ASUS Maximus Formula SE

[ssideratos]

Thanks to ZilverPhish, Jonny_ftm, Marjoram and all others for the replies and advice.

NOTE!!: I abbreviated the quotes so that this reply isn't too long.

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This board consistently undervolts the ram at reboot. I´ve too been through ALOT of powercycling it demands a dram volt adjustment to
boot properly...

Even changing the dram voltage and then rebooting via power cycle allows a POST with your new bios settings, so yes this board and its current bios versions has this flaw.

Had this issue with the commando as well, even with later ´bios versions.

My previous board was the P5W DH Deluxe. It was on the rare occasion of an aggressive overclock bios setting test that I might have to power cycle. Power cycling this board between BIOS settings is a real annoyance. However, most bios combinations that will POST, at least for me, will then require a power cycle after Windows Shutdown for cold boot. In those cases, the LCD poster never goes through the CPU INIT, DET RAM cycle -- The fans just spin up to max speed and the LCD poster just stays at time display. I can't live with the need to reach for the power switch every time I want to boot.

Looks like many fails OCCT RAM at stock too. But, it is a good idea, try keep your OC then wait and see. If it never fails, you're safe, if you have wired errors from time to time, than this damn board is broken or unstable, or maybe the whole X38 thing. Everywhere, it sounds that the X38 is very tricky on RAM settings and brands. Maybe this board is really unstable even at stock when you ask too much of it.....

So, if you really don't care, ignore OCCT in RAM, but just keep it in mind if by case you have wired errors (often induced by RAM)

Under Vista 32, it should be rock solid, or it's hardware issue/bios issue... For me, under bios 1223 (last final and previous 12xx except 1221, my system will reboot under OCCT in RAM mode)

I went X38 over P35 thinking as replacement for 975X and several months after P35, Intel would have worked real hard to make this chipset shine. Also X38 with PCIe2 support might buy me more time before MB upgrade fever set in the future.

Sounds like what was happening to me. OCCT kept failing just between 25 and 35 minutes (though I didn't have any POSTing issues...).

In my case though I only passed after downloading the Beta latest version from a link someone posted here.

I then realized by accident that I was using an older version of OCCT and that may have been the issue.

Sure enough when I run the Beta, I'm 4+ hours stable in OCCT. And when I run the other version, I fail.

So, if you haven't checked, what version are you running?

http://www.ocbase.com/download.php?fileext=beta

Majoram and jonny_ftm. Thanks for the link to the new OCCT 1.2 beta.

Like I said in last night's post, I'm really tired of the emotional roller coaster I've been on and the amount of time I've invested in nothing but testing this system/motherboard with no useful work getting done. So, as of last night I resigned to the fact that I would no longer bother with OCCT and went onto to a fresh Vista and apps install at 3Ghz, 4GB Ballistix at DDR2-800 4-4-4-10. Everything has been smooth as silk (of course the system hasn't been pushed at all.)

But Majoram, you're right, I was using 1.1.1. In researching my issues on this thread I noticed mentions to 1.2beta, but couldn't find it. I must have missed previous links if they are in here.

I promise I'll test out the new OCCT and report back soon. Forgive me however if I need some time to recover first from the stress of the last few weeks and just get on with my life and use my computer in a useful way for a couple of days before I have the energy to give OCCT another shot and risk getting caught up in another cycle of settings changes and testing.

Majoram, if you had the same problems with 1.1.1 and they went away with 1.2 then I'm hopeful they will for me too. If that's the case then much of the ill will I had for this motherboard would have been unfairly imposed.

All in all, I'm very happy with my experience outside of OCCT 1.1.1 with current settings. If OCCT 1.2 pans out, then I think that this board has the potential to be fantastic if the BIOS can be improved. The stress I've encountered is the price we pay for being early adopters.