ASUS A8V Deluxe Overclocking Guide -- Discussion

BIOVADER,IMPULSES:

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!!!!!!

Impulses said:

I've heard of issues regarding the board failing to pass Prime tests with the 1008 BIOS even at stock speeds... Any truth to this? Apparently the issues weren't present with 1007 nor the latest beta of 1009 (02). Psilo something from these same boards was commenting on this...

Think I'm gonna stick with 1007 for now and just give it 1.6v to avoid the voltage bug (I've got a Winchester part), 'till ASUS releases an official 1009. Unless I run into problems with 1007 anyway...

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I'm not aware of problems with P95 at stock speeds (I didn't test it at stock) but that seems to explain my descent into instability at 1.6V (257 X 10). Does your P95 shut down automatically when you run the Max heat generating thest, i think its #2? I was trying out Sentinal's burn in technique to reduce my VCore and used to leave P95 on all day after the burn in. When I came back P95 would be gone (auto closed!). From the Temprature history on ASUS Probe I gathered that P95 ran for about 4 hours before it closed down. Can you post the link for the beta BIOS (If its not on ASUS's ftp site) and I'll update the thread?

Edit: I also noticed VIA has actually recommended recently that users do not install the AGP portion of their 4in1 drivers when using SP2 for WinXP and instead let the rig use the MS driver... Supposedly more stable that way. I asked other users and they said they had no problems with the 4in1s though so I guess first-hand experience is worth more.

Any further info regarding that?

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I suspected the VIA instability to be a Windows problem. I have no problems with Linux (Mandrake 10.1).

Edit #2: It seems to me that a few people have had trouble pushing 2.8v to the vdimm even though conventional OC wisdom dictates that the RAM will usually perform better up to that point with more juice. Could be their particular PSU's fault... Or it could be something else.

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Looks like a flaky PSU. I really cannot push my value RAM beyond 230 FSB running 1:1. I'll post more results next week after I run additiona; CPU tests.

I only mention this (normally I try to avoid speculation) because I also read of one or two people actually achieving increased stability leaving the vdimm at Auto, which with most performance RAM sticks means 2.7 (as that's what it'll read off the stick). Again, anyone got info on this or just a small anomally?

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Look no further. I got better stability with AUTO settings but the RAM Bandwidth was not optimal. You really have to find a balance between how tight you would like to hold the timings and stability. I found my little stable spot (actually 2 spots) by trial and error. With AUTO you really get loose timings. I will try loose timings after I lower my VCore.

Thanks for the reply, the beta BIOS I was reffering to is available at ASUS' FTP indeed, the link is:

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/VIA_Chipset/K8T800Pro/A8V_Deluxe/

I haven't run Prime for any extent of time so far (was waiting on my Thermalright XP-90 heatsink) but I'll report my results soon (XP-90 just arrived). I'm planning to use 1007 at first like I said before. Will let ya know if I encounter any issues with VIA's 4in1s and SP2 as well.

What I'd heard about the 1008 BIOS regarding Prime was that it reported rounding errors though, lemme see if I can find a link for it. Here it is:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-45314.html

Regarding the vdimm... Hmm, well AUTO should default to 2.7v with my Crucial Ballistix sticks (unless the BIOS reads the info wrong) so I might try leaving it on Auto instead of trying 2.8v off the bat during the first tests. I'll report how well the RAM performs and what timings it'll take soon.

More than likely it'll be run with a divider (3000 here, highest multiplier is 9) as I want to get at 'least 2.4ghz out of the part but I might try going 267-ish with loose timings and compare.

Edit: Might wanna run Prime and stay around to keep an eye on it, may be that it's closing out after a whole bunch of rounding errors with your setup at the moment, dunno.

Try 1:1 first keeping your CPU OC modest. That way you could find your RAM break point first and then work on the CPU OC.

A8V Ram compatibility

My old asus socket A just crapped out on me and I'm looking to do some upgrades (this mobo w/ 3500+ A64). Right now I have 2x512MB of 3200+ Corsair XMS (single chan I think). Will this ram work for this mobo or do I need to invest in some 2C ram while I'm at it? (If so, what are some good choices - I only intend to do modest OC'ing if any)

Thanks for dealing with a n00b like me

--Dave

Dave,
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm willing to bet $$ that you cannot limit yourself to a "modest" OC
Your Corsair XMS should work fine and you can run it in 128 bit Dual channel mode. AFAIK dual/single channel addressing capability depends on the mobo and not on the memory stick.

