Asus mobo - Asus (nVidia) video - Linux installation problems

[David]

I am having some strange results trying to install Linux (SuSE, Mandrake
and Red Hat - all latest versions) on my Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev1.04 -
bios1004 based systems. Both are identical except for the CPUs and memory.
The system breakdowns are as follows:

System 1:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev1.04 - bios1004 motherboard
Asus V9520 Videosuite videocard (nVidia)
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 900 mhz
512mb PC2100 DDR-RAM
Dell P780 monitor
WD 100JB HDD
WD 120JB HDD
WD 80JB HDD
Plextor PX-320A DVD/CDRW drive
Plextor PX-W4824A CDRW drive
Mitsumi FDD
Antec SOHO 1080 case
Antec Truepower 480w PS

System 2:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev1.04 - bios1004 motherboard
Asus V9520 Videosuite videocard (nVidia)
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
1gb PC3200 DDR-RAM
Dell P780 monitor
WD 100JB HDD
WD 120JB HDD
WD 80JB HDD
Plextor PX-320A DVD/CDRW drive
Plextor PX-W4824A CDRW drive
Mitsumi FDD
Antec SOHO 1080 case
Antec Truepower 480w PS

All BIOS settings are identical on both systems.

All Linuxes will install on system 1 with no problems. Trying to install
any Linux on system 2 goes like this: Boot form CD and welcome screen -
fine. Display the choose to install or other options - fine. After choosing
to install - nothing. But if I remove the Asus V9520 Videosuite videocard
from system 2 and install a Matrox Millenium G450 all Linuxes will install
just as they should. I have encountered no problems at all in installing
Windows (98, 2K, and XP) with what would be a suspect V9520 Videosuite in
system 2. I say what would be a suspect V9520 Videosuite because the
suspect V9520 in system 2 moved to system 1 goes through the entire Linux
installations just as it ought to, and the supposed good V9520 in system 1
moved to system 2 gives the same Linux installation problem. It wasn't
until I tried to install Linux that I even had any reason to suspect there
was anything wrong, and the only reason I suspect the V9520 Videosuite card
is because things work fine with the Matrox card. And since all works fine
in Windows I don't know what to think.

I have shifted all components one at a time from one system to the other
with no changes. It seems that there is a bad combination here of the Asus
A7N8X Deluxe rev1.04 - bios1004 motherboard in system 2 and either of the
Asus V9520 Videosuite videocards, but I'm hoping that there is a non-RMA
fix.

Before anyone jumps up on the "Any pre-rev 2.0 A7N8X Deluxe is a pre-stable
A7N8X Deluxe" soapbox let me say that I tried to help a friend put together
an Asus A7N8X Deluxe system about a month ago and his rev 2.0 board had
problems from the start. I tried all night long to get it to even post and
gave up, took it back to Fry's Electronics the next day. When we got there
we saw one A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 already on the returns desk and another man
in line waiting to return another. The returns clerk told us to go and get
2 more boards off the shelf and we'd test them before we took them out of
the store. They both failed to post. He shifted out all his test components
to make sure they were all good and they were. We got more boards off the
shelf. By the time it was all over - 2 1/2 hours later, we had found 6 out
of 9 faulty A7N8X Deluxe rev 2.0 mobos. 3 did start and post, 6 failed. The
3 that worked had BIOSes 1003 (2) and 1005 (1).

Any help, thanks.

David Mays

 

[Mario Kadastik]

Hello,

I'd recommend going throughe the mobo bios step by step and see if you
find anything that could be causing these problems (i'd start with agp
settings and so on). Could also be an issue with memory as you have
different memory on these machines and maybe for some reason v9520 put's
more stress on the memory than the matrox does...

well these are actually quite shots in the dark, hope someone else gives
you better help...

Mario

 

[Keith Clark]

There's nothing wrong with your system, it's an issue between Xfree86 and
nVidia cards. The installer can't properly detect the card in my experience
(I've had problems installing both to a Geforce 256 and an FX5600). There is
some recent postings about this in one of the RedHat newsgroups. Try doing a
Google Groups search...

Your workaround to use a Matrox card just for the install is a good one.

Another workaround is to do a text-mode install, make sure you select "text"
boot, not "graphical, then when you boot for the first time manually edit your
XF86Config file to load the 2D nVidia driver built in to XFree86 - "nv".

Of course once you can start the X server you should download nVidia's 3D
driver which totally rocks - I installed Unreal Tournament 2003 in both
Windows 2000 and RedHat 9 (same machine, dual boot), and the game plays so
fast in Linux on my FX5600 card that it's really unreal (pardon the pun ;->).
I deleted the Windows version from the hard drive.

Keith

 

[ray hartman]

BiD:

That 1-stick-only issue is an infamous ASUS "feature" which also appears
on my A7V333. Before burying a screwdriver in the A7Ns black-little
electro-brain ....... try RAMslots #1 & #3.

ray hartman
*******************

 

[God]

Test your RAM...

the stick you took out might have issues...

(or just *not* compatible with the other one, albeit pretty rare)

 

[FRiC]

Blame the RAM, and not the board? I only use Apacer RAM (PC2100 and
PC2700), and I have no problems using two or more sticks in any
combination on the various ASUS boards I have around here. (A7V8X,
A7V333-X, A7V333, A7S333, A7V266-E, and A7V266-C.)

 

[baskitcaise]

KC:

Conflict between nVidia & *nix?? Actually, RedHat_8 automagically
installed my CTec_gf4(64)-mx400 and they get along just fine.

ray hartman
*****************

Sorry can`t get to the original post but one thing to think about is that the
frame buffer display & nvidia combo don`t like machines with 1gig ram or
over, have you tried with less ram.

 

[Keith Clark]

...but maybe it'll help someone else. Taking out 1 stick of memory
(leaving only one) solved the problem - at least getting the basic
installation going. I HOPE installing the nVidia drivers will allow
using more than one stick of memory (as in "It'll reeeally suck if I can
only use 1 stick of RAM with this Asus mobo-vid card arrangement.) And
it's nothing to do with dual-channel memory. Having 2 sticks of RAM in
any combination of slots gives the dead-install. Running with only 1
stick - everything works.

David

You must have a flaky memory DIMM.

The nVidia drivers have no problems wih multiple DIMMS. I'm runing my
P4P800 Deluxe board in dual-channel DDR mode and the nVidia driver works
great.

--Keith

 

[God]

You must have a flaky memory DIMM.

The nVidia drivers have no problems wih multiple DIMMS. I'm runing my
P4P800 Deluxe board in dual-channel DDR mode and the nVidia driver works
great.

The P4P800 uses an Intel865 chipset. Not nVidia Nforce2 (they're for
Athlons)

 

[Keith Clark]

The P4P800 uses an Intel865 chipset. Not nVidia Nforce2 (they're for
Athlons)

Right - sorry, I should have said the nVidia *video* driver.

Keith