Asus P8Z68-V Pro Gen 3 Owners - Did you install the new BIOS?

[bankster55]

you mentioned a coupla times that you "took out B1 B2" and "now have 8GB in A1 A2"
Just for general info its A1 AND B1 and A2 AND B2 (same color)
Might look in manual for recommended install pics, dunno if you are just misspeaking what you meant

Also you cant put in 4 sticks unless they came from a 16GB matched KIT, not 2 8GB kits. Or else you have a bout a 50% chance they wont work right

 

[Skypix7]

Right, thanks, just misspoke, meant A1/B1.

It is a 16B kit from Newegg, here. It's a Quad Channel kit.

 

[v3rn]

Hi, I have installed the new firmware (0402). Worked, but a few problems nontheless.

As a warning to those of you who have Raid, in my case 0. It rewrote / damaged the config for the Intel Raid 0 , so it lost one of the drives in the Raid (you can see this during boot). Also it deletes it as a boot option in UEFI.

Essentially I deleted the Raid 0 span in the Intel Management Console during boot, recreated it based on the old settings. After rebooting I went in to the Bios and releselected the new Raid 0 as a boot option. Booted with the Windows 7 install DVD, ran a repair and now have by Windows back in its initial form. Essentially the bios flash seems to have screwed up my Raid, and then by recreating the raid it seemed to have messed up the MBR. However the Windows repaired worked as advertised.

Annoyingly my sound has a hiss/buzz post firmware update. This was not the case before the flash. I would say wait until the next bios release as there was nothin terribly new funtionality wise.

My 2 cents to the update.

Specs:
Intel Core i5 2500K
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
8GB G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-2133 DIMM CL9
Asus GTX 480
RAID 0 Intel X25-M G2 80GB
CPU/GPU Watercooled

 

[Axonn]

Welcome to the Forum v3rn and thank you for your answer!

Wow, this soundcard issue sounds really bad. I'm very picky about my sound quality and I would go crazy with that.

But you can revert to the old BIOS. Why don't you do that?

 

[OJay]

This might be slightly irrelevant, but I am having problems booting into DOS from a USB disk with this mobo. (I need to use atiflash utility). Just read my thread and tell me if you guys think you have a solution.. much appreciated..

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2212714

 

[Skypix7]

Right, thanks, just misspoke, meant A1/B1.

It is a 16B kit from Newegg, here. It's a Quad Channel kit.

I'm turning into an idiot: I mean A2/B2! Not that it matters, I can't even get the thing to boot stably. If I even see the Win 7 desktop, it locks up, then BSODs. New Crucial memory comes today. I'll reload default bios and see if that helps, I dunno, maybe the Corsair drive is bad...or the board. Arrgghh.....

 

[Axonn]

Skypix 7: your signature rocks ::- D.

What machine are you using to do the posting here? It's horrible to have such serious computer problems. I would go nuts.

 

[Skypix7]

Skypix 7: your signature rocks ::- D.

What machine are you using to do the posting here? It's horrible to have such serious computer problems. I would go nuts.

Thanks Axxon, that's a funny site (engrish.com).

I'm using my laptop, or occasionally iPad 2. I am going a bit nuts but I'll get it figured out eventually.

 

[Axonn]

It's "Axonn", *grin*.

So, did you get the RAM? Don't forget to tell us what happened. I hope everything will turn out ok! ::- |.

 

[Skypix7]

Oops! Sorry Axonn, got it now.
Installing later today, will post up once I see.

 

[nealh]

you mentioned a coupla times that you "took out B1 B2" and "now have 8GB in A1 A2"
Just for general info its A1 AND B1 and A2 AND B2 (same color)
Might look in manual for recommended install pics, dunno if you are just misspeaking what you meant

Also you cant put in 4 sticks unless they came from a 16GB matched KIT, not 2 8GB kits. Or else you have a bout a 50% chance they wont work right

Crap. Why would need " quad" kit? Do they real test all the stick pre- shipping to work.
Ram issues suck...I wish on newegg site they would list ram needed for he board. I got ripjaws on- sale and assumed g.skil would be ok. Never thought to get corsair vengenace.

I thought as long as they are all 4 same exact ram i would be ok.
I bought 2 kits of 2x4gb g.skil ripjaws x pc12800.

