P4PE-X lockups, why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marty
  • Start date Start date
M

Marty

I am using a P4PE-X with a P4 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB and one Keton PC3200 DDR
512MB DIMM.

If I run with the default BIOS setting of 2400MHz the machine locks up
intermittently, sometimes not even making it through POST.

The lockups were so bad at BIOS version 1003 (which came on the mobo) that I
could not even get an OS installed. Then I read that I needed 1005 to
support 800MHz FSB, so I installed 1005 and the lockups became much less
frequent, but still enough to be a nuisance.

I found that by switching the CPU speed from AUTO to MANUAL and then
reducing the CPU External Frequency by just a couple notches (ex. from
200MHz down to 198MHz) the system becomes stable. However, I am not
satisfied with this because as I understand it, I must run at the full
200MHz to get the 800MHz FSB speed.

I wonder if this has to do with the RAM I am running. It is not an ASUS
approved part, but it was the only 512MB PC3200 that newegg offered. The
info about approved RAM on ASUS support site does not seem to be accurate
(same part numbers listed for multiple manufacturers). More importantly, I
cannot find an online vendor who sells the approved part numbers.

I have also tried the beta BIOS 1006.001 from the ASUS website with the same
results.

Do you think this is a RAM problem or something else? I run the long POST
and it makes it through the multiple RAM tests every time but once (and that
test locked up - it did not report a parity error or anything like that).

I have no extra cards installed besides the AGP video. I have one HD and two
optical drives. 300W power supply that came with SuperCase. Could the power
supply be inadequate, or if so, would it also fail at the reduced CPU speed?

Any advice appreciated.

THANKS,
-Marty
 
"Marty" said:
I am using a P4PE-X with a P4 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB and one Keton PC3200 DDR
512MB DIMM.

If I run with the default BIOS setting of 2400MHz the machine locks up
intermittently, sometimes not even making it through POST.

The lockups were so bad at BIOS version 1003 (which came on the mobo) that I
could not even get an OS installed. Then I read that I needed 1005 to
support 800MHz FSB, so I installed 1005 and the lockups became much less
frequent, but still enough to be a nuisance.

I found that by switching the CPU speed from AUTO to MANUAL and then
reducing the CPU External Frequency by just a couple notches (ex. from
200MHz down to 198MHz) the system becomes stable. However, I am not
satisfied with this because as I understand it, I must run at the full
200MHz to get the 800MHz FSB speed.

I wonder if this has to do with the RAM I am running. It is not an ASUS
approved part, but it was the only 512MB PC3200 that newegg offered. The
info about approved RAM on ASUS support site does not seem to be accurate
(same part numbers listed for multiple manufacturers). More importantly, I
cannot find an online vendor who sells the approved part numbers.

I have also tried the beta BIOS 1006.001 from the ASUS website with the same
results.

Do you think this is a RAM problem or something else? I run the long POST
and it makes it through the multiple RAM tests every time but once (and that
test locked up - it did not report a parity error or anything like that).

I have no extra cards installed besides the AGP video. I have one HD and two
optical drives. 300W power supply that came with SuperCase. Could the power
supply be inadequate, or if so, would it also fail at the reduced CPU speed?

Any advice appreciated.

THANKS,
-Marty

Use memtest86 from memtest86.com to test your memory. The POST memory
test is useless.

The original P4PE had an issue with the PCI/AGP clock lock. I
don't know the history of the issue, but I think eventually it
was fixed in a BIOS update. The workaround was to set the PCI/AGP
to "manual", then select a frequency one notch away from the
nominal 33.33/66.66 MHz. You might find more info either in
Google or in abxzone.com . Since there aren't a lot of posts
about the P4PE-X, it is hard to say whether the same bug exists
or not.

A lockup could be your AGP video card as well. I don't know what
the best way is to test that, other than comparing whether you
get Prime95 to run stable, but not 3DMark in demo mode.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
Use memtest86 from memtest86.com to test your memory. The POST memory
test is useless.

The original P4PE had an issue with the PCI/AGP clock lock. I
don't know the history of the issue, but I think eventually it
was fixed in a BIOS update. The workaround was to set the PCI/AGP
to "manual", then select a frequency one notch away from the
nominal 33.33/66.66 MHz. You might find more info either in
Google or in abxzone.com . Since there aren't a lot of posts
about the P4PE-X, it is hard to say whether the same bug exists
or not.

