*** Official ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4) Thread ***

[cownipples]

Hi,I just wanted to post my A8N sli deluxe overclocking numbers for the ones that might need some help overclocking please don't bash me , I'm just trying to help! my 3500+ winchester is running at

250 fsb at 4x hyperthreading x10.5 multiplyer memory timings as follows using geil platinum pc4200


cas to lat 2.5
ras to cas 5
ras precharge 5
t ras 10
the rest leave on auto

I hope this helps somebody max out their settings I'm sure some of you got better overclocks mine is at
1000 fsb 2625 mhz stable using dual 6800 gt's scored
3dmark2005 9887
aquamark 79,403

system runs stable playing all my games also using mb beta bios 1006 something also using new nvidia video beta drivers off their site 67.66
good luck to all! by the way not having any power supply issues i'm using thermaltake silent power 560watt.

 

[user1234]

Nice, is your ram running 1:1 and is it at 1T ? cause some folks claim you they can't get past 240 at 1:1 w/1T

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: sreams

Since all the components are sold separately, this is ILLEGAL. What I mean is that if your system with nforce4 Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and your rightfully owned graphics cards and driver are CAPABLE of working with this chipset, IT IS UNLAWFUL for the graphics driver, which is part of your rightfully owned grpahics cards, to limit the functionality of the cards without a reasonable and well defined technical reason (such as compatibility issues, etc), which we know there is none (since some versions of the driver allow this). NVIDIA cannot decide to turn off the SLI capabilites of the graphics driver on purpose, unless it was technically not compatible with the system.


anyone want to take up the class action suit ?

Hmmm... I wouldn't be so sure this is "illegal". Is it also illegal for AMD to disable higher multipliers on "lower-end" Athlon64 chips? Is it illegal for NVidia to disable Quadro features on GeForceFX chips? The truth is... the law probably allows them to do what they are doing, because they -are- delivering exactly what was advertised (a non-SLI system). Such a case would most likely be thrown out immediately.

-S

The shady thing is that one product (graphics card) disables itself based on the absence of a different product (the nf4 sli chipset), even though the grpahic cards CAN operate without the nf4-sli chipset, as shown by the fact that they worked with the nf4-ultra chipset using earlier drivers.

For example, what if I took my car off road, but it would shut itself off based on the excuse that "it's not safe to drive on gravel", but the real reason is that manufacurer wants me to buy its expensive SUV instead, even though the car is perfectly capable of driving on the type of roads I take it to.

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: user1234

Originally posted by: sreams

Since all the components are sold separately, this is ILLEGAL. What I mean is that if your system with nforce4 Ultra chipset is capable of supporting SLI, and your rightfully owned graphics cards and driver are CAPABLE of working with this chipset, IT IS UNLAWFUL for the graphics driver, which is part of your rightfully owned grpahics cards, to limit the functionality of the cards without a reasonable and well defined technical reason (such as compatibility issues, etc), which we know there is none (since some versions of the driver allow this). NVIDIA cannot decide to turn off the SLI capabilites of the graphics driver on purpose, unless it was technically not compatible with the system.


anyone want to take up the class action suit ?

Hmmm... I wouldn't be so sure this is "illegal". Is it also illegal for AMD to disable higher multipliers on "lower-end" Athlon64 chips? Is it illegal for NVidia to disable Quadro features on GeForceFX chips? The truth is... the law probably allows them to do what they are doing, because they -are- delivering exactly what was advertised (a non-SLI system). Such a case would most likely be thrown out immediately.

-S

The shady thing is that one product (graphics card) disables itself based on the absence of a different product (the nf4 sli chipset), even though the grpahic cards CAN operate without the nft-sli chipset, as shown by the fact that they worked with the nf4-ultra using earlier drivers.

