ASUS Intel Beta BIOS Releases and Official Support

[donmarkoni]

He did confirm this. R3E and R3BE does not do absolute changes. I think it's because R3E and R3BE use digital power circuitry vs analog found on R2E.

Yeah, I read it somewhere, but just can't find it now.

Anyway, DFI UT X58 has Digital VRM and it can do relative voltage changes.

If Asus can't make it, then it must be cause of Hybrid (digital-analog) VRM.

[JohnZS]

Full validation of 4GB DIMMs may not be possible as the X48 chipset was designed around 2GB DIMMs at stock VMCH - so timings and frequency may be too conditional to validate in accordance with current 4GB DIMMs. I will take a look at the Intel white papers and see what the supported timings and frequency stipulations are for 4GB DIMMs on this now dated platform.

-Raja

Thank you,

I think you will not have much luck with Intel White Papers as a lot of these were conceived before 4GB DIMM production was even around.

Theoretically X48 can address upto 16GB of RAM (and some users have already provided proof of 12GB and 16GB running on their Maximus Extreme and Rampage formula Boards).

The issue lays in that ASUS' Memory QVL for the Rampage Extreme is woefully old and needs a radical update.

Also BITS (www.biosbits.org) MSR errors have been reported by myself and at least 4 other forum members, any ideas as to if/when these will be fixed for ultimate platform stability?

Thanks

John

[mjgr33n]

There should be no loading limitation on the SATA ports per se. Were you running the system at stock or overclocked?

-Raja

I have tried both, also when it is not at load it can be on all week with no problems. Is there a fault with the board possibly? I am going to try some more testing with the new BIOS later.

Also would like to elaborate, it is not normal crashing per say, it is stuttering/freezing/locking up, sometimes it lets me shut intel burn test down, but cannot shut task manager down or close AIDA64 and it will definitely not let me shut the pc down without hard reboot, but can still move mouse around and open internet and some other programs. Just seems like everything has got bottlenecked but more extreme.

You can't rule out the PSU as an issue unless you try another, different, psu in the configuration that was causing issues before.

Initially when I first got this problem I did think it was PSU, CPU, Memory, MB, maybe one of my PCI cards or even the backplate on my EK waterblock, so I tested everything by swapping PSU to a Corsair HX750 which is with my R2E board in my other pc, tried a Sandybridge core i5 2400 from my HTPC, tried some spare Corsair memory, removed my ASUS pci sound card which needs a molex power feed, also got the new EK 115x true backplate and the new easy mount system for my waterblock.

Nothing made any difference, it still started freezing/stuttering at the same point every time, I probably could have timed it, but it was roughly 15 minutes into load testing, made no difference whether I was at stock (or with the i5-2400) or overclocked to 4.8Ghz.

At least at the moment, by moving 2 drives off the Intel ports onto the Marvell ports it works perfectly without crashing, have load tested it for an hour straight with no issues, also gamed all night and not a single stuttering episode.

Currently got, 1 SSD and 3 SATA HD's on the Intel ports and got 1 SATA HD and 1 SATA DVD drive on the Marvell ports.

[brammers]

Is that a B2 or B3 revision Sabertooth with the problem?

The symptoms sound a lot like the SATA issue that the B3 was meant to resolve.

J

[mjgr33n]

I let Prime95 ran for 6h and it was stable at rated 1600 7-8-7-24 with tCWL 8 at 1.35V. Maybe it's worth trying if you want to keep 1.35V. But I had no suck luck with tRCD 9 over 1866, I even tried some weird combinations like 11-9-11-40 but I cannot boot it at all. Can't complain that much considering I can get 2133 9-10-9-28 at 1.6V, and probably still a bit better (I'll find out later today, I hadn't previously tired to mess with tCWL, maybe it'll help me to get CAS 7 or 8).

Currently running it now at 1866 at 1.5v with the following settings completely stable, basically 8-9-8-24-2T and everything else set to auto except tWR which have set to 14.

Memory Timings
CAS Latency (CL) 8T
RAS To CAS Delay (tRCD) 9T
RAS Precharge (tRP) 8T
RAS Active Time (tRAS) 24T
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 103T
Command Rate (CR) 2T
RAS To RAS Delay (tRRD) 6T
Write Recovery Time (tWR) 14T
Write To Read Delay (tWTR) 7T
Read To Precharge Delay (tRTP) 7T
Four Activate Window Delay (tFAW) 28T
Write CAS Latency (tWCL) 8T

[mjgr33n]

Is that a B2 or B3 revision Sabertooth with the problem?

The symptoms sound a lot like the SATA issue that the B3 was meant to resolve.

J

B3 Revision

[Raja@ASUS]

B3 Revision

Drop me a PM listing your parts and settings again (as I can't find yuour earlier post here for some reason) - and I'll get someone to take a closer look if need be. List driver versions and RST drivers used if any.

-Raja

[mjgr33n]

Drop me a PM listing your parts and settings again (as I can't find yuour earlier post here for some reason) - and I'll get someone to take a closer look if need be. List driver versions and RST drivers used if any.

-Raja

Cheers

EDIT: Finally got around to testing with 1606 BIOS and 5 sata drives on the intel array and so far soo good, ran intel burn test for over 30 minutes with no issues, going to try with 6 next, see what happens.

EDIT2: Ok, I have tested with 6 drives on the Intel Array with 1606 BIOS and all is working great, over 30 minutes of Very High on Intel Burn Test, so looks like the SATA fixes for 1606 fix my issue as well ))))

Happy now ))

[zoson]

I have tried both, also when it is not at load it can be on all week with no problems. Is there a fault with the board possibly? I am going to try some more testing with the new BIOS later.

Also would like to elaborate, it is not normal crashing per say, it is stuttering/freezing/locking up, sometimes it lets me shut intel burn test down, but cannot shut task manager down or close AIDA64 and it will definitely not let me shut the pc down without hard reboot, but can still move mouse around and open internet and some other programs. Just seems like everything has got bottlenecked but more extreme.



Initially when I first got this problem I did think it was PSU, CPU, Memory, MB, maybe one of my PCI cards or even the backplate on my EK waterblock, so I tested everything by swapping PSU to a Corsair HX750 which is with my R2E board in my other pc, tried a Sandybridge core i5 2400 from my HTPC, tried some spare Corsair memory, removed my ASUS pci sound card which needs a molex power feed, also got the new EK 115x true backplate and the new easy mount system for my waterblock.

Nothing made any difference, it still started freezing/stuttering at the same point every time, I probably could have timed it, but it was roughly 15 minutes into load testing, made no difference whether I was at stock (or with the i5-2400) or overclocked to 4.8Ghz.

At least at the moment, by moving 2 drives off the Intel ports onto the Marvell ports it works perfectly without crashing, have load tested it for an hour straight with no issues, also gamed all night and not a single stuttering episode.

Currently got, 1 SSD and 3 SATA HD's on the Intel ports and got 1 SATA HD and 1 SATA DVD drive on the Marvell ports.

Why are you even here asking then? It sounds pretty obvious that the board is defective...

[Raja@ASUS]

Cheers

EDIT: Finally got around to testing with 1606 BIOS and 5 sata drives on the intel array and so far soo good, ran intel burn test for over 30 minutes with no issues, going to try with 6 next, see what happens.

EDIT2: Ok, I have tested with 6 drives on the Intel Array with 1606 BIOS and all is working great, over 30 minutes of Very High on Intel Burn Test, so looks like the SATA fixes for 1606 fix my issue as well ))))

Happy now ))

Cool beans

[danielkza]

Currently running it now at 1866 at 1.5v with the following settings completely stable, basically 8-9-8-24-2T and everything else set to auto except tWR which have set to 14.

Good settings you got there, I'll give them a try latter today. I tried 2133 8-10-8-28 with XMP subtimings and got an almost-instant (3 minutes) Prime fail, so here goes my hope of keeping the secondary timings quiet.

[R37ribution]

Hey Raja, do you have any comment for this post from earlier of mine?

I'm getting the run around at Asus support. At first they said they needed to ship me a new BIOS chip. Now they are talking about RMAing my board. I really just want this resolved. A failing BIOS chip seems more logical to me but I just wanted to get another opinion. I'd rather not RMA the board if I don't have to, it seems to OC VERY nicely.

