*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[nib95]

Guys I've decided to stay at a 3.42ghz clock speed.
It's not worth the .1 voltage just to get anything above this.

I'm running stable at the moment with the ram 1:1 at DDR2-760. At my rams rated timings. 1.4v vcore, auto for the vdimm.

 

[Blibblob]

How exactly do I get the black IDE connector working? I've tried all of the JMicron controller settings but I can still only have either my DVD drive hooked up or my HDD. Furthermore, the loading slows down and hangs while detecting just the HDD, it's still fast when it detects the DVD drive. After loading it says that there was a main hard drive failure. I've tried it with three different hard drives now. Unfortunately they're all old, one's an 80 gig Western Digital, another a 7.4 gig WD, and lastly a 6 gig WD. My main HDD, the 300 gig maxtor, seems to be shorting out and is preventing the system from even powering. I don't have any SATA drives and I can't find any specifics on my problem.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: Blibblob
How exactly do I get the black IDE connector working? I've tried all of the JMicron controller settings but I can still only have either my DVD drive hooked up or my HDD. Furthermore, the loading slows down and hangs while detecting just the HDD, it's still fast when it detects the DVD drive. After loading it says that there was a main hard drive failure. I've tried it with three different hard drives now. Unfortunately they're all old, one's an 80 gig Western Digital, another a 7.4 gig WD, and lastly a 6 gig WD. My main HDD, the 300 gig maxtor, seems to be shorting out and is preventing the system from even powering. I don't have any SATA drives and I can't find any specifics on my problem.

The JMicron controller does not support ATAPI drives, so if you wish to minimize problems, make sure all your DVD or CD ROM drives are connected to the blue (native) IDE port. I've never actually tried to use the JMicron controller, so I cannot say for sure if any driver is required to operate PATA HDs.

-phil

 

[Blibblob]

Alright. It looks like my hard drives are shot, time to start looking for some new ones. Thanks.

 

[phile]

You'll have a much easier time of things of get yourself a good SATA drive to use as your boot drive.

-phil

 

[radicool]

I put together a replacement graphic to boot up with. Was a bit of a pain to do, because the manual doesn't explain too much about the right size etc to make it. Plus for some reason, some colours go transparent, so you have to replace them with a similar colour that doesn't have the problem.

It's nothing too exciting, just stole some existing nvidia and intel stuff and glued it all together, but it's better than the default screen. So if anybody wants it, you can download it here: http://www.tunes.za.net/misc/bios.zip

 

[bichi]

P5W DH installation with BIOS 1401, E6600, OCZ 2g DDR2-6400 Gold
- running reliably with mild OC @ 2.6 (FSB = 289, vDIMM = 2.05v, Mem Clk = 771)
- AIW 2006 Edition (x1300 based)
- pictures, benches, etc., arrange with newest first to keep continuity

Link: http://www.esnips.com/web/ConroeReady

 

[MXtra]

what's the correct way to update the bios with afudos? the manual says to make one bootable floppy with afudos and another bootable floppy with the bios file. is that right? i thought i read somewhere that it's done by making a bootable floppy with nothing on it and another non-bootable floppy with afudos and the bios file. which is it?

 

[imported_olaf]

I dont think it matters which way you do it except that the stuff you need on a boot disk, afudos and the actual BIOS can not fit on a standard 1.44MB floppy. So if you are using floppys, you are gonna need two.

My problems are still not resolved. I sent both bad sticks of RAM back to Newegg right? Well now they are telling me that they need the good ones too...and that I have to do two separate RMAs because each kit was bad. So, if you are scoring at home I have spent $500 on RAM and shipping and over a week waiting on shipping turn around etc. I told them no chance unless they send me some working RAM beforehand and pick up the cost of me shipping the 'mistmatched' good set of RAM I am using now.

edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustRatingReview.asp?Item=N82E16820227089 of the 19 posted reviews, 5 mention a bad stick and my review is not even one of those...

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: olaf
I dont think it matters which way you do it except that the stuff you need on a boot disk, afudos and the actual BIOS can not fit on a standard 1.44MB floppy. So if you are using floppys, you are gonna need two.

My problems are still not resolved. I sent both bad sticks of RAM back to Newegg right? Well now they are telling me that they need the good ones too...and that I have to do two separate RMAs because each kit was bad. So, if you are scoring at home I have spent $500 on RAM and shipping and over a week waiting on shipping turn around etc. I told them no chance unless they send me some working RAM beforehand and pick up the cost of me shipping the 'mistmatched' good set of RAM I am using now.

