All sorts of problems with the A7V266-E!

andrewhaji

Junior Member
Dec 12, 2001
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I just got a brand new A7V266-E and ever since I put it in my computer I've been having problems.

First of all, my computer won't restart. If I restart the computer, it hangs at bootup and I don't even get to see the POST screen. I have to then manually turn off and then on the computer.

Secondly, it makes my Windows XP crash!

Third, it displays my CD-ROM twice in CMOS setup, although I only have one...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
 

Geff

Member
Oct 13, 1999
86
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Be more specific about your hardware. What memory, CPU, PS etc you have installed?
 

drake6

Member
Nov 21, 2001
78
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<< I just got a brand new A7V266-E and ever since I put it in my computer I've been having problems.

First of all, my computer won't restart. If I restart the computer, it hangs at bootup and I don't even get to see the POST screen. I have to then manually turn off and then on the computer.

Secondly, it makes my Windows XP crash!

Third, it displays my CD-ROM twice in CMOS setup, although I only have one...

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
>>




Yep return the mobo to the dealer and exchange it or three dreaded letter RMA it . With asus do it fast or they screw you with a bad board. But I try returning it first for a cheaper proven alternative Like the shuttle or the feature rich soyo dragon, hell I'd buy a the new ECS kt266a mobo before I get a overpriced asus, you'll be luck if its stable by bios revision twelve. :(
 

tazdevl

Golden Member
Mar 1, 2000
1,651
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drake6 ignorance must be bliss. Have you ever owned an Asus motherboard? Do you somehow intuitively know that he's set up his board correctly and he should RMA the board? Have you read any reviews of the board? Seen a bad one? I haven't. Have you ever dealt with their customer support department drake? Please don't take up space on the boards if you have nothing to contribute. Blindly saying just return the board before we know what the problem is doesn't help andrew one bit.

FYI I RMA'd a 2 year old P3V4X that I OC'd the hell out of last week... no problems whatsoever with their support department and they were very helpful. Pick up the phone and call them... pretty straightforward. Email queues are always backed up so you won't get a response as quick as you'd like... it's that way with nearly every other motherboard manufacturer. Asus is also one of the best companies to take care of any issues in the BIOS... generally faster than anyone else in the industry. Asus and Tyan are two of the top motherboard manufacturers on the market. I've dealt with both and conducted due diligence on their manuf processes/products etc.. The one thing I've found is that most of the time, it's an issue of operator error.

I have had zero problems with my A7V266E. Some folks do get a bad board. Statistically it happens, they make a few million motherboards a year. But I can tell you it happens less with Asus and Tyan than with any other company on the market. I've had a DOA Shuttle and Epox KT266A boards within the last 6 weeks. Came back to Asus because I don't mind paying more money for a board I can put in, forget, and have it perform extremely well.


Bottom line is that if you want any help, you have to post complete system specs before anyone can even guess what the problem is.

But the first question always is... did you do a complete reformat and reinstall of EVERYTHING? Changing motherboards is a major deal, even switching between different Via platforms it's damn near impossible to get things running well. So if you haven't, that's the first thing you need to do. It's nothing unusual, but if you thought you could just smack a new motherboard into a system and not do anything, you're sadly mistaken. If you want to install XP off floppy's you need this program. It will require 6 disks.

Did you read the manual before you set things up? If you haven't, might want to give it a try.
Make sure you don't have the CMOS jumper on the pins (it's the one to the right of the battery). If you want to reset your BIOS, you put a jumper on the pin.
Adequte cooling?
What heatsink/fan combo are you using?
What kind of case do you have?
Did you use thermal compound?
You using a RAID/Non-RAID board?
Trying to run RAID? If so, you cannot share an IDE cable between the two drives. Each drive must have its own cable.
Plugged your IDE drives into the RAID channels? (The top 2 drive connections?)
How is that jumper set up? It's the one in the middle on the far right of the board. Middle and bottom pin sets it to IDE. Top and middle set it to RAID.
How do you have the CPU jumpers set, Palomino/Tbird&Duron? (Top right of the board... row of 5).
Do you have the latest BIOS? Should be 1004b.
What processor are you using?
Are you overclocking? Perhaps another component in the system doesn't like the AGP/IDE/PCI speeds and the blame isn't on the motherboard.
What 4in1 driver are you using? The latest one is 4.36.
Are you using 2K or XP drivers for the components in your system?
Did you disable the onboard sound if you are using a sound card?
What power supply are you using? If it's an old one... AMD chips require a fair amount of power, maybe your PSU isn't supplying enough juice.
Did you install/disable ACPI?
What type, size and brand of memory are you using? Could be a bad DIMM.
Is it a warez version of XP? You might have one that's either incomplete or intentionally messed up.
How do you have your devices plugged in to the IDE/RAID channels?
Any sharing cables?
What's in the IDE master (lower blue one)? Shouldn't be the CD drive... should be your hard drive if you aren't using a RAID array. Nothing unusual there.
Sounds like your seeing 2 CD's because your BIOS isn't being saved as you move forward in the boot process. Honestly it doesn't make a crap bit of difference anyway... what matters is if when you get into windows you see 1 CD drive that you can use.

