The ASUS A7N8X-X / A7N8X / A7N8X Deluxe Thread

So you're saying that when you try to get the 3000+ to run at its stock speed of 2167 (13*166mhz), it's not very stable ?

How did you configure the memory ? To run at sync with the FSB or did you leave it to "By SPD" ? & what kind of Ram is it ? PC2700 ? PC3200 ? DualChannel tested ?

yep its now running at 1.8ghz. the memory is running in dual channel but im unsure of the brand of one piece. the other is from pc world and is pny technologies (i know i was a mug but i was there and bored) its pc 2700. The odd bit is that i was running it in sync with the xp3000 for the fsb settings of 166 but not in 200. ididnt change my settings for the memory, p.s im running my agp slot at 1.6v and the memory at 2.6v.

First of all, you must've noticed that this board is quite picky when it comes to Ram. So even when you have the same Ram modules, you're not 100% sure to get everything working perfectly, even in SingleChannel mode. When you add to this situation the fact that all your Ram modules are not the same, things can only get worse from there.

Let's start from the beginning. What does your memory consist of ? How many modules ? What density (128mb, 256mb, 512mb, etc.) ? What speed (PC2100, PC2700, PC3200) ? What are the timings for each module (3-4-4-8 / 2.5-3-3-6, etc.) ?

Great thread! I have 2 machines using the A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo. These have been the most stable machines I've ever had. Lately I've been crunching video files in the neighborhood of 4GB (yes, the DVD is almost finished) w/o a single crash, hang, or hiccup. Both machines are using 2 x 512 MB PC3200 RAM in dual mode (Mushkin).

I did want to report to hardware compatability issue I ran into. Both items are HP :rolleyes: The first was a CD16 cd writer. The unit did work but it caused nasty-grams with my digital camera, mini DV camera, sata drives, and external hard drives. When it was replaced with a Plextor 712A DVDR, all of those error went away.

The other compatability issue was with a Photo Smart 1000 printer. As I was setting up machine #2 for my kiddos, when I got to the printer install, the machine became completely unstable. CPU usage was railing every 2 seconds w/o any applications running. It didn't matter if the printer was hooked up parallel or USB, as soon as the printer was turned on, the machine became unstable. HP's tech support suggested I buy a newer printer. I found that answer to be unacceptable. A $20.00 used ethernet print server fixed the problem.

The ram is in 2 pieces both are 512mb (1gb) they are both in the blue slots which i assume is dual channel mode. the first piece is made by hynix of korea and is pc2700 the exact model number is 25330 this is 333mhz with a c.l of 2.5. The 2nd piece is made by kingston technologies and is their value brand the specs ar 512MB Kit 333MHz DDR PC2700 DIMM CL2.5 Standard 32M X 64 Non-ECC 333MHz 184-pin Unbuffered DIMM (SDRAM-DDR, 2.5V, CL2.5, Gold) (Datasheet) . p.s the mobo bios is 1009.

The current settings of my ram is:
Active precharge relay is 10
ras to cas delay is 3
precharge delay is 3
cas latency is 3
cpu core 1.65v (auto)
graphics apature 256mb
agp frequency auto
ddr reference voltage 2.6v
Agp voltage 1.6v

the reason for the last two being changed was this stopped far cry from fraking out.
If this is really wrong please tell me but it seems to run ok. Im thinking after reading all the comments that i might just buy some branded pc3200 ram.

A7N8X Sound Problems Galore!

Hello, I have an extra PC that I am trying to get the sound to work on. It has a A7N8X Mb (just a regular A7N8X). WinXP Pro installed (now). Amplified Speakers (tried non-amplified too.)

For some odd reason I have never been able to get the sound to work at all on it. It doesn't seem to be the same problem that everyone else has with this model (sound getting staticy during games, etc...) What happens to this is the sound NEVER works correctly. The sound is always staticy and it is so low in volume you cant hear it anyway unless you are very close to the speakers even with it at full volume.

When I say "staticy" I mean really low volume tinfoil crackling static, and every now and then it will hit a staticy note and hang there for several seconds.

I have tried the Win98SE drivers that came with the Mb (when I had Win98SE installed), and that didnt do anything. So I upgraded to WinXP Pro and tried the nVidia XP drivers.. still the same thing.

I am using the middle speaker jack on the rear of the Mb. I do NOT have the front panel speaker jacks wired up. The FPAUDIO1 pins have jumpers on them like: ::|.| (Do I need those jumpers gone to enable rear jacks??)
If I took the two jumpers off... would that disable rear jacks?

After a day fighting with it I decided to put in a Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer (Audigy 1, NOT 2) soundcard... during installing that it notified me that I 'might' need to disable onboard sound, so I was expecting to do that. I had the new XP drivers for the Audigy ready. When I had everything installed I tried the soundcard out and it did the same thing... but with much lower staticy sound. I then thought I should go in and uninstall any non-Soundblaster drivers.. which I did... then went into the BIOS and disabled the AC97 onboard sound (AC97?! I thought this was an nVidia Mb) and any other onboard items that was close to the sound choices.
The sound is STILL staticy and very very low volume.

Is there a jumper that actually nulls onboard sound in one swipe?
Is there something that I am totally doing wrong?
Other than uninstalling the audio drivers and disabling onboard sound in the BIOS is there anything else I need to do to "disable" onboard sound?

Would a complete reformat help anything, heh. puke:

I need help fast.... the wife wants to play her Roller Coaster Tycoon game with sound.

A7n8x Installation Problems

Good Morning. I find this forum helpful so I'm hoping you can come through for me. I assembled a computer using the following components:
Asus A&N8X-e deluxe M'board
AMD Athlon 3200+ Barton CPU
Mushkin 512 mb RAM
ATI 9800 Pro video
420 watt case
1 HP Cd burner
1- NEC DVD burner
120 GB Westinghouse HD
1 generic floppy drive

After assembling everything, I tried to install XP Pro (CD-R Disc) but it wouldn't take the disc. It got as far as "checking you computers hardware configuration" and then blanked out. I left my BIOS settings at their default values as I don't feel confident enough to start altering them. This was my first full build and I'm discouraged to say the least.

Any suggestions would be greatlyappreciated. Thanks.

For what it's worth, I had a problem with a HP CD burner stepping on other hardware. I've had no other problems with this mobo including setting up the gigabit ethernet. I'd pluck the HP burner. Don't be scared to mess with BIOS. I wouldn't suggest changing timings or voltages, but beyond that, you can always clear CMOS. Double check all your slave master setting on all your drives too. FYI: I'm a newbie here, not an authorized care giver.

bOARD pROB

Tks. I've thought about unplugging each item and starting it up to see if I could narrow it down. The burner is an older model, about 4 years old. I didn't think it would matter for now. So I'll set my DVD burner (NEC 1100A) as master and uninstall the CD-RW, then try it again.

As far as RAM, it's PC-3200 184 pin. I have it in the socket closest to the CPU.
Tks again.

SATA & Optical drives

Hi,
Great thread, I have ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe, and this can really be helpful. I thought Id add two things. To be honest I havnt read the whole thread too carefully and hope Im not repetitive.
I installed a SATA drive yesterday and ran into a really wierd problem, after switching on the SATA jumper & configuring my SATA drive (Maxtor 6B299MO) I started to move som files from my old drive. When I mover a lagre file my computer froze (XP SP1) This happened every time I moved someting of the size 700Mb. Tried a lot of stuff and finally solved it by uppgrading to Silicon Image Serial ATA driver version V1.0.0.22. Really wierd problem. Upon solving thih I also upgraded my bios from v1002 to v1008 which seemed to make wonders to my boot time. (just the feelng) One annoying thing with the SATA is that you geta window that displays you SATA drive when you boot which makes it slower.

I have another problem now, I have two optical drives and when I plug them in (on the same IDE port) only one is recognized. Or actually both are recognixzed as one drive. When I push eject both drives eject. And I cant read from any of them. Right now I just plugged one out and it works fine. Havend fooled around too much with it yet though, solved the HD problem last night. Might me Master/slave config which I havent even bothered with yet. Suggestions are welcome.

Nice forum

I have never seen that before,but that don't mean anything.
I guess the obvious is to check the jumpers on those drives( don't use Cable select)
Also confirm the IDE cable itself maybe a new one .
Last if either of those drives is a writer,check for a firmware update .

Yeah, Setting CD ROM to slave sorted it out. Or just unplugging one and then plugging the other in after installing the first one not sure which but it works now anyway. Threw out the question a bit fast im afraid. Thanks anyway.

DVD switch to CD read problem

OK, encountered another wierd problem yesterday. I thought I read about someone having a similar problem earlier but noe I cant find the post.
OK what happens is that I have installed my two optical discs (see signature). I burned a DVD ISO image with the NEC 3500 with NERO which seemed to work fine. But when I try to read the DVD It doesnt work and the DVD ROM in explorer switch to a CD ROM!? I eject the DVD and the Icon switch back to a DVD-RW. Really weird. I cant find any firmware for NEC 3500 on their homepage, and samsungs homepage was even worse (found the file but couldnt download it). I updated my IDE drivers at NVIDIa hompage. I guess I could switch to the XP drivers and see if that helps. I starting to run thing on ideas about how to solve this. I guess I could unplug one drive and see if that works. I guess Ill have somthing to do this weekend too

A couple of thoughts;
-Is XP up to date SerPck 2 ?
-Is Nero up to date (There is a large new release)?
-Get those firmware confirmed and updated (very important)
-What are the property settings on your drives. eg.Burn rights?,File properties-if 'Read only 'is set on the files you can't read you must change the security settings for your burner.
-Does Nero recognize all of your drives?
-Make sure 'Everyone'(Users) can read write to your Rom's(See 'burn rights file 'at Nero.com)
You have lots to do this weekend,I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Thanks for input

*Updated XP today, actually that would have solved my previous problems with the SATA drive cause the RAID/SATA drive came as a hardware download in the update.
*Nero is 6.0.0.23 not the most recent but i can at least burn DVDs with it.
*Downloaded firmware to the drives, (SAMSUNG drive T511 from www.samsungodd.com didnt exist on www.samsung.com - weird and NEC from some other dogy site, v2.C8)
*Nero at least recognize my burn drive (NEC 3500)
*Dont know about the read & write settings on the ROM, what is this?

I tried to burn a second DVD, yesterday I burned one but couldnt read it afterwards (?) This time it worked and i could read the new one with both drives. The old one still swiched my DVD drive to a CD rom. I guess It could only have been a media problem, I used some cheap DVDs. If that the case Im sorry to have wasted your time. I still think its wierd that my DVD-RW swich to a CD-ROM when this occurs.
Thanks for the input.

I have two questions since Im a newbee on this;
What is Firmware? Is that my "ROM bios"?
What is bit setting?

Seems as everyone think this is basic knowledge but my search in the forum yielded no answeres.

What about the LAN drivers for the A7N8X, the "MCP integrated NVIDIA® MAC + Realtek® 8201BL PHY"?

Roc... Quote

"...I have two questions since Im a newbee on this;
What is Firmware? Is that my "ROM bios"?
What is bit setting?..."

Firmware is a type of core driver file for hardware componets.For Rom drives these files often update compatibility issues eg. new media.
Bits per second is that what you mean?These refer to differents settings availble for recordings your recording software will normally set this automatically.

Now to your Homework.Update can be wonderful.
You aren't clear as to whether all your issues are solved , but you have obviously learned a great deal.Never use cheap media without testing it.
If your Nero is licensed not OEM you can update it to 6.6 for free,pay close attention at the Nero site since there have been some big changes and you may not want everything.There are 70+ Mb to all the downloads.
Next in Nero , look for, 'info tools' it will run automatically .It has a great deal of help info.
Get back to us if you still have issues.

Thanks for all help, I got everything up and its working fine now. Guess all the time I spent on updating my drivers for every possible component could be worth it anyway.
About "bit setting" it was someting I came across when I updated the fimware for my DVD-ROM, there were some opions e.g. region free Yes/no and then "Bit setting" Yes/no for different fimwares. So I guess it is a feature a firmware can have or not but I have no idea what it is. The firmwate I chose had it but I guess it doesnt really matter since I dont know what it is

Glad to hear that you have it running smoothly.
Now save yourself from repeating all of this work,by doing a Full Backup so that you can recover easily from any future issues.

I am still having problems with my sound with my regular A7N8X mobo. My original post on the subject is up a little ways.

I read on page one about high RPM fans that might cause static, so I unplugged all of them and still got the very bad static.

Concerning my SB Audigy... I am starting to think that there is something wrong with it because I should have got it to work when I disabled the onboard sound.

My case has a front audio jack that I never hooked up and I am curious on how to do so... do I just take the plugs from the front panel and attach them to their respected home on the FPAUDIO1 mobo connectors? (this would take me actually removing the jumpers that are on the FPAUDIO1 pins)
Doing this will make my rear audio jack useless, right?

This mobo is making me very upset about the sound problem, and I am starting to think it might be a problem with the mobo and not me.

I REALLY need help...