ASUS P4T533-C BIOS Oddities

[Dru858]

Well, I searched the forums and read about other users' problems with this motherboard and I wanted to share with you mine.

ASUS P4T533-C (1003 beta BIOS)
Pentium 4 2.53 GHz
(2) Kingston KVR1066X16-8/256

If I have the BIOS set to 2533 for the CPU speed, and Auto for the RDRAM Multiplier, then it won't POST the first time I turn it on. The little voice just says "system failed due to CPU overclocking... system failed memory test... system failed memory test..." I have to turn it off, then turn it back on and it POSTs and runs fine except it runs the RAM at 800MHz instead of 1066MHz. Everything runs perfectly stable, though.

So then I took the advice of the forums and set the CPU to manual and the FSB/PCI to 133/33 and the RDRAM to 4x. So it POSTS perfectly, although it takes about 1-5 minutes to do so, then Windows XP boots and the RAM is running at 1066MHz and everything is perfectly stable. So at least now I can turn it off and it will POST for me after... oh just about too long for me. But at least it's working.

However, I am having another problem. If I try to disable the serial and parallel ports then Windows XP will not boot. It POSTs, but when WinXP starts to boot it just sits at a black screen and does nothing forever. What gives? I upgraded to the 1003 beta BIOS but the same results... I hope a new BIOS update solves all of this stuff. I'm just wondering if anyone is experiencing the last part like me and if they know any work around.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Scipionix]

Are your drives configured properly? My HD was in cable select mode and was being recognized as primary slave instead of primary master. The search for the primary master drive added quite a lot to the boot time.

 

[Dru858]

Yeah, they're all configured and recognized properly in the BIOS and during POST. The thing is, it will POST at a "normal" speed if I leave the RDRAM to Auto (so then it clocks it at 800MHz), but when I set the RDRAM to 4x it takes longer to POST for some reason.