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

[mhannigan]

I have a question that may seem a little stupid. I'm not a newbie in general, although this is my first Athlon system that I've overclocked.

I'm confused by the way the Asus mobo allows you to set the memory. I set the memory at a particular memclock setting and then it seems to (almost randomly, but not quite) assign it's own memory divider to base the memory speed on the CPU. I understand the use of a memory divider, but I'm confused as to what I am actually selecting when I select the memclock setting as it seems like the end result can only be obtained by trying different settings and seeing what the bios decides to do. Does anyone have a comprehensive understanding of the factors involved and know of a way to actually predict what the actual memory speed will be when the system boots up?

 

[sreshta]

I have a funny problem.

When rebooting or shutting down the nviad icon apperar in the tray with baloontion in Chinese I think.

Can any onre tell me what it is?

corrupt bios?

 

[sreams]

The memory settings aren't setup very intuitively in the A8N SLI Deluxe BIOS. All the memory clocks you see listed are based on having your HTT fixed at 200MHz. As soon as you change the HTT, you change the memory clock by the same percentage. As an example... a memory clock of 400MHz really means a 1:1 ratio in regards to the HTT. Thus, a 200MHz HTT will yield a 400MHz(200x2) memory clock.

The best way to work with memory clocks on this board is to calculate what the dividers are based on a 200MHz HTT, and then figure out what the same dividers would do at other HTT speeds.

-S

 

[Xitar]

Originally posted by: carl

Originally posted by: Xitar
I had the same thing happen this weekend when I upgraded to 6.53 and traced it back to that stupid firewall. If you turn it off then restart your machine it should work. I haven't been able to find any mention of this latest probem with the firewall.

I would like to know if anyone has found a way to fix this rather than using windows firewall? (I know that neither are really good, but I like the hardware aspect of Nvidia's). I'm behind another hardware firewall also.

I wanted to post an update. Xitar was on the money -- this was my problem. Disabling the nVidia firewall made the port work again.

Hopefully this confirmation will be of help to someone having hte same problem in the future. Thanks again Xitar!

Carl

Glad to see that worked for you. Now if only I could figure out why it is happening so I could re-enable it. Oh well. Maybe next update.

 

[ss284]

I recently setup a system with the a8n-sli. It seemed to be working fine, up until I started having USB issues. I have both a lexar USB jumpdrive and a 20gb external laptop drive. If I have either of those attached to my system, it refuses to complete the boot process. I get to the asus splash screen, and it just hangs(no ctrl alt del). I'm using the 1.007 bios.


Another question is, does this board support USB boot at all? I noticed in the bios revision notes that they removed it from the f8 boot menu, and I havent seen the option anywhere in the bios. It was a pain to flash the board with a floppy when I could have done it with a usb key.

Also, asus update refuses to install on my board because of missing files, and the fact that it doesnt detect my board as being an asus. has anyone else had similar problems?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

 

[elSalmon]

Hi,

I have a new PC with Asus a8n-sli deluxe motherboard running Windows XP Service Pack 1. I have installed Nvidia chipset Nforce 4 Standalone Kit and updated BIOS (version 1007). Although, everything works fine but Firewire Texas Instrument device, USB (OHCI) controller and IDE primary controller. "Windows Device Manager" shows Exclamation in these devices. Any USB devices doesn't work. Any idea?

Thank you

 

[Xitar]

elSalmon-

The USB drivers are on the disk. Did you install those? They are not in the standalone kit from Nvidia.

 

[mhannigan]

Originally posted by: sreams
The memory settings aren't setup very intuitively in the A8N SLI Deluxe BIOS. All the memory clocks you see listed are based on having your HTT fixed at 200MHz. As soon as you change the HTT, you change the memory clock by the same percentage. As an example... a memory clock of 400MHz really means a 1:1 ratio in regards to the HTT. Thus, a 200MHz HTT will yield a 400MHz(200x2) memory clock.

The best way to work with memory clocks on this board is to calculate what the dividers are based on a 200MHz HTT, and then figure out what the same dividers would do at other HTT speeds.

-S

Ahhhhh... after reading this and now looking at how my settings ultimately change based on what I select - it makes sense! Thanks sreams... this was evading me.

 

[mhannigan]

Originally posted by: anrkyuk
***Update***

I setup a memtest 3.2 disk and rebooted, a message came up loading and then for 15 mins 5 sets of numbers scrolled down the screen repeating themselves, after 15 mins I gave up and rebooted.

Is it supposed to do this and if so for how long ? I thought I would get some kind of menu prompt / screen ???

You know... I had this exact same problem with my old ASUS board and my Pentium 4. At least in my case, it had something to do with SATA. Try disabling your hard drives from the BIOS and then booting into memtest. I never did find out why this happened, but it did. Different board and processessor, so there's no telling if it will work in your case, but worth a try.

