A8N-SLI (Non Deluxe) BIOS Version

[Sir Loin]

Here's something puzzling me. Why is there now a 1004 final BIOS for the Deluxe board, but the non Deluxe board is still stuck on 1001?


Surely the extra SATA ports, Gigabit LAN etc can't be collectively causing that many problems? Because that's the only difference in the 2 boards I can see.

 

[coyrls]

Here is my history of messages from Asus about this. The reply saying there would be a release "soon" was sent on 14th February, so probably time for me to ask again. If others do the same, it would add to the pressure....

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUSTek UK Technical Support Department.

What we meant to say is the beta BIOS, not the release BIOS.
We only make beta BIOS into release after it has been fully tested by our quality testing. There should be a new version due to release for A8N-SLI basic soon.

For any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

regards,

ASUSTek UK Technical Support Team

[Problem Description]
On 9th February 2005, I asked used this form to ask the following question:

?The A8N-SLI Deluxe production BIOS is at version 1003. The A8N-SLI production BIOS is at
version 1001. The fixes listed for the 1003 BIOS would also apply to the non-Deluxe model. When
will a production BIOS for A8N-SLI be released with the 1003 features? Thankyou?

And received this reply:

?Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting ASUSTek UK Technical Support Department.

The BIOS for the two boards are written together now, so all changes made to A8N-SLI Deluxe will
also apply onto A8N-SLI, it is just that A8N-SLI Deluxe has been made earlier, thus has higher version
number even if they have the same change. Hope this can help to clearify the question further.

For any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

regards,

ASUSTek UK Technical Support Team?

I replied to the mail but have not received an answer. My reply stated that the answer given cannot
be true as the 1003 A8N-SLI Deluxe release BIOS was posted on your Web site on 2005/01/24 and
the 1001 A8N-SLI release BIOS was posted on your Web site on 2004/11/30. It is therefore not
possible that the 1001 A8N-SLI BIOS can have ?all the changes? made to the 1003 A8N-SLI Deluxe
BIOS. Please can I have a believable answer to my original question.

Thankyou

 

[luky]

I ask the same question ASUS yesterday. Obviously, DELUXE iget better support

HI, I am worried about my A8N SLI (not DELUXE). What concerns me a bit is an apparent lack of
support for this board. Last final BIOS 1001 is from November 2004 and it seems to me to be bit old.
Reading about all the problems with DELUXE version of the board, I am afraid that vanilla version will
suffer from the same issues. Deleuxe version, however, has already BIOS version 1004 and
apparently people is much happier now than a month ago. Can you please explain me what is ASUS
policy in regard to BIOS upates of this board? Can I actualy use the same bios as for DELUXE
version?

Here is what I got from asus today

Dear Friend :
Thank you for contacting ASUS Customer Service.
My name is Ailon and I would be assisting you today

Sir, A8N-SLI have already the 1002 bios , And the new bios is researching by our R&D engineers, if we have we will release it on ASUS website. Sorry for any inconvenience that caused to you.

Best regards!

 

[coyrls]

I've tried again. I'll let you know what they say. As I said in my previous message if others log the same question (in their own words), it might help.

This is what I said this time:

I have logged two previous questions asking about the availability of BIOS releases for the A8N-SLI (non-deluxe) motherboard. I have been told:

1) There will be a new production release version for the A8N-SLI ?soon?.
2) The beta BIOSs for the A8N-SLI and A8N-SLI Deluxe are ?written together now?

I was told that the new release for the A8N-SLI would be ?soon? on 2005/02/14. I note that since that date version 1004 of the A8N-SLI Deluxe BIOS was built on 2005/02/16. The release BIOS for the A8N-SLI is still 1001 built on 2004/11/30. Please can you give me a date when a new BIOS for the A8N-SLI board will be released and which release of the A8N-SLI Deluxe BIOS it will be equivalent to.

I note that the latest BIOS release for the A8N-SLI Deluxe is now 1005-003 built on 2005/02/23 and that the latest BIOS release for the A8N-SLI is 1002-003 built on 2005/01/20. I was told that the Beta releases would be made together. This does not seem to be the case. Please can you explain again what your policy is?

 

[Sir Loin]

Hmmmmmm, interesting stuff! Thanks for the replys! :thumbsup:

It seems the deluxe version does get better support, probably because they've sold more? But that really isn't an excuse because people who have bought the non deluxe version are being left in the cold with issues that aren't being sorted with new BIOS revisions. :disgust:

They say they write the BIOS for both at the same time? So where are they? Time to contact ASUS I think (If I can find the ASUS UK tech support email address!)

