[jpinard]

Originally Posted by mrdlouisd

If you bought that ati x1900xt, and have this board. I say its a waste without that much needed bios. I have a X1900XTX. Look at this.
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=213797
As you can see with one of the bios's not the current one I outscore my system now. Im running 2.6 with my vid card oced to core 688.50 mem 801.00 ( I can go much higher but this was for testing purposes). Before my system was 2.4 with no oc on my vid card. Im running 1t right now with mem is on 166, at 237mhz. Faster then I had before. I had it scaled way down due to ocing, so 100 on ram and 2t. But still outscored my current system. If that isnt some gay shit I dont know what is.

Yes, I know exactly how you feel.

[Toube]

Hi!

I running the board at 1T with 243 x 10.5 = 2550 MHz and HT 1 GHz.

But the 3Dmark06 CPU score only gives me aroun 990 points.. and a total score of 5100 points..

Anyone have any clue why the low CPU score?

System spec:

A8R-MVP
2 x 1 Gb Mushkin 4000 performance
Amd X2 4400@2550 MHz
Connect 3D 1900 XTX
Windows XP SP2

Regards,

Toby

[jpinard]

Originally Posted by Toube

Hi!

I running the board at 1T with 243 x 10.5 = 2550 MHz and HT 1 GHz.

But the 3Dmark06 CPU score only gives me aroun 990 points.. and a total score of 5100 points..

Anyone have any clue why the low CPU score?

System spec:

A8R-MVP
2 x 1 Gb Mushkin 4000 performance
Amd X2 4400@2550 MHz
Connect 3D 1900 XTX
Windows XP SP2

Regards,

Toby

It's a problem with the BIOS on the A8R-MVP and one of the reasons we're so angry. There's a bug in the BIOS that causes those people with video cards of 512 Meg have the writes across the PCIe bus going at 50% the normal speed. It's a cpu register issue that only Asus can fix. Asus did send a beta BIOS to ATI almost a month ago when ATI prodded them to fix it... yet Asus has refused to release the BIOS to us end-users and ATI can't do anything more to push Asus on fixing this problem.

[Toube]

Originally Posted by jpinard

It's a problem with the BIOS on the A8R-MVP and one of the reasons we're so angry. There's a bug in the BIOS that causes those people with video cards of 512 Meg have the writes across the PCIe bus going at 50% the normal speed. It's a cpu register issue that only Asus can fix. Asus did send a beta BIOS to ATI almost a month ago when ATI prodded them to fix it... yet Asus has refused to release the BIOS to us end-users and ATI can't do anything more to push Asus on fixing this problem.

Hi,

So this is also a bios problem.. jep jep.. no suprise there!

We'll just have to wait for a bios update then.. fingers crossed..

-Toby

[mrdlouisd]

After 2 hours of trying to tighten up my ram timings, ive come to the great conclusion. If im forced to use timings that I set when I find max oc, there is something terribly wrong. Even then I still have to keep bumping down to pass superpi 1m. Im done messing with this board for the night. Buy all high end components and get ripped on the board. Go figure, I even have my cpu pinmodded, and would never have even considered doing that, but this damn board makes you do desperate things. Sad, you would think Asus was a good mobo maker. Ill never buy a board from them, until I see documentation of the known bugs for the board and see if its even worth it. Knew I shoulda grabbed that returned dfi when I had the chance.

[Alicomb]

MMmmm it does look like this board has its problems.

And to be honest I am a ltitle miffed with the support from ASUS, I waited 3 months to buy this motherboards and when I finally got it is buggy.

While it may not be released I am suffering from Blue Screen Of Death Errors relating to ATI's drivers or so it seems, I've not been to find any conclusion why I keep getting these crashes but read through the 2 threads on these forums it begs the question if it could be the motherboard at fault.

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by Veridian3

Will email Asus again tomorrow morning so they get it first thing Monday Taiwan time...

Anything new?

[baseball_55]

Alicomb

Better update your sig 8AN MVP??? BSOD'S from ati drivers - Maybe explain how + when it happens & someone may be able to help you out.

bb55

[skruB]

Originally Posted by jpinard

There's a bug in the BIOS that causes those people with video cards of 512 Meg have the writes across the PCIe bus going at 50% the normal speed.

Oh dear God....Did they not know there were 512mb cards out? This seems like an issue someone would have with an old board trying to run a 512mb card, not one that is less than 6 months old! I thought some of my frame rates/benchmarks were wack...

