**Official dfi-x38 to x48 mod

[WoutZoR]

Good stuff zsamz_, just flash my X38 (dunno if its a 'made in china' board or not)

proof:

Well also works fine on "Made in China" boards
Haven't tested results yet but no problem to flash (/f )

Any chance I can flash this from a usb drive. I don't have a floppy.

I used this guide to make a bootable USB stick:
http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/...g/vidcard/34/5

When booting from USB stick the USB stick becomes the C-drive so the AUTOEXEC.BAT (inside X48.rar posted bij zsamz_) has to be altered to work properly.
The altered files, which I used to flash the bios can be downloaded here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/10160067...o_X48.rar.html

After you created the USB boot stick, just copy the 3 files to the USB stick, boot and run X48.BAT

Worked for me

Stil... USE AT OWN RISK !!

[PnoT]

Great work guys! I have my board but i'm still waiting on my xeon to get here =(

[linflas]

I had no problem with this, except for one thing, cannot use RAID, bios just hangs @ 86 post code using my original raid array from X38.

Do I need to kill my raid array and start over? will post through fine without raid enabled though, so definitely the raid controller.

[WoutZoR]

I had no problem with this, except for one thing, cannot use RAID, bios just hangs @ 86 post code using my original raid array from X38.

Do I need to kill my raid array and start over? will post through fine without raid enabled though, so definitely the raid controller.

No pobs with raid here. Got two Raptors running Stripe on ICH9R port 0 and 1. I disabled the JMicron controller.
What controller are you using?

[flexy]

uhm.

We had a corrected bios for X38 since in one older bios they had to correct Voltage table for china boards - and many people fried their boards since NB voltage was too high.

So..if the X48 bios does NOT have the corrected NB voltage table...and the X48 boards dont have this issue at all....this would mean you guys will fry your board if you flash this to the china X38 boards!

Check your NB voltages compared to what you set in bios if you're on a china X38 with this flash!

[WoutZoR]

uhm.

We had a corrected bios for X38 since in one older bios they had to correct Voltage table for china boards - and many people fried their boards since NB voltage was too high.

So..if the X48 bios does NOT have the corrected NB voltage table...and the X48 boards dont have this issue at all....this would mean you guys will fry your board if you flash this to the china X38 boards!

Check your NB voltages compared to what you set in bios if you're on a china X38 with this flash!

Yes, I know about the NB voltage table beeing wrong with biosses before the 01/11/08.
Where can I check if my board is a china board?

I'm using 1.64V NB voltage and it reads 1.58~1.6V in SmartGuardian, so I guess the NB voltage table is correct with the X48 03/07/08 bios.
With the same VNB in the X38 01/10/08 bios I get 1.56V in SmartGuardian.

My board/bios reacts the same as zsamz_ (post #5)

[kiwi]

What about PL=6 @ 500 and ~1.8V?

Anyway, X48 is handpicked/better x38 that might have higher fsb, better PL etc

[WoutZoR]

What about PL=6 @ 500 and ~1.8V?

Anyway, X48 is handpicked/better x38 that might have higher fsb, better PL etc

Really odd... anything above 1.63VNB and the board wouldn't post It just keep rebooting after a couple of seconds its trying to bootup..

I aint a guru with this boards but I tried several different NB GTL's but it wouldnt go above the 1.63VNB mark..

Maybe there is still a glich in the bios.. or a bit incompatibility with X48bios and the X38 board... I dunno.

I run 500x8.5 with a lame PL 8 atm. PL 7 = no go.
Guess the 4x 1GB running 1:1 plays a huge role with the PL.

[flexy]

to all people doing this mod on a "made in china" x38 board (see side of package, its says where its made)

CHECK YOUR NB VOLTAGE IN BIOS NOW !!!!!!!

--> I just flashed mine and this bios does INDEED have the old, buggy voltage table! <--

I just saw my NB voltage at 1.76V in bios.

There are some NB voltages which translate wrong.

Check them now or you will fry your board!!

btw. I just flashed this bios, set my NB voltage so bios shows NB voltage "1.50"...and i will do some testing whether this bios really does anything in terms of overclockability.

AGAIN: If you have china x38 board and do this mod, CHECK YOUR NB VOLTAGE !!!

If you run your NB unknowingly at 1.76V for some time - this is the best way to fry your board!!!

