Official DO's and DON'T for ASUS A8N-SLI (PREMIUM)

[pklostguy]

Dawza,
Actually I can't stabilize the system to run a memtest. I had it so I could load and run it once, but the lockup that I get is windows just freezing. No flash to a blue screen or a reboot, it just freezes. CTRL-ALT-DEL won't work and the only way to get the system working agiain is to reset or turn the sucker off.

I actually had 4 sticks of RAM that I rotated through and finally ended up giving 2 away. I also tried it with some other Corsair Ram that I had lying around, which was 1024 but I can't seem to find it just now. I haven't tried moving the slots though I was following the docs and putting in the one that they wanted, but I have also run the system with 2 and 4 slots full, back when I thought this was going to be as easy (I know silly me right). I can try running memtest again, but since the freeze sometimes happens under 1 min of getting my desktop, I am kinda hesitant. The last time I ran memtest it froze in the middle of memtest and then I got pissed and reformated my drive and changed my OS...

RideFree,
As far as the heat issue. I am running stock right now, since it is pulled out of my case, but it will be under a water cooling setup when it finally gets installed. I have an Arctic cooling fan I was going to use for another project I could put on. Oh yeah I use arctic silver 5 thermal compound and its sqooshed (is this the technical term) pretty well when I looked at it the last time. I haven't touched the chip since then but hey I can check again. My temps don't go over 35C when I load BIOS after a crash either, although I don't have a seperat probe installed.

So I will cycle the ram and recheck the heatsink, and maybe put in the new fan. I can't get to it tonight, somewhat drunk after my kickball game, but I should be able to do it this weekend. Thanks a lot guys, but beer is calling.

 

[pklostguy]

Yeah ignore about half of what was in my last message, I remembered I posted my message, but was not totally sober. Apologies.

Memtest ran without any errors for a couple passes, but I will leave it on overnight just in case. I still can't figure out what I was saying about memtest before, although the part about crashing is right.

Haven't swapped out H/S fans, but will probably get to that tomorrow, along with rechecking the stock one.

I can also see if I can run the provided monitoring software, or something else and see if temps spike before it locks up, which I probably should have thought of myself, but I think I am losing my mind with this board.

I will play around with Ram slots and such, and swap out the ram if memtest comes up with anything and put a new stick in.

 

[GoGoPa]

Hi everyone,

Have my very own nightmare with this motherboard. If it will not work today will RMA it.
What I tried so far...
I've started with upgrade of my system from barton 2500 to a64@3000. I had a value mushkin memory 2*512 sticks (one was pc3200 and one pc4000), XConnect 500w, ati 9700.
I've bought, guess what, asus sli premium, a64 cpu and xfx7900gt. Board came with 1009 bios. With both mem sticks in place was not able to reinstall windows (blue screen x50 error, which is a memory problem). Left only one stick in b1 slot, put it down to DDR333, can't remember if I tweaked mem voltage. Installed windows, service packs, drivers. Added the second stick. Was not able to put mem speed to DDR400 (the same blue screen after sometime). Read on the mushkin forum that after latest beta bios everything should be fine. Reflashed the bios. Stopped working with any DDR speeds. Bought MSI diamond on latest nforce4 32 sli chipset. Didn't work eigher. Bought OCZ Platinum 2*1g. Didn't work in both motherboards, mushkin didn't work as well (diff combinations, diff slots, diff mem speeds, diff mem voltages). Returned msi diamond (asus is better anyway). Today bougth new new psu Antec something 500w atx 2.2, and Corsar Twinx2048*3200c2 from the list of recommended memory. Will try...

People pls post if you were able to migrate to DFi or Abit ok (latest sli motherboards) from asus sli premium.

