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

[itakey]

Anyone know of some RAM chips that I can buy at a good price to max out the A7N8X-Deluxe? I want 3X1GB chips.

Anyone know of any?

 

[Kobb]

Yes, I love my A7N8X-e deluxe. Now I'm looking to dump Vista on it and have run into problems loading vista onto a SATA drive.

Can someone help me locate a working SATA driver? I've tried the latest 3112 drivers from SiliconImage but none worked.

I think my bios setting are correct (Fedora 6 locates the SATA drive without issue).

-Raid or SCSI Card Boot = SCSI
-2nd Boot Device = SCSI

 

[Assimilator1]

Sorry ,no idea.
Anyone else?

Originally posted by: itakey
Anyone know of some RAM chips that I can buy at a good price to max out the A7N8X-Deluxe? I want 3X1GB chips.

Anyone know of any?

Try Crucials site to find compatible RAM ,though I never had 1GB sticks the smaller stuff worked fine
Oh btw ,you know that having 3 equal sized sticks will drop the RAM into single channel mode?........ not that the Ath XP really benefited from the extra bandwidth anyway (unless you're using onboard video).

 

[dmcowen674]

I think my ASUS A7N8X-X has finally bit the dust and won't boot.

Trying to power up it runs power to the onboard ethernet port (the leds show activity), the cpu fans starts to run and the keyboard LEDs flash like it gets the good power signal and then the cpu fan shuts down.

I've unplugged everything such as the drives. Tried resetting the cmos to default and booting only with one mem chip in each slot of the three slots. Tried different video cards (AGP or PCI). Same thing. Tried different power supply.

Probably a bad capacitor on the board near the CPU.

It was a great system. Have 3200+ chip in it.

RIP A7N8X-X

Edit: Nevermind - I'm posting on it now. Just as I write it off it decides to boot again after being dead for a couple of weeks.

 

[Assimilator1]

Hi Dave ,check the cap's around the CPU socket for bulging ,excessive tilting or odd substances at bottom of cap.
But does sound like its due for RIP.

When I took out my A7N8X in June I found 1 cap had bulged (which explains why I suddenly had to drop FSB a little to get it stable again after years at running faster).
Apart from the above it ran fine but I had to give the mbrd away instead of selling it

 

[evident]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I think my ASUS A7N8X-X has finally bit the dust and won't boot.

Trying to power up it runs power to the onboard ethernet port (the leds show activity), the cpu fans starts to run and the keyboard LEDs flash like it gets the good power signal and then the cpu fan shuts down.

I've unplugged everything such as the drives. Tried resetting the cmos to default and booting only with one mem chip in each slot of the three slots. Tried different video cards (AGP or PCI). Same thing. Tried different power supply.

Probably a bad capacitor on the board near the CPU.

It was a great system. Have 3200+ chip in it.

RIP A7N8X-X

Edit: Nevermind - I'm posting on it now. Just as I write it off it decides to boot again after being dead for a couple of weeks.

try a new cmos battery. it worked for my a7n8x when i had it

 

[Linflas]

My trusty old rock solid A7N8X Deluxe began having a very odd problem about a month back. When I would shut it down once it powered off there would be a popping sound coming from the speakers that seemingly coast to a stop making me think there was an odd problem with one of the fans in the case. Long to short when I finally got around to trying to figure out what it was I was no longer thinking it was a fan but rather the PS since it no longer coasted to a stop but would keep going continuously until I shut the power switch on the PS. When I opened the case and removed the PS is when I noticed that all the caps around the CPU have brown deposits on the top. Oddly enough other than the popping noise coming from the speakers the machine is still solid as a rock but I have to assume its days are numbered. For now I keep using it and just shut off the PS when I shut it down at night. Anyone ever either replaced their caps or sent a board off to that guy that will do them for $60.00?

 

[Assimilator1]

I haven't personally ,but I wouldn't even consider it with your mbrd anyway,it's just not worth it ,either get a 2nd hand replacement mbrd or take the opportunity to do a full upgrade.
Btw I'd be wary of continuing to use it if all the caps have gone!:Q ,when it dies it could potentially take out anything that's connected to the mbrd. Naturally you wouldn't be able to resell anything dead or retrieve data from a burnt out HDD! ,I hope you've at least backed up anything important .

Originally posted by: evident

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I think my ASUS A7N8X-X has finally bit the dust and won't boot.

Trying to power up it runs power to the onboard ethernet port (the leds show activity), the cpu fans starts to run and the keyboard LEDs flash like it gets the good power signal and then the cpu fan shuts down.

I've unplugged everything such as the drives. Tried resetting the cmos to default and booting only with one mem chip in each slot of the three slots. Tried different video cards (AGP or PCI). Same thing. Tried different power supply.

Probably a bad capacitor on the board near the CPU.

It was a great system. Have 3200+ chip in it.

RIP A7N8X-X

Edit: Nevermind - I'm posting on it now. Just as I write it off it decides to boot again after being dead for a couple of weeks.

try a new cmos battery. it worked for my a7n8x when i had it

A dead CMOS battery won't stop it from booting.

 

[munim]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I'm having the same no shutdown problem. I'm not really looking for a solution since I keep it on all the time as my HTPC but I suppose I will investigate it at some point. Specs
A7N8X Deluxe Rev 2.0
Barton 2500+ at 3200+ 1.65v AFAIK
2 x 512MB DDR533 no name RAM
40GB Quantum Fireball IDE ( haha, anyone old enough to remember this sucker?)
120GB Sata
LG IDE combo drive
BFG 6200 AGP replacement for old AGP mx440 that started snowing in videos
Antec Sonata w/orginial 380W truepower

The problem has spanned both AGP graphics cards and fresh installs of XP and Vista. I remember also taking out the motherboard from the case and using it on my bed so no shorts anywhere.

The board is definitely showing its age as I randomly had to swap SATA ports yesterday so that my sata drive could get recognized, even though it was working perfectly before.

 

[Assimilator1]

Another one on its last legs by the sound of it

40GB Quantum Fireball IDE ( haha, anyone old enough to remember this sucker?)

Is that one of the last of the 5.25" HDDs?


Oh yea ,& this thread is fast approaching 5yrs old!:Q ,will it make it's 5th birthday?

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Sorry ,no idea.
Anyone else?

Originally posted by: itakey
Anyone know of some RAM chips that I can buy at a good price to max out the A7N8X-Deluxe? I want 3X1GB chips.

Anyone know of any?

Try Crucials site to find compatible RAM ,though I never had 1GB sticks the smaller stuff worked fine
Oh btw ,you know that having 3 equal sized sticks will drop the RAM into single channel mode?........ not that the Ath XP really benefited from the extra bandwidth anyway (unless you're using onboard video).

Wow, didn't even realize this ancient platform could handle 3GB RAM. DDR is priced quite reasonably right now too, as long as you don't compare it to DDR2.

Fry's recently had Corsair 1GB DIMMs for $30, and Circuit City currently has Kingston 1GB DIMMs for $35.

The Quantum Fireball 40GB is just a standard 3.5" ATA drive from 2000. IIRC one of the good ones at the time.

 

[slayerfan2]

Hi Guys,
Im fixing a pc for a mate with this board in it (A7n8x-E deluxe).I formatted and re-installed win XP pro + service pack 2. Running very slow on 256 mb of ram so I put 1GB of PC3200 into the board. All seemed fine booted up alot quicker. Then tried putting on the motherboard drivers from Asus website along with the nforce2 drivers from nvidia. It will not install the drivers correctly. It goes through the install and as its transfering files it comes back with file errors with symbols as filenames. I then tried updating drivers manually by pointing to the file locations for each device driver. It doesnt pick up the driver and refuses to install. It now takes an age to boot as its lookijng for driers that arent installed...about to go back to original ram config and try install then. any other reasons why these drivers wont install? She had been running XP home on her original ram config of 256mb with no driver install issues.
Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[11427]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Inccidently I finally retired my old A7N8X from my main rig about 3months back ,was going to sell it on but I discovered that 1 of the main capacitors by the CPU had bulged ,that explains why I couldn't run the XPM @2.5GHz anymore too.

Still using mine, although it is no longer my main rig. Got 5 bulged and leaking caps,... been that way for at least 2 years that I know of but it just won't die

 

[11427]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
40GB Quantum Fireball IDE ( haha, anyone old enough to remember this sucker?)
Is that one of the last of the 5.25" HDDs?
Oh yea ,& this thread is fast approaching 5yrs old!:Q ,will it make it's 5th birthday?

Hmmm,... still running one of those too. Though mine is only a 2.5GB, it is a 3.5". Suppose you're gonna pick on the Conner cfs425a 425MB or it's other running mate WD Caviar 2540 a 540MB HDD. And the OC'd K6-2/500 that's in charge of 'em This rig won't die either, been OC'd and running Seti or Rosetta the whole time.

