ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[Gig4moller]

Thanks for all those efforts Falkentyne - So you think with a clean windows install 45nm CPU's will work like a charm (overclocking issues left aside) on this mobo?

[Falkentyne]

Gig4moller:

MY CHIP DOES 4 GHZ ON THE P5W !!

It's the absurd FSB limitations that are screwing up everything!
400 * 10 did NOT post. I don't even want to DREAM About how bad the chip would clock on its default 9 multiplier...probably no higher than 9*370 or something...

370 * 10 was perfectly stable at 1.3v.
380 * 10 was unstable even at 1.38v ! Kept getting either random errors in one of the prime threads or roundoff errors or something after awhile.
And 1.3v to 1.325v simply *locked up* the system hard after a few iterations.

Now I was sitting here thinking I may have a worse chip than evga2000 that won't do 4 ghz at ANY voltage...then I suddenly remembered why I paid $1300 for a chip...

I cranked up the multiplier to 12 and the FSB DOWN to 334.
Yielding 4.01 ghz.
System POSTED (!!), went into windows, ran Prime and laughed at my incompetence. It was the freaking FSB that was holding everything back -.- No idea if more VMCH on the northbridge would have helped but who cares...I have an XE chip....

The temps started getting too hot though, at 1.3875v on the Tuniq heatsink. One of the cores started pushing 72C, then I figured ok that's enough. I have a 4 ghz capable chip, that can probably do a helluva lot more on a board without stupid FSB problems. I'm currently attempting prime at 1.35v at the same speed (4013 mhz). I'm not after 24 hour prime stability anyway, just game stability. If one of the cores doesn't error out in 30 minutes with prime, then I'm good to go. (I will have to find 3dmark 2006 somewhere and run that just to be sure).

So, in summary, YES it works FINE on the P5W! Just be prepared to keep the FSB low and the MP high if you expect it to clock. Unlocked multipliers FTW.

I think it goes without saying that people with locked Multis will want to look at a P35 or X38/48 board, since you WILL be held back. Don't the non extreme quads allow limited multiplier adjustment, BTW?

[Gig4moller]

Only downwards multiplier adjustments I think. Thanks man, good to know ^^ I think I will be fine with 8x370 on a Q9450

[MacClipper]

The P5W DH lives on!

Don't see 333FSB for a quad as much of a disadvantage for a 24/7 rig cos I am running my Q6600 on my main PC at 9 x 333FSB too.

1. it allows the use of Auto Vcore with EIST/C1E, 3GHz@1.25v down to 2GHz@1.125v 24/7
2. tight timings of 3-3-3-8@667 at low Vdimm
3. low mobo voltages all round needed even with 4 x 1GB of RAM
4. still kills my E6750@450FSB@3.6GHz@Commando at number crunching

So 333FSB isn't all that bad esp. now that cheap HD3870 can be crossfired at 8x8 on the P5W for a very viable gaming rig still.

Good job done, Falkentyne.

[Mordor]

Thanks for the testing Falkentyne - looks like my board can live a bit longer :-)

[DrSlump]

Gig4moller:

MY CHIP DOES 4 GHZ ON THE P5W !!

It's the absurd FSB limitations that are screwing up everything!
400 * 10 did NOT post. I don't even want to DREAM About how bad the chip would clock on its default 9 multiplier...probably no higher than 9*370 or something...

370 * 10 was perfectly stable at 1.3v.
380 * 10 was unstable even at 1.38v ! Kept getting either random errors in one of the prime threads or roundoff errors or something after awhile.
And 1.3v to 1.325v simply *locked up* the system hard after a few iterations.

Now I was sitting here thinking I may have a worse chip than evga2000 that won't do 4 ghz at ANY voltage...then I suddenly remembered why I paid $1300 for a chip...

I cranked up the multiplier to 12 and the FSB DOWN to 334.
Yielding 4.01 ghz.
System POSTED (!!), went into windows, ran Prime and laughed at my incompetence. It was the freaking FSB that was holding everything back -.- No idea if more VMCH on the northbridge would have helped but who cares...I have an XE chip....

