Abit AW9D Max BIOS Update Failure

[3oin]

Hi Folks forgive me if i'm going over old ground but ive been reading the forum for a few days trying to find a similar thread without luck.

I'm just putting the finishing touches to a new build..

Abit AW9D Max
E6600
Corsair 2 x 1Gb DDR2 pc 6400
Zalman 9700LED
Hiper 580w Modular PSU
(and just a 1650XT for the mo, I'll crossfire it up later)

Whats happening when I try to trim the Bios, by disabling all the controllers i dont need, every once in a while it forgets the settings like which drive to boot off etc, but never resets the voltages or the multiplier (thankfully).

Still.. frustrated I tried to Flash the bios (a pain with out a floppy.. who has floppys these days) bringing it from V..12 to V..14. All appeared to go well reporting "Flash successful" "press F1 to reset". After resetting I cleared the CMOS, as instructed (many times) but the pc will not successfully POST !

One of things i like about the AW9D is the led readout of the POST, which was reporting an error "C1" "Detect memory-Auto-detection of DRAM size, type and ECC-Auto-detection of L2 cache (socket 7 or below)" a little over my head as Im sure I havn't fried them with static or heat and they were working imediatly before hand.

Also the error "6F" "Floppy power or connection" appears alternately to "C1" every time I reset..

Have I bricked it? Have I flashed the Bios incorrectly, or not reset the CMOS properly I followed all the instructions to the letter. If I could get to the Bios I'm sure i could sort out any undervoltage on the ram or any other issues but how to get there?

Any help much appreciated
3oin

 

[BUFF]

If I could get to the Bios I'm sure i could sort out any undervoltage on the ram or any other issues but how to get there?

Try using just 1 DIMM - if you get it to POST enter the BIOS & set the Vdimm to that recommended by Corsair - it will almost certainly be more than the JEDEC 1.8V that the board may be setting.
edit: if it doesn't work with 1 try the other in case you have a faulty DIMM.

Btw, for when the board forgets the settings you do know that you can store BIOS profiles to reload v. quickly?

 

[3oin]

Thanks for your advice Buff I tried that this morning .. but I have a bit more info now.

I basically took out the mobo battery, shorted the CMOS pin, and left it like that overnight with no power at all. To be sure it was cleaned out.

Because what was happening was with only 1 Dimm in I could get it to POST but every time i saved and quit out of the BIOS it would forget all my settings.

So I saved a default setting of my own on the BIOS where I set the vdimm to 2.1v (and after leaving it all night) it remembered this setting and I can get it to POST every time (almost) and even boot to windows but the same memory error "C1" happens every time I put the 2 dimms in !?

Ive swapped the dimms over as well and one of them seemed to have trouble the first two times I tried to start up, but it has been fine since, I can get it to POST with 1 but not both ?

Curses! as they say

Edit: I just got through to a nice guy at Abit technical who seems as confused about it as I am.. although he told me the BIOS update #14 has changed some ram settings to make it "more compatable", "Not in my case" i said. He sugested I lower the timings to 5-5-5-15 to see if I can get it to post with two dimms, and then work back to a 4-4-5-12 situation for eg. so he can tell his boss about my problem and which timing is causing issues. Sounds like genuine concern to me thanks Abit.. Kinda

If people would like to know what happens ill reply again .. or if anyone has any advice TIA

 

[BUFF]

you might want to run memtest just to check that your RAM is OK.

 

[3oin]

Thanks I think i will run a mem test .. now that I have it running again with the two dimms.

I had to switch off all the SPD functions of the Ram to get it to work. If I leave any of the settings on Auto it wont POST with both of them in there.

I set it to a 1:1 ratio running at 2x266Mhz and dropped the latency..

It worked

I now have the Ram set at 4-4-4-12 at 2.1v (its corsair xms2 rated for 4-4-4-12) But one setting I havn't come across before is "refresh cycle timings" or "tRCT" wich is set to "42" is that healthy for my ram ? Seems to work anyhow.

So its up and running, and I can start to test all the components..

Thanks for your help all

 

[mobo57]

Sorry to confirm, but I have been having the same problems you are with the same mobo/cpu combo. I have a X1900XTX in crossfire with OCZ 6400 Platinum Rev 2. Don’t know if it is the bios or the mobo, but I have had to do three things to prevent the dreaded C1 hang. First, I always power off from windows. Second, I attached a popsicle stick to the cmos jumper for easy access (it hides behind the voltage regulator head sink on the 1900). Last is manually set the memory settings.
Had all in a P5W DH Deluxe before and had no problems at all like this. That’s the down side. The up side is it over clocks much better than the P5W. I’ve had it as high as 420x9, 1:1 at 4-4-4-12, 1.6 vcore, 1.7 mch and 2.2 vdim.
Currently running 24/7 at 420x8, 1:1, 1.4 vcore, 1.65 mch and 2.2 vdim.
In particular the hangs occur when switching between bios profiles, especially when changing the cpu multi. And power is not an issue as I have the Thermaltake Toughpower 750 and have the additional molex connected to the mobo.

 

[3oin]

Ahh thats interesting..

So far with the CPU at 1.3v, vdimm 2.1v mem ratio 1:1 Ive had it up to 333x9 just to see and it seemed very stable..

I'll push it as far as I can while leaving the voltages and ratio as they are as I want it to last 2 -3 years OC'd 24/7. Im thinking 400x9 with those settings will be my stable ceiling at those voltages. I may have to come down a bit?

The guy i spoke to (again) in Abit tech dept. said that the ram manufacturers were all supposed to agree to a 1.8vdimm standard setting, and he says that they seemed to have ignored it as most complaints (not mine) were solved by upping vdimm to 2.1v?

He also said there was an issue with BIOS#13 forgetting settings every time the power was cycled outside windows! Which has been resolved in #14.. so far so good.

Hoping I dont need a popsicle stick

 

[DonE]

3oin, I'm having the same problem as you. I can only make the computer run properly with one of the DIMMs at any one time. If I reset the CMOS and start boot with both the computer will run fine for a couple of minutes before it suddenly turns off. WHen trying to restart it will not go through the boot sequence. Removing one of the memory modules makes the whole problem go away. Bizarre.

I got the same reply from Abit re the memory voltage. High-end corsair modules they recommend to run on 2.1v, although I've so far dismissed too low voltage as part of my problem.

THe popsickle sounds like a very good idea....

 

[mobo57]

Just been trying 'OC on the fly" F8 in BIOS. Think it's the answer. Tried it with all different combinations and booted as I set.

 

[BUFF]

THe popsickle sounds like a very good idea....

or you can buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813999405 which has a cable connecting the clearCMOS header & the clearCMOS switch on the panel

 

[3oin]

Well i hope you have it sorted now DonE? (Did you see my solution above?) My setup is fine* as long as I dont physicaly switch off the power supply! As long as there is power to the Mobo everything works ..
Kinda sucks but at least its booting and otherwise seems ok.


*= Not normal

3oin