A lockup could be your AGP video card as well. I don't know what
the best way is to test that, other than comparing whether you
get Prime95 to run stable, but not 3DMark in demo mode.

HTH,
Paul

Thanks, Paul. I removed my generic RAM and replaced it with one that is
supposedly Micron, and the system is much better. Still locks up sometimes
in Windows but I was able to run memtest86 for over 15 hours in "all tests"
mode. I think the RAM problem is fixed.

I have Prime95 running now and have 3DMark downloading. Thanks for your
suggestions. I do have another AGP card lying around that I can try if I
need to.

-Marty
 
ñíñjà¤têç said:
disable the sound chip and put in an aureal vortex 2 or sb live 5.1...

hint:
if you run at 800 mhz fsb cpu you cannot use the onboard sound without
problems. However, it seems to run stable at the stock 533 fsb setting
and if you have a 533 fsb cpu you can test this remark...it works for
me...

fyi

bin dare dun dat...

Some people advised bumping the PCI/AGP frequency up by one notch would
allow the onboard sound to work. This worked on my system even with 800MHz
FSB CPU.

With a good Micron DIMM installed, the system seems pretty solid with an
external CPU clock at 199MHz. I can still make it lockup at 200MHz.
 
Paul said:
Use memtest86 from memtest86.com to test your memory. The POST memory
test is useless.

The original P4PE had an issue with the PCI/AGP clock lock. I
don't know the history of the issue, but I think eventually it
was fixed in a BIOS update. The workaround was to set the PCI/AGP
to "manual", then select a frequency one notch away from the
nominal 33.33/66.66 MHz. You might find more info either in
Google or in abxzone.com . Since there aren't a lot of posts
about the P4PE-X, it is hard to say whether the same bug exists
or not.

A lockup could be your AGP video card as well. I don't know what
the best way is to test that, other than comparing whether you
get Prime95 to run stable, but not 3DMark in demo mode.

HTH,
Paul

I apparently do not have the graphics hardware needed to run 3DMark - it
issued a bunch of complaint messages when I started it, and ultimately said
none of the tests were supported by my hardware. Then I tried their
3DMark2001 version and it came up complaining that it wanted DirectX8.1 (I
have 9). So I ended up downloading a simpler benchmark petest from
passmark.com. Didn't really matter though

With the CPU external clock at 200MHz, Prime95 locked up the system twice. I
reduced the clock to 199MHz (system seems pretty stable at this rate) and
have restarted Prime95. If it runs all night this way without locking up, I
think I'm just going to give up and forget about the 2400MHz CPU and 800MHz
FSB. I guess 2388MHz and 796MHz is pretty close anyway.

Thanks,
-Marty
 
"Marty" said:
I apparently do not have the graphics hardware needed to run 3DMark - it
issued a bunch of complaint messages when I started it, and ultimately said
none of the tests were supported by my hardware. Then I tried their
3DMark2001 version and it came up complaining that it wanted DirectX8.1 (I
have 9). So I ended up downloading a simpler benchmark petest from
passmark.com. Didn't really matter though

With the CPU external clock at 200MHz, Prime95 locked up the system twice. I
reduced the clock to 199MHz (system seems pretty stable at this rate) and
have restarted Prime95. If it runs all night this way without locking up, I
think I'm just going to give up and forget about the 2400MHz CPU and 800MHz
FSB. I guess 2388MHz and 796MHz is pretty close anyway.

Thanks,
-Marty

I still consider your 199 versus 200 results to be suspicious. After
setting the FSB to 200, save and exit, then re-enter the BIOS and
make a trivial change to the PCI/AGP lock. Move it a notch, then
save and exit again. Test and see if it is stable. I think the bug
with the lock was, if you change the FSB, the BIOS doesn't recompute
how to configure the PCI/AGP lock, and it uses old info for the lock
settings on the next POST. By making some kind of change to the lock
setting, after you've set the FSB and saved it, you are forcing the
BIOS to reconsider the value to use for the clock generator.

With regard to your 3DMark results, I think this means that AGP
texture transfers aren't enabled. If you have a PCI video card,
then this won't work, so forget it (no texture transfer is
possible). If you have an AGP video card, you need chipset drivers
(Intel INF otherwise known as INFINST.exe), the video card driver
(ATI Catalyst or Nvidia Detonator), plus DirectX. It might take a
couple of installation tries before it works. You can use
Powerstrip from entechtaiwan.com, to give you info on your current
AGP settings and capabilities (I only use the info option on the
taskbar popup and don't bother using Powerstrip to try to force
any AGP settings).

