Asus P5K-Deluxe: Flashed BIOS - Boots Fine but "NO SCREEN!"

Tiramisu

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 28, 2007
Messages
125
Hi everyone:

It makes me feel like a complete noob to start a thread like this but I think my problem with this motherboard is quite unusual and it isn't those common "NO BOOT after BIOS Flash" that we all got sick and tired of reading everyday...

First of all, let's skip all those common assumption like
1. cables fully plugged in?
2. Rams properly seated?
3. Ram defective? (Ran Memtest/Orthos blend prior BIOS flash and were FREE of errors.)
4. Video card related issues? (it was working perfectly fine, PCI-E 6pin plugged)
Etc, etc...

System Specs: Ram Highlight - 2x1GB Crucial Ballistix 8500. For the rest, please check my signature.

Flash Method: USB drive and EZ Flash under BIOS
The P5K-DLX came with 0123 bios originally. As usual, I always flash the BIOS ONE by ONE.

1. ~ I began updating the the BIOS to 0202 and the flash went well during the process. System auto reboots after successful flash. System booted up fine. Screen shows the usual F1 to enter setup or F2 to load default and continue and again I hit F1 as usual, entered BIOS, hit load to default. System shuts down and restarted, now this is the point where I get BLACK SCREEN.

No problem, I turned the system off and shuts down the PSU, unplugged it for 30 secs. DONE THE CLEAR CMOS procedures PROPERLY (I had a millions times of SUCCESSFUL experience with this, no doubt about that, this is my 6th mobo). I turn the system on again, it BOOTED and POSTED fine and NO black screen. As usual, hit F1 and went into BIOS. Hit Load default, Save and exit. System booted up fine but again I see the black screen. Shuts the system off, turn off the PSU, wait 30 secs, turn them back on, and booted&posted fine. Got the Overclocked failed...blah blah...I then again entered the BIOS and DIDN'T change anything but go straight to load default AGAIN...this time I DID NOT GET the BLACK SCREEN. and I DID NOT GET the Overclock Failed...

So I thought it went ok there, but it wasn't. I want to make sure it does reboot ok. I didn't change anything and go straight to save and exit. NOW I GOT the black screen again...

OK, not to panic here, I shut down the system, off the PSU, turn it back on, it booted/posted fine, got the Overclock failed msg again.. entered BIOS hit Load Default save and exit, booted/posted fine, entered BIOS and thought, it may be that 0202 is still an older BIOS so I used EZflash again to continue update BIOS to the newest official BIOS - 0311

EXACTLY done the same way as from 0123 to 0202. I got the Black Screen after save and exit without changing anything. DID the CMOS clear AGAIN...waited for 5 mins...and it's still happening with the LOOOOOOOONG weird sometimes black screen problem.
OK and becouse I'm not a noob so I know the "overclock failed msg meant something;) " I bumped the ram voltage to 2.2v, divider set to DDRII800, 5-5-5-15 timings, the new 0311 BIOS has 1T/2T option and of course I selected 2T, CPU voltage...NB voltage...all adjusted as usual....and STILL having this werid bad sometimes no screen cycle.

I know the flash went successfully and I can go into windows and stresstest everything NO ERROR, everything seems stable but if I go into BIOS and hit save and exit or load to default...I'll get no screen crap.

I tried to troubleshoot the problem but to no avail, if you know the possible adjustment(s) under BIOS to remedy this, please make a reply here. :)
 
Why in the world would you flash one-by-one?

It doesn't get "upgraded!" It gets erased and rewritten.

If I want to go from Windows 3.11 to Vista, I don't format, install Win95, format, install Win98, format, install....



In any case, set your PCI-e frequency to 102MHz, disable transaction booster and make sure vram voltage is not on auto.

See if that makes a difference!

Also, check the modified date on your BIOS - is it 5/28/07? (10PM I believe)
 
Thanks for the quick reply calebb :)

1. I know my post was long and I mentioned that I've set the correct voltage for my rams/cpu/NB...etc accordingly and black screen still hits me after I hit save and exit...I'm preety sure this is RAM related but I know my rams are working perfectly...weird....

2. Tried PCI-E Freq 100...

3. BIOS 0311...I just downloaded it like few hours ago...and I see the date is 05/25/97....did they just update the newest bios like a hour ago ?! still same BIOS file name 0311??
 
Thanks for the quick reply calebb :)

1. I know my post was long and I mentioned that I've set the correct voltage for my rams/cpu/NB...etc accordingly and black screen still hits me after I hit save and exit...I'm preety sure this is RAM related but I know my rams are working perfectly...weird....

2. Tried PCI-E Freq 100...

3. BIOS 0311...I just downloaded it like few hours ago...and I see the date is 05/25/97....did they just update the newest bios like a hour ago ?! still same BIOS file name 0311??

I didn't say PCI-E freq 100.... :-D

The official 0311 comes in a .zip archive. The beta version floating around is just a .bin. You should be able to inspect the modified date inside the archive.
 
OK...this is very GAY...I didn't even OC my system and I still get the black screen crap like I've OC'ed it....

I download the newest official bios 0311 from Asus site, under bios it reads 05/25/07. It was in a zipped file. I unzipped it the bios ROM to my flash drive. *OK I check the BIOS file in the USB flash drive, it's dated 05/28/07 and it matches with the bios file 0311 I just downloaded now.

Here's what I've tried:

FSB 266
Multi x10
CPU Voltage stock
Mem voltage upped to 2.2v
Ram Divider AUTO
Timings: 5-5-5-15
Command Rate 2T
PCI-E freq upped to 102 as per suggested


Rest AUTO..if these kind settings were on other boards, I'm sure I wouldn't get this crap....
 
Have you tried PCI-E Frequency 102 yet? :)

Just sayin... it's worth a shot!
 
Also, I remember my system would always hang for 15 seconds after "checking NVRAM." I'm not exactly sure how I finally fixed it (I assumed it was searching for HDD's or something?). But the only setting I changed when that problem finally went away was DRAM voltage from auto -> 2.1v.

I put it back to auto and the long delay never came back...

I never posted about it because it was only an issue for ~1 day or so....
 
OK...this is very GAY.....

Not to stir up anything here, but what in the hell does gayness have to do with your computer's problem? Exactly which characteristics of the situation are of a gay nature? What kind of a connection is there between sexual preferences and computer malfunctions? Just curious.

CB
 
Dont know much about that board but..... always flash from good old floppy..... doesnt matter what everyone says, its a $5 drive that will save a alot of potential headache.... Also before flashing, clear cmos, up your vdimm to 2.2v, doesnt matter how high those sticks will go or what theyre rated at but D9GMH is happiest at 2.2v... well theyre happier at higher volts but theyre not too comfy at the default 1.8v.....:p

BTW, just ordered 4x1g of ballistix 5300 at ATIC for $112 per 2x1g:D .... these firestix 8000 are otta here......
 
holy jesus.....I literally tried every possible configuration and I just cannot pass that overclocking failed crap.

Now is it me being so incompetent or is it this mobo is playing up?!
This is my 6th mobo to work with and I've never get this kind of crap..
 
Not to stir up anything here, but what in the hell does gayness have to do with your computer's problem? Exactly which characteristics of the situation are of a gay nature? What kind of a connection is there between sexual preferences and computer malfunctions? Just curious.

CB

Gay = happy actually.


And did you try upping your PCI-E frequency to 102 yet? :D
 
Dont know much about that board but..... always flash from good old floppy..... doesnt matter what everyone says, its a $5 drive that will save a alot of potential headache.... Also before flashing, clear cmos, up your vdimm to 2.2v, doesnt matter how high those sticks will go or what theyre rated at but D9GMH is happiest at 2.2v... well theyre happier at higher volts but theyre not too comfy at the default 1.8v.....:p

BTW, just ordered 4x1g of ballistix 5300 at ATIC for $112 per 2x1g:D .... these firestix 8000 are otta here......

Hey Lui, before I even bothered setting anything manually...everything worked like a charm with the 0123 bios. I didn't have to upped the voltage on the Vdimm to run Orthos Blend and Memtest stable at stock.

I've tried PCI-E Freq 102/103/105 is to no avail. I upped the Vdimm to 2.2v, NB 1.4v, FSB 1.4v, 5-5-5-15, 2T, 266 FSB, Auto Divider, dissabled the "usuals"...
 
Hey Lui, before I even bothered setting anything manually...everything worked like a charm with the 0123 bios. I didn't have to upped the voltage on the Vdimm to run Orthos Blend and Memtest stable at stock.

I've tried PCI-E Freq 102/103/105 is to no avail. I upped the Vdimm to 2.2v, NB 1.4v, FSB 1.4v, 5-5-5-15, 2T, 266 FSB, Auto Divider, dissabled the "usuals"...

K - I have a few more suggestions still! Just wanted to make sure you tried that.


Are you using the 4 pin or 8 pin mobo connector?

