[Pelon-]

A friend and I have been struggling with his new build for two days now.
It was having the same problems a lot of people are posting about... no boot, no post, no beeps, no vid. But the fans will spin up and the drives... etc..
We took off plastic on the back of the board and checked the solder, his board doesn't have the solder problem, it's a newer one as far as we can tell.
Anyway... what we figured out through ridiculous amounts of trial and error with swapping pieces of hardware is that all of his components work.. and the computer will boot EVERY time.. if we clear the CMOS before trying to boot.
Now, obviously that's no solution at all, but at least we know the stuff works.
We managed to install Win XP Pro SP1, the Intel Chipset Util, and update his BIOS to ver 1011 all without a problem (except that in order to reboot after each install we had to clear the CMOS.

So... it seems to us like we must be missing a setting in the BIOS or need to change something ....
does ANYBODY have any idea what BIOS settings we should check?

We did try turning off HT, that didn't work.
We tried setting Performance to Standard not Auto, didn't work.
(we tried those separately and simultaneously, no difference.)

I'll list the specs below.. if you need any more details, plz ask.
If you have any input.. plz add.

Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
P4 2.8
1.0G Kingston Hyper-X PC3200 DDR
ATI Radeon 9700

Thanks!

 

[clintfan]

That's a ridiculous situation! You should NEVER need to clear the CMOS!

Dumb question, but have you tried going to the Exit screen and choosing "Load Setup Defaults" then hit F10 to save & confirm? How about replacing the CMOS battery with a fresh one?

Tell us about your power supply.

-clintfan

 

[Pelon-]

...

this is such an odd problem!

we are trying a new battery right now... but it's still wierd, since it's not giving errors, it just won't display anything.
also... it will randomly boot as though there is no problem at all.. but not very often.. and only when we are juat about to start kicking it. i think it is mocking us.

basically it's like this:

it won't post.
we clear the cmos via the jumper and it will post without fail.. it gives us a choice of hitting F1 or F2.
It alternates between telling us that Overclocking failed and complaining about the system clock being wrong.

If we try to hit F1 and make ANY changes it won't POST again after saving the changes and exiting.
If we hit F2 it will load the defaults and boot normally into .. BUT if we try to reboot (just restarting from windows, not shutting off power) it won't POST. We have to clear the CMOS and start over.

The same thing happens with a known working battery in the mobo.

Also... it is telling us the the RAM is running at 266mhz. It is matched DDR so it should be running at 400.
We tried different matched pairs and had the same problem.

This is with the default settings, but we are not able to change any settings in the BIOS to fix it.

So.. nope.. different battery won't fix it. Can't use any settings but the defaults, and even then it only works for that session. A reboot starts the problem again.

Any other ideas?

 

[Pelon-]

...

Forgot to talk about the PS...

it is a Antec 330W PS. Less than 6 mos old, compatible with P4.

We do realize that this is not a very beefy PS, but we have tried running with NO drives and extra cards, with no difference.
And the computer is up and running just fine after we reset the cmos and go with default settings... until we reboot.

BUT!!! (this was just discovered while I was typing... )


We got it to RELIABLY POST and boot EVERY single time now by DISABLING the LAN.

What the?!?

We are having the problem of not being able to even see the LAN adapter in windows. I have read numerous posts about this, and we still haven't found a solution.
The Intel Pro 1000 doesn't show. And we can't install drivers for something we can't see. Tried to auto-detect .. no luck. Tried to PnP it... no luck.
BUT.. if we disable it (what's wierd is that we tried this earlier and it didn't work) the computer works perfectly (except we have no LAN).

Also.. we have installed the chipset drivers twice, once from the CD, once from the Intel Chipset Updating .exe file... but the RAID controller won't work still. The Promise drivers are giving some trouble (we gave up for the night because it's 11:30 PM now.. ) but we will try to figure this stuff out tomorrow.

If you guys have any thoughts on the LAN issue feel free to toss ideas this way.
basically where we stand now is that the computer works perfectly until we enable the onboard LAN, which causes the no-POST no-boot.

odd.

If it is a hardware issue maybe that's why windows won't see it... but it saw it ONCE. We tried to install the driver from WINXP.zip and it said the device wasn't workking.. then it wasn't there upon rebooting. And we can't get it back.

*sigh*

Enough of this for tonight.. heh.

 

[Mental_Myopia]

My gut is saying power shortage on this. This is similar to what happened when I tried to install a GeForce4 Ti4200 in a 900MHz Athlon system with a 250W PSU. Have you got a real-time clock checker, and are the clock speeds unstable? I use WCPU31a to check this, but I can't locate the link for it.

As for the RAM running at 266, the P4 CPU you installed supports 800FSB speeds, correct? If the CPU is the 533FSB type, I believe that would set the memory at 266. Do you have any packaging or identification for the CPU to double check?

 

[clintfan]

We got it to RELIABLY POST and boot EVERY single time now by DISABLING the LAN. What the?!? We are having the problem of not being able to even see the LAN adapter in windows.

If you disable it in BIOS then indeed you will not see it in Windows.

Did you install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility?

If you did, then in Device Manager, choose "View by connection." The LAN will be found directly underneath the Intel 82801BA PCI-to-CSA bridge after you click the (+). I can give you more specific names if you need them later.

Remember that the LAN on this mobo hangs off the Northbridge, not the PCI. Works fine on my -E mobo, BTW.

-clintfan

 

[Matty43-]

Asus P4c800-E intermitant cold boot and no onboard Lan/Ethernet

My system is the one Pelon- is talking about, but just to give all the details once again ...

System:

Asus P4c800-E Deluxe - retail
Pentium 4c 2.8 Ghz 800mhz fsb -retail
Kingston PC3200 HyperX 1 Gigabyte matched pair ram -retail
Radeon 9700 Pro 128 AGP video card - retail
Antec 330 watt Truepower PSU - retail
Generic mid tower case- retail generic
Samsung DVD drive - OEM
3.5 floppy drive - OEM
Quantum UDMA-66 20 Gigabyte HD - OEM

System hardware changes made so far:

Updated Bios to 1011
Replaced ram with Muskin unmatched PC3200 512 MB pair
Replaced video card with old PCI ATI rage II card
Replaced CMOS battery out of working Dell, same specs
Replaced PSU with Antec 480 watt Truepower
Booted system with motherboard outside, off case on cardboard - eliminating potential grounding issues
Installed PCI linksys 10/100 NIC which worked and connected to existing network - same patch cables etc.

Software steps:

Installed Windows XP 2 times
Installed intel's latest ICH5 chipset drivers from intel - not asus CD, next installed Lan drivers from Cd and then website to no avail. Removed Lan device and same thing comes back up after restart, or reinstallation.

Observations:
System with new PSU still exhibiting not wanting to cold boot/post, but will post after has been left alone intermitantly. Everything powers on except no display on monitor and ornage light goes instead of the green one on 3 different monitors. Seems to be able to restart/warm boot ok. Windows first detects Ethernet controller then tries to install on own Intel 1000 Pro gigabit CT driver. Each time gets hardware error 10 and device maanger shows yellow exclamation point. Immediatly upon boot Linksys NIC gets a link light on back and shows traffic light blinking. Onboard intel NIC has never shown link light with cable plugged in. Spoke with 3 different ASUS techs to no avail, eventually suggesting to RMA the board. Have tested various combinations of BIOS settings but mostly set to "default" settings. I'm at a complete loss of working on this system for 4 days straight. I would like to stay with the P4c800e, but am scared that this isn't just one bad apple, and that this line is having QC issues across the board. I can return it to the reseller and go with a different board (Intel 875 PBZ?), something else, or another P4c800e but would rather go asus. I hate to be one of those I have built a million computer guys, but this mobo has been giving me nothing but problems from the get go. Any suggestions would be appreciated, as I think I'm leaning towards the intel reference board...

