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ASUS PC-DL Boot problems

H

holli4pirating

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Messages
1,432
I've finally got my PC-DL, but I'm having some problems with it. It boots up alright the first time, but then if I shut down or restart, it won't post. I have to power down completely and clear the CMOS, then it will boot again. I tried replacing the battery, but the same thing keeps happening. I'm not sure what to do.

Also, when booting (after post), I get a message saying BIOS not installed. I've been searching around, and I saw somewhere that this is referring to the onboard RAID controller, not the actual BIOS. Any ideas on that?
 
Well if I change something in the bios, then I can't reboot it. I have to clear the CMOS every time I boot.
 
well I have had a similar problem. You need to flash to a fresh bios... the bios is corrupted basically. Download a new bios and flash it... the motherboard may have an EZ flash or something where it can pull a bios off a floppy before POST.

I would go into bios and if I changed anything it would freeze and I had to clear cmos every boot ect. Flash to a new fresh bios.
 
I've tried replacing the battery and flashing the bios.
After I flashed, the system didn't return to the post screen. I let it be for about an hour before powering down and trying to reboot. When it did, I was again greeted by a checksum error and found myself right back where I started. Basically, no luck. Any other suggestions? Might it be a bad board?
 
wow, sounds like a bad cmos or something strange... do you have any UV lights in your case?
 
Turns out it was a problem with the way the FSB jumper was set (which is wierd, since I had it the way the manual showed). But now I have another question. The board has a Uwire mod done, but I'm not sure which one. CPUZ reports the voltages on both CPU's as 1.35 (stock being 1.3), but Everest lists CPU1 at 1.35 and CPU2 at 1.72 and MBM lists core0 at 1.37 and core1 at 3.12. I really have no idea what to make of that. Any ideas?
 
holli4pirating said:
Turns out it was a problem with the way the FSB jumper was set (which is wierd, since I had it the way the manual showed). But now I have another question. The board has a Uwire mod done, but I'm not sure which one. CPUZ reports the voltages on both CPU's as 1.35 (stock being 1.3), but Everest lists CPU1 at 1.35 and CPU2 at 1.72 and MBM lists core0 at 1.37 and core1 at 3.12. I really have no idea what to make of that. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Well not that I know anything about uwire mods, but I would say that if the system is stable and runs at a reasonable temp, then don't worry about software voltage monitors - they're notoriously inaccurate. Speedfan says my 3.3v runs at 2.6v, which is clearly far too low, but the system never even blips.
 
holli4pirating said:
Turns out it was a problem with the way the FSB jumper was set (which is wierd, since I had it the way the manual showed). But now I have another question. The board has a Uwire mod done, but I'm not sure which one. CPUZ reports the voltages on both CPU's as 1.35 (stock being 1.3), but Everest lists CPU1 at 1.35 and CPU2 at 1.72 and MBM lists core0 at 1.37 and core1 at 3.12. I really have no idea what to make of that. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

There is no way your second socket is running at 3.12. I am sure it is either a faulty sensor, or the wrong sensor is mapped to MBM. The only way to tell which u-wire mod you have done is to pull the chips out of the sockets, and it varies depending on which cpu you are using. There is a good site for all things PCDL related here. There are threads detailing u-wire mods and vdimm mods and all sorts of goodies there.
 
Thanks for the info and the link. I don't really want to pull of the procs, so I won't worry about it for now. I'm happy at 2.8 for the time being, although they're D1's and should hit 3.2.
On the the next problem. Although I'm running XP Pro, I'm having trouble getting the IDE's and the SATA's to work at the same time. I know that on older OS's, using the SATA disables the IDE's, but I shouldn't have that problem. Any suggestions? Might it be a driver issue?

NVM on the drives, figured it out. Pics/stats coming soon.
 
Depending on your board revision, and your bios revision 1 of the Sata controllers won't work when you are overclocking. I don't remember the specifics off hand. Try plugging in to other sata things. Look into the MooseMod it allows you to get the 200mhz FSB speed in the bios that lets you get to 3ghz.

You have a board that is very finnicky, a lot of options, jumpers. I suggest that you do some reading if you haven't already.

Here is the main thread that started all the fuss over this board:
http://forums.2cpu.com/showthread.php?t=40755

Here is one that explains the jumpers:
http://www.ctechnet.com/hardware/Asus/PC-DL/xeon603_604_pin_mod.htm

Here is a main site that has a lot of the information organized:
Read this main page it'll talk about the overclocking issues with the different board versions. It's a little outdated, but hey the board is also.
http://www.datamine.tk/oldsite.asp


 
the MBM Core1 voltage-reading on the PC-DL is the BIOS battery voltage.
the PC-DL has a single VRM for both cpu's, so they will both run at the same voltage, which means most monitoring-software messes up the readings.
core0 (MBM) / CPU1 (Everest) is the actual readout of the VRM.

you say your board has had a u-wire mod done, you should be able to a copper wire in the socket itself (between cpu and socket).
as the PC-DL is a notorious under-volter it looks like the u-wire done is the 1.3v -> 1.4v (1.35~1.37v actual), which is the VID 1.300v to 1.400v Mod: U-wire C3-D3
 
Thanks for the help and suggestions. I've figured out the hard drive problem, it was a cabling issue (I think I messed up the lines when cutting a flat cable to round it).
The info on the voltages is good to know. I didn't mod the board myself, so I'm not sure which mod it is, but that sounds right. I think I have all my problems sorted out for now.
 
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