BIOS update for ASUS P4S8X...and a question about it

[Sunny129]

i know there arent many of you with boards yet, since they aren't easy to get ahold of, but in addition of letting owners know about the bios revision, i had a question about it too...i was wondering if they decided to include an AGP/PCI bus lock in this one. does anyone know? v1002 was the first bios released. the revision is v1003A. it includes the following:

1) Serial ATA ROM updated 376.bin(016).
2) Patch ATI AGP 8X.
3) Support Intel Pentium 4 2.8Ghz CPU.

i know it doesn't say anything about an AGP/PCI bus lock, but maybe that isn't a common feature listed in the software description even when its there...

here's the link for anyone who hasnt tried the new bios yet and wants to. just select "socket478" from the drop-down box and click on the P4S8X link. i would have linked direct, but the website won't let me

 

[Jumper377]

Does the v1003a update fix the issue with the Radeon 9700?

 

[Sunny129]

dont know...like i said, the only things it addresses are the things i listed above. so if anyone flashes to v1003A, please let us know about an AGP/PCI bus lock and a fix for the Radeon 9700...

 

[Tates]

From rage3d.com:

ATi Radeon 9700 AE2 Stepping AGP 8x Bug - 9:24 pm EST - MrB
I spotted this news bit over at TweakTown and have noticed a few users with similar problems. Here's the complete news post:

Since receiving our Sapphire Radeon 9700 graphics card a couple of days ago during testing we have been experiencing a few strange problems ? such as continuous system reboots and programs and games crashing back to Windows desktop when used on all SiS 648, VIA KT400 and P4X400 based motherboards with AGP 8X support operational which we currently have testing.
We cannot be 100% sure if this is an isolated problem however can be sure in saying we received confirmation from our contact at Epox Taiwan (who got first hand information direct from ATi) saying the problem is only occurring in AE2 stepping Radeon 9700 chips, and not the newer AE3 chips which are now shipping from the Canadian company, who say fix the problems discussed here. The problem is, the AE2 stepping chips are vast, and thus many made it into the retail market where end-users are no doubt going to suffer. It?s important to note that we had no problems what-so-ever running the AE2 stepping Radeon 9700 on VIA KT333 and Intel 845E/G based motherboards operating in either AGP 2x or 4x modes.


Hopefully I'll get an official response from ATI soon.

 

[Elvis2]

Ok...I can't tell you anything on the Radeon since I have a GF4 ti4600 but I can say that unfortunately no, there isn't a pci/agp lock. Not that you really need one since I can't get this board to run above 145mhz fsb anyway. This isn't a big surprise to me since the reviews said they weren't impressed with it's overclockabilty. Sad thing is, I can't even get it to run at it's ddr400 setting. I'm using 512mgs. corsair XMS pc3200 cas 2 ram and even at the slowest timings, it won't load XP Pro.

Btw, this board shipped with the 1003a bios.

 

[Sunny129]

interesting to see an ASUS board that can't OC past 145MHz fsb. but can you say with confidence that the AGP and PCI buses running out of spec due to the 145MHz fsb isn't the cause for a 145MHz fsb limit? maybe if an AGP/PCI bus lock existed in the BIOS, the AGP and PCI buses could run in spec, and therefore allow for a higher fsb limit. that is, unless, you know for a fact that something else causes the 145MHz fsb limitation...

 

[SofaKingKarateKid]

Hello, i have had the P4S8X for about a week now, and i have been unable to get rid of an error message when it boots:

"Error-Can't Write ESCD"

The error is flashed very quickly, and WinXP boots fine. I have had it since i first booted up the computer. If anyone could tell me what it means, or how to get rid of it, i would appreciate it. Thx very much