F-i90HD Many problems

[hopester]

Hi, I've noticed an odd sound problem thats driving me nuts. When passing audio down the hdmi cable to my LCD, the first 2-3 seconds is always lost. I'm using the Realtek R168 hdmi audio driver and the 7.10 Cats (under XP). Bios is version 1.6

Anyone ever had that problem?

[davejm]

Hi, I've noticed an odd sound problem thats driving me nuts. When passing audio down the hdmi cable to my LCD, the first 2-3 seconds is always lost. I'm using the Realtek R168 hdmi audio driver and the 7.10 Cats (under XP). Bios is version 1.6

Anyone ever had that problem?

I'm having this problem with another motherboard. I think it's an issue with Realtek HD sound, and I'm not sure how to solve it. There's always a couple of seconds delay before I hear the sound.

[davejm]

I'm having problems with this board on a build I did for my Dad.

First of all, the RAM I bought wouldn't work (2x1gb of OCZ Dual-channel), so I ended up swapping it for the RAM in my machine (Crucial Ballistix) which seemed to do the trick.

I then had a massive headache getting the board to work with the LCD TV (Samsung R87 32"). Can't really fault the board in this case, as it's more of an issue with the ATI drivers. I had to use Powerstrip to get it to display at 1366x768 resolution, which seems barmy considering a lot of people will buy this board as part of a HTPC build and LCD TV - many of which have a panel with this native resolution. I'd love it if this board had onboard nVidia graphics, as the drivers seem much more capable when it comes to working with HD TV's.

Once I'd got the resolution sorted, everything was OK and Windows seemed fine (Vista 32bit). We couldn't get sound to work through HDMI, despite setting the option in the BIOS to 'Normal' from 'DVI' and installing the HDMI sound drivers, but in the end we ran a sound cable from the soundcard to the seperate speakers instead which is fine.

Now Windows won't load. It gets to the stage where it's just about to flick to the desktop, and then I get a blue error and it restarts. It'll then boot into safe mode OK, but when I boot normally the next time it does the same thing.

So I figure I need to do a fresh install of Windows. Before I do this, I think I'll need to make sure my RAM voltage is set to the correct values (I'll need to check the Crucial site) and then update my BIOS to the latest version.

Can I easily change the RAM voltage in the BIOS?

Is anyone able to explain how I update my BIOS from Windows in a way that won't fry my board? I'm a little concerned after reading some of the comments in this thread.

All in all, I want this board to work for me because I need to do a couple of other HTPC builds soon and this is the best option when it comes to price. If I can't resolve the problems I've been having I'm pretty sure I'll have to go for another mATX motherboard and then buy a seperate nVidia GPU and use DVI to HDMI.

Any advice will be really appreciated.

[ABIT Sean]

I wouldn't recommend updating the bios is windows (especially vista). I would recommend either a bootable USB drive or old faithful floppy disk.

Changing the memory voltages is fairly straight forward, all you need to is change the voltage settings from auto to user defined. Once you have done that you can adjust the voltage to crucial recommended settings.
You may also want to check the memory timings.

[davejm]

Cheers for the prompt reply Sean.

I'm a little too scared to update the BIOS until I've exhausted all other options, so I'll try setting the memory voltage/timings and doing a clean install of Windows before anything else.

[ABIT Sean]

What bios version are you running?

[davejm]

No idea until I get home and look at it tonight, although I did notice that the CPU temp reading in the BIOS was corrupt, which I've read is a problem with a specific BIOS version. Does that give you an idea?

As an aside, I just read on another forum that the latest version fixes a problem with Ghost and SATA drives. This was a problem we encountered as soon as we got Vista installed, as my Dad likes to Ghost from one HD to another as soon as he has a clean OS install working. We couldn't get Ghost to load up, so we gave up on it.

I guess I'll need to get the BIOS updated then really. I don't have a floppy drive in the case, so I guess I'll need to create a bootable USB drive. Can you advise as to how I do this, and what files I need to flash the BIOS to the latest version?

[davejm]

It seems changing the voltage to 2.2v has sorted the problem... I can boot to Windows now.

Although I can't update the BIOS (current version is 12). I've created a bootable CD with the 5 files in, but when I run the 'runme.bat' file but it hangs on the screen where you're prompted to confirm the .bin file. Before I can confirm... it just flashes 'Please Wait' continuously, but I'm locked out of the keyboard and I left it like this for a good 15 mins before restarting.

Any ideas?

[davejm]

Back to square one now, as I'm getting the boot error again.

I'm doing a clean install now on another drive, on the off chance this HD is dodgy, although it wasn't before the upgrade. I've tried replacement components for everything in the PC now, so if it's not the HD then the motherboard is guff.

[davejm]

Ooof, this is turning into a bit of a blog... apologies.

We've reinstalled Windows, and everything seems OK at the moment. Dunno what happened with the previous install, but I didn't have any bother with graphics drivers this time round... it detected my TV and automatically changed to 1360x768 rather than having to mess around with Powerstrip.

Windows seems a lot faster too, so I wonder if the HD was corrupt in some way.

It'd be nice to update the BIOS at some point, but for now everything seems OK.

[davejm]

Me again... this really is a blog now!

Unfortunately the blue screen error is returning. Every single component in the PC been replaced at one point or another, with the same error each time. The only common element to the setup is a Hauppauge HVR-1300 TV card, which I've told my Dad to remove from the board for the time being in order to rule out the possibility of a conflict.

Are there any known conflicts with this TV card? Or in Vista in general?

It's looking like RMA time to be honest, but I'm concerned they'll test it and it will appear to work and refuse the return. Any tips with this? I bought it from Overclockers UK.

[davejm]

"Captain's Log stardate 190-HD!!!"

So um, yeah, it looks as though there's a conflict with the Hauppauge HVR-1300 TV card. He removed it from the system and it worked fine all over the weekend. As soon as he popped it back in it crashed again.

"Ensign, set course for the Hauppauge forums!! Warp factor 9!!"

[wilyblec]

Thanks for the bios chip Sean runs like a dream now and shutting down properly. Running vista. Just a quick tip if people are having problems shutting down with this motherboard running vista try turning off the windows sidebar

[Knirfie]

My system has become a lot more stable since I flashed to bios 16. Though I still get an occasional (about once a week, which is a big improvement from on average once a day) freeze when playing random video's...

Hopefully the next bios will make my system perfectly stable?

[davejm]

It seems changing the voltage to 2.2v has sorted the problem... I can boot to Windows now.

Although I can't update the BIOS (current version is 12). I've created a bootable CD with the 5 files in, but when I run the 'runme.bat' file but it hangs on the screen where you're prompted to confirm the .bin file. Before I can confirm... it just flashes 'Please Wait' continuously, but I'm locked out of the keyboard and I left it like this for a good 15 mins before restarting.

Any ideas?

OK, I need to get this BIOS update problem resolved. Any attempt to update the BIOS crashes the machine.

The Hauppauge forums were no good, so at the moment we can't use the HVR-1300 in the machine without it 'blue screening' on us.

Sean/mods... is there any other safe way for me to update the BIOS? Any ideas why it's crashing?

Also, are there any BIOS options related to the PCI slot that I can try to resolve this incompatability problem with the TV card? If you could ask your technical bods I'd really appreciate it.

It's frustrating... on it's own the motherboard works OK, but with the TV card installed (which works OK on other motherboards) it's crashing.

[Cov]

ok, enough is enough ...

here is what you have to do:

1) take the your Abit board out and put it back into the box and throw it under your bed !
2) get the Asus P5E-VM HDMI board ... same size - better quality ... and stable as a rock !!

Stop bothering about with this **** board !

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !