ASUS Board - never again

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BellaCroix

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2004
Messages
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Been working on (about) my 10th build for the last 10 days... nothing but problems. Initially I blamed Windows (as most usually do) but now I'm fairly confident that it's all the motherboard.

The Build:
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athon 64 4000+
XFX 7900 GT
Corsair XMS 400 RAM (2x1gig matched pair)
Hitachi Deskstar 250 gig HDDs (SATA2 Mode)
Lite-On Optical Drives
PCP&C 510 watt SLI PSU
Innovatek Watercooling
Microsoft USB Mouse and Keybaord
19" VGA Monitor

I've installed XP SP2 about 20 times now, updated the BIOS, updated video card drivers, downloaded all the critical updates and I can't get a stable build.

Initially the PC reset on Windows load and wouldn't boot, finally fixed that.
Then SBC Yahoo! DSL Software caused same crash (although it ran fine on every PC I built on Gigabyte boards), finally fixed that.
Then Crystalfontz USB display caused same crash, fixed that by having it not load on start.
Then Power DVD wouldn't pass a video compatibility test.
Then Power DVD wouldn't play audio correctly without switching audio tracks when the mouse moved, never fixed that, changed DVD software.
Then Soundblaster Audigy cards wouldn't install correctly.

If it's not the board this build is cursed. I'm done with ASUS... wonder if I can trade it for a Lanparty or another Gigabyte?
 
(cf)Eclipse said:
change command rate to 2T :p
Click to expand...
Asus has problems running 2GB of mem, so disable the command per clock option in the bios to have the memory set to 2T. I agree with your OP however, ASUS boards are overpriced POS.
 
Tried returning it and getting it replaced. Most likely is just a faulty board.

My Asus A8N-SLI Vanilla works great. Don't see much on what's bad about them :)
 
Hawk said:
Tried returning it and getting it replaced. Most likely is just a faulty board.

My Asus A8N-SLI Vanilla works great. Don't see much on what's bad about them :)
Click to expand...
Same. No problem with my A8N-SLI.
 
Same here, no problem with my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Ive been using Asus for the last 10 years, never had a problem.
Have you tried loading with vanilla settings and with just the basics? HD, Video and ram only?

That mainboard is a awesome board, it is probably something minor, you just need to find it. Reloading over and over with everything in the box is insane. ;)

Good luck!
 
Loadedaxe said:
Same here, no problem with my A8N-SLI Deluxe. Ive been using Asus for the last 10 years, never had a problem.
Have you tried loading with vanilla settings and with just the basics? HD, Video and ram only?

That mainboard is a awesome board, it is probably something minor, you just need to find it. Reloading over and over with everything in the box is insane. ;)

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Awesome if it worked... went with the 32-SLI so that I could upgrade it in a few months and run SLI at 16x2 (32) but now I'll settle for 8x2 SLI from a ECS board if it means it'll run right.

Yeah... I know, the first problem was solved by changing a USB setting in BIOS from "Auto" to "Enabled". I just wish some company, somewhere, could write instructions in something other than engrish.

Each time I've reformatted and reinstalled I've changed something in BIOS or taken something out of the box or whatever.

Just finished a reinstall (again). Not going to install the DSL software until I call Pakistan or India or where ever "Mike" works... until I install the browser software or something that starts as part of the Windows load it works okay for a gaming-only rig.

It's going to piss me off though if I have to use my KVM switch at this station just to check my e-mail.

I think the problem is something minor with the board combined with the 7900 GPU. The latest BIOS is the first with support for 7900 gen cards... maybe they didn't get it right.

To be honest... after 10+ builds I've never seen a BIOS with so many options, this will take me forever to sort through all the options until I find the sweet spot.

Just pissing me off because I spent 4 months building this rig until I had the money to not compromise and build it just the way I wanted... now it doesn't work. I'm more than willing to accept the little buggie crap that happens when you DIY a build, but this is rediculous. I can't even find a toll-free Pakistani support number. I'm done with ASUS unless some miracle happens in the next few days.

I'll try the memory setting idea (thanks for the suggestion)... otherwise I'm sticking by my idea that this is the last ASUS board I buy. I sat around quietly while people trashed Gigabyte boards but my last build (after a few minor issues) ran rock stable, overclocked well, and didn't have random problems with certain programs.

Overpriced I can deal with, expensive I can also deal with... crap... well, that's not so good.

I'm really starting to think that Asus is like Abit was 10 years ago... you bragged about having one because you were able to stay stable long enough to brag about it (my BP6 sucked butt - and I haven't bought an Abit since then).
 
What bios are you running? Hopefully not the beta bios as many have had problems with that bios. The stable one is 1205

So everything runs fine until you load your dsl software? Are you using the Marvell NIC or the nvidia NIC? Try swapping the nics and see if that helps, create a restore point in system restore so you can boot in safe mode and do a restore if the software crashes it again. If it is software, crashing it, I doubt it is the video card.

Try this site.
http://asustech.15.forumer.com/

Good Luck. Let us know how it goes, I wouldnt go with a ECS board though, I would RMA the one you got first.
 
also try disabling any serial/parallel ports if you have no use for them.
 
Loadedaxe said:
What bios are you running? Hopefully not the beta bios as many have had problems with that bios. The stable one is 1205

So everything runs fine until you load your dsl software? Are you using the Marvell NIC or the nvidia NIC? Try swapping the nics and see if that helps, create a restore point in system restore so you can boot in safe mode and do a restore if the software crashes it again. If it is software, crashing it, I doubt it is the video card.

Try this site.
http://asustech.15.forumer.com/

Good Luck. Let us know how it goes, I wouldnt go with a ECS board though, I would RMA the one you got first.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I updated to 1205 - That was the first thing I tried (especially when I noticed on the ASUS site it said that was the version with support for 7900 GPUs). Also downloaded GPU driver v91.13 from the XFX site.

I didn't see options for selecting the type of NIC... I'm using the on-board one but I'll check BIOS again for options... hmmmm... wonder if it'll be that easy.

So far, the problems I haven't been able to correct:

The system crashes on boot after loading the SBC Yahoo! DSL software. It gets through POST then shuts down before hitting the Windows splash screen. Re-POSTS, then goes to the "last attempt to load windows failed" screen and asks what version of safe mode I want to load into. If I select "Start Windows Normally" it just crashes out again and re-POSTS.

Also, if I attempt to use Cyberlink PowerDVD the audio jumps from stream to stream every time the mouse moves.

Other than that... right now it's working okay... I've fixed all the other problems I've had with this build.

If I posted all the BIOS options, anyone interested in taking a look at it and seeing if I've got something totally buggered?

I tried disabling serial and parallel ports but I'll give it another shot.

RMA will probably not be an option since I yanked that stupid heat-pipe and replaced it with active heat sinks and water coolers. If I can't get up and running this week I'll probably just yank the board, get a nice LanParty board or something and use this one for a file server/SETI box in the basement. Doubt I'll go ECS, the first build I did was on an ECS board and although that build went great and served me well for a couple years I wasn't impressed with it.
 
Memtest is one of the few things I'm still waiting to try.

I've tried pulling a stick, swapping the slots, etc. I've gotten really good over the last few weeks with using safe mode and restore points. When the boot locks and I'm prompted to enter safe mode that loads, as soon as I revert to a point prior to loading the DSL software everything works great.

If it turns out it's some kind of Asus issue with 2gig of RAM then I really will be pissed and will definitely get another board. The only reason I got this one was the true 16x SLI PCIe and the layout of the board (especially the PCIe slots).

I'm pretty sure I can find another board that will run 2gig RAM - maybe even one that I can install a SoundBlaster on... wouldn't that be nice?

