Official C90/C90S/C91/C80 Owners Lounge

@cyberken

You can run ThrottleStop to keep it at 2.93 GHz. The overclocked CPU at 3.2 GHz will be fine, you can use for that SetFSB, ClockGen or something new. Also check out the thread “ Full benchmark results for C90S with E7500”. In practice E7500 can reach almost 4 GHz but not on C90S.

FYI: As a good reference you can consider a CPU Idle temp ~ 55*C @ 25*C (environment) when there is no CPU/GPU bridge.
​

I’ve made it mine bridge from a copper sheet 6”x3” with a thickness 0.9 mm plus 11 holes. That is the simplest way for me.​

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@Hank
To be ran properly a Nvidia card in C90S we need to mod the vBIOS performance tables.

1) Make a backup copy of the current vBIOS
2) Use NiBiTor to mod the vBIOS (yours, for 9650m) in the NightWalker’s way
3) Flash the moded vBIOS and enjoy (check the last pages of the NW’s thread how to do it)
​

Look at the thread “ [NW] Upgrade the C90S to a 9600M GT 512MB DDR3” and don’t use other vBIOS except the original one.

There is no problem with W7 (64-bit) on C90S. The crap here is the C90S hardware memory limitation of 3.2 GB RAM that hurts the 64-bit performance . It’s the present from Asus. I don't like presents like this and that is why my next laptop will be far, far away from this company.

 

Test machine, installed windows xp sp3, ran it up to current spec with latest drivers necessary
2 test nvidia drivers, trusty 179.48 (intalled fine no issue, as expected) and 307.83 (no good)

Ok, results, so far unsuccessful. completed the bios update (per nightwalkers), used my old.rom ; edited to a new.rom and flashed. Had no dramas, all worked well. Checked the bios, is correct with Perf. entry table 4 copied to Perf. entry table 2 and Perf. entry table 3

However still latest drivers not working (unless disable powermizer) lots of artifacts after about 1 minute and will crash after a few minutes

 

The problem with the video driver is that the manufacturer of the mobile GPU/Video Card not provides it to the end user . The availability of the proper driver depends only from the laptop manufacturer and if he is lazy then we are ending without a support of the new driver versions. In the same time Nvidia/ATI are taking all measures to prevent an installation of their drivers directly from the user. It is " Catch 22"! In e.g. ATI even removed the mobile GPU support from some of the driver packages . Other desktop driver packages contain and the mobile versions but to be possible their installation is necessary to be made a modification . If you don’t know how to do it then follows no driver.

It’s nasty to have Nvidia 9600m/240m or ATI 4650 Mobility which are perfect MXM II video cards for C90S without drivers. Asus have and supports Nvidia 240m but not for C90S. The same is for ATI 3650/4650.

I don’t know is there a laptop manufacturer that provides and supports a video driver more than 2 years. I prefer Intel’s HD Graphics with its support instead of the mobile GPUs from ATI and Nvidia.

BTW we are seeing what happens with the BIOS support of the mobo how bad it is. The first release is in 2007 and the final is from February 2008. That is why I’ve built a customized case for desktop motherboards and all problems are gone. No anymore difficulties with ATI/Nvidia drivers or performance problems .

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FYI: You can try different Nvidia video driver versions on laptopvideo2go.

 

Is that is the end of C90S era? Not for me yet, moo-ha-ha :laugh:.

I’m enjoying on my 2 HDD raid with R/W speed limited only by the eSATA & mini PCIe interfaces .

I threw away the expensive and dying SSD crap. I found out that JMicron eSATA driver wasn’t written well enough and it is the cause for two problems under XP – 30% lower performance than its linux implementation and 12% ~ 20% CPU consumption under heavy loads on long run. There is an update that I will try it to see if it will fix the problem.

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The update solved the problem. Now the eSATA is working in the way as it's supposed be .

 

I'm rather enjoying my acer 7738G with 1080p display and 7770M overclocked enough to keep pace with a 765M lol.

 

My c90s is like Highlander strong and immortal !
Are there other immortals?