 

[coyrls]

There's no ASUS UK support email address (I'm in the UK as well). You have to use the contact ASUS technical question link from the UK Website. You'll get a reply saying it's from UK technical support (although it reads like it was written in Tawain). If you reply to the email, you get nothing back. You have to log another call through the contact ASUS link. They do seem to reply within 48 hours, the problem is that the reply is just a brush off. I don't know how to escalate beyond this website approach.

 

[Sir Loin]

Do you mean this link?

http://vip.asus.com/eservice/techserv.aspx

Been trying to use that for a week! Keep getting a server error so I mumbled a few choice expletives to myself and gave up :disgust:

*UPDATE*

Just tried again and it worked! Lets see what the reply is (when I get it!) Here's the question I asked anyway;

Could you please tell me when you will be offering the same amount of support with regular BIOS updates for the non deluxe version of the A8N-SLI as the deluxe version. Thank you.

 

[coyrls]

Oh dear, they're just making it up as they go along. Here's the latest reply:

Sorry but bios updates will only be released as and when necessary, it is possible that the extra features on the deluxe version required an update while the standard board didn't; even if they are being developed in tandem that does not mean there will be new releases at the same time.

 

[Sir Loin]

Thanks for the update! I'll post the response I get from ASUS when I get receive it.

 

[luky]

Ok, new info. My question was

Dear Ailon,

BIOS 1002 is on your pages just in BETA version (03) and it even doesn't
have explanation, what has been changed.

I would really appreciate if Asus take more serious stand towards this
motherboard. I understand that you get better margins on DELUXE board,
but it doesn't mean that you should neglect other customers.

In any case, can you answer me the other question from mine request? Is
it possible to use DELUXE bios for non DELUXE board. As the boards are
virtually the same, I would imagine that bios can work if non used
components are disabled

And the answer:

Sir, Sorry ! The beta bios is testing bios file , and it hasn't been publicized , So our don't give some explanation for it , about this point , it's not the same as the normal vesrion bios.

And you couldn't the use a8n-sli deluxe bios to update a8n -sli, their bios information are different . if you use a8n-sli deluxe bios to update a8n -sli, it will lead to your bios chipset damaged or no update..

I guess keeping pressure can help

 

[Sir Loin]

While I'm still waiting for a reply off ASUS, anyone else have the non deluxe board and information regarding lack of BIOS updates?

 

[Sir Loin]

Well, it's been over 2 days since I asked ASUS for some information on BIOS updates for the A8N-SLI Non-Deluxe and I haven't received a reply. Does anyone have a Non-Deluxe board and information on BIOS updates? OR is the Non-Deluxe board relatively trouble free? Does the extra functionality of the Deluxe board cause more problems than they're worth? Someone please respond as information regarding the vanilla board are as rare as hens teeth!

 

[coyrls]

Can't give you more information I'm afraid .... I'm in the same position as you. Have you checked the web link that you were given when you submitted your question? Once I didn't get a reply by mail, but when I checked the link, there was a reply posted there.

 

[Sir Loin]

Well, I sent Asus the query on the 23 Feb and NO reply yet! Nothing on the link either. I've either been dumped to the back of the queue or being ignored. Come on ASUS, this is disgraceful! :disgust:

 

[Visual]

I dont get this, why are you people so much wanting new bioses?
First, having a new bios released often doesn't mean better support, it's actually an indication for a lot of problems with the board. Bios should be updated only when there's something really wrong with the current one.
Granted, there are issues with the official 1001 version. It seemed to overvolt my Winchester at almost 1.5 volts when voltage was set to "auto", setting it to 1.4 manually worked perfectly though. Higher voltage settings didn't work but you still could get to 1.57 volts if 1.5 was set in bios and 1.45 was set in glockgen
It didn't have a manual PCI lock setting but setting your HTT frequency to 201 or anything different from 200 turned PCI lock automatically.

I didn't have other problems with the original bios, but these mentioned above were enough to make me update to the 1002.3 beta.
Default vcore works properly for my winchester now, voltages go up to 1.575 and work properly. I dont think higher voltages will be supported by any future bios anyway, its either a safety precaution policy of ASUS or just a hardware limitation.
An option to force 33MHz, force FSB-derived frequency or the default automatic selection for the PCI bus is added.
Only issue I've had so far was that the "Manual" overclocking setting was reverted to "Auto" a couple of times clearing away any custom-set HTT, voltages and PCI-lock, I still don't know why/how though, might just as well have been my error.
So this beta bios is just great in my oppinion, soon it'd be completely polished and made official.

I don't see what more do you people want. You're bitching as if the two currently available bioses aren't working, but my own experience with them says the opposite.
Also to those that are just complaining from the obvious bios version differences between the two board versions, as was noted above, the 1002.3 beta for the vanilla board is the same as the 1005.3 beta for deluxe.

