ASUS P8P67 Pro/2600k - Can't boot an o/s

So I setup my new sandy bridge PC (specs in signature) about 10 days ago, and it was running fine for about a week. I was running the default BIOS that came with the board and had no issues, even though it seemed to be quite outdated.

So after having no issues for a week I decided to start playing with overclocking. I used the auto overclocking function in the BIOS to get a base mark and then tweak from there. From the auto o/c I ran Prime95 tests and LOWERED the Vcore to get the min Vcore/temps on the auto overclock and start from there. I ended up with 1.270V on x44 turbo multi, which was fine in Prime95 for 30mins. So upped the multi to x45, same Vcore, wouldn't boot. Up to 1.285V wouldn't boot. Ended up going back to x44, still wouldn't boot. This is where my troubles started. From here on in, my PC won't boot into an o/s on any settings (unless I disable 2 cores).

My PC will POST, but it will not load an O/S. It will start to load windows and BSOD and reboot. If I put the Windows CD in (legit copy) it will load for a little then BSOD. I have a Ubuntu 10.04 amd64 CD here, if I try and boot from the CD it will get a kernel panic.

I have tried updating my bios to 1053, and now on 1204. I've tried resetting the settings in the BIOS. Tried resetting using the jumper. Removed the CMOS battery. Tried using the auto O/C option in the hope it would set everything up and be fine. Tried booting without the SSD connected, just the CD drive. Tried with both sticks of RAM individually. Tried reseating the 6950. Tried with a 8800GT PCIe card. Tried disabling everything on the mobo except USB. Manually set the primary RAM timings and voltages to default. Probably a number of other things over the last 4 days as well.

Running memtest with the ram manually set at default timings (9-9-9-24, 1.5V @ 1600). I ran memtest for 12hours, 10 passes, 0 errors.

Using UBCD 5.0.3 I ran the Mersenne CPU tester for 10hrs with no issues. It loads up 4 instances for the 4 cores, but I wasn't sure if this was stressing it properly as the 2600k had 8 threads. So I ran it for another 9hrs with hyperthreading disabled in BIOS with no issues.

The amount of CPU/RAM testing I've done with no issues leads me to believe these are ok. At least well enough to boot an o/s!

I can not load Win7 from SSD, CD, or Ubuntu Live CD. But I can boot up DOS based programs like memtest and UBCD tools. I thought this could be some sort of graphics issue, but I swapped in an 8800GT and have the same issues.

I can boot windows if I set the BIOS to use only 1 or 2 cores (although it's not that stable and will BSOD within windows after a while), but 3 or 4 and it will BSOD when it tries to load windows. I would think maybe a CPU issue but there's no problems running CPU stress in DOS for 10hours?

The only other thing I can point out is that I've only connected 4 pins to the 8 pin CPU connector on the m/b, as this is all that fits from my PSU. The graphic in the motherboard manual says you can fit 8 or 4 pins, so I assume this isn't an issue.

I'm in desperate need of help with this. I don't know if this is another issue with the P8P67 Pro board or some sort of incompatibility (i'm leaning towards this as the board is the only thing I haven't been able to really test) or something else. I don't know if any components are in need of an RMA, but it passes any test I can throw at the components, so I don't know what I should be looking at?

I also don't know why I suddenly got issues after being trouble free for a week. I know I was o/c'ing but the VCore was still far lower than the recommended, far lower than the ASUS auto clock set and far lower than many other's are going for benchmarking without issues...

If anyone can recommend any test's or anything to try, or any other guidance I would very much appreciate it!

It is highly recommended that you do a CMOS clear after flashing. No need to pull the battery, unplug PSU and clear. Other than that sounds like an RMA maybe.

Thanks for the comment. I did clear the CMOS after at least the last update, and I believe the previous update as well?

I just cleared the CMOS again with the jumper, still the same

Have you tried changing Sata mode to IDE? It defaults to AHCI and sometimes people have better luck with just setting it to IDE. Go to Advance and under Sata, change it from AHCI to IDE and Disable the two Sata (Marvel and JMB) if you have attached to them. See if this helps.

He said that he can't even start windows from the installation CD. So even THAT is crashing. And other OSs are crashing too, and the only way he can load anything is by disabling 2 cores.

Question:

Can you get into windows at stock settings, and run programs, with only 2 cores enabled?

CPU may be the culprit.

JCNiest5 said:

Have you tried changing Sata mode to IDE? It defaults to AHCI and sometimes people have better luck with just setting it to IDE. Go to Advance and under Sata, change it from AHCI to IDE and Disable the two Sata (Marvel and JMB) if you have attached to them. See if this helps.

Click to expand...

I had tried changing to IDE. I also tried booting to CD with the SSD disconnected.

I just tried the combination of IDE with Marvel and JMB disabled, no luck But thank you so much for your help!

Falkentyne said:

Can you get into windows at stock settings, and run programs, with only 2 cores enabled?

Click to expand...

Since resetting the CMOS, I've only tried JCNiest5's suggestion. Apart from that everything is on stock. I set the CPU to only use 2 cores in the BIOS and am in Windows running Prime95. It's been running fine for 10mins, temps etc. are fine. So yes, I can boot and run programs with 2 cores. Although I know from experience that I'm still getting BSOD's in Windows, often at pretty much idle.

Something I found kind of interesting is that CPUZ says that it's running at 3700MHz (100 BCLK x 37, instead of 38)? Weird...

So I've run another DOS based CPU burn in program overnight. 15 hours, 0 errors. I don't think this is a CPU issue.

I guess I'll look at RMA'ing the motherboard. But with the news of the dodgy chipset, it sounds like any new board I get won't be around for long before I have to replace that too! sigh

I posted the motherboard back to where I purchased it from this morning. I will update this thread with the outcome.

So I got a replacement ASUS P8P67 motherboard. Installed it, fired it up with everything default, original BIOS etc. and same problems. Won't boot Windows, won't load windows cd, won't load ubuntu CD.

Installed the SSD and DVD drive onto the 6G sata ports. Not sure what's going on. The fact that I can boot windows on only 2 cores seems to tell me the CPU is dead. But how does it run so many hours of stress testing if that's the case

Do you have a HDD to see if an OS will load off that?

So with your SSD on the 6G ports it will boot into Windows but with only 2 cores? Are you checking this will the Task Manager or some other program?

Do you have an extra DVD drive or flash drive to see if you can install off that?

If you have a friend or someone with the same CPU I would try a swap really quick and rule that out. It may just be that your CPU is happy in DOS tests but hates running specific commands in the windows environment.

Shane_c82 said:

Do you have a HDD to see if an OS will load off that?

So with your SSD on the 6G ports it will boot into Windows but with only 2 cores? Are you checking this will the Task Manager or some other program?

Do you have an extra DVD drive or flash drive to see if you can install off that?

Click to expand...

The SSD has windows 7 installed and was working fine. I could use an external HDD via SATA, but I'd have to install windows on it first. I can't load the windows 7 cd, because I get a BSOD. I can't install linux onto it because the live cd kernel panics. So I can't really test it this way unfortunately .

I know it's using 2 cores because that's what I set in the BIOS. I checked this in windows using CPU-Z. I'd also been in the task manager and it showed only the 4 threads instead of 8 under the cpu load.

All of the DOS testing I completed was from a CD (UBCD). Whilst memtest was from a memory stick. I guess the only other thing I can think of is to try and get ubuntu live cd onto a memory stick, but I doubt this would make a difference.

Todendron said:

If you have a friend or someone with the same CPU I would try a swap really quick and rule that out. It may just be that your CPU is happy in DOS tests but hates running specific commands in the windows environment.

Click to expand...

Yeah this would be the easiest way to check. The problem is there's a shortage of these CPU's here in Australia. I actually ordered my CPU from overseas (once I ordered all my parts and found out there was a national supply shortage of the sandy bridge cpu's). So in short I don't know anyone with one and I can't goto a local store to get one for testing or anything like this

If I RMA the CPU it has to get sent back overseas, and if they find it's not faulty they send it back, charge me a fee and postage, so I don't want to do this unless I'm 100% certain

Try manually setting the RAM to 1333 speeds? I thought I remember people in another ASUS thread having to do the with their 1155 boards.

I got exactly the same story and problem

and exactly the same solution 2 cores only (ht on)
to boot properly on my h24 seven 64bits (3 or 4 cores won't boot)

I'll try another cpu next week before RMA mine

The strangiest thing is that on a XP 32bits partition (for bench use)
I can boot with 4 cores and ht on
and it's stable !!!

Shane_c82 said:

Try manually setting the RAM to 1333 speeds? I thought I remember people in another ASUS thread having to do the with their 1155 boards.

Click to expand...

I've tried manually setting RAM to the 1600 speeds, to 1333 speeds, and lower, doesn't seem to make a difference. But thanks for your help!

mac87 said:

I got exactly the same story and problem

and exactly the same solution 2 cores only (ht on)
to boot properly on my h24 seven 64bits (3 or 4 cores won't boot)

I'll try another cpu next week before RMA mine

The strangiest thing is that on a XP 32bits partition (for bench use)
I can boot with 4 cores and ht on
and it's stable !!!

