*** Official ASUS M2N-E Thread ***

[Levelthreesheep]

I have an odd problem. My system has an Athlon64 X2 3800+ EE (1.250v), the M2N-E (BIOS 0602), and OCZ Platinum XTC PC-6400 RAM. The RAM works fine; that's not the issue. My problems are with setting voltages. For some reason, the vcore cannot be set any higher than 1.250v. I can set the vcore to 1.350 in the BIOS and it'll read that in the BIOS hardware monitor, but once I get into Windows (XP Pro SP2) it resets to the startup VID of 1.200, and I can't set it any higher than 1.250v using RMClock and Crystal CPUID. This is severally limiting my overclock. I've managed to pull off 233x10 stably with 1.250v and using the 0.05v offset in the BIOS, but I want to do far more than that.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any luck fixing it? Would BIOS 0802 fix this?

 

[maxpower211]

What about AMD Live? Should that be enabled? What does it do exactly?

 

[johnno]

Originally posted by: Levelthreesheep
I have an odd problem. My system has an Athlon64 X2 3800+ EE (1.250v), the M2N-E (BIOS 0602), and OCZ Platinum XTC PC-6400 RAM. The RAM works fine; that's not the issue. My problems are with setting voltages. For some reason, the vcore cannot be set any higher than 1.250v. I can set the vcore to 1.350 in the BIOS and it'll read that in the BIOS hardware monitor, but once I get into Windows (XP Pro SP2) it resets to the startup VID of 1.200, and I can't set it any higher than 1.250v using RMClock and Crystal CPUID. This is severally limiting my overclock. I've managed to pull off 233x10 stably with 1.250v and using the 0.05v offset in the BIOS, but I want to do far more than that.

Has anyone else had this problem? Any luck fixing it? Would BIOS 0802 fix this?

The Volts should be correct in the bios, I know when I use Windows tools to check the voltages they always seem to be inaccurate.

The 0802 bios seems very stable for me, but doedn't appear to fix anything.

Have you reduced the HT from 5 to 4 or 3? And reduced the memory speed? You could also try dropping the multiplier.

 

[Levelthreesheep]

Oh, my HTT and RAM are fine. I've dropped the HTT multipliers and RAM ratio in accordance with my overclock. I just worry about the voltage. Actually, on RAM question: are AM2 systems supposed to run at the 1T command rate as S939 systems would with only two sticks of RAM? I so, I guess it might be the voltage limitation which holds my RAM back at 2T.

I'll run some temperature tests with various voltage settings in Windows to see if you're correct. Bah, I knew I should have gone for the R580 ASUS board...

 

[maxpower211]

I still get a BSOD upon coming out of standby.... very annoying. Could it be a PSU issue? When I up the voltage to 1.9V on my memory (even though it should be 2 volts and 1.8 volts seems to be the most stable) I get a random BSOD on boot.

 

[insomnio]

Is anyone using the new forceware drivers for vista 64bit? Every time I reboot, I get a BSOD.

 

[Jedi Knight]

Yeah, after trying all of new BIOS, I see 0502 is the most stable BIOS

 

[Treason]

Hi guys! im new! so pls pardon my ignorance! hehe i plan to overclock my amd x2 3600+..hoping to get about 2.4ghz...ive got a tt big typhoon vx on the way..so my next purchase before i begin overclocking would be performance rams..(kindoff scared to try ocing now with my value ram) so i guess my question is- as long as i stay with rams that are rated below 1.95 volts ill b fine rite? looking at the corsair xms2-5400/6400 or the kingston hyperx pc2-5400(1.85v)...looking at the 2 x 1 gb kits..thanks so much in advance!

 

[insomnio]

Rated 1.95 or below and you'll be fine. Although some ram, like mine, is rated for 2.0 or 2.1, but will work at 1.95. Just the timings arent so tight.

 

[Treason]

ah..great thanks..just got xms2-5400...1 gb kit....running at 225 fsb now..only problem is my vcore is pretty high at 1.375...lower than that and i cant even get into windows...my ram multiplier is at 533, timing 5-5-5-12-2t .....stable now...waiting for my new cooler before i proceed any further..will be aiming for 2.6ghz then...

 

[anandtech02148]

ARGGHH GAH GAH.. BIOS 0802..arghh gah gah.
good brand name, great board, great marketing, ULTRA-CrapAss bios.
went from 0602 to 0802, my computer will not restart, had a to flush a few times then bring back 0602.

does anyone else have this restart problem too?
Asus is good at churning hundreds of board to market, but bios..craptastic.

 

[Ephebus]

Another issue...

Product information on ASUS site says: "Adjustable FSB frequencies with fixed PCI/PCI Express frequencies".

Manual says (on page 4-20): "CPU Frequency: indicates the frequency sent by the clock generator to the system bus and PCI bus".

So it seems that the PCI (not PCI-Express) frequency is not fixed, but is indeed dependant on the value specified for the CPU frequency in the BIOS. In my past experience, this will cause serious problems to PCI devices (and any other devices linked to the PCI bus) after you raise the CPU frequency above a certain level (usually about 15-20%, but maybe less, depending on the type of device). For example, hard disks may experience frequent data corruption, softmodems will keep disconnecting from dialup connections, etc. So, maybe that is the reason for some of the problems people reported on this thread.

