TUSL2-C a couple of comments and questions

I recently got one of these boards and like it pretty well, however one thing I noticed early on is that they aren't very forgiving while testing your chips overclocking potential. Mine will lock up the BIOS tight when I go too far. The Insert key is of no help at all and there is no CMOS reset jumper. The first time I did it, I almost freaked and had to use the dip switch panel to get the thing back up and running. Since then, I've found it easier to pull the battery to reset the CMOS.

Another thing, even though I have a 1.2 on its way, I'm presently running a 900. When I updated to the 1010 BIOS revision, my CuMine voltage adjustments were reduced from a range of 1.5 to 2.05 under revision 1009, to only 1.75 and 1.8. I had to flash back, since my CPU needs more than 1.8 to run at the speed it's at. Hopefully, this tip will save someone some time.

I really like the features of the Asus Probe program, but find it to be a real resource hog. Does anyone use another program they like better, like MBM?

Also, is there any website that has a BIOS guide for the TUSL2-Cs or the Cusl2-Cs? There are some adjustments there that I've never been exposed to that I would like to set for the best performance, but I'm hesitant to mess with any unknowns.

Thanks, Rick

Hi Rmcky, welcome to the Forum,
Take a look to this link http://www.x86-secret.com/# for the i815 Tweaker, and about the program to monitor your System/Cpu temps, voltages and Rpms, well, nothing is better than MBM for me, it's a must, for more info follow this link http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

I hope it helps you

Thanks, The Doors. I previously learned of that website from another post here, but do you know if those tweakers are compatible with the TUSL2-C boards, as well as the CUSL2-Cs? Also, do you suppose they would work with other I-815 boards? I've got a couple of Soyo boards that could use some serious tweaking.

BTW, another thing I forgot to mention about the TUSL2-C boards is that they do not support the 512kb cache P3 Tualatin S series chips. I'm afraid a few here are unaware of that, because there is a lot of discussion about wishing the price would come down. Asus says that, since those are server level chips and this is a desktop level board, they have no plans for adding compatibility. Hope that fact saves someone some expensive greif.

Rick

Rick, as with the CUSL2-C, there is an undocumented jumper point on the TUSL2-C that can be used to reset the BIOS. Near to the battery there are two solder points on the board that are a bit larger than the others on the board and will have the label of CCHK or some such (sorry, can't remember the exact PCB label right off the top of my head). You can use a metal object to connect those two points and it will clear your CMOS. Only need to connect for a second or so will do the trick.

Many of Asus' boards that do not have actual jumpers to clear the CMOS do have the solder points, you just have to look around for them.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Ferretwulf, I was rereading my manual yesterday and found the reference to the jumpers you spoke of. I think Asus calls it RTC reset. They will come in handy, because this board seems to lock up solid at the slightest point that you cross the line. What's bad about it is that it starts to let you into the BIOS, but before you can set the frequency back, it locks up tight. Also, I've noticed that this board won't allow me to overclock the same CPUs as high as my Soyo I-815EP board does. Not sure exactly what's up with that. My Soyo will let my 900 go into and run Windows at 133mhz, although it's certainly not stable there. This board won't even consider it, as a matter of fact, it won't consider anything over 116mhz. It's strange that that is all it allows, but the CPU is absolutely stable there. It's almost like it measured the CPUs stability level and limited it to that, but I really don't believe it has that capability. Thanks again for the info!

Rick

shoot, i woulda crapped my pants if ym P3V4X ever did that (its always resets the bios automatically), but why would ASUS go backwards? i would think they should improve with each new mobo, oh well

