Asus M3A79-T Deluxe

[rob[GL]]

^Just an idea:

While the wattage rating on the PSU may be good, the amps may not. My old DFI board and this ASUS are boards that required a certain amperage on the -12v line. My current PSU puts out 0.8amps on the -12V. I think these boards require 0.6 or 0.7 on that line to work properly. A lot of PSUs just don't meet that spec. I think I bought 2 or 3 before I figured out the cause.

This may or may not be your problem, but I figure your old, beat up PSU is kinda beefy where this board likes it.

@ rob GL Is the mobo still in the chasis?
Sounds maybe somthing possibly shorting/ or bad connection somewhere.

This board recommends a 600W power supply, according to the manual, which I think is a little high. But in response to the amperage on the -12V rail, my old trusty testing power supply has only 0.3amps on the -12V rail. The other power supplies I tested range from 0.3amps to 0.8amps and none of them work.

The original 500W Antec power supply that comes with the case (and had been working for a year up to now) has 0.8amps on the -12V rail. As I said, I tested this power supply with a PSU Tester and all tests came back fine, and then I installed this power supply into another computer and it works fine.

I also have a brand new power supply, which is the same brand and same part number as my testing power supply, with the exact same specifications on all rails... And it doesn't work to fire up the machine either.


And yes, the mainboard is still mounted in the chassis, and it doesn't seem like a shorting problem to me. This computer has worked fine for a year and then just stopped. It doesn't make sense. Also, if it was shorting, you would see inconsistent results. It would fire up sometimes and not others. But that's not the case. It fires up every single time with ONE specific power supply and never fires up with any other.

[rob[GL]]

Okay, so, just to update anyone who was actually reading my plight... I bought a new board for the customer (M4A79 Deluxe) and all my earlier suspicions were confirmed. The M3A79-T is faulty, because when the new board was swapped in everything started working just fine. The new board works with all of the power supplies tested. What a weird, weird problem to diagnose, but I've never had good luck with Asus boards. Well... Except for my A8R32-MVP Deluxe way back in the day.

[Gener_AL (UK)]

Thouight id bump thiis , new BIOS!!!! As Posted By Bingo13 here
M3A79-T Deluxe

BIOS 1609

1. Fixed CPU/NB Voltage setting may be not be set correctly for Thuban.
2. Improved support of CPU ratio control for Thuban.
3. Improved overclocking support for Thuban under high HT Frequency or HT Ref Clock.
4. Improved DRAM clocking with Thuban

http://www.mediafire.com/file/gmkwni...Deluxe1609.rar


Glad to hear you got the system up and running rob[GL], unlucky about the board.

[Mechromancer]

Whats the word on this new BIOS? How is it performing for you guys?

[Panther_Seraphi]

New to the forums but i bought an M3A79 because of this board.

Got a Sempy 140 running at 3.4 on stock cooler on 1.39 volts barely breaks 46c.

Using the new bios and it seems to be all good. It unlocked the other core but it seems like my one is defective. Keeps getting rounding errors in Prime and seems to slow the whole system down to a crawl.

[Panther_Seraphi]

Is the M3A79 falling out of favour with a lot of people?

If you want my complete specs ill gladly give them to you.

[Mechromancer]

I'm about to try the 1609 on my Phenom II 940 to see if I can squeeze some more Mhz on air (water setup will wait for X6). My chip has a hard time staying at 3.6Ghz without occasionally locking up in games .

[Panther_Seraphi]

Im on the stock cooler and im not breaking 46 degress C but i cant seem to break the 2500mhz HT barrier :S

Ive got the HT link at 250mhz and as soon as i go to 251 it refuses to post. Chip or motherboard do you think is holding me back?

[pcsky3]

might be that reason

[Panther_Seraphi]

Which one then? CPU or Board?

[MattiasNYC]

Quick question:

Can I boot from external drives on this mobo? Either FW or eSATA? I'm looking to run a different OS(x) on a different drive and swap between the two......

[Panther_Seraphi]

Sorry to necromance the thread but has anyone been running into memory issues with all four slots being occupied?

Either with speeds or any sort of errors?

