***OFFICIAL Asus P5K-E/WiFi Thread

[Gen]

anyone know why i get CHECKING NVRAM message at start up

so far i tried changing:
-RAM
-BIOS
-Battery
-clear CMOS
nothing works

as long as you get past the "Checking NVRAM" from POST it isn't an error, it's normal. to my limited knowledge it's just checking the bios data and CMOS battery. If your CMOS battery is dead it may lead to an error here or like my posts a page back you will get a CMOS checksum error.

[jpcastro]

hi to you all

few more tests today with the P5K-E, i´m limited by the RAM on the "challenge" for maxFSB but in the rest the board went pretty well.

the Loadline calibration is turned off because of the reported problems of "deads 45nm", thats why the vcore is more higher and the vdroop is 0,4v (with loadline calibration on is 0,1v)


superPI sub 10sg was my gool since the start so there it is, diden´t push harder because i´m on air with Noctua NF-U12F.


E8400 @ 4662mhz 9x518
P5K-E @ 1012
TG Elite 2x2GB e @ DDR1036 2,10v





it was close of 4700mhz so it have to be done

E8400 @ 4706mhz 9x523
P5K-E @ 1012
TG Elite 2x2GB e @ DDR1046 2,10v





MaxFsb achieved so far, the rams are on the limit here and i dont want to give more then 2,10v because de board already doing overvoltage and i don´t have a fan pointed to them.

E8400 @ 4320mhz 8x540
P5K-E @ 1012
TG Elite 2x2GB e @ DDR1080 2,10v 5-5-5-18





that´s all for today just want to share the experience

cumps

[JTeg86]

How are you guys flashing the BIOS with this board?

I went to download BIOS 1012 and once I extracted it it was a little over 2MB. This will not fit on a floppy. Are you using EZFlash through windows?

[jpcastro]

the best way to flash is using EzFlash with the bios rom file in a USB pen, otherwise you can use asus update is normaly what i do.

[Mr Alfabet]

just a small case of warning: this board killed my 4 Crucial Ballistix sticks, ran at the rated 1.2V. 2 of em were dead after oc'ing the cpu, the other 2 ran out of luck when the cpu was @ stock. i've had nothing but trouble with this board using 4GB, right now i'm on a DFI LT P35 and everything is smooth as shaven baby bottoms.

just my 2 cents

[Gen]

just a small case of warning: this board killed my 4 Crucial Ballistix sticks, ran at the rated 1.2V. 2 of em were dead after oc'ing the cpu, the other 2 ran out of luck when the cpu was @ stock. i've had nothing but trouble with this board using 4GB, right now i'm on a DFI LT P35 and everything is smooth as shaven baby bottoms.

just my 2 cents

i take it you mean 2.1v. can you post more details? like if a specific event killed them or they died after xx days running for an average of xx hours/day. were your ballistix single sided or double? need more info please as i've been running 4gb/dimms for 4months now no problems.

[Mr Alfabet]

i take it you mean 2.1v. can you post more details? like if a specific event killed them or they died after xx days running for an average of xx hours/day. were your ballistix single sided or double? need more info please as i've been running 4gb/dimms for 4months now no problems.

2.2V actually, my mistake. There was no specific event, the system just wouldn't boot anymore at a certain time, removing some of the sticks helped that, later i found out that 2 of em had died (no post with either of the sticks in) the sticks are single sided (newer, less clockable ones) and were/are actively cooled

[WeldZilla]

I'd Blame the sticks but whatever... you got a new board I am happy for you.
I use all G.Skill memory and have had no such issues. I have been running my mem at high clocks for months now on this board with no problems of any kind.
I am completely air cooled and run 24/7 @ 4500 mhz with my e8400. my memory is running 1:1 timings set at 4-4-4-4.
All is great!!

Look for your bios updates just use asus update that is all you need.
right there in windows you can udate to the latest or downgrade to the oldest.

WZ

[Nomad76]

My P5K-E killed two sets of Ballistix as well. They were the single sided version, I was running at 2.2 volts, and I was using them two at a time, the second pair was purchased as a replacement for the first. They lasted slightly different time spans, it may be because the first set was run at stock speeds for a while before I tightened up the timings and upped the voltage. The second set was run faster at 2.2v from the start, and I was doing more distributed computing with them so they may have been stressed more. But I was actually running them a little below spec, I was running 4-4-4-12 at something like DDR710.
The first set lasted a bit over two months, the second a bit less than two months. Hours per day is difficult to estimate, but I'd say 5-10 hours per day.