See what I mean? Without info, just stabbing in the dark. Something might help, but I'd rather not go through a ton of questions to help someone.
 

Lioness

Member
Jul 27, 2001
199
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Taz:

Do you have the A7V266-E? I also am considering this mobo. I'm curious, what other components are you using with this board and what OS?

If possible would you please give me some advice on my chosen hardware? I'm having the PC built. I would love to build my own. For the past several months I have been reading everything I can get my hands on on how to build a PC. The hardware looks fairly straightforward on installation...that doesn't concern me. I also read the A7V266-E manual. I'm still confused on how to work with the BIOS settings, how to flash it, installation of all drivers, formating new HDD, installation XP, partitioning (if I choose to do so), IRQ's etc. etc.

I can't find a few of my questions anywhere. Maybe because there so stupid or logical, no one is asking.
I understand the memory, CPU and video card are installed on my first boot-up. Then I shut down, right?

Each hardware has it's own directions on how to install. HDD, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, FDD etc. etc. I can easily follow those directions. But is there a particular sequence I should follow after all these things are installed before boot-up? Do I install each one separetly then boot-up? I should be able to install the new drivers directly from a floppy, right? And at what specific time does the HDD get formatted? These things aren't explained in the manuals.

Maybe I should be studying DOS. However, I think if I know the specific sequences to follow I should do fine. I also know there will be times that I wished I had avoided these headaches but just having the PC built. But I'm craving to build.

Any suggestions? Oh by the way I was going to buy the Alpha 8045 but I believe it won't fit on this mobo. Do you have any other suggestions? I like the Swiftech, but it's too expensive. My CPU will be the AMD XP 1600. I be running a CD-RW and all the other usual things. In the future I hope to set-up a raid. No heavy overclocking. PSU will be the Antec 400w PP412X.

any and all input would be appreciated. Thank-you


 

tazdevl

Golden Member
Mar 1, 2000
1,651
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Have a look @ the my rig link at the bottom of my post. I possess the board, hence the comment in my previos post... "I've had zero problems with my A7V266E."

No dumb questions, only idiots that try to answer them when they don't know the problem.

Building your own rig is a good experience. Helps you understand how things work and its fun, cheaper too. When shopping for components (if you don't know of it already), head over to Pricewatch.

Jumpers... only one you need to mess with is the CPU jumper. Move it into the Palomino.

Regarding a heatsink, I have the 8045 and it fits the board fine. Bought the motherboard @ Newegg. You could also buy a Arkua 6228 or a ThermalRight SK6. I just replaced my 8045 with a Swiftech MCX462. They aren't too expensive... about $55 vs $40 for the 8045 (just the heatsink). The MCX462 is guaranteed to fit any motherboard that has the 4 mounting holes, the 8045 isn't.

BIOS setup -> select the CPU you have (it wil l give you the option of 100/133 mhz bus speed... XP1800 1.53 GHZ = 11.5 * 133 & 1.15GHZ = 11.5*100), if you aren't using the onboard sound you will have to disable it and the onboard LAN, set boot order... should be floppy, IDE, CDRom and disabled. Hit F10 to save and reboot with a Windows98 statup disk.

No need to study DOS. It won't help you too much these days. To set things up you will need a Windows98 startup disk. Most hard drives don't come formatted. All you do is hook them/it up, and type in the format c: from the a: prompt. If you have more than one drive, do the same... it's drive letter will most likely be D:. These should be plugged into the lower blue IDE connector. If you have 2 drives... the cable has 2 HD connectors on it. The blue end of the cable goes in the motherboard. One of the drives should be set as master, the other as slave (diagram on top/back of drives will tell you where to put the jumpers). Master should use the first connector on the cable, slave the middle.

