I have been having problems installing Vista Home Premium 64 bit on my P5Q-E board.

Here is my setup:

Intel Q9450
Asus P5Q-E
4X2Gb Mushkin XP2-8000 Redline
2 X Seagate 500Gb SATA II
BFG 8800 GTS 512
X-Fi XtremeMusic
600w OCZ GameXStream
Vista Home Premium 64bit

I get a BSOD stating that it is due to ntfs.sys. No matter what I try I keep getting BSOD's. This is what I have tried so far:

- Disconnected all devices that was not needed.
- Reduced RAM to 1 stick in first slot
- Flashed to all BIOS's (tried auto first and then manually set spd timings/settings )
- Lowered RAM timings and tried different setting other than spd
- Ran memtest on all RAM for 8 hours and had no errors
- Did a low level format of my hard drive.
- Ran seagate HD tools on the HD.
- Used a brand new hard drive just in case the other one was failing.
- Created a unattend install of Vista and inserted the newest SATA drivers for the board and OS.

I know that the RAM is not on the QVL but there are others that have the same board and RAM.

To prove that there is not an issue with the board and the RAM I have installed XP Pro with the same setup and had no problems.

Has anyone else run into the same problem and have found a solution? Am I missing something really simple here?

I would love to take advantage of my 8Gb of RAM and 64 bit Vista. I say this looking at my Striker Extreme sitting on a shelf (It was rock solid with my Q6600 GO).

are u overclocked at all?
also i had lots of problems with vista x64 with non supported ram types for the main board. vista 32 would run fine. but x64 wouldn't run properly. i cant remember what ram i had exactly.

but i do remember my buddy telling me that if its not on the supported list it don't mean it wont work but could make problems for cretin crucial x64 os files or something along those lines.

i dunno if he was blowing smoke up my arse or what. tho i never did experience any problems with the ram i had. but i did have unexplained blue screens. not vary often but every now and again. i think this maybe the issue he speaks of. i dunno that's my only idea. get some other ram and try that
that's quite the pickle u have there

Weird. Though I have been hearing grumblings about memory compatibility issues with the P5Q series. I'm using G.Skill PK series 6400 without issue. You did allow Vista itself to partition and format the drive correct? Do you have the drive set for AHCI or IDE?

Thanks for the quick replies guys. This one has me pretty frustrated.

No overclock yet.

I had Vista partition the drive and I also partitioned it myself to see if that would help. It is set for IDE.

I guess that Asus is slowly putting out BIOS updates to increase RAM support. I hope that it is soon but won't hold my breath.

Go over to XS, you should find beta bios's posted in the related thread for your board. If not they've been popping up in the P5Q deluxe thread from time to time.

Thanks Doc, checking XtremeSystems forums now.

I got Vista installed but it failed when doing the performance check. I rebooted my computer and as soon as I got back into Vista, services started to fail and then BSOD.

I still haven't been able to resolve this issue and I believe that it is a 64 bit issue and have sent off an trouble ticket to ASUS.

I am unable to install any 64 bit OS (Vista/XP)and couldn't even get it to install in VMware. I have no problems installing 32 bit vista and XP so this tells me that it is not a memory QVL issue. I am interested in what ASUS has to say and will post if I can find a work around or resolution.

You should feel blessed you don't have to deal with Windows Me II SP1a!

This is really weird, because I have Vista Home Premium x64 installed, and about the only difference between the P5Q-E and the Deluxe is 16phase power and the ExpressGate thingy.

Dan,

Try disabling everything non essential in the bios.

Hey Ski, I have tried. I thought it was one of the power saving options at first and turned it all off. The hard drive is set to IDE also and not ACHI too. I will look again though just in case. I am sure it is something simple that I must be overlooking in there.

Dr, yeah the P5Q-E has the express gate it is just not on a SSD so if I was to go raid I would be unable to put it on the array.

Dan, this guy has the same board and same issues as you but also tried other 64 bit OSs. But he seemed to have got it.

http://www.intelforums.com/showpost.php ... stcount=23

Thanks Ski, I will give it a shot tomorrow.

Thought I would give it another shot and got it. I believe that it was a ram issue. It wanted a Row Refresh Cycle Time of 55 and some more volts to the NB. I have it stable now but as soon as I try to play with the FSB when OC'in I get a BSOD.