F-i90HD Many problems

[Madcow]

I have a failed F-190HD board too. Antec true power 550W PSU, Samsung spinpoint 500gb HDD, Corsair xms 6400 2x1gb twin x memory at 2.1v.
Worked for 3 days but was not on very much. Then refused to boot one morning, never touched it or overclocked it. the 2 board lights are on the fans spin but no beep. There may not be on board post speaker on the board so cheked with external post speaker no sound. Did all the usual tricks cleared the cmos, took out the battery, moved the memory. No post no video still. I am really pissed off. Overclockers Uk dont give a dam about it even though they suppilyed it.
Sounds like this is really shoddy work from Abit, this is the first of their boards I have had. I worry now that I going to get into a viscious circle of duff replacment boards.

[matx2007]

Can you check if the system tries to access your floppy or DVD drive? If yes, it sounds like it is the same problem that I have with a dead bios. I tried to flash my bios again but it didn't work. You could try to flash the bios, but it doesn't sound like it will work - could also just create rma problems.

Considering the many problems I'm reading about, my own experience with the board and the extremely bad packaging of the board (I could see how the board had been moving around in the box and I actually had to straighten out some pins on the back before installing it), I think I'll simply return it. I'll probably pick up one of the new G33 Gigabyte boards instead.

I'm sorry you had such an experience as well. When putting together a new computer, one just wants it to work, not to have the parts laying around gathering dust while waiting for some, possible lenghty, rma process.

[PhilS]

Ok I have been using my replacement board for a few days now and it seems largely ok. I updated the bios immediately (mine was 1 version behind).

The only downside to report so far is since the BIOS update the CPU temp doesn't display properly (shows about 1 degree instead of 35 degrees!). If anyone knows a way around this I would be grateful!

[matx2007]

Ok I have been using my replacement board for a few days now and it seems largely ok. I updated the bios immediately (mine was 1 version behind).

The only downside to report so far is since the BIOS update the CPU temp doesn't display properly (shows about 1 degree instead of 35 degrees!). If anyone knows a way around this I would be grateful!

It's a know bug in the lastest official bios. As far as I heard, it should be fixed in the latest beta bios. You can try to use that or simply wait for the next official bios for Abit. Since my bios died while flashing to the beta bios, I can't personally recommend it, but I heard of others using it with success. If you flash to the beta bios remember to NOT do it from Windows. I think it was that which caused my problem and it has been reported that it should be avoided. Do it from dos instead using either a floppy or usb stick.

[PhilS]

Thanks for that, I think I will wait for the official bios to be released then!

I have another question/problem, I am running the sound through the HDMI output, with Vista and when watching TV etc in Media Center when the sound goes quiet on the program I get a faint high pitched noise coming through the speakers. I noticed that it also does it in Windows especially if I mute then unmute the sound (with nothing playing). I have tried both HDMI ports in the TV which made no difference, and it doesn't do it if I use analog audio out so I think it is a problem with the drivers/motherboard sound. Has anyone else noticed this?

[gilgamesh]

It's a know bug in the lastest official bios. As far as I heard, it should be fixed in the latest beta bios. You can try to use that or simply wait for the next official bios for Abit. Since my bios died while flashing to the beta bios, I can't personally recommend it, but I heard of others using it with success. If you flash to the beta bios remember to NOT do it from Windows. I think it was that which caused my problem and it has been reported that it should be avoided. Do it from dos instead using either a floppy or usb stick.

You read my mind m8. TOO MANY variables to flash a bios in windows. yup DOS is much safer and QUICKER

gilgamesh

[burgerri]

I bought the Abit F-I90HD couple of days back and have only recently started to OC my proc. I'm still using a Pentium 805D but should be upgrading to a C2D soon. The 805D is able to OC till 4.0Ghz on a NF4-SLI mobo and 4.2Ghz on a Nvidia 680 SLI mobo.

Once I started to OC the proc, I started off at a conservative 3.4Ghz with the proc volts at 1.45, it boots fine and goes into windows fine, run orthos with no errors and etc, but once i reboot the system failure to post. Seems like the onboard graphics just refused to start and there is zilch on the screen, there isnt any beeping sound and anything odd like that.

I then tried to go easy on the OC and am able to find that at 3.18Ghz, the system is able to post, go into windows and reboot fine. But once I go above 3.18Ghz, the first POST is fine but if i ever reboot it fails to POST again.

I dont think this is related to the mobo FSB limitation or even the 805D itself. Could this be related to the onboard GC? has anyone encounter this problem?

By the way I'm running the .12 version of the BIOS.

[gilgamesh]

I bought the Abit F-I90HD couple of days back and have only recently started to OC my proc. I'm still using a Pentium 805D but should be upgrading to a C2D soon. The 805D is able to OC till 4.0Ghz on a NF4-SLI mobo and 4.2Ghz on a Nvidia 680 SLI mobo.

