P4P800 - what does mobo do on failed FSB overclock?

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E

eric

I am used to other Asus motherboards, for example the BX chipset where
when your FSB setting is too high for the CPU to handle you just do
not boot and you shut off, or the 815 chipset for example, wherein if
the FSB settings you place are too exaggerated and do not allow the
computer to post, then the computer will boot into the BIOS with the
message that you screwed the pooch in your FSB settings and you are
given a chance to start from scratch.

Due to the behaviour of my mobo, the P4P800, I need to know people's
experiences vis-a-vis how this motherboard reacts to an FSB setting
that it can't handle. Does it boot to the BIOS as well?

thanks, eric
 
I am used to other Asus motherboards, for example the BX chipset where
when your FSB setting is too high for the CPU to handle you just do
not boot and you shut off, or the 815 chipset for example, wherein if
the FSB settings you place are too exaggerated and do not allow the
computer to post, then the computer will boot into the BIOS with the
message that you screwed the pooch in your FSB settings and you are
given a chance to start from scratch.

Due to the behaviour of my mobo, the P4P800, I need to know people's
experiences vis-a-vis how this motherboard reacts to an FSB setting
that it can't handle. Does it boot to the BIOS as well?

thanks, eric
Click to expand...

The manual for my P4C800-E Deluxe claims it has a feature called C.P.R
(CPU Parameter Recall).

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/cpr.htm

It doesn't work.

If I overclock the motherboard too far, after the board resets,
it comes up with a message saying the BIOS is corrupt and would
I like to reflash it. It does this because it tried to checksum
the BIOS and the checksum is wrong. Well, of course I wouldn't
want to reflash, because you should never reflash a BIOS when
overclocking - the LPC bus could be out of spec and you could
write garbage into the flash chip. The very fact that the
BIOS cannot be read properly, implies it cannot be written
properly while overclocking either.

Instead, I do the time honored "reset the CMOS" procedure, and
the board comes up again, without a mention of "BIOS is corrupt".
That is because now all the clocks are back to nominal, so the
LPC and whatever else, is back in spec.

So, don't be deceived by any "BIOS is corrupt" message. Just
do what people have always done, unplug the computer and clear
the CMOS. I suppose a real overclocker brings three wires from the
CLRTC header to a switch on the case, for easy clearing.

I was so impressed, I stopped trying to overclock :-(

You could try the AI Overclocking offered in the BIOS, but
I've read that it generally downclocks the memory modules,
and as a consequence doesn't do as well as manual overclocking.

HTH,
Paul
 
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:09:00 -0400, (e-mail address removed) (Paul) wrote:
k.

Yes, that is my experience as well, just needed to confirm. This
recovery method of shorting the pins is like a throwback to ancient
times.

Anyway, here's a question: so what if someone flashes the bios as per
onscreen instructions and hoses the bios. Is there no recovery
possible? This is supposed to be a safe totally recoverable BIOS chip
per the propaganda.

thanks, eric
 
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:09:00 -0400, (e-mail address removed) (Paul) wrote:
k.

Yes, that is my experience as well, just needed to confirm. This
recovery method of shorting the pins is like a throwback to ancient
times.

Anyway, here's a question: so what if someone flashes the bios as per
onscreen instructions and hoses the bios. Is there no recovery
possible? This is supposed to be a safe totally recoverable BIOS chip
per the propaganda.

thanks, eric
Click to expand...

Propaganda, yes. Totally safe, no.

The BIOS consists of a Boot Block and the Main BIOS code. The
boot block is a miniature BIOS, and in theory, if Asus _never_
went near the Boot Block, ruined BIOS would be a thing of the
past. Trouble is, many of the tools and methods provided by
Asus, make it all too easy to flash the Boot Block at the same
time as the Main BIOS, and if that fails, you are dead.

For example, I think using the MSDOS floppy method and separate
awdflash or aflash, you might get prompted, "do you want to
update the boot block?" This option should not be offered, if
the Crashfree feature is ever to have a chance of helping someone.

There was an example recently, where the owner of a K8N-E got
the corrupted BIOS message, inserted the CD to provide the source
file for reflashing, only to have the motherboard come up
completely dead. I think something similar happened to perhaps it
was a K8V a few weeks back.

If the Boot Block received extra thorough testing, and was able
to run the processor at slowest bus speed, cache disabled, etc.,
then maybe they could actually lock that flash segment, and make a
truly useful feature. Otherwise, the end user is well advised to
buy a BIOS Savior (ioss.com.tw) for $25, as a replacement for
Crashfree et al.

Gigabyte is the only other maker to do it right, as on a
limited number of their high end boards, they have two BIOS
flash chips (or a socket for a second chip), and that is just
as good as a BIOS Savior.

There are some Asus BIOS releases, where the ZIP file provided
has a "wrapper file", and it calls the flash program with an
argument specifically to update the boot block. For those
particular BIOS updates, you are at the mercy of the flashing
Gods, as to whether the board will ever boot again. The wrapper
file is included yo make sure the boot block gets updated,
implying there is something seriously wrong with it. They
use the wrapper file, to avoid the need for an included
"readme.txt" file.

Paul
 
Propaganda, yes. Totally safe, no.
Click to expand...
The BIOS consists of a Boot Block and the Main BIOS code. The
boot block is a miniature BIOS, and in theory, if Asus _never_
went near the Boot Block, ruined BIOS would be a thing of the
past. Trouble is, many of the tools and methods provided by
Asus, make it all too easy to flash the Boot Block at the same
time as the Main BIOS, and if that fails, you are dead.
Click to expand...

User's comment: Dang it!
 
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