AB9 Pro -A long list of woes

[Theo Samaritan]

Ok, here goes.

I get the AB9 Pro based upon the Hexus review. Install it and windows doesnt want to go past the "setup is starting windows" message right at the beginning (shortly after installing the third part Jmicron drivers).

Strange.

So after many hours tinkering trying to get it to work, and failing, I try a flash bios install.

BIOS install didnt work.

Strange.

So I contacted Customer Support, they suggested I boost the voltage of the ram to 1.9 volts and take out a DIMM.

BIOS wont save without loocking up, causing me to hardboot the PC and loosing the saved changes.

Strange.

Suggestions outside of sending this back to SCAN please?

EDIT: Oh and my machine for this is said motherboard, an XFX 8800GTS-320, 2GB Elixir DDR2-533 and a Core 2 Duo E6600. all HDD's and disc drives are SATA.

[BUFF]

if all your drives are SATA why are you using the JMicron at all?

when you say that BIOS install didn't work do you mean that it didn't resolve the problem or that the new BIOS itself didn't get installed (you did clear CMOS after the flash?)?

[Theo Samaritan]

if all your drives are SATA why are you using the JMicron at all?

when you say that BIOS install didn't work do you mean that it didn't resolve the problem or that the new BIOS itself didn't get installed (you did clear CMOS after the flash?)?

JMicron jsut to be on the safe side.

As for the flash, i mean the actual flash install failed. I know whats causing it now - I cant save BIOS to CMOS without the PC locking up so I assume I have to wipethe CMOS to get it to save?

After that I can do what customer support told me to and boost the ram voltage to 1.9v

[BUFF]

if you aren't using the JMicron disable it in the BIOS - the system will boot faster for 1 thing.

You should clear CMOS after a flash.
Might be worth trying to flash again.

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Seems I'm lucky to be late to the party. Using the 1.6 BIOS (from the Taiwan site), I'm running an AB9 Pro in my fileserver rig without issues thus far.
Core 2 E4300 @ 3GHz (~334FSB, 1.375Vcore)
Stock Intel HSF
2x 1GB DDR2-667 SuperTalent @ 4-4-4-12 (1.9V)
XFX GeForce 8500GT
Hauppauge WinTV PVR-500 MCE
SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 400GB + BenQ DW-1620 (IDE)
8x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB (SATA)
CM Stacker w/dual Ultra X-Finity 500W PSUs

[Theo Samaritan]

I have since re-checked the bios boot and I found its actually giving a CMOS checksum error - indicating that either the jumper is set to clear the CMOS still (something which I did not check but shouldve) or there is a fault with the board.

I hope its the jumper, I cant really afford the hassle of getting the board replaced.

[BUFF]

if the jumper was set wrongly you wouln't get a checksum error but the POST would halt & you would get an appropriate error code on the POST LED.

Did you clear CMOS after the flash?

[Theo Samaritan]

Did you clear CMOS after the flash?

I repeat again,the flash failed - moaned about missing files or somesuch. no point clearing a CMOS if the flash didnt work at all.

[BUFF]

Personally I would try clearing the CMOS but I would also try flashing again.

[Richh]

I repeat again,the flash failed - moaned about missing files or somesuch. no point clearing a CMOS if the flash didnt work at all.

If the flash didn't work, you need to work out what you did wrong and try it again. What was the name of the missing file it was moaning about?

You also haven't as yet answered BUFF's point about the JMicron drivers you were loading. If all your disks and discs are SATA you shouldn't even need the JMB363 to be enabled, you can hang them all off the Intel controller.

Can you give us a full rundown on your hardware config? Will make it easier for us to visualise what's going on (or not).

[Theo Samaritan]

You also haven't as yet answered BUFF's point about the JMicron drivers you were loading. If all your disks and discs are SATA you shouldn't even need the JMB363 to be enabled, you can hang them all off the Intel controller.

I tried turning it off, but if the BIOS doesn't save, its back to step one.

And i tried installing wihtout the drivers, no luck.

Its ok, i've sent the thing back fro my money now. Ty for ya help people.