Asus Rampage Formula (X48) Thread

[rx7racer]

Ok guys I'm pulling my hair out here. Is there a trick to get the EZ flash to read a usb drive. I tried force fdd and no luck and I do have it formatted as FAT32 and from everything I read it should work just fine. And what is some good ram to use on this mb so I don't have to pull my sticks out every 5th time I start my rig up to get it to detect my ram.

I hate to say this but DFI has such a cleaner looking bios and smoother process for updating bios.

I'm running 0308 right now and everything is just wack on this mb, I mean stock settings are fine but the slightest adjustment and it's like I pissed it off.

[Robilar]

I had no issues with a usb key. Do you have usb legacy support enabled?

Also you have to boot the system up with the usb key already plugged in. Also make sure the ROM file in unzipped and in the main directory of the key.

If you enter ez-flash and then insert your usb key, it will not see it.

[Robilar]

Originally Posted by RPIJG

I read that and threw it away. I've always used LLC, I think it was the hardware canucks review that shows how smoooooooth the Vcore is with LLC enabled.

Yes but your chip is not 45nm....


I tried LLC briefly with my E8400 and it seems stable but I have two mates at XS that both damaged 45nm chips (a Q9450 and an E8500) which they directly attribute to the enabling of LLC.

Vdroop is no big deal really. As long as you compensate for it in the bios, you can still net solid overclocks.


BTW, my chipset mod is even better today. The ceramic paste has cured a fair bit. I now idle at 43C and load just shy of 50C. Still hotter than the P5E but a big step better than 61C I was encountering when first booting the board.

[ericeod]

Originally Posted by rx7racer

Ok guys I'm pulling my hair out here. Is there a trick to get the EZ flash to read a usb drive. I tried force fdd and no luck and I do have it formatted as FAT32 and from everything I read it should work just fine. And what is some good ram to use on this mb so I don't have to pull my sticks out every 5th time I start my rig up to get it to detect my ram.

I hate to say this but DFI has such a cleaner looking bios and smoother process for updating bios.

I'm running 0308 right now and everything is just wack on this mb, I mean stock settings are fine but the slightest adjustment and it's like I pissed it off.

I had similar problems with my Maximus Extreme motherboard, so I just made my USB flash drive bootable and used AFUDOS in dos mode to flash my bios using the F8 boot device selection mode:

Originally Posted by ericeod

Please see this post were all credit
is given for this info. I just rewrote/organized it for clarity.

1. Make a USB bootable drive using this creator:
USB Boot drive (HPUSBFW)

2. Then download the boot files and extract them to a folder of your choice

3. Run the HPUSBFW program.



Select the correct USB device from the drop-down menu, set file system to FAT32 and check Create a DOS startup disk.

4. Then browse for the extracted boot files (now in the folder of your choice) and press start to begin formating it.

5. Once the device is done, Copy the AFUDOS and 403 bios (unzip it) to the USB drive (you will not see the boot files on it).

6. You will then restart and go into bios to load default bios options. Then set the ram voltage and reboot (plug in the USB drive into the back USB port at this time). Then, while the PC is booting up, press F8 to enter the boot option. Select the USB drive.

7. At the C: type afudos /iRAMPAGE-ASUS-Formula-0403.rom /pbnc /n

8. The bios will then begin flashing. Dont do anything until the bios is finished flashing and you are instructed to reboot.

9. Finally, shut down, CLR CMOS (with the switch) and enjoy your new Rampage!


If for any reason you want to revert back to the original bios, just copy the latest Maximus Formula or P5E bios (whichever board you have) instead of the 0403, and type the bios rom name as before,
ie. afudos /i<your original bios here.rom> /pbnc /n

[rx7racer]

Thanks Eric, I'll try that when I get home. I already tried all the other ways, was up till 3am this morning trying to figure it out, and half the time the EZ flash utility would just freeze, doesn't seem like a very well thought out program but yet every article and source I find says it's the best lol.

