[chuck4456]

Well.
Now that the summer heat is here, I have to get my outdoor stuff done early and do indoor stuff in the afternoon.

I still had that OB box IP35 PRO (that apparently no one wanted) sitting on the shelf so I decided that it would be an ideal to test out some of the files that I had found around the web world.
One of our SERBIAN GeIL users hooked me up with the link that provided the particular file that I am using now.
This wasn't the first file that I have tried.
I also borked a couple of BIOS chips thru all of this as well.
I haven't tried any tweaking yet but I have had the system running at OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS since 1:38PM EST and have rebooted it a couple of times.
I am having a slight shortness of breath and lite chest pains right now.
I am going to go take a couple of pills and lie down for abit.
Updates as I know them.

( It would be a a shame if I died before we knew the final outcome! )

[TheWolf]

I seem to recall someone being really pissed about this subject "no names called lol" and said it couldn't be done on a Abit IP35Pro.

Good luck with the testing! Hope you hit new records with the setup.

That would be a shame, hope you feel better soon.
I been feeling under the weather the past few weeks myself.
If you ever see my folding PPD drop to zero & no post from me for awhile you can be sure I have dropped dead.
Since I'm sure my wife will cut off all my computers & probably throw them away or give them away. lol
She is so tiered of looking at my "computer "junk" as she likes to call it. lol

[wizzard0003]

You take it easy, Chuck...

(And you too, Wolf, as well...)

Few enough people on the web that I enjoy conversing with as it is...

wizzard0003

\\//_

[hokiealumnus]

You take it easy, Chuck...

(And you too, Wolf, as well...)

Few enough people on the web that I enjoy conversing with as it is...

wizzard0003

\\//_

+1 to both sentiments.


Glad to hear it finally works on your Pro Chuck!

[chuck4456]

I seem to recall someone being really pissed about this subject "no names called lol" and said it couldn't be done on a Abit IP35Pro.

Yeah well.
It couldn't be at the time and I'm not so sure that it will be successful yet.
If you look around, you will see that the issues with the IP35 PRO and E0 Steppings does continue.
I just had some new inputs from some overseas builders so I figured that it was time to give it some research time.
I just wish that I had a late model IP35 PRO available too and a couple more BIOS chips - 10/11 versions and 14-up versions.
More as I know.

*One thing that I forgot to mention is that this is not the same IP35 PRO that I tested with originally.
This was an OB I bought just before ABIT abandoned us. It's an old one too. Had BIOS 10.

[TheWolf]

Probably one of the better IP35pro's being it a early model.
Mine is one of the 1st versions & its been a great board.
Soon I will be replacing the Q6600 with a Q9550, since both my IX38's need RMA.

[chuck4456]

Probably one of the better IP35pro's being it a early model.
Mine is one of the 1st versions & its been a great board.
Soon I will be replacing the Q6600 with a Q9550, since both my IX38's need RMA.

I bought my first one the very day the IP35 PRO came out then the second later in August 07. It was the second one that I tested the E8600 last year and (IIRC) it was a 2nd revision. I can't remember if it originally had the silver or black BIOS chip. I know that I did bork that one and replaced it with a 14-up chip though.
I sold that online so I'll never know now.
I used the first one for a build that I sold a buddy and I just got off of the phone with him - he's going out of town and said I could borrow the tower. I'll have it until Tuesday!
I may not need it though.
I don't think it's the boards.
I have another hot swap to do on the board I have running now.
I'll have more to support my theory after that.

Of course all of this is too little too late and ABIT has left us by the roadside but I have always wondered how other P35 boards managed to run the E8600 just by having them plugged in a lot of times yet the ABIT IP35 PRO couldn't.
If you read around you'll see that it was 50-50 with the E0 E8400 and E8500. There are still glitches with most of them though.
Thing is that there are still a lot of ABIT users out there and we are supposed to be able to help them, so it can't hurt to know.

[chuck4456]

My conclusion.
It will work on some but not all.

[chuck4456]

Final thoughts...