If you have a CD and CDRW, be sure the CDRW is set as master in the jumpers and CD as slave. Plug them into the black lower IDE connector. Slave gets the middle connector in the IDE cable.

I'd leave the RAID connectors unpopulated for the time being. Plug the floppy in, the red wire should be to the left when you plug it into the back of the drive, only one way to plug it into the board, it's notched. If the drive light is continually on as you boot up, just flip over the cable.

If you're going to be installing XP from the ground up. Click on the link in my post above, you will need that. Download the XP Boot/Install disk program that's appropriate for your PC, get 6 floppys handy and doubleclick the app. That will give you the disks you need to get XP going from the ground up.

Boot up, put the disks in and follow the instructions.
While setting up in XP, the first screen you come to will allow you set up some partitions if you want and format the disk. Using Win98, it formats the disk in FAT32, you also have the option to format NTFS. Here is a brief summary of the two format types.

After that... wait for XP to boot the first time and install when required. Nice thing about XP is that it will go out and find drivers for your devices in Windows Update. Your computer will run fine and be stable with the default drivers. You can go out and DL the latest and install @ a later date.

Any other questions, just PM me (click on the orange lock to the right of my name). More than happy to help. The components you listed looked fine.

Forgot to mention, before you install, explore/open the Asus CD (not off the main menu) and copy the specific folder the XP Promise drivers are in and the 3 files that are in the main Promise folder as well onto another floppy (so you'll see winXP, 2K, 98, ME etc.. and a couple files when you open the promise folder... get the XP folder and the loose files). During the install of the first disk, hit F6 so you can install the drivers you just set up. Watch out though, it comes quick,

Don't worry about flashing, you should be fine. I haven't had the flash the BIOS for the board. It came with the latest version.

IRQs are a non-issue unless you start having problems once your up and running. Honestly, I have yet to run into a IRQ issue in any computer I've built.
 

Sapilas

Member
Oct 28, 2001
77
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Return the crap thing . . and get the KR7A-raid dude....
The best solution.. That;s what I did.

I bought the latest Asus + raid.(kt266a) and the Floppy controller was messed up...I manage to boot from my cd-rom and the Win2k were craching each time is was booting....

:|:|Well manage to install Slackware from CD and then my Hdd was bunrt....:|:|:|:|

THIS MOBO COMES FROM HELL ! !

Y ???? THERE IS THE NAME OF THAT MOBO IN EVERY THREE THREADS THAT ARE POSTED ! ! ! !
 

drake6

Member
Nov 21, 2001
78
0
0


<< drake6 ignorance must be bliss. Have you ever owned an Asus motherboard? Do you somehow intuitively know that he's set up his board correctly and he should RMA the board?



Yes I have it was the biggest piece of crap mobo Ive ever owned (inclueding the POS mobo I inherit with a packard bell system I as given, it was slow but atleast it was stable) in my old system a had a7v kt133. I wasnt even marginally stable until bios ver 1007 (uh count boys and girls that the seventh revision) . It had a bad over tight agp slot that got damaged, and due to a bios bug with every bios form 1003 it ran hot as hell due to the fact it would keep the cpu at full power load all the time. ASUS are vastly overrate, overpriced, and over hype . Ask any one who had one of there ALI magic 1 (reguardless of version a,b c....) is a steamy POS, or the poor bastards that bought a7v266 ? So yes I've owned one,(never again, I payed way too much for that POS) let put it this way I just built a new amd XP1800 system there were One thing Iwas absolute sure of the mobo would not be a ASUS and I want to avoid the via 4in1drivers if possible . So in my mind ecs k7s5a was a god send :);)
 

tazdevl

Golden Member
Mar 1, 2000
1,651
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0
LOL, all I have to say is that it's too bad you guys don't know what you're doing.

Sapilas motherboards don't kill hard drives and you most likely had the floppy connector reversed.

drake6 KT133 boards in general were pieces of crap. It wasn't an Asus thing, it was a Via thing. People that bought an A7V266 ended up with the best of the lot... go read the reviews of the board. With the KT266... again, it's a Via issue.