Alessandro17 Posted December 28, 2009 Share Posted December 28, 2009 This refers to an Asus P5Q Deluxe, but it could apply to other Asus P5Q as well. It would seem that it especially applies to Intel Q9xxx CPUs, but it could also apply to other processors. Problems I had: 1)BSODs in Windows, especially PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA errors. 2)Hard freezes in Linux. Not even REISUB could solve them. 3)Initial booting completely messed up. Unable to boot from a boot CD and various other errors. 4)"Delayed" start-ups after pressing the main power button. 5)Tons of errors with Memtest, but then I ran it again one hour later, and everything was fine. What I have done: 1)Updated to the latest BIOS. I used the P5Q_ASUS_DELUXE_2301_SLIC_MAC_SLI_Shaumux: http://www.insanelym...howtopic=180441 (Do not update the BIOS from inside Windows. Use the EZ-Flash utility inside the BIOS instead). Now go into your BIOS and do the following: 1)Main: Storage Configuration: configure SATA as [AHCI]. You'll need this in order to install OS X. Besides, AHCI seems more stable than IDE. Careful: if you have Windows already installed, prepare it for AHCI BEFORE the change. You'll easily find how-tos on the internet. 2) Now go to Ai Tweaker. Don't use manual settings for your RAM, unless you are overclocking, but in that case this how-to doesn't apply, your overclock might be unstable. At the bottom of the page, set Cpu Margin Enhancement as [Performance Mode] 3)Now go to Advanced, CPU Configuration. Set everything to [Disabled] here, except for CPU Ratio Setting [Auto] and "Intel Virtualization Tech" [Enabled]. * Onboard Devices Configuration: Marvell IDE [Disabled] This should solve any issue you might have. Personally I have also Drive Xpert Control set to disabled, but I don't know if this affects stability. It is possible that some of these settings are not needed or even "wrong", as I have followed all the advice I found on the internet in the last 6 months or so. Basically I have summarized everything here. Comments and suggestions are very welcome. *"Intel Virtualization Tech" doesn't seem to affect stability one way or the other. So it depends mainly on whether you need it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted October 22, 2010 Author Share Posted October 22, 2010 Tested for almost 10 months. Everything seems to work fine. Things went wrong only when I tried a BIOS modded by somebody else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gringo Vermelho Posted October 22, 2010 Share Posted October 22, 2010 I found a forum post that confirms your findings: CPU Margin Enhancement is the problem for Core Quad 9xxx !!!I have a P5Q-Deluxe (Bios 1402) + Core Quad 9450 + 8Gb GSKILL PC8500 ( 4 x 2Gb F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK ) If i set CPU MARGIN ENHANCEMENT to optimized default bios and DRAM-freq to PC1066Mhz with all other settings to default, i have errors with MEMTEST after one or two pass (100% -200% test) !!! But, if i set CPU MARGIN ENHANCEMENT to performance mode and DRAM-freq to PC1066Mhz with all other settings to default, i have NO errors with MEMTEST after ten pass (1000%) !!! I'm still having some really weird issues here, it seems P5Q boards don't like modded BIOSes. Before Windows 7 came out I was using the free release candidate version with whatever vanilla P5Q-E BIOS was the most recent at the time. Sleep and Hibernation was working. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate when it came out, but I didn't have a serial number and so I installed a modded BIOS with OEM SLIC table, which made me feel like a badass hacker. But Sleep and Hibernation stopped working. Maybe something has to be rearranged in the BIOS code tables to fit the OEM stuff in there, maybe that's what broke S3 and S4. I now own a retail copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and have done a fresh install and reverted to the latest, unmodified 2101 BIOS. Sleep and Hibernation still doesn't work!! Windows is installed to its own drive with its own bootloader on the 'System Reserved' partition. The weird thing is, that if I install for example Linux Mint on a separate hard drive and boot into it, Sleep and Hibernation still doesn't work. So it definitely isn't a Windows issue?! My PSU was slowly dying and I thought it might be the PSU causing the issue, so I replaced a bunch of capacitors, and while this fixed the PSU and made me feel like a badass hacker again, Sleep or Hibernation still didn't work. Now I have a brand new 600 Watt PSU and I'm still having the same problem, no S3 or S4 in any OS. It seems something in the BIOS got corrupted when I used a SLIC modded BIOS and no amount of CMOS resets or reflashing/downgrading has fixed it. I don't understand how that's even possible but there you go. A true mystery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted October 22, 2010 Author Share Posted October 22, 2010 So it definitely isn't a Windows issue?! No, definitely not, I was having issues with any OS, even with no OS at all, when I couldn't boot from a LiveCD, for instance. It seems something in the BIOS got corrupted when I used a SLIC modded BIOS and no amount of CMOS resets or reflashing/downgrading has fixed it. I don't understand how that's even possible but there you go. A true mystery. A big mystery for me too. I have asked to many people, and only after putting together 6 months of research I could solve the problem. What is different in my case, though, is that the Shaumux modded BIOS has worked quite well for me. But when I tried a BIOS modded by another user here, things went wrong again. So I expect that Shaumux is quite an expert in this field. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gringo Vermelho Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 You were lucky that you could go back to using Shaumux' BIOS after using a different one and get everything working again. Good news: I went on a google rampage last night and finally got S3 sleep working on Windows 7 again using the "MCE Standby Tool". I highly recommend that anyone with this type of problem go check it out. It's very easy to use. There's a Windows 7 beta version available somewhere in their forum. This gives me some hope that I will be able to get S3 sleep working on OS X again as well. Hibernation still doesn't work - it switches off the monitor and writes hiberfil.sys but doesn't shut down. At least it doesn't crash or freeze, I can move the mouse or press a key and I'm back at the desktop. /EDIT Hibernation works as well now (using MCE Standby Tool - though looks like all it did was disable USB selective suspend), but only when the Windows 7 HD is set as first boot device in the BIOS (or using F8 during POST to manually select it). If I boot Windows 7 with Chameleon as I do normally, hibernation doesn't work. To get back on topic - some general DSDT information: If you're using a "Windows Loader" type activation crack with Windows 7, you should probably not dump your DSDT (for use with OS X) under Windows, unless you can temporarily disable the loader first. The reason for this is that the "Windows loader" patches your DSDT before it loads Windows, and so the ACPI tables that you extract on Windows will be patched ones, possibly with address ranges shifted and other things in "the wrong place", in relation to your actual ACPI tables. The DSDT and other ACPI tables that you modify for use with OS X should be your actual ACPI tables, not ones patched on the fly by a hack to activate Windows! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandro17 Posted May 18, 2011 Author Share Posted May 18, 2011 Old(ish) topic but still interesting for people who own a P5Q (Deluxe): I never needed a modified DSDT, all I did was what I explain in my first post, and I have a 100% compatible hackintosh, all updates directly from Software Update and so on. It is pretty fast too (up to twice as fast as my Core i7 PC notebook). BTW I use a legit copy of Windows 7 Pro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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