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

[bob661]

My mistake guys. I didn't see what hard drive he was using.

 

[kayble]

Hi all,

Well I had quite a quick email from ASUS on my issue. I was told to remove the board from the case and run it on an insulated surface to see if it was shorting out against the back of my case and preventing bios save.

Still to no avail... can any US owners shed any light on my issue? Naturally I'll let you know of any support from ASUS. Let's hope I don't have to RMA the motherboard

 

[bob661]

I think someone suggested that you replace the CMOS battery on the motherboard first. Have you tried that yet?

 

[kayble]

Hi,

Yes I have replaced the CMOS battery backup from a motherboard that is know to be working... to no avail unfortunatley..

 

[lotus503]

I have a 250 gig Maxtor Diamond Max 9 and it wont work for me either.

I get lockups anytime I access the disk. Its not an NCQ issues its a Maxtor compatibility issues with this board. I have just sidelined the drive, going to try it again tonight with the beta bios. At some point Maxtor or Asus have to fix the problem.

 

[bent98]

HEy Solstice can you fit 2 BFG 6800GTs with that heatsink and fan? Also whats the exact model of teh thermake fan. 29c idle is great.

 

[MeatHead88]

Solstice, believe it or not I think that's good news to me. What beta bios u got? I've tried all upto 1004.001 so if you got something else, let us know....

Anybody get a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 to work as a boot drive with no lockups? Please let us know..

 

[lotus503]

Originally posted by: bent98
HEy Solstice can you fit 2 BFG 6800GTs with that heatsink and fan? Also whats the exact model of teh thermake fan. 29c idle is great.

I could fit two I suppose the first PCIe slot on the board is the one with a card in it already and its closeest to the HS/FAN

The fan is a Thermaltake 120mm Model "A2018

I noticed the big drop when I mounted the Vantec 80mm intake almost directly over the 120mm CPU fan.

 

[lotus503]

Originally posted by: MeatHead88
Solstice, believe it or not I think that's good news to me. What beta bios u got? I've tried all upto 1004.001 so if you got something else, let us know....

Anybody get a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 to work as a boot drive with no lockups? Please let us know..

I am using the same Bios as you, I just havent tried the drive with the bios update yet. Just an FYI I am not trying to boot to my Maxtor just add it. I have non sata maxtors that work fine.

 

[MeatHead88]

OK, I got ya. I'm gonna try regular Pata drive and see if i get lock ups...

 

[reidman]

How do you get help from Asus?I have called opened cases and the only reply I got was try a beta bios they sent me that was it. I am on my third SLI and still having problems. It seems I cant install any sound card if I do it craps motherboard. I put a SBL in the first one and lost all PCI detection, 1394 and Marvel Lan. The second board booted fine and all devices were back in Windows, I installed the SBL in middle slot of motherboard booted up let windows install driver then system locked. A reboot and it just keep cutting off. Shut down removed live card and no more boot nothing could not make it boot. Third board from another source, booted fine all working well shut down installed a new ( though I would try a new sound card) Audigy 2 ZS gamer in midle slot system booted loaded drivers locked up. Reboot system would not boot. And yes I disabled on board sound in bios. I heard others say they disabled 1394, the extra lan to get system to run, first should we have to disable items just to get a system to boot? I have other systems with more then this installed and the bios and windows work out the IRQ's and memory address's. Second I tried disableing everthing and system still will not boot with Audigy card installed. So far I have not lost the 1394, Lan or PCI detection as before but I only tried the Audigy a couple times and after 3 boards I am afraid to try again.
Will return board to local vendor tomorrow, I allready replaced the first board with a Gigabyte had no problems what so ever with it. Now It seems I am stuck with second board as Comp-U-Plus wont take it back. Seems there are so many returns of this board shops are starting to tell customers to call ASUS. Well I guess If it cost me $240.00 to learn Asus is crap then maybe it was worth it. I have saved over 300 pages of online complaints about this board now to send to Asus wonder If they even care.
And for all you that have your running smothly I am happy for you but I expect more from a board then one that "will only crash 3 times a day and is somewhat stable" as others have posted or "gave up on sound card install, onboard isn't to bad" For the money this board should be rock stable and you should be able to install any SLI capable video card, and memory should run in dual mode not just a few makes. And If you want to use a SBL or Audigy sound card then it should work fine. And lastly If dual rail P/S didn't work it should be noted in manual.

