P8P67 Pro BIOS issue (and possible fix)

[Spad]

This is not so much as a problem right now, as a mystery. I recently built a new system around the P8P67 Pro board, using an i5 2400 processor and 16GB of Patriot DDR 3 1600 ram.

It works well, except for one issue - It almost always refuses to boot into the BIOS, and instead seems to ignore my attempts to access BIOS and goes right into booting the system. Small issue, but this board is great for overclocking, and being an aficionado that likes to tinker, I access the BIOS quite a bit more then the average person.

After much research and grinding/gnashing of teeth, I have found the problem vanishes when the computer is hooked to a monitor via a standard VGA port. Seems to only be an issue when connected to a HDMI port (same monitor). I have no idea why. I've updated the BIOS, tried booting without the secondary hard drive connected, the works. Nothing I tried corrected the issue . . . just the monitor thing.

Most of what I've seen on the 'net point to it being an issue with the new (EFI) BIOS. Seems like there should be another way around it, though.

any ideas? I'm still fiddling with it. I'll post back if I come up with a cause/fix for it.

[gloozit]

I have that board, junked. I had many problems, with it.
It was a hand me down, so the problems, may not have been the boards fault. I could not get my graphics card to work, but I could get an AGP card to work. Pretty similar to what you are getting, but not exactly.
After finding mashed pins, in the video slot, I junked it.
It did seem like a nice board, but there are a ton of threads about various troubles with it

[Spad]

Originally Posted by gloozit

. . . It did seem like a nice board, but there are a ton of threads about various troubles with it

True that. Seems like when it these boards came out there were many problems, especially the SATA 3 ports failing after a short time. With the research I did it seems the B3.0 revision corrected the issues. I typed in error, by the way . . . it's a P8P67 Deluxe board, not a Pro (my kids bought it for me). But the issues are the same with both boards from what I've read; both pre-revision 3.0 and this odd booting glitch. They are pretty much the same board, after all.

Other then the booting thing, the board rocks. I've not had any other issues with it at all. This thing is so easy to overclock it's scary! Not really keen on the Marvel SATA 6 ports, but as there are two other SATA 6 ports on the board I can live with it.

[Digerati]

That is not an uncommon problem. I have seen it with MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte boards, with DVI and with HDMI (and most often with earlier ViewSonic LCD monitors - though not sure that means anything).

The problem is typically due to communications problems between the graphics solution, and the monitor.

When you first boot, or when you boot into the BIOS, you are using very basic, analog, standard VGA resolutions. DVI and HDMI, of course, use digital. But during the early boot and BIOS menu, your digital drivers have not been loaded yet as the hard drive has yet to be touched. If your monitor does not receive, or does not recognize an analog input, you get a blank screen. I have also seen where only about 1/4 of the display is seen during boots and when in the BIOS Setup Menu (the other 3/4 is way off the screen). My last Gigabyte board was like that. I had to swap in my ViewSonic analog to be able to view the Menu options.

The only solution (assuming all drivers are current) is to try a different monitor/graphics solution, establish an analog connection for these times, or use a different monitor during these times.

One more thing that has caused me to pull my hair out. On cards with multiple outputs used in multi-monitor setups, I have seen where the BIOS Setup Menu insists on being tossed up on the secondary monitor. BUT, because Windows has not loaded yet, the drivers have not been loaded to fire the secondary monitors. So, if you have more than one graphics port, you might see if the 2nd port works. However, you may have to go into the card's setup and swap primary and secondary monitors around.

They are pretty much the same board, after all.

Yeah, but there can be significant differences between revisions too. They may use a totally different disk, memory or I/O controller on the new revision, for example. This often results in different BIOS updates for each revision - something to pay attention to when updating, for sure.

[Spad]

Originally Posted by Digerati

That is not an uncommon problem. I have seen it with MSI, ASUS, and Gigabyte boards, with DVI and with HDMI (and most often with earlier ViewSonic LCD monitors - though not sure that means anything). . .

Interesting about ViewSonic monitors, I'd not heard that. I've never had this issue with the older BIOS, just the EFI or "BIOS 2" as some call it.

Originally Posted by Digerati

. . . The problem is typically due to communications problems between the graphics solution, and the monitor.

The only solution (assuming all drivers are current) is to try a different monitor/graphics solution, establish an analog connection for these times, or use a different monitor during these times . . .

Tried that. I started out with a Radeon HD4870 card, and had the BIOS issue. Has some other HDMI issues with the card though, so I decided to replace it with a HD 6850 I picked up on the cheap. Same BIOS issue, but ONLY when connected to an HDMI port. I don't have another HDMI capable monitor to try . . . but your heads up about problems with one specific brand monitor makes me wonder if it could be a monitor issue, and not so much the board.

Originally Posted by Digerati

One more thing that has caused me to pull my hair out. On cards with multiple outputs used in multi-monitor setups, I have seen where the BIOS Setup Menu insists on being tossed up on the secondary monitor. BUT, because Windows has not loaded yet, the drivers have not been loaded to fire the secondary monitors. So, if you have more than one graphics port, you might see if the 2nd port works. However, you may have to go into the card's setup and swap primary and secondary monitors around.

Yes, I did try that - both on the 4870, and then on the 6850 (which has 4 outputs) . . . same BIOS issue.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Yeah, but there can be significant differences between revisions too. They may use a totally different disk, memory or I/O controller on the new revision, for example. This often results in different BIOS updates for each revision - something to pay attention to when updating, for sure.

Very true. I was speaking in context of the problems reported by users of both boards before the 3.0 revision - the issues were the same for both versions. But starting with the 3.0 rev, it seems those issues were addressed. I love the board - it's sad the series had such a rough debut.

[Digerati]

but your heads up about problems with one specific brand monitor makes me wonder if it could be a monitor issue, and not so much the board.

Well, I don't want to put a stink on ViewSonic. They make great monitors and I have not had that problem with any recent ViewSonics.

I am really disappointed in HDMI. It was created for the home theater to interconnect optical drives, HT receivers, cable boxes and more while reducing the rat's nest of cables. But it NEVER has worked right in home theater systems. Version 1.3 was supposed to fix everything, but didn't. And the big TV/monitor makers' push to jam HDMI on the computer industry just brought those problems with it.

The big monster DVI cables and surround sound cables were a pain to connect, but gave much fewer problems once done.

HDMI 1.4 came out 3 years ago with more promises of refinement, but I fear it just adds more features instead of fixing and stabilizing the existing features. Maybe that is why 1.4 is taking forever to be adopted.

I think I would reset the BIOS and start over. And I would disable any audio over HDMI - if possible.