[Rampage V Edition 10] UEFI boot time / Direct Key

[aan3kk]

Hi everybody,

I have the Rampage V Edition 10 and after getting an M.2 SSD I finally could disable the Intel Raid and thus disable UEFI-CSM. For sure I reinstalled Windows 10 onto the new SSD.

Both of my notebooks boot into windows login screen within 2 - 5 seconds from S5 (power off) state. I hoped my high-end gaming PC would do the same. While booting up got greatly improved by disabling UEFI-CSM It still takes way too long and doesn't look like it's working as intended.

Sometimes the boot logo shows up with the typical "Press F2 or DEL to enter BIOS" text but most of the time it doesn't show up at all and even hammering on DEL doesn't go into BIOS. Fast Boot is enabled (BIOS and WIndows 10) but since it's only active when doing a "Power Off" in Windows and is disabled when just "Restart" I don't think it that something to do with that. The BIOS delay is set to 5 sec.

I haven't overclocked anything and set all possible settings for a fast boot. Sadly I cannot disable SATA Support completely (I don't have any) so I had to set it "Boot Drive Only". I even have disabled both SATA controllers in the PCH Storage settings. After that I wanted to set the USB Support setting. I have Disabled, Full Initialization and Partial Initialization. I want to set it to Disabled to the improved boot speed but then (I guess) I can't access the BIOS anymore.

That's why I checked into the DirectKey feature of the board. At the end of the Boot settings menu is an entry called "DirectKey (DRCT)" with the following description:
[Enabled]: Allow the system to turn on and go to the BIOS setup directly when the reset button is pressed. Connect the 2-pin connector of the chassis reset button cable to the onboard DRCT header to support this function.
[Disabled]: The system will only turn on or off when the reset button is pressed.

I had a really hard time finding this header. I guess there isn't one (or is it on the back of the board?). I then started using the KeyBot II software which includes the DirectKey feature too. I'm sorry to say that but that software is useless. First of all because the functions (I only need DEL to go into BIOS) are ONLY enabled once the software is started, thus you have to log into Windows. If you shut down your PC before you logged into Windows the keys won't work. Secondly it doesn't even work correctly. I pressed DEL for 2 seconds and the PC powered on but instead of going into the BIOS it normally booted into Windows. And finally it only works with basic USB keyboards not - for example - with these Logitech Unifying USB dongles for wireless keyboards. Thank god I had a spare and simple USB keyboard.

Am I doing it wrong?

P.S. In the Advanced > APM Configuration menu I set ErP Ready to "Enable(S5)". I heard that's required to get DRCT working.

Thank you all very much in advance!

[namoi]

Strange, on my x99 strix it works as advertised.
When i press the reset switch the pc turn off. When powered on it boot straight to the bios.

I know i have disabled that hybrid power off feature of windows though. Maybe it is what prevent it to work as your pc didn't really shut down when you press the reset switch.

Worth a try to disable it and see if it works.

[midlife_crisis]

namoi wrote:
Strange, on my x99 strix it works as advertised.
When i press the reset switch the pc turn off. When powered on it boot straight to the bios.

I know i have disabled that hybrid power off feature of windows though. Maybe it is what prevent it to work as your pc didn't really shut down when you press the reset switch.

Worth a try to disable it and see if it works.

You mean the "Fast startup" option in Windows. Yeah, I've got it disabled for a long time, strangely it causes "Windows was not properly shutdown" errors on this one system, on different Microsoft OS too, i don't know why, I'd guess it's the motherboard (Rampage V edition 10 btw), but I haven't had the time to troubleshoot further. Anyway, the problem is that in the manual it's advertised a "DRCT header" nowhere to be found.

[aan3kk]

midlife_crisis wrote:
You mean the "Fast startup" option in Windows. Yeah, I've got it disabled for a long time, strangely it causes "Windows was not properly shutdown" errors on this one system, on different Microsoft OS too, i don't know why, I'd guess it's the motherboard (Rampage V edition 10 btw), but I haven't had the time to troubleshoot further. Anyway, the problem is that in the manual it's advertised a "DRCT header" nowhere to be found.

I have it enabled and it works without problems. Also on my second PC (which also has a R5E10). My "last bios time" for a "Powered Off -> Booting normally" is 31 seconds - but I have some programs on autorun that slows it down a bit.

Do note that Fastboot isn't active when you restart your PC but only when you boot from powered off state.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

aan3kk wrote:
My "last bios time" for a "Powered Off -> Booting normally" is 31 seconds - but I have some programs on autorun that slows it down a bit.

OK that sounds about right...the 51 seconds above didn't sound normal...

Unfortunately goes with the territory on the more advanced platforms...has nothing to do with SSD speed etc. simply more complex training more memory etc.

[midlife_crisis]

aan3kk wrote:
I have it enabled and it works without problems. Also on my second PC (which also has a R5E10). My "last bios time" for a "Powered Off -> Booting normally" is 31 seconds - but I have some programs on autorun that slows it down a bit.

Do note that Fastboot isn't active when you restart your PC but only when you boot from powered off state.

@aan3kk

Are you sure that "Reliability Monitor" doesn't show any error? If so, that's very helpful to know. I'll have to think of something else... The fact is that I get those errors even immediately after a clean Windows installation and on UEFI default settings. I remember I tried different drivers and checked for faulty RAM, but it was OK. I recently swapped GPU and storage drives as well, but I still get those errors. I'm using 1801 BIOS version, btw. You?

About the boot time, 30 sec is the same figure I get from power off.

[aan3kk]

midlife_crisis wrote:
@aan3kk

Are you sure that "Reliability Monitor" doesn't show any error? If so, that's very helpful to know. I'll have to think of something else... The fact is that I get those errors even immediately after a clean Windows installation and on UEFI default settings. I remember I tried different drivers and checked for faulty RAM, but it was OK. I recently swapped GPU and storage drives as well, but I still get those errors. I'm using 1801 BIOS version, btw. You?

About the boot time, 30 sec is the same figure I get from power off.

I did use 1701 and now 1801. No problems. And after I disabled "ASUS MultiCore Enhancement" Fast Boot finally works.

[midlife_crisis]

aan3kk wrote:
I did use 1701 and now 1801. No problems. And after I disabled "ASUS MultiCore Enhancement" Fast Boot finally works.

aan3kk, unfortunately, it was disabled but I ran into the errors anyway.

However, a few days ago, after so much efforts and time spent, I’ve finally figured this one out: the very cause of this and some other minor issues affecting my PC all this time was the Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard. I just bought one from another manufacturer, clean-installed Windows 10 and the latest Nvidia drivers 390.77, and all is working fine, even the Fast Boot feature which was so problematic in the past. Finally, no more BSODs, no more annoyances and bullsh*t (like the SupremeFX Hi-Fi istance). I don’t know, there is a remote chance I was doing something wrong (and I tried resetting and updating and tweaking to the exhaustion, without any significant documentation to be found), but I more inclined to assume that this particular product is just bad (and I’m being polite).

After this, I'll stay away from ASUS motherboards for a bit. On paper this MB was awesome, but, for me at least, it's just been a PITA and I should just have ditched it sooner, as from the very beginning going on it’s been showing one of the worst driver support I’ve ever seen in my life, and I even RMAed it a while back for networking related issues.

[Arne_Saknussemm]

Did you get your boot time sorted?

I have fast boot and fast startup disabled on that board and last BIOS time in task manager is 25 seconds.

[aan3kk]

Regarding the Boot Time I found out that the ASUS MultiCore Enhancement is preventing Windows Fast Boot to work at all.

See https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?99760-Rampage-V-Edition-10-plenty-of-problems&p=703746#pos...

[aan3kk]

I fully agree with you. The motherboard looks awesome and is even better on paper but once you use it it is just mediocre. The support (I'm talking about the German support) is either completely crap or just for this Mainboard. I created a thread about my issues and linked in my previous posting. Support told me to get the latest drivers for ASMedia USB3.0 from a website of a PC Magazine. Boy, I can google myself. If ASMedia would provide the drivers themself there wouldn't be a problem because I always get the drivers directly from the manufacturer of the chip and not from the Mainboard manufacturer (since those drivers are known to be outdated).

I don't have that many issues as you have, maybe because I did not installed any ASUS driver beside the Ai Charger+ (which isn't developed by ASUS itself). I don't use the SupremeFX Hi-Fi but the onboard soundcard but I also use the Windows 10 drivers here. And for the most other parts I directly went to Intel to get the latest drivers.

I'm a long-time ASUS customer (20+ years) and I was always happy with ASUS and the support they provided but now especially the support is pure crap and completely useless and I'm also thinking about leaving ASUS behind and go to a different manufacturer. For sure I had some Mainboards that weren't good, for example one with a nVIDIA nForce 2 chipset. It wasn't ASUS fault but nVIDIA and that's why there's no nForce anymore. Or the P4B533-E which was prone to blown Elkos but again this was a general problem through all manufacturers, that's why we have capped Elkos today.
I do have a second R5E10. The problem there is that the white foil between the PCH heatsink and the LED PCB below is missing, thus the LED light is not smoothed out but you can see the PCB below. Minor problem, easily to fix but ASUS support told me to return the Mainboard to the vendor. After I asked them if they're serious about me completely disassembling my PC just for a tiny white foil and telling them that it's not the vendors fault but ASUS QA failed doing their job they simply replied with how I can RMA the motherboard.

Hell, I even bought complete custom watercooling blocks for the R5E10 from EKWB. One monoblock (VRM + CPU + PCH) and single blocks (one for VRM, one for CPU, one for PCH).

ASUS support is not supporting anymore but just redirecting customers to 3rd parties so that they have to care about the customer. I expect more. For a Mainboard that costs nearly 500€ I except even more and especially for loyal and long-term customers I expect even much more.
For example "Dear customer, we'll contact ASMedia to get the most recent drivers. If the problem is not solved with these new drivers please contact us again and we'll happily assist you in solving this." or "I'm sorry to hear our QA failed to spot this flaw. If you are ok with this I could send you either the whole PCH heatsink or just the plastic inlay depending on what you prefer. If that is not what you want I kindly ask you to RMA your Motherboard so we can send you a replacement before you have to send in your current Mainboard."

It's the 10th Anniversary of ASUS ROG and they nearly don't support it at all.