Like the title says... I'm now dealing with my second defective Asus Maximus V board, and I'm ready to go in another direction. Both boards - one a Formula, the other a Gene - have the same problem. They're unable to post with memory in Channel 2, which makes it impossible to use dual-channel memory. I've researched this extensively, and it's a known issue with many of these boards (google "maximus v" and "code 55" and you'll see what I mean). I'd mistakenly thought that the first board had bent pins, but that turns out not to be the case - the issue is purely in the code. In addition, it can only apply XMP settings intermittently, only to one DIMM, and then loses the setting randomly.

 

I've never had a problem before with an Asus board but this experience is beyond awful. It's made much worse by Asus' now-nonexistent customer service. Thankfully, the second board is from Micro Center and I can return it. The first one is past the return window at Newegg and trying to RMA through Asus is a non-starter - so far, I've been told by the online form that my serial number doesn't exist, at which point I was dumped from the form into their Mandarin website. Their support forum is ridiculous - it's full of official or quasi-official people telling you that what you need to do is loosen the heatsink or reseat the CPU (been there, done that, tried multiple CPU's and DIMM's, too) or apply the blood of a chicken... No one will acknowledge that the boards are unstable. It's like the old days when you'd call Dell and whatever was wrong with your system, they'd tell you to re-install the operating system - it was like an incantation.

 

But enough ranting - I just want to get away from Maximus and find something that'll be relatively stable and allow a simple Ivy overclock by adjusting CPU voltage. That's it. Even if I could solve the memory issues with the Maximus(es), I'd worry about other instabilities creeping in later (I've heard, for example, about freezes during Windows installs and such).

 

So, to paraphrase Gene Krantz during the Apollo 13 crisis - what have we got in a Z77 that's good?

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

I have always been a Gigabyte user after many issues with Asus.

ASRock or Gigabyte are very solid choices.

The board isn't defective if you have the same symptom with two different boards. The Maximus boards are renowned for their ability to handle a wide variety of overclocked RAM, it's the primary reason I got mine. In your other thread I recall you mentioning it worked in single channel but not dual. This tells me you either have a defective stick or a bad memory controller (CPU).

Thanks, guys. Follow-up question - are there particular Gigabyte and/or ASRock boards you recommend?

 

Also - am I correct that ASRock is now completely separate from Asus? As in, different customer service establishment? That would be a plus, if so.

 

The board isn't defective if you have the same symptom with two different boards. The Maximus boards are renowned for their ability to handle a wide variety of overclocked RAM, it's the primary reason I got mine. In your other thread I recall you mentioning it worked in single channel but not dual. This tells me you either have a defective stick or a bad memory controller (CPU).

 

I take your point, except that this has happened with two different CPUs and two different sets of memory. All the memory checks out in Memtest 86, multiple passes. Apparently this is a very common problem on Maximus boards - I've read about people going through five or six of them trying to find one that doesn't produce the code 55 error. You may have been lucky with yours, or maybe I've been unlucky with mine (as in, there are a couple of bad batches floating around). I'm open to being completely wrong about this, but right now I feel like I need to try a different board, especially if I can get one in exchange through Microcenter at no cost. If that doesn't work, I'll take a tour through CPUs and memory again. Worst case, this will all keep me occupied until Haswell gets here, and by then I'll have a lot of practice in assembling and disassembling systems... :wink:

Holy, Alan... now you have opening a can of worms for me here with this post. Also just bought a maximus v formula board.. If what I read here, It seem that it can also then be a problem for my issue that suddenly appeared. (See my terminal ill GPU post) Maybe it is not my GPU but my MB.

 

Whao where to start to find if this is my problem. ?? Sorry I can somewhat but I have no experience on the inner workings. As long as computor work I am OK but if it picks up illness, I get a bit lost.

That's fine, try the Asrock Z77 Extreme or the Gigabyte Z77 UD series boards if you're set on going with something non-Asus. I had an Extreme 4 and it was a good board, except for the memory compatibility issues ^_^

now you have opening a can of worms for me here with this post. Also just bought a maximus v formula board..

 

Well, I don't want to panic you unduly. Just because I'm having problems with the Maximus MOBOs doen't mean you are... or that you will. From your description in your other post, it sounds like you had the system all put together and running FSX well, which is a lot farther than I've been able to get. So you didn't have my problem at all. Your issue could be hardware, but it could also be that your system is running something in the background and that's interfering with graphics performance. I'm guessing you're testing frames in identical situations (same aircraft, same time of day, same location, same weather theme). If so, open up task manager and see what processes are running. You can also use a program like MSI Afterburner (is that still current?) to check the load on your GPU. Basically, look at software before you look at the motherboard.

 

I should just add for everybody's benefit that the Asus Maximus boards seem to be great when they work. TechGuyMaxC vouches for them and he knows his stuff, so that should count with you if you're thinking about the Maximus series. Also, all motherboard brands/models seem to have issues - read the reviews and you'll find that a certain number of them are always DOA. Frankly, I'd always sworn by Asus - I built three systems on their P6T series boards with no problems at all. My issue at the moment is that this code 55/memory not installed issue seems to come up a lot with the Maximus V family - there are a lot of posts about it in the various forums. And even that wouldn't be so much of an issue if Asus technical support was decent. But it's not - it seems to have gone way south. It's extremely difficult to get a problem diagnosed or get a board RMA'd. So that's why I'm a bit gun-shy. Actually, the biggest lesson may be to order hardware from Amazon, since their return policy is so liberal.

 

If I were you, I'd try googling "maximus V" and some reference to your graphics problem, and see if you get any hits. Again, I'm guessing the issue is elsewhere.

 

Good luck with it, and keep us posted.

 

I had an Extreme 4 and it was a good board, except for the memory compatibility issues

 

Yeah, that's exactly my point - there's no such thing as a MOBO line that's problem-free. So it really comes down to customer service.

 

Thanks for the alternative MOBO recommendations and I'll let you know where it all comes out. I haven't totally given up on the Maximus V Gene - I may go another round or two with it, though I'm at a loss what to try that I haven't tried already. In any case I'm going to move a little slowly and not rush into a solution. I want to make sure I haven't overlooked anything. Am leaning Gigabye but you never know... B)

Never had any luck with Asus, go with this if you like to talk to a human, always there to help if needed, rock solid board especially if you are overclocking - Gigabyte Z77 UD series boards

go with this if you like to talk to a human

 

Thanks. I do. My low point on this round was when the only way I could find out that the prompt said "serial number not recognized" was by cutting and pasting the Mandarin characters into the Google search box. Finding out I was number 90 in line for customer service chat, with a six-hour wait time, that was a close second.

 

So that's good to know about Gigabyte. Votes seem to be running that way. I'll have a look.

 

Thanks again to all, and... Happy New Year! May all your memory be recognized...

Alan there in California fyi go with a Z77 - UD5 if your looking for a Z77 series board if you go Gigabyte, there is a more expensive UD7 but you will need to do your homework on that board as I think its for just serious overclockers - Happy New Year.