The temps started getting too hot though, at 1.3875v on the Tuniq heatsink. One of the cores started pushing 72C, then I figured ok that's enough. I have a 4 ghz capable chip, that can probably do a helluva lot more on a board without stupid FSB problems. I'm currently attempting prime at 1.35v at the same speed (4013 mhz). I'm not after 24 hour prime stability anyway, just game stability. If one of the cores doesn't error out in 30 minutes with prime, then I'm good to go. (I will have to find 3dmark 2006 somewhere and run that just to be sure).

So, in summary, YES it works FINE on the P5W! Just be prepared to keep the FSB low and the MP high if you expect it to clock. Unlocked multipliers FTW.

I think it goes without saying that people with locked Multis will want to look at a P35 or X38/48 board, since you WILL be held back. Don't the non extreme quads allow limited multiplier adjustment, BTW?

Would you like to try these settings (assuming ddr2 800 ram):

JUMPERFREE CONF.

CPU FREQ. = 400
DRAM FREQ = DDR2 800 (1-1)
PERF. MODE = STAND.
PCI-EXP = 100
PCI CLOC = 33.33
MEMORI = 1,9 (depends on voltage indicated for you ram)
CPU CORE = 1,400 (try lower first)

FSB = AUTO
MCH = 1,55 (depending on stability you obtain)
ICH = AUTO

CPU CONFIG

CPU RATIO = 9
MICROCODE UPD. = ENABLED
MAX CPUID UPD. = DISABLE
EXECUTE DIS. FUNC. = DIS.
ENHANCED C1 CONT. =DIS.
CPU INTER. THER. CONTROL =AUTO
VIRTUAL. TECNO. = DIS.

RAM

Ras,Cas, ecc ,depending on your ram

DRAM ECC = DIS.
HIPER PATH = DIS.
DRAM THROTTLING = DIS.


PEG BUFFER = AUTO
LINCK LATENCI =AUTO
PEG ROOT CONTR. = AUTO
PEG LINK MODE = AUTO (slow is better)
SLOT POWER = AUTO

this settings should let you to post @ 3600Mhz. If your processor is stable, try to raise the moltiplier to 10.

[Falkentyne]

10*360 was already stable. There was never any problem with that. Even 10*370 was stable @ 1.3v. It was going HIGHER that started giving problems. 10*380 wasn't fully prime stable even at 1.3875v, and I didn't like the temps, and 10*400 didn't post. But at a 12 multiplier, I had the system actually post at 4.36 ghz (accident; didn't know the FSB was that high), didn't even bother to TRY going out of BIOS; no way I'm going to try to make that stable on a 975X...would be a big fight between trying to find out if the prime crashes were caused by the CPU or the FSB >.>
But it ran perfectly at 4 ghz and 1.3875v at a 12 multi. But the temps got too high so I'm lowering the voltage a tad. I reached my goal anyway--4 GHZ with a quad

I've settled on 12*333 (4 ghz) and 1.3625v for gaming and stock (9*333=3 ghz) for 24/7. When I upgrade the board to something that can clock quads on a HIGH FSB without puking, then I'll see how far the chip can truly go. I don't want to have to test a 15 or 16x multiplier to try go past 4 ghz, at a rediculously low FSB >.>

I don't expect I will be able to hit 4.5 ghz on air, even on a X48, without insane amounts of voltage (I'd have to toss the Tuniq and get an Ultra 120 Extreme or that other new HS people are using, for anything above 1.4v)

[MacClipper]

Previous discussions on FSB vs GHz on graysky's thread,
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=147433

imo, running 4GHz@333FSB is a great achievement already on this old mobo - Striker users woulld prob. be envious.

[phillydee]

Hey guys. I've been using the P5WDH for almost 6 months now, thanks to Lawry and this great thread.

A few days ago, my PC did not POST after shutting down from the night before. I managed to trace it to 1 of my RAM sticks (I have Crucial Ballistix PC-8500 tracers). I know it's the RAM because, 1) I pull out the offending stick and the PC boots. 2) I put the offending stick in, and it doesn't POST. Nada. Nothing. 3) I trade out the RAM sticks and nothing, again.

After putting all my settings back to default, I ran memtest85+ on the 'working' RAM. I am getting errors on 2 blocks. It seems those two blocks are faulty. I'm currently in the process of getting an RMA for the pair, but had the following question:

In all my months of tweaking, I never pumped up the mem voltage, or freaked out the timings. These chips are rated at 2.2v, at default CAS reads 5-5-5-15 according to memtest and CPU-Z. Could the motherboard have damaged the RAM? It's hard to believe that it's my 2nd pair of defective crucial sticks. Has anyone else had similar problems?

Thanks for any input.

BTW aside from memory problems, I'm pretty happy with the Ballistix PC8500.

[Unbornchild]

That is what recently happened to my 2GB Corsair kit. I'm afraid the P5WDH's volt-instability is the cause for it. I had 2.1v in BIOS, recently i noticed AIBooster was showing 2.2v ( a few days before the RAM died). RMA'd the kit, i now have the new ones at 1.95 in BIOS, AI booster shows 1.95 as well.
Btw, while waiting for the RMA-returning i temporary had 2GB Ballistix PC2-8500 in it, at 1.95. Ran like a charm.

This board officially supports 800Mhz RAM, 1066 'native' (= when you overclock). In the case of using PC2-8500 RAM on this board at 1:1 and timings 5-5-5-15 you're not overclocking at all, rather underclocking. Chips are rated 2.2v for a heavy workload. Give it less volts i'd say.

[Chrysalis]

Falkentyne PAE is enabled by windows if it uses DEP or needs to utilise 36 bit of ram this is documented on microsofts website. I have the PAE in my system control panel applet on my core 2 duo 6420 with 2 gig of ram.

The question is how are you utilising DEP with PAE off? or is DEP not actually on. (you may be running software DEP mode)

[experttech]

I am planning to buy this RAM (G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail ) - does anyone have any experience on how this performs on the P5W DH Deluxe mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Any better suggestion around the same price?

[Falkentyne]

I have absolutely no idea.
I reinstalled windows on a clean HDD And now everything works fine and PAE is off.

I did find out what was causing the super slow speed (and yes it was somehow throttling).

It was Intel TAT.
When I installed that on the new install, the system started doing it again. I didnt even have to run TAT for it to start doing it, but running TAT caused "Invalid CPU" error and an exit. Uninstalling TAT fixed it the first time but when I reinstalled it then uninstalled, I was still at "360 mhz" until I rebooted windows.

How could TAT cause THAT much of a slowdown, just by having the driver installed?

[MacClipper]

Most interesting, iirc TAT was not meant for desktop use in the 1st place. Wonder if it causes the same grief on other newer chipsets with QX9650.

[gwolfman]

Is this the correct link for the vDroop pencil mod?
http://www.benchzone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36

I thought there was a different site as well...

[Unbornchild]

I am planning to buy this RAM (G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail ) - does anyone have any experience on how this performs on the P5W DH Deluxe mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

Any better suggestion around the same price?

I have no experience with them, but P5WDH manual mentions 256 ~ 1 GB modules support. It could be that the density of 2 GB sticks is too much for the board. If i were you i'd take 4 x 1GB.
In the manual of my Maximus specifically is mentioned 2 GB sticks are supported.

[rvp]

Unbornchild, are you sure ? My manual says:

2.4.2 Memory Configurations
You may install 256 Mb, 512 MB, 1 GB or 2 GB unbuffered ECC/non-ECC DDR2 DIMMs into the DIMM sockets.

[Unbornchild]

Jeezzz i picked the wrong manual dammit!, i was quoting from the P5AD2E-Premium manual Page 2-14, item 2.4.2.
Of course you're right!

Edit: and i couldn't find the right manual but just found out i hid it in the P5AD2E-P box! And yes of course i read it too, 2 GB sticks supported.

[megabit]

I have this MB in a dual boot computer (XP x86 / Vista x64). Under XP, when using Vegas rendering, I cannot get full utilization of the Quad I have... Or to be more precise: when I set Vegas video to 8bit, it renders at 100%, but in the 32bit video mode - only some 50-60% (still all 4 cores, though).

Under Vista x64, I'm always getting 100%.

This makes me think something is wrong with the 4GB of RAM management. Vista x64 can use it all, how much is XP supposed to use? In the system properties, it says 3.0 GB -- shouldn't it be some 3.2GB?

Whitch switches do you have in the boot.ini file? I only have "/noexecute" and "/fastdetect". What is PAE and how it should be used? Ach, anf of course I have RAM remappring feature enabled (so that Vista can see all 4 GB of it); tried to disable and see how it affects XP - no diffeence...

If it's not the memory management, than perhaps some BIOS prob? But is it possible the same BIOS settings are OK for one OS and bad for another?

Any help greatly appreciated - I have to work under XP for some time, as some other apps do not work under Vista x64, and hate to think I'm wasting a lot of time rendering HDV in a non-optimized fashion

[gwolfman]

Is this the correct link for the vDroop pencil mod?
http://www.benchzone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=36

I thought there was a different site as well...

Still waiting for an answer regarding the above...

Also, what type of pencil am I supposed to use? HB? or a softer one?

[Unbornchild]

Here's another one: http://sg.vr-zone.com/?i=3876

[holwill]

Still waiting for an answer regarding the above...

Also, what type of pencil am I supposed to use? HB? or a softer one?

If I remember correctly it is a 2B you need for the mod and it works nicely to.

[phillydee]

That is what recently happened to my 2GB Corsair kit. I'm afraid the P5WDH's volt-instability is the cause for it. I had 2.1v in BIOS, recently i noticed AIBooster was showing 2.2v ( a few days before the RAM died). RMA'd the kit, i now have the new ones at 1.95 in BIOS, AI booster shows 1.95 as well.
Btw, while waiting for the RMA-returning i temporary had 2GB Ballistix PC2-8500 in it, at 1.95. Ran like a charm.

This board officially supports 800Mhz RAM, 1066 'native' (= when you overclock). In the case of using PC2-8500 RAM on this board at 1:1 and timings 5-5-5-15 you're not overclocking at all, rather underclocking. Chips are rated 2.2v for a heavy workload. Give it less volts i'd say.

Hey thanks a lot a LOT for this, I couldn't return to the forums as quickly as I'd liked. I am thankful for the input and I will also be looking into getting a stable voltage regulator that actually WORKS.

I will definitely try 1.95v in the BIOS.

[BuBBle.D]

Still waiting for an answer regarding the above...

Also, what type of pencil am I supposed to use? HB? or a softer one?

Yes, it works. Ive done the mod a few weeks ago. Measuring vCore with miltimeter shows absolutely NO vdroop in idle or under load after the mod.
1,375 vcore in bios is 1,374 real for me. And i didnt have a 2B pencil at hand when doing the mod so you will be fine with any pencil.

[lawrywild]

Hey guys. I've been using the P5WDH for almost 6 months now, thanks to Lawry and this great thread.

A few days ago, my PC did not POST after shutting down from the night before. I managed to trace it to 1 of my RAM sticks (I have Crucial Ballistix PC-8500 tracers). I know it's the RAM because, 1) I pull out the offending stick and the PC boots. 2) I put the offending stick in, and it doesn't POST. Nada. Nothing. 3) I trade out the RAM sticks and nothing, again.

After putting all my settings back to default, I ran memtest85+ on the 'working' RAM. I am getting errors on 2 blocks. It seems those two blocks are faulty. I'm currently in the process of getting an RMA for the pair, but had the following question:

In all my months of tweaking, I never pumped up the mem voltage, or freaked out the timings. These chips are rated at 2.2v, at default CAS reads 5-5-5-15 according to memtest and CPU-Z. Could the motherboard have damaged the RAM? It's hard to believe that it's my 2nd pair of defective crucial sticks. Has anyone else had similar problems?

Thanks for any input.

BTW aside from memory problems, I'm pretty happy with the Ballistix PC8500.

lol, one set of my Ballistix died tonight. Been running at 2.1v.. Atleast they're still covered by warranty. Just more unwanted hassle I don't need...