New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 02:56 PM

I'm going to apologize straight off if this ends up being in the wrong forum and for being so long... but here it goes:

Two weeks ago I upgraded my previous system with a new mobo, ram, and graphics card.

The list:

Ultra 600W SLI certified PSU
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Mobo
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Corsair Twin2X 2x1024 PC6400/DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 2.1v
XFX 8600 GTS 256 MB
2x74GB Raptors

Put it together, attempted to install the OS, and it gave me two different BSOD's. I ran memtest for kicks and it told me the ram was bad, thought nothing of it (just bad luck) and RMA'ed the pair.

After a 2 week wait (painful) I got a new pair in and put them in the system. Immediately I ran memtest to ensure they were good....after a couple seconds they started reporting errors. I went in and manually set the voltage and timing for the ram, as well as disable legacy USB support. I let it go again and got over 4,000 errors in less than ten minutes.

Crap.

Anyways, I've no moved on to considering other possibilities. I'm very hopeful this may still be limited to my RAM, but it seems improbable.

At least I felt comfortable trying to diagnose memory, but now I'm getting symptoms that would indicate overheating. Every time I boot now, the computer hangs. I've had it hang during the first few passes in memtest, in my bios screen, during a raid configuration check, and even when I was attempting to update the bios...scary....

Anyways, the intervals have decreased about each time until I can't get it to even show the "AI Lifestyle" ASUS screen. It seems to me to be an overheating issue since there is no apparent cause other than the amount of time the system is on.

The CPU has a massive CoolerMaster GeminiII heatsink on it that was used with Arctic Silver 5, as well as has two 120mm fans mounted on it; the thing is massive. I also have four other case fans running....so overheating seems slim with no overclocking and idling at bios screens....

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I've built half a dozen computers so far and would consider myself relatively knowledgeable, but surely no expert.

Thanks in advance.

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 02:57 PM

correction: the cpu was new as well.

solman · 09-17-2007, 03:13 PM

You have 4 DIMMs for RAM. If the DIMM closest to the processor is DIMM1, What two DIMMs are your RAM installed in?

What is your FSB set to?

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 03:20 PM

I haven't looked into the FSB...my bad....I'm having trouble even getting into the bios to adjust anything before it hangs.

The RAM has been installed in DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1, I've tried them in A2 and B2 as well, and also running single sticks at a time.

solman · 09-17-2007, 03:32 PM

[quote=Orion329;1083560]I haven't looked into the FSB...my bad....I'm having trouble even getting into the bios to adjust anything before it hangs.[quote]

RAM looks good, I would reset the BIOS.

Remove the battery for 2 minutes, replace and move the jumper pins from 1-2 to 2-3 for 30 seconds and put back to 1-2 and try to boot to BIOS.

Check your FSB settings and make sure they're set to 1066Mhz.

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 06:18 PM

I reset the bios, rebooted, and it hangs after the screen clears when I hit delete to enter the bios. I yanked a ram stick out of the B1 slot (leaving the one in A1), and either by chance or some other condition, I was able to get to the actual bios. After only about four seconds in the bios, the system froze again.

I rebooted with a single stick in DIMM_B1 and it allowed me to get into the bios for about five minutes before freezing up. I'm not sure if I used the same stick that was in DIMM_A1 prior or not, but either way it still froze.

Thanks for your suggestions solman, I appreciate the help.

* As a side note, when I removed both dimm's, the board gave a long-short-short error, which, for Phoenix Award bios is usually a graphics card error code... any idea why it would give me that? Is it possible that my graphics card is the culprit? When I removed the card itself, the same error returned... have the error codes changed?

solman · 09-17-2007, 06:40 PM

Not sure about the error codes, I know with that CPU cooler you have, it can be tricky fitting it correctly, are you sure there is no movement there?

Also, do you have any other PCI or USB devices plugged in you can do without for now?

If so, remove them and reset BIOS, leave the battery out for a few minutes and then replace and jump the pins.

Are you using onboard sound?

EDIT: Also, you do have the 12v rail connected? Does your PSU have the 4 prong 12v or 8?

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 08:42 PM

The heatsink was a beast to put on, but I'm almost 100% sure it's solid. I did manage to get into the mobo and cpu temps in the bios one time, and they were both mid-30's, so I'm thinking that's okay at least.

All pci and usb devices are detached, I almost put my audigy 2 zs in the box, but I have everything removed except for the bare minimum. Only have a monitor, keyboard and power connected now.

I've reset the bios a couple times now, but I'll do it again....I am using onboard sound as well.

I haven't seen where I'm able to specify the FSB, and I'm assuming it's defaulted to auto, but would you recommend I try to set it if I can get into the bios long enough to do so?

Are there any memory settings that would be pertinent to this problem, perhaps running them with a command rate of 2t?

I guess the biggest question is whether updating the bios or adjusting ram settings are more crucial, and if updating the bios is more important, how would you advise flashing without the system hanging during the flash?

EDIT: (haha) I forgot about your comment on the 8-pin vs. 4-pin 12v rail. At first I didn't give the 8-pin connector any thought since ASUS covers one of the 4-pin sets with a little cover on the mobo. Since you mentioned it, I moved some wires and plugged in the 8-pin....crossed my fingers....and there was no change.

solman · 09-17-2007, 10:48 PM

Man! You had me going for a second...

At this point, since your system is hanging, I wouldn't attempt a BIOS flash.

There should be FSB adjustments under Cell Menu? Should be the same place where Overclocking features are and SLI configuration. FSB needs to be adjusted to 1066Mhz.

More importantly is your memory configuration. Do you have standard DDR2 RAM you can throw in for setup purposes? If so, you can set the memory timings to the Corsair settings, F10 and shut down as soon as the reboot takes place and put your Corsair in.

Since you have RAM on steroids, you need to set the timings but you especially need to turn Spread Spectrum off.

Just another thought, the SLI shouldn't default to SLI but I would check that as well (if you have time to).

Another thought...Check the heatsink on the Video Card and make sure it isn't loose.

Orion329 · 09-17-2007, 11:42 PM

Solman, thanks again for your continual responses, I hope that all your troubles can help me to the bottom of this.

I'm having a rough time even entering into the bios before the system hangs, so changing anything is very difficult. I'm hopeful I can find out where the FSB settings are....maybe after a few boots I could get it set. I also haven't seen any settings regarding the Spread Spectrum, but it's most likely in there somewhere; I also have a hunch that it may default to SLI mode, but that's another thing I'll try to follow up. I have noted that (when it hung) in the post, the processor was fully recognized as was all the memory.

I really wish that I had some other ddr2 handy, I'm tempted to try getting a hold of a couple friends. I ran into a buddy tonight at the bar that just bought something very similar, he used the Striker version of the mobo--i.e. my mobo on crack with same chipset, in combination with some Crucial Ballistix memory, with no problems. (great bar chatting conversation topic huh?)

Since I don't have any on hand, I'm just gonna take the hit and I'm overnighting myself the same to hopefully resolve this issue...great deal by the way w/ rebate. Should be here easily by Wednesday.

Sorry to lead you on with the switch to the 8-pin 12v rail, but I was extremely hopeful on that one too.

Heatsink on the video card seems solid; I could bust it off and try re-seating it with some arctic silver, but that seems a little excessive right now, though I wish I could replace the cards fan...

If you have any revelations in the next day or so, send them my way, but I probably won't spend too much time trying to diagnose the system until that ram arrives. Thanks again and I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[EDIT] I just tried tweaking it again one more time, and it hang right as I got into the Spread Spectrum Control sub-menu.

CPU Spread Spectrum.............[Auto]
PCIE Spread Spectrum............[Auto]
MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum......[Auto]
SATA Spread Spectrum...........[Disabled]
LDT Spread Spectrum.............[Auto]

Don't know what to change, but that's what its defaulted to.

