What the heck did I do wrong? Fried my A7N8X Deluxe?

[Don Burnette]

Here's one for the books, if anyone has any idea what I did wrong, I would
be curious to know, as I don't want this to happen again.

I had an A7N8X Deluxe version 1.4. Had always been rock solid for me. I was
running an Athlon XP2400+ in it, and decided to drop an Athlon XP 2600+
Barton in it, since the prices were so reasonable now.

I hve built many computers, and upgraded cpu's many times with no problems.
So I get the new chip, install it, install a Thermalrite SLK900 heatsink w/
92mm fan, using Arctic Silver 3.
Turned it on, immediately went into bios to correctly set the fsb. Exited
saving changes, and it started to boot, then gave some error message about
cpu changing, then shut itself off.
Try as I might, I could not get it to post again. I would turn it on, the
hdd activity light would stay solid, and it would not even post. I checked
all my connections, verified everything was correct, still no go. I reseated
all my cards and ram, no go. I took everything out but video card, no go. I
tried clearing the cmos, still no go.
No post, no beeps, nothing. Monitor's power led was orange rather than
green, so it obviously was not getting a signal.
Treid replacing the cmos battery, and clearing it again - still , no post.
Tried putting the XP2400+ chip back in, to make sure the new Barton chip was
not bad. Still, no post..

At a loss, I figured I must have somehow fried my motherboard. So, I orded a
new A7N8X Deluxe version 2, and had it overnighted in from Newegg.com.
Put the new motherboard in, hooked everything up, including putting my new
Barton 2600+ with SLK 900 h/s, and she posted and booted just fine, and has
been running fine for the last 4 hours so far.

What in the world could have happened? This one has me stumped.
I did everthing correct, so I thought. I did it like I always do. I never
could get that mb to post again.

I am just curious, any ideas on what may have gone wrong? Seems like I
remember reading on these forums some cmos issue these earlier boards had
that could render them dead maybe??


OH, and one last question. I installed the Asus drivers off the included cd
rom. Any advantage to updating to the newer drivers from Nvidia.com?

Thanks,

 

[Don Burnette]

Did you remove standby power and take ESD precautions while working
inside the case? Failure to do either or both could have killed your
motherboard.

The chances of damage are very low - I know people who have built and
upgraded many computers with standby power on and a poke at the case
to discharge static electricity, and gotten away with it, but sooner
or later...

OTOH, it's more likely your motherboard just died naturally at the
same time you decided to install a new CPU. - cooling and warming
cycles stress electronic components, so they tend to fail at power on
or shortly thereafter rather than while running. The board might have
failed then even if you'd just shut down & taken the cover off to blow
dust out.

Another possibility is solder failure - the board always flexes a bit
during cooler installation, which can be the last straw for a bad
solder joint.

Yes, I took all the precautions that I usually do. Used my anti-static wrist
strap, made sure power was off and drained, etc.
Perhaps the board just plain failed at that time.
One thing that may have done it - I put the new cpu, heatsink, memory, etc
in while the board was still mouted to the slide in mb tray. This allowed it
to flex down a little as pushed memory in, etc.
Perhaps it just had a bad solder joint that cracked at that time - who
knows, I will be puzzled over that one for a while. Perhaps I should have
removed the mb from the tray and kept it on a flat surface.

This new version2 is still running well, I am a little dissapointed as I
still can't seem to hit 200 mhz fsb or higher - I do have Corsair LL pc3200.
Perhaps I just haven't found the right memory timings yet.
I am running it at 7-3-3=2.5T. Mem voltage at 2.6, cpu core at 1.75 ( Barton
2600+ ) , with an 11 multiplier.
Even at 196 mhz fsb though, it comes up showing as an XP3200+.

Don Burnette

 

[Don Burnette]

Yeah I run at 197 FSB with that RAM for stability. With the RAM locked
at 100% and the AGP at 66Mhz. All stock voltages though. Change that 7
to an 11 for a better Sandra RAM score if you want it.

