The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Feek]

Grrr, I didn't do that - Should I reflash again with the switches and then do that?

 

[JustaGeek]

Do it now (Setup defaults), and then re-enter other settings.

You will know if you need to re-flash if you still have problems. There is always an element of risk involved in flashing BIOS, so if you don't have to do it - don't.

Hope it all works fine for you, though.

 

[Feek]

Have done, and I did a cold boot which was good I'll need a few days of testing though to see if it has done the job.

 

[Tuvoc]

It seems our board is a little bit future proof after all, and does support new 45nm CPUs

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=473
Support Intel® next generation 45nm Multi-core CPU

 

[JustaGeek]

Great!

I believe though that I "future proofed" it by flashing the BIOS as described above.

Honestly, I was just a step away from getting the P35 board from ABIT, frustrated with my startup problems.

But those boards have some weird issues too! Like... double POST...?!?

What the heck is going on...? Is it really so hard to get the things right...?

And with our board... Why isn't ASUS stressing the proper BIOS flash routine instead of giving us crap like ASUS Update in Windows, when the old BIOS is simply overwritten by the new one, without clearing anything...? Or EZ Flash with USB drive... is that procedure clearing all like the AWARD Flash routine...?

 

[Tuvoc]

Well - I have only ever used EZ Flash with USB drive and have never had any problems whatsoever
I did clear the CMOS manually each time though, apart from the very last 0505 - 0608 where I didn't bother. And that worked perfectly

 

[JustaGeek]

I just had another startup failure this morning, and decided to enable "Halt on [No errors]" in Boot options in BIOS.

I know the computer is stable - what's the worst that can happen?

I started the new thread to get more input on the issue.

What do you think...?

 

[Lokan]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
Honestly, I was just a step away from getting the P35 board from ABIT, frustrated with my startup problems.

Pl..please don't. ABIT may be one of the worst companies that I've had to deal with in the past. They used to have a really good rep for OC'ing so I took a chance and got one of their boards. I never OC'd with it however, I just wanted a fast, solid board. 3 months after purchase, a resistor popped. Contacting ABIT was useless. They refused to issue an RMA citing "not a manufacturing error." Needless to say, I'd recommend ANY board over theirs. Just as a side note, my wife had an old Shuttle mother board for her old Athlon 800mhz that for some reason wouldn't boot. We troubleshooted it and called Shuttle with the results, seeing if they could offer any ideas. They couldn't find out why and issued an RMA without us even requesting one! I don't even remember if we were under warranty or not.

Sorry for the small rant, but they really (ABIT) really infuriated me. Of course, YMMV

JustaGeek, have you tried contacting ASUS for an RMA? Not that you'd want to, but if you're having issues, our board is still under warranty seeing as it's fairly new.

 

[JustaGeek]

Thnks for the input, Lokan. Yeah, I heard about ABIT boards and the leaking capacitors... People are apparently real happy woth the new boards with the P35 chipset.

RMA my ASUS board? Nah, I would probably get a real 'dud".

As I said, the only issue is the startup, so knowing that my settings are fine, I just "disabled" the board's "decision" to "halt on all errors", and want to POST to proceed no matter what it "thinks".

Do you think it is safe for the other components...?

 

[Feek]

What startup problem do you have, Justageek, is it the same as mine, either a lockup or blue screen?

As far as I was aware, that particular BIOS option was just for hardware checks, making sure it has a graphics card installed, etc etc.

 

[JustaGeek]

No, no BSOD's, lock-up's or anything else of that nature.

Only during post it stops after displaying "CPU... 2.4... @ 2.92GHz" and does not proceed to the "memory check" part.

After hitting "Reset" it usually boots fine, sometimes re-setting the OC back to 2.4GHz.

These issues started ONLY after I updated (?!?) to 0608 BIOS - never had any issue at all with 0202.

