I also have an ASUS P4G8x mobo but with a MSI TI4200 and iI get often random reboots, have been asking ASUS about it and the only reaction was "instal new BIOS...", ofcourse it didn't help. I'm reading here often about disable fast write to solve some problems. I don't find any option in my mobo BIOS neither in my graphic card settings. My question is, how do I have to disable this 'fast write' option? Thanks

Alright, woke up today and my box wasn't dead when it awoke from sleep. That's a good sign, i had fast writes on yesterday and i did get a 16 color crash screen, BUT in the manual it states "If installing the ATi-9500 or 9700 Pro Series VGA cards, use only card version PN XXX-XXXXX-30 or later, for optimum performance and overclocking stability."

Huh, huh. I think that answers my fast writes capability. What card and p/n do you have Matt? For the record i have a PN XXX-XXXXX-00, so i guess i'm SOL. ATI those bastards, i've felt dirty since the day that i bought my 9500 Pro, like a traitor to Nvidia. If only Nvidia hadn't dropped the ball, this wouldn't be happening.
Overall, i'm happier with this board than the P4G8X. ALso don't forget to set the USB 2 mode in bios to hispeed, or else the OS won't detect it as a USB2 controller. That was really dumb.
I haven't tried any games yet, but that's what i'm doing next...

Talked to ATI again, and they state there was no revision on the 9500 PRO, only on the 9700 PRO. Can i get a show of hands from whoever owns a 9500/9700 PRO and what your cards part number ends with? This may help localize the problem we're having.

Hello,
My first post here. I have been monitoring this thread for over a week now, because I have the same identical problem everyone else is having.
P4G8X Deluxe, 9500 Pro, system hanging.
I just got off the phone with a ATI tech (they are in Toronto, Canada by the way and call is NOT toll free- Ouch!) They said to me to try running card with fast writes off in SMARTGART but leaving 8x enabled and see what happens. He also cautioned me that even though forums like these can be helpful, everybodies situation and configuration is usually not identical, therefore the "fix" will not identical.
He went on to say that running with "fast Writes" disabled would only result in maybe a frame or two loss at the MOST in most games. The performance hit is very tiny. However, going from 8x down to 4x is indeed a concern because the performance loss there is pretty significant.
He also said I should check the motherboard's recomendation to system memory to see if the brand DDR333 I have installed is on the recommended list.
Catalyst 3.3 drivers due out in a few weeks.
He also checked his database and found NO OTHER record of the problem I described to him. Now....how wierd is that? Somebody lying to me perhaps? HMMM?
There is my 2 cents. I'll keep posting if anything pops. You all keep doing the same.
Just out of curiosity, when a person buys 2 components from 2 seperate manufactures, and they are not compatible, who's fault is it? Mobo or video card...or both?

ATI has a history of shoddy drivers, enough said.
Nvidia has a recent history (2-3 years?) of continually updating their drivers.
ATI seems to take their time in releasing drivers. HELLO ATI people are having problems with your cards!!! As soon as Nvidia releases a competitive card again i'm going back to the light side.
.
When i talked to ATI today they would not tell me why part numbers changed on the Radeon 9500/9700 PRO's. If the cards went thru some kind of revision that would explain why the part number changed. Specifically in the ASUS manual (P4C800 D-lux) they state that there can be more than one part number, with a picture to prove it, just read my previous post. I think that ATI did go thru a revision and the early adopters got the shaft. Who do you believe? If you believe in history repeating itself, don't believe ATI.

OK....tried what they suggested...(read up one post) and did not work. Furthermore, after resetting back to 4x and fast writes still off, my system started locking up again. This is a first! It's almost as if the bios or the SMARTGART did not refresh itself after I manually reset the settings.
That pi**ed me off! So, I called ASUS and after a 1.5 hour hold time (at least this was toll free) the tech spent approximately 5 minutes with me a said, AND I QUOTE "It is obvious that after all the calls we have been getting that the Radeon and the P4G8X had to part company"
WTF does that mean? no further help will be necessary? Just get rid of either mobo OR vid card and all will be well? He gave me a RMA.
So I asked him...if you give me a RMA and I send this in, will you upgrade it? He said "no, we will just send you back a refurbished mobo"
What good is that? I give up.
I tell you folks....this is pretty crappy on the part of ATI AND ASUS.
neither wants to own up to the problem. Even my on-line store offered more tech support than ATI and ASUS combined!!!!!!

