ASUS P5W DH - Problems + Fixes Thread

[Thickbrit]

As you have water on the northy,you may want to try the chipset vmod and take it up to 1.9/1.95v,but if you already have 1.85v vmch in bios,it probably isn't worth it.You are pretty much near the limit anyway,mine on water with 1.95v cant 32m beyond 455.

[rivlez]

ya i'm not gonna mess with it, i think with an e6600 or higher it would be a nice board to OC with. 3.1ghz is dual prime 95 stable for 24 hours but anything higher does not pass prime 95. but anyway i'm gonna get an e6600 or a kentsfield soon.

[ThickFog]

Well now my problem has progressed to one of three situations;

1)I get 100% stuck at the choose del or f8 screen

2)The mobo reads the ram as PC2-5200 and i get an overvoltage error forcing me into bios were all settings are fine (i use sparxs recommendations)

3) i get into windows were, i recive a random restart, with no set time variable

I also checked the voltages, everthing seams to check out. Most of the voltages are a tenth off, and about 0.11-0.3 of noise.

Arg...What can we do now...

Anyone have any idea were i can proceed from here?

This is pretty depressing, bulding my first computer and nothing will work

Could the cpu be at fault?, Anyhelp would be greatly apprciated.

[phile]

I haven't followed your case, but it sounds like you may have a faulty power supply. I'm assuming that you have both the 20+4-pin ATX and 4-pin 12v connectors attached. Do you have the same results when running with default BIOS settings (i.e stock)?

-phil

[NghtShd]

Anyone have any idea were i can proceed from here?

This is pretty depressing, bulding my first computer and nothing will work

Could the cpu be at fault?, Anyhelp would be greatly apprciated.

I seriously doubt that it's the CPU.

Even though you bought a good PSU brand/model, I would swap out the PSU. If you can't borrow a good one you might consider buying one at a place with a liberal return policy. If a different PSU doesn't help or you can't aquire one for testing then RMA the board.

[Rattle]

Or straight from ASUS FTP site:

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/misc/...a_V6202002.zip

these look like vista intel matrix drivers finally

[mikepaul]

Due to the extremely low multi/high fsb of the e6300,i'd say e6300 + p5wdh is a poor choice for overclocking.

Well, not if the plan is to learn how things work then go with a Quad CPU next year. Although it may be late next year since only the Duo models will probably go down very fast...

[JokerCPoC]

I finally solved (a part of it...) my long boot problems. It was a faulty (or dying) hard drive.

My dealer exchange it for free for a new one, and i bought a second one to do a RAID 0 config (2X Seagate 7200.10 320Gb). When I power off/on, I'm in Windows XP in around 30 seconds!!!

But... If I reboot and don't power off/on, then it still takes around 2 minutes... or more... Sigh...

Can a "pro" explain to me what's the difference between the reboot and the power off/on cycle? What's happening in the reboot that is not happening (or is happening...) when I power the computer on?

What could explain those differences in boot time?

Ok a reboot is known as a warm start(hence being called a reboot) and the other is known as a cold boot where everything has to be loaded from being off. I think this describes It, Others may be able to say more as I've forgotten too much over the 26 years I've been using computers of various types to be totally sure.

[Levesque]

Thank you Joker.

I'm just trying to understand why a cold reboot is faster then a warm reboot in my case... 30 seconds for a cold reboot and more then 2 minutes for a warm reboot.

[Sparx]

I suppose it comes down to expectations - I got a 10C drop in Load temps by replacing my Typhoon with the Ultra-120. But it is replacing a great cooler with an awesome one. I don't think we will see much more dramatic gains in the future.

I gained about 6C's but I think my cooling with the Big Typhoon may have been above average.

I have a 1600 rpm 120 mm Scythe fan on it now, thought I had a 1200 on it so now I am even more dissatisfied than I was yesterday!

Dave, I think you have 2 fans on yours.

sparx

[Sparx]

I seriously doubt that it's the CPU.

Even though you bought a good PSU brand/model, I would swap out the PSU. If you can't borrow a good one you might consider buying one at a place with a liberal return policy. If a different PSU doesn't help or you can't aquire one for testing then RMA the board.