 

[Tuvoc]

JustaGeek

Just a thought... Are you 100% sure your hard drive is OK ? With another board I once had what I thought were cold boot issues, and it turned out to be the hard drive on the way out. Unlikely in your case, but worth checking

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: Lokan

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
Honestly, I was just a step away from getting the P35 board from ABIT, frustrated with my startup problems.

Pl..please don't. ABIT may be one of the worst companies that I've had to deal with in the past.

Is that how I am going to feel about ASUS after my experiences with P5N-E SLI LOL...?

I believe that it is the issue of the NVidia 600 series chipset, not necessarily ASUS' fault.

These chipsets are very "temperamental" in any "flavour" across the lineup.

 

[Lokan]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
Thnks for the input, Lokan. Yeah, I heard about ABIT boards and the leaking capacitors... People are apparently real happy woth the new boards with the P35 chipset.

So was I when I received my old one. The capacitor issue wasn't isolated to ABIT by the way. It was fairly widespread. As for that, I realize hardware can and will fail, but I don't expect to be treated in the same respects as ABIT treated me.

RMA my ASUS board? Nah, I would probably get a real 'dud".

Should I read into that... ? This is my first ASUS board. A friend of mine recently had a socket 939 develop an enormous amount of issues and ASUS has been good to send him a replacement, however, that statement seems to have a hidden meaning.

As I said, the only issue is the startup, so knowing that my settings are fine, I just "disabled" the board's "decision" to "halt on all errors", and want to POST to proceed no matter what it "thinks".

Do you think it is safe for the other components...?

Safe? No way of telling. How often are you rebooting though? If you only reboot once in awhile, I'd suggest putting the HALT back on and just hitting the reset switch when needed.

Also, if you're not the type to leave their PC on, have you tried power management to help get past this issue?

 

[Tuvoc]

Yes - in many cases it is the chipset, released to market too early and not tested properly

Look at the 4 x 1GB memory hole with the 650 chipset between about 723 and 838 - totally outrageous. All those people who will upgrade to 4 x 1GB in future, and put 4 sticks of PC6400 in there and wonder why it won't boot

Of course, ASUS ought to have tested thoroughly as well.... in theory they could have said, "OK, chipset too buggy, we won't release any boards" but trouble is everyone else would be, so they lose out market share...

 

[JustaGeek]

It is a possibilty, but it is a 7200.10 series Seagate with Perpendicular recording.

Again... 0202 was good, no issues whatsoever... Why would 0608 make it bad...?

If anything, I believe it is the BIOS programming issue, and if I get frustrated enough, I will flash to 0401, or back to 0202.

But... I hope that the upcoming 8900 or 9800 series GPU's will be an incentive for me to upgrade. That's why I want to keep the new BIOS, and be ready for future "updates" (?!?).

Also, my CPU was manufactured in September 2006, and the new Intel Microcode Update Revision was changed from 44 to C6. Perhaps that is the reason? They did not have C6 in September 2006...

 

[JustaGeek]

No, I don't reboot often, and do not leave the computer running all the time.

But... I want the board to run PERFECT LOL...

Just like my wife's ASRock 775Dual-VSTA, but that one is not OC'd, of course.

 

[JustaGeek]

Originally posted by: Tuvoc
Yes - in many cases it is the chipset, released to market too early and not tested properly

Of course, ASUS ought to have tested thoroughly as well.... in theory they could have said, "OK, chipset too buggy, we won't release any boards" but trouble is everyone else would be, so they lose out market share...

Money, money, money...

Look how popular this board is on the markets around the world, despite all the issues...

 

[JustaGeek]

Well, using my common sense (if I have any left after struggling with the boot issue for a month) I've determined that "Halt on [No errors]" should not do any damage, since the board is perfectly stable otherwise.

If it is Orthos and Memtest stable, shows no errors in Event Viewer, no BSOD's nor lock-op's, it must be misinterpreting some signals at startup as an error, severe enough to stop the process.

I think that if anyone is experiencing a similar issue, due to e.g. 4 RAM sticks running @800MHz, this might just be a solution - again, if the board is otherwise stable.

