ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[OneyedK]

I have a pretty serious case of diminishing overclocking ability with my board. I have an E6400 that was running fine at 400MHz FSB and would run almost 100% at 450MHz. I had it at 400MHz for at least 3 months with no problems at all. I shut off my computer, then removed a USB connection from the lower 2 USB ports which caused the machine to start up again. Before it could boot I yanked the power as I was removing the other cables. I moved the computer to another desk and connected everything back up and turned it on. I got the "Overclock Failed" message on boot. Ever since then I've had an incredibly difficult time getting it to run at even 333MHz FSB. I've flashed the BIOS twice, cleared CMOS and everything I could think of. I'm stuck at 333MHz FSB on a chip I know can do WAY more than that. Any suggestions?

Information:
E6400
OCZ Powerstream 520W
OCZ 2GB Platinum DDR800
Watercooled

I've owned a few powerstream 520's and yes, you have to be carefull with it. (I changed to Tagan)
Don 't know if you have the combined or the split load revision.

If you have the combined load version, you simply have to readjust de voltages with the board under load and everything at stockspeed.
Measure them with a digital volt meter.
12.12V, 5.05V and 3.34V are the best values (in my experience) to adjust for overclocking. (too much voltage puts extra stress on the regulators of the mobo and that's not a thing you want. needless to say that undervolting the powerlines is not an option)

If you have the split load version (later revision, you have to check the label on the psu itself) the 12V2 seems to be the first that get's hit if there are problems with the electrical power circuit in you house or if you yank out the powercord like you did.
The board is capable of powering an E6xxx with only 12V1 working, i6xx or D8xx will simply not boot. (on 12V1 alone, that is)
Overclocking will be impossible...

Best thing is to measure all the voltages coming from the PSU UNDER LOAD, if you have a power sucking graphics card, plug it in and have 3Dmark looping while you measure.

What if it's not the powersupply???
That would be difficult. Most likely, something on the board is damaged and it will not recover from looking at it :-( RMA-time.
If it would have happened to me, I'd try another bioschip, or flashing the chip (in an external programmmer, so the whole chip gets flashed) before sending the board in rma, but I don't know if you have a programming device.