Updated – Microsoft has officially released the new 64 bit version of windows. This has been available in Beta for well over a year to allow software and hardware manufacturers to be ready for the release.Upon the official release of MS x64, I purchased a new Asus laptop with an athlon64 processor so I could begin my own testing and review of the new OS. Our developers have run this OS for over year. It turns out that the Asus laptops with the AMD 64 bit processors do not support windows x64.
The issue is with a setting (or lack of) in the BIOS for APIC, the Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller. The Windows x64 install dies immediately. Here is the direct quote from Asus tech support: “Hi, This model is not supporting 64bit based operating system even though the CPU is 64bit-ready.”
The Asus web page did not say these new 64 bit laptops do not support Windows x64. Misleading at best. Who’s bug is this, Microsoft, AMD, or Asus ? In researching my processor of choice to run x64, I overlooked the in depth research of the specific Notebook manufacturer. Winxp32 bit does run well on the Z80k if that is all you ask of it. Asus tech support would not say if or when we could expect a bios upgrade to cure the issue.
In the meantime, it seems that Linux works well on most AMD64 machines and yahoo just posted a similar article: “Head to Head: Linux vs. Windows on 64-Bit Chips“.
Update: “Z80K is not supporting 64 bit windows and no plan to make it supporting in the near future”, Asus replied for the z8000k laptop. Other brands don’t have the problem.
UPDATE May 25th 2005: Asus just emailed us and told us that a BIOS update is currently in testing. Windows 64bit will be eventually supported in these laptops.
I have a Gateway 7405GX laptop (AMD64) that I got for Christmas. I installed and used Solaris 10 Beta, Fedora Core, and Windows XP 64-bit Beta with no problems. Unless Asus does something unique with their laptops that Gateway, eMachines, and Acer doesn’t, it should work.
ASUS took almost a year to correct the ACPI BIOS bugs it had in the M6N. Here’s hoping they’re a little more forthcoming with your fix.
I’ve had nothing but problems using Asus for my desktop machines. I’m with mint on this one, hope they have a BIOS fix for this sooner than in the past.
With Windows XP x64 edition, will your software work if you upgrade to the Longhorn 64-bit edition? I know that there are emulation capabilities in Windows but I remember the mess that I went through upgrading from Windows 98 to XP. My antivirus stopped working as well as my CD burning software. As did more than a few games (even in Win98 emulation mode, they wouldn’t work.)
I get the feeling that Windows XP x64 will be what Windows ME was a few years ago. I will probably not try to upgrade to any 64 bit version until SP1 comes out for Longhorn. That said, I think that once MS has gone through its 64-bit growing pains, it wont be too bad.
everybody seems to be following the 64bit hype even though they aren’t gonna run anything else than winXP (32bit) – which makes me feel like: do they have too much money? do they feel better with a 64bit cpu? sure they may be fast on 32bit too but that’s not what they were primarily meant for, isn’t it?
i may be upgrading to a G5 (from G4) but then i’ll do take advantage of the 64bit CPU by running gentoo.
Oh the irony! It used to be that hardware support for Linux sucked, right?
So this is a broken product to avoid then? Good information thanks
Well, Windows definitely won the OS wars in the 32-bit world, but the jury is still out on 64 bit. Now we’ll get a chance to see what the open-source community is made of. If Linux can manage to stay ahead of Windows for the next few years on 64 bit, and Linux becomes synonomous with 64 bit then MS will lose its monopoly.
Then Linux can become the monopoly…
The Athlon 64/Opteron line of chips are good, even if you don’t use the 64 bit features. The integrated memory controller and large cache make them good performers. Moving to 64 bits just enables the 8 extra general purpose registers and add more icing to the cake.
My A7N8X Deluxe (even after applying 4 BIOS patches – started at 1003 am now on 1007) can’t reliably operate it’s IDE interfaces without hard-locking. Attempting to rip a DVD results in a hard-lock every time (yes i’ve tried disabling APIC, ACPI, setting disk parameters with hdparm, ensuring the NForce 2 IDE driver is loaded, running memtest etc. etc.), and previous BIOS revisions produced massive disk corruption on SATA disks as well.
ASUS’s products are junk, so this should come as no surprise.
Then Linux can become the monopoly…
Hehe. No matter how many times I hear it, that always makes me laugh
its amd64 not x64!!!!
My A7N8X Deluxe (even after applying 4 BIOS patches – started at 1003 am now on 1007) can’t reliably operate it’s IDE interfaces without hard-locking. Attempting to rip a DVD results in a hard-lock every time (yes i’ve tried disabling APIC, ACPI, setting disk parameters with hdparm, ensuring the NForce 2 IDE driver is loaded, running memtest etc. etc.), and previous BIOS revisions produced massive disk corruption on SATA disks as well.
Perhaps its the relatively new Nvidia chipset? My VIA chipset based MOBO(Abit) is rock solid with the AMD64. VIA has been at it a lot longer then Nvidia and i would guess they know how better to integrate the embedded IDE controllers.
NForce 2 is ‘relatively new’? please. And i dont care how new or old the chipset is, they shouldnt be selling the board if it doesnt work.
I had the same problem. I mailed them when the first public beta of windows 64-bit was out. I just wanted to try it. But they told me they don’t support experimentel software.
Doesn’t matter, I’m running linux on it anyway, without any problems.
Microsoft is the only one using the contrived ‘x64’ nomenclature. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. AMD originally called the architecture AMD64 since they came up with it, but now it is generally referred to as x86-64 meaning it is based on the x86 architecture but with 64-bit additions. Intel uses the EMT64 nomenclature on their chips to emphasize the additional memory addressing space, but not speed improvements, etc… with the architecture. Internally and development-wise, Intel uses IA-32e to refer to the architecture.
I think they should have just called it Windows XP64 or Windows XP 64-bit Edition, instead of this stupid x64 garbage.
It seems to me that x86-64 has picked up the IEEE1394 name game.
Zeke is right. The correct nomenclature for 64-bits on the x86 platform is x86-64. All the other designations are skewed for marketing reasons etc.
AMD64 = AMD marketing
EMT64 = Intel marketing
x64 = $tupid.
as it stands right now Linux purely has the edge on microsoft in the 64 bit world…. I run full 64 bit minus about 3 apps on my linux box (and i must add…. it is a significant performance increase over 32bit with most apps on the same box).
that being said, who knows a year or 2 down the road microsoft could be a hube player in the 64 bit world once they finally start to get software that takes advantage of 64 bit
however, right now… linux has the edge, has the software, has the ball in it’s field….
here is the latest Asus comment quoted to the T, bad spelling and all “Hi:Z80K is not supporting 64 bit windows and no paln to make it supporting in the near future.” I spoke with AMD today about this, they are not happy about this issue as it reflects badly on them. Why does asus use and sell athlon64 in their laptops and recommend windows xp but then not be xp 64 bit compliant?! We have amd opterons and athlon64’s running the new XP and server 03 and both are great. why do i want the new os ? Why not? why dont I want to still run windows 98 ? It’s just progress, and right now it’s just the point of it !
My issues with the hdd locking up have mostly disappeared after adding the following to grub’s kernel options:
pci=usepirqmask
“EMT64 = Intel marketing ”
its EM64T not EMT64
Hi just to comment I think it utterly disgusting of Asus not supporting their user base. I have had the same problem with my Laptop. Also had the AMD64. I bought specially to run Windows XP x64. On the box or features no mention was made that it does not run Windows XP x64. But soon after trying to install Windows XP x64, I noted the problem. Asus was reluctant to give any answer or solution. Linux 64bit distributions works well. If Linux works why not Windows? Should Microsoft change the check for Asus machines? I don’t think so, because it works well on other machines. Asus tried to catch the market and did not ensure that their products were ready for Windows XP x64. Stupid to say the least. I was so disappointed with the laptop, which was my 4th Asus laptop (I trusted the brand), that I returned it to the store and asked for a refund. I will never by a Asus laptop again! Just out of principal.
i have also a Asus L5D AMD64, and i got the same problem with WinXP64 ! installation Impossible !