Yeah I must say myt abitSt6 was sweater at a PCI bus over 42MHz. It would run all the way to the max of 166MHz with my 1.2 tualatin. Maybe I should RMA my st6 and give it another shot with this chip. THis tusl-2 has some good points but also its bad too. I can't run my tusl-2 at any PCI buses over around it seems 38MHz without data corruption. Course I will have to do the wire trick with the st6 too. Mayeb all the way to 1.825 for default Owell if it is more stable. Been having PSU problems as of late. I had awesome results with a antec 300w ironically but had it for two days and decided I wanted their 350w with a extra cooling fan on the PSU itself cause I only had four fans hooked up to it and thought I would need the extra. Got that and have had problems ever since. That first PSU was the shi#. No other psu I have can keep my system as stable as that did. I went back to see if they still had it and they didn;t. SO I got the same model I though off the wall at best buy well when I got it home it had the same charechteristics of the 350w I had just returned too. Too make a long story short the first 300w antec PSU I had was different than the second one I had just gotten also. THe second one sucks. I may just go with a 400w PSU. If that don't cut it then I know something else went wrong. I estimate that this chip uses arounf 45w at the speeds I have it at but it may be more. Anyone know a good way to figure that out. What I did is took the 1.45v server chip and looked at the watts it made versus the 1.475v's watta. Took the slope(ratio) of the line between those two points on a graph and took that times the 1.85v. I got around 41w but then to compensate for the extra 400MHz I added another 4w. That may be my mistake. It may be closer to 50w or 60w.

Any one got a answer?

Whoa I kinda off track there didn't I

FunnyP, like the P3V4X, the TUSL2-C (as well as the CUSL2-C and CUV4X) *does* have auto reset on a failed boot, however, it sometimes just does not work. Working with all those boards in the shop I have found that the P3V4X and CUV4X recover better with the fewest auto-reset failures (with the notable exception of the older P3V4X PCB using the older Clock Generator).

The CUSL2 (and -C), on the other hand, seem particularly prone to fail (the auto-reset) on agressive OC'ing, in turn requiring a hard reset by connecting the solder points. This has varied from board to board, with some working perfectly well on the auto-reset, whilst others just stubbornly seem to refuse with even a mild OC failure.

I can also add that the CUSL2-C Black Pearl Edition (with the 20 or so boards I pre-tested with PIII700s between 933 and 1050) worked almost flawlessly on the auto-reset for OC failure. A close examination of the chippies used on the BP Edition shows that Asus used several different chippies than on the regular CUSL2-C, perhaps that difference, combined with a greater attention to quality on the BP could account for that.

Everything you guys have added makes perfectly good sense to me after playing with this Tusl2-C for a while. Any setting that results in a PCI bus above 38mhz is junk for me. Funny thing is that I know everything I have can stand 40 to 41mhz just fine. Also, this board almost leads me to believe it limits overclocks when it senses they are too high. The reason I say that is my Soyo SY-7IS2 board will allow me to oveclock my C 900 to 1.2ghz and to run Windows, although it's certainly not stable there. This Asus flat refuses to allow me to exceed 116mhz with that same chip, no matter what settings I use. The chip appears to be stable at that setting on both boards, but it bothers me that the Asus doesn't allow me to experiment with other things to try for additional stability. I've already resolved myself to the fact that I will probably be stuck at or around 115 to 116 mhz with the Tualatin 1.2 I have ordered. I was really hoping for at least 1.5, but I don't expect that will happen. These boards are high quality and have a lot of nice features, but I think you give up a little overclocking capability for the stability they offer. Probably not such a bad idea, keeps fools like me from overstepping their bounds, but a little too stringent for my tastes.

Rick

Ferretwulf said:

FunnyP, like the P3V4X, the TUSL2-C (as well as the CUSL2-C and CUV4X) *does* have auto reset on a failed boot, however, it sometimes just does not work. Working with all those boards in the shop I have found that the P3V4X and CUV4X recover better with the fewest auto-reset failures (with the notable exception of the older P3V4X PCB using the older Clock Generator).
to quality on the BP could account for that.

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thats wierd, i have the older version.....

Rmcky said:

Thanks, The Doors. I previously learned of that website from another post here, but do you know if those tweakers are compatible with the TUSL2-C boards, as well as the CUSL2-Cs? Also, do you suppose they would work with other I-815 boards? I've got a couple of Soyo boards that could use some serious tweaking.
Rick

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I'm sorry Rmcky, but I really don't know and haven't tried on my i815E Mobo, probably you can found more infos on that website.

If you haven't been to the other thread yet I have found that my ST6 is more stable as of late for hitting the 133MHz fsb. Also if I find it not to my liking I can always downclock abit to say 130fsb for awhile and keep the PCI and agp close to spec. I have abandoned my ASUS TUSl_2 as in the end it ended up being after a good burnin not as stable. I found a very good method of getting all available vcores too with the st6.