Modded ASUS P5Q/Pro/Deluxe/Premium BIOS

[Ket]

This post is being edited entirely so hopefully I won't have to keep answering repetitive PMs and questions that just keep coming up, so anymore of those, link em right to this post!

What these BIOSes do

These mBIOSes are not magical pixies injected into your P5Q series board, despite the massive praise people give them. The aim of these BIOSes is threefold;

1. Enhance memory compatibility
2. Enhance CPU support
3. Just because I can, put a half-decent boot logo in

Reported additional fixes

These are things that were not intending to be fixed, but in due course of changing things got fixed.

1. Pull-ins. Apparently these pull-ins never worked, my changind of the EBB fixed them, apparently.
2. Better voltage regulation. Many report being able to OC further on less voltage as these mBIOSes have matured, this again is down to the replacement of the EBB. Typically the EBB I use is from the P5Q Premium, which uses 16 phase CPU voltage regulation. Clearly, asus undertook extensive tuning for the Premium. Using the EBB from the P5Q Premium allows users of the P5Q / Pro / -E (I think, forget if this is 16 phase or not) allows for the 8 phase designs to benefit from some of the additional tuning.
3. I think theres a few smaller things, but I forget what they are.

User experiences

This is naturally far too broad of a subject to cover fully so heres some bullet points of them main ones

* Better CPU clocking
* Better stability
* Increased FSB limits

My PC won't boot, what do I do?

Sometimes happens. The risk in using any of these mBIOSes is the same as flashing to a new official version. So heres some basic steps to take;

1. Set your system back to stock prior to flashing

If your system does not POST on restart;

2. Clear CMOS by removing battery and power cord, remember to set CMOS jumper to "clear" as well.

Tried those, my system still will not POST

Chances are the flash went wrong. Grab a floppy disk (doesn't need to be bootable) and put a known "good" BIOS on the floppy. Rename the BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM, hit the reset button and the system will read the floppy disk and automatically restore the BIOS with the one on the floppy disk. The system will restart a few times and before you know it you will be looking at the POST screen again.

What mBIOS do you recommend?

Its all subjective, no system behaves exactly the same. Look through the thread for anyone who uses similar hardware to you, and try the mBIOS they tried, or drop them a PM if you need more specifics. My brain may seem like a BORG collective, and to a degree thats correct, but your always better off talking to people with similar hardware to yours.

Enough talk, wheres the mBIOSes?

Here they are, I may soon upload the entire collection of P5Q series BIOS files in one package with various little snippets of BIOS files I use as well as a simple tool to inject various modules.

Heres the new BIOS pack. Within this pack are updated BIOS files for the P5Q, P5Q Pro, P5Q-E, P5Q Deluxe and P5Q Premium. The BIOS files have been updated with the memory table from the Maximus 2 Formula.

DL Linky
^ Grab this file for P5Q-E 1901 mBIOS

P5Q Series 200x mBIOSes

New BIOS pack. This pack also includes a mBIOS for the P5Q Turbo, P5Q Pro Turbo, P5Q SE, and P5Q SE Plus

DL Linky

New mBIOSes out. You can get the details and DL them HERE

[kup]

What tweaks are you doing to them to allow better overclocking?

[Ket]

On the lower end models replacing the memory table alone seems to do the job nicely. For example, when I was using 0701 vanilla (this was just after I got the P5Q Pro) the board would not POST for s nor giggles with memory frequencies past 950MHz or so. Switching the memory table out for the one with the P5Q Premium cleared that issue right up, board started booting with memory frequencies right up to 1150MHz. On later BIOS revisions replacing the memory table still helps with clocking, as well as stability depending on system config.

[Big Lar]

Just DL'd the Deluxe bios, will give it a try, TY Kind Sir

Larry

[Ket]

NP. Let us know how the BIOS does for you

[siyah]

What should I bring with less v-core better overclock
values?

my quad is already 6600 @ 3.6 ghz stable 3,7-3,8 ghz

what were mod bios changed?

[Big Lar]

Originally Posted by Ket

NP. Let us know how the BIOS does for you

Just an initial run, mostly Auto for testing, but I knocked off 1 sec per run in Linpack,



Nice Some major mobo maufacturer needs to grab you to write bios code!
TY Sir

Larry

edit; Auto PL is 10... so so nice!

