ASUS A8N -SLI Premium - Breaks After 2 days?

Big.Wayne

Big.Wayne

Big.Wayne

Soldato
Joined
11 Sep 2003
Posts
14,716
Location
London
Hi all,

had a big problem in the week. Doing an Multi-core Opteron build using the ASUS A8N -SLI Premium as a base. All went well for the first day or two running at stock (built a few similar systems before) but all of a sudden I hit a problem . . .

Did a reboot and was greeted by a blank screen, then I heard that womans voice saying something about "VGA Failure"? :confused:

I had a look at the graphics card (RADEON X1600Pro) and it seemed fine, but reseated it just in case, still the same problem??. Next up I did a CMOS reset, and then it booted fine, had a quick lOOk around in the BIOS, checked the rails etc, all good, so save and exit from BIOS and suprise suprise "VGA Failure"?.

Ok I thought maybe the GPU has died (It's happened to me before) so luckily I had a brand new RADEON X1600Pro so out it came, carefully placed it in the system and . . . VGA Failure" ??

Oh no what next . . .Hmmm maybe its the PSU (I have seen a 'half' dead PSU before) ok so I disconnect the ENERMAX Liberty and install an ANTEC TruePower TRIO, still doesn't work, bah! :confused:

Next up, no choice but to remove the mobo from the case and set it up on an antistatic mat (just in case there was an issue with the case, although I have owned it for years and never given me any issues) . . . Anyway it still wouldn't boot?? (or it would boot fine once but as soon as u rebooted it lost the VGA :(

After several hours of troubleshooting I decided that the mobo must be shot so its been wrapped up and set back to the retailers, in the meantime I have had to order another ASUS A8N -SLI Premium in the hope that I can get this system up and running for xmas, don't expect I'll see the RMA'ed mobo for a few weeks at least.

Just wondered if anyone has had an issue like this before, its never happened to me before? Or did I miss a step during the troubleshooting process?

I have now noticed that the brand new ENERMAX Liberty 500w is making some strange sounds, gonna make a seperate post about that here.
 
Oh dear,

RMA'ed the board back to the vendor who have tested it and are saying "Items Tested, No Fault Found"

They are suggesting that the CPU I am using (Opteron 170) may be faulty? (it was unwrapped brand new a week ago).

I need some expert 'troubleshooting' advice here. How can the board be faulty for me and not a tech engineer, do u think they test these things real quick? or is there something in my set-up that is an issue?

The thing that is 'bugging' me is that both the VGA cards I was using were 'bus' powered, and the fault was 'intermittant', every time I booted it lost the VGA . . . . a clash with the X1600Pro and the nForce4 chipset?

Should have nabbed a VGA card from a mate that had its own PCI-Express power-plug to see if this helped . . .
 
pcknight said:
Obviously you have a faulty component somewhere.
Click to expand...
yeah lol I have, I believe its the motherboard! :D

pcknight said:
Its a pain but you needed to check all bits first before RMAing it.
Click to expand...
Thats what I did, RMA is the last option for me. What component did I miss then?

I don't have a spare 939 cpu, but I never thought that the processor would be a problem?

Built two other systems with 99% the same kit, only thing being different was the VGA cards.

I'm more inclined to believe the technician hasn't caught the problem (as explained it's 'intermittent').
 
pcknight said:
Well, it looks like your Mobo was ok. Could very well have been your CPU. Did you try the Mobo in someone elses pc?
Click to expand...
Well I'm not convinced that the tech guy has tested it properly. I'm sure they have a mountain of returned goods, so my mobo was probably slapped in a system booted up and then given as all clear.

'intermittant' faults are the worse kind of problem to troubleshoot!

Having said that it may very well be a fault elsewhere, but whats the chances of a brand new boxed Opteron 170 having a fault that means on occassion when the PC is rebooted it loses its VGA?

Cmon gimme a break! :)
 
pcknight said:
So, are they sending the board back to you? Any chance you could get hold of another CPU to try it?
Click to expand...
Lol yeah they are now, had to pay £23.00 for the test and postage! :(

Some what perplexed now, here is the technicians report:

Test Components Used As Required. Tagan TG480 - PSU Western Digital80Gb PATA Maxtor 160Gb SATA XFX Gf6600Gt PCI-X CorsairXMS 2x256Mb PC5400(DDR2) and PC3200(DDR) XEON 3.0Ghz and 3.06Ghz (533and800FSB) Opteron 240 1.8Ghz P4 630-3.0Ghz and E6600 Core2 AMD94 939 - 2.0Ghz Venice - 754 1.8Ghz Sempron. AM2 XP3200

Diagnosis Displays fine. Note: I rebooted it in DOS three or four times and rebooted from XP Pro three or four times.


Re-Test: Customer fault report Customer feels I haven't tested it!? I have use different CPU's and different Gfx cards. ATI and nVidia.

Diagnosis The RMA clearly states I re-booted it several times as I was instructed to do by the Engineers sheet in the box! I have re-tested it with an X2 CPU and an ATIX1600Pro Gfx card. Instaleld XP Pro. Multiple reboots during this process. Installed all required drivers, more re-boots. I have done at least 30 re-boots now and it has displayed every time.

I think he got a bit upset when I suggested that he hadn't tested the board properly!

Oh well, so its coming back to me now, I think the first thing I will do is put back the exact same components and see what happens.

I have a friend with a spare 939 3000+ who will pop over if I need another CPU . . . Hmm will post back when i have more info.
 
pcknight said:
Obviously you have a faulty component somewhere
Click to expand...
Ok, ok I gOOfed, but in my defence I gotta say I was damn unlucky! :(

As I said the board was sent back to the vendor (last thursday) and tested twice, no faults found and working flawlessly.

I was getting worried at this point because I thought the only thing it could be was my CPU or Memory? everything else had been swapped out?

While I was waiting for the mobo to return I sat and thought about what had happened and what 'trouble-shooting' task I had missed . . . hmmm!

I had 'eleminated' the graphics cards from the process because after the first error happened (No VGA) I had removed the first X1600Pro, and unwrapped the second 'brand-new' card and tried that with the same error. . .

gave both the cards to a mate to test and much to our amazement they were both bOrked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :confused: :eek:

What are the chances of that eh? Two brand new graphics card both not working? I could kick myself for not trying the cards in another machine before RMA'ing the mobo, but I never even considered the possibility that two new cards wouldn't work :o

I have learnt a valuable lesson, never ever assume anything.

Just building the PC back up now, this time using a new X1950Pro, so far so good.

Hope this post helps someone else in the future! :)
 
Believe it or not I have had exactly the same problem you have been describing.

After hours and hours of narrowing the components down, i too was thinking its the mobo.

Except I used a geforce 6800 and ATI rad 9700 to test.

The 6800 wouldnt put up a display in my main machine, but worked fine in another.

The 9700 works fine in both machines.

So I can only assume its the 6800 at fault, although being intermittant and workable in another PC it seems a bit dodgy.

My mobo is probably dieing too, tried contacting MSI tech support last week, still no reply to my ticket.

Ho Ho Ho

PC's eh?
 
Not sure if this will be of any help to you at this stage but....I've had an A8N-SLI Deluxe for the past couple of years and have encountered this problem a couple of times with my 6800GT. It usually happens after a crash due to overclocking and have found that if reseating the Gfx card isnt working then removing the RAM and reseating it does.

The chances of both of those cards being duds were low alright thou! Unlucky!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom