"ASUS P5Q Deluxe discussion".

[CryptiK]

Here's the spec sheet for the Q9000 series cpus:

http://download.intel.com/design/pro...hts/318726.pdf

It's table 2-3, DC Voltage and current specifications, 1.26 for the 4 series chipset family.

Thanks for that. I wonder if the same applies to the e8000 series dual core processors on the P45 chipset? I also wonder that if it only applies to the quads, why that would be, and if that means that the Vtt circuitry of the quads are more robust than the dual cores?

**EDIT - I just DL'd the latest version of the e8000 data sheet, and it also now says 1.2v standard, 1.14v min and 1.26v max for Vtt. I wonder why it's different for the 4 series chipsets? Well at least I now know up to 1.26v is safe, I was using 1.25v sometimes during benches and was slightly concerned I was over the max. Good news indeed.

true ...

did you ever hear back from your friend at ASUS regarding the BIOS?
It appears that I've run into similar problems as yours. Earlier it was just the Shut Down issue, but now if I boot into Vista with any BIOS > 0803, I get BSOD shortly after. Only with BIOS 0803 is my system running stable & without issues. The BSOD's and reboots and freezes knocked out my system so bad that I'm having to format my drive & reinstall Vista later today.

I'm stuck on 0803 now (Won't even try going into anything higher), until they can issue a better BIOS for us Q9450 owners.

It is quite concerning that it was initially fine for a period of time, then there was a non shutdown issue, then finally complete instability. I would be quite concerned that the cpu was damaged, as nothing else really explains the rapid degradation to complete instability.

I would have thought Asus would have tested all processors with their bioses, and it is disappointing this situation has arisen. If the cpu is damaged, along with truehighroller's and no doubt countless others globally, Asus will have a lot to answer for, and they should be replacing all affected cpu's immediately, along with immediately removing that option from the BIOS and any future BIOS releases.