Bios CPU voltage limit problem

[trents]

Need your input on this weird bios thing. I just replaced my PI X3 8750 BE with a Athlon II X4 630. The motherboard is an ASRock A780FullHD with the latest bios (p1.60) installed that does cover the new CPU according to the cpu compatibility table on ASRock's web site.

The problem is the bios says the max CPU voltage is 1.375 whereas AMD says the X4 630 voltage range is 0.9 to 1.425. This chip has a lot of overclocking head room but the bios ceiling is limiting me right now.

I know the board is capable of putting out more juice than 1.375 as I was running the X3 8750 at 1.435 and the bios said the max was 1.5.

What's going on here? Am I correct in assuming the bios version I'm using has a problem? What else could it be?

 

[QuietIce]

Let me check a couple of facts, first. You had the X3 installed (running at 1.435v) and updated the BIOS before changing CPU's. (Did you happen to check the vCore after the update but before changing the chips?) And now, the highest vCore you can set is 1.375v - there are no other options to go higher?

Yeah, that's pretty strange and I would guess the BIOS update was where the change took place ...

 

[trents]

Yes, the bios update had been in place for some time before changing CPUs. Actually, though I had been running the PI X3 at 1.435v at one point in time, more recently I had back the overclock off and was running it at 1.385v. But even at that I seem to remember the bios stating the maximm CPU voltage for that chip was 1.5v. With the new CPU in place the bios now says the max vcore is 1.375 and the max CPU speed is 3500. Those line items are grayed out (See pic). Could this be some new limit AMD has started building into these chips that is being reported by the bios? I have contacted ASRock tech support but won't hear back until next week I suppose.

Anyway, got some birthday money recently and have ordered a new 785G/710 based ASRock board from Egg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157180

Hopefully, the new board will not present the same bios limitation.

 

[QuietIce]

If there is some limit being placed on the system it's not AMD doing it. For some reason the BIOS programming seems to see the 630 much differently than the 8750 - no idea why.

Have you reset the BIOS since you put the new CPU in there? Maybe the BIOS is somehow confused ...?

 

[trents]

Reset the bios? You mean jumper the cmos? Yes, I did that and I also tried reinstalling the previous bios version which was the first one for this board to support this chip series. It didn't help so I reinstalled the newest version.