Intel D875PBZ BIOS

[Overkast]

Intel released BIOS P16 for this mobo. Is anyone using this version yet? If so, is it more stable than P14?

 

[cm123]

yes and yes, of course I only had 1 lockup with P14 - for Intel and me although, that's a lot.

 

[RalfHutter]

So far, so good for P16 on my board. But I only flashed it a few days ago.

Intel hasn't released a stable BIOS for the 865PBZ since P05 but with P14 things got much better, hopefully P16 will continue in the same direction and not be another step backwards.

 

[RalfHutter]

Well. Just had my first cold boot issue with P16. After 2 days. So it's not any better than P14. Phuck you very much Intel.

Back to P05 for me. PAT enabled and stable, you can't say that about any BIOS nwer than P05.

 

[Overkast]

Where can I get P05 BIOS from?

 

[us3rnotfound]

how do u guys know whether or not a certain BIOS has PAT? I would think that if these BIOSes stopped having PAT, that Intel would mean to do that. Just my opinion, and BTW, i am an owner of this board.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Overkast
Where can I get P05 BIOS from?

All the variations of the previous BIOSes are available here.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: shminu
how do u guys know whether or not a certain BIOS has PAT? I would think that if these BIOSes stopped having PAT, that Intel would mean to do that. Just my opinion, and BTW, i am an owner of this board.

First use a utility like CPU-z (look on the "memory" tab for the info) or ctiaw. to tell you if PAT is enabled or not.

You can then verify this by benchmarking your memory performance using an application like Cachemem or Sandra. First run some sets of benchmarks with your current BIOS, after noting what CPUz and ctiaw say about PAT. Then flash to BIOS P05. First note that CPUz and ctiaw now both say PAT is enabled. Now run the benches again. Note that your memory performance is now better than before. QED.

You can read about our experiences starting here. I have comparison benchmarks posted here and here. Other guys also have benches and results posted throughout that section of that giant thread. It's well worth grabbing a cup of coffee and spending the afternoon reading those 1500+ posts. You'll learn a lot about your board from that thread.

I'm not dissing this board, it's a great board but Intel's messed up the BIOSes for it and can't get their heads out of the sand to fix it. We've sent email after email to Intel tech support (some of which are published in that thread) and have got nothing but canned responses in reply. They did improve the memory speed in BIOS P12 but PAT is still shown as disabled and the benches are still slower than with P05, and they've added the cold-boot/reboot issues into the mix in the later BIOSes.

 

[us3rnotfound]

Bravo.

 

[Overkast]

BIOS P17 is out. Anyone using it? Stable?

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Overkast
BIOS P17 is out. Anyone using it? Stable?

Doesn't seem any better than P16. Guys are still having cold boot issues with it. I'm still sticking with P05.

 

[Overkast]

Damnit. Intel is ridiculous.

 

[Overkast]

RalfHutter... P18... is it any good?

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Overkast
RalfHutter... P18... is it any good?

I haven't tried it only any of my original 875PBZ's, but the ones that have say it's no improvement and most seem to be sticking with P16 for now.

But.......

There's a nev revision of the 875PBZ that was released in late December! It's called "rev 301" and has some voltage mods to make it compatible with the P4EE and possibly Prescott-478. It's really hard to get (all the OEMs are snapping them up) but I got one and have been running it for the past 3 weeks using BIOS P16 and it's been 100%, no coldboot issues at all. One other guy got one and he's been running P18 on it with no coldboot issues, so maybe Intel fixed something with this new revision. For the full story go read the ABXforums huge thread that I linked earlier.

 

[Overkast]

Damn... do you think I'd be able to RMA my existing mobo for a rev301 via newegg if I explained to them that I'm having boot issues with the mobo?

I only bought the thing in September, so it still has the warranty of course.

 

[Overkast]

Actually, I'm gonna download the Intel Desktop Control Center application so I can adjust the RAM votage to my Mushkin 3500 Level II RAM.

Hopefully that will fix my boot problems. You see, I'm having the same boot issues with this mobo as TQ was (on page 9 of that long thread on ABX forums).

In fact, he described my problem verbatim. So either 1 of 2 things has to happen for me before I go out and buy a new mobo... either Intel Desktop Control Center allows me to up the RAM voltage to achieve stable timings, or I back-install to BIOS P06 and hope there's no incompatibilites with that BIOS set and anything else I have hooked up to my rig (like my Microsoft bluetooth wireless mouse & keyboard for example).

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Overkast
Damn... do you think I'd be able to RMA my existing mobo for a rev301 via newegg if I explained to them that I'm having boot issues with the mobo?

I only bought the thing in September, so it still has the warranty of course.

You'd have to call Intel and there's a $25 charge for mobo support calls which is waived if they decide you actually have a problem. Good luck, I doubt they'll let you do it. You're betting $25 on it.

 

[RalfHutter]

Originally posted by: Overkast
Actually, I'm gonna download the Intel Desktop Control Center application so I can adjust the RAM votage to my Mushkin 3500 Level II RAM.

Hopefully that will fix my boot problems. You see, I'm having the same boot issues with this mobo as TQ was (on page 9 of that long thread on ABX forums).

In fact, he described my problem verbatim. So either 1 of 2 things has to happen for me before I go out and buy a new mobo... either Intel Desktop Control Center allows me to up the RAM voltage to achieve stable timings, or I back-install to BIOS P06 and hope there's no incompatibilites with that BIOS set and anything else I have hooked up to my rig (like my Microsoft bluetooth wireless mouse & keyboard for example).

You can't adjust your Vdimm with a pre-rev 301 board, IDCC or not. It's fixed. Good luck.

I'd try P05 if I was you, and see how well it works. You can always flash back to whatever BIOS you're currently using if you run into problems.

 

[Overkast]

Okay, I'll try flashing p05 then. Thanks again for the input.