages certain rails might have been assigned to different transformers for a more effective design.

I'm getting a little in-depth on the PSU design, however; the fact the fan is spinning up is a result of a temp increase somewhere in the PSU. If it were a temp increase from other components in your system in which the PSU was then drawing that heat air through it, the fan RPM increase wouldn't be immediate, but have a slight delay.

An indepth discussion indeed. I had actually tried overclocking to the current values with my older Tagan 480W and the CPU fan going at full pelt was an issue with it too (this was with BIOS v1503 at the time I think). With the current one I did try leaving the memory voltage on auto and leaving the memory timings slightly higher as a result (at 5-5-5-12) but the CPU fan was still firing away at full pelt for some peculiar reason.

[Pol1977]

I have my BIOS set for manual timings at 400 FSB, but maybe it's just reverting to SPD, or, somehow, I'm just lucky with the revision pf my mobo.

So, you're saying that your P5W DH Deluxe boots up OK with 400MHz FSB and manual memory timing settings? What BIOS are you using?

MY sticks(Crucial Tracer) are not SPD programmed for 4-4-4-12 400mhz, but are EPP profiled for such(SPD is 5-5-5-18 400mhz/4-5-5-18 333mhz). maybe that's what make the difference...I have no issues running manual timings @ any FSB speed, unless on 4:5 divider

There are many posts in this forum from people who can't boot with manual timings and FSB higher than 360-370 MHz. I am one of them :P
What is your FSB and what BIOS are you using?

[cadaveca]

good up to 450FSB, 4-4-4-12 bios 1305/1407/1503/1506. I run 416 daily, although now that board is dead. 450 does not work right w/ 1503 tho.