A7N8X Deluxe Will Not Run

[Dennis]

I have it set to boot from HDD-0. Should I make that HDD-1?? Is HDD-0
reserved for S-ATA drives?

I guess it is worth a try!

If I were to put 1-2 S-ATA drives into it, could I also use 4 IDE drives? I
see I can get an IDE > S-ATA adapter for $40 rather than paying at least
$160 for a drive I don't need.

 

[Dennis]

Have you checked the orientation of the floppy cable?

Yes, I did, but if I had it wrong the LED should stay on all the time
anyway.

Pin 1 is usually on the other side away from PSU.

That depends on the manufacturer, one of the two I used is that way but the
other one isn't.

Is the m/b mounted correctly? IE no posts underneath touching the

conductors?

ASUS suggested I remove it from the case and set it, the HDD, and the power
supply loose on the table to check for that. I did but with the same
results.

Are all PSU plugs in?

PSU?? Power Supply Unit? If so, then yes. I notice the PSU is much more
quiet than with the A7A266. I assume this is because the A7N8X is slowing
the fans while the A7A266 is only monitoring their speed.

Are all PCI cards seated cleanly?

What PCI cards?? All I have is the AGP video. I have disabled the onboard
sound, LANs, etc too.

Are all memory cards ""

About half the time the vocal POST Reporter complains of bad memory even
though it shows up on the screen as being there. This appears to be random,
and the results are the same regardless. I have tried the memory in both
the first and the last slot but it makes no difference. It has always been
properly seated and locked into place.

Is the disc drive on Master?

I have tried both Master and Slave, with the CD-ROM as the other.

Have you tried the disc drive on Cable Select?

Isn't that only for MACs? How would I do it?

Have you tried alternate cables, floppy, etc?

I have used three 80 conductor cables.

Will memtest86 run for a minimum of two full passes?
If not, you have a memory / bios config problem.

What is memtest86?

If you install XP or any flavour of windows on one PC, don't expect it to
work at all in another unless 100% identical. Everything is different -

I had tried to do a fresh install for that reason. I know it loaded ALi
drivers for the A7A266 board which might be unnecessary, but I would think
that the unit would at least boot into DOS. The 1.04 GB HDD I tried had
Windows 98 on it from a P120. There were no ALi drivers on it! I wouldn't
expect it to run at peak performance without specific drivers for the
motherboard, but I would expect it to at least boot!

chipset, addresses of things, drivers. You *have* to either reinstall from
scratch or run a repair. A repair is run by booting of the XP CD, setup will
detect you have windows installed, it will prompt you to either start a
recovery console (2nd option) or 1st option will enable you to proceed

with

What in blazes is "Recovery Console"?? I tried it but it appears useless.

 

[Dennis]

It was running at 100 MHz at the start, and the CPU speed was only 1100 MHz.
Since I'm using 333 RAM, shouldn't it be set at 166 MHz? The CPU speed is
1833 then, but I think it is supposed to be 2133.

The results are the same at 100 or 166.

 

[rstlne]

What your describing is a working system...
What your saying is faulty is the pc starting up...

It sounds to me like the hard drives are either not connected correctly, or
you hav ea setting in the bios that isnt allowing the computer to boot from
the hard drive..
You have said a few different faults that you later counter'd..
Now you said that you could only get so far during install and the system
would just reboot (heat or ram issue usally) but I really really screw'd up
bit of software will do this..
then you later stated that you installed the OS on another machine and the
N8X cant read it..
Then you came back later and said you can read it.....
The floppy drive is probably dirty.. that's one fault..
I would guess that maybee your CD drive, or CD is probably dirty too, and
something isnt being copied correctly and then it reboots (again software
can do it but it's rare)..
so I would say, This is just me, I would say remove the old partitions and
add new partitions then format them (fat 32), copy the data from the CD over
(it should all go straight over without any trouble..
then install XP from the hard drive, it should go flawlessly..
My guess is that SOMEWHERE during install you have screw'd ur hard drive and
that's the "only" problem with this system

 

[Ed]

Never used this site, but it may help...?
http://www.fonerbooks.com/ide_hd.htm

btw, I hope you read the mobo manual at least twice! ;p
Ed

 

[Dennis]

I'm not familiar with the Dlx board, but if it has RAID and/or SATA make

sure the BIOS is setup to boot-up from where ever you have your HDD
plugged into and not one of the other HDD controllers.

I have the S-ATA disabled because I don't have a S-ATA drive. Is it
possible to select controllers? All I see in the BIOS for booting is HDD-0,
HDD-1, etc.

I was able to get it to boot from the hard drive but only with MS-DOS. I
think the problem is that the controller is too fast for the drives or it
requires the hard drives be absolutely perfect. The two drives I used were
about a year and a half old, a 30 GB 7200 rpm Maxtor and a 40 GB 5400 rpm
Quantum. I am using the 40 GB Quantum as a boot drive right now, but with
my old A7A266 board. I had no problem installing XP or running it now. I
checked the parameters for the Maxtor drive with those for it from the
Maxtor website and found them identical so it is detecting the drive
properly.

I got the following errors the last few times I tried installing XP with the
A7N8X-DX:

0x00000024 NTFS.SYS
0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0x0000008E SETUPDD.SYS
0x00000026 CDFS_FILE_SYSTEM
0x0000008E SETUPDD.SYS

The *.SYS messages had lines like "Address F99D50FF base at F999E000 -
Datestamp 3B7D8507"

CDFS_FILE_SYSTEM seems to indicate something is wrong with the XP CD, but I
was able to use it to install what I'm running now. If it couldn't read the
CD, wouldn't it just tell me that and suggest cleaning the CD?

