New mobo quirks-serious probs ahead?

[hewybo]

Recently had boot problems with an ECS 915P-A mobo. Though I have been burned by BIOS flashes before, I decided to go ahead and try it to fix the problem, after first getting sage advice from one AZ Vigilante. Black screen. Beep code: 2 beeps - pause - 5 beeps. This occurred three times on cold starts, then black screen - no beeps. Reset CMOS jumper, removed battery over night, etc, black screen, no beeps. No problem, Vigilante, I hated the dang thing any way; it's going back to Fry's.

Now: purchased ASUS P5P800, installed, reset Windows XP Pro, set BIOS, almost everything is hunky-dory. Minor (for now) glitches, just don't want them to be symptoms of underlying crisis. The BIOS recognizes my DVDRW DL drive, and my CDRW-ROM drive by name and number, but Windows device manager lists both as generic "CD-ROM drives." It used to know them by name. Tried to run a chip utility from Intel, but it said I have to have an active browser on my system, and none was detected. I have both Firefox and IE 6.0 w/ 4MB broadband connection. Tried to install the ASUS Update Utility, and it says there are no ASUS products detected on the system. ??

These things are not critical, but are annoying, and I'm gunshy after three mobos in two months. There is no coherent info at the ASUS site, and trying to find help from Microsoft is like, well, um,**%#$@@&*(*&^!!! difficult, if not impossible. BTW, according to the ASUS site, I have the latest BIOS installed.

Any ideas about where to look, what to do, or should I just shut up and let ticking crashes lie?
Vigilante- hope you found a ride.

 

[mailpup]

Just checking. Did you install the motherboard drivers?

 

[hewybo]

yup

After previously mentioned hassles, I took care to follow all procedures. I installed ALL options (mobo related, not bundles) from the included CD ROM. Everything seems stable, but these little things worry me. The only d/l shown @ ASUS is the BIOS "update", (same v. I already have) but no additional drivers. ?

 

[Merc14]

Hewybo-
If the BIOS recognizes the drives by name wouldn't that indicate that the mobo is functioning properly but your windows install is not? Afterall, BIOS is the "OS" for the mobo, windows is the OS for the system and device manager is a windows entity. BIOS gets the call right, windows doesn't. My conclusion would be that XP is screwed up. Is your XP CD a SP2 included version or do you you need to download the SP2 portion? If SP2 isn't included you could try streamlining it into the XP CD and doing a reinstall.

 

[hewybo]

no help

Did a "Dynamic Update" of XP Pro a little while ago- no change. This being the third mobo in 3 weeks, I really don't wanna go through a fresh install and the subsequent hassles w/ MS. Like I say, this is irritating, but bearable, as long as it's not an indicator of more serious stuff. Thanks for the input. Oh- yes, the CD includes SP2, so it all loads together.