Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe stability problems
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
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!
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?
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?
0
Comments
I rebooted, and reinstalled the latest soundmax drivers... And during the install, a bluescreen IRQL_LESS_THAN_OR_NOT_EQUAL blah blah blah...
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?
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.
I'll keep this thread updated Thanks for the suggestions so far. Any OCZ guys have any input?
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
PS: hi, omega!
sigh.. I feel like I'm back in my KT7A-RAID + Soundblaster days
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?
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?
Do you have two sticks of ram, or just one?
If you have two, put them in the other two DIMM slots.
I have two sticks of ddr2 533 Infineon and they are in a1 and b1 slots
Let me ask you: do you have smart monitoring enabled or disabled?
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.