And yea Robilar I tried everyway possible from trying the 530mb - the hard disk(under the usb config and all), even tried cd, but one thing I didn't try was the afudos, everything said the ez flash 2 was so simple to not worry about it but I guess I'll go that route.

[RPIJG]

I have no problem with EZ Flash 2, I go through the BIOS to do it, go to EZ Flash 2, select my .ROM and in about 1 minute I'm done. I never had any problems with it on my P5K Deluxe either.

I also don't have to take RAM out of my computer ever either. I'm running 4x1GB G.Skills and have had zero problems since I got it running after the first little trick I had to do. I've also had no problems with stability like you are talking about. In fact, just the opposite, I've taken out a TON of Voltage from several places and still have the same stability.

[ParaSwarm]

Using 0406 bios and so far so good. I've heard of people getting lots of BSODs with enabling LLC and a 45nm CPU, so I've had it disabled from day 1. I enabled LLC this morning after the bios update. It's been fine and stable all day long, and VCORE is exactly where it should be under load. That makes me very happy

RX7Racer, I also haven't had any trouble using a USB stick with EZ Flash (did it this morning.) I think it reads the stick as the A:\ drive or something weird, but I just put the .rom in the root directory, and EZ Flash finds it right off the bat.

[ericeod]

Originally Posted by rx7racer

Thanks Eric, I'll try that when I get home. I already tried all the other ways, was up till 3am this morning trying to figure it out, and half the time the EZ flash utility would just freeze, doesn't seem like a very well thought out program but yet every article and source I find says it's the best lol.

And yea Robilar I tried everyway possible from trying the 530mb - the hard disk(under the usb config and all), even tried cd, but one thing I didn't try was the afudos, everything said the ez flash 2 was so simple to not worry about it but I guess I'll go that route.

I had the same problem. I would try to access EZ Flash and it would freeze, or sometimes the screen would turn a diffrenet color (redish) and get all distorted. I decided then it wasnt worth it to try to flash the bios. But ever since I made my USB bootable, its as easy as putting AFUDOS on it, and the bios file, then flashing it that way. BTW, it might be eisier to just name the bios something eay like new. That way you only have to type the name as afudos /inew.rom /pbnc /n

I only listed it the other way becasue thats the default name ASUS gives to the 0403 bios.

[rx7racer]

Originally Posted by ericeod

I had the same problem. I would try to access EZ Flash and it would freeze, or sometimes the screen would turn a diffrenet color (redish) and get all distorted. I decided then it wasnt worth it to try to flash the bios. But ever since I made my USB bootable, its as easy as putting AFUDOS on it, and the bios file, then flashing it that way. BTW, it might be eisier to just name the bios something eay like new. That way you only have to type the name as afudos /new.rom /pbnc /n

I only listed it the other way becasue thats the default name ASUS gives to the 0403 bios.

Wow, that is exactly what it does to me, I was hoping I wasn't the only one with that scenario. I really didn't feel like rma'ing this board after getting rid of my DFI X48 for this board.

And to all, I did format and put the .rom on teh flash drive and it did come up as A: but it would not read the usb(mine has a led to show activity) and my roms were C: and D:. Well as long as afudos works all will be fine, just everyone else said "no go and use teh ez flash" so that's why I didn't give up on it and just thought it was me but after about a million tries I knew it wasn't me, I mean I am a bit new to Asus since for the past 5+ years I have stuck with Biostar DFI or MSI but flashing a bios had never been that hard before, even when I hat to hot flash one of my other bios chips before.

But yea, thanks for the help guys, 2 more hours and I'll be able to try and hopefully get it working.

Oh yea, I was going after the 0406 bios but I saw someone mention 0408, is there a certain one that is recommended?

[RPIJG]

I think he meant either 0403 or 0406 as there is no 0408 that I have seen or even heard about yet.

That's bizarre about the EZ Flash, out of curiousity, what size Flash drives are you using, perhaps there is a "maximum" that it can handle, though, I've used my Ipod Nano to do it, and that has 4GB I think.