Okay im on the verge of dropping PC and turnin to consoles!!

[1Tanker]

Sorry to change the subject from BIOS flashing, but what you said about never having spyware is stuck in my craw. I don't think anyone online hasn't at some point had spyware/adware/ malware. If you've checked for those and for virus, there's still the possibility of a root kit. :? Get a good rootkit revealer, and run it. Even if this isn't the problem(and it probably isn't) it's a good idea to scan for these as well, on a regular basis. GL

 

[rHy0]

Right guys my BIOS version is v1.02 :? I was hoping i wouldnt need to flash it but anyway explain to me how to do it and ill see if im up to it... Also my RAM timings are defo 3-3-3-8. By the way Alpha youve put a lot of time into helping me out so far, i really appreciate it.

 

[sex_monkey]

im just gunna add my 2 cents,i briefly read over this thread so please excuse me if im wrong.
first off, i see a small drop in fps after the first time you load fear
is it just fear or is it happening to all games? for example would your score in 3dmark 05 go down significantley after the first trial.
just a thought becuase i didnt see any other game mentioned
another small thought is that when you do your first test in fear,try closing it down and restarting either fear or the pc and benchmark again.
i noticed you said the gfx card was replaced,and i also see it is an xfx,thats factory overclocked isnt it,have you tried looking at the temperature of it at idle and in game i have a factory overclocked 7800gt from xfx and it gets to about 60 degrees shouldnt cuase trouble but its something to look at.
im only going on first impression and instinct as you have said it is a problem with fps i have addressed it as a problem with gfx
i know you said you havent overclocked but another idea i had was if you had and not locked the pci express frequency that may have cuased issues
just ideas tell me what you think

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

Falla I would like to help you get your issue solved is all. Provided you have the current BIOS and all of its settings are as correct as possible then you have windon'ts installed correctly all current drivers and all windows updates there is nothing left to do. Frankly that is all any of us can do.

The BIOS you have is quite old. You have 2 choices you can flash to 1009 or the BETA. I have the BETA and I don't see any problems with it though if there were issues you could just flash to 1009.

Flashing the BIOS (old school way):

Download the 2 files from ASUS (they are a few of my posts back here)
These are zipped files. Unzip each to a folder called BIOS on your drive. You will wind up w/ an EXE and a BIN file.

Next get a blank floppy (or any floppy) and insert it in your floppy drive. Open my computer and right click on A: and select FORMAT
Choose 'CREATE START UP DISK' this will take just a few short moments.
Now copy and paste the EXE & BIN to the floppy.
Leave the floppy in place and restart your computer.
If the floppy is not set as your primary boot drive in the BIOS you must make it so at this point.
Once you are in floppy mode (DOS MODE) you will be at an A prompt.
Type AWDFLASH.EXE wait a moment for it to load......
follow the instructions you will be asked if you want to save your old BIOS first.... Do what you like here if you choose YES there may not be enough space on that floppy so you may need to quickly change floppies to a blank floppy then change back to the boot floppy again after you complete the back up.
Now select REPROGRAM FLASH EPROM (something like that) here you will need to enter the name of the BIN file you loaded on that floppy so type 1302.BIN (unless you go with the non BETA) and you can answer Y and do the flash. Now relax and watch the BIOS be replaced (has a little graphic thing) at the end press or do what the utility tells you exactly.
You will be restarting so pull the floppy out. Now go into the new BIOS and go over each and every setting.... especially the 2 pages I gave you here (print them out first I suppose)...
This is not a tough thing to do and after you’re done you will feel like a million bucks. Everyone should flash their BIOS every now and again. I take no responsibility if you fuck up or there is a power failure.
You can't do anything to the computer until you actually do the FLASH so that is the only important area so no power failures here takes about 1min to do!

 

[rHy0]

is it just fear or is it happening to all games? for example would your score in 3dmark 05 go down significantley after the first trial.
Em.. Well FEAR is most noticable cause i can use its benchmark test and so thats why i use that as an example. As for other games, its kinda hard to tell cause i have to use FRAPS during gameplay so i obviously dont get exact Avg framerate. Although the game i am playing at the moment, Hitman: Blood Money, which is not really a very high end game, drops as low as 21fps (only) during large gunfights on Max detail. To the 3dmark question, I dont use 3dmark anymore cause of its OpenAl req.

i noticed you said the gfx card was replaced,and i also see it is an xfx,thats factory overclocked isnt it,have you tried looking at the temperature of it at idle and in game i have a factory overclocked 7800gt from xfx and it gets to about 60 degrees shouldnt cuase trouble but its something to look at.
Yes, as i said my card was replaced once for a higher clocked 475Mhz 7800GTX (Xfx). Its temps always were fine, changes alot but i usually get bout 46C idle and 69/70C at full load. One thing id like to add in, after running the test in FEAR a couple of times recently iv had slightly better scores. Most recent; At Max settings (SS off + vSync off) - 1024res. i got 34Fps Min, 69Avg and 167Max (12% below 40). Also note the my Max Fps results are very unpredictable. Ranges from 158 to 167 :? So what do you think? I think its important i get more opinions on my results.

 

[rHy0]

Yeah, only thing is.... I dont have a floppy drive. When i was ordering the parts for my computer i really didnt think i needed one. I see you said 'old school way' there so can it be done any other way without the use of a floppy?

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

Then create a bootable CDROM and load the EXE and BIN on that and follow the same instructions that I gave you.

By the way you guyst that are posting about this issue: You may be correct but he must first update the BIOS as that one is quite old. I can tell you for a fact there are a few issues with his board! How can I do that you ask? Simple, I have two of them and have had all sorts of issues with each.
1) The memory controller of the K8 is on the K8 so you have to set the RAM timings manually.
2) Processor voltage needs to be set manually.
3) There are issues wish several A8N-SLI boards and ASUS has had problems w/ BIOS support.
4) @ one point ASUS posted a NEW BIOS. It turned out that it was a BETA and not working well at all. It took them 2 weeks to get the bad BIOS off their site.

Those that have 939 boards have issues with RAM often as I mentioned a few posts back. To see the full effect have a look at the A8N-SLI Premium forum on the ASUS site it reads like a horror story minus the north bridge fan issue ( has a heat pipe)
ASUS FORUM

If you intend to build a ASUS box with this board GO HERE AND GO STEP BY STEP on the Corsair memory site. Should you follow their BIOS config you will be set.

 

[rHy0]

Right ill give a shot, but with the official 1009 BIOS version. So i download that and then a Flash Tool right? I think i might even of got something on my motherboard Disk for that (a sort of Flash tool)....

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

For the 1009 BIOS you need these...
FLASH TOOL

1009 BIOS

While your at it so you don't waste a whole blank CD

1) You need to make a bootable CD so for that use NERO or a burner that allows you to make bootable CDs.
2) Burn the unzipped BIOS and TOOL to the root of that CDROM
3) Create a DRIVER folder on the root of the CD and add the following drivers (get all of these)
A) Realtek AC97 Sound Driver (dont use NVIDIA's sound)
B) ASUS PC Probe II V1.01.10 System sensors (makes unknown device go away
C) ForceWare Release Version: 91.31 Video
D) NForce

Unless you have a floppy drive there is ZERO ways of YOU to install the RAID drivers so that you can use a RAID/JOB so at some point you need to barrow or by a floppy drive and cable!!!!! It does not need to be permanent. There is a way to build a XP disk that will allow you to add the drivers you want but that is too advanced for now!!

 

[illuminatirex]

normaly pc's dont need a every 2 week reinstall lol i did a entire reinstal about 3 times or so and that was in about a time of 5 years (yesi have an oldie pc lol)

 

[rHy0]

No, it just wont work. I cant copy the files to a blank CDROM, just wont let me.... Anyway look i really dont know enough about computers to be doing this (laugh all you want) and therfore im almost completely certain that i will seriously damage it or just cause more problems which im really good at doing.... so ill just leave it be for now. If my game performance drops any more though i will have to work something out (get someone out to look at it again or something). Thanks again for your time.

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

Again you should use a FLOPPY drive they are $10-14.00 US

Use a burning application like NERO and there is a WIZARD and you can make a bootable CDROM........

