A8N-SLI Deluxe problem (Urgent, could really use help here)

Boze

Senior member
Dec 20, 2004
634
14
91
I finished assembling my new PC tonight and I booted it up for the first time. The machine is based off an A8N-SLI Deluxe, with an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor, OCZ Powerstream 600watt PS, CM Stacker case, 2 GB of Kingston HyperX memory, ASUS N6600 video card, and two Western Digital Raptor 74 GB drives that I intend to use in a RAID 0 array.

My problem right now is that for some reason, the motherboard will not recognize any keyboard I plug into it. I have plugged in a Logitech USB keyboard, and the system did not recognize it. I then tried putting a USB to PS/2 adapter on it and that didn't work, so I then tried a native PS/2 Microsoft Natural Keyboard on it; again to no avail.

If ANYONE has any idea what the hell is going on here, or would be willing to allow me to call them (I'll pay for the long distance charges; I don't care if you're in Zimbabwe), or use Skype to chat over the net and give me a little help here to figure out WTF is going on, I would be so appreciative.

Thanks in advance guys and gals.
 

mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
0
0

Never heard of this one....

1)try checking your bios settings to see if there is anything that enables one type keyboard/mouse over another.

2) not sure if there is any thing supplied with the nforce driver disc that would help.. Are you sure you loaded all of the supplied drivers off of the Asus disk?...

3) with the ps/2 versions, do you reboot after plugging them in ?

4) Very new board, lots of BIOS revisions coming out... are you running the latest supported bios ?

Other than that.. then I would assume its some type of windows issue.. with a driver or something corrupted... You may try checking out their site... and search their "knowledgebase"..
 

Boze

Senior member
Dec 20, 2004
634
14
91
I don't think I explained myself very well in the previous post, mlc.

I can't check my BIOS settings... because.... the motherboard doesn't recognize any type of input device.

I can't load any of the supplied drivers off the ASUS disk because I just finished assembling this PC, meaning there are two Raptor drives in there that haven't even been formatted, much less have data on them.

I'm at the AnandTech Forums, not AOL Help Desk brother... so yes, I know to reboot after plugging in non-USB input devices.

I wouldn't have any fokkin' way of knowing if I was running the latest supported BIOS because I can't do anything because I don't have any way to input data into the system.
 

Insomniak

Banned
Sep 11, 2003
4,836
0
0
I'd do two things first:

1) Clear your CMOS. The directions to do this are in the manual, but it's pretty simple - just remove the battery, set the jumper correctly, leave it there for about 10- 15 seconds, and then put the jumper back, reinstall the battery, and try rebooting. Theoretically this will clear out your BIOS if there's bad data in there and set everything back to default.

2) Make sure your BIOS chip is seated correctly. Check the manual/board to determine which chip is the BIOS chip (it's in the lower right hand corner) and make sure it's fully and properly seated in its slot. If not, correct that situation. You could also try reseating it by pulling it out and putting it back in, although if it's properly seated as is, that shouldn't be the problem.

By the way...could you post the system specs, including what power supply you're using and the amperage on each rail of it? That'd help us diagnose.
 

Boze

Senior member
Dec 20, 2004
634
14
91
Insomniak, here's the specs:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
ASUS Extreme N6600 PCIe 256 MB viceo card (seated in proper PCI express slot)
Kingston HyperX DDR400 RAM, 512 MB modules x 4 (bought two 1 GB kits)
OCZ Powerstream 600 power supply (600 watt PS)
NEC ND-3520A DVD-RW drive (attached to primary IDE controller)
Sony 3.5" Floppy Disk (attached to floppy disk controller (of course))
Western Digital Raptor 740 74.3 GB SATA hard disks x 2 (attached to the NVRAID ports on the A8N-SLI Deluxe)

That's pretty much it, and as an update to the original post, in past power-ups, I wasn't even able to get my F-Lock key to activate (using a Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard, hafta press in the F-Lock key to get access to function keys), but now it lights up when I depress the F-Lock button. Unfortunately, depressing the NUM LOCK key gets me jack crap. I haven't tested the CAPS LOCK or the SCROLL LOCK keys yet, but I will try those and then follow your advice on ensuring the BIOS is firmly seated and then I will pull out the battery and reset the jumpers to clear the CMOS.
 

Boze

Senior member
Dec 20, 2004
634
14
91
Som,

I removed the battery from the motherboard and then I went ahead and moved the jumper around and reset the CMOS as you mentioned and then moved the jumper back and put the battery back in on the motherboard and then rebooted the machine with my Logitech keyboard attached via USB and then attached via PS/2. Both times once the motherboard gets to the Phoenix Award BIOS screen which lists the processor and memory and various attached drives, this appears at the bottom of the list of devices:

CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded

At which point in time the keyboard still does not work and I still cannot do anything! This is becoming frustrating! :)
 

mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
0
0
Sorry Boze...it wasn't clear to me whether the system had ever booted successfully from your initial post... didn't mean to give you the AOL treatment!!!

...the CMOS msg is often related to a weak battery... I know your board is new.. so you wouldn't expect it to be the case.. but if clearing the CMOS doesn't get you going.. it's worth a try ....



 

mlc

Senior member
Jan 22, 2005
445
0
0
.. also it may be worth a try to POST with just 1 stick of memory ... (use DIMM slot B1) to see if this gets you past the problem...
 

Insomniak

Banned
Sep 11, 2003
4,836
0
0
Originally posted by: Boze

CMOS checksum error - Defaults loaded


This basically means that your BIOS has been reset to default. Apparently that wasn't the problem of your I/O recognition problem. Hmmm. We'll have to hunt for something else.
 

Troas

Junior Member
Jan 22, 2005
20
0
0
maybe try a USB keyboard, or something with a different input. Friend had a similar problem, but he needed to add a ps/2 converter to his USB keyboard. His mouse was already a ps/2 so he could use his mouse but not his keyboard until he made the change.