Serious Asus A8N SLI problems! WONT BOOT!!

[goombatommy]

Hey guys....bear with me for a second here.

I just purchased a new Asus A8N SLI Deluxe, Chaintech 6600GT PCI-E, and I'm using Mushkin PC3200 Ram (2x512MB = 1GB) and a 160GB Maxtor IDE ATA/133 HD. I am also using an Antec Trupower 550W Power supply. The motherboard has a 24-pin ATX connector, and I am able to fit my 20-pin ATX plug into it - since my power supply does not have a 24-pin plug. Anyways, even by using the 20-pin ATX plug into the 24-pin should boot up from what I've heard. I also have the 4-pin power connector which is located above the PCI-E slot 1 connected also.

I start the PC up, power goes to everything, the fans on the gfx card spin, my processor, etc. etc. But the PC won't boot up. I push the power button, and my monitor just sits at the orange light, and nothing comes up on the screen. I dont even hear the Hard Drive chunking away, loading up. Nothing, my PC just sits there, fans spinning and power feeding. I dont even get the normal "Beep" when things go well after post.

I cant get into anything, BIOS, my Hard Drive, it just sits there and my monitor doesnt even turn on. The monitor works, because I have been using it on my friends PC. I've tried both PCI-E 16x slots, still no good, I tried to reset the CMOS - still no good, different 4-pin molex plugs on differente components - still doesnt work. I am all out of ideas and I desperately need someones help. Please reply as soon as you can. Thank you for your support.

-Thomas, New Jersey.

 

[mechBgon]

Couple things to start with:

1) besides the EZ-Plug, you got your ATX12V cable plugged into the mobo too, correct? That guy powers the CPU.

2) Make sure your TruePower's "Fan-Only" plugs are not hooked up to anything.

3) Make sure your 20-pin ATX plug is in the holes that are in green in this picture: http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/m...I_DELUXE_POWER_RQs.gif

 

[goombatommy]

Thanks for your quick reply!

When I plug that ATX 12V pin in, tho I get a different story. My PC beeps like "Beeeeep" then 2 seconds later "Beeeeep" and it will keep doing that.

Now, on top of all this I cannot hold in the Power button for 6 seconds to shut my PC Down. That wont work either, so I simply cut the power in general by flipping the switch on the PSU.

But when I have the ATX 12V pin in, and when it beeps, I am able to hold the power button in, and then it shuts down. Very strange.

Oh yea, and I do have the 20-pin ATX connecter plugged in exactly as shown.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Plug some speakers into the green jack on the onboard sound riser. The post messages will annouce when the board boots up. "failed VGA test", "failed CPU test" ext ...

I'm using a 20pin Antec 550 true control, on this board with no problems. The four pins closest to the VGA cards are the ones that should be left open on the 24 pin socket.

 

[goombatommy]

Thanks guys for your quick response!! It's appreciated! Turns out I had to disassemble my entire system, rebuild it and try again. Something might not have been hooked up properly. Thanks!


However, now I am having a problem installing the latest Nvidia chipset drivers. Since this is Nforce4, I downloaded the 5.10 drivers. I went to install them, and the installation windows came up, but then all of a sudden the program exit's itself and doesn't install. Does Apache.exe sound familiar? There are two of them open after running the .EXE for the drivers, in my Task Manager. So right now im stuck on the chipset drivers that came with on the Asus CD.

My second question, is how come in the Nvidia display panel, it shows that my Chaintech 6600GT is running only in PCI Express x8, instead of x16?

If you could answer those two questions, everything will be kosher. Thank you so much guys!

 

[Kovie]

For your 8x PCIe problem, your selector is more than likely set to dual video cards (factory default), which makes two 8x slots instead of a 16x and 1x. Some people have problems with it set to single, so I actually havent tried it that way yet.

 

[FastEddie]

How do you have the SLI sellector installed. My board came with the sellector card set to dual cards. You may have to turn the sellector card around to run in single card mode.

 

[goombatommy]

Well, I'm only using one Chaintech 6600GT PCIE card. Im not running SLI. I looked in BIOS, and the SLI option was set to AUTO. Should I change it to another?

