jmke

We're not sure if our situation is unique, but that statement above relates to the fact that all three of our boards refuse to cold or stop-cycle-boot without pressing the "Force Reset" button. Once the board is running, we can apply changes to BCLK reference clocks as long as we don't change major parameters such as clock multipliers. Foxconn's manual states that use of this button resets the system and tunes the board to perform optimally with your components. We think it's primary use is related to boot up memory module read/write leveling performed by the IMC to sense module density/capacitive loads and apply clock/data skew table algorithms and/or a simple reset of all IRQ assignments. This is something that usually happens during the black screen period of the boot cycle on other boards.

As an override, the idea is sound as those of us who push components find ourselves frequently going through complete power cycles to bring boards back to boot. For us though, our boards refuse to function properly without it. Regardless of stock speeds, moderate overclocks, or the more out-on-a-limb stuff, we need to press this button every time to get the board to fire up from a change to a related BIOS function. In order to overcome this we tried PSU swaps and five brands of memory using various ICs and attendant SPDs. A BIOS update should easily fix this problem if the boot cycle configuration is moved back into automated hands. We've alerted Foxconn to this and hope to hear back from them soon. If you happen to stumble across a combination of parts that results in this scenario, you'll need to keep the side panel off your PC case. However, if you run your motherboards out of a case -- as most benchmarking fanatics do -- this probably won't bother you.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3489&p=1

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