Anyone familiar with Biostar mobo's w/ITE IT8712F monitoring chip?

[computer]

Guys, this is a mobo in a customer's PC (P4M80-M7). It's working perfectly. When I first looked in the BIOS "PC health" to check the voltage readings, I noticed there was NO 12V!! :Q WTF?? It has all the usual readings, except for the 12v. This BIOS has a hardware monitor that can be shown while the PC boots, and it too shows everything except the 12v. Even after loading the ITE monitor that came on the mobo's CD, it also has no 12v readout area! BIOS is the latest version.

In AIDA32, under the "Sensor" area, then under "Temperatures", the readings for the "Motherboard" and "CPU" keep disappearing, then coming back, then disappearing again! The whole entire lines just go away! Sometimes just the CPU, sometimes just the mobo, sometimes both at the same time. The "AUX" temp is only one stable, that's there all the time and stays at 77°F. The temps displayed are also screwed up for the motherboard and CPU. They are going between 0° and 153°F!! Each time there's a polling interval, every few seconds, it's different temp by many dozens of degrees!

Another thing, AIDA32 reports the 12v line as only 10.6-10.7v!! (It also reports the 5vsb as only 3.2v, but I see that all the time on most mobo's for some reason. Evidently AIDA32 has a "problem" with that area).

SANDRA (Business 2007) shows similar results. It shows the 12v as ~10.48v, -12v @ -3.64v, -5v @ -2.39v, and 5vsb the same as AIDA32. The temperature areas are also way off, but nearly as wild as AIDA32. It also reports some memory slots are FREE (and there ARE none free)! SANDRA says the memory is running at only 166mhz/DDR333! It's set manually in the BIOS at 200mhz, and POST shows it as such; DDR400mhz.

A volt meter shows ALL voltages PERFECT. 12v is 12.06v. The BIOS and ITE software monitor show the CPU as pretty "cold", never gets above 90°F. The back side of the mobo is also barely warm. So the temps are indeed very cool. (CPU is a P4 531, 3ghz, 1mb, retail, and retail HSF unit).

Is this typical behavior for this ITE IT8712F hardware monitoring chip, or is something wrong with it?? Why no 12v status?

On another note, the memory WRITE benchmark in AIDA32 is frightening. 770mb/sec!! That sounds like PC133 memory!! It should be at least 1100mb/sec. "Read" results are where they should be for this mobo, about 3000mb/sec (Memory is Buffalo w/Micron chips, 2x512mb PC3200 DC retail kit. CAS 2.5, the mobo is NOT a dual-channel mobo). I tightened up the timings in the BIOS a bit, no change. The PC seems fast, not slow in any way. In SANDRA, with all boxes checked in the "module options" for the memory bench, it's only showing about 2900/2900mb/sec, no memory write area in SANDRA. In the results readout, it's showing under "Chipset 1", "4x 200mhz (800mhz data rate)", but below that under "Logical chipset 1/memory banks" it's again showing "2x166mhz (333mhz data rate)". In AIDA32, under "Motherboard" then "SPD" AND "Chipset", those areas are blank!! Under the "Computer" area then "DMI", it says there IS NO MEMORY!! "Bank 0-none", "Bank 1-none". However it DOES say in that area "DMI info may be incorrect".
This is XP Pro, SP2. No overclocking is being done.

CPUz shows NOTHING! The "Memory" tab is all blank, grayed out!!

Sooo, is what's going on here with the ITE monitoring chip and the strange voltages, horrible memory write, and 166mhz/DDR333 memory speed?

 

[computer]

Well I just screwed something up BAD. I went in the BIOS and thought I would set the memory timings to "Ultra", I exited and it wouldn't boot, got a black screen and one long beep. I had to clear the CMOS to get it to boot, went back in the BIOS had to reset everything, now the #$%@! PC won't boot into Windows!! Got the one "good" beep, then right after POST, it immediately restarted, when through POST again and prompted to start in safe mode. It won't even start in safe mode!! it stays on that screen with that huge list of drivers that says "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(0)(1)\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\......" etc. Never loads. I "reset" and it goes through POST again, spontaneously restarts again then goes back that safe mode prompt screen. WTF happened???? :disgust: :shocked: :|

 

[computer]

^^

 

[computer]

Here's an update (not that anyone is watching )

I tried EVERYTHING to get this POS to boot again. I even put a new HD on it! The HD had XP already on it. Replaced the memory, re-flashed the BIOS, cleared the CMOS, NOTHING. I tried one last time to clear the CMOS, and now it's booting ok again into Windows. I fail to understand how by simply changing the memory settings to "Ultra" could cause this type of damage.

I kept the different memory in it, and it too is showing about the same bench results (actually a bit lower since it's PC4000 with slower timings). I mentioned in my first post about SANDRA showing the memory as running at DDR333, 166mhz. It's also doing this with the new memory! CPUz's "Memory" tab is also blank with this memory! In AIDA32, everything is the same as mentioned previously except under "Motherboard" then "SPD" there IS data there, but under the "Chipset", area is still blank.