Unofficial ASUS K8N-E thread

[pdjafari]

Hey guys,

I bought my K8N-E deluxe (building first system) two weeks back and have been working on USB and sound issues since putting my system together:

ASUS K8N-E deluxe
AMD 64 2800+ 512MB L2 cache
MSI 5700LE 256 bit video card
WD caviar 30 GB 7200 RPM harddrive (getting my WD raptor 36GB tomorrow)
Phillipls CD-RW
XP Pro SP2

My problem is that after loading all my devices and my OS I have been unable to get my USB devices to work, nor sound from my left speaker. The USB drivers on the ASUS CD state to install SP1 then to browse to a location on the CD for the drivers. The only folder on the CD is for WIN98_ME which even when selected is blank. After installing SP1 and rebooting, the USB drivers were detected automatically. As you may know, there are 4 ports near the sound inputs and 2 in the PCI slots that came w/ the firewire port (1 firewire 2 USB port PCI device). Neither the 4 ports towards the top of the MB, nor the two in the PCI work. When inputting a device, they dont even come up or get recognized in Device Mngr. Device Mngr shows the USB Host controller and USB hubs, about 5 different devices under USB Host controller, however after inputting a USB trackball mouse, a USB keyboard and a USB camera, neither of them appear w/ error or anything in device manager. I dont even get a message 'USB device not found' or anything. I went into bios and set the settings to use USB 1.1 and USB 2. My case also has 2 usb ports in the front panel with 2 wires (designated VCC/ground which i plugged into port USB 12 and USB 23 respectively) Even removing these and rebooting, none of the devices work. I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling, windows upon reboot recognizes and auto installs drivers. But even after they still dont work. Also tried nVidia's website and downloaded nforce 3 250 drivers to no avail...didnt see any others with this issue.

Other issue is with the Realtek AC 97 audio drivers. Sound will only play from the right speaker, and so i bought a whole new set, but had the same exact problem. Uninstall/Reinstall but to no avail. I am sure it must be a driver issue. Input a $30 mad dog PCI sound card and installed its drivers and it worked perfectly. The ALC850 drivers are not digitally signed by Mcrosft? Anyways, when i switch right/left, the opposite speaker will work but the other will be silent. Any assitance would be greatly appreciated. Last thing left to do is to call Asus, but from what Ive read, they arent too helpful...

HEEEEEEELLLLLLLLPPPPP!!

 

[jpthomas]

I'm currently running the bios that shipped with my board (1001) and would like to do a little overclocking. Should I upgrade to bios version 1004 or 1005? I don't believe I have rev 1.05 since I've had the board for over a month.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[jkresh]

defintely go to 1.04, at the moment 1.05 doesnt seem to have much if any benefit from 1.04 for anything but the newest revision. if you want to go above 220 for the fsb then drop htt to 3, (cant change htt until either 1.03 or 1.04, not sure which one)

 

[jpthomas]

Thanks jkresh, I'll give 1004 a try. I don't really want to push my hardware to the limits just yet. I'm running at 3200+ CH and would like to get it up to 2.2ghz.

 

[jpthomas]

One more question. Is the best way to flash the bios to use the EZ flash procedure that is talked about on the ASUS website?

 

[jkresh]

i find that winflash (or whatever asus is currently calling it) works fine, though you could also copy it to a floppy and use ezflash.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: ArminKropp
I have the K8N-E Deluxe(BIOS 1005) and the Athlon 64 3000+ Revision CG With 2x512 of corsair memory. What kind of OCing will I be able to get out of this? Im running the FSB at 225x10 now, and i want to go faster. I tried running at a multiplier of 9 with the FSB at 265 and my system locks up. any suggestion on the Multi.-FSB Ratio I should be running at?

thanx
AK

FSB: 240
Mult: 10 (to allow CnQ to function, if you want it)
LDT: x3
Mem Divider: 333mhz

Try that, see if your games and preferred applications experience an increase from 225x10, 1:1 mem.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: pdjafari
My problem is that after loading all my devices and my OS I have been unable to get my USB devices to work, nor sound from my left speaker. The USB drivers on the ASUS CD state to install SP1 then to browse to a location on the CD for the drivers. The only folder on the CD is for WIN98_ME which even when selected is blank.

Ignore what asus said, they're on crack. all you need is SP1. it's best to install WinXP from a SP1 or Sp2 "slipstreamed" CD.

After installing SP1 and rebooting, the USB drivers were detected automatically. As you may know, there are 4 ports near the sound inputs and 2 in the PCI slots that came w/ the firewire port (1 firewire 2 USB port PCI device). Neither the 4 ports towards the top of the MB, nor the two in the PCI work.

all i can think of, is make sure that the PCI bracket's cable is conencted to the correct header on the motherboard. and that its connected with the correct orientation.

When inputting a device, they dont even come up or get recognized in Device Mngr. Device Mngr shows the USB Host controller and USB hubs, about 5 different devices under USB Host controller, however after inputting a USB trackball mouse, a USB keyboard and a USB camera, neither of them appear w/ error or anything in device manager.

you mean, when you plug a USB mouse into the "built-in" usb port (not the PCI bracket), it doesn't work? that is a cause for concern. does the usb device even receive power (does mouse LED turn on). perhaps the mobo is indeed defective.


as for your realtek problems, did you try using the latest Realtek driver from their own site -- rather than the out of date ones that Asus is still using.

 

[jpthomas]

I would appreciate a few tips for overclocking.

I'm running this board with an A64 3200+ CH and 2x512 Mushkin pc3200 memory. I would like to get this thing up to 2.2ghz stable. Like I said above, I'm not that interested in pushing my system to the limits, I want it to remain cool and stable.

Should I just try locking the agp at 67 and upping the fsb slowly to 220 to see if the system runs stable? Will I need to drop htt to 3 for this small of an overclock? Thanks for any tips you can offer me, I've never tried to overclock my cpu before and could use some help.

 

[ArminKropp]

Originally posted by: LocutusX

Originally posted by: ArminKropp
I have the K8N-E Deluxe(BIOS 1005) and the Athlon 64 3000+ Revision CG With 2x512 of corsair memory. What kind of OCing will I be able to get out of this? Im running the FSB at 225x10 now, and i want to go faster. I tried running at a multiplier of 9 with the FSB at 265 and my system locks up. any suggestion on the Multi.-FSB Ratio I should be running at?

thanx
AK

FSB: 240
Mult: 10 (to allow CnQ to function, if you want it)
LDT: x3
Mem Divider: 333mhz

Try that, see if your games and preferred applications experience an increase from 225x10, 1:1 mem.

Where is the mem devider? and also what do you mean by CnQ and LDT means???? Thanx NEWBIE here

 

[ArminKropp]

Back again I figured it all out and it runs GREAT 2.4Ghz+3600+ Not bad I think. What core voltage should I be running at you guys think? Also what ram Timings would some of you suffest?

Thanx

AK

 

[Bar81]

Well, got it all set up and there's NO way any other NB heatsink will work with a video card with a VGA cooler.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: jpthomas
I would appreciate a few tips for overclocking.

I'm running this board with an A64 3200+ CH and 2x512 Mushkin pc3200 memory. I would like to get this thing up to 2.2ghz stable. Like I said above, I'm not that interested in pushing my system to the limits, I want it to remain cool and stable.

Should I just try locking the agp at 67 and upping the fsb slowly to 220 to see if the system runs stable? Will I need to drop htt to 3 for this small of an overclock? Thanks for any tips you can offer me, I've never tried to overclock my cpu before and could use some help.

quick answer: YES, do that.

dropping HTT to 3x is not a big deal, you won't lose much performance. The HyperTransport bus on NF3-250 already uses a wider data path than the NF3-150, so your "loss" won't even be as great as those few situations where the NF3-150 took a hit compared to KT800/NF3-250.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: ArminKropp
Back again I figured it all out and it runs GREAT 2.4Ghz+3600+ Not bad I think. What core voltage should I be running at you guys think? Also what ram Timings would some of you suffest?

Thanx

AK

2.4GHz on a Newcastle is probably more like a 3400+, actually.

I run it with 1.50v -- that's right, pure stock voltage. IT IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT WITH NO STABILITY ISSUES!

Ram timings: @ 200mhz, my RAM is doing 2.0-3-2-10-1T.

(CAS Latency - RAS to CAS delay - RAS Precharge - DRAM Active - CMD)

 

[ArminKropp]

Originally posted by: LocutusX

Originally posted by: ArminKropp
Back again I figured it all out and it runs GREAT 2.4Ghz+3600+ Not bad I think. What core voltage should I be running at you guys think? Also what ram Timings would some of you suffest?

Thanx

AK

2.4GHz on a Newcastle is probably more like a 3400+, actually.

I run it with 1.50v -- that's right, pure stock voltage. IT IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT WITH NO STABILITY ISSUES!

Ram timings: @ 200mhz, my RAM is doing 2.0-3-2-10-1T.

(CAS Latency - RAS to CAS delay - RAS Precharge - DRAM Active - CMD)

I ran SiSoft Sandra at stock and my PR is 3000 at OC the PR is now 3600
that why I said 3600+

 

[f4ll3n]

Hi there!

I´m having a problem with my RAM which is Mushkin 2x256 PC3500 Level II (BH-5 Chips), If I use the 2 sticks, and I have tried to combine the different slots from 1 to 3, there´s no post, but if I use just one there´s no problem, the settings are @ default. Also tried to set the RAM @ 333Mhz and the problem continues.
What should I do? Already read the manual like 10 times but I´m still lost Any ideas? Flashed bios to 1005 but I have rev. 1.04 should I go back to bios 1004? Thank´z

 

[Bar81]

Okay, I'm REALLY annoyed at this board when it comes to the Silicon Image controller and the BIOS.

