Help- Phenom stuck at 4x multi- C&Q disabled...wtf??

[el Kuarlos]

IF YOU RUN A CROSSHAIR III MOTHERBOARD WITH A QUAD CORE DO NOT UPDATE THE BIOS TO THE LATEST THUBAN SUPPORTING VERSION!

<<I have had a look online and non thuban users (quads for certain, possibly x2/3) who have done will get the following issue- solution is to roll back bios which can be a hassle- looking into a way now.>>

Updated my bios as I have always had issues with C&Q limiting the overclock on my board, can get to 3.7, any further it stops working.

Well got the latest bios, installed it, and tried to boot with 4.0. Started up and it was stuck at 4x multi giving 800 htz.
Disabled C&Q, rebooted, bios post shows the speed I want, once into OS, in everest and cpuz it sticks at 800 still- through stability testing or anything.

Only times it ll come off 800 is when I go back to my 3.7 overclock, or set it all to auto. The 3.7 overclock seems to take a few minutes to recognise what is happening, then works fine.

Set it to 3.8 and boot and it starts doing all kinds of bizarre stuff. C&Q enabled the voltage is at 1.45 when its set to 1.41, cool and quiet sits at 800, flicking about randomly, went up to 1.6 once, and 0.136 a few times. Same with any other multi...I can't actually select a 4x multi in my bios so what the heck is happening?

I also cannot flash the bios back- when I go into the ez flash utility, it tells me any other bios made before the one I just installed is older then the board, or does not have a valid boot sector.

Tried uninstalling the asus C&Q driver, no change.

Any help is appreciated, I am pretty lost here. Spec as below.

 

[el Kuarlos]

Just to update, making some headway with k10 stat, I can get the speed to register and stick at any level (by applying the top pstate, then setting to auto).

 

[mmj_uk]

I've been having the same problem since getting my 1090T and 890FXA-UD5, all the stuff is disabled but for some reason the first core by itself keeps dropping down to 4x multi (800mhz), I've read on XS.org from an Asus engineer that it's a BIOS bug with Thurban's that all the power saving features don't disable properly on the first core atm.

It feels like a BETA platform I'm really regretting getting one now and looking to go back to i7, complete waste of time and money - you live and learn.

Here is a thread on the Gigabyte forum about it:
http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,1876.0.html

Here is the comment from the Asus guy:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4373261&postcount=9

Have you tried updating your BIOS?

 

[el Kuarlos]

Thanks dude- I'm running a 965 but this makes some sense- the bios I updated to is the one that supports thubans- and all the 965's cores are linked so far as I know- problem with 1 makes a problem for them all. I think this might be a result of AMD wrinsing the AM3 socket for all its worth...the same socket can take a dual core athlon from yonks ago to a brand spanking new 6 core...gotta be a nightmare for bios makers.

Have just begun work with k10 stat and if yours is getting stuck, you can maybe unstick it by applying a pstate to bring it to the right speed.

I want to update the bios but cant- every time I try it tells me that my board was made after the bios I am trying to roll back to was- gives me the impression they cocked up a date in it.

Any idea how to reset the cmos on a crosshair III- I have a button at the back but cannot see the procedure in the manual, dont really just want to go pressing things.

 

[mmj_uk]

If you have a button on the back just shutdown, pull the power plug from the PSU, press your computers power button to drain any residual electricity and then press the button on the back, that should clear it for you.

 

[el Kuarlos]

Tried, even went low tech and pulled the battery, did the trick in terms of clearing it, but issue is still there.

Trying to roll back the bios but asus seem to think that no one could possibly ever want to roll back...having to try to do it through dos and learning is a headache- what could possibly happen with rolling back the bios? And their website is a bit of a joke, tonnes of stuff just not there.

Not a happy bunny.

 

[mmj_uk]

Not much will happen if you roll back except that any newer fixes will be missing.

 

[el Kuarlos]

Along with the newer bugs...I hope. The reason I updated was to try see if they had addressed the cool and quiet issue, seems they did the opposite. I might be wrong and it might be something else, but I doubt it given that asus & thuban users are experiencing something remarkably similar.

Also just found this- exact same issue, then several more instances- its the bios.

Hi guys, i have a crosshair III motherboard with a phenom II X4 965 cpu. For some strange reason my cpu is stuck at 800mhz even when being stressed with prime 95. This started happening after a bios update but im still not sure if the cpu is broken or not. I would like to downgrade the bios version but no matter what i do i can not make a botable dos usb drive. Ive tried that HP format tool but when i try to boot off it it always says "Remove any disks, Press any key to Restart"

 

[mmj_uk]

yeah pretty shocking really considering it's such an old socket, that quote is exactly what I'm getting with both available bioses for my board, the first core just gets stuck at 800mhz until a reboot or two and it seems to just happen totally at random.

 

[el Kuarlos]

As I said, you can 'force' it to the right clock by applying the highest powerstate with k10.

What is pretty shocking is that for the last three weeks, asus have just left that bios up, knowing full well the only fix thanks to their fantastic no-rollback bios is what is known in the textbooks as a goddam hassle- even a simple warning line would have saved customers like me who paid for a premium board a lot of concern and trouble.