Radified User's Guide for the Asus CUSL2

Page 4

* Disabled both Serial Ports 1 + 2 in the bios (under I/O Device Configuration) if you don't use the serial ports (I have Cable modem/NIC). If you have a dial-up connection, you'll need to leave at least one enabled.

* Check setting for Primary VGA (under PCI Configuration in mobo BIOS). It should be set to AGP Card if you have one. 

* (updated 10/14) Heard rumors of probs running PC133 RAM in *all* (3) RAM slots. I use all three slots (128+128+256MB) at 133MHz. No problems. Some claim PC133 ram will run at PC100 speeds when you fill all 3 slots. Do you remember the embarrassing problems Intel had with a 3rd RAM slot/stick on their 820 chipset mobos? Some parts of the 815e chipset may be derived from the 820, which may introduce similar probs (?). 

* I heard that Asus did some special stuff to the board to be able to get all 3 RAM slots to run at PC133. 

* So 256MB sticks of RAM would probably be a better idea than 128MB sticks. Many say they run 3 sticks of PC133 just fine. But the chipset itself may be the source of these probs, cuz the review Anandtech did here, says ALL 815e boards had probs when all 3 RAM slots were filled (except the CUSL2!). Cicada says the prob stems from a limitation of the Intel chipset, involving signal-to-noise ratios (that's what I heard, too).

* Seems that Mushkin, Crucial, and perhaps other memory/RAM manufacturers, sometimes set the SPD on their 2-2-2 RAM to default at 3-3-3. They do this for reasons listed here. Bottom line is that you might need to go into the BIOS & manually set your CAS2 RAM (if you have CAS2 RAM) to 2-2-2. I know this is true for the Mushkin rev1.5 sticks, but I think the SPD for rev2 is set to 2-2-2 by default. Mushkin says they will set the SPD on their new rev3 sticks to 2-2-2. 

*The board max'es out at 512MB RAM - so, again, a 256MB stick might not be a bad idea (3 x 128 = 384, which is <512).

updated 10/24 - Page 28 of the (original) manual details IRQ assignments. I originally thought that PCI slot 2 was the only slot *not* shared, but UncleJoe informs me that PCI slot 6 is also not shared. It *says* shared, but lists no other devices shared with it. I put my SCSI adapter (Tekram DC390-U2W) in PCI slot #2, cuz 2 doesn't share. UncleJoe says it would be better in PCI slot #1, cuz there it would receive PCI priority mode (whatever that is). PCI slot 1 shares with slot 5. UncleJoe advises simply not to use PCI slot 5, which I don't (no need yet). 

PCI slot 3 shares with the 2nd USB controller. I disable the 2nd USB controller in the device manager. This made some problems go away for me. If you have probs with the device you have in your 3rd PCI slot, I would try disabling the 2nd USB controller, and see what happen. Other people seem to eliminated serious conflicts/probs by disabling the 2nd USB controller (in Windows Device Manager). 

* Disable both AC97 onboard sound & video (in mobo bios, under I/O Device Configuration) if you're not using them. Default is Auto. 

* I had problems getting my Golden Orb heatsink/fan to fit properly. There's a group of about 7 tall capacitor caps near the socket 370, which got in my way. Others say they mounted the Gorb with no problems, but I had to bust out a metal file, and file off about 3/8ths-inch off the Gorb. It's aluminum and files easily. 

I also had to use a lot of torque (twisting force) to lock the Gorb in place. I was almost going to give up on it (not wanting to break/snap something), then, tried once last time, and it locked in place. Others have complained of problems mounting the Gorb. A few sent emails saying they had the same prob. Some said they installed their Gorb without any probs, but I'd find another heatsink solution for the CUSL2. 

* The Gorb cooled only marginally better than the Intel supplied Retail heatsink & fan (2 or 3 degrees F). The big boys & serious overclockers are using Alpha heatsinks, but they're not cheap. If your 100Mhz FSB CPU is *almost* stable at 133, may wanna try an Alpha for max cooling/stability. Many are getting there with stock Intel heatsink/fan.

* 133 FSB runs at 134MHz. This is normal. A P3-700 set to 133 (really 134) will run the CPU at 938 as per both Motherboard Monitor & CPUID [not 933 like you may expect - bank error in your favor =) ]. 

* Leave Plug & Play OS set to No, even tho Windows is a Plug-n-Play operating system - especially if you use W2K. Microsoft recommends this here. Had probs when I set PNP OS to Yes.

* Notice also that MS says IRQ9 will get lots of work in W2K. I have 5 or 6 things assigned to IRQ 9 in W2K. This is normal & I have no problems with this - altho UncleJoe says it's far from optimal for performance users, especially gamers. Personally, I don't game in Win2K (that's what I have WinME for). 

* I disable SB16 support for my soundcard in the device manager of WinME. You will lose DOS sound, but this saves an IRQ & resolves problems for more than a few folks. I don't have any apps/games that need/use DOS sound - never had. Update -> seems that there are still many DOS gamers out there. Got a bunch of notes saying, "Rad, lots of us still play DOS games & there's a fix for the SB16 emulation prob" I think this is the fix, as posted by Johnnie:

Go into:
System Properties -> Device manager
open Creative Misc Devices
then on SB16 Emulation
Click on LPT Port Sharing.
WindowsME doesn't have this enabled by default, but enabling this will fix all problems

Creative has released new driver for WinME, but I read of conflicts with new drivers and probs with 'hibernate' function. Best to check before installing. 

If you set the User or Supervisor passwords in the BIOS (I don't), and forget them, page 57 of the manual details how to shunt the jumpers to erase the CMOS real-time clock RAM (RTC-RAM), and reset the passwords. Thanks to Leo Burkey for pointing that out. He flashed his BIOS & couldn't boot afterwards. Didn't load set-up defaults. No clear reason why no bootage. 

Update: Leo wrote back to say the reason he had probs flashing is that he didn't unzip the BIOS file. Yes, you need to unzip the (compressed) BIOS first Apparently the Aflash utility gives a message Bios successfully flashed, when using the zip file, but then users get problems. Leo said there's quite a few who have made this mistake. 

If I had probs after flashing, that I couldn't resolve, I would try pulling the power cord from the PSU, and yanking the lithium battery - about the size of a dime. Legend says that, if you kiss it (the battery) for good luck, your PC will work on the next boot. Don't forget to disconnect and (later) re-connect the power cord to the PSU. This has work for me once, on an Abit board. I have not had to yank the battery on the CUSL2 (knocks on wood). There's a site named badflash.com where you can get a new BIOS quickly sent to you. See here. 

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