*Official ASUS W90Vp Owners' Lounge*

Yeah, I tried using that site with IE, Opera and Firefox and no GLOD or any issues what so ever.

While swapping out components internally, I did go ahead and re-seat my cards as a precaution.

 

asus was there when they put them 2 separate cards in...so im gonna have to say.."they knew exactly that they we're two separate cards" sort of like when the 3870's came out. it's a wording flaw...it looks better on paper as 4870 x2 when it should be something like:
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870

that x2 has people seriously confused when dealing with LAPTOP'S.
the dell xps 1730 had a dual gpu card, but they never called it a x2

try each card by its self to see if it's the card or the motherboard

 

Well Geez, obviously they knew it was two separate cards, LOL! But I think it is a little more than a 'wording flaw'. ASUS clearly configured one card as 'Master', and the second as a 'LINKED' 'Slave'...... not both as 'Master'..... and the 8.551.2.0 driver..... is this not an ATI HD4870 X2 driver?

 

when i brought that up long long ago..that maybe asus made a mistake by making it as a master and a slave bios. and that the motherboard itself has a master and slave slot..people tried to act like that was crazy and un heard of.. yet clevo has been doing it for quite some time.

and since the bios was writen for a master and a slave card...you people are having issues. that's why you have to flash the second to master. so the mother board can control the cards.

 

Striker i understand your thoughts behind this but sadly none of that redoing the infs etc will ever make the drivers work, short of rewriting the whole driver IE DLLs etc and that aint never going to happen as i dont know anyone who can decompile that type of stuff and in the end there would be no benefit from doing it as proven the benchmarks. There wording scheme on the cards was stupid and misleading but since its still a great performer and a heck of a deal no one can really complain . My only real complaint with the cards is why they opted for 512 megs of VRAM and no amount of drivers or anything is going to let it use the whole gig of ram on the cards period as it works the same as SLI and has to mirror the Vram for both cards to work together.


Oh and i dont think E-wrecked has been on in almost a month ? probably got tired of coming around with no machine to join in on the fun + i think he was waiting for the M98nu to come out .

 

Hmmmm, sounds like a big assumption there......

So, you are saying ASUS improperly set one card as 'Master', and the other as 'Slave'? And you are also saying the 8.551.2.0 driver is not an X2 driver? And the issues folks are having is because BOTH cards are not flashed to 'Master'? Correct?

Anyone else have an opinion on this? Better yet, can anyone answer the questions I posted earlier?

Thanks......

 

They gave it that big fancy name cause they could its really that simple , your reading WAYYY to hard into things. there is 2 cards in the machine each a 512 meg 4870 thats it bro . Why they chose to run one slave and one master is there stupid idea and clearly a bad choice . Heck they cant even update the darn drivers for there cards so i would put 0 stock in the idea that they named them something special because they were something special there just 2 cards .

The desktop X2 cards are like this 2 gigs of ram on the cards but actually 1gig available in game thats how all the X2 cards work including Nvidias stuff, 9800gx2 1024=512 available Vram .

 

OK, gotcha Bro, LOL! I wonder what ASUS's official word on this would be? What you are saying is clearly contingent on ASUS not knowing what they are doing, and that ASUS is entirely dubious. Granted, some of their lessor folks put out some bad info, but it hard to swallow that their R&D is entirely ignorant to what they are doing...... especially given the issues thusfar. I think they COULD update the drivers, and it's more a matter of 'if & when'.

I am just not certain flashing both cards to 'Master' is the ONLY course, OR the intended course. It just appears to be the only solution that has worked thusfar. That's all......

 

Oh im sure they had there reasons but lets think about it this way as well , they may have flashed one slave and one master simply based on the driver set they were using at the time 8.12 also the chipset they were using the X38 were known to having MASSIVE issues with ATI and crossfire so i think personally it was more about that then any underlying conspiracy or secret weapon they had in store . Do some google search for crossfire and X38 code43 errors like i did for oh about 2 weeks solid night and day trying to find a solution to getting the drivers installed with the Master/slave combo. in the end it was as stupid as flashing them both to master which they may have never ever tried to begin with . This is and always will be speculation and unless we can speak to the head techs over there then we will never know for certain .

