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

[likewhoa]

on an unrelated note, i use the a832-sli and got my opteron 170 OC to 2.8 without any problems..
280x10 @ 1.4v
CPU temps
idle/load 25C/39C

 

[mikegentile]

I would like to ask a question. I am trying to do a raid 0 install with two new WD Caviar 80GB SATAII drives. I have A8N-SLI Deluxe bios 1016, 2*512MB Cosair ValueSelect memory, and an EVGA 6800 video card. I downloaded nvidia 6.70 drivers, extracted the legacy folder, and used nLite to create a slipstreamed cd with winxp, sp2, and the raid drivers integrated into it. The bios recognizes the raid array and says it is in good health. The cd boots the pc and starts the install. At the end of the install, the computer reboots and goes to the screen where you choose either safe mode, normal windows, etc. I then get the winxp start screen, a blue screen, and then the pc reboots. Can somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong?

 

[Fallen3dict]

Hey guys,

I?ve been having a couple problems with my Mobo. Lately, it?s been hanging on the windows shutdown screen. I read in a couple forums that updating to the newest BIOS has helped some people with this problem. Now, I?ve recently updated to the new beta 1302 bios version. Now, I don?t believe this update has helped any, any other suggestions ? Also, updating the bios has caused another problem. When booting up, I get a message saying there is a problem with NTLDR and to reboot the computer. The only way to bypass this problem, is to insert the Windows CD and when I choose not to boot with CD, it?ll boot properly into Windows. Any ideas ?

I?ve also been interested in changing my Ram latency settings. I?ve got some Corsair TwinX2048-3200C2 which has 2-3-3-6 with V2.75. Now my understanding so far is that the 2 represents the CAS latency, 3 Ras to Cas Delay, 3 Ras precharge, and the 6 is Precharge Delay. In the BIOS settings, I see the CAS# Latency (Tcl) for Cas latency, the RAS# to CAS# delay (trcd) for the Ras to Cas delay. Now as for the Ras Precharge and the Precharge Delay, not exactly sure which ones to change. Can anyone give me a hand with what to change ?

Much thanks,

Marc

 

[kickerf1]

I know lots of people have had trouble with SATA drivs, Windows XP and Asus Premiu mobo. I can tell ya that I have put up two new system with this mobo and sata hard drives. On the second computer I found I was growing impatient coz my mobo wasn't able to recognize my sata hard drive so after so much frustation I found that I hooked up the sata cable on the raid connections on motherboard how stupid so anyways I disconnected it and hook it up to the sata connections and everything was fine as hell.

Thanks.

 

[yacoub]

Hey can anyone tell me which BIOS update I will need to run the X2 4800+? I want to be sure mine will run it before I swap out CPUs. Thanks.

 

[Megatomic]

yacoub, you won't need anything newer than the 1009 Official BIOS to run that chip. I have the last beta BIOS installed just for kicks, but I haven't tried the 1302 beta BIOS yet.

I hope ASUS puts out one last official BIOS, I'll load it up and be done with BIOS tweaking for a long while.

Regarding this mobo and SATA drives, my Premium has had no trouble working with my WD 160GB SATA 3GBs drive. The fact that it's SATA is transparent to the mobo, no different than an IDE drive. I even use NV SW IDE drivers with absolutely no problems.

 

[yacoub]

Yeah it looks like on Asus' site any BIOS since 1005 should work with a 4800+. Sweet.

 

[yacoub]

So why can't we use the latest 6.86 NForce drivers? When going through the selection menu on NVidia's site, that is the one it seems to recommend for "NForce4 Series AMD / Win XP Win 2000"

 

[Megatomic]

Umm, what do you think you have there? Those drivers are perfect for your mobo, I use them on my own system. But I did add a line or two in the SATA driver .inf file so that it would install the NV PATA driver for my PATA controller.

 

[yacoub]

hmmm well my system has become very slow since installing 6.86. seems like harddrive xfer speeds are down. I am on SATA, btw, but don't see a SATA controller or anything in Device Manager. I wonder wtf happened.

 

[Megatomic]

Did you allow the driver package to install NV SW IDE drivers? You have to do that for the NV SATA controller to be installed in the place of the standard driver provided by Microsoft.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I have this board to be installed soon has anyone used just the drivers from the CD without any issues?

 

[yacoub]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Did you allow the driver package to install NV SW IDE drivers? You have to do that for the NV SATA controller to be installed in the place of the standard driver provided by Microsoft.

Oh for real? I guess I will try installing that. Thought maybe that would introduce problems.

 

[yacoub]

update: ok, installed. thanks =)

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Did you allow the driver package to install NV SW IDE drivers? You have to do that for the NV SATA controller to be installed in the place of the standard driver provided by Microsoft.

Is this driver part of the chipset package on the Cd and the 6.86 update?

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Did you allow the driver package to install NV SW IDE drivers? You have to do that for the NV SATA controller to be installed in the place of the standard driver provided by Microsoft.

Is this driver part of the chipset package on the Cd and the 6.86 update?

Yep. But why would you consider using the old drivers? The newest drivers are your best bet.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Originally posted by: Megatomic

Originally posted by: WaTaGuMp

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Did you allow the driver package to install NV SW IDE drivers? You have to do that for the NV SATA controller to be installed in the place of the standard driver provided by Microsoft.

Is this driver part of the chipset package on the Cd and the 6.86 update?

Yep. But why would you consider using the old drivers? The newest drivers are your best bet.

yeah i already have it saved just wasnt sure what part of the driver package it came in, I planned on using the 6.86 DL.

 

[kenrippy]

wow, long thread....

here's my specs - prime & 3D stable;

sli-premium
X2 4400+ @ 2.53ghz (281x9)
thermalright SI-120 w/ panaflo L1A
2X1gb Corsair pc4400 Pro @ 281 1:1 3-4-4-8 2.8v
2x 74gb raptors raid-0 (OS drive)
2x200gb sata seagate storage
6600gt
antec TPII 550w
a couple optical drives & floppy

one note: i have gone through 2 sets of 2x1gb ballistix pc4000. it ran nicely at 250x10 1T. i just got back my 3rd set from RMA, but i'm not quite sure what i'm going to do with them yet.

 

[TiSwAs]

Just wondering what the best settings someone has gotten out of their rig simliar to mine?

My gaming rig.
? Antec P180 Case
? Asus AN8-SLI Premium Mobo
? AMD 64 4000 San Diego CPU with Gigabyte Pro HSF
? 2gb Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000 Kit (Second lot!)
? 2 x 74gb WD Raptors
? 2 x WD Caviar 400gb
? Club 7800GTX grafix card
? 2 x NEC DVD-RW
? Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
? Viewsonic VX924 TFT
? Saitek Backlit PC Gaming Keyboard
? Logitech MX 518 Gaming Mouse
? WD SecureConnect SATA Cables
? Seasonic S12-600 PSU
? XP Pro SP2

 

[kenrippy]

Originally posted by: TiSwAs
Just wondering what the best settings someone has gotten out of their rig simliar to mine?

My gaming rig.
? Antec P180 Case
? Asus AN8-SLI Premium Mobo
? AMD 64 4000 San Diego CPU with Gigabyte Pro HSF
? 2gb Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000 Kit (Second lot!)
? 2 x 74gb WD Raptors
? 2 x WD Caviar 400gb
? Club 7800GTX grafix card
? 2 x NEC DVD-RW
? Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
? Viewsonic VX924 TFT
? Saitek Backlit PC Gaming Keyboard
? Logitech MX 518 Gaming Mouse
? WD SecureConnect SATA Cables
? Seasonic S12-600 PSU
? XP Pro SP2

i went through 2 sets of the ballistix ram also. i have an unopened 3rd set sitting here. i'm debating fleabay'ing them or selling them off on a forum. i don't want to go through another RMA process. good luck with your current set.

 

[smut]

BTW im using the newest BETA BIOS (1302) and I havent had any problems. The board doesnt like my 2x1GB G.Skill DDR500 Sticks though =(
I RMAed the sticks once because they werent stable at DDR500 no matter the settings/volts/timings. This set doesnt seem to do it either, Ive heard of problems with the 2GB 'HZ' set from G.Skill has problems which sucks. These sticks are known to be great, this board had no problem with my 2x512mb set of g.skills. They could run at DDR600+ and the mobo worked fine, its just with these 1gb sticks they seem to dislike.

edit: This is also with TWO different premium boards. I had to RMA the first board (it stopped giving a video signal so I sent it away) and that particular board didnt run at DDR500 stable and the brand new board I got back from RMA doesnt run them stable either so it has to be the premium chipset itsself.

 

[M9ACE]

I have a couple of questions regarding some of the settings in the BIOS of the A8N SLI Premium.

The first question I have, which may be a bit of a stupid question, is that what are the advantages or disadvantages of having the ?Plug and Play O/S? option set to ?Yes? or ?No?? I should note that I believe I have a basic understanding of the Plug and Play concept. My question is more along the lines of what does this really mean for my PC? Does it really make a difference to my Windows XP setup? Would having this setting set to ?Yes? allow the OS to benefit from any additional information/control of lower level functions/information as opposed to the ?No? setting?

My second question is that under the ?Advanced? tab, PCIPnP, should I have the ?Init Display First? set to ?PCI Slot?, or ?PCIEx?? Basically my question is; does it really matter what this option is set to when I only have one video card in the system (a 7800 GTX-which is PCIe of course)?

 

[Squally Leonharty]

Originally posted by: zolkis
Hi,

I seem to have a problem with the IEEE1394. When attaching a camcorder or ext. harddisk etc to the FireWire port, Windows (SP2) does not recognise it. Video editing programs don't see the camcorder. I tried with other systems, exactly same OS, drivers etc, it worked there. Could someone do me a favor and check whether does the FireWire work for you? If yes, then I have a HW problem and need to change the board. Thanks!

Same here, but it is only the onboard IEEE1394 connector that is used for the front panel firewire connector (y'know, the one that is attached with a cable). That doesn't work for some reason and I can't figure out why. The one in the I/O section at the back does work just fine, so I'm not really complaining, although I'd still like to see this solved.

Originally posted by: M9ACE
I have a couple of questions regarding some of the settings in the BIOS of the A8N SLI Premium.

The first question I have, which may be a bit of a stupid question, is that what are the advantages or disadvantages of having the ?Plug and Play O/S? option set to ?Yes? or ?No?? I should note that I believe I have a basic understanding of the Plug and Play concept. My question is more along the lines of what does this really mean for my PC? Does it really make a difference to my Windows XP setup? Would having this setting set to ?Yes? allow the OS to benefit from any additional information/control of lower level functions/information as opposed to the ?No? setting?

My second question is that under the ?Advanced? tab, PCIPnP, should I have the ?Init Display First? set to ?PCI Slot?, or ?PCIEx?? Basically my question is; does it really matter what this option is set to when I only have one video card in the system (a 7800 GTX-which is PCIe of course)?

Not sure about PnP. My suggestion would be just to leave it at Yes, since Windows XP is more advanced and effective at managing PnP stuff than the BIOS.

As for the second question, use PCIEx, even if you have one video card. I've noticed that you get display faster with that setting when booting up when you have a video card in one of the PCI-E slots. It could be different for your system, though. I don't know. I'm not sure if the BIOS will automatically switch to PCI when you have a PCI video card (for instance, because your PCI-E video card broke down) and the BIOS is set to PCI-E. *shrugs*

 

[M9ACE]

Thank you for your input Squally Leonharty.

 

[virtualrain]

Originally posted by: kenrippy
wow, long thread....

here's my specs - prime & 3D stable;

sli-premium
X2 4400+ @ 2.53ghz (281x9)

Nice overclock especially with memory running 1:1... What Vcore are you running? What BIOS version? What temps under load? Do you find your VCore is stable or fluctuates?