Thanks in advance, Aaron

Has anyone had a problem with the OC Profile Utility?

I was benching my R3G a while back (I think on BIOS 602, but it could have been on rev 501) trying to hit the 4.5Ghz mark and it BS. When I rebooted all my profiles under OC Profile were whiped out and I could not restore any of the CMO files from the OC Profile Utility. This has happened multiple times since, sometimes all the BIOS settings randomly set (i.e. random voltage monitors are set to ignore, fan speed/monitors are randomly set, and even the CPU vcore I've seen set to 1.8v! and of course I have never done this!) - I atribute these abnormailties to an incorrect IOH voltage, but I have never gone above 1.35v...

Ever since this happened the first time, my OC Profile has been acting funny - it will whipe out all my profiles every so often - which really sucks because I can't restore the old CMO profiles with the OC Profile Utility. At first I just ignored it and wrote down the settings in hopes that a new BIOS would remedy the problem restoring the CMO files with the utility, but as of the latest 805 release it hasn't.

Last night I powered up my machine and yet again, all my BIOS settings were whiped and all my profiles were gone. I routinly backup my profiles using the OC Profile Utility (which of course cannot be restored) but failed to write down my settings this time. This is extremely irritating because I just reached my highest 20x Linx stable BCLK ever with this 805 BIOS (224x17) and now everything is gone.

I went so far as downgrading back several revs of the BIOS, overwriting the Profiles each time (I know that some BIOS options were added between revs and due to this fact the profiles are incompatible between different BIOS revs). Until I got down to the shipped 404 BIOS. I am unable to restore any of my older profiles (I saved each profile with the BIOS rev in the filename) or new ones I tested saving as I downgraded BIOS revs. I have also tried different hard drives thinking it might be a problem with my media.

It's important to note that there aren't any other signs of problems with this board. As you can see it is a decent performer with the 224 bclk. I'm wondering if whatever the chip is that the OC Profiles are stored on is simply degrading, and if it is... can I replace it?

Has anyone else had either issues I'm having with any Asus board? 1) All settings in the BIOS getting whiped (including your profiles). 2) OC Profile Utility will not restore any saved CMO file, dispite the fact that the OC Profile Utility says it has successfully done so.

[mjgr33n]

Why are you even here asking then? It sounds pretty obvious that the board is defective...

Wow, you failed again, BIOS 1606 fixed the issue, you do not bother reading all the information people write, you give awful advice and you attack people with no provocation questioning there validity to post, my issue was related to BIOS and I correctly put it in the beta BIOS section, I had thoroughly tested before doing so (I am not some technical noob, I have been working in IT industry for nearly 15 years now and I get paid a lot of money for my advice and technical knowledge) leaving BIOS as my last option and the beta BIOS (which is no longer beta) fixed the issue, I am pretty sure that qualifies me to post here.

Also, the only thing I asked of anybody when I came here, was the opinion of whether or not it was worth doing another round of exhaustive tests with the new BIOS (which it turned out it was), as I had already spent several days finding what the issue was, also I addressed this to Raja@ASUS as he would have been one of very few people that would have been qualified to answer the question.

Anyway, the issue is fixed now and I am very happy, although it would be nice to know what the enhance SATA compatibility did or whether there was anything else in the new BIOS that helped fix the issue?

^_^

[Raja@ASUS]

Hey Raja, do you have any comment for this post from earlier of mine?

I'm getting the run around at Asus support. At first they said they needed to ship me a new BIOS chip. Now they are talking about RMAing my board. I really just want this resolved. A failing BIOS chip seems more logical to me but I just wanted to get another opinion. I'd rather not RMA the board if I don't have to, it seems to OC VERY nicely.

Thanks in advance, Aaron

Hi Aaron, they may have decided it is best to get the board back to test and see what caused the issue. In which case I would go with what they say.

Where are you based?

-Raja

[GunGod]

Would you happen to know how to measure QPI PLL voltage on the motherboard? Or is that even possible?

A big +1000 on this!

@Raja can you help on this mate ?

