ASUS Z97 Motherboards - Official Support Thread

[Raja@ASUS]

Raja, if you remember my issue with the triple cold boot after waking up from sleep? I'm still chasing that issue. I've taken off my OC and run with stock settings from optimized defaults.

I think I might have a lead, but so far every time I find a fix it stops working again next day.

New thing that has caused symptom to go away. This is on the z97 Hero:
It was MCH Full Check under memory settings. It was on Auto. I switched to Enabled. Symptom disappeared for now. Will report back. I just can't imagine it's my PSU, it's nearly new and everything is rock solid stable except for this wake from sleep issue. It doesn't even seem to be deep sleep.

Also: It's pretty obvious when you have the M6H and M7H side by side that the RAM slots 'ave their colors switched. I remember from the z87 Hero manual it stated the Ram slot closer to the CPU should be populated first, and for dual channel with just 2DIMMs the other red slot on that board was proper. True to form, the M7H manual states that the red slots should be populated for 2 DIMM config, thus placing the memory conveniently a bit farther away from the CPU socket. My question: Wouldn't it have made more sense to leave the slot colors as they were and simply switch the preference so that the red slots would stand out? I guess it goes with the PCIE theme of having the red slots be for graphics cards but I have to say that it's a bit unfortunate a lot of the bling on this board ends up buried by the things we have to cram onto it. The Chipset lighting is really nice looking, but with dual GPUs it's all but invisible. The lighting should have been the Maximus VI Hero logo. Please toss my suggestion into the ring for next Hero. Personally I would even make the LED lettering white just as it is on the board right now--and have it configurable to different brightness settings and breathing option for the Halloween kids; the red lighting is often buried even further by folks' case lighting which is often red anyways. The lighting accents on the board are selling these better than the number of phases ever could, imo.

Did not answer as you did say I could ignore somewhere in your posts, so I did...hehe


1) MCH Full check will retrain DIMMs a number of times instead of not mapping them to the OS if they are not fully stable during POST. The POST routines send over 1000 write/read ops to the DIMMs. If the DRAM is not 100% stable during that process the board will restart training repeatedly until they are, with the MCH reccheck option enabled. If MCH recheck is disabled and a DIMM is unstable it will be dropped or POST will halt.


2) The DRAM layout was changed for this gen. Slots 2&4 are more favorable for 2 DIMM configs that 1&3 hence the slot color change. That's how HQ likes doing it and I don't mind that at all.

-Raja

 

[Bluesun311]

Did not answer as you did say I could ignore somewhere in your posts, so I did...hehe
1) MCH Full check will retrain DIMMs a number of times instead of not mapping them to the OS if they are not fully stable during POST. The POST routines send over 1000 write/read ops to the DIMMs. If the DRAM is not 100% stable during that process the board will restart training repeatedly until they are, with the MCH reccheck option enabled. If MCH recheck is disabled and a DIMM is unstable it will be dropped or POST will halt.

I was pretty sure it was OOS but now I'm almost positive this setting is what is causing my issue with wake from sleep.

Your response is totally coherent I'm just having trouble understanding what the conclusion should be. It sounds like your saying my RAM isn't really stable even at 1333MHz. I did test the system at bone stock settings and it still did this triple cold boot to desktop with no error and all applications retained thing when resuming from sleep--so, this is the standard behavior, unless I'm very much mistaken (which is about 50/50 it seems)?

Other than this issue, and the exact same behavior booting from mains after complete AC disco, the boot process is totally stable. Yes, should I conclude my RAM is unstable on some basic low level and it's not really essential to change them out but obviously I need to use MCH Full Check Enabled? Shouldn't MCH Full Check be the optimized default?

I notice now with MCH full check enabled I no longer get 2 cold boots followed by a post after I disco power completely from the wall (all board lights off). That seems like that should be enabled by Auto. And this is an issue several of us have been trying to get you to troubleshoot for like 7 months.