Drawbacks to this motherboard:
1. Only 2.7v VDIMM
2. The Silicon Image SATA controller IS A BIG FAT PIECE OF CRAP. My numbers were HALVED versus my Promise FastTrack TX2 Plus PCI adapter I was using for RAID 1.
3. WHY IN THE HELL do I have to make my Raptor on the Nvidia SATA a single drive in a RAID 0 array when I use the Silicon Image controller for my Storage Drives in RAID 1. The only way I could get the system to work when I set up RAID 1 on the Silicon Image Controller was to make my Raptor on the native SATA controller a single drive in a RAID 0 array. It doesn't seem to affect performance of the Raptor but it REQUIRED A FULL WIN REINSTALL which I am *still* NONE too happy about.
4. IDE performance still sucks and has major issues but to be fair these are nvidia driver issues and not specific to Asus.
5. Crap AMI BIOS and updates. Flashed to both 1.04 and 1.05 BIOS and I am unable to boot properly with my Plextor PX-712SA SATA burner attached. System just continues to reboot and I'm unable to access the BIOS. BIOS updates to regress in support; just genius.

Overall, I'd have to give this board a 7.5/10 as what's the point in having 4 SATA ports you can't even use because their performance sucks so bad as well as requiring a full freaking win reinstall just to have that ass sucking perfomance. It also doesn't help that there's the VDIMM limitation and the IDE is crap. On the plus side, it's rock stable with my setup and performance for SATA on the native SATA ports is phenomenal. I really wish Asus would go back to providing motherboards with the quality of yesteryear. It's just inexcusable that this board is this late with these problems (not to mention it took four full BIOS revisions before they fixed the overclocking issues)

 

[ArminKropp]

Originally posted by: f4ll3n
Hi there!

I´m having a problem with my RAM which is Mushkin 2x256 PC3500 Level II (BH-5 Chips), If I use the 2 sticks, and I have tried to combine the different slots from 1 to 3, there´s no post, but if I use just one there´s no problem, the settings are @ default. Also tried to set the RAM @ 333Mhz and the problem continues.
What should I do? Already read the manual like 10 times but I´m still lost Any ideas? Flashed bios to 1005 but I have rev. 1.04 should I go back to bios 1004? Thank´z

Asus Boards are pretty pickey with memory( in my opinion) Have you tried both dimms one at a time? If they both work Individually but not together them its the board that doesn't like the ram( or the other way around)
see if you can get a hold of 2 other dimms, if they work together then you need different memory.

Hope this helps a bit

A.K.

 

[solofly]

Hi
I'm getting some strange results benching NV's Raid 0. Not only that, Silicon Image with plain SATA Maxtors outperforms the Nvidia chipset and two Raptors. I'll post ATTO screenshot in the link below. (it's free webspace and no linking allowed) I also found another guy stating the same concern...

http://forums.pcper.com/showth...427d1977b&t=348917

(atto)
http://solofly.canadianwebs.com/nvidia_raid.JPG
(64k and 16k didn't make a difference)

 

[OnEMoReTrY]

A little off subject here, but how do you boot into safe mode with this mobo? When I hit F8 on startup it just wants me to select my boot disk as in cdrw/HD/floppy etc... how do I boot into safe mode?

 

[ArminKropp]

Originally posted by: OnEMoReTrY
A little off subject here, but how do you boot into safe mode with this mobo? When I hit F8 on startup it just wants me to select my boot disk as in cdrw/HD/floppy etc... how do I boot into safe mode?

I just tried it and it worked for me. I hit F8 after the Silicon raid SATA loading screen popped up. If you hit F8 right at the beginning of you boot it will load the screen you mentioned. Hold off a couple seconds and try right as or after its loading the Silicon Raid SATA screen

hope this helps

A.K.

 

[LocutusX]

booting into safe mode has nothing to do with mobo.. you have to press F8 when windows begins loading.

so wait until the BIOS portion is completely done, and THEN start hammering F8.

it doesn't help that the BIOS uses F8 for something else (as you mention).
(They should have designated F12 for Boot Device selection, which is the industry standard I believe!)

'm getting some strange results benching NV's Raid 0. Not only that, Silicon Image with plain SATA Maxtors outperforms the Nvidia chipset and two Raptors. I'll post ATTO screenshot in the link below. (it's free webspace and no linking allowed) I also found another guy stating the same concern

strange because someone stated the exact opposite earlier in this thread.

 

[Arcadius]

any way to get more voltage to the cpu??? i'm maxing out my a64 3200 at a bit over 2500mghz with voltage at the 1.75 max. my full load is around 35 C and perfectly stable. I need more voltage to pump more out!!!! is there any software or anything that would let me select a higher voltage???

 

[ArminKropp]

Now thats funny! Posted at the same time!

 

[ArminKropp]

Originally posted by: Arcadius
any way to get more voltage to the cpu??? i'm maxing out my a64 3200 at a bit over 2500mghz with voltage at the 1.75 max. my full load is around 35 C and perfectly stable. I need more voltage to pump more out!!!! is there any software or anything that would let me select a higher voltage???

Hmmm i think asus needs to up the voltage in the next bios!

are you sure its the voltage? I got my 3000+(2.0Ghz) running at 2.4Ghz with no voltage change. using the 1.550v default and its stable.