EDIT:
Sorry for offtopic

[R37ribution]

Hi Aaron, they may have decided it is best to get the board back to test and see what caused the issue. In which case I would go with what they say.

Where are you based?

-Raja

I'm out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The origional guy I talked to hadn't heard of the problem before and consulted someone named Sunny said he saw the problem with the chip degrading before and it needed to be replaced. I was pretty happy with this solution because it fit everything I had hoped for (no taking the PC apart and I get to keep a known good OCing mobo). He said I had to call back before 5:30pm when the "BIOS" department is open. I called back and got a woman who told me I had to pay $5 for the chip (even tho my board is under warranty) and $15 for shipping this coupled with her snobby attitude made me pretty irritated and I asked to speak with a "supervisor". I've worked in a call center before I know how these things go, its not really a "supervisor" you talk to.

This person started doubting Sunny's solution would fix the problem and said there is another chip on the board that could be bad.

Basically I've been waiting for a call back for over a week now. I just want to know if the OC profiles are stored in the BIOS chip or not or if there is even the possibility of another chip on the board causing this as this guy suggested. Otherwise, I guess I'll shell out the $20 and just buy another chip because the OC profile Utility save to media utility on my board cannot restore the profiles to this area of the chip.

[Raja@ASUS]

I'm out of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The origional guy I talked to hadn't heard of the problem before and consulted someone named Sunny said he saw the problem with the chip degrading before and it needed to be replaced. I was pretty happy with this solution because it fit everything I had hoped for (no taking the PC apart and I get to keep a known good OCing mobo). He said I had to call back before 5:30pm when the "BIOS" department is open. I called back and got a woman who told me I had to pay $5 for the chip (even tho my board is under warranty) and $15 for shipping this coupled with her snobby attitude made me pretty irritated and I asked to speak with a "supervisor". I've worked in a call center before I know how these things go, its not really a "supervisor" you talk to.

This person started doubting Sunny's solution would fix the problem and said there is another chip on the board that could be bad.

Basically I've been waiting for a call back for over a week now. I just want to know if the OC profiles are stored in the BIOS chip or not or if there is even the possibility of another chip on the board causing this as this guy suggested. Otherwise, I guess I'll shell out the $20 and just buy another chip because the OC profile Utility save to media utility on my board cannot restore the profiles to this area of the chip.

Hi,

From a distance I doubt it can be answered absolutely, so I'd say its best to RMA it - even though it's going to be a pain for you. If you want to proceed with that I can help, just drop me a PM.


-Raja

[zoson]

Wow, you failed again, BIOS 1606 fixed the issue, you do not bother reading all the information people write, you give awful advice and you attack people with no provocation questioning there validity to post, my issue was related to BIOS and I correctly put it in the beta BIOS section, I had thoroughly tested before doing so (I am not some technical noob, I have been working in IT industry for nearly 15 years now and I get paid a lot of money for my advice and technical knowledge) leaving BIOS as my last option and the beta BIOS (which is no longer beta) fixed the issue, I am pretty sure that qualifies me to post here.

Also, the only thing I asked of anybody when I came here, was the opinion of whether or not it was worth doing another round of exhaustive tests with the new BIOS (which it turned out it was), as I had already spent several days finding what the issue was, also I addressed this to Raja@ASUS as he would have been one of very few people that would have been qualified to answer the question.

Anyway, the issue is fixed now and I am very happy, although it would be nice to know what the enhance SATA compatibility did or whether there was anything else in the new BIOS that helped fix the issue?

^_^

The only person making attacks here is you, and you've been reported for it.
You provided incomplete information, which is why I suggested the things I did.
You only outlined your testing of things after I suggested you do them. You can't blame me for your own failure to disclose relevant knowledge.

You admit that you didn't test 1606 because you didn't think it was worth it. Guess what, you came to the forum without testing and your issue was already resolved. I'm sure Raja doesn't mind dealing with you because he gets paid for it, but thanks for wasting everyone else's time.

[mjgr33n]

The only person making attacks here is you, and you've been reported for it.
You provided incomplete information, which is why I suggested the things I did.
You only outlined your testing of things after I suggested you do them. You can't blame me for your own failure to disclose relevant knowledge.

