Chris_B Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Argh, this thing's being a badger! OK, so I had a P5PE-VM that worked long enough for me to install Win2K3 on it, then it sat on a shelf for a few weeks while I got ready to deploy it. Plugged it in, dead. Posted on CSN, no joy. In the ned I replaced the board with another one I had kicking around unopened. Now I have power. However, Win2K3 is playing up a right blinder; competely freezing when Ctrl-Alt-Del to login. I tried updating the BIOS to the latest version, no change. So, I reinstalled Win2K3, or at least I tried. It ran the firts part of setup, formatted the 40GB SATA ('tis only a Term Server box, no need for lots of space) and copied setup files. Next it booted into the graphical setup, then <font color="blue">BSOD</font>. Cold boot and try again: different <font color="blue">BSOD</font>... So I tried swapping the RAM for another identical set of DDR400 (Kingston matched 2x 1GB kit). When it booted, the CPU was still reported as a "Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz", but the CPU speed the board reports was something like 1.3Ghz! I reset the CMOS. No change. I downgraded the BIOS to the version that the old replaced board had, no change. I put the old RAM back in - reports correctly as a 1.86Ghz. New RAM back in, same thing again. I tried MemetestX86+ and it reports a RAM speed of DDR354 CAS 3-4-4-8. Tried old memory again, same thing - BIOS reports CPU as 1.86Ghz correctly now, but MemtestX86+ says the RAM speed is slower. Anyone got any ideas? I'm stumped and ready to stamp on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDiAvant Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 What version of Windows 2003 Server CD are you using? Is SP1 included on the disk? I had a similar problem with XP, the disk I was using was SP1 so I used Autostreamer to create a SP2 CD and all worked well after that. The other than that it could just be a faulty motherboard. Autostreamer Linky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 It's Windows 2003 Server Std R2. Hoever, by testing with memtestX86+ I know something ain't right that isn't Windows fault. I just tried blowing both BIOS versions back and doing a CMOS reset after each, then seeing what happens. With BIOS 0901, the CPU is correctly identified as a 1.86Ghz, but the RAM is picked up at DDR534 speed (177Mhz). With BIOS 1201, the CPU is incorrectly identified at being something like 1.3Ghz, but the RAM is correctly identified as DDR400. To see if it's the RAM's SPD block being stuffed, I swapped it out for a Kingston 2x 512MB matched kit, and it does exactly the same thing. So, I have have a correct CPU speed or RAM speed, not both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 I dunno why it'd be playing havoc with your reported board and RAM speeds, but perhaps it's the SATA drivers? Do you have a copy of the BSOD stop codes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Definately sounds like it's something to do with the BIOS then.. does Windows install with either version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Definately sounds like it's something to do with the BIOS then.. does Windows install with either version? [/ QUOTE ] Nope, having problems with that. I did install Windows under BIOS 0901 on the previous board that died abruptly while waiting to be deployed. Just tried again; gets as far as the grpahical installation bit with the green squares in the bottom right, then after a few minutes of that, it bluescreens with stop 0x000000024. I bet it will run Memtest all night, and I bet it will have no problems with CentOS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=228888&sd=RMVP Suggests hard drive access problems.. pointing again to the RAID drivers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 [ QUOTE ] http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=228888&sd=RMVP Suggests hard drive access problems.. pointing again to the RAID drivers? [/ QUOTE ] Ah, I'll see if I can get a SATA driver installed with F6 during install then. Thanks! The 'DDR354' thing I found an answer to on the Asus forums: "This is a limitation due to fixed CPU-memory frequency ratio. When you use FSB 1066 CPU, the ratio is set to 3:2 in order to run DDR400 memory within spec. This results memory frequency to roughly 354MHz" So, probably not the best board to use with a Core 2 Duo E6300 then. Bugger, I just ordered one to replace the dead one which will be used with the other identical CPU and RAM. In fact, I've had memory timing or dual-channel problems with a few Asus boards now, and don't remember having this much grief with odd memory timings and the like on Gigabyte boards. I may have to swap back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark_90 Posted December 20, 2006 Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 No problem If you do install the driver with F6 and Setup tells you that the driver you are using is older than the one currently within Windows Setup, it's worth selecting the option to still use the one from the disk that you have downloaded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Cheers, I think I'll give up until tomorrow now and leave it running Memtest (at 177Mhz RAM speed!) overnight to give it a shakedown test. If anything else goes wrong with this board, I'll be looking for somethign else that supports Core 2 Duo and DDR400... Thanks for the help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted December 21, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I'll be looking for something else that supports Core 2 Duo and DDR400... [/ QUOTE ] But can't find anything! Looks like the P5PE-VM is about the only board that 'supports' C2D and DDR400 together; everything else that does C2D is DDR2. I'm beginning to wonder if Asus have perhaps tweaked this board to make it work, and are now having problems with it, hence clocking down either the RAM or CPU depending on BIOS version. I could just stick the four 1GB sticks of DDR400 I've got in the drawer in my desk along with the two 512MB DDR400 sticks (didn't work in an Intel board) and the two 1GB DDR400 sticks (didn't work in another Asus, an A8N SLI Premium), and buy four gigs of DDR2 and some other mobos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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