I am brand new to building computers. My new mobo is an Asus A88X-Pro, and my RAM is G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600.
After installing everything, and starting it up, my monitor says "no signal detected" and goes into standby. So I open up the case and see Q-code 66 on the motherboard.
I look up that Q-code in the mobo manual and it says "CPU DXE initialization is started." I have no idea what that means, and a google search doesn't help me, so I call ASUS tech support.
At first, ASUS has no idea what that code means either, so after a long wait they determine that it has to do with my RAM. They tell me that because my ram is not on the QVL, I need to replace the ram. So my first question is (1) Is that really a thing? Has anyone else purchased perfectly good *brand new* RAM, and because it's not on the QVL, it doesn't work with that motherboard?
So, I tried switching the slots that the two RAM sticks were plugged into, I tried placing them individually in each of the four slots by themselves. Same code every time. Since that didn't work, ASUS suggested that the mobo may be grounded out, but I used the 9 standoffs, so I was sure that wasn't the issue. So, finally they told me that I needed to flashback the bios. (2) What is flashing back the bios, and what does that do? (I haven't tried that yet)
(3) Has anyone else had this experience? Any suggestions? (4) Is it possible/likely that the DIMM slots on my motherboard are just bad?
After installing everything, and starting it up, my monitor says "no signal detected" and goes into standby. So I open up the case and see Q-code 66 on the motherboard.
I look up that Q-code in the mobo manual and it says "CPU DXE initialization is started." I have no idea what that means, and a google search doesn't help me, so I call ASUS tech support.
At first, ASUS has no idea what that code means either, so after a long wait they determine that it has to do with my RAM. They tell me that because my ram is not on the QVL, I need to replace the ram. So my first question is (1) Is that really a thing? Has anyone else purchased perfectly good *brand new* RAM, and because it's not on the QVL, it doesn't work with that motherboard?
So, I tried switching the slots that the two RAM sticks were plugged into, I tried placing them individually in each of the four slots by themselves. Same code every time. Since that didn't work, ASUS suggested that the mobo may be grounded out, but I used the 9 standoffs, so I was sure that wasn't the issue. So, finally they told me that I needed to flashback the bios. (2) What is flashing back the bios, and what does that do? (I haven't tried that yet)
(3) Has anyone else had this experience? Any suggestions? (4) Is it possible/likely that the DIMM slots on my motherboard are just bad?