I managed to turn FW off. I downloaded RivaTuner and there were options in it to turn FW on/off and to mange the AGP speed in Windows. Hope this works.

could anuone tell me how i turn the fastwrites off?

dimitris,

FW option is under SMartGart in drivers tab...

Alright guys I have Bios version 1006 for P4C800 and catalyst drivers 3.4 For some reason though I cant turn Fast Write on. I go to the SmartGart settings and pick to turn FW on and then restart and its off again. i have no trouble with 8X AGP and want FW dangit. My system is completely stable so i want to test it. Any ideas on how to get FW to stay on?
Stro

try to install the newest INF driver from intel site .....

solve the problem for me .....

Since I turned FW off in RiveaTuner, my problems are gone (thank god, and you )

Hope there will be an alternative solution soon

Well kuman I tried that and now I cant even get my card back to 8X agp and still no FW. I am going to try reinstalling the Catalyst 3.4 and new Bios to at least get 8x back.

Hello everyone!

I have a p4g8x bios rev 1005 and a radeon 9500 with cat 3.4 and the infinite loop problem.
Now for those who can't change the FW setting to their liking, it can be accessed in the registry:
HKLM\software\ati technologies\0000\cds\000\pci config\fast write
NOTES:
I'm writing this at work and from memory and I think that it's not 100% accurate, so you may have to explore a bit.
The fast write setting is a string and the possible values are
Yes (0*00000001)
No (0*00000000)

Here you can also access the AGP speed, the aperture size (this one seems to stay at 64MB regardless of the bios setting....) and plenty of other parameters that are fun to tweak. Make sure to explore all the keys in cds\. In my experience though, changing them does not solve the infamous problem. But don't let this discourage you, every system is different.

And don't forget to reboot for the changes to take effect!!

Hope this helps!
Remi

P4G8X + Radeon 9800 is not free of problems as well. With default settings and AGP8X, FW On, I was able to complete all 3DMARK2001 tests without problems. However, when playing a game like WarCraft3, it randomly locks up and requires me to press reset button. I tried turning off FW, but still the same lockup problem with WC3.

I've now set the AGP voltage to 1.7v in the P4G8X BIOS (v1.05) and so far so good. Will update as soon as the first crash/lockup comes around the corner.

Btw, I haven't touched the AGP8X setting as yet, will see if it is required.

One question: does anybody know what the benefits/drawbacks are of setting higher voltage?

Thx everybody for all the input so far!

Testing spec:
P4G8X board rev 1.02 bios rev 1.05
Radeon 9800 Pro cat 3.4

G'day guys,

I bought an ASUS P4G8X and a Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro ultimate edition video card (3 weeks ago), thinking that it would give me a trouble free installation and unreal performance.
The later is true I have stable unreal performance but it took a while. I'll tell you what happened, firstly this is the other hardware in the system.
P4 2.8Gc 800Mz bus speed
Note: I have the ASUS bus speed set to 200Mhz x 14 multiplier
2 x 512MB DDR400 Kingmax tuny BGA ram cards - for dual DDR
80GB 8MB cache WD drive
450W Power Supply

I had to wait a few days to get my hands on the video card so I installed windows XP Pro first without a problem. At this stage I noticed the Dual DDR wasnt showing up in the Bios so I upgraded the Bios to 1004G. That problem was fixed.
Then I installed the Video card with the driver that came with it, when Windows rebooted after installation of the driver windows locked up in the black screen before you actually get into the welcome screen. Hmmm I thought must need a reboot - wrong!! Everytime I'd start up same thing - lockup with black screen. Only way to fix was to uninstall the driver in safe mode. Then I tried the latest driver - same problem.

Thinking I had done something wrong I reinstalled windows XP pro - guess what same problem. This is when I did a search and found this answer to that problem at:

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=805

Windows was not allowing me to change the video card because I didnt allow access rights - I did what the above link said and windows accepted the video driver change.

Now everything seemed perfect and I was doing some searching and came accross this forum thread. I read through and thought I've bought a lemon...what was supposed to be top equipment was beginning to sound like a waste of money. I hadn't experience the drop to 4 bit colour and thought my version must be better than everyone elses cause my settings were AGP 8X with FASTWRITE ON and I had no problem. WRONG!!

Then came the random device failure with the 4 bit colour just as you guys described it - when I was surfing the net or typing a letter not while playing an intense 3D game which I thought was strange. After reading some more replys in this forum I disabled FASTWRITES and have not had a problem since. No failure in 2 weeks.
My settings are - AGP 8X / FastWrite off
High Performance - OpenGL Main Setting
Core clock overclocked to 343.5Mhz
Memory Clock to 343.5Mhz.

Benchmark Score on 3DMark2001SE 16800
1024 x 768 resolution

I tried winding the core clock over 360Mhz and all these lines started appearing which shouldnt have been there so I turned it back down. The score achieved was actually less than above at the setting anyway.

Anyways I am very happy with my system so I thought I'd write and let you know that its not a bad combination it seems that it is a problem with the FastWrite setting.....as some of you guys have been saying..... so turn it off ! I have put my machine through hours of hard core gaming and had no lock ups at all since de-selecting FastWrite.

Please post if the new Bios for the P4G8X or video driver fixes this problem......if not I'm happy anyway. I noticed no change in gaming performance withi it off.
Has anyone done a Benchmark test with it on and off?

There seems to be a Advanced SmartGart program,
(Start->Run->smartgart, provided that you installed the ATI Control Panel) where you can turn on/off AGP/PCI write to system memory.

I discovered this by accident and saw that my AGP write was defaulted to off. I have turned it on now, and running on AGP 8X and FW on with AGP voltage set to 1.5 to see if there's some impact on system stability.

Please check yourself if you want to...

Hi everybody,

I've been following this forum post for some time now.
And I've been hoping the Catalyst 3.4 drivers and a new Intel chipset upodate would solve the problem but it didn't.

My system & settings:

P4G8X Deluxe BiOS 1005 Final:
FSB 133 Mhz
Intel P4 2.53 Mhz. (533 Mhz Bus)
Corsair DDR PC2700 CL2 memory@266Mhz.
Onboard network enabled
Onboard sound disabled
Onboard SATA disabled
Onboard IEEE 1394 disabled
AGP voltage 1.6V.
DDR voltage 2.6V.
Video cache mode: USWC
Graphics Apperture size: 64MB
Delayed Transaction: Enabled
AGP 8X
Drivers: Official Asus Broadcom Drivers, Intel Chipset Update Utility,
DirectX 9.0a,

Sapphire Atlantis 9700 Pro
Official Catalyst 3.4 Driver & Control Panel from Ati.com

Ultra ATA/100 WD400JB 40GB (8MB cache)

Sound Blaster Audigy Player
IEEE 1394 - Game Port
WHQL Driver from Soundblaster.com

Software:
Windows XP SP1 with latest updates.


I've found that if I use the default BiOS settings my system fails on a reguler basis. When I increased my DDR voltage there was suddenly I signifficant system stability increase. The AGP Voltage has to be increased also but that was already resolved in one of the earlyer BiOS updates. It should be @ 1.6V. instead of 1.5V.

At this point my system runs Unreal Tournament 1 & c&c Generals easy

I wonder when those geniusses @ Intel & Ati will resolve this irritating problem

Greetz,

Deech

I remember reading that a few people on this board said that they had Radeon 9800 Pro's and the Asus P4G8X Deluxe and have NO stability problems at all. This encouraged me to return my 9700 pro and spend the extra 100 on the 9800. Well, it didnt do crap for me. I called Asus and said what i thought the problem was and the tech guy i talked to said he has NEVER heard of anyhitng i am talking about ( i mentioned the Intel Chipset, and 9700 and 9800 compatibility.) He told me that its most likely my Power supply. But i have 450 watts now, and i have tried one other different PS's.

Well after i got off with the tech guy, i wrote a letter to the Technical Inquiries (a NOT SO PLEASANT AT ALL LETTER). Giving reference to this board so they can see what everyone else is saying. This was like 4 days ago, so far no word back.

My question now is, does anyone have an Asus P4C800 Delux and Radeon 9800 Pro Combo? and if you do, are there any problems you are experincing, or would it be safe for me to get that Mother Board.

Just another note, most everyone here has had the common resolution and color depth crash. But when my computer crashes, it just simply freezes in place, then after a while it will reboot. Then the windows error report says that the "Display driver has failed to complete a drawing operation." Is this still the same thing ?

Thank you all, please reply.

ooops

Just wondering James, have you de-selected the the Fast Writes option in your ATI control panel under SmartGuard??
This fixed my problem instantly, I've over-clocked my Sapphire Atlantis 9700 pro to the maximun, and have memory at most aggresive settings 2,2,2,5 without any stability problems.

When I had the FastWrites option ticked it would crash with a device failure numerous times daily. As soon as I unticked that option, no probs what so ever!
My clock settings are now : 349.5 core, 343.5 memory, as soon as I go over 350 I get weird graphic artifacts appearing all over the place.
Also try setting your AGP/PCI clock speed setting above normal in BIOS (seems to work for some people, mines around 68/35 I think).
I wouldn't waste my money on a P4C800 unless you have a 800Mhz P4 processor cause people who have bought this board have also had the same problems.
Good luck

James,

Yes. P4c800 & Radeon9800 Retail. Go here:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/7255/

No i havent de-selected fast writes yet because i was trying to find a way to make it stable without turning off options prescous options that I PAID FOR. I have messed with the AGP frequencies, and there was no luck. I will try turning off fast writes with a combination of AGP frequencies if needed. But if i need to drop from 8X AGP to 4X..... Asus is goign to have a war on their hands.
On another note, Im curious to know what everyone's Power Supply rating is for 3.3V, 5V, and 12V.
I am 3.3V= 22.0A , 5V= 36.0A, 12V= 18.0A . Its a 450 watt PS that came as a combo with my Chieftec Dragon Server Tower. The side says ISO Switching Power Supply (im guessing thats who made it). Asus said that my 3.3V was the minumum they reccommend. All these power thing can be found on the side of your power supply.
I would especially like to know what people's power ratings are if they are the few having NO PROBLEMS at all without switching fast writes, and 8X to 4X etc.

