*** Official ASUS M2N-E Thread ***

[peroni]

Bios 0304 has just been released

ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N-E/M2NE304.zip

Will it fix the soft reboot issue? I cant try it myself as I'm away from home for another 2 weeks

btw, anybody that DO NOT have the soft reboot issue when overclocking over ~10% ?

 

[imported_inspire]

Originally posted by: peroni
Bios 0304 has just been released

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N-E/M2NE304.zip">ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N-E/M2NE304.zip</a>

Will it fix the soft reboot issue? I cant try it myself as I'm away from home for another 2 weeks

btw, anybody that DO NOT have the soft reboot issue when overclocking over ~10% ?

Thanks, I'll update from my current 0302 Beta to 0304 when I get home tonight and I'll let you guys know if it solves any of my problems.

 

[Cali]

ok im going to update my bios right now. Thx for the notice

 

[peroni]

Bios history taken from Asus site

[ 0304 ]
----------------------
Patch memory compatibility.

[ 0302 ]
----------------------
Patch memory compatibility


The first reports are that this 0304 bios will not fix the soft reboot problem.
It will probably take several releases before they squash out all the little bugs of this board.
We can only hope that they will continue developing new versions.

 

[hanzo918]

Overclocking issues aside.

I tried installing a system with 1GB OCZ DDR2, AM2 X2 4200, and a Geforce 7600GS, and M2N-E last night.

Windows XP SP2 installation went a bit slow, but smooth.

Upon entering Windows, I could NOT explore the contents of the DVDROM for the life of me. The system would see D:\ DVDROM, but would freeze when I double-click to try to install the motherboard drivers.

I have a Pioneer DVDROM
DVDROM set to master
HDD set to slave
Both connected via 1 IDE cable.

Can someone shed some light on this? I would love to be able to access the optical drive and install some drivers!

 

[hanzo918]

So the RAM is 2.1v. Can I tune it down to 1.9v via the mobo and still get stability at 800 or >750?
Or do I jus need to get a new stick of RAM?

 

[tartay]

I am planning to use ASUS M2N-E with 1GB of PC 6400 Patriot DDR2 800 CL5.

http://www.patriotmemory.com/products/d...3&catid=2&prodgroupid=59&id=401&type=1

According to the patriot site, the voltage requirement for that module is only 1.8v. Would it be ok for me if I use the mobo out-of-the-box situation with those modules if I am not into overclocking?

 

[imported_inspire]

@hanzo - I've had some of the same trouble with drives, but it's usually when I'm tweaking stuff in the OS. Also - about your 2.1v memory - I'd send it back and get some new memory that runs at 1.9v or lower.

@peroni - fo shizzle.

@tartay - I've said this before, but.... If you don't mind buying / keeping / dealing with a product (M2N-E) from a company that lies about its specs, you'll be fine with that memory. If you're already stuck with this mobo, then you don't have much of a choice.

Update - I called Brent back. It didn't seem like he had really been working on my case aside from sending off some e-mails. However, he did catch his boss walking by and asked him about my problem. Basically, Tech Support doesn't know anything about this, and he said I should send an e-mail to the Engineering Department - tsd@asus.com.tw

Sound familiar? It should - that's the same guy I've e-mailed twice who replies with garbage and gibberish about RMA policies and Chipset Fans (which the M2N-E does not have). So, I asked if he would mind e-mailing engineering (in hopes that they may take him more seriously) and he agreed to. I'll give him a week.

Now, Brent did tell me that he believed it to be a marketing error (I knew it...) - which is total crap - and I told him so - 'that just seems very unplausible since the majority of DDR2 800 runs at 2.1v and I can't believe a company like Asus would release an inferior product...'

What do I think at this point? I think we won't hear anything from Engineering. I think that Asus, if they release any official statement, will claim it was a marketing error. I think that it's a 50/50 shot that the problem can be fixed with a BIOS update, and from there, a 50/50 shot that it will eventually be fixed with a BIOS update. More likely, we'll left hanging unless a suit is filed (and who has the time to fight with a global corporation over a motherboard in court?). Just my two cents.

But, like peroni said, all we can do is hope that it can be fixed and that they fix it - they're not giving us much else to go besides hope...

 

[drofat]

Everybody is talking about problems , but i gonna use a PQi mems that runs at 1.8v.

Can i achieve a good overclock with my Athlon 3200+ ?

