ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[Cornel]

Have anyone used all s-ata connectors on this board?
What controllers is the 2 orange s-ata connectors ?

[sesdave]

Have anyone used all s-ata connectors on this board?
What controllers is the 2 orange s-ata connectors ?

The disk specification for this board is as follows:
3 SATA300, RAID0,1,5 (Intel ICH7R)
1 SATA300 External (I/O panel), 1 SATA300, RAID0,1,JBOD (JMicron controller)
2 SATA300, RAID0,1. Also supports RAID 10 in conjunction with the Intel ICH7R southbridge (Silicon image 4723 controller)
1 x ATA100 (Intel ICH7R), 1 x ATA133 (JMicron controller)

EZ_Backup (Orange) are controlled by silicon image 4723 . http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...postcount=4728
Try reading the P5W manual page 2-6 and 2-33 onwards for the associated controller and colour coding. If you search the thread there is a lot of posts with information on setting up and using sata for raid , using all ports etc. read the posts by FRITZSMAN on page 197 http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...postcount=4914 if you want raid0 and 1 using only 2 disks. It long but really intresting and informative. If you want help in overclocking post your current specification and settings

[sesdave]

found it!
http://www.thetechrepository.com/sho...=74&highlight=

thks

This previous post may also help you when setting it up
http://xtremesystems.org/forums/show...postcount=4462

[mikepaul]

My overheating issues seem to be resolved after spending $190 on a new case and heatsink. CM Stacker 810 case is roomy at the top for the down-the-road-a-bit liquid cooling, and without a case change the Thermaltake V1 wouldn't have fit. I now see that an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro can get dirty which may have killed its cooling potential, but once it is cleaned it can still be my spare...

[Proendo]

I picked up the following to update my system a little

Intel E6420
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair Dominator PC2-6400 XMS2 4-4-4-12
Antec 650 Watt True Power Trio

First thing I did was crank all the following to their max voltage values.

FSB Termination Voltage 1.50v
MCH Chipset Voltage 1.85v
ICH Chipset Voltage 1.20v

I then Gave the CPU 1.5v in the bios. And the Ram its 2.1v

I couldn't seem to get past 3400 ghz at 1:1 so I figured that must be my limit. Especially since I was hitting 70 at full load on air!

So I then set it to 3200 and then reduced all the voltages untill stable.

Everything is still on air. Full load is around 59-63. and idle is around 31.


I guess my question is, Am I missing anything ? Or is this a pretty good setup? I think I covered most of the bios settings to get everything manually set. Any suggestions?

Here are some pics.

[mikepaul]

Everything is still on air. Full load is around 59-63. and idle is around 31.

I keep wondering what causes different CPUs to run hotter or colder.

I can't beat my overclocked E6300 down below 44C, but it doesn't go past maybe 55C under Orthos stressing. I do only use Auto vCore, and so far that seems stable enough, but I can't help think that when an oddball crash happens, like my antivirus announcing that it needs to send off an error report, that it comes back to some of my BIOS decisions...

[Proendo]

I actually got the temps down a bit according to TAT I am at max load around 54


Ram is at 2.10v 4-4-4-12 now instead of 5-4-4-15
CPU 1.3875V bios
FSB 1.3v
MCH 1.55V
ICH 1.05v

Seems pretty stable at 3.2 ghz. and 4-4-4-12

[sesdave]

I keep wondering what causes different CPUs to run hotter or colder.

I can't beat my overclocked E6300 down below 44C, but it doesn't go past maybe 55C under Orthos stressing. I do only use Auto vCore, and so far that seems stable enough, but I can't help think that when an oddball crash happens, like my antivirus announcing that it needs to send off an error report, that it comes back to some of my BIOS decisions...

Its luck of the draw - my e6600 idles at 48c. Good cooling makes a big difference. What is your setup and BIOS settings. How long have u run orthios with current settings. If your memory is XMS rev2.1 same as mine it has promo chips and they dont clock much at all which may hold your CPU back 1:1 . If they are earlier the willbe microns and need more volts to go above ddr800. As you say it is probalbly BIOS settings causing spurious failures ..

[Speed4life]

My L706A499 E6600 is at 3.2Ghz. with default voltage. Voltage in Bios reads 1.30. My Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 is at 2.10 volts. I am running at a 1:1 ratio. I am using the 1904 Bios. Temps are 25 idle, and 42 under dual Orthos load.

[lawrywild]

1904 bios???

