The *Official* Asus A7N8X (Deluxe) Thread

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
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Considering this is actually one of the most purchased nforce2s out there (along with the 8rda/+) I figure we need a thread dedicated instead of having to solve the same FAQ questions.

Hopefully this can go somewhere and when I have time I'll add some extra information.

Furthurmore, if you have this bad boy, post you configuratino so that questions/comparisions can be made.


My Configuration:
Look at my sig :p



EDIT:

I picked this up from the General Hardware Forum

ASUS boards are known to almost always have problems with Kingmax RAM which works surprisingly well in other boards, and with some Kingston memory. It happens b/c ASUS boards usually supply a higher voltage to the RAM for stability.


Interesting- I have Kingmax RAM and when I encode files or play CS I often get Read Memory Errors. If anyone else has Kingmax ram I suggest you encode an AVIFile using TMPGEnc and see if you get errors.

============================
Secondly, here is a link for 1002.001 Bios which is currently regarded as the best Bios right now


The 1002.001 Bios

It seems the old file was corrupt (or so someone said) so I repuloaded it in its native zip

Note- If there is any file related to the A7n8x and you need it mirrored, do not Hesitate to tell me and I will
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Here's a question of interest: did you have to jumper your Western Digital drive in any particular way to get it going? Is it on its own cable or does it share? I've noticed some people have to set the drive to its "Single Drive" jumpering instead of "Master" or "Slave" when using it by itself.
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
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Originally posted by: mechBgon
Here's a question of interest: did you have to jumper your Western Digital drive in any particular way to get it going? Is it on its own cable or does it share? I've noticed some people have to set the drive to its "Single Drive" jumpering instead of "Master" or "Slave" when using it by itself.

That's a known issue with the WD drives, and it seems to be non-platform specific. I had the problem with my 80GB "SE" drive on three different chipsets..the KT333, Nforce2, and even on a i845G board.

:)
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
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Originally posted by: mechBgon
Here's a question of interest: did you have to jumper your Western Digital drive in any particular way to get it going? Is it on its own cable or does it share? I've noticed some people have to set the drive to its "Single Drive" jumpering instead of "Master" or "Slave" when using it by itself.

Mine is set on Master WITH slave (48x Liteon)

And lucky I have no problems.

 

Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
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Single on that drive is no jumpers.

My A7N8X is likely going back as an RMA. I've now flashed every bios from 1001C to E to G to 1002.003 beta nothing helps the bios cpu temp from reading too high.

I'd let it slide but not on a $150 motherboard
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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You're not being realistic. AMD CPU cores really do operate in the high 50's/low 60's routinely, and if SiSoft and MBM5 can't pick up the right sensors to see what the BIOS is seeing, that's not Asus's fault, it's SiSoft's and MBM's fault. Were you aware that the official max core temp on most AMD CPUs is either 85C or 90C?
 

XCrodo

Member
Nov 6, 2001
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I want more info on this mobo, I might buy it. Also, can anyone explain me what's the deal with the Twin Bank memory thing. Do I need to have two memory modules to take advantage of that ?
 

Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
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MBM is definitely reading the internal thermal diode. Same one as the BIOS? I dunno. I would think so. But not 100% sure.
Then again how many internal thermal diodes are there in a Athlon tbred XP 2400+?
I've been skimming a lot of BBs including MBM and it seems that others are having the same problem. There is huge variation in the CPU BIOS temp which has lead some people to conclude that Asus has somehow miscalibrated the BIOS CPU temp on some boards?????
At first some thought it was BIOs revision specific but that's not a for sure either. Now the conclusion is...ignore it.

I have a lapped Taisol copper bottom heatsink w/5000 rpm fan and AS. This fan is one of 2 newegg recommends for a 2800+. I've installed it correctly.
I read 56-57C. I could live with that except I really don't trust that reading. The HSF is only slighty warm to the touch. But the kicker is the 48C reading off the diode that MBM gets.

Actually, I waiting for Asus to spill the beans on all this.



Mac
 

XCrodo

Member
Nov 6, 2001
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I got another question here, what's the point of putting DDR400 if you have to run it in synchronous mode at 333 mhz to get better performance?
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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A piece of recent history:

  • EPoX released their KT333 contender, the 8K3A and 8K3A+
  • People bought them
  • People looked at the CPU temps, which EPoX daringly reported to them direct from core, which only one other consumer board has done (Gigabyte 7VRX/P rev. 2)
  • People freaked at the REAL temp that the CPU was running at, because the boards up 'til then had spoon-fed them readings from socket thermistors *near* the CPU
  • People posted sadly amusing threads along the lines of this one
  • People avalanched EPoX with RMA requests because they were freaked out at the truth
  • Newegg institued a "no-exhcange" policy on many EPoX boards which still stands (go and see)
  • EPoX learned their lesson and the successors to the 8K3A's did NOT report real core temps to the users

See why Asus might not want the users seeing temps in the high 50's / low 60's? Believe me, I'm a big proponent of getting truthful temp readings, and bought my A7V333-RAID thinking I would get them, only to prove to myself by direct experimentation that it was not so.

Not only that, but Asus denatured the temp readings on my A7V333-R with the later BIOS revisions. Flash it with 1006, it'll give idle temps in the 60C area. Flash it with 1012, it'll give idle temps in the 40C area. ARRRGHH! :| MBM5.2 can pull real-time readings from the core on the A7V333-R and probably the same for the A7N8X's, but I'm not buying 'em. Overvolted and overclocked 25% and it runs at 46C?! Riiiiight, Asus... riiiiight.
rolleye.gif
They pulled a monkeyshine on their custom Asus ASIC, that's my suspicion.

Sorry for the rant but it has been one of my pet projects :( : mechBgon discovers the truth about the A7V333-RAID's temp readings








EDIT: here's a quote from that thread, if you don't want to read it all:
What's interesting is that I am getting temperatures in the high 50's/low 60's on an AthlonXP 1700+ (at stock speed) with an Alpha PAL8045 using a Panaflo L1A. On a motherboard with a socket thermistor, this would usually yield much lower "apparent" temperatures in the 40's. Did Asus try to calibrate the socket-thermistor readings look high enough that they might pass for CPU-diode readings? By golly, I don't care if the temperature reads 80C, I want to know the TRUTH about my core temperature.
 

Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
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Thanks for the reply...very kind of you to do that research.

I do remember they Epox problem. Actually Newegg started to get back a lot of RMAs and changed their policy to "replace with the same board only".

Interesting that they don't have the same policy on EPXs nforce2 boards...
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=epox+nforce2

OTOH, I would like to get some more readings from people. I still think something is fishy. Way too much varition from what I've read.

My socket temp is 38 which is darn good. I guess if the internal diode wasn't reported I wouldn't know any better.
It's the 8 C difference between the bios and MBM that has me bambozzled though.

Mac
 

Oric

Senior member
Oct 11, 1999
947
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Is the "G" BIOS really problematic ? Should I switch to a BETA BIOS revision ? or to "E" revision ?
 

niggles

Senior member
Jan 10, 2002
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I was hoping that someone would be able to post a site that would have info on voltage settings for OCing my 2100+ A7N8X Dlx. I got a couple of bits of info from another post I was asking about the same thing, but I still can't come up with info on voltage settings. I'm sorry to bug you all with this but I'm having problems finding info and was hoping someone could help me with this.



Oric, From everything I've read switch to the 1002 bios, You can't do anything with G, it's all locked up.
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
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Originally posted by: XCrodo
I got another question here, what's the point of putting DDR400 if you have to run it in synchronous mode at 333 mhz to get better performance?

overclocking my friend :)



As for how to increase voltage that is a really good question...and since i have't taken the plunge of oc'ing yet I'm interested too see if anyone else nows how to proerply do it
 

bigpow

Platinum Member
Dec 10, 2000
2,372
2
81
Okay, here's mine.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe 1.04
1700+ T-Bred.A
1x 512MB Corsair XMS-PC3200 CAS2
Lite On LTR-48246S 48x/24x/48x
Pioneer DVD DVD-105S 16x
WD Special Edition 120GB
Geforce4 TI4200 128MB
NEC FE1250+ 22"
Logitech Z-560

No problem so far...
(except everytime I shut it down, I have to do the power-on "trick")
So far people say the cause is because the CPU VCore is set at default during boot-up, and/or because of the FSB is set too high (197MHz).
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
i was looking ont he ocing area and found these links (thanks to coollight)


Bios 1002_01 ==This is ONLY for the Deluxe Version==
http://www.swgaming.com/bios/1002.zip
http://web.utk.edu/~whawkins/Matlab/1002.001


That is the best bios currently and gets rid of that stupid "CPU is Overclocked" error (it happened to me a LOT)



One other thing...should I lower my multiplier on my 1700+ and raise the FSB to 166 to acheive syncronous preformance? Would that increase "productivity" or whatever it is :)
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
Does your Bios for some odd reason forget settings? Boot constantly back to 100mhz?

Then perhaps you have a weak batter (Maxell) that shipped with a lot of the A7N8X. According to Ridefree (something like that), swapping the battery with a 3.3v battery fixes many problems

However it still seems there are a few people where this did not mke a difference

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4633&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
 

bigpow

Platinum Member
Dec 10, 2000
2,372
2
81
Originally posted by: magomago
Does your Bios for some odd reason forget settings? Boot constantly back to 100mhz?

