Asus A8N SLI O/C issues after flashing to 1003 BIOS.....

[sxr7171]

Short Story: On even the smallest O/C, BIOS 1003 causes boot errors such as "x.dll" file missing or HAL unable to load etc. Returning the "FSB" back to 200 MHz allows normal booting. The boot drive is a WDC raptor on the NVidia SATA controller in slot 1. Interestingly even overclicking in ASUS AI booster software cause the machine to hang.

Long Story: I hadn't tried any BIOS O/C with BIOS 1002 because I heard you can't lock the PCI bus with it. I was able to O/C using the ASUS AI Booster and it would overclock for a while and then drop back down especially when I ran SuperPI. I decided to update to BIOS 1003 and try a BIOS O/C. THe machine would fail to boot with errors stating that certain important .dlls could not be found. This happened several times with just 10% overclock. I had to return the "FSB" back to 200MHZ (HT bus was at 4x) just to boot again. I then tried overclocking in software using Asus AI Booster again but it froze with just 205 MHz "FSB." I remember someone saying that the NForce 4 SATA controller is clockspeed locked and it probably was before and this BIOS update could have screwed it up. Has anyone else noticed this? Is there anything I'm doing wrong?

I set the maximum memory speed to 400 MHz DDR, loosened memory timings, locked the PCI bus, lowered HT bus multiplier to 4x, raised CPU voltage to 1.55v (max) and memory voltage to 2.75v. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[sxr7171]

Anybody?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I suggest for overclocking use 1003.005 or 1003.006 beta bios because they give higher CPU voltage settings.

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
I suggest for overclocking use 1003.005 or 1003.006 beta bios because they give higher CPU voltage settings.

Thanks, but I can't even raise the "FSB" by even 5% without getting missing file errors during boot. I highly suspect that the SATA controller is not clock speed locked anymore on 1003. I will try 1003.006 beta for my O/C and see if that makes a difference (maybe it locks the SATA clock speed or maybe it was voltage that was the problem). Thanks again.



EDIT: Also, I am thinking about moving the drives to ports 3 and 4 on the Nvidia controller and then maybe trying the Silicon Image controller instead. I heard disk performance is better on the Nvidia controller though.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Whats your setup? CPU? Ram? Power Supply? Video Card?

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
Whats your setup? CPU? Ram? Power Supply? Video Card?

Athlon 64 3200+, 2x512MB Kingston Value Ram (I don't really want to run 1:1 though), OCZ Modstream 450w, PCI-E Nvidia 6600gt.


The OCZ seems to be putting out 11.712v on the 12v rail. It is a stable 11.712v though and does not vary with load. When I wrote to OCZ they said that 11.712v should be enough and asked me if I am running SLI which I am not. I still need to write back to them.

 

[mlc]

1) make sure cool n quiet is disabled in bios
2) disable the marvell lan as well if not used
3) then try it with just 1 stick of memory in the b1 slot

my psu run with the same 11.71v rating .. many other do as well.. and it seem to be fine and stable with some of the moderate overclocking I've tried... I've used both the AI sfw, as well going into the bios...
I have a 3200 as well, along with a single 6600GT, Antec Neopower480, 2x512 Corsair PC4400C25, etc...

 

[Tripp17]

Here is my setup:

AMD FX-55 @ 2.7
2x512 OCZ Platinum rev.2 @ 490 1:1 (2.3-3-3-10)
6800GT flashed to 420/1150
A8N-SLI Deuxe @ 245 fsb
W.D. rapter
500watt X-Connect psu (w/ 24pin power cord)
Audigy 2 sound card

Ok, now that thats out of the way, i wanted you to see my set-up to show you that i have a 245 fsb with 1T mem timmings to show you it IS possable. The only bios that doesnt let me overclock like this is the 1002. Any of the others do the same for me at 245 fsb. I set my ddr to 400 and loosen my timmings to fit the overclock im doing. Hyperbus is at 4X, the cpu multipier is at 11 x 245. Memory voltage is at 2.8, cpu voltage is at 1.52. If there is any other thing you wanna know, just ask.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

With value ram you should use the AUTO ramclock setting, this will keep your RAM <=200mhz once you go over 220mhz HTT. Or for purposes of finding your max CPU overclock set it to DDR266 to remove any ram limitations to overclocking. Ram speed and timings are not as important on A64 chips because of the onboard memory controller, Intel chips and older AMD chips benifiet much more from high speed ram.