You admit that you didn't test 1606 because you didn't think it was worth it. Guess what, you came to the forum without testing and your issue was already resolved. I'm sure Raja doesn't mind dealing with you because he gets paid for it, but thanks for wasting everyone else's time.

LOL, I never admitted anything of the sort about not thinking it was worth it, I said I had fixed the issue myself by moving around the hard drives to different ports, I asked an opinion of whether or not Raja thought it was worth testing again now that I had the new BIOS given the fixes that was in it after I had 'already' done days of testing (I never tested anything because you asked, I had already done it), also in case anybody had heard of a similar issue.

You failed to read what I had wrote about moving ports and because of your failure you thought I had removed drives and gave bad advice about power supply.

Because of the response I got from Raja telling me that there should be no issue with the chipset or any types of bottlenecks, that prompted me to try again with the new BIOS and do exhaustive testing again which proved that the sata fixes in the BIOS fixed the issue, which was great ))

While I was testing you started saying I had a faulty motherboard, which was obviously wrong, I do not remotely understand why you are posting in this section of the forum if you have nothing useful or helpful to say or if you are going to keep being wrong.

Also one only has to look back a few pages to see you attacking other people, in those posts you attacked people for not being willing to test things themselves which I obviously have tested myself, I not only test things as part of my job I also love experimenting with IT.

I can take apart AMI BIOS's, I used to hack them with custom memory tables, OROMS and cpu updates, even bricked a board in attempt to learn things and further the helping of others on other forums.

Yet I come here posting help to one other member who has been having issues with the same memory as me and while I was here I figured I would ask a simple piece of advice, which was not greatly important due to the fact I had a temporary fix, also I figured if at least I posted the issue and then the BIOS update fixed the issue or it did not and something else did, if somebody else ever came on this forum and asked the same issue people could point them at this post and it would help them.

In IT if you have a strange issue you make sure it is documented somewhere and the fix too so that others can learn, but from your responses you do not seem to care about helping anybody, just having a go at people and making mistakes.

Feel free to report me, I directed my question to Raja initially not you and you where the one who made the mistakes, I am only guilty of laughing at you and pointing out said mistakes, you are the one getting annoyed at people and I am here sat behind my desk smiling because my issue is fixed, I have helped somebody with there memory issue and given a fix for anybody that comes looking for help with the same issue and lets ASUS know so that if somebody logs a call with them that BIOS 1606 fixes the issue, so win win for me and everybody except you.

Oh and I just got news this morning that I have got a new contract for even more money with one of the top IT companies in the world and get to see my girlfriend in a few weeks who I have not seen for a few months, so yeah in the grand scheme of things reporting me has to be on the very bottom of my list of remotely important things in life I have ever remotely heard of :P

[IronAge]

Raja@ASUS m8 can you provide recent Beta Bios for Gene-Z please ?

We got some noise problem with it tho c3/c6 has been disabled.

[Raja@ASUS]

Raja@ASUS m8 can you provide recent Beta Bios for Gene-Z please ?

We got some noise problem with it tho c3/c6 has been disabled.

Hi,


I don't have a beta BIOS for that board. Drop me a PM please.

-Raja

[zoson]

LOL, I never admitted anything of the sort about not thinking it was worth it, I said I had fixed the issue myself by moving around the hard drives to different ports, I asked an opinion of whether or not Raja thought it was worth testing again now that I had the new BIOS given the fixes that was in it after I had 'already' done days of testing (I never tested anything because you asked, I had already done it), also in case anybody had heard of a similar issue.

You failed to read what I had wrote about moving ports and because of your failure you thought I had removed drives and gave bad advice about power supply.

Because of the response I got from Raja telling me that there should be no issue with the chipset or any types of bottlenecks, that prompted me to try again with the new BIOS and do exhaustive testing again which proved that the sata fixes in the BIOS fixed the issue, which was great ))

While I was testing you started saying I had a faulty motherboard, which was obviously wrong, I do not remotely understand why you are posting in this section of the forum if you have nothing useful or helpful to say or if you are going to keep being wrong.