Once I started to OC the proc, I started off at a conservative 3.4Ghz with the proc volts at 1.45, it boots fine and goes into windows fine, run orthos with no errors and etc, but once i reboot the system failure to post. Seems like the onboard graphics just refused to start and there is zilch on the screen, there isnt any beeping sound and anything odd like that.

I then tried to go easy on the OC and am able to find that at 3.18Ghz, the system is able to post, go into windows and reboot fine. But once I go above 3.18Ghz, the first POST is fine but if i ever reboot it fails to POST again.

I dont think this is related to the mobo FSB limitation or even the 805D itself. Could this be related to the onboard GC? has anyone encounter this problem?

By the way I'm running the .12 version of the BIOS.

I have done a mini review on this board, the last part to come shortly. I have not overcloekd this board as of yet as for a 70 pounds board aimed at the multi-media side of the marekt I saw no need to overlock it.

Try bios 13

I will invstigate the oc issue for you once I completed the gaming data scores on this board.

cheers

gilgamesh

[seamus_57]

I see a fair few posts here about faulty boards. Maybe my problem is related.
For some reason I cannot get into the Raid Setup Utility. There is no mention in the manual of which keypress to make to get in there but abit technical support reckon its Control S. I've tried afew other control keypress's that I have read about just in case but to no avail. These keypress's have been made during, immediately after, POST and during CDROM boot.
With 1st Boot priority set to Hard Disk (and with no OS on the disk) the Control S keypress actually stops the board and it POSTS again.
The same state without the keypress allows the board to finish POST and look at the 1st Boot Device...
It certainly seems that the Control S does do something but try as I might I cannot get it to load the Raid Util.
Abit tech recommended flashing bios to 13 which does not seem to have made any difference to my problem.
With the BIOS option OnChip SATA MODE set to IDE my 2 Seagate 7200-10 drives are recognized correctly in STANDARD CMOS FEATURES and when set to RAID , in the HARD DISK BOOT PRIORITY they show as
SCSI-0 : RAID Ary 1
SCSI-1 : RAID Ary 3
Quite frustratingly abit tech seem to have stopped responding (hopefully temporarily)
Has anyone here had any success with any Raid setups with this board please?

[burgerri]

I have done a mini review on this board, the last part to come shortly. I have not overcloekd this board as of yet as for a 70 pounds board aimed at the multi-media side of the marekt I saw no need to overlock it.

Try bios 13

I will invstigate the oc issue for you once I completed the gaming data scores on this board.

cheers

gilgamesh

Thanks Gilgamesh.

Where can i get hold of the .13 bios? is it an official release as I dont see it on the abit website and also the ftp server?

[BUFF]

try the beta BIOS sticky on the abit-USA forum.
As they are betas you use at your own risk & as such aren't on the abit website or ftp.

[burgerri]

I've just managed to grab hold of a 7600GS PCI-E graphics card to test out if the onboard graphics card is holding back my overclocking. After changing the necessary bios setting and reinstalling the drivers for the 7600GS, I tried to slowly increase the proc speed from 3.2 gradually up to 3.5Ghz, tried orthos and multiple reboots in between...and it manages to boot properly.

So i reckon can conclude that the onboard graphics does not like to be overclocked very much.

The max I've managed to OC this 805D so far tonight is 3.5Ghz which is still shy 700mhz from the max of 4.2Ghz which I was able to hit on the 680i mobo, kinda odd really. Will give it another go tomorrow.

[seamus_57]

Further to my inability to get into the F-190hd Raid setup utility. Why the keypress needed is not printed in the manual is a complete mystery to me. Abit tech support even emailed me instructions to flash the bios to 13 and press Ctrl S to get in there. So fruitlessly I have been looking elsewhere for problems with the drives and/or memory.
Sheer frustration made me (nearly) press every damn ctrl key just after the POST. I have eventually found the keypress needed to be Ctrl F.
Such an oversight is , I think, diabolical.

[burgerri]

That is a pretty major bit of miscommunication going on there.... thanks for the Ctrl F info, it would definately come in handy one day.

[burgerri]

Does anyone here know how I can change the memory command rate for this board? It seems to default to the memory SPD of 2T but my memory is capable of supporting 1T.

[BUFF]

BIOS release V13 for F-I90HD

Release information:

[ENGLISH]

This BIOS does not support older version of FlashMenu.
Please update FlashMenu to V1.0.0.5 or later version prior making this update. this appears to be a typo - should be 1.505
1. Fixed the CPU multiplier adjusting function.
2. The C1E and EIST adjusting function now work as intended.
3. Recalibrate CPU temperature.
4. Enhanced compatibility with certain memories.
5. The RAID and AHCI functions now work as intended.
6. BIOS compiled date: 05/23/2007.

ftp://ftp.abit.com.tw/pub/download/b...hd/m612a13.zip