ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe questions

[tmcknight22]

Here's my setup:
nVidia 7600 GT
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
AMD 4200+ CPU
3 GB RAM
500W PSU
Antec 300 case

I purchased the mobo used off of ebay, and unfortunately it did not come with any of the mobo drivers, discs, or even the manual. So now I'm just wondering what drivers I might need for the mobo? I have all of the discs for my graphics card, so that's not a problem.

For some reason, it seems as though my mobo might be having a problem connecting to the internet. I just did a fresh install of Windows XP Home, but I'm still having a problem connecting to my network.

I'm also getting a "CPU fan failure or too low of a setting" error message when I boot the PC. Could the mobo be effecting this? I'm curious because I just switched all of these parts out from an older tower, and I didn't have this error. I simply swapped out motherboards, add 1 more GB of RAM, and re-installed XP...

 

[smackdab]

Hi tmcknight,

If you have access to another computer I would strongly suggest going to the Asus website and downloading the drivers for you mobo. I think installing the drivers for your mobo will fix your network problem.

You could have a look in Device Manager to see howmany unknow devices there are. The drivers at Asus should take care of them.

I was just there. A direct link is:
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

You access this site and then Select Product (motherboard), Select Series (Socket939), Select Models (A8N-SLI Deluxe), and press Search. A new window will pop up asking you to select an operating system (WINXP). You will then be delivered to the driver download page. Move them to a CD (or a USB drive but check to see that your USB is functioning without the mobo chipset drivers installed)

Your CPU fan failure error could be a couple of things. First, do you have a 3 wire connector running from your CPU fan to the CPU fan header connector on the mobo. I am assuming you do. If so, you could try entering the BIOS and checking what the CPU fan rotation alarm setting is set to. You could try setting the alarm threshold lower. I have done this when I have gone to heatsinks and large fans with lower rotation speeds (less noise but still keeps the CPU cold).

Please report back

 

[spanner_razor]

Check there is a fan there first as that series of motherboards was notorious for having fans that died. So many refurbished boards come with passively cooled fans instead. If you do have a fan and its not making a loud noise or anything, make sure it's still spinning and finally check the threshold as Smackdab said.
More than likely your Network card drivers aren't installed so you can't use the network cable to connect until you install those too. I'm pretty tempted to build up my old machine which was similar specs, a8n-sli se, 4600, 7600gt or 1950 pro, 2 gig, 40 gig harddrive, need a case and psu and to check it the motherboard works that's all.

 

[ragsters]

I used to have the A8N32-SLI deluxe, best mobo ever.

 

[lounge lizard]

i have that mobo and can tell you from experience that it is best to get the nforce drivers from nvidia directly... they will include all of your network drivers amongst other essentials. Also it is very true what has been said earlier about the fan make sure it is working or replaced.. i got a passive heatsink from zalman for under $10 bucks a few years back when the problem occurred for me.

that was the asus model btw... k8n sli

 

[tmcknight22]

I installed the latest audio and ethernet drivers and that got my computer up an running just fine. I'm actually on it right now . I'm still not sure what was up with the CPU fan, but I went into BIOS and noticed something a bit odd. BIOS stated that the CPU fan wasn't running at all, and that error message popped up if the output was less than 800mHz. It claimed that the CPU fan was running at 0, but I've seen that it is in fact physically running, and there is plenty of cold air coming (I have 3 fans near the CPU/heatsink.) I disabled the error message for now, I hope that's not going to cause any problems.

After successfully installing and restoring everything I decided to give Counter-Strike: Source a go. Unfortunately, I couldn't get anywhere over 50fps on low-medium settings...I don't know what's going on with it. Everywhere I've read said that the 7600GT should be able to run CS:S on high settings with ease. I have a 500W CoolerMaster PSU, and I'm wondering if that might be the problem...any ideas?

 

[tmcknight22]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171018

That's my current PSU. The reviews are pretty shaky, people either love it or hate it.

 

[lounge lizard]

i used to run a 3000+ wini with a 6600gt and get over 50fps at 1024x768 on med/high settings so something is amiss....... and it is definately not you're psu.!

i also run a 500W

 

[smackdab]

Your CPU fan problem is interesting.

Could you double check that the fan has 3 wires running to the mobo connnector? One wire is positive, one is negative, and the 3rd wire is the rotation speed signal. If the fan has been changed in the past it is possible that there are only 2 wires.

