boot problem with A8V Deluxe

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas
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Thomas

I've got a big problem booting my system with my A8V deluxe.
Very often the post screen speech reporter tells me "system failed cpu
test" - when I reboot the system I sometimes hear this message about
15 times before the system can boot correctly. The Asus Mainboard
Manual only says that I should check if the CPU is correctly
installed, which I did many times - it does only fit in the socket in
one position anyway.
I also applied the latest AMD cool n' quiet drivers to the CPU but the
problem still remained the same.

My system specs are:
- Asus A8V deluxe, board revision 1.01, bios version 1007
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- Corsair TwinX 1024-3200C2 (2x 512MB 400MHz Ram)
- BeQuiet 450W Power Supply
- Western Digital 200GB SATA Harddisk (connected to one of the VIA
chipset SATA ports; the promise SATA controller is disabled via bios)

The strage thing about that problem is, that if the system manages to
boot, it really runns rocksolid! I've done a lot of Prime95 torture
testing and the CPU didn't produce one error or did get very warm
(about 53 degrees after 15h of torture).

Doas anyone have a clue what the problem is all about?
 
I've got a big problem booting my system with my A8V deluxe.
Very often the post screen speech reporter tells me "system failed cpu
test" - when I reboot the system I sometimes hear this message about
15 times before the system can boot correctly. The Asus Mainboard
Manual only says that I should check if the CPU is correctly
installed, which I did many times - it does only fit in the socket in
one position anyway.
I also applied the latest AMD cool n' quiet drivers to the CPU but the
problem still remained the same.

My system specs are:
- Asus A8V deluxe, board revision 1.01, bios version 1007
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- Corsair TwinX 1024-3200C2 (2x 512MB 400MHz Ram)
- BeQuiet 450W Power Supply
- Western Digital 200GB SATA Harddisk (connected to one of the VIA
chipset SATA ports; the promise SATA controller is disabled via bios)

The strage thing about that problem is, that if the system manages to
boot, it really runns rocksolid! I've done a lot of Prime95 torture
testing and the CPU didn't produce one error or did get very warm
(about 53 degrees after 15h of torture).

Doas anyone have a clue what the problem is all about?
Click to expand...

The Athlon64 processors have dynamic VID capability. I just looked
at the datasheet, and before power_ok, the processor requests 1.2V.
Just after the power_ok is valid, the processor requests 1.5V. That
is the value you should be seeing, when viewing the Vcore value in
the BIOS Power Monitor. After the OS is booted and the Cool N' Quiet
driver is installed and running, the VID can be adjusted by software
to between 1.1V and 1.50V. The Max_VID register says 1.55V, and the
Cool N' Quiet software is not supposed to go all the way to 1.55V.
If using Asus Probe while sitting in the OS, expect to see values
between 1.1V and 1.50V, according to how loaded the processor is.

To repeat:

Before power is stable - VID requests Vcore = 1.2V
Just after power is stable - VID requests Vcore = 1.5V
If using CnQ driver - VID requests Vcore = 1.1V to 1.5V
Max_VID defined by processor - 1.55V

If, while sitting in the BIOS, the voltage is not 1.5V, then perhaps
there is a problem with the processor, or with the Vcore circuit.

HTH,
Paul
 
I have the identical problem. It appears that the 3500+ has the 90nm
rather than 130nm circutry and that's causing the problem. I
contacted ASUS and they recommended using their beta version BIOS
1008.02 (you have to click the "Beta" radio button on their download
site to get to file). Unfortunately I had already returned the board
to the vendor before I received a response from ASUS so I can't verify
that this fix works... but it's worth a try.
 
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