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Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I have a strange issue with the board. Everything seems to work perfectly with in the OS, compiling and rendering steams through fine but there is a 50/50 chance that the board will not post after it is shut down.
For example, today, I press the power button on the unit to boot up, but all the fans start, power light is on but no display nor beeps. I have to either reset the system or manually clear the CMOS. Sometime the mobo decides to reboot and then post all on its own after a minute. If I press the power button off to shut down the machine and press it again, the same thing happens.
Strangely, this seems to happen by chance, and there is no correlation or patten to it.
If the machine decides to post I get the famous 'over clocking failed error' (no over clocking has taken place) and I have to cold reset the board and then it boots fine into the os. Sometimes BIOS corrupt message is displayed, but after a cold reboot the system boots fine.
On the odd occasion, the system will hang during POST/BOOT if I do not perform a cold reboot after the over clocking error is displayed.
This only happens with 4GB ram, as I have yet to experience this strange NO post error with running on 2GB. The ram is running at 2.1v, but every time the board fails post I have to re configure this. All four sticks of RAM passed memtest for 8 hours over night so I can safely say they are fine.
It is driving me very mad indeed. I returned a GA-P35-DQ6 to scan with the exact same issues and replaced it with the PK5 premium. I am beginning to think that this is a native P35 chipset error.
Lasted BIOS flashed, but makes no difference.
My Specs are:
E8650
PK5 Premium black Pearl (latest BIOS)
4GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 PC2-6400
3x WD 320GB RE HDD
Nvidia 8800 GT
Corsair 520w PSU
Any Ideas? :angst:
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
i believe this is due to 4x1gb sticks, alot of motherboards have issues with runing 4 sticks. Whats the max memory speed the motherboard is ment to support? 1066 or upto 800? if its up to 800, try declocking the ram down to say, 700mhz. If that doesnt work/does work then post back.
Its corsair ram too, i recommend asking in their section too.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Thanks for the reply. I have raised this issue with them, when I had the same issue with my GA-P35-DQ6 board, they told me they would look into it.
Just had this 'nice' response back from Asus...
Quote:
Dear Valued Customer,
In this situation, this problem is caused by the operating system, As windows 32bit editions will only support maximum 4GB memory, but won't be able to run at full 4GB memory, please try to remove one memory stick for a try.
Sincerely and best regards,
Cooper
ASUS Customer Service Center (Shanghai , China)
???
I am fully aware of the limitation of a 32-bit OS. They seem to have just missed the point completely. I can not even reply directly to support mail, as it bounces back. Great customer support Asus.!
Looks like I will be returning this board, as it is not fit for purpose or has some undefined limitation like the Gigabyte one.
What a mess.....
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
that response seems to me that they are guessing you mean that you cant see it. Yes xp/vista 32bit can see upto 3.5gb(its random for random people). So if you cant take back just try what i said, if that does work then you have even better grounds to take it back as it was stated @ 800mhz compatable and if it fails usisng 4gb at that speed something is clearly wrong.
Good luck and hope this get sorted soon.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I just thought I'd add my 10 cents; the amount of memory you can see in a 32bit OS with 4Gb of ram installed is not random. It is the remaining addressable memory space after such things as the graphics card have taken their share of the address space.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
4GB is the total addressable memory for 32bit, so available system memory with 4GB installed will read less allowing for all reserved allocations including VGA.
It's not random but will vary user to user depending on their setup/installed devices.
For the OP, if you remove one stick and run 3 sticks, you will lose Dual Channel so thats not a long term solution they gave you.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Guys, trust me, I am fully aware of the limitation of a 32-bit os.
This is not the issue at hand here. The random issue I am trying to explain is pre-boot. Post level failure.
The system has been pre-boot stable now running 2 x 1Gb dimms @ manufacturers trimmings and voltages. But will still not run stable 4 x 1Gb dimms
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
It's certainly an odd situation, especially given that the BIOS seems to reset every time you have this issue.
That being the case the first thing I thought when I read this thread was that it could be a PSU issue - do you have a known good PSU that you could test it with, purely to rule it out?
