Hardware Analysis - Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Michael C — 2009-08-07T14:32:59-05:00

This thread is f**king HUGE, holy s**t!

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Mathew jerome — 2009-08-07T13:56:47-05:00

hi,
Let me first tell you about my system configuration.

AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe motherboard
Nvidia Geforce 6200 turbocache PCI Express card
1GB RAM
120 GB SATA Hard disk (seagate barracuda)

These are the main components. A few months ago my sony dvd writer(IDE) suddenly stopped working .Then i purchased an LG DVD writer (HL-DT-STDVD-RAM).At that time i didn't realise that choosing a SATA writer over an IDE writer is going to cost me dearly. My system started to hang up very often. Most of the time when i put a cd in the drive, the system will stop working and it starts to make some kind of beep sound continuously. When i tried to restart the system either the bios failed to recognize the hard drive or otherwise the hard drive failed to boot.

At first i thought the problem lies in my hard drive. Then i replaced the hard drive. But the problem still exists. I think there is some kind of compatibility issue in this case, because sometimes both the hard drive and the writer works perfectly. Even my DVD writing speed is good (it took me approx 13 mins to write 4.4GB at 4x speed ). but then most of the time my system crashes with a blue screen telling me that some recently installed hardware is not working properly.

The Bios that i use right now is version 1805. Is it a good one ?? i updated when my OS was XP. i didn't update the chipset driver b'coz i failed to find the right version in the nvidia site. i'm confused about the nforce series. which version should i use??. a few days ago i installed vista 32bit in my system hoping to solve the dvd writer problem. but it created a negative effect. now my system shuts down suddenly after 30-45 mins. and when i try to restart the sytem it will shut off immediately before loading the OS. If i didn't use the system for 2 or 3 days then it will start and work smoothly for few hours , and then it will eventually shuts down without any warning.

Is it my bios??.........or is it my old chipset driver??.......Please help me and don't forget about my sata dvd writer( when i brought that sata writer , i didn't know at that time that my motherboard has some issues with sata dvd writer ), i don't have any money left to buy another IDE drive . SO PLEASE HELP ME

One more doubt. Is there any known issues of using vista in this motherboard?? should i go back to the more reliable XP SP2???

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Mike Burklin — 2009-05-04T00:40:43-05:00

Thanks Rick
I tried new driver for video card. Its like you say it worked flawlessly since march of 2005. I have scanned all my disks. The raid was installed and drives formatted before installing windows again. I wish I had another processor to try just to rule that out. I have no problem once it passes the windows logo. Its just funny how the cpu fan slows down right before it fails to load. If the fan doesnt slow down you know it will load fine. I guess I should never turn it off and it will be fine.

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Rick Thompson — 2009-05-04T00:23:15-05:00

Mike:

I submitted the post above yours.
I have the same SATA Raptor hard drive that you have 2 of.
Also, I had the same video card XFX GeForce 6600 GT.

You have ruled out the memory.
You ruled out the power supply.

How about the Raptors and the raid 1.
Any evidence of 1 of the raided Raptors taking all the IO while the
other drive has a problem.
Could do a scan disk on both.
Also, could do a virus check for viruses.
Several SATA raid ports to try.

Could swap video card from blue PCI express 16 to black PCI express 1 and back again.
But does not sound like video problem.

CPU fan sounds consistent with warming up and cooling down and warming up.
I have had had no trouble with my A8N SLI Deluxe until I tried to make a change.
Seems to be difficult to make changes to this motherboard.

You can go into the BIOS and stop the splash screen and show the startup progress
in text.
Also, I wonder about the BIOS settings for PCIPnP.
I have Plug & Play OS = NO (even though I have Win XP sp-2 and it works well)
My Init Disply First = [PCIex]
Resources = [Auto]

I am no expert, just giving ideas for tweaks or diagnotics.

Rick Thompson

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Mike Burklin — 2009-05-03T21:34:48-05:00

Help
New to this site. Alot of good information. I have not been able though to find an answer to my question.