Click to expand...

Wow! It's great to know that I'm not alone here (well, it's not good for you or for me actually ). I don't have access to another CPU. Could you please let me know how you go with this? If it seems to be a CPU issue or something else? I'm going to pull out my XP cd and see if that loads up!

I'll test an other 2600k maybe wednesday
I'll keep you in touch

which bios di you have ?
I've got the 601 beta


I'll try to bench my 2600k 4c/8t on XP
to see if its overclability have changed

I just replaced the motherboard, so it has the stock BIOS, I think like 0408 or something. I had the same issues on the previous board though, and I had used 1053 and 1204 with the exact same result.

I just tried to load up the windows xp cd but it gave a blue screen of death as well after loading for a minute.

I forgot to precise that I have a p8p67-m pro the asus p67 µatx board

Pishk said:

I just replaced the motherboard, so it has the stock BIOS, I think like 0408 or something. I had the same issues on the previous board though, and I had used 1053 and 1204 with the exact same result.

I just tried to load up the windows xp cd but it gave a blue screen of death as well after loading for a minute.

Click to expand...

for installing or running XP, don't forget to go in bios sata properties and set IDE instead of AHCI

you might try setting bootmanager option in boot tab for your DVD and/or the target drive you want to work on

in any case, you can go further down and in boot override options - anything you pick will instantly boot

My guess it's a power supply issue. If you only have 4 of the 8 pins connected for the CPU power it might explain why you can only run 2 cores.

cisco guy said:

you might try setting bootmanager option in boot tab for your DVD and/or the target drive you want to work on

in any case, you can go further down and in boot override options - anything you pick will instantly boot

Click to expand...

It's always trying to boot from the correct drive. Windows will always start to boot but then the PC will crash. Or if I boot from CD, same thing, it will start to boot than BSOD for windows, kernel panic for linux

Sotiri said:

My guess it's a power supply issue. If you only have 4 of the 8 pins connected for the CPU power it might explain why you can only run 2 cores.

Click to expand...

I should have updated that I did plug the other 4 pin connector in and it didn't change a thing. I also have all 8 plugged in with the new motherboard. I initially thought the second 4 pin wouldn't fit as it had all 4 pins notched, but of course these fit in the square sockets too. But I just checked the manual and it said you could run it with just 4 and so that's what I did. This also wouldn't explain why it was working perfect for a week with no troubles

He needs to RMA the CPU. The CPU just died for some reason. No idea why. Sadly, these things do happen...

Before changing the CPU I would verify the +12V on each pin is within spec.
Have you tried a different PSU?

A guy on another forum said it was his Pioneer DVD firmware
Try unplugging your burner

I'm comming back with news

as I said few days ago, I had the exactly same problem (bsod even with ubuntu, activating 2 cores to boot seven....)

a friend of I sent me his 2600k

I have mounted it, and first boot all is ok, no more problems
(tested under load....)

so it's surely your CPU that is dead as mine

I'm starting the RMA process tomorow

In one hand I'm happy it's the cpu because a RMA of a P67 board could take months with the chipset problems

Thanks heaps for the update mac87, and to everyone else who've offered help and idea's in this thread !

I pulled apart my old PC last night to get the PSU out and the GPU (PSU won't power the new GPU). This didn't change a thing. Unplugged everything from the board, all the front ports for the case etc. and tried booting with JUST the dvd drive into a windows cd. Then JUST the SDD into windows. Both gave the same issues. The PSU was the only thing I still hadn't tested, so I wanted to do this to rule out another thing, and be quite certain it is the CPU.

I contacted Intel to look at a return, but they can't help me until after 30 days from purchase. It's not viable for me to return it to where I bought it from so I'll have to wait a week before I can look at doing an RMA directly with Intel.

I bit the bullet and ordered a replacement 2600k yesterday, it will be here tomorrow. I'll RMA the damaged one later. I'm glad this has fixed your issue mac87!

mac87, can I ask you what caused yours to die? was it working then stopped, or never worked? What was the batch of your faulty CPU?

Mine was fine for a week until I played with some o/c settings. I'd only gone to very low voltages, i.e. less than 1.3V, while many people have gone over 1.5V for benching without issue. Also it stopped booting after I had lowered the vcore. I guess the CPU was faulty and doomed to fail early. I wonder if there is a bad batch out there?

Update: Installed the replacement 2600k and fixed all my issues. Seems I must have had a dud, add in the fact that there's a recall on my board and this new PC will end up stuffing me around a bit. Having said that, this new build is lightning fast! These 2600k chips are a great bit of gear