Orion329 · 09-18-2007, 01:11 PM

Well, I just fiddled with the system for a few minutes, I pulled one stick of ram out and left one in DIMM_A2. I got into the bios and was able to put in the timings, voltage, and set the command rate to 2. I also noticed that SLI-Ready Memory setting was disabled, but I had read on a forum to have it set to CPUOC 0% at least. So that was also set. I also noted that the FSB cannot be adjusted (to my knowledge) without setting most every other setting up manually regarding overclocking. It does; however, seem to be set at 1066 Mhz. I rebooted and it seemed to be running fine, to my surprise.

Anyways, with high hopes I went about running memtest86+ v1.7 all the way through, without hanging. At this point I was getting pretty optimistic, so after it passed 100% through without any errors, I rebooted. Went into the bios and checked my cpu and mobo temps (both at 35 C). I left the hardware monitor, went into the overclocking menu, and it froze again....

My hopes were dashed, but I'm a bit more confident about going ahead with the ballistix now.

solman · 09-18-2007, 03:25 PM

Funny, I spent a great deal of time researching this as well last night and saw tons of posts with various configurations indicating freezes either in BIOS or while running Vista.

You may try to phone Asus and see if they can ship you an upgrated BIOS chip. They're pretty easy to install, you need a chip puller (about $5.00). I had to do this with my old P4n Diamond board.

On another note, I saw a discussion primarily geared toward overclocking but you may gain some information from it as it is a similar configuration as yours.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...2_quad_q6600/1

Orion329 · 09-18-2007, 09:24 PM

I appreciate you looking into it some more, and it's good to know I'm not the only one running into this problem.

I read the article, and while it seemed very informative, it also was at some points more technical than I'm comfortable with.

I'll let you know how the new ram works out as soon as I get it in. Thanks again.

Orion329 · 09-19-2007, 07:37 PM

Alright, so just so I don't get you too excited, the new ram didn't work...go figure.

Anyways, I popped it in, after resetting the bios, I lit the system up. Low and behold, now the system won't even post, I don't ever get a video signal to the monitor, the comforting "beep" that accompanies the boot doesn't sound, and the system spins its fans indefinitely.

I wanted to see if the board was even conscious, so I pulled all the ram: no result, I pulled the graphics card: no result, I unplugged every peripheral from the motherboard except power, and it still did nothing. So by this point, I'm thinking that the mobo's a piece of crap and that good ol' Asus should yank the "u" out of its name to better represent it's performance.

Anyways, I figured the only real other possible explanations could be some odd grounding issues or the cpu. I proceeded to set up the system outside of the case to check to make sure it wasn't my case (Coolermaster Praetorian). This yeilded no result the first time I switched it on, but the second time it let out a long consistent "beep." I assumed this to be the keyboard missing code, and then plugged that in, restarted. This time there was again nothing. I restarted without the keyboard, and this time it gave me a long-short-short message. Huh?

Anyways, I went through adding the ram and then the graphics card and somewhere in there I did see the bios loading screen, but just for a moment before freezing. I'm almost 100% sure that either the bios has some major issues or the board is bunk. In either case, the lack of consistency in at least freezing and/or booting has pretty much led me to believe I should look into a different board, even if this one is just a "lemon."

I'm going to go pop off the heatsink and double-check the processor, reapply the heatsink and try it one more time, but unless you've got any ideas solman, I'm probably going to rma return this board ASAP. Let me know if you believe this to be some other issue.

and btw, any ideas what board would be best suited for stable overclocking of a Q6600 if sli isn't a necessity?

09-17-2007, 02:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E I'm going to apologize straight off if this ends up being in the wrong forum and for being so long... but here it goes: Two weeks ago I upgraded my previous system with a new mobo, ram, and graphics card. The list: Ultra 600W SLI certified PSU ASUS P5N32-E SLI Mobo Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Corsair Twin2X 2x1024 PC6400/DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 2.1v XFX 8600 GTS 256 MB 2x74GB Raptors Put it together, attempted to install the OS, and it gave me two different BSOD's. I ran memtest for kicks and it told me the ram was bad, thought nothing of it (just bad luck) and RMA'ed the pair. After a 2 week wait (painful) I got a new pair in and put them in the system. Immediately I ran memtest to ensure they were good....after a couple seconds they started reporting errors. I went in and manually set the voltage and timing for the ram, as well as disable legacy USB support. I let it go again and got over 4,000 errors in less than ten minutes. Crap. Anyways, I've no moved on to considering other possibilities. I'm very hopeful this may still be limited to my RAM, but it seems improbable. At least I felt comfortable trying to diagnose memory, but now I'm getting symptoms that would indicate overheating. Every time I boot now, the computer hangs. I've had it hang during the first few passes in memtest, in my bios screen, during a raid configuration check, and even when I was attempting to update the bios...scary.... Anyways, the intervals have decreased about each time until I can't get it to even show the "AI Lifestyle" ASUS screen. It seems to me to be an overheating issue since there is no apparent cause other than the amount of time the system is on. The CPU has a massive CoolerMaster GeminiII heatsink on it that was used with Arctic Silver 5, as well as has two 120mm fans mounted on it; the thing is massive. I also have four other case fans running....so overheating seems slim with no overclocking and idling at bios screens.... If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I've built half a dozen computers so far and would consider myself relatively knowledgeable, but surely no expert. Thanks in advance.

09-17-2007, 02:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E correction: the cpu was new as well.

09-17-2007, 03:13 PM	#3 (permalink)
solman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Houston Posts: 193 OS: xp pro My System	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E You have 4 DIMMs for RAM. If the DIMM closest to the processor is DIMM1, What two DIMMs are your RAM installed in? What is your FSB set to?

09-17-2007, 03:20 PM	#4 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E I haven't looked into the FSB...my bad....I'm having trouble even getting into the bios to adjust anything before it hangs. The RAM has been installed in DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1, I've tried them in A2 and B2 as well, and also running single sticks at a time.

09-17-2007, 03:32 PM	#5 (permalink)
solman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Houston Posts: 193 OS: xp pro My System	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E [quote=Orion329;1083560]I haven't looked into the FSB...my bad....I'm having trouble even getting into the bios to adjust anything before it hangs.[quote] RAM looks good, I would reset the BIOS. Remove the battery for 2 minutes, replace and move the jumper pins from 1-2 to 2-3 for 30 seconds and put back to 1-2 and try to boot to BIOS. Check your FSB settings and make sure they're set to 1066Mhz.

09-17-2007, 06:18 PM	#6 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E I reset the bios, rebooted, and it hangs after the screen clears when I hit delete to enter the bios. I yanked a ram stick out of the B1 slot (leaving the one in A1), and either by chance or some other condition, I was able to get to the actual bios. After only about four seconds in the bios, the system froze again. I rebooted with a single stick in DIMM_B1 and it allowed me to get into the bios for about five minutes before freezing up. I'm not sure if I used the same stick that was in DIMM_A1 prior or not, but either way it still froze. Thanks for your suggestions solman, I appreciate the help. * As a side note, when I removed both dimm's, the board gave a long-short-short error, which, for Phoenix Award bios is usually a graphics card error code... any idea why it would give me that? Is it possible that my graphics card is the culprit? When I removed the card itself, the same error returned... have the error codes changed?

09-17-2007, 06:40 PM	#7 (permalink)
solman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Houston Posts: 193 OS: xp pro My System	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Not sure about the error codes, I know with that CPU cooler you have, it can be tricky fitting it correctly, are you sure there is no movement there? Also, do you have any other PCI or USB devices plugged in you can do without for now? If so, remove them and reset BIOS, leave the battery out for a few minutes and then replace and jump the pins. Are you using onboard sound? EDIT: Also, you do have the 12v rail connected? Does your PSU have the 4 prong 12v or 8? Last edited by solman; 09-17-2007 at 06:42 PM.

09-17-2007, 08:42 PM	#8 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E The heatsink was a beast to put on, but I'm almost 100% sure it's solid. I did manage to get into the mobo and cpu temps in the bios one time, and they were both mid-30's, so I'm thinking that's okay at least. All pci and usb devices are detached, I almost put my audigy 2 zs in the box, but I have everything removed except for the bare minimum. Only have a monitor, keyboard and power connected now. I've reset the bios a couple times now, but I'll do it again....I am using onboard sound as well. I haven't seen where I'm able to specify the FSB, and I'm assuming it's defaulted to auto, but would you recommend I try to set it if I can get into the bios long enough to do so? Are there any memory settings that would be pertinent to this problem, perhaps running them with a command rate of 2t? I guess the biggest question is whether updating the bios or adjusting ram settings are more crucial, and if updating the bios is more important, how would you advise flashing without the system hanging during the flash? EDIT: (haha) I forgot about your comment on the 8-pin vs. 4-pin 12v rail. At first I didn't give the 8-pin connector any thought since ASUS covers one of the 4-pin sets with a little cover on the mobo. Since you mentioned it, I moved some wires and plugged in the 8-pin....crossed my fingers....and there was no change. Last edited by Orion329; 09-17-2007 at 08:45 PM.

09-17-2007, 10:48 PM	#9 (permalink)
solman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Houston Posts: 193 OS: xp pro My System	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Man! You had me going for a second... At this point, since your system is hanging, I wouldn't attempt a BIOS flash. There should be FSB adjustments under Cell Menu? Should be the same place where Overclocking features are and SLI configuration. FSB needs to be adjusted to 1066Mhz. More importantly is your memory configuration. Do you have standard DDR2 RAM you can throw in for setup purposes? If so, you can set the memory timings to the Corsair settings, F10 and shut down as soon as the reboot takes place and put your Corsair in. Since you have RAM on steroids, you need to set the timings but you especially need to turn Spread Spectrum off. Just another thought, the SLI shouldn't default to SLI but I would check that as well (if you have time to). Another thought...Check the heatsink on the Video Card and make sure it isn't loose. Last edited by solman; 09-17-2007 at 11:07 PM.

09-17-2007, 11:42 PM	#10 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Solman, thanks again for your continual responses, I hope that all your troubles can help me to the bottom of this. I'm having a rough time even entering into the bios before the system hangs, so changing anything is very difficult. I'm hopeful I can find out where the FSB settings are....maybe after a few boots I could get it set. I also haven't seen any settings regarding the Spread Spectrum, but it's most likely in there somewhere; I also have a hunch that it may default to SLI mode, but that's another thing I'll try to follow up. I have noted that (when it hung) in the post, the processor was fully recognized as was all the memory. I really wish that I had some other ddr2 handy, I'm tempted to try getting a hold of a couple friends. I ran into a buddy tonight at the bar that just bought something very similar, he used the Striker version of the mobo--i.e. my mobo on crack with same chipset, in combination with some Crucial Ballistix memory, with no problems. (great bar chatting conversation topic huh?) Since I don't have any on hand, I'm just gonna take the hit and I'm overnighting myself the same to hopefully resolve this issue...great deal by the way w/ rebate. Should be here easily by Wednesday. Sorry to lead you on with the switch to the 8-pin 12v rail, but I was extremely hopeful on that one too. Heatsink on the video card seems solid; I could bust it off and try re-seating it with some arctic silver, but that seems a little excessive right now, though I wish I could replace the cards fan... If you have any revelations in the next day or so, send them my way, but I probably won't spend too much time trying to diagnose the system until that ram arrives. Thanks again and I'll keep my fingers crossed. [EDIT] I just tried tweaking it again one more time, and it hang right as I got into the Spread Spectrum Control sub-menu. CPU Spread Spectrum.............[Auto] PCIE Spread Spectrum............[Auto] MCP PCIE Spread Spectrum......[Auto] SATA Spread Spectrum...........[Disabled] LDT Spread Spectrum.............[Auto] Don't know what to change, but that's what its defaulted to. Last edited by Orion329; 09-18-2007 at 12:06 AM.

09-18-2007, 01:11 PM	#11 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Well, I just fiddled with the system for a few minutes, I pulled one stick of ram out and left one in DIMM_A2. I got into the bios and was able to put in the timings, voltage, and set the command rate to 2. I also noticed that SLI-Ready Memory setting was disabled, but I had read on a forum to have it set to CPUOC 0% at least. So that was also set. I also noted that the FSB cannot be adjusted (to my knowledge) without setting most every other setting up manually regarding overclocking. It does; however, seem to be set at 1066 Mhz. I rebooted and it seemed to be running fine, to my surprise. Anyways, with high hopes I went about running memtest86+ v1.7 all the way through, without hanging. At this point I was getting pretty optimistic, so after it passed 100% through without any errors, I rebooted. Went into the bios and checked my cpu and mobo temps (both at 35 C). I left the hardware monitor, went into the overclocking menu, and it froze again.... My hopes were dashed, but I'm a bit more confident about going ahead with the ballistix now.

09-18-2007, 03:25 PM	#12 (permalink)
solman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Houston Posts: 193 OS: xp pro My System	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Funny, I spent a great deal of time researching this as well last night and saw tons of posts with various configurations indicating freezes either in BIOS or while running Vista. You may try to phone Asus and see if they can ship you an upgrated BIOS chip. They're pretty easy to install, you need a chip puller (about $5.00). I had to do this with my old P4n Diamond board. On another note, I saw a discussion primarily geared toward overclocking but you may gain some information from it as it is a similar configuration as yours. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...2_quad_q6600/1

09-18-2007, 09:24 PM	#13 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E I appreciate you looking into it some more, and it's good to know I'm not the only one running into this problem. I read the article, and while it seemed very informative, it also was at some points more technical than I'm comfortable with. I'll let you know how the new ram works out as soon as I get it in. Thanks again.

09-19-2007, 07:37 PM	#14 (permalink)
Orion329 Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 21 OS: Win XP Pro	Re: New Build Issues, Please Help P5N32-E Alright, so just so I don't get you too excited, the new ram didn't work...go figure. Anyways, I popped it in, after resetting the bios, I lit the system up. Low and behold, now the system won't even post, I don't ever get a video signal to the monitor, the comforting "beep" that accompanies the boot doesn't sound, and the system spins its fans indefinitely. I wanted to see if the board was even conscious, so I pulled all the ram: no result, I pulled the graphics card: no result, I unplugged every peripheral from the motherboard except power, and it still did nothing. So by this point, I'm thinking that the mobo's a piece of crap and that good ol' Asus should yank the "u" out of its name to better represent it's performance. Anyways, I figured the only real other possible explanations could be some odd grounding issues or the cpu. I proceeded to set up the system outside of the case to check to make sure it wasn't my case (Coolermaster Praetorian). This yeilded no result the first time I switched it on, but the second time it let out a long consistent "beep." I assumed this to be the keyboard missing code, and then plugged that in, restarted. This time there was again nothing. I restarted without the keyboard, and this time it gave me a long-short-short message. Huh? Anyways, I went through adding the ram and then the graphics card and somewhere in there I did see the bios loading screen, but just for a moment before freezing. I'm almost 100% sure that either the bios has some major issues or the board is bunk. In either case, the lack of consistency in at least freezing and/or booting has pretty much led me to believe I should look into a different board, even if this one is just a "lemon." I'm going to go pop off the heatsink and double-check the processor, reapply the heatsink and try it one more time, but unless you've got any ideas solman, I'm probably going to rma return this board ASAP. Let me know if you believe this to be some other issue. and btw, any ideas what board would be best suited for stable overclocking of a Q6600 if sli isn't a necessity?