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Product warranty or service will not be extended if: (1) the product is repaired, modified or altered, unless such repair, modification of alteration is authorized in writing by ASUS; or (2) the serial number of the product is defaced or missing.
Welcome! ..................1-1 Package contents ................. 1-1 Special features ................1-1 1.3.1 Product highlights ............1-1 1.3.2 Innovative ASUS features ..........1-2 Before you proceed ..............1-4 Motherboard overview ..............1-5 1.5.1 Placement direction ............1-5 1.5.2 Screw holes ..............1-5 1.5.3...
Notices Federal Communications Commission Statement This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: • This device may not cause harmful interference, and • This device must accept any interference received including interference that may cause undesired operation.
Safety information Electrical safety • To prevent electrical shock hazard, disconnect the power cable from the electrical outlet before relocating the system. • When adding or removing devices to or from the system, ensure that the power cables for the devices are unplugged before the signal cables are connected. If possible, disconnect all power cables from the existing system before you add a device.
Refer to the following sources for additional information and for product and software updates. ASUS websites The ASUS website provides updated information on ASUS hardware and software products. Refer to the ASUS contact information. Optional documentation Your product package may include optional documentation, such as warranty flyers, that may have been added by your dealer.
*Due to AMD CPU limitation, DDR2 1066 is supported by AM2+ / AM3 CPUs for one DIMM per channel only. Refer to www.asus.com or this user manual for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists). ** Due to OS limitation, when installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, Windows 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB.
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- ASUS Anti-Surge Protection ASUS Green Design: - ASUS EPU - ASUS AI Nap ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution: - ASUS Fanless Design: Feather heatsink solution - ASUS Q-Fan 2 ASUS EZ DIY - ASUS Express Gate - ASUS Q-Connector - ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 - ASUS O.C.
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- PCIe frequency tuning from 100MHz to 150MHz at 1MHz increment Overclocking protection: - ASUS C.P.R. (CPU Parameter Recall) Rear panel I/O ports 1 x PS/2 keyboard port (purple) 1 x PS/2 mouse port (green) 1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical)
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M4A78 PRO specifications summary BIOS features 8 Mb Flash ROM, AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI 2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0a, ASUS EZ Flash 2 Support DVD contents Drivers Express Gate ASUS PC Probe II ASUS Update AMD OverDrive Utility (AOD)
® The motherboard delivers a host of new features and latest technologies, making it another standout in the long line of ASUS quality motherboards! Before you start installing the motherboard, and hardware devices on it, check the items in your package with the list below.
Innovative ASUS features ASUS Power Solution ASUS 4+1 Phase Power Design To fully unleash the next-generation AM3 CPU’s potential, ASUS M4A78 PRO motherboard has adopted a brand-new 4-phase VRM power design. It delivers high power efficiency and supreme overclocking ability.
O.C. settings in different scenarios. ASUS Turbo Key ASUS Turbo Key allows the user to turn the PC power button into a physical overclocking button. After the easy setup, Turbo Key can boost performances without interrupting ongoing work or games—with just one...
ON, in sleep mode, or in soft-off mode. This is a reminder that you should shut down the system and unplug the power cable before removing or plugging in any motherboard component. The illustration below shows the location of the onboard LED. ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Motherboard overview 1.5.1 Placement direction When installing the motherboard, ensure that you place it into the chassis in the correct orientation. The edge with external ports goes to the rear part of the chassis as indicated in the image below. 1.5.2 Screw holes Place nine (9) screws into the holes indicated by circles to secure the motherboard to the...
Central Processing Unit (CPU) The motherboard comes with a CPU socket designed for AMD AM3 Phenom™ II / ® Athlon™ X4 / Athlon™ X3 / Athlon™ X2 processors and AM2+ / AM2 Phenom™ X4 / Phenom™ X3 / Athlon™ X2 / Athlon™ / Sempron™ processors. The CPU socket is not compatible with AMD Opteron™...
• If you purchased a separate CPU heatsink and fan assembly, ensure that a Thermal Interface Material is properly applied to the CPU heatsink or CPU before you install the heatsink and fan assembly. CPU Fan CPU Heatsink Retention bracket Retention Module Base Retention bracket lock ASUS M4A78 PRO...
