*** Official ASUS P5W DH Thread ***

[haelio]

I'm sure I would learn it and get used to it, but in a couple of days of fooling around with it, I never saw a single feature that I liked any better than XP, so I'll just stick with XP for now. The final straw was when I discovered that there wasn't a version of Asus Probe that was intended to run under Vista.

I thought the same thing, but after persevering a little more, began to like Vista a lot! To disable the UAC which is bugging you, do this:

1. Hit the start key
2. Type 'user' (just type, the text will automatically go in the right place)
3. Chose 'user accounts' in the filtered search results above (or just hit enter if it is already selected)
4. At the bottom of the screen that comes up, chose 'Turn User Account Control on or off'

It is a good feature though, which makes Vista a lot more secure. I do agree that it is a bit in your face though!

In answer to your other problems, I did all my overclocking in Vista (everythin I needed worked). The only thing I couldn't find was my hard disk temperatures. The software I used:

- ORTHOS
- CoreTemp
- MemTest (ran this off a Knoppix DVD)
- SpeedFan

After overclocking was done, I reinstalled my system and decided not to bother with XP since (for now at least) everything works as well (in most cases better) in Vista.

YMMV
Sid

 

[haelio]

Yeah, I'm using Vista Ultimate 32-bit. My machine is up 24/7, and I have never actually tried putting it to sleep. I may give it a shot to see if I have the same issue. In any case, I can't imagine what overclocking would have to do with such an issue. But, that could just be a failing of my imagination.

I'm not too sure either, but I remember reading somewhere that some motherboards always perform cold reboots when a core is undervolted... I don't understand why. I guess when a processor is put to sleep (ACPI S3 state) the voltage to the CPU is reduced and when coming out of it something goes wrong.

I'm still hoping it is some driver issue though -- many people are having problems with Vista's sleep functionality!

If you could try putting your computer to Sleep (or Hybrid Sleep) and let me know how it goes, I'd appreciate it

Cheers,
Sid

 

[phile]

Ok, I just put my computer to sleep, and resumed without any problems. My rig is currently overclocked (see rig link for specs).

-phil

 

[haelio]

Ok, I just put my computer to sleep, and resumed without any problems. My rig is currently overclocked (see rig link for specs).

Thanks for checking Phil... Are you running at stock volts to get to 3Ghz?

When I don't overclock my system (i.e. stock everything), it Sleeps fine... I have, however, changed my stock voltage.

 

[phile]

I have my CPU voltage set to 1.35v. Incidentally, which BIOS are you using? It just occurred to me that pre-1503 BIOS versions did have a cold-boot issue when overclocking.

-phil

 

[haelio]

I have my CPU voltage set to 1.35v. Incidentally, which BIOS are you using? It just occurred to me that pre-1503 BIOS versions did have a cold-boot issue when overclocking.

I am running BIOS 1901. What are you running?

Thanks for the help,
Sid

 

[phile]

1901, as well.

-phil

 

[haelio]

That's really strange... Maybe the settings in my BIOS are somehow wrong. I mean, it can't be a driver issue if everything works when I'm not overclocked... Unless the driver is a very low level one (one that knows when things are overvolted) perhaps.

If I make any progress, I'll post it to this board. If anyone has an idea of what to do, I'm all ears!

Sid

 

[ingeborgdot]

Does anyone know if sata dvd drives will work with this board???????????///

 

[dittoo]

Hi, i received this motherboard as a gift from a friend and i have a couple of questions about it.

1. How many non-raid sata drives is it possible to run with this motherboard using just the available connectors?

2. Is it possible to run a single non-raid sata drive on the jmicron controller or the ezbackup controller? Reason i ask is because the jmicron application says it has an error if i use just the one sata drive in non-raid setup, and it closes. The same happens for the ezbackup program if i use just the one non-raid sata drive.

3. On the same note is it safe to ignore the error on either of the jmicron or ezbackup programs and just use the single sata drive without raid? I?m using WinXP and it recognizes the drive as being present on either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers even though the corresponding jmicron and ezbackup programs claims to have an error and shuts down (i assume because I?m using just the one drive?).