[demonkevy666]

Sorry to necromance the thread but has anyone been running into memory issues with all four slots being occupied?

Either with speeds or any sort of errors?

most cpu's will need a cpu NB bump and Nb board bump to stabilize 4 dimms filled

[Panther_Seraphi]

OK that doesnt sound like too much of a problem but im having a few issues such as the HT multiplier sticking at 4x with anything over 252 on the ht speed. Is this a known problem?

Also i seem to be able to only run my ram at the lowest divider at increased speeds even though i can run the ram at 833 at 3-4-4-12 with a lower HT speed :S

[Mechromancer]

Sorry to necromance the thread but has anyone been running into memory issues with all four slots being occupied?

Either with speeds or any sort of errors?

I can't run all 4 slots at 1066 with even loosened timings and proper volts. It seems to be my PII 940's fault and not the motherboard's though. I know this because I cannot run TWO sticks at 1066!

Also, you got a really high HT overclock. Good job on that.

[Panther_Seraphi]

Well at the moment my HT link is at 1100 but the bus speed ive got running at 275 stable and still trying to see where i can go with it

[Panther_Seraphi]

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1388011

What do people think?

Just so you know that CPUz is reading the voltage i set in bios with a .05 overvolt

[skill123]

So anyone tryed the new 1702 BIOS ? What new changes brings this bios ? ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/asus/mb/so...3A79-T_Deluxe/
On Asus M3A79-T Deluxe download page there is no information about this ;they didnt post it there ,only on the ftp.

[imamage]

Is the M3A79 falling out of favour with a lot of people?

If you want my complete specs ill gladly give them to you.

I used to own M3A79T-Deluxe
but I give in and sell it away (purchase an Crosshair IV Formula , it rocks !)

So I can no longer test any BIOS

[Panther_Seraphi]

Thats ok.

Im still fiddling around with it.

Does anyone think that the chipset runs quite hot? How did people cool the chipset down better?

Did anyone end up using the Anfi Tec coolers for it?

[esaym]

I am finally going to do my upgrade on this board. Right now I am stuck with my ram at 800mhz because I only have an am2 cpu and not an am2+ cpu. I am going to get a phenom soon though so that should fix that. However the user manual states "DDR2 1066 MHz is supported by AM2+ CPU for one DIMM per channel only."

Does this mean I can't fill all the memory slots up and have them run at 1066mhz?

Also I only a thermalright xp-90 for a heatsink. Is that going to be too small for an x3 or x4 phenom?

[Panther_Seraphi]

It means that the speed will be 800 for 4 stick unless you overclock.

That will depend on the CPU. What phenom arson you getting bland what sort of overclock you going for?

[esaym]

It means that the speed will be 800 for 4 stick unless you overclock.

That will depend on the CPU. What phenom arson you getting bland what sort of overclock you going for?

That sounds kinda crummy. Why would they limit it like that on 4 sticks vs 2 sticks? Or is 800mhz just the normal speed?

I am not sure of the cpu yet. It will be one of the newer phenoms, the x2,x3, or x4 depending on how much heat I think I can take...

I don't plan on overclocking if I can help it.

[Mechromancer]

That sounds kinda crummy. Why would they limit it like that on 4 sticks vs 2 sticks? Or is 800mhz just the normal speed?

I am not sure of the cpu yet. It will be one of the newer phenoms, the x2,x3, or x4 depending on how much heat I think I can take...

I don't plan on overclocking if I can help it.

The Phenom II memory controller in the AM2+ CPUs is made to handle only one dimm per memory channel. I'm not sure if this was changed in the AM3 CPUs, but I doubt it was. I have they are more tolerant of clocking with 4 dimms. I can even run 4 dimms on my old Phenom II 940 with mixed matched memory as long as I run pretty lose timings and give the memory decent voltage. Unfortunately I still got an error here and there under high loads so I just went back to running the 8 gigs of ram I have at 800mhz.

[Panther_Seraphi]

My sempron which is a C2 stepping refuses to play ball with any timings above 250mhz htt unless I take it down to the lowest divider. Even though I have RAM that will take 1200. It depends on the processor. I do hear that C3s take it better.