If you can't do this then you will need to pay for service. There is nothing we can do for you here. I suggest that you try since for starters I am willing to help you.......
I could make you an image for the CD and upload it to you LOL if you can't burn anything then you have way more problems then you can shake a stick at and it is crash course time for you.

 

[rHy0]

have you any actual idea about what frame rates you should be getting or are you just worried about minor FPS fluctuations.

A bit of both really.... Mostly its the FPS fluctuations that concern me though.

 

[Datman]

Alpha_Magnum, what's wrong with using the Asus desktop update utility :?:
I've used it on two of my Asus mobo's, with no problems what so ever.


rHy0, ZoneAlarm Pro is very good for keeping net nastiezzz out.

 

[Alpha_Magnum]

Alpha_Magnum, what's wrong with using the Asus desktop update utility :?:
I've used it on two of my Asus mobo's, with no problems what so ever.

I'm glad you have had good luck with that tool! I remember reading how rHy0 had flashed this board and had an error. I assumed that he should go old school.
@ this point he should take it in for service since I give up.

 

[sojrner]

bingo, sometimes you just cant get what you think you need. it is at those times that you just live w/ what you have.

...trust me, my magic 8 ball just agreed w/ me 😉

 

[sex_monkey]

i agree with strangestranger i think you are being paranoid obviously you cant expect to get the exact same results everytime you do a test. but if there are other problems apart from 1-3 fps then yeah worry more.also flashing bios isnt a hard thing but it still scares the pants off me

 

[rHy0]

Yeah i successfully flashed my BIOS today to the 1009 version using Asus Update software in windows. So easy, took about 2mins My system is running a bit faster now, gaming performance has improved, so i pretty much got it sorted. Now that i have my BIOS updated i might try OCing my 3700+ a bit to balance out my system a bit more. Im using stock cooling/heatsink but would you say putting it up to 2.4Ghz would be safe? My CPU at the moment usually idles at around 29/30C and bout 40 load....

 

[mitch074]

I wouldn't advise overclocking with a stock cooler: replace it, your CPU is already a bit hot.

 

[rHy0]

Hot?? Oh... i always thought my CPU temps were very low (esp. for stock cooling) :? I really thought, and was hoping i could skim by on an overclock without havent to spend a penny Ah well maybe not then, ill take your word for it. So what cooler do you suggest thats pretty silent and not too expensive? but not to cheapy either...kinda mid ramge.

 

[sojrner]

I have mine oc'd 200Mhz w/ the stock cooler. No volt changes and runs the same temp as stock clock. another 200Mhz would probably increase temps a touch, but you should be ok up to 45C if you want to stay w/ the stock cooler. Many times aftermarket coolers perform worse than stock. Using stock is a good way to "dabble" in oc'ing w/ little commitment.

If you want more than that initial little speed bump then a good aftermarket cooler is a must.

 

[rHy0]

Well in that case i guess i wont need a better cooler cause this will be my first time OCing and ill be happy with just 2.4Ghz (from 2.2). This is just a one off kinda thing as im just doing it to balance my system out a bit better, so i dont intend to make Overclocking a hobbie. One thing, when you said you made no voltage change does that mean there will be no need for me to go near the voltage settings and i can just get straight into the CPU?? This will make things a lot easier for me if true...

 

[sojrner]

just try the oc first... at the level you are talking I would not alter voltage until you are comfortable w/ what you are doing. And then they are only needed when you are taking the proc to the moon. (relatively speaking)

 

[1Tanker]

This is just a one off kinda thing as im just doing it to balance my system out a bit better, so i dont intend to make Overclocking a hobbie.

I've heard that before. Be forewarned, it can be addictive, and feel very rewarding. Not to mention getting basically free power. Gl

 

[rHy0]

Alright once again forgive me for my lack of knowledge on this but just seeing as you have the same mobo as me i think i might ask you a few questions if its alright. Right, im ready to go into it but im not sure which setting is the best to alter, the CPU multiplier or the Bus speed/frequency?? I want to hit 2.4 so it should turn out like this; 200x12 if im to be using the multiplier, but the only thing is the multiplier settings only go up to 11x so i am going to have to do something else also right? Whats best for me to do? and how did you set them?