A8N32-SLI Deluxe and the ACPI Problem, please help

[DueSouth]

Today I began to put together the following components:

A8N32-SLI Deluxe mobo (running clock multiplier x10 - no overclocking)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2x 512mb Corsair DDR400 memory (@ 200)
Leadtek Geforce GT 7800
Western Digital WD1200JB HDD
500W 12V PSU

To start with it all went together quite well, CPU, RAM & GFX card. The thing beeped at us and we were happy.

However we're now entrenched in a fight with the BSOD:

'The BIOS in this system is not fully ACPI compliant...' etc...

http://www.foxwelldrive.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bsod.jpg

It pops up as soon as Windows is about to begin installation - letting us proceed no further.

The mobo came with the 1009 BIOS, I upped it to 1103, no change, and took it down to 0703, no change. I've tried disabling ACPI in the BIOS. That removes the BSOD, but the thing just hangs on a black screen instead.

I'm concerned, to be honest. I've read that enabling the Parallel Port can help in this situation, but checking the BIOS it's certainly not disabled (maybe there's another way to alter that I don't know) ... or that slipstreaming Windows XP SP2 into an installation can assist.
Anyway I've been scouring the net looking for answers to this one (a nice Bank Holiday weekend to put the PC together is turning into a nightmare ), and thought a cry for help here would be most sensible.

Is it likely to be the RAM (too cheap? wrong timings - what might be correct?), do we need more juice from the PSU? Any thoughts?

If anyone could assist with further suggestions or tips I'd be most grateful.

 

[Bobthelost]

I got that too, i enabled the parrallel port or the serial port or something equally irrelevant to my life and it went away. Rather odd (and not too great) parts choice though

 

[McPudd]

Hi:

See sig.

After reading the problems others had, I
1) made sure the parallel port was enabled.
2) left the Primary IDE open and installed my
burner as master on the Secondary IDE.

The O/S installed OK.

Once in XP I installed the software I wanted from the Asus CD.
I did not install the nVidia flavour of IDE drivers but kept the IDE
software that XP installed.
I did not install nVidia's Firewall/NAM software.
I then installed what needed updating from the nVidia (nForce4_x16_6.85_winxp2k_english.exe)
software downloaded from nVidia.

All on the original BIOS (v1009) as shipped.

This system is stable and running ok.

I built another identical system except for using MS MCE2005 and adding an ATI 550
Wonder Elite PCI tuner card.

The O/S install quit at the point where you expect to be prompted to create a C: drive.
After assuming it was a SATA driver issue and messing around trying to install them,
I pulled all the cards I could, the 2nd HDD, along with non-critical mainboard connections (USB/Firewire)
and the O/S installed. No F6 SATA drivers required. Just like the other system.
After adding stuff back in one at a time, the system wouldn't boot into windows with
the tuner card.
Waiting on a USB2 MCE Hauppauge TV PVR/tuner.

Other than the one MCE glitch, both are up and ok.

Happy trailz,

 

[Bozo Galora]

I am absolutlety astounded that at this late date, there are still ACPI incompatabilities - (Advanced Configuration Power Interface) which are basically added sleep/hibernate state options
Un friggin believable!

However, I'm now thinking this has to do with dual core CPU's, and when you use the updated bios or patch to make the mobo read the CPU correctly. In other words, no ACPI probs on Asus A8N32 when using a single core AMD X64.

One must understand that there are 9 different HAL (Hardware abstraction layers) avail at time of xXP setup

Quote:
To select a HAL during Setup:

1. During the first phase of Setup, at the Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration screen,
press the F5 key.


* Click the appropriate HAL, or click Other to specify a third-party HAL. The available HALs include:

* ACPI Multiprocessor PC
* ACPI Uniprocessor PC
* Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
* Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible
* MPS Uniprocessor PC
* MPS Multiprocessor PC
* Standard PC
* Standard PC with C-Step i486
* Other


* Continue with Setup to complete the installation.
-------------------------------

This has to do with bios calls and assigning IRQ's etc. Thats why you have soundcard (and vidcard) probs.
Obviously you would want the ACPI Multi HAL, or STANDARD HAL as a last resort.(ACPI off in bios)
Note that if you want ACPI HAL it MUST be on in BIOS at time of install. If you want ACIP, it must be on at time of install. Also disable PnP O/S if option in bios. You should have SP2 ALREADY on your XP install CD (slipstreamed) - not updated after. And one should never load any nforce chipset drivers.
If possible one should update bios before XP install, or patch immediately after first full post install boot (in safe mode)
And there are a few quick and dirty ways to change ACPI/HAL --- dev manager, repair install, upgrade install, recov console etc., BUT it is always best to do a fresh install to eliminate problems. I have found out the hard way to never change a HAL after an install.

Quote:

Introduction to ACPI
What is ACPI? ACPI is the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. ACPI is a standard that defines hardware and software interfaces that the OS uses to manipulate the characteristics of motherboard devices. It's different from APM and PnP because the support code from the BIOS is written in AML (ACPI machine language) instead of the assembly language of the specific platform. Also, the ACPI-compliant operating system controls policies and time-outs for power/resource management instead of the BIOS. Despite what you may think, Microsoft does not own ACPI.

Why use ACPI? ACPI offers many benefits, including a better plug and play environment and power management. It gives the operating system more control, of power management and the current system power state.

What are the differences in power states between APM and ACPI? APM allows 'Enabled', 'Standby', 'Suspend', and 'Off'. ACPI allows 'On', 'Sleeping', 'Soft Off', and 'Off'. Usually APM is controlled by the BIOS, while ACPI is controlled by the operating system.