How can I be the only person this has happened to with the sleep wake thing? It's bizarre. I swear I am the luckiest person alive.

Edit: I'm not sure I'm on board with the explanation that the ram is unstable necessarily. After all I can actually lower the timings at 2400 and then run blend prime95 27.9 OR 28.1 OR 28.5 without a hitch for as long as I care to (couple hours). And then it just seems like if this can happen with MCH full check at it's default setting (auto) with the ram at jedec timings and 1333mhz, shouldn't MCH full check auto mean enabled? As it is right now on both z87 and 97 it's auto disabled. And a lot of people have double cold boots followed by posts after main power is cut so this is clearly why. I've never seen an explanation for it before of any kind just that it was normal.

Anyway something happened on the software side that made this issue worse. From inside windows it was not having problems resuming from sleep until last Tuesdays update. That's how long I've been troubleshooting this. Up to that point it had no other ill effects other than the double boot then boot to post after pulling out the plug from the psu.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

1) MCH recheck forces retraining - with in enabled it may reBOOT the system repeatedly which is why it is not enabled by default. It will stay as is for now.

2) Changes to CPU power options can also require the board re-POSTing when powered on.

3) ErP can also affect if the board needs to power cycle.

4) People make more of power cycling than they should. There are controllers that need power pulled low if certain OCs are applied or need a reset for the system to be stable. without these things in place, user experience would suffer on some OCs meaning they would have to re-enter settings gradually to get back to an OC. A lot of this stuff happens because it has to, not because an engineer decides to do it to for giggles.

5) Not sure on Windows updates, can't help there.

6) POST memory checks can be trickier to pass than the almighty stability test called Prime (air of sarcasm in that one). Passing Prime just means you are stable in passing Prime's data patterns for the most part. It does not mean the system is unconditionally stable.

-Raja

 

[Bluesun311]

1) MCH recheck forces retraining - with in enabled it may reBOOT the system repeatedly which is why it is not enabled by default. It will stay as is for now.

I'm not entirely sure we're on the same page about this single point. Everything else--crystal.

Im GETTING repeated boots with MCH full check on AUTO. (and have been for a long time on z87 as well................)
Im NOT getting repeated boots with MCH full check on ENABLED.

Thank you btw, I may come off grumpy but I'm actually trying to help us both here. At this point, my problem is solved, the board is getting 1s from verified owners on Newegg because they cant get it to post off consecutive "DOA" boards. I'm telling them it's a memory thing probably. Not like you're never grumpy

I need to go back and do some testing to make sure my t's are crossed and all that anyway, but I can pretty much close the book on my triple boot problem... it did occur to me that it was awfully similar to what I and others here have experienced with the M6H just booting it up off no power. It doesn't just retrain, Raj, it does this ultra fast failed boot back to back and then it boots and posts on the third try. They are super fast power cycles.

With MCH full check Enabled this behavior has ceased. I can disconnect the power to the board so that it needs to retrain and then it will do it the way it's intended. It Boots--takes a few seconds to train, power cycles SLOWLY, and then it posts and youre off to the UEFI or OS. The triple boot I've described and in particular I can remember another member here named err0ridiot having the same experience, is a much scarier much stranger phenomenon, and you've always tried to maintain that it is normal... but I think there really may be some mistake here Raja. I must point out that in the last couple pages I've also schooled you on how to run Manual voltage mode without sacrificing c-state voltage reduction. It is clearly not an "exploit". It is a series of clever c-state settings that will work if your power supply is compatible. Intel clearly meant for manual mode to drop voltage if the c-states were set correctly. You nor j.j seem to know stuff like this but it seems your policy as a PR agent + troubleshooter to CYA first and thus you are apt to explain away anything other than obvious mistakes in your companies products. I also caught your incorrectly labeled instructions for the M7H BIOS that says to enable SVID control when overclocking... I mean. You should be saying thanks to me, to be perfectly honest. Or at the very least be polite when I "bug" you about legitimate issues to look at.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

I'm not entirely sure we're on the same page about this single point. Everything else--crystal.

