Motherboard Problems.

[voogru]

Hello,

First, here are my main specs:

AMD AthlonXP 3000+
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Mushin PC3200 DDR Ram (2x512MB)
465W Enermax Power Supply

Im currently having some major issues with my A7N8X Deluxe, My main problem is that the system will randomly bluescreen and decide to reboot.

I did some early troubleshooting and decided it was the ram, I exchanged the ram for 2 brand new sticks, it fixed some issues I had in a game (the game constantly crashed to the desktop, after putting in the replacement memory the game no longer crashes on me).

However Im still getting bluescreens/reboots (bluescreen with random error message and a reboot), I tried changing the ram from dual channel to single channel and the system crashed immediately upon boot or within the first 5-10 mins of operating.

So I looked at my bios settings, made some changes, rebooted.

System didnt post, moniter didnt turn on, I reset the cmos, system boots.

I go into the bios, make NO changes, save, reboot.

System doesnt post.

I reset the cmos and boot again, I recieve a "CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults Loaded" error message.

Now, I have the lates bios (1007 or something), I cant make any changes to the bios without it not booting on me, and on top of that when it was working the system will randomly decide "Hmm.. he's doing something important, lets crash right about now!"

Right now im about to throw the motherboard out the window, this is the second asus motherboard I had that randomly rebooted (last one was a totally different config).


Any ideas on what I can do? I cant even edit any bios settings without it screwing up on me so I'm lost here.

And one final thing, WHY CANT I FIND A DECENT MOTHERBOARD WITHOUT ONBOARD SOUND?!?!

Thanks.


- voogru.

[John Prophet]

onboard sound has improved to the point where it is standard now on boards..not like, say, 18 months ago when it was optional.

Have you tried another bios battery perhaps?

JP

[Atomic Rooster]

Lots of good info can be found here for the Asus A7N8X from Amdmb.com.


Wow! Twice in the same night I posted a reference that site.

[voogru]

Thanks for the link, checking it out now.

[John Prophet]

I hafta say, that board reminds me of the k7s5a in one way....tons of peeps postin with issues with that Asus board.

[voogru]

My attempts to fix it have failed, now the machine doesnt even post. (Even after multiple attempts to reset the cmos/bios).

I purchased a new motherboard (and its not an asus!) and I also dont plan on buying another asus for a while (second motherboard I got from them in a row that has given me problems).

I purchased an Abit NF7-S, hopefully it will be better than the asus .

Thanks for the help.

[Atomic Rooster]

Sorry to hear about the Asus. The Abit is a nice board. I have one and it runs great.

[Ace McGirk]

Hmmmmm , I wonder why ppl have probs with this board.

I have one and I ordered Crucial memory from their memory selector and have had ZERO probs. I have 3 sticks of 256mb pc3200 in and have not seen a BSD.My thoughts are that the memory timings you are using are not correct.

As for the onboard sound,I have yet to put my SBL value card in, onboard sound seems to work great.

[voogru]

Just an update, Installed the Abit NF7-S. System runs like a charm, no random reboots since I started it up. (about 6-7 days).

[nurdonsite2]

good to hear. it seems that a lot of theses boards are comming defected right outta the box. my fried bought one and it would just boot up as soonm as u hit the power supply "on" switch. he exchanged it for another one and his machine booted up fine.