Now I wonder if I should get a quad kit and send this back to just be sure.

My setup will be:
Asus p8z68- v pro gen3
i5 2500k
2 kits of 2x4gb Ripjaws X pc12800
Corsair 120gb force gt
X1900
X-fi soundcard
Corsair 620w psu

 

[blackened23]

Hi, I have installed the new firmware (0402). Worked, but a few problems nontheless.

As a warning to those of you who have Raid, in my case 0. It rewrote / damaged the config for the Intel Raid 0 , so it lost one of the drives in the Raid (you can see this during boot). Also it deletes it as a boot option in UEFI.

Essentially I deleted the Raid 0 span in the Intel Management Console during boot, recreated it based on the old settings. After rebooting I went in to the Bios and releselected the new Raid 0 as a boot option. Booted with the Windows 7 install DVD, ran a repair and now have by Windows back in its initial form. Essentially the bios flash seems to have screwed up my Raid, and then by recreating the raid it seemed to have messed up the MBR. However the Windows repaired worked as advertised.

Annoyingly my sound has a hiss/buzz post firmware update. This was not the case before the flash. I would say wait until the next bios release as there was nothin terribly new funtionality wise.

My 2 cents to the update.

Specs:
Intel Core i5 2500K
Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3
8GB G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3-2133 DIMM CL9
Asus GTX 480
RAID 0 Intel X25-M G2 80GB
CPU/GPU Watercooled

Dude, BIOS' releases generally are never _required_, if your stuff isn't broke don't flash the BIOS. It is not like a driver release where you're constantly wanting to update to a latest version.....if your system isn't broke you shouldn't need to flash the BIOS. Furthermore, updating the BIOS will do a CMOS reset, so all of your raid settings will be wiped. You must be prepared to set everything up again.

If you try to boot without fixing your RAID array it will be screwed up. Because of the CMOS reset. This happens every time you flash the BIOS.

 

[Skypix7]

Crap. Why would need " quad" kit? Do they real test all the stick pre- shipping to work.
Ram issues suck...I wish on newegg site they would list ram needed for he board. I got ripjaws on- sale and assumed g.skil would be ok. Never thought to get corsair vengenace.

I thought as long as they are all 4 same exact ram i would be ok.
I bought 2 kits of 2x4gb g.skil ripjaws x pc12800.

Now I wonder if I should get a quad kit and send this back to just be sure.

My setup will be:
Asus p8z68- v pro gen3
i5 2500k
2 kits of 2x4gb Ripjaws X pc12800
Corsair 120gb force gt
X1900
X-fi soundcard
Corsair 620w psu

I've read elsewhere that some of that is marketing hype and as long as you have identical sticks you should be ok. I had four sticks that were all in sequence...still had problems.

I'd give it a try, and if it doesn't work, go for a Quad kit. even so, my ripjaws X cost 94 clams on Newegg...I just installed my first 8GB stick of the Crucial memory I bought direct (it was cheaper from Crucial than Newegg by 70 bucks!) and my system has calmed down. Still random BSOD now and then but I think it is the SDD...I've found others with the same problems on the Corsair site, including fixes which I'm trying today. But with just the two Corsairs installed, was up and running for the evening, and only one crash, and that was after a Resume, which since I reloaded optimized defaults, kicked that stupid program back in...found a way to disable that too. But lots to do until later when I can play around, then report back on the SSD fixes, which included disabling C3 and C6 CPU power settings (don't know what they do, but recommended by Corsair forumgoers.
I'll post details once I've got it worked out.
I've also disabled the Marvell SATA 3 sockets for now, though I don't think they were the problem.
Also may reinstall the OS again just to start fresh, this has been a real challenge.
good luck with your new rig!

 

[nealh]

I've read elsewhere that some of that is marketing hype and as long as you have identical sticks you should be ok. I had four sticks that were all in sequence...still had problems.