4. Will the data i store on the single sata harddisk on either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers be safe and uncorrupted if i ignore the jmicron or ezbackup programs that claims to have an error and shuts down?

5. Is it a must to use 2 harddisks for either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers even though i am not interested in using raid on those controllers?


Hope I?m not confusing anyone with my questions above, but in a nutshell, what i want to achieve is to have 4 sata drives without raid, hence my questions above. Any ideas?

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: ingeborgdot
Does anyone know if sata dvd drives will work with this board???????????///

Yes, this board does support SATA optical drives.

-phil

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: dittoo
Hi, i received this motherboard as a gift from a friend and i have a couple of questions about it.

1. How many non-raid sata drives is it possible to run with this motherboard using just the available connectors?

2. Is it possible to run a single non-raid sata drive on the jmicron controller or the ezbackup controller? Reason i ask is because the jmicron application says it has an error if i use just the one sata drive in non-raid setup, and it closes. The same happens for the ezbackup program if i use just the one non-raid sata drive.

3. On the same note is it safe to ignore the error on either of the jmicron or ezbackup programs and just use the single sata drive without raid? I?m using WinXP and it recognizes the drive as being present on either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers even though the corresponding jmicron and ezbackup programs claims to have an error and shuts down (i assume because I?m using just the one drive?).

4. Will the data i store on the single sata harddisk on either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers be safe and uncorrupted if i ignore the jmicron or ezbackup programs that claims to have an error and shuts down?

5. Is it a must to use 2 harddisks for either the jmicron or ezbackup controllers even though i am not interested in using raid on those controllers?


Hope I?m not confusing anyone with my questions above, but in a nutshell, what i want to achieve is to have 4 sata drives without raid, hence my questions above. Any ideas?

Five. You can run up to 4 non-RAID SATA drives on the ICH7R* southbridge, and one on the JMicron controller.

No drivers need to be preloaded for either controller if running the SATA drives in Standard IDE mode (default mode). In both cases, a driver is required if you prefer to run your drives in AHCI.

* This requires converting the EzRaid ports into a single port by setting the EzRaid jumper to "BIG". See manual for details.

See if that helps.

-phil

 

[dittoo]

Originally posted by: phile
Five. You can run up to 4 non-RAID SATA drives on the ICH7R* southbridge, and one on the JMicron controller.

No drivers need to be preloaded for either controller if running the SATA drives in Standard IDE mode (default mode). In both cases, a driver is required if you prefer to run your drives in AHCI.

* This requires converting the EzRaid ports into a single port by setting the EzRaid jumper to "BIG". See manual for details.

See if that helps.

-phil

Thanks for the reply, but 5 non sata drives are possible? And the ICH7R southbridge holds 4? All i see is 3 available sata connectors on the ICH7R southbridge, is there something i'm missing here? Did you mean 5 spread across all the 3 controllers with the ICH7R southbridge taking 3, jmicron 1, and the ezbackup after conversion to big, the last?

More importantly, the jmraid tool and the ezbackup manger programs which claim to have an error and shuts down can be ignored? The data i store on the non raid sata harddisk that isn't on the ICH7R southbridge won't have corruption problems?

Sorry for my newbish questions but this is my first time working with sata drives and raid and i'm fearful of data corruption.

 

[GFORCE100]

Asus really get to me for their poor BIOS support.

They can't seem to enable changing the CPU ratio on unlocked Extreme CPU's, be this Presler or Kentsfield, the max multiplier is 10x regardless whether the BIOS is 1602 or 2001.

 

[phile]

Originally posted by: dittoo

Originally posted by: phile
Five. You can run up to 4 non-RAID SATA drives on the ICH7R* southbridge, and one on the JMicron controller.

No drivers need to be preloaded for either controller if running the SATA drives in Standard IDE mode (default mode). In both cases, a driver is required if you prefer to run your drives in AHCI.

* This requires converting the EzRaid ports into a single port by setting the EzRaid jumper to "BIG". See manual for details.

See if that helps.

-phil

Thanks for the reply, but 5 non sata drives are possible? And the ICH7R southbridge holds 4? All i see is 3 available sata connectors on the ICH7R southbridge, is there something i'm missing here? Did you mean 5 spread across all the 3 controllers with the ICH7R southbridge taking 3, jmicron 1, and the ezbackup after conversion to big, the last?

The EzBackup/EzRaid ports are on the ICH7R controller, and moving the jumper to "big" mode will allow to connect a single non-RAID SATA. Thus, you can connect 4 non-RAID SATA drives to the ICH7R.

More importantly, the jmraid tool and the ezbackup manger programs which claim to have an error and shuts down can be ignored? The data i store on the non raid sata harddisk that isn't on the ICH7R southbridge won't have corruption problems?

I have no experience with the JMicron controller, so I can't be of any help on that issue. Howerver, if you're getting errors, it would seem there is a problem that needs to be solved before using for anything critical.

Sorry for my newbish questions but this is my first time working with sata drives and raid and i'm fearful of data corruption.

-phil

 

[RPGFAN07]

First of all, I'm new to the forum. I've scanned through this thread but I haven't seen this issue yet so I apologize if it's already been covered. First, a little background.

I just finished building a system about a week ago with the following specs:

P5W Dh Deluxe
e6600
2 x 1GB G.Skill 4-4-4-12
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
Light-On DVDRW SHM-165H6S
Corsair HX 620
Foxconn 8800GTS 640 MB
Antec P160W
Windows Vista OEM Premium

I built the system and was able to POST the first time. Popped in Vista and it began to load up. Then a funny screen came up with washed out colors. I installed XP and it worked fine. I flashed the BIOS to v1901 and then tried to install Vista. This time I could actually see the screen (Vista backdrop) but the system would hang on it. I finally discovered that by copying the Vista DVD contents onto my HDD (in XP), I could install Vista off my HDD, which worked. Vista is up and running.

Here's my problem:

My DVD drive is detected in both the BIOS and Vista. However, if I pop a disc in (DVD or CD), the system hangs. I here the CD/DVD spin-up and the read light on my DVD drive flashes, but it just hangs. If I try to explore the contents of the disc, it just hangs. Hitting eject will immediately bring Vista back to being responsive. I have waited for 30 minutes and the disk will keep spinning / being read most of the time but I can't do anything. Once or twice I have been able to read the disc after 20-30 mins of waiting, however, it doesn't always work. Autorun does not come up on and of these discs. I have no error messages in device manager. I flashed the firmware for my drive and it didn't solve the problem. I even tried a second optical drive (Memorex DVD burner) and the exact same thing happens. My drive worked 100% in XP, right before I installed Vista.

To me, it seems like a driver conflict but I can't figure out which driver to update or where the driver would be. I've searched ASUS website but I only find RAID drivers. The drive is plugged into the mobo via an IDE cable (80 pin I believe) in the BLUE IDE connector on the mobo. I have the drive currently set to master but I've also tried switching it to slave/cable select with no luck. I've also checked to make sure that "Enable DMA" is checked - it is. I've tried several different IDE cables, same issue everytime.

So, any suggestions on what to do? I've been struggling with this on and off for about a week now. I've tried various BIOS settings and configurations but the same problem comes up each time. Luckily, I haven't had enough time to miss my optical drive yet. However, now that I'm going to be home more, I'm REALLY wanting to install some apps/games to see what this puppy can do. Until I get this drive working, I'm unable to install anything that can't be downloaded. Thanks ahead of time!

 

[phile]

Welcome to the board, RPGFAN07 (as well as all the other first-time posters that never got an official welcome).

You have done a fairly thorough job of troubleshooting your optical drive issue, so there's not much left that I can think of, to suggest. I do, however, have two suggestions:

- verify that there are no pushed-in or bent pins in the blue IDE port
- try your optical drives on the JMicron controller (black IDE port)

If your optical drives work properly when connected to the JMicron controller, my conclusion would have to be that your mobo is faulty.