Will do, thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[P2B]

Here's one for the books, if anyone has any idea what I did wrong, I would
be curious to know, as I don't want this to happen again.

Did you remove standby power and take ESD precautions while working
inside the case? Failure to do either or both could have killed your
motherboard.

The chances of damage are very low - I know people who have built and
upgraded many computers with standby power on and a poke at the case to
discharge static electricity, and gotten away with it, but sooner or
later...

OTOH, it's more likely your motherboard just died naturally at the same
time you decided to install a new CPU. - cooling and warming cycles
stress electronic components, so they tend to fail at power on or
shortly thereafter rather than while running. The board might have
failed then even if you'd just shut down & taken the cover off to blow
dust out.

Another possibility is solder failure - the board always flexes a bit
during cooler installation, which can be the last straw for a bad solder
joint.

 

[AJ]

I do have Corsair LL pc3200.
Perhaps I just haven't found the right memory timings yet.
I am running it at 7-3-3=2.5T. Mem voltage at 2.6, cpu core at 1.75 ( Barton
2600+ ) , with an 11 multiplier.
Even at 196 mhz fsb though, it comes up showing as an XP3200+.

Yeah I run at 197 FSB with that RAM for stability. With the RAM locked
at 100% and the AGP at 66Mhz. All stock voltages though. Change that 7
to an 11 for a better Sandra RAM score if you want it.

 

[scott c.]

Here's one for the books, if anyone has any idea what I did wrong, I would
be curious to know, as I don't want this to happen again.

I had an A7N8X Deluxe version 1.4. Had always been rock solid for me. I was
running an Athlon XP2400+ in it, and decided to drop an Athlon XP 2600+
Barton in it, since the prices were so reasonable now.

I hve built many computers, and upgraded cpu's many times with no problems.
So I get the new chip, install it, install a Thermalrite SLK900 heatsink w/
92mm fan, using Arctic Silver 3.
Turned it on, immediately went into bios to correctly set the fsb. Exited
saving changes, and it started to boot, then gave some error message about
cpu changing, then shut itself off.
Try as I might, I could not get it to post again. I would turn it on, the
hdd activity light would stay solid, and it would not even post. I checked
all my connections, verified everything was correct, still no go. I reseated
all my cards and ram, no go. I took everything out but video card, no go. I
tried clearing the cmos, still no go.
No post, no beeps, nothing. Monitor's power led was orange rather than
green, so it obviously was not getting a signal.
Treid replacing the cmos battery, and clearing it again - still , no post.
Tried putting the XP2400+ chip back in, to make sure the new Barton chip was
not bad. Still, no post..

At a loss, I figured I must have somehow fried my motherboard. So, I orded a
new A7N8X Deluxe version 2, and had it overnighted in from Newegg.com.
Put the new motherboard in, hooked everything up, including putting my new
Barton 2600+ with SLK 900 h/s, and she posted and booted just fine, and has
been running fine for the last 4 hours so far.
. . .
Don Burnette

Just WAGing, but what BIOS level is installed on your 1.04 board? 1004 is
minimum level that supports Barton 2600+ on PCB rev. 1.04. You might just
have a corrupt BIOS now; maybe try another BIOS chip and see if it revives
the board.
http://www.badflash.com/

Or if you have access to another rev. 1.04 or 1.06 board, hot flash the BIOS
chip. It *might* be possible to use your rev 2.0 board to hot flash the
rev. 1.04 chip, if both boards use the same BIOS chips.

http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=62&var2=1

 

[Joshua]

OH, and one last question. I installed the Asus drivers off the included cd

I've read several posts elsewhere that the newer Nvidia drivers are
causing problems for some people. You might want to hold off unless
you are experiencing any problems that an update might fix.

 

[R_Supp]

Before I binned the board I would spend a couple more dollars and get a new
bios chip from Jack at www.badflash.com and if that doesn`t remedy the
situation then at least you have a new spare bios chip.