I've currently set the Command Per Clock to 2T... everything is okay... tomorrow I'll disable the serial and parallel ports. Then run Memtest. If that goes well I'll try installing the DSL software. Then if it crashes I'll just toss the thing off the tallest bridge I can find.
 
BellaCroix said:
Memtest is one of the few things I'm still waiting to try.

I've tried pulling a stick, swapping the slots, etc. I've gotten really good over the last few weeks with using safe mode and restore points. When the boot locks and I'm prompted to enter safe mode that loads, as soon as I revert to a point prior to loading the DSL software everything works great.

If it turns out it's some kind of Asus issue with 2gig of RAM then I really will be pissed and will definitely get another board. The only reason I got this one was the true 16x SLI PCIe and the layout of the board (especially the PCIe slots).

I'm pretty sure I can find another board that will run 2gig RAM - maybe even one that I can install a SoundBlaster on... wouldn't that be nice?

I've currently set the Command Per Clock to 2T... everything is okay... tomorrow I'll disable the serial and parallel ports. Then run Memtest. If that goes well I'll try installing the DSL software. Then if it crashes I'll just toss the thing off the tallest bridge I can find.
Click to expand...

Just send it to me. I'll um, toss it for you, uh yeah.
 
BellaCroix said:
Awesome if it worked... went with the 32-SLI so that I could upgrade it in a few months and run SLI at 16x2 (32) but now I'll settle for 8x2 SLI from a ECS board if it means it'll run right.

Yeah... I know, the first problem was solved by changing a USB setting in BIOS from "Auto" to "Enabled". I just wish some company, somewhere, could write instructions in something other than engrish.

Each time I've reformatted and reinstalled I've changed something in BIOS or taken something out of the box or whatever.

Just finished a reinstall (again). Not going to install the DSL software until I call Pakistan or India or where ever "Mike" works... until I install the browser software or something that starts as part of the Windows load it works okay for a gaming-only rig.

It's going to piss me off though if I have to use my KVM switch at this station just to check my e-mail.

I think the problem is something minor with the board combined with the 7900 GPU. The latest BIOS is the first with support for 7900 gen cards... maybe they didn't get it right.

To be honest... after 10+ builds I've never seen a BIOS with so many options, this will take me forever to sort through all the options until I find the sweet spot.

Just pissing me off because I spent 4 months building this rig until I had the money to not compromise and build it just the way I wanted... now it doesn't work. I'm more than willing to accept the little buggie crap that happens when you DIY a build, but this is rediculous. I can't even find a toll-free Pakistani support number. I'm done with ASUS unless some miracle happens in the next few days.

I'll try the memory setting idea (thanks for the suggestion)... otherwise I'm sticking by my idea that this is the last ASUS board I buy. I sat around quietly while people trashed Gigabyte boards but my last build (after a few minor issues) ran rock stable, overclocked well, and didn't have random problems with certain programs.

Overpriced I can deal with, expensive I can also deal with... crap... well, that's not so good.

I'm really starting to think that Asus is like Abit was 10 years ago... you bragged about having one because you were able to stay stable long enough to brag about it (my BP6 sucked butt - and I haven't bought an Abit since then).
Click to expand...
How can you deal with the expensive Asus prices, I said it before, and I'll say it again, they are becoming the bose of motherboards. Their sli deluxe mobo, $250 when the gigabyte competitor is only $100. Their "midrange" conroe mobos, $200, when the abit competitor is only $140. The way I see it is, hey, let's add capacitators that are 10 cents better than everyone elses and jack up the price by $20 for that. Next, let's add firewire and SPDIF which will allow us to jack up the price by $50 for using $5 worth of materials. Finally, lets get every cpu reviewer to use an asus motherboard as their test mainboard in overclocking guides to make everyone think that only an asus will cut it for gaming. What exactly is bose? It is an audio company that advertises to the point in which the uninformed average joe strives for one, even if the audio hardware beats its competitor in the $80 hardware range but costs $150. Tell me how that's difference from asus.
I bet if asus came out with an sli conroe board, it would cost $300+ for being your only choice. No thanks, but I will stick with my sli Gigabyte 8n sli for $110 and an intel Pentium D 950 chip.
 
