Asus A8V Deluxe suspected faulty

[Giantwasp]

I have just built a new rig with an Asus A8V Deluxe Wifi edition mobo and tomorrow I shall be trying to contact the company i bought it from claiming the board is faulty, based on the reasoning. Has anyone else experienced a simular problem or can see something that I have done wrong instead of the board being faulty.

First after powering it up for about the 3rd time with no OS installed yet after messing around with the BIOS a bit (although not doing anything I would expect to be risky) I got a message saying the BIOS checksum was faulty and to reinstall the BIOS. I then tried doing this from the suppled CD after 3 failed attempts I reset the CMOS and it then worked fine. But then a little while later whilst going through the BIOS settings the BIOS crashed and I had a few more ocations to reinstall the BIOS. I then downloaded the latest version of the BIOS and installed that and since then have had no problem with the BIOS.

Next I installed Linux Fedora Core 2 (if linux means nothing to you I get onto windows later) successfully however whenever I tried starting it up it would crash/freeze on start up when it got to enabling eth0. If I disabled the onboard ethernet in the BIOS it worked and I got into X, but no network. So I tried reinstalling fedora but telling it to not to enable eth0 on boot (re-enabled in BIOS). This it would start up fine now but each time I tried enabling the ethernet again it with "ifup eth0" the system would lock up and freeze and I had to cut the power each time. Inext tried recompiling the kernel but got the same results. I also tried using Mankrade 9.1, Red Hat 9 and Gentoo which gave simular results.

Despite the fact the drivers disk comes with linux drivers for the onboard NIC I wondered if it was just in Linux, so reluctantly I installed winXP home.

After installing the drivers from the supplied disc, I run the network setup wizard and it just seemed to hang after a while when I did an end task on it windows BSODed. I then restarted windows and it BSODed again before getting running properly. I then disabled the LAN in the BIOS and restarted and windows ran fine. Later I re-enabled the onboard LAN in the BIOS and this time windows started up ok. But after a few minutes of activity doing nothing LAN related it BSODed again. Now i currently have windows running but whenever I enable the LAN in the BIOS windows wil BSOD after a short while.

A further point to note on other PCs whenever a connected cable is plugged into the NIC the link light will come on as long as the Power is connected regardless of whether the PC is powered up or not. I have not seen the Link light come on this new machine at all.

My conclusion mobo has a faulty onboard LAN! Any comments?

 

[Giantwasp]

Anyone?

 

[sephiroth786]

my friend had the same problem, u need to install a windows update i think and it will enable the ethernet. But ur gona need a spare lan card to actually get online =D

 

[Giantwasp]

Originally posted by: sephiroth786
my friend had the same problem, u need to install a windows update i think and it will enable the ethernet. But ur gona need a spare lan card to actually get online =D

Are you sure about that I just phoned up and got an RMA number and am planning on sendinng it back.
I could understand that if I had only tried windows and it just wasn't working it but the fact that it crashes the computer when enabled and doesn;t work in linux aswell makes me think it is more fundamental.

 

[piasabird]

My guess is you need the drivers for the LAN or the chipset drivers. Most motherboards have chipset drivers to be installed after the operating system. Probably not all motherboards have Linux chipset drivers. I have used Linux (SUSE) on my Asus PIII Tulatin (TUSL2-C ?) motherboard and on my sons Asus A7N8X Deluxe. On the Deluxe I got both the 10/100 NIC and the 10/100/1000 NIC to work.

They may have some kind of special drivers for Linux or something or it may be the BIOS support you need for Linux. I would call the motherboard manufacturer up.

I installed Windows first and then SUSE in my case.

 

[fkloster]

motherboard is not faulty... onboard nic needs Via Hyperion drivers

 

[Giantwasp]

I installed the Via Hyperion 4in1 drivers, straight after windows.

I really don't think that it is a driver issue as I installed all the drivers from the supplied CD. Also the way in which the fault occurs; When the NIC is enabled in the BIOS windows will goto a BSOD sometimes as it is loading up, sometimes after it has been up and runnig for about 5-10mins. Whithout doing anything LAN related. When the NIC is disabled no BSOD at all.

Also no link light comming on on Port which I would expect even without drivers.

I would really like to here form anyone who specifically has a A8V mobo and working onboard NIC on any OS and if they had to do anything unusual to get it working.

