"ASUS P5Q Deluxe discussion".

[LUCI5R]

I would highly recommended that you do try downgrading to 0803 even if it is a last resort. I was using a 1206 BIOS before 0803. 1206 was about as stable as a donkey with 1 leg. Everything at stock, and P95 would fail within seconds on Cores 1 & 3. Downgrading to 0803 fixed that instantly.

@NBF: Gotcha! I'm going to definately give this a shot first thing.

@Singh400: That's my next stop, after C1E & CPU Margin Enhancement.

Results coming in later today!

[nigelke]

pff this is becoming stupid.
I cant oc on this mobo no mather what i do :s
I mean if i set it to manual it says overclocking failt :S
I've updated and downgraded my bios. And nothing works :S
Some good people gave me some hints and tips. Yet it doesnt work :s
Whats going on whit this mobo??
cpu => Q9550
gpu=> Ati 4870 X2
and 4Gig ram OCZ
3 hard drives.
Vista 64bit
PSU => OCZ 780W
i hope some one can help me out :s

[Singh400]

^ All your BIOS settings under Ai Tweaker would be a useful start. What speed are you trying to achieve?

[truehighroller]

I live in Ohio.. Not to far but, not to close either. I was in PA the other week though.

[nigelke]

^ All your BIOS settings under Ai Tweaker would be a useful start. What speed are you trying to achieve?

3.0Ghz this should not be a problem. I am sure of this.
A2nd my bios settings under Ai tweaker well there you have problem one.
If i put everything on stock under Ai tweaker it already fails

Sow i can't change allot in there because wel if i enterCPU Ratio Setting 6 ore 8 wel it doesn't doe anything

And now it doesnt boot anymore :-(
i changed the cpu config (speedstep and sow one) to disabeld. (this normaly works). And now i am having problems getting it to boot :s

ahr i did a clear cmos. I booted. I changed my boot order saved and exit. and now it wont boot anymore :s
i am gettinge despered now. Whats going on :s The mobo can't be dead :s

[franksnb]

3.0Ghz this should not be a problem. I am sure of this.
A2nd my bios settings under Ai tweaker well there you have problem one.
If i put everything on stock under Ai tweaker it already fails

Sow i can't change allot in there because wel if i enterCPU Ratio Setting 6 ore 8 wel it doesn't doe anything

And now it doesnt boot anymore :-(
i changed the cpu config (speedstep and sow one) to disabeld. (this normaly works). And now i am having problems getting it to boot :s

ahr i did a clear cmos. I booted. I changed my boot order saved and exit. and now it wont boot anymore :s
i am gettinge despered now. Whats going on :s The mobo can't be dead :s

i had to update my bios to get rid of this problem

[nigelke]

i had to update my bios to get rid of this problem

To wich bios?

If i could just boot the damn thing. But now i hear 2 beeps but i don't know what they mean and i cant find any information about it

Edit,
i have cleared cmos (again) and reseated my ati 4870 X2 and now the beeps have stopped but there are 3leds burning on the graphics card :s

[Tech Niques]

Have you verified the first CPU is no longer working on another board? It sounds like your board may be defective, or the VRM circuit (Mosfet etc) burned and is not providing power to the cpu or another critical part of the board. It's very unlikely the CPU itself burned. It could also be your power supply that burned. Test all components separately and figure out what is faulty.

Thanks Cryptik I'll give it a go. I'm going to have to buy another motherboard maybe a cheap ECS board so I can test the processor/memory. The power supply can be tested on my old DFI SLI-DR.

It's strange though. What I didn't mention was that I switched out my Q6600 on my old DFI P35 and stuck it in ASUS board but I had a burning smell come out of it when I started to run Prime. Turned off and I couldn't turn it back on. So I decided to stick a e8500 in it and I don't remember how it turned on (last week) but I did manage to cut my finger on the fan when it did so I think by sacrificing some blood to the computer gods it worked.

But I checked the BIOS settings to make sure the e8500 didn't burn out with the crazy settings ASUS sets for auto. But with the new e8500 it's doing the same thing that old one did until it turned on.

Will me accidentally bending some of the fins on the NB affect the warranty?

[IanB]

Quick questions about connecting SATA optical drives on the P5Q series, specifically Pro, if anyone can spare equally quick answers...

I have the idea that if you have the Southbridge (ICH10) SATA connectors set up as RAID or AHCI in the BIOS, that you can't use any of the Southbridge SATA ports for an optical drive, only for HDDs - is this correct? If so, since the extra Silicon Image (Drive Xpert) controller connections don't support ATAPI devices, only HDDs (according to the P5Q Pro manual) are you then restricted to using an IDE optical device if you are using Matrix RAID?

[LUCI5R]

At home now...

- Enabled C1E Support: Shutdown woes persist.
- Set 'CPU Margin Enhancement' to Performance Mode: Still the same.
- +/-1 CPU vCore: Shutdown woes continue.

Downgrading to 0803 now ...

[Mumid]

At home now...

