A8N-E BIOS settings not sticking

[zippy]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

I quite like this board overall, and am able to run a AMD 64 3200+ at 2.5
gig with stock cooling. I have some 500 Mhz RAM and I just turn it and the
FSB up to 500 and all works fine.... when I get the settings to stick. No
matter which BIOS I use whenever I attempt to set the DRAM and CPU settings
to manual and make the above changes I must restart and enter the bios
several times before the settings will stick. One or the other or both (CPU
and DRAM settings) goes back to "Auto" settings and either the ram goes back
to 266 or the CPU seems to drop the multiplier to less than the built in 10x
that the cpu should be. I need to restart several times before it sticks,
but dare I attempt to play with the vcore settings or the memory timing and
it screws up again, so I don't even bother. I've upgraded the BIOS several
times, but only 1004 seems to run stably at the overclock I have achieved.
Other newer bioses are a nightmare to try to get overclocking to stick.
Anyone else have this problem? Am I missing something here? Is the pope
catholic? Does a bear *** in the woods? Are you paying attention anymore?

Mostly happy mobo owner.

 

[Paul]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

In article <UvKye.166177$El.71407@pd7tw1no>, "Zippy"
<zippydude@NOSPAMshaw.ca> wrote:

> I quite like this board overall, and am able to run a AMD 64 3200+ at 2.5
> gig with stock cooling. I have some 500 Mhz RAM and I just turn it and the
> FSB up to 500 and all works fine.... when I get the settings to stick. No
> matter which BIOS I use whenever I attempt to set the DRAM and CPU settings
> to manual and make the above changes I must restart and enter the bios
> several times before the settings will stick. One or the other or both (CPU
> and DRAM settings) goes back to "Auto" settings and either the ram goes back
> to 266 or the CPU seems to drop the multiplier to less than the built in 10x
> that the cpu should be. I need to restart several times before it sticks,
> but dare I attempt to play with the vcore settings or the memory timing and
> it screws up again, so I don't even bother. I've upgraded the BIOS several
> times, but only 1004 seems to run stably at the overclock I have achieved.
> Other newer bioses are a nightmare to try to get overclocking to stick.
> Anyone else have this problem? Am I missing something here? Is the pope
> catholic? Does a bear *** in the woods? Are you paying attention anymore?
>
> Mostly happy mobo owner.

If the board had "Vocal POST", you would probably be hearing
"CPU failed overclock" messages, just before your settings were
returned to safe defaults. I think that means you are "on the
edge" with your overclocks, and the BIOS is automatically
recovering from what it thinks is the last detected crash.

I checked a couple private forums, and there are no reports of
BIOS settings "not sticking". If the BIOS settings cannot be
maintained with nominal settings, I would return the board
before your vendor's return period is up. But if it is only
happening when overclocking, you could just be going to close
to the edge, or using a particular setting which is too
aggressive.

Always distrust the BIOS, when it comes to displaying the
actual conditions being applied to the hardware. In some cases,
the DIMM clock rate is determined by percentage of CPU overclock,
so the BIOS is not displaying the true speed. For this purpose,
you should track what is going on with CPUZ or clockgen, from
www.cpuid.com. They will display the true speed, and help you
make more sense out of your overclocking results. Once you
figure out the math that is really at work, you'll find
overclocking a more sane exercise. (For example, my Asus
Intel board lies about memory timing settings, and CPUZ
tells me what is really being used.)

As for the RAM, dropping command rate to 2T will improve
stability, if you want to try extremely high RAM clocks.

And, wouldn't a bear **** in the woods ? If a bear just ***
in the woods, that seems much less offensive

HTH,
Paul