Then perhaps you have a weak batter (Maxell) that shipped with a lot of the A7N8X. According to Ridefree (something like that), swapping the battery with a 3.3v battery fixes many problems

However it still seems there are a few people where this did not mke a difference

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4633&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


Ooh... Thanks for link, magomago!
I'll check it out.
The problem is only when I shut it down completely. Normal boot/restart will not set it to 1100MHz (or 100MHz??)
 

Shockwave

Banned
Sep 16, 2000
9,059
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I have a few problems similiar to others.
I flahsed to the 1002.001 BIOS before doing ANYTHING else on the mobo just to fix some probelms I may have.
BIOS temp readings still not mathing the Asus Probe software. No clue why but I sure as hell want to know the truth.
So far have had no problems with BIOS forgetting settings or anything of that nature. Bought my board 1 week ago, so perhaps it was a bad batch of battery's from Maxwell or whoever, so would only be apparent in the first run. But that doesnt explain the problem still occuring when people swap batteries...

Well, anyways my current issue is the temp difference, but I'll play with it some more when I get home to see about what kind of battery I have (Maybe its a different brand??)
 

Oric

Senior member
Oct 11, 1999
947
91
91
Originally posted by: Shockwave
I have a few problems similiar to others.
I flahsed to the 1002.001 BIOS before doing ANYTHING else on the mobo just to fix some probelms I may have.
BIOS temp readings still not mathing the Asus Probe software. No clue why but I sure as hell want to know the truth.
So far have had no problems with BIOS forgetting settings or anything of that nature. Bought my board 1 week ago, so perhaps it was a bad batch of battery's from Maxwell or whoever, so would only be apparent in the first run. But that doesnt explain the problem still occuring when people swap batteries...

Well, anyways my current issue is the temp difference, but I'll play with it some more when I get home to see about what kind of battery I have (Maybe its a different brand??)

You were wise to start with 1002.001, I had assembled the system last night with the "G" version. It would not overclock, underclock etc. It is annoying to listen to a motherboard (it talks!) that says "CPU Overclock failed" and working at 100MHz x 12,5 afterwards !(The G Bios thinks that 133 x 12.5 is overclocking with an Athlon 2.0 XP What a bummer !!!)

 

Shockwave

Banned
Sep 16, 2000
9,059
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Originally posted by: Oric
Originally posted by: Shockwave
I have a few problems similiar to others.
I flahsed to the 1002.001 BIOS before doing ANYTHING else on the mobo just to fix some probelms I may have.
BIOS temp readings still not mathing the Asus Probe software. No clue why but I sure as hell want to know the truth.
So far have had no problems with BIOS forgetting settings or anything of that nature. Bought my board 1 week ago, so perhaps it was a bad batch of battery's from Maxwell or whoever, so would only be apparent in the first run. But that doesnt explain the problem still occuring when people swap batteries...

Well, anyways my current issue is the temp difference, but I'll play with it some more when I get home to see about what kind of battery I have (Maybe its a different brand??)

You were wise to start with 1002.001, I had assembled the system last night with the "G" version. It would not overclock, underclock etc. It is annoying to listen to a motherboard (it talks!) that says "CPU Overclock failed" and working at 100MHz x 12,5 afterwards !(The G Bios thinks that 133 x 12.5 is overclocking with an Athlon 2.0 XP What a bummer !!!)

Actually, I can thank all those previous to me. I read some 4 different forums to see what kind of problems people were having, and a biggie was the shipping BIOS. Figured I'd nip that in the bud real quick so started there. :)
Now about this temp thing

 

Macro2

Diamond Member
May 20, 2000
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Interesting to see some others with the BIOs temperature problem.
On mine the Asus probe cpu temp and Asus 2 in MBM read the same. Like 38-40. It's the bios cpu temp (56-57+) thats reading 8 C or 9 C higher that bothers me. Same for MB temps bios MB, Asus 1 and probe all read 32 C

Some dude on MBMs BB said that while the computer was in the BIOS it was under more load than in Windows which is "buffered". Thats why the temp was higher in the BIOS...sounds ridiculous to me.

I mentioned it to neweggs support and they said they haven't heard any thing like that...Oh sure...

I also have a e-mail in to Asus tech support. I suspect they will deny it too.

 

JSSheridan

Golden Member
Sep 20, 2002
1,382
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New All in One drivers have been posted for the A7N8X Deluxe. This is version 2.82 for WinNT and 1.16 for all other OS's, and is just over 15MB. If you try them out, let us know how they work. Thanks. Peace.