 

[nMLasKi]

I have a very weird problem, I just flashed bios to 1007 final and when I want to install asus update (I flashed with a boot up floppy) the system doesn't "recongnize" it, I mean, The systema cannot install because I haven't got an asus motherboard (but I have it !!)


If someone fixes this please let me know

 

[elSalmon]

Originally posted by: nMLasKi
I have a very weird problem, I just flashed bios to 1007 final and when I want to install asus update (I flashed with a boot up floppy)

It's better (and more secure) to flash from Windows, not from floppy. You can try out with CrashFree Asus method: boot with motherboard CD driver and follow the Asus manual.

I have re-installed Windows XP and USB & Firewire devices works fine now. Windows are crazy, very crazy. I never won't understand it.

I have enable AI NOS (3% overclocking). Is AI NOS overclocking stable enough?

 

[garikfox]

I use 10% with ease, Rock stable.

 

[garikfox]

Originally posted by: nMLasKi
I have a very weird problem, I just flashed bios to 1007 final and when I want to install asus update (I flashed with a boot up floppy) the system doesn't "recongnize" it, I mean, The systema cannot install because I haven't got an asus motherboard (but I have it !!)


If someone fixes this please let me know

Use 1006 its a Bug, I found it with 1007 and 1008.001. Along with the other bug i found, You cant install a fresh copy of XP with nVidia RAID 0 as main install, Once it starts loading of the floppy it cant find it.

 

[garikfox]

Originally posted by: elSalmon

Originally posted by: nMLasKi
I have a very weird problem, I just flashed bios to 1007 final and when I want to install asus update (I flashed with a boot up floppy)

It's better (and more secure) to flash from Windows, not from floppy. You can try out with CrashFree Asus method: boot with motherboard CD driver and follow the Asus manual.

I have re-installed Windows XP and USB & Firewire devices works fine now. Windows are crazy, very crazy. I never won't understand it.

I have enable AI NOS (3% overclocking). Is AI NOS overclocking stable enough?

No its not safer the safest flashing method is DOS, I only use that method. Also for yer mem I wouldnt go past 3% on that AI OC.

 

[elSalmon]

Originally posted by: garikfox
No its not safer the safest flashing method is DOS, I only use that method. Also for yer mem I wouldnt go past 3% on that AI OC.

Why booting DOS floppy is safer? Floopies usually are buggy and slow. I think DOS floppy flashing is only a suggested method if you haven't Windows installed (for example, if you use Linux only)

 

[nMLasKi]

elSalmon I didn't flash the bios with the floppy itself, in fact I don't have a floppy, I use a boot cd to boot up @ command promt, then I have the awardflsh.exe and the rom file in my hard disk and I completed the flashing process in there.

 

[ss284]

Anyone with any insight about my USB troubles? Does anyone else have any problems with booting when a USB storage device is plugged in? Also, is there any way at all to boot from usb with this motherboard?

-Steve

 

[Rustler]

Steve if your boot priority in you bios by default is set to removable drives it will hang when you have a USB storage device plugged in durning the boot cycle.

 

[ss284]

Rustler, thanks for the response. My boot priority is just cd-rom, then my hard drive, with the rest disabled.

The second I plug my usb drive in, my entire computer freezes, and the keyboard stops working. Even after post, such as when its asking if Id like to boot from cd. Pluging in this jump drive kills the system.

-Steve

 

[Rustler]

Steve what bios are you using, I have no problems with removeable usb drives. I can use the front usb ports on my Lian Li case or the usb ports on my Zboard.

 

[FxSoap]

I'm having a huge problem. After I installed the 1008sd01 bios that just came out...everything is trashed. I can't play any game for more than 10 seconds, then BSOD and restart. Sometimes...BSOD reappears overand over.

What is the most stable Bios that I could use...and a link if anyone could?

Thank you,
Soap

 

[Rustler]

1007 final for me, I will add a link when I get home from work.

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: Rustler
Steve what bios are you using, I have no problems with removeable usb drives. I can use the front usb ports on my Lian Li case or the usb ports on my Zboard.

Im using the 1.007.004 bios. I'll try flashing the final 1.007 tomorrow. Usb drives work perfectly in windows, however they just refuse to let the computer boot.

 

[willfreund]

rtest

 

[Micha]

Hello

I need some help - I'm going to buy 2GB of memory for A8N-SLI (2x1GB), only I don't know which one whould be the best. This is what I found:

Way to expensive:
Ultra

To expensive:
Kingston
OCZ

Reasonably priced:
Corsair
OCZ

If anyone can help, or have some experience with 2x1GB set, I would appreciate. I can consider "expensive" memory, if it's worth it (I'm pretty sure, it's not)... I'm planing to use it with Athlon X2 4400+ and stay with this rig for at least 2 years, also not overclocking to much (10-15%).
Thanks a lot!