Im GETTING repeated boots with MCH full check on AUTO. (and have been for a long time on z87 as well................)
Im NOT getting repeated boots with MCH full check on ENABLED.

Thank you btw, I may come off grumpy but I'm actually trying to help us both here. At this point, my problem is solved, the board is getting 1s from verified owners on Newegg because they cant get it to post off consecutive "DOA" boards. I'm telling them it's a memory thing probably. Not like you're never grumpy

I need to go back and do some testing to make sure my t's are crossed and all that anyway, but I can pretty much close the book on my triple boot problem... it did occur to me that it was awfully similar to what I and others here have experienced with the M6H just booting it up off no power. It doesn't just retrain, Raj, it does this ultra fast failed boot back to back and then it boots and posts on the third try. They are super fast power cycles.

Super fast power cycles that don't go past code b2 are not retraining, they are the board resetting some of the clockgen or NVRAM stuff or if any of the CPU power options have been changed. Depends what is enabled in UEFI and what needs it. I have no problem with the boards doing this at all as it is needed.


Jrampf pointed out the SVID option being reveresed to me a few weeks ago. You were not the first. But thanks anyway.

Anyone can find things by trial and error, it's understanding them that is an issue for most.

 

[Bluesun311]

Super fast power cycles that don't go past code b2 are not retraining, they are the board resetting some of the clockgen or NVRAM stuff or if any of the CPU power options have been changed. Depends what is enabled in UEFI and what needs it. I have no problem with the boards doing this at all as it is needed..

Wait so actually MCH full check must have more than 1 function? Because these are not going passed b2. So it has nothing to do with ram at all because if it did my system would just be in a boot cycle if my ram werent 100% stable right? Because I have MCH full check enabled and everything is golden now. I'm going to stop worrying about it, but I'm somewhat irritated at... well I think I've decided to be irritated at my motherboard, which I've decided to keep. I love the fan stuff you guys came up with for this series and there is more than that... I'm interested in the m.2 port and etc. etc. It's a good board. But I'm kinda surprised you aren't a little bit more welcoming with genuine new knowledge that no one else brought to your attention that you failed to mention or thank me for, or apologize for the inconvenience for. I guess when you get to guys who can actually make changes they don't have time for niceties anymore.

Edit#812: It is curious that there isn't any buzz about wakeup cold boot loops. Perhaps it is specific to some of my components, which are common enough, but all RAM chips are different. Perhaps I'll experiment with some different RAM.

Edit#813: You're fine with the boards' default settings causing wakeup from sleep to triple boot before it goes back to the desktop? I'm going to keep testing this stupid problem. If it comes back tomorrow I'll know I'm cursed. Got the bad JuJu.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

MCH Recheck only disables or enables the MCH re-training routine for DRAM. It is not tied to anything else.

 

[Bluesun311]

OK man, I appreciate your patience with me, sincerely.

One more easy question:
I am correct that the m.2 port can be used as the system drive yes?

If so I will give the z97Hero my full on seal of approval. I think it's gotta be very difficult to code everything for the bios so that no ones weird hardware will start a fire the moment power is introduced.

And the main reason I think the consecutive reboots bug me (to a point--i mean, i did buy 3 heros) is because a lot of people have speakers tied to the boards that pop every single time it boots. I have JUST now for the first time in my life got a set of proper speakers for my rig that has a power mute relay that just quietly ticks every time the board tells it to turn on/off (Blue Sky eXo2 2.1 system, no relation), but even this jangles my nerves because I JUST got them and it seems unnatural and unhealthy for the speakers (more for the amp/preamp circuitry) and obviously having it happen 3 times in quick succession every time the computer comes out of sleep is just not gonna fly. Not in my style of OCD mancave.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

OK man, I appreciate your patience with me, sincerely.

One more easy question:
I am correct that the m.2 port can be used as the system drive yes?

If so I will give the z97Hero my full on seal of approval. I think it's gotta be very difficult to code everything for the bios so that no ones weird hardware will start a fire the moment power is introduced.

And the main reason I think the consecutive reboots bug me (to a point--i mean, i did buy 3 heros) is because a lot of people have speakers tied to the boards that pop every single time it boots. I have JUST now for the first time in my life got a set of proper speakers for my rig that has a power mute relay that just quietly ticks every time the board tells it to turn on/off (Blue Sky eXo2 2.1 system, no relation), but even this jangles my nerves because it seems unnatural and unhealthy for the speakers (more for the amp/preamp circuitry) and obviously having it happen 3 times in quick succession every time the computer comes out of sleep is just not gonna fly. Not in my style of OCD mancave.

1) Yes it can support M.2 for BOOT. I am running a plextor M6e on the Deluxe as BOOT drive with GPT.

2) That won't start a fire. It would take sustained DC of more than a few hundred mv to burn out a speaker coil.

-Raja

 

[Bixpchiphead]

One more question on the Z97 Deluxe.....
It indicates that using an SSD in the M2 socket that it should be in RAID vs AHCI...

If so should all the other drives also be in RAID?

I ask because I was planning on using AHCI for my drives....

 

[jkramp]

One more question on the Z97 Deluxe.....
It indicates that using an SSD in the M2 socket that it should be in RAID vs AHCI...

If so should all the other drives also be in RAID?

I ask because I was planning on using AHCI for my drives....

Hello

RAID mode is only needed if using Intel Smart Response. Setting the controller to RAID mode is the same as AHCI for non-member RAID drives.

 

[Bluesun311]

Edit#813: You're fine with the boards' default settings causing wakeup from sleep to triple boot before it goes back to the desktop? I'm going to keep testing this stupid problem. If it comes back tomorrow I'll know I'm cursed. Got the bad JuJu.

Yeah... it came back eventually.

MCH full check is off the hook. That's like the 6th time I've had a "fix" for this that worked for about a day, then the issue comes back. So I guess I'm getting used to it.

Do you think it's my power supply?

 

[tranle]

A few question on the Z97-deluxe :
1- can you boot from the M.2 drive ?

2- I have PWM fan for cha3 and cha4 fan, and each time 'fan tuning' will fail to do calibration and lock them up a max speed. The only work around I found was to delete the calibration profile, switch to 'DC mode', do the fan tuning and then switch them back to 'PWM'. Does anybody else have seen that problem ? As it could be either my fans or the software.

3- I have noticed that there are still a bunch LED still on when you shutdown, is there a option to really go to minimal power on shutdown ?

Thanks.

 

[jkramp]

A few question on the Z97-deluxe :
1- can you boot from the M.2 drive ?

2- I have PWM fan for cha3 and cha4 fan, and each time 'fan tuning' will fail to do calibration and lock them up a max speed. The only work around I found was to delete the calibration profile, switch to 'DC mode', do the fan tuning and then switch them back to 'PWM'. Does anybody else have seen that problem ? As it could be either my fans or the software.

3- I have noticed that there are still a bunch LED still on when you shutdown, is there a option to really go to minimal power on shutdown ?

Thanks.

Hello

1. Yes you can.

2.Can you try different fans. I have not seen this issue with Enermax Cluster Advance fans.

3. Set ErP Ready in the UEFI to Enabled (S4+S5) or Enabled (S5) depending on the shutdown mode where you want power removed. This requires an ErP compatible power supply and will prevent any device charging when shut down.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

2- I have PWM fan for cha3 and cha4 fan, and each time 'fan tuning' will fail to do calibration and lock them up a max speed. The only work around I found was to delete the calibration profile, switch to 'DC mode', do the fan tuning and then switch them back to 'PWM'. Does anybody else have seen that problem ? As it could be either my fans or the software.



Thanks.

Which UEFI version is being used and if Fan Xpert 3 is being used, are you running the latest version from the ASUS Support page for the Deluxe?

 

[tranle]

Which UEFI version is being used and if Fan Xpert 3 is being used, are you running the latest version from the ASUS Support page for the Deluxe?

I am currently using the Bios 901 from the ASUS site and the Fan Xpert was inside:
AISuite3_Win7-8-8-1_Z97-A_SERIES_VER10079

My PWM fan that has problem is the Noctua NF-P12-1300. Xpert 3 seems to be able to control it in PWM mode to get the curve but then it get stuck at 100%. The Bios does not have any problem with it.

Also as recommended from jkramp, I have also tried to set ErP Ready in the UEFI to Enabled (S4+S5) or Enabled (S5). But the then on power up it seem to reboot 3 times.

 

[Bluesun311]

Also as recommended from jkramp, I have also tried to set ErP Ready in the UEFI to Enabled (S4+S5) or Enabled (S5). But the then on power up it seem to reboot 3 times.

ErP will cut power to the motherboard completely after power down and is thus kind of pointless.

Even if you turn MCH full check to enabled it will boot twice if you cut power to the board. It needs one boot cycle to train timings and voltages. So there's no good way around that with ErP.

I can only report that I have a good mixture of PWM and DC fans in my rig, all of them are Noctuas aside from a clear Silverstone DC fan for the side window. Asus fan tuning works perfectly for all of them. I have several pairs of fans on splitters--if you do this they need to be the same type or it will confuse things.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

I am currently using the Bios 901 from the ASUS site and the Fan Xpert was inside:
AISuite3_Win7-8-8-1_Z97-A_SERIES_VER10079

My PWM fan that has problem is the Noctua NF-P12-1300. Xpert 3 seems to be able to control it in PWM mode to get the curve but then it get stuck at 100%. The Bios does not have any problem with it.

.

That is strange as nobody else has this issue thus far. Are those the only fan you have plugged in to those headers? This was a fresh operating system install? Are you changing anything else in the Fan Xpert 3 profiles in between?

Need as much info as possible about setup and UEFI changes to try and replicate this.

 

[Bluesun311]

Raja, maybe it's just me, but I've been doing a LOT of listening to music recently and it seems like Sonic Radar II is messing with something that shouldn't be. I can't put my finger on it but there is noise in the treble somewhere. Then again it's an onboard DAC and it sounds pretty fantastic right now played through a decent system. But I took Sonic Radar II off and I disabled the auto EQ from the Realtek software. What do you think? This coming week I have an Essence STX coming in to test; curious how much a difference it will make... The hardware level soundstage stuff on the M7H is cool. I'm reading up on it..

Yeah... it came back eventually.

MCH full check is off the hook. That's like the 6th time I've had a "fix" for this that worked for about a day, then the issue comes back. So I guess I'm getting used to it.

Do you think it's my power supply?

So I reinstalled 8.1 again this time promising to myself not to install the APC software for my back-UPS PRO UPS.

Things seem hunky-dorey.

 

[tranle]

That is strange as nobody else has this issue thus far. Are those the only fan you have plugged in to those headers? This was a fresh operating system install? Are you changing anything else in the Fan Xpert 3 profiles in between?

Need as much info as possible about setup and UEFI changes to try and replicate this.

I have in total 6 fans plugged in:
- 2x CPU fan: Cooljag Everflow PWM Fan - R121225BU AF those are on the CPU and CPU OPT header and are high speed PWM fan and are calibrating and working fine as PWM.
- 2x DC fan: standard Antec case fan (3-pin) and are working fine in DC mode on CHA1 and CHA2
- 2x PWM fan: Noctua NF-P12-1300 low speed PWM fan on CHA3 and CHA4. But those can only be calibrated in DC mode but run fine in PWM mode.

I have tried both the '5-way optimization' and just 'fan tuning' and that is when CHA3 and CHA4 are disabled (max speed) after running them. They are disabled only after I boot the OS (Win8.1) but the BIOS has no problem with them.

As other people seem to have no problem with PWM fan in general, I will have to do some testing to see if it is an incompatibility with my type of fan or the fan header or the current bios version.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

I have in total 6 fans plugged in:
- 2x CPU fan: Cooljag Everflow PWM Fan - R121225BU AF those are on the CPU and CPU OPT header and are high speed PWM fan and are calibrating and working fine as PWM.
- 2x DC fan: standard Antec case fan (3-pin) and are working fine in DC mode on CHA1 and CHA2
- 2x PWM fan: Noctua NF-P12-1300 low speed PWM fan on CHA3 and CHA4. But those can only be calibrated in DC mode but run fine in PWM mode.

I have tried both the '5-way optimization' and just 'fan tuning' and that is when CHA3 and CHA4 are disabled (max speed) after running them. They are disabled only after I boot the OS (Win8.1) but the BIOS has no problem with them.

As other people seem to have no problem with PWM fan in general, I will have to do some testing to see if it is an incompatibility with my type of fan or the fan header or the current bios version.

Thx. Will see if we can get a replication. Have you tried specifying different locations or sensor input to those headers in fan expert 3?

 

[jkramp]

- 2x PWM fan: Noctua NF-P12-1300 low speed PWM fan on CHA3 and CHA4. But those can only be calibrated in DC mode but run fine in PWM mode.

I have tried both the '5-way optimization' and just 'fan tuning' and that is when CHA3 and CHA4 are disabled (max speed) after running them. They are disabled only after I boot the OS (Win8.1) but the BIOS has no problem with them.

As other people seem to have no problem with PWM fan in general, I will have to do some testing to see if it is an incompatibility with my type of fan or the fan header or the current bios version.

Hello

I did some looking through my parts boxes and I have some Noctua NF-P12 fans. Mine are 3 pin not 4 pin. Are you sure your fans are PWM?

 

[Raja@ASUS]

I think those fans are DC only unless Noctua made a change. The ones I have here are all DC only, but I've had them for a few years now.

 

[tranle]

Hello

I did some looking through my parts boxes and I have some Noctua NF-P12 fans. Mine are 3 pin not 4 pin. Are you sure your fans are PWM?

Sorry, I mixed the fan type that I had.
The one that is not working for me is:
ARCTIC F12 PWM

And I did some further testing and here is what I have found:
- it not a bios problem I have tried both 801 and 901 and I get the same behaviour.
- As I had a mixture of high speed PWM and low speed PWM, I moved them around and the problem always struck where the Artic F12 was plugged in.

I have 2 of those fan and both had problem. Something in their implementation of PWM does not agree with the Fan Xpert calibration run.

But for now I have a work around, I just run the calibration in DC mode then switch them to PWM. I got these fan because previous motherboard did not have that many fan header and those you could daisy chain them.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/arctic-f12-693.html

Is that the fan? Weird, it's only listed as 3 pin (unless they don't state model suffix for some reason). Can you confirm? If it is 3-pin, it won't work in PWM mode with the board as the PWM pin won't be connected to it.

 

[tranle]

http://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/arctic-f12-693.html

Is that the fan? Weird, it's only listed as 3 pin (unless they don't state model suffix for some reason). Can you confirm? If it is 3-pin, it won't work in PWM mode with the board as the PWM pin won't be connected to it.

This is the fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033

I do not know how may version Arctic really makes but mine has the 4 pin connector like the last picture on newegg site.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

This is the fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186033

I do not know how may version Arctic really makes but mine has the 4 pin connector like the last picture on newegg site.

Try them on a different header and or try assigning different locations to them (in Fan Xpert) and see what happens. The only way I can get HQ to replicate is if the fans are available for purchase in Taiwan.

 

[Shockwave818]

Does either the ASmedia or Intel SATA controllers on the Maximus Gene VII support SATA port multiplier?

 

[Bluesun311]

Out of scope stuff I shouldn't have posted.

 

[bmg]

I notice from various reviews, including the [H], that the Asus Z97 Deluxe seems to have a higher dpc latency that most other Z97 boards. I'm not saying it's unacceptably high, just that it's worse. Any chance of a bios tweak to lower the latency, or just live with it (since it's in the higher but tolerable range)?

 

[tranle]

Question for people using the Intel Raid on this motherboard.
I currently already have Win8.1 installed in AHCI mode, is there a way to switch it RAID mode without having to re-install everything ?

Thanks

 

[Sikpupi]

Question for people using the Intel Raid on this motherboard.
I currently already have Win8.1 installed in AHCI mode, is there a way to switch it RAID mode without having to re-install everything ?

Thanks

You would be able to copy your existing installation to an image file, then create the raid array and then copy it back.
Creating the array will wipe your disks though, so there will be some manual labour involved.

In windows 8.1 (backup / System Image Backup) create an image onto an external disk, then once the array is created go to reinstall 8.1. Instead of reinstalling, search the advanced recovery options, then point it to the image you created earlier.

Big job though, good luck.

BTW I have done this a few times, so it's possible.

 

[tranle]

You would be able to copy your existing installation to an image file, then create the raid array and then copy it back.
Creating the array will wipe your disks though, so there will be some manual labour involved.

In windows 8.1 (backup / System Image Backup) create an image onto an external disk, then once the array is created go to reinstall 8.1. Instead of reinstalling, search the advanced recovery options, then point it to the image you created earlier.

Big job though, good luck.

BTW I have done this a few times, so it's possible.

The problem I have is not with content on the disk, but the raid driver,
Once I switch the driver to raid, leaving all the disk configured as non-raid volume.
It crashes on boot because windows cannot find the raid driver.

With the older type p7xx of motherboard, I could go into the device manager force the install of the raid driver by choosing the driver location. And then I could either boot with raid or ahci as windows would have both drivers installed.

I don't want to switch my boot drive to raid. I just want to use raid for the other data drives that I have.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

I notice from various reviews, including the [H], that the Asus Z97 Deluxe seems to have a higher dpc latency that most other Z97 boards. I'm not saying it's unacceptably high, just that it's worse. Any chance of a bios tweak to lower the latency, or just live with it (since it's in the higher but tolerable range)?

if dpc latency matters that much disable all c state and speedstep stuff and dont install ai suite. or live with it.

 

[Bluesun311]

Hi Raja,

I have been curious about an issue concerning the USB ports of both the M6H and M7H for a long time now... it seems when I put my computer on a UPS battery backup the USB ports all have a steady stream of power and can still "do stuff". e.g. my LED backlit keyboard and mouse both light up if you touch them while the computer is powered off or sleeping. The computer stays powered off or sleeping... but the LEDs will continue to glow until the system is cycled again.

That's just a little weird, but with devices like USB DACs and input wheels for simulators and stuff like that--they have motors in them and it's concerning, and the USB DAC issue makes speaker systems act funny unless you power them off as well.

and now there's a thread I see with same issue on an ASUS AMD board. Seems like the issue may be related to the AiCharger feature. Here is the thread the guy with the AMD board started. The person is asking how to turn "hot" USB ports off during sleep/power down without removing power to the board.

My last entry on the thread:

I don't know how to completely disable the AiCharger "feature".

My board doesn't seem to have or I can't find the jumper for 5VSB enable/disable.

On my board, enabling the "ErP ready" function sort of solves the problem... it turns the PSU switch off for you, basically. Except that my board double boots next time if you cut the power to the mains like ErP does, which I find unacceptable for whatever reason.

Asside from that, I cannot make it so that my usb ports aren't strangely powered while connected to a UPS battery backup.

