Asus a8n-e..

[Viperoni]

Originally posted by: Amaroque

Originally posted by: Viperoni
I'm using BIOS 1005, and I think I have an issue with my drive's spinning down and then not spinning up when they're supposed to. I was getting freezing like symptoms after I'd leave the computer for a little while (much more time than the HD spin down time I set), and then not being able to open IE windows, My Computer, etc. MSN would still work, but eventually the whole thing would freeze and even if I tried to power down, the HD light came on and flickered a bit, but it wouldn't shutdown.

Ran chkdsk /r on both drives (WD 200 and 250gb 8mb SATA's) as well.
The windows install is 2 days old, with the latest NForce drivers from Asus's website.

Also, I have a super low +12v rail it seems.

I adjusted my PS so that it puts out 11.80 and 5.06, at the BIOS post I get 11.56 and 4.85, however SiSoft Sandra tells me 11.29 and 4.85.
Measuring at a Molex connector with a Digital VOM shows taht +12v never drops below 11.77v under any amoutn of load, and +5 never goes below 5.04.

As I understand, the voltage monitor is after the MB's voltage regulator, so it's possible that the board's voltage regulators are just not putting out the power?

ASUS has been known to use the highest quality voltage regulators, so I wouldn't immediately suspect that. Hard drives randomly spinning up and down is most likely your 12v rail. I had this problem with an A7N8X-E board. After I replaced the PSU, the problem never came back.

I kinda doubt that too, well I hope it's just reading low.
Interestingly, I have an 80mm quad blue LED fan connected to a Chassis fan header, and I measured 11.70 volts across it.... when the +12v was measuring 11.80 at both a HD Molex and the +12v 4pin MB Molex connectors.

The HD's aren't throwing any SMART codes, but the chipset fan on the board and small fan on my X600 make it impossible to hear if the discs actually are spinning up and down.

 

[samio]

Thanks Amaroque

I hope it will be fixed on next BIOS release.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: Fisher999
Is this thread ONLY for those with the "E" version of the Asus A8N-XXX ??? I own the A8N-SLI but won't be using it for SLI but may have other problems in common with the A8N-E users. Do we "SLI" version owners have to start our own thread or are we welcome here ???

Greg

You already have a much bigger thread for your board, IIRC. This one is great because it gives us a place to discuss our (seemingly) much less popular board.

Firstly, I asked the OP of this thread if I could join this thread, not YOU proviafan.

Secondly, I don't know what IIRC means. Are you taking about some form of internet relay chat ???

Thirdly, I made it very clear that I bought my A8N-SLI board NOT for SLI and it has obviously has a lot more in COMMON with the A8N-E (nf4 ulra) as opposed to, let's say, the MSI K8N Ne04 Platinum (nf4 ultra) so THAT's why I'm interested in joining/viewing this thread.

Fouthly, I don't think that there is a law that can prevent anyone from allowing me to partcipate in this thread; I've got to remember to ask my attorney-brother that when he visits today.

Finally, why are you being such an a** ???

Greg

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Fisher999
Firstly, I asked the OP of this thread if I could join this thread, not YOU proviafan.

The same thing prevents me from answering that prevents you from posting here: nothing.

Secondly, I don't know what IIRC means. Are you taking about some form of internet relay chat ???

Since you're being a bigger ass than I was, you can find this easily on google. Acronyms are not limited to chat rooms, in case you hadn't figured that out already.

Thirdly, I made it very clear that I bought my A8N-SLI board NOT for SLI and it has obviously has a lot more in COMMON with the A8N-E (nf4 ulra) as opposed to, let's say, the MSI K8N Ne04 Platinum (nf4 ultra) so THAT's why I'm interested in joining/viewing this thread.

Seventhly, if you want to ask, go right ahead... you'll get a better and faster answer in any of the many A8N-SLI threads around, but if you want to ask in a thread about a board that does have numerous differences from your own, go right ahead...

Fouthly, I don't think that there is a law that can prevent anyone from allowing me to partcipate in this thread; I've got to remember to ask my attorney-brother that when he visits today.

Finally, why are you being such an a** ???

If you thought my post was bad, check out P&N... I was trying to point out that there are better places to find help about the A8N-SLI than in this thread. If you want to be a much bigger ass about insisting on posting in the less-ideal location, nothing prevents you. :roll:

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

dude, proviafan was trying to help you. quit being an ass.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
dude, proviafan was trying to help you. quit being an ass.

Dude, HE is the ass, as proved by his response to my post. I just wanted him to prove it and he did, LMFAO.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
...Seventhly, if you want to ask, go right ahead... you'll get a better and faster answer in any of the many A8N-SLI threads around, but if you want to ask in a thread about a board that does have numerous differences from your own, go right ahead...

There are more things in COMMON between our two boards then there are differences.

However, I won't see your response to this post as I have "unsubscribed" from this thread. Even the title of this thead tells me what I already know about most of the members of this forum.

That is, MOST of you are barely old enough to be out of your diapers. In fact, many of you are probably STILL wearing your diapers.

 

[Viperoni]

I don't see a problem with posting problems with the SLI's in this thread, assuming of course that the problem is one which A8N-E owners could have (IE: SLI related issues would be pointless, whereas SATA corruption issues would not).

 

[ProviaFan]

Sure, one can post -SLI issues in the -E thread, but I am convinced that there are subtle differences between the two (note: they use different BIOSes, why so if they are nearly identical?), having seen in various places issues that plague one board but not the other. If you post in here for help, there's no guarantee that any solution we suggest would even apply, let alone work. Given that there are numerous -SLI threads on the front page already, and starting a new one with your specific issue takes even fewer clicks than replying to an existing thread, I think it would be more helpful to anyone with an -SLI board to be talking to the [seemingly larger] population of AT'ers who have -SLI boards. That someone has a very thin skin, and an ability to read animosity into comments where none was intended, is their problem - not mine.

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
I don't see a problem with posting problems with the SLI's in this thread, assuming of course that the problem is one which A8N-E owners could have (IE: SLI related issues would be pointless, whereas SATA corruption issues would not).

THANK YOU Viperoni! As I have pointed out TWICE now; I do not and will not even be using the SLI function of my A8N-SLI (for reasons not worth getting into now). I still believe I could benefit from this thread and I think ProviaFan is making an issue out of this because he is somehow "miffed" that more people chose to purchase the SLI versions of the A8N board than the "E" verions. As he himself said in his first insensitive response to my first post in this thread:

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
...You already have a much bigger thread for your board, IIRC. This one is great because it gives us a place to discuss our (seemingly) much less popular board.

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
Sure, one can post -SLI issues in the -E thread, but I am convinced that there are subtle differences between the two...That someone has a very thin skin, and an ability to read animosity into comments where none was intended...

By you own admission ProviaFan, the differences between the boards are "subtle". Your comment about my "...ability to read animosity into comments where none was intended..." may be true and for that I apologize. I do think, however, that your response to my initial post was insensitve as best and just plain rude at worst.

I, however, stooped down to your level and that was my "problem".

I retract the "diaper" comment. That comment and the other negative comments are born of my intitial feeling of being "unwelcome" when ProviaFan responded to my initial post.

I apologize again.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Fisher999
THANK YOU Viperoni! As I have pointed out TWICE now; I do not and will not even be using the SLI function of my A8N-SLI (for reasons not worth getting into now). I still believe I could benefit from this thread and I think ProviaFan is making an issue out of this because he is somehow "miffed" that more people chose to purchase the SLI versions of the A8N board than the "E" verions. As he himself said in his first insensitive response to my first post in this thread:

I don't care what you choose - it does not matter to me one single bit. Way to go reading more into the post than was there :thumbsdown:

For that matter, knowing what I know now, I might have even gone with a different type of board entirely, due to issues that affect the A8N-E but not the A8N-SLI.

Go ahead and turn this into the A8N-SLI thread, I shouldn't care... Thanks to what I've learned from folks here, my board is running just fine at stock (overclocking is another A8N-E-specific issue, that doesn't even affect all A8N-E users), so if I have any issues I'll make my own specific thread about it. Oops, got to go now, my parents want to put me to bed... :roll:

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Viperoni
The HD's aren't throwing any SMART codes, but the chipset fan on the board and small fan on my X600 make it impossible to hear if the discs actually are spinning up and down.

I knew of the A8N-SLI NB issue before I installed this MB. So before I did anything with the new MB, I installed a ZM-NB47J. So I've never even heard ASUS's infamous NB fan.

If you have a different PSU you can use, I'd start there. 11.7-11.8v is a bit low. Especially being that you know it's a true 11.8 (assuming you used a DMM).

 

[ProviaFan]

The very low quality NB fan is one thing that most ASUS boards seem to have in common...

Amaroque, did you use Zalman's thermal paste, or something else? I am wondering if my NB47J would cool better with AS5 (I used the Zalman stuff because I forgot that I didn't have any more AS3 and also forgot to order any AS5); I'm also considering a slow and quiet 40mm fan, such as the Papst model in that size, for improved cooling.

 

[Amaroque]

That's pretty much exactly what I did. I used AS5 from the start. I also put a low RPM 486 CPU fan on it sideways (blowing towards the rear of the board). I mounted it with some longer screws, between the HS fins. It's completely silent, and cool to the touch.

With the NB47J alone, the HS got very hot to the touch. So you will need to provide an additional low RPM fan, or some other form of air turbulence around it. With this type of setup, the NB stays much cooler then stock (I'm sure this helps my OC quite a bit also).

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
...Oops, got to go now, my parents want to put me to bed... :roll:

Roll your eyes all you want to child, in your own rig profile one of the computers is named "Parent's System"; so go to bed 13 year old before your curfew runs out...

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Fisher999

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
...Oops, got to go now, my parents want to put me to bed... :roll:

Roll your eyes all you want to child, in your own rig profile one of the computers is named "Parent's System"; so go to bed 13 year old before your curfew runs out...

You don't exactly have the best skill at guessing ages either, I see. BTW, that system was put in there a few years ago when I was a bit younger... Either way, you're obviously digging really hard to find stuff to throw at me. I suspect next you'll spend a few hours combing through everything I've posted in the past few months to find more stuff to attempt to embarrass me. I'm done responding to this nonsense, and unlike folks who say they're going to quit but instead come back for more, I mean exactly what I said. No if's, and's, or but's.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Amaroque
That's pretty much exactly what I did. I used AS5 from the start. I also put a low RPM 486 CPU fan on it sideways (blowing towards the rear of the board). I mounted it with some longer screws, between the HS fins. It's completely silent, and cool to the touch.

With the NB47J alone, the HS got very hot to the touch. So you will need to provide an additional low RPM fan, or some other form of air turbulence around it. With this type of setup, the NB stays much cooler then stock (I'm sure this helps my OC quite a bit also).

My NB47J is indeed uncomfortably hot to the touch. I am glad to hear that a small, low RPM fan is quite effective in keeping the NB heat under control.

 

[Viperoni]

I've been able to narrow down my problem somewhat, I get 7 of these errors on my HardDisk1 (my 250gb WD SATA, my storage/non-boot drive)

I've already run chkdsk /r on it, and still got a couple errors after that, but I'll try it again. I don't recall the HD ever giving me those errors when I had it running off an Epox 8rda3+.

 

[amheck]

I've been thinking how to mount a small fan to blow on the Zalman Northbridge heatsink. Do you think it'd be possible to get the small Pabst fan that everyone talks about and then either super glue or epoxy it to the heatsink itself? Or would the Zalman FB123 Fan Bracklet assembly be a good idea to cool the NB47J?

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: amheck
I've been thinking how to mount a small fan to blow on the Zalman Northbridge heatsink. Do you think it'd be possible to get the small Pabst fan that everyone talks about and then either super glue or epoxy it to the heatsink itself? Or would the Zalman FB123 Fan Bracklet assembly be a good idea to cool the NB47J?

Amaroque used long screws, which is what I am planning to do; epoxy or super glue would be a bit too permanent for my preferences, but I suppose they would work. A larger fan on the Zalman bracket might also work, but I'm not sure how much difference it would make unless your case didn't have much airflow around the NB to begin with. A blowhole in the side of the case near the NB position seems to also provide good results (perhaps slightly better than the Zalman bracket because you're pulling in fresh air rather than recirculating warmer air), but I don't have a Dremel or the time to do a project like that.

 

[dwcal]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan

Originally posted by: Amaroque
I'm using beta 1006-002. Overclocking with an X2 on 1005 is dismal. 1006-002 overclocks great. (see sig)

Does 1006-002 have a working HT multiplier? (on my system, 1005 and 1006-001 seem to be stuck at 5x no matter what I set in the BIOS, lending to easy SATA corruption).

BTW, I noticed earlier that 1006-003 just came out, but haven't gotten around to trying it since I'm busy with a project at the moment.

I just set up my A8N-E and I'm having a problem like yours. I'm running the 1005 BIOS. When I go over 231Mhz bus I can't boot from the PATA drive any more, but I can boot from the CDROM at higher bus speeds if I disable the hard drive. I set the HTT multiplier to 4x and the PCI clock to 33Mhz, but I don't think the PCI bus lock is working. Do you know what utility can monitor PCI bus speed?

Also, Prime95 is running buggy as hell in Windows XP x64. It gives errors even at stock speeds (ILLEGAL SUMOUT). When I run Prime from a Linux boot CD it's stable up to the limits of the CPU.

 

[amheck]

For anyone that's using the Asus Update Utility, can you "downgrade" the BIOS version? I'm running at 1001 and everything is working, as far as my OC''ing stuff. I was considering updating the BIOS via the internet, but I don't want to cause any settings problems and I would like to be able to go back to an earlier version if something gets messed up.

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

you may want to upgrade your BIOS regardless, since v. 1001 doesn't actually support the venice that you're running. Sure, it boots and works fine (mine did), but if you want it identified correctly and want to take advantage of the new instruction sets, you should upgrade to at least BIOS, what was it? 1003? I think that one or anything after that will allow your mobo to i.d. your cpu.

 

[amheck]

Great, thanks for the info. I installed the latest beta BIOS, booted up and all was fine. I then went back into BIOS to change all of the settings I had before, and everything went fine there, too. I booted back up and am at 2.56GHz again. Whew.

On a side note, I have a seperate thread in the CPU forum. I listed the settings I'm using for my OC, but I was hoping to crank it up just a bit more. Is anyone here will to give some advice if I post my current BIOS settings?

 

[imported_Technomancer]

I don't know how smart this is, but I've also got a revision 2 board with a fan running at 8,800 RPM. I disconnected it from the power and installed a Tri-cool intake fan set to low. My idle temps now are typically 35 C for CPU and 36 C for mobo, the highest loads I've seen are 46 C for CPU and maybe 42 C for mobo, without the mobo fan on. Is this alright?