 

[Milleron]

Yes, I took all the precautions that I usually do. Used my anti-static wrist
strap, made sure power was off and drained, etc.
Perhaps the board just plain failed at that time.
One thing that may have done it - I put the new cpu, heatsink, memory, etc
in while the board was still mouted to the slide in mb tray. This allowed it
to flex down a little as pushed memory in, etc.
Perhaps it just had a bad solder joint that cracked at that time - who
knows, I will be puzzled over that one for a while. Perhaps I should have
removed the mb from the tray and kept it on a flat surface.

That's almost surely the reason the board failed. I've gotten away
with replacing a heat sink without removing the board from the case,
but I knew at the time that it was likely to break something (I did it
because I didn't really care if I had to upgrade motherboards).

This new version2 is still running well, I am a little dissapointed as I
still can't seem to hit 200 mhz fsb or higher - I do have Corsair LL pc3200.
Perhaps I just haven't found the right memory timings yet.
I am running it at 7-3-3=2.5T. Mem voltage at 2.6, cpu core at 1.75 ( Barton
2600+ ) , with an 11 multiplier.
Even at 196 mhz fsb though, it comes up showing as an XP3200+.

Don Burnette

Ron

 

[Shep©]

Here's one for the books, if anyone has any idea what I did wrong, I would
be curious to know, as I don't want this to happen again.

I had an A7N8X Deluxe version 1.4. Had always been rock solid for me. I was
running an Athlon XP2400+ in it, and decided to drop an Athlon XP 2600+
Barton in it, since the prices were so reasonable now.

I hve built many computers, and upgraded cpu's many times with no problems.
So I get the new chip, install it, install a Thermalrite SLK900 heatsink w/
92mm fan, using Arctic Silver 3.
Turned it on, immediately went into bios to correctly set the fsb. Exited
saving changes, and it started to boot, then gave some error message about
cpu changing, then shut itself off.
Try as I might, I could not get it to post again. I would turn it on, the
hdd activity light would stay solid, and it would not even post. I checked
all my connections, verified everything was correct, still no go. I reseated
all my cards and ram, no go. I took everything out but video card, no go. I
tried clearing the cmos, still no go.
No post, no beeps, nothing. Monitor's power led was orange rather than
green, so it obviously was not getting a signal.
Treid replacing the cmos battery, and clearing it again - still , no post.
Tried putting the XP2400+ chip back in, to make sure the new Barton chip was
not bad. Still, no post..

At a loss, I figured I must have somehow fried my motherboard. So, I orded a
new A7N8X Deluxe version 2, and had it overnighted in from Newegg.com.
Put the new motherboard in, hooked everything up, including putting my new
Barton 2600+ with SLK 900 h/s, and she posted and booted just fine, and has
been running fine for the last 4 hours so far.

What in the world could have happened? This one has me stumped.
I did everthing correct, so I thought. I did it like I always do. I never
could get that mb to post again.

I am just curious, any ideas on what may have gone wrong? Seems like I
remember reading on these forums some cmos issue these earlier boards had
that could render them dead maybe??


OH, and one last question. I installed the Asus drivers off the included cd
rom. Any advantage to updating to the newer drivers from Nvidia.com?

Thanks,

You cannot fully clear the CMOS on ATX powered systems with power to
the board.I would have removed the power cable and then cleared the
CMOS as any incorrect Data in the CMOS can prevent P.O.S.T :/
As an over clocker many times i've had to do this when I've set an
incorrect or too high BIOS parameter like upping the RAM speeds or the
FSB and then re-booted to a,"NO" P.O.S.T :O




--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

 

[Don Burnette]

That might be worth a try, just to salvage the mb if nothing else.