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: 11427

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Inccidently I finally retired my old A7N8X from my main rig about 3months back ,was going to sell it on but I discovered that 1 of the main capacitors by the CPU had bulged ,that explains why I couldn't run the XPM @2.5GHz anymore too.

Still using mine, although it is no longer my main rig. Got 5 bulged and leaking caps,... been that way for at least 2 years that I know of but it just won't die

Wow! amazing that it's still going! :Q ,btw I gave my mbrd away to someone who was just gonna use it til it dies (though IIRC he might repair it).

Btw this thread is now over 5yrs old!

slayerfan2
Firstly welcome to the AT forums.

I don't think mixing drivers from Asus & Nvidia is a good idea, stick to the Nvidia drivers as IIRC they now support this mbrd properly (earlier ones didn't). If that doesn't fix it try re-installing XP again, it might of been corrupted.
If neither of the above works, check RAM voltage & RAM timings (don't relie on SPD), actually on 2nd thoughts check those 1st.
If its not that then you might be looking at a bad HDD (do a surface scan of it), bad RAM or bad mbrd, check those by running OCCT.

 

[ic0n612]

I am adding a new drive into my tower. here are the specs

a7n8x-deluxe
athlon 2500+
sapphire 9500

I purchased a new SAMSUNG SPINPOINT F 750GB SERIAL ATA/300 32MB BUFFER HARD DRIVE - HD753LJ this morning from Frys.com for $100.

The price of $100 for 750 gb alone attracted me, and I was able to place an order.

well, after purchasing the drive, I come to find out that samsung drives apparently don't get along with nvidia chipsets at all and might just corrupt my data or not even be detected/last me install onto it.

now, I want to know if this is prevalent, has anyone had this sort of problem? Can I download a new set of drivers for the mobo or the SATA controller, or an updated BIOS, something that will let me keep this drive? I'm on a very tight budget, and I would hate to have to RMA and ship this back at my own expense and then also have to purchase a 500 gb drive for the same price to top it off.

 

[Assimilator1]

Welcome to the AT forums .

Why don't you check Asus's site to see if their is a new bios? A7N8X Deluxe downloads
Try the Nvidia site for new mbrd drivers.

Btw isn't that 750GB drive SATA2? can you force it into SATA '1' mode?
Afraid I don't know the answer to your 1st question.

 

[ic0n612]

OK, so I cancelled the order for the Samsung and ordered a Seagate.

The model is Seagate 750GB Serial ATA/300 16MB Buffer ST3750640AS-RK.

It is a SATA2 drive, comes with a jumper to force SATA 1.

Anyhow, I connected the drive and what do you know, the motherboard won't POST with it. what happens is it gets to the SATA BIOS screen, and it displayed the Seagate drive volume and channel. However, it does NOT show the size of the disk, and will not continue past this. Using the jumpers has no effect.

I have the A7N8X-Deluxe, pcb revision 2.0 with the version 1006 BIOS.

The latest BIOS is 1008, which has an updated SATA rom file, but that is already about 4 or 5 years old and I don't believe it will work for this drive size.

I read on another forum to use cbrom to replace the SATA rom in the 1008 mobo BIOS with the latest version, and this should get it to work. Has anyone tried this? I am hesitant to flash my BIOS with something home-made. Can this ruin my computer? And if the BIOS flash doesnt work, can I flash it back, or reset the CMOS to restore BIOS?

thanks for the help

 

[gba]

I have the A7N8X-E Deluxe w/ BIOS Version 1013. I used cbrom to update the SATA ROM to BIOS 3112A version 4.2.83. I was able to install a 300GB Seagate ST330082 2AS jumpered to force SATA 1

 

[Assimilator1]

The latest BIOS is 1008, which has an updated SATA rom file, but that is already about 4 or 5 years old and I don't believe it will work for this drive size.

So you guessing it won't work? ,well you could be right but there's only 1 way to be sure ,try it!
Can't help ya with the rest but gba seems to of had good luck.

 

[gipper]

Digging up an old post:


I'm trying to use my old A7N8X deluxe with the 3com gigabit controller for a windows home server.


Everything works great. However, it reports that the NIC is a 10/100 fast ethernet controller, NOT gigabit. It will only connect to my switch at 100Mbs, but works great.


Has anyone else had an issue getting the 3com integrated NIC to work at gigabit speed?

 

[ElFenix]

the deluxe didn't have gigabit ethernet. that was the A7N8X-E