ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[Nick L]

Man I installed this board last night and it wouldn't post with my Ballistix......I tried each DIMM in each slot individually, and I tried an el cheapo stick of Kingston. My memory is on the QVL too.
I spent TWO HOURS last night trying to get this memory to boot. It just hangs on DET DRAM every time. Reset the CMOS dozens of times. Tried different SATA ports just to make sure. This is insane.
I'm going to try to boot again when I get home from work, but I'm afraid I've given up on ASUS. My P5K doesn't really like this RAM much either, and won't always POST. It will eventually though. I'm going to get the Gigabyte model.
Anyone else running Ballistix? I have the DDR2-800 CAS4 sticks.

I feel your pain bro. I had to return two boards for the same reasons you’re describing.
I requested and received the third board tested to bios and it’s a keeper.

I believe Asus had some quality control issues with the first run. The first board would light up like Christmas tree (all led’s on red orange green) when powered up, the second ones led’s appeared normal (all green) both boards would not post to bios. I tried three different vid. Cards, two brands of mem, two power supplies and two CPU’s. All this was back a month ago early in the release and I was assuming the problems are behind them now so don’t give up yet if you need CF setup.

This board is rock solid, OC’s nicely and have gotten some descent scores. You could imagine the grin this setup gives me over the DDR1 939 system I’m upgrading from.

[binormalkilla]

For that case when i have clear CMOS i have some cheap memory that can boot on 1.8Vdimm that is defaut after Clear CMOS since my Flex does not do so or not like that and are stuck at "DET DIMM". So i boot on the cheep crap and upped vdimm to 2.0V and shut of and put the Flex in and boot into BIOS, upped the Vdimm to the correct value and change the rest to correct value and then restart. But since you tried that i don´t know why it does not work for you.
And since you use 4 DIMMS the Gigabyte X38 is NOT better, it is way worse and a major flaw on that boards design that make 4 dimmuser very upset.
Thats why i trade the X38-DQ6 for Maximus SE and the problem with OC and 4dimms is gone.

Well I didn't know that....no way I'm running the Gigabyte if it doesn't OC with 4 Gb well. This sucks man......I don't know why I can't boot with 1 DIMM of cheap DDR2-533. I'm going to buy another stick for booting with a pair of cheap RAM and see what happens.
Is it just me or are new boards becoming increasingly unstable when they're first released? It's almost as if they have NO QA department

[culex44]

Just finish to look at this entire topic, such a big one!!! Screens I saw confirm that pci-ex frequency as read under setfsb is corrupted (always around 125Mhz) . The max oc I can managed with this board for the moment is 460*9 from the bios (12.250s under SPi 1mo) and 9*465 with setfsb, the screen is above:

I forget to put my ram at 44412... probably it will help to do less time
All my parameters except vcore (1.65v) and vram (2.14)v was on auto. I still have an error message (surtension cpu) since I put 1.65v in bios for the vcore.
Now I read the topic, I'll try some changes like PLL, FSBT, GTL ref etc... I'm on the 0505 bios

[Pete]

Hi, sorry i been away i got fed up of crap BIOS. So is there yet a clock gen for this thing?

[CyberDruid]

Okay I just flashed back to 0401 and the temps are back to normal. I am running Super Pi 32M at 9 x 435 with some high volts and seeing mid 30C temps as I would expect.

There is something about the 0701 BIOS that is making very high temps for me.

RE: Freezing that is most likely AI Nap screwing up the computer. Uninstall the AI suite and it should be fine.

[Nick L]

Okay I just flashed back to 0401 and the temps are back to normal. I am running Super Pi 32M at 9 x 435 with some high volts and seeing mid 30C temps as I would expect.

There is something about the 0701 BIOS that is making very high temps for me.

RE: Freezing that is most likely AI Nap screwing up the computer. Uninstall the AI suite and it should be fine.

Noticed the same a while back. I found that 701 reports higher temps in Pc Probe than in Core Temp and 505 reports lower. I don’t really remember if the actual values changed between the two.

[TheSamurai]

Man I installed this board last night and it wouldn't post with my Ballistix......I tried each DIMM in each slot individually, and I tried an el cheapo stick of Kingston. My memory is on the QVL too.
I spent TWO HOURS last night trying to get this memory to boot. It just hangs on DET DRAM every time. Reset the CMOS dozens of times. Tried different SATA ports just to make sure. This is insane.
I'm going to try to boot again when I get home from work, but I'm afraid I've given up on ASUS. My P5K doesn't really like this RAM much either, and won't always POST. It will eventually though. I'm going to get the Gigabyte model.
Anyone else running Ballistix? I have the DDR2-800 CAS4 sticks.

3.825 here (425 x 9) with a 1:1, 4 stick of ram, 4-4-4-12... stable 4 hours prime.

[kimandsally]

I don't know about using a USB for driver loading in XP. What I did was use nLite to slipstream SP2 and the RAID drivers when I was using XP on a P5W DH. It worked great! Here's a link to a guide on the nLite web site that makes it very easy to set up http://www.nliteos.com/guide/.

On this build with the Maximus I'm using Vista x64 Home Premium and have been well satisfied with it. No drivers requred for RAID install.

Thank you, I've downloaded NLite and will do it that way

I was just hoping to do it the USB way because I thought it was the "future".

[kup]

I've finally built up my machine now, and I'm surprised (initially) at the vast stability improvements over the i975X, I haven't tweaked things much but just installed XP to test a few options with Prime.

Kup: is your modded 0701 SLIC BIOS meant to report a bad boot block error on EZ FLASH 2? I avoided flashing with it. The SLIC modded 0903 BIOS for my P5W64-WS didn't report any bad boot block errors during its flash, so that's why I'm asking.

P.

My bad, the boot block problem can be avoided by using AFUDOS

Yeah, sorry. I forgot to mention, EZ Flash seems to think the bios is bad, but use another flasher and it'll be fine. I actually used Asus Update @ STOCK and it was fine.

[kup]

3.825 here (425 x 9) with a 1:1, 4 stick of ram, 4-4-4-12... stable 4 hours prime.

What settings please? I run the same, 4x1GB and the same clocks and timings and regardless of how long it can run prime for me it seems to still be unstable.

Also, I just had OCCT crash for me at completely stock. Like EVERYTHING set to stock, timings, voltages, settings, basically a boring slow system and yet OCCT still found fault within 5mins of running the ram specific test...? What could that be?

[Warboy]

Hey guys, Do you think there is a difference between the SE and the Non-SE performance wise/OC wise.

[cstkl1]

LOL your way late a post was made hours ago demonstrating that on dual cores this board could exceed 500fsb

err actually posted this weeks ago.. kekek but as links.. instead of pics..

got a new proc now
L720A478...

much better clocks at 4ghz at 1.45v
but lousy at 3.6ghz at 1.4..
it scales evenly right up to 4

[krampak]

Im on the 505 BIOS, does yours freeze when the logo boot starts to appear after BIOS post?

Nop, within Windows. It's Prime Stable but it frozes when I left it in idle for a while.

[binormalkilla]

3.825 here (425 x 9) with a 1:1, 4 stick of ram, 4-4-4-12... stable 4 hours prime.

Well that's good to know....maybe it's just the board. I'm going to RMA back to newegg on monday. Even if I do get it to boot it will probably have the same issue that my P5K had (RMAing that one soon....). My P5K wouldn't POST every once in a while, usually after a hard boot or wrong BIOS setting. I would have to try booting OVER AND OVER AND OVER until it finally posted. I wouldn't get any post beeps or anything.
I dunno man......that's two ASUS boards that have wasted a HUGE amount of my life within the last 4 months.
I would understand if I was using some sort of POS hardware, but my system is pretty close to top of the line.....there shouldn't be any of this nonsense.

[safan80]

I could do that for the BIOS but the F6 option installing XP needs either floppy or USB I would love to find out the USB way, it's the future and I want to learn now.

you use the flash util that's in the motherboard bios. you can get to it easily at POST by hitting alt+F2, but your usb flash drive must be formated in fat16 or fat32.

[Trice]

Nop, within Windows. It's Prime Stable but it frozes when I left it in idle for a while.

Ahh mine freezes when the initial XP screens comes on after the BIOS check.

[kimandsally]

you use the flash util that's in the motherboard bios. you can get to it easily at POST by hitting alt+F2, but your usb flash drive must be formated in fat16 or fat32.

BIG thanks

It works

Now to the next bit, I was about to build a Nlite disc with the SATA Raid drivers built in but is there a way to use the USB stick when pressing F6 to intall the SATA Raid drivers?

The reason is, tried the floppy way and used make disk utility but for some reason it says somethings wrong when installing from the floppy then near the end of installation it blue screens.

Thanks again.

[devilhood]

I'm absolutely loving this board so far, a complete joy to tweak having used the AnandTech guide and jonnyrotten's settings as a reference.
Thanks Kup btw for your modded BIOS again.

I'm using a Q6600 at 400x9 with a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and I've managed to get my Corsair 2 GB running 100% stable at 400 FSB to NB Strap, 4-4-4-12 timings and 5T tWR, DDR2-1066 with Ai Clocktwister on Strong and Transaction Booster enabled at 0.
The lowest I could bring the NB voltage for stable 400 FSB performance was 1.51v.
I haven't tried going lower with the latencies yet, but seriously, coming from an i975X board, this is heaven.

The CPU temperature bug with 0701 must be the same issue that occured with the P5W64-WS Pro BIOS, but I'm still puzzled why my NB seems hot, or is that suffering from the same bug? the ambient temps in the case are very low and I have 3 quiet 120mm fans literally pointing directly at the mobo.
I hope they'll sort that out soon because it really bugs me to see a totally bugged up temp report give me something of a 20 degrees celcius increase for no good reason
It's actually quite odd how many issues I'm seeing with this board have transferred over from the P5W64-WS Pro, even the overvolting issue is exactly the same, apart from the vdroop. DRAM is always subject to a 0.1v increase regardless of settings. Let's hope the BIOS readings are accurate for voltages, otherwise I'll be there throwing eggs at the nearest ASUS factory.

If anyone wants a list of my settings I'll post a few screenies.

[zoob]

Finally got my Maximus swapped in (after having it sit in a box for two weeks, and then testing random chips for another).

Maximus Formula S.E. BIOS 0505
Q6600 G0 L626A840 08/13/07
9x400 = 3600
BIOS VCore: 1.47500 V (1.456 V in CPU-Z)
VID = 1.3000 V

No problems with X-Fi in last PCI slot.
No problems going from 975 (P5WDH) -> P35 (P5K-DLX) -> X38 (Maximus Formula).

I said I was going to swear off Asus, but the Maximus Formula seems to be the only decent X38 board available in Toronto at this time.

FINALLY with this new chip I have 3.6 stable for at least longer than 2 minutes. I had it Priming small FFT for an hour which is much better than my last two chips (B3 and G0) who would either error on two cores (B3) out or outright BSOD (G0).

[TheSamurai]

What settings please? I run the same, 4x1GB and the same clocks and timings and regardless of how long it can run prime for me it seems to still be unstable.

Also, I just had OCCT crash for me at completely stock. Like EVERYTHING set to stock, timings, voltages, settings, basically a boring slow system and yet OCCT still found fault within 5mins of running the ram specific test...? What could that be?

the voltages were within the normal range. start at the end of "normal" and work your way back. strap was auto, try trans booster off and relax to 1. i think static was enabled. if you want the exact settings i'll get them for you. but remember, every cpu, stick of ram, etc., is different. ram was set to 1.94 in bios i believe. remember, this board over volts the ram pretty bad.

[TheSamurai]

Well that's good to know....maybe it's just the board. I'm going to RMA back to newegg on monday. Even if I do get it to boot it will probably have the same issue that my P5K had (RMAing that one soon....). My P5K wouldn't POST every once in a while, usually after a hard boot or wrong BIOS setting. I would have to try booting OVER AND OVER AND OVER until it finally posted. I wouldn't get any post beeps or anything.
I dunno man......that's two ASUS boards that have wasted a HUGE amount of my life within the last 4 months.
I would understand if I was using some sort of POS hardware, but my system is pretty close to top of the line.....there shouldn't be any of this nonsense.

yeah, i know it's not the greatest, but it's pretty good for me. 3.9 takes quite a bit more voltage. it's odd. i don't understand why i can be at 1.46 vcore with 3.8 and then something like 1.56+ just to get an extra 100 MHz.

[kup]

the voltages were within the normal range. start at the end of "normal" and work your way back. strap was auto, try trans booster off and relax to 1. i think static was enabled. if you want the exact settings i'll get them for you. but remember, every cpu, stick of ram, etc., is different. ram was set to 1.94 in bios i believe. remember, this board over volts the ram pretty bad.

I'l try those now, cheers dude!

I've found something odd with this board; overvolting seems to cause tyhe same problems as undervolting for me. As in, it is randomly unstable and crashes...

Never experienced that with more than required volts!!!

[Warboy]

Alright, I seem to found a sweet spot right now, Got it to 3.94Ghz (435x9) at 1.55 volts. Northbridge set to 1.55 volts, FSB at 1.65volts, CPU PLL around 1.50-1.70. I forgot what i put it at. But it is stable in XP, Vista 64bit so far. I'll try to get some bios pics with my cam later.

[devilhood]

Alright, I seem to found a sweet spot right now, Got it to 3.94Ghz (435x9) at 1.55 volts. Northbridge set to 1.55 volts, FSB at 1.65volts, CPU PLL around 1.50-1.70. I forgot what i put it at. But it is stable in XP, Vista 64bit so far. I'll try to get some bios pics with my cam later.

Nice one Warboy, I don't think I'm going to push this board too hard, just want a nice half-way point for long-term stability and heavy gaming.. but my experiences so far have been great.

[lazy]

This was an insanely long thread that I read and forgot what happen 40pages back.. =(

So whats the best stable bios for this?


So whats the deal with this board bein EOL? I just ordered mine and comes in on monday. Should i just return this?