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Your boxed CPU heatsink and fan assembly should come with installation instructions for the CPU, heatsink, and the retention mechanism. If the instructions in this section do not match the CPU documentation, follow the latter. Attach one end of the retention bracket to the retention module base. Align the other end of the retention bracket to the retention module base.
• For system stability, use a more efficient memory cooling system to support a full memory load (4 DIMMs) or overclocking condition. 1-10 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Dual-channel memory configuration. • C*: Supports four modules inserted into both the yellow slots and the black slots as two pairs of Dual-channel memory configuration. Visit the ASUS website for the latest QVL. 1.7.3 Installing a DIMM Unplug the power supply before adding or removing DIMMs or other system components.
This motherboard supports PCI Express x1 network cards, SCSI cards, and other cards that comply with the PCI Express specifications. 1.8.5 PCI Express x16 slot This motherboard supports a PCI Express x16 graphics card that complies with the PCI Express specifications. 1-16 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Jumpers Clear RTC RAM (CLRTC) This jumper allows you to clear the Real Time Clock (RTC) RAM in CMOS. You can clear the CMOS memory of date, time, and system setup parameters by erasing the CMOS RTC RAM data. The onboard button cell battery powers the RAM data in CMOS, which include system setup information such as system passwords.
CPU, DRAM in slow refresh, power supply in reduced power mode). The USBPW1-4 jumpers are for the rear USB ports. The USBPW5-8 and USBPW9-12 jumpers are for the internal USB connectors that you connect to additional USB ports. 1-18 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
1.10 Connectors 1.10.1 Rear panel connectors PS/2 mouse port. This port is for a PS/2 mouse. Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) port This 15-pin port is for a VGA monitor or other VGA-compatible devices. LAN (RJ-45) port. This port allows Gigabit connection to a Local Area Network (LAN) through a network hub.
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® software (not supporting video acceleration) Best resolution File format Windows XP Windows Vista Non-protected clips 1920 x 1080p 1920 x 1080p HD-DVD 1920 x 1080p 1280 x 1080p Blu-Ray 1280 x 1080p 1280 x 1080p 1-20 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
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Troubleshooting on HDTV overscaling or underscaling: If your desktop is extending beyond the viewable display area or the desktop or image is not filling the entire display area while using the onboard HDMI out port and the HDMI cable, you can resize the desktop appearing on your HDTV screen.
These are not jumpers! DO NOT place jumper caps on the fan connectors. Only the CPU_FAN and CHA_FAN1 connectors support the ASUS Q FAN 2 feature. Chassis intrusion connector (4-1 pin CHASSIS) This connector is for a chassis-mounted intrusion detection sensor or switch. Connect one end of the chassis intrusion sensor or switch cable to this connector.
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The system may become unstable or may not boot up if the power is inadequate. • If you are uncertain about the minimum power supply requirement for your system, refer to the Recommended Power Supply Wattage Calculator at http://support.asus. com/PowerSupplyCalculator/PSCalculator.aspx?SLanguage=en-us for details. Chapter 1: Product introduction...
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This prevents incorrect insertion when you connect the IDE cable. • Use the 80-conductor IDE cable for Ultra DMA 133/100/66 IDE devices. If any device jumper is set as “Cable-Select”, ensure that all other device jumpers have the same setting. 1-24 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Serial ATA connectors (7-pin SATA1-6) These connectors are for the Serial ATA signal cables for Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard disk and optical disk drives. The Serial ATA 3Gb/s is backward compatible with Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s specification. The data transfer rate of the Serial ATA 3Gb/s is faster than the standard parallel ATA with 133 MB/s (Ultra DMA133).
BIOS settings. Pressing the power switch for more than four seconds while the system is ON turns the system OFF. Reset button (2-pin RESET) • This 2-pin connector is for the chassis-mounted reset button for system reboot without turning off the system power. 1-26 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
USB connectors (10-1 pin USB56, USB78, USB910, USB1112) These connectors are for USB 2.0 ports. Connect the USB module cable to any of these connectors, then install the module to a slot opening at the back of the system chassis. These USB connectors comply with USB 2.0 specification that supports up to 480 Mbps connection speed.
