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

[Fragmentations]

First post. Also my first system I have ever built. I tried reading all these pages but it is just taking forever so sorry if these are repeat questions. I really like my system however I can not get the system to post with ram in dim slots a1 or a2. I have tried every single combo possbile and ended up with 2x512 in slots b1 and b2 which will not give me double rate. Is this a problem with the board that can be fixed without mailing it off. Secondly which ports are locked on the nvdia raid? Thrid my evga 6800gt came with a molex connector which i pluged in to the powersupply and I was still getting low power error on video so i plugged in the molex on motherboard for sli and have not gotten the error and i notice my 12v line went from 11.48 to 11.68 what do these numbers mean? I guess that is it for now. Thanks in advance

 

[tmchow]

I just assembled my HTPC based around an AMD 3500+ and Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. Currently only have 1 video card, and Evga 600GT PCI-e.

I fired up my computer and the graphics on the screen are garbled.. like everything other character (some characters are normal). The garbled characters are in high ascii it looks like.

Anyone experience this? Even the bios screen is garbled

This is really weird! If it was a video card problem, I would expect it not to POST at all, Any ideas?

Update: I just cleared the CMOS (jumpers + pulled battery), reseated the video card, and made sure that "SLI chip selector" (whatever it's called) was seated properly. Now my machine won't even POST/boot up. No VGA signal!

Update2: I can now POST and boot up, but screen is all garbled again.. I can see the ASUS boot up logo, but all characters and line on the screen are garbled.

Update 3: Looks like it's a crapshoot whether I can get my machine to POST or not. I took some pics of what the screen looks like when I do succesfully POST:

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

 

[Tip Top]

First post. Also my first system I have ever built. I tried reading all these pages but it is just taking forever so sorry if these are repeat questions. I really like my system however I can not get the system to post with ram in dim slots a1 or a2. I have tried every single combo possbile and ended up with 2x512 in slots b1 and b2 which will not give me double rate. Is this a problem with the board that can be fixed without mailing it off. Secondly which ports are locked on the nvdia raid? Thrid my evga 6800gt came with a molex connector which i pluged in to the powersupply and I was still getting low power error on video so i plugged in the molex on motherboard for sli and have not gotten the error and i notice my 12v line went from 11.48 to 11.68 what do these numbers mean? I guess that is it for now. Thanks in advance

Well I do not own the board or have much experience, but as far as volages go, 11.68 v is closer to the 12V that it wants so that is a good thing I would guess. If voltages get too low, then things don't work. Read reviews about power supplies and how they stress test them by putting huge consumption loads on them and measure how low the 12v dips below 12v.

Now about the memory,
I have downloaded the instruction manual which I am sure you have read and it .
It says on page 2-11:

"When usijng two DDR DIMM modules, install into DIMM_A1 and DIMM_B1 slots only. So that is the 2 blue slots."
So hopefully your memory sticks have the same exact timings (matched pair).

Really, I don't know what I am talking about from experience, but I wonder if you placed a single stick in the machine at a time (slot B1 it says in the manual), and could see what timings it runs at in the bios, and then put the other stick in, and see what timings it runs at, whether you could be confident you have 2 precisely matched sticks that run at the same timings? Or does it take more than exactly same timings to know you have matched sticks? Alternately, maybe could you manually set the timings, and see if each stick runs on the same timings.

PS.
Where did you buy your board?
Thanks.

 

[on2wheels]

Shaga, thanks so much for the advise. That solved it. I turned "F lock" back on and F8 worked fine.

I've had this Microsoft Wireless keyboard for a long time, but never loaded on OS with it, and was thinking F6 was working, but it was just quickly timing out and asking for the Mass Storage Drivers. I read your response and found the "F Lock" button to the right of the "F1-F12" keys. Any time you boot, the "F lock" setting gets turned back off. I will look for a driver that leaves it on.

