*** Official ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4) Thread ***

[Tanzi]

Hey guys, what bios version is best for this board?

I've tried some of the final and beta ones a while back, but 1007 seems to work the best ATM.

Haven't had too much time to fiddle with the newer ones though.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Oh and phew, what a looooong thread.

 

[Killasta43]

Originally posted by: nMLasKi
Ron: I am using latest 7.13 (don' t remember if are 7.13, they are 7.xx) nforce 4 drivers (you can google to find it) and everything is working OK.

personally, I have 2 SATA hard drivers, 1 WD 74 GB raptor and 1 SG Barracuda 160 GB and I always use the MS IDE drivers, when I install the drivers, I don't install the nvidia nforce IDE.

I don't understand what you mean about the sound, the nforce 4 chipet comes with onboard sound (you can disable it @ bios), I never installed audio drivers, cause I have an SB Audigy 2, I only install pure drivers refferent to the chipset.

You can't run them in dual if you are using all four slots :/. The problem may be one of those 256MB sticks, obviously. Just don't bother shoving those two sticks in there. If you want more RAM, sell those two on Ebay and get 2x1GB .

 

[moderaterock48]

I have problems with my USB ports, when I plug in a game controller nothing happens. No, "new hardware found" nothing. I have installed the drivers for controller but it still does not respond, but all the lights on the controller are on. btw I have an Asus A8N SLI Deluxe mobo, has anybody had similar problems? Does anybody know what to do before I bring the controller back to the store? Thanks

 

[Nocturnal]

What BIOS is everyone running? I tried the newest beta BIOS as well as the 1011 final. Basically my system will lock up completely without any warnings or blue screens. It just freezes completely and I have to reboot my system to regain control. I just reflashed my BIOS back to 1008 and I hope this will clear things up. Otherwise I'm going to go back to 1004 which was fine when I originally flashed it. It was user error when I thought I had to flash it to a newer BIOS.

I was intalling HL2 when it froze on disk 5. Any ideas?

 

[runestone]

Originally posted by: Tanzi
Hey guys, what bios version is best for this board?

I've tried some of the final and beta ones a while back, but 1007 seems to work the best ATM.

Haven't had too much time to fiddle with the newer ones though.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Oh and phew, what a looooong thread.

I'm still using the 1007,beta 4. I think the main advantage of the later ones is support for newer chipsets.

 

[Hejsanhmm]

Hello GUYS!
Please can u answer my questions cuz im really getting explosive here..
I have the A8N-SLI-Deluxe mobo and my chipsetfan is now broken.
So i wanted to change the NB cooler to a ZM_NB47J as many others.
I have heard that the pushpins who comes with the NB47J is to short for my mobo, cuz i wanted to change the NB cooler without taking the mobo out from the case.
So i thought about to clip the original pushpins off and replace it with the newer ones that comes with the zalman.
Are they to short?
Thx for replies

Johan Sweden/stockholm

 

[telthenipper]

I have 2x512mb ocz platinium matched pairs ddr400 ram in my a8n sli deluxe. I have 2x256mb of corsair 3200LL laying around. I was wondering if I put these in the 2 free memory slots (giving me a total of 1.5gb) will it work without problems?

Many thanks,

tel

 

[Hejsanhmm]

hi man, i dont think u will have a stabile system, sometimes if u have luck it can work out.
U can test it, its not dangerous try to put them as pairs like for dual channel A1,B1 and A2,B2 if u are lucky it can work.
But even if it works i dont think its gonna be a stabile system though...

 

[DrZoidberg]

Hi, just got my Asus A8N-SLI (non deluxe) system 1 month ago with Athlon 3200+.
At first my motherboard detected that there was 2 gig of ram eventhough i bought only 1 gig corsair ram. Anyway i flashed the bios to 1.08 and it detects correct ram size.

The system is very stable at only slight overclock. I dont really plan on going over 2.4 ghz anyway (I guess im conservative). My overclock at 2.2 ghz with ram at 1:1 is prime95 stable. I recently ran it at 2.3ghz stable with ram at 5/6 divider so RAM is only at 191. Not sure if I want extra 100mhz with ram 29mhz slower.

