ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[Majoram]

Hmm did I just double post?!

Anyway, I don't think it is the room temp.
Although I live in a rented basement and I don't have control over the heating.

I'm not sure why the MB temp is so high.
Personally I think it is the airflow in the case.

[ShawnTRD]

no need to post the same thing twice

[Leeghoofd]

Hey all,

I just installed my board on Friday and did some testing and I'm not sure if my temps are good or not. The alarms for ASUS Probe II keep going off and warning me.

Would appreciate it if someone can comment on them:

Under full Load:
MB 39 deg C
NB 52 deg C
SB 46 deg C

CPU temps:
ASUS Probe => 25 idle and 39? load
Core Temp => 35 idle and 50 load

Is this good? No overclocking yet and I get some alarms for mem voltage but I forgot to write those down.

The temps above are after running Prime 95 and SuperPI (32M -> one for each core).

My Mobo temp is 38°C under full load at 3.6ghz ( 8 x 450 ), nb and SB temps around 40-45°c...

Is your case well ventilated ? becasue these temps at stock indicate something is lacking with your airflow, wich case do you own ?

[Majoram]

no need to post the same thing twice

Yeah that was an accident at the end of a 12 hour night shift.
Sorry about that

Don't know what I even clicked to do it?!

[ShawnTRD]

"Case: Antec P180. Top and Rear fans set to exhaust. Front set to intake."

Have you tried leaving the front door of the case open? I'm just looking at that case on Newegg and it doesn't look like you can get much intake with the door closed.

[Majoram]

My Mobo temp is 38°C under full load at 3.6ghz ( 8 x 450 ), nb and SB temps around 40-45°c...

Is your case well ventilated ? becasue these temps at stock indicate something is lacking with your airflow, wich case do you own ?

I have the Antec P180. I think I will check things with my case open and see how it goes.

Full Specs:
Mobo: ASUS Maximus Formula SE
BIOS: Version 0505. All default. No changes.
RAM: 4 x 1GB PC8500 Crucial Ballistix
CPU: Intel Quad Core Q6600
CPU cooling: ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme (Dual Fans).
Video: eVGA 8800 Ultra
Case: Antec P180. Top and Rear fans set to exhaust. Front set to intake.
OS: XP Professional 32bit

Just checked my Memtest86+ v1.70:

25 passes, 7 errors:

In Red it says:
Test 6
Pass: 17
Failing Address: 0003c81e5cc - 968.8MB
Good: fff7ffff
Bad: fdf7ffff
Err-Bits: 02000000
Count: 7

Any idea what this means?

"Case: Antec P180. Top and Rear fans set to exhaust. Front set to intake."

Have you tried leaving the front door of the case open? I'm just looking at that case on Newegg and it doesn't look like you can get much intake with the door closed.

Yes the front door is open at all times. I'm gonna try it with the side of the case removed, just to see what happens.

PS: Would 4GB of RAM cause XP (32 bit) to be unstable? Just wondering. I have 4GB because I plan to dual boot to Vista. I know that XP only recognizes 3.5GB

[CyberDruid]

Try increasing the RAM voltage a tad and run again.

I ran 4GB in XP plenty.

[Fixxxer]

I have the Antec P180. I think I will check things with my case open and see how it goes.

Full Specs:
Mobo: ASUS Maximus Formula SE
BIOS: Version 0505. All default. No changes.
RAM: 4 x 1GB PC8500 Crucial Ballistix
CPU: Intel Quad Core Q6600
CPU cooling: ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme (Dual Fans).
Video: eVGA 8800 Ultra
Case: Antec P180. Top and Rear fans set to exhaust. Front set to intake.
OS: XP Professional 32bit

Just checked my Memtest86+ v1.70:

25 passes, 7 errors:

In Red it says:
Test 6
Pass: 17
Failing Address: 0003c81e5cc - 968.8MB
Good: fff7ffff
Bad: fdf7ffff
Err-Bits: 02000000
Count: 7

Any idea what this means?

ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA has several problems with RAM. I have Ballistix PC8500 and I can't boot at 1200MHz (and my sticks pass superpi 1M at 1400MHz).