Have you tried with just one stick of RAM? (in diff slots)
 
K - I have a few more suggestions still! Just wanted to make sure you tried that.


Are you using the 4 pin or 8 pin mobo connector?

Have you tried with just one stick of RAM? (in diff slots)

Hey Calebb, if I saw this reply like few hours ago, It would have helped and made a big progress.

I actually had the 1 stick trial by error testing method in mind but I didn't do it becouse I never had to. Before I saw your last reply, I tried ONE stick in each yellow/black/yellow/black slot and surprisingly I GOT RID of the unbelieable "overclocking failed & black screen" crap.

I went again and tried with the 2nd stick in all 4 slots and same good result...

The result turned out to be that BOTH sticks were working perfectly fine and this also correspond to the Orthos blend and memtests I've tested.

The same problem arised again when I put both sticks back in DDR configuration. Black screen. This confirmed that the problem has nothing to do with the settings I configured.

I've never had a mobo gives such kind of problem BUT I've being awared and heard of this kind problem in other people's case and I just never thought it would happened to me.

As for the 4 or 8 pin CPU mobo connector. My OCZ 600w GameXstream PSU only has 4pin cpu power connector and it doesn't have 8pin EVP 12v. I know from here you probably will tell me to get a 8pin EVP 12v cpu mobo connector and try again. In fact, I actually just bought another new PSU - Corsair HX620w, which is the best in its category and supports 8pin EVP 12v. I bought it solely becouse I want to utilize the 8pin mobo connector and it's sitting right next to me sealed :)

HOWEVER...before I switch the power supply, I must tell you that I've had TWO 8pin connection mobos in the past and my current PSU with its 4pin CPU connector was working flawlessly even under OC'ed and Orthos stress condition for several hours.

The manual states either use 1x 4pin connector (not 2 x 4pin!) or just 1 x 8pin EVP 12v. Other P5K owners are also using 4 pin connectors and it's working flawlessly for them and not causing this problem I was experiencing...

Any more thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks so much :):cool:

Conclusion: 1. Nothing to do with me being incompetence 2. Both sticks of RAMs are OK 3. Faulty Motherboard?
 
Yep, faulty mobo :(

And yes, the 8 pin connector is only really necessary for stability with quad core procs...


And I have the 620HX as well :) It rocks!


Hey Calebb, if I saw this reply like few hours ago, It would have helped and made a big progress.

Sorry for not laying down all my cards at once. whenever I do that, the person I'm helping only tries one or two suggestions... I've had threads go on for days because I assumed the person tried EVERY suggestion I made in my first post.... but they didn't try the one thing that ended up helping...

So, rather than waste either of our time, I offer 1-2 suggestions at a time, and I do not offer further suggestions until I receive confirmation that you tried those...
 
Yep, faulty mobo :(

And yes, the 8 pin connector is only really necessary for stability with quad core procs...


And I have the 620HX as well :) It rocks!




Sorry for not laying down all my cards at once. whenever I do that, the person I'm helping only tries one or two suggestions... I've had threads go on for days because I assumed the person tried EVERY suggestion I made in my first post.... but they didn't try the one thing that ended up helping...

So, rather than waste either of our time, I offer 1-2 suggestions at a time, and I do not offer further suggestions until I receive confirmation that you tried those...

Hey Calebb, no problem, I truely appreciate your help even at this hour...:)
If I were you, I'd do the same to help others. I know not all people will perceive the 10+ suggestions all at once when they're in panic mode...:D

Ok now back to topic.......faulty motherboard eh? please tell me again if this for sure...:rolleyes:

I had high hopes for the P5K-Dlx but it looks like it's not giving me one chance.........this is pushing to me to joing the Giga P35 family...:cool:

Well any suggestions from now on? :)
 
Well, I guess it's possible that your RAM has an improperly programmed SPD chip!

So - did you try manually setting all the sub-timings?

Dual channel mode will definitely not work if those are set improperly from the SPD.

(BTW, I also have Ballistix PC8500)

Let me get the correct sub-timings for you for 800MHz CAS 4-4-4-12 - gimme a couple minutes.


If this doesn't help, I am putting my bets on a faulty motherboard... normally dual channel mode works without making any configuration changes.
 
Ok, here are some very relaxed settings for 800MHz with that memory:

DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS Latency: 4
RAS to CAS Delay: 4
RAS Precharge: 4
RAS Activate to Precharge: 12
TWR: 6
TRFC: 42
TWTR: 10
TRRD: 10
TRTP: 10
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
 
You know I gotta give you lots of credits for providing me so much help but I hate to tell you that your suggested subtimings didn't help either.

