ASUS A7M266 won't restart and mouse won't rescan

[Guest]

I just got my Asus A7M266, and I'm not overclocking it. I've notice two very annoying problems that I am unsure if they're related to the motherboard.

First, the system won't reboot from Windows. It seems to shut down (monitor goes to power save mode), but the system just sits there and doesn't restart. Power is still on, but there is no video, no beep, no boot. I have to hard shut it down and cold start it for the system to come up. Has anyone experienced this? I wonder if it's related to my 350 watt Enermax. I have three CD drive, a tape backup, a floppy, and four hard drives (2 SCSI, 2 ATA100). Is a 350 watt too small? Or is it some jumper or BIOS setting?

The second annoying problem is the system doesn't rescan for the mouse when I switch to my other systems using my Belkin switch box. My Dells will allow me to switch between systems and have the mouse still work. Is there something wrong with this motherboard? Are their BIOS or driver updates to fix this problem? I've already updated my OS with the drivers on the Asus CD.

And yes, I am a power user. That's why I have such a big setup.

 

[Boondock_Saint]

Holy cow...350 watts for ALL OF THAT?!? That is amazing that it is even running with that setup. That is almost in need of a 450/500 watt type PSU

 

[Guest]

Ok, not sure what the problem with the mouse and switchbox is, but I think I can help with the reboot problem.

I'm willing to bet that you have a Netgear FA-311 or FA-312 network card in your system? That is the most common culprit for the reboot issue. Yes it seems weird. You can check for yourself if you have the card because all you need to do is remove the NIC from the system and try and reboot.

I ran into this problem back in March with a FA-311 NIC and it still hasn't been solved with any BIOS patches. Before you get angry with Asus your should realize this problem has been reported with a number of AMD 760 based boards including Asus, Abit, and Epox to name a few. The guys over at HardOCP.com ran into it when they were testing their new Abit board and had to be told by us readers.

The bad part is that there really isn't a fix for this issue other than getting a different network card. I replaced mine with a 3Com but people have reported good luck with NICs from Linksys, Dlink, and Intel. Even the Netgear FA-310 has been reported to not cause any problems.

Hope this helps. By the way a few people have said it was necessary to reset their BIOS in order for everything to work properly after removing the Netgear NIC. I didn't have to do that myself, but it is something to consider.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain

 

[jlanka]

The second annoying problem is the system doesn't rescan for the mouse when I switch to my other systems using my Belkin switch box

I've always had trouble with mice and KVM's - sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't. Nature of the beast, unfortunately. I'd wager it's nothing wrong with your board. I've got 5 mice sitting on my desk right now because my Cybex Commander 4XP can't do mice.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Guest]

This wasn't ever a problem with my Dells, but then, I am using a pretty nice Belkin. I kinda also suspect the PS/2 port on the AMD 761 isn't that mature. I used to work at Dell way back and the PS/2 ports used to be a horror. Older generation PCs would break if you accidentally plug the mouse into the keyboard port and the keyboard into the mouse port. Over time, the industry mostly figured out how to fix some of the problems. I guess not everyone figured them out.

I guess I'm going to have to pull one of my trackballs out of my closet.

 

[Guest]

BINGO! Wow, that was too cool. I didn't even mention I had a Netgear NIC. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

I figured since my Dells only had 230Watt, I thought a 350Watt was more than enough. It appears ok. I may unplug some drives. Anyway, 450 sounds too much. The 350 caused my Opti UPS to complain, and it's not a cheapo UPS either. Where is everyone getting such a high power requirement from? I see these number everywhere on the web but nowhere officially. I looked on Asus and Enermax site and couldn't find anything recommending such high requirements. Can anyone point me to a vendor site that has these recommendations?

 

[Guest]

"BINGO! Wow, that was too cool. I didn't even mention I had a Netgear NIC. Thanks."

I'm smiling. Glad to help out.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain

 

[dpaige]

Do you know if all of Netgear cards cause that problem with the A7M266? I was going replace the cards but I'd like to stay with Netgear. Any ideas?

 

[Guest]

From the reports I've heard only the Netgear FA-311 and FA-312 seem to cause the reboot problem (apparently they have similar architecture). Some guys have reported in that using an FA-310 doesn't cause any problems at all. I think someone said the 310 costs a little more than the others though.

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain