ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[BenchZowner]

Has anyone of you unable to use EE multipliers complained to Asus? Have you written about tRD, tRFC or even AFUDOS issues? Thank you for sharing your experience.

Contacts:
http://www.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3

Several times...me , and other people as well.

By the way...we went through this...they've been informed about this, and they showed us that they don't give a flying f*ck.

They just like releasing several boards ( with most of them being almost the same ) and after a month or two, abandon the 'real BIOS enhancement' and release...virtually new BIOSes.

Bad thing is...that there are no serious boards from the competition...gigabyte ? lol
MSI ? jesus!
Only Abit can do something, and I'd really like to see the IN9-32X Max being better than my Striker, so I can be a happy overclocker again!
The Abit is in the way to my house, so I'll find out soon

[jeffy]

Well, it might sound ridiculous at first.

But I will ask anyway:
has anyone of you dissatisfied with Asus customer support, their handling issues in BIOS, their ignorance etc. tried contacting a hardware review web site like http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.techreport.com

and have them ask Asustek WHY do they do it and what are they WILLING to do for their customers' satisfaction? I think EVGA RMA case (search XS forums) shown something serious, if they don't want to listen... then the truth will come out and might cost them much more than a single customer. I own some of their boards (4, P5W DH Deluxe is one of them) and if this is not resolved, they have lost another customer. Why should you buy another P5B x-th revision, when they cannot fix an expensive one that you already have?

Thank you for sharing your opinions.

[Bail_w]

Well back to S939, DFI was a great competitor but now its all about Asus for core 2 duo. Anyway, I just hate that my ram can do 530 FSB 1:1 100% but it can barely do 435 FSB on the P5W.

[infrared]

^Nothing to do with your ram, it's the i975 northbridge that's holding it back, since they usually max out around that figure. You could still run your ram that quick using a divider, but obviously that would reduce performance considerably.

Can you increase the vmch anymore? Or if you're good at soldering you can have a go at the voltmods, the board responds very well to a little more voltage. My old one managed 480mhz fsb on 1.95v (real volts, not bios)

[cuke2u]

Hi, well after some exhaustive checks I can now state that my motherboard issues was down to a poorly made AC HSF not fully seating upon one of my CPU cores, and not down to any design flaws in the motherboard....
ChrisC

[infrared]

Just got my board voltmodded, but i'm running into a few probs already.

Firstly i was quite shocked by the amount of vdrop. After setting 1.85v in the bios, my dmm is reading 1.644v. This would explain why it was only reaching 440mhz max

Now i've got it set at 1.780v atm, 465mhz fsb is stable, but if i push the voltage any higher, it will freeze instantly. Is this some kind of OVP? If so, can it be dissabled? I had my old board to over 2v without probs.

[BenchZowner]

Just got my board voltmodded, but i'm running into a few probs already.

Firstly i was quite shocked by the amount of vdrop. After setting 1.85v in the bios, my dmm is reading 1.644v. This would explain why it was only reaching 440mhz max

Now i've got it set at 1.780v atm, 465mhz fsb is stable, but if i push the voltage any higher, it will freeze instantly. Is this some kind of OVP? If so, can it be dissabled? I had my old board to over 2v without probs.

Are you sure that you're reading the Vmch from the right point ? [ no offense ofcourse! ]
My P5Ws ( DH ) are quite on spot @ Vmch.

OVP should kick in after 2.05Vmch , not at 1.75V

[infrared]

Hmm, i think i'm measuring the right point. The right leg on the fet closest to the rt9214 chip right?

[crazyea]

Ok, I'm not an Asus fanboy, my mb was the only available one at the store at the time of my purchase (don't like to wait, lol).

Anyway. I'm kind of tired of hearing everyone say. Asus better fix this, asus better fix that blah blah blah. 1601, 1701, 1801, etc etc.

If you have one of those bios and they work well for you, why should asus release a higher numbered bios to make you happy? There is no need.

