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Thread: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

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    Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Hello, I wanted to share a warning for other potential buyers and raise awareness to Scan staff to see if they could assist with a technical problem.

    2 weeks ago I bought one of these new G33 based Asus Barebone systems. I like these alot and have bought many varients of this barebone. So upon getting this I installed my Q6600 and went into the bios (ver:0202) to tweak the memory timings and check out the rest of the bios. That's when things didn't look right.

    The Advanced menu should have a few sub-menus, however it seems that one important menu was missing. The "Jumperfree Configuration" (JC) option was not visible. I had previously examined the user manual BEFORE buying this system and the UK / English manual section 5, page 17 clearly states that this option is a configurable option.

    I decided to check on the latest version and download release 0302. I flashed the bios using the ALT+F2 option and loaded the 0302 rom file from my USB memory stick. Flash upgrade went well and after loading the bios defaults (to ensure new options take effect) I was quite unhappy to notice that the JC menu was still not visible.

    I decided to check out the Asus forums and search for help. To cut a long story short, Asus don't have a barebone forum, so those seeking help with this or ANY Asus Barebone will have a problem. I noticed the the motherboard inside is a P5K-VM so I checked out the motherboard forum and sure I found some people asking for help. Only, knowone mentions this bios option.

    I decided to log a technical support request and detailed my issues. a couple of days later, I received an email saying that the bioses are locked down to ensure stability and prevent users from overclocking these systems. After replying back explaining that if I had the option like the manual says I should, it should be the customers choice if they decide to overclock the system. I have now heard no further replies for over 1 week.

    I have called Holland where they have technical support but sadly they don't support Barebone systems, after going through their phone systems and menu's I landed a call with the laptop support team. I explained my problems and that all I wanted was some support.

    They have been kind in trying to understand and help, but sadly keep referring me back to the place of purchase. In the defence of Scan, I have told Asus that even if I sent my system back to Scan, they would test it and find it works ok, therefore why should Scan refund my money etc. No real reply. I am trying to get someone at Asus to contact Scan to give Scan authorization to refund my barebone.

    @Scan Technical / CS, if you know about this BIOS issue, if you know how to overcome this, I welcome to hear from you. If you're willing to try and help me, either send a replacement again I welcome this.

    So, if there is anyone else reading this and YOU have this exact barebone, please do me the honor and check your bios setting for the Jumperfree Configuration page under the Advanced bios page. I would love to think I have a faulty board.

    BTW, I have a few of these which are running the folding@home DC project and these little systems are perfect for budget systems. Thanks for reading and if anyone has any constructive help, I 'll be glad to hear from you.
    -casw1000

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Support call now logged with Tech Support @ Scan. Appreciate you looking into this. The original support staff in Holland and now told me clearly they can no longer assist.

    Regards,
    -casw1000

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    They do have a barebone forum but somethings happened and it is no longer on the list. You can only access it if you have the direct link or the method below.

    If you go to the support page for your barebone, the page with driver & bios updates etc there should be a link on the left saying forum and it will take you direct to the forum for your barebone.

    Nickp.
    Last edited by nickp8; 28-09-2007 at 07:12 PM.
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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Thanks anyway Nick, but sadly they no longer have a barebone forum. If you do exactly as you said, it 'appears' that they have a forum, of which I agree. But then when you try and post to the forum, the barebone forum is not in the list which you have to select the forum before you can post. If you try it you will see what I mean. Also over at the Asus forums there are a few others saying the same thing.

    I have even post this comment under the General Forum in the feedback for our website. Ultimately Asus have mentioned the the barebone market has shrunk considerable and this is why they are not really pushing the products.

    If you ring up technical support, your told to log a support call on the forums, well thats great but there isn't a barebone forum in the first place. This is why I have become so hacked off with this situ. Sadly I won't be buying any more of these great little boxes as I have no confidence in Asus supporting us customers.

    Thanks for posting anyway.

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Man, I feel for you. I was just in the market for a barebone and the Asus Vintage V3-P5G33 was looking good but after reading your post ablout the Jumperfree-option missing I changed my mind. It seems like a greate product, but if I have a core 2 duo, I want to overclock it. I hope you at least get a refund or better yet, find a modified bios with the option enabled.

    GL!

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Quote Originally Posted by murak View Post
    Man, I feel for you. I was just in the market for a barebone and the Asus Vintage V3-P5G33 was looking good but after reading your post ablout the Jumperfree-option missing I changed my mind. It seems like a greate product, but if I have a core 2 duo, I want to overclock it. I hope you at least get a refund or better yet, find a modified bios with the option enabled.

    GL!

    It is actually a good product, but with no scope for tweaking, none at all. I also miss the eSata but thats not a big deal.

