M
Mortimer Schnurd
I just got this new board delivered and set to work installing it on
Saturday morning. Here is the system configuration I started with:
MB = A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 BIOS 1006
CPU = Athlon +2400 XP (tbred)
Memory = 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200 512MB (CMX512-3200C2) Slots 1 & 3
PSU = Antec 400W
Graphics = ATI Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8X
IDE1 = Western Digital 120
IDE2 Master = TDK Velocd 5200B
IDE2 Slave = Aopen 12X DVD Player
After installing the board, I booted up normally using the default
bios settings. I decided to see if Win XP could start and recognize
the new hardware without doing a "Repair". Well, that was
unsuccessful. WinXP immediately complained and would not boot which
was kind of what I expected.
Now I knew I needed to do a "Repair" installation and I now booted
with my XP CD in the TDK device. After the install found my existing
installation I pressed the "R" to do a repair (NOT using the recovery
console method). Everything seemed to be going ok but then the install
stopped and complained about not being able to copy a file. I hit the
"retry" button which worked and the file was copied. Installation
continued but encountered yet another "read" problem. Several hits on
"retry" finally worked. On the third time, I decided I would pull the
CD and give it a quick cleaning. The CD was in good shape with no
noticeable scratches or smudges ( I had used this CD several times for
installations with no problems). After ire-inserting and pressing
"retry" the installation continued.
The installl finally made it to the "Starting Windows" screen. The
machine re-booted fine and went back to installing Windows. But then
it started getting the read errors again. At one point the "retry"
would not work and I had to abort the install.
This process continued for several iterations. By this time I was also
getting blue screens too. I then resorted to doing a "Fresh" install,
formatting the drive. The same problems again occurred. OK, now I
figure something is definitely wrong with the CD so I use another that
I have. Several iterations of the same errors followed. I then decided
to try another CROM only to have the "read" errors again. Notice, I
earlier mentioned these read errors are RANDOM, and do not occur for
the same files. I then tried swapping out my round cable for a ribbon.
This too failed.
Because it was now late afternoon on Sunday and I had made NO
progress, I had to resort to putting my old MB back. The old MB went
back in with the same memory,cpu, and peripherals used in the ASUS. I
restored my disk from a backup but had problems booting. Windows
complained about the "hive". So I did a "Repair" install and had no
problems whatsoever. Not a single "read" error was found.
Does anybody have a clue as to what I could try next, other then
sending this board back? I have installed many other MB's before and
never had this problem. I just have to believe there is something
wrong with the chipset for this board. Oh and BTW, I also upgraded the
BIOS to 1007.
--John Wood
Saturday morning. Here is the system configuration I started with:
MB = A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2 BIOS 1006
CPU = Athlon +2400 XP (tbred)
Memory = 2 sticks of Corsair PC3200 512MB (CMX512-3200C2) Slots 1 & 3
PSU = Antec 400W
Graphics = ATI Radeon 9500 Pro AGP 8X
IDE1 = Western Digital 120
IDE2 Master = TDK Velocd 5200B
IDE2 Slave = Aopen 12X DVD Player
After installing the board, I booted up normally using the default
bios settings. I decided to see if Win XP could start and recognize
the new hardware without doing a "Repair". Well, that was
unsuccessful. WinXP immediately complained and would not boot which
was kind of what I expected.
Now I knew I needed to do a "Repair" installation and I now booted
with my XP CD in the TDK device. After the install found my existing
installation I pressed the "R" to do a repair (NOT using the recovery
console method). Everything seemed to be going ok but then the install
stopped and complained about not being able to copy a file. I hit the
"retry" button which worked and the file was copied. Installation
continued but encountered yet another "read" problem. Several hits on
"retry" finally worked. On the third time, I decided I would pull the
CD and give it a quick cleaning. The CD was in good shape with no
noticeable scratches or smudges ( I had used this CD several times for
installations with no problems). After ire-inserting and pressing
"retry" the installation continued.
The installl finally made it to the "Starting Windows" screen. The
machine re-booted fine and went back to installing Windows. But then
it started getting the read errors again. At one point the "retry"
would not work and I had to abort the install.
This process continued for several iterations. By this time I was also
getting blue screens too. I then resorted to doing a "Fresh" install,
formatting the drive. The same problems again occurred. OK, now I
figure something is definitely wrong with the CD so I use another that
I have. Several iterations of the same errors followed. I then decided
to try another CROM only to have the "read" errors again. Notice, I
earlier mentioned these read errors are RANDOM, and do not occur for
the same files. I then tried swapping out my round cable for a ribbon.
This too failed.
Because it was now late afternoon on Sunday and I had made NO
progress, I had to resort to putting my old MB back. The old MB went
back in with the same memory,cpu, and peripherals used in the ASUS. I
restored my disk from a backup but had problems booting. Windows
complained about the "hive". So I did a "Repair" install and had no
problems whatsoever. Not a single "read" error was found.
Does anybody have a clue as to what I could try next, other then
sending this board back? I have installed many other MB's before and
never had this problem. I just have to believe there is something
wrong with the chipset for this board. Oh and BTW, I also upgraded the
BIOS to 1007.
--John Wood
, I finally got some more