Damn, that sucks dude, if i could have returned my 9500 PRO i would have done it. At least i was able to take my P4G8X back, <ricky wipes away tears>
What i want to know is how many people using other AGP 8X graphics cards, Nvidia, Matrox, whoever, are also having problems enabing AGP 8X on their motherboards. I don't trust ATI, they told me that they had an Asus P4G8X running with a 9700 PRO in their labs with no problems. Yeah right, what are they using, pixie dust?
If the damn thing just sits there, how the hell are you troubleshooting it?

I don't think EVERYONE is having the problem we are experiencing. I mean, obviously, I would assume that if Toms Hardware had run into the problem when they were testing the P4G8X with the Radeon 9700 Pro, they most likely would have said something. But there is a problem for a good percentage of the owners of both.. And it is obvious that ATI and Asus are not willing to cooperate in trying to resolve this problem. I think the best advice is to continue to call ATI and Asus, and make sure they keep record of the problem; so that they cannot continue to say "Well, we checked the database.. and no one else seems to be having this problem!"

Im wondering if they let us RMA it if we can offer to pay the differnce between the canterwood model and the g8x

As far as upgrading...I asked about that. They said (ASUS said) that if They gave me an RMS, and I returned the mobo to them, they would peplace it with a same unit, refurbished. I did not ask them about an upgrade.

Here is an email they sent to me.

-----Original Message-----
From: FRANK NELSON (ATSI)
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 12:27 PM
To: CHARLES YAO
Cc: SUNG HAN
Subject: RE: AGP Prefetch on the P4G8x

Charles, Thank you.

Best Regards,
Technical Support Team
FN001
-------------------------------------------------------------
ASUS COMPUTER INC.
Technical Support
Email: Support@asus.com <mailto:Support@asus.com>
Phone: +1-502-995-0883
URL: <http://usa.asus.com/>
<http://download.asus.com.tw/> ( for download page)
<ftp://ftp.asus.com/>
Customer Service
Email: Rma@asus.com <mailto:Rma@asus.com>
Phone: +1-510-739-3777 EXT. 5105



-----Original Message-----
From: CHARLES YAO
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 12:11 PM
To: FRANK NELSON (ATSI); TONY HAN; AARON NEAL; DILLARD RAYMER; GLENN WILLIAMS
Cc: SUNG HAN
Subject: RE: AGP Prefetch on the P4G8x
Importance: High

To all

Here is the answer , also the beta bios file. << File: 1004_016.zip >>

Please ask the client to try:
1. Update to the latest 1004.016 as attached, and ensure the last digit of the PN number on the ATI card is "-30".

If that does not help, follow the following steps to fix the potential problem between E7205 chipset and ATI9700/9500 Series cards.

In BIOS:
Enable USCW in the BIOS
Set the AGP BUS speed to 67mhz



Best Regards,
Charles Yao
-------------------------------------------------------------
ASUS COMPUTER INTERNATIONAL
MIS Division
IT/IS Administrator
Tel: 1-510-739-3777 x4527
Tel: 1-510-608-4527
Email: charles_yao@asus.com

Technical Support
Email: Support@asus.com
Tel: +1-502-995-0883
URL: http://usa.asus.com
Ftp://ftp.asus.com

******* Internet E-mail Confidentiality Disclaimer ***********
This e-mail message may contain privileged or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not disclose, use, disseminate,distribute, copy or reply upon this message or attachment in any way.All e-mail sent and received through the ASUS COMPUTER INC e-mail system is subject to archival and review. If you received this e-mail message in error,

please contact the sender and delete all copies.

-----Original Message-----
From: FRANK NELSON (ATSI)
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 11:18 AM
To: CHARLES YAO; TONY HAN; AARON NEAL
Cc: SUNG HAN
Subject: AGP Prefetch on the P4G8x

Good morning Guys. I have been sending you some Information I have found online about the Granite Bay (Intel E7205 Northbridge) and ATI video cards. We have been getting some calls in, and the forums are full of people with this issue. ATI is asking people to turn off "AGP to DRAM PreFetch" in the bios, but our motherboard does not have this setting. Any news on this yet? I noted this weekend in my testing on this system that there are a few beta bios' out, but I was pressed for time and was unable to test them.

