ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[Falkentyne]

2704 gave me 1.225v as the lowest setting for my QX9650, the same as anything from 2302 (the first that worked) and newer. Is it only E8400s that won't go lower than 1.4v? I thought I saw someone say that 2406 gave the normal 1.225+v range, but when they went to 2602+, the lowest vcore was 1.4v, but i don't remember if that's true or not....

[mikepaul]

2704 gave me 1.225v as the lowest setting for my QX9650, the same as anything from 2302 (the first that worked) and newer. Is it only E8400s that won't go lower than 1.4v? I thought I saw someone say that 2406 gave the normal 1.225+v range, but when they went to 2602+, the lowest vcore was 1.4v, but i don't remember if that's true or not....

Maybe they have a table of values for each supported CPU, and the current table isn't good enough for a Q9450. Maybe it's time to get a hex editor and look around.

Thanks...

[Yolanda]

My board can set all voltage from 1.225 to 1.7v on E8500 dualcore, board revision 1.04G

[riiaku]

I dont remember who it was, but I'm too lazy to find out, about who recommended me the corsair 4gigs 4-4-4-12 ram, wow it fuggin screams. I couldnt run 3.2 gigaherts at 4-4-4-12, but i am able to run 3.0 gigahertz, at 4-4-4-12, at a 1:1 ratio which id DDR7XX, dont remember. But I also wanted to know if increasing the ddr memory speed to the 9XX speeds would impede my OC? Would that work or no?

[Yolanda]

Mm get 4,18GHz fully stable at FSB 440 with my new E8500: 1.425V at CPU, 1.75V at MCH. Only set these voltages, test several hours, later I try to test at lower voltage.

11.145sec Super PI 1M, 73k in 3DMark 2001, seems to be nice for old 975 board?

PS. My old E6750 can't work at FSB 440 at nominal or even at lowerst 6x multiplier, so it wasn't limitation from mb, that I think, it was limitation from CPU wall.

[Popopinsel]

Hi All,

I am currently running the P5W w/ 2GB or RAM. I have run it with as much as 4GB in the past. I have recently been working with multiple VM's under Vista x64 (Disregard my sig, no longer running OSX), and MAN does it get bogged down easily. I am looking to upgrade to an 8GB kit, as it's so darn cheap, but wondering if anyone has had issues w/ 4x2GB kits on this board?

Here are the modules I am looking at, as I have had very good luck with G.Skill in the past, and right now I am looking at value over decadence.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231145

I welcome any thoughts, suggestions, opinions, etc.

THANKS!

Check the G.Skill section of this forum in the compatibility section. There has been a user there saying that the kit you're looking at won't work.

They are working like a charm here on P5W DH and E6600 (BIOS 2504)!

[Xeon Zombie]

Check the G.Skill section of this forum in the compatibility section. There has been a user there saying that the kit you're looking at won't work.

Well, I pulled the trigger on the 4x2GB Gskill modules...

I installed them last night. Had to clear the CMOS to get it to boot, and them enable the remap feature, but after that it was smooth sailing! I have the system at stock speeds at present, as I haven't had the time to "re-overclock" it, but it'll give me something to do tonight.

I'll tell you, say what you will about Vista, but wih a "mere" 8GB of RAM, it FLIES!!! Way faster than XP!

Thanks!

[MINIz guy]

Nice

I just recently ordered a 4GB kit of Corsair XMS2 DHX. I had trouble turning it on the first time, but I did get it to work without resetting the CMOS.

Now, at proper voltages and timings, I'm having trouble with my overclock (Code 1 in OCCT). I was able to get 413FSB @ 1.3375v in BIOS and have my Hynix FP-C4 RAM boot at 310MHz. Now, I can't get 410 FSB at 1.35v with 410MHz on the Corsair (still Code 1 in OCCT). I tried to up the MCH voltage (from 1.55v to 1.65v) , but that was a no go.

Any ideas out there?

Edit: Runing an E6300 and BIOS 2004. Would an updated BIOS be helpful, and if so, which one?

[kernelOfTruth]

hi to all the other p5w dh owners

They are working like a charm here on P5W DH and E6600 (BIOS 2504)!

ah - nice, thanks

I just got 2 pairs of them on the way to my rig

I'm learning more and more to cherish this board

@lawrywild, guys:

any news on a newer bios version or is the 2504 / 2004 the last nicely working one ?

thanks in advance

[Xeon Zombie]

I dont remember who it was, but I'm too lazy to find out, about who recommended me the corsair 4gigs 4-4-4-12 ram, wow it fuggin screams. I couldnt run 3.2 gigaherts at 4-4-4-12, but i am able to run 3.0 gigahertz, at 4-4-4-12, at a 1:1 ratio which id DDR7XX, dont remember. But I also wanted to know if increasing the ddr memory speed to the 9XX speeds would impede my OC? Would that work or no?

I believe it may have been me who recommended them, as I was using thos in my system up until two days ago... fast huh?

To add some insight to your question - higher frequency does not always mean higher performance with DDR2. For instance DDR2 800 w/ tight timings will almost always beat DDR2 1000 with looser timings. Even DDR2 667 with tight timings can beat out much "faster" memory.

As for your OC, I ran these modules at 945MHz to bring my OC to 3.4GHz (9x378) timings were still good enough to be worth it at this speed. I'd have kept these modules if I didn't need so much RAM for the work I am doing these days. Ended up upgrading to 8GB G.Skill.

P.S. Vista LOVES 8GB RAM!! It is sooo much faster than XP now for a lot of things. Superfetch is awesome if you have enough memeory for it to not bog down your system.

[Xeon Zombie]

hi to all the other p5w dh owners



ah - nice, thanks

I just got 2 pairs of them on the way to my rig

I'm learning more and more to cherish this board

@lawrywild, guys:

any news on a newer bios version or is the 2504 / 2004 the last nicely working one ?

thanks in advance

You're going to love them. I am running them now and WOW what a difference. Check out Tom's Hardware, they ran some tests w/ vista and 8GB of RAM that are pretty interesting.

[MINIz guy]

I didn't buy those just because of one user report...now I'm starting to regret my Corsair purchase. Those clock much higher than my new Corsairs, at the same price!

[riiaku]

I believe it may have been me who recommended them, as I was using thos in my system up until two days ago... fast huh?

To add some insight to your question - higher frequency does not always mean higher performance with DDR2. For instance DDR2 800 w/ tight timings will almost always beat DDR2 1000 with looser timings. Even DDR2 667 with tight timings can beat out much "faster" memory.

As for your OC, I ran these modules at 945MHz to bring my OC to 3.4GHz (9x378) timings were still good enough to be worth it at this speed. I'd have kept these modules if I didn't need so much RAM for the work I am doing these days. Ended up upgrading to 8GB G.Skill.

P.S. Vista LOVES 8GB RAM!! It is sooo much faster than XP now for a lot of things. Superfetch is awesome if you have enough memeory for it to not bog down your system.

Why didnt you just buy another 4gig pack from Corsair? and double it up?

[Ambress]

Hello all,

For anyone having trouble disabling EIST with the 2704 BIOS, I too had that issue after deciding somewhat unnecessarily to upgrade. My system hung on a reboot for uncertain reasons but what I think may have had to do with a powered USB hub (I'm learning USB isn't as foolproof as it so often seems), and in trying to pin the problem down I also updated the BIOS. But, then things got worse when I found I couldn't restore the settings I usually overclock my system at, because I could never change Vcore due to EIST not being disabled. When I looked for it and couldn't find it, I was very puzzled and was about to go back to 2602 when I stumbled across the solution.

Apparently, the 2704 BIOS has been changed such that if you first enable Ratio Support, EIST is automatically disabled. While you would thus expect having EIST auto-disabled and manually disabling C1 control SHOULD allow manual Vcore control, that does not appear to be true. I would consider this a minor bug in the BIOS. However, by leaving the Ratio Support disabled so that EIST remained an available option in the BIOS, disabling it, then enabling Ratio Support (EIST becomes hidden as the result), and finally disabling C1 control, full control over Vcore is available.

Hope that's of help to someone.

Daryl

[Yolanda]

At last test E8500 on P5W DH Deluxe and get 2 stable modes with lowest voltages tested for many hours:

4.04GHz: FSB425 MCH 1.65V CPU 1.37V
4.20GHz: FSB443 MCH 1.75V CPU 1.5V

(Edited CPU voltages, now after 24hour Prime95 test)

Also start at FSB460 with MCH 1.85V, count 1M SuperPI (10.6sec), play several games for while, but don't want to take for a long test with such high voltage

[freeza]

Damn, you're lucky.

I can only get up to FSB400 with the e8400 bringing it up to 3.6 ghz.

And i had to underclock my G.Skill to 600 mhz....

EDIT: I re-read an earlier post of yours, reverted all of my settings back to auto except for the two you said to change and am up to 3825 mhz with the e8400 at 425 mhz FSB

awesome. RAM is still clocked in the 600 mhz range. i forgot what exactly.

But if this remains stable then I would like to thank you, Yolanda!

[Leeghoofd]

Damn, you're lucky.

And i had to underclock my G.Skill to 600 mhz....

EDIT: I re-read an earlier post of yours, reverted all of my settings back to auto except for the two you said to change and am up to 3825 mhz with the e8400 at 425 mhz FSB

awesome. RAM is still clocked in the 600 mhz range.

Ya ram will be at 850mhz then at least... you reading out the 600mhz where ? Glad the board is still performing quite strong, but plz be carefull with the MCH voltage...

[freeza]

You wouldn't recommend running @ 1.75 for MCH?

What're the risks?

And I had to underclock the ram for all 8gb of it to work. It simply wasn't stable @ 800 mhz with all 4 slots filled up.

[Yolanda]

The same with RAM, mb have serious problems with memory at FSB400 and 4 RAM modules. My 2*1GB Hynix'05 work best with frequirences upto 900MHz, I buy another 2*1GB labeled Hynix'07 , they can reach even 1GHz, but all 4 modules can't work at even nominal 800MHz, then FSB is 400(1600), only at lower 600MHz multiplier they all can work, so I returned new modules back.

[kernelOfTruth]

You're going to love them. I am running them now and WOW what a difference. Check out Tom's Hardware, they ran some tests w/ vista and 8GB of RAM that are pretty interesting.

yeah, they're pretty fast & stable

before I switch to any x64 windows flavor (currently xp home) I need to check for driver support, ...

You wouldn't recommend running @ 1.75 for MCH?

What're the risks?

And I had to underclock the ram for all 8gb of it to work. It simply wasn't stable @ 800 mhz with all 4 slots filled up.

perhaps switching back to 2504 bios helps ?

it's running fine here with 889 MHz: stable & no errors in memtest86+

I've disabled speedstep & some other un-needed stuff, disabling hyperpath also might help

currently the FSB is set to 266 (instead of 300) so this also might be an instability factor ...

good luck

[nicko]

The same with RAM, mb have serious problems with memory at FSB400 and 4 RAM modules. My 2*1GB Hynix'05 work best with frequirences upto 900MHz, I buy another 2*1GB labeled Hynix'07 , they can reach even 1GHz, but all 4 modules can't work at even nominal 800MHz, then FSB is 400(1600), only at lower 600MHz multiplier they all can work, so I returned new modules back.

That's quite normal. Chipset is struggling with 4 modules cause density of modules. Actually, it's excellent they're working at all at 400mhz fsb. Try to raise MCH voltage a little bit and see would that help

[freeza]

My MCH is set to 1.65 volts. But, Leeghoofd said to be careful with a 1.75 MCH so i brought it back to 1.65

[Yolanda]

That's quite normal. Chipset is struggling with 4 modules cause density of modules. Actually, it's excellent they're working at all at 400mhz fsb. Try to raise MCH voltage a little bit and see would that help

Nothing can help to work 4 modules at FSB 400 at full 800MHz speed. Even rising memory voltage or MCH voltage. At FSB 333 or lower they all can work and can be overclocked. Maybe only some exteme latency modules can work at 400FSB, but I haven't them. But it's easier to use very cheep 2*2GB if needed 4GB of RAM, WinXP users can be happy steel with 2*1GB. 8GB (4*2) it's for some special programs, not much need it, or can lower memory frequirency.

[nicko]

Nothing can help to work 4 modules at FSB 400 at full 800MHz speed. Even rising memory voltage or MCH voltage. At FSB 333 or lower they all can work and can be overclocked. Maybe only some exteme latency modules can work at 400FSB, but I haven't them. But it's easier to use very cheep 2*2GB if needed 4GB of RAM, WinXP users can be happy steel with 2*1GB. 8GB (4*2) it's for some special programs, not much need it, or can lower memory frequirency.

It's all about chipset and high density memory modules. Memory itself it's not a problem (if it's compatible). You may also try loosen your latency (i.e. CL5 or CL6) and try again. Err..actually, you must Enable timings by SPD cause of mobo restrictions. If you have some other modules with SPD @ CL5, you may try that if it helps.

But as you said, programs which use 8gb ram, IMHO it's not that big difference in ~200mhz...

[cherrypik]

Will I notice a difference if I add a second 3870 to this MB? I mainly play COD4, BF2 and Cyris? Also, I have a Corsair 520 psu, will I need to upgrade if I CF 3870's?