1 Long + 3 Short Cold Boot (P5B/C2D) then no post

[este]

Hi all,

I'm stumped on this and its so frustrating I really want to just rma everything and try again. This looks like the right forum to try and figure this out, (i hope)

My system:

C2D E6600
P5B-Deluxe
Scythe Infinity (w/ arctic ceramique)
G.Skill PC2-6400 (black, 4-4-4-12, 2.0-2.1V)
Xclio Greatpower 600W
2x320 Seagate sataII .10

Everything is OK. Except for this weird problem I'm having with the post. If its a warm boot I can get it upto 500Mhz no problem (either relax the timings or bump the voltage upto 2.3V, or both, still just guessing so far). Likewise if I am in windows and the timings or voltage is right I can use ClockGen to set it at 500 or so.

Problem is if I shut down and cold boot on I get 1 long beep followed by 3 short ones then it sits there and won't finish the post. I need to flip the switch on the psu to get it to come back, when it does it says OC Failed. For me to get it anywhere above 400 I need to set it to 400, reboot (warm), and then get back into bios and set it from there, THEN it might boot into windows.

The thing is the ram is perfectly stable at those speeds and voltages, I'm typing this on 475x7. All the sites with code descriptions say its an error above the first 64k of mem.

Right now if I want an OC thats about 400Mhz I need to warm boot all the time. That really sucks. I think I remember seeing that you don't want to be in the 350-399 or 401-470 range so I'm kinda stuck at 3.2Ghz for now (I can't do 3.6 without a lot of heat)

Any ideas / Is this normal ?

[nutcase]

if you are getting that code, The most likely culprit is the Ram settings. Or it could be a bug in the Bios also.

what yiou should do is play with each memory setting in Bios and see if the cold boot problem goes away. if I remember right, there was a Cold boot problem on the P5B but I will have to go look what the fix was.

here is a good long thread on the P5B deluxe:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=115217

[shimmishim]

The P5B deluxe is a very quirky board.

The most interesting thing about the p5b is that it implements the 1333/1600 strap above 400 mhz... this is how this board is able to clock so high compared to the 975x chipset boards.

Tony aka bigtoe had a thread about this a while ago but I'm not quite sure where it went (used to be in the ocz forum).

When you boot up at 400 mhz, your board is running off of the 1066 strap and if you clockgen up from there you will still be using the 1066 strap. the 1066 strap will strain your NB a lot more and prevent you from overclocking as high.

Now if you boot up at 401 mhz, your board will be running off of the 1333/1600 strap and clockgen down, you will still be using the 1333/1600 strap. the 1333/1600 is easier on the NB and will allow you to clock higher.

the best thing to do is set your board to 401 and boot from there.

i am getting this board today and i'll post back when i have more results.

[este]

Right but I thought that being on the lower strap (400Mhz) gave you tighter timings and thus way better performance over 401Mhz? At least thats how I understood it. I thought it didn't matter again until you got near 475Mhz.

I just had a funny deal this morning where it would not boot even to 400, I tried changing all sorts of things and finally I changed the Vcore from 1.35 to 1.3875 and it started right up. It was doing the same 4 beeps as before. Maybe its a memory / processor error ?

Thing is I know this processor is way stable a 1.35 /400Mhz x 8, or even less. But it just would not boot to it.

Maybe I'll see if I can cold boot to 475Mhz x 7 and 1.45VCore. I know thats way to high but maybe it could be a psu problem ? (Speedfan chart shows this thing solid a rock tho)

[shimmishim]

Right but I thought that being on the lower strap (400Mhz) gave you tighter timings and thus way better performance over 401Mhz? At least thats how I understood it. I thought it didn't matter again until you got near 475Mhz.

I just had a funny deal this morning where it would not boot even to 400, I tried changing all sorts of things and finally I changed the Vcore from 1.35 to 1.3875 and it started right up. It was doing the same 4 beeps as before. Maybe its a memory / processor error ?

Thing is I know this processor is way stable a 1.35 /400Mhz x 8, or even less. But it just would not boot to it.

Maybe I'll see if I can cold boot to 475Mhz x 7 and 1.45VCore. I know thats way to high but maybe it could be a psu problem ? (Speedfan chart shows this thing solid a rock tho)

yeah try everything first i agree.

as for performance... you are absolutely right. you want to try to keep the 1066 strap but i don't think you'll be able to get to 475 on the 1066 strap but i could be totally wrong.

give it a try.

just be sure that before you try booting at 475 that you are at 400 or less to be sure you are on the 1066 strap.

if you start at 401 and reboot, you'll still be on the 1333/1600 strap.

[swiftex]

this board has a huge vcore droop, may not be enough juice going to cpu.

i'm at 3.32ghz with e6600 and in bios vcore set at 1.4v shows 1.35 in speedfan.

i think that ram will do ddr-1120 at 2.35v

[este]

It seems that I can get the beeps to go away if I up the VCore as I suspected. Oddly enough I've noticed that sometimes after the beeps it will go ahead an actually load windows, but no vga. Hmmmm...

I need to test the ram more I think,

Mine doesn't 'crap out' anywhere I've seen, but I have a feeling its not stable at 500 5-5-5-15 @ 2.30V

Might have to do with the sub-timings (right now 6-42-10-10-10-10)

I hear fantastic things about this ram, but mine seems just 'OK'.

[este]

Figured it out. It was VGA. Well, not really, but I think a combination of VGA/VCore/PCIe Clock

If I get beeps its usually while PCIe is over 100. I can get it to post if I raise VCore up ~.375V more then what is required to keep it stable.

Now, I lowered PCIe to 96Mhz (b/c of the PCIe 1x problem, FU ASUS!) and to my suprise its been booting great.