This board was made to support 266 fsb, and now 333 officially as of 1901. period. Mine can do 400 stable. But there is not a guarantee for anything above 333. It was market as a DH motherboard, not an ROG. The main memory timings are there. When you go above 369 on mine SPD must be enabled. That is there for a reason I guess. For stability?

Anyway, as far as I know most, if not everyone, has a bios that works. All of this, I will never use Asus again nonsense is a joke. Next time do research and then by with the knowledge of knowing what you are getting and don't blame you lack of insight on the manufacturer.

/end rant.

[infrared]

^no one's complained for a couple of pages lol

[BenchZowner]

Ok, I'm not an Asus fanboy, my mb was the only available one at the store at the time of my purchase (don't like to wait, lol).

Anyway. I'm kind of tired of hearing everyone say. Asus better fix this, asus better fix that blah blah blah. 1601, 1701, 1801, etc etc.

If you have one of those bios and they work well for you, why should asus release a higher numbered bios to make you happy? There is no need.

This board was made to support 266 fsb, and now 333 officially as of 1901. period. Mine can do 400 stable. But there is not a guarantee for anything above 333. It was market as a DH motherboard, not an ROG. The main memory timings are there. When you go above 369 on mine SPD must be enabled. That is there for a reason I guess. For stability?

Anyway, as far as I know most, if not everyone, has a bios that works. All of this, I will never use Asus again nonsense is a joke. Next time do research and then by with the knowledge of knowing what you are getting and don't blame you lack of insight on the manufacturer.

/end rant.

Edit: I didn't see the word "not" initially
You're saying that you're not a fanboy, but you're acting like a fanboy...

Fanboyism...
Have you ever thought of the bad things that come with fanboyism ? Guess not...

By the way, since most of the issues are BIOS related, and a motherboard manufacturer SHOULD fix their BIOS issues, addressing them with new BIOS releases, most ( if not all ) of these bugs should've been fixed already.

As for the RAM Timings & SPD...dude come on, is that your best ?
The SPD is not there for the reason that you think it is.
And this can't even get considered as an excuse for not including tRD & tRFC.
Also...if you like it that way, there are major FSBRAM ratios ( RAM "Dividers" ) that don't work on various occasions ( when they should be working ) and sometimes not all.

Closing this funny rant of yours, how 'bout the locked multipliers on Extreme Edition CPUs ?

Get serious...

Friendly,
BZ

[crazyea]

All of what I hear from you is whining.

If the multis worked on EE's @ 1601, what is the reason you upgraded? IF it aint broke, don't fix it.

As far as I'm concerned the reasons posted against ASUS in here are nonsense as the board works the way it was advertised. IT is on you if you didn't research the board, not ASUS.

[infrared]

If you have a problem with this thread, do us a favor and clear off! This thread is designed for people to give each other advice on how to overcome the problems. And yes, there ARE problems. If you're happy with your board then great! I'm happy for you.

[crazyea]

If you have a problem with this thread, do us a favor and clear off!

Actually there is a wealth of knowledge in this thread. I just think it's silly threatening not to buy another board because of things that happen when using a board out of spec.

It's like telling your gf your gonna leave her if she doesn't stop ing, but then you never do. :

[infrared]

ok, i'll agree with you there, it is quite amusing when people say that

But if Asus don't start taking notice of thier customers, they will undoubtedly begin to loose customers. It's not so much the product they've produced, but also the customer service, and after-sales support that's getting frustrating.

This board sure does own for memory bandwidth though!!

[mikepaul]

But if Asus don't start taking notice of thier customers, they will undoubtedly begin to loose customers. It's not so much the product they've produced, but also the customer service, and after-sales support that's getting frustrating.

My last ASUS P3V4X didn't need a lot of attention. It did my PIII stuff just fine, and I never really bothered ASUS about it. I guess that's their 'consumer'-type board.

The P5W DH seems like an 'enthusiast' board, and it probably brings ASUS no end of headaches. So much so that they grow weary of complaints and move on to other boards in hope the complainers find one that works and shut up.

