Asus P5N-T Bios & chipset .. driver help needed

[angry12345]

ok

so trying to figure whats wrong with my computer..

so i figure check out BIOS and drivers..

When I go regedit->HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->HARDWARE->SYSTEM->BIOS

i get revision 1201, which i will assume is same as version 1201 which is also old..

i notice that there appears no support for windows 7 64 bit on that mobo

sooo

a. do i update bios? to what and how do i update

b. chipset - no chipsets for windows 7 64 bit so do i just get the nforce ones from nvidia for my 780 sli? and how do you uninstall old to but in new? or do i even know what im talking about?

c. sound drivers? i have two invoices for comp one saying i have
AC97 ONBOARD SOUND
other
3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

those same thing and both part of mobo? i had updated sound drivers to
soundmax 6.10.2.6585 driver when i went from windows xp to windows 7 64 bit. that even right? and is there a better driver now?

while on driver subject

d. somebody said i had to install marvell 61xx driver and marvell miniport driver when upgrading to windows 7 did i?
im guessing it has to do with storage scsi section? v. 1.2.0.7100


any other common drivers im missing?

thx.. im a moron

 

[jaquith]

You can run Windows 7 {if you can run Vista then Windows 7 is not a problem}. Use the Vista drivers, or go to the OEM sites {e.g. Realtek ; nVida Chipset ; etc} and use their drivers.

Drivers: Windows 7 64-bit -> use Vista 64-bit drivers.

To verify your MOBO BIOS 1. Start-up screen or 2. CPUz {mainboard tab} http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Regarding updating you BIOS, I read the updates - the only compelling reason to update "Fix VT function may fail after resuming from S3" assuming you allow your PC to sleep as "I" do.

Reference - http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=64sh5AD8oYUq7Cp3

RE: Marvell - http://www.marvell.com/support.html {You will need to ID the Part-Numbers}

Also, install Windows 7 totally clean; format & install; Windows 7 will have many of these drivers and if needed review what I've suggested.

Good Luck!

 

[angry12345]

thanks for response.. i guess i wasnt super clear lol

1. i got the system 2 years ago with windows xp 32 bit

2. one year ago i upgraded to windows 7 64 bit (i did clean install)

3. over past 15 months computer has been freeze locking every so often.. its gotten to point where if i play a video game after 4 hours of playing it does it.. have to reboot then fine for another bit. no clue what it is.

tested memory, power supply, and running out of options besides drivers/bios

never updated the bios, and no clue how to so didnt want to mess that up cause i know thats not good.

i had used regedit to check out my bios

As far as Marvell.. i only installed that because when i was installing windows 7 somebody on forums said i needed to. I really have no clue what that is or if i even needed it before. If i should take it out, but windows 7 doesnt say update anything atm.. although it never tells me to update video drivers even though knew ones been out for months so go figure

 

[jaquith]

Got it.

It sounds more like an overheating issue and/or possible conflict. If you're going to game play for hours at a time then you probably need to 1. Clean out the rig from dust, 2. Improve the case circulation {more Fans or >CFM (cubic feet/min) Fans e.g. Scythe, 3. Remove the side panel.

Are you OC'ing?

To determine a 'Conflict' run MSCONFIG and select Diagnostic. Next test with a robust benchmark test(s) {3D Mark Vantage} and run CoreTemp. The Goal is to 'stress' the rig and root out the problem(s).

1. Prime 95 as a "Stress Test" [overnight.]
link - http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

2. CPU-Z for Settings Summary
link - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

3. CoreTemp 0.99.x
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

4. Memtest86+ to check memory corruption
link - http://www.memtest.org/

5. 3DMark Vantage {example of one}
link - http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmarkvantage/introduction/

Windows update will only provide 'Widows Certified' drivers, and the example of GPU drivers from nVidia or ATI/AMD will only be 1-2 times a year, but non certified come out ~monthly. Meaning 9/10 there's always a newer driver at the OEM sites.

 

[angry12345]

Got it.

It sounds more like an overheating issue and/or possible conflict. If you're going to game play for hours at a time then you probably need to 1. Clean out the rig from dust, 2. Improve the case circulation {more Fans or >CFM (cubic feet/min) Fans e.g. Scythe, 3. Remove the side panel.

