The Unofficial ASUS P5N-E SLI 650i Board Thread

[Tuvoc]

Originally posted by: gr8snakee
Ive had this board installed for about 48 hrs. and am attempting to get Vista Ultimate installed.

Every single time it trips up on completing installation, and just hangs at 75%.

What is the magic combination of bios enabled/disabled settings to get this board to complete the vista installation. My laptop had absolutely 0 problems with this task during RC1-2.

I have 2 seagate sata 7200.10 drives and ocz memory. I have NEVER seen so many issues with vista as I have with the latest attempted install. It looks like disabling the 2.0 usb controller has some effect as the vista icon starts turning. and then it says hardware error. unable to recover in a messenger box.

i am running 0602 bios (Yes I tried 0410 as well) with a e6420, 8600GTS silentpipe III, onboard audio, corsair 520W p/s

Someone please chime in as this is getting the best of me. ive tried vista drivers on nvidias website, asus and even the beta drivers on the cd for the sata.

There are a lot of sata options in the bios. J-something, regular sata 1-4, ide, spread spectrum etc. Ive read 92 but that didnt help with my vista issues. Ive googled my issues to death, and while there is a lot of speculation, nothing has prevailed the ever ending completing installation or if i hard reset it the everending knight ridger animation.

Thanks in advance

That's very odd - Vista x64 installed perfectly for me.
All I can suggest is - everything on BIOS defaults except for memory where you should set main timings and voltages manually. Nothing overclocked. Have you run memtest ?

 

[imported_bgates2b]

:disgust:Hope you guys can help me with my new system, my first Intel system in 8 years.

Here's what I picked up
P5N-E - SLI (bios 0401)
E6600 with Zalman 7700
2x1024 Crucial PC-800
2x500GB WD RE hard drives (RAID 0)
BFG 8800GTS-OC2 320mb
Antec Neo 550 PSU

This was all put into my old Sonata case, along with the DVD-RW, etc.

The system randomly locks up. The video does not become distorted, it just freezes and nothing works. It took 7 tries to load XP-Home on the system, for it would keep locking up during install. The only reason it finally did install is that it locked up at a point in the installation where I was able to reboot and not have to start from scratch.

I ran Memtest86 on the memory (it only froze once during testing but did not generate any errors), singly and in dual channel and it passed with no errors. I ran Prime95 for over an hour too without any problems as well. The event viewer shows no errors either.

I felt the northbridge and it was fairly cool. I then touched the southbridge and it was hot, as were my two harddrives. I separated the harddrives by leaving an empty bay between them.

What I am trying to find out is should I RMA the board? I am not 100% sure it is the board, I'm concerned I will replace it only to find out later it is the memory. I once had this with a nForce2 board that I won at an AMD Tech Tour show, but I learned not to rely on that board and it sat collecting dust until I tossed it. I don't want this to happen with the P5N-E, I spent a lot of money on this system, along with a wife that is getting displeased with not being able to check her e-mail from home and has to go to her sisters to get them.

Edit: BTW, I can't get the system to boot with the memory in the black slots only. I had to put the sticks in the yellow to get the system to boot

 

[gr8snakee]

Ill try defaults on everything, and memtest.

memtest work from cd rom iso, i dont have a floppy handy but if absolutely nessecary i can relocate one.

I do have a usb flash as well.

 

[Tuvoc]

Originally posted by: bgates2b
:disgust:Hope you guys can help me with my new system, my first Intel system in 8 years.

Here's what I picked up
P5N-E - SLI (bios 0401)
E6600 with Zalman 7700
2x1024 Crucial PC-800
2x500GB WD RE hard drives (RAID 0)
BFG 8800GTS-OC2 320mb
Antec Neo 550 PSU

This was all put into my old Sonata case, along with the DVD-RW, etc.

The system randomly locks up. The video does not become distorted, it just freezes and nothing works. It took 7 tries to load XP-Home on the system, for it would keep locking up during install. The only reason it finally did install is that it locked up at a point in the installation where I was able to reboot and not have to start from scratch.

I ran Memtest86 on the memory (it only froze once during testing but did not generate any errors), singly and in dual channel and it passed with no errors. I ran Prime95 for over an hour too without any problems as well. The event viewer shows no errors either.

I felt the northbridge and it was fairly cool. I then touched the southbridge and it was hot, as were my two harddrives. I separated the harddrives by leaving an empty bay between them.

What I am trying to find out is should I RMA the board? I am not 100% sure it is the board, I'm concerned I will replace it only to find out later it is the memory. I once had this with a nForce2 board that I won at an AMD Tech Tour show, but I learned not to rely on that board and it sat collecting dust until I tossed it. I don't want this to happen with the P5N-E, I spent a lot of money on this system, along with a wife that is getting displeased with not being able to check her e-mail from home and has to go to her sisters to get them.

Edit: BTW, I can't get the system to boot with the memory in the black slots only. I had to put the sticks in the yellow to get the system to boot

If memtest froze, then you have a problem.
Have you manually set the timings and voltage ? Also try 2T and see if it solves your problem

 

[imported_bgates2b]

I did not set the timings or voltage, everything is set to auto. It is 5-5-5-18 1T

I know I have a problem, but wouldn't memtest just set off an error instead of freezing?

Should I RMA both the memory and the board?

 

[Tuvoc]

Originally posted by: bgates2b
I did not set the timings or voltage, everything is set to auto. It is 5-5-5-18 1T

I know I have a problem, but wouldn't memtest just set off an error instead of freezing?

Should I RMA both the memory and the board?

No, if it freezes there is a problem
Did you try 2T ?

 

[imported_bgates2b]

not yet, I'm going to have to manually set the timing to 4-4-4-12 2T (after I go to page 92 to figure out how).

 

[gr8snakee]

i see the memtest iso . I will try that and defaults tonight. Im close to ditching vista though if this doesnt work out, XP just works.

 

[AMelbye]

This board is in most cases incapable of doing 1T.

If ram settings are set to AUTO(or SLI), 1T is what it defaults to, so in most cases AUTO or SLI mode will not be stable at all.

Also, the yellow slots are not as stable as the black slots. You'll reach higher speeds whilst maintaining stability if you only use the black slots.

Regarding mem-test: If it crashes, you very likely have a ram problem. This program should be able to run for days without crashing or finding a problem. although it might not find faults on the 1st pass, it could on a later pass, which is why it just keeps going, rather than stopping when it's done.

 

[imported_bgates2b]

Well, I just changed the timing to 4-4-4-12 2T.

I also switched the Trc from 1 to 22 (as per the SPD)

Keeping my fingers crossed.

BTW, I left the Vmem alone on Auto

 

[AMelbye]

Vmem on auto should be fine in most cases. I'm running mine on 1.9V although my chips are specified for 2.1V

 

[imported_bgates2b]

*Update*
In addition to manually setting the memory timing, I also manually set the voltage to 2.085 (closest to 2.1v available) and I moved them into the black slots.

For some reason, the boot-up takes a bit longer when the memory is in the black slots as opposed to in the yellow ones. Not sure why, but it does boot so I ran memtest86 overnight. It ran for a total of 6:29:32 before I shut it and there were no errors.

So far, so good

Thanks for everyones help. Now I am going to wipe it out and do a fresh install of XP-Home. I'm going to try and do a quick format in NTFS, it took forever to format 1 TB of HD.

 

[Tuvoc]

Great news, yes voltage is also best set manually, and that is what mine is set at.

Auto may work, but you never know what you're getting, so particularly with this board I would always recommend manually setting them

Yes quick format is the way to go....

 

[AMelbye]

Since I got my motherboard I've been blaming its stability issues on the powersupply. I did however get a better power supply recently, and I'm still having stability issues. I tried a few different things, and at the moment it seems that the instability must have been caused by my overclock. I turned the fsb down to 1333, and now it seems perfectly stable. at 1400 however, it was not.

I don't have additional south bridge cooling at my board, however I have a 80mm fan with a home made funnel cooling the north bridge.

Is 1333 the highest I can go without a SB heatsink, or is there a FSB hole at 1400?

I know this has nothing to do with my processor or ram. I've been running at 3.15GHz, and my ram is locked at 800MHz and runs memtest 86 with no errors.
I find it a bit weird that I could get the computer semi stable at 1800 FSB, still I can't get it dead stable above 1333 FSB

 

[AMelbye]

will the zalman ZM-NBF47 fit the south bridge on this motherboard?

 

[Santyclaws]

I've been having a minor problem with my setup. When I first started to overclock, I had it Orthos stable (no errors) for 36 hours, and Memtest 86+ showed no errors after 48 hours. Started up 2 clients of Folding @ Home and within 12 hours it would lock up solid.. I've since backed the FSB down to 393-394 ( 1575 QDR) and have been playing with the voltages but I still get the occassional reboot. (about every day, day and a half). I'm currently up to Vcore of 1.42500 with the Vcore offset turned on for an additional .100 Volts. NB voltage is set to 1.7? volts (highest setting), memory volts is set to 2.08) Temps are good, Probe II shows CPU of 48C, Vcore of 1.48. Core temps are 75-77C running Folding @ Home..

CPU-Z shows a Vcore voltage of 1.213v (having trouble with speedfan so it's not running now, but it showed similar temps and voltages to Probe II) The only thing in the BIOS that I can't find info on is under the Power heading there is an option that shows Vcore with 2 choices, ignore or 1.47 volts.. What should that setting be at? I currently have it set at 1.47V ( I think that is an option where you can ignore monitoring the Vcore voltage?) Any suggestions as to what to try for my settings so I stop the reboots? I would also like to clock it higher some where around 1600 QDR or maybe higher? This system runs 24/7 running the Folding @ Home program so I don't want to go to high and it must be rock stable..