    @Scan, I did log a call for you guys to investigate this, as in my view the product has been miss-sold. I am being fair by saying I know it's not you guys, but I bought this item based on what the manual said it does and the bios clearly doesn't offer what Asus promotes. Scan, even though I have logged calls with Asus and was told tough the system isn't designed to be overclocked. They have since ignored my calls for support. Asus - you're out of line!!!

    Also as a general warning to other potential buyers, go check out the downloads for this system, they have virtually nothing there. I installed Vista on this machine last night and noticed that there is no AI overclocking software at all. Either the English user manual is just wrong and they cannot be bothered to update it, or they had problems with the system and changed the bios at last minute.

    Either way, I don't want this system as it's a sad waste of high end memory and a Q6600 G0 processor.

    Please can someone at Scan acknowledge this and PM me how we can resolve this matter. Thank you.

    -Colin

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Sir,

    Interesting and frustrating post I can appreciate regarding the Asus V3-P5G33.

    In a slight lateral thinking mode (as you are seemingly getting no support from Asus and having no luck at all), what about trying to use the BIOS image (if possible!) from the actual Asus P5K-VM motherboard presently version 0602. Of course as you realise there may be a certain risk with doing this and Asus may have anticipated this move, so it may have serious, irreversible or terminal effects !

    I am, well was seriously thinking about purchasing a V3-P5G33 as a cheap temporary everyday PC, I do have an Asus P3 PH5 barebones which is quite an impressive and quiet little server at present. It has a G965 mobo which is the same (I believe) as the 'normal' equivalent mATX board apart from having 2 of the usual 4 SATA connectors removed.

    Hope that helps in some way.

    Regards,


    Simon

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Quote Originally Posted by Chumley View Post
    Sir,

    Interesting and frustrating post I can appreciate regarding the Asus V3-P5G33.

    In a slight lateral thinking mode (as you are seemingly getting no support from Asus and having no luck at all), what about trying to use the BIOS image (if possible!) from the actual Asus P5K-VM motherboard presently version 0602. Of course as you realise there may be a certain risk with doing this and Asus may have anticipated this move, so it may have serious, irreversible or terminal effects !

    I am, well was seriously thinking about purchasing a V3-P5G33 as a cheap temporary everyday PC, I do have an Asus P3 PH5 barebones which is quite an impressive and quiet little server at present. It has a G965 mobo which is the same (I believe) as the 'normal' equivalent mATX board apart from having 2 of the usual 4 SATA connectors removed.

    Hope that helps in some way.

    Regards,


    Simon
    Simon, thanks for your reply at least. To dampen your hopes, you cannot use the P5K-VM bios, when you try and flash with any of those versions, you get a microcode miss-match. It says that the bios is not compatible with this board.

    I have even gone to the lengths of using all available bios editors to try and unlock the missing features. I have spent days on days trying to get this working, as I would still really like to buy more.

    Sadly, I think I will be ripping the motherboards out and buying a real P5K-VM so that I have a reasonable overclock, then I will sell off the restricted boards on ebay.

    I am more bitter towards Asus for their lack of interest in helping its customers. I have had many Asus products and generally quite happy with them, but this does put a sour taste in the mouth.

    Good luck. I just wish someone else out here would confirm if they have the same problem.

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    casw1000, I feared something like this may have been done (by Asus) to hinder this approach.

    I did some further digging and came across this forum thread that on glancing through it may hold some hope..

    forums.mydigitallife.info
    /showthread.php?t=1014]

    (Apologies if you have to cut and paste this text, having less than 5 posts I cannot post url links it seems)

    Hope this helps as it suggests - I am getting possibly interesting (again) in this barebones again for similar uses you wish for yours - although your (lack of) support from Asus has been unacceptable.

    Regards,

    Simon

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Quote Originally Posted by Chumley View Post
    casw1000, I feared something like this may have been done (by Asus) to hinder this approach.

    I did some further digging and came across this forum thread that on glancing through it may hold some hope..

    forums.mydigitallife.info
    /showthread.php?t=1014]

    (Apologies if you have to cut and paste this text, having less than 5 posts I cannot post url links it seems)

    Hope this helps as it suggests - I am getting possibly interesting (again) in this barebones again for similar uses you wish for yours - although your (lack of) support from Asus has been unacceptable.

    Regards,

    Simon
    Simon, I will try this out tonight and post my results. Only last week I was looking at other mAtx motherboards to get round the problem of the bios. If this really works, I will be extremly happy and I will buy another 2. This makes *will* make the perfect small folding@home machine and I will have 2 more Penryn's to install

    Whilst I admit I spent a lot of time looking for others that could bring some hope and found little else, you have at least brought some hope. Many thanks for your time and trouble.

    I will report back once I have played.
    Cheers,
    Colin.

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Simon. Thanks again for the link. In short it WORKS Here's exactly what I needed to do.

