A8N32 Step-by-step installation?

[DeepScience]

Mine work fine. In fact windows wouldn't see my cdrom untill I installed the IDE drivers. And the raid drivers were installed with the new nvidia driver package. So if you use nlite, make sure you add the network drivers so you can go online right away in case your cdrom doesn't work like mine didn't.

It's advice I've seen listed dozens of time here and found to be helpful in practise. The default microsoft drivers from SP2 cover things well. The LAN driver was ok. The network manager thing resulted in the pc not even booting. The ata/ide driver from nvidia meant large file copies and HDD defrag would crash/stop. (A8N-E)

 

[darksparkz]

Another thing to consider when installing the A8N32.

I've read around that XS thread about the impressions of the A8N32, it's 41 pages long, I skimmed through the first 20 and gave up.

Anyways, if you haven't put your mobo inside your case yet, you should take off that aluminum heatsink above the CPU socket, if you look under it, I don't think its coated with any TIM to the chipsets on the mobo. You might want to apply a thin layer of AS5 to it for a better touch. Also those two copper heatsinks already has TIM on them, but if you have time, you might as well reapply AS5 on them, I doubt it'll improve much, but who knows.

 

[MoreGooder]

Thanks Darksparkz! I haven't installed mine yet, so I'll do that. Yeah, I saw a pic of the aluminum HS without any TIM too. Probably the same thread. But, I had forgotten this detail. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[Biznatch]

I did pull it off and it looks like a piece of foam tape. Seriously it's squishy like the tape to. I just didn't to go modifying the board till I was sure it worked and that I wouldn't have to take it back. So when I move the board to another case I'll probably fix that.

 

[darksparkz]

That's probably thermal tape, I heard the newer boards have it already there.

Also I heard you should have a fan blowing towards the SB heatsink, because its something about the thermal sensor is there so you can get better temp readings if you have active cooling on the SB heatsink.

 

[MCchum]

on the Raid drivers , I had no problem with setting them up at all . Once I figured out how the bios setup went . the manual wasnt much help ..

in bios had to set the 1st 2 ide to uninstalled then had my 2 drives , those after I set to disable ..
I then went in and set Nvidia to Raid and enabled sata 1 and 2 .. left 3 and 4 disabled . exit and save settings
I then f10 into my raid and set it up how I wanted .. I chose stripped ... is what I wanted ..
then rebooted and
F6 into windows -- had my floopy handy for the nvidia raid drivers .. it ran thru some stuff after hitting F6 and then the install window for the drivers appeared .
was 2 things needing installed . I chose windows to install the 1 and it then configuered itself and asked for the Nvidia raid drivers , which I put the flopy in .. installed good ,, and another point in the windows install it asks for the drivers floppy to be reinserted into the floppy - which I did .
Have no proble at all with my raid .. I helped set up another A8N32 for a friend and he mirrored his raid .. I did it exactly like I did mine and it works great .

Hope this helps

 

[Biznatch]

I did exactly how you described and windows wouldn't work. It would lock up every time. Do you have a copy with SP2 already on it? I think that is what helped me was when I slipstreamed SP2 since I have an older CD of XP that only has SP1.

 

[MoreGooder]

Kewl...

Well, gentlemen, I start the installation sometime tomorrow evening. I have several CD's now, with varieties of combinations of XP+SP2, nvraid drivers, no nvraid drivers and so on. Eventually I'll find which combination works, and I'll report my findings here once done.

Now.... just one more package from Fed ex and I'm ready to begin.

 

[mrgreenjeans]

I did exactly how you described and windows wouldn't work. It would lock up every time. Do you have a copy with SP2 already on it? I think that is what helped me was when I slipstreamed SP2 since I have an older CD of XP that only has SP1.

You gotta have one of those two drivers out of the drivers/chipset/make disk. I loaded mine w/SP1 and went online and installed SP2 the ol' fashioned way. it does work.

 

[Biznatch]

I had both of those drivers. I tried them from the CD, I took them out of the new Nvidia driver pack even though they were the same version. Nothing worked, it locked the windows install every time. So I guess you got lucky.

 

[MCchum]

hmm, my XP doesnt even have sp1 on it .. got to DL both sp1 and sp2 ..

Anyways , have you got a old ddr 400 PC3200 stick around ? if so , try it rather than the ddr500's

Most boards ship with either bios 502 or 703 .. those bios dont recognize ddr500 yet .. is only bios 1009 (903) that does . So maybe a diff ram might do the trick ..
Is worth a try until you can get the bios updated to 1009 .. and windows installed .

 

[MoreGooder]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SUCCES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have everything running, and it seems that I'm in the clear. All of the planning and preparation paid off. Here are my observations that I can share:

++++++++++ slipstreaming SP2 int XP, integrating NVRaid drivers ++++++++

Yes, the Slipstreaming process ACTUALLY WORKS. Follow the instructions in the first post ONLY. Nothing else in that huge thread matters for your A8N32-SLI installation. Here it is again for your convenience: Integration of NVRaid Drivers

nLite allows you to not only slipstream SP2 and integrate drivers, but to also allows you to install Hotfixes for Windows. I found a rather coprehensive list of them here.

The bootable ISO image works too. Perhaps I was paranoid, but I made the CD volume name the same as that of my windows installation disk. Just put the your original Windows XP installation disk in your CD ROM, in Explorer right click on it, Properties, copy-paste.

I recommend that you select GUI Attended (you'll see this in nLite). I'm glad I selected this by instinct as this method allows you to select that you want to configure your internet connection later.

+++++++++ Active Armor, Nvidia Firewall..... ppfft ++++++++++++

I recommend that you just don't bother with the Nvidia Network interface. Just disable it in the Bios (it's the first one listed) and enable the Marvel one (second one listed). If you don't want to screw around with Active Armor, then it is important that you DISABLE the first port listed in the bios BEFORE INSTALLING WINDOWS. By virtue of the fact that you are disabling the nvidia port you are defacto disabling Active Armor. And, my friends, that is a good thing. My first attempt at installing Windows came to a crashing halt when I tried to install Zone Alarm. Even though I couldn't find where to disable Active Armor. Once I switched over to the Marvel one, Zone Alarm installed perfectly. However, to completely rid my new Raid volume from Active Armor disease, I had to start all over with Windows installation. I even quick-reformatted.

Note: The Marvel port is the one closest to the onboard Audio connectors.
By the way, the Marvel port is "marvelous". My DSL connection at 300KBS is not hindered one bit by using this port.

++++++++ SATA RAID 0 ++++++++++++++++

This went extremely easily. When you first boot up, Enable Sata1 and Sata2, then enable the Nvidia Raid Function. Save your bios settings, then when you see the prompt, press F10. Follow along. I have NO idea what "Optimal" settings for the stripe size means, so I didn't select it. I selected 64K as my stripe size as I had great success on my previous mobo's Raid settings.

++++++++++++ Windows Installation ++++++++++

When you start installing windows, DO NOT press F6 to load Raid drivers. If you have successfully created a CD with the integrated drivers (see previous section on slipstreaming), you will not need to, and doing so my cause BSOD's later (so I've read).

Here's the order I did things in:

Install windows using the slipstreamed CD
If you have a dual core processor:

Install the Windows Dual Core patch.... reboot​

Install the AMD X2 patch..... reboot​

If you didn't integrate all of the other drivers with the 6.86 chipset, then run the installation program and install them...... reboot. (I can't comment on whether this after-the-fact installation of these other drivers will work, however. I recommend you solve this problem ahead of time at the nLite stage of this game by integrating them along with the nvraid drivers)
Get your network connection up and running, sign into your internet provider.
Visit the Windows Update website and install any and all updates... reboot... repeat... wash... rinse... etc... until no more updates are available.
Install your antivirus software (I recommend Zone Alarm Antivirus).
Install your graphics driver. (YES, do this AFTER installing updates from Windows Update)... reboot.
Install Audio drivers....
Further software installation is up to you from here on.

I must admit that this installation went pretty painless because I had all of this stuff gathered up and prepared. Bottom line: I don't think you can easily install this mobo without having an old computer to research/download/prep with to begin with. I assume if you're reading this, you have access to an existing, functional computer. So, PLEASE do yourself a favor and using the nLite slipstreaming method.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, and I hope my thread will help others.

 

[mrgreenjeans]

Congrats! Now let's see some benchmarks and work throught the overclocking aspect of this beast!
I too, avoided the Nv Armor, nv Firewall, and other unfamilar programs. I am going to have to research the nLite option a bit more thoroughly. And I second your other motion as to having another computer at hand, otherwise there would NO hair left on my head!

 

[MoreGooder]

Ok, here are some results:

My Opty 175 isn't a very good oc'er. See my sig for the stepping. It can only do 2.6 at 1.5Vcore. I'm water cooling, so perhaps I could go a bit higher than 1.5, but I just don't think that the small gain in speed vs the higher temps and possibly shorter lifespan is worth it. Currently, I'm running 2.5 at 1.41V. I'll take that!!

By the way, I initially thought that the AC'97 sound was horrible. I downloaded the drivers from the Asus support website, but when playing BF2 the sound was very stuttered. It sounded just like your voice does when you talk into a fan. On a whim, I decided to try installing the drivers from the CD that shipped with the mobo. 1000% improvement! Sound is perfect. In fact, the sound is so good on this mobo that I may just use it instead of purchasing the new Bluegears sound card when it's released.

The sound driver has a built in equalizer. FANTASTIC. Pumps some series destortion free sound. Keep in mind, that I've been in front of far too many loud speakers in my day so my hearing isn't like a 5 y/o's, but compared to my previous Audigy POS, this sound is equivalent.

EAX implementation on this onboard sound is truly craptastic however. Don't even bother. Since I'm very much anti-creative labs, it doesn't concern me. But, if you are a creative labs/EAX fan, then the onboard sound will simply not be to your liking.

Other items:
I've been running benchies using Sandra and I must say that the improved performance that I preceive to be true over my old rig are actually easy to see with the benchmarks. I'm quite pleased.

I'm also happy that I didn't use the Nvidia network interface port with Active Armor. Like I said in my previous post, the Marvell port is excellent, and will never be a bottle neck for my DSL connection. We're all lucky that Asus put that port on this board. Perhaps they knew that folks would have problems with the NVidia one.

 

[MoreGooder]

Oh, one more thing to add.

I updated my bios to 1009 prior to installing anything. I used two floppies I created on my old rig to do this. One was simply a MSDOS Start-up disk. The other containing only the AFUDOS.exe program and the .rom bios file. The reason for two disks is that the rom filesize is quite large for a bios file, and it won't fit onto a startup floppy.

Some prep work first. Make sure that your floppy drive is a known good drive. Hopefully, if your upgrading, you'll be able to test your floppy drive first. Try writing and reading files to and from a floppy to see if it works properly. If you hear a bunch of grinding noise, it's either a bad floppy drive or your floppy disk isn't formatted correctly.

NEVER trust that a foppy is formatted properly just because you see the texth "IBM formatted" or something like that printed on the floppy or on the packaging. Always re-format them. (lesson I learned long ago). It is ideal to format the floppy on the same drive that you will be using later in your rig.

It's also a good idea to have a floppy with the old Bios file on it too, just in case you need to revert back to it. Make sure it has the AFUDOS program on it as well.

Make sure that the floppy disk's data cable is correctly and securly installed. Pin 1 is designated by the fact that it is outermost RED wire. Some older floppy drives such as mine don't have a way to prevent you from connecting the floppy data cable incorrectly, and I have to look at the underside of the floppy drive and find the "1" designator. Put the data cable connector on such that the end with the Red wire lines up with the pin 1 indication on your floppy. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. I highly doubt, however, that your system will let you boot off of the floppy if you have the data cable in backwards. It won't harm your mobo if you do however. I've made that mistake before too, with no ill effects once I switched it around to the correct orientation.

For all of you youngens who don't know MSDOS stuff, here's a simple proceedure for using the dual floppy method of bios upgrading:

******************************************************
DO NOT POWER DOWN OR HIT RESET during the flashing process.

DO NOT DO THIS PROCEEDURE DURING A THUNDERSTORM OR IF THE WEATHERMAN IS CALLING FOR ONE.

DO NOT DO THIS PROCEEDURE IF YOU SEE POWER UTILITY SERVICE TRUCKS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.

DO NOT DO THIS PROCEEDURE IF IT IS VERY HOT OUTSIDE AND PEOPLE ARE USING THEIR A/C ALL DAY LONG. THIS IS WHEN TRANSFORMERS TEND TO BLOW!!!
******************************************************

Insert MS DOS boot disk into your floppy.
During post, press F8 to bring up the boot selector menu. Select Floppy disk.
Once MS DOS boots up, it will be waiting for you to enter a command.
Swap out the MS DOS boot disk with the bios disk. (make sure it has both the AFUDOS program and the bios rom file on it of course).
Type in the following at the command prompt:
AFUDOS /iA8N321009.rom (or whatever the filename is for the bios file)
press enter.

If you can't remember the name of the bios file that you're supposed to type in after the /i, then type in DIR and hit enter. It will show you a file listing on the floppy.

The AFUDOS program has some built-in features that you will notice. First, it will check to see that the rom file on your floppy is valid and that it will read OK from your floppy. Once approved, it will erase the old bios and write the new one, then confirm the write. If something happens during the process that reports an error code, make sure to try again BEFORE YOU REBOOT, because once you reboot with a bad bios.... well... you might not reboot at all. Perhaps another attempt will solve the problem. Still have problems? Try flashing to the previous bios.

I hope this will help folks.

 

[MoreGooder]

One last observation:

Previous rig was P4 2.4C and X800xt-AIW with an MCW5002 and MCW50 in the same watercooling system. My temps idle and load have both gone up by 10 deg C with the new rig in my sig. That is a huge increase in my opinion.

I think in the spring I will see about changing to a dual rad and get rid of this Chevette HC. It works OK, but I'd rather have everything cooler than it is right now, especially at full load. While playing BF2, my temp gets as high as 42C. Keep in mind, however, that both my CPU and GPU are in the same water cooling loop.

 

[Surfrider77]

Bump from an old thread...

I have everything for my system except the Zalman cooler.. go figure, I cant even boot! Grr...

My question is the Raid Drivers. There are different posts stating conflicting info. Some people are saying load 3 drivers at F6, some say 1 driver. I am confused what I need to make on my floppy(s) for my F6 install.

I plan on running a RAID1. I will disable the SilController, as I should be on the first two nRaid ports only. Now, on the install CD I click the "Make Disk" tab and I have the following:

nVidia nForce 32Bit SATA RAID Driver
nVidia nForce 64Bit SATA RAID Driver
Silicon Image 32Bit RAID Driver
Silicon Image 32Bit SATA Driver
Silicon Image 64Bit RAID Driver
Silicon Image 64Bit SATA Driver

I assume, I only need to make a floppy with the top selection? (nVidia nForce 32Bit SATA RAID Driver)

Why was someone talking about installing 3 drivers? Was that utilization of the Sil port at the back of the MB?

I am also curious if there an installation guide thread yet for this? I have basically compiled my build on about 6 different threads from multiple forums. Some have conflicting information and some are missing information.

So far I am planning:

AFUDOS > BIOS 1103
Configure my BIOS
F6 RAID Driver(s)
F10 Configure RAID
Win XP install (SP2)
Chipset Drivers 6.85
AMD Dual Core Driver 1.2.2.2
Microsoft Hotfix for Dual Core & Registry Edit
Windows Updates
Hardware Drivers
Antivirus / Firewall

Am I missing anything?

 

[Oper8or]

I have a couple of noob questions for you if your willing to answer for me.
1. When I make a boot disk, and install the afudos.exe on it then try and put the new bios on the floppy with the other information it says there isnt enough space. Any suggestions?
2. After installing the bios, or screwing up and going into the dos and not knowing how the crap to get out of it, what do you type to leave the dos or restart the computer? Yeah, I made a boo boo.
I know this now though. F6 takes you to the dos window. And when your messing around inside you comp checking for leaks and such make sure you plug your a drive back in. It helps when your trying to make a boot disk.

Side note: I want to thank everyone on these forums. You have no idea how many times I've found the answers I've need on here.

 

[Surfrider77]

I have a couple of noob questions for you if your willing to answer for me.
1. When I make a boot disk, and install the afudos.exe on it then try and put the new bios on the floppy with the other information it says there isnt enough space. Any suggestions?
2. After installing the bios, or screwing up and going into the dos and not knowing how the crap to get out of it, what do you type to leave the dos or restart the computer? Yeah, I made a boo boo.
I know this now though. F6 takes you to the dos window. And when your messing around inside you comp checking for leaks and such make sure you plug your a drive back in. It helps when your trying to make a boot disk.

Side note: I want to thank everyone on these forums. You have no idea how many times I've found the answers I've need on here.

Your questions answered here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4319573&postcount=3

 

[Oper8or]

Your questions answered here:

http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=4319573&postcount=3

Thank you very much. I didnt know I could do it like that. Got plenty of floppies. TONs.

Ok.. after trying like 5 times.. I cant get it to work. I keep getting this:

CAN NOT open .rom file
What am I doing wrong? I'm typing this:
afudos/iA8N321103.rom
This is correct.
One other question. How the crap do I exit dos back to startup after flashing?

BTW. I didnt mean to highjack your thread. I apologize for that.