ASUS Official X79 Motherboards Support Thread

Quick question. How to I enable the UEFI boot option? Not sure what I did right, but on the other boxes, they had the UEFI banner over the boot drive. Got a 3T data drive that the OS is going to try and chop up - and I'm trying to make the install match all of the other boxes.

A whack with a clue stick would be appreciated. BIOS updated to 0906 with a C2 processor.
 
First of all if you are going to go all GPT its best to have all drives plugged in so that when you partition/format, they will all be GPT - O/S and DATA.

However in your situation, its quite simple (but you lose all data)
As I understand, you want the data drive to be GPT but already have UEFI O/S GPT drive?
Just right click the drive in diskmanager
tNNtX.jpg


If you want O/S BOOTABLE drive just look upwards to my post #154
DUH
 
The boot drive does not appear to be UEFI either. I'm going to flush the drives and start again.
 
Is the UEFI boot showing up tied to how the boot drive is formatted? Not sure if the OS drive was MBR or the other boot loader...
 
Go to win 7 cmd prompt
type:

diskpart
list disk

Any GPT drive will show with an * under GPT column
No * = MBR

You can do same thing with Win 7 DVD, repair your computer/tools/cmd prompt

A GPT O/S drive will not boot AFTER FULL INSTALL unless you manually set THAT DRIVE in boot page as winbootmanager
If you go to EZ page and do a mouse rollover of UEFI HDD icon you should see the winbootmanager

MecYz.jpg

lSAll.jpg

vj1dM.jpg
 
Well, I've got 10 of these boards - so I guess I might bump into a few issues.

I've got a BIOS issue. I did the initial setup with the stock BIOS - I want to say it was version 06xx but don't remember the original numbers. I went to update the BIOS to the latest 0906 version, but the flash utility said something to the effect that it was not a valid EFI bios. Tried a couple different bits of media / downloads and got the same error. The 08xx version had the same error. The 0709 was detected as normal and did the flash. (Using same USB drive I had for the other builds)

What I've got now is a

Warning! BIOS Recovery Mode has been detected! Please put the file "P9X79PRO.ROM" into...

I've tried the CD-ROM, which has that file in the root. I've also tried putting that file on a USB. (as well as the 07xx, 08xx, and 09xx versions).

The BIOS indicator says F9 (Recovery capsule is not found)

This machine does have a C2 CPU.

Any pointers as to what to do next?
 
heelix said:
Well, I've got 10 of these boards - so I guess I might bump into a few issues.

I've got a BIOS issue. I did the initial setup with the stock BIOS - I want to say it was version 06xx but don't remember the original numbers. I went to update the BIOS to the latest 0906 version, but the flash utility said something to the effect that it was not a valid EFI bios. Tried a couple different bits of media / downloads and got the same error. The 08xx version had the same error. The 0709 was detected as normal and did the flash. (Using same USB drive I had for the other builds)

What I've got now is a

Warning! BIOS Recovery Mode has been detected! Please put the file "P9X79PRO.ROM" into...

I've tried the CD-ROM, which has that file in the root. I've also tried putting that file on a USB. (as well as the 07xx, 08xx, and 09xx versions).

The BIOS indicator says F9 (Recovery capsule is not found)

This machine does have a C2 CPU.

Any pointers as to what to do next?
Click to expand...

The USB drive that you are flashing BIOS from needs to be FAT/FAT32 formatted to work otherwise you will receive the not an EFI BIOS error message. I would try using a FAT/32 formatted drive to perform the recovery flash also. Failing that, the BIOS chip is on a socket so you can hot-flash on one of the other boards (if you have 10) you have if you feel up to doing that.
 
Formatted a USB stick as FAT-32 (was NTFS originally). (Ninja edit: system just kept rebooting with this)

I do have a bunch of these boards. Shutdown, pull the BIOS chip from one of the other already flashed boards, and power up?
 
Just wondering, I just opened my RIVE today and it had some bent pins. Do I need to RMA it?
 
P4rD0nM3 said:
Just wondering, I just opened my RIVE today and it had some bent pins. Do I need to RMA it?
Click to expand...

Depends where you purchased it, some E-tailors will not accept socket damage RMAs and neither will ASUS as socket damage is not covered by warranty.
 
heelix said:
Formatted a USB stick as FAT-32 (was NTFS originally). (Ninja edit: system just kept rebooting with this)

I do have a bunch of these boards. Shutdown, pull the BIOS chip from one of the other already flashed boards, and power up?
Click to expand...

You can do that if you wish.
 
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Hi!

Can you please tell me which low profile RAM modules work perfectly fine as set of 64GB with Asus P9X79 (PRO) mainboards?
Are there any other than the two(!) on the QVL?
Maybe these?: http://geizhals.de/715401

Thank you so much!
Daniel
 
ultimatte said:
Hi!

Can you please tell me which low profile RAM modules work perfectly fine as set of 64GB with Asus P9X79 (PRO) mainboards?
Are there any other than the two(!) on the QVL?
Maybe these?: http://geizhals.de/715401

Thank you so much!
Daniel
Click to expand...

That's not a 64GB set. I would stick with a 64GB set rated no higher than DDR3-1600 (due to cost and minuscule performance change)
 
ultimatte said:
Yes, I know it's not a set of 64GB. But I could use two of these 32GB sets.

I mean any 8GB low profile RAM module of which I could use 8 to get 64GB.

->
http://geizhals.de/725045
http://geizhals.de/715332
http://geizhals.de/721696

Thanks a lot!

(I'm sorry if I'm not precise. It's because of my poor English... :( )
Click to expand...


What I am trying to tell you is, if you want 64GB then buy a 64GB kit only. If you start putting together kits that are rated at lower density they can be a pain to get stable unless you understand memory timings and are prepared to put in some time tweaking. You may not like my initial answer, but if asking for advice one has to accept that you may not get the answer you want.

-Raja
 
Some progress.

I hit the reset CMOS button, which gets me back to the post screen. Got the CD in the drive, and the CD getting recognized as SATA-6. All good. It says no USB devices, however... so no keyboard. Of course, it is asking to press F1 to run setup. Doh!

OK... So the BIOS chip. If I pull the BIOS chip from a known good machine, I can use that to boot, then flash the board? I'm a bit foggy on the hot flash - I see some youtube videos where folks are pulling the BIOS chip with the system running?
 
One last note. I have one last machine that does not have the BIOS updated. Should I use the 0604 BIOS or pull one that was updated to 0906?
 
More updates. I swapped out the BIOS chip with one of the machines running 0906. The system board went into update mode, updated, and I'm typing from it now. Woot.

I plugged the BIOS I was having issues with into the other machine and got the BIOS recovery mode menu. Popped in the CD-ROM and waited. It did pull up the BIOS flash utility - it shows version 0404 - but is looking for keyboard input. USB keyboard not detected, nor is the mouse.

So is the 'hot' part me swapping the old BIOS chip into the socket while the machine is running?
 
heelix said:
One last note. I have one last machine that does not have the BIOS updated. Should I use the 0604 BIOS or pull one that was updated to 0906?
Click to expand...

I have abandoned using the Windows DVD, or the mobo CD drivers to install new X79 PC, and its even worse in RAID mode.

Fwiw all ASUS X79 mobo at this minute come with RSTe oprom of 3.0.0.1184 in bios and 3.0.0.1111 or 3.0.0.1112 on mobo CD RSTe driver. The mobo CD drivers will work with ship bios as long as you use the Marvel port to install windows (enable oprom in bios). But if you update bios first you are dead meat with mobo CD RSTe. The 3001111 and 1112 drivers are only avail on CD, the first bug fixed driver is the 3.0.0.2003 on ASUS site for all X79 mobo.
IOW the mobo CD RSTe only works (poorly) with ship bios. And there were a bunch of bugs to fix, including the error you mention!
Intel once again lays out a big fart.

Setting up RAID and installing Win 7 to it makes things even worse.

Thirdly Intel has commenced a parallel intro of two mobo lines - the Romley and the Wiamea bay. You are using WB and Intel brand Xeon Server uses Romly. Romley has working SAS ports and its SCU (SCSI Control Utility)

Nothing SAS has any relevence to your mobo or any enthusiast X79 mobo. These drivers are also on the ASUS mobo CD, and why I dont know. ASRock and GB dont have them.

There have been 3 major RSTe updates from ship:
3002003
3003020
3017016

Ea drivers has the bugfixes of the prior - its cumulative

So heres what you do to insure an error free Win 7 install
You have to start fresh
You have to start fresh
You have to start fresh.
Killdisk (zero fill freeware) any spinner drive for about 5% from DOS boot CD
Secure erase any SSD
Any drive that was previously RAID MUST have the RAID metadata removed (not formatted) by the above routines
If you hhave some RAID compliant mobo you can set RAID and use the reset as non RAID option for the drives

Win 7:
Must use factory embedded SP1, and even better if you have an Win 7 X64 SP1 ISO with the 122 updates already added. And none of that "precracked" warez shit.

You then update bios to latest first before anything.
If the light stays on for a long time you have done something wrong and could fry the chipUpdated bios will not work with mobo CD RSTe 1111 1112

Next gto to Intel site and download 3017016 F6 and post install .exe. You will see "A" versions and "S" versions
Ignore S versions. You want the A F6 X64 only

Then you download freeware wintoflash (latest beta works fine) and make a bootable Win 7 USB 2.0 stick formatted NTFS. If you format FAT32 you will be making GPT. After making the USB you then create a new folder called drivers and dump the F6 X64 A in there. Place the USB in a KNOWN USB 2.0 port in I/O plate and set bios USB to auto. By having add driver folder on USB with Win 7 install you avoid focus problems.
 
heelix said:
More updates. I swapped out the BIOS chip with one of the machines running 0906. The system board went into update mode, updated, and I'm typing from it now. Woot.

I plugged the BIOS I was having issues with into the other machine and got the BIOS recovery mode menu. Popped in the CD-ROM and waited. It did pull up the BIOS flash utility - it shows version 0404 - but is looking for keyboard input. USB keyboard not detected, nor is the mouse.

So is the 'hot' part me swapping the old BIOS chip into the socket while the machine is running?
Click to expand...

Um no, you need to flash the old chip while in windows on working running other mobo. And to see KB you need Auto set for USB in bios. And WIRED mouse/KB - $10 logitech.
But hot flash is not necessary. You can flash with PC OFF and USB FAT32 stick in white USB 2 port in I/O plate if you RENAME bios file to what it says in manual (DUH)
R4E.rom
P9X79D.rom
P9X79PRO.rom
etc.
 
P4rD0nM3 said:
Just wondering, I just opened my RIVE today and it had some bent pins. Do I need to RMA it?
Click to expand...

PICS??? PICS??
I LUV bent pin pics - lol

Question:
Did you pull pin protector straight up with latch down or pop it out with top latch plate open?

Edit:
Already answered - both posting at same time - heh
 
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Just want to report that the hot flash maneuver did the trick. I got myself into trouble by trying to flash from the NTFS I think. I had installed a Windows image, downloaded the file, then booted into the BIOS to flash. Why the 07xx bios (sorta started, not sure it finished) worked while the other two errored out (correctly) is unknown to me. Got one last machine to finish imaging/updating, and I get to start in on the next batch of machines.

Will have some very happy developers Monday morning.

Thank you guys very much for the support!
 
heelix said:
Just want to report that the hot flash maneuver did the trick. I got myself into trouble by trying to flash from the NTFS I think. I had installed a Windows image, downloaded the file, then booted into the BIOS to flash. Why the 07xx bios (sorta started, not sure it finished) worked while the other two errored out (correctly) is unknown to me. Got one last machine to finish imaging/updating, and I get to start in on the next batch of machines.

Will have some very happy developers Monday morning.

Thank you guys very much for the support!
Click to expand...

If you are still there:
To clarify - you did actually flash corrupt chip in Windows?
Or just the CD recov action did it for you?
And you dont need any image just the file all by its lonesome on the stick
 
Tried to boot for the first time. I'm getting an IDE detect error. But I can't even see the boot screen or POST on my monitor.
 
cisco guy said:
PICS??? PICS??
I LUV bent pin pics - lol

Question:
Did you pull pin protector straight up with latch down or pop it out with top latch plate open?

Edit:
Already answered - both posting at same time - heh
Click to expand...

I'll take a look again this morning because I'm seeing some black spots. I have a really bad eye so I can't see shit.
 
bent pins could cause anything - there are 2011 of them
Usually - CPU red LED, or RAM slots not showing up, or not functioning properly under any condition
So, to ask again - did you pull the plastic protector out when down or up in latch plate?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8jogtOzw6Y

You could use one of those 3" round $5 magnifying glasses.
 
I just did what the manual said. It says install the processor first then it'll pop out. EVerything's working now though so I don't think there's some bent pins. Running intel burn, occt and prime 95 all together right now. around 60 degr4ees stock tpyping on a tbalet sucks

once it passes my 8 hours test time ill overclock it hopefully around 4.8
 
P4rD0nM3 said:
I just did what the manual said. It says install the processor first then it'll pop out. EVerything's working now though so I don't think there's some bent pins. Running intel burn, occt and prime 95 all together right now. around 60 degr4ees stock tpyping on a tbalet sucks

once it passes my 8 hours test time ill overclock it hopefully around 4.8
Click to expand...

I'll be damned
Never saw that.
They tell you to force the protector out by closing the latch with CPU in
Huh!
 
Tried renaming the file... but had not tried it with FAT32 vs NTFS. I suspect that was what was hanging me up. When the BIOS got corrupted (is there even a version 0404?) I tried putting it into a known good machine, which caused that machine to halt before the post. (Got further - that box would recognize the CD) I should have burned the lastest ROM to CD (and renamed it). Not sure the USB was picking it up.

There was no legacy PS2 connector - only USB. When the system booted it did not find any of the USB devices. I would have given anything to use a trusty old keyboard when the BIOS booted from the CD and said to hit 'enter' to install the ROM it found. Heck, even and old PS2 mouse would have saved the day.

I was trying to update the bios to the latest rev before adding the SSDs. I was not sure exactly where the flash got itself into deep weeds. I like to make sure the system is more or less stable before patching to the latest BIOS, which led me down a merry rabbit hole.
 
heelix said:
Tried renaming the file... but had not tried it with FAT32 vs NTFS. I suspect that was what was hanging me up. When the BIOS got corrupted (is there even a version 0404?) I tried putting it into a known good machine, which caused that machine to halt before the post. (Got further - that box would recognize the CD) I should have burned the lastest ROM to CD (and renamed it). Not sure the USB was picking it up.

There was no legacy PS2 connector - only USB. When the system booted it did not find any of the USB devices. I would have given anything to use a trusty old keyboard when the BIOS booted from the CD and said to hit 'enter' to install the ROM it found. Heck, even and old PS2 mouse would have saved the day.

I was trying to update the bios to the latest rev before adding the SSDs. I was not sure exactly where the flash got itself into deep weeds. I like to make sure the system is more or less stable before patching to the latest BIOS, which led me down a merry rabbit hole.
Click to expand...

0404 is the ship bios
people have spent hours pulling their hair out trying to load a bios on an NTFS stick - it will NOT work. Bios is DOS mode - FAT32 only.
You corrupted the bootblock.

The KB and mouse will show if you can get into bios and set USB mode
legacy
non legacy
auto
non legacy means no DOS Win 98 mode anywhere
legacy will work with some devices - legacy means old O/S Win 98 MSDOS
auto means legacy in BIOS and non legacy in Win 7
You MUST be sure to be in USB 2.0 port with USB 2.0 stick
For example, my MS mice dont work in USB legacy, but the MS KB does. Logitech cheapest mice works in legacy mode for me. NO wireless stuff!! You gotta figure out which ones go and keep a set of them on hand.
The ASUS CD has Linux PE on it so when you go recovmode, it runs in FREEDOS. But you wont see anything unless you have a PCI vidcard (AGP) Since you were in windows with the hotflash, that issue didnt come up.
A person like yourself should buy an extra BIOS chip from ASUS $15. Some guys even buy their own bios flashers to get around the corrupt bios thingy ($125)
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2204512&highlight=
And NEVER use case USB ports when doing anything BIOS

Sometimes the bupdater utility will fix a corrupt bios when a straight flash wont. Run from the MARVEL port (oprom enabled) if on a CD

G6Gpw.jpg

9dCDI.jpg
 
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I'll look into an extra BIOS chip. I was just about to the point where I was going to see if it was possible to order one. Well worth the peace of mind since there are about 20 developers total who are getting outfitted. One of the workstations is just going to be set aside as a backup, but for under $20.. a no brainer.

Not sure if the threads got crossed, but I was not the one who tried flashing from Windows. I had installed windows and downloaded the bios ROM files on the file system, which I could access from the boot based flash utility. Again... even though the boot flash utility 'sort of' was able to read the NTFS windows drive in addition to the NTFS based flash drive, I suspect that is what caused things to go to hell in a handbasket with the update.

The repeated warnings are spot on. How do they say - sometimes the only purpose of my life was to serve as a warning to others?

I owe you a beer cisco, if we cross paths at any conventions.
 
What Ult can I download to allow me to look at fan speeds/cpu temp within windows?
 
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