-------------------------

http://www.developerfood.com/asus-ac...d/article.aspx

haha another 'victim'

[sesdave]

My L706A499 E6600 is at 3.2Ghz. with default voltage. Voltage in Bios reads 1.30. My Corsair XMS2 4-4-4-12 is at 2.10 volts. I am running at a 1:1 ratio. I am using the 1904 Bios. Temps are 25 idle, and 42 under dual Orthos load.

So what is the purpose of your post - or are you just posting your signature?

[lawrywild]

I think he was referencing his cpu temps but those aren't coretemp temps..

[turbo]

to anyone who may know, should I be getting the same bandwidth with my 8800gts on the outer PCI express 16 slot as on the slot closer to the CPU? My system seems to be getting a lower 3D Mark than I was expecting. Thanks

[sesdave]

I think he was referencing his cpu temps but those aren't coretemp temps..

I see - obviously nearly all will get lower temps using default vcore(except your CPU of course ! Lol) but most want to clock the CPU and memory to the highest it will go. Speed4life has settled for what he can get on the default vcore - probably capable of more with higher volts and temps but if he is happy -fine..

[sesdave]

to anyone who may know, should I be getting the same bandwidth with my 8800gts on the outer PCI express 16 slot as on the slot closer to the CPU? My system seems to be getting a lower 3D Mark than I was expecting. Thanks

The 2nd PCI-E slot on the P5W DH only runs at 8x. Move it up to the top one.

[turbo]

Thanks for the reply. I'm looking forward to the extra performance. I'll report on the difference in 3d mark in a day or so.

[anzial]

Stupid board. Damn wireless died, appears to be working but there's no signal in AP mode and it doesn't find any networks either in networking mode. On top of that, the first memory slot is screwed up, I put any memory stick in it, which would work fine in any of the other three slots, and it gives me errors or hangs in memtest... Grrrrr, RMA time I guess... I had so many hopes for this board but it let me down... just like Abit in the past

[Liquid3D]

Don't give up folks I have just finished a review on the P5W DH which mentions this thread and may give everyone who has hit a FSB wall some hope.

It will be published at www.madshrimps.be probably within the next 48-hours if my Editor isn't too busy, the guy runs a website, helps 10-million people everyday, works fulltime and keeps his gf happy? Is he the Uberman? You decide.

Checkout where I've taken my P5W DH where I once thought 400FSB was my stable limit. I probably could have got the Memory speed higher but the 975chipset (not the P5W DH) bootstrap issue is holding everyon back. The 460FSB screensht below wasn't Orthos stable but only because of the H20 radiator fan-combo I'm using. In the review I benched 445FSB stable at 890MHz DDR2 and without any problems. If you water-cool the NB THAT is the key!!! I have a NB watercoole but she won't adapt or the review would be very different.
Still I attained these becnhark without any modifications on the NB which is the obstacle. The CPU which is watercooled with the Sub-Zero block by Cooled-cases.de

[mikepaul]

What is your setup and BIOS settings. How long have u run orthios with current settings. If your memory is XMS rev2.1 same as mine it has promo chips and they dont clock much at all which may hold your CPU back 1:1 . If they are earlier the willbe microns and need more volts to go above ddr800. As you say it is probalbly BIOS settings causing spurious failures ..

Well, I didn't pull the BIOS settings but a strange crash at lunch and a post-mortem popup from Microsoft blaming my RAM made me run Memtest for the first time in months, and it locked up solid each time I ran it: once after 110 minutes, once after 7. This is the same setup that did Orthos (blend) for 2 hours on Saturday with no hitches.

So I dug around and checked those suspect BIOS settings and noticed that while I can find what I think is understandable documentation on 4-4-4-12, I can't find specific settings for the fifth parameter in the BIOS, "Write Recovery Time". I had it set at 4, but with no guidelines and no memory of what it had been in less crashy times, I bumped it up to 5 and ran Memtest again. No lockup for two passes over 40 minutes, so I reran Orthos (blend) and again got 2 good hours.

So I'll wait and look for more crashes, and maybe track why things went south. I had thought Orthos was a good strain, but some of the crap I pull, like copying >4GB files while doing 5 other high-CPU things, have shown this machine really wasn't ready for Prime Time...

[Chrysalis]

ICH7 is faster !
The Silicon Image 4723 is a real hardware RAID controller. I takes one of the four ICH7 SATA ports and lets you connect 2 HDDs to it which can be run in hardware RAID0 or RAID1.

The Silicon Image 4723 is the reason you only get 3 ICH7 ports since the 4th port is hard-wired to Sil =)

I succesfully ran RAID1 and RAID0 on this controller with a recent -mm kernel. While the RAID worked just fine, it was very slow. I ran some tests and was dearly disapointed. If you want to run a RAID0 or RAID1 use Linux SoftwareRaid but stay away from EZ-BAckup!.