If you have an AGP video card, I still think you should test it,
because that is part of ensuring that the motherboard is healthy,
before the warranty period is up. If you exercise the 3D functions
of your video card with a good test, it means your 2D operations
are that much more likely to be stable. It might take four hours
before you see a 2D video crash, whereas in 3D mode you'll see a
crash in 30 seconds (much more data is being transferred). 3D
testing allows you to accelerate the testing process.

HTH,
Paul
 
Paul said:
I still consider your 199 versus 200 results to be suspicious. After
setting the FSB to 200, save and exit, then re-enter the BIOS and
make a trivial change to the PCI/AGP lock. Move it a notch, then
save and exit again. Test and see if it is stable. I think the bug
with the lock was, if you change the FSB, the BIOS doesn't recompute
how to configure the PCI/AGP lock, and it uses old info for the lock
settings on the next POST. By making some kind of change to the lock
setting, after you've set the FSB and saved it, you are forcing the
BIOS to reconsider the value to use for the clock generator.

I understand your skepticism. It seems suspicious to me, too. I had read
about the BIOS error, but in a different context - in my case, I had to make
a trivial change to PCI/AGP speed to get the onboard sound to activate, so I
bumped it up one notch from its default "AUTO" setting of 66.66/33.33.

In prior attempts, whenever I attempted to run full speed, I had been using
the "2400MHz" setting on CPU speed (which automatically forces external CPU
clock to 200). This time, in performing the test you described, I tried it
differently. I set the CPU speed to "Manual" and then set the external CPU
clock eplicitly to 200, then saved & exit, then made the trivial AGP change
of setting it back from the "up one notch" position of 67.26/33.63 back to
its default position of 66.66/33.33 (but still using manual explicit
setting - not AUTO), then saved & exited. This time when I rebooted I
allowed XP to start. Surprisingly the onboard sound was still found and
still functions.

I started it on running Prime95 and also running my passmark 3D benchmark
simultaneously. This generally locked up the machine in under 5 minutes.
Unfortunately passmark does not have a "continuous" mode, so I can't just
let it run, but I will let Prime continue and see how far we make it. It
looks promising - we're at 20 minutes which is a new record for running at
2400MHz.
With regard to your 3DMark results, I think this means that AGP
texture transfers aren't enabled. If you have a PCI video card,
then this won't work, so forget it (no texture transfer is
possible). If you have an AGP video card, you need chipset drivers
(Intel INF otherwise known as INFINST.exe), the video card driver
(ATI Catalyst or Nvidia Detonator), plus DirectX. It might take a
couple of installation tries before it works. You can use
Powerstrip from entechtaiwan.com, to give you info on your current
AGP settings and capabilities (I only use the info option on the
taskbar popup and don't bother using Powerstrip to try to force
any AGP settings).

I think I understand what you are saying and I think I have done that. It is
an AGP 4X card (Elitegroup SiS AG315P). There were Intel INF chipset drivers
that came with the mobo, and I did install them, as doc'd in the ASUS book.
I installed DirectX 9 via the Windows Update mechanism. Last, I installed
all the drivers that came with the video card.

I still cannot get 3DMark to run.I can confirm that several of the errors it
issues are regarding lack of support for textures. Does not support:

Bilinear texture filtering
Multitexturing with at least two textures
Cube Textures
Compressed Textures DXT1 & 3
Framebuffer Alpha
Stencil Buffer

"Your system cannot run any game test of 3DMark03. Please install and run
3DMark2001 for more comprehensive benchmarking."

All tests in the test menu scrren then show "Not Supported".

When I click the Demo button, the error is "You need at least a DX8
compliant graphics adapter with pixel shaders and non-power-of-two teture
support to run the demo."