Yeah, it's best to RMA the whole kit since they are a matched pair - tested together.

-phil

 

[imported_olaf]

Originally posted by: phile

Originally posted by: olaf
I dont think it matters which way you do it except that the stuff you need on a boot disk, afudos and the actual BIOS can not fit on a standard 1.44MB floppy. So if you are using floppys, you are gonna need two.

My problems are still not resolved. I sent both bad sticks of RAM back to Newegg right? Well now they are telling me that they need the good ones too...and that I have to do two separate RMAs because each kit was bad. So, if you are scoring at home I have spent $500 on RAM and shipping and over a week waiting on shipping turn around etc. I told them no chance unless they send me some working RAM beforehand and pick up the cost of me shipping the 'mistmatched' good set of RAM I am using now.

Yeah, it's best to RMA the whole kit since they are a matched pair - tested together.

-phil

Well I dont know about that 'tested together' stuff. There is no way in hell the second kit was tested together.

And no where in the OCZ warranty http://www.ocztechnology.com/support/warranty/ that I could find anway, does it say you have to send back both modules in a kit if one of them goes bad.

So it seems to me like Newegg is being a little bit anal and I am done messing with this. $500 on RAM and a week of waiting and now they want me to drop another $250 and wait some more. No thanks. I will dispute the CC charges if I have to. I have spent almost $3k with Newegg in the past calendar year and been a customer of theirs for 5 years. I am sure I am far from their biggest spender but that is a lot of damn money to me and they are dropping the ball here.

 

[phile]

Well, yeah, newegg should have been clear as to what they expected you to return. However, doesn't it seem logical that you return what you bought, which is a kit, and not two individual sticks? In the future, deal with OCZ directly for RMA. They provide a much, much better service.

-phil

 

[EddyG]

Originally posted by: Andycam
Installed Windows, and no problem finding the disks on the ICH7. Problem came when I installed the EZ-Raid backup software - Windows bluescreened during the install and then went into a boot loop. I tried everything - flashed the BIOS to 1101, installed the EZ-Raid software *before any other drivers *after all other drivers *before SP2 *after SP2 *with drives connected *without drives connected *without any other expansion cards in the system except graphics, nothing helped. Since every try required a Windows reinstallation it was pretty annoying. I even reflashed the SiL controller with their latest firmware and ran the SteelVine management program instead of Asus EZ-Raid, same thing, bluescreen during install and then boot loop. However, I now saw that it was IaStor.sys that got the bluescreen. Using Intels latest ICH7 and 975X drivers didn't help.

Andy:

I'm experiencing the exact same issues. I want to use the "EZ-Backup" SATA ports in the default mirrored (safe / RAID1) mode for my boot (C drive, and another separate RAID array on the ICH7R for my data (D. Got all the drives installed and configured, loaded the ICH7R driver during the installation of XP via F6 and a floppy... and things appear to be working... BUT... as soon as I try to install the EzBackup Manager software, XP resets. Grrr... I can get out of the "reboot loop" by pressing F8 before XP loads and choosing the "last good configuration" option -- which appears to restore things back to before the EzBackup Manager install screws things up.

Even though things are working, the problem is that without the EzBackup Manager software, there is no way to monitor the status of the mirror on the EZ_RAID1/EZ_RAID2 connectors to you know if/when they need maintenance!

I tried the beta version of EzBackup Manager on Asus' web site (3.0.0.43A), but it behaves the same way (locks up as soon as it tries to start the EzBackup Manager service).

Quite disappointed, as I was really looking forward to this drive config -- it is one of the main reasons I went with the (expensive) P5W DH Deluxe!

 

[Skott]

I guess since it came as a kit they expect it back as a kit on a RMA/return. I'm gonna guess it has more to do with OCZ policies than anything else because they probably want the entire kit back as well before they refund NewEgg. So, NE is probably just passing the buck along to you the customer. I certainly feel for you. Thats alot of time and money you spent on that RAM. Makes me glad I went with the Corsair set. Good luck getting it settled. I hope it works out quickly for you.

 

[Pahonix]

Olaf, I know you have OCZ ram, but just as an FYI, Corsair's TWINX line actually goes through testing as pairs of chips and when each pair passes testing, they are packaged and sold. It makes complete sense if you bought a pair of sticks in a kit that they would want both sticks back.

 

[MXtra]

i just checked and it's 1.03 megabytes for afudos and the bios file.

