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A7N8X (ver 1.04) CAn't flash, can't load windows

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Farwalker2u

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2003
Location
Georgia
I have assembeled the parts of a new system.

A7N8X (ver. 1.04) 1001.E BIOS, 2100+ XP, 512 MD Corsair PC 3200 C2 XMS DDR, WD 80GB HDD 8MB cache, Lite on CDRW 48-24-48, Antec True Power 430, Chaintech TI-4200 8X 64MB DDR, SK-7 and SmartFan II (AS III), Enermax CS-10181 Case with seven 80 mm case fans, and Windows XP Home with SP1.

According to the Hardware monitor in the BIOS the MB is 25C and the CPU is 50C at idle. Seems like the SmartFan II does not push enough air.

The start up screen shows the WD HDD correctly as the primary master, and the CDRW as the secondary master, but Windows can’t find any drives! Can’t load windows. However, once Windows did complete part of its setup, then did something and no more progress.

Under the Advanced Chipset Features of BIOS:
CPU ext. freq, = 133
CPU freq. multi. Setting = menu
CPU freq. multi. = 13.0
Sys. Perf. = user defined
CPU interface = optimal
Mem freq. = sync
Resulting freq. = 133
Mem. Timings = user defined
SDRAM active precharge delay = 7
SDRAM RAS to CAS delay = 3
SDRAM RAS precharge delay = 3
SDRAM CAS Latency = 2.5
FSB spread spectrum = 0.50%
AGP spread spectrum = disabled
CPU Vcore setting = menu
CPU Vcore = 1.600v
DDR = 2.6v
AGP = 1.5v
AGP 8x support = enabled

I can’t flash the BIOS either. I have made a bootable floppy copied AWDFLASH.EXE and an8b1002.bin to it. Place the disc in the A drive started the computer, the A DOS prompt comes up, I get the AWDFLASH file to execute, put in the an8b1002.bin to flash, save the old BIOS file as old.bin, then it asks for me to select “Y” to flash or whatever . . … nothing more occurs. I have waited several time for up to 35 minutes.

I have been at this now for about 10 hours. I am out of ideas.

Thanks in advance to those who offer help
 
first thing, dont know if ASUS fixed this, but on some mobos they shipped with less than par bios/clock battery's(ie half-dead) so if u can ezly replace it i would

the next thing i would do is clear the CMOS, and restore bios defaults

then if that doesnt work test each of your componets on other computers

if that doesnt yield a problem, i would try and get ur hand on a copy of linux/win98/win2k. the problem may be with winXP(but cant think of a reason y)

hope something of this will help you
 
I had the same problem where it wouldn't use drives......I just flashed off a floppy (not alt-f2) up to 1002final and now everything is peachy

Just make sure you don't have anything plugged into your IDE channels when you go to flash
 
Mambo

When you say:
"Just make sure you don't have anything plugged into your IDE channels when you go to flash." I assume that you mean disconnect the Hard drive and the CDRW, but leave the floppy drive connected. Then use the bootable floppy with AWDFLASH.EXE and an8b1002.bin on it.

Sounds like a good idea, thank you.

I replaced my battery on the board, old one tested at 2.88 volts, new one tests at 3.23 volts.

Going to try this out.
 
You might try putting the awdflash.exe utility and bin file on a second disc,
boot to dos with the bootable floppy then remove it and insert the floppy with the flash utility and the bin file on it. at the A prompt type AWDFLASH.EXE and hit enter. Let us know how you get on.
 
Mambo
Thank you. I was successful in flashing my BIOS to 1002!

Now I'm going to reattach the HDD and CDRW to see if I can install Windows now.
 
Windows still will not install. Says it can not find any drives installed on the computer!
On the startup the computer finds the drives correctly. What is going wrong here?
 
The problem was that the A7N8X did not like the Corsair PC3200 C2 DDR RAM. Switched it out with some Geil PC3500 I had in my other computer and it works fine now. Thank you all for your help.

Now to get into this BIOS and . . . . . . . .
 
?? thats really wierd, did u try all the mem slots with the corsair.

also you should RMA that stick to corsiar or whereever you bought it. thats good me, and it shouldnt do that
 
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