I will never buy an ASUS board again.

[CordialSpam]

Well good news and bad news..thanks for Ross's help..he mentioned putting the PCI-E frequency at auto...and it worked..booted at 240x16 with ram at 640ish and it worked..I dual primed for over 8 hr and still going..but anything higher will not boot/crash ..the PCI-E frequency was at around 108..I dont know if that caused the problem of unstablillity or not...but the only way to get the ram stable over 500 is setting the PCI-E at auto..is this the problem of many boards out there or just this board? Anyways 240x16 was doing fine with 5-5-5-15 timing..I will play around with it a little more later..tried 245x16 but system crashes..I will try with different ram settings and play around with voltage. I am pretty sured I tried ocing with pci-e at AUTO on my first board and it doesn't work...but this 2nd board seems like it worked fine with pci-e at AUTO

 

[Ross]

Pretty much since the 915P chipset, AUTO on the PCI-e freq seems to have worked best rather than trying to lock it at 100 (at least on ASUS boards).

What are you checking actual PCI-e MHz with? I am curious because there is/was PCI bus "float" problem on the 915 boards. The "lock" didn't really lock it. It held it lower than it would unlocked, but it would still drift up with increased FSB and if you're seeing 108MHz on it at 240FSB, I wonder if that float issue has somehow been carried forward to the 945? If you lock it at 100MHz in BIOS and boot up @ 240FSB, what is the PCI-e speed? If the problem is the same as the 915, it will be the same 108MHz or faster and I'll bet $$ that is where ALL your problems are coming from.

915P had the problem, 925XE didn't. Likewise, maybe the 945 has it and the 955 doesn't. My 955 on AUTO PCI-e, it doesn't budge off of 100MHz all the way up to a 400FSB (as high as I can possibly go right now ).

If you have that float problem, your OC is going to be limited and there's nothing you can do about it because the higher you up the FSB, the more out of whack the bus gets and the more out of whack the bus gets, the more unstable the system becomes. With a float, you are basically OCing EVERYTHING on the bus from drives to the vid card. Serial drives in particular are very susceptible to bus changes and will probably be the first things to cause a problem if the bus gets too high. That's why the bus locks are needed in the first place.

So, if the PCI-e is floating, you were correct originally about their being a chipset problem, but the problem is not in relation to the memory control. If it floats and you can verify that it won't stay at 100MHz either on AUTO or set to 100 in BIOS with increased FSB, get rid of that board ASAP and replace it with a 955 (or wait for the 975) or you can forget about OCing much or any higher than you are right now

 

[RangerXLT8]

@ fellow who is 'having memory controller problem'

The chances of a replacement board having the same problem as the original are very slimm. In this case I'm led to believe that the board is not the problem. There are plenty of people includiing myself reaching serious OC on this board. And no Asus does not suck, Asus technical support sucks big time! I'm sorry but I think your problem lies elsewhere.

 

[Ross]

Ranger, I made the same mistake a couple days ago thinking it was a P5WD2, but it's the P5LD2 945P chipset board (or did you have one of them too?). I am still curious to hear if his PCI bus floats at both AUTO and when set to 100 in BIOS. If it does, the mystery is solved

 

[chrism131]

Eh, it can't possibly be as bad as when I sent my DELL laptop away when it just wouldn't turn on. They said 8-10 days, I received it 6 weeks later in a new case and a dead battery. If I had been the one to buy the laptop, DELL would have been the last manufacturer I would choose.

 

[Stratcat]

@ Ross & CordialSpam

Re: Floating PCIe Buss -

Exactly!

I remember many, or nearly all, of the early versions of the i915/925 mobos having probs doing a solid lock on the PCIe Buss, as the FSB starting getting higher (prompting responses that Intel had "capped" the OC w/i the chipsets!) thus limiting the OC (usually to what the gfx card could handle).

Perhaps the same could be going on here?

Strat

 

[CordialSpam]

OK some updates...


after running different memtests with different settings...here are the reuslts


PCI : AUTO
CPU : 240 x 16
MEM: tested both at 480 and 640

No errors

PCI : 100
CPU : 240 x 16
MEM: 480

no error


PCI : AUTO
CPU : 245 x 16
MEM: tested both at 480 and 640

over 10k errors

PCI : 100
CPU : 245 x 16
MEM: 480

5k ~ errors

If i set the PCI-E TO auto and FSB AT 200, PCI - E is 100mhz and will not flow around...With 240 FSB / AUTO it is 108..and WILL NOT boot anything over 243..I tried it. The only way to have more than 243 FSB is set it to 100, but if I set my PCI-E to 100 my RAM will have problem...

I am reading the PCI-E frquency from SetFSB btw.. so yea I don't think this mobo has PCI-E flow problem but it has some problem really...let me repeat..this board will only boot over 243 FSB Only if I lock the PCI-E, but if i do that..my RAM will have problem...

 

[Ross]

Yeah, that definitely sounds like the PCI-e is a little "off"...of course I knew that when you said it was at 108 to begin with What is the bus at 240FSB with it set to 100 in BIOS? If it will only boot over 243FSB with the 100 lock, maybe it is working a little bit, but still not completely.

108 is high enough to cause problems on other things (SATA HDDs, vid cards, LAN, etc.), so if it's going any higher as you raise FSB, that is most likely the problem.

It probably won't make a diff, but if you have the PCI-e Link Speed thingie under Advanced->Chipset set to AUTO, Fast or Faster, try setting it to Slow instead. If the vid card is the first hang up with the increased PCI-e bus, that might help for a few FSB...

 

[Stratcat]

Man,

Not trying to be facetious, but if it's that much of an issue for you, why not RMA it back to the seller, if you can; Sell it in the classsies, if you can't; And then buy a P5WD2 & be done with it.

At least you know you'll be happy with it (or as happy as you can be w/your current CPU & other components).

Strat

 

[CordialSpam]

What is the bus at 240FSB with it set to 100 in BIOS?

Still 100, doesn't jump to 108. And I will try mess with that PCI-E link thingy today..