In my case it didn't end up being as dramatic as not wanting to post, I just can't run my system very long before I get BSODs. Both times I found that one stick was giving me errors and one was good, the first time that one good one eventually started giving me errors as well. I'm on the remaining good one of the second set, it may have started giving me errors today or Windows might have just been a little unstable, I was having a problem that's not characteristic of what the RAM does to me when it's giving errors. In any case I've dropped back to stock timings and lower voltage to try to extent the life of the survivor.

I'm really ticked off at this. I can RMA them but the errors are so subtle (memtest doesn't always find any errors, basically I have to run it for a while and eventually the errors start happening) that Crucial might not even find them and might try charging me their parts and labor fees, and even if they do replace them the replacements would probably last about the same length of time.

I think the blame lies somewhere in between. I can't imagine that these sticks always die after two months use. But I have seen several other reports of problems with them, with people reporting multiple failures in a row like I had. Perhaps the P5K-E is more likely to bring on this sort of behavior, but the sticks themselves seem to be less reliable after the changeover to a single sided design.

Actually I think it's time for an angry (civil, but unhappy) phone call to Crucial. RMAing may be pointless, but they make a point about guaranteeing that the memory that they say will work in a certain board will be compatible. I'd call dying like clockwork after 2 months incompatible.

[vocch]

Guys...Lets not blame the board....Ballistix are well known for dying...you won't be the last!...nevermind what board your using...i've been using cheap Elixir from day 1 and 5 mths later still running like a champ.

[WeldZilla]

Faulty I think would be the better term and incompatible with you. the board is an innocent bystander here as is any other board yopu plug that memory into. I doubt a call would get much action either way but, it may help you to feel better so I say do it. Don't just go off on them as that won't get you anywhere.


WZ

[Gen]

Faulty I think would be the better term and incompatible with you. the board is an innocent bystander here as is any other board yopu plug that memory into. I doubt a call would get much action either way but, it may help you to feel better so I say do it. Don't just go off on them as that won't get you anywhere.

+1 board looks not at fault, 2.2v, while may be warrantied, is too much for 24/7 imo unless you want to be replacing your sticks all the time. especially these single sided ballistix people have had more trouble than the older double sided ones (and the older ones were very fragile to). you may be actually supplying more than 2.2v to them if your board overvolts by any amount.

it is the luck of the draw on ram the same as it is on cpus. some ppl will be fine running 2.2v for 6months or more while others will fail in a matter of a few weeks.

if you want the best likelihood of long term stability stay with 2.0v or less but even then you may still have problems although less likely.

with conroe/penryn based cpus, from a real world application standpoint, they do not gain significantly from a ram overclock higher than the FSB. sure you can see a difference in Super PI, Sandra, Everest but those are synthetic benchmarks not very indicative of real world benchmarks. imo (for non benching) just stay 1:1 with the fsb and tweak timings and the NB performance level while keeping the voltage low and have a better chance your ram will survive longer.

[JTeg86]

Im getting ready to setup a RAID 0 array. My question is should I use the Intel ICH9R storage manager or JMicron?

Also what SATA ports should I plug into the two black or the red?

[Gen]

you want to use the ICH southbridge for your raid. any of the sata ports by the SB (black or red) will work for raid and are controlled by only ICH southbridge and intels storage manager. the JMicron are the esata ports on the I/O panel.

[Mordorr]

My case:

I did buy the Board and 2G, Mushkin 8500 Micron, in August 2007.

Since then, it been working 24/7, +- 440FSB X8, at 2.2V.

About 2 months ago, i became have problems in games, and a very subtil instability....

Not the classical BSO......

After many experiences, i did discovery, one of the Modules, was failures in Prime95

RMA with it....and now, there is no more D9 Mushkin 8500.....

Weird, that some users report problems with memory....

In old times DDR 2, is was very rare

[B@gy]

jpcastro, nice results you got there...have you tried to run those mems @ CL4? If you did, what volts did you use and what was the highest fsb you reached?

