The Conroe865PE thread... for AGP users... stock and mod

[eidairaman1]

im prewarning you now, you get a bigger HDD the more you can expect to lose if you dont backup your stuff.

Stick with a 500 GB

 

[jeromeaaronbonoan]

im prewarning you now, you get a bigger HDD the more you can expect to lose if you dont backup your stuff.

Stick with a 500 GB

Okay, will be buying a new 500 gb HDD.

Thanks again!

 

[bigbigbuddy]

heres a good explaination

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404258,00.asp, advantage- no moving parts

Yeah but improper use of an SSD will basically wear down the life of the SSD majorly. Which is why it's recommended to be used for caching, OS, etc.

Thanks for referring the article to me, but I really need an HDD for my desktop computer here at the office. What HDD capacity can you refer to me?

Thanks for responding to my questions!

Well yeah I would recommend a 500GB because you could easily grab another one and just back up the previous one. Being that 500GB are much cheaper nowadays, though everyone's budget is different.

 

[REDHOTIRON2004]

Good day! I have the same motherboard in the personal computer here in my office, but the HDD crashed, making it non-functional for now.

With that, I would like to ask about the maximum capacity of this motherboard when it comes to HDD size. The one currently installed is 500 GB, but since there aren't much 500 GB HDDs in the market nowadays, would you recommend buying a 1 TB HDD to install to the motherboard of the computer? Hope I get any response immediately.

Thanks in advance!

I am currently using 1TB + 160GB hardisks on this setup!

 

[VLB]

I have an odd question about this board for anyone who still visits this thread. I originally bought this board about a year ago to migrate some old P4 hardware to use a media center. I've since started using it as my full-time board and it's been great. It's rock solid and the speed is fine for most of what I do.

BUT, one quirk I've noticed with it, and I'm curious if anyone else with this board has a similar quirk; for some reason the only way to guarantee Hulu and YouTube HD videos will run smoothly (without skipping frames) is if I shut down and then power back up and then only open the necessary browser window to get to the video. If I had several browser windows open previously, Hulu and YouTube HD videos will skip frames, even if I kill all other browser related processes besides the video. Sometimes a reboot will do, but usually I need to power cycle the computer. I have no idea if this is a problem with my video card (Gigabyte HD4650), my O.S. (Windows 7 x86), my RAM (4GB G-Skill pc3200), or something else. It's strange though because everything else seems to run fine regardless of uptime or how many programs have been opened and closed. Has anyone experienced a similar issue to this?

 

[rtwjunkie]

I never experienced that issue in the 2(+) years I ran the board. I never used HULU, but didn't really see any issued with Youtube HD videos, although I've heard the same thing. I used a BFG 7800GS video card with it, and ran it with Windows XP, altho it probably would run even better with W7 like you have, as long as drivers could be found. I too had GSkill 3200DRAM. Without knowing the rest of your system's stats, it's hard to say if it's an equipment/driver/ or software issue. It could also just be a minor defect with the board.

I seem to trcall TRWOV discussing the issue 4 or 5 pages back, and he still owns one and visits this thread occasionally. I defer to him as THE reigning Conroe865PE expert!!

EDIT: Posts 190, 191, 192. They think it's related to the bus on the motherboard, I think.

 

[TRWOV]

I'm actually curious about that too. I just shrugged it off last time thinking it was the bus but I wonder if the OS or bridge chip have anything to do with it. To the benches!

I'll try:
- Windows 7 w/ native AGP card (geforce 6200)
- Windows XP w/ 4670 AGP
- Windows XP w/ gf6200.

I'll report my findings as soon as I can

 

[eidairaman1]

Could be infected os. But ive noticed firefox is glitchier as time goes by. Btw ver 11.7 of flash works better than 11.9 or 12

 

[REDHOTIRON2004]

I have an odd question about this board for anyone who still visits this thread. I originally bought this board about a year ago to migrate some old P4 hardware to use a media center. I've since started using it as my full-time board and it's been great. It's rock solid and the speed is fine for most of what I do.

BUT, one quirk I've noticed with it, and I'm curious if anyone else with this board has a similar quirk; for some reason the only way to guarantee Hulu and YouTube HD videos will run smoothly (without skipping frames) is if I shut down and then power back up and then only open the necessary browser window to get to the video. If I had several browser windows open previously, Hulu and YouTube HD videos will skip frames, even if I kill all other browser related processes besides the video. Sometimes a reboot will do, but usually I need to power cycle the computer. I have no idea if this is a problem with my video card (Gigabyte HD4650), my O.S. (Windows 7 x86), my RAM (4GB G-Skill pc3200), or something else. It's strange though because everything else seems to run fine regardless of uptime or how many programs have been opened and closed. Has anyone experienced a similar issue to this?

I have tried both win7 and currently using win8 32bit OS. My graphic card is XFX 4650AGP. And I didn't have any problem as such. My config is
intel pentium D 930 (dual core 3GHz), 2*1GB 3200 in dual channel. I would recommend upgrading your graphic drivers.
I am using the latest modded drivers from here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=372799&page=123
It works great with my card and improved my performance a lot.

 

[VLB]

Thanks for the responses everyone!
TRWOV and rtwjunkie, those old posts about the the mini-stuttering were also mine, but that was slightly different. I still have that issue, but I don't really notice it much anymore. In this case where my flash video performance seems to get sluggish after browsing for a while, the frame skipping is much more noticeable. But as I mentioned, once I power cycle and load the video then everything is fine once again.
REDHOTIRON, I will give that video driver a try. Thanks. I have been using the official AMD version up until now.

 

[TRWOV]

hummm, it's been a while since I've used the Conroe extensively so maybe mine has the same issue, just that I haven't noticed. Anyway, I won't be able to test for a couple of weeks since it'll be crunching for the WCG challenge

 

[rtwjunkie]

Thanks for the responses everyone!
TRWOV and rtwjunkie, those old posts about the the mini-stuttering were also mine, but that was slightly different. I still have that issue, but I don't really notice it much anymore. In this case where my flash video performance seems to get sluggish after browsing for a while, the frame skipping is much more noticeable. But as I mentioned, once I power cycle and load the video then everything is fine once again.
REDHOTIRON, I will give that video driver a try. Thanks. I have been using the official AMD version up until now.

It almost sounds as if the video memory is getting filled, or the AGP interface is being flooded. Does it do it with games too, or have you not tried?

 

[bigbigbuddy]

Finally back on track =D got this beast finally running after about 8 months of being out of commission, I got the cooler fixed and ready to have this thing running again =]

This time I'll be able to get the GT610 going >->

I'll post results soon =D

 

[bigbigbuddy]

So updates, and a ton of them.

So I plopped those OCZ sticks in and I have never seen his computer so snappy. Also took out this 500GB external hard drive out of it's casing and found out it's a Seagate ST9500420AS 7200 RPM laptop hard drive. Surprisingly doesn't rattle at all! It also has some decent performance (89MB/s Write-98MB/s Read), compared to most of the laptop hard drives I use.

As well I played around with the some overclocking and really haven't able to do much. The airflow in the case I'm using is complete garbage, even sticking this desk fan in front of the case to add air flow doesn't do much for me. It's also not in a basement anymore, so room temperature isn't freezing like it used to be . So, I'm probably going to find myself a case that can help but won't go too high in price. If I could I would replace the case with my NZXT 410 Elite but my IVY build is running inside that thing, and I'd like to keep that one as cool as possible because I have that thing running constantly.

I'm currently running on the 1.70 BIOS with the frequency at 280*11 (so about 3.08GHz) with a RAM timing of 2-2-2-5 (since the RAM is only running at 373MHz) and my temps are around 39C idle. As well I'm running on Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit edition. Gonna get some benchmarks afterwards to see how stable this thing is, but I've done some light gaming so far and haven't had any problems as of yet. But before I go on, I have that screenshot/result for TRWOV.