- Enabled C1E Support: Shutdown woes persist.
- Set 'CPU Margin Enhancement' to Performance Mode: Still the same.
- +/-1 CPU vCore: Shutdown woes continue.

Downgrading to 0803 now ...

Hope that works for you. If not mate, note that it could also be a driver\windows problem especially some ide\raid drivers.

[LUCI5R]

It's Official!
I have been infected with the "truehighroller bug"

As soon as I downgraded to BIOS 0803, my system began to reboot like a normal, decent, compassionate, understanding and civilized piece of machinery.

This is pretty sad! We need a resolution. Somebody needs to fix the upgraded BIOS. Whatever crap this 'CPU Margin Enhancement' is infecting good 'ol Q9450's with needs to be dealt with by ASUS. Now I'm going to be stuck with 0803 like truehighroller.

Is anybody at ASUS listening? FIX IT!!!

I'm not happy.

[Pntgrd]

Quick questions about connecting SATA optical drives on the P5Q series, specifically Pro, if anyone can spare equally quick answers...

I have the idea that if you have the Southbridge (ICH10) SATA connectors set up as RAID or AHCI in the BIOS, that you can't use any of the Southbridge SATA ports for an optical drive, only for HDDs - is this correct? If so, since the extra Silicon Image (Drive Xpert) controller connections don't support ATAPI devices, only HDDs (according to the P5Q Pro manual) are you then restricted to using an IDE optical device if you are using Matrix RAID?

I have and use a SATA optical on the SB which is set as Raid with no problems, can even set it as Boot device. This is on The Deluxe but i don't think that will make a difference.

[IanB]

I have and use a SATA optical on the SB which is set as Raid with no problems, can even set it as Boot device. This is on The Deluxe but i don't think that will make a difference.

Many thanks. Not sure where I got that erroneous idea about the BIOS setting affecting SATA optical drives... That's sure gonna make for an easier upgrade.

[kadozer]

How did you short it out exactly? Where was the short on the board? I would say you have severely damaged if not killed the board. If I were you, I'd RMA it and not run any of my gear in it again in case it takes out your ram/cpu/graphics card.

@CryptiK Hey, I shorted it out while it was powering down and pulled a case fan out of the fan header nearest the main ATX connector. When I power everything on with video card, ram, sound card all the fans power up. When I power everything on with a cpu installed it shuts itself off. With a CPU installed it can't find any executing code from the bios so maybe only the bios chip needs replacement. So that sounds optimistic right? I do cringe at rma the whole board only because of Asus Legendary RMA process.

[platojones]

As soon as I downgraded to BIOS 0803, my system began to reboot like a normal, decent, compassionate, understanding and civilized piece of machinery.

Yeah, I'm about ready to downgrade to 0803 as well. I've spent the better part of a month just trying to get this board 24X7 stable with a mild 20% overclock. Asus has some great hardware, but these later bios versions are horrible for the newer Q9XXX quads. I can't understand it. It's also clear that we have little chance of any newer bios revisons coming for this board to address the issues that have come up with the bios versions after 0803 (at least the yorky quads)....I'm sure Asus is totally resource commited now with the new Nahalem CPUs and chipsets. The problem is, based on my experience so far with these horrible bios versions, I'll probably be buying my Nahalem motherboard from Gigabyte...

[raab]

Just wondering if someone can clarify the PCIe lanes on the ASUS P5Q Deluxe, sorry if its already been answered before but not sure what to search for:

2 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots, support ATI CrossFireX™ technology at x8 link
(PCIe x16_1 blue, PCIe x16_2 black*)
1 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link(black)
2 x PCI Express x1 slots
2 x PCI slots
*PCI Express x16_2 slot (black at max. x8 link)

I'm running a single graphics card, 8800gt, running at x16. I want to get a PCIE raid card (Areca 1210) which is a PCIE x8 card so I'm confused as to whether it'll have any affect on the graphics card. If I plug it into the first black PCIE slot will the card run at x8 and will the graphics card slow down to x8 or still run at x16?

1 x PCI Express x16 slot at max. x4 link(black) - is this the second black PCIE slot? And if I plugged the raid card into that would it run at x4?

Cheers!

Anyone?

[truehighroller]

Yeah, I'm about ready to downgrade to 0803 as well. I've spent the better part of a month just trying to get this board 24X7 stable with a mild 20% overclock. Asus has some great hardware, but these later bios versions are horrible for the newer Q9XXX quads. I can't understand it. It's also clear that we have little chance of any newer bios revisons coming for this board to address the issues that have come up with the bios versions after 0803 (at least the yorky quads)....I'm sure Asus is totally resource commited now with the new Nahalem CPUs and chipsets. The problem is, based on my experience so far with these horrible bios versions, I'll probably be buying my Nahalem motherboard from Gigabyte...

Don't even waste your money, Gigabyte is what I came from here they are worse alot worse,,.. I had a cold boot bug with two of their top end Boards. Put in a ticket guys it will push them harder to fix it for us....