[ThugsRook]

ill be tryin out you 1004 bios on a P5Q vanilla thats currently stuck @ 510fsb.

ill report back with results ~thx

[Ket]

Not bad Big Lar looking forward to seeing what you can do when you start pushing things vs. vanilla BIOS

[Big Lar]

Originally Posted by Ket

Not bad Big Lar looking forward to seeing what you can do when you start pushing things vs. vanilla BIOS

I'm working on it, just not used to this bios after running a DFI.

Larry

[noxon]

Nice job Ket, ill test the p5q-d bios in a minute

[Ket]

Good stuff folks Looking forward to seeing some results! Its nice to see some people having such great success with my mBIOSes while I'm having to fight my P5Q Pro. Sucker just doesn't seem to like 65nm CPUs so much. I effectively ruled out memory problems after trying a set of OCZ PC8500, Geil Black Dragon PC6400, Patriot PC8000 and a kit of Mushkin Redline with fatbody D9s. I feel sad now all I want is to play UT3 for hours on end without any KO-restarts or BSODs

[YMAA]

DL'd, I'll give it a shot in a few. Thanks in advance!

[Polizei]

Did this fix the memory frequency hole on the Deluxe? I've seen some people have a hole between 1200-1277mhz... 1199mhz is fine, 1278mhz is fine. Anywhere in the middle, nothing.

[Ket]

I think I'll just sit back in anticipation for people to start reporting their results

[Ket]

Originally Posted by Polizei

Did this fix the memory frequency hole on the Deluxe? I've seen some people have a hole between 1200-1277mhz... 1199mhz is fine, 1278mhz is fine. Anywhere in the middle, nothing.

I have no idea on that, I wasn't aware there was a memory hole. The only BIOS bugs I know of are;

- PCI-E frequency above 101MHz KOs video signal
- 400MHz FSB strap and dividers being very flaky

[Polizei]

Originally Posted by Ket

I have no idea on that, I wasn't aware there was a memory hole. The only BIOS bugs I know of are;

- PCI-E frequency above 101MHz KOs video signal
- 400MHz FSB strap and dividers being very flaky

The user leeghoofd had this problem I think... either it's on the Deluxe or the E version. I tried finding his post about it (or any posts about the hole) in the "P5Q Discussion" thread on this Intel forum, but I can't find it. You might want to PM him and ask.

[RobPuba]

Good something for my Premium

[Big Lar]

Seems the Pull-ins actually do work.. had to do a Clear cmos, but thats actually a good thing

Larry

[Ket]

GL with the Premium mBIOS Rob, plenty of ppl have downloaded it but none of them have given any feedback for it unlike P5Q/Pro/E/Dlx owners. So the Premium mBIOS is somewhat unknown to me in how it performs.

@ Polizei, thanks. I'm off to find a post by leeghoofd I don't know why.. but I just love OCing the PCI-E bus and running a 400MHz FSB strap. Hell, even my old weakling AW9D-Max could run my E4400 with a 400 strap no problems, so somewhat annoyed this P5Q Pro can't. Bad Asus. Very very bad Asus.

[Ket]

Originally Posted by Big Lar

Seems the Pull-ins actually do work.. had to do a Clear cmos, but thats actually a good thing

Larry

Wanna go into more detail about that? I thought the pull-ins worked fine with all BIOS revs? At least, they seemed to work fine on all the BIOS revs I used on this Pro (506,701,1004,1104,1306)

[Big Lar]

On 803 and 1306 if I enabled Pull-ins, the bandwidth would actually get worse, whereas with your bios bandwidth gets better, simple as that With the other bios I could boot with 10 for PL and all P-I's enabled, with yours not.. because they are actually working is why

Larry

[ReverendMaynard]

Hey Ket, nice work man! What changes did you make with the E bios? I'm not having a good time with the 0703, as soon as I change some of my setting from auto to stuff that worked with the original bios...I get no starts, BSOD's and hard locks. I've tried every available bios and they are all the same except worse. I'm tempted on flashing back to the original but it's flaky as well in it's own right.

[Polizei]

Originally Posted by ReverendMaynard

Hey Ket, nice work man! What changes did you make with the E bios? I'm not having a good time with the 0703, as soon as I change some of my setting from auto to stuff that worked with the original bios...I get no starts, BSOD's and hard locks. I've tried every available bios and they are all the same except worse. I'm tempted on flashing back to the original but it's flaky as well in it's own right.

Are you sure you don't have some hardware that's being flaky?

[Ket]

If you read through the posts in this thread that basically covers all the changes. Even I noticed the difference going from vanilla to modded BIOS and that almost never happens with me because I'm staring at the screen constantly perfecting things I don't get chance to notice