By the way, there is the exact same discrepancy between product information on ASUS site and the manuals with the M2N-SLI Deluxe and the M2N32-SLI Deluxe models.

 

[imported_inspire]

Not so much of a problem if you're using SATA drives, Ephebus, since they're linked to the PCIe bus.

 

[maxpower211]

Hmm, the 701 BIOS went final.

Should I be using that or the 802 one that was posted on here?

EDIT: Nevermind. 802 appears on Asus's site now.

 

[Ephebus]

Originally posted by: inspire
Not so much of a problem if you're using SATA drives, Ephebus, since they're linked to the PCIe bus.

I guess many people still have IDE HD's, and also, overclocking without being able to lock the PCI bus will also affect CD/DVD drives, which usually are IDE devices. Just try a high overclock and write some large zip file to CD or DVD and then test the file - chances are huge that it will be corrupted. Not to mention all possible problems with PCI cards.

Anyway, advertising these motherboards as being able to lock the PCI bus when in fact they aren't is unexcusable for me, and this type of thing is becoming a frequent practice with ASUS. I have another mobo, a K8N4-E (soq. 754), and the site says it has the PEG Link feature, which it doesn't have. I wrote a couple of times to ASUS informing about this and they simply deleted the messages without even bothering to reply.

 

[maxpower211]

Does anyone know what voltage the "auto" setting will run the memory at?

 

[Mase075]

The only problem I am having is with the my excellent compatriot 'n Quiet, I installed the driver along with the application and set it to Auto in the bios, since the only two bios options for Cool 'N Quiet were Auto or Disabled. Even with all the necessary done, at least I thought so, my cpu is still running at full speed/voltage. Anyways that was my only issue, no random reboots I guess I got off easy so far. Any ideas on the Cool 'n Quiet issue though? I am running XP64. Thanks in advance.

 

[Blacktree]

Man, I wish I would've read this thread before building my AM2 system. Then I would've bought the Epox 570 board instead.

Anyway, I'm new to Athlon64 systems, and am having some difficulty overclocking on the M2N-E. I've read a couple tutorials on the 'net. But I'm confused about the RAM speed on this board. In the BIOS, the RAM speed settings are in MHz (667MHz, 800MHz, etc). Does the board run the RAM at a locked speed? I thought RAM speed was based on the FSB multiplied by the RAM divider?

 

[geokilla]

@Blacktree No. The RAM speeds are not locked to those settings. What RAM do you have? Are the RAMS getting enough volts? I'm not too sure though, since I overclock very little.

@maxpower211 I believe the auto setting gives the memory 1.8v. I may be wrong though since I do not know for sure.

@Mase075 Did you set the power schemes to minimal power management in Display properties? I'm not sure how XP64 works but that's how I got Cool n Quiet to work in XP Pro.

Does anyone know when the new SoundMAX drivers are coming out?

 

[Blacktree]

My Ram is generic DDR2 800MHz, rated for 1.8V. I have no problems with it. I was just wondering why the RAM would crap out above 230MHz FSB, even with the RAM speed set to 800MHz in BIOS. Now I know.

 

[Mase075]

geokilla thanks a lot, by setting that to Minimal Power Management in Windows it did the trick

 

[Ephebus]

I'm really curious as to what happens to the PCI bus clock when you raise the CPU base frequency. I don't own this motherboard, but I'm considering buying one (or the M2N-SLI Deluxe), and the overclocking features are absolutely essential to me.

So, if any of you use to overclock with this motherboard, please let me know the value you are setting for the CPU base frequency and the resulting values that you get for the PCI and the PCI-E clocks, which can be read with the free ClockGen utility. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

 

[morganzion]

Hello,
i want to enable bitlocker in vista x64 but i don't know if this motherboard can be compatible ?
how to make this m2n-e compatible ?

thanks

 

[Ephebus]

I couldn't help it and wrote to ASUS telling them that they are advertising something which the motherboard doesn't have (PCI lock). The pathetic answer from ASUS USA (as usual):

"Unfortunally we here at asus tech support can not support Overclocking due to warrenty issues if you wish to seek this infomation please refer to an google search on Overclocking on this MB

Tim
Asus Support Team."

I NEVER asked about overclocking. I'd rather die before asking help on this subject to ASUS "technical personnel" (double quotes intended). As always, they go around the question and answer something that has nothing to do with what was asked (= why do they keep advertising features the produtcs don't have). By the way, the same thing is true about the M2N-SLI Deluxe and the M2N32-SLI Deluxe - they also can't lock the PCI bus, although the motherboards information pages on the ASUS site say they support this feature.

As anyone can notice by browsing hadware forums and sites all over the internet, ASUS reputation is going downhill because of this type of lousy support and disregard for consumers.

 

[geokilla]

Maybe it's auto locking?

The PCI speed changes when you increase the CPU frequency I think. Increasing the CPU frequency means overclocking. I like this motherboard. It's been trouble free for me. BTW, I barely overclock.