I also tried installing Windows 98 SE and got an error. It didn't stop the
computer but sent me back to the DOS prompt.

 

[Dennis]

What your describing is a working system...

It SHOULD be a working system!

What your saying is faulty is the pc starting up...

Best I can figure out is I/O errors with the drives

It sounds to me like the hard drives are either not connected correctly, or
you hav ea setting in the bios that isnt allowing the computer to boot from
the hard drive..

I have tried at least 10-12 times with the drives being detected upon
bootup. I could boot from the drive, but only with DOS.

You have said a few different faults that you later counter'd..
Now you said that you could only get so far during install and the system
would just reboot (heat or ram issue usally) but I really really screw'd up
bit of software will do this..

I was able to run the computer for about half an hour after booting to DOS
so heat appears out. The errors I have been getting happen within ten
minutes of trying to install XP. The only software I have run on it when
getting the errors has been the Windows XP install.

I do wonder about the RAM. How would I test it? Would my old 266 MHz DDR
RAM work in the A7N8X?

then you later stated that you installed the OS on another machine and the
N8X cant read it..

It works fine with the A7A266 but not the A7N8X. I would prefer to install
it fresh anyway, and should be able to do it.

Then you came back later and said you can read it.....

I did?? I said I could boot but only from DOS.

I would guess that maybee your CD drive, or CD is probably dirty too, and

I was able to install XP twice from the same CD, including the last time.

something isnt being copied correctly and then it reboots (again software
can do it but it's rare)..

The only software has been the XP CD, except the time I tried to install 98
SE. I also played a DOS game but on a third drive I haven't tried to use
for Windows. It had Windows 98 SE on it and should have been able to boot
but didn't.

so I would say, This is just me, I would say remove the old partitions and
add new partitions then format them (fat 32), copy the data from the CD over
(it should all go straight over without any trouble..
then install XP from the hard drive, it should go flawlessly..

That might work but should not be necessary.

My guess is that SOMEWHERE during install you have screw'd ur hard drive and
that's the "only" problem with this system

They continue to work fine with the A7A266. I am using the 40 GB Quantum as
a boot drive with the A7A266 right now.

 

[William]

It was running at 100 MHz at the start, and the CPU speed was only 1100 MHz.
Since I'm using 333 RAM, shouldn't it be set at 166 MHz? The CPU speed is
1833 then, but I think it is supposed to be 2133.

The results are the same at 100 or 166.

figured floppy/os

try clearing the cmos it may help there maybe a wrong setting that you are
not seeing . I see a lot of prpblems with the a7n8x mother boards from what
I read in the news groups .I,am glad I use the a7v8x with serial raid.

 

[Moe Green]

Ok here are some suggestions.

a) Check your CPU temperatures in the bios. Are they below 57c? If so
you probably fine there.

b) The memory should probably be in slot 1. Also I've gotten the post
warning on "memory fail" and my computer is stable and it passes the
memtest86. So don't read too much into that.

c) Make sure you have nothing but the necessities plugged in. Video
card, hard drive, 1 Cd-Rom and if you can boot from the CD for the XP
install (more on that below) leave the floppy out of the equation for
now.

c) If you board is new your bios should be at 1005 and if your using a
single stick on posting it should read something like "memory - single
channel mode" and at this point you should be using a single stick.

1) You say you disabled your SATA drives, does that mean you changed
the jumpers on the board? If not, you should - page 19 in manual 1st
jumper guide.

2) You said you originally had a 200FSB setting. This would imply an
incorrect jumper setting for the FSB. Check the jumper setting (on
the board) on page 21 jumper guide #5 (should be over pins 1&2) for
266FSB or greater.

3) Are you using 6 diskettes to install XP with? Those diskettes can
get corrupted very easily. Redo the diskettes or try them on your
other machine. You should be able to get to diskette 6 main menu then
back out. Better yet is to make Windows XP CD bootable and skip any
installation from the floppy. Link below on how to do this. Booting
from a CD will be less prone to corruption and it's a faster load. Or
maybe you're getting to the main menu? If so are you reformatting?
You might also get Partition Magic and delete all the partitions, but
I'm not sure that necessary at this point.

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=248

4) make sure your jumpers are set correctly on your hard drive. If
it's a single drive make sure you have jumpers set to Master single
drive settings and its plug into the very end of the ribbon cable.
Same thing for your CD-Rom.

5) Get that memtest86. You download it, follow the directions and it
formats a floppy. You won't be able to see anything on the floppy,
but something's on there. You then boot from it and each pass through
contains 7 tests and it will test the memory and tell you if it gets
errors. This will test your memory (although I suppose it could give
you errors and be the memory controller). It's good to have if you
every overclock your memory anyway. Link below.

http://www.memtest86.com/

6) As a last resort see if you can get your hands on win98 or some OS
and see if you can install it.

7) You might also be able to fresh install XP on that drive on another
computer by getting to the main setup menu, reformatting the drive in
NTFS, let it load the "setup" files and then when it reboots (right
before it goes into the real XP setup/installation screen with the
rotating dots) stop it there and then move it over to the new computer
and boot up from there (with the XP CD in that CD-Rom drive of course)
and no floppy installed. Of course it's just all around better to
install from a CD straight from the computer you're actually
installing to.

You might also try amdforums.com - Asus boards for further imput.