View Full Version : A Bit of Info for Abit NF7-S owners
Missileman
26 Feb 2004, 3:12am
This may have been posted here, but I didn't see anything about it so I thought I'd pass it on.
This little tweak has been claimed to fix everything ever wrong with the NF7 from stuttering in 3D games to crackling on sound cards. It is the NForce2 equivalent of snake oil.
I found this when I was experimenting trying to find a reason for my O/C Barton to be stuttering in a fairly plain 3D game (Horizons) which I was beta testing. It did make my stuttering go away, raised my benchmarks a few points, and generally made the board seem more responsive.
Go into control panel->System->device manager and select the computer and then ACPI Uniprocessor machine. Do properties and update driver. Select and manually choose "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC". It will tell you to reboot. It will then find new hardware and reboot again. Now all returns to normal with one exception. All the virtualized IRQ's(18,21,22, etc...) are gone and your IRQ's are back to hardware bios assignments. Same as if the Standard PC HAL had been installed. Except ACPI is still enabled and virtualized IRQ's are still available if needed in case of conflict.
I believe the response increase is due to the removal of the layer that does the IRQ redirecting. I have done this to 3 ABIT NF7-S systems without incident and got improvement on all of them.
I make no other promises and don't know how it works on other brands. Your mileage may vary.
Take it for what it is worth. :screwed:
Gargoyle
26 Feb 2004, 3:27am
I've not had any problems with my NF7, but thanks for the tip anyway. It might come in handy someday :)
Geeky1
26 Feb 2004, 3:36am
That's actually a really good idea. It may fix the crackling sound that someone I know gets with their sb live/KG7 combo, since that's supposedly caused by IRQ conflicts as well.
Spinner
26 Feb 2004, 3:59am
Well, I just tried it. Went as smoothly as presumed. My ATTO's have increased significantly, best scores I've ever had. So kudos to MissileMan for that. Haven't had chance to run any other benchmarks yet, will do tomorrow.
But I'm happy. :celebrate
TheSmJ
26 Feb 2004, 4:52am
Sounds like something worth trying once I get home.
Thanks for the heads up MissleMan!
Straight_Man
26 Feb 2004, 5:12am
Sounds like something worth trying once I get home.
Thanks for the heads up MissleMan!
Agreed, Thanks, Missleman.
Will keep that in mind when I order my board like that... :D
John D-- Who got a real sweet deal offered to him on Panaflo 80 mm High Volume fans, and has 36 coming and 10 here, so the Barton upgrade waits.
Geeky1
26 Feb 2004, 5:13am
Ageek... with 46 of those panaflos, you're gonna want to use bungee cords or something to hold teh box down... :D ;D
Madball
26 Feb 2004, 5:57am
WOW, works great! My machine seems much more responsive now. Good tip Missleman!
Mt_Goat
26 Feb 2004, 11:40am
I don't have my NF7-S running right now and hadn't had any problems but did try it with this NV420 board I'm on right now and it really made it snappier!!! Everything is more responsive and I can see where this would benefit everyone not just NF7 users.
Great job Missleman!!! ;)
Gargoyle
26 Feb 2004, 6:04pm
Wow. I'm barely using my comp. for anything right now. Since I've formatted I've not installed any potent programs or games. But it STILL seems faster, just navigating around Windows.
HOT DAMN! :clap:
Thanks Missleman!
Missileman
26 Feb 2004, 6:10pm
Glad it proved useful.
I found it to be worth the effort. Just PLEASE be aware when trying it on other boards that you are changing the HAL in WinXp and if your bios doesn't support this "newer" advanced HAL it could leave you with an unbootable hard drive so make sure you have a recent backup or your recovery disks up to date as safe mode booting doesn't always work when the HAL is wrong.
It has always worked fine on the Abit's but I have never tried it on any others so just be aware that there is a risk. Hate to see someone have a REALLY bad day :)
Spinner
26 Feb 2004, 6:13pm
Up in the 'Tweaks and Tricks Thread'. :clap:
a2jfreak
26 Feb 2004, 6:35pm
Go into control panel->System->device manager and select the computer and then ACPI Uniprocessor machine.
Check.
Do properties and update driver. Check.
Select and manually choose "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC". I have no such option to choose. :(
Missileman
26 Feb 2004, 6:42pm
I have no such option to choose. :(
Did you do the "Install from list or specific location" and then choose "Don't Search. I will choose Driver to Install" ? Mine shows right up even on this IC7 board.
a2jfreak
26 Feb 2004, 7:22pm
Got it. Thanks.
Rebooting in T-Minus 10, 9, 8 . . .
primesuspect
26 Feb 2004, 7:50pm
Weird... I have an NF7-S v2.0 and my HAL was already ACPI... Not Uniprocessor...
Oh well, guess I'm already "tweaked" ... :confused:
Missileman
26 Feb 2004, 7:57pm
Weird... I have an NF7-S v2.0 and my HAL was already ACPI... Not Uniprocessor...