I even set the primary timings to 5-5-5-15 and use the subtimings that you suggested @ 2.2v. underclocked to DDRII 800. Switched the pair to the black slots just bcos I read another thread that P5K-Dlx OCs better on black slots but I havn't even started any OCing for crist sake...LOL:rolleyes:

But you know what? before we conclude that the mobo is actually faulty, I have to remind you and anyone else who's reading this that I didn't get the "failed overclocked...etc" and "black screen" when it was still in original 0123 BIOS.

It seems to me that the flash does went successful and when I try each stick of RAM, it worked flawlessly in all FOUR slots. However, the black screen appears everytime I set my RAMs in dual channel and it doesn't matter if I put them in yellow or black slots...

If it's really mobo's fault, then why it didn't reject dual channel configuration when it was still on original 0123 earliest BIOS??

Could possible that the 0311 is BUGGY?! or only to me?!.....:eek: :rolleyes:



Well, I guess it's possible that your RAM has an improperly programmed SPD chip!

So - did you try manually setting all the sub-timings?

Dual channel mode will definitely not work if those are set improperly from the SPD.

(BTW, I also have Ballistix PC8500)

Let me get the correct sub-timings for you for 800MHz CAS 4-4-4-12 - gimme a couple minutes.


If this doesn't help, I am putting my bets on a faulty motherboard... normally dual channel mode works without making any configuration changes.

Ok, here are some very relaxed settings for 800MHz with that memory:

DRAM Timing Control: Manual
CAS Latency: 4
RAS to CAS Delay: 4
RAS Precharge: 4
RAS Activate to Precharge: 12
TWR: 6
TRFC: 42
TWTR: 10
TRRD: 10
TRTP: 10
DRAM Static Read Control: Disabled
 
Oh - I skimmed that - I didn't realize it worked properly with 0123 BIOS! I'm not sure where you can find another copy of that version... it would be useful to revert back to that version to see if it still works properly there or if your motherboard bit the big one sometime after updating your BIOS....

It's strange - my setup is almost identical and I didn't run into that error with 0123, 0202, 0304, 0311.

P5K Deluxe, 4x1GB Ballistix PC8500, Corsair 620HX...

I'm still thinking that something is odd with your board...
 
Welcome to the " I had to have it as soon as it came out, when will the bios ever be stable" club.

Flash back to the older bios and wait for the next new one.

When the P35's came out last summer both the Gigabyte and Asus people had to wade through several (more than 5) bios releases before the manufacturers got one out that made almost everyones board work. Thats a brand new chipset, new MCH new ICH I would not worry too much about it. I would report it to Asus tech support with all your computer hardware details. hopefully you can cut and paste from this thread.

As mentioned you dont have to go one by one. I too recommend agains that. Set everything to defaults before flashing is something I do, flash, reboot, again reload defaults, reboot, then go in and make my changes, (assuming the damn thing is still alive ). Tons of people will say Nah, you dont really need to do that. People also say that its not necessary to reboot after each individual driver install unless the install tells you too, not me, reboot after every one no matter what. (and never use anything but a floppy or usb flash) over 100 boards by different manuf Asus ASRock MSI Gigabyte in service and never a problem with using the above rules.



Good news is you are very smart in not using the windows bios update, its killed 2 boards we know about.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...7&board_id=1&model=P5K Deluxe&page=2&count=16

You might consider joining that forum and post there too. [H]ard is better ;) but probally some Asus weenies look at the internal boards, I have never seen an Asus support person in here. DontGigashit does not even have a forum :mad:
 
Oh - I skimmed that - I didn't realize it worked properly with 0123 BIOS! I'm not sure where you can find another copy of that version... it would be useful to revert back to that version to see if it still works properly there or if your motherboard bit the big one sometime after updating your BIOS....

It's strange - my setup is almost identical and I didn't run into that error with 0123, 0202, 0304, 0311.

P5K Deluxe, 4x1GB Ballistix PC8500, Corsair 620HX...

I'm still thinking that something is odd with your board...

Indeed, something isn't right with the mobo itself as being a hardware issue or it's just the BIOS. I mean this isn't the case of a noob who's doing his first BIOS flash for his first mobo. So this is certainly very weird after the BIOS flash from the earliest original 0123 bios. I'll call NCIX's RMA tech support guy and talk to him about it since I've being dealing with him for a long time now. I don't have the 0123 BIOS so there's nothing I can do here. 0202 was having the same problem as well being an older bios. Now if this is really a BIOS issue and 0123 is the only one that's stable for my configuration, then I'd say that's BS.


Welcome to the " I had to have it as soon as it came out, when will the bios ever be stable" club.

Flash back to the older bios and wait for the next new one.

When the P35's came out last summer both the Gigabyte and Asus people had to wade through several (more than 5) bios releases before the manufacturers got one out that made almost everyones board work. Thats a brand new chipset, new MCH new ICH I would not worry too much about it. I would report it to Asus tech support with all your computer hardware details. hopefully you can cut and paste from this thread.

As mentioned you dont have to go one by one. I too recommend agains that. Set everything to defaults before flashing is something I do, flash, reboot, again reload defaults, reboot, then go in and make my changes, (assuming the damn thing is still alive ). Tons of people will say Nah, you dont really need to do that. People also say that its not necessary to reboot after each individual driver install unless the install tells you too, not me, reboot after every one no matter what. (and never use anything but a floppy or usb flash) over 100 boards by different manuf Asus ASRock MSI Gigabyte in service and never a problem with using the above rules.



Good news is you are very smart in not using the windows bios update, its killed 2 boards we know about.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...7&board_id=1&model=P5K Deluxe&page=2&count=16

You might consider joining that forum and post there too. [H]ard is better ;) but probally some Asus weenies look at the internal boards, I have never seen an Asus support person in here. DontGigashit does not even have a forum :mad:

As per Calebb suggested, I cannot find the earliest bios 0123 and if I have it, it doesn't make sense to me that I'm forced to stick to the earliest 0123 BIOS and live with it becouse this is a kind of problem that ASUS have to deal with, not me. At least, I'm not willing to put up to this kind of crap becouse "I never had to with 5 other boards I had."


I guess you have seen the post about the black slots being better for some memory, Might try that if you havent already. I know you have differnet memory but its worth a shot.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1200862

Yes, I've seen the post and I've being digging through lots of P5K-Dlx problematic threads and read them. About 50% of the case were regarding failed BIOS flash, no boot, RAID related, etc. However I'm not dealing with those. I remember I've seen a couple of threads that also have the same "no screen" problem and the guy also tried the one stick at a time trial by error test method but I can't remember what the end of the story to that and I can't find those thread again.

I've tried the dual black slots, and they're not helping either. it seems only individual slots worked perfectly ok with one stick but not 2 sticks. So far I think it's more of a mobo issue rather than the mem itself....:confused:
 
STATUS UPDATE

1. I brought the system back to the store to have the tech test the rams on other mobo in dual channel and there was no black screen issue

2. Tried another different pair of ram kit - Corsair Dominiator XM2 8500 on my P5K-Dlx and there was no black screen issue.

It seems that BOTH mobo and rams are working fine individually but there is a compatibility with the pair of Crucial Ballistix 8500 and the P5K-Dlx I've. This is certainly very weird. The mobo has being flashed to the newest official BIOS - 0311 and majority of other people who has the exact same mobo and ram kit does not have the black screen issue so it might not necessarily mean this particular Ballistix 8500 kit is incompatible with P5K-Dlx in general...

I argued with NCIX for an hour and they said they can reduce the restocking fee down to 10% form 15% for me and they can't really do RMA becouse each component is working fine individualy and they suspect it's a comptibility issue when the two put together.

I explained to them that many others who has the exact same kit and mobo does not have the black screen problem but that doesn't seems to help.

Am I really so out of luck or should I just put up with that 10% restocking fee for the rams ad get something else? I'd really love to test the Ballistix 8500 cos I've heard lots of great things about it but it's not giving me a chance.
 
I had a problem similar to this with my P5K-Deluxe. I built the system, powered it on, and no video. If I left the computer on long enough, I would get the beep code for video adapter not properly installed.

I pulled things out and in again, and could eventually get it to boot into BIOS. I wish I could give you a BIOS setting or hardware-related reason, but I didn't find any. What I ended up doing was removing everything but CPU, video card, and one stick of RAM, removing the CMOS battery, and clearing the CMOS. This would almost always give me a proper post. I would then add RAM sticks (I have 4) and reboot. Then I added my sound card, then my hard drives, then my case fans, rebooting between each addition to see if I could figure out what was causing the problem. It took me a while, and I had to start over from 1 stick of RAM a couple times, but I eventually got it working with everything plugged. Now I don't have the problem any more. It's almost as if my hardware needed a burn-in period, odd as that might seem.

I had assumed this was a power supply issue, even though my PSU was working fine on the old system and should be powerful enough for the new hardware. My PSU does have a 8-pin connector, which I switched to half-way through my debugging process. It didn't fix the problem immediatelyMy problems started with the shipping BIOS, and upgrading to the latest had no effect. Once I got the system up and running I was able to overclock my C2D by a gigahertz and run Orthos stable overnight.

I also found a post by a guy having the same issues on the ASUS forums. He replaced his videocard with a cheap, low power PCI Express, and this solved his problem. I tried the same thing when I was still having problems, and it did no good.

Personally, I still have the feeling that my problems were partly PSU related. If you figure out any setting that fixes your problem (or if RMA alone fixes it), please post your results. Also, if you figure out how to cut down on that delay after checking NVRAM, I'd love to hear it. It makes the booting process take twice as long.
 
I have the exact same problem as you with the exact ram. All of the symptoms are the same. I also flashed to the newest bios when I got the board so I dont know if the shipping bios worked. After hours of screwing with it I reset the cmos and booted with 1 stick of ram in and manuall set the timings and voltage. I put the second stick in and it seemed fine. When I did get the board to boot with both sticks I ran memtest overnight for 20 passes without errors. Once that was good I figured I would would get to installing windows. But when I rebooted I was greeted with the black screen again. My board is going to be rma'd once I get the number.
 
This is cerntainly weird.
Is it really a mobo's issue or the rams?!

1. The tech tested with other ram kit - Corsair dominator xm2 8500 and it doesn't have the problem. This suppose to mean that the mobo with the newest bios flash seems OK ?!

2. Later we thought it must be the Crucial Ballistix 8500 that's faulty so we put them on another mobo - Giga P965 DS3 and it booted perfectly fine and with no black screen or any indication of errors.
We did not have to change the voltage settings or anything.

The things is that I even upped all the necessary volt on the p5k-dlx to try to get the ballistix 8500 to work but it always show "overclocking failed crap" and black screen whenever the two is put together but not when they each tested with another mobo and ram kit.

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :mad:
 
Wow... very weird. I think you've got me stumped :confused:

eva2000 is your best bet - you might PM him. (he hangs out on i4memory a lot more than here).
 
I banged my head against it for hours. Weird the overclocking failed error after powering down the psu. And after making any changes in the bios the machine would power off totally for a few seconds and then turn back on. Shorting the pins after it powered back up did nothing either; only way to turn it off was flipping the switch on the psu.
 
Wow... very weird. I think you've got me stumped :confused:

eva2000 is your best bet - you might PM him. (he hangs out on i4memory a lot more than here).

I may try contacting Eva2000 and it's actually him and Stilt with their awsome OC infos with the P5K-Delux that got me into buying almost an identical setup ~ P5K-Dlx + Ballixtix 8500.

I've read Eva2000's troubleshooting suggestions in other people's case, but it seems that the suggestions he mentioned are what we've went over. ie. 1. One stick ram trial by error test. 2. Flash BIOS using EZFLASH or DOS and not Asus Update Utility 3. Set the voltage/timings properly 4. The usual tweaks here and there that we all know.

At this point I'm preety sure it's hardware related...and I might just have to call Crucial about this!! I'll keep you guys posted!!

I banged my head against it for hours. Weird the overclocking failed error after powering down the psu. And after making any changes in the bios the machine would power off totally for a few seconds and then turn back on. Shorting the pins after it powered back up did nothing either; only way to turn it off was flipping the switch on the psu.

"Overclocking Failed crap...." Indeed...and it's not just us. If you turn off the PSU or change BIOS setting, save and exit, you'll most likely to see that crap eventhough we know the settings are perfectly OK.

This might be BIOS related and too bad there's nothing we can do about it....or someone please prove me wrong...;)
 
Status Update #3

The tech took out another brand new P5K-Dlx out of their inventory to test the same pair of ram kit I've (Ballistix 8500) one last time just to make sure whether the problem comes from the memory or motherboard. That brand new P5K-Dlx he tested also came with 0123 BIOS and there weren't any signs of errors at that stage.

The tech went ahead and flashed the BIOS on that mobo to 0311 (directly 0123 ---> 0311) using AFDOS with a flash drive and test the same ram kit again in dual channel and this time there were no black screen or any errors like overclocking failed BS.

Thanks to the extra works he did and now he can finally make RMA for my current PK5-Dlx with no restocking fee becouse the proven working PK5-Dlx with 0311 BIOS and same pair of Ballistix 8500 had no incompatible issue.

He offered to me swap for the same mobo that has being flashed to newest 0311 bios and tested to work with my RAMS or exchange it for any other boards :cool:

I'd love to try the Giga P35 DQ6 after all these...but I'm sure yet:D
 
Final Status Update - (Great News)

Ok guys,

the good news is that NO MORE black screen or errors when reboot from BIOS with the same P5K-Dlx and Crucial Ballistix 8500 2GB ram kit !!


The Details:

Just before I completely give up on this motherboard and rams, I decided to have one last try in getting the TWO to work together properly before I RMA the motherboard in without no restocking fee.

Here's what I've done (Asus P5K-Dlx and PC2-8500 2GB/4GB ram kit owners, this is FYI !!):


1. I went to Asus support to download the newest BIOS 0311 once again, BIOS ROM date: 05/28/07, unzipped the BIOS ROM file to the USB Flash drive.

2. Shut the system down. Switched OFF the PSU. Unplugged the power cable from the back of the PSU.

3. Took out ONE stick of ram and leave only ONE on Dimm1.

4. Turned the system back on. Go into BIOS and entered "Load to Default"

5. Entered BIOS again, *** CHANGE THE CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE RAMS AND THE CPU "MANUALLY" ***

6. Set AI Overclocking to Manual, CPU Ratio to Manual and default multiplier, FSB Freq to default ~ 266, PCI-E Freq ~ 100, DRAM Command Rate to 2T.

7. PC2-8500 Rams configurations manually set to: DDRII 1066, Primary timings ~ 5-5-5-15, DRAM voltage ~ 2.2v, FSB Termination V ~ 1.3v, NB voltage ~ 1.4v.

After I manually configured EVERYTHING above, entered save and exit BIOS.

8. Shut the system down, Switched OFF the PSU, Unplugged the power cable from the back of the PSU, wait for about 30 secs and do a COLD BOOT just to make sure the settings I configured are perfectly normal.

9. Now it's OFFICIALLY ready to use "EZ FLASH" under BIOS to make a BIOS update/reflash. Followed the flash procedure as usual and after it's done, the system auto restarted.

10. Entered BIOS, entered "load to default", entered save and exit BIOS.

11. Shut the system down, switched off the PSU, unplugged the power cable from the back of the PSU. ***CLEAR CMOS Procedure DONE (recommand 5mins or longer)***

12. Entered BIOS and configured the same settings again as stated above (Step 6~7). Repeat STEP 8.

At this point, I thought "why not make another BIOS flash with the same bios file - 0311 but in **DUAL CHANNEL** mode."

I followed exactly the same procedure from STEP 1 ~ 12 as stated above to flash the same BIOS file 0311 again in DUAL CHANNEL this time.

The result was a total success like flashing the BIOS in SINGLE CHANNEL.


CONCLUSION:

I never had to manually configure anything before I make any BIOS flashes in the past. However, today I learned my lesson that no matter which type of RAM I've, I should always manually configure the settings under BIOS becouse there may be a chance of error that the motherboard isn't configuring the settings properly **BY DEFAULT**

Before we all know that we should never flash a BIOS under overclocked condition and always revert the settings "back to default"

Now we have extent our knowledge that "load the default" DOES NOT necessarily guaranty a 100% successfuly BIOS flash."

"Load to default" isn't completely safe or stable for all system configurations. Sometimes, WE are smarter and know what's right for a successful BIOS flash.

My 12 cents.:cool:


 
Wow that is weird. I did what you did and now it seems to be working!!! I haven't installed windows yet but I have rebooted into the bios several times and no black screen. Hopefully when I get my new drive today Ill get windows installed and I will send the second board back.
 
Just got the exact same errors as you have detailed: Black screens with no video output but all fans and everything running, overclocking failed messages. Works perfect with 1 stick of ram (tried both sticks in single channel and works fine) and also run memtest and both sticks are error-free. But then as soon as I put in dual channel, i get "Overclocking Failed" messaages and black screens. I am going to try the above solution then post back. If it works, I will be over the moon! This problem has had me stumped for 2 whole days!

(Fingers Crossed) :)

EDIT: Followed the steps exactly as you listed. Did everything real carefully and took me 1hr. First boot after finishing all the steps in dual channel mode, got the black screen again. Turned off the pc, unplugged psu for a bit to let power completely drain out and then put it back in. Not had the black screen again so far but ive only been testing it for a couple of minutes. Its a bit late now (1am) so I am going to get some sleep and test again tomorrow morning to see if it is all fine.