You should never use the DDR400 setting when overclocking with value ram! It will severely limit you overclock and the slight increase provided by running ram over 200mhz is definately not worth it.

The limit on this board for ram speed at 1T is 240-245 as Tripp demonstrates, ram can run higher speeds using 2T but the performance hit of using 2T vs. 1T more than wipes out the gains from running higher speeds. I can run my OCZ at 287mhz 2T, but 233mhz 1T beats it easily in benchmarks even Sandra memory bandwidth

I would also suggest Googling for "Clockgen NF4" its a free downloadable utility that displays clock and memory speeds, and most importantly will allow you to set maxiumum CPU voltage higher than the released bios. (The same max voltage can be set using beta bios 1003.005 or 1003.006)

My best settings with the 3200+ are

289 x 9 = 2601mhz 1.58v(manual)
Ram @ DDR333 236mhz 2-3-3-5(auto) 2.80v(manual)

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
With value ram you should use the AUTO ramclock setting, this will keep your RAM <=200mhz once you go over 220mhz HTT. Or for purposes of finding your max CPU overclock set it to DDR266 to remove any ram limitations to overclocking. Ram speed and timings are not as important on A64 chips because of the onboard memory controller, Intel chips and older AMD chips benifiet much more from high speed ram.

You should never use the DDR400 setting when overclocking with value ram! It will severely limit you overclock and the slight increase provided by running ram over 200mhz is definately not worth it.

The limit on this board for ram speed at 1T is 240-245 as Tripp demonstrates, ram can run higher speeds using 2T but the performance hit of using 2T vs. 1T more than wipes out the gains from running higher speeds. I can run my OCZ at 287mhz 2T, but 233mhz 1T beats it easily in benchmarks even Sandra memory bandwidth

I would also suggest Googling for "Clockgen NF4" its a free downloadable utility that displays clock and memory speeds, and most importantly will allow you to set maxiumum CPU voltage higher than the released bios. (The same max voltage can be set using beta bios 1003.005 or 1003.006)

My best settings with the 3200+ are

289 x 9 = 2601mhz 1.58v(manual)
Ram @ DDR333 236mhz 2-3-3-5(auto) 2.80v(manual)

I see, you're saying that if I put it on the DDR 400 setting it will scale with the "FSB"? That explains it. I thought that putting it on that setting makes sure it never exceeds DDR400. Thanks for your settings also. I will just use DDR266 as a starting point and then go from there. Thanks.


Edit: Thanks a lot! It worked like a charm! I tried a few settings like 250x10 for 2500 and then some 9.5 multiplier settings and finally settled on 283.81 X 9 = 2552.32 with memory at 182.45 (x2 for DDR) HTT at 3x = 849. I get rounding errors or sqrt errors on superpi when I try for 2600 which is my goal. The one thing I noticed is that the Clockgen proagram does not show me available voltages above 1.55v. BTW the ASUS AI booster program goes nuts and shows incorrect values when HTT multiplier is at 3x.


Do you think I should flash back to 1003.006 BIOS? I didn't get around to flashing it before and I was so excited when I read your post that I just decided to shut down and try changing the memory settings (which did the trick!). I can run 1M Superpi but I should try the 8M or 16M for stability.


The other thing is that CPU temperature does not really go above 50C with the testing done so far, so I think I have good cooling in my Super Lanboy Case with the surprisingly effective THERMALTAKE A1838 CPU fan. The chipset doesn't seem to budge from 33C which is also good. So I think that you are right in that voltage is the issue (or maybe it's just the luck of the draw when you get in the higher ranges of what can be done.). I did manage to lock up my machine during some of the experimentation I did (primarily when I used ASUS AI Booster for a while, NF4 clockgen works like a charm).