 

So I've been doing the hair dryer reflow on two different 8600M GT, it's been working till recently, only issue was screen was going black and so I thought maybe it was the driver so I decided to try the other card, in hindsight I should have just taken out the driver, and then yesterday, I blew into the connector t make sure there was no dust, where the card goes and a tiny bit of spit, got in to it, prior to that I had video, I tried to wipe the spit, couldn't even see it, anyway, next thing you know, no video, now it's possible the power may have been on, so I'm guessing I may have fried the card, possibly the connector? I baked the other card since couldn't get either to work after reflow, no luck, so now I guess all I can do is upgrade to the C90S board and test the cards and see if they still work, or get another card and see if video is still good on this board, either way I'm pretty much out a computer at this time, any suggestions on what might have happened and is there a way out? Tried the usual, take battery out, soft reset with button, hard reset, nothing, hard to believe that fried it, but then again it's electronics, there goes another MOBO, damn.
Thanks

 

Reflow is only ever a temporary solution but I would never spit onto the cards as it's unlikely to be a connector issue.

 

I think you missunnderstood I blew into the connector on the mobo, not spit on the card, a tiny tiny bit of spit may have gotten on the connector' or it is possible I tried to swap cards without knowing the unit wasn't powered down, it has to be the mobo video connector how could have both cards quit at the time, your saying I should try another card before giving up on the mobo? BTW Fans do come on.

 

I merged this into the C90 lounge in the hopes that you will get a reply from another C90 owner.

If you inserted a graphics card with the power on, you may have very well fried it or the motherboard.

 

Thanks for moving it, I think that's what must have happened, I thought I had powered down and was swapped with the power on, I think I fried both, while I was going to upgrade to the C90P board I haven't had the funds to do that yet, so I can't afford to buy the new C90P board and another GPU, so I'm looking for a economical solution to my problem, the only way I can know for sure what happened is to either A, test the cards in another c90 machine which I don't have and probably won't be able to find to easy or buy another mxm ii card whether ATi or Nvidia, but if it doesn't work, I still will need to replace the mobo, so what I was thinking is what if I buy a cheap Notebook with a MXM ii card with hopefully unlocked bios like say an Acer Aspire 5720

or what about an external USB GPU is there one that would work with the c90s?, but that means I would only be able to use an external monitor, how would that work? and if it did work on my c90s would that mean the mobo video is still good, anyone know? What's the best way to test this out?

 

I'm not sure if it will pass power on self test without a working GPU (I mean that I truly don't know, not that it definitely won't). You might want to find the cheapest compatible card you can to test the motherboard.

A USB GPU like displaylink won't let you get into the BIOS setup etc, since it requires an OS driver to be initialized.

You might be able to try something like an eGPU setup and test the card: http://forum.notebookreview.com/e-gpu-external-graphics-discussion/

 

I can't imagine it would pass post without the gpu, how would you know anyway short of an external hookup? So what about my idea of the Aspire 5720 ati card? If the Asus mobo has an issue can it hurt the card? Is there any one discussion I need to focus on the egpu posts?
Thanks

 

With no GPU there would be nothing in there that could output a display so even an external monitor wont show anything.

 

That makes sense, but what about with an EGpU? Same question.as before will testing another GPU in the questionable C90s board potentially harm the GPU? Also can I use An Acer 5720 dedicated ATI GPU to test the board?
Thanks

 

Just ordered a C90P board, and after that I found and bought refurb C90S in used condition on eBay for the price of a GPU, probably has the dreaded 8600m unless it was upgraded, talk about getting the cheapest card you can find, anyhow I figure it will get me back up and running and I could test the card on the questionable board. Any suggestions, other than make sure the power supply is disconnected and the battery is removed before swapping? lol
Thanks

 

If you inserted a video card while powered on, it may have fried either or both the card and the mobo. If you try to put a bad card in a good motherboard it shouldn't damage it if the board is designed well. Testing a good card on a questionable board is a different story, I can't predict what will happen.

 

@cyberken

It’s nice to see that another C90S user exist even with a wounded mobo!

Firstly let me tell you something about 8600M. The good one is the dead one . If it’s not dead then it’s a zombie which slowly is killing the system and its performance. So – kill the zombie with what you have but outside of the laptop!

Secondly you made the right choice :thumbsup: with C90P which supports up to 8GB RAM and FBS @ 1333MHz. That is the MOBO, but don’t put the zombie inside ! There are good cards as an ATI 3650 DDR3/256MB RAM with a better performance than 8600m. There was a link to a chart with all tested & supported video cards on C90S/P somewhere in my previous posts. If you can’t find it then go to the Angel’s “C90S Unleashed” web site (use yahoo).