This is his 2nd board, I suggested he has a power supply issue some time back.
sparx

[Sparx]

I wanted to ask if anyone might have a link to a different temperature monitoring program other than "Core Temp 0.93"?

I would like to monitor from Windows with a different program and compare.

Core temp 93 provide a temp of 64C at idle today when I ran it after I got back from work! After rebooting the computer I got a temp read of 46C.

TIA
sparx

[NghtShd]

This is his 2nd board, I suggested he has a power supply issue some time back.
sparx

As did I, but I'd forgotten it was his second board. So, OK then, don't RMA the board, get another PSU. These boards seem to be particularly intolerant of power irregularities.

[Sparx]

As did I, but I'd forgotten it was his second board. So, OK then, don't RMA the board, get another PSU. These boards seem to be particularly intolerant of power irregularities.

Yes I cannot see what else it could be really. He tried one stick of RAM already. A 500 watt PS is marginal for overclocking but should work with default BIOS settings. He should be able to load Windows using Default BIOS settings. Of course I like to Disable lots of stuff in BIOS I need to be "off" after setting to Default or Optimized regardless.

I would go for a 600 watt power supply at the very minimum. Power consumpution is always increasing with these rigs. If you order from Newegg and the problem is not the PS they will at least give you a decent return option. Stay away from Directron. Or even better go to Best Buy and get a power supply they will accept without restock fees.

sparx

[lawrywild]

Updated thread.

[davexl]

I wanted to ask if anyone might have a link to a different temperature monitoring program other than "Core Temp 0.93"?

I would like to monitor from Windows with a different program and compare.

Core temp 93 provide a temp of 64C at idle today when I ran it after I got back from work! After rebooting the computer I got a temp read of 46C.

TIA
sparx

Sounds like something wasn't idling then.

I have never had a problem with it, but I use it very little - I use systool to read the same sensor (with a -15C offset it shows identical readings to Core Temp)

[Sparx]

I neglected to check the Processes section in Task Manager.

What do you mean by a "-15C" offset?

[davexl]

Dave, I think you have 2 fans on yours.

sparx

True - but the second really only knocks off 1.5C - barely worth it, but the reason I do it is so I can run them both at 800-1200 rpm silently, rather than one loudly.

Airflow in the case is very significant too - fixing my intake and allowing more air in the top-front of the case saves 5C. Not used to that, side intakes with a Typhoon is an easier airflow to get right. Front to back is hard.

[ThickFog]

Yes I cannot see what else it could be really. He tried one stick of RAM already. A 500 watt PS is marginal for overclocking but should work with default BIOS settings. He should be able to load Windows using Default BIOS settings. Of course I like to Disable lots of stuff in BIOS I need to be "off" after setting to Default or Optimized regardless.

I would go for a 600 watt power supply at the very minimum. Power consumpution is always increasing with these rigs. If you order from Newegg and the problem is not the PS they will at least give you a decent return option. Stay away from Directron. Or even better go to Best Buy and get a power supply they will accept without restock fees.

sparx

I think the problem is in my ram now though..

I test my psu voltages last night and everything checked out fine, most voltages were about a tenth off, and on DC current i got about 0.11-0.13.

Really bummed, The last thing I could test (should have tried before) i boot windows individually with each stick of ram. The first stick windows never fully booted would restart and get stuck on the post screen

The second stick though works fine and the computer has ran for over 4hrs without restarting.

So the first stick of ram must be the culprit

Now for another question. With my bios settings set at ddr2-800, cpu-z reads under the spd tab under 400mhz as 5.0, 5, 5, 18, 22

My ram is rated at 5,5,5,12 shoulnt it read that way

[Sparx]

I think the problem is in my ram now though..

I test my psu voltages last night and everything checked out fine, most voltages were about a tenth off, and on DC current i got about 0.11-0.13.

Really bummed, The last thing I could test (should have tried before) i boot windows individually with each stick of ram. The first stick windows never fully booted would restart and get stuck on the post screen

The second stick though works fine and the computer has ran for over 4hrs without restarting.

So the first stick of ram must be the culprit

Now for another question. With my bios settings set at ddr2-800, cpu-z reads under the spd tab under 400mhz as 5.0, 5, 5, 18, 22

My ram is rated at 5,5,5,12 shoulnt it read that way

I had asked you if you ran with one stick of RAM somewhere back in this thread - we got crossed up in our signals I guess.

Well anyway it sounds like you may have it this time. I don't want to bad mouth a particular brand of RAM but I choose OCZ or G.skill over Corsair.

Time for an RMA to Corsair.
Glad you have made progress.

BTW CPUZ reads my G.skill's last timing (Trc) as "1" and it should be "21". Anyway the SPD timing will not run as per specified timings - don't worry about that. After you get two new sticks of RAM you should set the timings in the BIOS and NOT use SPD.
Also I would recommend going to 1503 BIOS.

sparx

[tomx]

I just built a machine using the P5W DH Deluxe and the C2D E6700. (This is my third BYOPC... so I'm still learning quite a bit!) The machine has 2GB Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 with 5-5-5-15 timings at 1066 w/ 2.2v. I have a RAID 0 cluster w/ 16K/16K stripes/clusters. I haven't really overclocked anything yet. The CPU Frequency is set at 266. The DRAM Frequency at DDR2-533. I manually set timings at the above settings. The machine runs Super-Pi in about 18 seconds currently.

I have a very capable AMD 4000+ box with a similar configuration that I use for benchmarking. I fully expected that the E6700 w/should be outperforming the older 4000+, all other things being held fairly equal. My expectation is shown accurate with Super-Pi, for example. The AMD box runs it (1M) in like 37 seconds. The E6700 comes in about 18 seconds. Just what I expected. Super-Pi is obviously a very CPU intensive task, I would assume.

Here's where the weirdness comes in. I have a program that I wrote that performs a task for me. It's both disk and processor intensive. The first time I ran it on the E6700 box, it completed in about 36 minutes. Compare this to the AMD box's best of 51 minutes. Nice. As expected. The second and most of the subsequent runs of this program on the E6700 box, however, yielded worse times, frequently around 1 hour and 6 minutes. That's worse than the AMD box. That is NOT expected. Why are my run times varying? I'd guess I've run this program about 10 times. 2 of the ten times it ran in about 36 minutes, the rest around an hour.

Any ideas what is going on here? I've tried to minimize the number of programs that are being loaded, but still have some work to do there. Also, the memory timings for the DDR-400 for the AMD box are lower (3-3-3-8) than the 5-5-5-15 of the E6700. Some sites say that I can get lower timings on my RAM, but I can't figure out how to get that to work. Learning certainly is fun.

[dmilazzo78]

thickfog,

glad to here you found the problem make sure you verify that the slot on the mobo is not the problem by putting the known good ram stick in that slot and running it that way.

The the reason you see 400mhz in that spd program is normal its dual channel each channel runs at 400mhz for a grand total of 800mhz per stick so that is fine Mine reads the same way stumped me for awhile

Good Luck

[Sparx]

thickfog,

glad to here you found the problem make sure you verify that the slot on the mobo is not the problem by putting the known good ram stick in that slot and running it that way.

The the reason you see 400mhz in that spd program is normal its dual channel each channel runs at 400mhz for a grand total of 800mhz per stick so that is fine Mine reads the same way stumped me for awhile

Good Luck

Didn't know he was questioning the 400 mhz reading thought it was the timings.

[dmilazzo78]

Try to reset your timing and make sure to f10 and save I know it sounds simple but its a good place to start

[Mxtra]

I had this wierd problem with my pc that apparently nobody else on earth has experienced: The second core would stop working after a few days of leaving my pc on. Sometimes even only a few hours after turning my pc on. I searched with google through many pc enthusiasts sites such as this one and couldn't find anything regarding this. I tried doing a fresh installation of windows and reinstalling the cpu into the mobo and it didn't help. I found a fix for it by perusing through this site. Someone wanted to benchmark how fast their cpu could do superpi or something like that with one core going 100% and the second core unused. someone told him to go to run and type msconfig, click on boot.ini and then advanced options. select numproc= and then type in 1. So I did that but typed in 2. It's been at least a week of running my pc 24/7 and the second core hasn't stopped working yet so I think this fixed my problem. Since I put my pc together it's never gone more than three days without the second core crapping out. Just wanted to mention it in case someone else had the same problem.