Thanks

P4G8X and Radeon 9800Pro combination:
My first lockup when playing Splinter Cell. Turning AGP to 4x seems to solve problems. Tried turning off FW instead, and even though that was more stable, after couple of hours of testing, still gave me a crash.

I suggest people go for P4C800 instead, as Mike Gaydos seems to be running a stable system with the latest Bios's and drivers...

Hi,
Hst ang.....yes...it has been stable for over 2 weeks now. Now even the slightest glitch. I have run 3Dmark (both 2001 and 2003 versions) numerous times. I have played with overclocking a bit...(up to 20%) but at 20 percent...the system hangs. Overclocked at 10 percent is awesome. No crashes. I have played UT2003 almost every day....Serious Sam 2 the entire way thru...and even broke Quake 2 and tried that. I could not get this system to hang or freeze or reboot or blue screen or revert to 4 bit colors or anything. To recap my system:

P4C800 (latest bios update)
9800Pro
2 Kingston PC2700 512's running in dual channel
430 watt p/s
p4 2.66 proc

system board temp at highest recorded temp: 30 c
proc highest recorded temp 57 c (during 3d gameplay)
ave temp 28 system board 36 processor

Good luck all

My power supply is 450W as well.
Make: Codegen
3.3V rating 20A
5V rating 40A
12V rating 16A

Can anyone test, maybe you Mike, what the difference in performance is with FastWrites turned on and turned off.
I agree with you guys that we should get what we pay for but tell me guys, did you buy this combination of board and 9700pro for FastWrites? I know I didnt (to be honest I dont know what it does), I bought it because of its high performance, stability, AGP 8X and directX9 compatibility.
I have FastWrites off and have a rock solid PC with benchmark scores above Radeon 9800 pro scores (that I've seen on the net). I have every possible setting on high for every game I play - Vietcong, Unreal 2, UT2003, 1942, Splinters Cell, SOF2 etc and no crashes.
My scores : 3DMark2001 - 16700 video 10% overclocked
3DMark2002 - 5252 video 10% overclocked
System:
P4 2.8c 800Mhz (bus speed set to 200x14), 2 x Kingmax 512MB ram in dual config, Sapphire Atlantis 9700pro UE

Hi all,

Good news.
My system is rock hard stable and extremely fast too.

I noticed first when playing c&c generals against a brutal enemy (wich is more difficult for the computer thus eating system bandwidth) in a big map. If you play with USA u can choose a drone upgrade for all tanks.
The drone circels around the tank and draining system bandwidth like crazy.

Untill now I've never seen my system this stable and made a ghost image
of my harddrive and afcourse a restore point in Windows.
Which I suggest you do too if you've found the fine line between stability and performance.

This system setup should work for the following hardware components.
Asus P4G8x Deluxe, Sapphire Atlantis 9700 pro, Corsair PC2700 2-3-3-6,
SB Audigy Player, WD400JB, Intel P4 2.53 Ghz.

I've experimented allot with the AGP and DDR voltage in the MB's BiOS.
In earlyer releases of the BiOS like 1004 I had to set my AGP voltage to 1.6 V. in order to keep my system stable.
But the performance in games or 3Dmark was lame.

With the new Final 1005 BiOS from Asus.com I use the following settings.
AGP Voltage 1.5V, DDR Voltage 2.5V, 8x AGP, Video cache USWC,
Graphics aperture size 64MB, Delay transaction enable, Mem turbo auto.

Software & Settings:
Windows XP SP1 with newest updates, Catalyst 3.4, DirectX 9.0a,
Intel chipset update utility, NO Application accelerator.

Off topic software:
c&c Generals, Office XP NL SP2, Unreal Tournament, Newspro 3.65,
Kazaa k++ with Diet kazaa, Total Commander 32, Divx 5.05, Xvid, MPEG2, msn 6, Winamp 3, Zoom player 3, Flashget 1.4.

I just did some regular performance & appearance tweaking in WinXP when I just installed it, Installed the catalyst drivers, Installed sound and
DirectX 9.0a, Than reinstalled the catalyst drivers and changed a few settings. Fast Writes are on AGP 8x, Vertical sync. off.

Good luck!

Greetz,

Deech