Asus P5K - No video

Ariaudo

Ariaudo

Ariaudo

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Joined
24 Mar 2003
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111
Location
London
I built a new machine yesterday based on the following:
OCUK bundle that included:
Asus P5K
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz CPU
2 x 1GB Corsair C2-6400 C4 DDR2​
2 x 1GB Corsair C2-6400 C4 DDR2
Gigabte GeForce 8600 GT Silent Fanless 512MB DDR2
Zalman CNPS9500-AT CPU cooler
Antec Sonata Designer Quiet Case
​
When I first powered up the machine after fitting the CPU, memory and GPU, I got no video signal at all.

After fidling around removing and replacing the components, the video signal suddenly sprang into life and everything seemd fine. I guessed that something had just not been connected properly and didn't worry overmuch.

I proceeded to complete the build and installed Windows Vista Home Premium.

After installing all of the drivers, Vista initially only gave the graphics card a score of 1.0 which puzzled me slightly. Howver, after a bit of fiddlingabout and a few reboots later I suddenly got a score of 5.0 for Aero which seemed much more like it. Not sure why this happened as the "fiddling" I did was very minimal (turned a few settings on and off, re-installed drivers) and I'm certain that everything was back to default values by the time I'd finished.

Anyway, all seemed well so I didn't want to dwell on an issue that seemed to have gone away.

During the sequence of reboots while installing Vista and getting the score to a reasonable level, every now and then the video wouldn't come back and I'd just get a "no signal" from the monitor. Powering off and then back on sorted this each time.

Everything thern seemed to work without any issues and I went ahead and installed programs. I left the PC running when I went to bed (it was doing a rebuild of my iTunes library).

When I came down this morning the machine, as expected, had gone to sleep. I woke it up with the keyboard but got nothing from the monitor which stayed asleep.

I now can't get any video signal out of the machine at all. I've powered off multiple times, taken the graphics out and refitted, tried another monitor, tried another card (Matrox P650) - all to no avail.

Any suggestions as to what to try next?

Have I got a faulty motherboard here?

Regards
Philippe
 
This is something I have experienced with P5K Deluxe/Premium. It was always RAM related, either wrong settings or faulty RAM. My experience is the P35/X38 is so pedantic with RAM.

I'd put 1 stick of RAM in and make sure all your settings are fine, eg VDIMM, timings etc, I find that if one thing is off, it just refuses to boot...
 
Tried removing 3 sticks of memory and it's made no difference at all.

I've tried putting the single stick into A1 and B1, and also tried different sticks but still no flicker from the screen.

:confused:
 
Several memeory stick swaps later....

2 x 1GB in A1 & B1, power up and nothing - press reset by mistake and, hey presto! - it's working!?!?! :confused:

What the hell is going on here? :(
 
With the P5K when I had it in this PC, it would do that, refuse to work then suddenly its fine. I think it's something to do with the boot strap.
 
I did update to the latest, non beta version of the bios - 0704 I think (machines of again at the moment while I fit the sound car, so can't check)
 
Updated the BIOS to the latest beta 0805 version and still no luck. The machine only boots up every now and again. Sometimes pressing restart works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes if I just just leave the machine for 5 or 10 minutes after turning it on it suddenly and miraculously starts booting up. At other times it just sits there with a blank screen forever.

Once it gets going then everything appears to be working fine and reboots seem to work consistently.

This is driving me mad! Is this a fault with the board? Should I return it and demand my money back as it just doesn't seem to work? I must admit that the though of pulling everything to bits and starting all over again does not fill me with joy! :(

I can't keep running a PC for which I have no control over stating it up. :mad:
 
Try building the board up outside of the case. I had a similar issue with another board and it was because it wasnt mounted correctly. Take the board out of the case, add the graphics card and take it from there. I ended up completely rebuilding the PC like that and it all worked a treat
 
I've just run Memtest and the results are a complete disaster - every module failed with large numbers of errors.

I then ran the Windows Memery Test utility that comes with Vista and I get a complete success?!?

Running BurnInTest gives me errors allocating RAM. Everything else passes.

This was all with 4GB of memory fitted. I'm now going to try with only 2 sticks fitted.
 
I get no Aero and a GPU score of 1.0 every time I install Vista64 Ult.

It wont run my card right till I install the proper Nvidia driver, nothing to worry about, as I install Mobo and GPU drivers right away.
 
With 2x1GB sticks fitted I still get MemTest failing the memory completely, but now BurnInTest passes the memory with no problems.

No idea whther this has effected the boot-up issues as I was able to reboot multiple times with no issue with 4GB RAM. It's only on the initial start-up that the system hangs.

The P5K manual states that, for Vista 32bit, "...a total memory of less than 3GB is recommended". Is this only because of the current limitation of 3GB for Vista 32bit or is this an inherent limitation with the chipset?

I know I can theoretically can 1, 2 or 4 sticks, but can I install 3 sticks of memory if 4 will not work properly?
 
helmutcheese said:
I get no Aero and a GPU score of 1.0 every time I install Vista64 Ult.

It wont run my card right till I install the proper Nvidia driver, nothing to worry about, as I install Mobo and GPU drivers right away.
Click to expand...

I was getting the 1.0 score after installing the nVidia drivers. However, after updating to the latest version and rebooting a couple of time the score for Aero jumped to 5.0.

Not an issue now that the graphics all appear to be working. Originally I wasn't sure whether I was having issues with the machine booting up or with the graphics card not working. It's definitely a boot-up issue, probably memory related and the graphics card seems to be working fine.
 
Asus P5K - Boot issues

Still having the issues booting up. This morning it took over 45 minutes of rebboting (mixture of full power ups and resets) before the post screen appeared.

Once booted, the PC seems to be running fine.

I've updated to the latest beta BIOS version (0805), tried increasing the memory voltage as suggested by Meridian in this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17818966, but all to no avail.

I've now just got 2x1GB sticks fitted but there is no apparent difference using 1x1GB, 2x1GB or 4x1GB.

I can't really use the machine like this. If I can't get anyhting to sort out the boot issues I'll have to RMA it. :(
 
I get that now and again on boot, I remove one stick and the mobo boots fine and then I can replace the stick.

Check the voltage for your memory, could be to low.

Regards.
 
Also the Bios 0805 is beta and a few settings dont save at all. I tried that Bios and in the end went back to the next one down.

Regards.
 
I've manually set the memory to 4-4-4-12-4 and the voltage to 2.1V as stated on the sticks and still get the same issues.

The 0805 BIOS seems to remember the memory settings so that doesn't appear to be an issue. I got the same problems with the 06nn & 07nn versions.

I just can't get the system to be bootable from cold. Once it does boot it will reboot over and over again without any problems.

Running BurnInTest I get memory errors if there is 4 sticks fitted but no errors with 2.

The Vista memory tester gives no errors at all with either 2 or 4 sticks fitted.

Is this just an issue with the Asus boards or all P35 boards?

Would an X38 board be more stable?
 
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