ASUS K8V Deluxe and K8V Deluxe Wireless Edition

[QUADDRA]

Hi all
Just thought Id add to this.
This morning A PC engineer visited to repair my new PC!
The fault - a voice saying "system failed cpu test" over and over again.
The diagnosis - K8v deluxe se M/B failure
So out with the old and in with the new and everything is working for now.
So are we seeing the beginnings of a problem with this M/B?
Hope not....

[Scott2003]

After working quite happily [at stock] for several months, my K8V reset itself while I was working with Windows Explorer. And then refused to reload XP, tripping out shortly after reaching the Windows logo each time.

Despite clearing the CMOS, exhaustively testing the RAM, swapping the RAM banks, exchanging the Corsair LL for Kingston, plugging and unplugging all components, it still refused to load XP from SATA.

The problem doesn't lie with XP(32), because XP(64) trips in exactly the same place. And I hadn't rebooted into that for weeks. It isn't a virus, either. When I try to install XP(32), I get a short way into it before that too trips out (though well after the F6 driver bit). That's when I can actually manage to boot from CD - 19 times out of 20 it won't. As soon as I disconnect the SATA drive, it boots to my rescue mini-CDR or Windows CD no problem.

I've tried switching the SATA lead to VIA2, and both the PROMISE ports. Same thing. Different SATA cable, same thing. I bought another SATA drive (a Seagate 160GB, as opposed to the original Samsung 160GB), same thing.

Only when I left the SATA drive(s) unplugged and booted to PATA (a spare 2.5" 20GB Fujitsu) would it boot reliably from CD, and reinstall XP. That worked fine for a week, before I swapped the 2.5" for two old 3.5" Barracudas (IV and V). They've been working OK for over two weeks now.

I managed to recover some of the data off the original SATA HD using a DOS-based NTFS reader (I was actually backing up at the time the original crash happened). Which was surprising - the native SATA drivers must have let me access the HD. Which meant the drive wasn't faulty. (Fortunately booting to FD with the SATA HD still connected wasn't a problem).

So I'm now stuck with a K8V Deluxe board that refuses to work with either of my two SATA HD's. I intend to get a replacement MSI K8T Neo FIS2R in a couple of week's time, as I'm loathed to buy another Deluxe or cheaper K8V board. None of the other A64 boards out there will accomodate my passive Sapphire 9800XT, Zalman 7000, and chunky Corsair LED RAM.