[jwilk]

P4C800 deluxe, P4 3.06ghz, 1GB of DDR 400, WD 120GB, radeon 9800 pro, SB audigy2 platinum, 440w p/s, win XP pro.

after building my new pc, everything seems to work except a couple of things. when booting up I get a message saying "bios not installed", however it's showing a bios version in control panel. once it boots up and goes to the desktop screen it freezes, after 2 or 3 reboots it doesn't freeze any more. I was wondering if my bios problem is maybe making my system unstable. also with the system I have I'm not getting the performance I should be getting, as far as gaming goes. does anyone have any suggestions???? I notice most of the posts here have to do w/ the asus board, did I make a mistake buying it?

 

[V0lt]

I don't know what the problem is as far as to why the mobo says that the BIOS isn't installed...but I have laughed to myself at how many "my P4C800 doesn't work" posts there are, so I would seriously consider getting a much due refund for that board and look for a new one if I was in your shoes...

 

[SPEEDO]

You've got a couple of options here.

1. update the bios, This is risky business if your not familiar with it.

2. Return it as a faulty item.

I am really amazed at the amount of these boards with trouble of some sort. It's not like Asus at all.

I wonder if Asus has a forum like some of the mobo mfgs. do. I am running 3 different Asus boards right now and haven't had a speck of trouble with any of them.

I'm going to check out there website! I'll be back............

 

[Jonnyquong]

First of all, if your chipset BIOS wasn't loading, neither would Windows. What you see is your OnBoard Promise Controller in action.
Go to your BIOS, click on Advanced menu, and Onboard Devices Configuration. DISABLE OnBoard Promise Controller. (Only needed if running RAID) Now you won't get that pesky message.
It may also help your performance. Or not.
What are your memory settings in BIOS, and what are your memory specs? (Or do you know the part number?)

 

[jwilk]

onboard promise was already set to disable. as far as memory specs, 1GB DDR 400 running at 400hz linear mode. not too sure what exactly the linear mode is though.

 

[GameDude]

I have the same board as you and it works great and that message about the bios not being installed is supposed to be there because its for the onboard promise option your motherboard has. every time i boot mine it says the same thing. but if it dosent boot make sure in the setup under the advanced tab look where it says operating mode make sure it says ide mode not raid this will allow booting.



Knowledge is power read it, think it, use it....


Computer Tech.Jim

 

[Jonnyquong]

Is "bios not installed" all you see? There's not a bunch of text right before that? Usually a message would tell you WHY. Try rebooting several times (I would suggest the 'Pause' key to capture it, but it's probably pretty quick) to see what it says. Could it be the Radeon bios?
(That might explain a lot of things!)

 

[GameDude]

That message if im reading you right should be something like this


SATA 378 TX2 Plus (tm) Bios version 1.00.0.23 (c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology Inc All rights reserved
No device is found
Bios not installed.


This is normal. But if you are having problems booting look at the earlier post above. on how to get your machine to boot correctly.


Personally i dont think its your video card that should be just fine.


You can also restore your original bios with the motherboard disk that came with the board. And install the program called ASUS Ez flash utility for easy bios flashing direct from ASUS TEK
its in your manual if you have one. Pages 4-1 to 4-13 in your manual all about using the flash utility and restoring your computers Crash free bios option. Just follow the directions and you will have no problems but if you cant get it just post again and ill see what i can do for you.
As far as the performance thing you have to make sure your memory is running @ the max speed if it is 400 MHz then you want it to run @ that speed you can do this in the setup screen you can get there by pressing the del key over and over again during post.

That freezing could be anything it can be caused by a bad memory stick or a corrupted file in the system or a program the is conflicting with something or just a setting. what i would do first is get the thing working the way you want since it is booting up already. Then troublshoot the freezing.

My bios Version 1.00.0.23


Dont worry we will fix it we have the Technology.
Remember this motherboard should only have windows XP or higher according to ASUS TEK.



Knowledge is power read it, think it, use it.....

Computer Tech. Jim

Hope this helps you....


P/s just for the record my P4C800 Deluxe works fantastic.....

This MotherBoard ROCKS

 

[jwilk]

thanks for the info gamedude. yes I believe it's booting up properly now. it looks like all the text is normal. as far as it freezing up on boot up I believe I fixed it by disabling the legacy usb in bios. All seems well now, except my fps is low in games. I read in other threads about changing the ram config. in bios to like a 2-3-3-2 or something but I can't figure out where exactly it is in there.

 

[GameDude]

Cool glad i could help you. Now you have to go into the setup and make sure your memory is running at 400 Mhz If you havent already done this when you get this board if you buy the 400 MHz memory the default setting is 333 MHz Not 400 MHz so you have to change this. It will give you better fps i play battlefield 1942 and in nascar 2003 im getting with full field of cars online/offline a constant 80 fps with everything on. and i play many others and since i set the memory to run @ 400 MHz i have had no problems.


You change your memory setting like this
Go into the setup and under the advanced tab and then choose the jumper free configuration tab then
look where it says Dram Frequency auto and high light it and then hit enter and then choose the 400 MHz setting then hit enter to accept and then hit the esc button once and exit and save. your finished you just changed your memory speed.

As far as changing the individual memory speeds i dont recommend this unless you know what you are doing.
2-3-3-2 or whatever they might be.

