Cordite

The 12/12 BIOS seems to work best for me regarding the bootup trouble.

Download winflash Install it in a folder on your desktop or anywhere else. Download BIOS and extract the *.BIN file into the Winflash folder. Startup Winflash, select Update All and select clear CMOS and set CMOS defaults. Then click on FILE and Update BIOS. Select the new downloaded and extracted BIOS file from the winflash folder and update. That's all. :-) You can also look for the motherboard jumper to clear CMOS, this is on the lower right side of the BOARD and is called CCMS. Place jumpercap on pins 2&3 for a few seconds while PC is powerd off.. put jumpercap back on pins 1&2 and power on your PC. I have tried all BIOS's so far, if you encounter any problem with bootup try the BIOS that is "released" on 12/12/05 from this link: http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios..._FLAG=B&SITE=US

Thats how I always do it yes.

It IS simple A child can do it, as to the past you had to do it via a floppydisk and if the floppy contained an error or any error during the flash you were pretty much @#!^ Reason I clear CMOS is that all of the settings of the previous BIOS is gone.. have a clean start. Not required, but I still do it, maybe it is something of the past. BIOS is the Basic Imput Output System and CMOS is where the data is stored at. I like to clear this and make sure that all the data of the previous BIOS is gone. As I said, it might be something that still lives in me from the past days,but I still do and recommend it.

Flashing to a beta BIOS might solve problems one is facing, but can also create problems you didn't have before. A BIOS stands loose to what O/S you are using (as far I know). So any BIOS will work with every Windows version. I never had problems with flashing my BIOS, only once 2 years ago. Use Winflash and flash the entire BIOS from within Windows. (make sure that you select "update all" and clear CMOS when using Winflash)

Use 1, 2 or 4 memory modules, so that means: 1 stick, 2 sticks or 4 sticks. Orange memory slots = for 2 sticks, Yellow ones when you are going to use 4 sticks of memory. Best is to flash to a beta BIOS than the original one: RDXDC12 or RDXDC23 from this link: http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios..._FLAG=B&SITE=US If you are new to A64 and to overclocking them as well, be prepared for ALOT of trial and error. Don't set the HT bus more than 1000Mhz.. example: CPU has 200Mhz HTT (FSB) LDT Multi is standard 5x this gives you a HTT busspeed of 1000Mhz. By overclocking, when you are upping the CPU "FSB" the HTT Busspeed goes up to by whatever the LDT multi is set. Keep this as close to 1000Mhz as possible. Anything over 1000Mhz can cause instability. Try to run tighter RAM timings too, 2.5-4-4-8 is really bad for PC3200.

No you aren't hallucinating... Rgone's link isn't showing us the right page it seems.. Thanks for this link DrNick

I believe that is to prevend RMA's due to custom modified BIOS's, DFI "releases" a beta, it's called a beta because it hasn't been tested fully yet on different system setups. So it can't be guarenteed to work/fix problems on all computer setups. That's what I think anyway.

New beta BIOS available: 12/12 http://us.dfi.com.tw/Support/Download/bios..._FLAG=B&SITE=US

It is either the RAM or CPU, can you try different memory in your system ?

That would be due the southbridge. It is known to have a less fast USB/SATA performance than on IE NF4 boards. Don't expect to have it work as fast as on your previous boards.

To be honest I'd wait for a bit with this motherboard. Not only their are some problems to conquor, but have you spotted X1800XT/XL mastercards anywhere yet ?

Very nice memory latency! What speed is that system memory running at? Looking at Everest, it doesn't mention the chipset, if I run Everest benchmark it will tell my chipset is RS480/RX480 (everest version 2.20.405).. Anyway nice pics/screenies.

Chipset doesn't matter.

Deadalus, read the sticky thread made by Mr. Oskar Wu. It seems that almost everyone is dealing here with the same issue.