Riddle of the A8N-SLI POST problem solved !

[imported_striker]

I have tried everything and am having the same problems. I am running A8N board with dual 6800 Ultras, 3200+, Corsair Pro 4000 twinx. I have tried everything and I always get a long beep with 3 short beeps at post but no display on the screen. Please help!

 

[user1234]

Originally posted by: babyjocko

Originally posted by: user1234
Update: I think I figured out the cause of the POSTing problem with the 1003.005 bios !!! At least the external reason....well here it goes, as you know everything was fine until I opened the box and TURNED OFF THE PSU (either disconnect from power outlet or shut it off using the PSU switch). When you turn off the PSU, the green LED on the mobo turns off as well. After you turn the PSU back on - YOU WILL START HAVING PROBLEMS WITH POST !!!! You will need to clear the CMOS to be able to POST normally again. So bottom line is that the 1003.005 bios has a bug which causes it to corrupt itself when the PSU is turned off (not when the computer's front panel power switch is pressed).

That can't be a BIOS problem. That's a battery problem. Replace your battery.

The BIOS doesn't care whether or not your PS is on. The CMOS setup within the BIOS is RAM, which means it requires power to stay alive. When your PS is off, it depends on the mobo battery to sustain power. If power becomes insufficient, the data will become garbled or totally lossed.

You think that since your mobo is new, the battery is new and fresh? Think again! Notice how your mobo is shipped in an anti-static bag? Well, the reason why it is anti-static is because it is essentially a ground. It keeps all mobo circuits at a common reference point, which means the bag is conductive. That means that it will short the batery, not severely, but a nice slow drain. By the time you get the mobo in your system, the battery may have weakened to the point of unreliability.

My suggestion to you is to replace your battery. Your BIOS/PS bug theory is impossible.

So why does it work fine with a different bios ? The problem happened consistently when I was using the 1003.005 beta bios. Like a swiss watch - every time I disconnected the power (and reconnected), the machine had problems POSTing (usually the fans come on, but there is no video). But after I uodated the BIOS everything works 100% even after disconnecting the power (I've done that many times). It looks like when the power is disconnected, something happens to the settings stored in the CMOS memory, because resetting the CMOS fixed the problem every time. Technically, the bios can defintely be responsible for this CMOS corruption, since the bios in fact is operating all the time, and gets notified when the power goes out, so it probably was doing something to the CMOS in its shutdown sequence (during the time the green LED goes out, after the power is disconnected). Your battery "theory" is incorrect as it ignores the fact that everything works with a new BIOS (when the power is disconnected).

This problem and solution has been experienced by many many different people, and even ASUS admitted to it in one of their bios updates change logs. Of course, not all problems which people are having is related to this one. Another class of problems is related to the EZ-selector situation, as a lot of people use the board with the EZ-selector in the wrong position. So people, check that the EZ selector is in the right postition (single if you're using one video card). But that's covered in other threads.

 

[robman123]

Technically, the bios can defintely be responsible for this CMOS corruption, since the bios in fact is operating all the time, and gets notified when the power goes out, so it probably was doing something to the CMOS in its shutdown sequence (during the time the green LED goes out, after the power is disconnected).

BIOS code executes only on the CPU, which is not running when the system is shut down. I'm not denying that the BIOS update fixed that problem, but it won't be for the reason above..

 

[user1234]

I guess it shall remain a mistery then, what exactly was happening in the bios during the post, and how is it related to the cmos.

 

[Cornell77]

I just experienced the same problem after powering down my system to install a new CPU fan/heatsink. No post. I was using 1003 final bios. I cleared the CMOS and the system booted fine.....but, the system clock was reset and Windows 64-bit RC1 now tells me that my evaluation period has expired.

So, I have to spend a number of hours reformatting the system and installing from scratch (as Windows XP 64-bit takes a loooong time to install).

I have now flashed the BIOS to 1004-001 but don't want to rebuild my system if the power-off CMOS corruption problem remains. Can anyone using 1004-001 confirm whether or not the problem remains?

Finally, if there is such a problem, perhaps it could be in the motherboard design. With hundreds of millions of motherboards shipped in the world, it is absolutely unacceptable to release a motherboard/bios with such a basic problem.

The president of ASUS should express his deep personal shame to all customers of the A8N-SLI motherboard. The company has failed its customers in an egregious fashion and is not forthright about the existence of the problem.

If the problem remains, perhaps Anandtech could do a feature article on the problem. Let ASUS sweat the way it has made its customers sweat for their incompetence.

 

[user1234]

Agreed, we all wasted many hours in anxiety because of this problem. It's certainly not what I expect from ASUS. I'm using a different bios version now, but I believe it's also fixed in 1004.001, why not just try to pull out the power cord so you know for sure ?

 

[Cornell77]

I had my system unplugged for over 12 hours. With beta bios 1004-001 I was able to boot up fine. I also tested the stock CMOS battery at 2.99 vollts so the posting problem under the released 1003 bios could not have been battery related.

When I replaced the CPU fan and chipset fan, I did remove the motherboard, which is a different test than just disconnecting the power supply. For example, disconnecting the power supply wires could discharge electricity that affects the CMOS backup. And yet, many others have reported the problem of posting associated with simply unplugging their pc's from the wall. Perhaps the 1004-001 bios is a real fix for a nasty problem.

 

[av8er23]

I have had trouble with this mb since the beginning. I recieved it and installed it as described in the owners manual. It fires up and all of the fans turn on (cpu, video card, and case fans). The problem is the monitor will not display nothing. The led on the front of the monitor stays amber and is supposted to turn green. I sent it to be repaired by asus and it is doing the same thing. I convinced the vender to exchange it for a new one and it is on the way. I am in fear that it is another component but I have had the power supply, memory, and sound card tested at local computer stores. No one in town can test me 6600 gt pci express video card or my amd 64 939 cpu. NO one has those component on a bench. I have talked to tech support at asus and we have trouble shoot for an hour and they say that is the mb or power supply. This board has the capability of telling you which components are not passing intial inspection via audio. If i plug in the bare board with nothing on it it says "no cpu installed" "no cpu installed" , if i then slip the cpu in and leave the memory out it says nothing. It should say no memory installed but it does not. Asus cannot tell me why this is happening. I have had it with asus and will never buy another on their products again. They do not even have a 800 number so it costs me long distance everytime i call and the wait is rediculous. Can anyone help?

**** Asus!

 

[av8er23]

is this discussion closed?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: babyjocko
You think that since your mobo is new, the battery is new and fresh? Think again! Notice how your mobo is shipped in an anti-static bag? Well, the reason why it is anti-static is because it is essentially a ground. It keeps all mobo circuits at a common reference point, which means the bag is conductive. That means that it will short the batery, not severely, but a nice slow drain. By the time you get the mobo in your system, the battery may have weakened to the point of unreliability.

Good advice, although I would be more likely to believe that the "weak new battery" issue is more shelf-life than anything else.

Originally posted by: babyjocko
My suggestion to you is to replace your battery. Your BIOS/PS bug theory is impossible.

Not so sure about that. Remember, in an ATX supply, the +5VSB is supplying power to the board, for as long as the supply is connected to the board and plugged in. There are definately some interactions (on most boards) between the +5VSB, keyboard/mouse power-on, and the CMOS. It's not entirely inconcievable that there could be some problems with voltage transients, causing the power to the CMOS RAM to fluctuate, and corrupt the data. But if disconnecting the ATX PSU can cause that, it sounds to me more like a hardware design problem, like they left out a diode or something.

Remember those old battery-back NES games? The ones that told you to hold in RESET, while pushing POWER-OFF, so that the battery-backed (CMOS SRAM) memory wouldn't get corrupted? It looks like something very similar may be happening here.

 

[av8er23]

F*** Asus I have returned mine today and ordered a Gigabyte from newegg.
I am so feed up with the tech support and customer support all around. I will never buy another asus product again in my life. I wish that Anand Tech would write an article that tells the true story on the Asus customer support. Its bull that you have to pay long distance to get tech support and it takes at least 15 min to get on the phone. You also have to be routed through several operators. And the RMA dept. recieved my board held it for a week and did not even fix the problem or let me know the status of it. They would not reply to emails and Asus will not give a phone number to contact them.

 

[Hicat]

I have the same problem with the A8N Sli Deluxe here. With BIOS 1004.001 my TFT stays black when i unplugged the power supply before.
I flashed back to 1003 and than there was no way to get my TFT screen showing anything. Now I think have the "solution":

When the DVI-Connector of the grafics card is plugged in the TFT stays black.