If you remove both EZ jumpers you can use the right EZ-Backup port as the 4th ICH7 port.

Thanks I was wondering what the hell ez backup was and if could be used in non raid.

So to disable it have to use jumpers? not enough to disable in bios? and one of the ports will then simply be a ICH7 port?

[Chrysalis]

I have 6 hard drives hooked up.

2 on jmicron PATA
3 on intel SATA - AHCI
1 on jmicron SATA - basic because when AHCI on jmicron PATA dont work.

The problem is with hd temp monitoring, SMART is enabled for all drives and only 3 of them are reporting temps/smart in any app. Both pata report and my raptor on the first Intel SATA port reports, so 2 on the intel sata controller dont report and the one on the Jmicron sata doesnt report.

Any ideas?

[sesdave]

Well, I didn't pull the BIOS settings but a strange crash at lunch and a post-mortem popup from Microsoft blaming my RAM made me run Memtest for the first time in months, and it locked up solid each time I ran it: once after 110 minutes, once after 7. This is the same setup that did Orthos (blend) for 2 hours on Saturday with no hitches.

So I dug around and checked those suspect BIOS settings and noticed that while I can find what I think is understandable documentation on 4-4-4-12, I can't find specific settings for the fifth parameter in the BIOS, "Write Recovery Time". I had it set at 4, but with no guidelines and no memory of what it had been in less crashy times, I bumped it up to 5 and ran Memtest again. No lockup for two passes over 40 minutes, so I reran Orthos (blend) and again got 2 good hours.

So I'll wait and look for more crashes, and maybe track why things went south. I had thought Orthos was a good strain, but some of the crap I pull, like copying >4GB files while doing 5 other high-CPU things, have shown this machine really wasn't ready for Prime Time...

May be able to get u running higher or more stable if you post all your BIOS settings. What BIOS u using. Is your memory rev 2.1 - mine runs fine with WRT=4 @ DDR800.

[sesdave]

Stupid board. Damn wireless died, appears to be working but there's no signal in AP mode and it doesn't find any networks either in networking mode. On top of that, the first memory slot is screwed up, I put any memory stick in it, which would work fine in any of the other three slots, and it gives me errors or hangs in memtest... Grrrrr, RMA time I guess... I had so many hopes for this board but it let me down... just like Abit in the past

Anzial - long time no hear. I initially couldnt get the wireless to run in AP mode but it was okay in station mode. Have u tried cleaning the memory slot out with an cotton bud soaked in CPU cleaner and some compressed air?- an erazer cleans the RAM connections up well.

[turbo]

If you were wondering going from the 8x PCI express slot to the 16x pci express slot got me a 13% boost in 3d mark 06. Thanks SESDAVE

[mikepaul]

May be able to get u running higher or more stable if you post all your BIOS settings. What BIOS u using. Is your memory rev 2.1 - mine runs fine with WRT=4 @ DDR800.

I'm no longer confident that any post-mortem message I get means much. It crashed again at lunch to the Blue Screen mentioning why Windows was shut down to prevent damage. The BIOS change for Write Recovery was apparently useless, as is running Orthos to see if my system is stable.

One point I discussed with a friend at lunch is the iffy power supply cable I had not been using much until this rebuild. It had been feeding only the floppy drive due to oddball things hapening when anything else was attached, but I've been feeding the extra case fans off it since the rebuild so the first thing I'll do when I get home is build a bigger octopus out of the one (apparently) trouble-free cable I do have and see what results: hopefully not a fire. No SATA-to-4PIN adapters in sight to make use of the other cables.

I do have a new modular Zalman ZM 600HP PSU on order from Amazon, but it's now delayed until an estimated July 10 ship date (originally May 26 or so). If it wasn't nearly $60 cheaper than NewEgg I'd have gone elsewhere long ago.

BIOS: 1707
CPU Freq: 410
DRAM freq: DDR2-820Mhz
Performance: Turbo
PCI-X Freq: 100
PCI Clock: 33.33Mhz
vCore: Auto
vFSB: 1.50V
vMCH: 1.55V
vICH: Auto

vRAM: 2.10V since I forgot where it fits into the list.

RAM details: Corsair TWIN2XP2048-6400C4
CAS: 4
RAS: 4
RAS to CAS: 4
RAS Activate to Precharge: 12
Write Recovery: soon to be 4 again since 5 didn't prevent crash.
Hyperpath: Disabled
DRAM throttling: Disabled
Remap: Disabled

Didn't write down anything else or get RAM specs from CPU-Z, but I'm not sure what else is critical...