 

[Giantwasp]

Bump.

Note: I managed to do a windows update made no difference!

 

[cowdog]

A8V with FX-53. I am using the 6.32 (10/2/2003) Marvel driver. It works fine for me.

My install went like this:

1. Boot using WinXP Pro CD and floppy with Via Sata driver
2. Partition created and formatted on sata drive for WinXP install
3. XPSP1 installed from a CD
4. Via Drivers (and Marvel Lan driver) from the enclosed Asus driver CD
5. DirectX 9c
6. Video driver
7. Connected to internet for updates, etc. Note: I did not use the Marvel driver from Windowsupdate because it wouldn't install for me.

That worked for me. Good luck.

 

[Markfw]

Power supply ?? The random bios problems sound very suspect.

 

[Giantwasp]

Originally posted by: cowdog
A8V with FX-53. I am using the 6.32 (10/2/2003) Marvel driver. It works fine for me.

My install went like this:

1. Boot using WinXP Pro CD and floppy with Via Sata driver
2. Partition created and formatted on sata drive for WinXP install
3. XPSP1 installed from a CD
4. Via Drivers (and Marvel Lan driver) from the enclosed Asus driver CD
5. DirectX 9c
6. Video driver
7. Connected to internet for updates, etc. Note: I did not use the Marvel driver from Windowsupdate because it wouldn't install for me.

That worked for me. Good luck.

Thanks, that makes me fairly confident mine is faulty.I will be packing it up and sending it back tomorrow.

 

[Giantwasp]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Power supply ?? The random bios problems sound very suspect.

The power supply is a possible contender, as I did notice this slight feint buzzing that apeared to come from the PSU. This is quiet hard to describe, it only happened as I moved a window across the screen or scrolled up and down in a screen the noise was completely linked to the movement on the screen. And was not there when nothing was moving on the screen. I thouht there might be a problem with the PSU or the Graphics card but still believe that there is a specific problem wilth the onbard NIC.

Current plan is to send back mobo first then perhaps the PSU if the mobo comes back fine. GPU was bought from different company.

I don;t have any webspace at present otherwise I would upload a recoding of the noise.

 

[Giantwasp]

You asked for PSU specs:

It is an AeroCool AeroPower II+SE (not many Anand Techers have heard of it but I have read nothing but good reviews)

It is 550W

DC output
............................
+3.3V : 28A }
............................}MAX 220W
+5V : 42A }
...........................
...........................
+12V : 30A
-12V : 0.6A
-5V : 0.6A
5VSB : 2.0A
........................
I hope that is what you mean by specs I don't entirely know what that is all about!

 

[Markfw]

Exactly what I was looking for. The only advice I would have, is if anybody close has a 350 watt Antec or other high quality PSU, please try that first, as you can swap a PSU in 5 minutes, as opposed to an hour or more for a motherboard swap. Those voltages still show nothing compared to a real reading under load with a real VOM/oscillicope reading, or just swapping with a known working high quality PSU.

 

[Jojo7]

Fyi, I've got the same board and I had nothing but problems with my first 2. I rma'd it 2x before I finally got a stable one.

The original I got would not run stable in games. It would either freeze or objects would lose their textures. The second one wouldn't boot up every time. It required a reset if it went into the "non post state". The third has worked flawlessly for me.

I realize you've already purchased the A8V, but to anyone else looking for a 939 board, I would suggest the MSI K8N Neo2 instead of the A8V.

 

[Giantwasp]

Update; I have tried it with the PSU from my dads PC (I think it is a generic 480W one) and the problem is still there. I have an RMA number and will send it off next chance I get to goto the post office.

I also noticed when I got it up and running with the other PSU that the fizzing noice I mentioned earlier was not there when doing things on the screen. So I think I will phone up and get an RMA for the PSU aswell so I can send that back at the same time.

Originally posted by: Jojo7
The original I got would not run stable in games. It would either freeze or objects would lose their textures.

Glad that has happened to me yet as I would assume that kind of fault to be the Graphics card.

 

[Jojo7]

Originally posted by: Giantwasp
Glad that has happened to me yet as I would assume that kind of fault to be the Graphics card.

As would I, but I tried it with different video cards and it did the same thing so I knew it was the mobo.
Turns out, I was correct.