Support from asus? (a bit long)

Please be patient, Robert.

The recent motherboards, of any brand, is quite sensitive or flaky,
depending on one's view, in the sense that, usually at first attempt to
boot from new purchase, the board refuses to boot.

Basically, the RAM, video and CPU all require precise power and
settings in BIOS, or some particular settings by jumpers, etc.

Take your board out, on a wooden or cardboard floor, keep only
the video card, RAM and CPU on board, and boot with only mouse
and keyboard.

If after many trials, it doesn't boot, you may have problems.

Once I had problems with my video card, which is dead, or CPU,
which is also dead, or a stick of RAM, which is dead and I still keep
it around. This one stick of RAM went dead and made my PC unbootable.

Until I found out this dead RAM, I almost thought of other things, like
shortcircuit,
dead CPU, hard disks, etc.

So patiently check every piece of components before coming to a conclusion.

I have tried some other brands other than Asus, but always coming back to
Asus.

Good luck.

Max


------------
"Robert Megee" wrote in message
...
My cable provider just switched to giganews so this it the first time
I've seen this newsgroup. One thing I try to find out is what is a
groups policy on top vs bottom posting.
I've switched out the PSU, the video cards, the harddrive, and the
memory. (I had the second set tested by kingston to make sure it
should work) The only thing left is the motherboard. I've taken each
of the other items and put them in a different system and they all
worked properly. With only one of the sticks installed, everything
works well.
This was my second motherboard the first one was DOA. Wouldn't
boot. Not even a beep. So I do know that they have an rta policy.
My reference to disabling legacy USB was from a posting that said
this fixed his dual-channel memory problem. It is easy enough to try.
I have been in contact with Asus and even have a trouble report open
with them. But after I tried their suggestion of changes to a couple
of bios sessions, I haven't been able to get them to respond to my
email. I even tried entering a new trouble ticket but no response.
This is just not right. When it comes time to upgrade my 4 other
systems, I'll think twice before I'll use Asus.

Robert

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:52:20 +0900, "lakesnow"
wrote:

My main system is a P4C800-E DLX, a second one is P4C800 plain.

I must say that the P4C800-E DLX is more stable than the P4C800 plain.

Since yours has the Delux there, probably it is better than the plain
one.

However, except for some weird things like failing to detect some LAN
card
in Linux, using the P4C800 plain is still good with Windows 2000 and XP.

If you have problems, please look at the video card, RAM or Power supply
(PSU).
The PSU may give you problems that you never think of and you may think
other
components are the culprit.

Testing with a new and good PSU to see what happens. Or do a fresh
install
of XP.
That will tell you a lot about what may happen.

Having an unstable system is not a reason to pour all your blame on Asus.

Good luck



---------
"Robert Megee" wrote in message
.. .
My system has a P4C800 deluxe mb. I'm running XP-pro with an 120gig
hd and a GeForce 5700 128 agp card. I started out with 2 512mb sticks
of DDR-400 (pc3200) Kingston memory. Shortly after I got this system
up and running, I started having problems. Lock-ups, various crashes
and such. Finally it crashed hard.
Well, I started over. This time I couldn't finish the XP install.
Each time at the end of formatting the drive, it would tell me that
the drive was corrupt.
Good enough, I tried a different hd. Same problem. And I was able to
format and install the original hd on a different system. Conclusion,
it wasn't the harddrive.
A search of the internet hinted at a possible memory problem.
Specifically the dual-channel mode. Well, I pulled one of the sticks
and every thing worked properly. I've since tested this with a more
powerful power supply, and I even sent the memory back to Kingston
to have it tested. (oh, was able to test it myself with memtest and
it ran for 48hours with no errors) I even tried a different video
card. (that is the only add-in card in the system.)
The only thing that hasn't been changed is the motherboard.
I contacted Asus and they gave me a couple of bios settings to try
which didn't help.
I asked Asus to send me a new motherboard (I offered to provide a
credit card for them to charge against till I could get the old one
back)
Since then inspite of 4 follow-up email, I've heard nothing. This has
been several weeks.
I've been reading the advice here and have gotten a couple of new
ideas. (disable legacy usb; install one stick, get it's settings, add
the second stick and set them manually)
But I would still like to know how to get some response from Asus.
Anyone know how?

thanks,
Robert Megee

Assuming these arent' the settings ASUS has already advised you to
tweak:

I had the a very similar problem setting up my brother's P4P800. The
solution in that instance was to disable any mobo memory overclocking
features. IOW I had to make sure "Memory Acceleration Mode" was set
to "Auto". For some reason the default "Memory Acceleration Mode" in
his mobo's BIOS was "Enabled" which caused random lockups and failures
during OS installation. On my P4P800 the default was "Auto". You may
also want to verify "AI Overclock Tuner" is set to "Standard".

HTH,

---
Bob

Ok here's my saturday's results:


Do you have the ram in the 'right' slots?
Checked the manual for what to put where?
There are 4 slots on the motherboard, two blue and two black.
with two sticks the memory goes either both in the blue or both in
the black.

Have you tried different slot combinations?
I've tried tried both the blue configuration and the black
configuration. And I tried each stick in both slots for each
configuration.

EG use deliberately wrong config so the system doesn't run dual channel.
Not sure how to do this.

Have you Loaded Setup Defaults, upped the ram voltage 0.1v, and checked the
RAM timings?
**Many ram types need voltage upped by 0.1v** Some need more. 0.1v will not
hurt.