Before to open/disassemble any laptop you should first to remove the AC power and then the battery (you already know that)! BTW it’s written in the C90S user’s guide with a warring sign. It is important not only for the video card but also for RAM, HDD/SSD/DVDROM, WiFi card, TV card, Modem and all internal PCBs and peripherals.

If you intent to use a CPU as Q9650 you should upgrade the C90P BIOS to a version 801 or 803 if I remember correctly.

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Edit:
I've found the chart link (from "C90S Unleashed") with the video cards:
" Video Adapter Replacement"

 

Hi Duhai, I don't know if you remember but we were chatting about going to C90P some months back, I didn't have the funds to buy the board, this recent crisis is what did it. I agree keeping the monster in there is not a good idea, I don't know if I can swing an ATI card at this time unless I can find one for 60 bucks, how about this one on ebay will it work, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acer-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-MXM-II-256MB-DDR3-Video-Card-GPU-/121145071816?pt=PCC_Video_ do I need to upgrade the bios for its? right now that's all I have in budget, my C90P shipped and should be here in about a week, meantime, the C90S I bought on ebay should arrive on Fri, it's refurbished, and my guess is it has the monster 8600 in it, unless it was upgraded to 9600 or who knows maybe ATI, more than likely it will be the 8600 I figure. I bought a Hitachi sata 7200 500 Gig drive since my Toshiba 120 gig is starting to go, I think it's the motor. So here's what I plan on doing, I will use the C90S till the C90P arrives, then I need to make sure the C90P board is working so I will put the C90P board in my old C90S shell the one that the motherboard got fried, so now I will have 3 C90S shells and parts, lol Put my high end dual core e 7500 CPU, put whatever card I have at the time, the new hard drive, as for memory I see that the C90P has only 2 slots, so I guess that means that to have 8 gigs or RAM you have to put in 2 4gig sticks, but I can't find 4 gig RAM anywhere. I just have to share that I'm using an old Gateway SOLO 5350 right now, and boy does it make me appreciate my ASUS, so to refresh my memory on the C90P, the only think that would need to be modded to have either ATI 3650 or 9600, is the North Bridge? Also, I see the 3650's come in 256, 512 and 1gig, my understanding is because the ddr is higher than the 8600 that the 3650 even with 256 will out perform the 8600 with 512 gigs is that correct? Oh one thing I was thinking, could this work, put in a low end GPU and use a high end EGPU? More economical and less likely to overheat right?
Thanks for all your help and suggestions.
Ken

 

Hi Ken,

You are right, I really had forgotten about our conversation. Sorry !

The card from your link will not work into our laptop. Take a look at its upper left corner with the two missing chips where the vBIOS (closest to the mounting hole) is one of them. Without vBIOS this card is dead for C90S/P and you will lose your money and time. Here it is a link with the correct one:

eBay / Seller: laptop-best
New ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 MXM II 256MB DDR3 Graphics VGA video Card Acer​

If I were you I will NEVER use old video card in unknown condition and especially refurbished by the seller! In most of the cases this means an overheated and damaged card. I saw a seller that was offering as new a card with missing capacitors. The card price from the above link is with $8 higher than that from your link and also is brand new.

It will be excellent if your new C90S comes with 3650 or 9600. They both are good cards. As far as the RAM modules you are right that you need 2 DIMMs / 200 pins / 4GB / DDR2 / 800 MHz each. Here it is some links:

Newegg
Kits: Mushkin ($170) / Crucial ($200) / G.Skill ($210)

eBay / Seller: premiumgoodsshoppe-us ( it is a good seller)
Crucial (CT51264AC800) 8GB (2x4GB), 200-PIN SODIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 Memory Module​

Regarding to the HDD - Hitachi is the best choice. I hope that Western Digital to learn something from Hitachi and not destroy the good 2.5” line. I doubt that WD is capable to improve it.

You can use all C90S heatsinks as North Bridge, GPU and CPU ones on C90P. You should figure it out how to attach the GPU heatsink to 3650/9600, it is not difficult. Here somewhere was a thread from Kings of Interns and also Angel has an excellent guide about this topic.

The biggest amount of video memory means better performance only if the application is capable to use it. That is why I prefer a video card with 1 GB / DDR3. BTW Angel said that even with 3470 you can play Blu-Ray movies flawlessly.

As far as I remember my 3Dmarks06 result of the crap 8600M GT / 512 MB / DDR3 was 3300 and it’s almost the same with the 3650 / 512 MB / DDR2. ATI 3650 with 256 MB / DDR3 is blowing away the zombie - 8600M GT / 512 MB .