[linflas]

No pobs with raid here. Got two Raptors running Stripe on ICH9R port 0 and 1. I disabled the JMicron controller.
What controller are you using?

Intel controller, j micron is on for an ide dvd rom drive.

No idea why the controller will not clear through. It loads the controller screen and then just hangs will not let me hit ctrl+i to enter the setting and just hangs there.

[AKHandyman]

Will this BIOS be up on the DFI Website? Just curious ...

[flexy]

i really dont think this bios does anything, at least not for my X38/China and my configuration. Can do more testing tho.

[zsamz_]

only things i like in this bios are voltage settings are closer to real
and i can do pl7 instead of pl8
the rest is the same
i'll be on x48 bioses till they decide to make x38 bios as good

[CoolZone]

All people here say that some dfi boards are made in china?Which is the other factory?

[zsamz_]

All people here say that some dfi boards are made in china?Which is the other factory?

taiwan

taiwan quality is alot better
quality control is bs in china
i guess dfi wanted to save a few bucks

[CanadaRox]

I did this mod, and now it seems I can no longer to PL7. I was already at PL7 (2GB of PC2-6400 Team Group and 2GB of Mushkin PC2-6400). PL7 now gives me C1, but PL8 seems to work fine. I'm still going to tweak some more though, so hopefully I can get it working. And my board is one of the Made in China boards.

EDIT: Scratch that. It seems PL7 is still working fine for me. PL6 won't boot though.

[AKHandyman]

Can someone explain the exact procedure step by step in flashing this BIOS? I have downloaded the files above ... but not sure if I have to use the awardflash on either floppy or bootable USB?

Just not sure at the moment ...

Or can I just copy the X38 to X48.rar file directly to a bootable floppy?

[Lu523]

I used a usb drive. Just extract the files and put the on the usb drive. Then type: X48.BAT . First time I tried it did not work. I had the bios files in a differnent folder. Put them in with the boot files and it worked like a charm.
Guess I got lucky. My board was made in Taiwan.

[AKHandyman]

I guess I got myself confused ... it's easy to do at my age ...

I see that the files have awdflash.exe and the batch and bin files ... I can do this with my floppy ... hopefully a little later ... will be watching this thread as to what others are achieving ...

[eva2000]

to all people doing this mod on a "made in china" x38 board (see side of package, its says where its made)

CHECK YOUR NB VOLTAGE IN BIOS NOW !!!!!!!

--> I just flashed mine and this bios does INDEED have the old, buggy voltage table! <--

I just saw my NB voltage at 1.76V in bios.

There are some NB voltages which translate wrong.

Check them now or you will fry your board!!

btw. I just flashed this bios, set my NB voltage so bios shows NB voltage "1.50"...and i will do some testing whether this bios really does anything in terms of overclockability.

AGAIN: If you have china x38 board and do this mod, CHECK YOUR NB VOLTAGE !!!

If you run your NB unknowingly at 1.76V for some time - this is the best way to fry your board!!!

Could explain why some folks report being able to do tighter Performance Level than before. If NB is higher than what is set in bios, it will help you run a tighter Performance Level

[zsamz_]

Could explain why some folks report being able to do tighter Performance Level than before. If NB is higher than what is set in bios, it will help you run a tighter Performance Level

eva2000 with x38 bios set 1.6v i got 1.55v
with x48 bios set 1.6v i get 1.5v

[flexy]

zsamz,

YES...the NB is a little lower compared to the X38 bios, but only for the values where it works!

The problem is that some settings translate wrong, here is the list:


1.265 -> 1.31
1.291 -> 1.56
1.317 -> 1.36
1.330 -> 1.37
1.343 -> 1.61
1.356 -> 1.61
1.367 -> 1.4
1.379 -> 1.42
1.392 -> 1.66
1.444 -> 1.71
1.456 -> 1.71
1.467 -> 1.5V
1.504 -> 1.76

So...ONLY FOR CHINA BOARDS:

If you set 1.467 you get 1.5, but if you use any of the others (see above!) on china board, you will get some toasty NB voltages!

[zsamz_]

man i hate china boards
i bet the quality control guy spent more time @ the brothel than @ the factory

[eva2000]

are we all reading NB volts from same location via DMM ?

[jcniest5]

Well also works fine on "Made in China" boards

Are boards "Made in China" bad quality or what? Why speculating otherwise?