User1234,
I've been in this business for 25 years and rest assured this happens on a daily basis. Nothing illegal. You get what you pay for in terms of performance. The vendor has every right to turn on or off any functionality based on what you paid for. It happens on high-end processors when the customer buys a 24 way and upgrades to a 32 way or storage when more disk is desirable. No worries.

I can remember moving a jumper 20 years ago to allow a 160 LPM printer to run at 300 LPM. Cost the customer more money, but also cost us (and customer) more in maintenance. This is pretty much SOP.

Maybe we could drop the litigation issue...

 

[user1234]

No, we can't drop it becase a product cannot stop working after a driver upgrade. It is unacceptable.

And btw, did you just capitalize my user name ? It is (case) sensitive !

 

[iscsidude]

Sorry if I capitalized on your User Name.
Didn't do so intentionally, nor do I understand the question ???

If ligitation is an issue, why don't we start a separate thread ?

By doing so, this thread can remain focused on the A8N-SLI.

Thoughts ???

 

[MrVeedo]

has anyone found a work around on the vcore situation? the max vcore i can seem to get is around 1.58 even when set to 1.65 in the bios. i am using pc probe to monitor. i can change the vcore setting all the way down to 1.5something with no changes in pc probe.

 

[imported_Moon]

Originally posted by: macachia
Hi,

I have 2 Maxtor 6Y120M0 SATA 120gb drives, which I'm having problems with the a8n-xli deluxe.

Whatever port I use, be it the nvidia sata ports or the si sata II ports, the hdds sometimes get seen in the bios and sometimes they aren't.

I literally have to restart multiple times before the sata drives are seen again.

Is this a normal problem? Maybe an incompatability with maxtor sata? I have been using a maxor 60gb pata drive with no problems and got a lovely 3dmark05 of 10975 (with ocs), so stability isn't an issue

Please help, I need to use my sata drives. Using bios 1003.005 if it matters

regards

Im having the same problem with a 74GB WD Raptor on the Nvidia controller in single mode. Its done it twice now. Hard Drive mysteriously goes missing in the bios. Silicon contoller is disabled and NV Raid is off. I was thinking of connecting up to the Silicon controller and trying it instead and will post results. If anyone has a succesfull setup running in single mode with a Raptor and you are not loosing it in the bios randomly please post.

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Rev. 1.02 Bios (.102)
Corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPRO
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester
Asus Extreme N6600
Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Seagate Barracuda 160GB
Liteon 16X DVD Dual Drive
Vantec Stealth Aluminum 520W
Lianli PC65B Case

 

[runestone]

No probs here with my 74 gig Raptor and a Seagate on the Nvidia ports. I am using beta -008 now, but -002 bios worked fine too.
http://theinquirer.net/?article=20808 (for the folks running dual 6800's)

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: evilmrroboto
I need some help with my A8N-SLI. After running the computer for about a wek I put the Enermax EG495P power supply in which I thought would be great but it wouldn't boot up. The chipset fan spun for about a half of a second then stopped. I tested the power supply in my older computer and the heatsink fan spun for the same half second. No post errors or anything after that, just nothing. So I RMAed that power supply hoping there was a problem with it and not anything of mine.

But now I am trying to get the computer running with my older Allied 400watt power supply that I had working for a week. I have read about people saying that the CMOS goes bad after you remove the power from the wall so I thought maybe thats my problem but I tried taking the batter out for an hour and it didn't help the computer boot. I removed every piece of hardware from the mobo and it gave the no CPU installed error over my speakers but after installing the CPU (Athlon 64 3500+) it didn't give any more errors. I thought it should be giving a memory error or something because I hadn't installed those yet. To me it just sounds like the mobo is dead or something, I dont really know because I don't have the parts to test everything like the CPU, and PCI-E video card. The ram does work in my other computer so I know its not that.

Does anyone have an ideas for me to try? The only other thing I can think of is to RMA the mobo back to Asus and try this all over again. When I get the parts back should I wait for the replaced Enermax power supply before I power on the system with the replacement mobo?

The POST problems of the A8N manifest themselves as sort of a hang during POST, with everything powered on, including all the fans, and even the optical drive. It's just that the screen remains black, and you don't hear the beep from the bios (usually, but sometimes it could hang after displaying initial screen). In your case, it sounds like the power doesn't stay on at all.But in any case, you could try flashing the bios with a floppy to see if that works.

 

[imported_2x]

99% problem free with one 74gb Raptor in NV SATA #1 controller. Using official 1002 bios. Once I booted and the system hung at the point where it is "detecting drives" but I just reset and all was well. Don't know what that was about.

 

[evilmrroboto]

Originally posted by: user1234
The POST problems of the A8N manifest themselves as sort of a hang during POST, with everything powered on, including all the fans, and even the optical drive. It's just that the screen remains black, and you don't hear the beep from the bios (usually, but sometimes it could hang after displaying initial screen). In your case, it sounds like the power doesn't stay on at all.But in any case, you could try flashing the bios with a floppy to see if that works.

I doubt that will work, but how on earth can I even flash the BIOS when it can't get the mobo to post?? Using a floppy drive isn't even an option for me until I get a new mobo since I am just gonna RMA it through ASUS though it'll take a while cause their customer service sucks. I mean a lifetime rating of 2.5 out of 10 on resellerratings, I really think they have problems.

I have left the battery out for overnight and that didn't reset it or anything. I am really confused because I've been using the 002 bios which is supposed to be good, unless I just got a bad board. I just don't understand how with the same power supply I originally built the computer with, it suddenly doesn't work after trying out that Enermax. The Enermax had to have done something bad to the board, but oh well that 3 year warranty will come in handy now.

 

[rauskis]

Beta BIOS 005 causes these POST problems. I had them too and only way to fix it was to reflash back to 1002 using floppy disk!

Bytheway ASUS released beta BIOS 1003.007 yesterday! I just flashed my mobo and it seems to be running fine, don't know what's changed...(?) Download here:

http://www.asus.com/support/do...I%20Deluxe&Type=Latest

 

[harvgill]

At one point I couldn't post either and removing the battery didn't help. It posted after I used the jumpers.

Originally posted by: evilmrroboto

Originally posted by: user1234
The POST problems of the A8N manifest themselves as sort of a hang during POST, with everything powered on, including all the fans, and even the optical drive. It's just that the screen remains black, and you don't hear the beep from the bios (usually, but sometimes it could hang after displaying initial screen). In your case, it sounds like the power doesn't stay on at all.But in any case, you could try flashing the bios with a floppy to see if that works.

I doubt that will work, but how on earth can I even flash the BIOS when it can't get the mobo to post?? Using a floppy drive isn't even an option for me until I get a new mobo since I am just gonna RMA it through ASUS though it'll take a while cause their customer service sucks. I mean a lifetime rating of 2.5 out of 10 on resellerratings, I really think they have problems.

I have left the battery out for overnight and that didn't reset it or anything. I am really confused because I've been using the 002 bios which is supposed to be good, unless I just got a bad board. I just don't understand how with the same power supply I originally built the computer with, it suddenly doesn't work after trying out that Enermax. The Enermax had to have done something bad to the board, but oh well that 3 year warranty will come in handy now.

 

[TaZZeR]

I have to cut in, I dont know how many people are having problems with this board but it is a complete joke!!!

I'm on my third motherboard, and still cannot get power to the GFX cards, so a bios update is not an option as no display. Perhaps, one in 30 times I get power to a single GFX card or both, usually only a flash of the power LED and half a spin of the fans.

I believe there is a confirmed problem with these boards, and I dont think Asus anticipated the power drain on the 12V rail. I'm using a Enermax Noisetaker 600W, the problem I think is this baby has two 12V rails, one 18A the other 17A, which just is not enough.

see: SLi Asus power problem

I have been in contact with Scan.co.uk and they are apparently working with Asus to solve this issue, in most cases apparently a bios update resloves this as it slows the massive peak power demand on the PSU when the system starts.

I have emailed Asus and apparently they are working on the problem.....

I await a Tagan 480W PSU (single 12V 28A rail) to see if this sorts the problem....

Has anyone else experienced this problem, any one have a quick solution?? Please email, PM or post to help me, this has been going on for 2 months now and I tire of it....

-------------------
Asus SLi Deluxe
FX-55
2 XFX 6800GT's
74GB Raptor
Enermax 600W Noisetaker
--------------------
All in pieces..... still no working!

 

[benktlottie]

Hi all,
Having lots of problems with A8n-SLI setup.
My spec is in my details, problem I am having is...
Firstly, created the RAID diskette from the CD. When installing windows XP, windows basically tells me that the info on the floppy isnt what it wants ! So, decided just use 1 raptor (windows recognises it as a IDE disk, spooky...)
At various points of the windows install, the pc either reboots itself, or just hangs. After 20 attempts, still no successful install of windows. CPU (with air) was pushing 80 degrees Celcius, so I hooked up my Zalman Reserator water cooling to it (I used this for a Prescott, so it can cope with heat !) and now it is between 50-60 degrees C. I think all the components I am using are OK with the mobo (again, see my spec) I even lowered the multiplier, and gave very lax timings on my memory.

Anyone experience issues like this, or got any ideas ? Its driving me nuts...havnt even put the second graphics card in...

Forgot to add, flashed the BIOS to 1001 aswell, just incase that was the issue ! And I'm using a TAGAN 480w Power Supply

The rest of the specs is: -

A8n-SLI (not the deluxe)
2x 74gb Raptors
fx53
2 x Inno3d 6800gt PCI-express
1024mb Corsair 2500 v1.1 (bh5 winbond)

Any help, very much appreciated

 

[Dijital]

Originally posted by: benktlottie
Hi all,
Having lots of problems with A8n-SLI setup.
My spec is in my details, problem I am having is...
Firstly, created the RAID diskette from the CD. When installing windows XP, windows basically tells me that the info on the floppy isnt what it wants ! So, decided just use 1 raptor (windows recognises it as a IDE disk, spooky...)
At various points of the windows install, the pc either reboots itself, or just hangs. After 20 attempts, still no successful install of windows. CPU (with air) was pushing 80 degrees Celcius, so I hooked up my Zalman Reserator water cooling to it (I used this for a Prescott, so it can cope with heat !) and now it is between 50-60 degrees C. I think all the components I am using are OK with the mobo (again, see my spec) I even lowered the multiplier, and gave very lax timings on my memory.

Anyone experience issues like this, or got any ideas ? Its driving me nuts...havnt even put the second graphics card in...

Forgot to add, flashed the BIOS to 1001 aswell, just incase that was the issue ! And I'm using a TAGAN 480w Power Supply

The rest of the specs is: -

A8n-SLI (not the deluxe)
2x 74gb Raptors
fx53
2 x Inno3d 6800gt PCI-express
1024mb Corsair 2500 v1.1 (bh5 winbond)

Any help, very much appreciated

just a quick check, but did you make sure that all the power connectors on the mobo are fitted correctly?

the 24 pin connector and the 4 pin connector?

 

[Fent]

I have been getting a bios hold of "CPU FAN FAIL" even though I look over and the cpu fan is spinning.

Sandra also reported the CPU fan fail

Any idea's?

Bios 2002, btw I have a single raptor on the nvida controler and a raid of WD 300g on the other controler and it seems to work fine.

PS. anyone have info on the speed diffrence (benchmarks) between ram running in single channel vs dual?

 

[evilmrroboto]

Fent: My guess, which probably sounds really stupid but are u sure the CPU fan is plugged into the CPU_FAN power connector and not a diferent chassis or power supply fan connector?

