Getting ready to smash this ASUS K8N-E board

[robisc]

OK, this board has about gotten to me, I admit I am stupid when it comes to this SATA RAID stuff, this is my first socket 754 SATA board and SATA drive I have ever used. The ASUS manual is just like most motherboard manuals and that is, useless. I just put this system together and after finally getting the WD Raptor to be recognized, (don't know what I did though) I finally got XP installed, everything seems OK for a couple of days, then tonight I get the BSOD out of nowhere, and the machine reboots and I get the message something to the effect of "reboot and select proper boot device and press any blah blah" nothing has changed in my BIOS, so I updated the BIOS from the original version 1001 to the latest 1005 version, and still doesn't work, when I go into the BIOS and can sometimes get the BIOS to show the HDD the system will sometimes get to the Windows splash screen and then only to reboot again. My lack of knowledge is regarding the SATA ports on the board and which one is for what, there are 2 black ports in the center labeled SATA 1 and SATA2 then there are 4 red SATA ports on the bottom of the board labeled SATA RAID 1 thru 4. since I have only one SATA drive and am not using RAID, which port to use, and what setting in the BIOS needs to be enabled/disabled? Also what drivers are for what? Is this board a POS or what? I'm beginning to think so because I have done a lot of research and see that there does seem to be isolated SATA issues with them. ANY help would be greatly appreciated, I am about ready to order another board (if that is the problem) I just want a fast, reliable SATA socket 754 board, I am not over-clocking or using RAID.

 

[Markfw]

Did you do a scratch install after changing to the Raptor ? What the HD history ? It sounds like you upgraded to a raptor without a scratch install, and that would drive XP nuts, just like what you are seeing.

 

[erikistired]

smash it! and take pics!

 

[gan911]

trade ya a k8vse 😀:|:Q😛

 

[robisc]

I did a brand new install, and the Raptor is brand new from the Egg.

As for a trade for a K8VSE, I may be interetsed, let me do a little research, why do you want to get rid of it?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: robisc
I did a brand new install, and the Raptor is brand new from the Egg.

As for a trade for a K8VSE, I may be interetsed, let me do a little research, why do you want to get rid of it?

Hehe, i'd trade you too 😛

Your mobo has an AGP lock (& it's nForce 3 250GB).

His (& mine) don't have the lock, & are VIAs 🙁



Sorry i cannot offer any advice on what's wrong with your board.

 

[Regs]

That's what happened to me on my asus. I had to make sure the Optical drives were on IDE channel 2 and the hard drives on channel 1, I believe. Might of been the other way around. It's been a long time since I opened up my case to notice.

Then you have to go back into your bios and make sure the proper boot device is selected.

I really don't like ASUS's offering on the 754's at all. They don't over clock worth a damn (1st generation anyway), and their bios have some really weird bugs in them even after the 4-5 revisions. Either the boot devices get messed up especially with SATA drives, ASUS has picky DIMM slot selection, memory dividers which hardly work, lowers multiplier when the bus is raised, etc etc.

Im upgrading to a 250 pro Nforce 3 ASAP.

 

[mechBgon]

The "useless" manual shows you which SATA fittings run off the nF3 250Gb southbridge and which run off the Silicon Image controller (nF3 controller is preferable).

As for your crashing, without knowing the full specs of the system I'll just take an educated guess: your RAM isn't getting enough voltage and/or you have a poor-quality power supply. If you want more detailed help then post the specs for us 🙂

 

[robisc]

That's what happened to me on my asus. I had to make sure the Optical drives were on IDE channel 2 and the hard drives on channel 1, I believe. Might of been the other way around. It's been a long time since I opened up my case to notice.

My optical drives are on IDE channels 1 and 2, remember my HDD is a SATA drive.

Then you have to go back into your bios and make sure the proper boot device is selected.

At this point there isn't anywhere in the BIOS showing my SATA drive

I really don't like ASUS's offering on the 754's at all.

If I do ditch this board what is recommended? I do no overclocking, and I want fast, stable and no Raid.

The "useless" manual shows you which SATA fittings run off the nF3 250Gb southbridge and which run off the Silicon Image controller (nF3 controller is preferable).

Say what you want but IMO the manual sucks, I even wasted half a ream of paper and printed one out here at work and read the whole thing

As for your crashing, without knowing the full specs of the system I'll just take an educated guess: your RAM isn't getting enough voltage and/or you have a poor-quality power supply. If you want more detailed help then post the specs for us

It crashed just the one time and now it won't go into Windows even IF the SATA drive is recognized, As for RAM voltage, I'm sure there is setting for in the BIOS I will take a look at? My PSU should be up to par, it is an Antec True Power, the specs of the system are

K8N-E deluxe
Athlon 64 3000
Crucial 2X 512MB PC 2700
PSU Antec True Power 350w
ATI Radeon 9200
WD Raptor 76GB SATA HDD
Lite ON DVD-RW/-R
Lite ON DVD-ROM/CD-RW
Mitsumi floppy

Thanks for the replies

 

[otispunkmeyer]

i believe the nvidia powered sata ports work a dream they did on mine. i wouls set up on them firdt then sort out your raid arrary...the silicon image raid chip is pants like

 

[otispunkmeyer]

if u only got that one drive.....whack it on the sata one port in the centre of the mobo...them two a re controlled by the nf3 250gb chipset, and that chip supports sata drives out the box as it uses some kind of universal driver just to get u up n runnin.....the silicon image raid chip will require u to make a boot disk to load the sata drivers