As you can see, I have both the HD4670 and the GT 610 running fine c; I even hooked up my monitor from my Ivy build and had it run without any troubles~

---

It's getting late at the moment and I've done nothing but play around on this thing so far it's been so long since I've used this build, and I'm so glad I have it up and running

Oh and to make things more interesting, as soon as I come home tomorrow I'm going to start working on getting the 4670 and the GT610 run as a Hybrid Physx setup and then start looking at the BIOS files and see if I can get a 5:4 and 1:1 1.70 BIOS up and about. Then in the future possibly grab another board and use one of them with that VRM mod that was posted before, see how far I can go with it afterwards~

So I guess we're back in business~

---

EDIT: Updated system specs =D new parts are listed =o

EDIT2: Moved wires, cleared some dust and moved the fan, now getting 39C Idle

EDIT3: My disk read and write average speeds were faster than what I read online after doing a benchmark. (89MB/s Write-98MB/s Read)

 

[bigbigbuddy]

Looking to get some new heatsinks for any open MOSFETs on my Motherboard, by looking at TRWOV's image of his build I noticed that they had these:

- Enzotech MOS-C1 - For the smaller MOSFETs
- Akust Copper Chip Heatsink - For the back of the GPU

I also notice a silver heatsink just north-west from your RAM (looks like above the two capacitors to the left of the RAM).

Can you possibly list the heat sinks you may have used or recommend?

---

It seems that I may need to clean the cooling and possibly reapply some thermal paste to my 4670, I can't even apply 820/940 on my GPU without it making random particles and tearing. As well, the AMD driver loves to crash on me while playing this one game called MStar (huge KPop fan heh). Sometimes I'll even set it to default clocks and it still gives me trouble once in a while.

It's odd because while playing, the GPU will reach a maximum of maybe 47-48C and when I'm stress testing on something like FurMark it maybe reaches a maximum of 66C, yet my clocks are pretty hideous

Even threw this small fan over top of the gpu for now to shoot some air at the back and it still hasn't really done much for me. Suggestions?

---

I'm going to probably be replacing the case on this thing, I've had this old one since I had my Athlon XP 2500+ build (oh the days of L Bridge mods and pin mods).


More updates to come~! So far it's running alright if I leave things be, but that doesn't make it any fun

 

[TRWOV]

My system doesn't look like that anymore

Heatsinks:
MOS-C1 on VRMs (all the VRMs)
China 20x20 aluminium heatsinks (cooper colored) for the RAM on the GPU
China 10x10 aliuminium heatsink (black) for the chip besides the RAM slots (it gets pretty hot, not sure what it does)
Evercool 20x20 cooper heatsink for the southbridge
Thermalright HR-05 for the northbridge

 

[rtwjunkie]

just to let you know, @bigbigbuddy , those MOS-C1 are what i had on all my VRM's on my Conroe 865pe too, and they really make a big difference IF youve got good airflow.

 

[bigbigbuddy]

Well the airflow is pretty decent right now, since I have a desk fan sitting in front of it and blowing air straight into the case. The new case I'll be getting will help me provide more airflow since it will be bigger than the case that I have currently.

As well, I found this:

http://www.pccooler.cn/en/index.php/products/pc/other1/238-n80f-北海3豪华版.html

Copper pipes + aluminum fins and aluminum covering the pipes, seems I could get some decent heat dissipation =O

Also allows me to install a fan to boot =D not sure about the way the fan looks installed though by the looks of it tho, I may have it install with the fan above the heatsink so chances are I could probably wing it >-> might just see if I can squeeze some screws into the provided rivets instead, or zip tie it xD

Reason I'm looking at it is because the fan and heat sink I'm using for my CPU is pretty big and it takes up a lot of space. Since this looks pretty thin, I'm thinking I could get away with throwing it in there. Also have it blow some air towards my GPU =D

EDIT: Alright so I've been stumped on the BIOS modding this whole time, and I think I may have a better solution then actually trying to change the ratio. I'm probably just going to manually replace the Microcodes in the modified 1.60 5:4 BIOS with the updated Microcodes from the 1.70 BIOS. Here's to hoping I don't brick anything.

 

[TRWOV]

what's your current case? Maybe you could mod it, cut some holes here and there?

 

[bigbigbuddy]

what's your current case? Maybe you could mod it, cut some holes here and there?

Well I was thinking of that, but that will probably be down the road. The case has been with me for a while so I may just see what I can do =P Oh and it's a generic white case that came with this Athlon XP 2500+ build I got off this local library who was replacing them. It has a Internet Explorer icon (e) on both sides

Btw! Noticed there wasn't a link or download to the 1.72(06F7 ID40 REV.69) BIOS. It has 1 more Microcode than the 1.72 BIOS and also has some updated Modules. Apparently it's an update to the B3 stepping code for the QX6800.