I'm running out of ideas and I don't want to drop back to stock settings unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks for any suggestions and help Ya'll can provide...

 

[Tuvoc]

Do you actually need that much voltage on the CPU and northbridge ?

 

[AMelbye]

santa: You shouldn't need that much voltage, but as temps are fine, I don't think that's the cause of your problems.

Although, decreasing north bridge voltage might still help, as it can get very hot without affecting the temp readouts, as the sensor is placed elsewhere.

What power supply do you have?

Try backing off to 1333QDR. I know it's only a very marginal overclock, but if it runs stable at 1333, you'll know it's definitely the overclock that's causing your trouble. (I'm saying 1333, as the motherboard is certified for 1333FSB processors. Your cpu shouldn't have any issues at all with this setting. I wouldn't be suprised if you'd make it on stock voltages)

 

[Santyclaws]

Originally posted by: AMelbye
santa: You shouldn't need that much voltage, but as temps are fine, I don't think that's the cause of your problems.

Although, decreasing north bridge voltage might still help, as it can get very hot without affecting the temp readouts, as the sensor is placed elsewhere.

What power supply do you have?

Try backing off to 1333QDR. I know it's only a very marginal overclock, but if it runs stable at 1333, you'll know it's definitely the overclock that's causing your trouble. (I'm saying 1333, as the motherboard is certified for 1333FSB processors. Your cpu shouldn't have any issues at all with this setting. I wouldn't be suprised if you'd make it on stock voltages)

I'm using a PCP&C 610 watt power supply. Voltages are rock stable out of the PSU as measured with a DVM. Since the computer reboots on it's own, I figured it was unstable and started upping the voltages. I'm going to lower the NB Voltage when I get home and while I'm in the BIOS I'll double check my other settings again.. I had originally followed the tips on page 92. One of the things I never could figure out is why it's Orthos stable for over 36 hours, but as soon as I start Folding @ Home it would either lock up at my original settings, or reboot at times with my current settings. Temps are lower running F@H then they were with Orthos running..

 

[dakata24]

anyone have trouble getting an esata external drive work? i have the jmicron sata enabled in bios and installed the jmicron drivers on the p5n-e disc on my winxp (with sp2) install.

i have a seagate freeagent pro 500gb with usb2/esata. using a esata to esata (I to I) cable i got from frys.

running bios 0505. any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks!

 

[AMelbye]

dakata24: I used mine with no issues at all, and I believe I was running 0505 at that point (sold the drive). is it enabled in the bios?

Santyclaws: I used to have random reboots when my ram was in the yellow slots. Haven't had a single random reboot since I moved them.

The crashes I get are generally that the computer freezes for a second, the display some times gets slightly corrupted, then the screen goes black. Also, on very high overclocks, applications randomly quit/disappear just before this happens.

Although your temps seem to be fine, you may have some component overheating. I'd suggest you down your fsb to 1333 for now, to see if it helps. At least then you'll know if your problems are overclock related. it might even be something wrong with your board, but you won't know untill you've checked if it's stable at the motherboard's certified settings...

 

[NoobyDoo]

I'm thinking of getting a P5N-E SLI & e4400. Just read another thread
( http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=2048509&enterthread=y ) where it says :

Great board, great value, decent feature set. Is it the board for me? Absolutely not. I had to dump this because of the simple problem of the board not supporting 4dimms of ram.

I'm thinking of getting 4x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-667 for approx $105/pair ( doubt it is D9GMH ). Does this mean I won't be able to use them on the P5N-E ? Can't go thru all 175 pages in this thread, please help.

That thread is a bit unclear, could someone please clarify if it is not possible to use 4x1GB of any DDR2 or only DDR2-800.

Thanks.

 

[Tuvoc]

You can certainly run 4 DIMMS, but the board may be sensitive as to which brand

All the problems with 4 1GB DIMMS relate to the board not being able to run them at 800. You have to stay around 667. My 4 GEIL 1GB sticks run perfectly at 711 - see my sig

I would imagine that the Crucial are fine. If you buy from Crucuial, and their memory selector on their web site tells you they are compatible, then you would get a refund presumably if you have problems

For 800 memory the only complication is that the board by default will set them at 800. You have to boot with 3 sticks, slow them to 667, then fit the 4th

If you're buying 667 sticks the board should just boot up immediately with all 4. Just make sure that you set 2T and manually set the main timings and the voltage

 

[NoobyDoo]

Thanks.

Is this a chipset related issue or a BIOS/mobo issue ?

 

[Tuvoc]

Originally posted by: NoobyDoo
Thanks.

Is this a chipset related issue or a BIOS/mobo issue ?

Don't really know. I think it is probably a chipset issue. If it was correctable via a BIOS update we would have seen one by now. The ASUS board design itself could also be partially to blame. I'm not sure how many other 650 boards have this problem.