Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe problems

2006-11-30 14:23:35

#1

GC_PaNzerFIN: Work and study @ Technical Uni; +528|6870|Finland

My rig:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Zalman CNPS 7000B-Cu CPU Cooler
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
Asus Radeon X800XT PE
Zalman VF-700Cu GPU cooler
2x Kingston HyperX 3200A 512mb
Antec Sonata 380w

This must be the worst Asus board ever. Almost everyone has problems with it. over 300 pages at asus tech forums

Here is my problems list:
Boot up problems
SATA HDD issues
OS loading issues
unstable
freezes when playing games
power issues
random booting in windows and games
very unstable fsp
very unstable voltages
corrupts download when using integrated network
even the replace fan is dying and making lots of noise

umm, any idea what is the reason for crashing and booting? should i go for new psu (i really don't think it's the only problem here cuz 380w should be enough for this rig. i know antec's new PSU's have problems with this mobo, maybe problems with older PSUs too???)

3930K | H100i | RIVF | 16GB DDR3 | GTX 480 | AX750 | 800D | 512GB SSD | 3TB HDD | Xonar DX | W8

2006-11-30 14:25:34

#2

Spyder228: Member; +1|6901

I have one and haven't had a single problem with it.

2006-11-30 14:27:23

#3

Scratch[USA]: Member; +105|7003

What is your PSU

2006-11-30 14:27:33

#4

n0sX: Member; +71|6910

same

2006-11-30 14:28:15

#5

Onidax: Member; +41|6948

Send it back? I have an Abit mobo and it works fine

2006-11-30 14:29:06

#6

Bertster7: Confused Pothead; +1,101|7037|SE London

I have one too. Great board. No problems.

Managed to get some nice overclocks out of mine on a 3700+.

One of the best 939 boards around.

Last edited by Bertster7 (2006-11-30 14:30:17)

2006-11-30 14:29:22

#7

Brasso: member; +1,549|7086

Strange enough, it's recommended in the Hard Stuff section of PC Gamer.

O.o

"people in ny have a general idea of how to drive. one of the pedals goes forward the other one prevents you from dying"

2006-11-30 14:30:58

#8

..teddy..jimmy: Member; +1,393|7105

[hint]not really helping the poor guy out[/hint]

I would try and help but unfortunately i am computer illiterate

2006-11-30 14:31:07

#9

Bertster7: Confused Pothead; +1,101|7037|SE London

It's recommended everywhere.

'Cos it's good.

2006-11-30 14:32:27

#10

JT_001: Member; +17|6876|Canada

2006-11-30 14:33:17

#11

GC_PaNzerFIN: Work and study @ Technical Uni; +528|6870|Finland

when I decided to buy it everyone said it's the best PSU is 380w Antec (the one which comes with sonata I)

3930K | H100i | RIVF | 16GB DDR3 | GTX 480 | AX750 | 800D | 512GB SSD | 3TB HDD | Xonar DX | W8

2006-11-30 15:12:11

#12

[MX]Mofo: Member; +1|7045|Windsor Ontario Canada

I have the same board and havent had any problems with it. You might have tried all the things I'm going to suggest, but here's what I would do.

First make sure you have the latest BIOS, if you already have the latest BIOS, reset it to default in case there's something set in there that it doest like. Ram timings can make your PC do wierd things if you have tried to tighten them up. If you are overclocking you might want to back it off a bit or reset the BIOS and start over with less aggressive timings.

Next I would make sure I have all the latest drivers for the motherboard, SATA controller and video card.

You have aftermarket coolers on your CPU and GPU, make sure they are properly seated with some quality thermal grease in between. Arctic Silver 5 is very good, and sells for about 4-5 bucks a tube that you can get many applications from. Overheating causes many problems like random restarts. To test it, take the side off your case and have a fan blowing in the side of it if you have one, there could be insufficient airflow in your case causing overheating.

Next I would invest in a quality PSU, PC Power and Cooling make top notch power supplies, they are very expensive but they are worth it IMO. Dirty power is the cause of a lot of headaches and your PSU sounds like it is not giving clean power. If you are going to buy a new PSU, get something like 550watts, running a smaller PSU like 380 will be running it at or near its peak when it heats up. When a PSU heats up the wattage output is decreased, and if you are running at or near capacity then when its output does decrease you will get restarts and crashes due to insufficient power.

Ram can also give you headaches, take 1 stick out and try your PC for a while, if it doesnt act up then try the other stick in there. I realise BF2 isnt going to run wortha crap with only 512 ram in it but maybe just go in a server and mess around a bit, see if it acts up.

Noisy fans are easy to fix also, just take the fan off, peel the little sticker thats on it off, exposing the spindle it spins on, and put a drop or 2 of sewing machine oil or some other very light oil on the spindle and put the sticker back on (I use the oil that came with my electric razor)
Put the fan back in and it will be quiet again. This isnt a permanent fix but it'll shut the fan up for a while, if it's making noise it will have to be replaced eventually.

As for Os loading problems that could be just a botched install, reinstalling Windows and getting your PC back to the way you like it is a pain in the balls but sometimes its the only thing to do if you PC is running like shit. Make sure you try and get a copy of Windows with SP2 embedded in it, I have had many problems trying to install SP2 on a PC that only has SP1 on it.

