Wierd A7N8X issue, new BIOS didn't help.

B

Bop

2[H]4U
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Oct 1, 2003
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Ok, I've had this issue since day one and nothing seems to fix it. My problem is whenever I access the BIOS and change a few things there seems to be a chance that my PC will just "die", i.e. after I hit save and exit I will hear no beep but the HD light is on and the monitor shuts off. I am then forced to reset the CMOS, and retry changing BIOS options.

This really annoys me, especially yesterday when I was troubleshooting my memory problem(looks like DDR400 512MB HyperX sticks can't run stable @ 3-3-3-7 | 2.8v |166mhz). I had to reset the CMOS about 10 times during that whole period.

Is my board glitched somehow or is it my CPU having trouble, as the issue seems to happen when I change the FSB. It also happens when I disable some devices like onboard audio and LAN.
 
I had issues with my A7N8X. It would lock up in the bios, and resetting, and flashing didn't help. It's probably a board issue, but check your ram, and power supply. Have you run memtest?
 
What sort of power supply do you have?

Addionally, I belelive much of the Kingston HyperX is Winbond based, which is physically incapable of doing Cas 3.

These days, if its a CAS 2 stick, it will likely never do CAS 3, and vice versa
 
I ran memtest with each of my 256MB modules @ 2-2-2-11 and 2-2-2-6, 0 errors after a couple of hours.

With my 512MB sticks I think I just got really unlucky or my board has a problem with 512MB memory sticks, but both 512MB HyperX modules of mine would have UE errors or 1000 errors before 4 minutes at any timing\speed\voltage.

My PSU is an Antec 350W, Antec makes pretty solid PSUs so I doubt that is the issue.

If it is a problem with the motherboard I think i'll just save up my cash and get the -E revision or an NFS-7 later(maybe one of those DFI boards if I got extra cash)
 
I don't see a headcount on your hard drives, but thats the PSU that I had before I got my TrueControl.

I haddn't yet moved up to a Barton when it was taken out of service, but it was certainly near its limits (this is before the Raptors too), the rails started to sag with the addition of the 9500 Pro.....

How are your rails holding up?

You're using slots 1 & 3, right?
 
I'm not quite sure what you mean by rails. I'm going to take a wild guess but do you mean voltage rails or something?

I'm using 2 HDs, not in RAID. Primary is an ATA/133 40GB Maxtor and secondary is an ATA/100 80GB Western Digital. If it matters I have one 16x Pioneer slot load DVD drive and a TDK 12x burner.

I'm using slots 2 & 3. I used to do 1&3 but I went to the ASUS website and they recommend to place the DIMMs in slots 2 & 3(the two blue slots).
 
replace your CMOS battery... there was alot of problems with this, when Asus sent out a few batchs of boards with batteries that were not fully charged... this caused many bios saving problems... plus it's a cheap thing to replace before scraping the board...

also, how are you saving.. I do NOT recommend hitting F10 (or whatver the shortcut is) to save and exit...

It's recommended to go to the save menu, hit Save changes first, give a few seconds, then save and exit... this will give some time for the bios to save the changes, and can help out...

There were a few problems in the beginning with the bios having issues saving, but most of those were save and death issues of the bios actually corrupting when saving... It's possible you have a board with a bad CMOS chip, and it's not related to these other problems I mentioned...
 
I never even knew about F10, I would wait a second then hit save and exit.

I might try a new battery, and if that doesn't work I guess I'll know what the problem is.
 
Yes, I mean voltage rails, what are they at, and do they fluctuate?

Slots 2 & 3 make no sense on that board, thats all second channel action... to get DC, you need 1+2 or 1+3

I'd vote for the battery replacement as well.
 
Yeah when I am monitoring the voltages sometimes the alarm sounds as it is reporting the +5v as 5.5. The CPU voltage spikes very sharply or sags sometimes.(sometimes down to 1.3v)

My computer is reporting my memory as dual channel. The manual states either use slots 1+3, 2+3 or all 3 slots for dual channel.

I'll try replacing the battery. I just spent some money on a component cable so if I need a new PSU I'll have to wait :(
 
The spiking and sagging of the PSU voltage rails indicates that you're drawing too much power for that system, which will cause your instability and will lead to a much shorter lifespan for all components involved.

I strongly suggest getting a volt-o-meter out and measuring the voltages of the PSU, and if they're consistant, you will then have a motherboard problem, not a PSU problem, however, this is unlikely.
 
I'll probably get an Antec 480W PSU soon but money's tight for me right now.

Tnx for the help, maybe voltage spikes were causing my 512MB sticks to fail due to their higher density.
 
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