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I know this is probably a silly question but I've got to ask it anyway. Have you increased the DDR2 operating voltage as most issues created by running 4 sticks are resolved by increase the memory voltage.
If you already have done this, then the best thing to do is to log this via the OLQ system for the tech/returns department and they should be able to assist you further.
Best Regards,
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
you can try raising vDIMM, raise northbridge voltage a touch also run memtest, may be a sigh of failing RAM.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SadikP
you can try raising vDIMM, raise northbridge voltage a touch also run memtest, may be a sigh of failing RAM.
Thats where my money is aswell.
This 4x1gb thing is very very rare.
Usually the only time 4x1gb is an issue is if the voltages are incorrect.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Have had this issue in the past, also fixed with a voltage adjustment
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Cheers fellas.
The machine has been stable now for three days running 2 x 1GB sticks @ 4-4-4-12 2.1v
To test with 4 x 4GB sticks what voltage should I be looking at? I do not want to fry these. Also, what other voltages would you think is best up'ing to?
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I know you need to increase voltage for 4x1 but, dont go over 2.1v as that is the max rated volts for the ram, my 2x1gb set runs at 1.9v and 2.1 fine(depends if overclocked or not) so 2.1 should deffintly run it
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tinners2000
Cheers fellas.
The machine has been stable now for three days running 2 x 1GB sticks @ 4-4-4-12 2.1v
To test with 4 x 4GB sticks what voltage should I be looking at? I do not want to fry these. Also, what other voltages would you think is best up'ing to?
Dont go over the rated voltage of the RAM (unless ur OCing the hell out of it)
for 4 sticks you will also need to up the NB voltage a notch or two.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SadikP
Dont go over the rated voltage of the RAM (unless ur OCing the hell out of it)
for 4 sticks you will also need to up the NB voltage a notch or two.
This POST issues happen when the ram is set to 2.1v running 4GB. I will leave the Ram voltage alone, and increase the NB and see what happens.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
If you still have problems try 2.15 vDIMM
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
corsair give you a 5% above the rated volts so, technically max is 2.205V
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I get this exact same problem with the following system spec:-
OS: XP SP2 32-Bit
CPU: Q6600 G0 Stepping
Clock Speed: 3000MHz (9 x 333MHz) or @ Stock
Motherboard: Asus P5K Premium Black Pearl
Memory: Patriot 4GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2 x 2GB @ 4-4-4-12 @400Mhz @2.2v)
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO
Graphics Card: Sapphire - X800 GTO2
DVD: Plextor PX-712A
Hard Disk: RAID 0 - 2 x WD Raptor 74GB
1 x 500GB Hitachi Deskstar
I initially thought that the problem was due to a failed overclock, however, I have since discovered that I have the same problem at stock speeds. I have tried several different ideas to try and resolve this issue and I am at my wit's end. I have tried a different motherboard (ABIT IP-35 Dark Raider), which I had the same issue with and I have just upgrade my PSU from a Tagan TG480-U01 to a Antec Quattro 850 as I thought that it may have been causing the problem.
I have had the system 18hours Prime stable at 3200Ghz so I don't feel that it is the CPU and i have just ran memtest this morning for around 4 hours which I think rules out the memory.
Just letting you know that you aren't on your own mate.
Any ideas? :help:
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
azzerc
I get this exact same problem with the following system spec:-
OS: XP SP2 32-Bit
CPU: Q6600 G0 Stepping
Clock Speed: 3000MHz (9 x 333MHz) or @ Stock
Motherboard: Asus P5K Premium Black Pearl
Memory: Patriot 4GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2 x 2GB @ 4-4-4-12 @400Mhz @2.2v)
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO
Graphics Card: Sapphire - X800 GTO2
DVD: Plextor PX-712A
Hard Disk: RAID 0 - 2 x WD Raptor 74GB
1 x 500GB Hitachi Deskstar
I initially thought that the problem was due to a failed overclock, however, I have since discovered that I have the same problem at stock speeds. I have tried several different ideas to try and resolve this issue and I am at my wit's end. I have tried a different motherboard (ABIT IP-35 Dark Raider), which I had the same issue with and I have just upgrade my PSU from a Tagan TG480-U01 to a Antec Quattro 850 as I thought that it may have been causing the problem.
