A8N32-Sli Deluxe - Nothing but problems... [long story]

[jonnny]

Ok let me start of by saying hi, im new here & im also new to Asus & AMD... Ive used Intel's & Gigabyte's all of my computer life, and never had an Asus Motherboard either...

I am not a PC-know-it-all, but ive used computers for about 6/7years, and as you all know - you pick up alot of stuff along the way, so I would consider myself 'average' when it comes to computers.

I felt like a big upgrade, so I bought new computer parts, A8N32-Sli Deluxe, AMD 64 4400+ x2 dual core, ATI 1900xt 512MB GDDR3, 2gb Corsair XMS3500LL. And yesterday I built it, everything was going fine untill I turned it on... BSOD's here, and there... diferent stop error codes... I troubleshooted most of them, and solved most of them, but they kept coming back even though I had 'fixed' them.. I couldnt install windows XP PRO without getting BSOD - then having to restart the installation.. and getting it yet again... this went on maybe about 6 times in the space of 3/4hours, I then got fedup and I tryed windows XP x64 edition, and this was... lets say.. trouble-free!! nothing went wrong whatsoever... I got it installed, got all my devices working, played a few games and was amazed by what the x1900xt could do... eventully I started to install programs, and external stuff, such as hard drive, network storage device, to find out x64 doesnt support my storage device(because the manufacturer hasnt and doesnt plan on releasing a driver for it), I then read that x64 edition doesnt support many things... this was it.. my head was in my hands(yet again!). So I was back to sqaure one, most of the day today I was trying to install XP PRO... and maybe 6/7hours into it... it actually worked! I got it installed, But it wouldnt load? when it got to 'loading windows xp', it would hang.. and either BSOD or reboot itself automatically. and few hours later.. I managed to get into safe mode and install a few things - I will skip some things because this could get very long...

Where im at right now... Ive got windows XP Pro + sp2 installed, all my devices installed, a minute ago my keyboard couldnt work because "not enough resources" it said in device manager ( http://www.jony.co.uk/pix ) thats 2 pictures of my device manager.

The problems im still having are basically:

computer reboots itself right before "loading windows xp" gui apears, and it can continuously do this for about 30minutes at a time before it actually loads XP and lets get to desktop... so basically maybe.. 1 out of 20 attempts of booting up.. actually works???

My video drivers wouldnt install, instead right after the red background 'ATI' drivers apeared.. the computer would reboot... I got fedup of this so I installed Omega Drivers instead. which installed fine..

I dont want to criticise AMD or Asus for these problems, but I cant help but think why did I ever bother moving from Intel/Gigabyte...

Im not normally this moody, its just ive spent.. easily 15hours working on this since I received the parts.. which was yesterday(tuesday) morning.

will be online for at least another few hours.. so I will respond to any comments left..

cheers

 

[sirheck]

what about your power supply or maybee trying just one stick of memory

 

[jonnny]

what about your power supply or maybee trying just one stick of memory

Its a brand new Jeantech 500w PSU, I havnt tryed taking a stick of ram out yet... the LED's on top of the ram are flashing normally...

 

[theaxemaster]

try updating the BIOS. I've had similar problems you're talking about on systems I've built and a BIOS flash can possibly fix it. I've also read more than once that this particular board is greatly aided by a bios flash.

You have to remember that when you're buying cutting edge hardware and using it with a board that was made before some of your components were even available that you might run into some problems along the way

 

[jonnny]

I took out 1 stick of ram, and reboot.. and windows loaded first time, I then turned off, put the stick back into the computer, changed slots about.. and it worked first time again, the slots go like this..

[blue]
[black]

[blue]
[black]


they were in the top blue & black ones originally, i put one into top blue, and other into bottom blue.. and it seems to be working.. does this make sense to anyone?


Also does anyone know why my keyboard wont work untill I uninstall 1 of the "motherboard resource"'s from device manager? http://www.jony.co.uk/pix <-- picture(s) of my device manager.

Ive also still got 2 devices in Device Manager that are unreconized... with a yellow '?' beside them and they are called "Unknown Device" - How would I find out what these are? Everytime the computer reboots and loads desktop.. 'found new hardware' apears twice

 

[sirheck]

most mobo say to fill a certain color mem slot first like the blue try the blue with one stick of ram and run the computer for say a day or a week
or which ever mem slot is closest to the proccesor and not in the slot of a diff color

 

[sirheck]

sorry im trying to awnser another question
anyway if it works with only one stick <you wont be as fast but with a new comp u want stability first > you may have a bad stick

 

[jonnny]

Yeah I remember reading something about that in the manual, my bad - I shouldave remembered.. I thought for ram to run in dual channel it needed to be next to each other.. but I guess thats not the case - How do I know if its running in dual channel now?

Other than they 2 Unknown Devices in Device Manager, everything seems to be running rather sweetly, and im starting to get abit happyier about things... maybe thats just because im eating jaffa cakes though... :roll: :lol:

edit: if i got a bad stick, I will be getting a replacement, cost me a bomb for 2 gig of corsair XMS3500LL...