This connector allows you to receive stereo audio input from sound sources such as a CD-ROM, TV tuner, or MPEG card. Digital audio connector (4-1 pin SPDIF_OUT) This connector is for an additional Sony/Philips Digital Interface (S/PDIF) ports. The S/PDIF module is purchased separately. 1-28 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Front panel audio connector (10-1 pin AAFP) This connector is for a chassis-mounted front panel audio I/O module that supports either High Definition Audio or AC`97 audio standard. Connect one end of the front panel audio I/O module cable to this connector. •...
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ASUS Q-Connector (system panel) You can use the ASUS Q-Connector to connect/disconnect chassis front panel cables in a few steps. Refer to the instructions below to install the ASUS Q-Connector. Connect the front panel cables to the ASUS Q-Connector. Refer to the labels on the Q-Connector to...
ASUS website at www.asus.com for updates. • For detailed software instructions, see the Manual menu in the Support DVD or download the latest software manual from the ASUS website at www.asus.com. To run the Support DVD Place the Support DVD to the optical drive. The DVD automatically displays the Drivers menu if Autorun is enabled in your computer.
Save a copy of the original motherboard BIOS file to a bootable floppy disk or a USB flash disk in case you need to restore the BIOS in the future. Copy the original motherboard BIOS using the ASUS Update or AFUDOS utilities. 2.1.1...
2.1.2 ASUS Update utility The ASUS Update is a utility that allows you to manage, save, and update the motherboard BIOS in Windows environment. ® • ASUS Update requires an Internet connection either through a network or an Internet Service Provider (ISP).
2.1.3 ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility The ASUS EZ Flash 2 feature allows you to update the BIOS without having to use a bootable floppy disk or a DOS-based utility. Download the latest BIOS file from the ASUS website at www.asus.com.
• Obtain the AFUDOS utility (afudos.exe) from the bundled support DVD and the latest BIOS file from the ASUS website at www.asus.com. • We recommend that you write the BIOS filename on a piece of paper. You will need to key in the exact BIOS filename at the DOS prompt later.
2.1.5 ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 utility The ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 is an auto recovery tool that allows you to restore the BIOS file when it fails or gets corrupted during the updating process. You can update a corrupted BIOS file using the motherboard support DVD, a floppy disk, or a USB flash disk that contains the updated BIOS file.
• The BIOS setup screens shown in this section are for reference purposes only, and may not exactly match what you see on your screen. • Visit the ASUS website at www.asus.com to download the latest BIOS file for this motherboard.
• The BIOS setup screens shown in this chapter are for reference purposes only, and may not exactly match what you see on your screen. • Visit the ASUS website at www.asus.com to download the latest BIOS information. Chapter 2: BIOS setup...
General Help F10 Save and Exit ESC Exit fit on the screen. Press the <Up> / <Down> v02.61 (C)Copyright 1985-2008, American Megatrends, Inc. arrow keys or <Page Up> /<Page Down> keys Scroll bar to display the other items on the screen. Pop-up window ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Main menu When you enter the BIOS Setup program, the Main menu screen appears, giving you an overview of the basic system information. Refer to section 2.2.1 BIOS menu screen for information on the menu screen items and how to navigate through them. BIOS SETUP UTILITY Main Ai Tweaker Advanced Power Boot Tools Exit System Time...
When set to [Disabled], the data transfer from and to the device occurs one sector at a time. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Auto] PIO Mode [Auto] Selects the PIO mode. Configuration options: [Auto] [0] [1] [2] [3] [4] 2-10 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
DMA Mode [Auto] Selects the DMA mode. Configuration options: [Auto] SMART Monitoring [Auto] Sets the Smart Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology. Configuration options: [Auto] [Disabled] [Enabled] 32Bit Data Transfer [Enabled] Enables or disables 32-bit data transfer. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] 2.3.6 Storage Configuration This menu allows you to configure the SATA devices.
