Abit AX8 Motherboard, Its nice.

[furballi]

Download link for 1.1 BIOS.
http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/downloa...N_SCREEN=AX8&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket%20939

Follow this link to create your BIOS boot floppy.
http://www.abit-usa.com/downloads/bioshelp.php

Shut down PC and reset BIOS. Insert BIOS boot floppy. Then follow the ABIT installation instruction (link above). When done, shut down PC. Reset BIOS/CMOS.

I installed windows along with the SATA drivers (hit F6 then include drivers 1, 2, and 3) before I update the BIOS to version 1.1. Course I have the Winchester core.

Make sure you reset the BIOS. Then boot PC. You MAY need to update to BIOS 1.1 before system will work with Venice core CPU. You don't need to modify anything in BIOS to detect and load the BIOS floopy disc. Simply reboot the PC. You may want to disconnect the hard drive and other PCI devices.

 

[timecop67]

Okay followed everything to the letter and reset the bios. I had 2 sets of floppy drives in this thing both new and work great in my Intel system. Tried different cables nothing. Light goes on when the system is accessing it. System disk also works fine in Intel system. Funny I had the same damn problem on the Soltek motherboard which I RMAd out. Beginning to think it might be my new Venice chip or something or the Pci express not playing well with the other components. Don't know. It just says boot error insert system disk. Can't load any Sata Drivers either at the F6 prompt probably because the floppy drive isn't recognizable.

 

[furballi]

Reseat all boards and connectors (including RAMs). Move the board outside the PC to test. Connect only the Seagate HD, video card, and floppy.

Try the VIA drivers from this site...
http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview....?catid=20&threadid=64033&enterthread=y

Reset the BIOS/CMOS several times. Boot PC. Hit DEL to enter BIOS. Put BIOS floppy in drive. Exit without change. The BIOS floppy should load. You may need to wiggle the floppy cable.

Another option...Reset the BIOS/CMOS several times. Boot PC. Hit DEL to enter BIOS. Put WXP CD in drive. Change boot order to CD ROM then hard drive. Save settings and exit BIOS. When you see the F6 prompt, continue to hit F6. Put in the SATA boot floppy (or the SATA boot floppy that you've created at the via website). There will be a section where you need to hit S to select the drivers from the boot floppy.

I'm not sure if the connection of the molex POWER pin at the bottom of the motherboard will make any difference.

 

[timecop67]

Well I am trying to get a CD boot disk made and then I will at least have my bios updated on this AX8 Board.

Seeing as how both the Soltek and this board have the same problem I will be getting out my Fluke and checking voltages on the floppy plug. I might power the old system with this plug to see if it works.

If it is the Bios being nasty then updating it somehow ought to change something. Voltages all look good and the fan is barely moving on the Fortron power unit since it is not being strained at all.

 

[SIRCYCLOPS]

Why not use Flashmenu for bios update under Windows. Just do it 'from file' and you should be ok, no?

I just ordered AX8 two days ago, after much gnashing of teeth. That and a Venice 3000 and MSI 6600GT.

Was hoping that would be fine for at least a year, and give me the pci-e / s939 base for future video card and cpu upgrades, but I just read on Xbit that VIA has announced, months after affirming the positive, that the KT890 will not support dual core.

Of course, they're releasing a updated version (i.e. 'A" version) to correct the problem, but everyone with the original boards is screwed.

Hope about that! In my case it's even worse, having not yet even received the now shipped board. Ha! Screwed before I was even screwed. Not even dinner. Imagine!

Oh well, I'll pump the Venice to 300 fsb (after mem div/HTT bus/voltages config) and if it doesn't work, I'll send it back and go to the dark side by having it replaced with an NForce4.

Never thought I'd see the day, having been well served by VIA KT133, KT133a, KT266a, KT333 and K8T800PRO. All ABIT and EPOX boards!

Better pull a rabbit out of the hat VIA, fast. Or else!

SIRCYCLOPS:disgust:

 

[SIRCYCLOPS]

VIA Chipset Does Not Support AMD Dual-Core Chips.
VIA Says K8T890 Incompatible with AMD Athlon 64 X2, Plans to Release New Revision

Category: Chipsets

by Anton Shilov

[ 06/03/2005 | 04:25 AM ]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/chipsets/display/20050603042038.html

 

[timecop67]

Dual core not supported. Well thats why I purchased a 3800... should last a couple of years anyway. If I ever get past the install floppy stage. lol. That 8251 Via southbridge was due out anyway wonder if it will have to be revised?

