Offical Thread ASUS P5E3 DELUXE/WiFi-AP Problems, Workarounds, BIOS info.

[oscar3d]

Official Asus P5E3 Deluxe / Deluxe WI/FI AP@n Troubleshooting, Overclocking and Workarounds.



I know there is another thread about Asus P5E3, but in my humble opinion it has mixed up with other similar board like the Maximus Formula, and P5E that use DDR2.

I want to start this thread focalizing on the flagship Asus X38 model, P5E3 Deluxe WI/FI and Deluxe which has the complete set of features, Asus intended for the X38 motherboard, which is DDR3 based I really want this thread to focus BIOS updates that this motherboard has, overclocking capabilities and share our BIOS settings, and workarounds and findings.

THIS IS WHAT THE MANUAL AND ASUS WON'T TELL YOU

KNOWN BIOS UPDATES ARCHIVE (Ready for Download)

P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0132 The most archaic version contained inside the ASUS ASAP device which stores Express Gate.
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0141 This is the one that shipped with the first revision and is included in the support CD.
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0201 First Website Release
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0301 Fixed S5 auto-resume issue.
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0402 Support for new CPUs
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0504 (beta) Beta Bios.
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0601 Support for new CPU (They fixed Yorkfield QX9650- Enhanced Memory Compatibility
P5E3 Deluxe BIOS 0704(beta) Use at your own risk. Memory enhancements/compatibility.


So let me start with findings:

Once you update the BIOS the boot logo screen will change to "P5E3 Deluxe" instead of "P5E3 Deluxe Wi/Fi Ap@n"

EXPRESS GATE

- BIOS UPDATES for P5E3 Deluxe WI-FI@AP motherboard momentarily ERASE Express Gate from the BIOS Setup.
After flashing your motherboard with a new bios, proceed and LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS or simply press F5.

- If for some modding reasons (like some did on the P5W DH Deluxe Motherboard) you physically remove the WI/FI card: Express Gate will appear no more, because the CMOS will consider your board as a P5E3 Deluxe. Putting the WI/FI card and doing a bios setup reset will solve the problem.

BIOS UPDATES RECOMMENDATION

- Always use EZ Flash Tool from the BIOS to make updates.You can use a USB Flash Drive, a CD/DVD ROM or anything that doesn't use NTFS file system. Note:EZ Flash only supports FAT and NOT NTFS

- Never use AsusUpdate to update your BIOS from windows. It is widely known to cause problems and BIOS corruption.

- BIOS updates for these motherboards are NOT possible using AFUDOS. Since BIOS files are 2048KB in size and a floppy disk only supports 1.44MB

- It is recommendable that once you flash your BIOS: Turn off the computer and unplug the power cord,or simply turn off the PSU for at least 5 minutes. Some people say take the battery out for some time and then put it back. These are all procedures to resetor clean the CMOS where your settings (overclocking settings) are stored.

DIRECT LINKS TO OFFICIAL ASUS SUPPORT FORUMS

So you don't have to go thruough that slow a$$ POS website.

- Support forums for Asus P5E3 Deluxe WI/FI AP@n click HERE

- Support forums for Asus P5E3 Deluxe click HERE

ANOTHER EXCELLENT POST IN THIS BOARD (GERMAN)






Thank you!

[vmsein]

You can create a bootable USB Flash drive on which you can save AFUDOS and the BIOS.ROM files to update your BIOS. Good instructions on how to do this are provided here: http://ucsu.colorado.edu/~shaher/Bootable_USB.html

[Crazypinoy9]

The only thing I'll agree with is that there is no "official" bios for the Wifi version board.

BUT! I have the Wifi version and have been using the 0504 bios (non-beta) for about a week or so now and I have the express gate running perfectly fine (i actually disabled it but still). There was someone in the other thread who was having some trouble with missing the express gate option too and to be honest with you i had the same problem when I flashed to 0503. All i did was flash the bios, completely powerdown, remove the battery, pop it back in / boot, load bios, load defaults, save/restart...then BOOM....i had express gate in the bios! try it out, it might help you too.

Oh and vmsein there's no need to create a bootable disk when you can just plug in a regular flash drive with the bios and flash through EZ flash...it REALLY is EZ!

