*** Official ASUS P5B / P5B Deluxe Thread ***

[imported_mangrove]

DO NOT upgrade to the latest BIOS (0806) on a P5B (plain) board. It is completely borked*). Wait until Asus gets their stuff together... or use the 0701 BIOS.

(*Many ppl, including me, can't get a POST screen -- my system boots one in twenty times and THEN all is well, but next time, it won't boot anyway. The 0509 and 0701 version works fine however...

 

[willbemcse]

The board wont boot with the updated bios , after I took out one stick of ocz it booted are the slots bad or the board doesn't work with ocz. I have also seen i'll get really bad mouse lag on the pc not sure whats going on.

 

[Caliginosity]

Originally posted by: willbemcse
The board wont boot with the updated bios , after I took out one stick of ocz it booted are the slots bad or the board doesn't work with ocz. I have also seen i'll get really bad mouse lag on the pc not sure whats going on.

Try turning off the PSU power, in the back of the case. Wait 10 seconds, then turn it on again and boot up. I had the same thing happen when I upgraded my BIOS to 804 a while back and rebooted normally. Got the "Overclocking failed" message, then a black screen. But turning off the PSU power switch, waiting, then turning it on again resolved the problem.

If all else fails, follow the instructions under the "Jumper" section of your P5B Deluxe users guide, page 2-22. That should reset your CMOS, though you'll have to re-enter any overclocking or changes to your BIOS configuration.

 

[omarr]

Originally posted by: willbemcse
The board wont boot with the updated bios , after I took out one stick of ocz it booted are the slots bad or the board doesn't work with ocz. I have also seen i'll get really bad mouse lag on the pc not sure whats going on.

The board is VERY picky about memory. OCZ memory in particular seems to be a problem.

 

[ibex333]

Hello guys. I'm making a C2D system around an asus p5b-E.

Can someone please recommend me RAM that costs no more than $230 and will DEFINATELY work in the mobo right from the start WITHOUT the BIOS flash?

Some people already recomended the ddr 667 RAM, but that wont allow me to do a 1:1 OC, will it? The thing is, I want to do an nice, EASY OC without having to OC my ram. - 3.0-3.2GHz will do.

Is there any decent RAM around $230 that is guaranteed to work right from the start?


PS: Also, can anyone recommend a relatively cheap, but reliable PSU that will be able to pull this OC'd system and a 8800GTX? Yes, I read the guides, but most recommended PSUs are above $100 + shipping on newegg. Is there anything below $100?

 

[motty99]

Well, after two days of losing my mind, I have found the cause of all the BSODs when trying to install XP on my new P5B...the Jmicron 363...no matter how I configure it, drivers on no drivers, as long as it's enabled, I get a blue screen somewhere during the install...( the CDs are on the PATA part of it...the hard drives are on the Intel).I threw an old ide controller in and was able to load with no problem, with the JMicron disabled...

I have been all over the Internet seeking an answer...something about editing the txtsetup.sif to removed the drivers and load the PATA as just generic...?...not understanding how that is done...

Yes, removed everything...slowed memory, one DIMM...you know, all the stuff you do...

Any ideas fans?

 

[jpweraser]

Hi folks, I'm new here and would like to solicit your opinions. I am having massive trouble getting my Asus P5B to post. My setup is as follows:

Asus P5B
Intel Pentium D 940 (3.2GHz DC)
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 Ram

I can't even get it to give me a beep code or anything. The CPU is seated correctly, I've tried multiple power supplies including a Thermaltake 680w ATX2.0 and nothing seems to make any kind of difference. I have also tried using some cheapo Samsung RAM from one of my Dell computers and it didn't work either. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

 

[LightSide]

Originally posted by: opusman
I was wondering if anyone has successfully used the P5B Deluxe with more than 2gb of RAM?

I have 4 x 1GB A-Data DDR2-800 installed, but the motherboard (and therefore Windows) only recognizes 2.5gb (actually, 2496 mb)

I've read what the manual says about memory and the 3 gig limit under Windows XP (although I'm using Vista, so I'm not sure if this applies to Vista) but shouldn't the motherboard at least see all the memory even if Windows doesn't?

I've flashed to the latest BIOS (0804) but it made no difference.

Cheers!
Jon

Would be very interested in the answer too... this weekend I wanted to upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB but after reading the manual decided not to order the extra memory. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition (not Vista) with a core 2 duo e6700.

I think C2D is a 32 bit processor (so I can't upgrade to Windows XP X64) but I would have thought that at least with Vista, like Jon is running, the system could use more then 2 GB of memory...

