ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[phillai]

try Prime95.

Sounds like you're overheating, check your temps.

Also, can I just ask if anyone has any experience of installing Leopard with the P5W? I know it's supposed to be one of the best boards to do it on.

Which is the better 'distro', Kalway or iAtkos, for this board? Any major things I should be aware of? i know i should disable the JMicron controller and that's not a problem. Is it OK with SATA? What about overclocking, is it OK to do that?

Thanks for the quick reply!

Will the Prime95 software support my Q6600 CPU?

I suspect it's overheating as well...

But it does this from a cold boot as well after my PC's been switched off for 8 hours.

[mikepaul]

I've no problemes with the new service pack 3.
My System runs great, I've never had any real problems with the Board (Revision 1.02G, Bios 2704).
The other parts of my system are Core 2 Duo E6600, GeForce 7900Gt (before: 7600GT), 4Gb Ram, 4x 1GB DDR2-800 Corsair TwinX XMS CL5.

Well, I never ran SP3 with my E6300 so maybe it's some new instruction on the Q9450 that isn't executing properly. Whatever it is, the July 2008 Nvidia drivers didn't work any better: play some Flash animation on a website and watch it reboot.

I did find out the cause of my 'virus/malware' problem: the controller software for the Freezone Elite I installed IS the reason the desktop crashes after 6 hours. The popup windows that may all say they are trying to launch restart.exe must be due to the fact that the software screws up the ability to read the temperatures (Core Temp returns 105C when run at the same time, normal temps when run alone) and eventually tries to shut the machine down. It chugs along OK without the controller software so I uninstalled it. The refrigerator-like noise is comforting rather than annoying.

On the bright side, when I set the Elite to 24C, the Q9450 running at 2.32Ghz (underclocked because 2704 sucks) is about 48C on the hottest core at idle. That's nearly 10C cooler than air had me. If/when I get to overclock, it should be just fine...

[NghtShd]

try Prime95.
Also, can I just ask if anyone has any experience of installing Leopard with the P5W? I know it's supposed to be one of the best boards to do it on.

Which is the better 'distro', Kalway or iAtkos, for this board? Any major things I should be aware of? i know i should disable the JMicron controller and that's not a problem. Is it OK with SATA? What about overclocking, is it OK to do that?

I installed kalyway_leo_10.5.1 on mine a few months ago. I can't give you much advice, however, since I never used it much and really don't recall the specifics. I do know SATA worked and it was relatively trouble free.

[radlord]

cool thanks. My P5W is my first non-mac computer and I miss my old iMac. Seems like I (accidentally) picked a good board to put OSX on to.

I'm sure I'll be on again later wanting help though, obviously.

[Chrysalis]

Well guys after a year or two of using this board and also considering the ICH7 is not new anymore I am very dissapointed with how buggy the matrix storage drivers are. Over the course of time me using the board the ICH7 ACHI/RAID drivers have caused me some problems.

It seems I either have to have slow drive performance on the ICH7 or instability if I want full sata features.

I have now decided to move my OS drive to the jmicron sata port and will run that in ACHI mode. So the raptor has command queueing.

All other drives on the intel controller in ide mode, which is at least stable with full write caching features.

I have concluded the intel controller is ok for raid (on xp, vista has a lot of problems according to google) but for non raid the driver development has failed and the hardware review sites made the mistake of only testing raid configuration on the controller.

Summary of problems I have had.

Initial driver version in AHCI mode I think 6.x version, very slow drive performance, write caching completly disabled on both intel and jmicron controllers, the intel driver overules the jmicron driver.
7.8 version RAID driver, the driver stopped overuling jmicron and now the jmicron drives have write caching and perform excellent, the intel drives appear to have limited write caching or at least write faster than the older driver version however can still not toggle write cache in device manager.
8.0 version, I think these are beta drivers as not available on intels website, these drivers at first seemed to be great they allow full write caching and can toggle in device manager, but I keep getting weird issues like pauses and iastor timeouts. The same iastor timeouts vista users get but I run XP. This is the only version of intel matrix drivers that actually run my drives at full speed, no stuttering in video clips etc. and fast writing due to cache. These drivers are beta to be fair tho so hopefully the release versions will keep the write caching and be stable, but until then I be changing my drive configuration.

Some of you if you say well you should be using ide for single drives please bear in mind I want command queueing for my OS drive and that sata supposedbly utilises better power saving.

[JimmyDDD]

How did you guys configure the board for the Q9450. I am trying to configure the bus for this processor but don't know how to over clock it for this processor. Would appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks

[JimmyDDD]

I also get about 119 F when running my cpu and board is that temp. ok or too hot?

[mikepaul]

How did you guys configure the board for the Q9450. I am trying to configure the bus for this processor but don't know how to over clock it for this processor. Would appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks

I can't overclock it. I can't even leave it at 2.66Ghz. It crashes at random when I do.

If they EVER release a newer BIOS than 2704, I sure hope it allows like 1.3V since I'm told that the current lowest manual setting is too high and AUTO apparently isn't high enough...

Oh, and 48C is nice. Most folks stick to Celcius around here...

[JimmyDDD]

Thanks, did they ever mention of offering an update to the bios?

[Yolanda]

I can't overclock it. I can't even leave it at 2.66Ghz. It crashes at random when I do.

If they EVER release a newer BIOS than 2704, I sure hope it allows like 1.3V since I'm told that the current lowest manual setting is too high and AUTO apparently isn't high enough...

Oh, and 48C is nice. Most folks stick to Celcius around here...

It's because you have an old revision of our board, my rev. 1.04G can set any voltage from 1.25V on 45 nm CPU. However your lowers setting 1.45V not so high, really it's about ~1.41 via Vdrop.

[Yolanda]

Thanks, did they ever mention of offering an update to the bios?

A lot of new CPUs upcoming, so I think they make new Bios

[Chrysalis]

ok did some more research on the problems I posted with the intel iastor driver, I think its actually my new samsung F1 drive, it seems they dont go well with NCQ mode. Since NCQ only really benefits the OS drive and I run in single drive configs, I am still going ahead with my plan on putting the raptor on the jmicron in ahci mode and the rest of the drives on the ich7r in ide mode.

[mikepaul]

It's because you have an old revision of our board, my rev. 1.04G can set any voltage from 1.25V on 45 nm CPU. However your lowers setting 1.45V not so high, really it's about ~1.41 via Vdrop.

That's SO nice to hear: limit the old board to HIGHER vCore rather than lower. That's the reverse of how stuff like vMCH works out...

[MacClipper]

It's because you have an old revision of our board, my rev. 1.04G can set any voltage from 1.25V on 45 nm CPU. However your lowers setting 1.45V not so high, really it's about ~1.41 via Vdrop.

Do you have any info precisely which is the earliest revision that allows proper low Vcore control for 45nm CPUs? Seen it mentioned a few times in passing but no one has come up with definite answers even in this most comprehensive thread.

Think mine is a 1.03G but still using 2406 BIOS, wondering if it is worth trying a 45nm (and flashing the lattest BIOS).

[thehinge1]

I guess I got lucky - no issues with my 750GB F1 Samsung, this thing is wicked fast (and runs quite cool) compared to the old Maxline III's I originally set the board up with.

Weirdness: my E6400 runs all day long at 3.25GHz@1.3375 in Bios on a 1.325VID chip... but I can crank the memory at higher speeds (DDR1000+) when I was testing an E2180 at/near/over 3.0GHz.

ok did some more research on the problems I posted with the intel iastor driver, I think its actually my new samsung F1 drive, it seems they dont go well with NCQ mode. Since NCQ only really benefits the OS drive and I run in single drive configs, I am still going ahead with my plan on putting the raptor on the jmicron in ahci mode and the rest of the drives on the ich7r in ide mode.

[Tamerlane]

Think mine is a 1.03G but still using 2406 BIOS, wondering if it is worth trying a 45nm (and flashing the lattest BIOS).

I think I've seen reports of 1.03G with proper voltages, not sure on which BIOS (pretty sure 2704). But never with 1.02G or lower, I don't believe.

I hope it's true about a new BIOS. If you want to increase the chances, I strongly encourage everyone to report the minimum manual Vcore setting problem to ASUS tech support, otherwise we might get more 'support' for new CPUs but not a fix for the Vcore problem.

Yolanda and others: is it pretty much confirmed that motherboard revision is the only/best explanation for why some don't get below 1.45V manual Vcore, while others do? Is it also confirmed that those with 1.02G boards and earlier cannot get below 1.45V even with BIOSes earlier than 2704?

[Falkentyne]

Good point above.

I think I should also add by asking the question:
Can anyone with a 1.02 board and a QX9650 set voltages below 1.45v also? (important to ask this!!!!)

And IN ADDITON
Does ANYONE with a 1.04 board and any 45nm chip ALSO have the 1.45 min vcore problem? (to further iron out the issue).

[mikepaul]

I hope it's true about a new BIOS. If you want to increase the chances, I strongly encourage everyone to report the minimum manual Vcore setting problem to ASUS tech support, otherwise we might get more 'support' for new CPUs but not a fix for the Vcore problem. :dammit

One thing coming from this is, from now on if I get a new motherboard with some later minor revision that doesn't seem too important at the time, I *WILL* RMA it immediately for the newer version. At no point did it seem like I was losing out on functionality, only overclocking my E6300 by just 1Ghz. Now that I can't even keep my Q9450 going at stock without crashes, which is rumored (for now) to come back to this revision stuff, I am just totally annoyed at ASUS and myself for short-sightedness...

Oh, BTW, my phone call to ASUS Support a while back gave me no hope for a new BIOS. That guy had no clue if/when another was coming...

[h4nc0]

I am running 2704 and cannot seem to change multipler to anything other than 9. (running Q6600) Is this a known issue?

thx

[radlord]

does anyone running OSX on the board know how to make it work with AHCI?

Whenever I switch from Vista to OSX without changing the IDE mode back to 'compatible' it doesn't start up

[JustusIV]

Hello, I am going to install vista here shortly. I use a raid 0 onboard setup and for windows XP i just preload the drivers on the cd so i dont have to have a floppy drive hooked up to my computer. I here vista doesnt need a floppy to load the raid drivers. Also on the asus site there is no intel raid drivers for vista. Are they already loaded into vista?

[Yolanda]

does anyone running OSX on the board know how to make it work with AHCI?

Whenever I switch from Vista to OSX without changing the IDE mode back to 'compatible' it doesn't start up

I try several versions, most can't work in AHCI mode, but Leo4Allv2-Universal (OSX 10.5.2) works normally with AHCI

However in this build: Yukon built-in network cards can't work on our P5W board, drivers load and report about errors, but our built-in WiFi Realtek works fine, I use it through WiFi router. If choose Vanilla Kernel 9.2.0 or 9.2.2 PS/2 keyboard can't work on P5W, if use PS/2 select other mode (I don't remember the name of it, but there is 3 options and both Vanilla are not your). Can't work with monitors connected via standard VGA cable without ESDI or with disabled ESDI from monitor menu, can work with them with BNC cable.

[radlord]

am i right in thinking that these different versions just install different patches on to the OS while installing? I used iAtkos v4i.

So could I not download the AHCI patch form somewhere? It works great apart from that, apart from the sleep mode is completely broken. Shuts down fine though, which is something my genuine iMac doesn't do!

[Yolanda]

I don't know, but if any such patch exist, it will be rather difficult to install it, because it requires some skill in deep OSX maintance via console commands. You can ask on special OSX forums.

[radlord]

thanks.