Asus P5K Premium black pearl ED very strange issue!!

[Tinners2000]

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?

[Hicks12]

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.

[Tinners2000]

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...

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.....

[Hicks12]

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.

[Stevo3000]

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.

[rabbid]

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.

[Tinners2000]

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

[Splash]

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?

[Lee H]

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,

[SadikP]

you can try raising vDIMM, raise northbridge voltage a touch also run memtest, may be a sigh of failing RAM.

[Blitzen]

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.

[Bloggz]

Have had this issue in the past, also fixed with a voltage adjustment

[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?

[Hicks12]

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

[SadikP]

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.

[Tinners2000]

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.