ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe 1T Issue To Be Fixed Soon!!?

[bob661]

Is there an issue with BIOS 1006?

 

[bob661]

Ummm...nevermind.....no SLI in that BIOS....LOL! Sorry. Move along, nothing to see here.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Originally posted by: ajmiles
Hey all,

After reading the great Anandtech SLI Roundup and seeing Wesley too had problems with overclocking at 1T I asked if he might be able to get a reply from ASUS on the issue. Here's what Wesley sent back:

Adam -

My engineering contacts at Asus have emailed me that the video compatability
issues have been resolved and the fixes are in a new BIOS 1007 to be
released very soon. I was also told they believe they can fix the
overclocking issues and be very competetive with DFI. These fixes should be
in a new BIOS next week.

I will be out of the US for a couple of weeks, so you will need to look for
new Asus BIOS at their site and on Forums.

Wesley Fink
Senior Editor, AnandTech, Inc.

I think that speaks for itself.

ajmiles

Well, here we are 10 days later and no fix yet, I,m really starting to doubt if this will ever get resolved

 

[jose]

Which is the best bios "so far" to use w/ this mobo ? I won't do SLI...

Regards,
Jose

 

[Regulator07]

Originally posted by: jose
Which is the best bios "so far" to use w/ this mobo ? I won't do SLI...

Regards,
Jose

i am having no problems with the 1007-002 beta bios. the 1003 and 1004 were giving me problems with the prime blend test at stock speeds (thought it was hardware related but updated to bios 1007-002 and 1006 and no problems)

 

[ahurtt]

I will be happy when somebody figures out why my Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA NCQ drive keeps getting corruption in my Windows partition. I have tried every BIOS version to date and am using the nForce 4 standalone 6.39 driver set. I am overclocking but only from stock 2GHz to 2.3GHz on my Winchester 3200. There is never any problem detecting the drive any more as in previous bios versions but the constant corruption is still a factor even though I have NCQ DISABLED. I just got off the phone with Maxtor support to see if there was any firmware update for my drive but unfortunately they couldn't tell me since I was not at my computer and I was calling from work during my lunch break. I will have to go home and look on the hard drive itself and see what it says on the label where it says "code" and call them back and tell them. Then they can tell me if there is a firmware update available. Also, even though it says on their website that the PowerMax diagnostic utility does not work for drives on RAID or nForce 3, 4 chipset controllers, the tech rep told me that there has been a fix for this. However, you must download the ISO image version of PowerMax and burn to a CD. The normal exe version still won't work. So I'm going to try this too to rule out a bad drive, but I'm pretty sure the drive is fine because chkdsk never turned up any bad sectors or anything. But who knows. I am about at my wits end with this motherboard.

 

[davidos]

I have NCQ 'enabled' and have no problems w/ 1004... I did get an updated firmware from Maxtor but I don't know if this will solve your problems (They are reluctant to give it out b/c they say it's the equipment makers responsibility to update their hardware to work with Maxtor's drives... (blah, blah) ... Also, my system is not overclocked right now... PM me with your email and I'll forward you the info.

 

[ajmiles]

Well, here we are 10 days later and no fix yet, I,m really starting to doubt if this will ever get resolved

Well, the email said it would be fixed in the 1007 BIOS, which has still yet to appear. It has been almost a week now since the 1007.002 and all I can hope is that the 002 fixed some non related 1T issues, and now this is what they are working on.

If it proves 1007 does not fix the issue, I'll certainly get back to Wesley at Anandtech and see if he can get an update.

ajmiles

 

[dinos22]

Has there been a fix on the 248MHz 1:1 limit on the A8N-SLI Deluxe..........thanks guys

Originally posted by: ajmiles

Well, here we are 10 days later and no fix yet, I,m really starting to doubt if this will ever get resolved

Well, the email said it would be fixed in the 1007 BIOS, which has still yet to appear. It has been almost a week now since the 1007.002 and all I can hope is that the 002 fixed some non related 1T issues, and now this is what they are working on.

If it proves 1007 does not fix the issue, I'll certainly get back to Wesley at Anandtech and see if he can get an update.

ajmiles

 

[mofrack]

Sorry Dinos, no fix yet, prolly not EVER. Hate to break it to ya. We got jacked.

 

[dinos22]

it's all good

i tell you what....i went to the dark side with DFI and came back feeling better about Asus...no shit.....it's a much better board i don't care what anyone says

also it seems bleeding edge forum has unveiled some serious and terminal problems for DFI NF4 mobos with 5V rail jumper to allow DFI users to select up to 4Volts for the RAM BUT looks like DFI has a known unfixable problem of blowing mobo chipsets with high vdimm jumper on.......plus DFI is a pain in the ass board and you have to mess with it for a month to get it right.........no thanks....at least Asus dividers work for me on my Winnie ha ha ha

Originally posted by: mofrack
Sorry Dinos, no fix yet, prolly not EVER. Hate to break it to ya. We got jacked.