I have pasted the output from Powerstrip 3.45 here:

Diagnostic report - generated on 9/23/2003
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
PowerStrip build - 410
Windows build - v.5.1.2600.2.Service Pack 1
DirectX build - v.
OpenGL renderer - Compatible VGA / MMX, v.2.06a.00

System board
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Type - Intel I845PE/ICH4/IT8708-P4PE-X
BIOS - Award Bios, 08/19/2003
AGP aperture - 64 MB
AGP transfer mechanism - DMA
AGP non-local memory - 86.6 MB
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - hardware support, but currently disabled
Fast write protocol - hardware support, but currently disabled
AGP texturing - Enabled

Graphics card #1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Identity - AG315-64
Memory clock - 143.18 MHz
Engine clock - 166.45 MHz
IRQ - 16, shared
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - (n/a)
Display driver - sisgrv.dll, v.6.13.10.2061 built by: WinDDK
DirectX driver - sisgrv.dll, v.6.13.10.2061 built by: WinDDK
Attached monitor - Default Monitor (Microsoft)
Monitor caps (1) - 1600x1200, 75kHz, 85Hz

Device enumeration
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
AsusTek Ethernet controller (440114E4h) - using IRQ20
Symbios Logic Communication device (98359710h) - using IRQ22
AG315-64 (03251039h) - using IRQ16
AsusTek CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (25608086h)
Intel PCI-to-PCI/AGP bridge (25618086h)
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C28086h) - using IRQ16
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C48086h) - using IRQ19
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C78086h) - using IRQ18
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24CD8086h) - using IRQ23
Intel PCI-to-PCI/AGP bridge (244E8086h)
Intel PCI-to-ISA bridge (24C08086h)
AsusTek IDE controller (24CB8086h) - using IRQ9
AsusTek Audio device (24C58086h) - using IRQ17

OpenGL extensions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
GL_EXT_abgr
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_blend_color
GL_EXT_blend_minmax
GL_EXT_blend_subtract
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array
GL_EXT_packed_pixels
GL_EXT_polygon_offset
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color
GL_EXT_texture_env_add
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine
GL_EXT_texture_object
GL_EXT_vertex_array
GL_WIN_swap_hint
GL_ARB_multitexture
GL_SGIS_multitexture

If you have an AGP video card, I still think you should test it,
because that is part of ensuring that the motherboard is healthy,
before the warranty period is up. If you exercise the 3D functions
of your video card with a good test, it means your 2D operations
are that much more likely to be stable. It might take four hours
before you see a 2D video crash, whereas in 3D mode you'll see a
crash in 30 seconds (much more data is being transferred). 3D
testing allows you to accelerate the testing process.

HTH,
Paul

I agree and I appreciate your help. I would still like to get 3DMark working
if you have any other ideas. I will post an update on what happens with the
latest Prime95 run at 2400MHz.

THANKS,
-Marty
 
ñíñjà¤têç said:
Hows the onboard sound ? Any clicks or pops, or is it clean ?

Clean. I am also running at the full 200MHz external clock rate, 800MHz FSB,
2400MHz CPU currently. A guy named Paul gave me some good tips that seem to
be helping. These problems are all related to BIOS errors. I am on beta
1006.001 but also had problems at 1005. If they every get these bugs out,
setting up a system with this mobo would be a straightforward process.
 
Marty said:
PC3200 locks much offered. with HD DirectX8.1

I understand your skepticism. It seems suspicious to me, too. I had read
about the BIOS error, but in a different context - in my case, I had to make
a trivial change to PCI/AGP speed to get the onboard sound to activate, so I
bumped it up one notch from its default "AUTO" setting of 66.66/33.33.

In prior attempts, whenever I attempted to run full speed, I had been using
the "2400MHz" setting on CPU speed (which automatically forces external CPU
clock to 200). This time, in performing the test you described, I tried it
differently. I set the CPU speed to "Manual" and then set the external CPU
clock eplicitly to 200, then saved & exit, then made the trivial AGP change
of setting it back from the "up one notch" position of 67.26/33.63 back to
its default position of 66.66/33.33 (but still using manual explicit
setting - not AUTO), then saved & exited. This time when I rebooted I
allowed XP to start. Surprisingly the onboard sound was still found and
still functions.

I started it on running Prime95 and also running my passmark 3D benchmark
simultaneously. This generally locked up the machine in under 5 minutes.
Unfortunately passmark does not have a "continuous" mode, so I can't just
let it run, but I will let Prime continue and see how far we make it. It
looks promising - we're at 20 minutes which is a new record for running at
2400MHz.


I think I understand what you are saying and I think I have done that. It is
an AGP 4X card (Elitegroup SiS AG315P). There were Intel INF chipset drivers
that came with the mobo, and I did install them, as doc'd in the ASUS book.
I installed DirectX 9 via the Windows Update mechanism. Last, I installed
all the drivers that came with the video card.