    First, download the bios file P5K-VM-ASUS-0602.zip and the Afudos 2.11. Extract the zip and rename this rom file from P5K-VM-ASUS-0602.ROM to P5G33-0302.ROM

    **** Note, you will need to do this on a windows system of some sort. ****

    1. If running vista or possibly XP, you will need to boot to a native dos mode, ie not a dos command prompt but full dos session before you can flash the bios. I obtained an old Windows 98 Boot ISO from allbootdisks.com they have cd boot images. However you will need to edit the iso image, copy the afudos and the rom file to the iso. Then burn the new iso to a cdr (use magiciso or similar). When you boot off the cd, you will end up with the necessary to flash the bios.

    2. from within the same directory as the rom file, type afudos /i[filenamehere] /pbnc /n

    **** Note : If you have booted from an older copy of DOS, if you type dir you will notice that the old dos 8.3 format is being displayed. So when you use afudos just type in the exact dos format that you see. Example : afudos /ip5g33-~.rom (i think it is)

    Once you hit enter, it just starts, no further warnings etc.

    I do not take credit for this information as the other guys in the link above deserve the credit. I am just pleased that this now works, and by Q6600 is now running happily at 3.2Ghz

    I hope this helps others as it helped me. A big thanks to Simon for finding this as well.
    PS - if I have stated something very obvious, please ignore the comment. I wanted to explain as much as possible to make this update as easy as possible.

    I am now going to buy another 2 of these barebones. Just waiting for the Penryn's now.

    Regards,
    Colin.

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Colin, well done and great news, also thank you for the suitably detailed instructions given.

    I was hoping this would work (of course!) - as touched on earlier, I will probably buy a V3-P5G33 to enable as a convenient and occasional (overclocked) gaming PC as they are now even better value for money. One side of my thinking feels that Asus don't really deserve the business due to lack of support shown to you earlier.

    As always, it is great to discover a clever way to circumvent a rather ridiculous limitation forced on money paying customers which seems conveniently(?) not documented and frustratingly ignored (by Asus support).

    Regards,

    Simon

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Simon. One thing to note is that the barebone can and does overclock well, however I am struggling to keep it stable. I need more time to understand what settings are acheived on other 'normal' p5k-vm boards.

    I have a feeling that one of the components is causing the issues, albeit, power, memory etc. I have a G0 Q6600 and I know it clocks well. It's only when I start folding on the processor that its becomes unstable.

    I have managed to do a super Pi 1M time of 15s which is very good. So if I can figure out the issue, I will update this post. If you find other forums with OC settings, I will be happy to test. I have a feeling that the 300w psu just cannot deliver enough juice!

    Cheers again,
    Colin.

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    Simon. I have made quite good progress with the overclocking. I have posted screenshots and much information on my forums.

    Note to MODS. I did quickly check the faq, and whilst I could not see a PM system here I have posted a link to my own forums. This is not spam, or anything like it. Just a link to help other members with my motherboard experiences etc.

    Simon, if you want to check out more : please go HERE

    Thanks again, wihtout your initial findings, I would not have got this far!

    Best Regards,
    Colin
    Darth Folder

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    • atmadden's system
      • Motherboard:
      • MSI P35 Neo2 FR
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      • QX9650@4.2ghz 420x10
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      • Corsair HX620

    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    It is definitely your psu which is causing the instability. I have a q6600 that was running on a akasa 460w psu and exhibited the same symptoms as you whenever you did any stress tests it would crash. It was only fully stable at stock but would get into windows at 3.8ghz. Bought a corsair psu and all problems gone. If your overclocking these cpu's consume a lot of power.
    Core i7 860 @ 4ghz
    MSI P55 GD65 4gb Gskill Ripjaw 2xAsus 5770 1003/5600 Corsair HX620 psu http://trust.hexus.net/user_profile.php?user=10950

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    Re: Asus Barebone V3-P5G33

    atmadden, yes you are correct. I can get my Q6600 up to 3.6, the thing that holds me back are the temps. Just way too hot. In fact I have now cranked it back to 3.2, whilst priming at 3.43 the temps go upto 78+ across the cores.

    I pulled it down to 3.2 and I am getting 68 - 72*C now. As long as it doesn't go beyond that I can live with it.

    I am using a Zalman 9700. The processor VID is 1.250 which from what I understand is quite a low vcore. I have the bios vcore set to 1.325v and whilst it is stressed out the CoreTemp / Everest vcores show 1.28v

    I have done the pencil mod, and the vcore readings are much better. Previously I was have 0.1v droop.

    Given the hassle I have had with this barebone, I prob wont buy another one. After all, I still had to replace the PSU to get any overclock out of it. I am restricted by height as to what cooler I use. So sure its ok, but it will be the last.

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