Edit 2: Okay I thought that my CPU stays at a consistent 45-47C until I found Prime 95. I ran the crazy torture test that uses no RAM (the first choice) and it ran for 4 minutes before erroring out at 72C then I ran the (second) one that maximizes power draw and CPU temp where it errored out at 70C in one minute. I am running the third one that tests your system overall and uses tons of memory where it has run for 15 minutes and is still running at a constant 43C, I expect this to run fine until morning at least. I doubt that any real use of a PC will put the kind of load that those first two tests do. Pretty interesting stuff.

Edit 3: Okay now I know why the third test keeps my CPU so cool, it uses only 5% CPU but seems to be more of a RAM test than anything else. I've noticed that no other program running at 100% CPU can heat up a CPU as much as Prime 95 though. My new guess (or hope) is that it might be that the errors form when the CPU gets above 70C. However I do have a finnicky program on my machine that I use that gives me a wierd error when the CPU clock is set higher than it likes. At this rate I might have to settle for 2500 or so. BTW CPU-Z shows 1.584-1.6v instead of the 1.55v Clockgen NF4 is set to.

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: Tripp17
Here is my setup:

AMD FX-55 @ 2.7
2x512 OCZ Platinum rev.2 @ 490 1:1 (2.3-3-3-10)
6800GT flashed to 420/1150
A8N-SLI Deuxe @ 245 fsb
W.D. rapter
500watt X-Connect psu (w/ 24pin power cord)
Audigy 2 sound card

Ok, now that thats out of the way, i wanted you to see my set-up to show you that i have a 245 fsb with 1T mem timmings to show you it IS possable. The only bios that doesnt let me overclock like this is the 1002. Any of the others do the same for me at 245 fsb. I set my ddr to 400 and loosen my timmings to fit the overclock im doing. Hyperbus is at 4X, the cpu multipier is at 11 x 245. Memory voltage is at 2.8, cpu voltage is at 1.52. If there is any other thing you wanna know, just ask.

Thanks for the help, I am now convinced that it is possible.

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: mlc
1) make sure cool n quiet is disabled in bios
2) disable the marvell lan as well if not used
3) then try it with just 1 stick of memory in the b1 slot

my psu run with the same 11.71v rating .. many other do as well.. and it seem to be fine and stable with some of the moderate overclocking I've tried... I've used both the AI sfw, as well going into the bios...
I have a 3200 as well, along with a single 6600GT, Antec Neopower480, 2x512 Corsair PC4400C25, etc...

Thanks! I did everything except the 1 stick of memory thing. I'm pretty happy with the 2554MHz I have so far. Maybe I'll hit 2600 MHz with some extra juice.

 

[mlc]

glad to hear about your success.....keep us updated....

Hopefully I'll have some time next weekend to start pushing my setup.. So keep posting your findings...

and thanks to GuitarDaddy for all the good info in this and other posts.. very useful stuff

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: mlc
glad to hear about your success.....keep us updated....

Hopefully I'll have some time next weekend to start pushing my setup.. So keep posting your findings...

and thanks to GuitarDaddy for all the good info in this and other posts.. very useful stuff

I have to agree GuitarDaddy knows his stuff.

Well, it turns out that 2500 MHz simply will not run Prime stable for more than a few minutes. I had to reduce my voltage to 1.456v (as reported by CPU-z) and run at 2404.5 MHz to be Prime stable for about 12 hours (small files). It now runs at a constant 68C. My suspicion is that my problems are more thermal than anything else. It only errors out once it hits 70C and it seems to be Prime stable at anything below that. The THERMALTAKE A1838 is also known as the one of the Venus series silent coolers. http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/venus/rs/a1838.htm Maybe this is what is causing the problem. All the reviews said that it performs as well or slightly better than the stock cooler so I thought it would work for some overclocking. Or I could just have been unlucky with the CPU I got.

