OpticWaves

OpticWaves

I've updated the Bios and Chipset drivers. Now gonna work on it according to the guide.

Can't seem to find the max voltage for the board anywhere. Anyone know this?

OpticWaves

According to ASUS Tech Support . .

Max Southbridge Voltage = 2.175-2.2V
Max FSB Voltage = 1.4V

Erald Coil

I've just ordered the ASUS M3A-H/HDMI + Phenom 9850 combination myself. Should arrive before the weekend, and I'm looking forward to setting it up and testing it out. Any advice before I get started? Things I might not anticipate?

edit: have you used the express gate function?

OpticWaves

Well, since yesterday, I've decided to RMA it and get a DFI. I had a very bad customer service experience with ASUS, and found out it is defective. Powers on and off until I reset the CMOS. I went to a local shop, Eager Beaver Computers (how many shop guys used to work for IBM? All of them? ) here in Spokane and they said 75% of the ASUS boards they get in are defective, and they have returned them only to get a used, broken board sent back.

I really thought it was going to be a great one for my puposes, it has all the right stuff and worked out of the box at stock settings, but I'm just not happy with the company.

Out of all the gear in my sig, its the only piece I'm dissapointed in. I hope you get a good one and don't encounter the problems I have.

Just keep an eye on it and test it, learn everything you can within the 30 day refund period. I seem to be one of the first with it, and haven't been able to find any info outside of ASUS and the NewEgg reviews. Thats the chance you take when you buy a 3mo old product.

Perhaps my problems were because im a new to OCing, but I have a feeling the board just isn't made for that purpose aside from all the documentation and supportive features.

I honestly would have kept it and probably been happy with it if it had not turned out to be defective + having to deal with a punk in ASUS Tech Support that obviously didnt even care if he was being recorded by the way he talked to me, after waiting in line for 30 minutes.

Customer service is important to me, ASUS dropped the ball on a customer that went agaisnt good advice and went the loyalty route.

I have not used it, only because I have access to Windows for $10 through school, and am paranoid about the internet.

I'm sorry if I've mislead anyone, sometimes it takes a while to discover problems. Luckily for me it was within the refund period.

Erald Coil

Thanks for the speedy reply!
But I'm still left with a few questions.

You said, "Powers on and off until I reset the CMOS." Does that mean it resets before booting into the OS, but after POST, or... when/how was it powering on/off? I'll be on the look-out for the problem, so would like to know exactly how it happened for you.

BTW, I don't expect to be OCing anything except the CPU frequency multiplier, and even that won't be anything extreme. I just want a stable, reliable, fully-equipped board and Asus has yet to fail my expectations. (Maybe I shouldn't speak so soon, though...)

Kamikaze127

Thats why lately, AMD Asus users have come up with the nick-name "ASUckS"
The Gigabyte line of AM2+ boards are really good though, and even the ECS 780G.

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Diamond Radeon HD4850 700/1170
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4850 Is CMOS Monster!!

Melcar

Mine likes to die every now and then. Last week the BIOS got corrupted for no apparent reason (I simply restarted the PC ), but up to now it has been running fine. Had to re-flash of course, but at least I was able to keep my overclock with less voltage... funny how that happened. I ran countless runs of Prime for a week now with no problems, but I'm sure the board will decide to play dead sometime down the road .

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Honos et Potestas

OpticWaves

Aside from locking up at 13.5x CPU I got 2400Mhz HT out of it and 533Mhz memory, sometimes, I'm a noob remember.

Basically I installed my 2 Old IDE drives after I was done with the DVD Drive, had recieved my new RAID card, and when I powered on it wouldnt post and kept turning on and off in about 3 second cycles until i hit the PSU power switch. I call ASUS and they have me take it out and test with just the PCU and board on cardboard. Same thing. I call back and a guy tells me how to clear the CMOS and that did the trick. Until I disconnected power to put in back in my gorgeous black bulletproof windtunnel case. And then again when the power flashed for 10 seconds in a storm. and on and on for a week until I sent it byby an hour ago via UPS to the RMA land of broken dreams . . . . . .

Now to pull the trigger on that tasty looking DFI !!

Erald Coil

Ok, so I got the newegg order this week...

The Asus M3A-H/HDMI ran just fine with an AMD 5000+ BE in it. I was able to update the bios to version 0602 before dropping the Phenom 9850 in. But I couldn't even get it to POST with the 9850, so RMAing the CPU but keeping the board. I'll just order another 5000+ BE. It's such a good deal at $85 -- can't seem to have enough of them...

And I'll wait for the 45nm Phenoms to come out in Q4.

BTW if you wanna see my Asus M3A-H/HDMI + Phenom 9850 combination NOT POSTing, then check out this vid:
Any suggestions? I'm shipping the 9850 back to newegg on Monday if I can't get it to work...

edit: you won't see the extra video info & comments unless you click on the vid itself. I didnt' try to post it as "embedded" but oh well...