Asus P4C800-E Deluxe/Pentium 4 3.2 Extreme Edition problem

I have 2 of these boards and never had a problem until now. I've been
using a P4 3.0 Northwood @ 20% AI Overclock (3.6ghz) with 1 gb Corsair
TWINX-3200LLPT @ 2,3,2,6,8 for about a year now and it's been rock
solid and fast.
I have been using the latest BIOS (1023) since it came out in June.
This morning I installed a P4 3.2 Extreme Edition (Gallatin) and when
I booted it up it gave me the "New CPU installed, please enter setup
to update your configuration" "press F1 to enter setup, F2 to restore
BIOS defaults". I expected this and went into the BIOS, turned off the
AI Overclock, set the RAM to SPD, and made sure nothing else was
likely to cause a problem.
I rebooted the computer and got the same message. I did this 3 times.
The fourth time, I pressed F2 to set default BIOS values and it booted
right up. But everytime I reboot, I get the same message again. I hit
F2 and it boots OK, even though I had F2'd the BIOS Defaults the last
time I rebooted.
So I powered off the system, unplugged the power supply, took out the
CMOS battery and changed the jumper for about a minute to completely
clear out the CMOS, drain the capacitors, etc. Then I put the jumper
back, put in a new CMOS battery, plugged in the power supply and fired
it up.
Same thing. Everytime I reboot the computer, I get the "new CPU
installed" message", and if I F2 to Default BIOS Values, the computer
boots up fine, but it will ask again next time I reboot.
Obviously I don't want the default values, at the very least I would
like to disable the Promise RAID, disable the AC97 sound, POST Speech
reporter, boot-screen logo, etc. I would also like to play with the
memory timings and try the AI Overclock at 10%, then 20%,etc.
I spoke to the people at ASUS, the top tech said he'd never heard of
this and that with the 1023 BIOS (or even an earlier one) I should
have no problems with this CPU/Mobo combination, which is what I
thought too.
Has anyone else here experienced this kind of thing? Or have any ideas
as to what might be going on?
I am going to install the older P4 3.0c (I bet it'll run fine just as
before), if it does, I'll take it out, reinstall the 3.2 Extreme
Edition, re-flash the BIOS and try it again, draining the CMOS again
first, but I am at a loss, as were the guys at ASUS.

Any help/feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Here is the CPU info From CPU-Z 1.30:

----------------------
CPU-Z version 1.30
----------------------

CPUID Output
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of CPUs 2 (1 Physical)

CPU #1
APIC ID 0
Name Intel Pentium 4 EE
Code name Gallatin
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
Family/Model/Stepping F25
Extended Family/Model 0/0
Brand ID 9
Package mPGA-478
Core Stepping M0
Technology 0.13µ
Instructions Sets MMX, SSE, SSE2
Clock Speed 3192.0 MHz
Clock multiplier x16.0
Front Side Bus Frequency 199.5 MHz
Bus Speed 798.0 MHz
Stock frequency 3200 MHz
L1 Data Cache 8 KBytes, 4-way set associative, 64
Bytes line size
L1 Trace Cache 12 Kµops, 8-way set associative
L2 Cache 512 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64
Bytes line size
L2 Speed 3192.0 MHz (Full)
L2 Location On Chip
L2 Data Prefetch Logic yes
L2 Bus Width 256 bits
L3 Cache 2048 Kb

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this from CPUInfo v2.1.3:


[CPUInfo v2.1.3 - Freeware ]

Processor information (CPU 1)
=============================

[Processor]
Processor : Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (Northwood)
Current Core Speed : 3192 MHz
Current System Clock : 199.5 MHz
Multiplyer : 16x
Core Speed : 3200 MHz
System Clock : 200 MHz
Front Side Bus : FSB800 (QDR)
Revision : M0
Socket : Socket 478 (FC-PGA2)

[CPUID]
Vendor ID : GenuineIntel
CPU Name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
Type : Std: 0
Family : Std: 15, Ext: 0
Model : Std: 2, Ext: 0
Stepping : Std: 5, Ext: 0
Brand ID : Std: 9
CPUID Level : Std: 00000002h, Ext: 80000004h

[L1 Cache]
Code Cache : 12 K µOPs
Data Cache : 8 KB

[Other Cache]
Level 2 Cache : 512 KB
Level 3 Cache : 2048 KB

Feature Flags (CPU 1)
=====================

[Standard Feature Flags]

Bit Name Description Status
0 FPU Floating Point Unit integrated Yes
1 VME V86 Mode Extension available Yes
2 DE Support of I/O breakpoints Yes
3 PSE Support of Page Size Extension Yes
4 TSC Support of Time Stamp Counter Yes
5 MSR Support of Pentium compatible MSR Yes
6 PAE Support of physical Address Extensions Yes
7 MCE Support of Machine Check Exception Yes
8 CX8 Support of CMPXCHG8B instruction Yes
9 APIC Processor contains local APIC Yes
10 --- (reserved) No
11 SEP Support of SYSENTER-/SYSEXIT Extension Yes
12 MTRR Support of Memory Type Range Register Yes
13 PGE Support of Global Paging Table Yes
14 MCA Support of Machine Check Architecture Yes
15 CMOV Support of CMOVcc (and FCMOVcc/FCOMI) Yes
16 PAT Support of Page Attribute Table Yes
17 PSE36 Support of 36-bit Page Size Extensions Yes
18 --- (reserved) No
19 CLFLSH Cache Line Flush instruction Yes
20 --- (reserved) No
21 DTES Debug Trace and EMON Store Yes
22 ACPI Processor Duty Cycle Control Yes
23 MMX Support of MultiMedia eXtensions Yes
24 FXSR Support of FXSAVE/FXRSTOR Yes
25 SSE Support of Intel ISSE extensions Yes
26 SSE2 Support of Intel ISSE2 extensions Yes
27 SS SelfSnoop Yes
28 HTT Hyper Threading Yes
29 TM Thermal Monitor Yes
30 IA-64 Intel 64-bit Architecture Implementation No
31 SBF Signal Break on FERR Yes

[Extended Feature Flags]

Bit Name Description Status
0 SSE3 Support of Intel ISSE3 extensions No
1 --- (reserved) No
2 --- (reserved) No
3 MONITOR Support of MONITOR/MWAIT instructions No
4 DS-CPL Support of Debug Store feature No
5 --- (reserved) No
6 --- (reserved) No
7 EIST Enhanced SpeedStep No
8 TM2 Thermal Monitor 2 No
9 --- (reserved) No
10 CID L1 Data Cache Mode (Context ID) adaptive
11 --- (reserved) No
12 --- (reserved) No
13 --- (reserved) No
14 xTPR Support of Send Task Priority Messages Yes
15 --- (reserved) No
16 --- (reserved) No
17 --- (reserved) No
18 --- (reserved) No
19 --- (reserved) No
20 --- (reserved) No
21 --- (reserved) No
22 --- (reserved) No
23 --- (reserved) No
24 --- (reserved) No
25 --- (reserved) No
26 --- (reserved) No
27 --- (reserved) No
28 --- (reserved) No
29 --- (reserved) No
30 --- (reserved) No
31 --- (reserved) No

In article , Roxy
wrote:

This morning I installed a P4 3.2 Extreme Edition (Gallatin) and when
I booted it up it gave me the "New CPU installed, please enter setup
to update your configuration" "press F1 to enter setup, F2 to restore
BIOS defaults". I expected this and went into the BIOS, turned off the
AI Overclock, set the RAM to SPD, and made sure nothing else was
likely to cause a problem.
I rebooted the computer and got the same message. I did this 3 times.
The fourth time, I pressed F2 to set default BIOS values and it booted
right up. But everytime I reboot, I get the same message again. I hit
F2 and it boots OK, even though I had F2'd the BIOS Defaults the last
time I rebooted.

In this article from Feb.2004, Wesley runs a 3.2EE in the board
while using BIOS 1015:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1965&p=2

I checked Abxzone as well, and there is no mention of probs running
with EE. About the only solution I can suggest for this, is flashing
the BIOS. If the DMI/ESCD sections of the flash chip are blown
away properly by a BIOS flash operation, the BIOS code should
recompute the contents and fill in a fresh copy of DMI/ESCD. Maybe
that will be enough to fix it. The tough part, is figuring out
whether the DMI/ESCD is really getting blown away - after the
BIOS is flashed (say with a DOS disk), immediately (before rebooting)
make an archival copy of the BIOS to your floppy, then compare the
flashed image to the archived image. The DMI/ESCD should be near
the end of the flash chip (high addresses). The boot block is
near the end somewhere as well. After the motherboard has POSTed
at least once, make another archival copy with a flash programming
tool, and compare again. Stuff near the end of the BIOS image
should have been changed when the new DMI/ESCD values are
written.

Paul

Hi Paul,
Thank you very much for your reply, I haven't checked Usenet in a few
days. It is indeed a mystery, this issue. I re-flashed the BIOS last
night, v1023 again, same thing.
If I as you say, flash it again and save a copy to a floppy (twice)
can I compare them simply using MD5 checksums?
I bought this processor on eBay and it was guaranteed not DOA, which
it isn't, but without the ability to make BIOS changes that 'stick',
it is slower than my P4 3.0 Northwood overclocked 20% to 3.6 ghz. It's
totally solid there, has been for months, and doesn't get anywhere
near too hot. Soooo, what I'm going to do is this: First, try it in my
Linux box (SuSE 9.3) which has the same mobo & BIOS w/a P4 2.8
Northwood and see how it does. Second, put it back in this machine,
power it off, unplug power supply, take out CMOS battery, change the
jumper for 30 seconds to drain everything, boot to floppy and re-flash
the drive, make a copy of the BIOS, boot the computer, F2 to defaults
if necessary, boot to floppy again and make another copy of the BIOS.
I can easily use MD5 but to look at the BIOS image (with UltraEdit in
Hex mode?), I'm afraid I wouldn't know what to look for exactly. If
none of this solves the problem all I can think to do is contact the
seller (excellent feedback and sells a lot of P4 EE's), and ask to
return it. I haven't left feedback yet as I wanted to see if I could
get the thing to work properly first.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply, you have been very helpful.
I like the P4 Northwoods but my next new mobo/CPU is going to be an
Athlon 64 WhateverICanAfford+ and ASUS (of course!).
Best wishes,

John



On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 10:19:26 GMT, (Paul) wrote:

In article , Roxy
wrote:

This morning I installed a P4 3.2 Extreme Edition (Gallatin) and when
I booted it up it gave me the "New CPU installed, please enter setup
to update your configuration" "press F1 to enter setup, F2 to restore
BIOS defaults". I expected this and went into the BIOS, turned off the
AI Overclock, set the RAM to SPD, and made sure nothing else was
likely to cause a problem.
I rebooted the computer and got the same message. I did this 3 times.
The fourth time, I pressed F2 to set default BIOS values and it booted
right up. But everytime I reboot, I get the same message again. I hit
F2 and it boots OK, even though I had F2'd the BIOS Defaults the last
time I rebooted.

In this article from Feb.2004, Wesley runs a 3.2EE in the board
while using BIOS 1015:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=1965&p=2

I checked Abxzone as well, and there is no mention of probs running
with EE. About the only solution I can suggest for this, is flashing
the BIOS. If the DMI/ESCD sections of the flash chip are blown
away properly by a BIOS flash operation, the BIOS code should
recompute the contents and fill in a fresh copy of DMI/ESCD. Maybe
that will be enough to fix it. The tough part, is figuring out
whether the DMI/ESCD is really getting blown away - after the
BIOS is flashed (say with a DOS disk), immediately (before rebooting)
make an archival copy of the BIOS to your floppy, then compare the
flashed image to the archived image. The DMI/ESCD should be near
the end of the flash chip (high addresses). The boot block is
near the end somewhere as well. After the motherboard has POSTed
at least once, make another archival copy with a flash programming
tool, and compare again. Stuff near the end of the BIOS image
should have been changed when the new DMI/ESCD values are
written.

Paul