 

[imported_inspire]

You should be able to get a modest / decent overclock with 0.15v of headroom on the memory voltage, but don't expect anything stellar. If the board was built to support voltages up to 2.5v on the memory, you'd have a lot more to work with.

I know I keep ranting, but it's frustrating to have your OC limited by your mobo when all the research you did before buying told you it was the 1337.

EDIT - Also remember that if this board forces you to use a memory divider lower than what you would like, you can always drop your CPU multiplier down and raise your HTT to hit the same OC at a higher memory bandwidth.

 

[drofat]

@inspire

Did you pass 270 ?

 

[imported_inspire]

I'm at 300 HTT x 9x multiplier = 2700 MHz. I dropped my multiplier down to pick the RAM speed up because I can run it at anything above a 1:2 divider and run stable on a decent OC. I passed 14 hours running two instances of SP2004 on Blend and 24 hours of the same app on CPU stress. I call it 'stable enough'.

 

[drofat]

@Inspire

Thats a good over, now i can buy this board.
My only options here are this one and m2v.

Did you see That

 

[kenmasters]

Damn, I have the worst friggin luck. THis is the first time since my ABit BH6, that I have bought a non "Free MB special" motherboard. And now it turns out I bought a POS

 

[imported_inspire]

Originally posted by: drofat
@Inspire

Thats a good over, now i can buy this board.
My only options here are this one and m2v.

Did you see That

oh. my. gawd.

I may try that - I don't mind soldering. I'd just have to dig deeper into volt-mods before I did. Like, do I adjust it on the fly? How do I measure the amount of each adjustment (in volts)? Where do I pick up a 20K VR and how do I know it's good? I don't suppose you know much about this, eh, drofat? (I may have to register over at xtremesystems....)

 

[peroni]

Guys, you ought to see this

Finally one of the big sites reporting the restart problem over 220MHz
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-nforce570_4.html

Also the reviewer suggests that swapping m2n-sli bios with the m2n-e is possible.
This way the memory voltage would be finally able to reach 2.5v as advertised.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/asus-nforce570_7.html

 

[imported_inspire]

Yes, peroni, but that reviewer didn't just flash in the M2N-SLi BIOS, he actually swapped the BIOS chips...

Now, If I could be sure that I would not FUBAR my mobo and spend the next 3 weeks waiting on a replacement BIOS chip, I might just flash the M2N-SLi BIOS in myself and see how it works... tempting.

But that begs the question - if the BIOSes are so similar, why is there such a disparity between them with regards to memory voltage options? Why does one work better? Judging from the fact that the reviewer didn't know what to do with the annoying SLi Balloon, I wouldn't say he's very familiar with the board. But, that just goes to show that it doesn't take much time at all to figure out that the board isn't what it's supposed to be.

Regardless, this is good. It's about time Asus get bad press for such a crappy set of boards. Maybe now that they're in the media spotlight, they will actually get off their lazy complacent corporate butts and admit there is a problem.... only then can we expect a fix.

I might e-mail the reviewer at Xbit and see if he noticed the vDIMM options....

EDIT: I added a comment to that review, and when I read the others, it made me sick...

 

[KeithTalent]

I had been reading this thread for a while and was hoping I would not run into any of the issues discussed here. Unfortunately I did have issues (see my thread here: Thread) It took a while to figure out that it was the Mobo/BIOS, but all seems to be good now.

I can't believe what a nightmare this board has been so far for such a large number of people. Hopefully further updates will alleviate some of the problems inherent to this board.

Just thought I would link to my thread here as sort of a PSA.

Cheers, KT

 

[magmator]

I just setup a m2n-e based system useing two raptor WD360 drives...

XP installation stops at 95% formating in Raid setup and also in a single no Raid (Indipendent drives) setup

Anybody any ideas. Latest BIOS is installed...

mag

 

[Cali]

Judging from the fact that the reviewer didn't know what to do with the annoying SLi Balloon,

posted by inspire

Ok Mr inspire, how can i get rid of the annoying SLI ballon?

 

[imported_inspire]

Originally posted by: Cali

Judging from the fact that the reviewer didn't know what to do with the annoying SLi Balloon,

posted by inspire

Ok Mr inspire, how can i get rid of the annoying SLI ballon?

Go Here It's a registry fix. Just open it and run it. Voila.

 

[Whitekracken]

I need your help guys before I go crazy.

I recently decided to build my very own pc for the first time! (Bad mistake as Im next to useless) I was recommended the following parts:-

ASUS M2N-E nF570 Socket AM2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Retail AM2
BFG GeForce 7600GTO 256MB GDDR3
OCZ 2GB kit EL DDR2 PC2-6400
320GB Seagate 7200.10 SATA 2
LiteOn DRW-6S160P 16x DVD-RW Black
3½" Black Floppy Drive
Creative Labs SB Audigy 4 7.1 OEM
ATX MIDI TOWER - AL-03-BB
80mm Hiper Blue LED Case Fan
USB2.0 4 Port PCI Controller Card
Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM SP2

So I went ahead and bought them. Are these parts compatible together?

I've managed to get everything put together, but Im really struggling getting the OS across onto the Sata HD. If Im being honest, I have no idea to get it working. I tried putting across the drivers for the Sata HD, but for some reason the floppy isn't being recognised. Is there any other way I can sort this out without the use of a floppy.

Thanks in advance guys. After reading this thread, im beginning to poo myself as its not sounding good at all with this motherboard and I cant return it! So im afraid Im stuck with it.

 

[mitaiwan82]

Originally posted by: Whitekracken
So I went ahead and bought them. Are these parts compatible together?

I don't know if those OCZ modules will work, since the ones I've seen usually have a operating voltage of 2.0V+. You might be able to slow down the speed to DDR2-667 or slower to make it work. FYI I'm using Corsair PC2-6400 modules (2x1GB) and they work great.

Originally posted by: Whitekracken
I've managed to get everything put together, but Im really struggling getting the OS across onto the Sata HD. If Im being honest, I have no idea to get it working. I tried putting across the drivers for the Sata HD, but for some reason the floppy isn't being recognised. Is there any other way I can sort this out without the use of a floppy.

Do you have a working floppy disk with the SATA drivers? You can make one from the included CD, but unfortunately that requires the use of another computer. If your floppy drive is not being recognized by the motherboard, then you might need to make sure that it's A) enabled in the BIOS and B) plugged in correctly. The floppy drive cables aren't keyed like the IDE so you could get them in backwards.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Whitekracken
I need your help guys before I go crazy.

I recently decided to build my very own pc for the first time! (Bad mistake as Im next to useless) I was recommended the following parts:-

ASUS M2N-E nF570 Socket AM2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Retail AM2
BFG GeForce 7600GTO 256MB GDDR3
OCZ 2GB kit EL DDR2 PC2-6400
320GB Seagate 7200.10 SATA 2
LiteOn DRW-6S160P 16x DVD-RW Black
3½" Black Floppy Drive
Creative Labs SB Audigy 4 7.1 OEM
ATX MIDI TOWER - AL-03-BB
80mm Hiper Blue LED Case Fan
USB2.0 4 Port PCI Controller Card
Microsoft Windows XP Home OEM SP2

So I went ahead and bought them. Are these parts compatible together?

I've managed to get everything put together, but Im really struggling getting the OS across onto the Sata HD. If Im being honest, I have no idea to get it working. I tried putting across the drivers for the Sata HD, but for some reason the floppy isn't being recognised. Is there any other way I can sort this out without the use of a floppy.

Thanks in advance guys. After reading this thread, im beginning to poo myself as its not sounding good at all with this motherboard and I cant return it! So im afraid Im stuck with it.

Update your BIOS, that's what worked for me. Look at my post a few above this one and you will see I had a similar issue to you, it seems to have to do with the RAM and Mobo not agreeing on the old BIOS.

 

[izzy007]

Originally posted by: Talcite
It's a horrible board. It overclocks poorly, most ram isn't supported, and even the supported ones run slower than rated speeds. It's a headache in a box, even after all the bios updates.

well i think i have the solution to verclocking it. i am in the middle of an rma and was going to get the msi k9n platinum but now i am not too sure, any1 had ecperience with that board.
anywayz, as for the OC'ing. basically my system is running at 300mhz fsb and multi of 9x. i set the HTT to 3x, PEG disabled, memory to 533mhz (it a corsair xms2) with manual 1.9v. the memory will run at around 770mhz due to the 300mhz fsb. asus does not detect the voltages correctly so they have to be set manually. THATS IT, DONE
enjoy ur OC