Monkey_feces said:
No thanks, but I will stick with my sli Gigabyte 8n sli for $110 and an intel Pentium D 950 chip.
Click to expand...

If that was an AMD board I'd take that as a recommendation and look into it as I've always been really happy with the 4 Gigabyte boards I've owned. As it stands I'll probably be looking at LanParty.

Assuming I'm not able to get this running this week and start looking into replacements, anyone have suggestions on what to look at? The $200 - $250 price range is okay (unless I can get the same features for less, of course). The build details are above and I'd really like to stick with the 16x2 SLI since I'll be adding the second card later this year.
 
My A8N32 is rock solid. It has been wet, OC'd too far, throughly tested and still keeps on going.

I noticed in the OP that you listed WC. I recommend that you don't WC while you build and troubleshoot.

Also, check out the A8N32 build database, you may find a solution there.
 
The OP lists WC. Don't WC untill the very end :rolleyes:

Also, if that doesn't work, check out the a8n32 build database.
 
cyks said:
The OP lists WC. Don't WC untill the very end :rolleyes:

Also, if that doesn't work, check out the a8n32 build database.
Click to expand...

Hindsight 20/20. Of course, I've never had a problem watercooling before and any other time if there was a similar problem I'd just yank the WC parts off and RMA it, but for the stupid heatpipe on the baord and my concern that it wouldn't work correctly inverted in a v2000 case.

Have you been able to use a soundcard on that 32-SLI or are you using onboard sound?

Wonder if there's a problem with PCI drivers or something. Might try uninstalling all those and reinstalling from scratch...
 
I'm with you -- the last 3 out of 4 Asus mobo's I bought were bad. Then 2 of the 3 RMAs I got back were bad. How crappy is that? I recently (after 6 years) broke down and purchased an Asus video card hoping that it will be ok. I haven't tested it out yet though -- waiting for the new Abit Aw9 mobo :eek:
 
just ordered the ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is something up with it :confused:

edit: i only had one problems with asus boards and its the P4P800 that died, RMA and got a new one, works still today :)
 
I had problems with an Abit BP6 board back in the day and couldn't get it to run stable - I never bought an Abit again (come to think of it, it's still in my parts closet - anyone wanna buy it?)

This board is giving me nothing but issues, I may put the heat-pipe back on and RMA it and try it once more but I've been noticing a lot of complaints about Asus boards (maybe not complaints necessary but a lot of people talking about RMA'ing the board). It seems when you're lucky enough to get one that works they're a dream, the problem is the crap shoot involved in getting that one.

I don't know about everyone else but when I build a machine I'm looking forward to retiring one of my older ones and getting to work using the new one... if I've gotta wait 4 weeks a pop to get one that works, it's not worth it at any price.

It looks like Asus is the Dodge of the early 80's. Half of them couldn't be killed and would drive for 200k miles, the other half would start falling apart as soon as you hit the dealership's curb. (For the record, I'm a Dodge man - looks unlikely that I'll be an Asus man).

Off to try memtest.
 
just bad luck imo , i've used 10 asus motherboards and have had no problems :eek:
 
Hochi said:
just bad luck imo , i've used 10 asus motherboards and have had no problems :eek:
Click to expand...

my first 7 were like that then the P4P800 :( but after that i been fine
 
ryan_975 said:
No offense but memtest should have been the first thing you tried.
Click to expand...

I figured pulling sticks, running one at a time, running different sticks laying around etc would have been enough... *shrug*

Regardless... just finsihes two run throughs... 0 errors reported.

Running out of ideas now. I just wish companies that did business in the US were required to have technical support in-country (hey, if Canada can require all products sold there to also have French labels... why can't we require something like that). It's bad enough to call tech-support and get some guy who doesn't know anything except reading scripts from a support app... it's another thing when you can't understand them.

