asus p55t2p4 vs p55t2p4s, some bios problems

[rapierdragon]

I have both a rev.1.1 p55t2p4s and a rev.3.10 p55t2p4

There are essentially 3 differences between teh two boards. The "S" on the lower-revision board means its has a SCSI port built in, as well as a total of 6 simm slots. And because rev1.1 only has a max FSB of 75mhz it maxes out at 400mhz with 192mb ram (whereas the 3.10 board maxes out at 500mhz with 128mb ram).

Is there another program for flash-updating bios without using the usual AWDFLASH.EXE program?

For some reason I can't flash the bios on the t2p4. When I try the system reboots before the AWDFLASH program even can check the existing bios.

I was running on the rev.1.1 twp4s at 400mhz, but found the rev.3.10 t2p4 at a cheap price and decided to move to it (picking up an extra 100mhz of speed in the process). however the faster rev.3.10 t2p4 board had an old bios with the 8gb harddrive limit and it won't allow a flash update regardless of the bios-write jumper's setting.

To get around the problem (temporarily) I pulled the bios chip from the t2p4s and put it into the t2p4. (so my t2p4 is running teh t2p4s bios). Everything works fine except for one annoying problem: I have to set my 60ns ram on the 70ns setting otherwise I get frequent crashes in win98se.

I tried to update the t2p4 bios in the t2p4s board, but even though both bios chips look identical they refuse to take the t2p4 bios. If I try to update either chip in the t2p4 board the system just reboots and doesn't update the bios.

matsho@sympatico.ca

 

[Crashman]

Are you sure you don't have the BIOS protect jumper enabled? I remember those boards a bit, and I'm fairly certain they used a jumper, as opposed to a BIOS setting, to disable flashing.

I'll tell you what, I have an RD1 BIOS Savior I can sell you to make your flashing on another board easier. And if you're looking for another flash program, try Uniflash.

I actually have a complete collection of flash programs so I can flash chips not supported even by Uniflash.

 

[rapierdragon]

Thanks for recommending uniflash. It let me flash the bios no problem. (so it must have just have been the awdflash program that was messing up.)

So my t2p4 now runs a little better because I can run my 60ns simms with the 60ns bios settings. (Its not much of a speed increase over running them at 70ns, but for some reason win98 seems to be a lot faster).

Running at 503mhz with 128mb ram. Runs quiet and fairly cool (fan on cpu and 2 other fans built into the case)

Installed one of those wired indoor/outdoor thermometers so I can monitor the temp inside the case, and its about 96F(36C). Mind you though that's in a corner of the case where there's no real air circulation, and even then that's after several hours of being on. If I put the sensor elsewhere, most places test out at about 90F(31C).

Still though, its a pity I'm not one of those guys who'd know how to rip the ICS clock-chip and whatever from my rev.3.10 t2p4 and put them on my rev.1.1 t2p4s to get it past its 66mhz FSB limitation....

...wouldn't that be cool? Then I'd not only be at 500mhz or so, but running with 160mb ram (4x32mb in 60ns simms and 2x16mb EDO). 160mb ram was what i had installed on the t2p4s (unfortunately its rev.1.1 so it maxes out at 396mhz).

Matt
matsho@sympatico.ca

 

[Crashman]

It should max out at 400MHz. 66x4=400? Yes, because 66 is 2x 33, and 33 isn't really 33, but rather 1/3 of 100. So a 66MHz bus is actually supposed to be 66.67MHz.

 

[rapierdragon]

Yes, I know the math. Despite tweaking the rev.1.1 t2p4s always maxed out at 397mhz when tested (it did say "400mhz" during boot-up), but you know how things are.

I do own a cheap soldering gun, and did take a grade 10 electronics shop class, but the only stuff I've really worked on for repairs or mods is cheap dollar-store electronics that run on batteries. Even if I was given instructions, I doubt I'd try to rebuild the rev.1.1 t2p4s to have an 83mhz FSB or an 88mhz FSB capacity, and even if I did dare, I wouldn't be ripping the parts from my rev.3.10 t2p4 since its currently in use (unless of course i find another one cheap on ebay and use it for parts).

 

[Waterit]

Check out the article at http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20000725/index.html

I've done this with two P55's, and had success.

BK