 

[pklostguy]

Yeah memtest was happy for close to 50 passes but I am not, since the board now wants to say that there is a video card problem and not post. Unfortunately I think it is better to cut my losses and go with DFI. Thanks to everyone for the help though, but Asus doesn't like me.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: pklostguy
Yeah memtest was happy for close to 50 passes but I am not, since the board now wants to say that there is a video card problem and not post. Unfortunately I think it is better to cut my losses and go with DFI. Thanks to everyone for the help though, but Asus doesn't like me.

I just picked up the DFI UT SLI-D at CrapUSA of all places on the manager's special for about $20 less than Newegg.
Have it running and it is extremely impressive! But then, I never had a single problem with the Asus SLI-Premium - in fact, it is as good as it gets.

However, the DFI is going to replact this %#@$ EPoX 9NPA+SLI

Edited: Sorry, my teeth were grinding.

 

[Squally Leonharty]

It's strange how so many people have trouble with this board. I haven't had any single issue with it, and moreover (and perhaps even more surprisingly) using the nVidia IDE drivers doesn't make my system go unstable. Even when doing massive file transfers all over the place, everything's still rock solid.

Upon building the PC and installing everything, everything worked right away. Maybe I'm just lucky, I don't know, but at least it isn't a bad board. Not for me anyway.

In case you were wondering, I use the PC for pretty much everything and I play intensive games as well.

 

[Megatomic]

Same here Squally - once I got the right memory. But it turned out NOT to be the mobo's fault. I also use the SW IDE drivers (I have ever since the first incarnation of the NF2 chipset). They work wonderfully for me even when doing disk to disk (optical) copying. I really like this board a lot, I just wish ASUS would finish up with the official 1011 BIOS, I don't like to use beta BIOS code over long periods of time.

 

[Squally Leonharty]

Maybe their 1011-006 is actually the final version? They just never bothered updating it. I don't know. I mean, it's been quite some time already...

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Squally Leonharty
It's strange how so many people have trouble with this board. I haven't had any single issue with it, and moreover (and perhaps even more surprisingly) using the nVidia IDE drivers doesn't make my system go unstable. Even when doing massive file transfers all over the place, everything's still rock solid.

Upon building the PC and installing everything, everything worked right away. Maybe I'm just lucky, I don't know, but at least it isn't a bad board. Not for me anyway.

In case you were wondering, I use the PC for pretty much everything and I play intensive games as well.

I'm in complete agreement except for the

...at least it isn't a bad board...

...it is one of the all-time great boards.
Wait, I guess we're pretty much in complete agreement.
Seems to me it is at least the equivalent of the Soyo SY6-BAs that ran all those Celeron 300As at 450 Mhz & had the HiPoint disk interface.

A client of mine just had his first problem with that board in the seven years that he had it and it turned out to be user error.

 

[silentmaster101]

that is most likely caused by either overheating/power supply issues, or a bad ram stick

 

[Zoltrix]

I have installed the stock AMD heatsink on an Asus A8N SLi Premium motherboard, I think it's on properly, but the retention clip on the heatsink doesn't clip all the way down to be equal with the lug, (it kind of hangs over the top of it) is this normal? Or does this mean it's not mounted properly?

Can the heatsink be mounted in either direction? Or should the retention clip only face the outside or inside of the motherboard?

I'd try and reseat the heatsink, but I can't get it off, tried a fair amount of force but can't unclip it, and would prefer to leave it if it's no big deal.

Temps have been stable.. between 35-45 degrees.

Cheers,
Zolt

 

[BigCoolJesus]

Will this RAM


Patriot Dual Channel 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 500 (PC 4000) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail

work fine (and run at DDR500 speeds) on the Asus A8N-SLI Premium?

 

[virtualrain]

Here's an interesting find for those who may be overclocking this board...

I got my board about a year ago and have been using bios 1006 for all this time. I've overclocked my X2 4400+ to the max and one of the few stable VCore settings for this bios is 1.475V. Interestingly, my default VCore for the X2 is 1.3V so I'm pushing it by 0.175V.

