ASUS A7M Problems

[CAFlynn]

Currently a friend of mine is running a :

1.3GHz AMD Athlon T'Bird
512 PC2100 DDR SDRAM
ASUS A7M mobo
Generic CompUSA 400W Power Supply
SBLive! X-Gamer (Not 5.1)
PNY Verto GeForce2 MX400 (64MB)


We're having two major problems now:

1. On boot up the system hangs occasionally, with drive lights powering up (CD-R,CD-ROM), but the system does not boot up. And on every occasion the CPU is recognized as a 1.2GHz CPU, or even a 900MHz CPU. We are unable to change the cpu clock multiplier in the latest BIOS (1004A), and we're not sure if that is the problem, or perhaps it is a power supply problem.

2. After flashing the mobo with the latest BIOS (1004A) the option to diable "on-board legacy audio support" and "game port function" have mysteriously disappeared (Both are available on the mobo). And we think that this is causing a problem with a Logitech Cordless Wheel Mouse we purchased earlier. i.e. The mouse was working before the flash, with no "Other Devices" (On-Board Sound), and after the BIOS flash the mouse didn't work, and on-board sound was enabled.

Currently both sound devices are installed with the proper drivers. And drivers are current for all other components as well.

Is there anyway to go back one version of the BIOS? Or does anyone have any idea what we can do to rectify the situation?

Thanks.
CAFlynn

 

[lowtech1]

You should have an older BIOS version of your mobo on a floppy that comes with the mobo at purchase. Can also email the manufacture support to get the older BIOS version if you can?t find your old floppy.

Try reboot after removed all hardware accept for the video card & memory to see if any error occur.
Reinstall each part one by one with reboot in between to see which of the adapter is the culprit.

 

[Tacoma99]

I used that mobo 2 weeks ago with a 1.4 AMD with no problems. One of my friends also built one but had the following problem: When he installed the data cable for the 3.5" floppy he connected it to first connection instead of the one on the end. You must use the one on the end of the cable since it has leads that are swapped. He experienced the same problems at boot that your having. One thing it mentions in the Asus manual is not to flash your BIOS unless absolutely necessary. Try to get your BIOS back the way it originally was. You did make a copy of it I hope. The Asus board has several jumpers that must be configuerd properly to enable system speed and clock multiplier to work. Check the manual to ensure all jumpers are set properly. Did you load all the motherboard support CD drivers contained on the CD with the mobo? It contains drivers for the VIA chipset, AMD miniport, etc. Barring any of that, remove all drives and cards except for the floppy and one hard drive and try to boot into Win safe mode to troubleshoot. If it does boot continue to add only one device at a time until you find the device giving problem.

 

[pocketdemon]

CAFlynn:

<<Is there anyway to go back one version of the BIOS? >>

Yes there is. If you know the version number of the previous BIOS that your motherboard had before you updated, you can go to this website http://www.amdmb.com/files.php, scroll down until you find your motherboard listed, and download the older BIOS for it. Flashing an old BIOS onto a board is exactly the same as flashing a new one, so you know what your doing.

Hope this helps.

 

[CAFlynn]

UPDATE:

I went back 2 BIOS Revisions (1003, 1002) BOTH did not have the option to diable on-board legacy audio support.

In the ASUS manual, it clearly states that there is an option in the BIOS to disable it. And I'm sure I have on-board audio because I have the connections and WindowsMe loads the drivers for the CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device.

There has to be a way to disable it, I just can't find where to do it in the BIOS. It's just not where it is supposed to be.

As far as the boot-up problems go, they're taking a back seat to the BIOS/Onboard sound problem we're having. But I'm going to try to fix the CPU speed problem by doing what you guys recopmmended. If anything happens or I have any more questions, Ill post back here.

Thnaks,
CAFlynn

 

[pocketdemon]

CAFlynn:

<<In the ASUS manual, it clearly states that there is an option in the BIOS to disable it.>>

Check your board's manual to see if there is a way to disable the sound using on-board jumpers. I have an ASUS K7M with built on audio - to disable on-board audio, I had to switch the jumpers to the off position, but to enable the audio, I had to switch jumpers to the on position and enable on-board sound in the BIOS.

The whole process I found to be very strange. But if ASUS kept to the same standard, and didn't "advance" everything to be just in the BIOS, you should be able to disable your on-board sound via jumper settings.

Hope this helps.

 

[CAFlynn]

Well, we solved the on-board audio problem by using the Audio_En jumpers on the mobo.

Unfortunately that didn't solve the mouse problem. We're still trying to figure out what to do to fix that.

Thanks for all your help,
CAFlynn