Thanks,

Don Burnette

 

[Don Burnette]

That's almost surely the reason the board failed. I've gotten away
with replacing a heat sink without removing the board from the case,
but I knew at the time that it was likely to break something (I did it
because I didn't really care if I had to upgrade motherboards).
Ron

Yes, I have about narrowed it down to either that or a corrupt bios.
Thanks,

 

[Don Burnette]

You cannot fully clear the CMOS on ATX powered systems with power to
the board.I would have removed the power cable and then cleared the
CMOS as any incorrect Data in the CMOS can prevent P.O.S.T :/
As an over clocker many times i've had to do this when I've set an
incorrect or too high BIOS parameter like upping the RAM speeds or the
FSB and then re-booted to a,"NO" P.O.S.T :O

I shut the system down, turned the power off, unplugged the power supply -
pressed the power button just to make sure no more juice was in there.
I then removed the cmos battery, moved the jumpers to 2-3 as stated in the
manual, put the jumpers back on 1-2, replaced the battery, and it still
would not post.

I think I may have damaged the board installing the cpu, ram, and h/s while
board was mounted on slide out tray - rather than flat surface.
Either that , or I managed to corrupt the bios.

At least my new version 2 board is working well so far, thanks all for the
tips.

Don Burnette

 

[Shep©]

Yes, I have about narrowed it down to either that or a corrupt bios.
Thanks,

What BIOS is it? e.g Award/AMI?



--
Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
email shepATpartyheld.de
Free songs download,
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm

 

[frans]

maybe the 92 mm fan from your cooler is rotating below 2000 rpm.
My A7N8Xdeluxe2.0 wouldn't start up at al with an enermax 92mm adjustable
fan until i adjusted the fan at max speed.

 

[Don Burnette]

What BIOS is it? e.g Award/AMI?

Award bios, version 1.04 I believe.

 

[Don Burnette]

Hmm, may be something there, let me check it out - it is a variable speed
Antec Smartcool fan, however I have it plugged straight it for constant
speed.
Let me see what mbm and the bios report it at.

Don Burnette

 

[Don Burnette]

Hmmm, ok this is strange.

My bios for my A7N8X Deluxe version 2.0 reports:
MB Temp - 26
CPU - 37
CPU Fan - 1854
Chassis Fan - 2500
Power fan - 1700

However, MBM 5 reports:

Case - 24C
CPU Diode - 40C
CPU Socket - 43C
Fan1 - 3600
Fan2 - 5100
Fan3 - 3300

So which would be correct?
After installing the new mb, I downloaded and installed the latest version
of mbm ( removing the previous version), and chose the A7N8X Deluxe >2
configuration mode.

Perhaps I should put the variable speed lead on the cpu fan...

Don Burnette

 

[Don Burnette]

Whoa...

I don't think that Antec Smartcool 92mm fan is a good fan for a cpu.
I just took it off my SLK 900, and replaced it with the Delta 80mm fan that
I was using previously on my XP2400+ with SLK 800, and now my cpu diode and
socket temps have dropped about 10 degrees C.

Now my Diode is 30C, and socket is 33C.

Now of course, I have to wonder, was the 92mm variable fan the reason my
previous A7N8X Deluxe version 1.04 would not post?
The delta fan is turning 3800 rpm - however MBM reports it at 7500 rpm -
wierd.

I think my 2600+ Barton is happier now .


Don Burnette

 

[P2B]

Whoa...

I don't think that Antec Smartcool 92mm fan is a good fan for a cpu.
I just took it off my SLK 900, and replaced it with the Delta 80mm fan that
I was using previously on my XP2400+ with SLK 800, and now my cpu diode and
socket temps have dropped about 10 degrees C.

Now my Diode is 30C, and socket is 33C.

Now of course, I have to wonder, was the 92mm variable fan the reason my
previous A7N8X Deluxe version 1.04 would not post?
The delta fan is turning 3800 rpm - however MBM reports it at 7500 rpm -
wierd.

I think my 2600+ Barton is happier now .


Don Burnette

MBM is reporting all your fan speeds at twice the actual rpm - it needs
to be set to divide by two.