Asus A8N SLI-Deluxe bios problems.

Jonesiani · 19 Nov 2006 at 19:34

Hi all, here is my situation....
I bought this motherboard in late 2004 i think, when it was first released. It has a bios revision of 1002.

I have never updated my BIOS, as im seriously lacking in knowledge about this subject area. Anyway, 5 months ago (yes 5 months!) i purchaced Corsair XMS3500 memory, 2 gb's (2 sticks).

I take out my old memory, put these badboys in, and.......black screen saying something about awd flash blaa blaa.

So i d/l asus update, to my joy i find even a child could update the bios through this program, but not me!
Asus update kindly tells me that "The model of the BIOS image doesn't match the BIOS ROM currently present. Press EXIT button to exit"

Now after seeing this, combined with my absolute lack of knowledge in this area, causes me to tear my hair out.

Am i right to believe that because the BIOS in my mobo is old, it doesn't recognise the new memory?

Any help would be really brilliant as i spent hard cash on this memory and i want it in my machine.
Then, and only then, will i be able to smash my mates 3dmark 05 score

Jonesiani · 20 Nov 2006 at 21:22

Ive updated to all the latest chipset drivers etc, still the same.

Bizarre · 21 Nov 2006 at 09:35

Rather than allowing asus update to automatically search for the latest "1016" bios, click this link

In the 3 selection boxes on the right of the page select motherboard > socket 939 > A8N SLI Deluxe, then click search.

You'll now be directed to the A8N SLI Deluxe download page, click "bios", and then download version "1016" to your desktop.

Open asus update and choose "update bios from a file" then navigate to the 1016 bios file that you've just downloaded, click "flash" for asus update do it's thing.

GL.

Jonesiani · 21 Nov 2006 at 20:33

Thanks for the advice, i will try what you have suggested

Jonesiani · 21 Nov 2006 at 21:19

WAYHEY! it worked!

Thanks again.

My 3dmark 05 score dropped from 9504 to 9344 though....any thoughts why?

Bizarre · 22 Nov 2006 at 14:47

Glad to hear it worked.

Your 200 point loss in 3d mark is probably down to the bios resetting to default values after the flash (which is normal).

Press F12 at boot up and look under the "dram configuration" option to check your memory timings are set correct (xms 3500 should be 2-3-2-6-1T). Also disable any devices that your not using but don't disable anything without being 100% sure of what it does, or it may result in your system not booting.

GL.

Jonesiani · 23 Nov 2006 at 13:24

ok ive gone into the dram settings obviously its set to auto. When i chance it to manual theres about 12 changable options, and only 5 timings to change. Which 5 do i change.

Sorry if im asking silly questions but i just want to get it right and not mess anything up!

Cheers.

Bizarre · 25 Nov 2006 at 15:43

Jonesiani said:
Which 5 do i change.

CAS# latency (Tcl) [ 2.0 ]

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) [ 3 ]

Min RAS# active time (Tras) [ 6 ]

Row precharge Time (trp) [ 2 ]

1T/2T Memory timing [ 1T ]

I'd also advise you to up the memory's voltage from auto = 2.6v to 2.7v (or 2.75v if your planning to overclock your processor to match your rams default fsb, hence 217MHz at a 1:1 ratio).

To do so go to Advanced > CPU Configuration > Overclock profile > Manual > DDR voltage > 2.7v.
Goodluck.