[jpinard]

Originally Posted by skruB

Oh dear God....Did they not know there were 512mb cards out? This seems like an issue someone would have with an old board trying to run a 512mb card, not one that is less than 6 months old! I thought some of my frame rates/benchmarks were wack...

I am as bewildered as you are.

[grog]

I usually do not overclock but I decided to give it a go to see if I had any real problems.
Mainly I wanted to make sure I could overclock to above 2.4Ghz at least.

Since I have a Athlon 64 4400+ 2.4Ghz will give me 4800+ performance. Now if I am able to reach 2.6Ghz then I would have FX60 performance. Same core and cache for all three processors.

Well I was able to get to 2585.5Mhz so I was not far off from the 2.6Ghz of the FX60. From what I have read so far I don't think many have overclocked the 4400+ beyone 2.6Ghz anyway.

I might have been able to push the system to 2.6Ghz but my other goal was to keep the RAM with a command rate of 1T and this I have done.

Using the settings for 2585.5Mhz as shown in this document I am fully stable.

ASUS A8R-MVP
BIOS Version 0309
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+

Stock Settings
CPU
Core Speed: 2205.0 Mhz
Multiplier: x11.0
HTT: 200.5Mhz
Memory
Frequency: 200.4 Mhz
FSB/RAM: CPU/11
CAS# Latency: 2.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge: 3 clocks
Cycle Time (Tras): 6 clocks
Blank Cycle Time (Trc): 11 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer: 16 clocks
Command Rate: 1T

Overclock Settings
CPU
Core Speed: 2585.5 Mhz
Multiplier: x11.0
HTT: 235.0Mhz
Memory
Frequency: 215.5 Mhz
FSB/RAM: CPU/12
CAS# Latency: 2.5 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay: 3 clocks
RAS# Precharge: 3 clocks
Cycle Time (Tras): 6 clocks
Blank Cycle Time (Trc): 11 clocks
DRAM Idle Timer: 16 clocks
Command Rate: 1T

Bios


Benchmarks

Super PI/mod1.5XS (x2) (Running two copies to stress test system)
Stock------>000h 36m 16.326s : 000h 37m 27.577s
Overclock-->000h 31m 58.047s : 000h 32m 00.860s




SisSoft Sandra - CPU Benchmark:
Stock------>Dhrystone ALU: 19814 MIPS
Overclock-->Dhrystone ALU: 23240 MIPS
Stock------>Whetstone iSSE3: 8924 MIPS
Overclock-->Whetstone iSSE3: 10474 MIPS





SisSoft Sandra - Memory Bandwidth Benchmark:
Stock------>RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 5249 MB/s
Overclock-->RAM Bandwidth Int Buff'd iSSE2 5928 MB/s
Stock------>RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 5223 MB/s
Overclock-->RAM Bandwidth Float Buff'd iSSE2 5907 MB/s





3DMARK-06
Stock------>3DMarks: 3630
Overclock-->3DMarks: 3729
Stock------>SM2.0 Score: 1408
Overclock-->SM2.0 Score: 1421
Stock------>HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1425
Overclock-->HDR/SM3.0 Score: 1438
Stock------>CPU Score: 1691
Overclock-->CPU Score: 1983





Direct link to images
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/2034/bios6qt.jpg
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5480/pict0017ju.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2424/pict0010bt.jpg
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7145/pict0022yp.jpg
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/7748/pict0026ft.jpg
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/6594/pict0048xv.jpg
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/676/pict0058sn.jpg
http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/3484/pict0041pz.jpg
http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/1174/pict0057gw.jpg

[Alien1]

Originally Posted by AlexM105

Not this again...

Explain to me why every other ATi chipset in every other motherboard made works fine.

Who said they work fine ?
It depends...
There are still many reports with some strange and serious faults with ATI mobo chipsets and not only from ASUS

By the way there is already a newer ATI based card from ASUS, the A8R32-MVP Deluxe (With True 16x Crossfire support)
It's a little newer generation from the A8R series and it's the competitor of the A8N32 Nforce 4 16x series...and guess what there are already some reports that it make sounds like a electric glitcing when u power on

Why these strange problems happen only with ATI-ASUS based cards and not with NVIDIA-ASUS ones ??

Originally Posted by jpinard

You should get a clue before adding your worthless posts. The only ATI chip on the Asus A8R-MVP is the Crossfire chip. Those of us running one video card, are not running ANY ATI chipset functions. Let me repeat that. There are NO ATI mobo functions being used if you're only running 1 video card. So once again... it IS Asus's fault. Sheesh

Whatever man
I need to get a clue ??

Just because it runs 1 card without any ATI functions enabled = So no ATI fault ?????

Having 1 sollution or a multiVPU\GPU sollution (2x)
it still beeing operated a large by the chipset by default and not only the graphic card(s) but the other hardware parts of your computer too !!!
Let me repeat that: not only 1 or 2 graphic cards but the other hardware parts of your computer too....and THE CHIPSET FOR THAT IS GUESS WHAT AINSTAIN
ATI not ASUS

VIA also has some Screwy buggy Chipsets in the market and i assure you that is not only the manufacturers (Award or American Megatrends BIOS) fault


I am not saying that ASUS is perfect of course
The Bios with these sollution is probably Bugy

What i am saying is that BOTH ASUS AND ATI has screwed it

Have fun with your new bugy sollution and waiting for a new bios from ASUS (if a new bios solve all the problems)
You bought it without reading enough reviews and without having enough information as it seems

Believe whatever you want

[GreenEnvy]

I've been having some problems with my A8R-MVP as well.
You can see my specs below. My problem is that my system reboots randomly, I'll sometimes be in a game (Fear, battlefield2) and the system will freeze, then after a few seconds reboot. I check CPU temp and it's 41 degrees C. Other times I'll come to the computer in the morning, and it's rebooted itself overnight (I can tell since I am no longer logged in to WinXP). I have disabled ms's auto reboot after updates so that is not the issue.
I don't have the system overclocked at all, everything is stock on it. I first thought the problem was my cheapie power supply, so last week I picked up the thermaltake unit, but the problems continue.

Yesterday I disabled the onboard sound, and so far no crashes, but I haven't really had time to test it yet. I am running the 0402 bios, which the mobo came with.

Also, I've reinstalled WinXP 3 times now, 2 times with 32bit, once with WinXP x64. On all 3 installs, the sound drivers could not install properly at first, they reported I didn't have any hardware the drivers could install. there was an unknown PCI device in device manager. I figured out this was the HD audio system. I downloaded MS's HD audio files, and after that was working, I was able to install the soundcard drivers.

Any ideas?

[Alicomb]

Yes I keep getting Blue Screens of Death when playing Games, its not all the time but when it happens it is nearly always the same error.

I am at a complete loss to what is causing it as I work in Tech, and I've gone through lots of tests (But I of course may have missed something )

Basically the Error refers to ATI driver files

either [color=Red]ati2cqag.dll[/color] or the more common [color=Red]a[/color][color=Red]ti3duag.dll [color=Black]Both seems to refer to the same memory address 0x00000008E

I've Scanned my memory for many hours using Prime95 and have not found any errors, i've also cleaned out all drivers and tried with version 5.13 - 6.3 always the same error.

While it may not be related to motherboard I can't think of anything else it could be

Everything is running at clock speed, and I am not overclocking anything, I've no real reason to do so.

Oh and as far as i can see I've got all the latest Drivers for my mobo and hardware and are using the 0408 BIOS (which seems to keep disappearing from ASUS's website but that another story :S)

Any ideas?
[/color][/color]

[Order 66]

Originally Posted by Alicomb

Yes I keep getting Blue Screens of Death when playing Games, its not all the time but when it happens it is nearly always the same error.

I am at a complete loss to what is causing it as I work in Tech, and I've gone through lots of tests (But I of course may have missed something )

Basically the Error refers to ATI driver files

either [color=Red]ati2cqag.dll[/color] or the more common [color=Red]a[/color][color=Red]ti3duag.dll [color=Black]Both seems to refer to the same memory address 0x00000008E

I've Scanned my memory for many hours using Prime95 and have not found any errors, i've also cleaned out all drivers and tried with version 5.13 - 6.3 always the same error.

While it may not be related to motherboard I can't think of anything else it could be

Everything is running at clock speed, and I am not overclocking anything, I've no real reason to do so.

Oh and as far as i can see I've got all the latest Drivers for my mobo and hardware and are using the 0408 BIOS (which seems to keep disappearing from ASUS's website but that another story :S)
[/color][/color]

All games or just one or two in particular? Does it occur at random or around certain parts in a game? Blue screens are usually driver related in my experience. Test with another video card if you can.

[AlexM105]

Alien1, do you feel better after writing that? I don't even know how your post helped us or DriverHeaven with our issues... Oh wait, it didn't.

Originally Posted by Alien1

AND THE CHIPSET IS GUESS WHAT AINSTAIN

It's Einstein.

Originally Posted by Alien1

I need to get a clue ??

Indeed.

ATi has nothing to do with the board's ability to run the RAM in 1T or the major Vcore fluctuations. These are the two biggest (and main) problems with this board.

Alien1, read....

Originally Posted by jpinard

It's a problem with the BIOS on the A8R-MVP and one of the reasons we're so angry. There's a bug in the BIOS that causes those people with video cards of 512 Meg have the writes across the PCIe bus going at 50% the normal speed. It's a cpu register issue that only Asus can fix. Asus did send a beta BIOS to ATI almost a month ago when ATI prodded them to fix it... yet Asus has refused to release the BIOS to us end-users and ATI can't do anything more to push Asus on fixing this problem.

My X1900XT will be here tomorrow, and that will be the third major problem I will encounter with this board.

[Alicomb]

Originally Posted by Order 66

All games or just one or two in particular? Does it occur at random or around certain parts in a game? Blue screens are usually driver related in my experience. Test with another video card if you can.

Well I only play a few games but the games that i've had these crashes on are as follows:

Oblivion, World of Warcraft and Sims 2

I finally got around to running a check of the crash dump

Apologies if it appears as though i am hijacking this thread, that is not my intention.

************************************************** *****************************
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
************************************************** *****************************
KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M (1000008e)
This is a very common bugcheck. Usually the exception address pinpoints
the driver/function that caused the problem. Always note this address
as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.
Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003. This means a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted
/NODEBUG. This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have
hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...
If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the
system is booted /DEBUG. This will let us see why this breakpoint is
happening.
Arguments:
Arg1: c0000005, The exception code that was not handled
Arg2: bfb21c92, The address that the exception occurred at
Arg3: a7d83a34, Trap Frame
Arg4: 00000000
Debugging Details:
------------------

EXCEPTION_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could not be "%s".
FAULTING_IP:
ati3duag!log2+1b52
bfb21c92 f681f804000003 test byte ptr [ecx+0x4f8],0x3
TRAP_FRAME: a7d83a34 -- (.trap ffffffffa7d83a34)
ErrCode = 00000000
eax=00000000 ebx=e10eb010 ecx=00000000 edx=ffff0200 esi=e10eb010 edi=00000008
eip=bfb21c92 esp=a7d83aa8 ebp=e114c010 iopl=0 nv up ei ng nz na po nc
cs=0008 ss=0010 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=0030 gs=0000 efl=00010286
ati3duag!log2+0x1b52:
bfb21c92 f681f804000003 test byte ptr [ecx+0x4f8],0x3 ds:0023:000004f8=??
Resetting default scope
CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
BUGCHECK_STR: 0x8E
LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 00000000 to bfb21c92
STACK_TEXT:
a7d83b38 00000000 000004fb 00000000 00000f76 ati3duag!log2+0x1b52

STACK_COMMAND: .bugcheck ; kb
FOLLOWUP_IP:
ati3duag!log2+1b52
bfb21c92 f681f804000003 test byte ptr [ecx+0x4f8],0x3
FAULTING_SOURCE_CODE:

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0
FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner
SYMBOL_NAME: ati3duag!log2+1b52
MODULE_NAME: ati3duag
IMAGE_NAME: ati3duag.dll
DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 43fbdae3
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_ati3duag!log2+1b52
BUCKET_ID: 0x8E_ati3duag!log2+1b52
Followup: MachineOwner
---------

[jpinard]

Alien, wow you're so brilliant you can't even spell Einstein correctly. If you're the best schill Asus can come up with - no wonder they're in so much trouble.

At any rate, you could pluck out the only ATI chip on this board and it would still run exactly the same way witht he same problems. The terrible (potentially damaging) cpu voltage fluctuations are video card independant. Meaning they happen no matter what video card you use. The 1T command rate problems are video card independant. The register issue is 100% Asus's fault. ATI only moved some vido registers around to make the crd more efficient. It is totally within AMD spec. What is not in spec is Asus's crappy BIOS.

And last but not least - I did read reviews. Sadly Anadatech isn't as honest as they used to be, and neither is Asus. Asus/Anandtech pulled a fast one on us end-users and their "mainstream rocket" review is full of crap. Anandtech should have takenAsus to task for lying to them about it being a production board (which it wasn't). But instead, Anandtech coverd their asses and pocketbooks and tried to wipe it away. That's why I no longer use Anandtech as a hardware review source.

