[Tanquen]

I've got the new 0311 BIOS and still have bad jerky pausing in Counter-Strike: Source.

Also, if I use the channel 2 P-ATA on the motherboard with any of the three DVD drives that I have, the drive will read then stop and read then stop and everything freezes when it stops reading. Like the mouse can’t move while this happens. If I use any of the three drives that I have on channel 1 (blue) this will not happen.

[color=black]I just spoke to ASUS and they just said to try a different Motherboard or different RAM.[/color]

System:



CPU AMD Athlon 64 FX 60 2.6G 939P - [color=black]CPU FAN Zalman CNPS 9500 LED[/color]
MEM 1Gx2 Mushkin 184P D500 991493R
[color=black]MB ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe XPES320 939[/color]
[color=black]Video Card X1900XTX 512M H190XTX512DVN[/color]
[color=black]HD 160G ST 7K 8M SATA2 ST3160812AS (4 Drives in 2 RAID Arrays)[/color]
[color=black]PSU Silverstone SST-ST60F 600W RT[/color]
[color=black]DVD-ROM Pioneer DVD-106S[/color]
[color=black]DVD-RW Sony DRU-800A[/color]
[color=black]DVD-RW Sony DRU-820A[/color]
[color=black][/color]

[color=black]HELP![/color]

[color=black]Thanks.[/color]

[color=black]Richard[/color]

[snuffy]

Originally Posted by Zardon

I dont think you fully understand the issues at hand snuffy. firstly I dont have one of these troublesome systems personally - so im not sure where you got that from ?, ---- we opened this thread and resolved issues with a prior board via ASUS and are now attempting to help end users with another board.

ATI are not the key in this chain and indeed have been very helpful from our end, we have talked to them for over a week and asus have not delivered either fixes or a responsible response and or fix for the end users.

Sorry I meant for DH to send me info on what issues and system specs. I know Veridian has been working with the board. Guess I did not relay that correctly.

My concern is the same as yours. To fix issues on both the A8R-MVP and A8R32-MVP. BOTH boards have many problems. I have been trying to collect as much data as possible as I have had some success with Asus on getting these issues acknowledged. To date I have been working on personally confirming problems and giving information to ATI/ Asus so that they can replicate.



I do have to agree that Asus’s responses have been very slow…. But the pressure is on them now. There are system integrators like myself that are unable to ship X1900 Xpress3200 systems because the only available board is not stable. ATI is going to apply pressure.



The most important thing is that we get these issues resolved. With me working on Asus USA and you in the UK one of us will get it done.

[Zardon]

Originally Posted by snuffy

The most important thing is that we get these issues resolved. With me working on Asus USA and you in the UK one of us will get it done.

Yes, I couldnt agree more and the more people we have pressuring them the better. I know it works as DH was one of the key sources to getting asus to (let us) host the 311 bios for the public. Unfortunately the situation this week hasnt been as fruitful as before, im sure stuart will detail more shortly.

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Asus need to get on the ball, what are they doing!?!?!?

Until Asus get on the ball I would advise anyone "NOT to buy Asus
motherboards". Seriously wait for one of the other well known makers
Nor will I recommend ANY Asus mother boards on any forums.

They are only here / in business because we are here... With out their
Customers they out of jobs people don't not forget when they get burned...
Their not just loosening 1 sale, their loosening every sale they could of made
to that customer over their entire life.. Not to mention people like my self who
build for others the end effect begins to multiply fast…

edit:

Hmm... petiton time?

Originally Posted by jpinard

Neon Cowboy? First time I've agreed with you. And buddy... you need one kickass spell-checker - heheheheheheh! Looks like you're taking English as a Second Language and Gaalic is your first

Funny you say that after all since that post was written in then
pasted out of MS word weather it still has errors or not. Kind
of the reason I don’t bother using one a lot of times because
even when I do I see crap like this STILL.

Originally Posted by snuffy

BTW those waiting on the DFI board. The reason it is not out yet is a shortage
of the ULI southbridge. Once they get SB ships things should move forward.

EDIT Just got an E-mail from Asus. More questions and testing....

ATI needs to get their new south bridge out, I'm afraid when NV takes over
you can say likely say bye-bye to driver support, updates, and future OS support
on ULi chipsets. other then maybe generic windows drivers or 3rd party hacked
ones... I only Wish ATI was buying ULi.. then we'd be safer I think.....

Some of the issues on A8R-MVP are supposedly due to hardware design
they can’t provide enough voltage / their having issues. So the neutered the
release boards bios…. It bad then people basically have to volt mod to get
a decent voltage for over clocking… least there are the things I was reading
on their forums…

They are seriously sending their long earned image to hell in a handbag...

[kelticknight]

was looking at this mobo ,till today thought that asus was getting thing right,seen too much bad issues with this new mobo,so will look else where ansd wait to see how other mobo perform

[Veridian3]

So Zardon summed up pretty much what i was going to say...

When we first reported the A8R32 issues we found Asus to be reasonably quick to respond and it was clear they were working hard to resolve the issues (though i am stunned they made it into retail products in the first place...and that no launch reviews noted them).

When I approached Asus with the A8R issues i kept ATI in the loop also as it involves their chipset and for the past week ATI PR have been giving what updates they can... unfortunately the responses from Asus have been limited. Infact i only received one email in the last week from them which basically said that investigations were ongoing. I sent Asus about 4 chasers... and still we dont have a response.

The latest is that i have mailed them (again) asking for some sort of update/statement that we can pass to you. I have also made it clear that it is not an isolated issue and that many of the issue happen regardless of the other components used. We have also offered any assistance they require...

If anything comes back i'll let you guys know imediately however i'm begining to wonder if the issues will ever be resolved. To me the lack of response can only mean one thing... there are serious issues with the board which they cannot tie down/resolve.

Hopefully i'm wrong, the ball is well and truely in Asus's court...

[Highperf15]

Originally Posted by Veridian3

So Zardon summed up pretty much what i was going to say...

When we first reported the A8R32 issues we found Asus to be reasonably quick to respond and it was clear they were working hard to resolve the issues (though i am stunned they made it into retail products in the first place...and that no launch reviews noted them).

When I approached Asus with the A8R issues i kept ATI in the loop also as it involves their chipset and for the past week ATI PR have been giving what updates they can... unfortunately the responses from Asus have been limited. Infact i only received one email in the last week from them which basically said that investigations were ongoing. I sent Asus about 4 chasers... and still we dont have a response.

The latest is that i have mailed them (again) asking for some sort of update/statement that we can pass to you. I have also made it clear that it is not an isolated issue and that many of the issue happen regardless of the other components used. We have also offered any assistance they require...

If anything comes back i'll let you guys know imediately however i'm begining to wonder if the issues will ever be resolved. To me the lack of response can only mean one thing... there are serious issues with the board which they cannot tie down/resolve.

Hopefully i'm wrong, the ball is well and truely in Asus's court...

Sounds like "Backpeddling.....3rd Tier manufacturer crap".........Asus knew that alot people were initially looking for a performing Crossfire board........Unless this board is resolved real soon, I'll just throw it in the garbage and start buying from DFI........

Asus.........your really lookin more like a 3rd tier mobo maker than a 1st tier......

[Veridian3]

This just in...

Email from Asus saying they do have answers and are just gathering internal comments before responding.

More to follow as soon as we have it...

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by Veridian3

This just in...

Email from Asus saying they do have answers and are just gathering internal comments before responding.

More to follow as soon as we have it...

WhoooooHoooooooooooo!

I'm not moving from here. Maybe you guys should start that "Asus A8R-MVP Issues" thread once you have some answers from them.

[Highperf15]

Haha.......Guess they hate being called a "3rd tier" manufacturer........

Well, let's see what they come up with.........if it's a good fix, I'll promote em back to "1st tier".....

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by Highperf15

if it's a good fix, I'll promote em back to "1st tier".....

I still lost respect for them. Everything we're doing now should not have been needed...

[jpinard]

I've got to say this whole thing is simply bewildering. A quick stroll through their own forums shows general outrage unlike any I've seen in a long time. I know from personal experience there are a ton of people who've been trying to get Asus to acknowledge these problems, and for months its seemed Asus just didn't care. I've still got my Asus support tickets... un-attended & un-answered...

Why do I get the feeling the Uli southbridge shortage is an "artificial" shortage?
I think we will all breathe a sigh of relief when we can purchase a pure ATI board from Gigabyte, MSI, A-Bit, or DFI can put out some more stable boards. It's been 15 years Asus... time for someone new.

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Veridian3

This just in...

Email from Asus saying they do have answers and are just gathering internal comments before responding.

More to follow as soon as we have it...

wowsers there is hope yet....

Originally Posted by jpinard

Why do I get the feeling the Uli southbridge shortage is an "artificial" shortage?
I think we will all breathe a sigh of relief when we can purchase a pure ATI board from Gigabyte, MSI, A-Bit, or DFI can put out some more stable boards. It's been 15 years Asus... time for someone new.

I don’t know but asus doesn't seem having any trouble getting them...
but then again like I said them and green team seemed way to umm
(puting it mildly) friendly for comfort... when I last seen their PR
and Green team PR in the same room. Come to think of it asus gave away
a bunch of NV cards, and some NV Boards an like one or two Ati cards.

That and ATI been stealing market share in the mobo market, and mobile
market, normally dominated by green team and Intel. A shortage of
ULi chips would slow or kill this down. As most are using them to boost
SATA II and better USB / firmware transfer rates. Two magor things
where the ATI southbriges suffer or lacks...

After all asus was 1st well known not so much for their mother boards,
but their awesome video cards (and they didn't make any ATI cards at
that time.) (Insert wild baseless conspiracy theory here) This is not the
whole story just a narrow view... Anymore their not that big in the video
card arena but in tem mother board area they are…

Bad thing people still associate 1 or two brandX problematic Ati chipset
mother boards with all Ati chipset mother boards. As if it where a problem
with the ATI chipsets. Or all ATI boards. Not the mother board or bios which
comes down to the board maker though ATI has a hand in it

Ponder this are NV chipset ASUS board users having this same uphill battle?
None comes to mind, Asus rocked when ever I used to use all NV chipsets. 1st
ATI chipset bard I got from what would be called a 3rd tier co.. ran like a dream..
frequent bios updates. Just as advertised. 1st ATI board I had from asus has left
me very disappointed… What reviewers got a what they shipped, leaves people
like they’ve been burned..

Anything’s possible I leave you to your own conclusions...Not looking to argue
or bit just saying what I’ve seen and my point of view

the next couple bios updates there will be a lot of eyes on asus...

I found this interesting in regard to ULi :

“Interestingly enough, none of the dozen or so RD580 motherboards I have personally seen over the last three months use the ATI SB400, SB450 or SB460 southbridge. Manufacturers mostly claim this is due to the fact that NVIDIA (ULi) has a superior product, although with ULi now becoming an NVIDIA brand all manufacturers have admitted to us they have SB600 on the roadmaps for all future ATI southbridge core logic. “http://dailytech.com/Article.aspx?ne...commentid=9814

[jpinard]

Actually for many years Asus's only tier-1 products were motherboards. Later as the 3D market grew, they used their manufacturing prowess to take generic video card designs and "supercharge" them for high-end offerings. They've moved into Optical storage, PDA's, laptops, monitors, and it seems like darn-near everything outside of the processor itself. I still remember when Asus was just a little mobo-maker competing with their main opponent A-Bit. Wow, have things changed. Next you'll hear they want to make dishwashers and circular saws. Maybe they've spread their engineers to thin.