 

Oh, don't get me wrong here..... I am not belittling your work and discovery in flashing both cards to 'Master'. I am just questioning ASUS's design intent here, and wondering if there is not another course, in line with that intent.

Speculation on my part here, but I would think surely they are aware of the flashing of both cards to 'Master', yet they still ship them out with the 'Master' & 'Slave' configuration.

Anyhow, I am just throwing these questions out there..... because solutions thusfar, only come from the enthusiast community, and I am uncertain this is the only (or best) path in this case.

I'll see if I can dig up some official answers....... I know, 'Good Luck' on this venture, right?

 

Yeah Good luck is right and probably wasted effort but hey its your time and your dime so feel free . Your more the conspiracy theorist then i am , so while i chalk it up as them not having a clue or maybe because the X38 had horrible issues beyond 8.11 with crossfire , you would say they had a real reson for what they did and there must be more to it . These are just computers though and while complex there not rockets so its not rocket science going on here . Also remember they only usually release one or 2 sets of drivers sometimes for a notebook across its entire lifespan so as far as they were concerned this was good enough , not to mention this was there first foray into the whole ATI crossfire in a notebook thing so they really may just be clueless what was the best course to take.

 

This is definitely a crossfire confguration and not two GPUs simulating a single card. This setup mirrors a desktop setup whereas you have two separate cards in two separate pcie x16 buses with a 256 bus width (which is basically one of the reasons why a desktop motherboard was used,) when in crossfire, (which beleive it or not, has primary/alternate setup as opposed to a master/slave... but thats here nor there) and also, like Quad said, the mirrored vram. If this were in fact a simulation of one card, not only would there be no crossfire link between the two cards because they would just be integrated into the motherboard to share one bus, but there would be a total of 1GB for vram. Can you disable one GPU in a desktop X2? Dont quote me on it but i dont beleive so. What i can tell you is that if this were not a crossfire configuration, the motherboard bios would not differentiate between the two devices... the card bios would.

just my 2 cents

 

it was an assumption back in march when this unit first came out...
3 months later...im going with it's a fact! yet proven time and time again by everyone flashing the secondary card as a master.

 

I think the reason that the master/slave setup comes into play is so the system can use less power in having the ability to basically only use one card when running 2d apps... which is probably why you only see the second card in the upper 40s for temp when not running graphic intensive apps. desktops dont require as much efficiency so there would be no need to worry about that.


but dont quote me on that either.

 

windows uses one card for 2d applications and single card when crossfire is loaded when there is no profile for crossfire. so the driver just sits there looking stupid. because it doesn't know what to use.... quad mentioned it before a while ago...and im going to say that's a very big part of it. with nvidia cards we have profiles made and we have the option to choose our own rendering options...(out of about 7 to try) your temps are higher on one card because tha's all your using...also means the os or driver chosen rendered isn't the right one for the job (or game in this case) ergo why all the complaints about why it doesn't scale well. you can tell when it scales well is when the temps are within 3 degrees of each other during the operation of the game.

(after 3 months educated speculations)
im sure we would just all love for asus to have some hidden agenda(maybe that 20k 3dmark- lol)...but sorry...they don't. the x38 motherboard they used is a master/slave motherboard. and that's why all the issues. it doesn't jive with the new drivers because they are written for a master/slave bios..not a master slave motherboard. and more than likely it's a bios coding issue. sure, these bios patches are starting to reflect change, but bios coding takes quite a bit of time to get it right. and if they we're under the impression that it was a master/slave video bios..then the motherboard is coded accordingly.....

might also be why they came with this rumored discontinued model stuff, because it cant readily be fixed.(speculation)

 

the master slave is stupid. ati can't design a driver straight enough to fix all the problens it has. it doesn't scale, it ficklers, and i believe it doesn't overclock as high. if i get the w90, i well see if i can make the differences known.

amy one with 4870x2 in crossfire desktop, try to install a driver and see if you don't bluescreen. i'm not saying you can't but it's hard.

 

Confirmation of what i suspected. thanks

 

LOL! Conspiracy Theorist..... where the heck is that coming from.....???

Thanks for the 2 cents..... and I promise I won't quote you!

I'll try to muster up some answers.

 

too much discussion here. you specialists that know what is happening here please contact asus for official answers. technician specialists will be needed not just an asus representative though.

we all hope to clear this soon. this whole story ears to be as the source of the issues.

finally the solution is the viscious guide for the time being right? if they are both in master they are in crossfire too?

 

not sure about that part..(if they are flashed to master they automatically go in to crossfire)

and there are not that many technician specialists floating around here..more people downing possible solutions for a ongoing problem..no thanks to asus...who are getting outside help just like the rest do. they read forums as well..and that's usually where allot of things get fixed by enthusiast trying to make something work or work better than it should... and since asus isn't the one writing the bios for the computer..it's kind of hard to say that they had a hand in that...(speculation of course)

 

by the way. have you used this new utility by ADM ? Its called AMD Fusion for Gaming utility and configures many things with one click.

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_fusion.aspx?p=1

i dont know if it works with modile driver the asus or the mod 9.4 one.

and what about this?

http://ati.amd.com/technology/xgp/index.html

this works on w90? it adds more power to the 4870s?

 

my complaint as well. Personally i would have rather had a slightly lower res screen if they weren't going to give us a gig of ram to play with, i find the machine stuttering a lot as it jumps back to the system ram. Only real downfall id say, wouldnt have minded paying another 150 for that extra vram, oh well.

 

NEW UPGRADE!!!

Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit
1x 80Gb Intell SSD (Primary Drive)
1x 160Gb intell SSD (Secondary Drive)

the QX9300 is next (maybe in a few months)

 

Hello at all,

i'm from germany. (sorry for my bad english). I have an asus W90VP with the 9000 Quad core and the two ATI 4870x2 crossfire.
It's one of the ca. 50 pices they sold in germany from the "Media-Markt". I read the last 30 sites of this threat.
The driver of the ATI card(s) ist from november 2008. The driver runs with vista X64 and with windows 7 X64.

I run 3D-Mark 2006 with both cards, 15% overclocking the Quad on vista X64, and have 12878 points.

Then i disabled the second card in the bios from the W90. I run the test again and hit with one card 10455 points in 3D-mark 2006.

Is it real, that the diffrence between one or two cards is ca. 2500 points?!

 

WOW!!! das würde wierd sein, wenn die Karten nur so viel tun würden.
ich denke, dass es ist, weil die Karten den vram widerspiegeln und simoltaniously über den geteilten vram. führen, die Karten nicht rin voll 1gb, weil die Treiber es noch nicht unterstützen werden. ATI arbeitet daran.

Glück.

 

so er soll beide ins master machen und versione 9.4 installieren?

i also know german.hehe

it shouldnt be anyway. even asus says about 15000 points in benchmark 06. i have to get it and try soon. brb

 

oh and polease excuse my bad German it is a little rusty

 

@ psYchoXUSMC....my english is certanly so bad as your german...

The bios flash of my cards to master/master where my last option.

But i wait a little bit maybe asus brings a new driver, Ati makes a new beta driver for windwos 7 or the guys from mobility modder implement the mobility 4870x2 in the modder software

Meanwhile i played with the ATI drivers .inf who cames with the w90 and the "new" from windows 7 beta drivers.

I make a new inf with new drivers 9.5, copy and paste the card hardware id, rename, etc... and create a new .cat file but the first card is detected an the driver installs. The second card get Error 43 and the drivers not installd yet.

The difference between both .inf's are this drivers:


[r300.Miniport]
atikmdag.sys
ativcaxx.cpa
ativcaxx.vp
ativvpxx.vp
ativpkxx.vp
ativokxx.vp
ativdkxx.vp
ati2erec.dll

This drivers are the "old" drivers who comes with the W90. The new 9.5 has this drivers not.

 

well looks like i need to hit the rosetta stone again

 

Hi all!

I'm actually looking to buy this lappy from Gentech later this week, does anyone know if when the site says: "Availability: Temporary sold out, pre-order ETA June 2nd." That preordering the lappy is available then or the stock is available then? I dispatched an email to Ken around 7am but today is their day off so.. But if you guys can tell me whether or not the stock comes in on Tuesday then I'll put in an order.

Thanks if anyone can help!

~nimbus

 

Gentech is waiting for new shipment in june 2th when they will have stock. thats what it means. i preordered before two weeks or more.

 

i wonder why they sent a staggered shipment? makes me wonder if i will experience any problems with my w90...

but nimbus, i'd preorder rather than wait until that day to order... i ordered my lappy on 4/23... so i don't know how many pre-orders ken has for the june 2nd shipment, or if they are already spoken for.

 

Thank you, Aristotelhs2060. So do you think it will be difficult to snag one of these W90's?

Edit:

I plan on preordering one right now, hopefully ken will have some left over in his shipment. Its unfortunate I cannot determine that at the moment because it is sunday.. My first choice was the EOL'ed G71G, but unfortunately that ran out too.. I just took the wrong time to want to order one, haha.

 

Speak to Ken my friend. see the signature of kimdoocheol

i dont think so. they just take a few pieces as Ken told me as sent them according to the order date.

 

ken takes saturday and sunday off, right?

 

hopefully.. but i wonder why they didn't just make it one big shipment on june 2nd...?

 

thanks a lot, guys. I'm putting in the order now, hopefully he'll have some. If not, hopefully the order will come within another two weeks or so..

Edit: ordered! =] I'm excited =D

 

Wow this website is unstable as heck. I might start hanging out at the asus w90 threads. ><

Well I've reinstalled my OS enough times yesterday to know 100% that my problems begin only after the video driver is installed.

I tried reseating both cards, FAIL
I tried swapping my 2 video cards (since both were master), FAIL
I tried using only the master, FAIL
I tried using only the slave card (vbios set to master) in the master slot, FAIL
Set slave card back to vbios slave
Set driver back to v8 Asus driver, repeated video card swap tests, FAIL
Swapped back old memory temporarily, FAIL

What's strange is I can run 3D tests (06 and Vantage) and games all freakin day with no problems. I've been using Burnin Test V6.0 and the machine hasn't been able to get through a 15 minute test successfully unless I exclude 2D graphics from the test. Then it goes for HOURS without an error. I only exclude 2D, not the 3D test on the burnin.

I only get the grey line problem while web surfing (regardless of browser, WAY more frequently on pages rendered with Adobe Flex) which is a 2D action which uses only the Master if I recall correctly. Since I tried both cards as single cards and had the problem, i'm thinking vbios and/or driver bug.

So I'm back to factory config for now (driver/master slave vbios), I think all I can do at this point is wait for new vbios/asus driver off a fixed machine and see if that helps. If not, then RMA.

I did watch the latest XFILES movie on the machine in Blu-ray and wow that was freakin SWEET. I didn't think I'd use it for movies but now I may.

Anyway I think i've exhausted my testing options. The nice thing is I'm way more familiar with the inside of the W90 now.

 

Ok so it seems ive spoken to soon on the new bios fixing my TF2 issues. It did seem to fix the majority of them but there still there as of when i played today. I guess i didnt get a big enough map sample in last time because ive noticed some different maps that seem to have rendering problems now. Blah.

 

Just finished another 90 minute burnin (all but 2D test), PASSED
Decided to run a test with 2D only and it failed before hitting even 3 minutes.

Crazy. <shakes head>

 

Sorry to hear about these problems all you guys are having.. I don't really understand most of the stuff that your saying so I apologize.

I do have one question, does the W90vp run hot with stocks? Am I going to need to get some coolers for it?

 

I'm having an issue with my W90VP-X1. I generally have problems coming out of Sleep on Windows Vista and Windows 7. The laptop lights up, but the monitor stays off and there is no HD activity. I have to power off my laptop and reboot. That results in issues as well. Only half a second after I see the normal booting activity bar, the system restarts itself. Only 3-4 occasions, my BIOS actually resets itself (I have it normally set to silent without the animated logo).