 

[Lancer VI]

Well, this is what I am running.

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Koolance PC3-720SL (Watercooled Case)
Enermax CoolerGiant EG651AX-VH 550W PS
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 (939)
2GB Corsair TwinX PC4400CP25
XFX Geforce Ultra PCIe (Single)
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 160GBs in Raid 0 off Sil. Raid Controller
1x Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 120 GB SATA 1.5Gb/s 7200 RPM (Sil)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS
D-Link DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Card
Creative Gigaworks S750 THX 7.1 Surround Sound System 700Watts

I've been building my own machines for about 15 years now. I am by no means an expert, but I know my way around a computer and how to get em up and running.

All that to say this.......this is probably the most stable system I've built in a long time. I haven't had ONE SINGLE ERROR......NOT ONE and this system has been running for about 2 weeks non stop, (No shut downs. An occasional manual reboot, 1-2 times a day, but by me, not by error) with Prime95, Defrags, 3dMark03, 05 and PCMark2004 running. I've literally tried to break this machine, because I'm in such disbelief that NO ERRORS have occured. This can't be right......I've OC'd the Proc to 2.6ghz (13X200 if I remember correctly {not in front of my machine right now}), and the 6800 ultra to 448/1166. ANd still no problems. I know those aren't heavy duty OC's but still.....it's amazing that I still haven't had one, not one error, of ANY KIND. The only complaint is the limitation of DDR400 when all slots are filled. It wanted to run at DDR333, but I got it to go at 400.

I guess I'll order that second ultra and see what the deal is in SLI. Also, I must admit that the MB (Chipset) temps are higher than I'm used to. (I didn't by a cooler for the chipset) It's running under load higher than the proc 40-45C.


Anyway.......just my two cents.......I guess I lucked out.


Lancer VI


ALSO, I will only use ASUS boards.....they've always been solid for me.

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: MeatHead88
I keep having a lock up issue that I can not seem to track down. My machines keeps locking, ussually during heavy disk activity. I've switched power supplies, SATA cables, switched RAM, even tried XP 64bit RC2 so I could try totally different drivers. I've tried all bios versions, currently on 1004.001

I have 2 SATA Maxtor 80 gig Diamond Max 9 in a RAID 0 array off the NVidia RAID controller. .

Have you tried turning off Command Queueing and Write Caching from device manager?
When used together, these can cause major data integrity issues.

See:
http://www.serialata.org
for details on NCQ.

NCQ is application based.

 

[iscsidude]

Originally posted by: coyrls
John,

I don't know the best RMA route, it depends where you bought the board from and what their policy is I guess. Also I don't know how you'd deal with Asus direct from the UK (I'm in the UK too but I haven't had to do this). As for other suggestions, I suspect you're going to have to wait for the US to wake up!

Yeah, wait for the US to wake up!
Like these boards are made in the US !!!!
As if we can afford to make motherboards in the US!
Got to admit. That was a real joy to see.
We'll sit tight waiting for those UK motherboards while we revamp our US Plants!

Give me a break !

After months of this thread, that post had to say it all!

 

[lotus503]

