J. Michael Milner said:
I've always had good luck with Asus boards in the past but something about
my newest board/processor/BIOS seems broken. Perhaps I just don't get how
to setup the AMI BIOS but I'm plagued with overclocking failures and non/mis
detection of the CDROM (missing or non-ATAPI). I'm not trying to do
anything fancy - just a single HD as the primary onboard master and a single
CDROM as the secondary onboard master. No RAID, no SATA, no Promise
controller.
There appears to be no pattern to the overclocking failures so I'd just like
to turn the whole feature off. Anybody know how?
The CDROM detection issue seems to only occur when the system is rebooted so
I can work around it by power cycling rather than warm rebooting. I've
already tried giving the BIOS all the help it will take (device type, PIO &
DMA modes) but it doesn't seem to help. Anybody got any better suggestions?
Is 1009 or the 1011 beta BIOS more stable than 1008? The limited
information Asus provides as to the fixes in each version doesn't suggest
there is much point in upgrading.
The feature is called "CPU Parameter Recall" in the user manual.
It is intended to help a user, by allowing them to power off and
reboot the computer, to clear any overclock settings that have
rendered the computer frozen or unresponsive. This is supposed to
eliminate the need to "clear the CMOS", to recover from bad
settings.
I don't believe C.P.R. can be disabled. At least, I've never
seen an option for that.
If you are getting the overclocking failed messages, it means
something on the computer is just not stable or adjusted right.
I had some fun tuning up my A7N8X-E Deluxe, and actually found
the C.P.R feature to be a useful one, while I was experimenting
with which clock settings were stable, and which were not. It
took me a while to conclude I needed better RAM.
I take it you have already checked the cpusupport web page,
to make sure you have a recent enough BIOS for the stepping
of processor you are using. Type in the model number and
select the exact motherboard you have got. (There are three
models with A8V in the name. I'm not going to make any
assumptions about which one you've got.)
http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
I don't recommend messing around with manual setup for
storage devices. As long as the BIOS has enough detection
time (time for the disks to spin up), the BIOS is generally
pretty clever about accessing disks.
When my RAM wasn't working right, I would get "Overclocking
Failed" messages, and yet my motheboard would POST and boot
OK. Once I got the RAM issues fixed, the "Overclocking"
messages disappeared. To me, the Overclocking Failed is a
simple minded indicator that all is not well.
Perhaps you could try reducing the memory settings first,
to see if you can get rid of the overclocking failed
messages. Set "Memclock Mode" to [Manual], then set
the memory to a speed less than its rating. If the
memory is DDR400, try DDR333. Maybe setting the
"DDR Voltage" to 2.7, will help the memory a bit.
In Advanced:JumperFree_Configuration, set "AI Overclocking"
to [Manual]. This will expose more settings, which you
don't have to touch if you don't want to. That is where
the "DDR Voltage" setting is hiding. The CPU FSB frequency
also hides in that menu, and as a final act of desperation,
you could try dialling down the FSB clock.
The purpose in making these adjustments (one at a time, then
test to see if things are working better), is not to
permanently hobble the computer, but to discover just what
part of the computer is not working properly. The odds are,
the RAM could be the source of your problems, but try slowing
the memory first, to see if things work better.
You really shouldn't try to install an OS, until the basic
CPU, Northbridge, and memory are tested. The free program
"memtest86+" from memtest.org is good for that job. It will
determine if there is a simple stuck-at fault in the memory,
or a bad location that pops up again and again.
Memtest86+ will prepare a blank floppy, with some test code,
and the floppy needs no OS in order to boot. As long as the
floppy is in the boot order, the memtest code should load
from the floppy. Several complete (error free) passes will tell
you whether there is basic sanity. (Testing with Prime95 from
mersenne.org is the final test. It does a better job of random
testing memory locations, and finds faults that memtest does
not find. But you'll need an OS installed, for that test to run.)
Now, maybe the CDROM issue will resolve itself, once the rest
of the computer is tuned up.
If it does not, one thing I'd check, is use the hardware monitor
page in the BIOS, and check the voltages coming from the
power supply. The CDROM drive uses +5V and +12V, and the voltages
are supposed to be regulated to 5% or so. if the +12V is
significantly below +11.4V, maybe that is why the CDROM is not
happy. Check the +5V also. For a basic computer build, you should
have 12V @ 15A rating or more, as printed on the label on the side
of the PSU. If you have a lot of toys added to the computer, you may
need more power than that. This page will give you some idea as
to how much power is required:
http://takaman.jp/D/?english
HTH,
Paul