I have a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe. I had a problem blue screening in Outlook. I decided it had been 4 years the board had been stable . No blue screen unti a week ago. So I cecided to Change my raid from 0 to 1 just because I felt the drives are getting old (74GB 10,000 rpm raptors) and windows had never been reinstalled. (Media Center 2005) I had been running bios 1016 and read to downgrade the bios reinstall the drivers to the newest. Instead I noticed that the latest bios 1805 metioned nothing about having to downgrade before installing new drivers so I flashed that. Installed the raid and installed windows with drivers. However when the computer starts to boot you notice the cpu fan getting slower then speeds up goes through bios loading and gets to the windows logo and then the cpu fan will slow down again and the computer reboots. Three out of five times it will do this maybe otherwise it loads straight through with no problem. I thought maybe the power supply and seing mine was 4 years old I bought a new Corsair 750 watt. The problem is the same. I removed the tv tuner card and thats the only other card other then my video card xfx geforce 6600 ddr3 128mb . Once in windows no blue screen no problems in applications.

Edit I should also let you know I memtested all memory for 24 hours twice. I also disconnected the cpu fan and loaded that way thinking it could be shorting out or something. Still no good

I really could use some ideas. Posted something in Asus forum but no responce.
Thanks

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ -continued

Rick Thompson — 2009-05-02T21:33:33-05:00

Also should add to above Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe configuation:

BIOS is version 1011 (have not gone to latest)
Why upgrade if there are no problems, till now.
Both video cards are nVidia brand.

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

Rick Thompson — 2009-05-02T21:17:36-05:00

Wow - I found this mammoth thread using Google.
Looks like the thread is slowing down - the early days were great.
I tried to read the whole thing looking for answers - but the thread won,
I'm about 2/3 of the way through. Anyways,
I have an Asus A8n-SLI Deluxe since early July 2005.
Has been working well, no problems:

Configuration:
AMD Athlon X2 4600 Dual cpu
WD raptor 74 gig 10,000 rpm - fast
WD 200 gig 7200 rpm - storage
PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI 650 watts - the best
Cosair XMS 2 x 1GB 184 pin DDR400 PC3200 - pretty reliable
CD/DVD Plextor 716 E-IDE (baffling at times)
Antec P180 with 3 120mm fans - large but ok!
Windows XP sp2 - resisted changing
Video card BFG 9500 GT 1 GB DDR2 memory
(used to have XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128 meg)
1 - 24" Dell flat panel - at 1920 x 1080i (best with dual link DVI cable more throughput)
1 - 19" HP f1905 (single link DVI cable)
I have nVidia Nview software controlling the monitors
I built this sytem from scratch in 2005.

I would like to add a Samsung 19" SyncMaster940b that I have doing nothing for now.
I would like to use the XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128 meg as 2nd non SLI video card.

I think my PC P&C power supply can handle the power requirements of two cards.
My BFG 9500 GT is in the blue PCI-express 16 slot.

When I put the XFX GeForce 6600 GT in the black PCI-express 1 slot
my system hangs at boot up time before any screen text shows anything.
It seems like there should be enough power considering the other powerhouse
video cards setups I have read about in this thread.

Thanks for any help,
Rick

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Matthew Chestnut — 2009-01-04T02:08:07-05:00

I've never had any problems with any brand of external USB drives on my A8N-SLI Deluxe system.

Ramoth Mizpah said:

Anybody know if this board (early revision 3 - I think) with BIOS 1017-004 can support an external usb ide 200GB hard drive? I took out this same harddrive from my case slapped it into an external case and plugged it in. The hard drive worked fine when it was inside the case, and when it is plugged into two newer laptops (using the new external case) it works fine. When plugged in to the pc using usb my pc freezes at POST, and on a NEW, fresh install of windows vista 32bit it causes windows to freeze. Anytime the external drive is switched off my pc resumes what it was doing and everything is OK. I have tried all of my usb ports on the back of the mobo with no effect.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Ramoth Mizpah — 2009-01-03T20:22:59-05:00

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

MrBungle — 2008-12-31T21:06:57-05:00

Is this thread going for the record or something?

