French Asus A7N8X-E Motherboard

[marshahu]

This is a noob question but I'm really worried. I saw a great bargain for this motherboard on ebay from a French supplier which raises one question

Despite the manuals possibly being in French, will the actual motherboard software, drivers and BIOS be in French, and if so is there a way I can download English versions of these items? I just hope I will be able to use the motherboard as I have search high and low for such a bargain 8O

 

[IdiotNewb]

Big difference in electricity between Europe and the USA. I think you will find the motherboard has differen't power requirements, etc.

 

[marshahu]

I'm in England UK - UK and European Power supplies are identical in voltage, just the plug sockets on the wall are different - I'm using a 400W UK power supply anyway so they should work - What about the language of the BIOS, Drivers, Software and other stuff?? Will that be in English or French? If in French how easy is it to subsitute them to English versions of the above stuff?

 

[Pain]

You can download the manual right now in english, you can flash the bios to an english version....I don't even know if it would be in another language, but it doesn't matter, you can get english, no problem.

 

[HYST3R]

voltage wont be a problem as all power supplies come with a switch in the back to change the voltage to accomodate wherever you are. UK just slide the red switch to 210.

id say get the board, if it is in french, download a bios update from ASUS and flash it to an english version with a floppy disk. so to anwser your question, it shouldnt be a problem.

 

[Batspoon]

This is a noob question but I'm really worried. I saw a great bargain for this motherboard on ebay from a French supplier which raises one question

Despite the manuals possibly being in French, will the actual motherboard software, drivers and BIOS be in French, and if so is there a way I can download English versions of these items? I just hope I will be able to use the motherboard as I have search high and low for such a bargain 8O

Stay away from the A7N8X (Deluxe or not, with or without the "-E")... This mobo paired with the nforce2 chipset is a real pain! A lot of them just died from one day to another, others will wake up and post when they wants to.
I'm not saying that there is no A7N8X mobo working outhere, just suggesting to avoid using this model.

 

[Pain]

If I didn't have over a half dozen of these boards in various flavors I wouldn't say anything, but I do, and I've had zero problems of those types with them. I've got 6 of them at home, and several more at work, and have not had a single problem like that ever.

 

[Batspoon]

If I didn't have over a half dozen of these boards in various flavors I wouldn't say anything, but I do, and I've had zero problems of those types with them. I've got 6 of them at home, and several more at work, and have not had a single problem like that ever.

Well, in that case... or your are very lucky or I am unlucky, or both.

I have built 4 computers using this mobo, 2 of them work stable, the other two had the mobo RMA'ed many times before being replaced (not with an A7N8X). If you want to, take a look in the Asus Forums, you will see a lot of dead A7N8X (A7N8X-E Deluxe being the most evident).

 

[marshahu]

OK - Little help here. I have NEVER flashed a motherboard BIOS before - I have been a really pussy on that front and I just leave the motherboards as they came from the factory - (do I hear the faint distant cry of "NOOOOOOB" along with some mumurs like "Poor muggins has missed out on a lot from his motherboard cos hes too scared to flash it"?)

If someone could please give me directions in doing this, from obtaining the right BIOS for the motherboard to putting it on the floppy disk and going through the flash procedure when I finally fit the motherboard.

I heard good things about Asus boards which is why I'm snagging one up but at a fraction of the usual price - besides I'm sure its better than my current ECS board - see the ECS forum for my post on the current problem that I have!!

 

[Pain]

I think the instructions that can be found on the Asus site should be good enough, but short and sweet....get the latest bios available (the board is old enough to not need to worry if the latest bios might have a bug in them), put them on a floppy along with the burning utility. The bios file will be something like filename.bin, and the utility might be something like awardfls.exe (for award flash, or whatever).

Then follow the instructions on the site. Very easy.

It will probably be something like:

1. execute the utility
2. enter the name of the bios file.
3. press enter.

 

[marshahu]

Ok I obtained the Awdflash BIOS update tool V8.24B and the BIOS version 1013 - both of these are in their own zip files - do I simply create a startup disk and add these two files onto the disk?

I followed the badly translated instructions on the asus website telling me to copy something from the CD first and THEN obainting the update - a tad confusing as to why I cant just stick the new english BIOS on top and keep life simple :?

 

[Pain]

Yes, just copy those 2 [unzipped] files to a floppy. I don't know what the instructions said, but it may have said to make a backup of the original bios. That will be an option in the utility and I always do it, personally. Make a backup, then flash the update.

 

[Moohbear]

I can stop this non-sense 8O I'm french and there are no french BIOSes. All the BIOSes I've seen in France and the US are in english. The drivers and the manual provided with the MB may be in french, but it's easy to download the english ones.

 

[Pain]

Thanks for the info, but it's not non-sense. He should still flash to the bios to the latest level, IMO, so it's good to know how.

 

[Batspoon]

I can stop this non-sense 8O I'm french and there are no french BIOSes. All the BIOSes I've seen in France and the US are in english. The drivers and the manual provided with the MB may be in french, but it's easy to download the english ones.

Right.

 

[Moohbear]

The non-sense part is about a "french" motherboard...

 

[marshahu]

I was about to say - I've been saved a lot of time and effort but at least I came away learning something new - how to flash my motherboard in the future to improve it. After all if I wish to go into Computer Consultancy being unable to flash a BIOS won't speak well of my computing abilities