This guide is PRIMARILY CONCERNED WITH THE Asus A7n8x DELUXE nforce2 amd motherboard. You can REFER this guide for the NORMAL Asus A7n8x model. Now on with the show ! Read below: Screenshot: A lot of people have been having problems with the Asus A7n8x motherboard. Not necessarily because the board is bad (I love this motherboard) but due to the fact that some of the options and requirements are pretty obscure. So... here we go: 1. Getting ready to Install -------------------------------- -If you only have one computer available, do *NOT* just go for the install right away! You *MUST* do a few things first - Most importantly, go to the asus website, and grab the sata driver .zip file here: A7N8X Deluxe the file name you want is: silicon_v10022.zip while you're there, get the 1002 bios: an8d1002.zip Now, extract the sata .zip file and copy all the files from the root directory of the .zip file (well, you can leave out the adobe manual of course) to a floppy. You'll need this if you want to install windows 2000 for sure. Grab another floppy, and extract the .bin file (this is the bios) from an8d1002.zip onto it. Keep that handy for later, too. As always, now would be a good time to back up your system. Don't say I didn't warn you. 2. Hardware and stuff --------------------------- Ok, first, if you aren't going to use SATA at install, disable it on the motherboard with the appropriate jumper. Next, check that the rest of the jumpers are correctly set at factory default (especially FSB and cleam cmos!) I'm not going to cover sata setup, but the amdmb forums are a good place to look for that. Install the board. If you want to use dual-channel DDR, make sure you've got one module in the slot that's spaced apart (I think? Check your manual!). Apparently this is a GOOD idea, as some of the onboard components can have performance issues w/o dual-channel in use. Make sure the cs/master/slave jumpers on ALL your drives are correctly set. Your install will crash and burn otherwise. 3. Initial bios stuff. ------------------------ Once you're ready, hold down alt+f2 at power-on to get the bios flash utility loaded. Flash the new 1002 bios. It's much more stable than the 1001G that seems to be shipping w/ the board atm. Once that's done go into the bios. Set up whatever options you need to get your installation media recognised. Now, here's what killed me for a while. If you use high-end memory (anything that's got aggressive timings/3200+) change the timing detection from by SPD to AUTO. If you don't your ddr will not work quite right, and again, your install will page fault and crash and burn. You can always change it back later, but really, if you aren't going to be overclocking/playing with timings manually, why'd you get this board and high end ram in the first place? (addedf on edit 4) Also of note: Please take the time to familiarize yourself with how to setup your memory. Please. Dammit, PLEASE. 90% of the problems with memory are your own fault. Set the spread spectrum to 100% to sync your memory w/ fsb speed. Set your fsb to 133 to start. Set your timings correctly. Use auto, not spd, etc etc. Think before you hit "save and quit". 4. Installing the OS ------------------------- (edit 4) Swapping out your old board for this one is probably going to seriously mess up or even kill windows, period. Even if you un-install the drivers for your old chipset, it's still going to give you a migrane. Just don't do it. Re-Format, and you will be happy. Windows does not appreciate trying to boot w/ a whole new chipset, especially one with a different IDE subsystem. When installing windows 2000 (and probably xp, etc) you'll need to load the nforce IDE/sata driver. Remember that floppy you put the sata drivers on? hit f6 at the start of the install, and when windows asks you to select additional drivers, hit s, put in the floppy, and hit enter. the rest is self-explanatory. with windows 2000, I was unable to find an elegant way around this. NEW AND IMPROVED: Once you're up and running, you'll want to add to your windows installation as follows: (edit4) 1. 3com lan driver (ONLY this one, not the rest of the nvidia stuff, and only load this if you're going to have to download stuff in order to install it. Otherwise SKIP this step) 2. Install SP1 3. the rest of the nvidia drivers (use the 1.16 drivers from the ASUS website! The 2.x drivers on nvidia's site are actually OLDER than the 1.x asus branded ones) 4. Install DirectX. I used 9.0 from microsoft.com, but 8.1 should be fine, too. (XP users can skip this is they don't want 9.0) 4. video card drivers. Once all that's done, setup your lan connection on the NVIDIA NIC, and disable the slower 3com one - both work fine, but the NVIDIA one uses slightly less sytem resources/cpu time. Also, go into device manger, and make sure a) your hard disks are in DMA mode, and b) ieee firewire is disabled if you aren't using it (that will save 30 seconds on windows booting!) 5. I didn't get this far! My board sucks! what else can be wrong? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (edited) Check all your hardware. Then do it again. While there have been lots of complaints about the a7n8x, most of them have been the result of a small problem or an oversight - not an RMA-type problem. (In fact, as of the most recent edit, I'd say 95% and up of problems on the [H] forums are caused by user error, or are easily remedied, or are due to incompatible/crappy hardware). There have been defective boards, but for every doa board type post, there have been 10 where the user incorectly seated memory, the HSF, the video card, forgot a jumper, knocked out a cable, etc etc. However, there are some known hardware issues with the board itself you can fix (also edited): -crappy battery: Some boards shipped with a cmos battery that was not fully charged. This shouldn't cause a problem, but $2 at radio shack might be the fix you're looking for. The only time this is an issue really is bios lockups. Check it with a multimeter if you want - it should be about 3.3v -crappy bios: The stock bios on some boards isn't the best, and may cause issues with some configurations - It will *never* kill your board, but may cause the post message to say things like "failed memory test" when your memory is fine. Flash in the 1002 bios, it's stable, and it adds better overclocking options. -crappy ram: There is a documented issue with ceratin batches of corsair 3200 had improperly programmed SPD commands - this is corsair's problem, and you'll want to RMA the memory, not the board in most cases. Other than that, check your configuration