If all else fails I'd RMA the board, you paid good money for something that is having problems or is just outright defective, make them replace it. Having to RMA something is a pain in the ass, but so is having a board that just wont run right. I have 2 Gigabyte 7900 GTX's gone for RMA right now, sure it cost me 69 bucks to Fedex them from Canada to California but thats a small price to pay to get something fixed that you paid a lot of money for initially.

Good luck!

2006-11-30 15:35:26

#13

Bertster7: Confused Pothead; +1,101|7037|SE London

Asus take a long time on RMA.

I remember I returned my FX5800, it took about 18 months till they got back to me. I just suddenly got £300 paid into my bank - which was great, I wasn't expecting it - it was getting a bit dated already too. I was very happy to get money instead of a replacement (it was a shit card).

2006-11-30 15:36:20

#14

GC_PaNzerFIN: Work and study @ Technical Uni; +528|6870|Finland

thx mofo. I'll buy a new Thermaltake Toughpower 750w CM w0116. It doesn't cost a lot here in Finland and at least I don't have to buy new PSU when I upgrade my rig I'm thinking about C2D system with 680i or RD600 chipset (I wait for R600 and decide after that do I want xfire or sli)

3930K | H100i | RIVF | 16GB DDR3 | GTX 480 | AX750 | 800D | 512GB SSD | 3TB HDD | Xonar DX | W8

2006-11-30 15:39:38

#15

[MX]Mofo: Member; +1|7045|Windsor Ontario Canada

18 months? YOUCH!, that sucks, I sure hope it doesnt take Gigabyte 18 months to get my video cards back to me
I had to RMA my X800XT-PE AGP video card when it first came out, I got it back in just over a week, but thats shipping from Canada to Canada in the same province.

2006-11-30 15:44:19

#16

Bertster7: Confused Pothead; +1,101|7037|SE London

Yeah, it sucked.

But on the other hand, by that point the card was virtually worthless and I got back every penny I paid for it when it was brand new.

Essentially I got a free graphics card for about a year till it broke.

(this involved shipping to Taiwan from UK - vendor (dabs.com) did it for me, so they may be in part responsible)

Last edited by Bertster7 (2006-11-30 15:45:15)

2006-11-30 16:05:48

#17

ShotYourSix: Boldly going nowhere...; +196|7174|Las Vegas

My last rig was A8N-SLI Deluxe/X800XT/3500+. I had a bitch of a time getting it up and running (including 2 mobo RMA's which turned around in about 2.5 weeks each) but once I got the thing running I loved it. I gave those components + some ram to a buddy awhile back and he said he's had no probs at all.

First thing I'd do is try to RMA that board, they are a bit finniky but not as bad as what you describe, you must have got a lemon.

2006-11-30 22:04:33

#18

GC_PaNzerFIN: Work and study @ Technical Uni; +528|6870|Finland

I got this board two weeks after official release and this was one of the first A8N-SLIs that came in Finland (this even had 1.00 bios, not anymore of course). I heard that they changed something in about a month or two after the release (like updated version). Some Antec PSUs can kill this board (yeah, someone lost 1000$ CPU that way), some just wont boot. I just tried some overclocking to stress my PSU and when I OCd my 3500+ to run at 2,47GHz with HTT 235 and guess what happened, my GPU freezes when running ATI Tools 3d test. after 25seconds gpu recovery resets my gpu and it works again. this means that I have big problems with PSU, mobo's power components or vga cards power components.

3930K | H100i | RIVF | 16GB DDR3 | GTX 480 | AX750 | 800D | 512GB SSD | 3TB HDD | Xonar DX | W8

2006-12-01 03:05:25

#19

cosworth1983: Member; +21|6941|Enschede / Netherlands

Same here, and i have a be quite 520 watt PSU

Last edited by cosworth1983 (2006-12-01 03:05:58)

2006-12-01 03:42:52

#20

koopz: Member; +0|6813|Brisvegas, Australia

sounds like the old A8N chipset fan issue. the chipset fan was prone to failure, and hence replaced with 2 other models.

if the chipset has been crippled by heat damage then it's an Asus warranty issue - check your local store/distributer.

next time buy an Intel

that'll be one 6-pack please

2006-12-01 03:52:09

#21

jsnipy: ...; +3,277|6978|...

did you update the bios? The problem you talk about sounds like a psu problem ... you should get a new psu anyway ... save yourself the headache.

Last edited by jsnipy (2006-12-01 03:53:51)

2006-12-01 05:07:05

#22

GC_PaNzerFIN: Work and study @ Technical Uni; +528|6870|Finland

yay, i got new bios and replacement chipset fan from asus. too bad the bigger fan is dying too
gonna get that TT PSU soon

- Long live C2D, my next pc -

3930K | H100i | RIVF | 16GB DDR3 | GTX 480 | AX750 | 800D | 512GB SSD | 3TB HDD | Xonar DX | W8

2006-12-01 08:38:18

#23

Stealth42o: She looked 18 to me officer; +175|7127

Me2, no problems at all.

PSU is Enermax 550w

2006-12-01 08:51:45

#24

misconfiguration: GURU; +86|6852|Indianapolis, IN

This is the board I use, I've had it for a year now and NEVER had a major issue with it at all. The overclocking features are awesome, all-in-all the board kicks ass.

BF2S Forums Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe problems

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'[69th_GFH wrote:

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