At first, I figured it to be a RAM issue. I performed a MemTest overnight and was left with only 2 errors. Regardless, I changed out the RAM with some that I had left over from an old laptop (Same type and everything, only 2 sticks though). The issue seemed to be fine for a few days, but then it came back.

Only thing I'm thinking now is that it may either be a) a bad BIOS flash, b) a wonky CMOS battery, or c) a jumper setting (If it has the jumpers to reset CMOS?).

Any help would be appreciated . This is my 3rd W90VP-X1. Sent 2 back before due to video problems. Finally got one without any video errors (Save for weird "shadow" anomalies I see whenever the GPU is working hard). I'd love to be able to fix this myself and not have to wait for 3 weeks to get my laptop returned.

 

Hehe. I was actually just reading your post on the VIP forums at ASUS. I believe we had the same issue. I remember that each time I had the issue where it wouldn't start up, I had taken the battery out in order to safely check the insides.

Definitely going to try out this new BIOS.

 

HA..... I may of spoke too soon there...... sorry! Hope you do not have to RMA, but I would, since there were production issues in previous releases.

 

Maybe, maybe not. I'm hoping its just a bad bios flash. A new bios is a good bios in my eyes haha. Hopefully this new one does the trick, either with a bug fix or just a fresh flash.

 

This is all right and within spec.

Remember I have been saying all along 3dmark06 is now more of a cpu bench than a gpu one because it is too old and easy to render for high end systems.

The 15000 Asus got was with the dual core speed, its a weaker cpu but has a faster speed.

Klink or what ever his name was got over 20,000 on 3dmark06 with his QX9300 @ 4ghz

One card is worth 13,000 and 2 cards can probably do close to 24,000 but you would need an incredibly fast cpu to allow the cards to run that fast. Essentially the cpu is holding back the gpu from showing its full performance. But in real life gaming when your at 1920x1080 and have the settings all maxed out, your going to be using much more gpu power than 3dmark06 uses..

This is also why we have been trying to get people to use 3dMark09 (Vantage) as it is much more accurate, though still IMO cpu bound in many cases.

________________________________


My theory about why we have a 4870X2 master/slave.

I already stated it before, my thought was for pure marketing reasons. 4870X2 is what they said was in here and to do that they had to do a master/slave linked adapter setup. I guess it sounded better than two 4870 in crossfire.

having master/master it runs as a "linked" adapter with the Asus CCC and no crossfire option, but with the new CCC quadzilla found it gave us the normal crossfire option that could be toggled on/off.

Does not matter if its master or slave the disable one card in bios setting works still, though it is much easier to turn off crossfire with the new CCC than it is to disable and enable a card in the bios, that was the main reason to use the new CCC, also some people had issues getting the 2nd card to run again like it was supposed to after turning it off in bios.

Now with the 9.5 stuff out that people have been using, not sure if that CCC has the crossfire option or not.

Id stick with my guide and the 9.4 for Vista until we find a way to mod 9.5 (wich does not seem to really add any fixes significant) but the real goal we should be working for right now is working crossfire in Win 7, game performance is almost half in some games only using one card, this is more significant than old drivers.

 

I think BIOS 601 Asus uploaded is corrupted, I tried both WinFlash and EasyFlash got the same result:

 

Crossfire already works in Windows 7. Granted, you have to be using the 7127 RC which isn't released yet. The build is leaked on many torrent sites. It's a bit tricky to get Crossfire setup though. After installation, there is an option to install a new ATI Driver via Windows Update. You try to install it, it fails...sorta. Even though the install fails, something happens within the system that re-enables the second card. Afterwards, I can't remember if I installed the 9.5 CCC off ATI or your modded 9.4, but I want to actually say I got the 9.5 directly from ATI. Install, restart, enjoy Crossfire.

Edit: Picture and stuff (Sorry for the low quality)

 

I was able to flash with the ASUS supplied 601 via a USB drive. My computer actually seems to be running a bit better even though they only listed one fix.

 

Thanks, maybe it was my download file was corrupted, I'll try download it again.