Are you OC'ing?

To determine a 'Conflict' run MSCONFIG and select Diagnostic. Next test with a robust benchmark test(s) {3D Mark Vantage} and run CoreTemp. The Goal is to 'stress' the rig and root out the problem(s).

1. Prime 95 as a "Stress Test" [overnight.]
link - http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

2. CPU-Z for Settings Summary
link - http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

3. CoreTemp 0.99.x
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

4. Memtest86+ to check memory corruption
link - http://www.memtest.org/

5. 3DMark Vantage {example of one}
link - http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmarkvantage/introduction/

Windows update will only provide 'Widows Certified' drivers, and the example of GPU drivers from nVidia or ATI/AMD will only be 1-2 times a year, but non certified come out ~monthly. Meaning 9/10 there's always a newer driver at the OEM sites.

Already checked most of that...

1. Ran Prime 95 and Memtest86+ (twice overnight) few days ago. Both came out clear with no problems. Figured it might have been memory problems, but does not appear so.

2. I also have already checked both Asus PC Probe II and Speedfan for temperatures. Both had all tempts at less than 60% of their manufacturer specs. Vid cards never got over 60 degrees and are rated for 105 (and thats after hours of playing). I have a Thermaltake high performance gaming fan in addition to 4 other fans and heat exhaust port. The case is quite large to give plenty of room too

3. I keep system 1 foot off the ground, allow nothing within 10 feet of it but me, and clean it out every couple of months

4. I do not overclock.

I'll go ahead and try out 3DMark and check out CPU-Z.




Just general info on rig

Asus P5N-T Deluxe board with nVidia 780i SLI
2 x GeForce 9800GTX+
4 gigs of DDR2
NZXT 800PP 800 Watt PSU
Windows 7 64 bit
K1 NIC card (dont even use it, since have to connect wireless)

system is 23 months old

 

[jaquith]

Uninstall ALL ASUS and or any BIOS invasive utilities, constant source of instability issues. Prime95 isolates the CPU and the other stress the entire rig {CPU, GPU and RAM}.

 

[angry12345]

Uninstall ALL ASUS and or any BIOS invasive utilities, constant source of instability issues. Prime95 isolates the CPU and the other stress the entire rig {CPU, GPU and RAM}.

K.. im a bit of a moron. not sure I completely understand

What would be some Asus or BIOS invasive utilities? I think the only Asus utility i had was PC Probe which just gathered temperature readins and voltage... basically same junk as Speedfan.

I had ran Prime95 on Monday.. it came out all clean with no errors over night. Are you saying to uninstall utilities then try again? Once again which would be utilities. Not sure I have any BIOS invasive utilites

 

[jaquith]

The worst of the bunch is the ASUS AI Suite.

As I said, to determine a 'Conflict' run MSCONFIG and select Diagnostic, and run 3DMark Vantage. Also, switch back to MSCONFIG Normal.

Clearly, if Diagnostic runs OK and Normal Fails then you know conclusively that 'some' App(s) are causing the instability.

 

[angry12345]

oook..

something strange happened last night..

there are newer mobo bios out there apparently.. none for windows 7 64 bit, but some for vista 64 bit. i originally got he rig with xp 32 bit.. so maybe i should try the vista 64 bit? should i get nvidia nforce drivers for windows 7 64 bit?

so last night i ran Prime95 again. Started at about 11 pm. I check it at 11 am to see whats going on. Turn on monitor, but monitor is acting like its still asleep, nothing coming up (the computer itself is still running). I move my mouse and tap on keyboard, nothing. Mouse and keyboard are USB, so i unplug them and plug them back in. The lights on the mouse before are not showing now.. in other words is the mouse not getting power?

Reboot the system.. log in

1. First go to Prime 95 Test results:
- everything passed, but the log stops at 7:05 am.

2. Go to Event Viewer
- Notice at 11:44 pm Adobe Air - "Activation Context Generation Failed"
- 10:07 am - Previous system shutdown at 6:38 am was unexpected
- notice that the times do not match up, and that the system was still running when I got up in morning. 10:07 is when i rebooted
- 10:06 am - System rebooted without cleanly shutting down
- notice that this even at 10:06 came AFTER the one at 10:07 in the log
- 10:07 am - Audit events have been dropped by the transport

3. Checked system temperatures
- all in good range

Anyone have ideas?