Think I'm going to play with BIOS s'more.

Just went to the Asus website and confirmed I have the latest drivers. Dittos for XFX. Really stumped this time... getting really good performance from everything else... just trying to install this one program and the SoundBlaster... if I could figure out how to configure Thunderbird to read my SBC Yahoo! mail I wouldn't even care about the browser (although something tells me if that doesn't work, something else will eventually fail too).
 
kydsid said:
You could get an A8R32 MVP and go Crossfire :D
Click to expand...


I would think again before you did that. Worst BIOS I have ever seen. Buggy, changes settings on its own, Tref is broken, and basically instable with memory 1:1 at moderate clocks.

I am selling mine in the next couple weeks. Best example of a shitty board I have bought since my Via days.

Oh I cant wait to get a Conroe in my Bad Axe and get back to the solidity of Intel and leave this guessing game behind me.
 
When it comes to motherboards it seems like every manufacturer has a dog or two in the house. Not sure why that is but at this point I take people's opinions on this component (mb) with a grain of salt.
 
sbc yahoo dsl software?!?!?!? omg don't use that crap. when i first got my sbc dsl connection, i used the sw on an older but very reliable box with a fresh install of xp. the account setup worked great, then just turned it off and put settings into the router. one day i was looking for something to do, turned on the dsl sw box. thing starts spitting out errors all over the place. wiped it, installed xp, still working today at a friend's place.

not sure if there's a way to set up the sbc (now att) new user account without the so-called software. possibly try to get higher level tech on the phone. that usually doesn't work, so go to broadbandreports.com and check out their vendor specific forums. when i first got the dsl going, the data rate was capped at 1.5mb, supposed to be the pro rate (up to 3gb). spent hours with "tech support" phone calls until i finally gave up and went to the sbc forum, an sbc tech replied to my question, next day was very pleased to have 2.5+ on the dsl.

i can't begin to express how helpful those people on broadbandreports.com (dslreports.com if you like that one, same thing) are for almost any issue, question, or comment you may have. highly recommended.

btw, recently upgraded the dsl to elite account, getting around 5mb downstream, almost 640k up. 2 bucks a month cheaper than i was paying the past year for pro rates. :D

oh another btw, have an a8n32-sli system that's been rock solid for months. went the oc route for a bit, couldn't get better then 10-15% oc on the 4800+, gave that up. now it's 6800gt sli oc'ed a bit, everything else stock, extremely stable. never had the chipset temp problems lots of folks experienced, maybe due to the thermalright si-120 and low noise 120 fan blowing onto the passive chipset heatsink. have used 2g ocz low latency or 2g kingston hyperx at different times, both very solid. just not much in the oc dept. on that 4800+, but it runs quite well without the oc anyway.
 
I'd be happy to bypass the SBC/ATT software. I use Firefox for browsing anyway and only loaded their browser to check my mail accounts (no use for Yahoo! personals, Mediacast, weather reports, or words of the day). I'd love to get Thunderbird set-up as the mail reader for the SBC/ATT accounts but I can't figure it out and am not looking forward to talking with Johnny Pakistan for an hour before he escalates me to a Level 2.

Maybe I'll check those forums you mentioned and see if anyone else has done it that way.

The reason I'm thinking it's board related as opposed to strictly software is because I am also unable to install the Soundblaster card that worked great in my last box (yes, I've tried all the PCI slots available). I was also having problems after installing the Microsoft mouse and keyboard software and with trying to use Cyberlink PowerDVD.
 
I don't think anyone has suggested this yet, but have you tried swapping out your PSU for one that you know works good? I know the one you is have is one of the best you can buy, but just maybe you got a dud. I've seen three or four other people have problems with the PCP&C 510 PSU. A lot of what your describing sounds like the CPU is having problems while under a load. That can be caused by a bad PSU. Again, I know PCP&C is a great brand, but everyone makes a dud from time to time. It'd suck to go out and buy a completely new mb and still have problems.
 
if you've already got an account set up with sbc/att, then you don't need the sw. you will need the driver for the modem if using usb, otherwise just set up a pppoe connection in windows and go with that. i just use their webmail, don't need a client for that.

i've had bad pc p&c units before, but still recommend their products. especially the newer stuff like that 510, very good quality.

try swapping out a component at a time, but start the system with the least amount of hardware needed. if using a sound card, disable all onboard sound-related devices in bios. disable firewire, parallel, serial ports if not used. disable any ide or raid interfaces if possible in bios, at least tell it no device (not auto).

set nb>ht at 5, the other one at 5 also. i noticed earlier bios revs put one of them at 2 multi, what was up with that. no over voltages anywhere, auto on mem, etc. try to keep everything as close to stock settings as possible.

if still having problems, swap out 1 component at a time, such as memory or cpu. monitor cpu and chipset temps closely. don't use any sound for initial setup, unnecessary to install windows. add that in later after it's stable. don't use marvell nic, disable it in bios. download latest nforce and forceware from nvidia (not beta, latest whql) for install. don't use cd that came with mb.

just a few suggestions; maybe could try for a few more but haven't had that much problems with my asus mb's so haven't needed troubleshooting skills lately.
 
Asus makes good boards. I had onet that I could never get toe work with out issues. I've owned 6 Abits that have been issue free. Makes me wonder where teh AMD= no stability discussions come from. My Intel at work crashes more often than my Home PC ever has.
 
Funny coming across this thread as I just RMA'd the third ASUS mobo I have ever used. I have built two SLi rigs and one "regular" PC in the last month and all friggin three of em I had to replace the mobos and teh Sli rigs were using their top of the line board :rolleyes:
Mind you during the same period I have built 4 other rigs using Abit and Gigabyte and no problems whatsoever.. must just be my luck :(
 
I guess I've had about a 50% succes rate with them (so far!). I have a P4PE that worked fine for almost 2 years, but then randomly it will fail to POST saying it failed due to overclocking. It's not overclocked at all. Never has been. I've tried other BIOS's, reseating the CPU, and resetting the BIOS. It still does it randomly.
 
I have a P4C800-E Deluxe that I screwed up and Asus fixed it on warranty.

when flashing new bios code, the first thing i do is reset everything via mb jumper. then flash bios. then reset with mb jumper again. then start up system and make changes to bios settings.

for some reason this board did not like that procedure, and i am 90% sure that i did the same thing on this board in the past, but it was quite a while between code changes. that thing would not post, no beeps, nothing. completely dead.

of course i did not tell asus what i did to it, just that it stopped working. they were very prompt and helpful during the rma process. fixed or sent a different working board and everything works great. total turnaround time was about 2 weeks or so.

that was the only negative experience i've ever had with an asus motherboard.

abit, on the other hand, had a buggy silicon image controller on their ic7-max3 boards that they finally admitted was a nonexistent function. when using raid 10 (or 0+1, not sure of the term) it would not allow an array recovery after one disk failure out of the 4. there was no provision for it in either controller bios code or software. that was my last experience with abit products. ymmv

otoh, had 2 of those boards and as long as i didn't use the raid10 feature, which admittedly is probably hardly ever used with that type of board, i had no other problems with it except for the otes and nb fans dying. i doubt if any fans like those would last all that long anyway, and that issue was easy to fix. stripping off the otes plastic shroud thingy takes care of that one, and the nb fan is replaceable without removing the heatsink. a friend found some brand of vga cooler that has the exact same fan in it; even has a blue led.
 
RMA the board, it's obviously bad. If it's enough of an issue where you can't see that, go outside, get some fresh air, and take a drink of water. Saying "ZOMG never again" is moronic. Everyone makes a bad board here and there.
 
never had problem with ASUS, Abit, MSI, etc... Except Gigabyte. After finding out that they broke every rule in the book when it has to do with standards on their NF3 board, I'll never touch them again.
 
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