FIXED!!! p5e3 deluxe / boot problems? maximus extreme owners disable express gate

Hi guys, I bought 2 of open box p5e3 dlx/wifi boards from newegg and just got it set up today. but having lots of issues...
I flashed to latest bios 3/28 to enable my x3350 and if i change any setting in bios the boad will post beep but I get a black screen. I have 3 sets of ram and 2 p5e3 dlx and both have the same problem.

system is:

usb keyboard
usb mouse
asus p5e3 dlx bios 1001 (reflashed to older one but no help)
x3350 xeon 45 nm quad and (tried e8400)
mushkin ddr3 2x2gb
sata dvd
corsair 750w
x3870 x2 all power plugged in
2x sata 7200.10
1x 500gb sata 7200.11
the rest is watercooling crap

the only way I can get bios or normal post is to reset cmos every time

please help. i was up till 6am trying to figure this out?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trans am

Hi guys, I bought 2 of these boards from newegg open box and just got it set up today. but having lots of issues...
I flashed to latest bios 3/28 to enable my x3350 and if i change any setting in bios the boad will post beep but I get a black screen. I have 3 sets of ram and 2 p5e3 dlx and both have the same problem.

system is:

usb keyboard
usb mouse
asus p5e3 dlx bios 1001 (reflashed to older one but no help)
x3350 xeon 45 nm quad and (tried e8400)
mushkin ddr3 2x2gb
sata dvd
corsair 750w
x3870 x2 all power plugged in
2x sata 7200.10
1x 500gb sata 7200.11
the rest is watercooling crap

the only way I can get bios or normal post is to reset cmos every time

please help. i was up till 6am trying to figure this out?

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Quote:
Originally Posted by solidus667 View Post
Hey guys. I had a problem where my system would only POST exactly once, then never again. I would get a nice beep, a normal BIOS start-up, and I could go in there and do some settings, but when it restarted, I'd just get a black screen (no video) and no beep codes. Successive reboots would produce the same result, even if I didn't change the settings.

To get it to POST again I would have to pop out the battery and reset the bios settings with that jumper! This happened even with a minimally equipped system (just one stick of ram (the regular 1066MHz stuff crucial.com recommends), qx9650 cpu, and NO peripherals (no hard drives, optical, floppy, etc)!

Based on a post I think I read here somewhere, I suspected that each time I went into BIOS and then exited that it was saving some jumbled values and upon the next reboot, could not read its own mess. What I did to fix the problem was explicitly enter all the values for my RAM that the bios detected. It then would save my own values properly and POST on the next bootup (even though it detected them properly!).

I suspect you guys never experienced this problem because you are all HARD CORE and never accept the default ram timings, always putting your own timings in there from the get-go . So you had no idea this motherboard was a problem for regular joes like me.

Anyway, it was this thread that motivated me and gave me ideas to get this problem solved. I am pretty sure someone even mentioned the explicit setting of ram values, but I cannot find that post to credit the individual.

Thanks guys! And I hope my post helps someone.

I found a solution:

The problem was Expressgate!!!!

After making bios settings
if you hear post beep but get no video dont freak out. just follow these steps:

power off system
reset cmos jumper
f1 for bios
go to last menu
load set up defaults
reboot
enter bios again
disable expressgate (its in the 2nd to last menu where overclock profiles are)
save to oc profile in bios
now hit f10 and save changes.

now you can change bios options and post with video.

If you cannot find expressgate in the bios you need to go to last tab and select "load setup defaults" reboot and now you should see it where the oc profile etc menu is. (2nd menu to the last)
I called level 3 asus support and spoke with one of our own members and he is going to note the error for the next bios revision to disable expressgate as default.

how to go into the bios if i cant see a thing on the screen? do u mean i've to use other graphic card just to disable the setting in bios? :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by irenic

how to go into the bios if i cant see a thing on the screen? do u mean i've to use other graphic card just to disable the setting in bios? :(

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You reset the jumper on cmos then you can see everything. THen go into bios and load setup defaults

reboot then go in bios and disable express gate.

fixed!

if you cant see again just reset jumper again and redo the steps.

They really need to sort this, express gate was one of the main reasons I choose this board. I think its a problem with the 3870X2, I have the same card and somebody posted the same problem with 2 3870s in CF, but that was fixed with a BIOS rev.

I really want to get this express gate thing working, any updates?