Is ASUS P5Q PRO a loser?

I guess my signature (with more detailed specs) is getting truncated. Here is the complete setup:

E8500
ASUS PQ5 Pro
4GB Corsair DDR2 800
(TWIN2X4096-6400C5)
EVGA 8800GS
Corsair HX520W PS
2X WD 750GB SATA HD's
XP32 SP3

Hi.
I have no direct experience with the Pro, but I tried a P5Q-EM, and it has all kinds of problems with the Drivers. They don’t even provide some of the drivers, they tell you to get them from SP1,2, like the USB, Graphics etc. I am not sure what is going on at ASUS. It seems that they come from China, that nobody pays enough attention to.
Customer support seems to be non existent, no one replied for over a week, except the auto response. Mine is going back. I’ve been building system since the early 80s, this is the worst I’ve seen. My guess is that it something to do with MS / SPs? TV

@ Big Daddy: Update to the latest Bios, it fixes lots of memory compatibilitys. Make sure you have the USB plugged in right. Never ever use the install all driver option. Go manually down the list!!!!! Install all the drivers.


Sata drives work fine as lond as they are set to run in IDE mode. "Which is default"


@ comware: You obviously dont know how to install drivers! They are all there.


I build systems with both of these boards mentioned, and they work 100% perfect.

I always use the latest Bios, and I never use memory that isn't on the QVL.

Yeah, Asus isn't really new builder friendly. I guess if you're not use to dealing with ASUS it can be a pain ^_^. Still, their budget division, ASRock, is a little more confusing on the support, but I still like their products. Anyway update the BIOS like roadrunner said. The USB header thing seems odd though. Are you hooking up to a USB hub anywhere between your camera and the usb header, since that would diminish the available power. Make sure that it works properly on the rear ports and check to make sure that the USB ports are plugged in properly, especially the ground. Could be a faulty board, it happens. If you want something easier to deal with then RMA it and get a Gigabyte or an MSI.

@ Road-rager -

I'm running latest bios from ASUS website.

I also downloaded very single driver from the website individually and installed them, which as a pain in the *ss, given the sparse explanations given on the website as to which onese should be used in conjunction with others.

The USB connections were checked about 35 times, including using different USB panels....the headers don't have enough power to download from my digital SLR. It had worked fine on my old board (with the same USB panel). The rear USB ports (integrated onto the motherboard) work fine...but I prefer using the front rather than having cable permanetly draped over my desk.

EDIT: Both of my SATA optical drives are having trouble, such as not recognizing disks, causing freezes when I look at properties, etc.

Doesn't AHCI mode give better performance than IDE mode? If I am going to all the trouble of upgradign and doing a new install, I would like to get everythign working up to it's potential, not settle for some backward compatable mode.

My undrestanding is that I can't get AHCI funtionality unless I do a fresh install of XP32 and load drivers at that time. I've built about 20 systems in my life and I've never had to do that unless I was setting up RAID. I could try a repair install, but I'm old fashioned and would like to do it in a way that I know I have a great install that will last for a while.

FYI: I RMA'd the memory and will be replacing it with 2X2GB OCZ (OCZ2P8004GK), which is on the QVL. From reading the forums, people have had good luck with this, as long as they stick with only 4GB.

Perhaps the problems with 8GB is more of a Vista issue. I don't really care because, by the time I need 8GB, I won't be using this MB anyway.

Hey, roadrunner197069

“@ comware: You obviously dont know how to install drivers! They are all there.


I build systems with both of these boards mentioned, and they work 100% perfect.

I always use the latest Bios, and I never use memory that isn't on the QVL.”

You must have been running too much. Before you say / write things you should think about it first. It's one thing to help, another to insult.
Stop running, and try a P5Q-EM installation on an XP home original, no SP1-3, and get back with me. Do you know the difference? It sounds like you are a superficial builder / poster here that likes to say things before you think. TV

I use an ASUS P5Q Pro, never had an issue like that. Only issue I ever had was piss poor OCing ability with the release BIOS, after the first BIOS update that issue was gone.

It's odd that you would have USB power problems, although honestly I use a powered hub for the on-the-fly connections.... and I have the P5Q -E.

I'll add that, although I got everything working well in XP32 SP3, it was a bit of a pain. Vista 64 now.... that was smooth as silk.