 

[coyrls]

I'm using the Beta BIOS as well. As you say, options are missing from the production BIOS, I would prefer to use a production BIOS. I would have hoped that the 1002.3 Beta could have been tested and put into production by now. There seems to be a contrast with the Deluxe BIOS, where Beta releases are more regularly put into production.

 

[Lowfat]

Originally posted by: Visual
I dont get this, why are you people so much wanting new bioses?

Well let me tell you that on my board, I cannot raise the vcore above 1,45V with my winchester 3200+. This is why I want a new bios.

I too has been in contact ASUS about this. And our friend Ailon did not answer any BIOS question that I have, but suggested I sendt inn my CPU for testing. I really don't think so.

 

[luky]

Also to those that are just complaining from the obvious bios version differences between the two board versions, as was noted above, the 1002.3 beta for the vanilla board is the same as the 1005.3 beta for deluxe.

It is obviously nonsense - 1002.3 is from January, file contains is different and see response from asus I got recently.
I don't know if you are using Matrox drives or try to overclock, but I am almost sure that the same problems Deluxe users are having, non-deluxe users will have as well. I don't own this board, I am thinking of it. But lack of info about make me think twice (probably even more) before purchase

 

[Sir Loin]

To Visual..

You said it yourself

"Granted, there are issues with the official 1001 version. It seemed to overvolt my Winchester at almost 1.5 volts when voltage was set to "auto", setting it to 1.4 manually worked perfectly though. Higher voltage settings didn't work but you still could get to 1.57 volts if 1.5 was set in bios and 1.45 was set in glockgen"

We aren't "bitching" but there are issues with the 1001 BIOS that need resolving. Hence why we want updates with similar frequency to the deluxe board. Granted, they may not be as critical as the deluxe board issues, but I shouldn't have to tweak here and there using third party utilities. It's not much to ask from ASUS is it?

 

[Visual]

Originally posted by: Lowfat
Well let me tell you that on my board, I cannot raise the vcore above 1,45V with my winchester 3200+. This is why I want a new bios.

well i had my winchester 3200+ at 1.57 with the beta bios. managed to get it at the same voltage even on the original 1001 bios with the help of clockgen.
if you're seeing the "1.45 maximum" in clockgen, you should know that it just isn't true. clockgen always shows that no matter the bios, its not really coded well for this board.

Originally posted by: luky
It is obviously nonsense - 1002.3 is from January, file contains is different and see response from asus I got recently.

yes the bioses are different, and deluxe wont work for vanilla, right. but they are developed together now. so our 1002 has all the features of deluxe's 1005 which apply to vanilla. the numbering difference shouldn't bother you.

I don't know if you are using Matrox drives or try to overclock, but I am almost sure that the same problems Deluxe users are having, non-deluxe users will have as well.

I'm with seagate, a 3200+ reaching 2.6GHz at 1.57v, if this info helps you in any way.
I don't know what problems deluxe users are having, my only problem so far is the crappy nv firewall bluescreening and rebooting my pc - i just turned it of.

I don't own this board, I am thinking of it. But lack of info about make me think twice (probably even more) before purchase

So you don't even have the board, yet you go around posting snappy emails to asus and whatnot. As if they owe you something... You are weird. Also, don't buy Maxtor BTW, there are plenty of people that are running their Maxtors just fine with the board. Most likely you just need to disable NCQ or write-caching for now, until the drivers/bios get polished.
If you've still not gotten a board, I'd actually recommend getting the MSI sli or of course DFI if you can. They are supposedly better for overclocking, at least if you wanna use high HTT/fast ram. The asus is enough for me with 260HTT and the 166Mhz ratio for my ram (BTW the MSI also has issues with NCQ drives. I dont know about DFI)

Originally posted by: Sir Loin
You said it yourself
...
We aren't "bitching" but there are issues with the 1001 BIOS that need resolving.

If you look at what I've actually said, all the issues I see with the original bios have solutions, and also they are resolved in the current beta bios.
------------------
Ok I feel I should clarify something. I can't claim that the current beta bios is 100% good and noone should have issues with it. It wouldn't be a beta if that was so.
Also I am not arguing that asus should stop publishing new bioses or anything like that.
But people which just complain for bad bios support without actually specifying what issues they are having... it sounds like you just want more bios releases "in general", without a serious reason. Well, that IS "bitching".
Rather than mailing Asus a "Why aren't there more bioses" you better just focus on the problems that you're having with the board. If for example its a problem that has been solved with newer bios for the deluxe board, I'd bet that the corresponding fix will be released for the vanilla as well. If it's not yet solved, Asus can focus on trying to debug it rather than having to deal with plain stupid mails asking stupid questions about bios versions and release dates.