Have your contacts given you any information? Please let me know, so I can pass it on to the rest of the team.

Best Regards,
Technical Support Team
FN001

as you can see from the above email, the tech department is indeed working on it. I do not see why Asus sent me this email. It did not help anything. So my point is, if they send this kind or response, and expect the consumer to try and decipher the meaning, they are just passing the buck. My suggestion is to not even bother with Asus, and concentrate on getting something out of ATI.

mabye if we bitch enough about letting us pay the diff for an upgrade it might happen

Hello guys...hang in there.
After spending all day tweaking and trying, it seems to me that the setting in the bios that controls the AGP/PCI frequency is important. (At least to my system)
I set it to 67.26/33.63 and it appears to settle things down.
oh...I forgot...the ATI tech said that setting the AGP voltage to 1.7 does not hurt anything or make it run any hotter that it already does,....in case you guys were wondering. It appears that power supplys do indeed matter.

OK....just got my "official response" from ASUS
Here it is:


Start Date: 4/25/2003 9:13:00 AM
Close Date: 4/25/2003 11:42:00 AM
Department: for End-User
Category: Graphic Cards
Assigned To: DAVID LUDWIG
Status: Case CLOSED

Problem Information:
Title:

Description:
Hello,
I have bought a new p4g8x deluxe and a radeon 9500 pro and these are not compatible with each other when set to 8x mode (agp) This is primary reason I bought this motherboard. To run 8X AGP slot. Computer freezes (winXP) but when running in 4X mode (AGP) and fast writes off.....system appears stable again. Please advise.

The official reply:


Notes:
[4/25/2003 11:42:00 AM - David20]
psu=430w
Ram tested



Solution:
rma

AAAAAHHHHHHAAA!!! I KNEW IT!!!!
Please ask the client to try:
1. Update to the latest 1004.016 as attached, and ensure the last digit of the PN number on the ATI card is "-30".

What's the deal with the part number "-30"! That's what my new mobo manual says.
What do they know that ATI won't tell us? Yes i did ask ATI support and then asked me whatcha talkin about Willis?
I have a "-00", one of the early ones that i guess managed to stay on shelves until now.

Ricky....my card is a 9500 Pro, and the last 2 digits are -20
So, you have the new 875p chipset and a 9500 card and STILL CANT run in 8x mode? The fast writes is not that big of a deal according to ATI, but the 8x certainly is! (or will be when newer games are released that can take advantage of it...like Doom 3 for instance)
I managed to call my mobo supplier and convinced them to take this back and send me out the P4C800, but if you are having problems with this combo.....Abit is looking better and better everyday.

Please advise on how the new combo is working for you

Ricky....my card is a 9500 Pro, and the last 2 digits are -20
So, you have the new 875p chipset and a 9500 card and STILL CANT run in 8x mode? The fast writes is not that big of a deal according to ATI, but the 8x certainly is! (or will be when newer games are released that can take advantage of it...like Doom 3 for instance)
I managed to call my mobo supplier and convinced them to take this back and send me out the P4C800, but if you are having problems with this combo.....Abit is looking better and better everyday.

Please advise on how the new combo is working for you

whoa whoa whoa....asus is gonnas end u the new canterwood model!?!?!

No....sorry for the misunderstanding (and the double post)
I bought this mobo from a on-line retailer XtremeGear.com...and THEY are going to send me the newer P4C800. They are going to charge me a small re-stock fee....but what the heck. That is better than getting stuck with something I'll undoubtable be unhappy with. I feel it is better to bite the bullet now and get it over with then to spend/waste any more precious time fooling with this computer. It sucks...I know, and maybe with a little more patience either ATI or Asus or Intell will release a patch or bios or firmware or driver or recall or apology OR SOMETHING, but I cant spend any more time on this that I laready have. My re stock fee totals a whopping 28 bucks.

My god ASUS reps are complete a**holes.....he led me through the steps to troubleshoot...and non worked so I mentioned that it is the MB/chipset fault and he said it was an ATI fault and i referred him to that pdf file we fould he he finds it hard to beleieve.....i aksed him if i could pay the difference for the canterwood and he said no....