in the bios - the board is picky about settings, and may crash 'n burn if you have the wrong ones. -crappy voltage regulation: The voltage regulators on this board are not as beefy as they could be - this isn't a problem unles your PSU sucks - check your rail voltages for fluctuations as these can cause instability. NOTE: This does not affect normal operation. Just don't expect to hit 220 fsb on a generic 300w psu. -(edit 4) overclocking problems: To be honest, you really should have any. The 1002 bios provides all the high multipliers, and everything else is available out of the box. If you can't get high multipliers, and have done the "wire trick" on your cpu, remove the wire and all will be well. -(edit 4)idiot bios settings: Please think when you work in the bios. This board, like most boards, will hate you if you set up the bios poorly. Pay attention to your memory settings and voltages, and overclock in small increments. Just use common sense, and if you don't know what something does, look it up or ask before changing it and wondering why you borked your system. *** more extra stuff added below (edit 4) *** -video card issues: There are a couple of issues worth addressing w/ video cards on this board: -9700/9500 cards: Please remember to plug the floppy-style power connector that came with your video card in! The board isn't going to boot if you don't. -8500/some 9x00 cards: Some ATi cards don't support AGP fast writes. Diable that option in the bios if applicable - it won't stop you from booting, but may affect 3d performance. -IMPORTANT: Older high performance AGP cards: Some GF3 classic, and older cards run on a 3.3v AGP spec. The AGP slot on al nforce2 board (as far as I know) is a newer 1.7v spec. New AGP cards, such as the 9700, are 1.7v. They are backwards compatable w/ the older 3.3v bus, but it doesn't work the other way around. As a result, trying to run a 3.3v AGP card on the A7N8X isn't going to happen.
OVERCLOCKING YOUR A7N8X: It's actually a simple task. First, make sure your cooling is nicely installed on the cpu. Choosing what to cool WITH is beyond the scope of this FAQ, and reading, oh, every 2nd " HELPINEEDANEWHSFANDI'MTOOLAZYTOSEAR CH" post on the main forum should hoock you up. For the northbridge, you can remove the stock hsf, lap it, apply your favourite thermal compound and mount a small fan... or leave it stock. It obviously runs cooler modified, but stock seems ok up to 200fsb at least. You can add heatsinks to the southbridge and mofsets, but again.. not really necessary unless you're really pushing the limits. Next, overclocking. 1. Backup your system. PLEASE. 2. Flash a reasonalbe bios - 1002final will do just fine. 3. set your memory speed to 100%/sync 4. set all the main config options (memory, fsb, vcore) to manual. 5. set your memory timings aggressively but CORRECTLY (eg, my corsair is supposed to be set at 6-3-3-2 according to the box, so that's what I used) 6. Start ramping up your fsb 5mhz at a time. Keep doing this as long as you are stable in windows/3dmark/prime, etc. 7. Note, if you have quality components, save some time and start high - drop your multiplier to say, 10 (for a 2100+ anyhow) and push your fsb to 160 or so, and start from there if you're stable (you should be!) 8. If you get too hot/fast, drop the multiplier by .5 9. If you get unstable, add a little bit to vcore, or if at high fsb, a bit to vdimm 10. You should get good results IF you have good memory. My system sucked yesterday, but I just exchanged my Geil ram for some Corsair XMS 3500, and the machine if flying. For what it's worth, a good initial overclock on a 2100+ should be over 2.0Gz. a good place to aim for initially might be 190/10.5. Assuming all is well there, you can try for 200/10. from there, raise the fsb or multiplier by wee increments. Personally, I'm currently at 190/11.5 flawlessly stable, and have posted stable at 200/12 on watercooling. my vcore is around 1.725 or so. Experiment carefully and you should find a sweet spot that works for your particular memory/cpu/cooling. 11. Tips and tricks: -if you did the "wire trick" on your cpu you will get access to the lowest multipliers, but you may lose access to the higher ones. ** NEW ** -if you're hitting a wall at a seemingly low fsb, some noforce2 board users (on the a7n8x, as well as the epox anyhow) have found a trick that may help. Remember that little jumper on the mobo that you close to set the default fsb to 133/166? Pull it. THe board will of course go back to the 100mhz fsb default, but you can up that manually, and some people have found it makes a big difference. Something to play with, anyhow.
Interesting and helpfull tips : 1. Read this The Nvidia network card performs better and uses less of the CPU than the 3com one. If you are only using one, then disable the 3com one and use the higher performing Nvidia one. 2. Also, if you are pre-downloading sp's, you may want to look into slipstreaming the service pack into your binaries, where it will be incorparted and installed when you load the system in the first place. Also, if you later have to insert the windows, and point it to the slipstreamed binaries, then you don't have to reapply service pack. 3. There are problems with some Corsair XMS used with this board. DO NOT USE THE SPD MEMORY FEATURE!! Set you Mem Freq to 100% for now, some Corsair has bad SPD programming. Below is a summary: Set your memory to: MEMORY FREQ **** 100% DO NOT USE THE SPD FEATURE MEMORY TIMING ***** USER DEFINED SDRAM ACTIVE PRECHARGE ***7 SDRAM RAS TO CAS ***2 SDRAM PRECHARGE ***2 CAS LATENCY ****2 4. I read some where about replacing the battery for the mobo, cause it wasn't good enough but it won't *hurt* the board, but the voltage on some batteries coming stock from ASUS was a bit low ( < 3v ) which can screw up your bios settings and make your board appear to be defective when it isn't. 5. This isn't really a problem with the mobo but just something to help you get a more accurate figure for your computers temperature. Read below: The Asus Probe can sometimes be inaccurate. For the best results, uninstall the Asus Probe utility. Then D/L and install Mother Board Monitor. You will need the main 5.2.2.0 version, plus the Voltage Update, and 0.0.0.8 update. It takes a bit of work to get it running, but it's worth it. 6. DCDDR makes a HUGE difference on the IGP Nforce2 boards. to get your ram to run in DDR400 you'll need to change it in the BIOS. i don't know how the BIOS on that Asus board works, but i do know that running your memory and FSB async can actually lower performance on Nforce2 boards.
I included below a the proper ways of setting up this mobo on your pc. Also i included one taking into account of the proper way of installing your graphics card as well read on. Heres the proper and best order of setting your pc up using this mobo: -Boot ( either win2k professional, Windows Xp home/pro or any other ) os you want to use from cdrom -Clean format, install using the IDE driver from the ASUS SATA package on a floppy -Install (pre-downloaded!) Sp1 -Install NVidia drivers -Install DX9 -Install CAT 3.1's -Go into device manager, disable firewire, 3com lan -Ghost system -Start tooling w/ the bios settings. This bit method takes into account the graphics card eg maybe a Geforce, Ati or maybe other crappier gfx card =^-^= : 1. Read the faq, or heck, you manual! 2. Setup your hardware 3. Install windows, and any service packs you might have 4. Install the NFORCE2 drivers. I'd recommend going to www.asus.com and getting the latest ones for your a7n8x board ahead of time, but you could always, oh, I don't know, load the drivers off the cd that came with the board?! 5. Install directx(whatever flavour you prefer) 6. Install your video card drivers Ps: i included both methods just so you can examine for your self how one fits in with the other. So you want to install the mobo properly but after setup your graphics card properly as well so thats what i wanted to do, hope it helped Whoops cat 3.1 mentioned in the first method means the catalyst 3.1 drivers for the Ati graphics cards =^-^= hehe well anyway ... if your using a Nvidia graphics card then install the Detonator drivers instead vice versa.
ASUS A7N8X MODEL FAQ. GENERAL INFORMATION Q. What is the difference between the ASUS A7N8X, the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, and the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe GOLD? A. The ASUS A7N8X doesn’t include SoundStorm, only has 1 Ethernet port, doesn't have Firewire, doesn’t have SATA, doesn’t include the game port with extra USB ports on a breakout board, and does not include ASUS POST Reporter. The Deluxe model is the same as the regular model except it boasts a full featured MCP-T including SoundStorm, Firewire, USB 2.0, Dual LAN, and SATA with RAID 0/1 support. The Deluxe GOLD model is the exact same as the Deluxe model but comes with InterVideo WinCinema Suite, a collection of audio/video editing applications. Q. I just installed the nVidia nForce UDP v.2.00 driver package but I don’t have any sound. What’s wrong? A. ASUS has a customized version of the MCP-T southbridge. They added a few extra features to the APU, which required them to change the device ID's of the APU. These drivers do not have these custom device ID's in their INF files so the drivers do not get installed. The drivers are fine to use, and work perfectly with this board, however you must install them manually. Open your device manager by right clicking on My Computer>manage>device manager and installing the drivers manually for all the sound devices in your system. Recently ASUS came up with a version 1.16 package, which despite the lower version number, is actually newer, then the 2.00 package and it is recommended you install those as the custom device ID's are no longer and issue and manual installation is no longer necessary. These drivers also resolve other issues, some of which are outlined in this FAQ. Q. What’s in this 'custom MCP-T' from ASUS then? A. The current list of customizations that ASUS has done to the MCP-T is as follows: TAD (modem/speakerphone) now shows up as an option Microphone 2 becomes the default Microphone device SPDIF In support is enabled if the I/O bracket is available Currently this is all we know that has changed from the 'default' MCP-T. At the time of this writing, it’s not 100% clear on all the effects that these options have, besides the obvious. However, it can be said that if you do not use sound drivers released by ASUS that you will lose these options and your board will behave as one with a 'default' MCP-T. If the customized features of the APU do not affect you then you wont notice either way. However, if you use any of the features listed above you'll have to decide if using an nVidia nForce Reference driver is worth the not having those features. Q. I have trouble with my CDRW/DVDRW. I always get errors when burning, it worked fine on my previous motherboard what’s wrong? A. First, make sure you have an ASPI layer installed. This is necessarily for burning CD's in windows. You can get the latest ASPI layer from Adaptec. Proceed to the second step if your burner still does not work. Second, make sure you don’t have the IDE drivers from package 2.00 installed (as detailed above). Proceed to the third step if your burner still does not work. Third, make sure your CDRW/DVDRW is set as a master, either on the primary or secondary channels. Proceed to the fourth step if your burner still does not work. Fourth, set it to PIO mode for the time being. Sorry I don’t have anything further about this yet. Q. On boot, I get the error "CPU have overspeed"? A. Try one of the following: Your CPU is not unlocked and you're attempting to overclock it. You need to unlock your processor. Go here to find out how to unlock the XP Thoroughbred series of processors. ...or... Setting your CPU to the default speed. ...or... If your CPU is set at the default speed, or your CPU is unlocked and you still get this error then, search the bios for the option Halt On and select the option No Errors that will 'ignore' the error and continue the boot process. *note* sometimes people get this error when overclocking sometimes they don’t. This is also an effective workaround for those getting this error when overclocking. Q. What slots do i put my memory in to enable Dual Channel DDR (TwinBank)? A. The manual says for 1 stick to reside in each channel. What that means is to benefit from DCDDR you should place modules in slots 1 & 3, or slots 2 & 3. Slot 1 is located closest to the Ziff Socket (black in color) slot 2 is next (blue) and slot 3 is next (also blue). Using all 3 slots can also enable DCDDR. People’s results have varied from system to system depending on what slots they put their modules in. Some get better performance with a certain configuration and some get better stability with another. You should try your own tests as they will more then likely differ from others. Q. I use Corsair memory and my system won't post! How do i fix it? A. This problem affects a certain batch of Corsair XMS3200C2 and XMS3500C2 modules, as Corsair has already said on their support forums. They have talked with ASUS and this should be corrected in a future bios update. The problem is that the bio doesn’t like the way Corsair programmed the SPD on that certain batch of modules. Corsair has sense went back to the older (compatibly) way of programming the SPD on their modules so not to worry. The fix is to get into the bios and set the memory timings manually, Corsair recommends the following settings for their XMS3200C2 and XMS3500C2 modules: Testing parameters for XMS3200 CAS 2: DRAM Clock: 200 MHz DRAM Timing (overrides SPD values): Manual System Performance: Normal Bank cycle time (or tRAS): 6 Bank Interleave: 4 RAS Precharge (tRP): 3 RAS-to-CAS Delay (tRCD): 3 CAS Latency: 2 Command Rate: 1T Memory Voltage: motherboard default* Testing parameters for XMS3500 CAS 2: CPU Speed: Manual CPU External Frequency: 145 CPU to Memory FSB ratio: 4:6 SDRAM Configuration: Manual SDRAM CAS Latency: 2T SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay (tRCD): 3T SDRAM RAS Precharge (tRP): 3T SDRAM Active to Precharge Delay (tRAS): 7T SDRAM Command Control: 1T SDRAM Bank Interleave: 4 Banks Memory Voltage: motherboard default* These are suggested timings from the manufacturer, your ram can run at higher or lower (at your own risk) timings. Remember for best performance results it’s always best to run the RAM and CPU FSB in SYNC on an nForce2 motherboard, the ASUS A7N8X being no exception. The problem is that this problem results in computers not being able to POST, and without POST you cannot get into the bios to change these settings. Some people have been successful in getting 1 boot if they reset the CMOS, which would allow them to get into the bios to change these settings from SPD to the above values. If you are one of the unfortunate ones who cannot get their system to boot then a simple work around is to install another stick of working RAM into the machine, set the ram timings, save your settings then insert your Corsair modules. Of course any CMOS resetting will result in you having to repeat this procedure until a new bios is released that fixes this issue. As of this writing there doesn’t seem to be a bios that fixes this yet. Q. Is my power supply big enough? What kind of power supply should i be getting? Can i use my old one? A. As a general rule of thumb a quality 350w power supply unit should work for most 'normal' applications. However, you should check out the following link and make sure that the power supply you have is sufficient, or make sure that the power supply you are going to buy will be sufficient. This is a very good article, and if you follow their advice and take your time to do your own calculations. You will be sure you end up with a power supply suited for your system. Q. Which is better, my Creative SBLive!/5.1/Audigy1/2 or nVidia SoundStorm? A. While you will get many different answers to this question. Given the community of people you are asking advice from the majority of your answer will be SoundStorm. If you compare feature-to-feature, SoundStorm wins hands down, real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding is just awesome. However the true and final test is your ears. What sounds good to me might not sound as good to you. So if you have the hardware to test, then test and pick which one you like the best. If you don’t have the hardware to test, then I would have to suggest just staying with SoundStorm, as you are not really missing anything with a Creative card. There are plenty of posts about this already in the Audio section of the forum, please use the search function and add-on to those posts rather then starting a new "Which is better sound, xxxx or SoundStorm?" thread. Q. My BIOS and Asus Probe show different CPU temperatures! What do I do? A. Nothing; the BIOS takes the temperature straight from the CPU, whilst Probe takes the temp from the motherboard sensor, and so the BIOS should give a higher temp. It's not serious, don't worry about it! Q. What do I use to view my system temperatures? A. While I personally like MotherBoard Monitor. At the time of this writing it is not compatible with all nForce2 motherboards. Some recommend SpeedFan, but it also isn’t compatible with all nForce2 motherboards at the time of this writing. There is one utility that I know of that is compatible at this time. It is called Hardware Sensors Monitor, it however is not free and requires you to register after the trial has expired. ASUS ships on the CD that came with the Motherboard, a program called ASUS Probe, you can find new updates for it in ASUS support section of their website or at any of ASUS FTP sites. USA - ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/asus/misc/utils/ TAIWAN - ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/ GERMANY - ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/UTIL/PC_Probe/ Q. I have lots of errors in my Event Viewer regarding nVidia's IDE driver. A. The IDE driver packaged in the nVidia nForce UDP v.2.00 package doesn’t work well for a lot of people. While this isn’t specifically related to the A7N8X in general it does apply. If you have installed the nForce UDP v.2.00 package uninstall the nVidia IDE nForce driver and either install the default MS driver that shipped with your version of Windows, or install the IDE driver from the ASUS nForce v.1.16 package. Although the driver looks to have an older version this driver package is actually newer then the nForce v.2.00 driver package and installing these is recommended anyway as it resolves other issues, some of which are noted in this FAQ. Q. My system posts and boots extremely slow, hard drive detection seems to take a long time, and/or windows doesn’t boot all the time. A. Again not entirely A7N8X related but does apply. Generally speaking 1 of 3 things could be happening. If you have any Western Digital hard drives connected to your system you should set their jumpers at either the standalone setting (for single drives on a channel or drives using the SATA controller), or cable select setting (for drives that are not the only device on the IDE channel). This is an issue with Western Digital drives. Setting their jumpers at conventional master/slave settings causes problems and should not be used. There is usually a jumper setting diagram on the label on the topside of the drive. If by chance your drive doesn’t have this diagram then you can get the correct jumper positions from Western Digital. ...or... You are using the IDE driver from the 2.00 package, which has been known to cause problems on some peoples systems, cause errors and other problems, see the above question for more information. You should uninstall this driver and either install the default IDE driver that came with your version of windows, or you should install an updated driver as outlined in the question above. ...or... There have also been issues of slow boots with people who have the Firewire controller(s) enabled, but no devices hooked up to it. What essentially is happening is that while booting, the system polls the Firewire controller for devices. In theory when the system polls the controller it should either 'reply' "device BlahBlahBlah on controllerX" or it should reply "No device on controllerX". It seems as though in some cases if there is no device present its not getting a "no device present" reply and you have to wait for the signal to 'time out' which causes the delay in boot times. Q. What is 'flashing', in relation to computer components, and should i do it? A. Flashing is when update your BIOS on your motherboard, CD/DVD drive, 3D card etc. to another BIOS revision. Generally speaking people will recommend you flash your BIOS when you are experiencing problems that the new BIOS indicates it resolves. An unsuccessful flash can render your board useless, while its rare it does happen. The only way to fix your motherboard after an unsuccessful flash is to install an either reprogrammed BIOS chip or a new one. Either of which you would generally need to send your motherboard back to the manufacturer. Q. How do i flash my bios? A. Assuming you want to flash your bios, there are 2 recommended ways on how to do it. The ALT+F2 Method, and the Boot Disk method. The ALT+F2 Method Download the required BIOS image file from one of the ASUS FTP sites. Copy or extract the BIOS image file (named xxxxxxxx.bin) to a blank floppy disk with no bad sectors on it. Restart the machine with the floppy disk in the floppy drive when prompted at machine initialization, press ALT+F2 to begin AWDFlash, follow the onscreen instructions and reboot when done. After rebooting, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT." This does not require you to have a bootable floppy disk. ...or... The Boot Disk Method Create a bootable floppy disk in accordance with the instructions laid out in the manual of your particular operating system. This bootable floppy needs to be able to boot to a DOS console capable of executing normal MS-DOS batch and executable files. Download and extract the BIOS file to the floppy. Boot using your DOS floppy disk to the ‘A:\>’ command prompt. At the DOS command prompt type: AWDFLASH.EXE and follow the onscreen instructions. Reboot the machine. After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT." Note: During the update of your original BIOS. It is recommended that you create a backup of your previous bios incase you experience any problems and need to revert to the old bios. Q. Where can I find BIOS updates? A. ASUS FTP sites are where the majority of people find them. You can also find them in the support section of ASUS website. Frequently accessed FTP URL's for BIOS updates are: USA - ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/asus/mb/socka/nforce2/ TAIWAN - ftp://ftp.asus.com.tw/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/nforce2/ GERMANY - ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce2/ Germany usually has bios updates first, however check them all for updates as they don’t usually have the same files on them. Sometimes ASUS is slow to update their mirrors. Q. I have the 101D BIOS, but when i try to flash my ASUS A7N8X DELUXE i get an error saying that the bios size is too small. How do i fix this? A. The 101d BIOS is meant for the A7N8X (Non-Deluxe), not for the Deluxe version of the board. DO NOT install this BIOS on your Deluxe model board. Doing so could render the board unbootable and would require you to send the board back to ASUS to reprogram the BIOS. Q. Should I buy an A7N8X? I've heard of lots of problems on this message board. A. The motherboard is in fact excellent, but the fact is that different people have different system setups, and so the board, and any updates might react differently from person to person. Another reason you see so many complaints is because people don't tend to post success stories; people only tend to post if they're looking for technical support Q. When i turn on my computer i keep hearing a voice error telling me something is wrong with my computer when there isn’t anything wrong. How do i shut this off? A. Well depending on what BIOS you use, there are 2 different ways to shut this off, this is called ASUS Post Reporter, and options to disabled it are in the BIOS. Under the Advanced section of the BIOS, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list. There is an option called Speech POST Reporter. Set this to disabled. For most people this will work, however if this doesn’t disable it, then you must ALSO disable the option directly above it, POST Complete Report. This should disable the voice errors when you power on your computer. Q. When i turn on my computer i keep hearing "CPU fan failed!" error, but my CPU fan is still running. What is going on? A. There are 2 possibilities here: The BIOS only recognizes a fan is connected when its RPM's are greater then 2000. This is a limitation of the BIOS and if memory serves me correctly is indeed being looked into by ASUS, and lower RPM values should be added at a later date ...or... Your CPU fan doesn’t have an RPM monitoring wire for your fan, this wire is usually white or yellow. With the red wire being positive and the black wire being ground. Either way, you can live with it, or disable the voice errors by following the instructions in the previous question. Q. What does BIOS Option xxxx in the BIOS mean? (xxxx being one of the many, many, many options in the BIOS). A. The most informative piece of material you got with your motherboard is the manual. If you don’t read any thing else that came with the motherboard you should read this. If you have already read it and did not find your answer, then read it again. EVERY motherboard manual comes with a section explaining the different BIOS options. Some manuals go into greater detail then others so if you are still unsure about what an option does or is then check out The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide. This is a very in-depth guide explaining most of the more common BIOS options and what they do. Q. I have static/popping/noise coming from my speakers/headphones when there is no sound coming from them. How do i fix this? A. while this may seem like an easy problem to fix, there could be numerous causes of this problem. Some of the more common causes i will list here. Internal causes BIOS and drivers Make sure you have the latest motherboard BIOS, DirectX drivers and sound and video drivers. If you previously used a different soundcard, it's possible that stuff left behind by your previous driver is causing the problems. There is, unfortunately, no guaranteed way to fix this, other than doing a clean install of Windows. If you know how, use regedit and search (files and folders) to track traces of your old soundcard and get rid of them. December 30th, 2002. A note about DirectX: Unless you need it right away, it's probably best not to upgrade to DirectX 9 for the time being. It's freshly released and it'll take nVidia and the others a while to get the issues ironed out. Let other people bear the burden of immature drivers and stick with the safety of DirectX 8.1 . Mute unnecessary lines - on the ASUS A7N8X (and possibly other boards) it is common for the Line In and in some cases the AUX line to cause noise in your speakers. If you are not using these lines then mute them. If you want to use them later, then unmute them. External causes Cabling and connections If you have a damaged cable this could be an obvious cause for noise issues. Much more likely than a flawed cable, however, is a flawed connection. If you have any "wiggly" connections, you should fix them. Bend the wire end double before you shove it into a clip, replace loose plugs if you can or use a pair of pliers to make them fit more snugly (careful! - You easily squeeze too hard). Alternatively, you can put a piece of paper in the socket to make for a tighter fit, but be sure you leave enough blank metal for contact. Amplifier and speakers A low-quality or underpowered amplifier can cause cracks and pops in your sound at high output levels. If you get a really thick, distorted sort of booming echo on the sound at high levels, turn down the volume right away - you're hard at work destroying your speakers. The speaker is, electrically, a very simple device - essentially it's nothing more than a piece of wire wound around a magnet. The mechanical and acoustical aspects can be rather more complicated, but generally aren't. Suffice it to say, damaged and/or poorly designed speakers can cause their share of noise issues, but usually the cause will be elsewhere in the chain. Try out your amplifier and speakers using a different source than the PC - a Discman or a TV, anything really. This will immediately tell you whether the problem is (only) in your PC or not. Electric Interference Of all the kinds of electric interference, the ground loop is probably the most common. It occurs when you connect two devices that use different electric ground levels. This happens a lot when you hook up your PC (which grounds on the ground lead in your electric outlet) to a TV, VCR or to a radio tuner (all of which ground on the antenna cable). Because of the different ground levels, electric current runs over your signal cable between the two devices. This manifests itself as a constant humming noise. To solve a ground loop, you have to put the two devices on the same ground level (i.e. in the same electric outlet, but this isn't always possible) or you have to electrically isolate the two devices. If you're using digital out, and you have the proper sockets on your PC and Amplifier, you can use optical digital out. In all other cases you can put a ground loop isolator in your cable. These can be found in any electronics store. The Ground loop is a common problem, and you can find a lot of information about them on Google (at the time of writing a search for "ground loop" yields 893,000 pages). Miscellaneous interference The inside of a computer is, basically, signal hell. So is the giant knot of cables at the back. There's a lot of stuff in there packed close together, and all of it emitting its own electronic and electromagnetic garbage. Problems with this are hard to identify and harder to get rid of. Use good quality cable for better shielding, avoid winding cable into tight coils. If you have the means to receive the signal, it's generally better to use digital out than analog out. Q. I have looked and looked and looked, but i cannot seem to find out how to get my HDD LED to work! HELP! A. RTFM ASUS for as long as i have been using their boards has always put the HDD LED connector away from the normal set of panel connections. It’s usually located right above the block of connections all by itself. You can find out its specific location by looking in the manual on page 25, chapter 2, IDE Activity LED. Q. I have a third party sound card that i want to use, but i cannot get the game port to work. I have disabled the onboard game port in the bios, but it still shows a conflict in the device manager. How do i fix it? A. On page 97 of the manual, section 6.2 Troubleshooting. It states: ASUS Manual wrote: If installing a PCI card with a game port, the PCI game port cannot be used due to a limitation of the nVidia chipset. However, the game ports on the MB will always function. The solution you ask? Disable the onboard game port in device manager, shutdown, install your third party sound card, boot to windows, disable the third party sound cards game port, enable your onboard game port, install your sound card drivers. viola! Q. My AGP video card doesn’t fit in the AGP slot. What’s the deal? A. 1 of 2 things is happening here. One, your AGP slot is also an AGP PRO slot. which requires extra connectors for AGP PRO cards. It gives them extra voltage needed for the AGP PRO spec. An AGP PRO slot is a bit longer then a regular AGP slot. Your motherboard should have a little sticker with a plastic spacer shoved in one side of the slot (closest to the back panel). This is there to prevent people from accidentally installing normal AGP cards incorrectly resulting in a dead video card and possibly a dead motherboard. So if you DO NOT have an AGP PRO card please leave the plastic spacer where it is, and make sure it is installed before installing a NON AGP PRO card into your system. ...or... you are trying to install an AGP card that users an older AGP spec, one that allows AGP video cards to use 3.3v rather then the more common and widely accepted 1.5v. Unfortunately nVidia and Intel have dropped support for the older 3.3v AGP video cards and require you to have a video card that runs at 1.5v. If your VGA card does not fit in the AGP slot and is of an older generation such as the first Voodoo series cards or some old ATI Rage series cards, then you will need to upgrade your video card to use it in this motherboard. Q. Does the ASUS A7N8X (and deluxe) support ASUS MY-LOGO feature? A. While it does not officially support MY-LOGO, it does support full screen boot logo's, which can be manually edited and inserted into the bios with a bios editing program. More information is being looked into and instructions for adding MY-LOGO support to the bios should be forth coming very soon. so please be patient Q. What revision is my ASUS A7N8X and what available revisions are there? A. At the time of this writing there are rumors (have been) about a revision 1.05 board that was released. These turned out to be just that, rumors. At this present time there are only revision 1.04 released boards out. You can find out what revision your motherboard is by looking between the 2nd and 3rd PCI slot, it will say 'ASUS A7N8X' with a revision number in small lettering right after it. Q. I have herd problems about installing nForce drivers on Windows98/se. Is it safe to install them and do i have to go through any special procedure? A. Lord Krim has made a nice little list for you to follow when installing nForce drivers in Windows98/se. Installing the nForce drivers Run the 2.0 driver UDP for win98. After it unpacks the files for the installation hit cancel. Open Windows Explorer to the directory that the device drivers were unpacked to. (It's probably on your C: drive unless you picked something different when you were installing.) Delete or move the display directory. (The installer hangs due to some updates that didn't make it into the win98 display drivers that are in this package.) Now run Setup.exe and don't let it reboot when it asks you. Once you finally exit the installer, reboot. Windows likes to reboot after a driver is installed, but it asks you too soon here. If the system reboots to soon, you will have problems getting back into windows and have to use safe mode to remove the partially installed drivers and start over again. Installing the display drivers Download your favorite set of Detonators. Run the Detonators you downloaded and reboot. Optimizing Enable DMA - DMA is not enabled in windows 98 by default, so you will need to enable it for the drives that can use it. This gets rid of scratchiness and static sounds in the audio. Do this at least for your hard drive. Open your control panel. Double-click on the system icon. Click on the Device Manager tab. Click the little plus sign next to the Disk Drives. Right-click on the drive and go to properties. Click on the Settings tab. Click the checkbox next to DMA, ignore the warning that pops up, and reboot. Download and install DirectX 8.1b or 9.0. Install the Win98 Audio hot fix. (Make sure to install this after DirectX, not before.) This will get rid of the skipping around you will experience while playing mp3s. This might be on the CD included with your motherboard, but if it is not I can email it to you or you can try the link that is floating around this forum. Before long I might just go ahead and upload it to one of my servers. If you have more than 512MBs of ram add the line "MaxFileCache=512000" to your system.ini file under "[vcache]". Win98's vcache has a bug that gives it problems coming up with how much caching on the disk needs to be set aside if you have more than 512. Windows can become unstable and start giving you false out of memory messages if you don't have this line in your system.ini file. Q. I only have options for 100/133/166 FSB, how are others setting their FSB to other numbers? what do I do? A. In the 'Advanced Chipset Features' section of the bios, change the 'System Performance' option to 'User Defined'. This should allow you to see all the MHz increments available. Q. I have windows98 or SE and i can’t get any sound working, i have installed the drivers but there is a problem in the device manager. How do i get sound working in windows98 or 98SE? A. There is a hot fix for windows98 and 98SE that needs to be installed in order for the sound on your motherboard to work properly. You can find more information about the hot fix here and download the patch here. There is also another patch you should have installed, you can find it here. Also make sure that if you are using the 2.0 drivers from nVidia then to check above, as there is some important information about those drivers being installed on a7n8x-deluxe boards. Q. I cannot get my keyboard/mouse to power on my computer even though i have selected the option in the BIOS. What’s going on? A. Not only do you need to enable the option in the BIOS you also need to change a jumper, the jumper is labeled as KBPWR1 in the upper left corner of the motherboard. Default is 1-2, for keyboard/mouse wakeup you should set this to 2-3. This requires that your PSU be able to supply at least 1a on the +5v standby rail, if your power supply cannot supply at least 1a then do not use this function. More information can be found on page 19 of your manual. Q. I flashed with the wrong file. Or my flash was incomplete. Is there any way to recover? A. If your floppy drive seeks on power up and then stops after a short period of time, you may have a chance to recover. The following information was obtained from Wim's Bios http://www.wimsbios.com/ FAQ's. Corrections on AWARD Bios by Terry McGuire. Award: The boot-block BIOS will execute an AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a bootable diskette. Copy an Award flasher & the correct BIOS *.bin file on the floppy and execute it automatically by putting AWDFLASH *.bin /sn /py /cc /r in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The * would be the correct bios .bin file and there must be spaces between the slash marks. Put it in the floppy and turn on the computer when the floppy seeks it will load the correct bios and reboot by itself. When it finishes you have to remove the floppy and enter the CMOS SETUP and modify the CMOS for your configuration. Q. My computer boots up and shuts