 

[Lowfat]

Originally posted by: Visual

well i had my winchester 3200+ at 1.57 with the beta bios. managed to get it at the same voltage even on the original 1001 bios with the help of clockgen.
if you're seeing the "1.45 maximum" in clockgen, you should know that it just isn't true. clockgen always shows that no matter the bios, its not really coded well for this board.

This is actually quite usefull information Visual
I downpatched my bios to 1001 and tried again, but now the vcore readings were strange. I could get higher than on the beta bios (now up to 1,56 something) if I belive cpu-z. Glockgen gave lower readings and the bios itself also gave different readings. 1,52 was max if I read it in bios (hardware monitor menu). So who do I trust? Setting vcore to 1,450 in glockgen gave readings as high as 1,5 in cpu-z. I'm confused and in doubt about the 1001 bios readings. And shall I do as asus support suggests, rma my cpu?

 

[Visual]

yes you should believe cpu-z

ok here are more details about my personal experience with this board regarding voltages. your mileage may vary

its also very unaccurate as i've forgotten details like actual values and numbers

with bios 1001:
when the vcore was set to "auto", it actually ran at around 1.48volts. weird that...
when it was set manually to 1.4 it was exactly 1.4, when set to 1.5 it was 1.5.
i had options up to 1.6something for the vcore. but all options above 1.5 didn't work, if i remember right they were the same as 1.5

with bios 1002.3:
the "auto" vcore properly results in 1.4 volts, the options go up to 1.575 and supposedly all work properly. i've tried only the 1.4, 1.5 and 1.575 settings myself but they were ok.

what clockgen's setting really mean and how they work:
(this is just a wild guessing on my part, based on something i read somewhere)
I assume that the board's vcore selection works internally on two levels/steps...
At the basic level the voltage can be set to some values that are quite some distance apart from each other, i.e. 1.525v, 1.4v, 1.2something
Then at a second step it applies something like a "fine-tuning" to the selected basic voltage, i.e. +3.5% +1.7% +0% -1.7% -3.5%
So what clockgen actually controls is the "fine-tuning" level only, and its settings mean a certain change of the basic voltage for example 1.40 means +0%, 1.45 means +3.5%.
Settings above 1.45 are the same as 1.45, i.e. +3.5%, that's why clockgen always claims 1.45 is max.

This way you can get to 1.58 if you set 1.52 in the bios (it does it like 1.52 on the firs level and +0% on the second) and then 1.45 in clockgen (which makes the second stage +3.5 % resulting in 1.58v).
This explains also why i.e. if you set 1.5 in the bios, you'd see 1.375 in clockgen. the bios makes 1.5 by setting 1.52 at first stage and -1.7% at fine-tuning, and clockgen only sees the finetuning and it corresponds to its 1.375 option.

I hope this whole thing made sense. But keep in mind its just my understanding, which might be different from reality.

Anyway, the important thing is voltages seemed to work just right with the beta bios, so if you don't want to deal with the original's kinks just flash to the beta. And for checking what voltages you get, don't use clockgen, it's settings mean something completely different from what's written on them
cpu-z should probably be reliable info, i use speedfan myself though.

 

[Lowfat]

If I understand you correctly, I'd set 1,52V in bios and use glockgen to get to 1,58 (controlling it in cpu-z or speedfan).

The problem I've had with the beta bios is that no matter what I did, I couldn't get above 1,45 V (readings in cpu-z). Also, when I was in some of the menues in bios (in the ram timing settings), the whole thing froze and I had to reset it (hardboot).

Perhaps I should try another flash of the beta then. Thanks for your help, this has been most usefull, I'll try to up the voltage when I get back home tonight.

 

[Visual]

voltages sure did work for me in the beta.
you might have had a bad flash, or maybe cmos not cleared properly from the old bios version, or something. clear cmos after flashing, then load bios defaults.
or cpu-z might not be as reliable as i thought for reading voltages :/ maybe try speedfan? also what readings were in the bios hw monitor?
disable cool'n'quiet as it may be lowering your voltages.
other than that i cant think of anything... if you still cant get above 1.45v you might have found one of the reasons this bios is still a beta but i dont understand why it would act differently on your system than on mine.

one thing i'm almost certain about - the problem is NOT in your cpu. rma-ing that will be useless. well, unless it's just a bad overclocker what does it reach at stock volts?

 

[Lowfat]

I'll have to try another flash for sure, but if I can get it up to 2600 with the 1001, I might just stick with it

It's been a while, but I think I could reach 2200 stable (1,4 V) and 2400 unstable (didn't get enough volt to cpu, just 1,45). All with the beta bios. Readings in the hw monitor was the same, not above 1,45 (1001 gives me max 1,52 in bios HW monitor, so it is better). Cool'n'quiet was disabled.

I'll try it out a bit tonight and post results here, thanks.