As well, been stumped on the BIOS mod .-. I can't really test the BIOS on my system to see if it will run at 3.2GHz because my system needs some extra cooling and work =S

If I can post my work online, can someone test the BIOS files and see if they can get their optimal clocks?

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=3073&page=6

 

[bigbigbuddy]

Alright so here's what I've conjured up so far. The BIOS mod is going to be a little harder than just transferring over updated Microcodes, here's the dilemma: (click spoiler to see the image)

Spoiler

(Original 1.60 Bios left - Modded 1.60 5:4 Bios right)

So the difference between the ROM files are actually a lot deeper than I expected. The main difference we need to worry about is the biggest highlighted box at the very top, the other boxes were either descriptions, flukes or fail safes (Changing the Default DRAM frequency option).

After a lot of research and pounding my head off my desk, I was able to find out that the BIOS Modules are what contain most of the features a BIOS has, as well what is in the background. Though, Google is no help what so ever so a lot of this has been guessing and checking

Now when I search BIOS modules for an AMI Bios or modifying BIOS Modules in general, you get posts about how to change OEM keys and backing up RAID profiles or something about RAID.

Now after some work, I was able to actually find out what those changes meant

Basically the DMI (SMBIOS) and the Single Link Arch BIOS have changes in their size and their location inside the BIOS. Now I just got a hold of a program that allows me to modify the DMI to see the differences between the two, but I'm unsure if I'll be able to modify the SLABIOS (easier than saying Single Link Arch BIOS).

If anyone else wants to throw themselves at this, please do because this is giving me a headache

So in the end, I'm speculating that these Modules have the changes that were applied, just hoping that there aren't any other fixes that need to take place

EDIT1:

I'm going to see if copying over updated Microcodes from the 1.72 to the 1.60 5:4 BIOS will do anything. if the updated Microcodes are the changes that made the overclocking more stable, then this will be a lot easier than expected. Though, if the extra data inside the new 1.70 modules are what helped with the stability, this will be a rough time.

EDIT2:

Can someone run the attached DMIEDIT.exe (inside of the .rar), click the File drop down while inside and then Save All, while running on the 1.60 BIOS and the 1.60 5:4 BIOS?

It's going to save a dump of the DMI's inside of both of the BIOSes

Want to do a comparison but it seems I can't find my P4 so that I can actually flash the BIOS

 

[TRWOV]

here you go

 

[bigbigbuddy]

Thanks a lot TRWOV!

Basically what I thought, the DMI is just a file the displays the information about the BIOS, after some other research I found out that the Single Link Arch BIOS is what we really want and that modifying it is going to be a lot of fun.

We're dealing with Hex Editors and disassemblers

Luckily I stumbled on this through a Google search: "Practical BIOS Editing by Polygon of Rebels Haven Computer Forum" (http://twobombs.wikidot.com/)

And then found the .pdf on a Macedonian website, which actually has pictures and is a lot more organized than the link (Sadly doesn't have a connect the dots or a maze game ;I)

Now the Rebels Haven is down so some of the resources linked in the .pdf are missing, but nonetheless it is a good read.

(File is too large, so I'll just provide a link - http://elektronika-mk.net/forum/index.php?topic=7899.0;prev_next=next)

EDIT: Fixed my graphics problems, apparently it was the overlay from the RivaTuner Statistics program that comes with MSIAfterburner that was causing my AMD drivers to crash. Currently have the set up running at 824/942, going to up the clocks and do some more stress testing after I do some general maintenance.

 

[bakist]

Need some help, My conroe865pe, can not remember the BIOS settings after disconnection from the AC=220V,it does no matter what bios version.Note that the battery is excellent,so if someone have solution or service manual, please send to me.
Thanks

conroe865pe
4x512MB
radeon 9600pro
hdd samsung hd502ij
samsung sh222
fsp 350w...

 

[revin]

Could be Battery is bad, backwards, something in socket corroded contacts not making good contact,
Had that happen a few times with overclocks, went thru 3-4 batteries till got fixed.
Think it was something with the socket.
haven't seen Service Manual for few years, had a copy when my board came in from Au in a Bubble Bag , it didn't fare the best, only User Manual now.
Most all my CPE stuff is hiding somewhere in 20Tb's of crap lol, and as we all know links to the modded BIOS files quit years ago

@lemonadesoda You still got any items left around ???