Anyway it seems like a large number of people have problems with Asus SLI boards but mine is very stable when not overclocking or slight overclocking. I went ASUS cause my last comp was PIII 733 with ASUS CUSL2 which lasted me happily 5 years stable. For people having some problems try this faq.
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/38623/?o=0

Im thinking of replacing chipset fan. It once gave a wierd high pitched noise but its working fine now, i got clear side window so i check if its spinning easily. MB temp is 25C now so im no hurry to change it yet. Is there a easy guide to changing Asus chipset fan cause I'm kinda newbie when changing fans, I only have experience putting in ram/video card/hard drive etc.

 

[imported_Thermo]

Asus A8N-SLI deluxe...FX 57....1gig Mushkin Red Line....7800gtx

Does anyone know where I can find details as to what changes are included in the Bata Bios files? I'm looking for a higher VCore setting.

I'm having stability problems above 3GHz. I can get to 3.08 by multi or by FSB, but then I hit a wall. Temps are fine, mid 30c.
It boots fine, but locks on some tests. My old NF3 board went up to 1.8v

 

[Fisher999]

Hi:

I sure am glad to have found this thread. I am on the verge of a new system build and my mobo choice was the Asus A8N-SLI. I accidentally discovered this thread over here for the Asus A8N-E. My first post in the thread was asking permission to join the thread as my board was very similar to theirs and that I would NOT be using my SLI feature. Well, a very RUDE forum member told me to "go jump in a lake", in so many words. I "subscribed" to the thread and occasionally get subscription response notices but when I return to the thread after a notice I discover that many responses have been posted. Some forum members must somehow have me "blocked" from receiving notices of their posts at the thread.

This lead me to do a search and I found this thread.

I hope I am more welcome here.

 

[ProviaFan]

If my response was so utterly horrible and inconsiderate, then go to Forum Issues and ask the mods to ban me. I'm sure they'll agree with you, since you are still permanently psychologically scarred from my hideous response - and the forums will be rid of another worthless idiot.

Also, I like how you are such an upstanding person to keep from accusing me "behind my back" (for your information, I had subscribed to this thread before I got my A8N-E, because I was considering this board). You thought you could get away with it, but unfortunately, I noticed. Now again, I crawl into my shell, never to post in another thread of yours for fear of damaging your incredibly thin skin.

Edit: for the record, he took offense when I suggested that he post in the thread related to his board:

You already have a much bigger thread for your board, IIRC. This one is great because it gives us a place to discuss our (seemingly) much less popular board. (note: referring to A8N-E)

By the way, a Zalman NB47J with a 40mm fan (I got a Panaflo 40mm rated at 23db from Newegg) seems to be the best solution in my experience for cooling NForce4 chipsets. Thanks to whichever AT member originally got the idea to screw a fan onto the side of the NB47J! :thumbsup:

 

[Fisher999]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
...By the way, a Zalman NB47J with a 40mm fan (I got a Panaflo 40mm rated at 23db from Newegg) seems to be the best solution in my experience for cooling NForce4 chipsets. Thanks to whichever AT member originally got the idea to screw a fan onto the side of the NB47J! :thumbsup:

Thanks for your input but since you are the owner of an Asus A8N-E board, which is DIFFERENT from our MORE POPULAR (as you pointed out) Asus A8N-SLI, you might be better served by this thread over here Oh, for the record, I'm not being rude, I'm just trying to be a "good guy" and direct you to where you might get better help for your specific board.

Enjoy !!!

 

[ProviaFan]

If I'm being such a disgrace, get me banned. Otherwise, drop it and move on. :roll:

 

[soldano]

Just for curiosity, should this mobo work with a PCI video card instead of the normal PCI express one ?.-

 

[Aquila76]

Originally posted by: soldano
Just for curiosity, should this mobo work with a PCI video card instead of the normal PCI express one ?.-

That is a BIOS option under "Init Display First" to use a PCI graphics card intead of PCIe. Out of curiosity, why would you want to run a 2 generations old video device on a top-of-the-new-tech board?

 

[steve123]

I would appreciate some feedback from the forum... I am seriously considering my first build from scratch based on this motherboard. The number of problems posted here is making me nervous. Are these systems so problematic, or does it just seem that way because only the problems are posted and there are (hopefully) many more trouble-free builds out there?