 

[redplanet]

Heyas, I'm having a little issue right now with the JMicron controller. I'm trying to plug my Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-109 on the controller, it detects it fine and all but in windows xp the explorer window is damn slow and i never can go actually read a cd/dvd. I updated the Bios to the latest one available on Asus website and updated the JMicron drivers to 1.12.0. Also have a ide HD and tried connecting it to the JMicron controller and the DVD to the other ide controller then the DVD worked but my HD wasn't accessible from the JMicron one this was before I updated bios and drivers though. Any ideas as to what could be the problem ?

Thanks

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: redplanet
Heyas, I'm having a little issue right now with the JMicron controller. I'm trying to plug my Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-109 on the controller, it detects it fine and all but in windows xp the explorer window is damn slow and i never can go actually read a cd/dvd. I updated the Bios to the latest one available on Asus website and updated the JMicron drivers to 1.12.0. Also have a ide HD and tried connecting it to the JMicron controller and the DVD to the other ide controller then the DVD worked but my HD wasn't accessible from the JMicron one this was before I updated bios and drivers though. Any ideas as to what could be the problem ?

Thanks

Your problems are likely due to the fact that the JMicron controller does not support ATAPI drives. To ensure proper operation of DVD and CD ROM drives, you'll need to connect them to the native IDE port - the blue one.

In theory, PATA HDs should work just fine on the JMicron controller, but I'm not sure how to set this up.

-phil

 

[imported_olaf]

Originally posted by: Pahonix
Olaf, I know you have OCZ ram, but just as an FYI, Corsair's TWINX line actually goes through testing as pairs of chips and when each pair passes testing, they are packaged and sold. It makes complete sense if you bought a pair of sticks in a kit that they would want both sticks back.

I dont agree.

I mean yeah maybe they are tested in pairs but I highly doubt they are really tested like an end user would test them or else I wouldnt have had two bad sticks out of four. What are the odds on that if they are actually tested? I know you are talking about Corsair and my experience here has been with OCZ. Does OCZ say they are tested in pairs?

But even if they are actually tested in pairs...does it make sense to require both be sent back if one is bad? To me, no it doesnt. What are they gonna do with the good one and the bad one? Trash a good stick just because its partner is bad? That makes no sense. Are they going to recycle your good stick and sell it to someone else as part of a new 'tested' pair, that seems a little unethical. Are they gonna 'test' a new partner for your good stick and then send them both back to you? That makes some sense but it seems like an inconvenience to the customer and some unnecessary work for the manufacturer. The tested in pairs stuff seems like marketing to me, I dont really see the benefit to the end user, especially in my case, there certainly has not been any benefit.

The bottomline for me is that I got 2 'bad' kits in a row and I feel like, at this point, the burden of paying and waiting for replacements and shipping charges to correct this problem should not be on me. It ought to be on Newegg.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: olaf

Originally posted by: Pahonix
Olaf, I know you have OCZ ram, but just as an FYI, Corsair's TWINX line actually goes through testing as pairs of chips and when each pair passes testing, they are packaged and sold. It makes complete sense if you bought a pair of sticks in a kit that they would want both sticks back.

I dont agree.

I mean yeah maybe they are tested in pairs but I highly doubt they are really tested like an end user would test them or else I wouldnt have had two bad sticks out of four. What are the odds on that if they are actually tested? I know you are talking about Corsair and my experience here has been with OCZ. Does OCZ say they are tested in pairs?

But even if they are actually tested in pairs...does it make sense to require both be sent back if one is bad? To me, no it doesnt. What are they gonna do with the good one and the bad one? Trash a good stick just because its partner is bad? That makes no sense. Are they going to recycle your good stick and sell it to someone else as part of a new 'tested' pair, that seems a little unethical. Are they gonna 'test' a new partner for your good stick and then send them both back to you? That makes some sense but it seems like an inconvenience to the customer and some unnecessary work for the manufacturer. The tested in pairs stuff seems like marketing to me, I dont really see the benefit to the end user, especially in my case, there certainly has not been any benefit.

The bottomline for me is that I got 2 'bad' kits in a row and I feel like, at this point, the burden of paying and waiting for replacements and shipping charges to correct this problem should not be on me. It ought to be on Newegg.

Whether or not it makes sense to have to return the complete kit, has it occurred to you that newegg does not have individual sticks on hand, for the purposes of replacement? I empathize with your situation, but you share part of the blame for not returning the complete product, which is a pair of sticks. As for testing at OCZ:

...every DDR2-800 Dual Channel Kit is confirmed as a matched pair to ensure flawless performance on most motherboards.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_6400_gold_dual_channel

You're failing to consider the numerous opportunities for the memory to become damaged, between leaving OCZ and ending-up in your machine. It's also fairly easy to damage the mem while using it. For instance, removing and replacing DDR2 dimms without powering off the PSU can result in a damaged dimm. That's what likely happened in my case, when one of my dimms began to fail, after several weeks of error-free use.

