ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[BenchZowner]

Hi BenchZowner,

Did you get anywhere with this?

Cheers.

I suffered from a machine loss ( server ) and I had to work a lot to restore the files.
Thus I had to re-code some php pages for my site so I can get it back online this week.

I will be hitting up Asus by next week though
I'll update when I've got news.

[J33pG33k]

Hi guys, I just got a new mobo which is Rev 1.04G, anyone out there with the same Rev version? I'll be testing it out this weekend.

My 1.02G (A channel memory bank defective) was just replaced with a 1.04G. I probably won't get to it until next week. I'll be sure to keep you posted though.

[nickfd]

I'll take pics of what I end up doing and paste so you guys see. I know I'm pretty excited by the challenge and hope that I won't have to buy another 250$ motherboard.

I ended up solving the issue last night by basically shimmieing up and elevating the motherboard pin. Here's a visual of my motherboard with the thermaltake spirit 2 northbridge mounted with what I did. Sitting on the top of the northbridge are some extra lifter type pins that I used so you guys can see.

[Thasp]

Out of curiousity, has anyone here had issues where there would be no bootup/POST after clearing CMOS?

[Gascogne]

Anyone found a solution why the motherboard reboots when one selects shutdown in windows? And no clearing the cmos doesn't help at all.

[topboy]

Hi Topboy,

No, this is not possible. The EZ-Raid ports are kind of integrated with the ICH7 chipset, so if you were to turn on RAID or AHCI on the ICH7, you won't be able to use the EZ-Raid for a RAID.

There is a good thread on the normal asus forums regarding exactly how the ez-raid/jmicron/ich7 works, what you're capable of doing, and the recommendations. I was thinking of doing something similar, since I have two 74gb raptors in raid0 on the ez-raid ports, and wanted to do a raid5 on the ich7. However, soon as I try and turn on AHCI or RAID for the ICH7, I'm unable to boot, and evenmoreso, it won't even recognize the array.

Best bet is to stay away from the ez-raid. There are many posts showing how slow it is compared to the other ports using the ICH7 chipset. Mostly, you have a i/o bandwidth issue, because those two ez-raid ports share one 300mb/sec sata2 channel. A little more effort in the beginning with loading your OS with the f6 floppy containing the intel raid drivers will go a long way in performance.

Best of luck!

Thanks for the info...This is what i suspected

Guess its over to the RD600 or the BADAXE2 for me

Topboy

[semiskilled]

" High fsb`s like 500 mhz can be done by raising the chipset MCH voltage.

On average, every 0.05V increase results into additional 7-8MHz. As a result, if you want to use up the entire clock generator potential that theoretically supports up to 500MHz FSB frequency, you should raise the voltage on the chipset North Bridge up to 1.85-1.9V. The maximum voltage setting allowed in the mainboard BIOS Setup is only 1.65V. This is the major limiting factor for successful Core 2 Duo overclocking"

problem solved with the e6600. MCH needs almost 2 V for 500 mhz . That afcourse in combination with a few minor bios updates.....

I can hit 400 fsb on lowest vmch vich vfsb.. whats that about?

[MrDisco]

Thanks for the info...This is what i suspected

Guess its over to the RD600 or the BADAXE2 for me

Topboy

i had similar concerns. i'm debating which mobo to go with now:
P5B WiFi
BX2
or
RD600

:|

[J33pG33k]

I had some spare time this evening and swapped out the 1.02G for the 1.04G. So far I am at 400fsb x 9! Best o/c on 1.02G was 385x9 @ 1.3625 (BIOS).

CPU temp @ 46 deg C (with stock Intel cooler), M/B temp @ 39 deg C. CPU voltage at 1.3875 (BIOS). All other voltages still on auto. Haven't run any benchmarks yet but am very optimistic! Just can't wait to get my water system in this thing!

I wonder if just having the memory run in dual channel mode is making the difference? The new board revision? One thing that has changed is the hardware monitor device. I no longer see that mysterious "temp3".

[nicepun]

I had some spare time this evening and swapped out the 1.02G for the 1.04G. So far I am at 400fsb x 9! Best o/c on 1.02G was 385x9 @ 1.3625 (BIOS).

CPU temp @ 46 deg C (with stock Intel cooler), M/B temp @ 39 deg C. CPU voltage at 1.3875 (BIOS). All other voltages still on auto. Haven't run any benchmarks yet but am very optimistic! Just can't wait to get my water system in this thing!

I wonder if just having the memory run in dual channel mode is making the difference? The new board revision? One thing that has changed is the hardware monitor device. I no longer see that mysterious "temp3".

Try 450x8. Is the vdimm max value the same, 2.4v? I have family visiting right now so I will not get a chance to play with mine until this weekend.

