*** Official AOpen AX4C/Max (875P) Thread ***

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Scroatdog

Member
Nov 11, 2002
102
0
0
Well,

I got my replacement Aopen board. I wouldn't really call it a replacement, though. I asked AJUmp for an RMA, they e-mailed me an RMA number and told me I have 15 days to send it in. In the meanwhile, I got the new one from Newegg. So AJUmp had better cough up my money or I am going to throw a FIT!!!!

I dont remember if the motherboard I received from AJump was shrink-wrapped or covered in plastic. The one from Newegg was not. Can anyone verify this for me??? I just don't remember if the box had plastic over it or not.

Anyhow, will be swapping motherboards this evening, I suppose. Depends on how tired I am after work.

Do I need to re-install XP???? Or can I just swap them out and call it good??? Would it be BETTER to clean-install, or repair install, or just swap????

The problem with the old board was voltage fluctuations on the +12v and Vcore which wasn't a power supply issue. Also, temperature anomalies. The board likes to tell me my system temp is -47 every time I boot up. In order to get it to read correctly (MBM5 starts up with the computer) I need to open the Aopen SilenTek utility. Once it does its "hardware initialization" I get correct temps. Then I shut off SilenTek. The voltages seem stable with the CPU fan hooked into my fanbus, and not the motherboard. That is unacceptable, though.

I wonder what new problems will reveal themselves as I do the motherboard swap. I'll have to get my iso alcohol ready to clean and re-grease the CPU.........

Any thoughts???
 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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Try dropping the new board in. What is the current draw on the CPU fan btw?

Since the new board has the same hardware as the old one you should not need to reload unless something got corrupted due the the defective board.

Dave
 
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tommyz2kool

Member
Jul 18, 2002
34
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I just tried this board out and I am VERY disappointed. I really don't know what is up with this board. I downloaded the newest 1.03 bios and set my FSB to 250, 5:4 (ddr 400) memory ratio. the post screen shows my 2.4c (800fsb) cpu at 3.0ghz and my memory at DDR 400, but guess what? when I check cpuz, I'm really still at fsb 200, and ddr 320! I was thinking that perhaps that cpuz was misreading something, but I double checked using sandra cpu arith. bench and sure enough, I get a score like 7000. on my dfi pro875, I get a score of 9300 at fsb250, ddr 400.

and to make things even worse, the board is NOT stable at these bogus ddr 400 speeds:|
maybe this board just doesnt like corsair, but at ddr 320, I cannot use the spd setting. I have to go down to 2.5-3-3-7 just to get into windows. also this board has a cold boot problem and half the damn software that ships with it does not even work!!!

:|
 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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If you've read any of my posts you would have seen I had problems using the Corsair LL ram (and so have others on ALL Canterwood boards). I tossed that crap Corsair and got OCZ PC3200EL ram. Runs fine at 2,6,3,2. Also the highest I've been able to overclock my P4 3.0C was 240 FBS with ram at 1.6x. There is no guarentee on overclocking. One thing you are overlooking is that with the 2.4C and dual channel DDR @ 400 it enables PAT. With PAT enabled it lowers the latency even further (mine is down to 2,5,3,2 at stock speeds). That is more than likely why it isn;t running overclocked compared to a board that does not support PAT.

How does it run at 200 fsb with memory at DDR 400 and 2,6,3,2??

Dave


Originally posted by: tommyz2kool
I just tried this board out and I am VERY disappointed. I really don't know what is up with this board. I downloaded the newest 1.03 bios and set my FSB to 250, 5:4 (ddr 400) memory ratio. the post screen shows my 2.4c (800fsb) cpu at 3.0ghz and my memory at DDR 400, but guess what? when I check cpuz, I'm really still at fsb 200, and ddr 320! I was thinking that perhaps that cpuz was misreading something, but I double checked using sandra cpu arith. bench and sure enough, I get a score like 7000. on my dfi pro875, I get a score of 9300 at fsb250, ddr 400.

and to make things even worse, the board is NOT stable at these bogus ddr 400 speeds:|
maybe this board just doesnt like corsair, but at ddr 320, I cannot use the spd setting. I have to go down to 2.5-3-3-7 just to get into windows. also this board has a cold boot problem and half the damn software that ships with it does not even work!!!

:|
Click to expand...

 
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tommyz2kool

Member
Jul 18, 2002
34
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at stock settings, the board is fine. but at FSB 250, DDR 400, I am not able to get into windows using CAS 2. I can get into windows if I drop down to CAS 2.5, but when I run CPU-z, it reveals that my cpu is still running at FSB 200 (2.4ghz) and DDR 320 (5:4). and even then, it is still very unstable (system will randomly hang).

I have a DFI PRO875 that can run FSB 255 (the limit of the board with current BIOS) for 3.06ghz at 2-2-2-6 timings, so I know it's not the memory and cpu.

I'm not trying to trash the board on purpose, but try to see if you can get FSB 250 and check to see what cpu-z reports.
 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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what if you set the fsb to 200 MHz and memory to 5:4 then boot into Windows. Does CPU-Z report 2.4/320? Is Windows stable at cas 2? If so then I suspect CPU-Z is not reporting fsb properly @ 250 fsb. Try dropping down to 240 fsb with memory at 5:4. That is speed I am 100% stable at.

Are you using CPU-Z 1.17?

