ASRock 775i65G takes abnormally long time to POST

[chis]

I have an ASRock 775i65G motherboard, and it's taking about 10 seconds to POST. Specifically between powering up and activating the graphics card! I bought a second board in the event the other one was faulty, but it exhibits the same behaviour. I'm using the following hardware:

E6600 Core 2 Duo CPU + Zalman CNPS 9500-AT cooler
2x512MB Corsair TwinX XMS PC3200 DDR memory modules
Corsair HX520W power supply

2 Western Digital hard disk drives (WD800JB + WD3200JB)
2 Plextor Optical drives (16x10x40A + PX-760A)
Terratec Phase 22 PCI audio interface
Unibrain Fireblue Firewire PCI interface + Hercules 16/12FW firewire audio interface

Windows XP Home OEM.

The first board I bought also would, on some occasions, not POST and just shut down by itself! I was originally using an Akasa Paxpower 400W PSU, and assumed it wasn't enough. So the Corsair one went in... with the same results! So that prompted me to try a second board (I'll RMA the other one at some point, because it's clearly faulty), but whilst I don't seem to get the sudden shutting down, it still takes damned ages to POST.

I'm positive that the RAM is fine, and how likely is it to be the CPU when I've been using the PC for hours and hours at a time with no other fault?

Any suggestions?

P.S. Posted in the Scan forum because I bought both boards from them.

[abeacock]

What graphics card do you have?

If you plug your monitor into the on-board VGA port do you get any output?

[abeacock]

Think I've might have found a solution for the slow POST, I can't say if it will work or if it's safe but...

Scroll down on this page to the "Slow bootup issue" comment:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=113951

[chis]

Thanks for the replies guys, I should have mentioned that the POST behaviour is exactly the same if I boot the board with only the CPU and RAM installed.

I am only using the onboard video. (Which works surprisingly well - it can do the native 1680x1050 res of my 20.1" TFT)

abeacock: The only option I have in H/W Monitoring is "CPU Quiet Fan", which is already disabled.

[Ray+GTI-R]

I have tested many of the Asrock 775i65G Rev 2.0 boards with C2D CPU's with & without a graphics card fiitted.
Lovely little board BTW.
The reason that this board takes a (relatively) long time to POST with a C2D 1066mhz FSB CPU fitted is that it has to DOT (Dynamically Overclock [Technology]) your RAM working alongside the 865 chipset.
Obviously, if your RAM won't reach 1066mhz it'll clock back - but the 775i65G board HAS TO CHECK before it can proceed with a native 1066mhz FSB of certain Conroe CPUs (E6300, etc). CL2.5 RAM is OK (CL2 is better) as it says in the official Asrock spec.
I have tested loads of m'board/CPU (S775, S478 but zero AMD) / genuine Intel HSF / thermal pastes / DDR / USB combinations and can confirm that there are lots of other reasons for slow boot but this is the single common factor with an Asrock 775i65G R2 board fitted with CL2.5 DDR RAM.
HTH, Ray