 

[Whitewolf]

Do not underestimate the Dark Side of the Force!!! I went from the Asus to the DFI and I didn't have any problems. Maybe it's because I have TCCD memory so I don't have to use the 5V jumper.

 

[MADMAX23]

Don't use cpu half multipliers because results are not good!

 

[Solema]

Originally posted by: Whitewolf
Do not underestimate the Dark Side of the Force!!! I went from the Asus to the DFI and I didn't have any problems. Maybe it's because I have TCCD memory so I don't have to use the 5V jumper.

I have TCCD (XMS PC3200XL). Should I not use the 5v jumper? I have it on right now even though I am not pushing the volts. Would I gain even more stability taking the jumper off?

 

[rise]

you'll save your board too. if you don't use the volts you're going to fry your board. set it back to 3.3 sooner than later.

 

[SPQQKY]

I thought the Asus was better than the DFI also. Hated that DFI. I'm sorry, but they keep saying "you nned to take a lot of time and work to get this board to work well". I have seen guys posting over at DFI-Street that "it took me 67 days to get this board tweaked, but it's running great now". Sorry, but any mobo that takes over two months to f@#k with to get it to run right is a POS in my book.

 

[dinos22]

i didn't have trouble getting good figures out of it.....i had both TCCD....up to 300MHz FSB 1:1 and UTT (only used 3.2V at 237MHz stable 2-2-2-6-1T)..... as performance scales upwards with volts on BH5 ram it would have been an easy 250-255 BUT i wasn't gonna mess around......and as my ultimate setup was BH5+DFI i just decided to sell and keep my Asus going....i run Asus in divider at 285MHz*9 (on 3000+ Winnie...2-3-3-6-1T) and it churns out 32M at 28.5minutes....i'm happy with that....might get a Venice with higher multipler when dust settles in Australia as we are seeing really bad and a few good Venices ATM....

Originally posted by: Whitewolf
Do not underestimate the Dark Side of the Force!!! I went from the Asus to the DFI and I didn't have any problems. Maybe it's because I have TCCD memory so I don't have to use the 5V jumper.

it's hard work

Originally posted by: SPQQKY
I thought the Asus was better than the DFI also. Hated that DFI. I'm sorry, but they keep saying "you nned to take a lot of time and work to get this board to work well". I have seen guys posting over at DFI-Street that "it took me 67 days to get this board tweaked, but it's running great now". Sorry, but any mobo that takes over two months to f@#k with to get it to run right is a POS in my book.

 

[Whitewolf]

Originally posted by: Solema
I have TCCD (XMS PC3200XL). Should I not use the 5v jumper? I have it on right now even though I am not pushing the volts. Would I gain even more stability taking the jumper off?

TCCD works best at 2.6 - 3.1 V. To be more precise TCCD memory ICs have a sweat spot that allows them to perform best at a particular voltage, in the above range, that is usually diffrent between sticks. It may be 2.7 for you and 2.9 for me so you must experiment. And anything higher than 3.1 will just produce more heat without gaining performance and you will start having errors.

So why use the 5V jumper that allows you to give your memory up to 4.0V when all you will ever need is 3.1 max? Not to mention the rumours of DFI boards dying because of this feature.

 

[dinos22]

i like your signature....i used to have "SLAVING FOR DFI" when i had my nF4 Ultra-D....

yeah TCCD from 2.6-3.0V....start OCing with 2.6 and move up to see if performance scales up.....some OC best at 2.6 and some at 3.0 as whitewolf said......

what's Asus like with Venice

also i played with 2T multiplier yesterday and windows can load 300MHz 1:1.....only stable around 280-285........i prefer tighter timings 2-3-3-6-1T in divider.....it's good enough....the RAM is probably an overkill for Asus cause of 1T issue so might sell it and get RAM that can do up to 250 with Cas2.5 or whatever......unless I go Intel Dual Core as A64 X2 pricing was announced a few days ago and it stinks....low end AMD and Intel price difference is almost 3x greater on AMD (Intel 820-AUD$350.....AMD 4200+ AUD$980)..that's bullshit .....AMD is becoming greedy

Originally posted by: Whitewolf

Originally posted by: Solema
I have TCCD (XMS PC3200XL). Should I not use the 5v jumper? I have it on right now even though I am not pushing the volts. Would I gain even more stability taking the jumper off?

TCCD works best at 2.6 - 3.1 V. To be more precise TCCD memory ICs have a sweat spot that allows them to perform best at a particular voltage, in the above range, that is usually diffrent between sticks. It may be 2.7 for you and 2.9 for me so you must experiment. And anything higher than 3.1 will just produce more heat without gaining performance and you will start having errors.

