Zenith Extreme Beta UEFI 0901

[g051051]

ASUS is working on a new UEFI that will support TR2, I assume that will include a new AGESA.

The support from ASUS in this forum is really bad, but on the forum below there are people from both ASUS and AMD.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/11-a...l#post27552252

That's great news... seems to show that the BIOS will be bumped to at least 1303.

[Squall Leonhart]

Hi Raja

There is a reproducible compatibility issue with the Zenith extreme firmware with operating a RTX 2080 in a multiple card configuration.

See
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...d=1#post736985
Where a user is trying ot operate a Titan V in slot one, and a 2080 in slot 3

and
https://forums.geforce.com/default/t...fset=2#5882303

Where the user is trying to run SLI RTX 2080.

[iamweasel]

Hi Raja

There is a reproducible compatibility issue with the Zenith extreme firmware with operating a RTX 2080 in a multiple card configuration.

I have the same issue with 2x Asus Dual RTX 2080 Ti cards loaded in the Zenith board, either card works fine in either Slot1 and Slot3, but inserting both cards at the same time results in POST fail with "0E" code "Load VGA bios" message on the tiny OLED display. No keyboard, can't get past the POST. Removing all 8pin VGA power cables from a card does not help, still no POST, but disabling either pcie slot with DIP switches makes the system boot and work fine.

PSU is ok, all power leads connected to mbo. The same system was stable with 2x poseidon 1080 Ti 's in SLI, only BIOS got updated to 1402 which is the latest non BETA, and the cards are replaced. NVLINK bridge is not installed, as it's yet to arrive, but the problem does not seem to be related to that.

Someone mentioned that there is a BETA bios ready to solve this problem, I wonder if it's true..

[Harley2000]

there is a problem when using two rtx2080 or rtx2080 ti the system wont boot ,if i use one card it works ,there are many users reporting this issue ,on asus rog forum and nvidia forum,evga forum also ,please can you look into this problem

[camulos]

I am also having the issue of being unable to run 2x 2080 Ti cards in my system. I can use the dip switches to disable a PCIE slot of either card (which are plugged into slots 1 and 3 of the x16 slots) and it boots fine. Previously I was running 2x 1080 Ti with no problems.

This issue is not plaguing other manufacturers x399 boards so is not an AMD related issue. I've also been posting on overclock.net https://www.overclock.net/forum/11-a...thread-96.html

elmor has said he will test tomorrow so hopefully he has an answer for us in the next few days.

I've raised a support ticket with ASUS Technical Support and completed the Zenith Extreme bug report form. Knowing that I am not the first to do this and not seeing replies elsewhere makes me wonder if this issue is being taken seriously by ASUS. This is a high end motherboard that costs a not inconsiderable amount and the support has been rubbish.

I was on the edge of loosing hope until the reply from elmor, to which I am very grateful to him for. He has restored a little spark in me for the time being.

The problem was, as far as I can see, first raised by eco_batch on 22.09.18
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthrea...-Load-VGA-Bios

Two full working weeks have passed and to date no official response. It's a real kick in the balls.

[Harley2000]

some one posted this try it see if it works for dual rtx2080 not booting

I can fully boot if I take all RAM out except a stick in slot B1, with both cards in and enabled. Hope this helps. Not a great solution, but it may help ASUS out with troubleshooting.

[Harley2000]

so why is know one from asus listening to us ,they don't reply to emails for ages, they have no proper phone number to ring to actualy speak to someone
i feel like where being left in the dark on this issue ,IF YOUR LISTENING PLEASE SORT THIS PROBLEM OUT ,YOU DON'T REPLY ON HERE WITH ANY UPDATE
NEWS ,IF THIS GOES ON FOR MUCH LONGER IT WILL BE THE LAST ASUS PRODUCT I EVER GET I PAID £480 FOR THIS MOTHERBOARD ,the after sales support
is 0/10 from me

[captaintrips]

so why is know one from asus listening to us ,they don't reply to emails for ages, they have no proper phone number to ring to actualy speak to someone
i feel like where being left in the dark on this issue ,IF YOUR LISTENING PLEASE SORT THIS PROBLEM OUT ,YOU DON'T REPLY ON HERE WITH ANY UPDATE
NEWS ,IF THIS GOES ON FOR MUCH LONGER IT WILL BE THE LAST ASUS PRODUCT I EVER GET I PAID £480 FOR THIS MOTHERBOARD ,the after sales support
is 0/10 from me

I called Asus support the night before last and the agent told me they were receiving many escalations regarding this 2080 issue and their engineering team is currently working on resolution. The only information they could provide me was it is indeed related to nvlink interface incompatibility with current BIOS/board, and users of the 20xx series GPU's, whether multipgpu or single gpu may face issues and instability until BIOS update is released.

They also stated there is other issues related to the 20xx series GPU's and screens going black prior to login screen in windows/drive instability with boards at the moment, and this is affecting other boards as well (not just the ZE) and they are working on BIOS updates for these issues too.

They said to expect BIOS updates "soon" and their L2 teams will keep in touch.

Seems the NVlink interface, regardless of multigpu or single, is causing issues with ASUS mobos in general for many. I suspect they never really added support for it since it was technically outside the scope of the market these boards were intended for (well, until now).

[Harley2000]

might be a glimmer of hope

[captaintrips]

might be a glimmer of hope

Well there's technically already two known workarounds to get nvlink 2080ti's to work on the board... neither of which are prefereable and should only be used for short term until bios patch resolves issue.

(a) if you are not using a 2nd gen Threadripper (29xx series), you can revert back to bios version 1003 and it will work correctly with nvlink enabled. Of course, this is a much older bios, so it can only be recommended for the impatient. Who knows what other performance/bios issues you'll encounter stepping back so far. Of course, the 2nd Gen TR processors require the latest 1402 bios, so not an option for those of us with 2950's and 2990's.

and

(b) Remove all RAM modules except for one in the B1 memory slot. Others have claimed they were able to get nvlink to work correctly by removing all but one memory module in that slot. Of course, this will limit you to either 4GB or 8GB of ram (unless you're uber lucky and have a single 16gb module), but again... it seems to allow nvlink to fuinction in the interim.


The fantastic news is that Asus has already acknowledged the issue and is working on a resolution. And from the fixes above, it seems it really just is a simple mishap in the latest and later BIOS updates upto and including 1402. Seems like it will be a simple fix that they will probably be rolling out shortly. Just be fortunate that it's a bios/software bug and not a hardware bug.