****LOL! i just went into the other thread and saw that YOU were the guy that had the same problem....that's pretty damn funny. ****

[ACE76]

I got this board coming to me on Tuesday and hope more people contribute here..the board looks like an excellent all around board...I'll be testing with two different DDR3 kits...will post back later this week

[ACE76]

I just checked Asus's global site and the Wifi edition is in fact there with a beta BIOS 504 posted...so that should clear up any confusion...if that Express Gate issue remains, I suggest doing what the other poster did and cut all power to the board and remove the battery.

[oscar3d]

Thanks for the answers guys. I think we should start the thread with some of the things I've found so far.

I've read that crazypinoy was having trouble running his 4GB G. Skill memory up to 1066Mhz. Is that correct? Did you find something on the FSB strap?

My experience with memory on the P5E3. I have 4 sticks of 1 GB of Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864BA1608

Even if this memory is rated at 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24. Since I'm running 4 sticks I can't get past 1333Mhz 9-9-9-24.

Crucial explains that this memory starts by default at 1066Mhz 7-7-7-20, and crucial says it is like that to assure compatibility.

The funny situation with this memory, is that sometimes, the my rig won't POST at 1333MHZ, and I have to set it back to standard SPD of 1066Mhz. And no mater what I do it won't start at 1333MHz again. It's a selective werid thing happening with this mobo.

Yesterday, I again moved back to 1333Mhz and then it magically started...

Very weird.

I have to consider though that I'm running 4 sticks for this chipset, I don't think I can make them go 1600Mhz, so I'm trying to settle for a lower speed, but anyhow should be better than 1066MHz. This has happened to me with the BIOS up to 402 (No express gate:-)

I'll post mi rig here so you can see it.

[oscar3d]

My current rig pictures:

SIDE



CLOSEUP



The full extent of the rig can be seen here

[Crazypinoy9]

Thanks for the answers guys. I think we should start the thread with some of the things I've found so far.

I've read that crazypinoy was having trouble running his 4GB G. Skill memory up to 1066Mhz. Is that correct? Did you find something on the FSB strap?

My experience with memory on the P5E3. I have 4 sticks of 1 GB of Crucial Ballistix BL2KIT12864BA1608

Even if this memory is rated at 1600Mhz 8-8-8-24. Since I'm running 4 sticks I can't get past 1333Mhz 9-9-9-24.

Crucial explains that this memory starts by default at 1066Mhz 7-7-7-20, and crucial says it is like that to assure compatibility.

The funny situation with this memory, is that sometimes, the my rig won't POST at 1333MHZ, and I have to set it back to standard SPD of 1066Mhz. And no mater what I do it won't start at 1333MHz again. It's a selective werid thing happening with this mobo.

Yesterday, I again moved back to 1333Mhz and then it magically started...

Very weird.

I have to consider though that I'm running 4 sticks for this chipset, I don't think I can make them go 1600Mhz, so I'm trying to settle for a lower speed, but anyhow should be better than 1066MHz. This has happened to me with the BIOS up to 402 (No express gate:-)

I'll post mi rig here so you can see it.

Well guys I haven't had too much time to test cuz 8800GT launch made the last couple weeks at the office kinda crazy.

So I finally was able to do a little bit of testing (should have more time over the weekend) and was able to get all 4GB running at 1600. I had to put 1.73v on the northbridge and left the mem @ 1.9v. The biggest thing was that i had to lower my multi to 7. So now i'm at a low 3.5GHz. This blows! Oh well....QX9650 is going in on the 12th

almost forgot...mem set to 7-8-7-20-2T.

Hurray! I'll post pics too!

[Crazypinoy9]

Hey oscar3d have you tried the beta 0504 Wifi bios yet?

[ACE76]

Nice rig Crazypinoy....post some SS of your results with the Vapochill....I actually have a Vapochill LS sitting around waiting to be used...but I will keep this motherboard (hopefully it arrives today) and my Q6600 G0 seperate...will probably use the DFI P35 board for the phase change...I can't wait for the QX9650 to arrive!

Are the BIOS updating issues getting resolved?...I plan on updating directly to the beta 504 when I install the board..hopefully it goes ok

[Crazypinoy9]

Thanks man!

ya know i actually haven't tried the "beta 0504" bios yet...i'm currently using the deluxe 0504 right now....maybe i'll give it a try tonight.

I'll be picking up a QX9650 and judging by what people are getting on air i'm pretty sure that i can do some serious OC with the vapo. i guess my main reason for looking towards the 9650 is the lower voltage...using 1.55v daily is probably stressing my vapo considerably.

