Need help with ASUS A7V

[Guest]

I am trying to assemble a pc similar to that in Tom's how to section. I've got an Thunderbird 800 and an asus a7v running with a GlobalWin FOP32-1 cooler. I can get into the bios screens, but on a normal startup once the IDE drives are detected the screen starts to flash and the board starts beeping like mad. It used to do this after the ultra 100 check, but I turned this off. The beep code in the manual says that the system is overheating, but I've never seen the temperature higher than 107 F in the bios menu. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

ToddMan

 

[Bubba]

Does it beep like this when you are in the bios? Even after being in the bios for 5 minutes or so? If not, then it is not a heat problem. Did you do a clean install of windows? You should.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

I managed to mis-align the IDE connector (don't ask!) on a HD and all sorts of weird stuff after drive detection.

HTH

<font color=blue>Moots</font color=blue>

 

[Guest]

I can stay in the bios for as long as I want without any problems. I don't think it's the os either, I tried booting with only the floppy connected using a boot disk and I got the same results. It didn't even have a chance to look for the disk before it froze up.

ToddMan

 

[stable]

What BIOS drivers and IDE drivers are you using?

I would start by downloading:
First: The latest BIOS revision from Asus. If it is an A7V make sure you get the BIOS from the GERMANY site. 1005d is the latest revision.

Next: Get the latest ULTRA100 drivers. There were some flaws in the original drivers. The update can be found at:
http://cgi.asus.com.tw/cgi-bin/dl.asp?filename=misc/ide/v160b33.zip

This should solve your problems.

Steve Benoit
Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[RocKo]

Wouldnt Reccomend the ASUS after all the trouble they've been having/doing, try finding an alternative to it, try to find a good ABIT/MSI/EPOX.... and a THERMALTAKE cpu cooler would be something you should look into too.

<font color=red><b>-RocKo</b></font color=red>

 

[Guest]

updating the bios sounds like a nice idea (running 1004D now), BUT the problem i'm having won't even let me boot from a floppy, it locks up before the boot sequence. also, i may have been misleading about the beep code earlier. it is 4 short high pitched beeps repeating over and over. the monitor flashes once for every 4 beeps. hope this helps, i'm running out of ideas!

ToddMan

 

[BrainStorm]

Did you checked the CPU Fan if it is running putting power on? Certainly but who knows! Did you put some thermal paste between your heatsink and CPU?

It's better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick!

 

[stable]

The other issue could be RAM... Or then again, it could be overheating the CPU OR the frequency could be set wrong. Any of these issue could be your culprit.

Check your BIOS settings for the CPU temp thresholds and make sure your RAM is being recognized correctly. If you are using double-sided or cheap RAM, I would get new. In reference to your CPU cooler, I would make sure it is doing it's thing. What sounds definate is that you need new drivers and an updated BIOS. You shouldn't have to turn off the Ultra100 check for any reason. Check all of your jumpers/connections and then start by getting these updates before you get too serious about diagnosing the problems.

Good Luck

Steve Benoit

Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

Hi peopleware

I´m having exctly the same problem, I´m going to try the fix the IDE cables and update the BIOS and everything else tonight!
So I ask: Have you (ToddMan) solve the problem !? How !?

[]s

Kaniabi

 

[Bubba]

If you can stay in the bios for as long as you want, then it is not a temp problem.
You are connected to the ATA66 IDE connector correct? If you start out on the ATA100 without installing the drivers it won't work.
I would also try some better or different ram.
If all this doesn't work, try and just exchange the board, it may be defective.

-Gimme oysters and beer for dinner everyday of the year and I'll feel fine.

 

[Guest]

hmmm, from what i'm hearing the ram might be the problem...i have 2 64mb sticks, one is Kingston, the other is a no-name. I'll have to borrow some and see if that helps, one thing i'm not clear on is how the memory could cause problems if it passes the startup mem test and identifies as the correct amount. Other than that, the cpu fan is up and running fine and i am connected on the 66s. A new wrinkle: nothing seems to happen the first time i power up, i can hear the hd's spinning up but no signal is put out to the display and nothing loads. after i hit reset, the regular startup screen appears and the bios does its quick POST load...

ToddMan

 

[Guest]

still workin on it, i'll let you know if i figure anything out...

ToddMan

 

[stable]

As another option, I would suggest pull both of those 64MB modules out and buy a single stick of 128MB CAS2 RAM. MAKE SURE that you buy a good brand (NEITHER Kingston nor no-name will give you stability) stick with Corsair or Mushkin and MAKE SURE that you buy ONLY single-sided DIMMs if you go with the 128MB flavor.

I have heard a few other people make positive comments here about other brands. I honestly can't give you any information about them. I can only tell you that we tested about 60 different modules in the past 60-days with Asus motherboards and ONLY the Corsair CAS2 Single Sided and Mushkin Rev.3 modules passed our extensive testing in the 128MB flavor. ALL others failed. RAM prices have come way down in the past month, so even going with these high-end brand names won’t really hurt your wallet anymore.