down after a few seconds. What’s the deal? A. This is ASUS COP (overheat protection) kicking in so you don’t fry your CPU. Be thankful that you are not out buying a new processor right now Make sure your heatsink is mounted correctly, there is a raised part on the socket with the letters "socket 462" on it, there is also a notched out, or indentation on one side of the heatsink, this notched out piece fits over the raised area of the socket. If you put your heatsink on incorrectly the heatsink will NOT touch the CPU core and can cause this issue. For a graphic demonstration of how to place your heatsink on our CPU check out TomsHardware. The top picture shows the raised part of the socket (on the far left) and the notched out part of the heatsink (also on the far left). Q. My CPU will only run at 100mhz, it’s a 133 or 166mhz CPU. What’s wrong? A. There could be a couple things gone terribly wrong here. One is that you got unlucky and got a board that has problems with a few model of XP CPU's and auto detects their speed incorrectly. This is easy to fix, just set the CPU speed manually in the bios. This is a known issue and not specific to just the a7n8x, a future bios should incorporate a fix. There is also the possibility of an incorrectly mounted heatsink. Please read the above question and answer and check that your heatsink is attached correctly. Last but not least, there is a jumper on the motherboard labeled CPU_FSB, this jumper sometimes gets set to 100mhz, rather then 133mhz (the default). check to make sure that this jumper isn’t set at 100mhz, causing your CPU to run at a slower FSB then normal. You can read the full review here. All credits to xlr8shun for making a blordy good help guide line
Despite all the problems i may have tackled here, Trust me .... if you buy this board you will be pleased. It is the most stable of all the nforce2 amd mobos, the most features besides the Epox 8RDA+, the best layout, etc board out.. When and if you do buy it, go with the 1002 bios ( or latest ) thats a MUST.. I would also like to list the contributers to the help they have provided for all............ view the credits below: 1. rubberband 2. xlr8shun and all the helpfull members down at HardOcp thnx for helping everyone else
BLOODY HELL! Ithought you could just plug them in and use them!I used to solder computers together faster than that in the seventies.Glad i got the a7v.(gonna get a n a7n next though).
Cereberus, I joined this forum just on the strength of this thread....this is one of the best and most comprehensive setup posts I have ever seen....excellent is the word that springs to mind. If the forum has the ability to make a thread sticky then this would be an ideal candidate, as the board is very much current and one I know that gives people trouble. I just wish I had something like this when setting mine up.
Run RAM at 100%? WD cable select question. System bottleneck Why do I have to set my memory frequency to 100%? I have PC2700 DDR333 that runs in Cas 2 5-2-2; It's capable of 166x2=333mhz and you can get a little more out of it. Due to this forum for now I reverted it back to 133x2 like my cpu is currently at but I used to run it at 125% I think, making it 166x2. I've been able to get it up to 178x2 by increasnig the voltage, it just won't do 180x2. The benchmarks for memory in Sisoft Sandra goes up whenever I bump up the ram speed (120% or 125%). When I benched the memory now at 100% it was slightly slower, but not a whole lot. I guess my question is what's wrong w/ async? Is there other side effects that benchmarks don't see? Didn't the KT333 chipset do the same thing, run the RAM slightly faster than the CPU. What's the Point in PC2700/PC3000/PC3200 (DDR333, DDR366, DDR400 and such) if you'll only be running it at 266mhz FSB? I can bring my processor up of course, I've brought it to 150x2 w/o problems, I have the thermalright SLK-800 w/ a smart fan 2 on it. I am trying to figure out a bottleneck on my system. It just doesn't "feel" fast. The benchmarks all look good in Sisoft Sandra and PC mark 2002, but the blue bar thing in XP's boot up goes by 5-8 times before I'm in Windows. The Linux Kernel takes forever for the initial decompression. My best guess was the HD controller may be messed up. It seemed fast until I added my 2nd hard drive, so I'm going to experiment later by removing it again. The first HD is a Western Digital w/ 8mb of cache set as master and the secondary is a nice Samsung from my old system which was known to be quite fast also. Their both 7200 RPM but the Samsung only has 2mb of cache. You mentioned WD drives hate being forced to master or slave and to either use the 1 drive settings or the cable select setting. Since I have 2 hard drives, should I set it to cable select? And how do I get it to master if I do so, if I set the Samsung as Slave will it automatically take master, or will I still need that special cable (I have one somewhere, it's been misplaced). I'm using round ide cables right now so having to go back to a air restricting cable would suck. I tried disabling IEEE 1394 in Device Manager but Windows doesn't seem to boot any faster. Any other ways to disable firewire in Windows that I'm missing? Besides the jumper/bios setting of course. The benchmarks all look good, but you can tell somethings not running right by how fast Linux responds or installs, or how fast XP boots up, etc. My A7V333 mobo w/ the Athlon XP 2100+ was faster. This has a Athlon XP 2400+ in it w/ more ram/faster ram doubled up (2x256 = each blue slot occupied).
Yowza WOW! Thanx for all of that Cereberus! Must have taken you a while! I've been having a few buggy problems with my A7N8X since I got it, now I can't wait to get out of work to go home and fix them all!! Definitely the most comprehensive post I've seen, pretty much the best too... keep up the good work. S
I have always enjoyed this web site and it's forums. All of this past weekend I have been going back and forth with people regarding performance issues with my A7N8X Deluxe. I just stumbled across this guide, and I'm nothing less than thrilled and will be going home tonight and getting to work to see if this helps my computer. I'd like to say thanks for the time you put into researching and posting that massive amount of information. Al
I went to the Asus site, and didn't see either of the files that are needed. If the mobo is already installed and running, should a person format the hd and start from that point?