[oscar3d]

I will try it tomorrow man. Been under heavy workload :-(

Anyway, found this and this is exactly what has happened to me in some occasions. Please take notes :-)

Quote:
Originally Posted by purecain
ok just found a bug with the p5e bios, not sure if all bios revisions will have this , i think mine is 201. anyway my pc would work fine and then the next day my overclock (i thought) became unstable and wouldnt let me into windows xp or vista.
i could here this spinning which i thought was one of my hard drives trying to access data. well i was sort of right. if you have a disc in your dvd drive the bios for some reason starts to search for info from it. constantly spinning up and obviously failing as its accessing the wrong drive.
this is a really wierd one as i have never seen this kind of problem before or had a bios ignore my settings this way. i got my ear close to the pc and realised it was the dvd drive spinning up so i took out the W.I.Conflict disc and it booted up no problems.
i've had this issue every morning if i ran my ram above 1000mhz. but with disk out the problem is gone. hope this helps anyone else having similar issues booting up in a morning.
by the way my boot time into vista is usually 15 seconds....from bios to user selection screen.

I have the same exact thing happened to me on the P5E3 deluxe. For some reason I could run my Q6000 @ 3GHz and mem @ 1333MHz. Then suddenly by rebooting the computer, it doesn't post anymore and then gives me an overclocking error. Ridiculous!!

It happens randomnly, but now that you mention the presence of a CD ROM drive, that might be the reason that triggers " this BIOS amnesia" good finding.

I'm going to try this if this ever happens again on my rig.!

[oscar3d]

BTW!! Beautiful and fast rig you got rig there crazypinoy. Kudos!!

[oscar3d]

FYI this is coming from the Asus website forums.

Shamefulif you ask me...

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?...Language=en-us

To make the story short on the Express Gate fiasco.

I just called Asus in North America. 1-812-282-2787 and press 3.And guess what? The guy on the phone didn't know what "Express Gate" was. LOL. He started reading some manual,to "quickly"address the problem, gave me a case # and then he had to transfer me to the "tech" department..

The person spoke enligh well enough to undertand what I was talking about.

"So your problem is that once you update to any BIOS file from our site, Express Gate gets disabled, and your motherboard acts like a P5E3 Deluxe, but NOT like an P5E3 Deluxe WI-FI" Yeah! He got it.

And later he told me that this issue should be addressed to the engineering department at ASUS taiwan. Obviously this is a big bug on the flagship motherboard.

So you people with the problem and other with the same deal,please bear with me and help me by writing your Express Gate problem on an e-mail to tsd@asus.com.tw

In my opinion this is shameful. Typical from ASUS!! Good enough motherboards but sub-par tech support. No disrispect or hard feelings, but I think Asus needs a serious make-over.
I'm writing them ASAP.

[ACE76]

Someone else on this forum had the same problem when doing the bios update but he said that taking out the battery and clearing the cmos fixed everything...now I'm wondering if I should just leave the bios it ships with as is for now...maybe wait until the 504 bios revision is final and not beta anymore? My board came in today but I didn't install it yet...

[ACE76]

I think using thw Asus windows utility might be the culprit here....I clearly remember FUGGER saying that he updated the BIOS on his P5E3 through the BIOS-EZ FLASH with a USB flash drive with no issues at all...Oscar, if you flash back to the original BIOS, does everything go back to normal??

[oscar3d]

To be honest, I'm also waiting for the final bios 504. I will try the battery thing on the weekend, but why should be do that hazzle in the first place? Anyway, deosn't CMOS get cleared by default when you update with EZ Flash tool?

When I got the problem with Express Gate (after using Asus Update) I did try flashing it back using EZ Flash to the original BIOS that came with the CD. Turned out that this didn't work either, and the Logo screen said "P5E3 Deluxe" but without the "WI/FI Ap@n" extension.

When I fixed Express Gate on my machine, I used the USB device that holds Express Gate content.

Note: This device only appears in the BIOS, after you screw up Express Gate.

Inside I found two BIOS ROM files:

1) P5E3xxxxxx.rom (the interesting thing is that the name of this bios says something like "epgate" at the end. Suggesting that it has express gate enabled.
2) P5Kxxxxxxx.rom

I used the first one, and then my machine flashed back to BIOS 0132, older version. But recovered express gate.

That's why I don't want to update until I have either a new non-beta BIOS, or I have confirmation from Asus on what's really going on.

ACE76, I hear you, from now on I will never use Asus Update. But even using EZ Flash tool, to update, I will lose Express Gate again. I will try on the weekend.

[ACE76]

To be honest, I'm also waiting for the final bios 504. I will try the battery thing on the weekend, but why should be do that hazzle in the first place? Anyway, deosn't CMOS get cleared by default when you update with EZ Flash tool?

When I got the problem with Express Gate (after using Asus Update) I did try flashing it back using EZ Flash to the original BIOS that came with the CD. Turned out that this didn't work either, and the Logo screen said "P5E3 Deluxe" but without the "WI/FI Ap@n" extension.

When I fixed Express Gate on my machine, I used the USB device that holds Express Gate content.

Note: This device only appears in the BIOS, after you screw up Express Gate.

Inside I found two BIOS ROM files:

1) P5E3xxxxxx.rom (the interesting thing is that the name of this bios says something like "epgate" at the end. Suggesting that it has express gate enabled.
2) P5Kxxxxxxx.rom

I used the first one, and then my machine flashed back to BIOS 0132, older version. But recovered express gate.

That's why I don't want to update until I have either a new non-beta BIOS, or I have confirmation from Asus on what's really going on.

ACE76, I hear you, from now on I will never use Asus Update. But even using EZ Flash tool, to update, I will lose Express Gate again. I will try on the weekend.

I don't think i's just Asus software implementation of flashing BIOSes...it's basically all mobo company software for doing this is suspect...I have read in so many other threads across so many different forums of people having nightmare problems when attempting to flash their BIOSes from within Windows...I personally have always done it with a floppy or the BIOS like Asus has that option....at least we know that doing it that way is much more safe...not 100% as nothing is 100% safe...but people are just better off doing with either a floppy or through the BIOS if that option is available.

I am probably just going ot hold off on even trying to flash my BIOS now until I see a final revision on that 504 firmware....better safe than sorry I guess.

[oscar3d]

Well the moment of truth...

Went into my machine and bios setup and set "load bios defaults OK

I saved the 504beta file to my ipod. Then plugged it to a USB. Turned on the machine and used EZ Flash to update from 0132 (recovered Express Gate BIOS) to 0504 beta. OK

Once it updated it, the usualmessage "The computer will reboot in 5 seconds" OK

Then it restarted, but it didn't post. It stayed there without doing anything, just the sound of the fans. I remeber it did this before when I updated with other bioses.

I waited at least 5 minutes (smoke a cigarette in the process :-)

Then turned on the machine. It tried to post, but then the computer shut of. CLICK. Ohhhh, .

Then I turned it on again, and it did post but "P5E3 Deluxe"appeared on the logo. And gave me the press F1 to go into BIOS.

Went to the BIOS setup, then tools and NOOOOOOOO "Express Gate is NOT there again.

IMHO this sucks so bad, I'm willing to trade this WIFI POS for just a P5E3 Deluxe only. This is unnacceptable,ASUS just haven't nailed it yet. This is just linux propaganda, and this feature seems totally unsupported.

I will try the remove battery procedure on the weekend. I just don't feel like opening the case right now. I have to say however that the 504 is very yummy.

I got LLC enabled, and I'm running my quad 6600 G0 at 3.01 with my VCORE set at a conservative 1.27500, right now I'm running a season of Prime 95 and so far is 2 hrs stable with temperture not going above 55C. I'll post my definite findings later.

Asus, you ripped me off with this Express Gate feature.:-(

[Crazypinoy9]

I genuinely feel bad for you guys cuz I haven't had any problems with the express gate after flashing to 0504 (P5E3 Deluxe non-beta)...I wish I knew how to help you guys.....

[oscar3d]

I just used express gate updater with BIOS 504beta, and the latest DFI image.


No go... I must have to learn to live without it.

[ACE76]

I haven't tried to flash my BIOS...so I don't technically have this issue yet...I think I might just wait it out and flash it when the final version of 504 comes out...so taking out the battery didn't help either Oscar??

[oscar3d]

Well 504 is know to make the 45nm CPU work right. What Yorkfield are you running?

[oscar3d]

I did some changes to the thread, so you guys can have more easy access, and I'll make sure to update it regularly.

I'm going to make a template, so we can also post our bios settings and do comparisons.

[Crazypinoy9]

Hey guys,

been a couple weeks since i've posted so i thought i'd give you guys a little present.

P5E30601.rom

I'm gonna be testing this bios tonight.