Asus A8N SLi - Power Problem? Defective Borad?

[TaZZeR]

Originally posted by: FastEddie
I was refering to the PCI-E power adapters on the cards themselves.

Apoligies, each one has a 6pin power input.

 

[FastEddie]

and you are using molex to PCI-E adapters, or does your psu come with two native PCI-E power connectors?

 

[TaZZeR]

The PSU has it's own native 6pin 12V power. I have tried this along with the 6pin to 4pin molex adapter.
No effect, no matter what combination

 

[FastEddie]

Put your pci video card back in and try reflashing the original 1002 bios image.

 

[bob661]

I don't know if this will make a difference but what's the model number on your video cards? According to the SLI certified page. The SLI certified XFX cards have a model number of PVT45GUD. I know you had the cards tested but you didn't say if Scan tested them in SLI mode or not.

 

[TaZZeR]

Those are the serial numbers I have on the card.

They are SLi certified, neither are getting power in single mode atm.

Would it harm the computer to connect the motherboard up with no CPU? and what if I connected the GFX card not in the PCI-E socket to see if it gets power this way?

 

[TaZZeR]

This board must be defective. I have left the CPU out, RAM out, and connected one GFX card. Same scenario, just a flash of the GFX card power LED.

I've got an RMA number for Chillblast.co.uk, it should get there on Wednesday.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally posted by: TaZZeR
Those are the serial numbers I have on the card.

They are SLi certified, neither are getting power in single mode atm.

Would it harm the computer to connect the motherboard up with no CPU? and what if I connected the GFX card not in the PCI-E socket to see if it gets power this way?

No and no.

No point in firing up the computer without the cpu.

Don't put the PCI-E graphic cards in regular PCI slots. You'll either burn out the cards, burn out the motherboard, or both.

Because your system works with a PCI video card, that your bios is corrupt. I've seen a number of people who have lost graphics mode after flashing to the 1003 final bios. I'm trying to get someone to flash (reflash) to the original shipping bios (1002) to see if it corrects the problem.

 

[TaZZeR]

I see...

I lost power to the cards from the start, I updated the bios as a last resort.

 

[TaZZeR]

Right, it seems the motherboard is ok and I have two faulty XFX graphics cards that are not getting power!!! They were working a while back, but nothing now......... strange, dont know how they can ah heck up like this.....

Check the email from the tester, I must say cannot complain about chillblast, very very helpful!

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Hi there Mark,

Both cards exhibited the same behaviour, whether running in Dual or SLi mode, it was apparent that no power was going to either graphics card, the power LED on each card did not even flash, and the fans did not start spinning. I removed the cards and immediately put two known working 6800GT cards in, hooked them up in exactly the same way with the same power connectors from the PSU, and everything was fine. I can definitely confirm that both of your 6800GT cards have a power problem.

Test Hardware:

Two separate Asus A8N-SLi motherboards
Athlon 64 3200+ CPU
GSkill TCCD memory
OCZ Powerstream 600watt PSU

Regards,

Technical Department

www.chillblast.com

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From: TaZZeR [mailto:*****@btinternet.com]
Sent: 28 January 2005 10:45
To: ******
Subject: RE: Chillblast Tech Support (RMA***)

Did both cards power LED flash in both SLi and Single mode as I described?
I have spoken with Scan, they should RMA them next week?.
If you can outline how you tested them etc?. and the problem as you see it, I can forward this to them.

Thanks,

Mark

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From: ******* [mailto:*****@chillblast.com]
Sent: 27 January 2005 17:32
To: TaZZeR
Subject: RE: Chillblast Tech Support (RMA***)

Thanks Mark,

I?ll let you know the outcome soon then J

Regards,

M

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From: TaZZeR [mailto:******@btinternet.com]
Sent: 27 January 2005 17:33
To:
Subject: RE: Chillblast Tech Support (RMA***)

Hi,
I have just despatched my XFX 6800GT?s in one parcel.
They should arrive at yours tomorrow.
Hopefully you will find they work, and all I need is an OCZ power supply.

Thanks,
Mark,

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: [*******@chillblast.com]
Sent: 27 January 2005 15:28
To: ********btinternet.com
Subject: Chillblast Tech Support (RMA**)

Hi Mark,

I have been working with your Asus A8N-SLi motherboard this morning, and under our test conditions the board is working perfectly, powering on every time with 2 x XFX Geforce 6800GT PCIe cards installed in SLi mode. Other components used for testing are an OCZ 600watt PSU, 1GB GSkill Samsung TCCD memory, Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester CPU.

Did you ever try running the board outside of a case? It could be shorting on something.

There are two options now, we can send you your board back, or we can give you a refund for it, but we are unable to replace the board as we believe it is working perfectly. Please get back to me and let me know what you want to do.

Kind Regards,

www.chillblast.com

 

[FastEddie]

You have working cards and board now?

 

[imported_slippy]

I've been waiting for this update... good to hear it wasn't the asus. I don't know if I could trust Scan's analysis of anything after this situation. Good luck with this thing.

 

[imported_slippy]

Also, I wonder how many people having asus problems on this board were actually having this problem because of faulty graphics cards... who knows.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I have RMA'd two XFX 6600GT cards already, they worked flawlessly in single mode. In SLI mode they worked for about 15min and the card in slot one fails. I have always had a temp probe on the card in slot 1, in single mode they run 38c idle 45c load. Both times I've attemped SLI the card in slot 1 runs 48c idle and hits 60c at load, and about 15mins in the card fails.

I don't think the cards can handle the load in slot 1. The card in slot one obviously shoulders a much heavier load than the card in slot 2(it handles all of the output). They either need to come up with a better load balancing scheme, or they should start selling the cards in matched sets with a standard card for slot 2 and his muscular big brother for slot 1.

It's obvious that XFX has a problem with the SLI capabilities of there cards

 

[TaZZeR]

I will recieve the board and cards back on Monday, then I'll RMA them for a refund.

Has anyone had any experiences of running the XFX 6800 Ultra on the asus board, I know it has two power inputs 4pin molex. I'm tempted to get em as they appear to be the only stock of 6800 cards in the UK atm.

 

[Andib1974]

Hi,

I have got a very similar problem as you. I have got the Asus A8N-SLI and an XFX 6800GT also from Scan. My graphics card does exaxtly the same thing. 3 times out of 5 it will not power up and when it does it works OK and is stable. I thought that it was a psu issue, so I replaced with an Antec Truepower 550 EPS, so I know that it is not the power. Do you think that I need to RMA the card? I have also be running on a pci graphics card without any problems.

I am only running 1 card and I have not tried the bios update yet!

 

[TaZZeR]

Originally posted by: Andib1974
Hi,

I have got a very similar problem as you. I have got the Asus A8N-SLI and an XFX 6800GT also from Scan. My graphics card does exaxtly the same thing. 3 times out of 5 it will not power up and when it does it works OK and is stable. I thought that it was a psu issue, so I replaced with an Antec Truepower 550 EPS, so I know that it is not the power. Do you think that I need to RMA the card? I have also be running on a pci graphics card without any problems.

I am only running 1 card and I have not tried the bios update yet!

There are known power issues with the cards, but I can assure you that replacing the PSU will make no difference, your only running two 6600's. a Bios udate to 1003 may sort the problem, but ensure that what PSU you do have has good 12V Amp raiting if is a dual rail and if it's single it is as high as possible.

Your problem is alike what I had at first, but the problem got worse ending in two dead GFX cards!!!!

Scan tech support are having problems like yours even with different PSU's. They use the Tagan 480W PSU 28A 12V rail, ensure that both cards are on a seperate 12V rail.

I sent my cards back to scan, an after a couple of days of testing they found both were dead, this is after 2months of screwing around!!! they had apparently already tested them ok back in december! and my Asus board faulty.

Last week scan sent me 2 XFX 6800 ULTRA's, hooked them up to my Enermax noisetaker 600W 18A 17A rails and no problems, powers everytime!!! I'm using bios 1003.
However I noticed loads of games were crashing....... unlike when I was using the GT's! weird... but it's not a power issue as so many people think.... the computer runs 3d Mark 2005 and HL2 flawlessly.

I got 9329 bench on 3dmark 2005.

The crashing issue was resloved not diabling fastwritem but getting the latest forceware drivers 71.+

No problems atm