[pitata]

When i go into hibernation or standby my computer reboots immeadetly.

WHY? And what to do?

[lawrywild]

Has anyone used RAID 1 on the EZ-RAID yet?

I want to know whether it's necessary to install the asus ezbackup software to build the array or will it mirror it fine if I just plug two formatted matching drives in?

I know I need the software to rebuild a faulty array but do I need it to get started?

[topboy]

i had similar concerns. i'm debating which mobo to go with now:
P5B WiFi
BX2
or
RD600

:|

Yeah same here but im holding off until we see how the RD600 performs. will watch to see how good or bad it is. Im not really that heavy into clocking, just like to get a little extra mhz. My main concern is stability

Topboy

[nickfd]

Has anyone used RAID 1 on the EZ-RAID yet?

I want to know whether it's necessary to install the asus ezbackup software to build the array or will it mirror it fine if I just plug two formatted matching drives in?

I know I need the software to rebuild a faulty array but do I need it to get started?

Hey Lawry,

Nope, you don't need any software to accomplish the mirroring off the bat. Just plug your drives in, set the jumpers, and you're okay. I have a raid0 on those ports now unfortunately, cause I didn't know about the poor performance and stuff. The only thing the ez-backup software gives you is a visual depiction of your drives from within windows. You don't even have any bios or things to change/modify/view as the box is posting, so you won't know if your stuff is degraded, broke, or whatever, until you boot into windows to take a look.

I have to do some data migration this weekend with my server and replace one of my arrays from 200x4 to 400x4. The following weekend I'll reload my OS when I rebuild my array on the ICH7 chipset.

[Gascogne]

Okay I have an annoying problem with my board at times.

I have clocked the system to 3.6Ghz and it is stable but sometimes the bios won't boot when I start up, so I restart and it starts up at stock speed.
And then I go into bios to get back my 3.6Ghz, reboots and won't boot again...
So restart it again and once again it boots up with stock speed, and I jump into bios again. Reboots and it won't boot...

This I can keep up for about 15min before the system wants to boot up at 3.6Ghz.

What can be wrong?

[icecpu]

I'm currently using E-Z raid setup for two 74gb raptor since it's an easy setup.

I read a lot of post saying that ICH7 is the best for raid. The problem is the set up is so complicated, can someone post for me procedure step by step to setup the raid 0 on ICH7 . Thanks in advance. And I don't have a floppy drive to create the raid driver disk before installing windows, is dvd rom ok ??

[Clump]

I'm currently using E-Z raid setup for two 74gb raptor since it's an easy setup.

I read a lot of post saying that ICH7 is the best for raid. The problem is the set up is so complicated, can someone post for me procedure step by step to setup the raid 0 on ICH7 . Thanks in advance. And I don't have a floppy drive to create the raid driver disk before installing windows, is dvd rom ok ??

I don't know if you can load the F6 drivers from a DVD. I don't have a floppy either. I used nlite http://www.nliteos.com/ to slipstream the drivers and it worked great. There are guides on the nlite site that are helpful and it's very straight forward. My XP Pro CD is SP1. I was able to slipstream the drivers, SP2 and updates from SP2 until the time I made the CD without much effort. It's really simple.

[lawrywild]

Hey Lawry,

Nope, you don't need any software to accomplish the mirroring off the bat. Just plug your drives in, set the jumpers, and you're okay. I have a raid0 on those ports now unfortunately, cause I didn't know about the poor performance and stuff. The only thing the ez-backup software gives you is a visual depiction of your drives from within windows. You don't even have any bios or things to change/modify/view as the box is posting, so you won't know if your stuff is degraded, broke, or whatever, until you boot into windows to take a look.

I have to do some data migration this weekend with my server and replace one of my arrays from 200x4 to 400x4. The following weekend I'll reload my OS when I rebuild my array on the ICH7 chipset.

Hi, Thanks, I plugged my 7200.8's in and ste the jumpers, installed the software and my god, that thing is disgraceful. The service it installs just instantly crashes windows xp when it starts and without the service running, the software can't do anything, brilliant... so anyway, now I set up RAID 0 WD3200KS's and RAID 1 7200.8's both on the intel matrix and getting amazing performance with my 7200.8 in non-raid the access time was 15.0, Raid 1 on ez-backup was 14.8, Raid 0 on ICH7R was 15.2 and RAID 1 on ICH7R is 12.1ms what the hell lol??

[nickfd]

I'm currently using E-Z raid setup for two 74gb raptor since it's an easy setup.

I read a lot of post saying that ICH7 is the best for raid. The problem is the set up is so complicated, can someone post for me procedure step by step to setup the raid 0 on ICH7 . Thanks in advance. And I don't have a floppy drive to create the raid driver disk before installing windows, is dvd rom ok ??