 

[tempoct]

C2D is 64-bit processor with backward compatibility to 32-bit apps.
I believe that's what Win 32-bit can max address (2.5G - 3GB). If you need more than that, you need 64-bit OS (Vista 64 or XP 64).

Try 64-bit and see if it works. Be warned that 64-bit drivers are not as mature as their 32-bit counterpart yet.

Originally posted by: LightSide

Originally posted by: opusman
I was wondering if anyone has successfully used the P5B Deluxe with more than 2gb of RAM?

I have 4 x 1GB A-Data DDR2-800 installed, but the motherboard (and therefore Windows) only recognizes 2.5gb (actually, 2496 mb)

I've read what the manual says about memory and the 3 gig limit under Windows XP (although I'm using Vista, so I'm not sure if this applies to Vista) but shouldn't the motherboard at least see all the memory even if Windows doesn't?

I've flashed to the latest BIOS (0804) but it made no difference.

Cheers!
Jon

Would be very interested in the answer too... this weekend I wanted to upgrade from 2 GB to 4 GB but after reading the manual decided not to order the extra memory. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition (not Vista) with a core 2 duo e6700.

I think C2D is a 32 bit processor (so I can't upgrade to Windows XP X64) but I would have thought that at least with Vista, like Jon is running, the system could use more then 2 GB of memory...

 

[LightSide]

Originally posted by: LightSide
I think C2D is a 32 bit processor (so I can't upgrade to Windows XP X64) but I would have thought that at least with Vista, like Jon is running, the system could use more then 2 GB of memory...

Originally posted by: tempoct
C2D is 64-bit processor with backward compatibility to 32-bit apps.
I believe that's what Win 32-bit can max address (2.5G - 3GB). If you need more than that, you need 64-bit OS (Vista 64 or XP 64).

Try 64-bit and see if it works. Be warned that 64-bit drivers are not as mature as their 32-bit counterpart yet.

Hey that's great news. Thanks!

Well, now I'm spending money on an OS upgrade as well as more memory... but still

 

[pekalek]

Hi all. I recently Got a P5B deluxe Wi/fi mobo for my E6600.

Had a P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe before...but wanted to o/c some more...and don't actually use SLI....and read the P5B was an excellent overclocker.

..Seems lots of posts about OCZ memory?? Gulp...i have some Platinum PC-6400 rev2 1 gig modules, and reading this is not good!!!

..Well seems a great board so far, however seem to be having trouble getting past about 350FSB...like it just won't post.

Another weird thing is after making any sort of Change to FSB, memory or the like, it turns off after exiting BIOS and saving??!!! This does not seem Right to me!!!!

It fires back up about 5 seconds later, and if posts...the changes are effective.....However if it won't post, i have to Turn it off, isolate the power (either at wall or on PSU)..and let it power down before it will load default values and POST so i can get in BIOS and fiddle.

..I can get it to around 3.25Ghz (the E6600), but I'm not sure how stable it will be (seems ok...but haven't proven it over time yet).
I was very much wanting to get over 400FSB, and lower CPU multiplier to get out of the FSB "hole" i've heard about with these boards???

..Mmm, i'd be happy with 3.25...but much happier with 3.4!!! My temps are fine...so i'd love to hit thAT SWEET 3.4!!!

Any ideas on the turning off when exit/saving BIOS Jumperfree settings??? Seems weird to me lol!

 

[Mustanggt]

I have my Asus P5B Deluxe running 2 days now, C2D E6300, Corsair DDR2 800 4-4-4-12, Ultra 120 heatsink, Corsair 520 PSU, its overclocked to 415 FSB E6300@2.9 Ghz not sure if I want to push it higher than this I really dont trust this Asus board, one thing i learned rather quickly is do not leave your Cpu vcore on auto this board will raise it to high as you push FSB up. I can not run my 2 512 sticks of this ramCorsair in my A1 and A2 slots if I pull one out of the A slots all is well running one stick but system wont boot with 2, system runs stable with both sticks in my B3 and B4 slots ? not sure if this board is defective or if its the Ram.

 

[Blouge]

I'm having a couple of problems with the ASUS P5B deluxe motherboard and RAID; does anyone else see these kinds of problems?

1. I had a RAID volume set up and then wanted to turn SMART off to improve performance, and because the SMART results are totally hidden from Windows and useless when RAID is used. I rebooted and set the SATA mode to IDE, then rebooted again and turned smart drive off, and then rebooted again and set SATA mode back to RAID. The problem is that the Intel Storage Matrix driver sits there for a couple of minutes at boot time and even longer if I press Ctrl-I. It eventually gets to Windows fine so I don't think I hurt my RAID volume at all, I think the BIOS just insists on checking SMART even when it's disabled. If I turn SMART back on the huge pause disappears.

2. The Intel Storage Matrix driver says that my disks are SATA Generation 1 (1.5 Gb/s) when they should be Generation 2 (3 Gb/s). The disks are Seagate 400 GB SATA 2. I have no idea how to fix this, is it just a limitation when using RAID?

Edit: I'm using the latest official BIOS (0804 I think).

 

[twopennies]

SATA 1.5 vs SATA 3.0 vs whatever are marketing hype. Unless you've got the cash to shell out for a solid state drive it's just another way for companies to sucker you out of your money. Now if you can prove me wrong in a meaningful way, go for it.

My problem with this motherboard is a bit... odd. When checking system info in 3dmark 06, it shows my Radeon X1950 as PCI 1x, when it IS a pci-e 16x card.

See http://home.sou.edu/~grafc/info.gif (it's small).

I'm terribly confused because I've gone through nearly every bios setting I can think of, and a friend with a P5B (albeit with an NV card reads 16x.

BIOS is 804. C2D 6400 & 3.2 GHz (957x6)

(sorry, wasn't 6300, but 6400)

Any suggestions?

 

[jaded25]

Just got this motherboard last week and something has been confusing me for some reason. I had an XFX 8800GTS video card that worked fine in my previous setup: DFI Lanparty Ultra-D, Opteron 165, OCZ 500W psu, OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 4x512mb. Now when I put together my newer system (shown in sig) I first went into the bios and noticed whenever I switch tabs or try to switch any settings everything seemed sluggish. Finally I left everything at stock and boot into windows then all of sudden the computer shut off and wouldn't turn on anymore. I took everything out and tried each part individually to finally figure out that the motherboard fried my video card. To be sure I tried my video card in my previous setup and it wouldn't boot up either. Luckily dell sent out a replacement and it should be here but now I'm scared to even try the video card in the motherboard again. Also I bought a BFG 650W psu because I thought I was pushing it with the 500W psu so power isn't going to be a problem.

 

[Blouge]

>SATA 1.5 vs SATA 3.0 vs whatever are marketing hype.

Ok, so if Intel Array Storage Matrix says Generation/1 but the disks are called SATA-2, it's not a sign of something wrong? I guess I'll overlook it then. At least the Intel program thinks NCQ is working. Sandra says my 2xRAID 0 array is only about 144 MB/s, is that any good? I heard that SATA-2 drives are typically 300MB/s, so my RAID volume should be about 600 MB/s; i.e. four times faster. Edit: never mind I think my disks are plenty fast, 75 MB/s for a single disk is a good throughput according to http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage.h...delx=33&model1=117&model2=676&chart=34
Why does Intel Array Storage docs claim that Generation 2 disks are typically 300 MB/s? Sheesh...

The other big problem with the motherboard I'm having is with the sound. Just copying files around on the disk causes the audio to crackle or buzz very loudly. I can literally hear my CPU calculating things. Is this the defintion of "HD audio"? What a joke... I stuck in an a decade-old Sound Blaster Live and it sounds crystal clear and has hardware sound synthesis (does not use the CPU). I think they made their board more expensive and added crappy sound just so they could brag about having "HD audio". Shame on you ASUS.

Edit: BTW I flash every BIOS and update several drivers. Including upgrading to P5B Deluxe BIOS 0903. The problems are still there.

 

[twopennies]

Remember theoretical bandwidth versus actual bandwidth. That's an easy thing to get mixed up. I remember buying a 2.5 gig drive in 1997 and it claimed 33MB/s. Riiiiight. But 75 is solid.

I use the HD audio and have had no problems, I use digital coax out to my 5.1 receiver.

Best of luck.

 

[Blouge]

I've managed to get the HD audio working much better now. I'll write a bit about this hoping it helps some one. I think the trick was to remove the connector from the Speaker pin, as others have reported. This Speaker pin is related to the beeps you hear, e.g. at bootup time. It is located in the very lower right corner of the mobo and it is on the top, left corner of the little box that is labeled beneath "Speaker, IDE, PWR, Reset, etc..". Typically there is a little wire from the case connected to this pin. The gentlest of forces will detach it (mine falls off easily, actually). If you detach from the wrong pin then various things will happen, such as the case's IDE activity light will not work or the PC won't respond to the power button.

Note in my case I actually did not have the Speaker pin connected to my case (which lacks a speaker), I just had a tiny pointless connector attached (Antec 900 Q-Connect). That was enough to cause a problem. I guess the connector extended the speaker pin with a long wire, and formed some kind of evil attenna.

I still hear a whine or crackle now and then, but it is negligible. Before, when copying files from USB thumb drives, it sounded like someone drilling into my ears. I removed my Soundblaster Live! since I am afraid of the airflow and thermal problems (on this board it has to be either right next to my power supply or right in front of my video card fan). I probably won't ever install the SB Live! unless I want to do some soundfont stuff.

I had another problem last night with flaky connectors (probably due to my frequent rearranging of the innards of the case). Some how, one SATA connector wasn't inserted into the disk tightly enough causing my Raid volume to fail. I fixed this easily. Then, as soon as I activated audio HD in the BIOS, I got an EMM386 memory manager crash before Windows XP could start. Removing and reattaching the audio HD connector fixed this. Then, only the right speaker would work. (Maybe I inserted the audio HD connector wrongly this second time, by one pin to the right). Reinserting the audio HD connector a third time fixed this. Everything works fine now.

An early attempt to fix my sound was to flash my BIOS to beta version 910. I think it's designed for the P5B deluxe w/ wifi (I only have the P5B deluxe) and it says I have a different chip (ICH08001R or something) now instead of ICH8. It seems to work though.

 

[evanx]

I currently have the P5B vanilla and OCZ platinum pc2 6400(800) 2x1GB. If I flash to the latest bios 09XX, will I be able to POST?

 

[pekalek]

I have had no problems with that memory (in deluxe board) and updating BIOS etc^^^

Cheers for the insight Muhstanggt. I was wondering why my core temps were getting much higher as i overclocked with this board!! Must be the higher Vcore. I will be sure to set Vcore manually next time i o/c.

Managed to get near my goal of 3.4ghz last time. Seems i have to fiddle with my RAM freq, voltage and timings to crank out higher FSB's. (Much prefer the P5N32's method with it's better control of memory freq...rather than being so closely linked with FSB).

Interesting point you made with the A channel mem slots. Heard of similar things happening on other boards (namely evga 680i). I am tempted to try my dimms in b channel to see if makes difference.

I was thinking of selling my P5N32 SLI SE deluxe mobo...but i may just keep it for a spare now! No real dramas with the P5B deluxe yet, but you never know!
(Does take noticably longer to load windows than P5n32 brd, like large period of HDD inactivity while blue-bar scrolling with xp)...but other than that....it just goes.......

 

[evanx]

Setup: P5B vanilla, BIOS 0908, OCZ platinum pc2 6400(800) 2x1GB. Vcore a 1.4V.

At default FSB, I ran the ram at DDR2 800 and ran a Memtest. It passed.

Pumping the FSB up to 400Mhz but changing the ratio to run at DDR2 800 again, it fails Memtest.

Could someone explain why this happens?

 

[evanx]

Well, I discovered that the RAM modules really dislike me being loose with the timings. It runs perfectly fine on both Memtest and Orthos at 4-4-4-12-4 with the same overclock.

 

[jaded25]

I'm finally fed up with this motherboard. This is all started late last night when I was just playing around with the voltages to oc my e6600. I was upping the fsb in increments of 5 to see how far I could go with it. Finally I hit 370 and tried to make everything stable, which I finally did everything ran stable on Orthos, 3dMark06, Superpi. This next part is where I started to get frustrated. I upped the fsb to 380 and upped the voltage to 1.4. Saved and exited Bios then nothing happened. Computer was still turned on but nothing showed up on my monitor and there were no beeps. After hard rebooting numerous times and nothing came up I finally decided to reset the cmos but even then nothing happened. After about 10 unsuccessful tries I finally got my computer to boot. I changed all the settings to where I had it before except for the fsb, which I left it at 370. I finally remembered that I had an older version of BIOS so I download the latest Bios version 804 and updated. Then I tried upping the fsb to 380 but still the same exact thing nothing comes up on the monitor. So I'm guessing I hit my limit at 370, which is not bad but not necessarily great considering the clocks other people are getting with this same exact board. So as of now I'm going to return the motherboard for a refund and either go with the Gigabyte DQ6 or eVGA 680i (I know there are some bugs in the 680i but the recent Bios release fixes alot of those problems.) Don't get me wrong even though this is a long rant I still love ASUS and will continue to support them in the future but this motherboard was kind of a disappointment for me.

 

[LazyGit]

jaded25,

If I were you I wouldn't bother babying around with the fsb, just go for the fsbs that match your ram timings. Just go for 500 fsb adjusting voltages as you go. Or try 401 MHz and run the ram at ddr2 800. My p5b-e plus works fine.

You say this is your first rig, have you checked all the things that you need to disable?

Check here http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=1971910

cheers

 

[jaded25]

LazyGit this isn't my first build what I meant by first rig is just my main computer and my 2nd rig is just my backup/testing machine. I've tried 401 MHz and it still wouldn't boot. I've already read the other threads about certain settings in the BIOS and I have everything setup correctly.