As far as my G.Skill goes it seems that the P5B can NOT do 4:5 at 400. Its a known problem. So, I think when I get home I'm going to try for 500x7 1:1 and see if I can get the temps anywhere near acceptable.

I'll be very very happy if I don't have to RMA the GSkill.

It would have been nice to know about these P5B problems before hand, but maybe a newer bios will fix down the line.

[shimmishim]

Can you tell me more about the pci-e 1x thing?

I'm going to install this board tomorrow and i'd like to avoid this problem if possible.

thanks!

[swiftex]

Figured it out. It was VGA. Well, not really, but I think a combination of VGA/VCore/PCIe Clock

If I get beeps its usually while PCIe is over 100. I can get it to post if I raise VCore up ~.375V more then what is required to keep it stable.

Now, I lowered PCIe to 96Mhz (b/c of the PCIe 1x problem, FU ASUS!) and to my suprise its been booting great.


As far as my G.Skill goes it seems that the P5B can NOT do 4:5 at 400. Its a known problem. So, I think when I get home I'm going to try for 500x7 1:1 and see if I can get the temps anywhere near acceptable.

I'll be very very happy if I don't have to RMA the GSkill.

It would have been nice to know about these P5B problems before hand, but maybe a newer bios will fix down the line.

i found the 4:5 divider with the p5b-dl a waste of time that is until a new bios comes out that corrects that issue

1:1 to o/c and 2:3 for everyday use to ramp up cpu and ram

[este]

"i found the 4:5 divider with the p5b-dl a waste of time that is until a new bios comes out that corrects that issue"

Agreed, but I find 2:3 useless for me. I'm currently letting orthos run of 500x7 and 5-5-5-5, but I haven't adjusted the ram timings yet. If I goto 2:3 either my multi isn't high enough (E6600 max is 9) and/or it stresses the ram too much (over 533)

I'm not sure, but I think my temps are getting better (Scythe Infinity + arctic ceramique) so I may stick with 500x7


The PCIe issue is talked about a great deal over at XtremeSystems forums, but no one has found a definite answer as to what causes it. My own speculation is its an initiallization timeout issue with the video card and bios settings. Ie: My 1900XT does it with certain bios settings, but some people can NOT get it to happen regardless of any setting.

For me, I set the PCIe to 96Mhz (I need to look into whether or not this effect performance), and the VCore a little higher then required, VMch to 1.65V (others say this causes it and stick to 1.55) and its usually 16x. But if I crash and warm boot it often comes up 1x.

When you start your system look at CPUz 'Mainboard' tab and make sure the PCIe is running at 16x. I RMA'd a newegg openbox 1900XT b/c of this, had to buy a new card, cost me $30 more. Oh well, now I know.

[swiftex]

"i found the 4:5 divider with the p5b-dl a waste of time that is until a new bios comes out that corrects that issue"

Agreed, but I find 2:3 useless for me. I'm currently letting orthos run of 500x7 and 5-5-5-5, but I haven't adjusted the ram timings yet. If I goto 2:3 either my multi isn't high enough (E6600 max is 9) and/or it stresses the ram too much (over 533)

I'm not sure, but I think my temps are getting better (Scythe Infinity + arctic ceramique) so I may stick with 500x7


The PCIe issue is talked about a great deal over at XtremeSystems forums, but no one has found a definite answer as to what causes it. My own speculation is its an initiallization timeout issue with the video card and bios settings. Ie: My 1900XT does it with certain bios settings, but some people can NOT get it to happen regardless of any setting.

For me, I set the PCIe to 96Mhz (I need to look into whether or not this effect performance), and the VCore a little higher then required, VMch to 1.65V (others say this causes it and stick to 1.55) and its usually 16x. But if I crash and warm boot it often comes up 1x.

When you start your system look at CPUz 'Mainboard' tab and make sure the PCIe is running at 16x. I RMA'd a newegg openbox 1900XT b/c of this, had to buy a new card, cost me $30 more. Oh well, now I know.

that 1x issue is an oddity, more often than nought, when it happens just drop fsb 1 notch cold boot and that usually cures it. when you keep screwiing around with settings in bios it tends to surface (1x). i just set pci-e to auto and leave it.

you will drive yourself nuts with all the other stuff suggested

[este]

I've tried that, but I seem to get it anytime PCIe is on Auto.

Plus, in your case I don't think its the action of dropping the FSB as it is more then cold boot.

There is that event when you change the bios, on the next boot it starts for a half second and shuts off. I think there it is either setting or resetting some variable that might require a reboot (no idea which one), THAT action seems to clear it back to 16x for me,

But I can't get 16x on Auto when overclocked. Like I said, its not 1 variable, its a combination. Your combo just happens to be right on the boarder of working and not it seems.

[shimmishim]

i wonder if it's video card specific...

so far from what i've seen, people with nvidia cards dont' seem to have this problem as often as people with ati cards

i have a 7900gt and have yet to see this 1x problem at fsb's between 400 and 475.

i haven't checked lower

[este]

Yes. You are correct.

I have read almost every forum that people are talking about it and have concluded it is WAY more likely to be a problem with an ATI card.

I haven't even booted to lower then 400 on purpose ever

Right now I'm at 500x7 5-5-5-5 and if I reboot and get the beeps I get 1x, cold boots or warm boots with no beeps (seems to be random at this voltage and speed) its 16x.

Just the same for me since 400x8 4-4-4-4 runs cool and that extra 300Mhz isn't detectable in games or most anything anyway. Plus then no mater what I do I get 16x (provided PCIe is 96Mhz)

I'll test later to see if maybe I can get 97/98/99/100+ work as well.