• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

P4 3.4ghz not showing stock speed

eggyoke

eggyoke

eggyoke

Soldato
Joined
25 Jun 2005
Posts
2,653
Location
On a hill
Hiya, I recently came across a Prescott P4 3.4ghz skt 478 for my old system (upgrade from a p4 2.4ghz.) But I'm having trouble getting it to run at 3.4ghz. It runs at 2.8ghz for some reason, and 2.8ghz is the only option bios is giving me.

When I boot the PC, and the specs show on the screen, it shows two sets of 2800ghz for some reason, instead of the usual one (is this something to do with HT?) :confused:

I'm running:

1gb DDR 400 (2x 512mb)
Asus P4S800 motherboard
6800 ultra

The box on my motherboard says it supports 800FSB, HT and speeds at 3.2ghz+. I tried manually uping the speed of the processor, but my FSB raises aswell. I only want it to run at stock - 3.4ghz at 800fsb.

As you can see I'm a complete noob. Any help would be great! :)
 
You probably need a BIOS update to support the CPU so check out Asus's website, download the relevant BIOS, update it and see what happens. Make sure you read all the instructions on how to update the BIOS by the way.
 
Thanks for your reply!

Well I've been reading about how to update my BIOS, but I'm still not sure.

I've downloaded what I believe to be an update to my motherboard. But I dont have a floppy or a usb pen. Is it possible to do it with a DVD disk? I've ran out of CDs :o

Edit: oh neverwmind. there is something called Asus EZ flash which I'll have ago at. I've got a feeling my motherboard is going to die after this.
 
Last edited:
Check the bios for a function callled 'CPU LockFree' and disable it (it should be under advanced chipset features).

If you can't find the option then you'll need to update to a latter bios where 'CPU LockFree' is supported. :)
 
Last edited:
If you FSB is already at 800, and the CPU's only giving you 2.8Ghz, then most likely you've been sent a 2.8Ghz chip.

Could be wrong, but I dont think that socket 478 prescotts support speedstep or anything like that, so they are just a fixed multiplier, and the only thing you can change in bios is the frontside bus.

What code did the cpu have on the heatspreader. Should have all the details there.

Also if you load windows, and goto the control panel/system it should tell you what CPU is installed, what the 'stock' speed for the processor is, and what its currently running at.

Finally you could download and test using CPU-Z which will give you all the info you need to verify if its a genuine 3.4Ghz chip.

If you post a screenshot of CPU-Z im sure someone here will be able to give some better pointers.
 
Nah mate. I used to have the same motherboard and it requires a bios update to support prescott processors over 2.8Ghz.

My 3.2Ghz prescott (which I bought at the same time as the mobo) used to show as 2.8Ghz, but as you stated, system properties would see its correct speed of 3.2Ghz, but running at 2.8Ghz.

After updating the bios and disabling the new CPU LockFree feature (which the new bios added) the processor ran at its correct speed.

I'm not 100% sure if this is the op's problem, but it does seems highly likely if going on my past experiance with this board.
 
Hiya, well it turns out EZ flash needs a floppy aswell :mad:

And nope BIOS doesn't have CPU Lockfree :(

Now I'm trying to make a bootable disk and update with that... giving me a bloody headache. You'd think they would make it easier. I mean really, who uses floppy's anyway? :p

As Bizarre said, System in my computer shows the true speed at 3.4ghz, but running at 2.8ghz.

I took a pic of CPUZ if that helps any.

001.jpg


I downloaded BIOS 1011 from ASUS slow website. Does anyone know what the file extention should be?

Oh and while I'm asking, does anyone know any step by step guides (noob proof) for BIOS flashing from a CD? I've searched and most of them are complete jibberish to me.

Cheers
 
Well it is a PIV 3.4 for sure. I think those chip have EIST and its running it at the lowest multiplier there.

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/aflash221.zip -flash utility



http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4s800/1011-001.zip Latest Beta BIOS

http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock478/p4s800/P4S800_9.zip -Bios 1009

Your choice of BIOS
Put the flash utility and BIOS file on a bootable floppy, you can make this by formatting the floppy as an MS-DOS startup disk, boot to DOS and run it from there.
 
Last edited:
Surely can't you just use ASUS Update (here)? It updates the BIOS from within Windows.

From previous experience, I recommend you get the BIOS file yourself instead of letting the program do-it ;)

More info in the manual here :cool:
 
Buy one for these purposes :D Or a better one would be a usb floppy emulator, most fairly recent boards will work fine with em and the data integrity and speed is tons past a normal floppy. The Winflash should be ok though in most situations.
 
I used the Asus Windows updater with no probs to update the BIOS on my old P4P800E Dlx mobo, think you need to connect to the German FTP site within the software to get the latest BIOS for your mobo, also certainly for me it always downloaded the correct BIOS for my mobo so no chance of me trying to update the board with the wrong one.
 
Justintime said:
Prefer the ol skool way tbh, too many variables with Windows flashing :D
Click to expand...
Me too especially after corrupting BIOS for my ASUS board (more my fault, trying to include a fancy startup image). But, like mentioned, OP doesn't have that choice :)
 
Thanks for your help guys.

Thanks hp7909 for the link. Asus update is easy to use. However it doesn't connect to the server! Does anyone else find this?

But anyway, because it wouldn't connect to a server to find the newest BIOS, I downloaded the beta 1011 BIOS and updated through the file. All went really well, and I restarted. However the same thing is happening, it only shows 2.8ghz in BIOS and there is no CPU LockFree option. Same thing with CPU-Z.

I thought it might be the BIOS, so I downgraded it to 1009 and the same thing happens... I dont understand why this is happening. It says on the Asus website that my motherboard supports 3.4ghz with DDR 400.

Any ideas? :(
 
After flashing, have you loaded the defaults? If not go back into the BIOS, load defaults, save, then reboot, then go back into the BIOS and make any required changes.
 
eggyoke said:
Thanks for your help guys.
I downloaded the beta 1011 BIOS and updated through the file. All went really well, and I restarted. However the same thing is happening, it only shows 2.8ghz in BIOS and there is no CPU LockFree option.
Click to expand...
Thats weird, maybe becouse it's a beta bios?

Try giving 1005 a shot, it's the first release that supported presscott cpu's over 2.8Ghz.



Edit:

Duh, I clicked the wrong board on Asus's drop down list, the bios file in the picture above is actually for the P4P800S,

not the P4S800, in which case V1007 will hopefully do the job.

GL.
 
Last edited:
I just tried ver. 1007. No joy. I also tried default settings and still nothing. Just says "Manual" and "2800ghz" in the BIOS. No CPU LockFree or anything. Maybe Asus update isn't working correctly? ...but it does say in BIOS and CPU-Z that it is.

Strange thing is, when I was using a 2.4ghz P4. BIOS actually gave me the option of selecting 3200ghz. Of course it would just hang.

I've emailed Asus support so hopefully they'll be able to help. I only wanted to add a bit more life to my aging PC... *tear*
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom