Official DO's and DON'T for ASUS A8N-SLI (PREMIUM)

[wanderer27]

I'd probably go ahead an plug in the EZ-plug, it'll just supply extra power to your MB / VC if it needs it for any reason.

Yeah there are quite a few Memory clock settings, and they're not labeled standard. I left two of them alone as well as I really didn't know what they were.

On the VCore, you may want to set it at 1.4 until you get things stable - that's supposed to be the default voltage.

 

[Capt Caveman]

If it's only crashing when you're really pushing your system, my guess is that it's your memory. I would bump up your dram voltage to at least 2.7v or 2.8v and see what happens. Corsair memory seems to need a little more juice than others.

 

[snufulufugus]

OK, I bumped up the memory voltage to 2.8 as caveman said, and manually set the vcore to 1.4, although i suspect that is the default 'auto' setting. I'll see what happens.

Is it a good idea to run a burn-in program to test the stability? I have sandra 2005 and it has a burn-in utility. Also, it seems my floppy drive is not working, although it was last week during the build, is their any way to run memtest without a floppy? The website ways i can make a CD, but then I have to change my boot order.... anything simpler that I can do?

 

[wanderer27]

For Memtest I believe you're going to need a Floppy or CD.

One of the more popular tests run is Prime95. It will also do some Memory testing, but nothing like Memtest.

Make sure you didn't accidentally disable your Floppy in your BIOS.

 

[FurBurglar]

I have a question about the A8N-SLI Premium. I recently got on and in trying to test the limits of my memory I have come across a problem. If I leave everything stock all is well. If I change settings over to manual and try to take my memory up to higher speeds, something changes and the memory shows to be running slower than stock speeds. FOr instance, using CLock Gen I can take the FSN up to 250mhz but when I look in CPUID it shows the memory running at 174mhz (DDR 347). Am I missing something here? I am using 2 x 1GB G.Skill DDR 500 (PC4000) with Athlon 64 3500+ Newcastle. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[wanderer27]

I'm not familiar with CLock Gen, I would do all my testing from setting things up in BIOS. Maybe NVTune would work as well.

There's about four or five settings in BIOS regarding OC'ing. If you're looking to run tests from Windows (of even BIOS) make sure you have all of them set to Manual or Disabled as the case may be. You'll need to do this for the Memory and CPU as they both have individual OC options.

 

[snufulufugus]

Well I may have tracked down the issue that is causing my spontaneous reboots - the power supply. Seems there is an issue with the Antec NeoPower line of PSU's when running with Asus A8N-SLI motherboards.

What a random thing.... to have an incompatibility problem with a PSU. I found many many people on both the Asus forums and a coupla overclocking site forums who are experiencing this exact problem with a NeoPower/A8N setup. I figure this is not the best place to post regarding power supplies, but can anyone recommend one that doesnt have this issue?

Because of this evidence I think I'll call the egg in the next day or two to get a RMA, but I need to select a replacement first.

 

[RobDMB]

I'm ordering this motherboard for my first computer build (hopefully i made a good choice). I am wondering if someone could help me with the proper procedure for installation. Do i update the bios first or install windows first? Secondly do I get chipset drivers off asus's site or nvidia's site. Lastly what drives do i not want to install. It seems everyone says don't install the IDE drivers. Does this mean IDe won't work or it just uses microsoft drivers? If someone could kind of give me step by step advise I'd apreciate it.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: snufulufugus
Well I may have tracked down the issue that is causing my spontaneous reboots - the power supply. Seems there is an issue with the Antec NeoPower line of PSU's when running with Asus A8N-SLI motherboards.

What a random thing.... to have an incompatibility problem with a PSU. I found many many people on both the Asus forums and a coupla overclocking site forums who are experiencing this exact problem with a NeoPower/A8N setup. I figure this is not the best place to post regarding power supplies, but can anyone recommend one that doesnt have this issue?

Because of this evidence I think I'll call the egg in the next day or two to get a RMA, but I need to select a replacement first.

I've had no problems with my PSU. You may also want to look at OCZ and Seasonic.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: RobDMB
I'm ordering this motherboard for my first computer build (hopefully i made a good choice). I am wondering if someone could help me with the proper procedure for installation. Do i update the bios first or install windows first? Secondly do I get chipset drivers off asus's site or nvidia's site. Lastly what drives do i not want to install. It seems everyone says don't install the IDE drivers. Does this mean IDe won't work or it just uses microsoft drivers? If someone could kind of give me step by step advise I'd apreciate it.

I wouldn't update the BIOS until after everything is up and running right first. You may even decide you dont' need to update BIOS if things work as you want.

I'd get the Chipset Drivers off the ASUS site. I believe the 6.65 version is what you'll want, the 6.66 just have added support for 2003/Server, which you don't really need.

Don't install the IDE drivers they just cause problems, Windows handles everything fine.

Also don't install the Firewall and Forceware (something like that) drivers as they too cause problems.

 

[MrExcitement]

I just finished putting my system together two days ago. I felt I read all of the manuals thoroughly (swear to the FSM I RTFM!) and followed all instructions to the letter for the various installations. I was confident I had everything setup properly. However when I went to switch it on for the first time - I got the dreaded "No POST" error. Fans spun, lights came on, but nothing else. I read forum after forum, listening to the horror stories of incompatible RAM, flaky power supplies, RMA'd CPU's, BIOS flashing headaches and RAID setup fiascos. I'll tell you,-I was NOT looking forward to having to spend big $ to buy test parts like Athlon 64 CPU's, PCI-E vid cards and SLi power supplies.

Being on the cutting edge of technology is a very lonely and expensive place when you have a problem.

But thanks to this forum and this thread in particular (and other forums) I at least had a bit of a guidebook to start investigating the problem. I started by tearing down the system piece by piece to see if i could locate the hardware causing the problem. I finally got down to just the motherboard sitting on a piece of cardboard with the power supply attached. Still nothing.

I started fresh and re-read the ASUS manual for CPU setup, as that's all I had installed. Everything seemed good. Then I noticed, way back in the enumeration of the various fans, drive plugs, audio connectors, and past the aging serial port connector a one-line blurb in the ATX power plugs connection. And I quote: "Do not forget to connect the 4 pin ATX +12 V; otherwise the system will not boot."

A key piece of info? Yes. Something that could affect your system actual starting, the virtual "key to the ignition"? Definitely. Something that could have, should have been put in the CPU setup area at the front of the manual instead of hidden in the back with the Firewire connection details? Hell yeah.

After plugging that little cable in, I proceeded to test the system. Bang - Now I'm getting a memory error (well no big suprise there - there is no memory in right now, only the CPU). So I start installing the remaining hardware again, testing as I go in case anything else goes "ka-flutz". No problems, everthing is running tickety-boo.

I finished the installation of Windows XP Pro last night, following the directions given in the forum for recommended RAID, BIOS and driver settings and installed without a hitch.

So, I would like to add a do to the list: DO check and plug in all power cables, ESPECIALLY the ATX12v plug for the CPU. It will save you many headaches. And ASUS - great manual, except for that one line crucial to the setup that you hid deep in the manual.

Thanks again to everyone in the forum who posted problems and solutions for the A8N Premium. Even though it didn't directly help, it did give me a direction to go in when I was stuck.

 

[RobDMB]

Exactly what drivers are recommended to be installed? I'm doing an install tonight and want to make sure I make no mistakes and install necessary drivers. Do you have to install things like raid drivers if you will not be running raid. I will simply have 1 Sata driver, 1 IDE drive, 1 Floppy, and 1 CD Drive. Thanks, Rob

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: RobDMB
Exactly what drivers are recommended to be installed? I'm doing an install tonight and want to make sure I make no mistakes and install necessary drivers. Do you have to install things like raid drivers if you will not be running raid. I will simply have 1 Sata driver, 1 IDE drive, 1 Floppy, and 1 CD Drive. Thanks, Rob

Don't install the IDE Drivers from the Chipset Driver package.

Also as it's installing the Ethernet portion it will ask if you want to install the Firewall & Forceware (something like that), select NO and continue.

If you are going to install your OS on your SATA, I would unplug the power from the IDE so the XP CD won't try to install on the IDE. Once you've got XP installed, you can plug the power back to the IDE (System off of course) and everything should come up fine. You can then format the IDE Drive through XP's Disk Management if it's not already Formatted/Setup.

In BIOS turn off the NVRAID and Silicon SATA controller under the Onboard Device Configuration Menu. Leave the SATA options alone under the menu with other Hard Drive settings.

I'd also set the OC options to Disabled or Manual as the case may be.

 

[RobDMB]

Ok here is something about the premium I don't understand. It has one of the new 24pin power connectors correct? In my system if you connect the extra 4 pins it will not post, but if you only connect 20 pins then it works fine? Is this normal or should it normally work with all 24 pins connected?

 

[wanderer27]

I really don't know what to say about your Power connector issue. When I was putting my System together I made sure I had a 24 Pin connector because I had seen people having problems the the 20 Pin PSU's. I also looked for SATA and PCIex support on the PSU.

 

[Waylay00]

Working rig:

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
XP-90 with Panaflo L1A
2GB (2x1GB) OCZ EL Platinum CAS 2-3-2-5
eVGA 7800GT CO Edition (coming soon - temporary replaced by X300SE)
WD 74GB Raptor
LiteOn DVD/DCRW Combo
Antec TP II 2.0 550w sleeved with UV Blue Sleeving
Thermaltake Tsunami
Logisys UV Cathode

 

[AppaYipYip]

I am having a strange problem with my A8N sli premium guys, it seems that since my last format/reinstall (I even cleared CMOS) the board keeps assinging my SATA HD and my CD-ROM drive the same location (bus location 0, 0) and so, I believe they are interfering. I've moved the CD-Rom to the secondary IDE channel, still with no success. Moved the SATA drive from plug 1 to plug 3, nothing. I am totally stumped and my rig was working flawlessly prior to this dual core/format reinstall. Any ideas?

 

[Nightprowler]

Hi.

First post here.

I just got my Opteron CPU and it turned out to be a great overclocker. Problem is; I need to run the motherboard wtih a memory divider (333). But when I`m enabling 333 in Bios the computer frezes at postscreeen. Got newest bios 1009.

Is it just my motherboard, or have any other ran in to simular issues?

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: RobDMB
Ok here is something about the premium I don't understand. It has one of the new 24pin power connectors correct? In my system if you connect the extra 4 pins it will not post, but if you only connect 20 pins then it works fine? Is this normal or should it normally work with all 24 pins connected?

20-pin PSU should work fine. Which 4-pin connecter are you talking about? Is it something split off the main connector that the manufacturer advertise as "All-In-One" design? Then your PSU is indeed 24 pin and they should just work. I'm assuming you're not talking about the 4-pin CPU power connecter.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: Nightprowler
Hi.

First post here.

I just got my Opteron CPU and it turned out to be a great overclocker. Problem is; I need to run the motherboard wtih a memory divider (333). But when I`m enabling 333 in Bios the computer frezes at postscreeen. Got newest bios 1009.

Is it just my motherboard, or have any other ran in to simular issues?

What is your HTT?

 

[Nightprowler]

My Opteron runs at 275 x 11 default vcore. (3.08 ghz) The ballistix are stable up to 275...

 

[lopri]

OK you're now confusing me here. If you're running 275 x 11 and your ballistix are stable up to 275, why do you bother with the divider? You can just leave your RAM at 1:1 since its capable of 275HTT. If you use 5:6 divider (DDR333), your RAM speed will be somewhere around 215~220MHz. Also make sure to set the HTT Multi at 3x.

 

[AppaYipYip]

My A8N SLi Premium is driving me INSANE guys, I could reallly use some help.

It seeems that it ran flawlessly with my A64 Venice core 3200+, with a nice stable overclock to 2.5GHz, well since I upgraded to a dual core Opteron 175 this board has been going batty. I did a complete format/reinstall of winxp pro and I am using the most current chipset drivers 6.70. I am using the 1009 bios (which I flashed before putting this dual core opteron in). My problem is this:

My CD-Rom drives are completely unreadable! It will work just fine when booting but in windows, it will not read them. Well, it will at random. I have done 6 (yes 6!!!) format/reinstalls of windows over the past two weekends, to no avail. Can someone post the exact order in which I should install my system drivers AFTER doing a clean wipe for WinXP?

I had no such problems with my last setup, with the A64 3200+ venice. Something about this dual core chip is driving the computer insane.

 

[lopri]

Which ports are you using to connect the CD-Rom drives? Does the BIOS find the drives? Did you make sure the ports were enabled?

 

[apesoccer]

Equipment used on my a8n-sli prem:

3800+ x2 (up to 330 on low multi)
3000+ winnie (up to 280 on low multi)

2x1024 ocz el plat 3200 2 3 2 6 (up to 250 mhz 3 3 3 8 2.7v)
2x512 patriot xblk 2 2 2 5 (up to 330fsb 3 3 3 8 2.75v)

xp90 w/tornado

1008 beta

sba 2 (first pci slot).

1 or 2 xfx 6800gt's. (currently 1, second in my secondary machine; jetway)
-modded copper hsf's

1 36gb raptor sata
1 120gb WD 8mb pata
1 dvd burner pata
1 cd burner pata

latest drivers; all hardware not being used is disabled; have not installed nforce firewall;

OC's
250 x 10 1:1 with 3800+ and OCZ plats 3 3 3 8 12 13 2 2 1T
245 x 9 1:1 with 3000+ and either OCZ plats or Patriot xblks at 3 3 3 8 12 13 2 2 1T as well (2 or 2.5 causes crashes with both sets of ram: 2.5 3 3 8 12 13 2 2 1T or 2 3 3 8 12 13 2 2 1T)

I DO have problems with fluctuating cpu voltage with my 3800, but haven't noticed it with the 3000. However i have not looked for the problem with the 3000, and i do not currently have it in that board.