I have had the system 18hours Prime stable at 3200Ghz so I don't feel that it is the CPU and i have just ran memtest this morning for around 4 hours which I think rules out the memory.
Just letting you know that you aren't on your own mate.
Any ideas? :help:
Well, that makes us family lol
Are you running just with 2x 1 GB or with 4 x 1GB sticks? My system runs all the benchmarks I can through at it, just the bloody POST issue is driving me mad!
Tried upping the Nb voltage but it has made no difference to stability with 4GB.
EDIT: Sorry I see you are running 2x GB.
Our systems are completely different...
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Well, to add one of my Dimms have just failed.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Hi everyone.
I don't know whether to be happy that other have this problem or to sob into my keyboard over it.
My system has virtually the exact same problem. It suddenly would not boot one day. Lights and fans running, but QFan does not start and they do not slow down. There is no display signal. I found a forum ( on [H] I think) where somebody suggested using lower spec memory to get into the bios...
I borrowed a single 1gb Crucial value 800mhz stick from a friend. The system works with that installed in slot 1. I changed some settings and then put in a pair of my own Ballistix. They worked. When I try 4 sticks, the same problem occurs that I have already described. This is even at 800mhz, at 1.8V or at 2.1V. At the old frequency (just over 1100) at 2.2V, which they were running flawlessly at previously, they will not allow me to boot.
To make it work again, I must swap out the 4 or even 2 Ballistix, and insert the single value stick to go to BIOS.
So, anyone have any suggestions? Broken motherboard is my suspicion... which means a horrific rebuild will be necessary during time I am meant to be studying.
SM
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Hi guys
Did anyone get anywhere with this?
I've got the same problem - Black Pearl, 4GB, worked for a day, bluescreened.
Now it won't ever boot or beep with 4GB in; it works perfectly with 2GB (any combination of sticks and slots, interleaved or not) Also got the 'Reset BIOS' issue once.
RAM is Corsair Dominator Twin2X2048-8500C5D
All BIOS settings are set to stock. I'm running Vista - I need all the RAM I can get!
I've also had that wierd one where it switches off for a couple of seconds then restarts.
I guess it must be a problem with the Black Pearl - no BIOS upgrade on the ASUS website tho.
Ah well - at least I'm not alone.
cheers
pg
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
My Black Pearl is running fine with 4Gb, although I have 4 x 1Gb sticks! Have you tried updating to the latest bios and manipulating the voltages?
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Hi Stevo - hats off to you - you are the only one with a working Black Pearl 4GB!!
My BIOS is 0504 which seems to be the latest one on the Asus website
I've tweaked the voltages and tried underclocking the RAM too, as per various threads I've found on this topic
What memory are you using, and what voltages have you set?
cheers
pg
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
mmm I had a similar problem with my P5K and found it was the 'auto overclock' bit in the asus bios, disabled the (turned everything to manual) and it was fine
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I'm using 4 x 1Gb OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 as shown in 'My System'! I didn't need to play with my voltages as it was running fine straight out of the box. I have set the timings to 4-4-4-12, but my board was stable for over a month before I set these! I don't think 'Auto Overclock' is on.
As far as I'm aware there is nothing electronically different between a Black Pearl and a standard Premium board!
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
oops couldn't get 'My System' to work but it seems you have to be logged in . . sorry, I'm new on this forum.
Anyway, no , I didn't mean to single out the Black Pearl in that way - I don't think there's any difference. I think the problem is that the P35 (or the Asus implementation of it) is very picky when it comes to the exact memory that it can work with, despite the different suppliers memory ostensibly having the same specifications. Looking at the QVL list in the manual, I see that my Corairs aren't listed at all; the nearest Corsairs are only ticked for column A and B but not C (1 stick, 2 sticks, 4 sticks) Also, although the Corsair memory selector specifies these exact parts for this motherboard, buried on the Corsair website is the fact that their tests are all with just one stick.
So looks like I'm stuck with 2GB or buying some OCZ sticks like yours.
pg
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Same thing happens to me too, with the frequency of it happening getting greater too. As far a memory installed I had 2 x 1gb Gskill DDR667 single bank. I installed 2 more mem modules of the same kind [single bank] as to put less stress on the northbribge. As it goes, double sided mem modules are 2 banked(or rank, I forgot the correct terminology) thus 4 x 2(bank) places a greater strain on the northbridge thus my purchasing single ones. (4 x 1(bank) has much less stress on the NB thus requiring less voltage especially if overclocking.
My specs are:
X3210 Quad@3.6ghz/AC Freezer Pro
P5K Premium/4x1Gb GSkill F2-6400CL5-1GBNQ
EVGA8800GTX 768mb/ ASUS DRW-1814BLT DVD
2x36Gb WD Raptors Raid0/WD 80gb sata
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatality Extreme Gamer
Lian Li Pc-7B plusII[modified heavily]/PC Power and Cooling 850 SSI Turbo
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 speaker system
As shown I had no issues except for when I originally setup the rig with other mem(Crucial Ballistix) which needed 2.2v to boot so I used some plain jane ddr2 mem that was rated at 1.8v, booted up,posted and changed the voltage in the BIOS, powered down, replaced mem with 4 X 1 gb Gskill PC 6400. Worked fine 98% of the time.
Problem arose when I shut down and restarted from a cold boot state. Worked fine from a warm boot. I am getting the exact post error as stated above most of the time.
I have checked out individual components on my teat bed machine and all is well. Generally speaking the motherboard is excellent and performance is outstanding. A 70% overclock [0612 bios] with just a minor voltage bump say's much.
However this issue is quite annoying, I was browsing around looking for others with the same issue and found this forum. Bye the way, this is my 1st post here and I am looking forward to many more, hopefully about other things or to help others.
I am a longstanding member of EOCF[Extreme overclocking forums], PCPER[PC perspective forums] and many of the same type including Good Company Gaming Guild.{Plankholder}.
I will elaborate in the proper section of the forums about my Bio.
Again, nice to meet you all and hope to find an answer to this problem!!!!!!:cool
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
I disconnected power, removed battery, hit my 3pin toggle that resets the bios. It posts, some what, gets to press F1 or F2 and dies. My take, bad PSU.....I have a 5 year warranty so time to RMA.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Another frustrated customer :)
I have the exact same problem with my 4gb(4x1)Ocz Reaper 8500 1066mhz (5-5-5-15).
Q6600 oc'ed @3.2ghz
Asus P5k premium
Nvidia geforce 8800 ultra
Os: Vista 64 bit
Isn't there any solution to this problem. Do I really have to buy another set of ram? If so, which ones will work 100%?
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
the strange thing though is that at first my pc ( with stock settings) ran perfectly fine(with 4gbram) until I started oc'ing the system.The problem didnt arise immediately after oc'ing ...., it just started boot failing after some time.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Seems like the P35 is just borderline with 4GB of certain types of ram - mine worked fine for 1 day but then would just never boot. I think basically it's out of spec in some subtle way and the one time it worked was just a fluke. So I caved in and bought 4GB OCZ as 2x2GB ( PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2 OCZ2P10664GK) and now it works 100%, rock solid, overclocks like a good un. (Course, I only get 3-and-a-bit GB with 32 bit, but my intention was to use this machine as my 64-bit try-out. But now the i7 is out there . . .)
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
My computer unexpectedly powering off without warning. My mother was typing a long Christmas e-mail when it happened also !! This sometimes follows by an immediate pc 'restart' or 'shut down'. Am also getting error messages during POST saying 'Over clocking failed !!' Please press F1 to run setup or press F2 to load default values. I have to reset the mains extension switch as well as the psu power switch to get the pc running again. Initially I blamed by 650 Watt Be-Quiet Dark Power Pro Modular PSU and replaced it with a BFG 800w PSU.
