ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe MB Boot Failure

[Ajak]

I fitted a new ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard, when I booted up I got an audible BIOS message which sounded like "CPU fan fail", the machine then refused to boot into Windows XP Pro, even though the CPU, Case & PSU fans were all spinning. I checked the hardware monitoring section of the BIOS and the readouts for all 3 fans was 0 RPM. Both my CPU & Case fan are Thermaltake with manual speed control, so I turned up the CPU fan until the speed registered in the BIOS but although the error message ceased I still could not boot into Windows. I searched the BIOS & can find no way of disabling the fan speed detection. Is this what is preventing the PC from booting? & if so what is the solution?.

This board was reviewed in Toms Hardware Guide but no such problem was mentioned, ASUS technical phone support for the UK is non-existent.

System specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1.6
Ram: 256 Meg Crucial Memory
Primary HD: 40 GB Western Digital Caviar SE
Secondary HD: 120 GB Western Digital Caviar SE
CPU Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 9+
Case Fan: Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2
PSU: Q -TEC 400W Dual Fan Gold Low Noise
OS: Windows XP Pro

Ajak.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Ajak
I fitted a new ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard, when I booted up I got an audible BIOS message which sounded like "CPU fan fail", the machine then refused to boot into Windows XP Pro, even though the CPU, Case & PSU fans were all spinning. I checked the hardware monitoring section of the BIOS and the readouts for all 3 fans was 0 RPM. Both my CPU & Case fan are Thermaltake with manual speed control, so I turned up the CPU fan until the speed registered in the BIOS but although the error message ceased I still could not boot into Windows. I searched the BIOS & can find no way of disabling the fan speed detection. Is this what is preventing the PC from booting? & if so what is the solution?.

This board was reviewed in Toms Hardware Guide but no such problem was mentioned, ASUS technical phone support for the UK is non-existent.

System specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1.6
Ram: 256 Meg Crucial Memory
Primary HD: 40 GB Western Digital Caviar SE
Secondary HD: 120 GB Western Digital Caviar SE
CPU Fan: Thermaltake Volcano 9+
Case Fan: Thermaltake Smart Case Fan 2
PSU: Q -TEC 400W Dual Fan Gold Low Noise
OS: Windows XP Pro

Ajak.

First of all, welcome to the Forums Ajak Unless your previous motherboard was also an nForce-based or nForce2-based motherboard, you will need to reinstall WindowsXP or try some trickery to get WinXP to accept the new hardware. I suggest installing your old motherboard, backing up any important files to a different hard drive, or another computer on your network, or onto CD/DVD, and then do a fresh installation of WindowsXP.

I presume you're powering your Thermaltake fans from the power supply, which is good. They draw too much amperage to be safe to plug into most motherboard headers. If you don't want to hear about "CPU FAN FAIL!" then disable the POST Reporter in the BIOS and you'll be free of all such messages. Hope that helps

edit: bigger picture... get some more RAM, man! :Q

 

[Ajak]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

To all who suggested a repair install, you were right, I booted from a Win98SE boot disk with CD support & from the A: prompt went to C: & viewed the RAM drive files, which made me realize the MB must be working. Remembering I had an old 800 Meg Conner HD with Win for Workgroups 3.11 on it, I put it into my HD Mobile Rack and booted, within a few seconds I was in Windows. I will now try the repair.

Thanks for the help.

Ajak.