[Big Lar]

Yeah, I'm about ready to downgrade to 0803 as well. I've spent the better part of a month just trying to get this board 24X7 stable with a mild 20% overclock. Asus has some great hardware, but these later bios versions are horrible for the newer Q9XXX quads. I can't understand it. It's also clear that we have little chance of any newer bios revisons coming for this board to address the issues that have come up with the bios versions after 0803 (at least the yorky quads)....I'm sure Asus is totally resource commited now with the new Nahalem CPUs and chipsets. The problem is, based on my experience so far with these horrible bios versions, I'll probably be buying my Nahalem motherboard from Gigabyte...

I think maybe it has something to do with the 12mbs cache, my chip only has 6mbs and I have run 1201/1306/1402 and now 1403 with no problems to date, not much change in said bios/s but they appear to run fine for me. I also have run 803, and actually find that the more recent bios allow me to clock just Slightly higher.

Larry

[franksnb]

It's Official!
I have been infected with the "truehighroller bug"

As soon as I downgraded to BIOS 0803, my system began to reboot like a normal, decent, compassionate, understanding and civilized piece of machinery.

This is pretty sad! We need a resolution. Somebody needs to fix the upgraded BIOS. Whatever crap this 'CPU Margin Enhancement' is infecting good 'ol Q9450's with needs to be dealt with by ASUS. Now I'm going to be stuck with 0803 like truehighroller.

Is anybody at ASUS listening? FIX IT!!!

I'm not happy.

i found the six engine software prevented me from shutting down

[platojones]

Don't even waste your money, Gigabyte is what I came from here they are worse alot worse,,.. I had a cold boot bug with two of their top end Boards. Put in a ticket guys it will push them harder to fix it for us....

I'll have to take your word for it...if true, then I would see a serious competitive advantage for any MB manufacturer who could put out a serious, stable, well engineered bios...seriously, combine even a decent hardware bundle with a kick-a** bios, and a company could completely dominate the field. As it is now, it seems the bios is an afterthought. And the QA is obviously horrible...do these guys even own a multi-meter? I mean, some of the overvolts I've seen reported (here, and everywhere else) are so bad, they are in the law-suit range.

[yaddam205]

Bios 1403 is a champ, I recommend it to anyone having issues with a wolfdale.
Before I couldn't get it to boot XP over 500FSB. Now I am sitting pretty 6hrs on Prime at 8X550

Thanks to "truehighroller" for the bios.

[Kartoff]

Testing 1403 here too... Now i could run 556x8 @ Ram 1:1 with all enabled as usual also DRAM Skews at normal... This is my personal record, last was on 546 FSB completely stable... It run all night memory test without errors

[Singh400]

Looks like I'll make the jump to 1403 tonight then. Should be interesting.

[mjh74]

Hey all,

I've been reading this forum for about a week now trying to work out settings for this P5Q Deluxe I've recently received. I've just moved over from an Asus Commando and E6600 with 2 x 1gb sticks of Crucial Ballistix ram (PC 6400) @ 5-5-5-15 @ 525fsb. That was prime95/3dmark06 looping 24/7 stable (boring), so my new challenge is an E8600 and P5Q mentioned above.

My problem is that I just can't get it blend stable in prime AT all and can't reach anywhere NEAR 500fsb 1:1 . Below are my settings, any suggestions?
I'm first aiming for about 4.2ghz and anymore would be a bonus....


AI Overclock tuner: Manual
CPU Ratio Setting: 9.5
FSB Strap to North Bridge: AUTO
FSB Frequency: 440
PCI-E Frequency: 100
DRAM Frequency: 880
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel A2: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B1: AUTO
DRAM CLK Skew on Channel B2: AUTO
DRAM Timing Control: Manual

1st Information:
CAS# Latency: 5
DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay: 5
DRAM RAS# Precharge: 5
DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge: 15
RAS# to RAS# Delay : AUTO
Row Refresh Cycle Time: 55
Write Recovery Time: AUTO
Read to Precharge Time: AUTO

2nd Information :
READ to WRITE Delay (S/D): AUTO
Write to Read Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to READ Delay (D): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (S): AUTO
READ to READ Delay (D): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (S): AUTO
WRITE to WRITE Delay (D): AUTO

3rd Information :
WRITE to PRE Delay: AUTO
READ to PRE Delay: AUTO
PRE to PRE Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to ACT Delay: AUTO
ALL PRE to REF Delay: AUTO

DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
DRAM Read Training: Disabled
MEM. OC Charger: Enabled
AI Clock Twister: Moderate
AI Transaction Booster: AUTO

CPU Voltage: 1.30
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (0/2): AUTO
CPU GTL Voltage Reference (1/3): AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage: 1.50
FSB Termination Voltage: 1.10
DRAM Voltage: 1.90
NB Voltage: 1.20
NB GTL Reference: AUTO
SBridge Voltage: AUTO
PCIE SATA Voltage: AUTO

Load Line Calibration: Enabled
CPU Spread Spectrum: Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum: Disabled
CPU Clock Skew : AUTO
NB Clock Skew : AUTO

At the minute I'm CPU stress stable for hours but an instant reboot or fail on blend tests. I've tried high vNB and FSB Term voltages.

Any ideas people?


TIA