 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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also one other thing, does the DFI support PAT with the current bios revision? I do not know if you can confirm that PAT is enabled. PAT optimizes memory latency when running a 200 MHz (800) cpu with dual channel ddr ram. It will cause instability over a board not running PAT when memory timings are agressive.

 
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tommyz2kool

Member
Jul 18, 2002
34
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=I am using the latest version of CPU-z and I seriously doubt it is misreporting FSB speeds. If the aopen were indeed running at FSB 250 (3ghz) and 5:4 (DDR 400) why is the ALU score in Sandra arith. test only 7000? the DFI Pro875 scores around 9300 at the same speed. there is definitely something up with this board at FSB 250.

The DFI also has an option for fast memory performance that can be turned on and off. CPU-z shows that turning this option on and off does nothing. however testing with sandra shows that CAS2.5 w/ this option turned is about equal to CAS 2.0 with the option turned off.
 
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tman7510

Junior Member
May 5, 2003
21
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Can anybody help me with my onboard gigabit lan. I can't get it to connect with my toshiba pcx1100 cable modem. Is it my motherboard or just a compatability problem between the gigabit lan chip and toshiba cable modems.
 
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shoman94

Senior member
Apr 18, 2003
458
1
81
Well, got my new CPU in finally......benches and tests coming soon......My Corsair is running 2,2,2,6 at stock speed. I havn't OC'd yet....waiting for the AS3 to settle.
 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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Wondering if the AOpen is going into some weird cutback at fsb250. My 3.0C won't even post at fsb 250.

The question again is how are your scores at fsb 200, DDR400 2,6,3,2 ?? And is it stable? You mention instability at 250.

Because PAT changes memory timings you might not be able to set the fastest timing on your ram. My OCZ is set to 2,6,3,2 in the bios and PAT at stock fsb changes ram timing to 2,5,3,2.

Dave

Originally posted by: tommyz2kool
=I am using the latest version of CPU-z and I seriously doubt it is misreporting FSB speeds. If the aopen were indeed running at FSB 250 (3ghz) and 5:4 (DDR 400) why is the ALU score in Sandra arith. test only 7000? the DFI Pro875 scores around 9300 at the same speed. there is definitely something up with this board at FSB 250.

The DFI also has an option for fast memory performance that can be turned on and off. CPU-z shows that turning this option on and off does nothing. however testing with sandra shows that CAS2.5 w/ this option turned is about equal to CAS 2.0 with the option turned off.
Click to expand...

 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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0
What operaating system are you running? I've heard of someone else with the same problem running Windoze 98. Seems Win98 does not like APIC1.4 (extended IRQs). You can try setting APIC to 1.1 in the bios if running Win98, don't know if that will help.

Dave



Originally posted by: tman7510
Can anybody help me with my onboard gigabit lan. I can't get it to connect with my toshiba pcx1100 cable modem. Is it my motherboard or just a compatability problem between the gigabit lan chip and toshiba cable modems.
Click to expand...

 
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tommyz2kool

Member
Jul 18, 2002
34
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I did not even test at FSB 200, DDR 400 because to me, it is a given that any CW board will be able to run stable at those speeds. the board is stable at stock speeds.

 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
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yes but reasoning behind asking is you are saying at fsb250 it is unstable and cpu-z shows it is at fsb200. So try fsb 200 and see if it is unstable or not. Might not really be falling back to 200 fsb but getting into an unknown state.

There is no guarantee any particular combo will overclock to a certain point. What works on one board may not work on another.

Sorry to hear the AOpen doesn't perform as well as the DFI for you. I don't overclock but I do check to see how far it will go.

Dave
 
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tommyz2kool

Member
Jul 18, 2002
34
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well, whatever. I dont have the board anymore so I cannot do anymore testing. But I know for a fact that if you try to set this board to FSB 250, you will get dropped back down to default speeds. and even thought the post screen shows you to be at whatever FSB speed you chose, you really are not. both sandra and cpu-z confirm this.



 
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duncan888

Member
Apr 26, 2003
73
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0
I've finished my setup now! Running 2.8C at 3.2Ghz at the moment, i'm sure i can go faster will try tomorrow morning
 
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zuze

Member
May 19, 2000
158
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What about $70 PC3200 2x512Mb Geil memory. I looked around and it was nicely priced, right where my budget sweet spot is.
 
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duncan888

Member
Apr 26, 2003
73
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0
i am just running my setup at stock speeds, but it still crashes occasionally. it seems really unstable even though i haven't overclocked.

eg. i was starting up defrag and it blue screened and rebooted,
i started to burn a DVD and it crashes. both was running at stock speeds!

Is there anything i need to set in the bios???
 
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WizardNJ

Member
Apr 13, 2003
113
0
0
If that is Corsiar LL ram then yes. Change the memory timing from "By SPD" (which is 2,6,2,2 for the LL ram) to 2,6,3,2. Also try bumping the ram voltage to 2.7 volts (VDIMM).

When you use dual channel DDR ram and an 800 fsb cpu the Canterwood chipset enables PAT (Performance Accelerating Technology) which reduces memory latency even more. The Corsair ram's default spd value for the timing is too agressive for the Canterwood boards.

You can also install the latest Motherboard Monitor (5.3.20) and have it running to monitor voltages and temperature to see if that is causing the lockups. I'm leaning more towards the ram settings in your case though/.

Dave
 
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