Also to note:

I downloaded 3DMark Vantage. Apparently, you at least now, have to buy a copy in order to try more than once, and if your using trial you must be connected to the internet, which in diagnostic mode i cannot (wireless usb).

As a result, I ran it in selective start up mode (which is normally what I use on computer)

http://service.futuremark.com/home.action?resultId=2636049&resultType=19

Everything ran, and everything rated middle of the road. the highest any core temperature got was 56 degrees Celsius. All cores were in the range of 50 to 56. when I checked my gpus on speedfan, they were about 61 degrees

 

[angry12345]

bump

 

[jaquith]

My idea was from the second post software conflict related. Less = More, install only what you use and in particular nothing too old {Apps}.

I am pretty comfortable in that cycling through MSCONFIG and looking at the Event log will reveal the problem(s).

1. Load Diagnostic
2. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft
3. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES}
4. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES} + Startup {KNOWN}
5. Then start adding the rest 2-3 at a time; it is a slow process

 

[angry12345]

before i start going in that.. this might be a stupid question..

i have noticed that since i started all this my event log has gone from showing nothing to showing all sorts of problems... im not screwing up things more am i lol

such as

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 10/23/2010 10:51:32 AM
Event ID: 7001
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Myles-PC
Description:
The Task Scheduler service depends on the Windows Event Log service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

 

[angry12345]

After reboot in diagnostic

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 10/23/2010 1:30:18 PM
Event ID: 7001
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Myles-PC
Description:
The Task Scheduler service depends on the Windows Event Log service which failed to start because of the following error:
The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

After reboot with Microsoft Service

None, but even though not selected, Avast loaded itself anyways in services, but do not show on taskbar

After reboot with known services
(i know them all)
Avast, Quickbooks, SuperAntiSpyware, K1 junk, nVidia

Only warning was WLANAutoconfig stopped

After reboot slowing adding startup items

only warning were WLAN things.

added and restarting couple at a time

I should note that i normally run in selective start up with NO start up items on boot up. i just turn on avast when i go on internet and superantispyware. otherwise, i have all turned off

 

[angry12345]

bump

 

[jaquith]

Event ID: 7001 - Outlook 2007 crashed I assume. Run SCANPST.exe and scan your Outlook.PST file. Did you upgrade your MS Office suite from a prior version? I guarantee your PST has some corruption.

Avast can easily miss all sorts of malware, tojans, and viruses; run ESET online scan - http://www.eset.com/online-scanner

I typical run Normal start up because I am careful what I install, and I go through the Apps themselves to tweak 'start-up' items from occurring. However, in your Event Manager there will always be something, it's the Critical Errors that need the attention.

I have no clue what 'K1 Junk' is so I cannot tell you one way or the other. For Malware, I can only recommend Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

Less = More

 

[angry12345]

Event ID: 7001 - Outlook 2007 crashed I assume. Run SCANPST.exe and scan your Outlook.PST file. Did you upgrade your MS Office suite from a prior version? I guarantee your PST has some corruption.

Avast can easily miss all sorts of malware, tojans, and viruses; run ESET online scan - http://www.eset.com/online-scanner

I typical run Normal start up because I am careful what I install, and I go through the Apps themselves to tweak 'start-up' items from occurring. However, in your Event Manager there will always be something, it's the Critical Errors that need the attention.
http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/Event_Manager.jpg

I have no clue what 'K1 Junk' is so I cannot tell you one way or the other. For Malware, I can only recommend Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

Less = More

wasnt outlook. was the task scheduler service depending on windows even log service which failed because it either cannot be started or was disabled.

i am guessing since that was on diagnostic start up.. with all microsoft services off.. that is why that happened.

ESET found nothing

K1 is an NIC card.

 

[jaquith]

What 'Critical' errors are you having?

All of my PCs have Office and I've seen the 'Event ID: 7001' before, but I overlooked your notes {Service Control Manager} http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=7001

Fastest ESET full scan I've seen.

 

[angry12345]

What 'Critical' errors are you having?

All of my PCs have Office and I've seen the 'Event ID: 7001' before, but I overlooked your notes {Service Control Manager} http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=7001

Fastest ESET full scan I've seen.

Event ID 7001
Source Service Control Manager
Type Error
Description The <service name 1> service depends on the <service name 2> service which failed to start because of the following error: <error message>

yea thats the one

The only critical errors I am having are:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: Myles-PC
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

The reason I am getting those is that I am having to reboot my computer form my problem which is the whole screen on occasion freezing up like a screenshot. Whatever I am doing just sticking. No audio. No ability to move mouse or type. Control + ALT+ Delete does nothing.

No log to what exactly is causing that freeze. As mentioned also earlier today, I was running Prime95 (started at 11pm) and I think it happened again at about 7ish am. I cannot tell for sure because when I turned on my computer screen, it would not register up with the computer which was still running, and moving mouse did nothing. Screen kept going back to hibernate, but computer was not in hibernate. Had to hard restart. Prime95 log had no errors, but something happened.

I do not know anything about bios, but when i purchased my machine it was set up with xp 32 bit BIOS and now im running windows 7 64 bit. No windows 7 bios out there, but there are vista 64. just not entirely sure how to use them

 

[angry12345]

apparantly the problem after checking around asus boards is that the P5N-T has a problem with freezes.. like 3 of first 10 posts were people complaining of this. Just a bad board that isnt supported properly i guess.

Now just trying to upgrade chipset drivers. Cant find the nForce drivers to uninstall though

 

[jaquith]

Just use the (3) posted at ASUS.

Nvidia Chipset Driver Package WHQL V15.23 for Windows XP/Vista 32bit & 64bit.
NVIDIA Raid Driver Package V9.46 WHQL for Windows 64bit Vista.
NVIDIA Chipset Driver Package V9.45 for Windows 32/64bit Vista.

Otherwise D/L from nVidia - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Also, there is NO MOBO on the planet that is 100% and I can find similar posts on ANY MOBO. Your or their 'belief' vs 'what a MOBO is' in reality are far apart. If a MOBO can support Vista that Windows 7 is easier. There's no such a thing as a Windows 7, Vista, you name it BIOS. The difference if any is 16/32/64 bit and CPU_ID and BIOS 'fixes' and that's about it. Also, supported technologies {hardware}.

 

[angry12345]

Just use the (3) posted at ASUS.

Nvidia Chipset Driver Package WHQL V15.23 for Windows XP/Vista 32bit & 64bit.
NVIDIA Raid Driver Package V9.46 WHQL for Windows 64bit Vista.
NVIDIA Chipset Driver Package V9.45 for Windows 32/64bit Vista.

Otherwise D/L from nVidia - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Also, there is NO MOBO on the planet that is 100% and I can find similar posts on ANY MOBO. Your or their 'belief' vs 'what a MOBO is' in reality are far apart. If a MOBO can support Vista that Windows 7 is easier. There's no such a thing as a Windows 7, Vista, you name it BIOS. The difference if any is 16/32/64 bit and CPU_ID and BIOS 'fixes' and that's about it. Also, supported technologies {hardware}.

I am not saying boards are all good. Im just stating that if you go onto a Asus forum.. look at the boards for your specific board and 30% of all posts complain about the same random freezing constantly, and have been for several years with no changes made on it.. it cannot be considered a good thing. Fortunately, my freezes are every few hours.. these people had same thing happening every 2 minutes with it basically being stated Asus is not changing anything due to late life cycle. It is apparent that it is a common problem with the board. That being said, of course everything is going to have a myriad of small problems or even major problems here and there just not a major problem that is apparently fairly common with.

As far as mobo drivers and bios fixes. i am not pretending to know much. I am just trying different things to help the problem that people on these boards have suggested. My last question was not where to get the chipset drivers but how to uninstall the old ones since they do not appear in my add/remove

 

[jaquith]

Random freezing are primary caused by: Conflicts {software}, Drivers {software}, Hardware failures {PSU, MOBO, GPU}, and/or BIOS but rarely.

If your rig is failing under MSCONFIG {Diagnostic} then you need to start looking at other possibilities. Also, if you open the Device Manager and right-click update driver if there is an updated drive Windows will install it. Otherwise, non Window certified, as I've suggested, can be installed from the OEM sites {e.g. nVidia, Realtek, etc}

Unfortunately, ANY MOBO company stops updating BIOS and/or "drivers" for out of production MOBOs; keep in mind the drivers post even on production MOBO are still coming from the OEM sites, so as I stated just go to the OEM site.

---

What happens when you run Diagnostic as I've described:
1. Load Diagnostic
2. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft
3. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES}
4. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES} + Startup {KNOWN}
5. Then start adding the rest 2-3 at a time; it is a slow process

I also assume that you listened and deleted ANY BIOS invasive/modifying App {e.g. ASUS AI, etc}. These utilities are WELL documented to cause similar issues.

The problems seem to be that you and I are on (2) separate pages, I suggest X and you do sort of X + Y. At that pace the problems will never be solved.

Also, I've recommended that you run Memtest86+ to check memory corruption link - http://www.memtest.org/ D/L and create a bootable CD/DVD {ISO/zip}.

Q - What EXACT RAM do you have installed - please post the Part-Number and/or link(s).

Good Luck!

 

[angry12345]

Random freezing are primary caused by: Conflicts {software}, Drivers {software}, Hardware failures {PSU, MOBO, GPU}, and/or BIOS but rarely.

If your rig is failing under MSCONFIG {Diagnostic} then you need to start looking at other possibilities. Also, if you open the Device Manager and right-click update driver if there is an updated drive Windows will install it. Otherwise, non Window certified, as I've suggested, can be installed from the OEM sites {e.g. nVidia, Realtek, etc}

Unfortunately, ANY MOBO company stops updating BIOS and/or "drivers" for out of production MOBOs; keep in mind the drivers post even on production MOBO are still coming from the OEM sites, so as I stated just go to the OEM site.

---

What happens when you run Diagnostic as I've described:
1. Load Diagnostic
2. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft
3. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES}
4. Load Diagnostic + Microsoft + Known {Apple, etc - SERVICES} + Startup {KNOWN}
5. Then start adding the rest 2-3 at a time; it is a slow process

I also assume that you listened and deleted ANY BIOS invasive/modifying App {e.g. ASUS AI, etc}. These utilities are WELL documented to cause similar issues.

The problems seem to be that you and I are on (2) separate pages, I suggest X and you do sort of X + Y. At that pace the problems will never be solved.

Also, I've recommended that you run Memtest86+ to check memory corruption link - http://www.memtest.org/ D/L and create a bootable CD/DVD {ISO/zip}.

Q - What EXACT RAM do you have installed - please post the Part-Number and/or link(s).

Good Luck!

Thanks for response again

As I mentioned in previous posts:

1. the only bios invasive program i could think of would be PC Probe which monitors settings - deleted it last week

2. i ran the diagnostic set up and with all those services 2-3 at a time. no problem ever arose on any

3. i ran memtest on monday and on thursday. both times it came out passing everything (ran memtest both times for 10+ hours)

4. I have the nvidia nforce updated drivers, but I cannot find the previous ones in install/uninstall to uninstall the old ones first. Is that a problem?

This is another pc on now, I will have to get the part number of the other ram

I do have this info from invoice in my email

"MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand) "

 

[jaquith]

1. Good
2. Tells ALL!
3. Good
4. If you install and restart they will be automatically updated; in the Device Manager - they're ALL crammed into [+] System devices.

RAM -> Doesn't narrow down ESPECIALLY "Major Brand. {MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand) }

Seems like a CyberPower or iBuyPower PC; they use BULK RAM {oddball P/N}; use CPUz to identify http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

 

[angry12345]

1. Good
2. Tells ALL!
3. Good
4. If you install and restart they will be automatically updated; in the Device Manager - they're ALL crammed into [+] System devices.

RAM -> Doesn't narrow down ESPECIALLY "Major Brand. {MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand) }

Seems like a CyberPower or iBuyPower PC; they use BULK RAM {oddball P/N}; use CPUz to identify http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
http://www.cpuid.com/medias/images/en/softwares-cpuz-05.jpg

Kingston.. i show 3 on the spd

thx for help
i was reading forums somebody on other posts was talking voltages.. anything i should look at

thx for all the help