[Highperf15]

Originally Posted by jpinard

Actually for many years Asus's only tier-1 products were motherboards. Later as the 3D market grew, they used their manufacturing prowess to take generic video card designs and "supercharge" them for high-end offerings. They've moved into Optical storage, PDA's, laptops, monitors, and it seems like darn-near everything outside of the processor itself. I still remember when Asus was just a little mobo-maker competing with their main opponent A-Bit. Wow, have things changed. Next you'll hear they want to make dishwashers and circular saws. Maybe they've spread their engineers to thin.

Actually, all the reviews I've read about Asus video cards were of the "not-so-good" kind.

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by jpinard

Actually for many years Asus's only tier-1 products were motherboards. Later as the 3D market grew, they used their manufacturing prowess to take generic video card designs and "supercharge" them for high-end offerings. They've moved into Optical storage, PDA's, laptops, monitors, and it seems like darn-near everything outside of the processor itself. I still remember when Asus was just a little mobo-maker competing with their main opponent A-Bit. Wow, have things changed. Next you'll hear they want to make dishwashers and circular saws. Maybe they've spread their engineers to thin.

well the shop I worked in sold a ton of boards, abit and others where just as
popular, but when it came to video cards what sold like hot cacke wher the
asus video cards. So i'm going more on personal experiance there...

Hopefully we dont get the run around from asus...

[chuckdee]

i installed A8R32-MVP deluxe mobo last week. ok i have not had any problems with it as of yet. also i must say im using fx-53, running it at 2.6ghz. i just set multiplier at 13. since the A8R-MVP board i have been alittle tenative about changing memory settings. ill wait a while until i see more positive feedback about the 1t settings etc..etc being a stone-cold asus user i was shocked at performance of A8R-MVP. i also understand asus needed to get something out there on the market for ati card holders. but i feel asus should do a rebate or a trade-up for ppl who trusted asus for yrs and purchased the A8R-MVP board without a second thought.ty

[snuffy]

Glad to know Asus got an E-mail back to you. I know one reason for the slow responce is that there is a long pipeline even for testing. In the US. Asus USA does some testing to confirm the issue. Then it has to got back to Asia. Then info is passed back to the USA. Update back to Asia...etc. Due to the time differences the back and forth adds time. I know this is not a excuse but it does explain some of the slowness.

On the ULI southbridge. Right now there are no options. The ATI and ULI southbridges are not pin compatible. MBs take some time to design and as far as I have seen ALL RD580 boards will be using the ULI SB. So for Asus, DFI and others they are commited to the ULI SB unless they are willing to start from scratch on a major section of thier RD580 MBs. (Except maybe Sapphire..which looks to be the Manta board stripped down.) What this could mean is supply issues until the next generation boards with ATI's SB600 southbridge. (A southbridge I do not expect to see on a 939 MB.)

I personally hope the ULI SB shortages decrease and things free up. My fingers are crossed that they do.

[Zardon]

Guys as this thread has been unstuck from the front page it has been moved to the motherboards forum for future reference, thanks.

[csimon]

Asus can fix the A8R-MVP issues til the cows come home. Do they really think I'll be a returning customer?

Posted: 12/25/2005 5:19:00 AM Dear Asus,

I'd like to get more vcore range out of the bios if that is possible. Another +.20 would be excellent. That's the only thing holding me back right now. I can live with the 1t issue for now.

Thanks
csimon

Would you? I didn't think so.

[nystylin74]

Hello everyone, first and formost I'd like to say that I feel bad for everyone that has been going through what they are going through with their RIG's. I know what it feel slike cause I went through it with my current rig. I have 2 ATI X1900 cards itching me in my computer room and I can't wait to get a board and everything else. But reading this forum for the past month I'm kinda pulling away from the asus board and thinking about waiting for the Sapphire PC-A9RD580 for the major overclockers and for the normal user it's the PC-A9RD580ADV .

PC-A9RD580= http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/produ...w.php?gpid=141

PC-A9RD580ADV = http://www.sapphiretech.com/en/produ...w.php?gpid=142
Now I called them and was talking to a tech for about an hr. Shhhh don't tell my boss the call was on him, lol. Well, he told me that they have tested the A8r32-MVP over at Sapphire and that they are taking all of the glitches that it has and making sure that when their board comes out, it will not have the same problem, nor are they in the business of releasing buggy, problematic or whatever you call it mobos. Now this is the info I got from the number that is listed on the Sapphire website for contact in the USA. Now I ask you this, should I wait till mid April when the Sapphire boards are going to come out?

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by nystylin74

Now I ask you this, should I wait till mid April when the Sapphire boards are going to come out?

Yes, or grab the DFI RD580 board due by the end of this month.

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Originally Posted by snuffy

The ATI and ULI southbridges are not pin compatible. MBs take some time to design and as far as I have seen ALL RD580 boards will be using the ULI SB. So for Asus, DFI and others they are commited to the ULI SB unless they are willing to start from scratch on a major section of thier RD580 MBs.

So thier not , Last I'd herd I thount current Uli and Current ATI southbridges
where pin compatable... But then again thats just what I had read somewhere...

[Highperf15]

So.....no fix yet????

[nystylin74]

The PC-A9RD580 has a cool white color though, but not reason enough to wait to use my crossfire system. One more thing, you think if I use simple IDE hard drives I won't have the problems you guys are having. I'm not looking to overclock or anything. I'll post the full specks of what I will have on order and tell me if I should have any problems.

ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe Socket 939 ATI CrossFire Radeon XPRESS 3200 ATX AMD Motherboard *BIOS Ver. 0311*

FSP Group (Fortron Source) FX700-GLN ATX12V/ EPS12V 700W All-In-One Power Supply

AMD Athlon 64 FX60 Toledo 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2pt

Original ATI cards bought straight from ATI X1900 XTX and X1900 Crossfire Edition

Creative labs sound blaster audigy 2 zs
from my old system

and 1 western digital 80 gig IDE hd
so what do you guys think? Will I have problems with this setup?

[Nightowl225]

Only issue I have on the A8R-MVP, and I believe it to to be a bug in ATI's Catalyst drivers is every now and then, sound or music will stutter and skip.

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by Nightowl225

Only issue I have on the A8R-MVP, and I believe it to to be a bug in ATI's Catalyst drivers is every now and then, sound or music will stutter and skip.

Are you using the integrated sound or a sound card? Either way ATi has nothing to do with that.

[Nightowl225]

Originally Posted by AlexM105

Are you using the integrated sound or a sound card? Either way ATi has nothing to do with that.

I'm using a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music card, and wrongo on your claim ATI has nothing to do with that. The trouble is ATI's drivers, I had the sound/music stuttering far worse until I installed ATI's Catalyst 6.3 drivers, and it went dramatically down. Before I was using Catalyst 6.2, and had this problem out the rear including every now and then a blue screen of death, and had a Turtlebeach Soundcard ruined by this problem, which before Catalyst 6.3, including a squeal of death. The trouble got so bad, that no games would run with Crossfire enabled, I pulled Catalyst 6.2 off my system, and went back to Catalyst 6.1, until Catalyst 6.3 came out.

[Highperf15]

Originally Posted by Nightowl225

I'm using a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Music card, and wrongo on your claim ATI has nothing to do with that. The trouble is ATI's drivers, I had the sound/music stuttering far worse until I installed ATI's Catalyst 6.3 drivers, and it went dramatically down. Before I was using Catalyst 6.2, and had this problem out the rear including every now and then a blue screen of death, and had a Turtlebeach Soundcard ruined by this problem, which before Catalyst 6.3, including a squeal of death. The trouble got so bad, that no games would run with Crossfire enabled, I pulled Catalyst 6.2 off my system, and went back to Catalyst 6.1, until Catalyst 6.3 came out.

Has anyone tried the Omega drivers with Crossfire setup???

[Veridian3]

OK guys, Asus have responded to our email which contained all your feedback on the A8R-MVP.

Here is the unedited mail, please let us know any comments you would like fed back to Asus re the response and any further questions it raises.

Issue 1

A fix is needed for the fluctuating vcore. ie: when set in bios @ 1.45v +
auto overvoltage it reads (fluctuates) from 1.488 > 1.536v. A simple fix
may be just to add an option of .2v overvoltage or open more options in
bios. ie: 3200 venice default voltage 1.4v maximum option in bios 1.65v.

Or
Big voltage fluctuation on vcore (sometimes it can go from 1.37v to 1.44v
(readings made with Asus Probe).

Or
AMD 4200+ allow max of 1.48v (1.4v +overvolt) however fluctuates down as
far as 1.41v

Asus Response
The Vcore will not be contantly fixed at a voltage point even if the CPU loading is
kept. Additionally, switching noise and any high frequency operations of CPU also
make Vcore variant. The reading from hardware, temperatures & voltages are
translated from analog to digital converter (ADC) in hardware monitor chip. It will
not be 100% accurate. In addition, the hardware monitor in a PC system also has a
certain range of variation. Besides, the power for hardware monitor will also varies
and impatcs the reading. Voltage fluctuation is inevitable. Therefore, if the
variation is within 50mV, we can consider it stable.

Issue 2
The A8R-MVP is advertised to reach up to 1.65V on the Vcore. Depending on
the processor installed, the max you can actually select is either 1.40V
or 1.45V (The Opteron 148 allows selections up to 1.45V). The "Vcore
Overvlotage" option is supposed to give up to .2V OVER whatever you
manually select. If you select 1.45V and "Vcore Overvoltage" on, the
processor should be able to get up to 1.65V. However the Vcore will not go
over 1.55V no matter what, and fluctuates quite a bit!

Asus Response
We are following AMD's specification. VID+50 is what AMD defines and Asus increases
it to 100. This +100 limit is to protect user's CPU. A8R-MVP is designed for the
mainstream market so we take more conservative options for it.


CPU type --- Recommended Voltage --- Maximum VID adjustable --- Maximum Voltage after Vcore over-voltage Enabled(+0.1V)
Clawhammer 1.50V 1.55V 1.65V
Opteron 1.40V 1.45V 1.55V
Some new 90nm CPU 1.35V 1.40V 1.50V


According to AMD Cool&Quiet spec, VID's overvoltage limit is 50mV (2 steps),
together with the additional 0.1V. The maximum voltage setting should be default
Vcore voltage + 50mV +100mV= default Vcore voltage +0.15V. The mentioned max 1.65V
is possible only on some Athlon 64 Socket 939 CPUs which the highest voltage is
about 1.50V. This doesn't mean that A8R-MVP supports 1.65V on every CPU model. For
example, enthusiasts like to use Opteron 14X/15X CPU which has a default VID 1.40V.
Thus the max Vcore can be set to be 1.40+0.15=1.55V.

Issue 3
Vcore reads higher than what it's set at in BIOS and in Asus Probe (I
don't have a DMM). For instance, 1.35v shows at near 1.40v (or even higher
because of fluctuation).

Asus Response
When CPU is idle, the Vcore voltage reading usually looks a little higher. If the
loading gets heavier when running program, the Vcore voltage shall drop down a
little.
That's a normal phenomenon in a regulator design.

Issue 4
Some users reporting that they are unable to use 1T even at stock speeds.
(Results in random reboots and errors). There are many postings here which
cover this issue:

http://www.ocworkbench.com/ocwb/ulti...pic/44/91.html

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?S...&model=A8R-MVP

Asus Response

According to AMD's spec, 2T is the suggested value. Not every memory module on the
market could perform or operate well under 1T so this really depends on the loading
of memory module and quality of memory chip. In our previous experience, only light
loading DIMM like 1 single side with top-grade memory chip can be easily set to 1T &
work well. If a double side DIMM is used, or with B/C class chip, or with more than
1 DIMM on each channel, 1T is more difficult to achieve.