I do hope you finally get a good kit, after all this frustration.

-phil

 

[imported_olaf]

The first bad stick, I can completely see how that got past OCZ's testing. Afterall, it sure took me long enough to diagnose the problem. The second stick though? No way. If they tested it, they would have noticed it was bad right off. Unless it was good when they tested it...So how likely is it that just one of the two sticks becomes damaged after they pack it and before it gets to me? Doesnt seem very likely, considering the type of damage we are talking about here. The heat spreader was bent all around, not even making contact with most of the chips.

It has occurred to me that Newegg does not have replacement sticks on hand. I am not asking them for a replacement stick though. I am asking that they refund my money for 1 RAM purchase since I am returning them 2 bad sticks. They are saying they cant do that because the serial numbers are different and OCZ will not accept them back from them. I am about 99% sure a retailer like Newegg has more than a little leverage with OCZ and they are making more of this issue than they ought to be. But, what they do to get the memory back to OCZ and get a replacement/credit for it is not my problem. If they dont want to do deal with that, if they do want both kits back, they are going to need to send me a replacment kit ahead of time on their dime. I am not going to ship back working RAM to jump through a stupid hoop and be without this machine for a week, and I am not going to charge yet another $250 to my card in the hopes that they get it right the third time.

 

[phile]

From Newegg's FAQ page:

Is it necessary to return each individual accessory when I send in a return? What should I include with my RMA?

Yes. All original equipment, components, manuals, cables, documents and packaging must be returned with your item in order for Newegg.com to process your RMA. Newegg cannot process RMA returns that are incomplete; incomplete RMAs will be returned to you. In most cases, items sent in for RMA replacement will be replaced with a full item set, including accessories. Please return all accessories with your RMA.

http://www.newegg.com/CustomerService/FaqDetail.asp?Module=6

You're frustrated, and that's perfectly understandable. However, you didn't follow the posted RMA procedures.

Frankly, you're going to be fully reimbursed for the replacement kits, so I fail to understand the level of your indignation.

-phil

 

[thespyder]

I recently purchased this board. I mounted my Conroe E6600 and attempted to power up the system. The power supply is supplying power to the board as the green light goes on. But nothing else works. Here are the specs:

CPU = Conroe E6600
Mem = Corsair XMS 800 (2gb)
Video Card is XMS 7900 gt
Power supply is Raidmax 630w Volcano
CD-Rom (Asus)
DVD-Rom (Lite-ON)
WD Raptor HD
WD Cavalier HD

Everything is fresh and out of the box, but nothing works. Any thoughts? Is it the Board?

 

[redplanet]

Originally posted by: phile
Your problems are likely due to the fact that the JMicron controller does not support ATAPI drives. To ensure proper operation of DVD and CD ROM drives, you'll need to connect them to the native IDE port - the blue one.

In theory, PATA HDs should work just fine on the JMicron controller, but I'm not sure how to set this up.

-phil

Alright I guess i'll have to play around with it some more

thanks for the reply

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: thespyder
I recently purchased this board. I mounted my Conroe E6600 and attempted to power up the system. The power supply is supplying power to the board as the green light goes on. But nothing else works. Here are the specs:

CPU = Conroe E6600
Mem = Corsair XMS 800 (2gb)
Video Card is XMS 7900 gt
Power supply is Raidmax 630w Volcano
CD-Rom (Asus)
DVD-Rom (Lite-ON)
WD Raptor HD
WD Cavalier HD

Everything is fresh and out of the box, but nothing works. Any thoughts? Is it the Board?

It could be that you have an earlier BIOS that does not support the conroe processors. Find the BIOS chip and see what the sticker says. If you do have a pre-0701 BIOS, you will need to order a new BIOS chip from ASUS, or find another LGA775 chip that you can use to boot and flash the BIOS yourself.

Assuming this is not a BIOS issue, your problem could also be the result of not properly connecting the PSU. You need to make sure that both the 20+4-pin (to the right of the mem) and 4-pin (just above the CPU socket) connectors are connected.

If the two above scenarios do not apply, it could be that mobo is not properly grounded inside the case. Try removing the mobo from the case and booting with just the videocard, mem and cpu installed.

-phil