Also one only has to look back a few pages to see you attacking other people, in those posts you attacked people for not being willing to test things themselves which I obviously have tested myself, I not only test things as part of my job I also love experimenting with IT.

I can take apart AMI BIOS's, I used to hack them with custom memory tables, OROMS and cpu updates, even bricked a board in attempt to learn things and further the helping of others on other forums.

Yet I come here posting help to one other member who has been having issues with the same memory as me and while I was here I figured I would ask a simple piece of advice, which was not greatly important due to the fact I had a temporary fix, also I figured if at least I posted the issue and then the BIOS update fixed the issue or it did not and something else did, if somebody else ever came on this forum and asked the same issue people could point them at this post and it would help them.

In IT if you have a strange issue you make sure it is documented somewhere and the fix too so that others can learn, but from your responses you do not seem to care about helping anybody, just having a go at people and making mistakes.

Feel free to report me, I directed my question to Raja initially not you and you where the one who made the mistakes, I am only guilty of laughing at you and pointing out said mistakes, you are the one getting annoyed at people and I am here sat behind my desk smiling because my issue is fixed, I have helped somebody with there memory issue and given a fix for anybody that comes looking for help with the same issue and lets ASUS know so that if somebody logs a call with them that BIOS 1606 fixes the issue, so win win for me and everybody except you.

Oh and I just got news this morning that I have got a new contract for even more money with one of the top IT companies in the world and get to see my girlfriend in a few weeks who I have not seen for a few months, so yeah in the grand scheme of things reporting me has to be on the very bottom of my list of remotely important things in life I have ever remotely heard of :P

By coming here and asking if it was 'worth it' you had already decided it was not. Don't try to cover your unwillingness to test on your own. Obvious troll is obvious.

If you were smiling, you wouldn't have bothered to post back to try and defend yourself. Obviously you feel the need to try.

I couldn't care less how your system is doing. Mine runs great and has been running great for months. It's more powerful than yours to boot, by a significant margin.

Way to go IT. Keep spouting that as if it makes you impressive. I'm sure everyone agrees that dealing with people who don't know how to use ms office or internet explorer is a real tough job.

[WangChung]

Any update as to an official BIOS that fixes the stuff we've had to modify ourselves? Re: Marvell/Intel SATA controllers

[mjgr33n]

By coming here and asking if it was 'worth it' you had already decided it was not. Don't try to cover your unwillingness to test on your own. Obvious troll is obvious.

If you were smiling, you wouldn't have bothered to post back to try and defend yourself. Obviously you feel the need to try.

I couldn't care less how your system is doing. Mine runs great and has been running great for months. It's more powerful than yours to boot, by a significant margin.

Way to go IT. Keep spouting that as if it makes you impressive. I'm sure everyone agrees that dealing with people who don't know how to use ms office or internet explorer is a real tough job.

Wow, you really have got your panties in a bunch over this and now the whole e-peen comparisons come out, talk about over compensating for something ..... LOL.

I have not done 1st Line Support for over 7 years now and very glad of it too :P

And failed attempts at insulting me, way to go big man LOL. You know nothing of me, I have nowhere tried to be impressive, just statement of fact that I am happy and you are blatantly not.

Keep trying to find imaginary things wrong with my posts so that you can keep justifying your nasty negative attitude to myself and others.

I tested my system, so how can I remotely have been unwilling, LOL that makes no sense :P

Only one troll around here and that is you.

[mjgr33n]

Good settings you got there, I'll give them a try latter today. I tried 2133 8-10-8-28 with XMP subtimings and got an almost-instant (3 minutes) Prime fail, so here goes my hope of keeping the secondary timings quiet.

2133 9-10-9-28-2T at 1.6v was unstable for me and tbh I do not want to go over 1.6v so I will stick with 1866 8-9-8-24-2T at 1.5v, not like much more performance benefit you get form overclocking memory anyway and the whole point of the g-skill eco's is too run at lower voltages, also the heatsinks on the eco memory do not look great for overclocking compared to memory designed to be run at 1.65v.

Also I always use auto for the sub-timings except for tWR which I find can be a little low at times with the eco's.

Anyway 1866 has been running completely stable since I last posted about it ))))