[WeldZilla]

That is lookin good jpcastro. you should try to tighten up your memory though and see if it helps much. Here is a pi I ran on the 8.5 multi. I was able to run cas4 no probs.


My fastest time is with the 9 multi at 525 fsb again using the cas4 setting


WZ

[ChuckM]

Guys...Lets not blame the board....Ballistix are well known for dying...you won't be the last!...nevermind what board your using...i've been using cheap Elixir from day 1 and 5 mths later still running like a champ.

AGREE! Ballistix are dying faster than they can make them and this is not just Asus boards.

[jpcastro]

jpcastro, nice results you got there...have you tried to run those mems @ CL4? If you did, what volts did you use and what was the highest fsb you reached?

thanks

the ram dosen´t scale much with CAS 4 and even with CAS 5 the max achieved was 540FSB @ DDR1080 with 2,10v (they dont like high voltages), this is the 4GB kit of teamgroup elite and not 2gb kit that ones scale a bit more.

in terms of the cpu max FSB so far was 8x540 because of the limited mems and of course the P5K-E is not know for high FSB´s records but i think that with a good ram sticks is possible to go higher.

That is lookin good jpcastro. you should try to tighten up your memory though and see if it helps much. Here is a pi I ran on the 8.5 multi. I was able to run cas4 no probs.


My fastest time is with the 9 multi at 525 fsb again using the cas4 setting

WZ

thanks again.

the awnser is the same of above to user B@gy , i need a better pair of mems like tou have but for know for daily use is enough, you have there a good chip

i think that for a "medium budget" board it´s a very good result, next step is orthos stable the PC for 24\7 use and i´ll continue to post results.

regards

[WeldZilla]

jpcastro I think your results are great!!! No reason to complain at all..

There are many out there who are getting know where near your results.

Sometimes it is best just to stop and appreciate what you have.

WZ

[Nomad76]

The thing is that I used to see loads of glowing reviews for Ballistix RAM. Presumably from before they changed over to single sided modules. Now that I look again I see reports of people having to RMA their RAM multiple times.

I didn't mean to exactly blame the P5k-E model, I guess I picked the wrong words when I said my board killed the RAM. What I really meant was that I use this board and that two sets of the same RAM died at roughly after roughly the same amount of use. What I was actually wondering was if maybe my board was defective, I was wondering if I had a memory killer, a specific unit rather than a problem with the entire model line.

I figured that the board had to have some part in it, though. I mean I never would have guessed that a company could sell a product that, when used according to it's official specification, would last on average a number of months rather than years.

I'm very disappointed by that. But.. now I know, I guess. It's not that I absolutely needed to push my memory as fast as possible, it's just that the overclocking memory was the way to go since, with a mail in rebate, it was cheaper than standard stuff. I figured that if I had it I might as well use it to its full capability.

I'd ask for recommendations on my next RAM choice, but all I have to do is look in your sigs.

[jpcastro]

yes i think the same way to, its not a golden chip of course but for daily use is fantastic to have 4,3\4,4ghz with low vcore and good temps.

i´m still checking for best config because don´t wanna stress the board to much for 24\7 use

next step will be new mobo+DDR3 to put this E8400 really on the edge

regards

[waynetu]

one of my 2*1G g.skill 6400hz was dead with this board after 6 months oc use at 1200hz with 2.3v. I do put ocz ram cooler on the pair but unfortu...i do believe that this board has oced vol supply to the ram. If 2.3v showing in bios, it could be 2.4 or 2.45 in reality according to some articles reality testing.

[Gen]

one of my 2*1G g.skill 6400hz was dead with this board after 6 months oc use at 1200hz with 2.3v. I do put ocz ram cooler on the pair but unfortu...i do believe that this board has oced vol supply to the ram. If 2.3v showing in bios, it could be 2.4 or 2.45 in reality according to some articles reality testing.

best way to test is buy a dmm, there were some tests earlier in the thread. can you post the links to the articles?

every board is different, what is true for one board cannot be completely indicative of all boards (although their should not be a large variation)

[Nomad76]

I do have a meter and would like to measure the voltage that my RAM is seeing, but I don't know where to measure it. The pictures that were posted were for several other voltages, and even then the pictures only showed what I assume were positive taps, I'd need to know where to find a ground or a negative.