Asus A8N SLOOOW bootup 1011 BIOS 6.65 nforce 4

[Sir Loin]

Can someone please help me as I've ran out of ideas as to the cause.

I've done a clean install of XP (32 bit) on an ASUS A8N (Non Deluxe) mainly to use the new 1011 BIOS as I'll be upgrading my CPU in the near future. I've also installed the 6.65 nforce 4 drivers off the ASUS site which they insist you install if you upgrade to the newest BIOS and I'm using 7.77 forceware for my 6600GT gfx card. My system was running fine with no problems whatsoever when I was running 1008 BIOS and 6.53 nforce drivers and the same 7.77 gfx drivers so I know the hardware is working correctly.

Now though, when it gets to the startup screen, the blue scrolling line just keeps scrolling. No error messages, when it does eventually boot in to Windows (after numerous manual reboots) there's no error messages in the event viewer either. I have no conflicts and device manager shows no problem devices. One thing I haven't installed is the nvidia IDE drivers as I have had nothing but problems with these in the past and the Microsoft ones work just fine. I know if I went back to 1008 BIOS and 6.53 drivers, it'll work OK, but I shouldn't have to. I haven't done any overclocking either.

Can anyone give me a solution? Please? My system specs are;

ASUS A8N Non Deluxe Mobo
ASUS EN6600GT gfx card
2 x 80gb hitachi SATA drives in RAID 0
AMD 64 3200+ Winchester
LG 4163B DVD Writer

If anyone needs more information to help me, I'll supply it on request. Thanks in advance!

 

[zorrt]

doesnt it tell u to update for version 6.66 before updating bios to 10.11?
it site says that without updating to v6.66 first u get hdd corruption or something. I never bothered tryin to see what would happen if i didnt, just listened to them and updated to 6.66 first and updated bios. Saying that I get my nforce drivers off the nvidia website.

 

[Sir Loin]

I got the 6.65 drivers off the ASUS site along with the BIOS as they recommend, so logic suggests they work together. The 6.66 version driver on the nvidia site have the same file versions. Thanks anyway!

 

[Sir Loin]

*bump*

 

[Topweasel]

How did you update the BIOS. I read using th eWindows Live update can be bad because it doesn't close a bios sector before writing to it so basically every time you update your bios your just adding layers of possible problems. Just Place the file on a CD or Floppy restart your computer and hit F2 at the Post screen/splash screen.

 

[Sir Loin]

Hi Topweasel,

I updated the BIOS in the good old fashioned way of a floppy disc. Thanks anyway for the suggestion!

 

[Sir Loin]

I've managed to find the solution so to help anyone else with the same problem, this is it. The reason my (and numerous others I found after doing lots of research) took an age to boot is down to the Nvidia Sata controller driver enabling NCQ on my hard drives. Even though my Hard drives are NCQ compatible, it is a well known issue with the Nvidia driver.

To prevent slow boot up and possible data corruption, just turn off NCQ in the driver properties in device manager.

Go to device manager, look for the SCSI and RAID controller entry and double click the NVIDIA nForce4 Serial RAID Controller, click the Primary Channel tab and untick Enable Command Queuing. If you have a RAID setup, do the same on the Secondary Channel and then reboot.

Since I did this, I've had no boot up issues and no event 51 errors in event viewer.

I hope this helps anyone with the same problem!