So why use the 5V jumper that allows you to give your memory up to 4.0V when all you will ever need is 3.1 max? Not to mention the rumours of DFI boards dying because of this feature.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: Whitewolf

Originally posted by: Solema
I have TCCD (XMS PC3200XL). Should I not use the 5v jumper? I have it on right now even though I am not pushing the volts. Would I gain even more stability taking the jumper off?

TCCD works best at 2.6 - 3.1 V. To be more precise TCCD memory ICs have a sweat spot that allows them to perform best at a particular voltage, in the above range, that is usually diffrent between sticks. It may be 2.7 for you and 2.9 for me so you must experiment. And anything higher than 3.1 will just produce more heat without gaining performance and you will start having errors.

So why use the 5V jumper that allows you to give your memory up to 4.0V when all you will ever need is 3.1 max? Not to mention the rumours of DFI boards dying because of this feature.

doesn't appear that its the board now, as most have been traced to the UTT rams. of course more may come.

anyway, you're right about the tccd and the sweet spots, mine loves 2.9 and thats it. good to 260 at 2.8 then i gotta bump it.

regarding that 4v though, i pm'd solema to let him know that its been known for some time that you shouldn't use the jumper if you aren't using the volts. asking the mobo to discharge the additional 2v constantly will burn it up.

just an fyi for a fellow dfi'r

 

[dinos22]

hi ajmiles

any word from Asus engineers through wesley regarding the bios issue....what seems to be the problem with 1T and it is fixable with a bios or not....Asus sales are hurting so it is worth while for them to invest a lot of resources to fix this issue

dinos22

Originally posted by: ajmiles
Hey all,

After reading the great Anandtech SLI Roundup and seeing Wesley too had problems with overclocking at 1T I asked if he might be able to get a reply from ASUS on the issue. Here's what Wesley sent back:

Adam -

My engineering contacts at Asus have emailed me that the video compatability
issues have been resolved and the fixes are in a new BIOS 1007 to be
released very soon. I was also told they believe they can fix the
overclocking issues and be very competetive with DFI. These fixes should be
in a new BIOS next week.

I will be out of the US for a couple of weeks, so you will need to look for
new Asus BIOS at their site and on Forums.

Wesley Fink
Senior Editor, AnandTech, Inc.

I think that speaks for itself.

ajmiles

 

[Whitewolf]

Please people stop waiting for this magical bios fix. I am hearing the same "Taiwan is working on the issue" since December. That's almost 7 months! The Premium edition has the 1T issue fixed, so it's definately NOT a bios issue, but rather a hardware limitation. Otherwise they would just release/port the same fix from the Premium bios to the Deluxe one.

If you really want a board that overclocks memory well I'm afraid you should either wait for the Premium edition board or buy a DFI like I did. And apart from that, the Deluxe version is a pretty good board if you are not really interested in screenshoting sandra memory bences all day long.

 

[rubenerv]

hi all.. noob question.

im not in usa, im actually in sudamerica, so RMA the main board is not a choise.

I really want to update the bios of my A8N-SLI (non deluxe) with the safest way posible if it even exist, because i have the first bios version.. 1001 plzz any advice would be a lot for me

 

[vlad4]

The non-deluxe 1011-002 BIOS can be downloaded here.

Instructions for flashing the BIOS can be found here. Click the section named "AWDFLASH BIOS Upgrade Procedure".

Hope this helps!

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: ahurtt
I will be happy when somebody figures out why my Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA NCQ drive keeps getting corruption in my Windows partition. I have tried every BIOS version to date and am using the nForce 4 standalone 6.39 driver set. I am overclocking but only from stock 2GHz to 2.3GHz on my Winchester 3200. There is never any problem detecting the drive any more as in previous bios versions but the constant corruption is still a factor even though I have NCQ DISABLED. I just got off the phone with Maxtor support to see if there was any firmware update for my drive but unfortunately they couldn't tell me since I was not at my computer and I was calling from work during my lunch break. I will have to go home and look on the hard drive itself and see what it says on the label where it says "code" and call them back and tell them. Then they can tell me if there is a firmware update available. Also, even though it says on their website that the PowerMax diagnostic utility does not work for drives on RAID or nForce 3, 4 chipset controllers, the tech rep told me that there has been a fix for this. However, you must download the ISO image version of PowerMax and burn to a CD. The normal exe version still won't work. So I'm going to try this too to rule out a bad drive, but I'm pretty sure the drive is fine because chkdsk never turned up any bad sectors or anything. But who knows. I am about at my wits end with this motherboard.

I have the same drive and the almost the same processor, the only difference is I'm not overclocking and I haven't had a single problem with running my Maxtor Maxline III with NCQ or data corruption on the drive.