I know I'm in trouble trying to beat my enthusiast board into consumer-like submission, but it would help if just once ASUS had actually responded to my vMCH-related question like they did when I needed a BIOS update. This isn't encouraging me to stick with ASUS, but hasn't driven me away yet either...

[cuke2u]

hi, thing is, and we all know this will happen because it has so in the past. Asus will move on to newer motherboards and stop producing any bios updates at all. Look at the A8R32-MVP for example, a good motherboard, on paper, last bios update was in sept, and it took them a while to get any decent performance because of the issues it had out of the box, but it is still crocked...

Anyway, by that time I'm sure we will have moved on...
ChrisC

[Liquid3D]

Asus/Gigabyte sells hundreds of thousands of motherboards annually. The number of software writers/engineers they have for updating BIOS versions for specific board must be based on populartity. Since we as Enthusiasts only account for an approximate 9% of company profits in motherboards (1% when you consider other products) it's not in Asus's best interest to conitnually update a BIOS for a board entering it's second year of production yet they have been and we should be grateful.

In fact they don't sell anything by improviing what you already paid for especially when they have already met and far surpassed the original specs and their obligations. When you consider your overcloking as high as 420 ~ 450FSB where prior to the Conroe, 300FSB was difficult with voltmodding, those of us complaining (and I am guilty of this myself) are not exactly poster-boys for gratitude.

I'm not saying as consumers we don't deserve service and as loyal repeat custmoers we don't deserve great service, but this is a company just like every other who most likely has no idea if you purchased three Asus boards every year for the last ten years, or this is your first. Why should your email be so important that someone should stop what their doing and begin writing BIOS for you or ME?

Point is the nature of this business is profits based on bulk, and if we are discontented with this think of how it would be to loose Asus right now? Even DFI is starting to fall behind in their "overclockability" . I ran out to get the NF590 for an Opteron 1212 and couldn;t gte the DFI to run the chip beyond 300FSB without pushing Vcore inotit, then Asus releases the 903 BIOS and I'm now running 320FSB like butta with absolutely no Vcore increase.

If your looking for an obsessive hobby which is highly technical and very DIY, try High End Audio. In that hobby you would have to purchase at least 25K in total hardware just to get into a mid level system, but you still wouldn't get the customer servce some are expecting on a $200 mobo. In Audiophile terms you would have to build a system around a 30k Loth X Silbatone Jl 300B integrated single ended power amp to get decent customer service and the respect of those who consider themselves knowledgeable (like some of the less humble on forums over the world).

If you were to compare the performance of our Asus P5W DH in the desktop DIY world to a power amplifier in the Audiophile world we would be the proud owners of a Wavac TH388 (monoblocs) using direct heated single ended 388-triode tubes. That will get you the service you want, of course this amplifier costs $350,000 for the monobloc pair and you don't get a suitecase like Tagan gives you with their 1KW PSU. Hell you can buy an Aston Martin for this much money and with the limited number of cars they make you would get better customer service there too.

Some say one of the best sounding tube amps on the planet (below).





Some say one of the best performing motherboards in the world (below),

Hope this puts it in some kind of perspective.....(:

[pH(x)]

1901 was the worst bios to date for me. I'm content with 1707 for now. I'm with BenchZowner in wishing that Asus would actually listen to it's customers regarding this board. It's totally absurd that they can't/won't fix the upward multi's and add trd and trfc.

I wish I'd known that I wouldn't be able to see my ram's full potential with this board before I bought it. I would have either bought cheaper ram or most likely bought a different board. It's silly that a simple fix in the bios could fix this, but I guess Asus doesn't have time for their customers.

I can make them one promise. If this is never fixed, my next board will certainly not be an asus.

Cheaper RAM?

I just bought and installed DDR 1066 for my P5W DH DLX and E6600

[caater]

Firstly i was quite shocked by the amount of vdrop. After setting 1.85v in the bios, my dmm is reading 1.644v. This would explain why it was only reaching 440mhz max

nothing wrong with voltages, you are using to cheap dmm and measuring from a wrong place for a cheap dmm

try these points:

[OneyedK]

If your looking for an obsessive hobby which is highly technical and very DIY, try High End Audio. In that hobby you would have to purchase at least 25K in total hardware just to get into a mid level system, but you still wouldn't get the customer servce some are expecting on a $200 mobo. In Audiophile terms you would have to build a system around a 30k Loth X Silbatone Jl 300B integrated single ended power amp to get decent customer service and the respect of those who consider themselves knowledgeable (like some of the less humble on forums over the world).

If you were to compare the performance of our Asus P5W DH in the desktop DIY world to a power amplifier in the Audiophile world we would be the proud owners of a Wavac TH388 (monoblocs) using direct heated single ended 388-triode tubes. That will get you the service you want, of course this amplifier costs $350,000 for the monobloc pair and you don't get a suitecase like Tagan gives you with their 1KW PSU. Hell you can buy an Aston Martin for this much money and with the limited number of cars they make you would get better customer service there too.

Strange comparison...
If I build a SE mono or integrated, I start with picking the transformers, mostly Lundahl (http://www.lundahl.se/). If I have a question, I mail of call them. And yes, they give answers and they offer sollutions.
As you know, a transformer is about the same price as a high end motherboard.
As most tubes are manufactured in China, Russia and the Slovak Republic, I try to get information about them too... JJ Electronics promptly replies, but all the others only blah commercial BS.
So I have a choice, I can take a lesser tubes with more support, or better tubes with no support at all...

Try contacting any motherboard manufacturer and you know they just don't answer. Or yes, they answer, but only blah and BS.

I also have a Musical Fidelity A3.1 integrated (cost about the same as a decent Conroe system). I asked the for measurement points and alignment procedures and guess what... They simply send it over...

Basically we are screwed, we will buy what we think is best and we should keep in mind that those motherboard manufacturers simply laugh at us and fill their pockets. It pisses me off, but it doesn't prevent me enjoying the P5W DH previously and now the P5WDG2 WS Pro

[jeffy]

@liquid3d:
(no flaming, but please, get things straight)

They released the board around $400, Striker Extreme
Yet you should have a look at its list of BIOS fixes, section BIOS:
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131074)
http://support.asus.com/download/dow...iker%20Extreme

Would you buy a car/washing machine/TV/whatever with major problems?
Imagine this:
- a car won't slow down... BANG!!!
- a washing machine won't stop and won't set the temperature right - let's just throw the clothes away and pull the plug off the wall outlet!
- a TV will suddenly start shaking the picture up and down, yeah, I will watch it anyway

Then why should you accept a premium priced board with so many bugs UNFIXED even at the time of release? When there are flaws, I expect ASUS to fix them with BIOS fixes. Are we just paying beta testers or what?

@crazyea
P5W DH Deluxe:
page 4-24 in manual: they are clearly speaking about manual adjustments with unlocked CPUs, aren't they? Why they removed them and why they in fact disabled your chance for taking the advantage of a $1000 worth CPU you paid for?

[nickfd]

Cheaper RAM?

I just bought and installed DDR 1066 for my P5W DH DLX and E6600

Try actually using 1066mhz with your memory with any divider. You'll be in for a bit of a surprise.

Closest I've gotten was 950mhz with 4:5 ratio (380mhz cpu fsb).

[infrared]

nothing wrong with voltages, you are using to cheap dmm and measuring from a wrong place for a cheap dmm

try these points:

lol, it's definatly not a 'cheap' dmm, but all the same, i was measuring from the wrong points. Thanks a lot caater

[Lt_JWS]

Ok, im having some trouble... Im getting random BSoD, Vista error reporting says its "CPU related" I switched out my Micron D9 ram for some non micro chips and it seems to have helped some... I mainly get BSoD when running dual prime / dual F@H, im prime stable for 6hrs + any ideas on what it could be? Im almost ready to replace the board with something different Also please dont just post around me this time..................