The many A7N8X E Deluxe's that won't boot

[Max]

I have spent hours Googling the newsgroups for solutions to this
problem but without luck.

It is a common problem - the A7N8X E Deluxe will power up but will
give no messages, voice or beeps and no monitor display. If you remove
the CPU you get the 'CPU fault' voice message but nothing else, even
if there are no other components on the board...removing the board
from the case, clearing CMOS, trying other CPUs, RAM, new power
supply, none of these things are the fix.

But has anyone had these same symptoms and found a fix? Most people
say they are RMAing their board but I do wonder, is the problem really
a faulty board?

One thing I notice is that the BIOS chip is labelled 1009 but I think
Asus withdrew that version - surely that wouldn't be the problem
though, would it?

Would really like to hear from anyone who has succeeded from this
point...

Max

 

[John Crawford]

There is no such Bios version 1009 for this board on the Asus web site.
There was a 1010 version
out but it was a load of trouble and they pulled it. My advise would be
to obtain Bios version 1008
and install it if you can.

 

[Paul]

I have spent hours Googling the newsgroups for solutions to this
problem but without luck.

It is a common problem - the A7N8X E Deluxe will power up but will
give no messages, voice or beeps and no monitor display. If you remove
the CPU you get the 'CPU fault' voice message but nothing else, even
if there are no other components on the board...removing the board
from the case, clearing CMOS, trying other CPUs, RAM, new power
supply, none of these things are the fix.

But has anyone had these same symptoms and found a fix? Most people
say they are RMAing their board but I do wonder, is the problem really
a faulty board?

One thing I notice is that the BIOS chip is labelled 1009 but I think
Asus withdrew that version - surely that wouldn't be the problem
though, would it?

Would really like to hear from anyone who has succeeded from this
point...

Max

It could be a BIOS problem. Funny that a board would ship with a
BIOS that immature. Usually they wait a while before concluding a
BIOS is good enough to ship with product.

In terms of things to play with, try moving the CPU_FSB jumper
from pins 1-2 to 2-3, as this will set the FSB to 200MHz instead
of the normal rated speed. I saw one comment saying the board
wouldn't post with a high FSB, but a lower one worked. You could
also try disabling SATA, via the SATA_EN1 jumper. There was a
comment about the SATA BIOS code in the flash ROM being
screwed up - hacking either the pulled 1009 or 1010 with a
new SATA BIOS yields a working board, and that implies one
of the problems with the BIOS was the SATA code. Maybe
disabling the SATA chip will prevent the code from being
used.

If you know someone with a board like this, maybe you could
"hot-flash" to an older BIOS. Hot flashing is risky, but
since you'd have to RMA anyway, maybe worth a shot. Much
better to try a few more things, on the off chance you'll
be able to flash your way out of trouble after it POSTs.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/search.php ( "A7N8X-e 1009" )

HTH,
Paul

 

[Max]

It could be a BIOS problem. Funny that a board would ship with a
BIOS that immature. Usually they wait a while before concluding a
BIOS is good enough to ship with product.

In terms of things to play with, try moving the CPU_FSB jumper
from pins 1-2 to 2-3, as this will set the FSB to 200MHz instead
of the normal rated speed. I saw one comment saying the board
wouldn't post with a high FSB, but a lower one worked. You could
also try disabling SATA, via the SATA_EN1 jumper. There was a
comment about the SATA BIOS code in the flash ROM being
screwed up - hacking either the pulled 1009 or 1010 with a
new SATA BIOS yields a working board, and that implies one
of the problems with the BIOS was the SATA code. Maybe
disabling the SATA chip will prevent the code from being
used.

If you know someone with a board like this, maybe you could
"hot-flash" to an older BIOS. Hot flashing is risky, but
since you'd have to RMA anyway, maybe worth a shot. Much
better to try a few more things, on the off chance you'll
be able to flash your way out of trouble after it POSTs.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/search.php ( "A7N8X-e 1009" )

HTH,
Paul

There is no such Bios version 1009 for this board on the Asus web site.
There was a 1010 version
out but it was a load of trouble and they pulled it. My advise would be
to obtain Bios version 1008
and install it if you can.

--
John Crawford
(e-mail address removed)

Thanks Paul and John,

Until I can get the board to boot I can't of course change the BIOS
back to 1008. I have tried setting FSB to the lower speed and the SATA
jumper in both positions...

Somehow I can't believe the board is faulty but boy, it is a challenge
to get it up and running!

Thanks again guys,

Max