- Using only the analog plug of the TFT everything works fine (unplugging the power supply, rebooting ...).
- With both calbles (dvi+analog) plugged in the error occurs again an the TFT stays black while booting.

Very strange thing by the way: when the DVI-cable is pugged in i can not use the soft power switch of my TFT or the button for switching between analog and digital input. The board seems to have an influence on my Iiyama 431 TFT :-(

 

[crudas]

I just got a non-deluxe A8N-SLI last night. I haven't done any BIOS flashes or anything yet because I haven't been able to get it to show a post screen. I turn it on, the LED's come on, the fans start, but no video, no beeps. I have cleared the CMOS including removing the battery method mentioned in the manual. I have removed everything (hard drives, USB cables, etc) from the MB with no luck.

I have it set to single card. The EZplug is plugged in. I have a 550w Antec PS (EPS version) so I am pretty sure power is no problem.

When I get home, I will try what the first poster said, and put the system in dual mode and clear the CMOS again. I will post my results here later.

 

[pchu]

You need to remove the VGA card and the EZ selector card then reset CMOS. It worked on my A8N deluxe.

 

[crudas]

Yup! That worked! Thanks...

 

[LordPBA]

this no works for my MB, i still have no monitor output. I've done clear cmos a lor of time, i dunno know what to do now... mybe a psu problem?

 

[LordPBA]

I've found that this MB goes well only with very few PSU, i'll try with a new one. Otherwise i'll call the assistence...

 

[pchu]

is your PSU fan or any other fans running? If it's not running, it's your PSU.

 

[sbv16]

Hi

Im glad i finally found a this post cos i have been stuffing around with this problem for weeks. Mine is a bit different though

I purchased board 3 weeks ago install job worked fine everything POSTED fine for the first week. Then i updated bios to what my Asus update program sais is version 1003 i assume its the one on the asus site (not shaw if beta or not). I cant recall if problems started happening straight after bios update or disocnnected psu but i know have disconnected PSU many times after i updated Bios. The problem i am experiencing is i turn pc on and i dont get anything showing on screen and it doesnt post it starts up for like 10 seconds then shuts down, then when i turn it on again it posts fine and all is good. It does it randomly sometimes in morning when first turning on, sometimes after use.... i have tried disconnecting PSU just then and then turning on and it worked fine.

It seems i have the same post issue as everyone else excpet mine does it intermitantly making it harder to troubleshoot. I have checked all wiring about 5 times and tried numerous things like checking to see if mobo is shorting anywhere at one stage i even thought it might be my PSU.

What does everyone think??? sound like same sort of issues?

Im really wishing i never purchased this mobo i could have gone the msi option

Where should i go from here??? clear the cmos and flash bios to original 1002???


Any help would be great

 

[dlw5]

ahurtt made an interesting comment...

"consider getting some of those little red washers to put under the motherboard mounting screw heads incase somehow you are grounding out."

I had the same basic problem "disconnect power - add a component - etc. and "system failed memory test". I never had to reset the BIOS, but usually get the system booting again after reseating my memory. I'm running 1003 final. When I called ASUS they suggested adding the fiber washers on my stand-offs to eliminate any grounding issues (perhaps they know it's due to a faulty design on one of the layers near the MB screws). The reason I say this is I haven't had to do this to other MBs.

I haven't tried the washer idea yet because I'm waiting for my Swiftech chipset cooler to arrive. I have to remove the MB to install the heat sink so I'll add the washers at the same time.

then user1234 made this comment

"I also read an official story about ASUS admitting that some of the bioses were hanging in POST because of creating a peak demand of power, and that this is supposedly fixed in the new offical bioses. "

Because I originally felt I had a memory problem I called OCZ. They suggested I bump-up my DDR voltage to 2.75-2.8 because the 2.6 ASUS uses as AUTO default is a bit low. Anyway, I made the change and tried to recreate the POST problem (unplugging from wall, messing with MOLEX connectors, etc). Over the last 24 hours I haven't been able to get the system to fail. I also ran MEMTEST86+ all night (no errors).

BTW - I also adjusted the rails on my OCZ Powerstream to ~5.1, 12.1 and 3.32

Please let me know if this helps any of you...I would love to have a stable system before I try any OC'ing.