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A7N8X Deluxe + Onboard NIC = No network

A

Audiofight

Platinum Member
I have an A7N8X Deluxe (rev. 1.04) and using the 1004 bios. I used the onboard NICs since I bought it. For months we have experienced random network crashes in our house. The entire network will go down and then no one can get online or ping around at the other computers.

This would occur sporatically, so it made it nearly impossible to track down. We would try something and it would seem to work, but then the problem would come back again.

Finally, for the hell of testing it, I went into the bios and disabled both onboard NICs and plugged in a cheap Linksys LNE100TX 10/100 NIC. It has been working perfectly for two weeks now. Normally the problem would show up at least once a week, if not more often than that.

Anyone have a similar problem and find a solution? Do I smell an RMA to Asus coming on here?
 
I forgot to add in the initial post that the board will occasionally have a cold boot problem. It will just not do anything. Hold down the power button and restart it, the thing will post at 100 MHz fsb and then enter the bios and save/exit, all better.

I think an RMA is in order.
 
Am I right in reading that you used the NICs, plural, and not just one of them? More info might be helpful here 🙂 If you used just one of the onboard NICs, which one (3Com or nVidia)? What's your network layout like, who calls the shots for the assignment of IP addresses (manual, Internet Connection Sharing via Windows, a router, or a domain)?

Separate issue: system not starting sometimes. Full rundown of brand/model of all the parts, especially the power supply and RAM, and your memory timing settings and memory voltage, and we can chew on that too 😀
 
Sorry Mech. I was pretty tired when I wrote this post.

System specs:

A7N8X Deluxe (rev. 1.04) - bios 1004
AXP 1800+ T-Bred @ 166 fsb
Corsair XMS TwinX PC3200 (2 x 256MB)
XFX GFFX 5200 128MB (Did the same problems with my Asus GF4 Ti4200 128MB)
16x/48x Toshiba DVD-Rom
LG 48x24x48x CDRW
Zip100
Floppy
WD 80 GB SE hdd
Enermax 431W psu

2 80mm fans and a 120mm hooked to the radiator for the watercooling kit installed. I had the system up to 200 fsb on the older 1003 bios, but after flashing it, it won't come close anymore. Plus, I can't set the memory to "Aggressive" memory timings or else the whole system will be hard-locked and require a CMOS clearing to boot again. When I had it at 200, I had to start the system, then power it down, then power up again to 100 fsb in order to save settings and then go into WinXP fine. I figured this was b/c of the high fsb and the board not liking it. But, I am debating on getting a Barton to upgrade this system for a while longer, but am scared that the board won't handle it properly.

I used both on-board NICs for a while (3Com and Nvidia). I used one than the other, I also tried them in parallel. Nothing worked to alleviate our network problems. The IP addresses are assigned from our Linksys router and then expanded through an 8-port D-Link switch. All the computers on our workgroup can see each other fine, until my system brings them all down. It will completely fubar the router and all the systems on the network will flip-out for a bit.

After restarting my system and resetting the router & cable modem, things will go back to normal for a short time. Then, bam. Back to no internet.
 
The nVidia nic started giving me problems as well so I disabled it and started using a nic card and the problems went away.
 
I have to get going for work in a minute, but here are a couple of suggestions:

  • You might consider updating the firmware on your router
  • If your WD hard drive is solo on its own cable, make sure it's jumpered as "Single Drive," not Master or Slave
  • Memory @ 2.7 volts, don't push for the ultra-tight 2-2-2-5 timings but rather 2.5-3-3-6, and make sure it's at 100% of FSB speed for sync'ed operation
  • Your board should have no problem with a 333MHz Barton (yeah, famous last words 😉) and Asus says their latest BIOS supports the 400's as well, even though you have an earlier PCB revision
Ok, gotta run (said the cheetah) 😉 Good luck!
 
1. Firmware on both Linksys routers are at the latest revisions (we have 2 to try using, same problems)
2. WD isn't on its own cable, but is properly set to Slave on the middle connector on the cable, LG on Master at the cable end
3. Memory Voltage is at 2.8v and the memory used to run at the ultra tight settings even at 200 MHz. But that was before the issues started occurring.
4. Not going to attempt a Barton until I can also afford a new mobo in case this one fails (gotta have a back-up plan 😉)

Thanks for the attempts at helping so far. Anyone else?

I put in an RMA request at Asus and they gave me literally 2 pages of stuff to read through, so I haven't gotten to it of course.
 
isn't it better to have the HD as the master one?
what if you put both optical drives on the same cable?
did it work with the old BIOS?

not sure if any of them would really help though...
 
I had problems with both optical drives on the same cable and the way my case (along with most tall cases) is laid out, it makes it hard to run cables around to accomodate such things.

The problems came from having the cable saturated with data being copied from one drive to the other. By splitting them up like this, it makes the buffer stay at 97-100% the entire time a cdr is being written. Before it would drop to 20% and then sometimes quit.

 
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