It's no wonder that I got the board and all for 90 bucks.
The Vdroop is terrible.
Major undervolting - but that is a double edged sword. I think that it has helped a couple of times.
I'm glad that I didn't sell it to anybody.
I pulled all of the plumbing off to sand it and lap it and throw a dab of MX2 here and there.
The back four mosfets had been hot enough that the visible heat damage could be seen on the shells. It appeared to be minor and may well be because the PWM temps are really good.
ACE-A-RUE from XS must have owned that board at some time in its life. It's had the pure snot overclocked out of it.
But I got what I needed out of it.
A first revision board with a BIOS 10 chip.
That's what will work with BIOS 18-E8600.
At least in this case.
I had 5 BIOS chips available.

The silver label B10 chip.
Flashed - booted - ran.
W8627DHG - Would only run on optimized defaults. Anytime any changes in BIOS were made, it would reboot at 8.7. Clear CMOS - would run defaults and nothing else.
W39V08DF-8.7
W39V08DG (two of those, tried one.)-8.7
I tested the chips after the flashing on a bud's Rev.2 IP 35 PRO w E6420 and all of them worked perfectly so the flasheroos were good.
The board that I used last year was a late revision with a BIOS 14-up chip.
Something tells me that if it is a first revision board with a BIOS 10/11 chip then there should be no problems flashing and using Beta 18 with an E8600 and having it work. I think everybody has it A - backwards by thinking that you need a late revision board. Of course TMMV.
But the bottom line is...
"It's best to just buy a motherboard from a manufacturer that is still in business..." and then you don't have to worry about that sheeeyut!
That's what LV told a guy over at HEXUS and I must admit that I have to agree.

These are my voltages.

Notice the CPU-Z reading. It does that some times. Sometimes it shows no voltage and then will show UGURU voltage and then stuff like that. Now that's glitch.
But in some cases I am getting undervolted as much as .05V with some of the other settings.



The biggest reason that I posted this because if you will notice, I am running 4 RAM modules at 1100 and IT IS stable. Starts getting flaky after that - about 1110 - so I'll have to just try duals or drop the ratio. I never could get ANYBODY'S RAM to run 1100 on ANY of the other boards when using the E8600 - 2 stix or 4.
So.
That says a lot for the ABIT IP35 PRO and the ABIT that used to be.

If that sucker can hold together then I might drop a 4870/90 in there and use it in the WARZ this summer.
I don't know how much more I'll get out of the CPU - temps are starting to get me. PWM and system temps are ideal but the CPU load temp is starting to flirt with 70C so it may be cut off time.
After all, it is air cooled.

[hokiealumnus]

Good show, Chuck! Damn I miss abit.

[chuck4456]

Good show, Chuck! Damn I miss abit.

Switched it on this morning.

8.7...

[TheWolf]

8.7 on 1 of my IX38's.
Found no way of getting past that. yet...

Good luck...

Well there is one way, never cut it off...

[chuck4456]

8.7 on 1 of my IX38's.
Found no way of getting past that. yet...

Good luck...

Well there is one way, never cut it off...

Well.
I came in this evening and hit the switch and she booted away and ran perfectly.
Flaky-flaky-flaky BIOS. No doubt.
I found out what I wanted to know anyway. Now that it's up and running I may as well stick the Q6700 in it and stick the E8600 over in the ASUS board. I don't have the patience to toggle PSU switches and hit reset buttons every other time! I always did like Quads on the IP35 PRO.
And it'll run the Q9650 as far as I know. May end up trying one of those.
You may as well say that I am stuck in the past because I took a short trip today and came back with a brand new IP35 PRO. First run too. Found it on eBay but the guy was only 40 miles east. He used it less than one month and was deployed (twice) and just never got around to doing anything else with it. Now he is headed for San Diego and is offloading everything he has. It's a fresh one. The smell was there when I opened it up. Still has that shine. Burned my eyes. I'll never forget it. I closed my eyes and flashed back to that first day. Not a scuff on the box and most of the pieces are still sealed in the bag. Owner's manual is mint. He wanted 75, said he'd take 50, but I gave him 75 anyway.
I'll keep it for a spare. It may be quite abit before I go i7.
There is still not an i7 motherboard that I'd spend 300 (or more) bucks for. I haven't been overly impressed by the boards that I have used since this all began last summer. I need to let that stuff mature abit more. Plus the 1156 socket stuff will be out in 5 or 6 weeks. I think that we will be seeing a lot of changes, mods, and upgrades this winter.
It's already here. The year is half way over!
Time flies when you are getting old(er).

