Discordia said:
Confused on a couple of minor issues with my P4P800SE board:
1. When the computer boots up, I get no post "beeps". No sound at
all. Tried flipping the connector around, ddn't help. Speaker works.
2. I have a Prescott 3.2, its rated for 1.4v but the mb gives it
1.43v-1.5v. Should I be concerned?
If the board uses an AMI BIOS, at one time those BIOS had the
annoying feature of beeping for each connected USB device. I
think the "quick" BIOS fix for them, was to disable the beeps
altogether, which meant losing the POST beep. Exactly what beeps
you get, could be a function of which BIOS release you are using.
As for the voltage, strictly speaking, the voltage cannot rise
above the specified VID value. The load line in the datasheet
says Vcore can be as high as the VID value, at zero load current
(which is impossible) and drop by Icc*0.00145 ohms and at
78 or 91 amps, that means instead of 1.4V, the Vcore is allowed
to drop to 1.3V or less when the processor is running at 100%.
Absolute max listed in the datasheet is 1.55V, and in this case,
we don't know how accurate the Asus measurement circuit is.
Even the measurement of Vcore is difficult to do accurately, and
the official way, is to probe a pin on the processor specifically
intended for monitoring Vcore, as seen inside the processor itself.
If the Asus monitoring circuit is probing elsewhere, there can be
a DC offset. The step size on the regulator now, is 0.0125V, and
I really doubt the circuit is off by 3 or 4 steps of its DAC. I
suppose it could be an error in the way droop compensation is
done.
As long as the voltage isn't hitting 1.55V, you are safe. Many
Asus boards read 0.06 high at no load, but I cannot say why many
different models would have the same error, unless it is to avoid
fiascos like the P4S8X.
HTH,
Paul