What a disasterous combination, an OS loader that turns off the keyboard's "F lock" setting, then requires you to use the "F1-F12" keys with no indication of what's going on when they don't function. Also, the OS and keyboard are from the same vendor....pretty sad combo.

I have the system completely built up and functional now, and all my apps loaded and working well.

-Shannon

 

[Killasta43]

Originally posted by: tmchow
I just assembled my HTPC based around an AMD 3500+ and Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. Currently only have 1 video card, and Evga 600GT PCI-e.

I fired up my computer and the graphics on the screen are garbled.. like everything other character (some characters are normal). The garbled characters are in high ascii it looks like.

Anyone experience this? Even the bios screen is garbled

This is really weird! If it was a video card problem, I would expect it not to POST at all, Any ideas?

Update: I just cleared the CMOS (jumpers + pulled battery), reseated the video card, and made sure that "SLI chip selector" (whatever it's called) was seated properly. Now my machine won't even POST/boot up. No VGA signal!

Update2: I can now POST and boot up, but screen is all garbled again.. I can see the ASUS boot up logo, but all characters and line on the screen are garbled.

Update 3: Looks like it's a crapshoot whether I can get my machine to POST or not. I took some pics of what the screen looks like when I do succesfully POST:

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

That is definately a bad video card! My old ATi 9700 Pro did the same thing, exact same thing. Garbled just like that. I tested it in nearly 10 other setups and same thing. I'd RMA that video card ASAP!

 

[Shaga]

Originally posted by: on2wheels
Shaga, thanks so much for the advise. That solved it. I turned "F lock" back on and F8 worked fine.

What a disasterous combination, an OS loader that turns off the keyboard's "F lock" setting, then requires you to use the "F1-F12" keys with no indication of what's going on when they don't function. Also, the OS and keyboard are from the same vendor....pretty sad combo.

-Shannon

Nice to hear it helped. Strange thing is that F lock is at 'on' at bios load-state but it will go 'off' once computer is booted. Windows installer doesn't disable it. Most of my "F Lock keyboards" keeps it disabled even once I'm in windows, but then again.. I don't use resource eating keyboard drivers

Regards, Shaga

 

[tmchow]

Originally posted by: Killasta43

That is definately a bad video card! My old ATi 9700 Pro did the same thing, exact same thing. Garbled just like that. I tested it in nearly 10 other setups and same thing. I'd RMA that video card ASAP!

Thanks for the insigh Killasta... I was pretty sure it was a bad video card, i just wanted confirmation. I have already sent the email off to get it RMA's.

I was crossing my fingers that it's not a bad motherboard, or else I'd have a hard time convincing zipzoomfly to RMA it considering i already remove the chipset cooler and cut off the pegs that hold it down with pliers

 

[Jhonny Tactic]

man this just might be the dumbest question but i got my a8n-sli all mounted into my thermaltake tusanmi with my 3500+ all snug under my xp-120 and dual coasiar 2-2-2-5 i hook it all up and get ready to boot and.....what the hell there is no monitor hook up?? i didn't have the cash to get a 6800 ultra yet i cant hook up the monitor with out that??? Please be cool because i feel like ...

 

[century child]

Originally posted by: Jhonny Tactic
man this just might be the dumbest question but i got my a8n-sli all mounted into my thermaltake tusanmi with my 3500+ all snug under my xp-120 and dual coasiar 2-2-2-5 i hook it all up and get ready to boot and.....what the hell there is no monitor hook up?? i didn't have the cash to get a 6800 ultra yet i cant hook up the monitor with out that??? Please be cool because i feel like ...

No, that will not work. This board has no onboard video. You will generally only find onboard video on lower performance, value based mainboards.

 

[tmchow]

Originally posted by: Jhonny Tactic
man this just might be the dumbest question but i got my a8n-sli all mounted into my thermaltake tusanmi with my 3500+ all snug under my xp-120 and dual coasiar 2-2-2-5 i hook it all up and get ready to boot and.....what the hell there is no monitor hook up?? i didn't have the cash to get a 6800 ultra yet i cant hook up the monitor with out that??? Please be cool because i feel like ...

if you can't afford a good PCIe video card, then just get a PCI video card for now.

 

[imported_CW]

Hi.

Related to the recent discussion... I have yet to see anything on screen (the led stays orange - should change to green), the Post Reporter keeps saying: "System failed VGA test".

I installed just the CPU, RAM and Graphics board, tried the blue and black PCI Express slots, both trying the switch in single and dual graphics mode, and both with and without pushing the switch card completely (I've read in another topic in this forum that someone left the switch card unpushed and it worked)

Besides returning the Graphics board (It may be defective, but with all the problems that this Mobo is giving...), anything else I could try?

I don't have any PCI Graphics board to try, just 3 AGP...

Thank you.

My system (only the plugged by now):

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Newcastle
2x Kingston ValueRam 512 MB DDR400 CL3 (by now just one stick on B1)
Tagan 480W
Dominion GeForce 6600 256MB PCI-E
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Case

 

[MistaCooL17]

hi i just bought a antec 430 true power supply for my asus delux motherboard but i realized that it did not have enough power to even start up on the monitor screen. The fans were inconsistent and so were the optical drives that were installed prior. So now im contemplating on buying which power supply to best meet the needs for the asus motherboard, in the future i want to install another graphics card so i need to know which power supply to buy that is fast, quiet, and has great performance(24 pin). - thanks guys

 

[RallyKid]

Any body know what causes a BSOD with message MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION.

Bios 1004-001

 

[dansonic]

Your CPU might have problem... last time, I saw that message "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION". I have to RMA my CPU. It could be other stuff, but it is hardware related.

 

[runestone]

Originally posted by: MistaCooL17
hi i just bought a antec 430 true power supply for my asus delux motherboard but i realized that it did not have enough power to even start up on the monitor screen. The fans were inconsistent and so were the optical drives that were installed prior. So now im contemplating on buying which power supply to best meet the needs for the asus motherboard, in the future i want to install another graphics card so i need to know which power supply to buy that is fast, quiet, and has great performance(24 pin). - thanks guys

Using enermax 475ver.2 here on A8N, advise you check the thread here thru search, good luck on the build.

 

[Couchy]

Originally posted by: CW
Hi.

Related to the recent discussion... I have yet to see anything on screen (the led stays orange - should change to green), the Post Reporter keeps saying: "System failed VGA test".

I installed just the CPU, RAM and Graphics board, tried the blue and black PCI Express slots, both trying the switch in single and dual graphics mode, and both with and without pushing the switch card completely (I've read in another topic in this forum that someone left the switch card unpushed and it worked)

Besides returning the Graphics board (It may be defective, but with all the problems that this Mobo is giving...), anything else I could try?

I don't have any PCI Graphics board to try, just 3 AGP...

Thank you.

Make sure you plug in the 24 pin power, the 4 pin power for the video, and the small power cord as well. At first, I only had the 24 pin connected, so the system would power up but would not post and nothing appeared onscreen. Then I plugged in the small power and I got the system to post and display "System failed VGA test". Then I plugged in the 4 pin power for the SLI bridge IIRC and it worked after that.

 

[imported_CW]

Originally posted by: Couchy
Make sure you plug in the 24 pin power, the 4 pin power for the video, and the small power cord as well. At first, I only had the 24 pin connected, so the system would power up but would not post and nothing appeared onscreen. Then I plugged in the small power and I got the system to post and display "System failed VGA test". Then I plugged in the 4 pin power for the SLI bridge IIRC and it worked after that.

What do you mean by "the small power cord" ?

My VGA doesn't have any additional power connector to connect.

I plugged: the 24 pin EPS, the 12V rail (on the other side, near the CPU) and the EZ Plug (Molex for the SLI, not necessary, but does not hurt, I think...).

The MoBo POSTs (the POST Reporter gives info and I get 3 beeps through the PC Speaker), but I don't get anything on screen.

