ASUS Official Z68 Chipset Motherboards - Support Thread

Raja:
Question about the current crop of Z68 boards and IvyBridge CPUs. I do realize that these boards do not support PCIEx 3.0 but apart from that, does Asus plan to provide the BIOS updates to support the IvyBridge CPUs?
 
Okay, let's start with the specs:

ASUS P8Z68-V LX
P8Z68-V LX 0401 BIOS
Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB)
EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1567-KR GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

Now the problem:

My parts came in Friday and I had zero trouble setting everything up. I got windows loaded and was on my merrily way of testing everything. I noticed that the RAM timing was set at 11/11/11/28 so I went to change them to the specified 8/8/8/24. Upon doing this (manually, not through the XMP Profile, I did not know about it at the time) when I went to restart, the EFI BIOS would turn on, shut off (like it does) and when it came back on, it would sit there for between 4 and 5 minutes.

It would just sit there at the "Press DEL Key to enter EFI Bios" screen. Nothing else would happen. After about 5 minutes, it would get past this screen, (If I was holding DEL, it would then enter the EFI, but not before) or it would load Windows. At this point, the computer runs smooth as anything. There are no problems. I've had it overclocked to 4532Mhz with the RAM timing set through XMP profile. And it ran. I finally gave up and decided to use Prime 95 to torture test it when I went to bed at 3AM Saturday morning. Woke up at around 10:30 to find my computer had locked up. Restarted, and low and behold, it would boot directly past the BIOS menu.

An ancillary note: When it holds at the EFI BIOS screen, it is not doing anything. I turned off the full screen image setting, and it's just a black screen. Once it decides to continue, the POST happens quickly and naturally.

(Back to the main story) I then restarted a couple of times, to not problem.

This morning, I woke up, turned my computer on (left it off all night) to have it start installing Windows 7 SP1. This caused the computer to reboot several times in the process of doing so, and now it's back to the 4 to 5 minute wait before POST.

I'm at my wits end and want to destroy something. Should I RMA this board or is there some tiny little aspect I'm missing? I've tried both with default BIOS settings, as well as overclocks. Nothing effects the POST delay.

Thanks for any help that can be given.
 
Sounds like a memory compatibility issue. Please list your exact specs and parts?
 
davidm71 said:
Sounds like a memory compatibility issue. Please list your exact specs and parts?
Click to expand...

If you're talking to me, an interesting idea.

The only specifics I didn't give were the RAM:

G.Skill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM

It's not on the official accepted list for this motherboard. Interesting. Would that cause it to intermittently just not post like that? Is there any way I can test this?

Update: Just ran a MemTest86+ 4.2 on it. 1 pass with 0 errors. Took about 35 minutes.
 
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Zangulus said:
If you're talking to me, an interesting idea.

The only specifics I didn't give were the RAM:

G.Skill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM

It's not on the official accepted list for this motherboard. Interesting. Would that cause it to intermittently just not post like that? Is there any way I can test this?

Update: Just ran a MemTest86+ 4.2 on it. 1 pass with 0 errors. Took about 35 minutes.
Click to expand...


Couple more questions. Is there a LCD post code led on the motherboard? Be interesting to know where along the posting process it's stalling. Also you said it posts normal at cas 11 timings? Any harddrives? Dvd? Using latest bios?

Thanks
 
davidm71 said:
Couple more questions. Is there a LCD post code led on the motherboard? Be interesting to know where along the posting process it's stalling. Also you said it posts normal at cas 11 timings? Any harddrives? Dvd? Using latest bios?

Thanks
Click to expand...

There are no LEDs going off or anything inside of the case when I boot it. I noticed that the power LED is on, but that's the only light inside of the case.

It does not post normal at any CAS timing now that it's started to do this. Using the newest BIOS for this board. I have 3 different hard drives and a DVD drive. I shall try disconnecting them to see if there's any difference.
 
Try clearing or resetting the cmos settings. Though I had a similar issue once related to a bad hard drive...

Point being you probably have a bad component somewhere.
 
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davidm71 said:
Try clearing or resetting the cmos settings. Though I had a similar issue once related to a bad hard drive...

Point being you probably have a bad component somewhere.
Click to expand...

I've tried cmos reset. Both via jumper and bios. Nada. I've disconnected everything and it still happens. So if something's bad its cpu/ram/mobo/gpu.
 
One more thing to try - disconnect your USB devices when booting (don't try to get in BIOS, just boot without any USB devices). If it starts, then your board is behaving similar to my old P5Q board, which wouldn't boot with USB devices connected in specific way (i mean mouse connected to the USB hub in the keyboard, which was connected to USB hub in the LP2475w, which was connected to PC), but would boot with USB devices connected directly to the PC. Sure, that was BIOS era and now we are rocking UEFI, but worth a try.
 
Hey guys, I currently own a p8z68v-pro motherboard and was wondering if I can SLI or CF on slot 1 and 3? Is there a performance hit for doing so? Will the cards still run in 8x/8x mode? Or is the black port limited to 4x?
 
2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode, black) *1

= black is x4 only.

The hit would be significant, but your main problem would be getting the SLI/CF bridge long enough for 5 slots
 
Just update my z68 from 0505 to 0706, without installing 0606. I wonder if 0706 includes the update from 0606, since I am pretty much interested at 512MB IGD share memory support in 0606.
 
Hmm I was thinking of getting a 6990 and 6970 for my setup, would the temps be virtually the same as my SLI 580s in a corsair 650D?
 
lowirve said:
Just update my z68 from 0505 to 0706, without installing 0606. I wonder if 0706 includes the update from 0606, since I am pretty much interested at 512MB IGD share memory support in 0606.
Click to expand...

All BIOS updates are cumulative.

If you're feeling testy, you can try 0902 which is available for the basic and pro models.
 
faugusztin said:
One more thing to try - disconnect your USB devices when booting (don't try to get in BIOS, just boot without any USB devices). If it starts, then your board is behaving similar to my old P5Q board, which wouldn't boot with USB devices connected in specific way (i mean mouse connected to the USB hub in the keyboard, which was connected to USB hub in the LP2475w, which was connected to PC), but would boot with USB devices connected directly to the PC. Sure, that was BIOS era and now we are rocking UEFI, but worth a try.
Click to expand...

Amazing. I disconnected everything and it booted straight up. No delays. Connected my hub back in (Gateway monitor) and it booted right up. Now I have everything connected back and it's booting without delay. Hopefully it sticks, but we'll see over the next few days. If anything, I can just disconnect everything and reboot.
 
SolidBladez said:
If you're feeling testy, you can try 0902 which is available for the basic and pro models.
Click to expand...

Confused on this .. there's another post showing mobo's with PCIe3.x support which appeared to exclude the Z68-V Pro board, but looking at the change log for this it apparently shows:

- Support PCIe Rev 3.x

add: installed fine. No Orom or Intel ME firmware update.
 
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error-id10t said:
Confused on this .. there's another post showing mobo's with PCIe3.x support which appeared to exclude the Z68-V Pro board, but looking at the change log for this it apparently shows:

- Support PCIe Rev 3.x

add: installed fine. No Orom or Intel ME firmware update.
Click to expand...

I just stopped by ASUS' website, and the V-LX does indeed support PCIe 3 (with apropos CPU); however, it's nice to know that it supports update 0902 also (latest listed update for the LX is 0602).

Yes - I got a ping.

Why the ping - http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0371775

As I've stated quite plainly before, I prefer ASUS (which is the brand of my last three motherboards, including my current one), and the quibble was ASUS didn't have a Z68-based motherboard in any form factor (let alone ATX) in my price range - until now.
 
*sigh* Updated to 2001 on my P8P67 Pro and my USB keyboard (Kinesis) still isn't recognized at boot and I can't use it in UEFI.
 
Got the time to update to BIOS v0706, latest drivers, etc and I must say I'm impressed. I can confirm that S3 sleep now works with CPU PLL Overvoltage enabled. I had given up on this ever being fixed. I'm now easily able to hit 47x103, just by hitting the Extreme Overclock button in AI Suite. CPU runs toasty, up into the mid 80's (C) under load, but I haven't tried tuning down voltages yet.

Finally, I'm impressed by a BIOS update. It's been a long time since I've been impressed by ASUS's updates - since before the P8P67 debacle, at least...

Does anyone know of a decent overclock guide or some recommendations for P8Z68 + 2600K on water? I left the scene when I landed a ton of work and PLL Overvoltage didnt work for me...

Good job, ASUS...
 
@ techSlave

At least someones problems are being fixed with bios updates. I've been plagued with dual boot cold start issues since day one. And I've tried just about every recommendation listed on the web to no avail, its still present. Now the issue is present in 0706 with soft system restarts as well.
 
Just a quick update on the my experience using BIOS v0706.

It turns out that enabling PLL Overvoltage in combination with using S3 sleep works only about 90% of the time. Last week I had one incident where the system just restarted instead of resuming. Then, this morning, the system wouldn't restart at all. I lad to clear the CMOS to get it to boot.

This is too bad, at least for me. I need near-100% resume reliability (which I get with PLL Overvoltage disabled). I write a lot of client/server & distributed code and getting my development environment, with lots of VM's started, stabilized, and back to a given state takes too much time to make booting feasible. Yes, I could freeze and thaw the VM's, but even that takes too long.

Oh well, back to 45x100 with PLL-Overvolt disabled for me. Does anyone know if the new beta BIOS is any better?
 
Hello ,

In what cases uninstalling AI Suite is recomended ,

how does disabling PCC overvoltage, affects overclocking ?

I had to disable it, as many of you due to a known issue

@ techSlave , I'm sorry that a BIOS update didn't bring improvement , but at least the rest of us know, flashing v 0706 is pointless, unfortunatelly
 
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Posted this in the case mods section but figured I'd check here too. I'm thinking of picking this board up and putting it in my antec p183. It looks like it should fit, with a few mm to spare. If I take out the lower HD cage I should be able to route cables through there. But I just want to double check that the pin layout for attaching the board to the case is still ATX not EATX. It's my understanding that the only difference between an ASUS ATX board and this EATX board is the one inch in width. Can anyone confirm this?
 
WillC310 said:
*sigh* Updated to 2001 on my P8P67 Pro and my USB keyboard (Kinesis) still isn't recognized at boot and I can't use it in UEFI.
Click to expand...

Did you enable legacy USB devices in bios/uefi?
some keyboards (even new ones) still use old controllers.
 
Just got the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO and an Intel 510 120GB SSD. I have a strange problem with the SATA 6 port 1.

Port 1: Will not see the Intel SSD, but will see a WD HDD
Port 2: Will see the Intel SSD!

Why is port 1 not seeing the SSD but will see a WD HDD? Is there something wrong with my board?

Thanks for the help!
 
When you plug in SSD to port 1 only - unplug all USB or other HDD, and boot, do you get "load bootable media" message?

Do SSD cables need to be pushed in all the way? Right angle cables?

Also need F12 Fat32 usb stick screenies of boot page top and bottom with solo SSD inserted
tinypic.com (links only)
 
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Yes, when I have only the Intel 510 SSD in Port 1 I get that message. In Port 2 it works fine, and a "normal" HDD works fine as well in Port1, just the SSD doesn't show up in Port 1.


 
Hmmm, I've never seen that before: no device options in boot page, not even DVD

Um, you dont have RAID or IDE set on Intel SATA?

Disable full screen logo - that slows down boot a bit
Wheres your DVD - is it plugged in? And if so what port?
Should be in port 6

Set hotswap enabled on all ports (except port 6) in Intel SATA and see what happens
Take data/power cable out of WDC and use it on SSD

Also screenie of EZ page with mouse rollover arrow sitting on HDD icon (if any)

Also: do you intend to install Win 7 on SSD? X64?
If so, what partitioning do you want? If diskpart sees it, we can partition from diskpart cmd line

Put in Win 7 DVD and boot to install screen/repair my computer/repair tools button/cmd prompt
(type)
diskpart
lis dis

see if SSD shows up as disk 0

Where did you buy SSD? Retail? Secure erased disks can become locked with pw.

Your Intel 510 may need latest bios for detection - what bios was shipped? Its on EZ page. Or you may need 510 latest firmware.
 
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No RAID or IDE. It's all set to AHCI
DVD is in port 6 all set to Hotswap except for DVD

I installed W7 64 onto the SSD using port 2 (shows as Disk 0 in W7) and it was all ok. Everything shows it is at 6Gb/s. It works 100% fine on Port 2 but no matter what I do it will not show up if I move to Port 1. Although Port 1 works fine for other devices.

The only thing I haven't tried is another SATA3 or SSD device on Port 1 because I don't have any.

Drive info:
510
Model: Intel SSDSC2MH120A2
FW: PPG4

I searched around and it seems some laptops are not recognizing the 510 and other are using the same drive. Wonder what is up?
 
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now thats some crazy shit
Its a pain, but I would remove HSF and look inside zif socket for bent pins with one of those 3" round magnifying lenses
What HSF - CM hyper 212+?
 
Everything else is working great so I don't think it would be the HSF/CPU. I am using the 212+ EVO. I have a feeling it's 510 related based of some reading over at the Intel forums but I don't know for sure. This is a very weird issue for sure and since it works 100% perfect in port 2 I'm not sure anything is actually "broke". And, since Port 1 works for other devices it can not be "broke" either. Hmmm....
 
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well, just make sure you dont tighten those 4 nuts on the backside too much and pinch the mobo. If you look, there are delicate traces all round some of the 4 mount holes. The SSD is basically thirty 4GB ram sticks - lotta juice

Whatever
:rolleyes:
 
Hmmm... well I did tighten the back plate as I have on other builds. I bascially turn the screws until I feel actual resistance and then stop. I would think some other symptoms would be happening if I caused any damage, but so far everything is rock solid.
 
AstroCat said:
Hmmm... well I did tighten the back plate as I have on other builds. I bascially turn the screws until I feel actual resistance and then stop. I would think some other symptoms would be happening if I caused any damage, but so far everything is rock solid.
Click to expand...

Make sure your DVD is set as the first boot device.
 
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