I have successfully installed Kubuntu for AMD64 on it !
Maybe ASUS run for Linux now ….
Just because your board breaks doesn’t mean anyone elses does… Asus are the biggest producers of motherboards in the world for a reason…
Hardware is touch and go, it doesn’t always work… Return it and get a new one.
Asus sent me a snap shot of the web page and circled “we recommend Windows XP Pro” and explained to me that this in now way implies that their 64 bit systems will run windows XP pro 64 bit ?? Maybe they could hire Titan or MSI to write a bios code for them, since everyone elso has done their homework. Maybe Asus didn’t know that AMD designed the 64 bit processors for the 64 bit OS’s ?
You should have done your homework before purchasing a *clearly* inferior laptop
Caveat… when you’re right, you’re right.
inferior?!?! HAHAHA
This bad boy may not run x64, but find me another laptop w/ a high resolution screen, ati 9700, an amd64 and all the other features this bad boy packs and for $1100 we’ll see who’s laptop is inferior…
My A7N8X Deluxe rips DVDs just fine over its IDE bus (from a Sony DRU-500a).
*My A7N8X Deluxe rips DVDs just fine over its IDE bus (from a Sony DRU-500a). *
My DVD-RW works fine also, have the 1.4 version of the board with the latest bios and I have never had a single problem with it. I have used every bios version without a problem, ATA and SATA drives happily co-exist and My DVDRW works as advertised in every way. I also have the Sony DRU-500a.
Why shouldn’t it be AMD64? Don’t we still refer to various software distributions as i386, i686, or ia32? In case you forgot, that “i” stands for Intel. If we have no problem calling a whole class of software i686, we should have no problem calling another whole class AMD64.
Because that was our own fault in letting “marketing speak” slip through. x86 software is still called x86. It never changed. Now these 64-bits are just extensions to this established x86 nomenclature. Therefor: x86-64. It’s simple to understand, clear cut and concise. What more can you ask for?
I got an Acer Aspire T140 desktop about 6 weeks ago and it’s got an Athlon 64 3200+ in it. Let’s just say I’m “lucky” that I know that the magic incantation of “pci=noacpi noapic” on the end of the kernel boot line allows me to run Linux, otherwise I’d have no chance (yes, even Fedora Core 4 Test 3 won’t run without those params and neither does *any* Linux distro out there – I’ve tried about a dozen). The BIOS for this nForce 4-based desktop doesn’t let you tweak the APIC settings from what I can see.
As for Win XP 64-bit, I had the last publicly downloadable version to try out and it did indeed install, but – like 32-bit XP (with SP2) on the same machine – it didn’t recognise the NForce 4’s motherboard ethernet or audio. Yes, you can download an NForce 4 driver from http://www.nvidia.com, er, no, not without a working ethernet device you can’t 🙂 Ended up using Fedora Core 3 to download it and burn it to DVD to use in Win XP – somewhat ironic that Linux supports the Nforce 4 far better than 32-bit or 64-bit XP does!
I have an Acer Aspire 1501wlmi (AMD XP64@3000), i’ve been using windows x64 for about 3 weeks, and i’ve got only two problems: the winbond media card reader doesn’t have drivers…
And still no way of changing the extra keyboard keys behaviour.
Contacting Acer, they we’re no help saying they ALWAYS had the most upto date drivers on their ftp (strangly no x64 drivers for any model).I contacted winbond, and they sayed acer didn’t even ask them to make the x64 driver…
🙁
Yeah, well Acer is total crap. Everyone knows that by now. If you’re looking for a truly magnificent laptop, Alienware is the way to go. 🙂
Someone should write a petition to asus and link to it on this forum. This is the first thing that comes up when you search for asus windows x64 and z80k.
Keep the pressue on. go to the Asus site and send in an email to all the support sites world wide requesting a bios fix for their misleading problem. they built a 64 bit laptop, and recomend xp pro on their website but the laptop doesn’t run 64 bit xp pro ! what’s up with that ?!