Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe stability problems

primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
edited September 2009 in Hardware
THREAD UPDATE:

Current as of July 30th, 2007

I'd like to consolidate all the latest "best" info into this first post so that people who come across this thread don't have to read hundreds of old posts to find what they're looking for.

How to get your ASUS M2N32-SLI DELUXE to be stable

MEMORY CONFIGURATION:

If you have two sticks of RAM, the general consensus is that the board is much more stable with the sticks in the A2/B2 slots (BLACK SLOTS), NOT the Yellow slots as the manual says. We recommend putting your ram in the BLACK slots.

HARD DRIVE:

Forum member Marchban was having serious issues until he replaced his Maxtor DiamondMax 10 hard drive with another brand. If you have a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 and cannot get a stable configuration, this may be the problem.
BIOS SETTINGS:

First, get the latest bios:

Asus M2N32-SLI DELUXE Bios 1201

Don't assume the default settings are the best!
The board is (was?) incredibly picky with ram. It actually took two or three bios revisions before half of our ram worked properly and we had constant spd testing. After we consulted Asus, they implemented an option in the -32 board called SKEW. Set it to Advanced 450 on both channels and use +.1 more volts on the ram than specified. Also setting the timings manually to 5-5-5-15 or whatever the ram is specified for, instead of just running auto, helps a great deal. Note that the non -32 board does NOT have the SKEW option. In case you still have ram problems with the non -32 board, i highly suggest you rma the board and purchase another. The -32 board however, is a very good board once you have done the changes i mentioned above.

DRIVERS:

At least version 5.10.01.6110 SoundMax Driver (WinXP/2K/2k3) (Vista)
The current version of nVidia nForce 590 SLI drivers (9.35 at this writing)
VISTA drivers for the nForce 590 SLI Drivers (15.00 as of this writing)

Install the sound driver and nforce 590 drivers, then let windows update take care of the HD Audio stuff. At this point, your system should be somewhat stable. If you are still having problems, read the entire thread, as there are lots of good suggestions here.

Welcome to icrontic!


the original post:
Here are the specs:

Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
2gb OCZ PC6400 DDR2 Special Ops ram
FSP FX-600GLN power supply (SLI certified, etc.)
ATI Radeon X850XT Crossfire Edition
Athlon 64 X2 5000+ / AM2

Latest BIOS for the motherboard, latest Catalyst (6.6), XP SP2, latest nforce 590 unified driver, etc.

Everything in the BIOS is at stock. Nothing overclocked, temps are good. Memory has tested good.

Basically the computer is unstable. I will get random bluescreens, but it's not predictable. For instance, I had about 6 days straight of uptime for the last week. Sometimes the crashes are minor (like an app crashing out but the OS remains running), or FAHCORE65.EXE will "experience an error" and crash out, or a game will crash to the desktop, but other times, the system will hard freeze or bluescreen and then reboot.

Some games crash regularly. Oblivion and Psychonauts, for example, I can barely run. Oblivion sometimes runs for a full two hour session, but Psychonauts, I cannot play because it crashes way too often. In these cases, I suspect the sound driver. I turned off hardware acceleration for the sound and I was able to play for a full ten minutes before it crashed.

I don't think it's a hardware problem. It "feels" like a driver or a configuration or setting problem. Any clues? :D
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Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Just for kicks, I uninstalled the soundmax driver, and the two microsoft HD audio hotfixes.

    I rebooted, and reinstalled the latest soundmax drivers... And during the install, a bluescreen IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_NOT_EQUAL blah blah blah... :wtf:
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    FWIW, I have heard of some incompatibilities with that ram. Maybe you could try adjusting your timings somehow. Would you say that the stability problems started after you changed the ram? Was the computer fine and dandy before?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    The computer was never fine and dandy. I'm going to try a repair install tonight and also try some other RAM with it.
  • edited July 2006
    Before reinstalling, have you tried Prime95 second torture test? Keep an eye on the CPU temperature also while running Prime95. Since you have tested memory already, that is out of question.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    CPU temp under load is about 43c.
  • edited July 2006
    You mean Prime95 passed the stability test ?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Haven't done prime95 yet, but the machine is folding on both cores 24/7, so it's pretty stable. If I'm not doing anything (i.e. the computer is sitting there all night folding on both cores) it's still running in the morning. I have a feeling that if I left it sitting for two weeks while folding 100% it would be fine. It's when I go to "use" the computer . This leads me to believe that the instability is not CPU related... but I've been wrong before ;)
  • edited July 2006
    First, I agree with you. The symptoms appear to be unrelated to CPU. But I think Prime95 is a better way to be sure about CPU stability. At least it is heating my CPU's more than FAH and it catches stability issues earlier than FAH.