Also, the manual for my board states that if you are going to use AiCharger (and presumably USBCharger+?) that you should enable ErP ready. Well, I tried it to see if it would still charge my iPhone while it is correctly enabled in AiSuite with ErP ready ON and the phone gets nothing from the usb ports. (Yes the phone is connected to the USB BIOS port. The kb and mouse also don't light up, which is good... but then the computer double boots when I power it on again. I've never seen AiCharger or USBCharger+ be able to charge anything with my computer powered off on my new board, but it did work on the M6H.

Edit: I reconfigured USBCharger+ after uninstalling AiCharger and the fast charge while powered off and sleep function works fine but I am not going to bother testing to see if it will still work with ErP on. If I'm not mistaken ErP ready is not compatible with wake on LAN. The only issue I know of for my situation left is that while connected to UPS battery backup my USB ports are seemingly interactive while the computer is powered down. Kinda spooky.

 

[Raja@ASUS]

If ErP is enabled on a PSU like the Corsair AX series, it will cut 5VSB (as an example, other PSUs behave differently and may "leak" some 5VSB current as up to 1W of power is permitted at AC under ErP). There is no other way to disable standby USB power to the USB ports. If USB standby charging is configured then ErP will be disabled for obvious reasons - since 5VSB is needed to supply charge.

As for the rest of your issues - I have found it is best to leave you to debug yourself before responding (most of these things are what one would call writing/thinking out aloud - an abundance of untethered mental energy on your side of the screen perhaps?hehe

Leaving you to debug these more frivolous things, saves us both time and needless back and forth (have lots of people to help and limited time, so have to prioritize based upon actuality of an issue rather than lots of suppositions).

 

[Bluesun311]

I think that's fair. was more just curious if helping the other guy was useful to either of us like if you already knew something about this already. I'll try to be concise if I bug you further on anything but the m7h seems damn solid to me.

 

[jkramp]

Also, the manual for my board states that if you are going to use AiCharger (and presumably USBCharger+?) that you should enable ErP ready

Hello

This is from the manual for the M7H? The manual I have here states the opposite as quoted below. Page 4-18.

Before using USB Charger+, ensure to disable the ErP Ready item in the BIOS. To do this, go to Advanced > APM > ErP Ready in the Advanced mode then set this item to [Disabled].

If I'm not mistaken ErP ready is not compatible with wake on LAN.

ErP enabled will prevent WOL in the S4/S5 states. Technically this is not an issue as Win8 does not support WOL for either of these states either. Compliant drivers should place their devices in the D3 state for either S4 or S5. WOL should properly function for S3 regardless of the configuration of ErP.

 

[Bluesun311]

This is from the manual for the M7H? The manual I have here states the opposite as quoted below. Page 4-18.

ErP enabled will prevent WOL in the S4/S5 states. Technically this is not an issue as Win8 does not support WOL for either of these states either. Compliant drivers should place their devices in the D3 state for either S4 or S5. WOL should properly function for S3 regardless of the configuration of ErP.

Whoops, I read it wrong ErP just above disable turned it into enable... USBCharger+ is working quite well for me now that I've uninstalled AiCharger. It's working better than it did on the m6h. I really appreciate the input guys. I like the M7H a lot. The only solution I could come up with for the USB DAC pop was to get rid of it, but as I said, it was a blessing. Xonar STX is a product I cannot praise enough. I may complain to Raja a lot on here but he's basically the reason I stick with ASUS products.

 

[soulman901]

Hi Guys. Not sure if anyone else has run into this problem. Just recently got an Asus Z97 to replace a crappy MSI Z87-G45 board that needs to be RMA'd. Install went fine, installed Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, drivers etc... When I now boot into my computer I can hear it start up, but I get nothing on the screens. Both of my displays are black. Running A Geforce 670GTX From Gigabyte. Card has been working on previous build. However after installing the drivers for the GeForce it just decides to stop displaying. Once in a while after a reboot I can get it to display but beyond that nothing.
Not sure if anyone knows a possible fix for this problem. Not exactly a good start on the Z97 platform for me....