[Majoram]

So I was typing up this long reply and a I got a BSOD. Shoot me please!
Let's see if i can remember this verbatim. Got to sleep soon or I'm gonna pass out

ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA has several problems with RAM. I have Ballistix PC8500 and I can't boot at 1200MHz (and my

sticks pass superpi 1M at 1400MHz).

From your experience, any suggestions?

Try increasing the RAM voltage a tad and run again.

I ran 4GB in XP plenty.

Will do but going to try testing 2GB alone first. And then test the other 2GB alone as well.

Now back to the story....again.

I removed the side panel on my case to see if the temps change and below is my story.

Here is the before removing the panel:



After I removed the panel, I left the comp for a bit but the alarms started going off again.
Alarms for Vcore, SB2 and Opt Fan are just a few that I paid attention to.
The problem is that the alarms only happened for 1 or 2 seconds and then went back to normal.

Examples:
- Vcore dropped to 0.26v a one point
- SB2 jumpted to 1.82v from 1.54v
- Opt Fan went to 0 rpm but the fan was still running!

After a while though, i notice the MB temp was 163 deg C!!!!! Seriously what is going on here?



So I reset the BIOS. I did not change anything at all. Not even turning off the pic at boot up.

So this is how it is now:



Oh and of course after this, I got a BSOD while typing the first version of this post (screen went by too quick to see the details).
Can anyone give me any idea how to figure this out or what the problem is???

[GAR]

the problem is your ram, 4x1gb and the x38 dont like each other very much.

[V I P E R]

the problem is your ram, 4x1gb and the x38 dont like each other very much.

I'm thinking of getting two sets of 4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill DDR2 1000. What wold you think? Have you tried running two of these sets on X38?

[ShawnTRD]

Majoram:

Maybe there's a problem with your board. I would suggest doing a complete reset of the BIOS.
Unplug all cables from the back of the computer(anything that can supply power to the MB), and pull the CMOS battery for like 10 minutes and reset the BIOS with the jumpers if there are any. If not use the back panel reset. Then boot into BIOS and LOAD Factory Defaults.

[cadaveca]

Yeah I had this issue when I first got my board...everything was whacked out, could not get it stable, then I pushed an overclock, and the board reset itself after "CMAS CHECKSUM BAD".

I think you'll have no luck, Majoram, until you see as I did. You may also want to try just two GB of ram...whether it's one stick or two doesn't matter, IMHO.

[GAR]

I'm thinking of getting two sets of 4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill DDR2 1000. What wold you think? Have you tried running two of these sets on X38?

I havnt tried 8GB's yet, but with 4gb's this set is awsome, got it at ddr 1111 with no issues, 2.1v only, this is my fav set of ram yet, very easy to overclock, dont expect ddr 1200 but if your looking at a stable 1100 with low voltage this is a good set, and cheap too!

[TheSamurai]

the problem is your ram, 4x1gb and the x38 dont like each other very much.

i tried taking out 2gb of my ram and it didn't change a thing. still couldn't get any higher then my 3.825.

[V I P E R]

I havnt tried 8GB's yet, but with 4gb's this set is awsome, got it at ddr 1111 with no issues, 2.1v only, this is my fav set of ram yet, very easy to overclock, dont expect ddr 1200 but if your looking at a stable 1100 with low voltage this is a good set, and cheap too!

This will be for my 24/7 gaming system, so I'll be more than happy with anything more than 1000 @ 2.1 volts with 8Gb. For now I'll use it with my ASUS Maximus Formula and later when 7xx series Nvidia chipset for Intel arrives I'll transfer them there because I need SLi capable board for Crysis and some of the newest games that are about to come out.

[GAR]

This will be for my 24/7 gaming system, so I'll be more than happy with anything more than 1000 @ 2.1 volts with 8Gb. For now I'll use it with my ASUS Maximus Formula and later when 7xx series Nvidia chipset for Intel arrives I'll transfer them there because I need SLi capable board for Crysis and some of the newest games that are about to come out.

Yeah, i might be going to the 780i SLI as well, the new games tax my single GTX too much, i need dual 8800GT's , but before i make me decision, im going to wait for the 3870's to show up, if it shows to be as good as the 8800GT, i will go for crossfire this time around, some say crossfire is more efficient than SLi, but well have to wait till November 15th.

[GAR]

i tried taking out 2gb of my ram and it didn't change a thing. still couldn't get any higher then my 3.825.

Hmmmm, try setting all voltages to auto, except for cpu and dram, that works good usually, the board itself will adjust the voltages to what they would need to be.........try that see if it helps.

also remember to turn off any performance enhancements in the bios, the booster etc........

[btdvox]

^^ Leghoofd, those temps arent that bad? My temps are round 38 c MB, 45 SB and 50-52 NB after 8 hour prime. But My OC is a bit different im running 427X9 with my ram clocked at DDR211400 I have my DRAM set at 2.14 which gives me 2.24 and my NB at 1.62 which is a high NB volt but it seems this board wont be stable without a higher NB volt, to me its def the downfall for this Motherboard, but def something i can live with- as long as my temps are lower than 55 im good.

My E6850 gets to 55 degrees at the end of a orthos session.

[ihjones]

I had a very negative experience with two Maximus Formula SE boards, none of six memory sticks would run at any setting Took them both back to the store and now am temporarily using a P5K Deluxe...

[Majoram]

Yeah I had this issue when I first got my board...everything was whacked out, could not get it stable, then I pushed an overclock, and the board reset itself after "CMAS CHECKSUM BAD".

I think you'll have no luck, Majoram, until you see as I did. You may also want to try just two GB of ram...whether it's one stick or two doesn't matter, IMHO.

What did you do in the end? RMA the board?

the problem is your ram, 4x1gb and the x38 dont like each other very much.

Yeah I thought so too and I remove 2GB and did a memtest again and got a bunch of errors.
So I removed that 2GB and did another memtest and got errors in the first test!

Majoram:

Maybe there's a problem with your board. I would suggest doing a complete reset of the BIOS.
Unplug all cables from the back of the computer(anything that can supply power to the MB), and pull the CMOS battery for like 10 minutes and reset the BIOS with the jumpers if there are any. If not use the back panel reset. Then boot into BIOS and LOAD Factory Defaults.

Well I did do a complete reset before I tried memtest the second time around.
But I didn't remove the battery or anything, I just used the button at the back.

Does anyone know which memtest program is better to use???

I'm gonna try the other memtest now (Memtest 86 v3.3) and later I have some OCZ RAM that I will try testing with.

Thanks for the help so far! Any other suggestions appreciated!!

[cadaveca]

What did you do in the end? RMA the board?

Nah, I'm typing from it now. Like I said earlier, I forced an overclock that I knew was bad. The board failed to POST a few times, adn then when it DID POST, i got the message "CMOS CHECKSUM ERROR" after which the board has been playing very nice.

It really seems as though there is an issue with some of these boards actually writing settings in bios to the bios chip itself, or reading, as I had time on DDR3X38 before this board, so I was well aware of what this chipset was like.

Your symptoms sound exactly the same as mine...I could not get CAS4 to work right, but CAS5 with 2GB seemed ok, on some boots. ALso of note is that the chipset was topping 60c...and when it went over, nothing was stable @ all...stock..overclocked..nothing. At first I attributed this problem to an issue with the chipset and 4GB, but i really think that there is something else @ fault here...and the recent pics of a rev. 1.03 board(mine is rev. 1.02, yours probably too) really points to it being an issue with the board's PCB or some component mounted on the board. I'd really like to see full pics of the rev. 1.03 to see what's different..chances are I've got the parts to make the same changes myself...

[ChaosMinionX]

Try increasing the RAM voltage a tad and run again.

I ran 4GB in XP plenty.

RAM or NB voltage with 4GB...

[GAR]

RAM or NB voltage with 4GB...

both ram and NB voltage should be increased with 4gb, puts more strain on the NB with more ram.

[Simkin]

my NB is 50c Hot..


is that OK? what is the max temp i should have on the NB??