I still cannot get 3DMark to run.I can confirm that several of the errors it
issues are regarding lack of support for textures. Does not support:

Bilinear texture filtering
Multitexturing with at least two textures
Cube Textures
Compressed Textures DXT1 & 3
Framebuffer Alpha
Stencil Buffer

"Your system cannot run any game test of 3DMark03. Please install and run
3DMark2001 for more comprehensive benchmarking."

All tests in the test menu scrren then show "Not Supported".

When I click the Demo button, the error is "You need at least a DX8
compliant graphics adapter with pixel shaders and non-power-of-two teture
support to run the demo."

I have pasted the output from Powerstrip 3.45 here:

Diagnostic report - generated on 9/23/2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
--
PowerStrip build - 410
Windows build - v.5.1.2600.2.Service Pack 1
DirectX build - v.
OpenGL renderer - Compatible VGA / MMX, v.2.06a.00

System board
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
--
Type - Intel I845PE/ICH4/IT8708-P4PE-X
BIOS - Award Bios, 08/19/2003
AGP aperture - 64 MB
AGP transfer mechanism - DMA
AGP non-local memory - 86.6 MB
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - hardware support, but currently disabled
Fast write protocol - hardware support, but currently disabled
AGP texturing - Enabled

Graphics card #1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
--
Identity - AG315-64
Memory clock - 143.18 MHz
Engine clock - 166.45 MHz
IRQ - 16, shared
AGP revision - 2.00
AGP transfer rates supported - 1x, 2x, 4x
Current AGP transfer rate - 4x
Sideband addressing - (n/a)
Display driver - sisgrv.dll, v.6.13.10.2061 built by: WinDDK
DirectX driver - sisgrv.dll, v.6.13.10.2061 built by: WinDDK
Attached monitor - Default Monitor (Microsoft)
Monitor caps (1) - 1600x1200, 75kHz, 85Hz

Device enumeration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
--
AsusTek Ethernet controller (440114E4h) - using IRQ20
Symbios Logic Communication device (98359710h) - using IRQ22
AG315-64 (03251039h) - using IRQ16
AsusTek CPU-to-PCI/AGP bridge (25608086h)
Intel PCI-to-PCI/AGP bridge (25618086h)
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C28086h) - using IRQ16
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C48086h) - using IRQ19
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24C78086h) - using IRQ18
AsusTek Universal serial bus (USB) (24CD8086h) - using IRQ23
Intel PCI-to-PCI/AGP bridge (244E8086h)
Intel PCI-to-ISA bridge (24C08086h)
AsusTek IDE controller (24CB8086h) - using IRQ9
AsusTek Audio device (24C58086h) - using IRQ17

OpenGL extensions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --

I agree and I appreciate your help. I would still like to get 3DMark working
if you have any other ideas. I will post an update on what happens with the
latest Prime95 run at 2400MHz.

THANKS,
-Marty

Prime95 ran about 14 hours with CPU at 2400MHz without locking up. I shut it
down and swapped the old generic DDR400 RAM back in and couldn't even boot
XP. Put the good memory back in and I'm running smooth again at 2400MHz and
I still have sound. Looks like the cheap RAM is definitely bad (or
inadequate to run 400MHz) and that you were right about the 199 vs. 200MHz
clock being suspicious. Wisth they would fix the BIOS for this thing. I'll
keep working on the 3DMark issue. Thanks, Paul.
 
Paul said:
I still consider your 199 versus 200 results to be suspicious. After
setting the FSB to 200, save and exit, then re-enter the BIOS and
make a trivial change to the PCI/AGP lock. Move it a notch, then
save and exit again. Test and see if it is stable. I think the bug
with the lock was, if you change the FSB, the BIOS doesn't recompute
how to configure the PCI/AGP lock, and it uses old info for the lock
settings on the next POST. By making some kind of change to the lock
setting, after you've set the FSB and saved it, you are forcing the
BIOS to reconsider the value to use for the clock generator.

With regard to your 3DMark results, I think this means that AGP
texture transfers aren't enabled. If you have a PCI video card,
then this won't work, so forget it (no texture transfer is
possible). If you have an AGP video card, you need chipset drivers
(Intel INF otherwise known as INFINST.exe), the video card driver
(ATI Catalyst or Nvidia Detonator), plus DirectX. It might take a
couple of installation tries before it works. You can use
Powerstrip from entechtaiwan.com, to give you info on your current
AGP settings and capabilities (I only use the info option on the
taskbar popup and don't bother using Powerstrip to try to force
any AGP settings).

If you have an AGP video card, I still think you should test it,
because that is part of ensuring that the motherboard is healthy,
before the warranty period is up. If you exercise the 3D functions
of your video card with a good test, it means your 2D operations
are that much more likely to be stable. It might take four hours
before you see a 2D video crash, whereas in 3D mode you'll see a
crash in 30 seconds (much more data is being transferred). 3D
testing allows you to accelerate the testing process.

HTH,
Paul

I finally decided to reinstall WinXP because that was the only way I could
get rid of DirectX 9 (wish I had thought to create a system restore point).
After doing this and reinstalling the Intell INF drivers and the most
current Sis315 driver I could get, I was able to run 3DMark2001, both demo
and benchmark mode. I could not run 3DMark03 because it needs DirectX 9.

I then installed DirectX 9. This broke 3DMark2001 because it insists on DX8.
I tried to run 3DMark03 but got the same errors I had previously, regarding
the various features not supported.

My conclusion is that my video card is not new enough to support the things
that 3DMark03 is looking for. The FutureMark readme says they require a DX9
compliant card, and my card documentation only claims DX8 compliance (DX9
probably did not exist when the card was made).

Therefore, I think what I am going to do is back out the DX9 and just leave
the machine with DX8.1 installed. At least that way the video hardware and
drivers are in sync with Windows DirectX version. If an application comes
along that requires DX9, the worst is seems that can happen by installing it
is that 3DMark2001 would cease to function, and it will do that in 29 days
anyway.

Thanks,
-Marty
 
Hi Marty - I don't know if you're ever going to get this message but if
you do... I've been reading this thread quite a bit and I have the same
problem... P4PE-X motherboard, except 2.8ghz CPU but also has 800FSB.
I've tried everything I can think of, including taking it to a
technician and nothing has stop the crashes and lockups except turning
my frequency down to 190. I tried 198, it locks. I'm trying 195 right
now.
What did you do to fix your board? I would like to have this running
the way it's supposed to. Any information, tips or help would be great.
My email is (e-mail address removed)
I'm getting pretty frustrated and tired. I've been having problems with
this board since the day I bought it eight months ago. So if you can
give me any tips or info at all, I would apreciate it. Thanks.
Jody Sleath
 
Hi Marty - I don't know if you're ever going to get this message but if
you do... I've been reading this thread quite a bit and I have the same
problem... P4PE-X motherboard, except 2.8ghz CPU but also has 800FSB.
I've tried everything I can think of, including taking it to a
technician and nothing has stop the crashes and lockups except turning
my frequency down to 190. I tried 198, it locks. I'm trying 195 right
now.
What did you do to fix your board? I would like to have this running
the way it's supposed to. Any information, tips or help would be great.
My email is (e-mail address removed)
I'm getting pretty frustrated and tired. I've been having problems with
this board since the day I bought it eight months ago. So if you can
give me any tips or info at all, I would apreciate it. Thanks.
Jody Sleath

The 845PE Northbridge was designed for FSB400/FSB533 processors,
using DDR266/DDR333 memory. (See page 11 in the Intel spec.)

http://developer.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/25192401.pdf

No matter how many different models of this motherboard that
Asus made, it is still based on the 845PE. Operation at FSB800
with DDR400 memory constitutes overclocking, and overclocking
comes with no guarantees (only Intel can test the chips and
bin them for speed, and the chips are not tested at FSB800/DDR400,
so Asus has no way of knowing how far they can be pushed).

I've read descriptions of other people's luck with the 845PE
and it is described as "I can set the clock to 200MHz and
not a stitch more". That means even in the best case, there is
absolutely no margin left. The fact that your board runs stable
at 190MHz, instead of 200MHz, should not be a surprise, as Intel
only has to guarantee the chips work at 133MHz (for FSB533).

The sin being committed here, is the user manual should state
that "overclocking comes with no guarantees". Persons interested
in buying FSB800 processors, should be buying a P4P800/P4C800
or equivalent board, as the Northbridge chips on boards like that
are guaranteed by Intel to run at FSB800.

If you want rock solid operation, pair a 3.06/FSB533/512K
Northwood processor with the 845PE Northbridge.

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/fsb800.htm

HTH,
Paul
 
Hi Paul. Thank you. That cleared up some stuff. I didn't do my research
before I bought this board, it was my fault. I asked the technician if this
would work with these parts, he said yes. I jumped eyes closed. Now I'm
stuck with a board that doesn't like my processor. I also hadn't read enough
about the P4s and boards in general before buying the board.
 
Back
Top