- Feb 23, 2005
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Asus P5W boards show flaky Conroe support
Users have to flash BIOS with an old CPU or fork out more dosh
By Theo Valich: Monday 07 August 2006, 16:03
WE HAVE RECEIVED several dozen complains concerning several motherboards from ASUSTeK, most notably ones with ATI RD480 and RD580 chipsets.
With the launch of Conroe, the company issued a press release which claimed all of its P5W motherboards come with built-in support for Conroe. And with Conroe finally hitting the retail shelves, many folk chose the P5WDH DeLuxe model for the pairing with E6600 or X6800 for maximum overclocking capabilities.
But, as usual, if something goes wrong, enthusiasts are usually the first bunch of people to find out. And dozen members of the XtremeSystems forums have been up in arms.
The P5W series is being advertised as Conroe-ready, but what ASUS forgot to mention to its customers was the fact that in many of the retail boxes feature old versions of the BIOS, which do not support Conroe as such.
Many of the boards in the channel come with 0401 and 0501 revs which simply refuse to boot if the Conroe CPU is occupying the Socket - the board has to have 0601, 0701 or 0901 BIOS for Conroe to work flawlessly.
While this is a zero-issue to every journalist or a system builder that has access to the processors enthusiasts and users who are building their own system and ordered Conroe and P5W got stuck in a difficult position. It turned out that users will have either to buy a Celery CPU just to flash the BIOS or order a new BIOS chip with the correct BIOS rev. Sadly, the company charges $25 for a new chip, although some folk managed to get the price down to $5.
We contacted ASUSTeK and got less than satisfactory response. Either the people there just aren't aware of the problems that are going on or are choosing to act the ostrich and shove their heads in the sand until the newest shipments flood the channel in full.
When a company states it supports Conroe and sends out a press release about it, you'd expect the product to be shipped with hardware to back up to the claims on the box. Sadly, when it comes to Conroe and P5W motherboard that was not the case.
Some e-tailers are flashing the BIOS on their own volition. Fair play to them. µ
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33523
Users have to flash BIOS with an old CPU or fork out more dosh
By Theo Valich: Monday 07 August 2006, 16:03
WE HAVE RECEIVED several dozen complains concerning several motherboards from ASUSTeK, most notably ones with ATI RD480 and RD580 chipsets.
With the launch of Conroe, the company issued a press release which claimed all of its P5W motherboards come with built-in support for Conroe. And with Conroe finally hitting the retail shelves, many folk chose the P5WDH DeLuxe model for the pairing with E6600 or X6800 for maximum overclocking capabilities.
But, as usual, if something goes wrong, enthusiasts are usually the first bunch of people to find out. And dozen members of the XtremeSystems forums have been up in arms.
The P5W series is being advertised as Conroe-ready, but what ASUS forgot to mention to its customers was the fact that in many of the retail boxes feature old versions of the BIOS, which do not support Conroe as such.
Many of the boards in the channel come with 0401 and 0501 revs which simply refuse to boot if the Conroe CPU is occupying the Socket - the board has to have 0601, 0701 or 0901 BIOS for Conroe to work flawlessly.
While this is a zero-issue to every journalist or a system builder that has access to the processors enthusiasts and users who are building their own system and ordered Conroe and P5W got stuck in a difficult position. It turned out that users will have either to buy a Celery CPU just to flash the BIOS or order a new BIOS chip with the correct BIOS rev. Sadly, the company charges $25 for a new chip, although some folk managed to get the price down to $5.
We contacted ASUSTeK and got less than satisfactory response. Either the people there just aren't aware of the problems that are going on or are choosing to act the ostrich and shove their heads in the sand until the newest shipments flood the channel in full.
When a company states it supports Conroe and sends out a press release about it, you'd expect the product to be shipped with hardware to back up to the claims on the box. Sadly, when it comes to Conroe and P5W motherboard that was not the case.
Some e-tailers are flashing the BIOS on their own volition. Fair play to them. µ
http://theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33523
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