-phil

 

[RPGFAN07]

Originally posted by: phile
Welcome to the board, RPGFAN07 (as well as all the other first-time posters that never got an official welcome).

You have done a fairly thorough job of troubleshooting your optical drive issue, so there's not much left that I can think of, to suggest. I do, however, have two suggestions:

- verify that there are no pushed-in or bent pins in the blue IDE port
- try your optical drives on the JMicron controller (black IDE port)

If your optical drives work properly when connected to the JMicron controller, my conclusion would have to be that your mobo is faulty.

-phil

I'll try your suggestion on the JMicron controller. One other question I have is are there any updated drivers for the Intel controller? I've never updated them at all beyond the ones that Vista installed when I installed the OS because I wasn't able to figure out where the drivers are located on the web.

 

[phile]

The latest 975X chipset drivers are here:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...ct_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2261&lang=eng

-phil

 

[RPGFAN07]

Originally posted by: phile
The latest 975X chipset drivers are here:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...ct_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2261&lang=eng

-phil

Okay, that link takes me to the following page after I select Vista:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts...roductID=2261&OSFullName=Windows+Vista*+Home+Premium%2C+32-bit+version&lang=eng&strOSs=153&submit=Go%21

I downloaded the top file (#1) and when I try to install it it says I don't meet the minimum system req. It looks to me like they are RAID drivers.

 

[phile]

What you want is the second item:

INF Update Utility [INFINST_AUTOL.EXE] (685KB) 8.1.1.1010 11/21/2006

-phil

 

[RPGFAN07]

Originally posted by: phile
What you want is the second item:

INF Update Utility [INFINST_AUTOL.EXE] (685KB) 8.1.1.1010 11/21/2006

-phil

Okay I got that file and installed it. At the end, it says: "The setup program successfully installed Plug and Play components onto the system."

Same problem. I tried restarting, unistalling and reinstalling the ATA channel 0 that shows the Drive and the uninstalling the DVD drive itself. When it redetects the drive, it install it just the same. I don't think that program did anything. Which driver under device manager should this update?

 

[RPGFAN07]

UPDATE: (and I have to quote Borat here) "GREAT SUCCESS!"

So I went back to trying it in the JMicron port (your suggestion). Well, I had previously tried this but I came up with a green error message saying "ODD0:" followed by my Drive ID. Also, the BIOS didn't recognize the drive. Well, I got the same error message again but I decided to boot into Vista anyway (previously I had not since the drive was absent in the BIOS). Well, to my surprise, the drive was there and it now reads discs!

Thanks a lot for the help, I REALLY appreciate it! Now, off to install MANY things...

 

[phile]

Glad to hear you got things working. However, you may still have a bad board, since you cannot get the drive working on the native IDE channel (the blue port).

-phil

 

[FoeHammer]

I have just built a brand new rig with the P5W DH Deluxe(except for the video card as I am waiting for the 8900s or new ATI card) here are the specs.

Intel QX6700
2 gigs: Corsair Twin2X2048-6400C4D (4-4-4-12)
1xWD1500ADFD Raptor
1xWD740ADFD Raptor
Plextor PX755-SA (connected to SATA port 3)
Zalman CNPS9700NT
Thermaltake 750W Modular PSU
HIS Radeon ATI 850XT
Creative X-Fi Extreme Music Sound Card

I have the bios updated to 1901, no problems or post messages. I have set the ram timings to 4-4-4-12 and the memory to DDR-800, the memory volatge is at 2.1v, but I heard some people saying that 2.2 may be more stable? Suggestions.

First question is: Do I need to change the FSB which is at 266mhz to something higher? And if I do that do I need to change the voltage and if so which settings in the bios is that?
I don't want to overclock my Quad Core right now, but do want to make sure the FSB is running in sync with the ram I have.

Second Question: Should a disable the Q-Fan for better overall temperature? It seems to be adjusting the Zalman just fine overall.

Third Question: Should I disable the Jmicron Controller if I dont intend to use those SATA ports?