[csimon]

hey jpinard ...are you certain that asus was supposed to release a bios to fix that x1900 xtx issue or was it ati?

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by csimon

hey jpinard ...are you certain that asus was supposed to release a bios to fix that x1900 xtx issue or was it ati?

Why would ATi release a BIOS for a board made by Asus?

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

Funny asus used to relese and still does with other comanys chipsets
release beta bioes to the public. Considering the amount of issues asus
who still has don't nothing. Needs to do something, anything vs thrugh
us PR or the run around....

I'm already set to order an abit board, and all future boards will not be made
by "asus" just waiting to see what asus does but being 4 months and no movent
so it appears it's going no where fast....

We should demand to be able to RMA our board then an get the newer bord
if they refuae to fix this one....

[Nightowl225]

Originally Posted by jpinard

Alien, wow you're so brilliant you can't even spell Einstein correctly. If you're the best schill Asus can come up with - no wonder they're in so much trouble.

At any rate, you could pluck out the only ATI chip on this board and it would still run exactly the same way witht he same problems. The terrible (potentially damaging) cpu voltage fluctuations are video card independant. Meaning they happen no matter what video card you use. The 1T command rate problems are video card independant. The register issue is 100% Asus's fault. ATI only moved some vido registers around to make the crd more efficient. It is totally within AMD spec. What is not in spec is Asus's crappy BIOS.

And last but not least - I did read reviews. Sadly Anadatech isn't as honest as they used to be, and neither is Asus. Asus/Anandtech pulled a fast one on us end-users and their "mainstream rocket" review is full of crap. Anandtech should have takenAsus to task for lying to them about it being a production board (which it wasn't). But instead, Anandtech coverd their asses and pocketbooks and tried to wipe it away. That's why I no longer use Anandtech as a hardware review source.

I'm starting to say the same thing. I've decided that if don't see a bios from ASUS that fixes some freeze ups and sound/music stuttering issues I've been having within the next few weeks, I'm going for a new motherboard. I've already decided which board I will get and it won't be one using a combination of ATI/ULi. It's going to be the ECS KA1 MVP board, where both the Northbridge and Southbridge are ATI. I get the issues I mention, even if I use the onboard AD 1986 High Def 5.1 sound.

What it amounts to is ASUS screwed a lot of us over, and I bought this board, as ATI months ago when I did my upgrade said, it was the most stable board for Crossfire, which it is to a point, but with the issues I'm having I've had enough. Heck, with the way ASUS designed the board, there is no space between my X1800 Crossfire Edition card, and my X1800 XT for air to circulate between the cards.

If ASUS would get the lead out of their butts, and put out a new bios within the next few weeks, that fixes these issues I would consider sticking with this board.

I use to think that it was drivers that were the main cause, not anymore.

[grog]

For the sound problem are you sure you have the " /usepmtimer" option in your "boot.ini" file?

I am not using onboard sound but the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro Sound Card I am using is trouble free.

I have the All-In-Wonder X1800XL paired with the ASUS A8R-MVP and I usually have either the TV playing in the corner of my screen or I am playing a DVD. No skip in sound at all. Games do not have skip issues as well.

Frankly my ASUS A8R-MVP has been stable as hell for me. No lockups, no problems of any kind.

The only issue I had with the board was the Ethernet driver and I have already posted a fix for that issue. Simply download the driver from Marvel!

I was even happy with the overclocking. I was able to reach almost 2.6Ghz while keeping my memory at 1T.

I am sure my Asus motherboard is crap from reading this thread but so far I have been unable to prove it to myself. Sorry to say I am happy with both ASUS A8R-MVP boards I bought. One in my system and one in my wife's.

Puzzled.

Originally Posted by Nightowl225

I'm starting to say the same thing. I've decided that if don't see a bios from ASUS that fixes some freeze ups and sound/music stuttering issues I've been having within the next few weeks, I'm going for a new motherboard. I've already decided which board I will get and it won't be one using a combination of ATI/ULi. It's going to be the ECS KA1 MVP board, where both the Northbridge and Southbridge are ATI. I get the issues I mention, even if I use the onboard AD 1986 High Def 5.1 sound.

What it amounts to is ASUS screwed a lot of us over, and I bought this board, as ATI months ago when I did my upgrade said, it was the most stable board for Crossfire, which it is to a point, but with the issues I'm having I've had enough. Heck, with the way ASUS designed the board, there is no space between my X1800 Crossfire Edition card, and my X1800 XT for air to circulate between the cards.

If ASUS would get the lead out of their butts, and put out a new bios within the next few weeks, that fixes these issues I would consider sticking with this board.

I use to think that it was drivers that were the main cause, not anymore.

[Crossfirepain]

Wow, i was just thinking, it would be a great day for forgiving If a new bios for us was released to coincide with the new catalyst 6.4's due today... *hint* *hint*

[P@N]

Originally Posted by grog

For the sound problem are you sure you have the " /usepmtimer" option in your "boot.ini" file?

I am not using onboard sound but the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro Sound Card I am using is trouble free.

I'm having the sound problem (skipping, stuttering with the onboard HD adi1986a).. but what do you mean with the "usepmtimer" ? Could you explain what this will do and where you have found this suggestion?

Thx

[Alicomb]

I sometimes get Sound problems with my X-FI Platinum, not all the times, but usually requires a reboot to fix.

The sound reminds me of the old days when you tried to play digital sound out of a speaker and the sound was all distored and such.

Still no updates from ASUS, I am seriously considering dropping the board

[360_Rog]

Originally Posted by GreenEnvy

I've been having some problems with my A8R-MVP as well.
You can see my specs below. My problem is that my system reboots randomly, I'll sometimes be in a game (Fear, battlefield2) and the system will freeze, then after a few seconds reboot. I check CPU temp and it's 41 degrees C. Other times I'll come to the computer in the morning, and it's rebooted itself overnight (I can tell since I am no longer logged in to WinXP). I have disabled ms's auto reboot after updates so that is not the issue.
I don't have the system overclocked at all, everything is stock on it. I first thought the problem was my cheapie power supply, so last week I picked up the thermaltake unit, but the problems continue.

Yesterday I disabled the onboard sound, and so far no crashes, but I haven't really had time to test it yet. I am running the 0402 bios, which the mobo came with.

Also, I've reinstalled WinXP 3 times now, 2 times with 32bit, once with WinXP x64. On all 3 installs, the sound drivers could not install properly at first, they reported I didn't have any hardware the drivers could install. there was an unknown PCI device in device manager. I figured out this was the HD audio system. I downloaded MS's HD audio files, and after that was working, I was able to install the soundcard drivers.

Any ideas?

I have exactly the same problems. I've been able to reduce the freezing and rebooting, but it still happens at least once per day, and usually twice. Have you kept a log of times when it happens (I've turned off all the power management so that I can turn the monitors back on and see the time)? Hardware specs are in my sig. I've reinstalled windows enough times that I've had to call Microsoft to reactivate my copy of XP. I've changed my power supply from OCZ Modstream 520 to Enermax Liberty 620. No change. I've been waiting for the LanParty UT CFX3200 to come out so I can replace my POS A8R-MVP, but it's still vapourware in Vancouver. Vapourware that keeps going up in price too...and it's not even on the shelf yet (it's now priced at $267.90 CDN for PRE-ORDER)!

[grog]

The "/usepmtimer" options is appended to the "boot.ini" file if you install the AMD drivers from AMD. Now if you don't want Cool-'n'-Quite you can just set the "boot.ini" options yourself which is what I did.

Look in your "C:\boot.ini" file. You should be able to just edit your "boot.ini" file with notepad. Just make sure the "/usepmtimer" option is used as shown below.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windo ws XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer


NOTE: Without this option freezing, sound problems and a host of other issues are expected. Not a ASUS issue, a dual-core X2 "feature".

Greg

Originally Posted by P@N

I'm having the sound problem (skipping, stuttering with the onboard HD adi1986a).. but what do you mean with the "usepmtimer" ? Could you explain what this will do and where you have found this suggestion?

Thx

[AlexM105]

Originally Posted by Alicomb

I sometimes get Sound problems with my X-FI Platinum, not all the times, but usually requires a reboot to fix.

The sound reminds me of the old days when you tried to play digital sound out of a speaker and the sound was all distored and such.

Still no updates from ASUS, I am seriously considering dropping the board

You know, now that I think about it that's also happened to me a few times!

[360_Rog]

Originally Posted by AlexM105

You know, now that I think about it that's also happened to me a few times!

Me too. It happens about once every week to ten days.

For me, this issue sometimes BEGINS on a fresh boot. It will stay that way until the system is rebooted again. Now every time I boot and I hear the windows xp wave file all messed up, I sigh, wait for the services to load, then re-reboot.

Could this be the product of the particular combination of A8R-MVP, Creative X-Fi Platinum, and ATI X1800XT?