That is very good idea where 3470 is maybe the best solution plus an external video card. It should be working without a problem :thumbsup:.​

 

Hello Duhai, well it seems I'm on the right track, I didn't even notice the Vbios chips missing on that seller refurb card, thank you so much for pointing that out! so if the 1 gig are better than this one would be better I guess?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-ATI-Mob...914?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item41671304da http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3650-1GB-MXM-II-DDR2-128bit-VGA-Card-VG-86M06-006-/280902173914?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item41671304da
I notice the only good cards are out of Taiwan or Russia, so here we go again, I have to order from over seas. I'm glad there is at least one card the 3650 that doesn't require heatsink mod, correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks for the memory links, looks like I'm going to have to start saving up pretty pricey, any chance of just installing one 4gb stick and get the other when I have the money? Oh by the way it's A Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM found it on Amazon for $49.99 free shipping, Thank goodness not everything is only found on ebay, not very happy with them lately, seller fees are very high and they are making it very hard for the little guy like me to make any kind of profit, anyhow so with the EGPU the only thing is that I won't be able to use the LCD and will have to be connected to an external LCD?

 

double post oops can't find delete button.

 

Hi Ken,

This is a good finding and price! Of course the more memory is better always. Don’t forget that DDR3 version will give you 500 points more against DDR2 (according to Angel’s chart). As I said before the real performance is combination between the video card RAM technologies (types) and in the way how an application is using it. In our case we are talking about the same GPU on both carts. If I should choose between 256 MB / DDR3 and 1 GB / DDR2 my choice will be the last one.​

I have had bad experience with sellers from China (mainland) and Hong Kong. To me there are two kinds of sellers – the correct one and not correct. It doesn’t matter from where they are, the bad person is just a bad person whatever is his location.​

The 3650 requires heatsink mod! The mounting holes are smaller (their size is 3 mm if I remember correctly) than those on 8600M (4 mm). The same is for 9600. You will need the thicker thermal pads for the GPU and CPU. The exact size and height you can figure it out from Angel’s documentation or you can take measures yourself. The good think for 3650 is that will work without BIOS/vBIOS mod.​

This will work only for C90P. Be aware that C90S can’t support 4GB DIMMs in one memory slot.​

This is the best price if the HDD has 16MB cache. I took month ago the Hitachi (0S03563) 1TB / 7200 / 32 MB Cache for about $78 (delivery was included in the price) from Provantage:

Provantage
HGST 1TB Travelstar H2IK10003272SN 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Kit 3-Year

B&H
HGST 1TB Travelstar 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive​

The same is here. I have a lot of problems with eBay sellers in the last 2 months. I’ve already stopped to use eBay because almost every item I've got is not as described and took long time to solve the problems even with US sellers.​

Yepp! Here it is a video from a stranger who shows the different parts for this job:

<iframe width='450' height="253" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ktUw2VTFyX4?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>​

Also you can try the internal miniPCIe or the external PCIExperess slot (version 1.0).
​

 

Ok I will take all that into consideration, yesterday the c90s I bought on e-crap err I mean ebay, arrived and two problems, one when I go to updat00e the bios with 1002a bios update for wolfdale, as you know I have a e750t0 I rename the bios to c90s.rom put on thumb drive I think it's just formatted for fat not fat 32, anyway, I do the ALT F2 and EZ Flash comes up, but it just hangs saying reading c90s.bin, I looked on here googled around but I can't an answer as to why it's doing that, could it be the thumb drive? also I have the bios updates both 1002a and the one that says 1002a E-7500 anyway neither works this is with either the 6700 CPU that came with this c90s or the e7500, the cam doesn't seem to work, need figure out what's wrong with that and I'm sorry to say but it has the dreaded 8600m card, but on the good side the LCD is flawless and the battery is in good shape as is the 80 gig HD so all in all not bad for $60 Well any idea about what's going wrong with the bios update? I y watched the Egpu video, very impressive, now he says that you can use a blue tooth mini pci e slot, which the c90 has, has anyone tried this? Or the PIC MI slot I assume that's the one for wifi adapter cards and such? Isn't there a way to just run a simliar Egpu where the card is already connected through USB plug and play? So some bad and good news, the bad news is both 8600 cards did not work in the new c90s, so they are both gone, the good news is the c90s that I thought had a gpu slot issue, is working fine since I'm on it right now and I don't have to update this bios because I did that when I first got the e7500, I still would like to find out why I can't update the other boards?. So I will most likely swap the LCDs or just wait till I get the c90p board and put it all into the old c90s body, I will have to figure it out, if you have any suggestions that won't cost too much let me know. On a different subject, how can I clone my 120 gig HDD to put on the new 500 gig drive, without an external USB? I had an enclousre and SATA USB adapter, but either one broke or the other I can't find, I don't want to buy another one, all I have right now is a 1tb external drive that I could copy to once I delete some stuff, can it be done that way, do you know?
Thanks
Ken

 

It is good to know that Google can’t reach the entire Internet :cry:; btw you can ask them for an explanation :laugh::laugh::laugh: … and don’t take them so seriously . That is why sometimes is good to remember that there are other search engines exist like Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, etc. .

As far as the problem with the system BIOS updates – you are the first with such a problem. Before to update the BIOS you should use a CPU that is supported from the current BIOS, then start the update procedure and after its finish replace the CPU with the Wolfdale’s one. Also if you are using USB flash drive the file system must be FAT16 or use a bootable USB flash drive with FreeDOS (there are a lot information on the web how to do it). The easiest way for me is described on “C90S Unleashed”. I never had your problem, just read and follow the instructions.​

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HDD Cloning
I do know about Norton Ghost and that it is a part from a bootable CD-ROM image file with many tools but I can’t remember the name of the image (Hiren’s or something like that).

You need a detailed answer that someone can give you and probably some examples too. With this kind of software you can destroy your data if you are not careful . Try to read more before use it :wink:!

Here it is a useful video by Charles Germany :thumbsup::

<iframe width='498' height="280" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XEQ-SDCYyl0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>​

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We have two internal MiniPCIe slots in our C90S/P – one for the WiFi card and second one with a location just above the modem. You can use the empty slot to interface the eGPU or better use the external PCIe Express Card Interface :thumbsup your front left slot). USB is not good idea even if you have such opportunity !​

 

Wow Duhai you answered all my questions, you sir are Awesome! Thanks so much, oh by the way the C90P board came today and attempted to test it and I'm already have problems, you remember when I fried my old C90s Veolcity Micro? Well if not just go back to page 90 something of this discussion I think lol, anyway I kept the housing of the old one, and I tried to put the c90P board in it, I connected everything and tried to power up with just a charged battery, but the lights came on and then it went off tried it a couple more times, made sure all the connections were correct, I tried again, same thing, thought maybe the battery was too week, plugged into the adapter, same thing, now err it's possible the adapter wasn't plugged in the cord that goes to the wall, although the battery was charged enough and worked fine in this C90s. What I think is that not only the old C90s board may have blown, but it's possible that the power button wiring or whatever it is that's under there, may have been shorted, who knows maybe the old board is still good, won't know till i can test the old board in one of the working bodies, so now what I need to do is put the C90p in a working body like this one and see if it will work, one thing I noticed different is that the C90p board has jumpers, I'm guessing those are for additional HDD, as I have read somewhere here you can have, I don't suppose not being jumpered could be causing the problem? Oh and I didn't have all the screws in board, could that have affected grounding? tAnyhow later today I will try it in in a working body and see what happens. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Thanks
Ken

Oh I forgot to ask, what's easier to swap mobo, LDC Camera, my guess is the camera? so then which is easier mobo or LCD?
thanks.

 

One free advice – While making first tests with the new motherboard don’t use the battery as a power source!

Before to test your motherboard follow this:
1) Disconnect any power sources AC & DC
2) To keep energy balance – play the next song loudly (Angel’s idea that works for me) :

<iframe width='400' height="300" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l482T0yNkeo?rel=0" frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe>​

3) Fit the mobo and connect all cables with their connectors correctly including the power extended board
4) Check the wall socket for AC current
5) Plug in the power jack from the PSU to the laptop
6) Plug in the PSU to the wall socket
7) Press the laptop’s power button

If there is no juice, then check the:
1) Power Jack – usually loose connection. If you unplug/plug/rotate the jack sometimes it works (solution: replacement).
2) Power Button – usually bad/dirty contacts. If you press the button from its left or right side sometimes it works (solution: replacement).

When you power on the laptop and everything is working then shutdown the baby. Unplug the power jack. Then attach the battery and plug the power jack again. Check if the charger works. Then power on the laptop, run the HWMonitor and check the battery status. After its charging you can try how the baby behaves only on battery. That is it :thumbsup:!

