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Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe.... (Read 775 times)
Sep 12
th
, 2008 at 6:01pm
Groundbound1
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No, I don't work for Mythbusters...
Michigan, USA
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I recently purchased this board, along with an Athlon X2 4400+, and 2GB Corsair memory as a combo from Ebay. The first thing I do when I make a purchase like this, is open the package and make sure that all the parts that are supposed to move, do, and those that aren't, don't. Low and behold, the northbridge chipset fan is "hit". (Common problem on this model, so I'm told)
I immediately contacted the seller and explained that I was a little "put off" about the bad cooler, and I wouldn't have bid on it if that info had been disclosed. He says "I don't know when it went bad, or even that it had, but I've never had any problems with it." He went on to say that he was very sorry, and that he is very interested in keeping his feedback at 100% positive, so he graciously offered to warranty the board for one year. (Nice, guy. Ebay needs more people like him)
Now, it comes time to test it.
I removed the bad chipset cooler and replaced it with another, I removed the stock CPU cooler and replaced it with a Zalman (applying fresh thermal compound to both, of course), I mounted the board on standoffs, in a case with two 80mm case fans blowing out, and one 80mm fan blowing in. (Case flows very well) I then connected it to my 500W Ultra power supply, an older 10GB hard drive as master, and a 5GB slave with drivers other software on it, a DVD-ROM, and an ATI HD3870 PCI-E video card, all from previous machines.
I booted the machine up and entered the BIOS to check the settings. I turned on the features I would be using (onboard sound, LAN, etc.) and turned off the ones I wouldn't be (all the raid stuff, mainly). I checked the RAM and processor settings to make sure they were all set to "auto". After saving any changes I had made, I restarted it.
All was normal except for the fact that the motherboard was calling the DDR400, DDR333. (Not a big deal, I guess that's why Asus allows the user so much control over system settings.)
LEFT AT DEFAULT, I then proceeded to install Windows XP Pro SP1, and all looked well. After that I installed Windows installer 3.1, then the Nvidia chipset drivers, LAN drivers, sound drivers, DirectX 9.0c (August 08 redistrib), .NET Framework 2.0, Everest Home Edition, and then the ATI Catalyst Control Center and drivers (version 8.8 from ATI). Rebooting when nessesary, all seemed to be going great.
I popped in my SP2 upgrade disk and as soon as the DVD drive spun up, the system froze, immediately followed by a BSOD stating "Machine_Check_Exception" . I reset the system, and tried the SP2 upgrade again. Same thing.
So I thought maybe I had installed an improper driver somewhere, and double checked Asus's site. Nope, right drivers. Then I decided to start fresh, by formatting and reinstalling. (That's why I use 10GB drives to test with, they format fast!) I followed the same procedure as the first time. Same result again, as soon as the DVD-ROM drive spins up, "Machine_Check_Exception" .
So I swap out the DVD-ROM drive, for another. Ran through the whole process again, to no avail. I ran through the whole process one more time, but this time I went into the BIOS and "relaxed" the memory timings as much as possible, thinking it may have been the RAM. No joy.
I did a little research on this "Machine Check Exception" issue, and found out that it's a pretty non-specific failure, usually caused by overheating. I was closely monitoring all the system temps with Everest, and all looked very good the whole time. (motherboard temps never rose above 33C, CPU stayed below 40C.)
So my question would be, is the board cooked, or am I missing something?
«
Last Edit: Sep 13
th
, 2008 at 12:10am by Groundbound1
»
Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932
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Reply #1 -
Sep 12
th
, 2008 at 10:24pm
congo
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Colonel
Make BIOS your Friend
Australia
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Posts: 3663
My congratulations on your choice of superceeded hardware, as far as old equipment goes, it is quite capable. (providing it actually works)
The chip cooler has always been a problem on these boards from release date. The problem, once repaired, is inconsequential, providing the board was not damaged in the process. I have not heard of boards that died from these fan failures, and these were very common, almost universal failures of this popular mainboard series.
The quickest way to isolate problems like this is isolation itself.
If you can introduce as many KNOWN good working parts into the system, it narrows the fault possibilities considerably. Be sure that your PSU, optical drives and hard drives are beyond reproach.
I was taken aback at the use of such small (old) hdd's indicated by your post, immediately suspecting compatibility issues/faults with such ancient drives. Though not ideal, a quick format of a more modern hdd would have been preferable, and indeed, a good SATA2 drive would not be a waste on that machine, once it's working condition is verified.
Be suspicious of older IDE devices, and take pains to ensure the jumpering and cabling of those drives is correct.