Oh well, guess I'm already "tweaked" ... :confused:
It could be cause I run XP Pro. Never looked at XP Home. I just know the "Tweak" Driver spells out the whole ACPI wording like this "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC" and doesn't use the acronym at all.
primesuspect
26 Feb 2004, 7:59pm
Yep, Pro here as well. And yes, I already have the fully-spelled out driver.
Strange.
a2jfreak
26 Feb 2004, 8:02pm
On this WU my times dropped from about 5:55 to about 5:40 in the log. Shaving 15 seconds from each checkpoint is nice. :)
TheBaron
26 Feb 2004, 8:10pm
im gonna ram this down my IS7's throat when i get home, see what i can see (if it borks everything thats fine, im getting ready to do a format anyway)
Al_Capown
26 Feb 2004, 10:10pm
Definetly noticing changes. Awesome tweak. WOOT. Now my left rear speaker doesn't crackle real loud at full volume, and to think I thought it was dying on me :)
pcscustom
27 Feb 2004, 5:29pm
Damnit, I cant wait to get home.. Friday seems like monday, This whole damn week has been that way.. One word of advice if your thinking bout moving Dont
Trev
Works on Asus A7N8X Deluxe too. Noticed a little improvement, but I'm always tweaking settings for stability and speed. Just make sure you backup before tweaking like MM said. Good tweak MM. Thnx
hypermood
27 Feb 2004, 7:54pm
Everyone's been doing this under XP right? Just asking because I'm running 2K and it also has the fully spelled out option.
hypermood
27 Feb 2004, 8:24pm
OK, I took the plunge and tried it under 2K. Went from "ACPI Uniprocessor" to "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC" and everything went fine. ATTO disk scores went up but memory bandwidth went down. Reverted back to "ACPI Uniprocessor" and memory scores went back up and ATTO disk scores went down. Tried twice more with exact same results. I haven't had any sound issues or other oddities so I can't comment there. Nothing felt much different.
"ACPI Uniprocessor" -> "Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC"
Sandra memory bandwidth went from 3175 to 3056.
Atto was up about 5% across the board.
Geeky1
27 Feb 2004, 9:04pm
Well, I haven't tried it on my NF7-S yet, but I did try it on one of my other systems. It didn't work... This doesn't really come as a surprise to me though, since I tried it on a Tyan Thunderbolt, which is a dual slot 1 i440GX board. It only detected one CPU after the switch, which is what I expected.
Oh well. Doesn't work on SMP systems apparently... :(
Straight_Man
28 Feb 2004, 1:33am
Geeky1 said:
Ageek... with 46 of those panaflos, you're gonna want to use bungee cords or something to hold teh box down....
Use 2-3 per box, have some to build for customers... But, let me put it this way.... Average FMV is about $7.60 US plus shipping. Average price for the 46 (ten I bought at about $6.50 shipped each), well, if I sell at that will net about $3.50 per fan on average.... I had a big wholesale supplier who emailled me (sales manager, actually) and said they needed to move a thousand this week, and they wanted to move them BAD so I grabbed some.... So, if hold onto whatever is left of them for a month or three, fine....
Figured folks might want some, around here or wherever....
The P4 and Barton boxes have 2 08A12H and 2 08A12M each-- just for case fanning.
The fan on the swiftech flower in the P4 is a YSTech, the Barton box with SLK900 has a Panaflo 08A12H on it.... No CPU fan sense, it runs fine.... Barton is cooler than the P4, naturally, but both are stable.
Hmm my Sandra score went down 200 MB/s.
And my ATTO score dropped as well.
Guess I'm just unlucky. :bawling:
leishi85
28 Feb 2004, 2:14am
Use 2-3 per box, have some to build for customers... But, let me put it this way.... Average FMV is about $7.60 US plus shipping. Average price for the 46 (ten I bought at about $6.50 shipped each), well, if I sell at that will net about $3.50 per fan on average.... I had a big wholesale supplier who emailled me (sales manager, actually) and said they needed to move a thousand this week, and they wanted to move them BAD so I grabbed some.... So, if hold onto whatever is left of them for a month or three, fine....
Figured folks might want some, around here or wherever....
The P4 and Barton boxes have 2 08A12H and 2 08A12M each-- just for case fanning.
The fan on the swiftech flower in the P4 is a YSTech, the Barton box with SLK900 has a Panaflo 08A12H on it.... No CPU fan sense, it runs fine.... Barton is cooler than the P4, naturally, but both are stable.
do you want to sell some of those fans??
Spinner
29 Feb 2004, 10:43pm
Here is some before and after (top is after, bottom is before) benchmark screenshots. With the exception of PCMark04, all benchmarks taken after the ACPI alteration are higher. With that as the exception, all drivers and system settings remain the same across both benchmark correlations.
I am certain my harddrive performance dropped significantly.
The odd thing is that the drop wasn't very big in ATTO.
But I did a file search and it took forever, well almost that is.
Mem performance dropped 200 MB/S.
bothered
10 Mar 2004, 9:51am
After update driver and choosing the default 'Locate automatically' option, it looks then says 'cannot continue, there isn't a better driver'
It won't let me do it!
Necropolis
10 Mar 2004, 10:20am
After update driver and choosing the default 'Locate automatically' option, it looks then says 'cannot continue, there isn't a better driver'
It won't let me do it!
Bothered, dont click on 'locate automatically', go to install from a list or specific location, dont search, untick show compatble hardware, and choose Advanced Configuration and Power Interface PC.
bothered
10 Mar 2004, 11:07am
Ah ha, Did that, rebooted, found new hardware, you need to reboot, PC froze. Reset button was the only way out. Rebooted and disc check ran and changed loads of things on the C drive, 4/5 ATI and lots of folding stuff. Then it started and found new hardware again but let me click 'restart' ran disc check again but only changed a few things. It's running again now but I think it's put everything back as it was.
Spinner
12 Mar 2004, 6:14pm
Well after running my PC as an 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' for the last week or so. I've found my computer would just freeze 2 or 3 times a day. 90% of the time it would come out of it after about 30 seconds, but the other 10% of the time it would require a restart. I've since moved back to running it as an 'ACPI Uniprocessor PC' and the problem has gone. So, yeah, not so good for me after all. Just a FYI.
Cheers
csimon
12 Mar 2004, 6:29pm
Well after running my PC as an 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' for the last week or so. I've found my computer would just freeze 2 or 3 times a day. 90% of the time it would come out of it after about 30 seconds, but the other 10% of the time it would require a restart. I've since moved back to running it as an 'ACPI Uniprocessor PC' and the problem has gone. So, yeah, not so good for me after all. Just a FYI.
Cheers
Ah ...maybe this is what's wrong with mine also ...I thought the hd was dying.
Geeky1
12 Mar 2004, 7:48pm
Tried it on my laptop (2.4 P4, Clevo i845e motherboard, ddr, etc.) and it seems to run noticeably faster... haven't had any stability problems yet either.
Park_7677
12 Mar 2004, 8:34pm
Well after running my PC as an 'Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC' for the last week or so. I've found my computer would just freeze 2 or 3 times a day. 90% of the time it would come out of it after about 30 seconds, but the other 10% of the time it would require a restart.
Same thing happened to me. Looks like this tweak is picky :(
Planatoid
1 Apr 2004, 8:19pm
Thanks Missileman!!! I have been having 2 problems for a while. 1) Sound would sometimes start crackling horribly during certain games, Vietcong and Call of Duty. 2) Setting folders to remember settings, such as icons, thumbnails etc. wouldn't keep. It would just change into some format I did not want. But now everything is better. The games no longer crack and the folder settings remain correct. Thanks a lot dude, big, big help!! :usflag:
2500+ Barton 10x210
Epox 8RDA+ rev 1.1
512mb Geil Ultra Platinum PC-3500
120gb Seagate 7200.7 8MB cache
80gb WD800jb
Sapphire 9500
sandra scores went down for me too...
~100 points less, I guess the tweak is not for me.
and I couldn't roll back to the ACPI settings too..
lucky it's a fresh install system, I can redo the installation again :D
Totalbiscuit
9 Jun 2004, 12:34am
Missile, gimme your paypal address so I can send you 5 bucks, you fixed my sound and my mouse issues. You win :D
TB.
pseudonym
9 Jun 2004, 1:13am
WHOA!!! How'd I miss this kickass deal!!!! This will solve my stupid load and stutter problems!!!!!! I could, ummmm, MANTOUCH YOU!!!
Missileman
9 Jun 2004, 1:55am
Just glad it helps somebody. I had all those issues and it fixed mine. Not everybody gets good results, but I think most do. Glad it worked for you all :)
Just glad it helps somebody. I had all those issues and it fixed mine. Not everybody gets good results, but I think most do. Glad it worked for you all :)
Seems to work on my GA-8SIMLH from gigabyte so far
Raoul
Okay so let me tell you guys why I love SM so much (even though I rarely have anytime to browse the forums).
For about the last 2 months I have been getting random crackling noises coming from my speakers. So after I got some christmas money I bought myself a new set, Creative T3000's (better than my old 20W cheap-o's). So they have been working kickass for a week now but then today I started to hear some random noises again. I thought maybe it was coming from those stupid ads AIM has going, so I signed off to see. Unfortunatly they showed up again.
Being a resourceful chap I googled the problem, and what was the #1 hit? SM archive of this thread. What can I say? Freakin' awesome... big thanks to all involved in this problem and the site as a whole. :thumbsup:
Hey gang, Was wondering if anyone could tell me what the PMC Flash chip that comes with the NF7-S V2.0 is. It comes loose in a package with the MB. I'm assumming that it's a chip you change out with one on the MB for flashing the bios. Also, There's nothing in the manual refering to it. Then again you know what assuming does. Please don't flame me on this....I've been using Asus MB's for a long time now and the only other board I've worked on lately was the ECS for inlaws. Thnx for replies.
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