Hi Lynard,

Thank you for fielding my questions today.  Here is a summary of my findings with the F3SV for you to forward to your engineering team in Taiwan.  You help is much appreciated:

With 4GB installed any Windows, Linux or FreeBSD OS other than Vista x64 reports a conflict with:

Mobile Intel PM965/GM965/GL960 Express PCI Express Root Port - 2A01
Input/Output Range 03B0 - 03BB used by:
Mobile Intel® PM965/GM965/GL960 Express PCI Express Root Port - 2A01
Input/Output Range 03C0 - 03DF used by:
Mobile Intel® PM965/GM965/GL960 Express PCI Express Root Port - 2A01
Memory Range 000A0000 - 000BFFFF used by:
Mobile Intel® PM965/GM965/GL960 Express PCI Express Root Port - 2A01

Effectively Windows puts in the VGASAVE driver/service because it doesn't know what else to do.  The only way I can get close to getting around this is to disable the ICH8-M that is conflicting in the BIOS (which I don't view as a workaround).  I have worked through Microsoft's PAE recommendations (BOOT.INI command line options) without any success.  PAE is also not recommended by nVidia.

On my preferred platform (Linux) with the latest 64-bit Kernel I was able to see a little bit more about what is going on:

PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 9 of bridge 0000:00:01.0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 1 of device 0000:01:00.0
mtrr: type mismatch for fbc00000,200000 old: write-back new: write-combining
mtrr: type mismatch for fb800000,400000 old: write-back new: write-combining
mtrr: type mismatch for fb000000,800000 old: write-back new: write-combining

lspci  (00:01.0 is a PCIE bridge for 01:00.0)

-[0000:00]-+-00.0
           +-01.0-[0000:01]----00.0


     Code:

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PCI Express Root Port (rev 03) I/O behind bridge: 00009000-00009fff Memory behind bridge: f7e00000-fdefffff Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000040000000-000000004fffffff


Code:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation 0407 (rev a1) Region 0: Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M] ok! Region 1: Memory at 140000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M] WTF? Region 3: Memory at fa000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M] ok! Region 5: I/O ports at 9c00 [size=128] ok!

Problem:

The bridge has "Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 0000000040000000-000000004fffffff",
The card has it at Region 1: Memory at 140000000 (64-bit, prefetchable)

I think ASUS should provide a BIOS option for proper memory remapping when using a true 64-bit platform.  Actually a limited release BIOS with an advanced feature set (like the wonderful BIOS's on your desktop boards) would be a very welcome addition!

The only way I can an OS other than Vista x64 to install is to remove some of my RAM.  Other laptop manufacturers that have built on the PM965 platform have released updated BIOS's with the needed functionality to get around this issue.  I've been patiently waiting for this to be resolved.  ASUS has always been a technology leader, and I am baffled why this issue has not been resolved.  There are a lot of disappointed users out there right now.  Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful laptop, but I bought it with the intentions of using 4GB of RAM (as advertised).  Please work with me to fix this issue.

I have included a link to Intel's PM965 product documentation.  Startin on page 43, and more specifically page 44, I think you will find information that addresses some of the design suggestions.

http://download.intel.com/design/mobile/datashts/31627303.pdf

Hopefully I have provided enough data for ASUS to work towards a solution.

-----------------

A separate issue that may provide a temporary workaround for me on the Windows side- Does ASUS have a XP 64-bit ATK0100 driver for ACPI?

Thank you,

Jason Hersey
Senior Network/Systems Engineer
NetAccess Systems Inc.