Originally posted by: reidman
How do you get help from Asus?I have called opened cases and the only reply I got was try a beta bios they sent me that was it. I am on my third SLI and still having problems. It seems I cant install any sound card if I do it craps motherboard. I put a SBL in the first one and lost all PCI detection, 1394 and Marvel Lan. The second board booted fine and all devices were back in Windows, I installed the SBL in middle slot of motherboard booted up let windows install driver then system locked. A reboot and it just keep cutting off. Shut down removed live card and no more boot nothing could not make it boot. Third board from another source, booted fine all working well shut down installed a new ( though I would try a new sound card) Audigy 2 ZS gamer in midle slot system booted loaded drivers locked up. Reboot system would not boot. And yes I disabled on board sound in bios. I heard others say they disabled 1394, the extra lan to get system to run, first should we have to disable items just to get a system to boot? I have other systems with more then this installed and the bios and windows work out the IRQ's and memory address's. Second I tried disableing everthing and system still will not boot with Audigy card installed. So far I have not lost the 1394, Lan or PCI detection as before but I only tried the Audigy a couple times and after 3 boards I am afraid to try again.
Will return board to local vendor tomorrow, I allready replaced the first board with a Gigabyte had no problems what so ever with it. Now It seems I am stuck with second board as Comp-U-Plus wont take it back. Seems there are so many returns of this board shops are starting to tell customers to call ASUS. Well I guess If it cost me $240.00 to learn Asus is crap then maybe it was worth it. I have saved over 300 pages of online complaints about this board now to send to Asus wonder If they even care.
And for all you that have your running smothly I am happy for you but I expect more from a board then one that "will only crash 3 times a day and is somewhat stable" as others have posted or "gave up on sound card install, onboard isn't to bad" For the money this board should be rock stable and you should be able to install any SLI capable video card, and memory should run in dual mode not just a few makes. And If you want to use a SBL or Audigy sound card then it should work fine. And lastly If dual rail P/S didn't work it should be noted in manual.

Well the resounding theme in this thread is that the board is plagued with issues.
This has been my first real AMD build. and let me tell you I have had my ups and downs.

Someone else said "Its brand new technology what do people expect" and well to be honest I did kind of expect to have some issues. Lucky for me I have a crapload of extra equipment that I can swap in and out which helps isolate problems.

I wouldnt go as far to say this board is sucks. I currently have it stable a decent OC and at some point I may even be able to use my Maxtor Sata drive. By no means is this board near as stable as my PC-800 Deluxe

 

[tmchow]

can someone do me a favour?

I'm tryign to put this thing into an HTPC case and all my parts are on order (including the mothjerboard).

I'm tryign to see if a Zalman 7700 will fit on this thing give the fact that my HTPC case puts the power supply right next to the mohterboard. Compared to the DFI nf4 board, Asus put the CPU socket really close to the edge of the board.

Can someone take 2 measurements for me?

1) distance from the center of the CPU socket to the BACK edge of the board (towards the USB connectors)

2) distance from the center of the CPU socket to the RIGHT edge of the board (this is the closest edge).

Alternatively if someone knows if a Zalman 7700 will fit on this board WITHOUT over-hanging the edge of the motherboard, that would help me too.

 

[ajmiles]

I have a Zalman 7700 installed and it is fine in the direction towards the USB connectors, but I believe it does overhang the top of the board very slightly. Perhaps 1 or 2 millimeters over the top edge of the board.

 

[tmchow]

Originally posted by: ajmiles
I have a Zalman 7700 installed and it is fine in the direction towards the USB connectors, but I believe it does overhang the top of the board very slightly. Perhaps 1 or 2 millimeters over the top edge of the board.

Thanks for the info ajmiles! I guess perhaps I could either go with a 7000B, OR i could just cut the heatsink fins that woudl touch my Power supply?

 

[coyrls]

Originally posted by: iscsidude

Originally posted by: coyrls
John,

I don't know the best RMA route, it depends where you bought the board from and what their policy is I guess. Also I don't know how you'd deal with Asus direct from the UK (I'm in the UK too but I haven't had to do this). As for other suggestions, I suspect you're going to have to wait for the US to wake up!

Yeah, wait for the US to wake up!
Like these boards are made in the US !!!!
As if we can afford to make motherboards in the US!
Got to admit. That was a real joy to see.
We'll sit tight waiting for those UK motherboards while we revamp our US Plants!

Give me a break !

After months of this thread, that post had to say it all!

Oops I think you misunderstood what I meant. When we were posting it was day time in the UK and night time in the US. What I meant was that other posters in US might have some ideas but we would have to wait until they read the posts (i.e. when they woke up). It had nothing to do with motherboard manufacturing (which I know is not done in the US or the UK), no insult was intended.

 

[jluke]

Hi! Like others, I cannot install these utilities:
- AI Booster 2.00.48
- Cool'n'Quiet Software 1.0.18

I always get, during the installation, this error:
"Failed to install IO driver"
(even if the Asus PC Probe utility is switched off, no antivirus sw running and
default install dir selected)

Any clues?
It's strange 'cos 2 days ago I installed the same Operating System with the same
hardware and it installed without problems.
Then I had to install again from scratch, and I now always get this error.
It has to be said that AI Booster - anyway - gave me problems: even without
overclocking, after about 1 min of work, it gave me errors (a popup stating a
unidentified error, like ";"...).

