Hi..I'm new here and I have some issues with multiple pc's using this motherboard. I sell POS restaurant touch screen systems, and have been purchasing systems using this board mainly because it's one of the last boards I know of that has 2 serial ports which I need. I am about to start RMA'ing some of these systems if I can't find an answer, though my supplier has been of no help.

The systems are nothing major. AMD Duron 1.6Ghz, 128MB, 40GB, Windows 98SE, and only run POS software. I have seen one other person describe 2 problems I am having.

1. The on board MCP Nvidia network gives me problems. The systems are fine until there is a higher data transmission over the network. At that point, the system will disconnect itself from the network, and will NOT reconnect unless it's rebooted. It will run fine until the same thing happens again. I can disable the on board Nvidia Ethernet, and put in a $10 Realtek 10/100 and they are fine. I have researched on Nvidia, Asus...updated drivers, to no avail. I use low profile cases so my Realtek card needs a bracket shortened, but other than that they are fine. Any ideas at all what might be the problem? I'd rather continue to use the on board but I have some upset clients at this point....Oh..by the way...this also happened to me back when I was buying systems using the A7N266 - VM/A I think it was and I had to install Realtek. Does anyone think it's a Windows 98SE problem? I do have a site with 3 stations, same board, running XP Home and it has not been an issue. Though I don't wish to change the OS on the existing installations.


2. On a couple of the systems, especially recently, using the A7N8X - VM/400, I'm having lock up issues, though all hardware tests fine. But when the system locks up, the BIOS will reset itself back to defaults, which turns off the parallel port and turns back on USB, Audio, etc. Of course then my guest check printers won't work, and the manager of the restaurant has to go into the BIOS and change it back. This has happened to me on 2 pc's at the same location. I am going to be replacing the mainboard in the one giving me the most problems, since I have a need for only 1 serial port at this particular station to solve the immediate problem, but any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

On another note, I have checked around and have not found one, but (I'm sorry if i should ask this elsewhere in the forums) Does anyone know of any other micro ATX boards, either Athlon, or P4/Celeron boards that have 2 on board serial ports at least? I can use PnP serial cards or USB for my touch screens but my kitchen and bar printers require standard serial port configurations.


Thank You in advance....

Taken from The ASUS A7N8X-X / A7N8X / A7N8X Deluxe Thread

PS. Welcome to TechSpot. Hope you enjoy your stay.:wave:

For the network problem, see if you can get in the Device Manager & look at the advanced settings for the nVidia NIC.

On 2000/XP, it is possible to ask the driver to try to access the network with either the lowest CPU utilization or the best data throughput.

On which setting is it set on your systems ?