Currently in my BIOS the 'Ai Tuning' settings are set to manual (DDR2 timings, voltages, etc that you have specified in the steps). Can I set all of these back to 'Auto' again? Or will I start to get the black screens at boot again?

Thanks so much if this solution has fully worked :) Will update tomorrow...

Edit2: Nope, still getting black screen on on boot and 'overclocking failed' messages every now and then. Hmmm
 
Just got the exact same errors as you have detailed: Black screens with no video output but all fans and everything running, overclocking failed messages. Works perfect with 1 stick of ram (tried both sticks in single channel and works fine) and also run memtest and both sticks are error-free. But then as soon as I put in dual channel, i get "Overclocking Failed" messaages and black screens. I am going to try the above solution then post back. If it works, I will be over the moon! This problem has had me stumped for 2 whole days!

(Fingers Crossed) :)

EDIT: Followed the steps exactly as you listed. Did everything real carefully and took me 1hr. First boot after finishing all the steps in dual channel mode, got the black screen again. Turned off the pc, unplugged psu for a bit to let power completely drain out and then put it back in. Not had the black screen again so far but ive only been testing it for a couple of minutes. Its a bit late now (1am) so I am going to get some sleep and test again tomorrow morning to see if it is all fine.

Currently in my BIOS the 'Ai Tuning' settings are set to manual (DDR2 timings, voltages, etc that you have specified in the steps). Can I set all of these back to 'Auto' again? Or will I start to get the black screens at boot again?

Thanks so much if this solution has fully worked :) Will update tomorrow...

Edit2: Nope, still getting black screen on on boot and 'overclocking failed' messages every now and then. Hmmm


Depends on what kind of rams you've, I'd suggest you NOT to flash your BIOS with settings in AUTO. Manually configure the voltage setting for your CPU Vcore, Mem Vdimm, NB, FSB, PCI-E to 100, relaxed timings like 5-5-5-15 and auto subtimings.

Flash your BIOS again with only ONE stick. follow by the regular clear cmos procedure. Put your second stick back and you should not see the black screen. Reboot again and see if you see black screen. If not, flash your bios again with 2 sticks in dimm1/3 this time just to make sure you mobo is fine and do the regular clear cmos procedure again.

It seems that P5K-Dlx is kind of picky with certain type of rams. I actually returned my previous P5K-Dlx and the rams for another P5K-Dlx and Ballistix tracers this time and I do not need to go through so much trouble to flash the BIOS and no black screens.
 
Ive got the crucial 6400C4 ram's and so I have been manually setting it to DDR2-800 and 4-4-4-12 when trying to flash the bios. However, as soon as i put in the seconds stick i get the blank video on boot again straight away.

I will try again now using more relaxed timings of 5-5-5-15 and see if that helps...
 
First of all, assume that your Rams are 100% error free at its rated stock timings/clock speed and given Vdimm. I'd suggest 2.2v for PC6400 rams as well while doing a bios flash just to be safe.

You can try manually adjust the sub-timings this time to a relaxed settings of 10-42-10-10-10. NB at 1.4v and FSB at 1.3v. PCI-E freq at 103, FSB 266.

Make sure you clear CMOS everytime before you start flashing even if you got a brand new mobo.

After you've cleared the CMOS, make sure you load load to default again and reboot with one stick. You should not see the black screen.

Do a cold boot again and manully configure the settings as above suggested, save and exit. Turn off the system, PSU switch and unplug the cable. wait until the green led on the mobo is fully dimmed now put back your sencond stick on dimm 3 (yellow/yellow) and start back up again and see you shouldn't see black screen.

Do not "load to default" this time. Leave it as is.
 
Hi Tiramisu,

I have the exact problem you did except with Crucial Ballistix DDR2 6400 2x1GB memory (w/ P5K Dlx, E6600, Corsair 620W).

I followed your guide very carefully step by step and flashed the BIOS fine with one stick from 0202 to 0311 (although there was a 'checksum bad' error on the first boot it didn't seem to come again or cause problems), the problem still remains that when the second stick is added, even with the relaxed manually set timings in the BIOS, still the black screen with no POST problem.

Once i managed to get two sticks booting with the manual settings but as soon as I changed the settings (trying to tighten up the timings) the error came back on the next reboot, I had to take one stick out/restore to auto settings.

Are you now at a point with your system where you never get the black screen even if you change BIOS settings with both sticks inserted?

Any other ideas of what to do?

Thanks in advance!
 
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