    I am not inclined to think that 600W FSP power supply is faulty but is your graphics card sharing the power cable with other peripherals?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    No, this power supply is crossfire/sli certified, and so has a 6 pin dedicated connector for the video cards. The video card doesn't have a standard 4-pin molex connector anyway, just that 6 pin crossfire power connector.
  • edited July 2006
    Then, the "prime suspect" is your chipset drivers IMHO. If you do a Google search you might be able to find other people with the similar problem. Please post here when you find the solution, I would like to hear about that.

    Have you tried disabling the PCIE high performance options in BIOS, if there are any. I do not have any PCIE motherboards but there were options like Fast Write in AGP bios.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I guess I'll have to start tearing through this (horribly complex) BIOS step by step. I'm still going to try this other ram first, just to see.....

    I'll keep this thread updated :) Thanks for the suggestions so far. Any OCZ guys have any input? :eek3:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    I have a feeling it's the RAM. Marcus said that the AM2 Asus boards were having issues with any RAM that didn't use Micron chips. In our case, however, simply switching which RAM slots were populated and bumping the memory voltage up to 2 seemed to do the trick. BIOS updates are helpful as well.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Okay, first I'll try swapping the slots (do you mean from slots 1&2 to slots 3&4?). The voltage is currently at 2.0v. If that doesn't work, I'll try this corsair xms2-8500 that I've got. I'll keep you updated :D
  • edited July 2006
    Don't worry too much, if this is a BIOS/Chipset driver problem it should be resolved very soon. Socket AM2 is very new. On the other hand just be sure that RAM and CPU are not faulty 100%. Ghoosdum points out some useful things.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Yes, we simply switched from using slots 1&2 to using 3&4 (per Marcus' suggestion) and it helped tremendously. I don't know why, but even the slot design is different between them.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Well, that "fix" passed the Psychonauts test. I just played Psychonauts for an hour straight, which is about 55 minutes more than I have ever played before.

    Bizarre. Rev 2. of the Asus AM2 manuals should mention slots 3&4. They make it seem as if you can ONLY use slots 1 & 2 :eek3:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    This whole issue is bizarre.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Don't forget to try just one stick. And try it in every slot too. This generally yields a lot of information on the compatability and slot configuration.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2006
    No, this power supply is crossfire/sli certified, and so has a 6 pin dedicated connector for the video cards. The video card doesn't have a standard 4-pin molex connector anyway, just that 6 pin crossfire power connector.
    With only 15A availble per rail I'm thinking that if it's not the ram then the PSU is the problem.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    But it seems to have been the ram. The system seems perfectly stable now. I played games, folded (feld?), did all kinds of things for the last night and today and it has not exhibited any of the weirdness at all . :confused:

    PS: hi, omega! :D
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Okay, a couple of days of almost perfect stability (I STILL had one bluescreen, but I KNOW it was the sound driver this time)... The sound "locked up" for lack of a better term. A sound got stuck looping over and over, and 10 seconds later, blue screen. Now, also, the sound is crackly once in a while...

    sigh.. I feel like I'm back in my KT7A-RAID + Soundblaster days :-/
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Are you using the built-in sound? These boards sound like they were shipped half-finished!
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    Yes, the built in sound. I'm at the point where I'm just going to disable it and use a crappy $10 crystal audio card or something.
  • edited July 2006
    I am having same problem here, I am wondering if it is a MOBO defect.
    I mean, why does everyone else who uses m2n32 aren't having thise problems? ...weirdness indeed, Primesuspect.

    did anyone speak with Asus about this issue?
  • edited July 2006
    Hello, I am writing from Spain. I have recently bought an Asus M2N32SLiDELUXE and I am having problems with it. My computer configuration:
    Aerocool baydream
    Tacens Valeo 460w (two rails of 19A and 17A for 12v)
    m2n32sli deluxe
    athlon64 3500+ am2
    sapphire ati x1900gt
    2 GB Infineon 533 mhz
    Maxtor 6v160eo sta2
    creative soundblaster audigy se
    OS: Windows XP X64

    Well, all was correct until flashing bios with new revision 0603 (the mobo had came with revision 0203). Since then, the computer reboots frequently because of serious errors (bluescreen). I do not know what is failing, the processor, the mobo, the memory, the graphics card...

    Could anyone help me?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    well, start with what I did:

    Do you have two sticks of ram, or just one?

    If you have two, put them in the other two DIMM slots.
  • edited July 2006
    Hello Primesuspect: first of all try to write basic english. I am spanish and I speak a little bit your language.

    I have two sticks of ddr2 533 Infineon and they are in a1 and b1 slots
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited July 2006
    try moving them to a2 and b2. that fixed my stability problem
  • edited July 2006
    I put them in those slots cos the manual says it must be done so.

    Let me ask you: do you have smart monitoring enabled or disabled?
  • edited July 2006
    And another question:

    Which bios revision do you have?

    Mine is 0603. As I said before, with revision 0203 (original) I did not have any problems. I am very confused about this, cos it is supposed that the newest revisions make stability get better.
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