Problem still the same, computer keeps powering off at all stages of running up the pc, Before POST, After POST, during Windows run-up and whilst in windows. Its 'INTERMITTENT'. ASUS Techs said to update BIOS or reset battery for 10 seconds. The motherboard manual says you don’t have to reset the battery 'ANYMORE' with this new Motherboard. Updated to latest 2008 bios version via the Taiwan website - BIOS Version 08.00.12 date: 06/19/08. Problem still the same.
PC Tech at PC World said to check that the thermal compound paste has 'COMPLETELY' covered the 'ENTIRE' surface (CPU Die) of the CPU. Fan removed, used 2 solvents and a lint free cloth to remove and polish CPU die and underside of fan. Re-applied Arctic Silver thermal compound paste to entire surface area of cpu using a card tool. Checked to make sure there’s no holes (no compound) as you can get sharp heat spikes in causing pc to shut off. Problem still the same.
Completely stripped down pc leaving only BFI psu and chassis fans in the case. Checked motherboard and all cables for any short circuits i.e. anything that could be touching the earth. All o.k. Problem still the same.
Changed the DRAM frequency from the forced option 'DDR2 1066MHz' back to Auto as the book says to do this if system becomes unstable. Problem same.
Temporarily replaced mouse, keyboard and monitor data cable to rule out they are sending power spikes to the ports at the rear of the motherboard. Problem same.
Have narrowed problem down to motherboard by 'Process of elimination'. Have pressed F2 on BIOS error message to clear fault, but not happy with this as have turned off onboard audio and firewire. I will increase the memory voltage as my last resort. I was about to buy a new motherboard when I came across this site via Google search, and read some of the sad stories of people waisting dosh on new motherboards. The ASUS P5K is a great motherboard from the reviews. I'm a bit pissed off with the 'Rollercoaster Ride' I've had to go through, considering most of the parts in my machine are all recommended in the custom pc magazine.
Here's my hardware spec:
800 Watt BFG PSU ATX 2.2
OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper HPC Edition OCZ2 RPR 10662GK (2 x 1 GB) DDR2 Memory
ASUS P5K Premium - Black Pearl Edition Mainboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Case fan - Supplied with CPU!!
ANTEC Sonata Case
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB Hard Drive
PowerColor 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI Cross Fire X HD 4870 Graphics Card
I think its the Intel P35 chipset problem now as what a lot of folks have said. Have seen that OCZ is 'NOT' in the table of ASUS Recommended Memory Suppliers. I have used a total of 2 GB in my system and 'Not' 4 Gb like what most folks have used and still having problems. Hope this helps many folks having similar problems.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
Had a fair few issues with numerous P35 boards with 4x1gb sticks with systems I've looked at in the past. I typically chose Asus P5k-e boards for higher end and Gigabyte DS3 boards for more budget end - however on balance the Asus seemed to be that little bit more choosey with it's ram, something that can be seen easily on the Asus community forums. Not just the amount and configuration but the brands and specs in some instances.
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Re: Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!
At present, I have set the DRAM Voltage to 2.1 Volts and has helped. With this, I can hear some electrical clicking sounds on switch on and after switch off. I cannot pin point the source of this. It's not the psu as its brand new and had same problems with my old one.
My PC is stable so far as I have made one new hardware configuration change. My new ATI Radeon HD 4870 manual doesn't mention this and the Motherboard manual only mentions this as an option!! Here goes folks:
:geek: I am refering to page 2-31 of the P5K Premium Black Pearl Edition User Guide under the heading 'ATX power connectors' reference to the 2 x 4-pin EATX12V . I used a watchmakers flathead screwdriver to :shaun: *** carefully remove the cap :shaun: on the EATX12V connector. I removed the 4-pin ATX12V power cable from the 4-pin connector and used the 8-pin ATX12V power cable from my BFG power supply instead ***. It does mention on the next page of the manual that system may become unstable or may not boot up if the power is inadequate. I have found that by using the full 8-pin ATX12V configuration helps.:geek: