*** Official ASUS A7N8X/Deluxe (nForce2) Thread ***

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: PuterDoctor
I got mine about 6 days ago.
I turned on the power after getting everything just right and it died before post.
I checked all my cables and tried again,same thing happened.
I then took out all cards except video disconnected all drives ,checked all my cables and tried again.This time it wouldn't even try to turn on.
I then took out the memory and video card and tried.It wouldn't turn on.
I have the revision 2 board.I am getting a replacement sent.I really am wondering if I get one that does work is it going to go out on me when I really need it(the time most stuff fails).
The green LED is the only thing that works.

If the board dies before POST, you are almost certainly not getting proper thermal transfer from your CPU to your heatsink. The usual reason is that the heatsink is installed 180 degrees backwards and the step in the base isn't over the plastic end of the CPU socket. Check your work, figures 7, 13 and 14 of this guide shows the things to watch for.

 

[edmundoab]

i had that problem twice and RMA that board back to newegg,

believe me , I had so much mess with this A7n8X that I have changed 4 mobo in 2 months!! ;o(

the bios just won't beep but everything runs,
even though I changed the battery, reset the jumper to clear the CMOS

what revision you were using??

coz I know after flashing the bios to at leas 1002a,
that, if I screw up anything on the settings, it can be cleared,
for all bios from
1001 c,d,e are really flaky bios... and can crash anytime when you oc

even for the dumbest reason like changing from fsb 133 to 166 sigh....
new revisions onwards are alot better though ;o)

I myself using the PCB 2.0 right now ( which is my 4th A7N8X board)

 

[avalon46]

i'm using one of the revision 1.xx. I got it back in december. I'm thinking about RMA back to newegg for a repair...does anyone know what will this do? will they fix it or replace it? or just reject me?

 

[PuterDoctor]

I've resettled the heatsink(this marks the third time for this)I really don't see how someone could install the heatsink backwards-it has a big groove to show the right way
I still cant get it to turn on
Revision 2

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: PuterDoctor
I've resettled the heatsink(this marks the third time for this)I really don't see how someone could install the heatsink backwards-it has a big groove to show the right way
I still cant get it to turn on
Revision 2

Believe me, lots of people install the heatsink backwards What type of heatsink do you have, is it a retail AMD one or something else? Did you use a shim (if so, take it out) and thermal grease or thermal compound (yes=good, obviously)? What are the other parts in your system, including the brand/model of your power supply and your memory modules?

Also, if you have any front-USB ports from your case plugged into the mobo, unplug them. I have some more suggestions if that isn't getting anywhere.

 

[Chobits]

Originally posted by: PuterDoctor
I've resettled the heatsink(this marks the third time for this)I really don't see how someone could install the heatsink backwards-it has a big groove to show the right way
I still cant get it to turn on
Revision 2

Hrmm...also check your HardDrive. I intially thought I had blown my PSU when I took my pc (my old pc...) to my friend's house to help troubleshoot his. I had my my HDD on slave in his computer and when I put it back in mine I completely forgot about it. After 3 days of fiddling I took it to a local store told him the problem and if they could give me a new case (it was a AT mobo so I needed a AT case) and he looked at the HD, fixed the jumper and wala I instantly felt stupid as the computer slugishly booted up its operating systesm.

 

[PuterDoctor]

no hard drives connected
retail AMD heak sink no shim
no thermal paste just the thermal strip that came with it

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: PuterDoctor
no hard drives connected
retail AMD heak sink no shim
no thermal paste just the thermal strip that came with it

Since you have a replacement on the way, this may or may not matter, but the next step I would try is to start with the board absolutely bare. No CPU, no memory, no video card, no keyboard. Lay it on cardboard, plug the power supply into it and trip the Power On pins. The power supply fan(s) should start running and stay that way. If not, it's definitely dead or else the power supply is not up to the task (or faulty).

Incidentally, what power supply are you using? Also keep in mind that the stock cooler's thermal strip is good for precisely one usage. After it's been installed and fired up, you've got to replace it with high-quality thermal grease or another thermal strip.

I wish you good luck with the replacement board, hope it all works out

 

[PuterDoctor]

I have not tried it without the cpu yet-I may try that in a while if I feel like messing with it again
but I have had it bare with the cpu and did use a screwdriver on the power on pins-it still did not work.
The green LED works so I know it is getting juice
I am using an Enermax 431 PSU
Are you saying that since I already set the heatsink on,when I took the heatsink off and put it back on the thermal strip is no good now?
Thankyou for your suggestions
I will let you know how the replacement goes when I get it
Update fixed-problem was I had PS on the wrong pins-I feel really stupid but relieved
Thanks for all your help-taking out the cpu and putting it on a counter is how I found the problem
What I don't understand is that the first 2 times it did power on,it would just shutdown before post-in the process of checking connections I must have reconnected the PS wrong
anyway I powered on and it stayed on this time

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, the thermal strips "melt to fit" the microgap between the CPU core and the heatsink, and then they're done. But from the fact that the board won't even try to start when the CPU's in there, I'm agreeing it's either a dead board or a dead CPU.

 

[squidman]

About the thermal pad: you CAN (i accentuise "can") use it again, as long it melted on the cpu die. But performance of such a solution will be rather poor, but no overheat damage should happen because of this. ALSO. (If your CPU is dead) then you should not try to scrape off the original thermal patch - AMD would do anything, to void the warranty, so they're rather picky. It even says so in their warranty info, that the warranty shall be void, if any heatsink solution rather than the one provided/approved (all those that are up to 300 grams) was used. it also implies that if use anything other than the original thermal patch it shall be void as well.

 

[squidman]

Originally posted by: edmundoab
hi, I've recently purchase the A7N8X PCB 2.0 Deluxe from newegg,

While setting up the system , I came upon this RAID feature which I have failed to disable,

according to the manual, a menu is suppose to pop up once you hit Ctrl+S or F4
but mine is just a black screen
the only thing that appears is some figures when I move the arrow keys,

can anyone help me with this RAID utility?

You gotta disable it via the jumper, which is called, as i remember SATA_ENABLE, and move it from pins 1-2, to 2-3

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: avalon46
i'm using one of the revision 1.xx. I got it back in december. I'm thinking about RMA back to newegg for a repair...does anyone know what will this do? will they fix it or replace it? or just reject me?

they won't reject you, i've RMA twice and never had a problem with it
just that you have to pay to ship the item back to CA, then they give a free delivery back by Fed Ex

chances are, they might give you a refurbish board...

or you might get a new board with a newer revision..


so its basically your luck,

hmm, cross your fingers , and you might get a PCB 2.0 instead ;o)

 

[squidman]

Why does ASUS german site already have the final 1005 bios, and beta 1006?
What improvments over the 1003 does 1004 have?

 

[Jim123]

Hi, just finished the install, I have a small problem, within the device manager I have a yellow ? on the Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller. Has anyone else run into this, Should'nt Window XP and or SP1 install these drivers?
The problem windows has with it is there are no drivers install for this device. The MB is rev 2.00, Bios 1003

I install the following, and in this order:

-Windows XP Home
-SP1
-Nforce2 1.16 drivers
-Modems drivers
-DirectX 9.0
-Video drivers (44.03)
-Monitor drivers

Is there something I missed? where are the drivers for this?

Thank you
Jim

 

[DanStp]

I did the upgrade from the Dragon + to the A7N8X, it is much faster. I have a Tbred B 2100 running at 2300 mhz. I do have good Corsair XMS RAM so I can use the 200 mhz FSB. A bonus is that your sound will be upgraded too. SOYO really upset me when they were like the only manufactor out there that does not support the Tbred chips.

 

[edmundoab]

Originally posted by: squidman
Why does ASUS german site already have the final 1005 bios, and beta 1006?
What improvments over the 1003 does 1004 have?

i know 2 distinctive difference is that the bios in 1004 now tells you whether you are using single channel mode or dual channel mode ( memory)

and the max internal CPU clock options in user defined mode has been increased from 200Mhz to 300Mhz

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: h0mi
I got the 3com card working, with the latest drivers & also updated the bios. Had a hard time downloading/installing the bios upgrade because the asus server was down, or couldn't find the file but it worked. yay.

I'm still stuck with the speakers though. Does it matter that I've got a front speaker connector plugged into the MB as well? I tried the nforce control panel and that didn't help.

Chizow- you said use the Asus UDA instead of Nvidia NDA ... I'm not sure what the NDA is, or where to download it :/ ... a little help please .


This upgrade has been a bit more stressful than it needed to be ... i'm currently stuck in an IE5/IE6 melded world with win2k doing really wierd things on me, so the lack of sound is a little worrisome. I'm going to complete downloading the various system patches that I needed to since I repair-installed win2k. Hopefully that will help with those changes.

h0mi, try putting the jumpers back onto the front-audio-panel pins to start with, and see if you start getting audio output from the rear jacks. The header is pictured on page 33 of the manual, and you want jumpers on it so it looks like this:

::[].[]

Hope that helps ya out!

 

[pelikan]

Just flashed to 1004 (final) bios for my rev. 1.04. Works fine. The only change I noticed was MB temp reads 10C lower than with 1002A.
I have read many reports of higher FSB with this bios, but not for me.

 

[PuterDoctor]

turns out my board is ok but I think the cpu is fried
no video at all
it will turn on then stay on but without sending any video
I am getting really frustrated

 

[Jim123]

Hello again, I'm unsure if this is normal with this board or not, because of all the USB ports. Because of a yellow ? in device manager I installed the USB 2 drivers from Asus. But now I have no yellow ? in device manager, but under Universal Serial Bus controllers I have the following

Nividia PCI Enhanced Host Controller

Stanard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
Stanard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub
USB Root Hub

Is this normal for this board,

Thanks
Jim

 

[Huntress]

I have two of these boards, one I am setting up now.

Couple of questions with setup of this board.

1) How do I get this board to recognise only one single SATA harddrive (using IDE drive with RocketRaid converter) as boot device? I only have one harddrive hooked up and would like to obtain the added performance of the SATA controller. I would be using RAID 0, but until the Sil / nForce2 issue is addressed, I would just like to use one drive. I have the SATA controller enabled, and it detects the harddrive. I have the boot sequence as Floppy, CRROM, SCSI or HDD0 (neither of which work). On boot it trys everything (including the network) to boot from except the HDD.

One note: I did install XP Pro from the IDE controller initially because of this.

2) This one seems dumb... but WHERE THE HELL do you hook up the HDD LED to this board??? The manual remarkably doesn't say, nor do I see markings on the board to indicate this. Does this board not support that?

Thanks!

Diana

 

[mechBgon]

The IDE LED plug is a two-pin header to the left of the main front-panel header, and slightly higher. The pins are one above the other (vertical).

I think the RAID0 problem has been addressed with the beta driver found here as Sii3112RAID_1281.zip. If you want to start with a single drive, I think you just go through the motions of setting up a stripe consisting of just the one drive.

 

[Huntress]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The IDE LED plug is a two-pin header to the left of the main front-panel header, and slightly higher. The pins are one above the other (vertical).

I think the RAID0 problem has been addressed with the beta driver found here as Sii3112RAID_1281.zip. If you want to start with a single drive, I think you just go through the motions of setting up a stripe consisting of just the one drive.

LOL I am not sure I followed that description for the HDD LED.... is it described in the manual... and if so, please give me a page number so I can reply DOH!!! after I find it

I tried to setup a one drive array, but the utility says I need another drive.

As for the RAID... I am hoping that is not the temp patch, which I tried on my NF7 board and STILL had corruption... but I will go look!

 

[mechBgon]

Ok, I have the PDF version of the manual I downloaded, and I've heard that not everyone's manual is this version, so bear with me... but it's item #8 on page 25 and is called "IDE Activity LED (2-pin)" in mine, right after the descriptions of the parallel, serial and audio jacks. HTH