 

[kopite]

i have just had major problems with the same board. i had to make a copy of my windows xp cd then slipstream sp2 into it, just to get a clean install. sp2 seems to fix bsod's with this board

if you dont get a clean install of xp you can get all sorts of problems
i would try this first, then if that fails you need to update your bios

the 2 colours on your memory slots are for duel channel ,so stick to one colour with 2 sticks of ram

hope this helps

 

[sirheck]

no you r right if your sys runs fine for say a day with the one stick
surfin the web do a disc clean or defrag after windows and your drivers are all loaded and all the updates for your components you sould be able to power down and unplug the cord put the other stick in the black one right next to the other stick it should read dual channel

 

[sirheck]

to tell if its in dual channel while it is runing good with one stick down load
something like cpu-z or pc wizard see waht it says and then after you put he other in run either of these and see what the mem timmings and other
diff there is and also the bios will tell you

 

[jonnny]

So do I keep them the way they are(both in blue slots), or do I put them next to each other(one in blue, one in black)?

any idea about the keyboard situation? (im having to uninstall a 'motherboard resources' from device manager before my keyboard will work?)

would sisoft sandra tell you if its running in dual channel?

 

[sirheck]

your mem can stay were its at it will still be 2 gigs in the blue and 2 gigs dual in the blue and and black as far as your keyboard i have heard of some people have a usb keyboard work and not a what ever the regular one is

 

[jonnny]

This is a PS/2 keyboard(normall one), Ive got a usb mouse & thats working fine.. its just this keyboard

 

[jonnny]

Ive taken some pictures of the computer, It is only my second computer ive built from scratch


http://www.jony.co.uk/pc

 

[Badong]

Hi! I have the MB as your's. I also ran into problems but managed to fix them one by one.

First, I placed my pair of ram on the blue slots,

I also updated my bios (not thru windows environment). After the bios update everything ran smoothly.

'Hope this helps.

 

[jonnny]

Ive never updated a bios successfully before, I did it once few years ago but allmost ruined my motherboard, is it easy to do? also.. should I bother updating mines now that everything seems to be running fine - or should I update it so I dont run into any problems in future?

 

[charlieyv]

I'd recommend to format your hard drive then trying to install windows xp the regular 32bit version with only 1 ram stick ... then when the installation is complete install the other stick...I'm telling you this since I have a pretty similar pc and installing win xp with only 1 gig ram is a MUST! using 2 gigs on installation is not the best idea... dont noe why.. i just know it's true

 

[TireSmoke]

The manual for this board is very thorough and explains everything you need to do....Dual channel memory goes into same color slots and you may want to flash the bios to 1103 version using the "Asus EZ Flash", also covered in the manual. I have the same setup as you and really did not have any problems flashing bios, setting up a raid 0 and sucessfuly installing XP Pro all in one smooth session. Considering this was my first system build, I am very impressed with the motherboard and all the bios/overclocking features it offers. It did help to read the manual from cover to cover though!

 

[bluesquid]

I am not going to tell you what is wrong. I dont know. but its not the mobo or cpu, unless one is just bad.

I have the same mobo, a1900xtx, a 4800+, and the same case in black. no probs whatsover.

this case is awesome isnt it? I love it so much. your pics look great. I bought it with a 480 watt psu for 100 bucks.

 

[jonnny]

Yeah its cool, the only thing I dont like is the orange fans - makes the case look silly, gonna stick some neon fans in there soon, just need to get the proper sizes

I just turned it on 10mins ago and it rebooted itself again... after a few ram swap abouts it finally came to desktop *big sigh*

I must have bad luck then bluesquid, cos Ive had nothing but problems since the minute I turned it on...

 

[jonnny]

I tryed to install "Asus Update" thats on the CD that came with the motherboard, and it says "no asus motherboard found" or something along those lines, someone kindly pointed out that could be the cause of the 2 unknown devices..

anyone know a possible fix for this?

 

[TireSmoke]

You may want to try to use the Asus EZ Flash to update to the 1103 bios. Assuming you have a computer that you can use to access the Asus website, it's easy to do. Go to the asus website, download the 1103 bios, rename it to A8N32SLI.ROM, then copy it to a floppy. Restart your computer, hold "ALT+F2" to activate the EZ Flash. Insert the floppy with the new bios and the rest will be taken care of for you. The new bios may solve some or all of your problems, hopefully.

 

[jonnny]

I did that, and now Asus Update works!

Im not convinced my problems are not over though... got a feeling there's still something wrong, weither it be software, hardware or configuration cos something doesnt seem right.

still havnt got the keyboard situation sorted, ive tryed troubleshooting it but no joy, aparently I need a fix(from microsoft site) they say phone them... and they have got a link to it.. but i dont fancy phoning em, spent enuff money on this pc without going to go and throw money at MS! so i duno where else to get it from

 

[JJ__BR]

Try, as first task, to know if your memory is runnig Ok.
How?
Go to Corsair support at its website. I did this and solved my problems with ASUS and CORSAIR (VS1G400C3; your is different, and maybe they would advise a different BIOS Setting), setting my memory modules voltage to 2.80 volts with 2 modules, and 2.85 volts with 4 modules ("Jumperfree..." BIOS menu).
Put the DVRAM settings to AUTO, boot, set again to MANUAL and check if Latency, Clock, and Timing are those specified by CORSAIR.
Use MemTest86 v1.65 (www.memtest.org; its doesn´t need Windows) to analyse if your memory is running Ok. You will need to build a FDD 1.44Mb disk and boot your computer with it. It diagnoses errors, speed, and lots of things. Do not change BIOS settings throught it; use the BIOS or you will got another headache.

Then, if memo is OK, next step woud be drivers (Graphics Card, nVidia (take care with its instalation recommendations), etc). I do recommend to become a member of Asus Support; there you will find those BIOS and Driver that do need to be updated more easily.

Best Regards, Jayme.