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Kevin Branco — 2008-12-31T20:03:55-05:00

Gerritt said:

The A8N is a Socket 939 MB.
The 3600+ is a Socket AM2 CPU.
It is NOT Supported.

Actually,

The X2 3600+ i have IS a 939. I saw it quite awhile ago on sale at TigerDirect and figured moving from my Athlon 64 3200+ to an Athlon 64 3600+ would be at least a slight upgrade in performance and dual core bump.

But after your reply i actually looked for my part number on the amd site and i can't find it.
Its a # ADA3600DAA4BV
http://www.amdgeeks.net/processor/ADA3600DAA4BV/AMD-Athlon-64-X2-3600+

My current is:
http://www.amdgeeks.net/processor/ADA3200DIK4BI/AMD-Athlon-64-3200+

Actually looking at it's specs from a 3rd party site, i'm thinking it's basically the same chip i have (with a bit less cache) but 2 on them in one chip.

Gut feeling is telling me this is not the deal i expected.

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

TamTheBam — 2008-12-31T11:30:53-05:00

Can't believe how many hits this thread has had. Must've been a very popular board
at the time. I did actually have this board at one point and attempted my very first
OC. Was a good board...sniff...sadly missed RiP LOL!

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Gerritt — 2008-12-31T01:48:47-05:00

The A8N is a Socket 939 MB.
The 3600+ is a Socket AM2 CPU.
It is NOT Supported.

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Kevin Branco — 2008-12-26T20:13:58-05:00

In the many years i have had this board and used it as my main and only computer, i never came upon this thread and here i am bumping it. Truly an epic mega thread!! =P

In the quote below, Gerritt gives the link to the mobo cpu compatibility list from asus. I wish i had seen this list about a year ago when i purchased an AMD A64 x2 3600+ and a large new fan for it to replace my old (and initially thinking "until i get the money to replace") Athlon 64 3200+. I since received the chip but never got around to the novice daunting task of actually installing it.

Now h'm looking at the compatibility list and realize the x2 3600 is NOT listed on it. HAs there been anyone on these forums with experience of installing this chips to the a8n-sli deluxe? Or should i be posting this still sealed chip on ebay?

Gerritt said:

m0k0 said:

Quick Question Guys.
I thought my A8N-SLI Deluxe had finally died due to some random freezing anywhere between 1min & 20 mins of startup . I tried working through most components and kind of assumed it was the board, but I bought another cheap Athlon 64 on an online auction to test and it works perfectly... So I've decided to get another processor (better than the Athlon 64 3200+ I have now) probably second hand and give the is board another life.

Back to my question. I just cannot find a good resource for what processors this board will now take and what BIOS is required to run them and maybe also a description/comparision of what processor is best.

Any idea's?

Thanks,
G.

The resource you need is http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
Just plug in MB Socket 939 A8N-SLI-Deluxe then OK.
This will list all of the processors supported and the BIOS level necessary for that processor. You can click the BIOS to take you to the BIOS download page necessary.

Of the supported processors the Opteron 185 or the Athlon 64x2 4800+ or 4400+, both Toledo cores with 2MB L2 Cache are probably your best bets for best performance. It is unlikely that you can find these still for sale through normal outlets, but there are plenty still available on E-Bay and other after market resources.

Re: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe FAQ

Ed Beer — 2008-12-20T07:19:33-05:00

My question is about Blu Ray capability on my computer.

My setup is very close to filled out

x2 4800 oced 5% via the AI overclocking
3 gb dual channel memory (2 1 gb and 2 512)
500 gb IDE hard drive
evga 9600 gt
1 DVD+RW DL drive (i might sell this to get a blu ray sata drive)
Raidmax 450 watt 2 fan power supply with 1 SATA cable (for possible Blu-Ray)
Diamond sound card
Hyundai L90D+ digital monitor

If i do decide to get a BD drive, will my computer be good enough? I downloaded a BDrip of Kung Fu Panda at 1920x816 and it ran fine with all the proper codecs plus an animated great