DFI LT X48-T2R Lanparty Living Review.

[Kelainefes]

So, i finally installed the mobo and all seems fine.
I managed to flash the BIOS with a CD, if you guys think it's useful i'll post instructions how to do it.

Down to business, system's stable at 450 FSB with DDR2-1200@55518 with just 2.1 vDimm and NB on stock voltage.
Well, stable enough for the moment, 74 minutes of blend in Prime, then i stopped it.
But i can't use the 8x multiplier, one core always fails, seems like someone will need to take a look at my BIOS settings sooner or later and give some Vtt and GTL ref advice.

[Clunk]

Grab the BIOS template and list your settings, should be pretty straight forward to get up and running (famous last words ).

[Rez]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Welcome to the forums

My X38 had a couple of bent fins, the X48 is fine.

How bad is it? Piccy?

Hi, and thx for the welcome. The board is being collected tomorrow for an RMA. Will get a few photos of the heat sink later tonight when I get back.

Originally Posted by Kelainefes

So, i finally installed the mobo and all seems fine.
I managed to flash the BIOS with a CD, if you guys think it's useful i'll post instructions how to do it.

Down to business, system's stable at 450 FSB with DDR2-1200@55518 with just 2.1 vDimm and NB on stock voltage.
Well, stable enough for the moment, 74 minutes of blend in Prime, then i stopped it.
But i can't use the 8x multiplier, one core always fails, seems like someone will need to take a look at my BIOS settings sooner or later and give some Vtt and GTL ref advice.

Kelainefes, I would love it if you could give a quick explanation of how you managed to flash bios through CD.

[Clunk]

Are you having a replacement or a different type of board?

[Rez]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Are you having a replacement or a different type of board?

Shipped off today for a replacement.

Pics of the heatsink:

[Clunk]

Good grief, it looks like it's been in an earthquake

I'm surprised the ends of the fins aren't more bent.

Good luck with the replacement

[Kelainefes]

Originally Posted by Rez

Kelainefes, I would love it if you could give a quick explanation of how you managed to flash bios through CD.

Well, go grab a free trial of UltraISO, you'll need that later.
Then go here and download VFD, it's a virtual floppy disk drive.
No installation required, just extract to a folder, run it, click install, then start, assign a letter, give it a file name for the image; you'll see a 3.5" drive icon in your My Computer in a few seconds.
Start the program from DFI, it will put all the required files in the virtual floppy.
Now enter the virtual unit, rename autoexec.bat as flash.bat.
Now download this it contains a cd image that will give you a DOS prompt.
Start UltraISO, we'll use it to add the bios files to that image.
To do that:
File | Open | Select flashcd.iso | Open | Image windows shows bootable |
Select your bios files in the lower window (the executable, the .bin and flash.bat)| Drag to the top window | File |
Save

To burn:

File | Open | Click on flashcd.iso | Open | You'll see your bios flash
files on the right | Tools | Burn

I suggest you use a CDRW.

Reboot your system, go into the BIOS to make sure the first boot device is your CD drive, AND THAT YOU ARE NOT OVERCLOCKING YOUR SYSTEM (!!!) then you should get to the prompt in a few seconds.
Type flash.bat to start the flashing program (the required parameters are written in the .bat, that's why it's easier to use it).

DONE!

Credits to the guys at bootdisk.com for the bootable image and for the guide on how to make a bootable CD to flash your BIOS.
Credits to me for finding that useful freeware vitual floppy unit, VFD

[Rez]

Originally Posted by Clunk

Good grief, it looks like it's been in an earthquake

I'm surprised the ends of the fins aren't more bent.

Good luck with the replacement

Thx and yeah it's strange, it must have taken quite alot of pressure to cause that bend.


Kelainefes,

Kudos for fishing out that method and thx for sharing . I will definitely give it a go when my replacement board arrives.

[Ace-a-Rue]

Originally Posted by Rez

Kelainefes, I would love it if you could give a quick explanation of how you managed to flash bios through CD.

using an USB flash drive or thumb drive is so much easier.

[Kelainefes]

If it doesn't work out (i wrote this guide from memory), PM me and i'll edit the post once i find out what is wrong or if i just missed a step, anyway i did flash my board this way, if it doesn't work it's just a detail and don't worry if the guide's lacking something nothing bad can come out of it, the flash program won't be there and nothing will happen, you'll just need to erase the CDRW.

Originally Posted by Ace-a-Rue

using an USB flash drive or thumb drive is so much easier.

Yeah but i didn't have any thumb drive that i was willing to format to FAT, too much data on it and only a laptop with S-L-O-W USB controller so backup was not an option.
And you need to use VFD to get the files you need anyway, so a cd it was.
I dunno about Abit boards, but my Asus P5E did let me flash the bios from a USB stick or from the HD (a small 100 mb fat16 volume i made for that purpouse) from within the BIOS itself, very useful.
The DFI X48 does not have this possibility, so it was either a CD or WinFlash...