My question for anyone is: I have read about the BIOS locking after it doesn't get enough power and won't let the computer POST after that, even with a different power supply that can give enough power and I wanted to know if resetting the CMOS will "unlock" the BIOS so it will boot. I am going to try this out by buying a PSU with at least 25a on the 12v and try that. The weridest thing about my problems if anyone else has read my previous posts is that my weak little Allied 400w with only 12a on the 12v powered it the first time I booted the mobo and it ran fine until I put the Enermax EG495P-VE which has dual 12v with 18a on each. Apparently that enermax was bad anyway, but I think it locked my BIOS and even with resetting the CMOS the Allied won't turn it on, but it does work on a different computer, though it worked when I first put this thing together.

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: user1234
Nice, is your ram running 1:1 and is it at 1T ? cause some folks claim you they can't get past 240 at 1:1 w/1T

If you are refering to Cownipples:

250 fsb at 4x hyperthreading x10.5

Then yes he probably is running at 1t but that cause his memory IS NOT running at 250mhz. whenever you use 1/2 multiplier in an a64 it has to use a divider on the mem...

 

[Fent]

I'm fairly sure it's plugged into the right place. It one of those things that does not happen every time

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: TaZZeR
I have to cut in, I dont know how many people are having problems with this board but it is a complete joke!!!

I'm on my third motherboard, and still cannot get power to the GFX cards, so a bios update is not an option as no display. Perhaps, one in 30 times I get power to a single GFX card or both, usually only a flash of the power LED and half a spin of the fans.

I believe there is a confirmed problem with these boards, and I dont think Asus anticipated the power drain on the 12V rail. I'm using a Enermax Noisetaker 600W, the problem I think is this baby has two 12V rails, one 18A the other 17A, which just is not enough.

see: SLi Asus power problem

I have been in contact with Scan.co.uk and they are apparently working with Asus to solve this issue, in most cases apparently a bios update resloves this as it slows the massive peak power demand on the PSU when the system starts.

I have emailed Asus and apparently they are working on the problem.....

I await a Tagan 480W PSU (single 12V 28A rail) to see if this sorts the problem....

Has anyone else experienced this problem, any one have a quick solution?? Please email, PM or post to help me, this has been going on for 2 months now and I tire of it....

-------------------
Asus SLi Deluxe
FX-55
2 XFX 6800GT's
74GB Raptor
Enermax 600W Noisetaker
--------------------
All in pieces..... still no working!

You have a freaking beefy load dude... wtf are you thinking about getting an 12v 18amp PSU?

My computer will BARELY maintain stability on an 18amp(12v) thermaltake that I have and I am using a winchester which draws way less power than your FX-55, plus I only have one 6800GT at the moment... (with my thermaltake my 12v line dips form 12.1 to 11.7 during game loads, but when I switched to a Zippy that has 30amps on the 12v line my 12v goes from 12.01 to 11.99 : all tested with a Multimeter)

One thing I would do in your circumstance is: unplug EVERYTHING you don't need.

Also, have you tried a PCI vid card? I keep a spare PCI vid card lying around just for that purpose...

And have you tried it with just one 6800GT installed and not two? Also, you could put a winchester in if you got one... That uses about half of the power an FX uses...

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: MrVeedo
has anyone found a work around on the vcore situation? the max vcore i can seem to get is around 1.58 even when set to 1.65 in the bios. i am using pc probe to monitor. i can change the vcore setting all the way down to 1.5something with no changes in pc probe.

Have you tried ot use clockgen to up the VID? I can get a tad bit higher Vcore by applying the VID to 1.45.

Anyway I highly recommend clockgen, b/c it is easier to change overclocks...

http://www.cpuid.com/download/CG-NVNF4.zip

 

[squonk]

I posted this this morning in the wrong thread lol, late night of testing P

Ok I have a question but first Id like to share some testing information I discovered last night. In my post yesterday you may recall that i purpousley left out some of the hardware. Last night, upon adding the DVD ROM Reader and a floppy drive (Ultras here today not yesterday :-( again I started having boot issues on both machines. I had a hunch that most of the hardware problems with this board covering hard drives, cdroms, floppies etc.. are not due to the hardware at all. After adding a floppy and dvd reader to one machine and rebooting i would get intermitent freeze locations going into the bios or trying to boot. Even when i disconnected the two devices the issue would not go away. I tried one device at a time on the second machine and still had the same issue.

At this point I went back to what i mentioned in my last post about clearing the bios per asus manual instructions by removing battery and placing jumper on far right pins. With all power off and bios in reset mode i added the 2 devices set the jumper back to normal and popped in the battery and xp booted fine and all was working. Same thing held true for the second machine. My point here about the hardware issues reported on in this thread is that the 1002 and the 1003-006 (currently using) bios do not change IRQ's properply nor do they report the change to XP properly. Once the bios is STUCK in a bad positon ya cant get it to do anything different until ya reset it which sucks but could be a work arround for a lot of these issues until Asus releases the bios that should have come with the board out of the box. Both boxes are stable and working great still. Its just real hard to add something even as simple as a floppy (LOL) without resetting the bios. Can other folks with hardware issues try this and corarborate my findings? Also if anyone sees some other reason why this may be happening feel free to post your thoughts on this. After resetting the bios just go into it once before ya let the machine boot to change things like DDR abd disable on board sound or whatever etc... and save it again.

OK heres my question. I have PC Power and Cooling SLI Power supplies with 2 video power cables for two video cards. The 6600 GT cards in each machine dont even have power connectors on them so obviously im using the 12 volt on the board for now. When the Ultra's arrive today does it makes sense i would use the 12 volt on the board as well as a dedicated line for each card into its power adapter, or just use the two dedicated lines and dont use the twelve volt in the board? Any ideas would be appreciated!

 

[JMag]

Originally posted by: benktlottie
Hi all,
Having lots of problems with A8n-SLI setup.
My spec is in my details, problem I am having is...
Firstly, created the RAID diskette from the CD. When installing windows XP, windows basically tells me that the info on the floppy isnt what it wants ! So, decided just use 1 raptor (windows recognises it as a IDE disk, spooky...)
At various points of the windows install, the pc either reboots itself, or just hangs. After 20 attempts, still no successful install of windows. CPU (with air) was pushing 80 degrees Celcius, so I hooked up my Zalman Reserator water cooling to it (I used this for a Prescott, so it can cope with heat !) and now it is between 50-60 degrees C. I think all the components I am using are OK with the mobo (again, see my spec) I even lowered the multiplier, and gave very lax timings on my memory.

Anyone experience issues like this, or got any ideas ? Its driving me nuts...havnt even put the second graphics card in...

Forgot to add, flashed the BIOS to 1001 aswell, just incase that was the issue ! And I'm using a TAGAN 480w Power Supply

The rest of the specs is: -

A8n-SLI (not the deluxe)
2x 74gb Raptors
fx53
2 x Inno3d 6800gt PCI-express
1024mb Corsair 2500 v1.1 (bh5 winbond)

Any help, very much appreciated

Is this your PSU?
http://www.newegg.com/app/View...tion=17-101-509&depa=0

If so, it has a decent capability on the 12v line at 28amps...

However, your problems sound like the insane time I was going through when I first put together my system... I was unable to load windows alot, turns out the problem was my PSU (which was a PC Power and Cooling 510w, so I wdidn't ever believe that was the prob until I replaced it and it worked fine...)

If you are getting random reboots w/out a BSOD then it is DEFINATELY power related.... If you are getting BSOD's then it could be Memory, CPU, or MemController (which is essentially CPU)

So, if you are gtting BSOD's then I would check out your memory with memtest first... cause BH-5 is old and has probably had alot of volts put through it over it's lifespan...