This is my planned system:
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Wis...ow.asp?ID=1511578&WishListTitle=NEW+PC

Any heads up on a possible compatibility problem would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[vlad4]

Originally posted by: ProviaFan
By the way, a Zalman NB47J with a 40mm fan (I got a Panaflo 40mm rated at 23db from Newegg) seems to be the best solution in my experience for cooling NForce4 chipsets. Thanks to whichever AT member originally got the idea to screw a fan onto the side of the NB47J! :thumbsup:

You're welcome! ;-)

 

[marstein]

This system looks nice. The PSU is out of stock. Cool CPU, but maybe you want to get dual-core?
I read that the Logitech Z-5 speakers are very good. I bought them and I am quite happy.
My deluxe system runs very stable when I am not trying to overclock. One note of caution: the NVIDIA LAN and NAM (hardware firewall) don't seem to work very well. Check out the NVIDIA forums. I have not been able to get both the firewall and a reliable LAN connection to work. I switched to the Marvel LAN adapter. But it is faster anyhow.


BTW: I have a Chaintech 6600GT card for sale! It is almost new, and I put a Zalman VF700 GPU cooler on it. You could safe some money. Check in the for-sale forum or email me!

 

[rubenerv]

anyone could tell me whitch is the safest way to update the bios of this mainboard??

I have an A8N-SLI (non deluxe) but it has the same Asus ways to update.

 

[Azndude2190]

Couple of questions concerning my A8N-SLI Deluxe:
1.)A person from another board told me too use clock gen to oc my Athlon 3700 San Diego...anyone use it?...what do you do...sorry i only know the basics of overclocking please enlighten me
2.)Whats the latest bios version for the board mines?

 

[steve123]

Marstein, thanks for the feedback. Actually now that AMD has announced the 3800+ X2, I think I'll wait two more weeks for it to start shipping.

If the motherboard comes with an older BIOS which may not support my CPU, will I still be able to run the BIOS update utility?

 

[marstein]

Azndude: use clockgen to make your CPU faster by pumping up the HT speed and increasing the voltage.
Use AMD64Tweaker to decrease the RAM speed.

steve123: I heard that you should be able to flash a newer BIOS using the new CPU. Put the flash utility on a floppy, add the new BIOS and boot from the floppy. On the other hand I also heard that some people had to send in their mobo to have it flashed up by ASUS. Just try it out, maybe you can borrow an old CPU from your neighbor

 

[milleron]

Originally posted by: rubenerv
anyone could tell me whitch is the safest way to update the bios of this mainboard??

I have an A8N-SLI (non deluxe) but it has the same Asus ways to update.

I think that EZ Flash is the way to go. Just have the new BIOS on a floppy or CD. There's no need to have a bootable disk. Just hit ALT-F2 at the beginning of POST. I installed a BIOS Savior, and the latest version of AWDFLASH.EXE wouldn't program it, but EZ FLASH had no problem at all.

That said, you asked what's the "safest" way to do it, and AWDFLASH and EZ FLASH are equally safe. Both are much, much safer than doing it from within Windows. I gave so little consideration to that method that I don't even know the name of the program that does it. Avoid it. For added safety, power your computer through a UPS during the process

Ron

 

[Gideon7]

I found that boosting the Vdimm voltage from 2.80V to 2.90V really helps stability on the ASUS A8N SLI motherboard when used with the Crucial Ballistix memory, especially with the larger capacity DIMMs (e.g., pair 16-chip 1GB DIMMs = 2GB total) used with the older AMD Winchester CPU. The Crucial Ballistix part # is BL12864L503 / CM128M6416T27ZD2T-4Y.

The AMD Winchester CPU has a well-known design flaw that prevents the use of more than two "big" (16-chip) DIMMs, due to lack of voltage capacity. AMD fixed the problem in the newer Venice CPUs.

I found that the AMD Winchester CPU needs extra voltage on the ASUS A8N SLI motherboard when running with two "big" 1GB DIMMs.

Initially I tried the default 2.80v volts and it was hopelessly unstable. I simply boosted the DIMM voltage from the default 2.80 volts to 2.90 volts and voila! It fixed all my instability problems.

Hope this tip helps.

-Gideon7