Hey ice,

Unfortunately if you want to use XP, you have to use a floppy to hit f6 to install your raid drivers during install. DVDROM is not an option, since it will only look at A:.. Not even a usbkey will work.

I'd recommend getting a usbfloppy (15-20$) or doing the slipstreamed method. Unfortunately slipstreaming isn't the easiest option, but i'm sure there are guides you can follow that are step-by-step. I've done it, but I spent a few hours studying it.

Best of luck!

[ngr2000]

First off id like to add to the argument that the ICH7 Raid is the best raid solution for our motherboards. Ive benchmarked them all including single drive setups. I found that Raid-0 64k cluster size was best for me, using the latest intel matrix raid drivers for ICH7.

Results from sandra 2007 SP1 (Filesystem Benchmark) On two serial ATAII WD 7200rpm 16mb cache drives in Raid 0.

Intel Matrix Raid

Newest Official Intel Drivers 64K cluster, Write Cache on.


Index 99 mb/s

buff read 2600 MB/s
seq read 124 MB/s
random read 65 MB/s
buff write 3600 MB/s
seq write 118 MB/s
Random Write 54 MB/s
Random Access 7 ms

The buffered scores are just simply great. The EZ Raid just cant compare.

[ngr2000]

Now for my problem with this board.

I have the E6600 Fam 6 Mod F step 6 ext fam 6 ext mod f Rev B2
Antec Trio 650W PSU + APC
1gb Kingston HyperX Pc8000
1707 Bios

I can get my cpu to overclock to 3.6ghz on air but even with a modest daily overclock set to a meer 3.0ghz 9 x 333 mem at 4 4 4 12 4 4:5, I seem to have problems buring good dvds. My system at 3ghz is idle at 89F and full load at 100F same for northbridge. I can run prime95 for 24 hours with not one error. However with this new system and same old pioneer 110d and Prodisc dvd-r, I am getting a lot of coasters. I am burning dvd movies with nero 7 and also ImgTools. The disks will verify after buring but when I play them back in a dvd player I get random lockups and chapter skipping and non reading at all. Also a lot of cd images that I have burned while overclocked came out bad. Apps wouldnt install etc. When I burn dvds at completely stock cpu settings I seem to never burn a coaster. What the heck is going on here, its driving me nuts. All i want to run at is 3.0ghz anything faster And I dont see any real benchmark improvements. All my voltage is on auto except for mem is at 2.2v Does anyone have any suggestions. Ive tourture tested this rig many times and get no lockups or errors either.

? how do you set the memory divider on this board. Cpu z tells me its 4:5, isnt 1:1 better? if so how do i set the mem to 1:1 If I go higher then 833mhz on the memory it seems to get unstable, shouldnt pc8000 ddr2 hit at least 1000mhz, even at the slowest mem timings i cant seem to get higher then around 912mhz which isnt stable.

[ngr2000]

Here is my ram: ????????????????

Model
Brand Kingston
Series HyperX
Model KHX8000D2K2/1G
Type 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM
Tech Spec
Capacity 1GB (2 x 512MB)
Speed DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
Cas Latency 5
Timing 5-5-5-15
Voltage 2.2V
ECC No
Buffered/Registered Unbuffered
Heat Spreader Yes


Why cant I hit ddr 1000 or even 1066 with this ram and this board. I think this board is flawed in the fact that 1066 is almost impossible to reach. Can someone please help me to tune this ram with our boards. What are my best settings to run at if I want to stay around 3.0ghz and still have great stability.

[REwell]

I just bought a P5W and I was wondering what overclocking and desktop utilities work best on this board. I am using the CPU Probe tool that came with the board and it works pretty well....

[BenchZowner]

I just bought a P5W and I was wondering what overclocking and desktop utilities work best on this board. I am using the CPU Probe tool that came with the board and it works pretty well....

The standard suite:

- CPU Temperatures Monitoring: CoreTemp [ Not working at subzero temperatures ] { not the programs fault } [ accurate temperatures from the on-die DTS ]

- FSB Overclocking tool: SetFSB for P5WD2 [ tick Ultra before reading the clocks ]

- Memory Timings change in realtime: Memset v3.0 [ don't try changing CAS Latency ( tCL ) though, you'll get a free crash ]

Edit: And CrystalCPUid for realtime CPU Multiplier ( Ratio ) manipulation

[WeldZilla]

Well I'm keeping my board for along time to come. I just love it. For those who are just getting one use G.Skill 6400HZ or suffer like so many others. It was better binned and just fits this board perfectly. Oh and spend another $10 for a floppy drive. If for some reason you think owning one is uncool just plug it in when you need it. Here is my G.skill on the job in my system.

The right memory does make a difference. For those who are selling I'll be looking to pick them up cheap!!
WZ