A8V won't reboot after bios settings saved

[Kevin Lambert]

This is a brand new machine. Here are the components:
Asus A8v Deluxe motherboard with bios 1008.002 beta (I used ALT-F2)
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Antec Solutions case with 350w Antec Smartpower PSU
TI-4600 AGP video card
1GB Kingston Value Ram PC3200 (KVR400AK2/1GR)

When I go first start it up it goes through a number of screens then
tells me that the bios checksum is incorrect and that the date/time is
not set. I then hit F1 to enter the bios and hit F10 to save and exit.
At this point the screen goes into powersaver mode and never comes out.

I have cleared the CMOS using the jumper before each of these

So far I have tried:
a) Just using (1) 512MB stick in B1. It won't even boot the first time.
It takes both sticks to boot.
b) Using a single 256MB PC2700 stick that was laying around. No change.
c) Taking the cmos battery out for a few minutes. No change.
d) I tried a different video card, No change.

If I enter the bios and hit ESC to exit without saving it continues on
its merry way and starts the WinXP install cd.

If I hit F2 (load defaults and continue) when it gets to the "bad cmos
checksum" it works until it needs to reboot, then the problem occurs.

I have no more ideas to try, does anybody else?

Kevin

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Have you tried the BIOS recovery feature?

(Page 4-5, manual version E1642.)

Good luck.

Bob Knowlden

Address may be scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Kevin Lambert]

I originally tried it with the 1006 bios and spent a few hours trying to
fix this problem. I then went to the 1008.002 bios and still had the
problem. It think the biosrecovery would probably just put the 1006
back, right?

Kevin

 

[Bob Knowlden]

It would install whichever BIOS was on the floppy or CD.

You could use another machine to prepare a floppy with the BIOS of your
choice on it, although you must rename it to A8V.ROM. The latest non-beta
BIOS at ftp.asuscom.de is 1008 (it appears to be a beta all the same,
1008.03). If you like beta BIOSes, 1009.02 is also there.

Bob Kn.

 

[Kevin Lambert]

Bob,
For some reason I can't log into ftp.asuscom.de. Doesn't it take
anonymous logins?

Kevin

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I tried it just now (8:56 PM EST), and it worked for me.

I did it via web browser (IE). I also tried it from the command line: it
accepted user "anonymous", password "blank" (without the quotes).

You could try a direct shot to the URL:

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/VIA_Chipset/K8T800Pro/A8V_Deluxe/

Bob Kn.

 

[Kevin Lambert]

Beta bios 1009.002 did it for me. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

I now have windows installed on my 160GB Raid0 system. Do you have any
clue why it wouldn't let me partition them into 2 seperate drives?

 

[Bob Knowlden]

I don't know. The RAID array should function like a single drive.

I used the XP partitioning utility to create 3 partitions on a pair of
WD1600JD drives in Raid 0. (I made one of the partitions FAT32, for good or
for ill. I used Partition Magic 8 to format it, because the XP formatter
won't do FAT32 larger than 32 MB.)

Bob Kn.

Beta bios 1009.002 did it for me. Thanks!!!!!!!!!

I now have windows installed on my 160GB Raid0 system. Do you have any
clue why it wouldn't let me partition them into 2 seperate drives?

(snip)

 

[Todd Bradstrum]

I don't know. The RAID array should function like a single drive.

I used the XP partitioning utility to create 3 partitions on a pair of
WD1600JD drives in Raid 0. (I made one of the partitions FAT32, for good or
for ill. I used Partition Magic 8 to format it, because the XP formatter
won't do FAT32 larger than 32 MB.)

Bob Kn.


(snip)

I had the exact same problem. The tech at Asus told me that the A8V is
not compatable with the 3400+. He also said that they had been getting
a lot of calls on this problem. I had the tech at Tiger Direct put in
a 3500+ and
everything worked fine(I made tiger take back the processor and I
bought a 3500+ at newegg). Maybe there will be a bios change in thee
future.