Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe nVidia nForce 2 problem

[marshahu]

After my previous problem with my Windows MCE install I have had to reinstall Windows on my Raptor from scratch. However, after installing all the other devices and the PC starting within a matter of 7 seconds, now the XP loading logo would stall for an entire 30 seconds before showing any signs of animation or life. This happened on my previous install and the recently failed one, and now its happened to this one. It seems the problem only started after the restart following the install of the nVidia nforce 2 drivers from the Asus motherboard disc.

I don't use the onboard nforce audio - it has been disabled in the BIOS but everything else I use. I have an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum so I have no need for the onboard audio as its far inferior!

Has anybody else suffered this similar problem on their Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Board?? How did they go about curing this stalling problem! Its an embarassment to have a PC with a Raptor hard disk thats meant to be a 5 second wait at the XP loading screen, tops, stick for about 30 seconds!! Even my other Athlon XP 2000+ rig with an IDE Hard Disk is beating it!!

My spec is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
2GB DDR RAM PC3200
Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB
Happauge PVR150-MCE
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum 7.1
Windows XP MCE 2005 With Rollup 2
150GB WD Raptor, 320GB WD SATA, 500GB WD MyBook ES.

 

[fiask0]

Try taking everything out of your system. Its more than likely a driver problem. Try removing the sound card first, that would be my first bet. It could also be a driver issued between the Radeon and nvidia. Uninstall the nforce drivers, and see if they have an updated version. If they do, then install it. I've heard creative drivers can be picky also in certain situations.

You may have to start up in safe mode. Also run msconfig.exe and see if anything is loading up or starting up that shouldnt.

 

[antimatter_16]

I'm having a similar issue with a A7N8X Deluxe. I tried a Radeon 9550 and a 9700 all in wonder in it. Windows XP won't locate drivers for them, and although I've installed several catalyst drivers versions, they won't initialize. (I know the cards work, and if I drop them into another machine, XP install drivers and the run just fine.)

No hardware acceleration works. Even the dxdiag D3D tests fail. I'm using the last available NForce drivers for the motherboard downloaded from NVidia, version 5.10 And the Latest Catalyst Drivers, 7-10

What's curious is that I dropped a Geforce 3 Ti500 into it, and it worked just fine. Windows Automatically found drivers installed them, and Hardware acceleration works...

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

have you installed the latest driver for both your motherboard and sound card? Iv'e read somewhere that some times ago, nforce chipset would have trouble when paired with creative sound cards....but that's what I read, not what I experienced

 

[antimatter_16]

If you google "A7N8X Radeon" You'll find a bunch of people with problems... Mostly between Radeon Cards and Nforce2 mobos. My guess is that this is just one of those times where nvidia and ATI don't go well together. It's funny though, because I had the Radeon 9550 running in the A7N8X motherboard for months. Then I tried to upgrade it to a 9700 All in wonder a friend gave me, and it didn't work, so I reformatted. Didn't work. So I put the 9550 back in, and it didn't work... so I'm instead just putting a Geforce4 Ti4200 in it. =)

[edit]
Got the 9700 working with Catalyst Version 7-2. Other versions might work. Didn't try.
Filename was: 7-2_xp_dd_ccc_wdm_enu_41238.exe

Guess ATI forgot about adding in NForce2 motherboard compatibility with more recent drivers...

 

[Myth024]

After my previous problem with my Windows MCE install I have had to reinstall Windows on my Raptor from scratch. However, after installing all the other devices and the PC starting within a matter of 7 seconds, now the XP loading logo would stall for an entire 30 seconds before showing any signs of animation or life. This happened on my previous install and the recently failed one, and now its happened to this one. It seems the problem only started after the restart following the install of the nVidia nforce 2 drivers from the Asus motherboard disc.

I don't use the onboard nforce audio - it has been disabled in the BIOS but everything else I use. I have an Audigy 2 ZS Platinum so I have no need for the onboard audio as its far inferior!

Has anybody else suffered this similar problem on their Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Board?? How did they go about curing this stalling problem! Its an embarassment to have a PC with a Raptor hard disk thats meant to be a 5 second wait at the XP loading screen, tops, stick for about 30 seconds!! Even my other Athlon XP 2000+ rig with an IDE Hard Disk is beating it!!

My spec is as follows:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
2GB DDR RAM PC3200
Radeon X1950 PRO 512MB
Happauge PVR150-MCE
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum 7.1
Windows XP MCE 2005 With Rollup 2
150GB WD Raptor, 320GB WD SATA, 500GB WD MyBook ES.

---
I have had many issues with attempting to load an OS from one of the SATA drives. Make sure you have the OS loaded on a standard IDE drive and see if that resolves the issue. Also, sometimes the network adapter makes a DHCP request for an IP address while windows is booting and it can make the boot time longer. Try disabling both network adapters in the bios and see if it helps. Also, most of the drivers on the NVIDIA site for motherboards are backwards compatible. I've actually installed the 14.10_nforce_630a_winxp_english_whql.exe driver for my A7N8 board and have had less issues. I've also found that using the NVIDIA driver for standard ATA can have issues. Also, check the Asus site to be sure that you have the most updated BIOS. I believe it's the C18D1007 released in 2004. (only for boards with pcb v2).
If it's a graphics driver issue, here's a trick I found sometimes works. Go into safe mode. Install the motherboard drivers. DO NOT REBOOT. Install the graphics drivers. Then re-boot. For some reason ATI likes to do wierd things with windows files and it can interfere with what nvidia likes to do with windows files.
Other than making sure you have the most updated direct X drivers etc. I can't think of anything else.
Good luck.