If you really want some good OC'able memory here's what Enduro advised me (I'm gonna do what he says as the BH-5 chips which are good OC'ers are out of production now):

Enduro said:

From what I've seen, TCCD is the ram to get right now. The stuff from OCZ apparently has some new revisions that allow for high overclocks, so most people with A64's are going for them. The name is OCZ pc3200 platinum revision 2's. They will have 2-2-2-5 timings, and depending on the revision of TCCD that you get, some people can reach 2-2-2 at 240 Mhz, which isn't bad. I seem to remember, although you might want to check it out, that TCCD now maxes out at around 260-270 Mhz. Here's a older review for it. I'd do a search around the forums for some stuff too, there was a guy that hit 345 Mhz on TCCD at 3-4-5-8 or something. Incredible chips. But here's a link for TCCD ram sticks.
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=233

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(You could wait for the ASUS NVidia SLI Mobo. Newer technology.)
Everybody was a noob sometime, so just relax and have fun!

The Crucial Ballistix stuff seems pretty decent as well... I'll post my complete results with mine soon. Anandtech has a whole host of A64 memory tests/reviews, might wanna check those out. The conclusion was that the OCZ Plat Rev. 2 and Ballistix were at the top of the heap though, OCZ probably has slightly better yields (or tighter testing).

Think they had to run 2T with either after like 280mhz, so obviously somewhere under there would yield better speeds. The A64 is pretty forgiving of most other latency timings, gotta do 1T tho.

There's lot of talk about the PQi Turbo. Seem to use the new samsung TCCD Chips.
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=322406

Waiting for your results! I think I'm gonna lap my HS next week. Maybe squeeze out another 30MHz.

17. ATi Radeon random freeze syndrome and the NO Video problem:
Some members and other people have reported problems with certain ATi Radeons (pm me if your card is messing up). A possible solution to resolving this issue would be disable AGP fastwrites and posibly force AGP 4x operation. I've seen one complaint about not seeing any video output. Troubleshooting checklist:-

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I have this problem with my new setup, just assembled 11/18. Sorry for the long post from a new member, but this is driving me crazy, and I have built/fixed/worked with computers for 20 years.
I tried at least 4 different versions of video driver, no difference, so I figured it was bad hardware or an incompatibility problem.

Components: Asus A8V, A64 3500+, 1 Gb dual channel PC3200, Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB, WDC 200Gb SATA, BENQ DW1620 DVD-RW

Power on = no video on boot, one beep.
Clear CMOS then it boots.
Change BIOS settings to the following, then reboot:
Primary Graphics Adapter = AGP
Search for MDA Resources = Yes
VLink 8X Supported = Enabled
AGP Mode = AGP 8X
AGP Fast Write = Enabled
Graphics Aperature Size = 64MB
AGP 3.0 Calibration Cycle = Disabled (maybe Enabled, can't remember)
DBI Output for AGP Trans = Disabled

With the BIOS update, it boots fine (XP).
After 5 - 20 minutes of use, it crashes - monitor goes blank, then it reboots.
2D apps run longer, 3D games sometimes only 5 minutes before crashing.

So, today I searched with Google and found this thread - great information!

From page 1:
1) you got the ATX12V cable plugged in, right?

YES

2) memory is in the blue slots? Try slot B1 with a single module if necessary. I'd use 2.7 volts on the RAM at the first opportunity, but that requires reaching the BIOS first... you may want to start with a "tame" PC2100 module that runs on 2.5 volts in order to get into the BIOS, then let it proceed through a whole POST afterwards so it knows to keep the settings.

YES - Memory in blue slots. Haven't changed default memory settings.

3) the CLR RTC jumper isn't in the CLEAR position, by any chance?

Only when I meant to clear the BIOS...

4) PSU's input-voltage selector is set to the right voltage for your area (115V or 230V)?

YES

5) the CPU fan is plugged into the CPU_FAN header?

YES

6) Keyboard's plugged into the purple PS/2 port, not green?

YES

7) The AGP card is definitely getting down all the way into the second row of contacts in the AGP slot, and its auxiliary power cable (if so equipped) is hooked up?

YES & YES. One thing I did notice - a couple times when it wouldn't POST, I pushed up (perpendicular to the AGP slot) on the video card, and it fired up. Most times when it wouldn't boot, pushing made no difference. It is seated fully in the AGP slot.

And now for one that might be less obvious: if you plugged the PSU's fan-RPM-monitoring wire into a 3-pin header on the motherboard, unplug it. Low-RPM fans can bogglize motherboards sometimes, for no good reason at all.

NO, not plugged in.


When I get home tonight I'll try disabling AGP FASTWRITES and/or force 4X mode and see what happens. I just downloaded the BETA BIOS 1009.003 - might try that too.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!!

Couple of things to check before you conclude its a hardware problem:-

1.Try setting the AGP voltage to 2.6 Volts and see if that helps.
Are you overclocked? What are your other settings? Disable cool 'n' quiet and recheck.

2.Did you try the Omega Catalyst drivers? Much better than the ATi Catalyst (more stable IMHO).
http://www.omegadrivers.net/
[Select your OS]. Make sure you completely uninstall the original ATi Drivers.
As a definitive test, check to see if you get boot-up problems after uninstalling the Ati Drivers. This would really help you localize the problem to an ATi driver issue. Next, install the Omega drivers and retry. I would recommend a 3D graphics test (use 3D Mark or any other program) for about 4 hours after you remove the Ati drivers and before you install the Omega drivers. This is to minimize the possibility of attributing failure to hardware alone.

Finally, don't worry about a long post! Its better to have more information than a one-liner

Good Luck!

I thought it was a hardware problem until I searched and found this thread - it seems to be a matter of using the proper settings & drivers.

I'll try the AGP voltage of 2.6 volts and make sure cool n quiet is disabled.

If that doesn't help I'll try the Omega drivers (downloading right now...).

Thanks for the help!

I don't think going to the Promise controller is the best of ideas... I have read that the VIA has better performance... and have yet to read much evidence showing the VIA to have fragmented drives when OC'ed... can anyone confirm or deny my assumptions?

New members!
"WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!"
The VIA has problems. Stick with Promise. I'm on the Promise OC'd 2200 @ 2570MHz.
Absolutely no problems. Where did you read that VIA is better? Could you post a link?
Would be useful to gather more diverse data (if it exists) on this issue. 100% of the problems I've seen seem to lie with the VIA controller misbehaving. I can't speak for/against the VIA from my personal experience because I started off with PROMISE.

And BTW there is a saying used by ppl working in my lab:

"The enemy of Good is Better"

Hope I've answered your Q.
Good Luck!

Couple of guys over at [H]Forums have reported corruption (on RAID arrays particulary, which are more prone to it) using the VIA ports w/high OCs... From all the reports I've seen of it I wouldn't figure it's bogus but you can always try it yourself and come back to use with the results. Make sure you backup often though.

What voltage do I use for my video card?

What other BIOS settings should I use to maximize performance?

If you are not OC'ing your Vid Card I'd leave it on AUTO.
If you are seeing arifacts, try 2.6V. Remember that till recently NVidia drivers were flaky and I think they fixed the shimmer bug very late in the day. Update all your drivers before you tweak anything.
Look at the first post for all the BIOS settings. I'd also leave the AGP Aperture size at 64Mb as your 6800GT has ample onboard RAM.

Super Nade said:

Also, if you have an older BIOS and have successfully flashed to a new BIOS, make a copy on a Floppy or CD of the latest BIOS. If you reset the CMOS by removing the battery, you will fall back to the older 1006.02 version.

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I had an unsuccessful flash of the BIOS will it revert ever back to the 1006 BIOS? I accidentally wrote afudos.exe/i1008.rom instead of afudos.exe/ia8v1008.rom

I tried removing the battery and resetting the CMOS, but so far it hasn't worked. I guess I am pretty well screwed.

I tried this because I had the 1006 BIOS onboard and the 3200+ 90nm processor. It would post, and I could go into the BIOS and change settings and all, but I could not get windows to install. The install would hang after I got past the EULA and tried to "format" the drive. It would hang time and time again and never make any progress. Please let me know if this is how the MOBOs react when they have the 1006 BIOS installed. Also is how I think I should have wrote the flash ia8v1008.rom the correct way to do it? The exact filename from the asus site is 1008.rom

Thanks and sorry for the newbie questions.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!!!!!!!!!

The 1006.ami BIOS was not meant for the newer Winchesters and I'm surprised your CPU is even detected! I suspect a partial BIOS write (i.e BIOS corruption). You absolutely need to reseat the CMOS jumper to pin 2 and 3 after you take out the battery. Removing the battery alone does not guarentee a faithful reset.

After you do that go through this checklist and see if you did everything O.K:-
1.Make a DOS boot Floppy
2.Select the floppy drive as 1st Boot Device
3.Download the correct BIOS file (download it twice on 2 good floppies just to make sure)
4.Type in the correct command i.e afudos....etc after you boot into dos. The 1006 or any BIOS has no problem booting into DOS!


You can name the file on your floppy to be anything you want. It shouldn't matter. What is more important is that the BIOS file be present on your floppy and that you call it by the right name using afudos.exe. Here's what I mean:-
1.You download the file and rename it haha.ami
2.You should call afudos.exe\haha.ami and not the original ASUS name.

From the first post in this thread.

Post #1 said:

You can use a 90nm socket 939 chip to get it booted and flashed. You just have to do two things.
1. Reset the bios cmos. (Reset the CMOS by switching the jumper only when your rig is powered off or else your BIOS will become dysfunctional). This is to ensure that the board boots from a floppy first.
2. Most importantly make sure you have only one stick of ram in mobo and make sure that stick is in B1 slot. Third from the left I believe. Check the motherboard manual for a graphic layout of the motherboard and it will show which slot is B1.

Start the computer, boot from a bootable floppy, then use another floppy with the new bios and the AFUdos.exe program on it, not ezflash.

Then type at the A prompt:

afudos.exe /ia8v1007.ami

It will erase, then write your bios.

Restart and go to bios and configure as you like. You may now put in additional sticks of ram to get dual channel.

Works here just fine. This is the procedure for the Asus A8V I do not know if this will work in other motherboards, but I have heard similar stories of using one stick to get it up. My guess would be the only thing that needs to change for a different board would be the flash program and bios ofcourse.

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More info from the 1'st post:-

The Overclocking Failed! message and other startup troubles:
It is irritating to hear a beep with the above message when you start up. This is a common error message and after a while it sounds familiar . I'm not sure why this happens but what I've noticed (can be taken as a rule) is that if you hear/see the message "OC Failed press F1..." etc twice repeatedly, then you need to lower your OC.Read the manual first and make sure that the the CLR RTC jumper isn't in the CLEAR position
Here's a older article discussing these issues:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread....214&postcount=4

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Hope this helps!
Good Luck!

I did use the jumper after I removed the battery, however it did not default back to the original BIOS.

You should wait for abt 3 min after you change the jumper and take off the battery, to be safe. Its not an instantaneous process.
What is the # on your BIOS chip? I wanted to know what BIOS it defaults to.
Also, don't enable any OC'ing options yet. Try the installation @ stock settings.
Did you try re-flashing the BIOS? Try the 1009.004 beta (Its the latest and I've had no problems so far). Could you list out what you did so far and the exact problem you faced with each step?

This needs to be moved up:

Parts of it are useful. I'll edit this after my finals.

Generic ASUS helpdesk troubleshooting message for NO-POST problems


Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for your support of our products!
The problem you are reporting is a stability issue and is usually caused by either the memory, power supply or the CPU running too hot. Please check with the memory maker to see if the module you are using has been tested or certified with the chipset on your motherboard. Also, check that your power supply can supply enough power for your system configuration and that your CPU's heatsink and fan are properly installed.
First, please check that your CPU is not overheating. You can check this in the BIOS setup, under Power, then Hardware Monitor. If the CPU is overheating, please check that your heatsink and fan are properly installed and that you are using exactly one heat transfer agent between the CPU and heatsink (ex. Artic Silver). Make sure that the heatsink compound is applied ONLY to the CPU die and that it is NOT shorting any surface mount components on top of the CPU or contacting the CPU's pins.
Please check http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx to verify that your board will properly support the CPU that you have. This link will list the minimum BIOS and PCB version that you must have to PROPERLY support your CPU.

Please ask the memory manufacturer the following questions:
Have you done any certification testing with this memory module and our MB (motherboard) or any MB using the same chipset at the density you are trying to use (ex. 3*512MB DIMMS totaling 1.5GB of memory)?
If the answer is no and they just build to a certain specification/standard, then who's specification/standard do they use and how do they validate their design? If they just build the memory and do not validate it how do they know it will perform?
When we design our MB we follow the chipset makers spec. with regards to memory.
We do validate the memory IC maker's reference designs with our MB to make sure they are up to spec. and if we need to add support for Higher density IC.
Most memory module makers do not follow the IC maker's reference designs so they can use whom ever IC's on their memory Module. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem is if they deviate from the IC makers reference designs and or even if they use the IC makers reference they should do some level of validation to insure quality.
We are one of the largest MB makers so one would think that if you were making a product you would test your product with the most popular associated products.
Here is a list of memory manufacturers that use our MB's as well as others to do this type of testing and also will post a guarantee that their memory will work in our MB's as well as others. Please check the following websites for compatibility:
www.corsairmicro.com
www.unigen.com
www.smartm.com
www.mushkin.com
Also, here are some setup tips that may help you to set up the system.
Please start by clearing the system c-mos memory following the procedure in your manual. Make sure the power AND the battery on the motherboard is removed before shorting the CLR RTC solder points or jumper pins.
You may need to refer to the "Interrupt Request Table" in your manual and arrange your PCI add-in cards so they do not cause interrupt conflicts. Some devices just do not get along with each other. You may also remove your PCI cards to see if this corrects the problem. If it does, add the cards back one by one to see which card is causing the problem. Anytime you add, move, or remove a PCI card, please enter BIOS setup and set the option "Reset Configuration Data" to "Yes" if your BIOS has this option. This will force the BIOS to reassign resources to your PnP devices.
Next, enter Bios Setup and load setup defaults.
Under Boot, if needed, please set the BOOT order. Then set "Reset Configuration Data" To "YES". Any other changes you need to make for your specific system configuration please do so at this time.
Next, exit "Saving Changes" and this should correct the issue.
Also for Windows 9X or ME, they have some issues with CPU speeds greater than 2.1 GHz (see MS Q312108) or memory above 512 MB total system memory (see MS Q253912). These O.S. cannot cache the memory properly. If your CPU is greater than 2.1 GHz, you will need to contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain a patch to correct this issue.
Here are some links for common memory related problems:
Err Msg: "Out of Memory" Error Messages with Large Amounts of RAM Installed
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q253912
Err Msg: Windows Protection Error in NDIS with a CPU That Is Faster Than 2.1 GHz
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q312108
Err Msg: While Initializing Device NTKERN: Windows Protection...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q192397
Err Msg: Insufficient Memory to Initialize Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q184447
Computer May Reboot Continuously with More Than 1.5 GB of RAM
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q304943
Computer Speed and Performance May Decrease
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q259161
Err Msg: Not Enough Extended Memory Available to Run Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q311367
Troubleshooting Stop 0x24 or NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM Error Messages
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q228888


Make sure you have a FRESH install of your OS on THIS motherboard and that the drive was partitioned and formatted on this motherboard. Make sure that you install the most recent drivers in the following order:
1) Chipset/Motherboard drivers (Example, VIA 4 in 1's for VIA chipsets, Intel INF and Application Accelerator for Intel chipsets, Etc.) Do this BEFORE loading any other driver!
2) Latest version of Direct X.
3) Latest Video Card drivers.
4) SCSI/ATA drivers
5) Lan/NIC drivers
6) Modem drivers, then any other drivers
7) Finally, install sound card drivers last.

Also, please check to make sure your power supply can supply enough power to your system.
If the CPU is below 700 MHz, the power supply we suggest as follows:
300 Watts with +5 Volt @ 25 amps, +12 Volt @ 10 amps, and +3.3 Volt @ 14 amps.
If the CPU speed is above 700MHz, the power supply we suggest as follows:
350 Watt with +5V @ 30 amps, +12V @ 12 amps, and +3.3V @ 22 amps.
For Dual Intel MB, Min. P.S. should be:
350 Watt with +5V @ 35 amps, +12V @ 15 amps, and +3.3V @ 22 amps.
For Dual AMD MB, Min. P.S. should be:
400 Watt with +5V @ 38 amps, +12V @ 15 amps, and +3.3V @ 20 amps.
Please note that these are only suggestions and the actual size of the power supply may be higher than we suggest. Also, depending on the config of your system, you may need more power than listed above. For example, running multiple hard drives, CR-Rom drives or other accessories may increase the power requirements of your system!

If that still doesn't work, then please check that the MB is not picking up EMI interference or improperly grounding against the case. Please remove the MB from the case and set it up DIRECTLY on the cardboard box it came in or some other non-static, non-conductive surface like a telephone book. Connect up everything to the MB and see if the problem persists. If this corrects the problem, you will need to electrically isolate the MB from the case. You will need to use electrical tape over the brass stand-offs that support the MB to the case and use the red paper washers between the screw heads and the MB. The red paper washers should have came with your case hardware or they can be purchased at Radio Shack or a computer store. Also double check that a motherboard standoff is NOT placed in a spot where the motherboard is not designed to be grounded, as some cases will have different standoff locations to accommodate different styled of motherboards. Also check that there are no other metal objects that could contact the motherboard or any other electrical device attached to the system, such as a metal burr, loose screw, metal rod, or any other object that could cause a short.