Can't get into Windows because this board seems to require use of the sata drivers at the F6 prompt which requires a floppy. I had no problem getting into Windows with Soltek board because the Via 8237 to sata is a direct connection. No drivers needed for the Soltek 890 board. Soltek technical support stated this fact. On this Abit A8X there is probably a bridge between PCI and sata so you have to use floppies and drivers to get to work.

Well the voltages going to the floppy are a very good 5 and 12v. The light goes on when trying to access. But still the non system disk error. This disk boots on my intel setup. Are there some variations in dos systems disks that may boot on some systems are not on others? I just used Windows XPs full format with system files.

My next step is to get that bootable CD rom going to flash the bios. Might have to get a copy of Nero to burn a ISO image as Hotburn just aint working right. The support people said to buy something else also. lol.

I disabled the unnessary stuff in the bios along with the cool and quiet feature that is suppose to be bad in this bios version. No luck.


Any other ideas?

 

[furballi]

Pull the board out of the case and retest. Could be shorting against something? You could make a slipstream windows XP installation CD with the appropriate VIA SATA drivers, or use an old PATA HD to install windows and update the BIOS.

Perhaps there is a quirk with your floppy.

Do you have a boot disc for Partition Magic or Drive Image? Try it. If the system cannot access the disc during boot, then you should try another cable and floppy drive. Don't forget to reset CMOS after each test. The Abit should come with one floppy cable, with the appropriate tag at each end.

You can download the trial version of Nero.

 

[timecop67]

Well I put in a boot USB drive and the system recognized it fine but then it freezes when going to the DMI pool data at boot.

One odd thing I noticed on startup is that the Raid Controller is on the same interupt as the USB 1.0/1.1. Interupt 11. Thinking they might be interefering I disabled the all the raid rom and other stuff. But don't think the actual Raid controller chip is possible to disable because the Raid still it shows up on the listing.

I have Nero Suite 3 coming maybe I can make a cd boot disk with that....also hope I can burn the new bios and awd flash on it.

I've tried two floppy drives and two cables in this system. Not ready yet to pull the whole board and try outside. Might fry something else. lol. The fact that both the Soltek board and this AX8 board have the same problem.... could that possibly mean a faulty circuit on the CPU itself? Or the interaction between my particular venice chip, motherboard and bios? What are the chances that I got 2 bad mother boards having the same problem of not booting the floppy? Not too likely I would guess.

 

[timecop67]

Got the AX8 bios flashed finally to the latest... however no change in the floppy responding.

Whats the next thing to try? Is there a good program that will check interupts for problems that will run in Dos? Noticed that the Display controller is running on the same interupt as my Raid controller with a lot of other devices. on IRQ11. Could someone check theirs...is that normal?

Don't have another graphics card to stick in.... but right now that would be my first guess as a possilble conflict. Anyone know what interupt the floppy usually resides on?

 

[furballi]

I also see them with my system during boot...IRQ11.

Standard floppy disc controller properties...IRQ 06.

I'd suggest that you strip the MB down to the video card, hard drive, optical drive, and floppy. Again, test it on the original ABIT box covered by the anti-static bag. Also reseat all connectors and CPU.

If you suspect the video card, then you can try a PCI card.

Did you flashed the BIOS in windows? Did you try with on RAM module?

 

[furballi]

The following items are listed under IRQ11:

-Simple comm
-Raid
-USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI
-Display

Perhaps your aftermarket CPU cooler backplate is crushing something on the back of the motherboard. Normally, resetting the CMOS should clear up most problems. You can also remove the battery for a few minutes.

 

[timecop67]

Flashed the board under dos. Used Norton Systemworks 2003 to boot to dos. Well when I had the Soltek board up and running under XP....it recognized the floppy as being there okay....but just couldn't write or read from the floppy. At this point I am ruling out it being a motherboard problem because the same systems are or were on both boards.
That tells me it has to be a problem aside from that. Yes I reset the bios on all occasions and after flashing. The video card, hard drive and optical is all I have in the system period. Ram Module? don't know what you mean.

Good idea on the PCI card. I will try to pick up a cheap one somewhere and try it out.

 

[BoomAM]

Any idea when the "A" refresh is getting released?

 

[furballi]

One stick of RAM, in single channel mode.

 

[timecop67]

Problem fixed!!

I removed the floppy drive from the system and it booted up fine. Thinking I might have too long of screws in there I replaced with some shorter...didn't help.

Then I noticed the clearance between the Lian Li Case Bezel and the floppy drive itself was very snug. Moved it as far back as I could and everything is now peachy. In other words it was as if someone had their finger lightly on the eject button. This was causing all the errors and it is still a little tight...I may drill out the screw holes a little bigger someday to slide it further back.

Someone with a Lian Case probably ran into this error before. Anyway I've learned a few things even though it gave me a mild headache. lol.

 

[furballi]

That's why I like to do a bench test with these mysterious problems. Get everything out of the case so you can eliminate one more variable.

 

[SIRCYCLOPS]

JUNE 16-05

RE: FSB AX8

Bought board less than a month ago after researching options.

300 fsb is fine, but it doesn't seem to go much higher.

I'm SuperPi - windows - gaming stable at 300*9 / 2700

cpu = 39c idle / 47c load @ 1.6 v (may work w/lower volts, just haven't completely tweaked yet).

Other:

HTT = 3

mem div 266 (delivers DDR400 when running 300 fsb so I can have tight timings on my so-so ram).

VNB = 1.6v
VHT: 1.30 v
VDDR: 2.90v
VSB: 2.6v
VDDRref: 5mv
Bios 11

Cool n' quiet has stopped working but I can fix that, seems a little buggy.

I bought this board just before I found out it doesn't support X2 dualcore cpu's.
No biggy cause I can't afford that until reasonable perhaps a year or two, so that will be time to perform next motherboard upgrade anyway.

A few positive things not found on every board are the mem voltages i.e., up to 3.2 volts (thinking Mushkin redline w/UTT chips), and the somewhat better onboard sound chip (ALC658). And Uguru is very useful at quieting system and providing some good windows control of low-level systems functions. My GIGABYTE GV-RX80256D RADEON X800 PCI-E 256MB silent-pipe also works well (with all 16 pipes enabled I might add..heh!), so mostly happy with the AX8.

All in all, if I didn't dislike Nvidia so much I would have succumbed and bought the DFI Nforce4 Ultra (shudders...), but VIA has always been berry berry good to me (kt133/133a/266a/333a/K8T800 - now K8T890).

L8r...

Coop

 

[SIRCYCLOPS]

Pardonthe old sig, thanks!

 

[furballi]

What kind of RAM timing and CPU cooler are you using? 300 MHz is very good for an AMD 64 3000 CPU.

 

[SIRCYCLOPS]

Cooler: XP-90 w/92mm fan (3000 rpm max - 2160 min)

Ram:
1- corsair XMS3200proc2 512mb
1- generic samsung pc3200 512mb (on brainpower board)

Note: non-matched memory but works dual channel, timings 2.3.2 T1
Note: I keep the memory as clsoe to pc3200 (200 Mhz) at all times by using divider, in this case 266 (3:2). Performance hit not worth discussing, 1:1 cpu/ram on A64 is (for the most part) a moot point.

Still think I should have bought the Nvidia (shudder!) Nforce4 Ultra-D though.

Good luck.

 

[Edysmf]

I have this motherboard abit Ax8 but my bios don't wants to save my options in uGuru Utility. I have big problems with the CPU(3500+) temperature,is above 55-60C with original box cooler from AMD and I want to set beep warning to 60C and shut down to 65C but every time i writte this values in bios and then press enter nothing happens still 85 for shut down and 75 for warrning beep remain in the options! I am desperate seems my CPU will burn soon and I have nothing to do to prtect him can anybody tell me how that options in bios can be save? I pressed space until this appears(*) behind the values and after pressed enter to the value,enterd manualy by keys 65 to shut down and 60 to beep but they don't wants to change !!!Please somebody tell me step by step how to configure and what the heck keys shoul I press for uGuru to now my intentions!!!
Thank you

 

[furballi]

I would recommend that you update the BIOS to version 1.1 at the Abit website. After you update the BIOS, shut down the PC and clear the CMOS. uGuru can foul up my BIOS, requiring me to reflash. That's why I don't use uGuru. Set everything from the BIOS.

55C is normal at full load if you're pumping a lot of juice to the CPU and your room temp is higher than 28C. If you're seeing +45C at idle, then you may need to remount the CPU cooler. Make sure the cooler is firmly seated. All surfaces must be clean. Use a high quality thermal paste if possible.

I personally disable ALL beeps and warnings.

 

[tvdang7]

ok im thinking of getting this board....i have a few questions...whats the max prcoessors it supports?.....its atx so it will fit in my tsunami dream case right?.....will it support the new dual core porcessor?(4200+ ext....).....what ram are yall using?.......i wan the ram yall are using.........thats all please help.....new ot computer

 

[furballi]

The VIA 8237 chipset will not work with the new dual core AMD CPU. If you're lucky to get the new 8237A chipset, then the MB will support dual core.

The board is a standard ATX, so it will fit in an ATX case. I've tested the following value RAMs in this board and they all work fine up to about 212 FSB speed:

Corsair Value RAM
Kingmax PC3200 value ram
Kingston value ram (3 clock version)