NEW C90 BIOS available

I understand your point swoley2k. Maybe the difference is the operating system on everyone. few have been clear what OS they use and if they have their OS up to date. Some of the replies are vague or too general to have a better understanding of the trouble plus so many repitive threads on the same subject that becomes difficult to track an especific subject. Mine is working perfectly & Turbogear in game mode only works too I start a game or video, as soon I do that my XP freezes.

 

Well me for one tired all my test with vista and xp. I just recommend immediate RMA to anyone having the battery issue or the lock up issue in gamin mode cause waiting around talking about bioses and incompatible memory WILL get you no where.

EDIT: There may be a 1% chance of a new bios fixing the battery issue but I dont think there is a chance in the world at fixing the overclocking issue, period. At least not without creating a bios that alters the memory running speed (lowering it) or lowering the cpu running speed. Its that serious.

 

I understand your point but still, pretty weird everything else is working fine and the game mode freeze as someone hit the video part so plus I tested the c90s with another clocking utility and it works fine, temp fine, clock fine, evn under LINUX is working really cool. Therefore maybe my XP is the trouble because is modded and eventhogh I have the same video drivers you have still is not the XP you are using. ABout the memory speed reading that was my fault because ASUS told me I shouldnt upgrade to ver 704 plus corsair may work but is not 100% compatible. There are so many variables and I dont think you can try all.

 

what over clocking utility can we try

 

Are you saying your overclock mode works in vista but not in xp?

 

Nope, I havent tried vista..Im just saying that MY XP is modded by my friends and so it is not the same than yours since there are some extra gadgets that could be troublesome to turbogear. ANyway, I going to tried with another Professional XP OEM I have but I have to create/resize the partition since I dont want just to reinstall everything else in the name of just overclock with turbogear

 

I dont recommend it because you have to gather some info from the c90s board and I just did it for testing purpose cause with this one with the wrong info and setting you can do some serious damage on your computer

 

Running off of battery is an easy solution for whoever has not alraedy purcahsed or for those of you who have. Stick to 1 + 1gb rather then 3 gb there seems to be an issue with compatibility with 2 gb ram sticks.

 

well,

I somewhat agree with swoley about the quality of the c90s... It seems that a significant number of people are having problems with it... its already confusing. I just cant understand how some people with the same config and setup have different problems ? While other people have EXACTLY the same problems... ( like the RAM ). Its causing time and money.... and i really think ASUS should double time providing a solution for these problems. Personally, I now think getting a c90 is like a game of luck. Lets just hope that there are actually more people with non defective units.

 

Well swoley they didnt really let a beta bios go public that was a favor Ken did for us to see if it would fix any problems and he very well did say it was a "do at your own risk" type of thing.

I do somewhat agree that there is something deeper wrong with the c90 than what we know. It lead to me buying over 3 sets of ram and having to get a 2nd cpu to get it working, when I know all of those parts worked perfectly.

With the ram working for one and not the other, the one thing to keep in mind on that is even if one person buys the same ram as the other, the IC's in that ram may be totally different and thats one of the main things that are important. Everything is working now for me and I am happy but I did spend ALOT more money that I was supposed too on it due to having to buy extras, now I have to go thru the trouble of trying to sell them for only a fraction of what I paid.

I was really on the border of getting a c90 or maybe a macbook pro. the mac lost my business becuase it is so expensive but after what I spent I could have gotten the macbook and I think I would have been really happy with the MBP (if I got a problem free unit, the MBP have more than there share of problems too)

 

I was also deciding between this, the dell xps1330, and the MBP. I was leaning towards the MBP due to my experience with the g4 Powerbooks, but ended up getting the C90 and then using the extra money for gpu upgrades for both itself and later my desktops

 

Ok i agree with that. I guess the point I should have made is even if you go around and finally get the RIGHT ram with the right IC's it still makes the laptop ineficient in that it will only work with those sticks literally. What if one of them goes bad...you have to go through the whole circus to find another chip with the right IC's to work. It makes the laptop nonfunctional when you have to use literally the same part (literally,not same model) to get it to work. You might as well have MAC addresses on all your parts.

The problem is when you RMA your laptop if they only search around for a stick that will work...it means you STILL have a problematic laptop in that you HAVE to use the stick they gave you. Therefore the proper course of action is to simply replace the entire product with one that works as it should and isnt picky about its parts. Thats what I did exactly and now the 3 pairs of ram, 2 hard drives, and 2 cpus I tried on my defective unit work perfectly fine in my new fully functional one.

 

Vicious whats the name of the part of a rifle that is exclusive to that rifle and that rifle only...some type of pin right? Well its like that.

 

The Serial Number.

The only problem I see with that, is that the rifles we're trained on are interchangable in parts, mostly anyways.

If the part has a serial number on it matching the serial number on the rifle, then that's another story all together.

 

I dont think I have ever had a rifle that didnt have many of the parts replaced. White knows the marines mostly get 2nd hands since we are only a department of the navy. With the tools we are given we get so much done, if we had the Army's toys and budget the Marines would probably take over all the armed forces

If overseas, first person I take down you better bet I am picking myself up a AK47 to carry around with me. The M16's and M4's are great rifles, especially in the hands of a skilled marksman, but when your "in the ****" they jam abit too much for my liking. The AK can be left in mud for a week, and still fire without problems :/

 

Well no doubt about picking up the other sides weapons. Anyways, if you find yourself out of ammunition, regardless if ours take the same kinds as theirs, it's easier to just pick up their magazines and cartriges and slam away. I know what your saying.

I was just trying to answer/figure out the question that swoley had asked.

 

It was a physical part....firing pin?

 

You can change out the firing pin on most rifles because it will the same length, size and general shape.

The firing bolt assembly is another story though because those, over time, will become specific to that rifle after all the wear and tear. You'd have to grind out the inside of the bore where the bolt assembly sits as well as aqcuire an entirely new bolt assembly to fit the fresh bore so no gases and shrapnel can cause damage.

 

good analogy but machines are machines and worst, software are software and microsoft is not at all an state of the art when we talk about bugs. By the way swoley, if you are using 667 ram, what does your notebook read, 533 o 667? with what BIOS, 601 or 704? I really curious about that

 

Everyones reads 533 I believe.

 

it reads 533 i never upgrade the bios so its still on the default 401 bios

 

please, if you try 601 advise me so to see the improvement. Anyway, I already sent a tech inquiry about what does the 601 ver fix. Thank you m8, you always been helpful.

regards,

RG

 

I no no intentions of testing the 601 bios until i get definate AND consistent proof that there is a benefit.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=141730&page=11

I'm trying to determine if this is the case for all C90 bios versions. I'm running 704 and mine clocks at 533 aswell. I have not tried any other versions.

 

Yes it appears to be the case with everyone's c90.

 

Man, ASUS is doing a great job of making everyone feel uneasy about their C90 purchase. Now I'm starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. $1700, and all this bullcrap? Please...

 

Yeah..

At this point the issues that stand out are as follows:

• All C90's RAM underclocking @ 533 instead of 667 with timings for 667.

• RAM compatibility issues, RAM that should work in these units does not.

• Inability to overclock using Turbo Gear.

So far I've gathered that some C90 owners w/ E6600's (2.4ghz) are able to run in Gaming mode (+10%) reliably while even less in Overclock mode (+20%). I have not heard of any E6700 (2.6ghz) C90 owners that have been able to run under Gaming mode. Overclock mode with a E6600 is not available due to the 2.93ghz limit.


The biggest issue for me is the RAM underclocking, and the lack of BIOS configuration options.

 

still faster than your average laptop though.

 

My C90S came with 0601 preloaded... I took it off because I had never heard of it and now run 704

 

The reason everybody has there ram at 533 is just because there is a 1:1 ram/cpu divider in place.

They did that because of the overclocking software.

when you enable the game or overclock modes the ram runs a faster speed. The max is 20% so take that 266mhz fsb that is stock and add 20% too it and your at 319.2mhz double that and your at DDR2 620.4mhz speed with your ram.

I dont see how anybody has not noticed this, I have known forever and said it a few times. In addition you need to understand that a 1:1 cpu/ram ratio is optimal. If they put a divider on the ram to make it run faster per given clock cycle, sure your ram bandwidth will appear higher but it will only be read at odd cpu cycles so real life performance really wont go up at all.

When you overclock with a PC you can set your FSB and Ram divider in bios and tweak it to where you want it. However these changes can only be made in bios and not changed on the fly. If you use a software method of overclocking like Clockgen or Asus Turbogear you can indeed change the fsb on the fly with certian motherboards. However you can not change the ram divider.

