hahaha ..... dont put it in a very bad way ....

the system still can work fine ..... setting AGP 4x would make it stable ...

and if u wanna use 8x .. just turn the fastwrite off ...... but i wouldn't recommend u to do so .... because it will also crash the system .... but not as often as if u turn the fastwrite on .....

im also hoping that there would be a fix by bios/ drivers..... but as i said before .... just don't put high hopes in it ..... u'll easily get frustrated .....

and as alot of people / reviews been saying ..... the performance between 4x and 8x is minimal .... u cannot even notice the fps difference when ur playing games ..... but its really sad bacause the ONLY reason i bought this mobo instead of P4PE is to have 8x ...

Me too.....and now they just released a new Asus mobo...!!! but I am sure that will be riddled with bugs as well. So thanks...I am going to stick it out and hope that this mobo will last a year or two and then switch when I can.

Ok...real quick...I ordered my mobo on April 10th from googlegear.com....now I think they are going to let me return it if I want for a refund...I am sure there will be a restocking fee, etc. But what mobo would you suggest I get instead so that my pc can run ATI radeon 9700 pro fully with no problems, and room for 8x in the future? Is there any board that will run with both the ati radeon 9700 pro and an intel 2.66ghz cpu? thanks

Go for the ASUS P4PE Black Pearl...or something that way. Stability and performance!

Hi guys,
I was doing some research on some other websites when I came accross this thread: http://www.3dgpu.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3446&postdays=0...;start=30. The end of the thread basically comes to the conclusion that the memory may be at fault for the crashes people are having. There is also a link to the kind of memory that can be used in the A7N8X mainboard. I'm positive ASUS probably has specs for each mainboard you may have. I am apparently not using the right kind of memory, even though it's high grade crucial. It's this kind of thing that really aggravates me, and it doesn't seem right or fair in some capacity to have to suffer because we didn't dig for hours to find out 512 sticks are incompatible, but 256 sticks are.

So, maybe that will help clear up problems if you happen to be having them.

For me, probably not.

Thanks,
Thom

Not for me, i chose to run synchronously with pc2100. Both are 256 MB from Crucial. I'll consider my box stable now, it's been almost a week with no crashes, heavy game playing, and alot of DVD burning. If it was going to crash, it would have already.
On another depressing note: since the problem is hardware related, and the granite bay chipset is the cause, there won't be a fix to run at 8X. It's implementation of AGP 3.0 (8X) is flawed, from Intel's own white papers they state "no planned fix for this erratum. Issue resolved by board work around". Pretty friggin clear explanation. The granite bay chipset will be phased out pretty soon, with Intel's 875p coming out soon, hopefully with a non-buggy AGP 8X implementation.
We need to get a straight answer from ASUS about this. If anything we should be allowed to return these if the hardware is defective. And by all accounts it is. Not working as advertised is the way i see it.
Please, someone correct me if i'm wrong.

Ricky,
I'm not surprised your having no problems. Running the 2100 you probably wouldn't be. Apparently, if you run 512 sticks of the 2700 by Crucial you may run into problems with the ASUS boards. Right now I'm trying to find out how the Heck I'm supposed to remedy this problem without spending more money than I have to spend.

~Thom

Ok...a quick question for all you tech heads out there.....Luckly I am able to return my P4G8X before I installed it, but I am thinking about picking up the new P4C800....now have any of you found out compatability problems with ati radeon 9700 pro and this mobo? I have 2 512mb sticks of corsair xms ram, and a P4 2.66ghz cpu, as well as two serial ata harddrives I am currently striping. Is the P4C800 able to run with ata 9700 pro seamlessly? Does anyone know...otherwise I will try to return my HDs and get ultra ATA deskstar drives....but I dont know...serial is so quiet. thanks...sorry if I am annoying...a lot of money going into my new ship!

Matt,
Get the P4C800. Damnit, i wish i knew this was coming out so soon i would've waited. I had just bought a new cooler master case and i was too eager to get it outfitted... what a waste of money the P4G8X has been. First ASUS board that has given me problems. Anyone want to buy a P4G8X for cheap?

Hrmm.. I know someone's P4G8X might be ending up on eBay very soon..

same here!

I'm still in my 30 day window!! I think i can still return this (restocking fee may apply 20% ouch!), but if i can exchange this for a P4C800 i'll be a very happy man. Technically it is defective, what do i have to do to convince these people to give me an exchange?

How to convince them its defective? Well....I had EVERYTHING they shipped with it and put everything back so it looked MINT...that is the first step...then just explain that what you bought was supposed to be a 8X card and nowhere did it say it will only run at 4X with ati Radeon 9700 pro....ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR vga cards out today!!!! Inform them again and again that you are in your 30 day window...tell them you have done business with them before and will again if they WAIVE THE 20% restocking fee...and then promise to buy your new MOBO FROM THEM.....that should do the job...I can usualy talk my walk out of or into anything.....try that first and let us all know...HEY...it worked for me!!! GOOD LUCK ALL....ASUS still rocks....but intels chipset for the P4G8X BLOWS......................

ASUS website:

"All ASUS motherboard purchased after November 1st, 1999 will carry 3 year standard warranty services worldwide. One year limited warranty is given to purchase made prior to this date."

That should be enough if we have defective MB's, I mean we didn't get what we were told when buying.

Has anyone been able to contact ASUS, and how? They have quite crappy support in my eyes.

I'd be willing to call and harass about getting a refund / exchange for a new motherboard. Their motherboard isn't performing the way it is advertised, they have to be held accountable if they choose not to fix it. If enough people call, they can't ignore forever..

tyler...do that and tell us how it works out

Admittedly, probably not very well. By the way, has anyone tried the new beta BIOS? 1005_001?

Muhahahahahah..... alright i managed to exchange my motherboard, they gave me store credit with no restocking fee. I ended buying the P4C800 deluxe from another dealer. So far so good, i did turn fast writes off right off the bat. I'll see how it runs with AGP 8X...
To the last poster, yeah i was using the 1005 beta bios. It ran stable with AGP 4X and fast writes off, but that was the only stable setting for me.

Hey Ricky...Let me know ASAP if the P4C800 can handle 8X and Fastwrites on ...ok? Also...for the rest of you looking for a good deal on the Asus P4C800 mobo..check out http://www.pcavailable.com they have it for real cheap! RETAIL too... SO let me know ricky

Matt, i'll let you know, i'm pulling an all nighter. Gotta reinstall xp (again) hopefully for the last time.First snag, intel usb2 driver is awol. I'll let you kknow by morning.