[chuck4456]

Mid-July Update - IP35 PRO BIOS Project

I hot swapped and flashed the BIOS chip off of the new IP35 PRO.
Had the original BIOS 10/11 chip and it's only a few hours from being brand new.
UPDATE SUCCESS!
Boy.
I love to see those words.
So now I'll let it do its thing and see if the ol' 8.7 manifests again.
It probably will!

If i don't get off of this project then I'm gonna get wrapped in wet sheets.

[TheWolf]

Good to hear. Swapping bios chips didn't seem to help my 8.7 problem.
But then again I don't have a chip with a earlier bios on it.
Still waiting to hear from eRMA on one of the IX38's.
Only sent in 1, waiting to see how that will go b4 sending in the other.
Only 1 board had the 8.7 problem, its still here at the house.
The other still booted but had other problems, "onboard hardware failure",
the bios chip from it didn't help the 8.7 problem this one has.

[crusoe]

Hey Chuck - and any other souls brave enough to try IP35 Pro + E0 stepping - any advice on what worked? I have an e8400, and I can't get my board to post. It hangs on C1. I just flashed to the 18 beta bios from this thread (http://forums.hexus.net/abit-care-hexus/149415-bios-updates-intel-e0-stepping.html), and I was able to get into the bios using a p4. I swapped it out for the e8400 and no luck.

[chuck4456]

Hey Chuck - and any other souls brave enough to try IP35 Pro + E0 stepping - any advice on what worked? I have an e8400, and I can't get my board to post. It hangs on C1. I just flashed to the 18 beta bios from this thread (http://forums.hexus.net/abit-care-hexus/149415-bios-updates-intel-e0-stepping.html), and I was able to get into the bios using a p4. I swapped it out for the e8400 and no luck.

Well.
Nothing is etched in stone.
Nothing has worked 100%.
Read back thru this thread and the other related threads.
I have one from last summer in regards to all of this.
You will see what has been discovered so far.
There were many builders able to use the E8400 E0 and E8500 E0 with only issues like temperature and voltage misreads and there were a few that had complete success.
E8600 was/is the problem child.
C1 is a memory related error.
You need to be sure that your memory is set to correct timings and voltage and that you have adequate MCH voltage as well.
Start a thread.
Post back with your complete hardware specs.

[chuck4456]

Well.
Here's what it does these days.
Power On.
8.7.
Leave it running until it powers itself off - takes about 10 seconds.
Power On.
Fully operational with all BIOS settings in tact.
Sometimes I need to do that twice.
I just watch the UGURU panel. If I power on and see that the screen is blank, then I know it's reading 8.7 on the LED.
But I have to let it power itself off. If I start playing with the buttons, it will remain at 8.7.

[TheWolf]

Well.
Here's what it does these days.
Power On.
8.7.
Leave it running until it powers itself off - takes about 10 seconds.
Power On.
Fully operational with all BIOS settings in tact.
Sometimes I need to do that twice.
I just watch the UGURU panel. If I power on and see that the screen is blank, then I know it's reading 8.7 on the LED.
But I have to let it power itself off. If I start playing with the buttons, it will remain at 8.7.

Something I may look into with my 8.7 board. But if I remember correct it just keeps running & showing 8.7.
Its still setting here waiting for the other to return.
RMA tracking on the other IX38 shows it should be here sometime Thursday the 30th.
Waiting to see how the replacement will work before sending in the other.

[chuck4456]

Something I may look into with my 8.7 board. But if I remember correct it just keeps running & showing 8.7.
Its still setting here waiting for the other to return.
RMA tracking on the other IX38 shows it should be here sometime Thursday the 30th.
Waiting to see how the replacement will work before sending in the other.

Why not see if you can dig up a different BIOS file somewhere and do a reflash?