Any thoughts...?

 

[steelforce]

All right, I'm nearing my wits end with this board. First, my setup:

Asus P5N-E SLI with the latest BIOS
Intel Core 2 Duo 6850
2 GB Corsair XMS2 (Twin2X2048-6400C4), as listed on the memory QVL for the board
2 SATA HDD - 1 x 73 GB Raptor (Boot), 1 x 400 GB Seagate (Data)
Pioneer 18x SATA DVD Drive
eVGA 8600 GTS Video Card

All of it lives in an Antec P180 case, powered by an Antec SmartPower 450W PS.

At first, I had 2 GB of Crucial DDR2-800 in the box (which wasn't on the QVL). I had nothing but issues with it, especially when trying to run in dual-channel mode. I pulled that RAM out this morning and swapped it with the memory that is currently installed.

With this RAM installed, I freeze as soon as I log into Windows (Vista Ultimate, x86) or shortly thereafter. The install is fully patched, with all the latest drivers for the assortment of hardware installed, and not much else (besides World of Warcrack). I've tried cranking up the memory voltage to 2.1 (as that's what it says on the information sheet for the RAM, posted on the Corsair website). I'm reinstalling Vista now, hoping that it's something with my install - anyone have any recommendations?

 

[JustaGeek]

You must do all the settings manually:

VCore - Auto (if not overclocking, but check if it doesn't exceed 1.35V) or set at 1.3125V
NB Auto, or 1.56V
Memory Voltage 2.07V.

Set to MANUAL OVERCLOCKING (even at stock)

FSB 1333 / memory 800 (make sure that you see 800 reading below - otherwise try the setting that would give you the same reading, e.g. 810, reading 810 and so on...)

Memory timings 4-4-4-12-2T - important!!!

Subtimings all on Auto.

I would set it first before re-installing Vista, or the files will get corrupted again.

If that doesn't work, try memory at 667MHz - you can always adjust it later (667MHz assures that the Memory divider is set to 1:1).

Hope this works.

 

[Feek]

Originally posted by: steelforce
With this RAM installed, I freeze as soon as I log into Windows (Vista Ultimate, x86) or shortly thereafter. The install is fully patched, with all the latest drivers for the assortment of hardware installed, and not much else (besides World of Warcrack). I've tried cranking up the memory voltage to 2.1 (as that's what it says on the information sheet for the RAM, posted on the Corsair website). I'm reinstalling Vista now, hoping that it's something with my install - anyone have any recommendations?

That's pretty much the symptoms I'm getting.

Go into the BIOS, set QUICK BOOT to [DISABLED] under the boot settings and try that - Let the system go all the way through the slow memory count.

See if that makes a difference.

 

[steelforce]

Well, I set up the BIOS as you suggested above - also disabled the JMicron eSATA controller, as I've seen a number of sites suggest disabling it. Since I didn't have anything installed I couldn't easily re-create, I reinstalled Vista - and locked up halfway through. I'm trying it again.

 

[kcmurphy88]

First post here.
I'm having some sudden reboot problems myself. Win XP Pro SP2 install.

Asus P5N-E SLI with the latest BIOS
Intel Core 2 Duo 6850
2 GB Corsair XMS2 (Twin2X2048-6400C4) in A1+B1
Notes: this is this week's Fry's deal
I have two identical pair of memory. When it works, I'll fill all slots. Currently neither pair works well.
2 previous 200+GB SATA drives
HP2335 monitor
BIOS 0608 -- gotta do this!

I've set the system for default, and for SLI memory on, but nominal. Neither seems to help. I'll try some of the suggestions I see.

 

[JustaGeek]

Do not set SLI memory on - it will cause problems.

Just read the last few pages. 4-4-4-12-2T is what you want, with 2.1V.

And get it all started and stable with 2 RAM STICKS ONLY - you will add the remaining 2 later. It is a whole new issue with this board and 4 RAM modules.

Good luck!