This is not to say that the other brands didn't pass that very weak RAM test that you see when you boot your system, all of them made it through that (except for the "all components" brand), it does go to show however that all RAM is not alike. I'm sure Tom would also have some really good input here, you should keep your eyes out for the reviews. Hopefully, the reviewer is doing some real testing and not just the "off the shelf" tests that fail to recognize the tiny (yet very important) idiosyncrasies that make one brand (and model!) better than another.

Good Luck
Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

sounds like a good idea, but still no go. i went out and got some micron ram (i couldn't find the two you mentioned), pulled my old stuff, threw in the new, changed the bios settings from 100 to 133, and nothing changed. i'm seriously leaning toward hardware problems now, and have finally gotten a response from the place where i bought the motherboard, hopefully they'll come through with an idea or fess up and give me a new one...could the processor be causing any of this? i don't have another one of those to swap in to try anything, so i'd have to be able to determine this from the bios and startup.

ToddMan

 

[stable]

I really think your best course of action at this point is to pack her up and bring her to a reputable dealer for inspection and setup. If nothing else, you'll have some peace of mind about problem resolution and might actually get a good nights sleep instead of spending all night trying to get her going. To be honest, there are just too many variables with an AMD based system that need to be individually addressed in the proper sequence to assure you that everything is setup correctly. Our experience with the A7V has also shown that users unaccustomed with the AMD platform have better luck setting the system up using the dip switches than they do using BIOS settings. Again, there are just too many variables that need to be correctly addressed.

Just in case you want to give that a shot, I've enclosed the correct dip switch settings for your CPU and RAM configuration. This might take some of the guesswork out of trying to get the right settings.

Before you begin UNPLUG YOUR POWER CORD!


Using an Athlon 800MHz & PC133 DIMMs

Step 1: Move "Jumper free mode" jumper FROM pins 2 & 3, ONTO pins 1 & 2.
This jumper is located just to the right of the Asus ASIC AS99127. (If you follow where it says A7V on your motherboard about six inches to the right, you will find it)

Step 2: I/O Voltage Jumper (VIO). Located directly above your ATX Motherboard Power Connector and directly below the 3 pin power fan connector.
Pins are 1234 from left to right.
MOVE the Jumper FROM pins 2 & 3 ONTO pins 1 & 2.

Step 3: CPU external frequency Dip Switches:
The light Blue DIP Switch Bank is labeled 4321 from left to right. All switches should be moved to the ON position. (Move them all to the down position. The factory default has them OFF or currently all in the up position.)

Step 4: CPU Core BUS Frequency Dip Switches.
Dark Blue Dip Switch is Labeled 654321 from left to right.
Set them as follows from left to right: ON ON OFF ON OFF ON
(Again, DOWN = ON. The factory default has them all currently up, in other words they are all currently set to OFF)

That's it. Try it and let me know how you come out.

Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Cybercraig]

Deja vu! I had terrible problems with this same set-up. My biggie turned out to be a bad stick of ram. Running fairly nice now on ME. I have to agree with Steve, try dipswitches first. Nothing? Bad MB (1 out of 25). Bad power supply? Bad CPU? You just have to eliminate them one at a time or take it to Steve. Good luck. When you get it lit up, this will all have been worth it!

 

[Guest]

VICTORY IS MINE!! I tamed the beast and now she will do my bidding! I had messed around with jumper mode previously and that didn't solve the problem, but it got me looking in the right direction. As I was reading the manual for the jumper settings I took a closer look at the section detaling the led connectors and found that I had my standby led connected to the SMI connector on the mb. I didn't think that this was causing my problem, but I didn't think it should be connected so I pulled the wire. When power was hit, viola! problem solved. I feel kinda silly for putting all you guys through the wringer like that for something so minor, but hey it's all over now. Thanks a lot for all of your help, you guys were really there with the ideas, and this will be the first place I turn next time I can't figure something out.

Thanks,

ToddMan

 

[stable]

Cool. Just out of curiousity are you running now in jumper mode or jumper free?

Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[Guest]

i left it in jumper mode, but it works in jumperfree as well.

ToddMan

 

[Guest]

hi again!

You were right Mr. ToddMan. I just removed the led connector from the SMI connector and everything work perfectly.

Here goes my colateral thanks!

[]s

Kaniabi

 

[Guest]

This is just to speak to Steve. I am having big problems with my A7V and i need to know how to set mine up using jumpers. If you take a look at this link you can see my newest post about the problem, thanks heaps.

<A HREF="http:// http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1 " target="_new">http:// http://forumz.tomshardware.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=faq&notfound=1&code=1 </A>

AMD Tbird 1.1Ghz & SuperORB
Asus A7V
128MB PC133 SDRAM
Winfast GeForce2 MX
Win98 SE