FastEddie: That little card embedded down in the motherboard is facing flat down with the Single card arrow pointing downards and the Dual cards arrow pointing upwards - basically factory default. I haven't touched that.

Also, what Nforce version for our motherboards should we use? I downloaded and tried out the 6.11 betas paired with Forceware 66.93. I installed and ran Far Cry, and it looked like Garbage - water textures were low quality when I had them on very high, textures were flickering, were very very bright, black textures - basically looked like dog a$$. Would this whole 20-pin issue have anythinh to do with this? I ordered a 20-pin to 24-pin converter adapter and it should be in by Tuesday.

So what is version of both motherboard drivers + graphics drivers is everyone else using? Thanks alot guys, I really appreciate it.

 

[FastEddie]

You want the sellector card with the single arrow pointing to the top PCI-E slot, and install your graphics card in that slot.

Most of the boards are arriving with the 1002 bios already flashed, so that shouldn't be an issue. Thus far, I'm using the stock drivers off the installation cd, and dl'ed the latest forceware drivers from nvidia for my 6600GT.

 

[goombatommy]

Cool thanks! Right now my 6600GT is installed in the BLUE PCIE slot which is the topmost next to the processor. The arrow pointing to the blue one says "Dual graphics cards" with an arrow pointing to it.
Should I move the graphics card to the black PCI-E slot with the selector arrow pointing at it saying "Single Card"?

Aren't both slots PCI-E x16? Im assuming that my PC is thinking its in SLI - go figure x8 is half of x16. I will try to swapping and putting the graphics card in the lower PCI-E x16 slot and see how that goes. Im also hoping this will fix my ugly as hell graphics in games such as Far Cry. Thanks Eddie!

 

[Sea Shadow]

No, what you need to do is power down your system (obviously) then remove your graphics card, then you need to switch around that little tab just below the middle slot, so that the single graphics card is pointing up to the blue slot, then just put your system back together and you are set. I'll get you a link for instructions ASAP.

 

[Sea Shadow]

Ok then, turns out it tells you how in your manual. Look at chapter 6-2 of your manual for your motherboard, it tells you how to switch the card. In their description they tell you how to make it work in SLI, but for you you just simply need the opposite. So switch the connector so that the single card is pointing up to the blue slot, then put your graphics card in the blue slot. Of course turn your system off when doing this.

 

[FastEddie]

Originally posted by: goombatommy
Cool thanks! Right now my 6600GT is installed in the BLUE PCIE slot which is the topmost next to the processor. The arrow pointing to the blue one says "Dual graphics cards" with an arrow pointing to it.
Should I move the graphics card to the black PCI-E slot with the selector arrow pointing at it saying "Single Card"?

Aren't both slots PCI-E x16? Im assuming that my PC is thinking its in SLI - go figure x8 is half of x16. I will try to swapping and putting the graphics card in the lower PCI-E x16 slot and see how that goes. Im also hoping this will fix my ugly as hell graphics in games such as Far Cry. Thanks Eddie!

Sea Shadow has it right. For single card graphics, use the top blue PCI-E slot, but you need to switch the sli sellector card so that Single points to that upper slot.

Both slots aren't really PCI-E 16x, the top one is, but the bottom drops to 8x when using a second card for SLI, where two cards equal the 16x (8x bottom card + 8x top card = 16x SLI).

 

[goombatommy]

Ahh, okay I see. Thanks for your help guys, I appreciate it!

Also, it's Far Cry thats being crummy. I have to update to the v 1.3 patch and then try it out, but my fiance only has dial-up, so I'll wait to go home and do that.

I have tried out Doom 3, and mother of God - the game is beautiful and fast. My old system was a Athlon XP 2500+ 1GB Ram and a Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB, and hell the difference is astounding. Im running 1280x1024, 2xAA on High Settings and the game runs smoother than a baby's a$$.

I appreciate both of you helping me out, thanks alot!

 

[pudds]

You can't get nforce4 drivers from the nvidia website. There are some on the asus website but there older than the ones on the CD. The reason the driver just exits is because it doesn't support nforce4.
Apache.exe is used for the firewall interface.