Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe thread

[AHLnut]

Originally Posted by John64

guys, i think FB is competent enough to build a system, one day he could be flying you, so his manual dexterity is perfectly fine, as is his head! I am going through similar problems, and i share his frustration. How 'bout we stop picking faults with each other, and get back to the A8N32. Btw, i cant wait to get one!

I don't think he was picking faults, he was looking at what has happened and something else possibly too look at. We all make mistakes with our computers with varied bad results. FB has surely had lots of bad luck with his stuff. Based on all I have read from him, I think that's what it is, a run of really bad luck component wise. And, there were reports of killing your CPU when running low vcore with high vdimm on DFI boards.

FB, may I suggest that when you get your stuff back, run it ONLY AT STOCK settings for a few days or even a week before you do ANY overclocking. Make sure your system is rock solid at stock speeds by daily use, not stress tests or benchmarks! Throw lots of games at it. Then, once that is determined, then go to the o/c stuff.

[FB]

ty john.

About the A8N32 i was hoping to get to play with that all day today instead i just diagnosed and found out my cpu is bad.

From my experience thus far, the A8N32 is great, the bios while clumsy, i am used to it now, i am still not 100% on what all the options are. PCPII sucks as a reader, and we need to find out where the read points are for the vcore!

Also the CMOS reset is in the worst place possible. if you had 2 gfx cards, you would need to remove the 2nd card to get to the clear unless you remote mount it. i will be working on that shortly

[FB]

Originally Posted by AHLnut

I don't think he was picking faults, he was looking at what has happened and something else possibly too look at. We all make mistakes with our computers with varied bad results. FB has surely had lots of bad luck with his stuff. Based on all I have read from him, I think that's what it is, a run of really bad luck component wise. And, there were reports of killing your CPU when running low vcore with high vdimm on DFI boards.

FB, may I suggest that when you get your stuff back, run it ONLY AT STOCK settings for a few days or even a week before you do ANY overclocking. Make sure your system is rock solid at stock speeds by daily use, not stress tests or benchmarks! Throw lots of games at it. Then, once that is determined, then go to the o/c stuff.

yup, i plan to do that for at least a few weeks this time. the P4 i had i ran at stock for nearly 6 months before i oc'd it. the A64 i just jumped right into the OC'ing.

like i keep saying i messed around with my P4 more than i have the A64 (as far as hardware goes) and i was great for 2.5 years with the P4

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by AHLnut

FB, may I suggest that when you get your stuff back, run it ONLY AT STOCK settings for a few days or even a week before you do ANY overclocking. Make sure your system is rock solid at stock speeds by daily use, not stress tests or benchmarks! Throw lots of games at it. Then, once that is determined, then go to the o/c stuff.

whenever I build a new rig I never even think about overclocking for at least a week or 2 after my initial build...first I make sure everything is running perfectly stable at stock settings...run all the burn in tests at stock to see if any problems occur

[FB]

i guess it is just so tempting on these things, but this time i will definetly wait a few weeks. i should still run all the normal test programs?

edit: i am also tempted to just go for the 4200+ instead of the 3800

[AHLnut]

Originally Posted by FB

i guess it is just so tempting on these things, but this time i will definetly wait a few weeks. i should still run all the normal test programs?

Running tests is good, but as you have seen, memtest passing 10 passes still doesn't mean windows stability. Don't get hung up on the test programs. Sure, they are a valuable tool. But, if you system runs everything you throw at it with real everyday use programs, isn't that what stability is?

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by FB

i guess it is just so tempting on these things, but this time i will definetly wait a few weeks. i should still run all the normal test programs?

edit: i am also tempted to just go for the 4200+ instead of the 3800

yes run all the tests at stock...that will give you a better picture of what is wrong--a component or the overclock

I'm also thinking about RMA'ing by 3800+ and getting a 4400+ for the extra L2 cache...but I've waited too long to start building my rig so I doubt I'll do that right now

[Skullguise]

Hi guys this is my first post here obviously... I REALLY need some help here I have been struggling with this rig all day. I just got an A8N32SLI deluxe with an AMD 64 X2 4.2 GHz and 2 X 1GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 DDR 3200 RAM and 500W power supply.

I have not been able to get into normal windows yet due to the system rebooting right after the Windows XP splash screen. Also while I am in bios trying to configure the settings the system randomly reboots or even does a shut down. The same happens when I boot in Safe mode. I get in windows safe mode and then it will reboot/shutdown within 5 minutes. The CPU temp NEVER gets above 45C. It sees both of my SATA drives and CD rom.

I have looked at the ASUS website for the QVL list and do not see my particular RAM listed however the TWINX model is listed which is supposedly the same as mine according to Corsair's website. I bought the dual 2GB pack.

My question is... What do I do now? Is there a problem with the RAM? Or CPU? Should I return the whole thing and try another set and hope for the best? I got it at Fry's 2 days ago so I "should" be able to take it back no problem.


Any advice would be appreciated.

BTW I have tried EZ flashing to the latest Beta BIOS and while reading it from the floppy the system continually beeps and says reading file A8NSLI.ROM but does nothing ater even 15 minutes. When I try to EZ flash from the CD it reads it says completed and then says flash failed.

I have also removed the CMOS battery and reset the RTC RAM and replaced the CMOS battery.

[FB]

Originally Posted by AHLnut

Running tests is good, but as you have seen, memtest passing 10 passes still doesn't mean windows stability. Don't get hung up on the test programs. Sure, they are a valuable tool. But, if you system runs everything you throw at it with real everyday use programs, isn't that what stability is?

true. i think i will just run F@H because that is a good test and a good cause

[FB]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

yes run all the tests at stock...that will give you a better picture of what is wrong--a component or the overclock

I'm also thinking about RMA'ing by 3800+ and getting a 4400+ for the extra L2 cache...but I've waited too long to start building my rig so I doubt I'll do that right now

extra cache is really only important if you like to benchmark, for everyday usuage it really makes no difference and just makes more heat.

[FB]

Originally Posted by Skullguise

Hi guys this is my first post here obviously... I REALLY need some help here I have been struggling with this rig all day. I just got an A8N32SLI deluxe with an AMD 64 X2 4.2 GHz and 2 X 1GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 DDR 3200 RAM and 500W power supply.

I have not been able to get into normal windows yet due to the system rebooting right after the Windows XP splash screen. Also while I am in bios trying to configure the settings the system randomly reboots or even does a shut down. The same happens when I boot in Safe mode. I get in windows safe mode and then it will reboot/shutdown within 5 minutes. The CPU temp NEVER gets above 45C. It sees both of my SATA drives and CD rom.

I have looked at the ASUS website for the QVL list and do not see my particular RAM listed however the TWINX model is listed which is supposedly the same as mine according to Corsair's website. I bought the dual 2GB pack.

My question is... What do I do now? Is there a problem with the RAM? Or CPU? Should I return the whole thing and try another set and hope for the best? I got it at Fry's 2 days ago so I "should" be able to take it back no problem.


Any advice would be appreciated.

BTW I have tried EZ flashing to the latest Beta BIOS and while reading it from the floppy the system continually beeps and says reading file A8NSLI.ROM but does nothing ater even 15 minutes. When I try to EZ flash from the CD it reads it says completed and then says flash failed.

I have also removed the CMOS battery and reset the RTC RAM and replaced the CMOS battery.

have you manually set all of the settings, dont use auto or the AI features.

also i would start with memtest, and test each stick individually. sometime the second stick can "carry" the bad stick, so that is why you need to test individually. if a stick is bad it will normally error out w/in the first few passes

edit: heck if you can return tomorrow for something new, get it

[AHLnut]

Originally Posted by Skullguise

Hi guys this is my first post here obviously... I REALLY need some help here I have been struggling with this rig all day. I just got an A8N32SLI deluxe with an AMD 64 X2 4.2 GHz and 2 X 1GB Corsair CMX1024-3200C2 DDR 3200 RAM and 500W power supply.

I have not been able to get into normal windows yet due to the system rebooting right after the Windows XP splash screen. Also while I am in bios trying to configure the settings the system randomly reboots or even does a shut down. The same happens when I boot in Safe mode. I get in windows safe mode and then it will reboot/shutdown within 5 minutes. The CPU temp NEVER gets above 45C. It sees both of my SATA drives and CD rom.

I have looked at the ASUS website for the QVL list and do not see my particular RAM listed however the TWINX model is listed which is supposedly the same as mine according to Corsair's website. I bought the dual 2GB pack.

My question is... What do I do now? Is there a problem with the RAM? Or CPU? Should I return the whole thing and try another set and hope for the best? I got it at Fry's 2 days ago so I "should" be able to take it back no problem.


Any advice would be appreciated.

BTW I have tried EZ flashing to the latest Beta BIOS and while reading it from the floppy the system continually beeps and says reading file A8NSLI.ROM but does nothing ater even 15 minutes. When I try to EZ flash from the CD it reads it says completed and then says flash failed.

I have also removed the CMOS battery and reset the RTC RAM and replaced the CMOS battery.

1st NEVER try to flash your bios if your system isn't stable.
Reseat your RAM and videocard, and try with only 1 stick of RAM

[Skullguise]

I am admitedly not that well versed in overclocking and BIOS configs. I have built over 10 systems from scratch though. But I don't know what settings to use in manual mode at all. Anyone have a list of settings to use as a baseline?

Also how do I do a memtest? Is it done within BIOS or in DOS? I don't have another sytem to test the memory in and I can't stay in safemode long enough to do anything.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

I have tried with each stick individually but it will reboot/shutdown in an ever sorter time. I didn't take this too seriously as most CMX RAMs aren't rated for anything but dual channel. They aren't rated to run in single mode.

I wish I had an old 3200 lyin around...

[FB]

memetest can be downloaded here.
www.memtest.org

you aren't overclocking now right?
I can't get into my bios now, since i no longer have a cpu in the board, and i haven't played with it enough to know exactly what options are in there off the top of my head.

[FB]

here is the horrible CMOS jumper location for those of you who are wondering.