For whatever reason, according to Asus FAQ's, the max you can push an AMD processor safely is 0.15V so in every BIOS version since 1006, the max Vcore is default + 0.15V. So for me, that means that the max VCore selectable in Bios 1011.006 for example is 1.45V. This is not enough to max out my overclock.

So if you are doing some hardcore overclocking with an X2 on this board, you may want to consider down-grading your Bios to 1006 to get the full range of Vcore settings. I can't find anything else different between the 1006 and 1011 beta's that makes a difference.

Incidentally, to downgrade your bios to 1006 you cannot use the latest version of their AIUpdate tool... You need to use an earlier 6.x version of the bios update tool.

One other thing of note... if you have a creative labs product and can't run or install any of the Asus software (like AIUpdate), there is a registry fix you need to implement to address this. The fix is in the Creative Labs forums - search for Asus there or the combination on Google to find the solution.

 

[kickerf1]

I've been having this mobo for the past 3-4 days and well here are some of my early observations.

1. I thought the usb connections of the back were bad but after using several usb devices that proved I was wrong.

2. My mobo came with BIOS revision 1009. Do I need to upgrade? I'm using Opteron and with no intention to overclock until my system is stable.

3. Right now Im booting up from my old ATA hard drive. I purchased a WD 250GB SATA Hardrive but have no idea how to install Win XP in it. I went to the BIOS and set up this driive to boot up first and then CD-ROM, then triied the opposite CD-ROM first and then sata HD and my system says "failure to boot, please insert correct disk"

Please help me out guys.

On another note I forgot to mention that I ordered Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Cooler but was not able to install. The manual was f*cked up or something because it didn't make any sense how they explained the steps on a 939 mobo. I then took it to the friend who is a technician and he couldn't figure it either so I will be returning this cooler to zipzoomfly Im sad now coz I have to pay them a 15% restocking fee.
Anyways, I ended using the above average-good heatsink/fan that came with the opteron 165 and my system is running very cool @ about 31-39 degrees. How high can i overclock this cpu with the stock cooler?

 

[En Sabah Nur]

things i've had problems with:

the chipset 6.66 or whatever drivers caused a blue screen. or were they sound drivers? i don't remember. so i had to undo that.

maybe it's just me but flashing the bios and updating the chipset drivers seems to be slightly too difficult... maybe just because the asus website is kind of slow.


problems i have not had:

- data corruption with the nv lan & firewall. i did turn off the other one. i don't know how i feel about using the firewall anyway, and haven't gotten too much into the settings... but are there other reasons i should be wary of it?

- ram issues. i couldn't do a whole hell of a lot of overclocking. but stock speeds are good enough for me so i just put them back to that.



i think it was worth it for the heatpipe alone.

Originally posted by: MePopeye
Hello,
I am working on building the system below and would like your suggestions for the memory settings in the bios. I am using 2g Corsair XMS (twin 1 gig sticks-CMX1024-3200C2PT) and I have read through this topic (well most of it). Any suggestions or ideas for BIOS settings is solicited and welcomed .. as is a suggestion for a good video card. At this point I am not planning on going SLI due to heat issue (case is in a cubby hole in desk = little circulation). I do not plan on any OCing. Thanks in advance!

i have that ram running at 2-3-3-6 1T. i had it at 2-3-2-6 for a little bit. worked fine but i didn't run memtest on it, figured i should just set it back.

 

[gmongoose]

Hi all,

I've recently built a new computer with the following components:

ASUS A8N-SLI Premium
Athlon 64 3800+ X2
OCZ 2x1 GB DDR 400 Platinum @ 2-3-2-5 1T
XFX 7900GT Extreme 256 MB
Thermaltake Purepower 600W PSU
WD Caviar SE16 250 GB SATA

At Auto settings (other than memory timings), every thing seems to run fine; I have been able to run Memtest86+, two instances of SuperPi running the 32M test, and two instances of Prime95.

Yesterday, I was trying to start the process of overclocking, looking for the maximum speed of my RAM. (CPU Multi 7x, HTT 3x) I ran 25 passes of Memtest86+ test 5 at 210MHz and 220MHz and both times they passed without any errors. When I upped it to 230MHz I was unable to even get into Memtest. I then lowered 225MHz and again tried to get into Memtest but failed.

I then reset the bus speed to 220MHz and tried to get into Windows XP. After booting into Windows, the system crashed, flashed a Blue Screen, and reset.

At this point I was pretty frustrated so I decided to just go ahead and try to use the AI Overclock feature in the BIOS. Strangely enough, this time Windows had no problem loading and not crashing. From here, I decided to try to run some of the testing software. Interestingly, SuperPi ran into errors while Prime95 did not.

All my temperatures have been fine - running about 42C at full load.

Suffice to say that I am not sure what is going on. Could this just be a problem with the memory? Off the top of my head, I cannot remember what BIOS version I have - could an update here possibly help? Has anyone else had problems like this when trying to overclock?

Thanks for any help.

 

[zolkis]

Hi,

I seem to have a problem with the IEEE1394. When attaching a camcorder or ext. harddisk etc to the FireWire port, Windows (SP2) does not recognise it. Video editing programs don't see the camcorder. I tried with other systems, exactly same OS, drivers etc, it worked there. Could someone do me a favor and check whether does the FireWire work for you? If yes, then I have a HW problem and need to change the board. Thanks!

 

[En Sabah Nur]

this is sort of an unimportant problem, but sometimes my fan rpm monitors will read a bigass random number, or 0. is that just a problem with the fan or does it have anything to do with the motherboard?

 

[M9ACE]

I am putting together a new system based on an A8N SLI Premium, and I was wondering if anyone knows of a complete listing of the IRQ assignments.

I noticed that openwheelformula1 had mentioned that the IRQ that PCI slot 3 uses is the same one that the graphics card uses. I have an Audigy2 ZS card as well and I was originally planning on using PCI slot 3, but I will use slot 2 now thanks to openwheelformula1?s advice.

 

[chimpy]

I'm interested in getting this mobo to replace my awful MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum. BUT I have one burning question:

**Will my GeIL Value RAM definately work with it?**

 

[Horsep0wer]

Has anyone recently(last 2 months or so) bought any of the A8N-SLI flavors (Premium, Deluxe etc) from Newegg and dropped in a 146 Opteron(or similar) without flashing the BIOS? I keep seeing over and over how people with dual cores have to either first update the BIOS or order an updated BIOS from Asus before dropping the dual core in. I wanted to know if this is a problem with the Opterons also. I dont have another 939 cpu to flash the BIOS with, so I might buy an updated one from Asus when I order this board.

 

[virtualrain]

gmongoose... (with the Platinum DDR 400 2GB Kit)

That memory will not overclock well at all. You are lucky to get 210 out of it.

You can check on the OCZ support forums at Bleedinedge.com... a search there will confirm what I am saying.

 

[Spydermag68]

I bought the A8N-SLI Premiun 3 months ago and installed an 3800+ X2 with no BIOS flash from newegg. No problems with my setup.

 

[virtualrain]

Originally posted by: Horsep0wer
Has anyone recently(last 2 months or so) bought any of the A8N-SLI flavors (Premium, Deluxe etc) from Newegg and dropped in a 146 Opteron(or similar) without flashing the BIOS? I keep seeing over and over how people with dual cores have to either first update the BIOS or order an updated BIOS from Asus before dropping the dual core in. I wanted to know if this is a problem with the Opterons also. I dont have another 939 cpu to flash the BIOS with, so I might buy an updated one from Asus when I order this board.

When I purchased my A8N-SLI Premium a year ago it came with BIOS supporting dual cores out of the box.

 

[traxxton]

Whats the best overclock settings for this motherboard with a FX-60? I cant get above 3.02 with the 1.5v vcore.

And, does anyone know anything about the software voltmod? I cant get clockgen to work.