I'd give it a try, and if it doesn't work, go for a Quad kit. even so, my ripjaws X cost 94 clams on Newegg...I just installed my first 8GB stick of the Crucial memory I bought direct (it was cheaper from Crucial than Newegg by 70 bucks!) and my system has calmed down. Still random BSOD now and then but I think it is the SDD...I've found others with the same problems on the Corsair site, including fixes which I'm trying today. But with just the two Corsairs installed, was up and running for the evening, and only one crash, and that was after a Resume, which since I reloaded optimized defaults, kicked that stupid program back in...found a way to disable that too. But lots to do until later when I can play around, then report back on the SSD fixes, which included disabling C3 and C6 CPU power settings (don't know what they do, but recommended by Corsair forumgoers.
I'll post details once I've got it worked out.
I've also disabled the Marvell SATA 3 sockets for now, though I don't think they were the problem.
Also may reinstall the OS again just to start fresh, this has been a real challenge.
good luck with your new rig!

I am not looking forward to it all now. I was hoping for an easy build. I have stopped over clocking as no need.

Are you using any on- board sound or on- chip video?

 

[Skypix7]

After my legendaryBSOD experiences all last week, I followed two recommendations on the Corsair SSD forum:
1. turning off power saving for memory and
2. disabling C3 and C6 in bios, CPU power thingies, don't even know what they do!)
It's stable, no crashes (total about 5 hours so far).
Also ran Prime 95, pass, Intel burn test at max, etc.

Both 240GB Force GTs are running well. Both have 1.3.3. Not going to reinstall Windows 7 64 bit if I can get around it.

Thought I had troubles with the Marvell SATA 3 (6 GB/s) ports so disabled those, which maybe helped too, I will reinstate those next once I've enjoyed (sigh) some more stability and see what happens.

 

[Mem]

After my legendaryBSOD experiences all last week, I followed two recommendations on the Corsair SSD forum:
1. turning off power saving for memory and
2. disabling C3 and C6 in bios, CPU power thingies, don't even know what they do!)
It's stable, no crashes (total about 5 hours so far).
Also ran Prime 95, pass, Intel burn test at max, etc.

Both 240GB Force GTs are running well. Both have 1.3.3. Not going to reinstall Windows 7 64 bit if I can get around it.

Thought I had troubles with the Marvell SATA 3 (6 GB/s) ports so disabled those, which maybe helped too, I will reinstate those next once I've enjoyed (sigh) some more stability and see what happens.

I went with V/Gen3 because no Marvell controller so no issues there,I also went with Crucial M4 SSD since it works in perfect harmony with the V/Gen 3 board and Bios settings,probably why its still got the original BIOS for V/Gen 3 board still showing as latest on Asus site.

 

[Skypix7]

I went with V/Gen3 because no Marvell controller so no issues there,I also went with Crucial M4 SSD since it works in perfect harmony with the V/Gen 3 board and Bios settings,probably why its still got the original BIOS for V/Gen 3 board still showing as latest on Asus site.

Wish I'd done more research, I would have shied away from the Marvell.

I read again on another board that someone said you can hook up optical drives to the Marvells so I'm going to try that. Or maybe just leave well enough alone...:whiste:

When I was able to get ATTO testing with my Corsair Force GT 240s I was getting a good 35% drop in read/write: from 560/525 to around 370s.

Will be trying them again soon...wish I could get another Intel SATA 3 port or two.

 

[Skypix7]

BTW, someone on the Corsair forum referenced "memory power saving features" in P8Z68 V Pro/Gen 3 as another way to get the Force GTs to calm down, but I'm not sure what that might mean, anyone have a clue?

 

[nealh]

BTW, someone on the Corsair forum referenced "memory power saving features" in P8Z68 V Pro/Gen 3 as another way to get the Force GTs to calm down, but I'm not sure what that might mean, anyone have a clue?

Where is the memory power saving feature in the bios

 

[Skypix7]

Where is the memory power saving feature in the bios

That's what I wanted to know.

I did disable c3 and c6, just installed the second 8GB stick. Solid as a rock so far. I think I'm good for the next level...adding the third Corsair drive to the Marvell controller.

First I'll simply enable it and see how stable I remain. I'm still spooked by all those BSODs.

 

[nealh]

So you now have 16gb on the mobo? All ripjaws or ripsjaw/ crucial sticks.

 

[Skypix7]

I've got two Crucial 8GB sticks in there now, in A2 and B2. I RMA'd the ripjaws.

 

[Axonn]

So are things stable for you now?

LOL @ Sig.

 

[Skypix7]

Sh**, I hope so!

 

[bankster55]