Asus P3V4X any known problems?

[Elkan]

Have you got any conflicts with the asus P3V4X? i'm planing to buy it, so please help me out!

I am going to use it with the asus 7700 deluxe videocard and with an intel 667 mhz processor.

 

[jsbush]

The P3V4X is a great bored, you can't go wrong with it.

 

[rpr]

AGP4X does not work on this board with GEForce2 cards. Also, if you plan on overclocking, look for one with the ICS clock generator chip. The newer versions of the board have a Winbond chip mthat does not overclock as high and only has 16 FSB speeds (the ICS chip has 32 FSB speeds).

 

[maddmax]

Good stable mobo. Requires some tweaking to get best performance. Three good user sites to help you get the most out of it. FYI rpr:The results of a voltage regulator modification to help those GeForce2 GTS users cold boot and run at AGP 4X are just now coming in. Most of those brave souls have reported success.

 

[Bartman39]

I have to dissagree most problems with the 4X AGP issue are due to driver problems, not all Detonator drivers with allow the 4X AGP to function because sidebanding is enabled (cant have both from what I have seen). As far as the P3V4X goes I have recommened it to several people and they have been very happy with it... I think VIA did very well with that one...

 

[maddmax]

Some GeForce 2 GTS users will not even cold boot when installed in a p3v4x. Failure to post is not likely a driver issue. Correct me if I'm wrong, I think Nvdia drivers disable AGP 4X during installation if a VIA chipset is detected. Users enable it with a registry hack. The reason for this, the motherboard vendors were providing AGP ports with drive levels that were not compatible with some Nvdia graphics cards.

 

[osage]

Very sound board, good feature set. Don't be put off by AGP 4X issues, you will not notice any real difference. Overclocked or not this is a very good mobo.

 

[Bartman39]

I seem to remember a problem with the older VIA 4 in 1 drivers having the cold boot problem but that was a while back I had used 2 different Geforce 2 GTS cards (32 & 64meg) with my P3V4X and had no problems what so ever "BUT" did notice with the 6.18 Detonator driver no 4X AGP was avail... But with the newer 6.26 and up 4X AGP did work with no reg hacks (of course this could have been related to the rev. of the board or bios I was using???) Also the problem was with GF2 MX`s I dont remember the GTS`s having this problem??? (sorry I have slept since then... on to Radeon now)...

 

[maddmax]

Won't give up my p3v4x for all the tea in China. AGP 4x works fine with AIW radeon.

 

[Bartman39]

Maddmax here is something that may help if you use a Geforce GTS


From overclockers.com


AGP 4x fix on VIA Apollo Pro/133/A chipsets
Author: GShapiro from our forum
I have a Tyan S1854 mobo using a VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset. Also a Creative Annihilator GeForce2 GTS ULTRA. I have always been able to set AGP4X but it always hung my system when running 3D games. As a result I ran at 2X.

Even though there is no significant difference between 2x and 4x I always wanted to get 4x to work. I paid for 4X so damn it I want it! Now I found a way. It's called the AGP Driving Value. This value is located in the mobo's BIOS for those that use the VIA chipset. With some mobos the BIOS Setup program will have this option. There might also be an option called AGP Driving Control. This can be set to AUTO or MANUAL. Use MANUAL in order to set a value for the AGP Driving Value.

For the Geforce line of cards specifying a value of DA or EA has allowed me to use 4x with no problems! No lockups, no visual artifacting!

The Driving Value can range from 00-FF (these are hex values). If the two I use don't work for you try some other values. If you have a non GeForce card just keep trying different values. Just keep in mind that if you use a 'wrong' value your 3D applications might freeze resulting in having to reboot. Some values will cause terrible visual artifacting.

What if your BIOS Setup doesn't have the AGP Driving Value? There are a couple of BIOS modification programs called WPCREDIT and WPCRSET found at http://www.h-oda.com. Using these you can modify the BIOS while in Windows. In fact this is what I use.

For my chipset (VIA Apollo Pro 133A) the offset into my BIOS for the Driving Value is X'B1'. Using WPCREDIT you can directly change the default value that is there (this is a great way to test different values to see if they work for you). The values entered with WPCREDIT will disappear when rebooting your machine. However, WPCRSET is designed to startup with Windows and set the value automatically.

I can't speak for any other VIA chipset other then the one I have. It might be that all VIA chipsets have the Driving Value at offset X'B1'. It is up to you to find out.

Here's a link that talks about the AGP Driving Value :

http://arstechnica.com/ask-ars/2000/ask-08212000.html

Here's how to use WPCREDIT and WPCRSET. Keep in mind this article makes no mention of the Driving Value. It does tell you about other values to increase the performance of your VIA chipset as well as how to use the two programs.

http://viahardware.com/memtweakguide1.shtm

Now I know some of you with VIA chipsets can run at 4X without doing what I outlined. However, many people like myself have problems. This procedure is intended for them.

Good luck,

Gary
GShapiro@bigfoot.com

Read more in the thread right here.

*These settings may or may not work with your computer. Please use at your own risk*

*update*Thanks for Hilbert for sending this snip in, again it emphasizes use at your own risk:

"Although the article is correct you might want to reconsider that article or at least make a footnote on it. If anyone sets the signal strength value too low or entirely wrong it can cause a serious problem. Namely the videocard can't boot up anymore since it hasn't enough signal strength .

Thus: the PC boots but the monitor will stay black and there is no way to reverse that situation. Not even clearing the CMOS can fix such a situation.

If such a problem occurs only one solution is at hand, remove the AGP videocard, insert a PCI videocard and connect a monitor to it. That way you will be able to enter the BIOS and reset the AGP values.

If someone not knowledgeable enough he/she can inflict a serious problem. You might want to add this in that article. This is why VIA is not very clear on the AGP Driving Value, and this is exactly the reason.

I was able to verify this problem a few weeks ago.

Feel free to add this text in that article BTW."

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From overclockers.com