Thank you for the reply.

 

[SMatson]

Does anyone know how to hook up the front speaker/mic on a Lian Li 1100 to a Audiology 2ZS?

Thanks

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: SMatson
Does anyone know how to hook up the front speaker/mic on a Lian Li 1100 to a Audiology 2ZS?

Thanks

?????!?!?!?! a) this is not a8n-sli related question
!?!??!?!?! b) lian li or whatever doesn't matter..... audigy2 w/any front panel connection is problematic. You have to find out which pins on one of the audigy2 connectors is for line out, etc and then use a custom connector.
!?!?!?!? c) you did not list the most important component in yer "new rig"

 

[imported_MaDMaRTiGaN]

Hi MeatHead88,

I had similar problems with my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Systems locks up at random moments, usually when I left the system for about 10 minutes it was jammed. Playing games, running 3D Mark, everything works fine but sometimes a complete system hang. Memory checked OK, power supply seems ok, etc.
My problem was (probably) caused by my Plextor PX-116A(3) DVD-ROM player, connected to the primary IDE channel. Since I disconnected the power cable from this drive my systems seems stable (not one lock up in 3 days). Reconnecting the drive result in lock ups.

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, BIOS 1004.001
AMD Athlon64 3200+
Corsair TWINX1024-C2PT (2 x 512MB)
ASUS Radeon X600 XT HTVD
2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB (Stripe on nVIDIA SATA RAID)
NEC 3520 DVD-RW (master on secondary IDE channel)
Plexor PX-116A DVD-ROM (master on primary IDE channel) * DISCONNECTED *
Antec Lifestyle Sonata / Antec TruePower 380W

 

[MeatHead88]

Originally posted by: MaDMaRTiGaN
Hi MeatHead88,

I had similar problems with my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Systems locks up at random moments, usually when I left the system for about 10 minutes it was jammed. Playing games, running 3D Mark, everything works fine but sometimes a complete system hang. Memory checked OK, power supply seems ok, etc.
My problem was (probably) caused by my Plextor PX-116A(3) DVD-ROM player, connected to the primary IDE channel. Since I disconnected the power cable from this drive my systems seems stable (not one lock up in 3 days). Reconnecting the drive result in lock ups.

My setup:
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, BIOS 1004.001
AMD Athlon64 3200+
Corsair TWINX1024-C2PT (2 x 512MB)
ASUS Radeon X600 XT HTVD
2 x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB (Stripe on nVIDIA SATA RAID)
NEC 3520 DVD-RW (master on secondary IDE channel)
Plexor PX-116A DVD-ROM (master on primary IDE channel) * DISCONNECTED *
Antec Lifestyle Sonata / Antec TruePower 380W

MaDMaRTiGaN,

I will try disconnecting everything from the P IDE and see what happens. The problems may be similar. I'll test now and report back later.

 

[MeatHead88]

MaDMaRTiGaN,
It lasted for about 40 min, then locked up again.
What bios u on? I'm 1004.001

 

[deadly99]

WELL!! After 3 frustrating days I am finally posting and loading windows with my ram, BUT....I had to boot with one stick of 256 3200 corsair, go into bios and set ram speed at 500, even though I am using 3700 (466). Then shutdown, then put in my 2 sticks of 512 3700, and voila it works! But...my cpu is at a multiplier of 8 and my a64 3500 ends up running at 1.6 instead of 2.2. So.....who can tell me the multiplier to get my 2.2 back? I skipped that day in class. I have tried 10 but then it won't post and I have to go threw the whole process again. Thanks in advance, or maybe there are other tips I dont know about to get cpu up to par

 

[ACE76]

11x200 is 2.2ghz

Yo are running your memory on a divider to get it to post....that isn't a good sign for your memory...you should be running it ar DDR400 so you have a 1:1 memory/CPU ratio.

 

[Shaga]

Some tips for our motherboard: http://www.mvktech.net/component/option.../Itemid,34/func,view/id,8868/catid,10/