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P4P800 BIOS corruption at high FSB's

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OperativeSix

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Location
SW and SE Michigan
Overclocking my 2.4c seems to have hit a little wall.

At 285mhz FSB, my computer is just fine. I can loop Prime95 100% stable for hours on end without errors, and temperatures stay very low (below 40C actually). However, once I push the FSB past roughly 288, the BIOS will become instantly corrupted upon reboot. I then need to use the ROM image on the driver CD to rebuild my motherboard, and flash the latest BIOS to it (1009).

I've installed a Tiger1 NB cooler to help with cooling, but it hardly seems to be heating up at all. Furthermore, my idle temperatures are barely over 30C. Just what could be causing this corruption? Could changing BIOS versions help? (I've heard many good things about 1010 beta and 1008 final).

This would really annoying me if for once the motherboard was the limit in my overclock, and not the CPU!
 
OperativeSix,

Im having the same problems with my board it seems the BIOS just errors out at anthing about 265 FSB doesnt matter what memory ratio's i have either. This sucks

thoroughly confused
 
Yeah, I've gotten the same problems...
However, mine happens when I get the FSB up around 290 at a 3:2 divider, my PC is water cooled.
I found that if you just let it flash itself, then reboot and tone it down a bit it works fine.
 
Hi,

Getting the same problems if I enable "Turbo" i.e Hyper Path.

BIOS gets corrupted and I have to restore from diskette.
 
Guys this is the way the Asus works. If your reach a wall O/Cing mostly RAM limits I have found it will do this.

This is normal but a pain to flash from the CD and then have to update your BIOS from the internet.

My P4C800-E is the same way I can corrupt mine just by trying turbo mode. if I try turbo boom overclock failed and the BIOS recovery starts automatically.
 
confused said:
WataGuMp,

how far are you getting your P4C800E Dx up to on your FSB?


The best I could do with my CPU was 235 FSB, 240 wouldnt even post. I dont believe its the mobo I believe my chip wont do it.

I have a 2.8C and its running at stock speeds cause I wasnt gonna overclock it unless it would do well. I have seen this board do 275 FSB with a 2.4C.
 
WaTaGuMp,

So the problem lies with which component?

1. CPU - hits OC wall
2. RAM (quality, timings)
3. Motherboard itself - can't run with higher FSB or PAT

???
 
WataGump wow thats kinda strange. I got my 2.8 up to 255 fsb without a problem. It must be luck of the draw then.

In response to the original problem I have never had the problem of reflashing the bios. I have no idea why maybe i just haven't pushed mine far enough.
 
Z_oc said:
WaTaGuMp,

So the problem lies with which component?

1. CPU - hits OC wall
2. RAM (quality, timings)
3. Motherboard itself - can't run with higher FSB or PAT

???


For me I have to say its the CPU when I first tried the O/C only things I changed were the voltages and the AGP/PCI bus. I locked that to 66/33 and kept everything else at auto to test the CPU limits.

Even at auto with 2.5 4 4 8 timings for the memory it wouldnt go higher then 235 FSB and boot to windows. So I tried higher voltages for the CPU and still wouldnt go higher.

The best stable O/C with 1:1 and 2.5 3 3 6 was 220 FSB. so I figured I would just leave it at stock cause 20 FSB didnt really make a huge performance increase. At that speed the RAM was running at 440 so its points to the CPU limits.

If it wasnt the CPU I should of been able to run 5:4 and push the CPU higher cause the RAM was running under DDR400. Once again this wouldnt post higher then 235 FSB but even that wasnt stable.

Just shows that not all chips will O/C like others will even if you get the so called hot O/Cing chip, it will always be luck of the draw when it comes to O/Cing.

I have seen a few 2.8C's go to 3.5 at 5:4 which puts the RAM at DDR400 mine isnt one of them.


Here is a link to the testing I did when I tried it.


http://www.bleedinedge.com/forum/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=735
 
Last edited:
Thanks WaTaGuMp.

So BIOS corruption can happen because of the CPU?

In that case I'm going to change my 2.4C and try. I thought I'd messed up my mobo with too aggressive settings.
 
Z_oc said:
Thanks WaTaGuMp.

So BIOS corruption can happen because of the CPU?

In that case I'm going to change my 2.4C and try. I thought I'd messed up my mobo with too aggressive settings.


Yes when the O/C fails the Asus will automatically use the BIOS recovery process built into it. This happens with any failure wether its related to the CPU or the memory.
 
so ,
the bios coruption on hgher fsb is "normal" thing
u just must have a luck to choose good ocing proc
u must have lucky hand
 
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