 

[kjackson09]

You rig is virtually identical to mine. What benchmark scores do you get in AquaMark3 or the nForce benchmark program?

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: kjackson09
You rig is virtually identical to mine. What benchmark scores do you get in AquaMark3 or the nForce benchmark program?

I haven't done Aquamark yet, but I just did an NVperformance "system performance" test and got 207, 211, 209, 212, 211 for the first 5 runs.

 

[kjackson09]

Originally posted by: sxr7171

Originally posted by: kjackson09
You rig is virtually identical to mine. What benchmark scores do you get in AquaMark3 or the nForce benchmark program?

I haven't done Aquamark yet, but I just did an NVperformance "system performance" test and got 207, 211, 209, 212, 211 for the first 5 runs.

I am not familiar with NVPerformance can you please provide a link?

Cheer,

Kerry

 

[byMaX]

Guys, how do you set clockgen to push above 1.55. It shows only 1.4 and 1.45...?

 

[GuitarDaddy]

The 1.45 or 1.55 setting in clockgen gives 1.57-1.60 in CPUZ, AI Booster, and Asus probe. And it also sticks when you reboot

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: sxr7171

Originally posted by: mlc
glad to hear about your success.....keep us updated....

Hopefully I'll have some time next weekend to start pushing my setup.. So keep posting your findings...

and thanks to GuitarDaddy for all the good info in this and other posts.. very useful stuff

I have to agree GuitarDaddy knows his stuff.

Well, it turns out that 2500 MHz simply will not run Prime stable for more than a few minutes. I had to reduce my voltage to 1.456v (as reported by CPU-z) and run at 2404.5 MHz to be Prime stable for about 12 hours (small files). It now runs at a constant 68C. My suspicion is that my problems are more thermal than anything else. It only errors out once it hits 70C and it seems to be Prime stable at anything below that. The THERMALTAKE A1838 is also known as the one of the Venus series silent coolers. http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/venus/rs/a1838.htm Maybe this is what is causing the problem. All the reviews said that it performs as well or slightly better than the stock cooler so I thought it would work for some overclocking. Or I could just have been unlucky with the CPU I got.

Thanks, glad I could help!

Your temps look pretty high, you should get some better air cooling! Get and XP90 or a Zalmon, or I use the Thermaltake Silent Tower @ 2557mhz my peak temp after several hours of Prime95 is 54c

 

[byMaX]

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The 1.45 or 1.55 setting in clockgen gives 1.57-1.60 in CPUZ, AI Booster, and Asus probe. And it also sticks when you reboot

Well, cpuz and other utils show 1.56 to 1.58 even if i set it in bios at 1.55 which is max, and in clockgen, I put it on 1.55v, and click on apply VID, and it still says in "current" field, that it's at 1.45v? What's the problem?

 

[byMaX]

p.s.

any new bios or modded bios?

 

[seattledesi]

<rant>
dang it all! I can't believe everyone else is able to OC their setup than me.. i'm stuck at 230htt on a asus sli / 3000+ combo.

My trouble in
</rant>detail

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: byMaX

Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
The 1.45 or 1.55 setting in clockgen gives 1.57-1.60 in CPUZ, AI Booster, and Asus probe. And it also sticks when you reboot

Well, cpuz and other utils show 1.56 to 1.58 even if i set it in bios at 1.55 which is max, and in clockgen, I put it on 1.55v, and click on apply VID, and it still says in "current" field, that it's at 1.45v? What's the problem?

Yes thats the max, mine fluctuates between 1.57-1.58 most of the time, occasionally it jumps to 1.60

 

[ahurtt]

Originally posted by: seattledesi
<rant>
dang it all! I can't believe everyone else is able to OC their setup than me.. i'm stuck at 230htt on a asus sli / 3000+ combo.

My trouble in
</rant>detail

Don't feel bad man, I can't seem to get my machine to pass prime 95 using any setting I put in so far other than using the built in AI to overclock a crappy 10%. And I have nice Corsair RAM too.