Asus A8N-SLI delux issues

did you do a fresh format and re install xp? if not do it if you have i dont know.

I don't know the specifics (you didn't give them), but I installed an ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe last week. Formatted my HD then loaded my windows xp pro disk and it loaded the install files. Rebooted and hung with the message 'Operating system failure'. This went on for a while and each time I got the same operating system failure when windows tried to install. I stuck a windows home xp disk in and it loaded right up! 8O

I updated it and used it for a few hours. Tore it down the next morning and returned the board that day. My suggestion:

Get a different windows xp disk. The one that worked on mine did not have sp2.

RMA the board and get something that works.

BTW. I searched the net for answers to the 'operating system error' syndrome the board was experiencing. There was no definative answer. The MB was defective or installing a disk with sp2 had something to do with it.

Are you using the latest bios for the mobo?

I've not seen many motherboards or CPU's cause a OS not to be installed. If the Lite On drive is not functioning that could be it. It could just be the drive itself? Try swapping it out.

Do you get any error codes? Does it just hang? Usually hanging is indicitive of a memory/hard drive issue.

Well actually, I used a different disk and now everything is ok but for some reason XP keeps asking for the product key and will not accept the one with the disk. In addition, the lite-on dvd burner is still not function.

Now I see the reference to the board in your sig. Nice! You should have talked to me first and saved yourself a lot of time!  

OP stuck another windows CD in and got it to load. See :tongue:
It's like the coat hanger holding on the muffler method. Hey, you didn't use a coat hanger with your A8N-SLI deluxe? Did you? 8O

Oh well, my neighbor is from NZ. Having me next door with seven security cameras has raised his property value considerably. As far as ASUS's little enterprise goes, they should thank the heavens we have been in Korea for 50+ years. Otherwise Taiwan and Japan and the rest of them out of ASIA would be selling their Toyota's to Rice farmers. Nothing more outrageous to say for now. Siyanara.

I have a different board but am having a simillar problem with my optical drives. I know it's not the drives because I got a new one, swapped them out, tried with only one installed...slave/master/CS...basically tried everything under the sun.

The drives are installed, they are there in the BIOS and in Windows. They are fully functional in Device manager, show up everywhere correctly, etc. etc. BUT they will NOT read discs when they're inserted in them. IF you go to "My Computer" and double click on the drive with a disc inserted, it will say "Please insert Disc" or it will show the disc as blank. Have tried different CDs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVDs, DVD-Rs, same result.

The only time they WILL work is when I right-click on "My Computer"-->Manage-->Disk Management. When I go there, both drives "come alive", start spinning and all of a sudden the very disk they were showing as blank has files on it! MAGIC! :x And these aren't burnt CDs, but actual software CDs.

I have to do the "Disk Management" trick to make them work everytime I need to do read off the disk. Meanwhile I have been unable to figure out why this is happening. My only guess is MOTHERBOARD, but I am not sure.

Are you using the Cable Select or the Master/Slave configuration on the drives?

Tried them both, tried with one drive, tried with two. The drives aren't toast for two reasons: Bought a new one and it's doing the same thing, they DO work if I do that Disk-Management thing I mentioned above. Plus as I said, they show up in all the correct places as working fine. Even BIOS lists them in the right Master/Slave order no matter which config (CS or otherwise) I use.

Heck, once I do that Disk Management thing to get them to work, BOTH drives even pass all the tests in Nero-6. I just don't want to have to do a trick to get my optical drives to work. Also, the trick only works ONCE. Then I have to restart the PC to make it work again...a royal pain.

I am completely stumped. The only thing I haven't changed or switched out is the IDE cable itself, and I plan on doing that tomorrow just to cover all bases and make sure I am not over-looking anything.

I have no CD-copier, software running in background, nothing that is taking over the drives in XP...really, I have tried everything under the sun.

The only thing I can think of, once the new IDE cable doesn't help either, is the motherboard.

The only other thing I can think of is the Chipset driver's IDE support is screwy. Are you using the latest updates, do the drives act the same in safe mode?

Well originally I did NOT have the Nvidia IDE drivers installed and the drives used to work alright (I can't recall exactly when they went screwy but it was close to when I updated my BIOS to 0304). To troubleshoot this drive problem I then installed the latest Nvidia IDE drivers, no difference whatsoever. I then uninstalled them, just to be sure, yup, no difference.

I have not, however, checked to see how the drives function in Safe mode. I will definitely try that out today when I get home. For argument's sake, what would the problem point to if A) They DID work in Safe mode B) They DID NOT work in Safe mode either.

If the drives function as prescribed in Safe mode the problem would seem to point to drivers (chipset/IDE), or it could be something else that is molesting the functionality of the drivers (i.e., a patch).

Well, this is the most headway I've made on my issue in the past two weeks. I booted up in Safe mode and voila! The drives worked (both of them) exactly as expected. Although, none of the discs I tried Auto-played...but still every disc, DVD, CD, CD-R, DVD-R opened up and was read perfectly fine every time.

So now what should I do?

Sounds like chipset/IDE drives is the problem. 2 (possibly more) ways to handle that, pick your poison... a) get an PCI IDE card, test it, if it works, it may be a keeper, eh? ...if it doesn't, take it back. b) Try to find out what's wrong with chipset/IDE drivers (or what's irritating them) and fix it.

You ego may prefer option "b", but I'm kinda lazy and tend to be impatient, which is why I thought of option "a".

Well I moved my problem to a separate post I opened in the "Optical Drives" part of the forum, just so I don't continue to Hijack this thread in the Asus forums, lol.

This is where it is:
Optical Drives acting strange

Halcyon, I copied and pasted our posts in the new thread. By the way, thanks for your help this entire time bud. I will try that PCI-IDE card method this weekend and let you know how that goes...

Good deal! Please do keep me "posted". Thx.