Asus M4A79XTD - EVO problems.

[Martel]

-As below I have an Asus M4A79XTD - EVO. The computer has crashed and died now for the second time. Everything lights up, fans run but monitor is asleep and I get no post beep. This will be my second RMA of this board. Has anyone else had problems with this board or Asus boards lately?

-I am going to RMA regardless but am thinking of trying another manufacturer. I hate to do it as I have used Asus boards exclusively for quite a few years now. So, any advice on what manufacturer/board I should go to? I would prefer an ATI chipset as that has a higher chance of allowing me to recover my raid. Not a necessity though. I am leaning towards Gigabyte of EVGA, or maybe even DFI. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Psykoikonov]

I've used this board for quite sometime and have only had a couple minor bugs (bios update fixes). I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess that your Ram (Kingston DDR3-1800 2x4GB) is not being properly detected by the bios. Have you tried disconnecting everything and just running bare bones to see? If you do get back to a running state I would suggest using CPUz to see what the bios is using for speed and timings for your ram, also to see what the SPD settings are.

 

[Martel]

Ram settings were set manually. No recovery options, the board is dead. Will not boot. I don't have much in the way of spare parts for this board so I cannot test other ram. My PC store has some and no luck on that front.

 

[QuietIce]

I run ASUS almost exclusively myself - sorry to hear about the problems.

If I were going to buy something else it would be a Gigabyte board. Stick with either the 790X or 790FX chipsets or the newer 890FX chipset (they haven't released any 890X chipsets as yet). Failing that, the Gigabyte 890GX boards have been OC'ing very well, too ...

 

[The Wicker Man]

My son in law is having issues with this board also. It wont post, nothing I can do will get it running. I think it's a problem with some traces in the layers.....


This board seems a bit flimsy to me, I have a DFI-M2R, and it seems much more beefy, I have a couple of Ultra D's here also and they too seem beefier......

 

[Psykoikonov]

My son in law is having issues with this board also. It wont post, nothing I can do will get it running. I think it's a problem with some traces in the layers.....


This board seems a bit flimsy to me, I have a DFI-M2R, and it seems much more beefy, I have a couple of Ultra D's here also and they too seem beefier......

I have read through some of the forums and the only thing I would suggest is to make sure the "anti surge" is turned off in the bios. I have heard this causing major problems. Is too bad to hear these problems because it does have alot of great features for a reasonable price.

 

[Martel]

Talked to Asus again today. Ran through the issues with another guy. He wanted me to test the board with no memory installed.

Board was completely uninstalled before this, so when I plugged it back in all that was hooked up was: - 24 pin ATX
- 4 pin ATX
- Front panel connectors

-1st) No memory - 1 long / 2 short beeps
-2nd) 1 strip of memory in 2nd slot - no beeps
-3rd) switched memory modules and tried again as above - no beep
-4th) tried same memory module in each of the three remaining slots by itself - no beeps

He then explained to me that the problem is with my memory, not the board itself. He has asked me to go out and buy a cheap strip of DDR3 1066 and try that. I have agreed and will do this tomorrow.
I also told him if it is the board again then I want it replaced with a different model. He wasn't willing to comment on that idea other than that he did not have the authority to authorize that. I would have to talk to a supervisor or something. (which I understood to begin with)

Now I am going through the memory configurator on the different manufacturers websites trying to find a compatible strip of DDR3 1066 that is somewhat reasonably priced. $38.68 so far but I would have to wait a couple of days.

I am also considering picking up an Asus Crosshair mobo (III or IV) or possibly a Gigabyte 890FXA-UD (5 or 7)

Any opinions?

 

[Psykoikonov]

Talked to Asus again today. Ran through the issues with another guy. He wanted me to test the board with no memory installed.

Board was completely uninstalled before this, so when I plugged it back in all that was hooked up was: - 24 pin ATX
- 4 pin ATX
- Front panel connectors

-1st) No memory - 1 long / 2 short beeps
-2nd) 1 strip of memory in 2nd slot - no beeps
-3rd) switched memory modules and tried again as above - no beep
-4th) tried same memory module in each of the three remaining slots by itself - no beeps

He then explained to me that the problem is with my memory, not the board itself. He has asked me to go out and buy a cheap strip of DDR3 1066 and try that. I have agreed and will do this tomorrow.
I also told him if it is the board again then I want it replaced with a different model. He wasn't willing to comment on that idea other than that he did not have the authority to authorize that. I would have to talk to a supervisor or something. (which I understood to begin with)

Now I am going through the memory configurator on the different manufacturers websites trying to find a compatible strip of DDR3 1066 that is somewhat reasonably priced. $38.68 so far but I would have to wait a couple of days.

I am also considering picking up an Asus Crosshair mobo (III or IV) or possibly a Gigabyte 890FXA-UD (5 or 7)

Any opinions?

I have 1600 7-7-7-21-2T Ram from Patriot and for the life of me it will not run at 1600Mhz even using 8-8-8-24-2T is touch and go, and from what I've read it's not the boards fault, it has to do with the Phenom II IMC. That same Ram will do 6-6-6-18-1T at ~1500Mhz (much faster than 1600 7-7-7-21-2T). So I run it using the 1333Mhz at 6-6-6-18-1T and it's happy as can be. I seriously doubt a change in mobo will allow you to run that Ram at rated (1800Mhz even at 9-9-9) in an AMD board, maybe with a Thuban as I've seen some serious Ram Mhz with those (~2000) but not with a Deneb.

 

[Martel]

Not worried about the speed of the ram. Just want a board that lasts longer then a few months before dying. I was running the memory at 1333mhz.

 

[Psykoikonov]

Not worried about the speed of the ram. Just want a board that lasts longer then a few months before dying. I was running the memory at 1333mhz.

I hear ya there, the Ram is no reason for it to stop working all together. Running it at 1333Mhz should be no problem .

 

[Martel]

I hope yours keeps working well for you. I like the board, when it works. But, this is my only PC other than a laptop from my work. I use all my old parts to build PCs for my nieces.

 

[Martel]

Spoke with Asus today after testing the board with new memory. The rep said it was impossible to exchange my board for a different model. After some more complaining, I really am quite upset about this whole thing, he agreed to pay for shipping both ways. After that I bought an Asus Crosshair IV mobo. Wasn't going to buy another Asus, but figured I will give it one more try. Probably sell my replacement board when I get it.

 

[QuietIce]

ASUS just moved down a notch on my list. Being a long-time ASUS fan it took a little to get Gigabyte up there even with them. After hearing of this fiasco and a few other disturbing things of late they've definitely lost it. I hope their OEM business is booming because with that attitude they'll be loosing a lot of retail sales. I'm sure the Crosshair will be a good board but if it had been me I wouldn't have bought it just on general principle. Any company that makes the customer prove they're right doesn't deserve my money ...

 

[Martel]

I was planning on buying the Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7, but it was a little bit more money. This one was alot but I like the options. The one thing I forgot to look at was IDE, there are none. Going to have to get an IDE add on card if I want to use my Plextor DVD burner. Whoops...

 

[Aberration]

ASUS just moved down a notch on my list. Being a long-time ASUS fan it took a little to get Gigabyte up there even with them. After hearing of this fiasco and a few other disturbing things of late they've definitely lost it. I hope their OEM business is booming because with that attitude they'll be loosing a lot of retail sales. I'm sure the Crosshair will be a good board but if it had been me I wouldn't have bought it just on general principle. Any company that makes the customer prove they're right doesn't deserve my money ...

Didn't you just recommend Asus on my thread? LOL

 

[QuietIce]

Didn't you just recommend Asus on my thread? LOL

Yes I did. If you'll read closely until I read about this incident, which was late yesterday, I had rated both ASUS and Gigabyte equally - and I'll still hold that the ASUS FX chipset boards are excellent until proved otherwise. But even at #2 ASUS still rates higher than most manufacturers out there so you still may see me recommend an ASUS board, possibly with a customer service warning. The thing is ASUS tends to charge more for their boards, which is fine as long as their product quality and CS is better, but that seems to be slipping. If their prices remain high and those two things fall then I'm not sure the premium is worth it.

Also note, this did not happen to me and I'm not privy to all the exchanges with tech support. While this incident is an important piece of information it doesn't rate as high as it would had it been me on the other end of the phone line with tech support. I didn't check last night but I suspect part of the problem, if I understand the hardware listing correctly, is that 4 Gb sticks of DDR3-1800 are not on the QVL ...

 

[coonmanx]

Why not just buy a new SATA DVD burner? About 25 to 30 bucks and then you don't have to deal with the bulky IDE ribbon cable.

 

[QuietIce]

PCI IDE controller $20
Cheapest Plextor OEM unit $40

 

[Martel]

Why not just buy a new SATA DVD burner? About 25 to 30 bucks and then you don't have to deal with the bulky IDE ribbon cable.

I did, $18.99 for a Samsung SH-S223C

PCI IDE controller $20
Cheapest Plextor OEM unit $40

Don't want a cheap Plextor rebranded burner. I love my burner, when all my friends burners have died from the soder joint growing weak at the head from movement, I pull mine apart and reseat the connector. Lots of other reasons too. I really like Plextools, even if they have stopped supporting it.

 

[Martel]

Update... So I flashed the bios on the Crosshair this morning and now it won't boot either. I am really starting to wonder if I should just buy a Dell.....

Makes me wonder if there is something wrong with my processor. But it works in anything. The motherboards die and work with nothing. Should I just give in and buy a 1090T? I really don't need it, nor do I really want to spend that kind of money right now....