Another problem I often encounter is with Asus PC Probe: from time to time it
reports strange/impossible "Chassis Fan" speeds (negative values, from -38k to 0),
while the fan is instead working properly (at least as I can see it).

My config: Asus A8N SLI, GeCube X850XT, AMD 3500+, 2GB, storage: 2x120GB
Seagate 7200.7 NCQ in RAID 0 and a DiamondMax10 NCQ 300GB (obviously NCQ is
disabled...). nVidia 6.39 drivers and ATI Catalyst 5.2 installed.

Many thanks,
Gianluca

 

[MeatHead88]

Originally posted by: iscsidude

Originally posted by: MeatHead88
I keep having a lock up issue that I can not seem to track down. My machines keeps locking, ussually during heavy disk activity. I've switched power supplies, SATA cables, switched RAM, even tried XP 64bit RC2 so I could try totally different drivers. I've tried all bios versions, currently on 1004.001

I have 2 SATA Maxtor 80 gig Diamond Max 9 in a RAID 0 array off the NVidia RAID controller. .

Have you tried turning off Command Queueing and Write Caching from device manager?
When used together, these can cause major data integrity issues.

See:
http://www.serialata.org
for details on NCQ.

NCQ is application based.

My DiamondMax 9s, and eveyone else's for that matter, don't support NCQ. I read the 80 some pages in this thread b4 I asked the question....

 

[bent98]

Solsttice

"I noticed the big drop when I mounted the Vantec 80mm intake almost directly over the 120mm CPU fan. "

Is there a part # for that vantac 80mm? Also which direction do you have vantec (blowing or sucking) Lastly how load is both those fans? My setup is by no means quit but I dotn want a wind tunnel either.

 

[kayble]

Originally posted by: coyrls

Originally posted by: iscsidude

Originally posted by: coyrls
John,

I don't know the best RMA route, it depends where you bought the board from and what their policy is I guess. Also I don't know how you'd deal with Asus direct from the UK (I'm in the UK too but I haven't had to do this). As for other suggestions, I suspect you're going to have to wait for the US to wake up!

Yeah, wait for the US to wake up!
Like these boards are made in the US !!!!
As if we can afford to make motherboards in the US!
Got to admit. That was a real joy to see.
We'll sit tight waiting for those UK motherboards while we revamp our US Plants!

Give me a break !

After months of this thread, that post had to say it all!

Oops I think you misunderstood what I meant. When we were posting it was day time in the UK and night time in the US. What I meant was that other posters in US might have some ideas but we would have to wait until they read the posts (i.e. when they woke up). It had nothing to do with motherboard manufacturing (which I know is not done in the US or the UK), no insult was intended.

Lol, gotta love that attitude tho'!

Well I'm waiting on a reply from ASUS regards my problem. I suspect I will have to RMA the board.... I'll let you all know

 

[kki000]

Kayble, i had more or less the same problem and the consensus was to update the bios. When i went from 1002 to 1003 this went away for the most part. When i tried to overclock it, i ran into some of these again. What some ppl here noticed is that the a8n seemed to undervolt the cpu. The default should have been 1.5 but the actual reading read something like 1.478 or so. Im running at 1.525 and it registers slightly above 1.5.
Have u tried giving yer cpu some more juice? try 1.525, its only a little above spec, maybe you have a sensitive cpu that doesnt like what the asus is sending by default.
Good luck,
K

 

[Tripp17]

I just want you guys to know that have TCCD memory that it IS the A8N-SLI board holding back the memory overclock for sure. I couldnt go past 245 fsb with a 1:1 memory ratio at 1T(490 @ 2.5-3-3-7). Now i sold my A8N-SLI board for 110.00 and bought the DFI Ultra-D and ive gotten my memory past 300 1T with a 1:1 ratio. People were telling me it was my memory......well, for everyday use im at 275 fsb and my memory is at 550 1T, and my processor is at 3.0. I also heard some bad news........that Asus is coming out with a second revision of the A8N-SLI that is supposed to overclock better. Those B_stards!!!