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

[liege513]

hey guys!

I've thought of buying p5b-e for about two months now, and I'm being put off by the notion of this JMicron Controller. So let's say if I have a SATA cd-drive, and I plug it in, and it POSTS fine, will the mobo register the drive so that I can continue with the XP installation? I'm fairly new to this, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Scooby Doo]

Nope SATA drive didn't solve the problem, it still stalls out.

 

[liege513]

thank you for the reply scooby doo! so you're saying that there's no way I'd be able to install XP on the first run using a SATA opt drive since the mobo won't recognize it?

I've been reading this thread quite a lot but I'm still confused with all the different explanations. I just want to make sure everything's perfect before I invest my money on it. I guess the safest way to avoid all the hassle is to get an IDE opt drive and put that JMicron controller mode on IDE?

I'm currently having an E6600 and searching for a mobo that'd make it a beast. From what I observe in newegg, p5b-e seems fine, until I've understand the whole JMicron vs SATA vs IDE stuff. I'd really really appreciate a brief and concise guide for this. From what I can grasp, a SATA drive will only work _after_ the windows installation because of the F6 thing? So if I want to proceed with the XP install, I can only use an IDE opt drive?

 

[Scooby Doo]

oh I'm having my own difficulties with Vista.

I was using Windows 2003 eval version before and it ran like a charm with IDE drive, but Vista doesn't like it or the new SATA drive. I'm probably going to reinstall 03 till I can afford XP pro and wait it out till Vista becomes useable.

For your problem liege513 (and will be mine) is we need to either slipstream the SATA drivers into XP or have the drivers on a floopy. Slipstreaming didn't work for 03 though, probably my mistake, it saw the drive during installation, but when it rebooted it couldn't find the newly installed os.

 

[Praetor]

I'm having issues with a post-BIOS flash gone bad. I just installed Vista 64-bit to upgrade the BIOS to 1215 from the stock 1004 that came on the board in May. I ran the v7.10.05 Install Program for Windows to upgrade my BIOS. Initially, it recognized that I had a valid Asus bios and I went through the steps to flash it.

It went through the first two steps (confirming bios, flashing bios) but stuck at 20% of verifying flash and said it was invalid. I tried to hit back and re-flash, but it said I didn't have a valid Asus bios.

I wasn't thinking it would be that bad thanks to the bios recovery features I had read about in the manual, so I just restarted the pc as normal. Since then, the board won't even post. The monitor stays in standby mode when I first power on the machine.

I've tried removing the battery, moving the RTC RAM clear jumper for 45-min and restarting, but still nothing. I've put in the support DVD and the bios on a thumb drive in hopes that it will pick up on it, but nothing.

Am I screwed?

 

[Praetor]

I should add that there are no beeps indicating an error or even normal boot out of the speaker. I even found an old PS/2 keyboard to plug in (the one I normally use is usb only), but nothing.

 

[Rafael]

Praetor,

Something did not go right during the flash process.
I think if the mobo still under warranty, you should RMA it and get another.
The only possible solutions that I see is get a new BIOS chip or hot swap the BIOS chip to reflash it. But this last option envolves big risks.

Rafael

 

[Praetor]

I just got the e-mail okay'ing my RMA. I've been trying to find out how long the turn around time will be. Any ideas?

 

[iwantbatteries]

Hi everyone! I read though much of this thread, and have tried nearly everything I can right now to fix my problems. My computer is as follows:

Antech Sonata II (with included 450W smartpower PSU)
Intel Core 2 Duo
2x2gb G.skill PC2-6400 sticks of ram
PNY GeForce 8800 GTX Video Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200, 320GB
And the deluxe version of the P5B

I had a fully functional computer for a couple months, no problems at all. Then I packed it up in the original packaging, and drove it across country for leave. Had a fully functional computer again for a month, then packed up and PCSed to Korea. I put the computer, in the original packaging for the sonata in my luggage figuring it would get better treatment than military movers give things. I stuffed the case full of clothes in an attempt to minimize any jostling. Unfortunately having now got to Korea and unpacked, it seems I am running into problems with the P5B.

Whenever the computer gets power the fans, lights, etc all change fine, but I get noot beep on bootup. The USB does not power up (except if I reset my powersupply as described on Asus' website, then the instant I plug the computer back into the wall the USB recieves power for less than a second, but enough to lite the LED on my mouse), nor does the keyboard. The VGA also does not receive any signal. While the problem could be elsewhere I suspect it is at least linked with my Motherboard. I tried cycling my RAM to every permutation of slots, including no RAM, still no beep code. I also tried re seating every major component I could find. If anyone has any ideas what could get damaged by a little josling, or just what might be wrong in general, could you please pass on your wisdom?

-Respectfully Submitted

 

[Rafael]

iwantbatteries,

First of all welcome to AT!
From what I read from your post I think it would be a good try to clear the CMOS.
If you check your motherboard manual you will find the jumper to accomplish this.
If this not help at all. Take every part out and put back all together.
You could try to boot with the minimum to boot that is mobo, cpu, psu, vga, memory, hd, keyboard and mouse.

Try all that and report back!

And I read yesterday a good news for us owners of the P5B. Asus launched a list of compatible motherboards with Penryn. And the list is here.

Rafael

 

[Alegis]

Hello guys,

I've had problems with Asus P5B sound drivers before. I even remember at one point having a soundmax controlpanel which I have not now (probably removed in one of the later drivers). Anyways, it did the job with Soundmax for my regular speakers.


I recently obtained the Creative I-Trigue 5600 5.1 surround system. Everything is adjusted, but I only receive sound from the front speakers and bass from the subwoofer with Windows Vista test. (which is set for 5.1)

I have disabled soundmax, tried regular Windows drivers to no avail, no sound. Tried latest Soundmax drivers for Windows Vista 32bit.



Any tips on what I should try next? Programs/utilities to try? So far I can only really set 5.1 settings in the control panel>>Audio of Vista.



edit: Sound comes from all speakers in case it's set to stereo. In 5.1 setting only the front 2 speakers an subwoofer play sound.

 

[spiderhole]

I currently have the P5B Deluxe with 2gb of mem (2 x 1024 Corsair XMS 6400 cas 4) and wondering if it's possible to add a pair of 2gb sticks for a total of 6gb. Is it ok to use two different size modules like that as long as they are in matched pairs? Looking at the Corsair XMS 6400 cas 5 4gb kit.

Thanks,
m

 

[Rafael]

spiderhole,

Probably you will not have problem regarding to compatibility. Since it is the same brand, etc.
And the P5B holds upto 8 Gb of ram.
There is no problem upon the configuration of the amount of ram you put in your system.

Rafael

 

[imported_grob]

Hello. I just found this forum and hope somebody has had experience with this problem before.

I built a new system from scratch with the P5B Deluxe. Everything is working fine except the USB drivers. From digging on the web, the problem may be similar to RAID config problems some people have had, but I'm not using RAID. The problem may have stemmed from my installation of an old copy of XP Home that was used for the older computer that I'm replacing with the new one. It's a legit XP copy, and I've updated through SP2 and the most recent updates.

In the device manager, all of the USB controllers (5 Intel ICH8 Family USB Universal and 2 Intel ICH8 Family USB2 Enhanced) have the yellow exclamation point. I've tried the following:

- Through the device manager, disable and then update drivers for each of the controllers. It says that it can't find any better drivers.
- ASUS MB Installation CD: For the USB2 drivers, it just gives a text file that says XP should automatically take care of it
- BIOS: all the USB functions are enabled (including legacy, is that a problem?)
- I've installed Intel Chipset Driver 8.0.1.1002 (the support file said it could fix USB and AGP issues, but installing it didn't help my USB problem)

I think this problem may be unique to people who install a pre-SP2 version of XP and update everything online. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[imported_grob]

Oh, never mind. Problem fixed. I had not uninstalled them since SP2 was installed. After uninstalling the USB devices from device manager and rebooting with SP2 installed, it installed them all correctly. Should have thought of that sooner...

 

[Rafael]

Hi Alegis,

When I tried the newest drivers for SoundMax from Asus I got a similar problem.
My problem was that the sound was coming from all speakers as you said when you put in stereo mode.
And when testing the 5.1 setup, I had sub and center exchanged.
I rolled back to older driver and got the same problem.
And a find out that it was a problem regarding the configuration in the SoundMax.
I need to get home to check what it was.
But I am using Win XP x64, not Vista.
So I think it could be a driver issue or even a configuration.
When I get back home, I will check and report back.

Rafael

 

[Alegis]

Thanks Rafael, would appreciate that.

 

[Rafael]

Alegis,

I don't know if you still got the SoundMAX installed in your system. But I found out that the DTS NEO was enabled, turned off and everything is working fine. I get the right channels in each speaker.
You might try that. Otherwise I don't know if it could or not be Vista related drivers.

Good luck!

Rafael

 

[Praetor]

Just thought I'd toss this out there. I got my board back from RMA today. I sent a 1.10 and got a 1.03 back instead. Are there any issues with this revision?

The receipt that they sent with it said the board was also a 1.10, but the silk screening says otherwise.

More importantly, will I have issues with the upcoming 45nm chips? I wasn't expecting a bad flash to kill my 1.10g board and getting an older revision back.

 

[Rafael]

Praetor,

If your is the P5B Deluxe WiFi/AP, you got the same model and revision as mine.
I got none issues so until today.

BTW seems like Asus is about to release a new BIOS 1216, I saw on the FTP of Asus. No info on the support website yet.

Rafael

 

[Praetor]

Nope, mine is the regular P5B Deluxe. See the edit I made in my previous post though.

 

[Rafael]

It is the same, the difference is the USB WiFi dongle that the WiFi AP edition has.
But I got the same revision 1.03g.

 

[RichNY]

Hi - I'm running Vista 32 on a P5B Deluxe and recently began having trouble with the sleep mode. It seems to randomly lock up while it's asleep. I'll come back to the machine and the power light will be solid instead of blinking. No fans or power to the USB ports or signal to the monitor. Since there are no fans, I'm suspecting the motherboard rather than Vista. I searched for scheduled tasks that might wake up the machine, and there are a few, but those work fine - it wakes without issue. The event logs in Vista show no trigger for the wakeup (as they do for the regularly-scheduled tasks, like backup).

It's the fans not being on that let me to blaming the P5B Deluxe. I use Speedfan and have QFan turned off, so the fans usually come on full-bore when resuming from sleep and then quiet down when Speedfan takes over again. Any ideas? Anyone else having trouble or, on the flip side, working fine with Hybrid sleep mode in Vista?

Thanks!

 

[Steel72]

Hi, I have a problem hopefully someone else here has run into and can help me out. I have a P5B Deluxe, and hdds are detected seemingly at random. sometimes I boot up and they are all detected, other times I boot up and 2-3 are missing. I am utilizing ALL 7 SATA connections and there are 2 drives on the PATA connector. PLEASE HELP!!

Thanks!

 

[Rafael]

RichNY,

I can't help you much, since I am not running Vista yet. But do you have ACPI enabled? Drivers of ACPI installed? You might check that.

Steel72,

Do you have AHCI or IDE or RAID set in the BIOS? Win XP or Vista? And do you have the latest drivers installed?

Rafael