I might have forgotten some stuff along the way so please feel free to ask.

Matt

 

[clintfan]

The Intel Pro 1000 doesn't show. And we can't install drivers for something we can't see...If you guys have any thoughts on the LAN issue feel free to toss ideas this way.

I said I could give more detail later, looks like maybe I should. I've pulled the data over now.


Since you have installed the ICSIU, then
the first bridge will already have been renamed to "Intel(R) 82875P Processor to AGP Controller" and the video card will be under that.
The other bridge will have been renamed to "Intel(R) 82875P Processor to PCI to CSA bridge" and your LAN card will be under that; this Ethernet device is what you need to apply the driver update to.


If you had not installed the ICSIU (you should!, see my previous reply), there will be two "PCI standard PCI-PCI bridge" devices (there will also be a third bridge to your 1394 but don't worry about that one right now).
Under one bridge will be "Video Controller (VGA Compatible)", or the manufacturer and model of the particular video adapter you have.
Under the other bridge will be "Ethernet Controller"; this Ethernet device is what you need to apply the driver update to.


If you do not see the Ethernet controller here as I have stated, and you are certain in the BIOS setup you have the Advanced- Onboard Devices Configuration- Onboard LAN set to "Enabled", then I think you have a hardware problem with the mobo.

Be sure to download the correct LAN driver for your mobo and O/S. Yours must be for the P4C800-E Deluxe, and it may be found here as winxp.zip. For some reason Asus left the LAN driver off their "Latest" page.

After updating the LAN driver, the "Ethernet Controller" device will be renamed as as "Intel(R) PRO/1000 CT Network Connection".

-clintfan

 

[Matty43-]

lan/ethernet/post issues

Chipset/lan etc:

I downloaded the ICH5 chipset driver you linked from intels website on an earlier writeup and installed that. I have installed both versions of the Lan driver. first from the asus CD, then second off of the website. Onboard LAN is enabled in the BIOS and i've experimented with the sub ROM option being on and off to no affect. The thing that gets me is that no drivers were installed for the linksys NIC and immediatly upon boot, link light/traffic/etc. Intel NIC? no such luck anytime, although everytime i remove it from the device manager it keeps getting auto detected as ethernet device, then makes up its mind to the correct intel pro 1000 adapter etc. When it intially showed up as ethernet device it was with all the rest of the unknown devices branch I believe.

POST issue:

So the system will boot consistantly, but will (POST) very inconsistantly. BTW this is with the new power supply. This to me is the most troubling aspect/annoying, as who is to say it might not POST at all in the near future right after warranty ends ... well 3 year manufacturers, but its still a hassle to worry about that.

Motherboard Choice?:

1. Intel 875 PBZ
2. Different Asus P4c800E deluxe

Any ideas? either to keep working on the original board or get a different equivilant (sp?) board?

Maybe I need to plug in this adapter to fix the problems?
http://www.fiftythree.org/etherkiller/

Matt

 

[skwas]

I can safely say I have EXACTLY the same problem. Boot/POST problems until the onboard LAN is disabled... (System failed due to CPU over-clocking). In fact, I have done NO over-clocking, and everything is set at default/auto. Without LAN it seems rocksolid.

Dunno what actions to take from here, but I do know one, sending this info to ASUS. It may as well be a bug in the BIOS (running 1011).

 

[clintfan]

Unfortunately not that it helps, I have been lucky enough to run LAN from the very beginning, on the P4C800-E Deluxe, have never needed to turn it off, never get the overclocking error, and have never had to clear CMOS. So the problems you both are seeing don't seem to make any sense, unless as skwas suggested, it's a 1011 bug.

Could it be because I installed as a "Standard PC" instead of ACPI?

Also I have only run 1007 and 1010. What if you backdate to the 1010 BIOS version... does that fix the LAN? Don't forget to write down your custom settings and do the "Load Setup Defaults" immediately after the update, before reapplying the custom settings.

-clintfan

 

[Matty43-]

Looking at this from a hardware level, the Link light never turns on at all. I plugged my laptop in, and it gets a network connection instantly. Every PC I looked at today gets a light upon boot which turns on regardless of drivers etc as long as it is turned on in the BIOS. I think this is a hardware fault at this point. I'll try the other BIOS settings and document what I have turned on when I get home. I'm 95% sure it's a faulty board though ...

Thanks,

Matt

 

[Mental_Myopia]

What happens when you have the LAN enabled, but have the LAN boot-ROM disabled? When I enabled the boot-ROM on my LAN, I ran into problems. Currently I'm up and running with the LAN enabled without the boot-ROM.

 

[Matty43-]

Have tried both LAN enabled with ROM disabled and enabled to no effect. :bandit: ...yawn bored ...

 

[clintfan]

I think the LAN Option ROM is for when you do not install XP on a local disk, but instead install it on a server, which you then boot your PC from, across the LAN. Like a Unix diskless workstation.

For most of us, this setting should be Disabled.

Asus FAQ and manuals have no specific details about this setting, however.

-clintfan

(18Sept2003 - reordered text to be clearer.)

 

[Matty43-]

You could be right, I'm not sure but it also might for a diskless workstation i.e. a dumb terminal. If you were to use BootP to load your OS across the network that might be why that would be enabled. This is mostly used in a unix environment. Anywho I could be wrong and drunk ... regardless the stupid board doesn't work either which way and has taken way to many hours to try to get running, unless your time is worthless. I've about given up and am looking towards intel for a "stable" platform......

Matt

 

[Evil Homer]

this must be a bug with this motherboard.
i have the exact same problem.
from reading your guys info it must be the LAN thats causing the problem, or maybe the USB not sure though.
i've sent an email to Asus already about this, so hopefully they fix it or get back to me atleast to let me know what to do.
i'm using the latest BIOS aswell and still same thing -- computer won't POST or start at all sometimes.
need to shut it off then on again and then it usually starts up.
seems to work good though once ya get past that POST problem.

 

[Matty43-]

That sucks, I don't want to spend $700+ for a system that will occasionally post on a whim. I'm about to give Asus the big middle finger ... anywho i hope the intel board isn't this " fragile" as I can't imagine who would want to spend this much time working on this POS (piece of ****).... yeah yeah .....w00t w00t

 

[phostenix]

No post with P4C800

Here's the deal.... Kingston HyperX and Corsair 3200 memories (and probably all other 2-2-2-6-1 memories) will not post on Asus or Intel (maybe all) 875 based mobos with the memory settings set to "Auto". Even Kingston's 3200A memory, which is rated 2-3-2-6-1 will not post on my Intel D875PBZ because the mobo will not set the timings to 2-3-2-6. I'm not sure what the porcedure is on the Asus (consult the manual or website), but on the Intel, I had to:
1) turn of all power to the mobo (unplug PS if it doesn't have a switch on the back of it)
2) Move the BIOS config jumper to configure
3) Power the system - it will now be forced into the BIOS setup
4) Change the memory timings to 2-3-2-6
5) Save changes & Exit - it will prompt you to turn off the system - all power, again - and move the jumper back to the normal position
6) Power the system and get on with your life

I had to do this again after a BIOS update (GRRRR)

 

[Mental_Myopia]

I posted this in another thread, but I should post it here as well. In order to boot up with my Corsair memory I actually have to have it set as Auto for all timings.

To see if I could eliminate some beeps during post, I decided to manually configure my memory. I chose 2-3-2-6. When I tried to boot several times, my computer would not post at all. It wouldn't even allow the video BIOS to post, so I couldn't see a thing on the monitor since it wasn't getting a signal. The power and hard drive lights on the front of my tower stayed lit and wouldn't shut off. I finally cleared the RTC thing, was able to boot up, and changed the BIOS settings to the way I had them before the memory clocking.

I have no idea what happened, but it may have something to do with Corsair's Plug and Frag technology which sets the memory speed at the lowest latency possible upon startup. Perhaps the memory was getting two different signals or something.