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I can’t remember that C90P mobo has jumpers. Can you post a picture?​

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Don’t play with that what you call jumpers without to be completely aware for their purpose! As far as I remember on C90P there is an interface (headers/SPI) for flashing BIOS.​

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Yes, because the mobo can be misplaced.​

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For me they both are difficult. I prefer to replace the motherboard than the LCD/Camera/Microphones. Be very careful with the lock mechanism of the keyboard connector and that for touchpad (to unlock it should be pull/push up/down the plastic lever).​

 

There is juice it just doesn't stay on, should I try the same body again or should I just try one that I know works with another mobo?
Thanks

 

Did you attach the GPU & CPU heatsinks?
If yes, then try to use 180W PSU. If you don’t have one then use a CPU with the lowest power consumption as Wolfdale’s E7500.

If the situation stays the same then put the mobo in another working laptop for a test as you said!

PS: I thought that you are trying to run the mobo in a laptop that works.

 

I only have a 120W PSU, and I'm testing with 6600 I think, I haven't gotten the upgrades yet
So did I, but I think it may have fried along with the mobo back when I first had that bad PSU issue, like I said in my earlier post.
Thanks

 

Bad news, I tried it just like you said, even played a little AC/DC, by the way one of my favorite classic rock bands, anyway no luck then I swapped boards and put the c90p board in the known good machine, and the C90s board in the old machine and the c90s board and old machine worked, as for the C90p it does the same thing in the good machine, blinks up to about 1- 4 times on the power button when you plug in power, when you push power button the light comes on but no other lights no fans, no HDD except the light bulb symbol guessing that's the power symbol? and when you push the power button to power off it won't, there is nothing wrong with the power button with the c90s board it came with, only way to power down the c90p is to disconnect AC, tried it with battery just to see, and it just goes on and off and the battery should have enough charge., there is a 14 day exchange or return policy, but I don't want to return it if works,according to the seller the board is tested before shipping. So is it possible I missing something, shouldn't it work with an e6600 and 1 gig DDR2 just like the c90s? Could it be the bios doesn't want to recognized the CPU? Maybe this link and post will help shed some light on what's wrong http://www.badcaps.net/forum/printthread.php?t=6033&pp=40 look what it says "I had to swap the processor out with a Celeron 420 that I normally use for testing; the E7200 would not work. The system would not power up with the E7200" So maybe it is the processor? and then there is this as well on there informed me that there is a "control chip" on the motherboard that needs to be changed, a bios upgrade would not fix it, and that I need to send it back to Asus. So he gave me the Asus number. He also informed me that they (C90P laptops) were all defective. Could it be? Someone with a C90p transplant would know.
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

Lets to summarize the things until now:
1) you have two C90S laptops
2) one of them is working at 100%
3) you put the C90P mobo in the working one C90S and it behaves in the same way as in the laptop for which you are not sure that it works correctly
4) you tried in the last configuration with C90P the CPU e6600 without a success

Questions to you:
1) On all your attempts to run C90P did you saw the POST screen?
2) Can you enter the Setup and check out the BIOS version?
3) Can you see on the mobo a label with a BIOS version?

Where is the problem?
1) The problem could be that the CPU is not supported by the current BIOS on C90P
2) The mobo has a defect

How to proceed next?
1) Use a CPU that is supported by currently installed BIOS version. Any desktop Quad CPU for socket 775 should be work. Use that CPU and upgrade the BIOS to version 801 or 803. Then your e6600 should work without a problem including all CPUs which are supported on C90S. The BIOS 801 or 803 solved the problem with the fans speed.
2) If you don’t have a CPU that can be recognized properly from the BIOS then you should flash the BIOS 801 or 803 directly on the mobo using the SPI interface. To do that you’ll need a programmer BIOS device with that interface and another working computer. BTW this is one of the good features of C90P that is missing for C90S
3) Return/Replace your C90P mobo using the 14 days window until it’s available if you are unable to perform some of the previous steps.

The C90P is the best mobo for C90 and all its problems mentioned in the cited thread are solved with BIOS 80x (I can’t remember 801 or 803). I do know this from Angel who has C90P/Q9550S and also told me that there are another two BIOS version after 80x. For more information you can ask him.

Please make two high resolution pictures of your C90P mobo and post them on the WEB if it’s possible.

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Yes if the current BIOS supports that CPU!​

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Definitely!​

Try to check the CPU socket on the mobo for bend pins. Use the highres pictures and zoom to inspect carefully the socket!

 

I will do all that in the meantime I'm going to buy a celeron 420 socket 775, that should cost only about 5 bucks and then I can update the Bios, it's the least expensive route I can go since I don't have anything else to test with and obviously the Bios will not work with E series CPU. Will take photos today, I inspected the sockets visually and didn't see anything, but High Res photos will tell better. I will post as soon as I have some.
Thanks

 

Just make sure the celeron is the older core type and that is likely your cheapest option.

 

Unfortunately I don’t know what is in the supported CPU list of your current BIOS. The Celeron is the logical choice. I hope Asus to think in the same way.​

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It sounds good and probably the pins are OK. When they are damaged/missing/bend it is possible to see with unarmed eye.​

From the pictures we will see the BIOS version if the label is not removed. The original version should be 401(3) and if you find out that version I can tell you which CPUs are in the supported list.

 

Ok I looked for the BIOS Chip but couldn't find one, I am including several High Res photos the first is a 801A BIOS Chip on my old C90s board to establish I know what I'm looking for, next ones are of the C90P CPU pins, just to be sure, and the rest are of the front and back of the C90P board, as you can see not only is there is no BIOS Chip where the C90S one is located, just some other chips, and there is no sign of anything that looks like the BIOS Chip anywhere on the board, any ideas? here is a link to another C90P board from another seller, no BIOS Chip can be found in the same place the C90S one is, are we sure these boards have an upgradable BIOS Chip? So far I can't find a photo online of one that has one.
Thanks


There were 2 more photos but I was limited to 6 to upload here.

Here are some cpus for sale which should I get?
This one looks good

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Celeron-1-6-GHz-512-KB-800-MHz-socket-775-CPU-processor-SL9XP-TESTED/190999816299?


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Celeron-1-6-GHz-512-KB-800-MHz-socket-775-CPU-processor-SL9XP-TESTED/190999816299?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222002%26algo%3DSIC.FIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D163%26meid%3D3355937968054770262%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D1088%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D3%26sd%3D251400134956%26

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251400134956?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181277459748?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

Thanks for the pictures. The C90P definitely has a BIOS chip . I can’t see it too. The EPROM could be somewhere under black insulations screens or it has a different body shape than the one in C90S, which btw is completely normal.

I don’t know which Celeron is better because I haven’t information about supported CPUs in your current BIOS version. For me any quad should be working but according to the price I prefer to buy a programmer. Using the programmer with SPI interface you can flash the BIOS without a CPU.

I have somewhere in my correspondence with Angel the exact model that works. If I remember correctly the price was about $30. It’s chipper than any quad CPUs.

 

I checked under the black insulation screens and except for the one under the CPU socket couldn't check under that one, I found nothing, except what looks like another big IC chip maybe that's it, it says RICOH on it but no version, anyhow for now I will just gamble with one of the celerons I shared with you,I can get for for 5 bucks, the celeron chip looks a lot like the E series chips and if the bios is indeed old, should work in theory anyway I contacted the seller of the board and asked what CPU they used to test, no response yet,I will write again and ask about he BIOS V. Anyway no point in buying a quad if I don't know if it will work, as for the programmer, I'm not very good with those things,

 

The Celeron is the best & cheapest way if it works. The programmer is something like this one but it was without a case, only a PCB. This model is better.

USB MiniPro TL866A Programmer EEPROM SPI FLASH AVR GAL PIC with ICSP Function

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The C90P are equipped with Quad CPUs. The Celeron must be one of the supported CPUs too, but don’t forget that we are dealing with Asus, which makes a lot of messes it the BIOS .

 

Seller of C90P board responded, she said "E2200 or E5700" So what should I make of that? I responded back asking if she knew what the BIOS Version was? Just checked out the programmer, I don't understand what it does, anyhow it's not in my budget right now, owe ecrap 30 bucks in seller fees.

 

It’s a good new because the Intel Pentium Dual-Core SLA8X 2.20GHz /1M/800 Processor E2200 is only $5.

You can check for a better offer.

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Your seller gave you a good answer - the supported CPU. In this case the BIOS version doesn't matter.

 

Ok but what about the CPU I tested with, which I just found it is E 6700 and E 6600 i have both not sure I tested with 6700, shouldn't it work? By the way remember the C90S I couldn't update the BIOS with 1002A? Well I just noticed the chip says 601A could it be it was never updated? I will have to check the boot screen and see, but if it is doesn't the BIOS need to be updated to 801A before it can be updated to 1002A? What do you think about this adapter as a possible temporary solution for Quad, that is if this board is good?
Thanks http://www.ebay.com/itm/Get-a-CHEAP-Intel-Core-2-Quad-CPU-Q9650-Q9550-Q9450-Q9400-Q6700-LGA-771-to-775-/291034546861?pt=CPUs&hash=item43c302c2ad

 

The E6700/E6600 they should work too! According to your test the result is negative. There are two reasons for this result - unsupported CPUs by the system BIOS or a problem with the motherboard. You inspected already the mobo, also I didn’t saw something wrong from the pictures. If you are properly fit the motherboard then the problem left in the BIOS.

As far as C90S you can update the BIOS version from 401/601 to 1002a without problem. BTW I did it in that order. If you have a trouble try from Angel’s site the AFUDOS update utility 2.26 or 2.27 if I remember correctly. It works perfect. On the WEB site there was a description how to deal with the problem.

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You need to program an EEPROM when you have a bad/failed flashing BIOS procedure. In this situation your system is dead. To fix the problem we need to flash the EEPROM chip again using a programmer that can “speak” with the BIOS chip. If this is happed on C90S then we first should to desolder the BIOS chip and then to use a programmer for rewriting the BIOS, followed by a soldering to the mobo. On C90P using the motherboard’s SPI interface we can flash the BIOS directly with the SPI programmer.​

I’ve found very chip programmer with a slow shipping from China. Here it is:
1 Pcs USB USBasp USBISP 3.3V / 5V 51 AVR Downloader Programmer USB ATMEGA8 New

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Your last link for Xeon / 771 and mod of the 775 socket is good finding and very interesting! Don’t forget that Xeon(s) are not officially supported on C90P. The BIOS 801 supports some of them I think … but I am not completely sure.

 

Ok I sort of get it so the SP interface is what I thought were jumpers and that's where the programmer connects to?, Wow that is cheap I bought it, but I don't think it will come in time to test this C90P board, what are my other options? Should I buy the E 2000? Did you see the link I shared about the adapter? I found this video about how it's done. Intel Quad core LGA771 to LGA775 motherboard modding (771 to 775 adapter) - YouTube I wis16h I had checked before buying it from China, seller in U.S. for $4.99 can get it buy the 18th, so now I guess I will have one to resell lol. So do I just buy the programmer and no CPU?

 

If you take the programmer there is no need from another Exxxx CPU. BTW it's cheap and if it's works as seller said then the problem will be solved fast.

As far as these Xeon CPUs they are very slow. There was one model maybe X36xx / 775 / 12 MB cache, which is the best CPU for C90P but it is very hot and not cheap.It fits perfectly in 775.

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Yes, that is it! It was close to the south bridge. The software for the programmer is free.​

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The programmer is better for me, because it can be used in cases where the BIOS flashing failed. Most of the desktop motherboards have the SPI interface too and one programmer is good but two is super good .

 

Ok well I will will buy the one here in U.S. and I have an offer for a 2200 for $3.99 so if they accept I will buy the CPU as well, wait one question, I can flash BIOS on the board without any power to the board?
Thanks

 

Yes! The programmer provides the power to the mobo via the SPI interface. Before to flash you can read & save the original BIOS. The programmer is priceless when you need it. but it's better just to have it as a rescue solution!

 

I understand, is this any good as a guide for flashing? Bios Recovery Procedures I just noticed there is a jumper pin on the programmer, what's that for? Would the programmer software be able to tell me what the current BIOS version is?

 

I saw a time ago in YouTube for another type programmer. For this one I don’t know, but the logic is the same and the software is intuitive. We will deal with this!

There are EEPROMs that required different voltages for erase/writing according to their chip specifications. That’s why you can manually to switch the right voltage via jumpers.

Here it is something interesting:
C90P Troubleshooting Guide (Level 3)

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This thread is a mess and it's not providing useful information abut how to flash a BIOS using the SPI interface.​

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I don’t know, I never used this programmer and its software before. The version is encoded into BIOS and it is readable.​

 

Well that explains it, and yes the troubleshooting guide is interesting too bad it doesn't show the BIOS chip, yes I agree that thread is pretty messed up