Have you tried setting the bios to any kind of 'optimum' setting? If so,
don't do this as it sounds like your ram can't do it when there are 2
sticks, if not, it sounds like the system can't cope with the ram at SPD
settings. So try a lower CAS setting.
I retrieved my email from Asus support and the bios setting that they
suggested trying was the DRAM CAS# LATENCY. Per their recommendation
I set it from the default of 2.5 to 3.0 clocks.
Here's the various Bios settings.

AI Overclock Tuner - default setting = standard
choices a (manual, standard, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%)

When AI Overclock Tuner is set to manual a sub-menu appears with these
options:
DRAM FREQUENCY - default setting = auto
choices a (266, 320, 400, auto mhz)
DDR REFERENCE VOLTAGE - default setting = auto
choices a (2.85v, 2.75v, 2.65v, 2.55v, auto)

The next bios setting that I thought might be important is:
PERFORMANCE MODE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, standard, turbo)

next bios setting is:
CONFIGURE DRAM TIMING BY SPD - default setting = enabled
choices a (disabled, enabled)

When CONFIGURE DRAM TIMING BY SPD is set to disabled a sub-menu
appears with these options:
DRAM CAS# LATENCY - default setting = 2.5 clocks
choices a (2.0, 2.5, 3.0 clocks)
DRAM RAS# PRECHARGE - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 3, 2 clocks)
DRAM RAS# TO CAS# DELAY - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 3, 2 clocks)
DRAM PRECHARGE DELAY - default setting = 8 clocks
choices a (8, 7, 6, 5 clocks)
DRAM BURST LENGTH - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 8 clocks)

The next bios setting is:
PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION MODE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, enabled)
DRAM IDLE TIMER - default setting = auto
choices a (inifinte, 0t, 8t, 16t, 64t, auto)
DRAM REFRESH RATE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, 15.6usec, 7.8usec, 15.6 usec, 64usec, 64t)


If you post back, please detail the type of RAM you have now - make & model
& claimed perf specs.
My memory is from a kingston memory kit. the model is
KVR400X64C3AK2/1G. On their site, I found the model with the following
numbers in parrentheses (3-3-3). The memory is DDR400 pc3200.
It is JEDEC complient so its CAS LATENCY is supposed to be 2.5
clocks. The voltage is 2.6 volts.


Robert

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:12:15 -0600, Robert Megee
wrote:
I should have posted my system parameters with this:
cpu intel 3.0gig.
os windowsXP pro
video Geforce FX 5700 128meg

Robert
Ok here's my saturday's results:


Do you have the ram in the 'right' slots?
Checked the manual for what to put where?
There are 4 slots on the motherboard, two blue and two black.
with two sticks the memory goes either both in the blue or both in
the black.

Have you tried different slot combinations?
I've tried tried both the blue configuration and the black
configuration. And I tried each stick in both slots for each
configuration.

EG use deliberately wrong config so the system doesn't run dual channel.
Not sure how to do this.

Have you Loaded Setup Defaults, upped the ram voltage 0.1v, and checked the
RAM timings?
**Many ram types need voltage upped by 0.1v** Some need more. 0.1v will not
hurt.

Have you tried setting the bios to any kind of 'optimum' setting? If so,
don't do this as it sounds like your ram can't do it when there are 2
sticks, if not, it sounds like the system can't cope with the ram at SPD
settings. So try a lower CAS setting.
I retrieved my email from Asus support and the bios setting that they
suggested trying was the DRAM CAS# LATENCY. Per their recommendation
I set it from the default of 2.5 to 3.0 clocks.
Here's the various Bios settings.

AI Overclock Tuner - default setting = standard
choices a (manual, standard, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%)

When AI Overclock Tuner is set to manual a sub-menu appears with these
options:
DRAM FREQUENCY - default setting = auto
choices a (266, 320, 400, auto mhz)
DDR REFERENCE VOLTAGE - default setting = auto
choices a (2.85v, 2.75v, 2.65v, 2.55v, auto)

The next bios setting that I thought might be important is:
PERFORMANCE MODE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, standard, turbo)

next bios setting is:
CONFIGURE DRAM TIMING BY SPD - default setting = enabled
choices a (disabled, enabled)

When CONFIGURE DRAM TIMING BY SPD is set to disabled a sub-menu
appears with these options:
DRAM CAS# LATENCY - default setting = 2.5 clocks
choices a (2.0, 2.5, 3.0 clocks)
DRAM RAS# PRECHARGE - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 3, 2 clocks)
DRAM RAS# TO CAS# DELAY - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 3, 2 clocks)
DRAM PRECHARGE DELAY - default setting = 8 clocks
choices a (8, 7, 6, 5 clocks)
DRAM BURST LENGTH - default setting = 4 clocks
choices a (4, 8 clocks)

The next bios setting is:
PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION MODE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, enabled)
DRAM IDLE TIMER - default setting = auto
choices a (inifinte, 0t, 8t, 16t, 64t, auto)
DRAM REFRESH RATE - default setting = auto
choices a (auto, 15.6usec, 7.8usec, 15.6 usec, 64usec, 64t)


If you post back, please detail the type of RAM you have now - make & model
& claimed perf specs.
My memory is from a kingston memory kit. the model is
KVR400X64C3AK2/1G. On their site, I found the model with the following
numbers in parrentheses (3-3-3). The memory is DDR400 pc3200.
It is JEDEC complient so its CAS LATENCY is supposed to be 2.5
clocks. The voltage is 2.6 volts.


Robert