If they made the ram run at 667mhz upon boot, add in a 10-20% oc and the only thing you will see most problably is a crash because the ram will be overclocked too high.

So with that said, pass the info on (and give credit to me )

 

Point 1 - see above post

Point 2 -Much agreed

Point 3 - ?? Everybody has been able to overclock with turbo gear what do you mean?

the E6600 gives +10% in game mode and +15% in overclock mode.

the E6700 gives +10% in game mode and you can not use overclock mode because your already at 2.93ghz in game mode.

 

Thanks, and thanks for the correction.

Read inability to overclock for longer than a few seconds with turbo gear.

I for one can't wait for these bugs to be ironed out, it's frustrating that a few people are able to run in gaming mode w/out crashing while my C90 BSOD's within seconds.

Has to be a RAM timing issue IMO, maybe the next BIOS update will have some RAM options in there or perhaps the correct code.

 

My crashes in game mode were due to heat, all my ram issues were cured when I used the power cord instead of running from the battery.

The best cure for ram issues for now is to to use 2x1gb, I have yet to have anybody report compatability issues with a 1gb so-dimm, its only the 2gb ones that are causing the problems.

I myself had to settle with 2gb of ram instead of 3 for this reason and personally tried a 2gb so-dimm from OCZ, Gskill, and Corsair.

The Gskill worked for a short period of time and decided it didnt want too anymore, the OCZ didnt work at all, and the Corsair almost worked... all 3 worked perfectly tho with the AC cord plugged in.

(im talking about trying to boot into windows)

 

Paaaaaareach it!

 

sorry m8, but my gpu doesnt even reach 80 oC and does crash as soon I hit any video option in gaming mode therefore no heat problem there but something else. ABout the ram, already technical support stated you can have not 100% compatible ram running on your c90s and still it could fail at some point so still they advise just to use their RAM especification.

As Swoley2k said before, maybe ASUS is not telling the whole true. So far, I have found little information on their web and even their forum doesnt match at all notebookreview on ASUS information. They should have a technical statement on each notebook better ellaborated and more info to help customer. The only think I can NOT complain about them is that so far their Technichal inquirements always answer with some useful info between their time range (monday to friday, 48 hrs after your inquiriments) but I think it would spare their time better if they have a better FAQs more frequently update as people input in many of the repitive question we have so far. I even suggested them to get a better/closer look at notebookreview ASUS section and see what the clients really need & doubts are.

 

Ah, beat me to the explanation. =)

Also for some odd reason, my ram reads at 200Mhz*2. =/

 

yes, nice explanation but why should a company create something they can not support so they have to fix their bios to avoid trouble? so that doesnt help us much but again you explanation are always welcome

 

So were is the winflash utility i cant find a way to download it ???

 

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=Winflash

 

thanks man, i tried that already but cant find the download link on the page.

am i missing something? i want to go back to bios 601 has anyone been able to do it? please post how to.

thanks

 

http://www.dfi.com.tw/Upload/Driver/WinFlash-875Inf.zip

maybe this one will work...

 

Here is the C90S 601 BIOS ISO if you want to try:

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/images/Notebook/Asus/C90S601.iso

 

any advantages in running 601 Ken? At least any advantages over 704?

 

I have not Noticed anything different in 601, but then i have no issues :laugh:

 

We were told to use 704 that suppose to fix BSOD issues, that was before they found out all of their CPUs they were testing is old revision.

We sent them a unit with new revision of Conroe processors and they were able to duplicated the problems, they are working on new BIOS.

 

Ken:

Thanks. I have two Corsair sticks @ 1GB each and I am getting a fair number of 0x0000001a / Memory Mgmt BSODs from Vista 32-bit.

Any idea when a new BIOS might become available?

 

so all issues are conroe??? im about to change the 2 gb stick for a 1 gb in hopes of eliminating the bsod in battery thing, but if its the processor then ill keep my ram as it is...

 

Try switching ram first.

 

Since I get my C90s on Wed and found out that I have the old revision of the E6600 CPU, which bios do you recommend?

 

Looks it is related to Conroe, see if there is bad RAM or GPU or even MB then it suppose to crash on AC mode which runs at max performance, if it only crashes at battery mode then the components should be good.

It's because the new Conroe runs at 12watts on idle (in C90S would be battery mode), old revision of Conroe runs at 22watts, so when C90S try to pull the 22watts power from the new revision Conroe (12watts) at battery mode you get BSOD.