*** Official ASUS A7N8X/Deluxe (nForce2) Thread ***

[Assimilator1]

Depends if you really need the latest bios on it ,you could just flash it back to the old bios ,then windows ought to be fine again.
Otherwise I think you would have to reload windows

GL

 

[6mdx]

Assimilator1
I tried returning to the original 1009 bios, but windows still won't boot. I was suprised that I had a problem at all, oh well I guess this again proves "if its not broken dont fix it" I was hoping some one would have a magic fix for windows to avoid reinstallation. cheers robert

 

[subzero813]

that's why i'm never upgrading from the 1009 bios ever unless i have to. too many horror stories with flashing the BIOS. its got to be the most dangerous thing you do with a PC, and i don't know anybody in real life (online, sure) who's managed to do this without losing a motherboard.

 

[subzero813]

whats the FASTEST anyone's gotten this board to run without changing chipset voltage? (thru a 3rd party BIOS).

i ordered some PC3700 ram that has 2-3-2-5 timings, and i'm gonna see if i can get it to 233MHz. (XP 3200+ Barton CPU). i'm putting a 40mm fan on top of the NB heatsink, and upgrading the fan on the CPU as well (to possibly some crazy 90mm fan like a vantec tornado)

 

[niggles]

Interested to know how that turned out for you. If you read this post back with how it went.
I just flashed ona rev 1.04 up from bios version 1004 up to 1008 no issues at all. A little concerned with 1009 as I'm not big on flashing to a beta. Anyway, I'm hoping it gives me stability for the 200 FSB that I've never been able to run.

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: subzero813
whats the FASTEST anyone's gotten this board to run without changing chipset voltage? (thru a 3rd party BIOS).

You can't change chipset voltage via any bios on v1.0x mbrds ,you have to make hardware changes (soldering).Some 3rd party bioses show the option but it doesn't work.I don't know about v2.0 mbrds ,but then you don't really need to on those ,unless you want to hit insane FSB speeds
Some people are able to hit 200FSB on v1.0x mbrds ,seems to be potluck.
My one tops at in the mid 180s

Btw I don't yet know anyone in RL whose hosed a mbrd by bios flashing ,maybe we're just lucky?

 

[niggles]

interesting, I only had the choice in my bios to switch from 166 to 200, couldn't do single stepping that would allow 180. still formatting from other issues so I'll check once I run a stable 3dmark at the base level to see what I get with each over clock

 

[Assimilator1]

Yes you can ,you need to alter a bios setting that'll allow you to do 1MHz steps.
Something like 'user defined' or 'manual' ,I can't remember exactly as its been a while

 

[congaboy77]

I've had significant trouble setting this board up in a system. I'm trying to run RAID 1 on 2 Maxtor 200 Gig SATA drives. There is also an IDE 120 Gig Maxtor HD. They system boots from the SATA drives.

Round 1: Everything setup fine, got RAID running, XP installed. I then installed drivers for my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and got the blue screen of death on reboot. For some reason, I couldn't even go into safe more. Windows would not repair, so I ended up doing a complete reformat and re-install.

Round 2: Everything went together flawlessly. I tried to install the updated sound drivers and got the same problem-- blue screen of death. After that, the system would not POST. I took out the card and the system would start up, but ended up having to reformat again. I upgraded to BIOS 1013 in the process of all this.

Round 3: Left the sound card out this time, computer is up and running, everything is going well. Then I install Roxio. On reboot, the windows screen comes up, then a black screen. No login, nothing. I try to go into safe mode, but safe mode freezes. I try to repair windows, but the windows setup utility says that there's no partition on the HD (SATA) that supports windows. I enter the RAID utility on reboot and am formatting each drive individually.

Round 4: In process.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've built quite a few systems and have never had this many problems. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere, I get the blue screen of death or no boot. All system temps are fine, and no errors were showing any time before the computer died on me.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: Assimilator1
Yes you can ,you need to alter a bios setting that'll allow you to do 1MHz steps.
Something like 'user defined' or 'manual' ,I can't remember exactly as its been a while

Wow, this is bizarre... I set it up ran bench marks straight on 3dmark with no over clock and the apeture set to 256 and got a score of 4634, before the flash I was getting a score of 4600... says to me the flash was good for something. So then I start stepping up the frequecy while leaving the mulitplier alone. I start out with a frequency of 170, core voltage of 1.7 and up the RAM voltage to 2.7 per chizows earlier post regarding memory voltages... and low and behold I get a score of 4623 which is actually a lower score than when I wasn't overclocking... bizarre... I didn't change the memory timings, could that be the issue?

Originally posted by: congaboy77
I've had significant trouble setting this board up in a system. I'm trying to run RAID 1 on 2 Maxtor 200 Gig SATA drives. There is also an IDE 120 Gig Maxtor HD. They system boots from the SATA drives.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? I've built quite a few systems and have never had this many problems. Every time I think I'm getting somewhere, I get the blue screen of death or no boot. All system temps are fine, and no errors were showing any time before the computer died on me.

huh, thought that raid drives had to match, didn't know you could run 1 SATA and one ATA of different sizes for RAID. What BIOS are you running. I recall reading the early posts in this thread and there some major bios issues with the early revisions and BIOS releases.

 

[congaboy77]

No, the RAID drives match. Sorry if I was unclear. The RAID drives are both Maxtor 200GB SATA drives. The Maxtor 120gig PATA is an extra drive I use to store information.

The BIOS is the latest-- 1303 I think. The SATA drivers I use are also the latest from the ASUS website.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: congaboy77
No, the RAID drives match. Sorry if I was unclear. The RAID drives are both Maxtor 200GB SATA drives. The Maxtor 120gig PATA is an extra drive I use to store information.

The BIOS is the latest-- 1303 I think. The SATA drivers I use are also the latest from the ASUS website.

the latest is 1009 which is a beta, the most current non beta is 1008. Which of the two are you running?

 

[congaboy77]

I have 1013, which according to the ASUS site is the latest. http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us.

It is dated 11/19/2004. 1008 is dated 12/15/2003. I am running an A7N8X-E.

 

[niggles]

Originally posted by: congaboy77
I have 1013, which according to the ASUS site is the latest. http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us.

It is dated 11/19/2004. 1008 is dated 12/15/2003. I am running an A7N8X-E.

ahhh... missed the e part. Sorry, haven't read anything at all about that bios, not sure
____________________________________---

On my overclocking issues I just overclocked my video card, an x800xl by bumping it up 30 Mhz on both the core and the mem and jumped from 4663 to 4938. Truly bizarre, especially when you take into account that the 800xl is supposed to be a bad overclocking card... anyone have any insight on why I didn't see any win from simply overclocing the CPU?

 

[touchmyichi]

side note:

I wonder if this thread will live to be 3 years old :Q

 

[Assimilator1]

Probably

niggles
Not sure really ,doesn't make sense ,but either way I wouldn't relie on 3dmark to test cpu performance.
If you want to see the difference test in a game at a low resolution (so the graphics card doesn't hold back the FPS)

 

[carma]

Anyone know why my Asus A7N8X Deluxe cannot power on with a new ATI X800 XL AGP card? The motherboard works fine with my ATI 9600XT AGP card in there. I have updated the MB BIOS to the latest version, 1013. I tried a new poer supply, thinking my Enermax 550W (4 years old) was going bad. I bought a new Enermax 535W and still the same problem. I took out everything, SCSI controller, sound card, IDE cable etc etc, still not powering on with the card in there. I put the X800 XL in a different computer, bingo, it powered on. I had also tried returning the card to Newegg and got a brand new one (warranty), thinking it was the card originally. Please help fellow Anandtech forum users!! Thanks.

 

[niggles]

I'm running it with an 800xt and no issues at all. Sounds like you have a lemon of a mobo perhaps? I'm sure you plugged the power cable into the card etc, I'm sure you know it's AGP and not PCI-E. I would contact ASUS tech support and see if anyone else has experienced the same issue.

 

[carma]

OK, thanks for the info. I tried registering my MB on ASUS' website and it told me the serial number did not exsist!? Odd. Maybe it's a counterfit MB. Does ASUS have a support phone number? It's hard to navigate their website and find it.

 

[frogger149]

i recently bought a xp 3200+ processor, and tried to install it into an old ASUS a7n8x deluxe (rev 2.0). However, windows XP won't install.

I can run a hard drive with windows 98 just fine. I've tried multiple hard drives, several memory sticks, two different video cards, multiple copies of windows xp. I flashed the bios up to 1008, the latest version listed on ASUS's site. I also tried underclocking the proc, to the speeds of a 2500+ with a 166 FSB, and it still didn't work

I boot up the computer from the XP install CD, and the same thing happens every time, it will go thru pre-loading for the XP install, then hangs at the part where it says "xp is starting up" (meaning the install is starting up).

any suggestions?

 

[niggles]

the original release of the board could not go up to 3200, you needed to flash the bios to allow for the 3200

 

[Assimilator1]

He said he has a rev2.0 of the mbrd which is not effected by that issue

frogger149
For rev2.0 of A7N8X the latest bios (non beta) is 1010 ,look here

Btw have you tried a different PSU?
Unplugging all non essential hardware?
CD isn't damaged or dirty?

 

[niggles]

...learn something new everyday...

 

[Assimilator1]

Hmm that link didn't quite work out ,but I'm sure you can find the right page

Did you try 1010?
Any luck?

 

[NotquiteanooB]

CPU temp sensor problems ?? A7N8X-E-DX ... any known issues with the CPU temp sensor on this mobo? I'm sure mine is reading 8* - 10*C too high.