Use the <+> and <-> keys to adjust the PCIE frequency. You can also type the desired PCIE frequency using the numeric keypad. The values range from 100 to 150. 2.4.2 DRAM Frequency Control [Auto] Allows you to select the DRAM frequency control method. Configuration options: [Auto] [Manual] 2-12 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
DRAM Frequency [667MHz] This item appears only when you set the Dram Frequency Control item to [Manual] and allows you to manually set the Dram frequency. Configuration options: [667MHz] [800MHz] [1067MHz] CPU/NB Frequency [Auto] This item appears only when you set the AI Overclocking item to [Manual] and allows selection of the CPU frequency multiplier.
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Configuration options: [Auto] [DCT 0] [DCT 1] [Both] The following sub-items appear only when you set the DCT0/DCT1 Strength Config. item to [DCT 0] or [Both]. DCT0:CKE drive strength. [Auto] Configuration options: [Auto] [1x] [1.25x] [1.5x] [2x] 2-14 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Set to [Disabled] to enhance PCIE overclocking ability or [Enabled] for EMI control. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] 2.4.14 SB Clock Spread Spectrum [Disabled] We recommend that you leave this item to its default setting for system stability. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] 2-16 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
Advanced menu The Advanced menu items allow you to change the settings for the CPU and other system devices. Be cautious when changing the settings of the Advanced menu items. Incorrect field values can cause the system to malfunction. BIOS SETUP UTILITY Main Ai Tweaker Advanced Power Boot Tools Exit CPU Configuration Configure CPU.
RS780 Configuration Internal Graphics Configuration This menu allows you to change the onboard graphics configuration settings. Select an item then press <Enter> to display the sub-menu. Internal Graphics Mode [UMA] Allows you to set the frame buffer location for the onboard GPU. Configuration options: [Disable] [UMA] UMA Frame Buffer Size [Auto] This item appears only when you set the Internal Graphics Mode item to [UMA].
Onboard LAN Boot ROM [Disabled] Allows you to enable or disable the onboard LAN Boot ROM. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] Serial Port1 Address [3F8/IRQ4] Allows you to select the Serial Port1 base address. Configuration options: [Disabled] [3F8/IRQ4][2F8/IRQ3] [3E8/IRQ4] [2E8/IRQ3] 2-20 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
2.5.4 USB Configuration The items in this menu allows you to change the USB-related features. Select an item then press <Enter> to display the configuration options. The Module Version and USB Devices Enabled items show the auto-detected values. If no USB device is detected, the item shows None. USB Support [Enable] Allows you to enable or disable the USB Functions.
Allows you to enable or disable RTC to generate a wake event. When this item is set to [Enabled], the items RTC Alarm Date and RTC Alarm Time appear with set values. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] 2-22 ASUS M4A78 PRO...
2.6.6 Hardware Monitor CPU/MB Temperature [xxxºC/xxxºF] The onboard hardware monitor automatically detects and displays the motherboard and CPU temperatures. Select [Ignored] if you do not wish to display the detected temperatures. CPU Fan / Chassis Fan 1 / Power Fan Speed [xxxxRPM] or [Ignored] The onboard hardware monitor automatically detects and displays the CPU, chassis, and power fan speed in rotations per minute (RPM).
This allows you to enable or disable the full screen logo display feature. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] Set this item to [Enabled] to use the ASUS MyLogo 2™ feature. AddOn ROM Display Mode [Force BIOS] Sets the display mode for option ROM.
Hit ‘DEL’ Message Display [Enabled] When set to [Enabled], the system displays the message Press DEL to run Setup during POST. Configuration options: [Disabled] [Enabled] 2.7.3 Security The Security menu items allow you to change the system security settings. Select an item then press <Enter>...
2.8.1 ASUS EZ Flash 2 Allows you to run ASUS EZ Flash 2. When you press <OK>, a confirmation message appears. Use the left/right arrow key to select between [Yes] or [No], then press <OK> to confirm your choice.
The first time wizard will run again when you enter the Express Gate environment after clearing its settings. 2.8.3 ASUS O.C. Profile This item allows you to store or load multiple BIOS settings. Add Your CMOS Profile. Allows you to save the current BIOS file to the BIOS Flash. In the Name sub-item, type your profile name and press <Enter>, and then choose a profile number to save your CMOS...
When you select this option or if you press <F5>, a confirmation window appears. Select OK to load default values. Select Exit & Save Changes or make other changes before saving the values to the non-volatile RAM. 2-28 ASUS M4A78 PRO...