I rarely visit XP anymore and will strip it off at some point.

I had no issues downloading photos via the front ports with my last MB. It's not like I'm trying to power a HD or something. It's a digital SLR that has it's own battery.

I'm skipping Windows Me altogether. Oh, I meant to say I'm skipping Vista altogether. I get them confused.  

Any resolution on the USB power issue? I seem to be having the same thing, both back and front USB ports do not spin my external HDD (it works fine on other systems and laptops without auxiliary power) Keyboarrd and mouse work fine, so my guess is there is not enough juice coming out of the USB ports. I have an old ASUS board and you can set the USB reference voltage in the BIOS, I could not find that in the P5Q PRO that I have.

Thanks

hi guys.

i'm having exactly the same problem with my P5Q Pro. my external hdd won't spin either and it does not matter for me if i try the front or the rear/back ports (on my previous board, the P5K Deluxe i did not have such problems).

the only way i can get the hdd to work is to use a cable with 2 usb connectors (both need to plugged in).

that is why i'm almost certain that the USBs don't deliver enough power. does anyone know if this can be changed somewhere ? thanx.

I just built a system using the p5q pro and while I don't agree it's crap; it does seem to have and underpowered usb bus. It is sucessfully overclocking an E8400 stabely at 4100 MHZ. I am using 2 usb headers on the motherboard along with the rear Ports and if you plug things in, they and others will simply stop working. I have a sandisk usb flash drive that has a nice glowing and flashing light on it to sense power and activity - it made it easy to observe. I hope they do come out with a bios update to solve this problem. I am using a powered USB hub as a work around right now.

Good Luck!

I have an ASUS P5Q-e mobo and it worked fine to install on. I didn't use the install disc to install the drivers, I let windows. Also I used OCX Gold Edition 4gb kit RAM and everything worked fine. As far as performance goes it's awesome... overclocks nicely too.

With the new bios version 1613 my e7300 stable only default. used before 1406 and you could in 4 Ghz processor with V=1.375
Know how someone can go back to bios version 1406?. I tried Asus Update but allow me to do to downgrade 1611.

With the new bios version 1613 my e7300 stable only default. used before 1406 and you could in 4 Ghz processor with V=1.375
Know how someone can go back to bios version 1406?. I tried Asus Update but allow me to do to downgrade 1611.

With the new bios version 1613 my e7300 stable only default. used before 1406 and you could in 4 Ghz processor with V=1.375
Know how someone can go back to bios version 1406?. I tried Asus Update but allow me to do to downgrade 1611.

i have got 2 systems using these boards P5Q-PRO both with updated bios to 1613.

the first system is installed with vista 32bit and runs perfectly.
specs. quad 9550 O/c to 3.0g, g260 graphics, 8 gb ram, 3x 1tb hdd,blu ray writer+ 2 optical dirves, 900w psu

second system is installed with xp sp3
specs. quad 9450 O/C to 2.83. geforce 8800gtx, 8 gb ram, 3 x 1tb hdd,1000w psu, blu ray writer+ 2 optical dirves

both machines have very similar specs on a clean install with all updated drives.
i have upgraded both machines from a p5k-e wifi motherboard which had no problems with anything and i have not changed anything.

now the problem is with the second machine. the front usb ports which are connected using the header on the mobo work perfectly ie: my WD passport 250 gb and 320gb self powered using i usb and about 10 flash drives varying from 4 gb to gb.

my problem is with the usb ports on the rear of the mobo. there are 6 and all i connect is a printer, kvm usb switch 2, usb extension cable with nothing connected to the front usb.

but when i try to print it stops half way and seizes up. unplug the printer usb and computer unlocks.
it does this with flash drives etc.

so whats the problem is the board just crap with xp or i have a faulty one

i will try windows 7 and see what happens.
i have built over 100 computers over the last 10 years and upgrade mine every 3 months and this is th e first time i have this problem.

i know i could install vista to solve the problem on this but i dont want to its to slow

Hello everyone!I will tell you my problem which i think is related with the above.I have a P5Q pro and i tried to install Xp 64b.After the installation had been finished i installed the drivers of mobo.During the default restart after completing a part of the drivers,i couldn't use either keyboard or mouse.it has to be a drivers issue since it works properly in bios.And it worked properly until i put the damn cd to install drivers...
Any ideas how to solve it would be more than welcome!!