Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware.motherboard
Titolo: [misprinted manual] A7V400-MX 400mhz fsb dipswitch setting.

hello all,
i recently purchased an asus A7V400-MX motherboard from 
ncix.com
hoping to use it with my new xp 3000+ 400mhzFSB processor.  upon
getting the board and cpu into my system i was having trouble getting
the board to boot when the dipswitch settings on the board were set to
200(400mhz FSB).  when set to any of the other settings (100/133/166)
the board/cpu would boot fine, although obviously at a reduced clock
speed, the fastest i could run it was at 1.7Ghz instead of 2.1Ghz. 
when set to the 200 dispswitch position the board would not even post.
Having bought the cpu OEM, it did occur to me that maybe i was sent
the wrong chip.  I did not want to take off my big heatsink (its one
of the 750g zalman ones) unless it was a last resort, so i did not
have the OPN number to identify that it was indeed the correct chip,
but i was working on the assumption that it was.
This board seems to be slightly odd because it has a max of 333mhz for
the memory speed, but advertises all over the place that it supports
400mhz FSB.  i know that one should be able to run a system with a
different memory speed then fsb, but from as far as i can tell it is
normally aligned so they are the same.  i even came across some
newsgroup/forum posts saying that this board must have been designed
incorrectly because you can not run a 400mhz fsb with ddr333mhz
(obviously incorrect).
After a day of struggling i had scoured newsgroups and forums and
exhausted any ideas i had. i had come across quite a few other peoples
postings where they seemed to be having the same problem. i was on the
newest bios revision and had tried all the old ones, as well as a beta
version bios.  i was sure that my chip was what it was supposed to be
(3000+ 400fsb). i then created a tech support 'case number' at asus'
website and phoned the long distance tech support, i waited on hold
and then was put through to someone who sounded like they were in the
middle of a meal.  the guy was frustratingly unhelpful.  he told me
that an 'unstable processor' (which i don't really think is a good
description of what was going on) means that my chip was overheating
or that my psu was bad. my chip was running at 45C or something with
the zalman heatsink fan at the slowest and quietest speed.  he agreed
that this wasn't too hot but insisted that it could be getting too hot
somehow.  also i was pretty sure that my psu was fine, it had been
used in my previous system.  he actually didn't seem to offer any
suggestions at all besides that. i asked if he can search for other
peoples problem reports or anything (thinking that this maybe a fault
with the board as it seemed to be), but he couldn't.  i had also
searched the faq/knowledgebase stuff on asus' website for this board
and found nothing.
Finally after a while of being frustrated i posted a request for
information on the messageboard system on 
ncix.com
 as a post under the
page for the a7v400-mx.  the first response i got was just someone
telling me that he highly doubted that the xp3000+ had come out in a
400mhz fsb model.  not to sound ungrateful but it was clear that he
had posted without even looking into it (although to his credit, ncix
doesn't seem to have the 400mhz model for sale).  the second post was
seemingly unhelpful at first. it was someone providing a link to an
online pdf manual and telling me that the dipswitch setting were on
page 23. i was about to reply saying that i had obviously been
consulting my manual from the beginning, but i opened the pdf any
ways.  i was shocked to see that the dipswitch image for the 400mhz
setting was different then the printed manual. i immediately jumped
up, flicked the 5 tiny switches into the newly specified position and
hit the power switch.  amazing, it worked as it should.
here is an image that compares a scan of my manaul with the pdf: 
http://alibosworth.com/transfer/a7v400_problem.png
i was happy that none of my components were faulty, but disapointed
and sad that i had spent so much time and energy when the problem was
so silly.  i was also surprised that this problem is not documented
anywhere.  this board has been out for quite a while, and if this
manual mistake is true for all boards, that means that hundreds if not
thousands of people who have tried to work this board with a 400mhz
FSB processor have had trouble. i know this is not a very popular
motherboard but i still think that this is unnaceptable.
my motherboard is rev 1.03 so it is possible that the manual is
correct for other board revisions, if anyone can confirm if this
problem effects other revisions i would apprieciate it. i guess i want
asus to include a notice in the articles on their site about this
motherboard. i suppose it would be best if there is a note on the main
page for this board, to ensure that it is seen, although i have no
idea if they would ever do that.  retailers should also provide a
notice on the product page for this item.
thankyou and please post this anywhere where people may benifit from
it. i dont really know the rules for crossposting but i have posted
this in multiple newsgroups so that it gets seen by anyone having
trouble.
alibo...@gmail.com

 
alibo...@gmail.com
Printed        200MHz        166MHz         133MHz        100MHz
Manual    On   ..xxx         .xxxx          .x.x.         .....         
          Off  xx...         x....          x.x.x         xxxxx
PDF       On   xxx..         .xxxx          .x.x.         .....         
Manual    Off  ...xx         x....          x.x.x         xxxxx
                 ^
                 +--- The correct one is the PDF version
First of all, thanks for sharing this. There have been a couple of
people who had trouble getting the board running, but at first
it seemed they just had the on's and off's mixed up. It never 
occurred to me that the manual could be wrong, or that only 
one setting was screwy.
If you are still interested, perhaps you could read the numbers
off the chip next to the floppy connector, and not too far from
the five position dip switch. That is the clock generator, and
some of the clock generators have downloadable datasheets. It 
looks to me like it might have 56 pins on it. There are usually
three rows of number - on a P4C800-E board in front of me, the
third row of numbers 952607 is the part number. The first row
could be a lot number, and the second row is yyww (year and
week). The brand typically is ICS (
icst.com
).
This is what a clock gen datasheet looks like:
http://www.icst.com/products/pdf/ics952607.pdf
I'm interested in what all the dip switch settings do, as opposed
to just four combinations of them. Some of the chips that Asus
uses, are custom designs, and the datasheet is never made public.
Others happen to be downloadable, so the search for what the
dip switches do, is real easy for those. If the clock generator
is made by ICS, then maybe 50% of the datasheets are available 
at 
icst.com
 .
To read the number off the one in front of me, I needed a 50W
halogen bulb light, held at just the right angle. The light
only seems to reflect well in certain orientations, so it is
damn tough to do. As far as I know, the part number is a laser
mark (burnt into the top of the chip with a pulse from a powerful
laser - I've actually seen one of these, at a company in town
that makes the lasers). 
   Paul