Second, could you check that the CPU fan is plugged into the CPU_FAN connector and not the CHA2_FAN connector right beside it? These two identical looking connectors are side by side on the edge of the mobo between the CPU socket and the RAM sockets. CPU_FAN is the one closer to the RAM socket. If the CPU fan is plugged into the CHA2_FAN connector, the fan will still operate but the mobo will think that there is no CPU fan running.

If there are 3 wires coming from the fan to the mobo and it is plugged into the CPU_FAN connector then the problem is either with the fan (most likely) or with the mobo. I have had the occasional fan that has 3 wires and had either a bad wire connection or simply something wrong in the fan that causes it to not generate the rotation signal.

smackdab

 

[tmcknight22]

Thanks smackdab, you were right about where I plugged the fan into. It was in the CHA2_FAN spot. Now I just need to figure out the low framerate issue. I'm thinking I am missing some motherboard drivers or something, because I don't really know which drivers I should be downloading?

 

[d2globalinc]

Get the chipset drivers off nvidia's website - the latest for that chipset. I have the same motherboard in another machine (its my old workstation) - great motherboard, but asus's site is crap for driver support on it usually. Get the latest stuff direct from nvidia's site.
Forceware, etc. A google search should turn up what you need - and latest bios info.

 

[tmcknight22]

so the chipset drivers are the graphics card drivers? I actually have them already, I downloaded the latest drivers for the GeForce 7 Series cards. I'm just confused as to what other drivers I might need? The driver listings on Asus' website is really confusing, because I don't know what I need and do not need.

 

[smackdab]

Hi tmcknight,

The chipset drivers are not the same as the graphics card drivers. However, in this situation they all originate at nVidia.

One good way to know if you are in real need of a driver is to go into Windows device manager (control panel, system, hardware, device manager) and look to see if there are any yellow exclaimation marks. Those items have no appropriate driver and you should probably go looking for one.

I see that you obtained the latest graphics card drivers from nVidia. That is where I go to get mine also. Video drivers are located under the "Geforce" product type. You probably downloaded version 182.06 which I believe is the most up to date for your 7600GT card.

Chipset drivers can be found in a couple of places. First, they are available at the Asus website that you looked at earlier. There you will find individual drivers for things like LAN, Audio, etc.

Since the A8N-SLI Deluxe is based on an nVidia chipset, you can also find chipset drivers at the nVidia site. The chipset drivers are located under the "nForce" product type. More specifically product type = "nForce", product series = "nForce 4", product = "nForce SLI AMD" or "nForce X16 SLI AMD". Either of these will take you to the same place: a download of version 15.25 drivers.

The 15.25 driver download is actually a number of drivers rolled into one package (as opposed to the individual drivers on the ASUS site). This particular package contains: Ethernet, SATAIDE, SATARAID, RAID TOOL, SMU Driver, SMBUS Driver, Network Management Tool, and Installer.

So, where should you get drivers from? Well, I always get my video drivers from the nVidia site. I often just use the Asus site for the chipset drivers. Sometimes these are older than the ones on the nVidia site but I have not had a problem.

 

[tmcknight22]

Alright, I went ahead and installed the 15.23 (the path directed me to these instead of 15.25) drivers from nVidia's site. I still can't get more than 50 fps though, so that wasnt the problem. Any other ideas?

 

[spanner_razor]

Aside from a clean install of windows then there's not too much I can suggest. I had a similar system that ran it at 1280x1024 at maybe 75fps with high settings, did you install the AMD Dual Core Optomiser? As that could possibly be a reason.

 

[tmcknight22]

I installed the Dual Core Optimizer, and still had no increase in fps. I'm completely lost now. Could I have hooked something up wrong? Or do you guys think its software/driver related?

 

[JaredAudiophileGamer]

I used to have the A8N32-SLI deluxe, best mobo ever.

agreed. i actually have mine up for sale at this very moment.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=290298589856
lol i need this bebeh to sell for atleast 120 so i can upgrade to phenomII platform ;D

 

[tmcknight22]

I downloaded a couple of avi files, and they would not play because it said 'Error loading codec.' Could this be part of my problem, or is that just something minor I should have fixed anyway? Whats a good site to get these codecs from?

 

[JaredAudiophileGamer]

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm
you will never have to download another codec again my friend.