Also make sure that you have the most up to date video drivers unless of course you have tried them and you had problems then stay with the ones you have. you can increase the fps in open gl by going into your settings for your video card and turn the v-sync off (Vertical Sync)

This is also very important for getting good fps in games turn everything off in the background this means everything antivirus is the biggest stealer of FPS. I have a little program called end it all very easy to use its like 300 kb or something like that . but you can get it here (link below). this is a great program for those of you who are running XP or 2000 and cant control the programs.



This is a nascar sim site but they have the program. everyone uses it right before they do their gaming. THE Program is called END IT ALL its under the utilities tab. Just follow the read me file and your done a handy little tool a must have for any xp user.

There is also another option for system performance in the setup under the advanced tab then its under the chipset tab you will see a line that says
(Performance mode) default is set to auto just enable it it made quite a difference on my system.




http://www.hmracing2002.fsnet.co.uk/downloads01.htm


Knowledge is power read it, think it, use it.....


Computer Tech . Jim

 

[jwilk]

thanks for all the help gamedude. I'll have to go into my bios to make sure the freq. is set to 400.
I have the program end it all but when I use it, it shuts down everything running, which is fine but the computer acts weird after that. but I understand what you're saying about stopping the anti-virus program. I run Norton and didn't realize it would do that in gaming. I do have another problem though. If I don't have my pop-up blocker activated, while I'm playing NR03 I'll get a pop-up and it will kick me out of the game back to the desktop just so I can see their stupid pop-up ad. I don't know if it's an IE6 thing or a Roadrunner thing but it does get annoying. Especially when I'm racing online.
As far as running the games in OpenGL, NR03 doesn't work very well. It runs much better in D3D. I have the 9800 pro with the latest driver. Although I might reinstall that driver because it didn't seem like it went through but when I rebooted and looked in the control panel it showed that it went through. so maybe I'll try it again.
but I guess all in all my fps isn't too bad. I can run a full field w/ everything on and still run solid 50-60fps but maybe I'm being selfish. but I think I can get much more out of my computer(without overclocking).

 

[GameDude]

Hey bro no problem im glad its working.
yes when the antivirus is running it takes up important cpu power that could be going to your game.

If im reading you correctly those are a new kind of pop up that works through a program that is in windows XP.
Called messenger service or something like that.

Here is how to disable those pesky popups once and for all

Go into the control panel and double click the administrative tools icon and then double click the services icon after that scroll towards the bottom of the list untill you see where it says messenger and then highlight it and right click and go to properties once there look down on the left to where it says Start up type and bring the drop menu down and disable it this will take care of those pesky popup's.


This is in no way related to windows messenger/MSN messenger this is a whole other animal.


Description of what the messenger service does not msn/windows messenger.

The messenger program that is in windows XP.
Transmits Net Send
And alerter service messages between clients and servers.

Shut it off you will be safe i have mine configured this way and everything works fine.


You can also get that extra boost without over clocking your Cpu for your system by going into the setup and going to the advanced tab then chipset settings (i dont recommend that you touch anything else unless you are an experienced Technician )and then look down the list to where it says performance mode default is set to auto but i have mine set to enabled. i mean why have it on auto i would rather the boost be on all the time seems to make more sense and it seems to work better for games and stuff.


Also in nascar to run the game properly without problems
they require that you get 30 fps so yours are really good.
mine also seems to work better in d3d.


And in nascar whats your handle mine is =Om3gA= Gumby 088
Member of teamOm3gA.com
maybe when you get it working good we can race some.

when using end it all make sure when you open the program that it says that explorer and end it all is protected att all times and it should work perfectly we have the same board and the same Os.

now that you have the setup configured to run in the ide mode your set now you go back into the setup and disable the promise controller option to get rid of those pesky bios not intsalled messages.

Remeber overclocking your Cpu will greatly reduce its life.


Im in california and im on all the time bro see you there.



Knowledge is power read it, think it , use it....

Computer Tech. Jim

 

[jwilk]

thanks I'll try those suggestions in the bios you said. My handle in NR03 is jwilk, but I'm not attached to a team.
But I already have the onboard promise disabled. I'm not getting the not installed message anymore since I changed the boot up option. All I did was disable quick boot up and it went away.
anyway thanks for all your help. I'll keep an eye out for you on Sierra. By the way I live in Hawaii so when I'm on might not be when you're on.

 

[GameDude]

Cool when you go on sierra go to the team Om3gA.com server and if anyone says anything which they wont just tell them your Gumbys Freind c you there They are really a cool bunch of guys.

remember bios is your best friend when treated right



Knowledge is power read it, think it, use it...


Computer Tech. jim

 

[jwilk]

upset: :upset: :upset: :upset: :upset: :upset:

well I did what you said about the performance boost in bios. now my system won't even boot up it just sits there wont go into post and the monitor stays in standby, so i can't get back to the bios to change it back. what do I do???

 

[jwilk]

ok, after leaving my system powered down for a while I powered back up to an o/clocking error message, so I went back into bios and changed everything back so now all is well.

 

[GameDude]

did you over clock it if you did just set it back and all should be well dont over clock the cpu leave it set to auto let the machine control it
all you have to do is turn the machine completely off and then reboot to the setup thats pretty wierd because mine works your should too.

Maybe the current configuration you have does not like that setting thats all.

Remember that most problems on your computer can fixed by just rebooting the machine. turn it off wait about two minutes for the ram to clear itself and then reboot.

Dont worry the problem is temporary.
you already have a fast machine if you start over clocking you cpu your only going to have problems with it .

 

[jwilk]

I went in the bios and just changed the performance mode from auto to enabled but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I'm not gonna touch the the chipset mode where the turbo option is. I think that's what locked up my computer in the first place.