Become competent with the system's BIOS. I recommend disabling auto-clocking features and lock the bios settings to reflect the default speeds globally. Though this step is not required, it will familiarise you with the configuration tools essential to getting the most from the system.
I am using XPx64 SP2 on such a machine now, and I use XP SP3 on very similar equipment without issues, and have until recently used XP SP2 without fault on all of these machines.
Ensure your install media is beyond reproach. I'm not sure why you chose XP SP2 over SP3, I asume you have your reasons. I usually introduce the Service Packs from a Slipstreamed XP disk which contains them in the original install, and this method works well as far as I can determine. "nLite" will do this simply and admirably; or, if you have the patience and skill, you can produce a slipstreamed install disk by following MS guides on the subject.
Here are links that may assist you in your quest.
nLite
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html
XP SP2 : This is the file I have been successfully using for years.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245...
XP SP3 - quite successful for use in a slipstrreamed install disk or post install implementation.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08...
I cast suspicion on the service pack media you presently have, and the chronology of it's introduction. I would prefer to see the Service Packs introduced before a software regime was in place.
Obtain the latest correct bios and drivers for the board.
«
Last Edit: Sep 13
th
, 2008 at 8:33am by congo
»
Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD
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Reply #2 -
Sep 13
th
, 2008 at 11:22am
Groundbound1
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Colonel
No, I don't work for Mythbusters...
Michigan, USA
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Posts: 1745
I just noticed your sig, Great minds... huh.
Ok, I think it may be the power supply. While it's more than able to keep up with my older machine, I noticed that in the hardware monitor of the BIOS, the 12V rating is hanging down in the high elevens. (the HD3870 is likely eating up the juice) Egg is a good color on me!
So I pulled the HD3870 out, and put in an old ATI rage 3D pci card. No crashes so far.
I know that I'll need a new PSU, but would the undervolt cause this type of crash?
Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932
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Reply #3 -
Sep 13
th
, 2008 at 6:27pm
congo
Offline
Colonel
Make BIOS your Friend
Australia
Gender:
Posts: 3663
It's possible, I guess it depends on how low voltage is, and how accurate the sensor is.
The reason I suspect your SP2 media is because that's the point of error, when you try to install it. I figured either you have some other software installed prior to SP2 that upsets it or the SP2 media is damaged.
I've had a few PSU's on this board over the years, the first one was reading high 11's on the 12v rail. Watch the volts (12v & vCore) under load and see if they alter.
I've been looking for a 4400+ or a 4800+ but never found one at a reasonable price, though I haven't searched for ages.
The 4400+ is basicly two 3700+'s in one cpu package, the San Diego and the Toledo are very similar in architecture with the same 1mb L2 cache per core.
I have three machines all fitted with 3700+ San Diegos and they fly if you can get the core speed up. All three of mine run at 2.75ghz easily, but it's difficult to push much past that without resorting to large vCore increases and third party cooling. Most people that I helped to overclock their 4400+'s hit a thermal wall at about 2.6ghz on the stock cooler.
At 2.6ghz, the 4400+ is a pretty good cpu, capable of running most modern games smoothly, including Crysis and FSX, (I need to wind down the traffic in FSX with my single cored 3700+'s).
To overclock with a 1:1 FSB/Memory ratio you need fast ram, otherwise you need to set a memclock ratio of 333 in bios.
Set HT multi to x4
Set FSB to 250
Set CPU multi to 10x - if you can run at 11x stable, then all the better!
Lock PCIe to 100
Lock PCI to 66
Set vCore to 1.4v (then adjust later up or down as required)
Set the 1T/2T Timing value to 2T if you are overclocking the ram above 240mhz (DDR480), these boards do not like 1T memory timing above 240mz or so.
This should give you an achievable overclock, however, you might have some fun getting the memory stable and set up correctly.
Anything over 2.5ghz with the 4400+ is a bonus, especially with the stock cooler.
My Abit AN8 board is set to 250mhz FSB, 11x cpu, 1:1 ratio with Kingmax Hardcore DDR500.
My A8N-SLI is set to 275mhz FSB, 10x cpu, (vCore 1.4v), 1:1 ratio with Patriot ELL PC3200
My Asrock 939SLI-ESATA2 is set to 250mhz FSB, 11x cpu, but the poorer memory needs a divider.
I do not allow any Autoclocking options in my bios configs, and everything is locked as far as possible.
Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD
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Reply #4 -
Sep 14
th
, 2008 at 8:32pm
Groundbound1
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Colonel
No, I don't work for Mythbusters...
Michigan, USA
Gender:
Posts: 1745
WOW!!! The PSU is still having trouble keeping up (12V dipping to 11.8V, not good I know) But the problem seemed to be the two DVD drives I was testing with. I put in a third, and all seems well.
Now I thought my last rig was pretty good for as old as it was, but this thing really doesn't disappoint! Doubled my 3Dmark '06 score from 4100+ to more than 8400+!
Thanks for the help Congo, I'm now off to see how Crysis looks!
Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932
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Reply #5 -
Sep 15
th
, 2008 at 3:58pm
Ivan
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only like Russian aircraft
The netherlands
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Posts: 6058
Did they make two versions of the deluxe... ive seen one on the asus site with a heatpipe system instead of the damn fan.
Oh and i have one with the new model fan... it loves to kill harddisks if your PSU is on the low side of the power curve
Russian planes:
IL-76 (all standard length ones)
,
Tu-154 and Il-62
,
Tu-134
and
An-24RV
&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found
here
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Reply #6 -
Sep 15
th
, 2008 at 4:09pm
Groundbound1
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Colonel
No, I don't work for Mythbusters...
Michigan, USA
Gender:
Posts: 1745
Ivan wrote
on Sep 15
th
, 2008 at 3:58pm:
Did they make two versions of the deluxe... ive seen one on the asus site with a heatpipe system instead of the damn fan.
Oh and i have one with the new model fan... it loves to kill harddisks if your PSU is on the low side of the power curve
There may have been different revisions of the deluxe, but as far as I know the one with the heatpipe chipset cooler is the A8N-SLI Premium.
I appreciate the heads up. A new powersupply is the next thing on the list.
It kills me. I've never been able to afford the latest and greatest, and I really thought my P4C800 was doing pretty well. Then I get ahold of this rig, and the difference is night and day. I hope this one can satisfy me for a while!
Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932
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Reply #7 -
Sep 16
th
, 2008 at 7:56pm
congo
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Colonel
Make BIOS your Friend
Australia
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Posts: 3663
There were SE models of the A8N-SLI Deluxe boards.
Another board almost identical was the A8N-E based on the NF4 Ultra chipset. The ultra lacked SLI and some other minor functionality (firewire?) and was produced on the traditional gold coloured PCB's, not the black PCB's of the SLI boards. The bios and other properties of the A8N-SLI series and the A8N-E model was practically the same.
Most A8N-E's (a budget model) went into vanilla PC's, and the owners don't know their potential.
I saw many people dumping these systems and "upgrading" to crippled C2D systems (the lesser cpu's) with Vista installed on them. Then they would rant on about how much better they were.... but they were probably taking a performance hit, truth be known. They possibly saw an initial performance boost because they had a fresh windows install and the Obligatory 4gb ram upgrade. They had no idea of the potential of the 939 boards used in conjunction with a well planned overclock.
Socket 939 boards based on NF4 SLI or NF4 Ultra chipsets are beyond their use by date in any event, but they are still quite useful in the right hands, particularly if San Diego or Toledo based cpu's are fitted.
BTW, if anyone has a spare 4400+ - 4800+ lying around, I'd like to get my hands on one.
Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD
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Reply #8 -
Sep 17
th
, 2008 at 12:03pm
Groundbound1
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Colonel
No, I don't work for Mythbusters...
Michigan, USA
Gender:
Posts: 1745
If you have an FX-57, I'll trade ya.
Specs: Asus Crosshair nForce 590 SLI,
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ w/ZeroTherm BTF90,
4GB G.Skill PI Series DDR2-800,
Sapphire HD4870 512MB,
PC P&C 750 Quad, in a CoolerMaster HAF932
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Reply #9 -
Sep 18
th
, 2008 at 11:21pm
congo
Offline
Colonel
Make BIOS your Friend
Australia
Gender:
Posts: 3663
I'm not sure it would be a fair trade. The FX-60 is more closely related to the ADA4400+, (not the ADV4400+)
Look here...
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUSideBySide.aspx?id=25&id=26&id=66&id=69&...
It will depend on your 4400's potential.
The 3700+'s I'm using now are running barely under the FX-57's stock speed.
Mainboard: Asus P5K-Premium, CPU=Intel E6850 @ x8x450fsb 3.6ghz, RAM: 4gb PC8500 Team Dark, Video: NV8800GT, HDD: 2x1Tb Samsung F3 RAID-0 + 1Tb F3, PSU: Antec 550 Basiq, OS: Win7x64, Display: 24" WS LCD
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