A8n SLI Premium issue - Please give advie

[M0nkeyb0Y]

This is an essay, but please plough through it and help.

A couple of weeks ago I bought all the components for my new rig from Scan (bar CPU). However I have encountered a problem and need help.

My Rig is as follows
AMD X2 4400
A8N SLI Premium
WD 200gb SATA II
an old maxtor ide hd til i get all i need from it.
XFX "Ocd" 7800GTX
2*1GB matched pair corsair VS Ram
DVDRW


Think that's all. Anyway:

I built and installed the latest drivers etc. everything ran fine, except, on a few occasions it would randomly, under a low load (not idle), just freeze: Not bluescreen, just a hardfreeze the only way to get out of this was to reset.

I figured driver conflict or some such garb, so I thought: week old = reinstall "lets get this right from the start". (NV firewall and raid were winding me up too, and didn't want to unisntall)

This is where it gets wierd:

So I reinstalled, with a FULL format of c:
Aside from some issues with keyboard it reinstalled ok - I installed the ASUS chipset drivers and restarted: it went straight back to my previous version of windows?! - with all the old software?!? WTF

So I formatted again and did the same - exactly the same thing happened again.

RIGHT: So i opened her up, to ensure all the cables were firmly in place. it was at this point I noticed the silent pipe: I have a Lian Li V1100s case (it is my fav part of my rig), it has a "thermally advantaged" (!) inverted motherboard design. From the radiator, up the heatpipe, to the chip. the temperature went from room to scalding.
The inverted position is obviously inhibiting the heatpipe.

This is in no way mentioned on the SCAN site, and I can't find it on the ASUS site.

I've just done a DOS format, HOPEFULLY this will work. Currently reinstalling it. BUT i'm now quite convinced the instability issues I was experiencing are a direct result of the chip overheating.

SCAN, PLEASE give me advice! I don't want to chuck away my Lian Li, nor do I want to exchange the mobo for a whiny fanned one.

[ifyouknowme]

i had a sli premium it got really hot and crashed alot so i rma'ed it to scan and got a dfi sli-dr and it werent inverted

[Bloggz]

Dude, I posted this in another thread but it might be useful for you aswell:

I have an A8N-SLI (premium) and had a problem with BSOD when installing Windows XP. I found that if I used the most recent SATA drivers it didn't work, because of the BIOS revision, you have to use a > 1006 version for it to work properly with the sata drivers (dunno if they use the same version numbering if it's not a premium board?)

I also had a load of problems trying to use the floppy drive to load the Sata drivers for the Windows Install (the Hit F6 to load Scsi drivers bit) so I created my own windows xp cd using my orignal silver disk and this tool called nLite. ( http://www.nliteos.com ) It's really quite cool, it allows you to integrate service packs / hotfixes etc, but I'd just concentrate on getting the SATA drivers loaded onto the CD, then burn a copy and use it for the install.

Anyway, I think it's to do with this BIOS version thing. Basically go here: http://support.asus.com/download/dow...Language=en-us it's the ASUS download site, go to Motherboads -> S939 -> A8N-SLI and have a look at the BIOS versions, all the newer ones have this warning about:

To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver to below version prior to this Bios.
For WinXP 32bit system, please download and update chipset drivers V6.65 or later

NVidia NForce Drivers v6.66 ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_..._amd_6.66.html )
Older v6.39 ( http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp_6.39.html )

So update ur BIOS or use the older drivers, I know it cured it for me, gl.

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Cheers Guy's,

Bloggz - Thanks for the advice, but I'm on 1008 at the mo - didn't want to try a beta. I upgraded after upgrading the chipset, as advised by ASUS. Trouble is/or could be (or maybe isn't and I'm being naive) that now my bios is 1008, and windows installs before the drivers do, it essentially loads on a dodgy platform. (perhaps/maybe/ish).

So you think it may be the latest SATA drivers that aren't allowing me to format/reinstall properly? - got to say, it's one of the strangest probs I've ever seen on a PC!

EDIT - forgot to say - as mentioned in my original post, it is getting REALLY hot. "I wouldn't like to touch that" hot

Ifyouknowme - I think I may follow your lead - did Scan refund, as they don't do DFI SLI-drs? It was allways gonna be between A8N Premium and DFI anyway.

[Bloggz]

As a side note, if you are using a post 1006 (i.e. 1008) bios you need the v6.66 nvidia sata drivers, if its pre-1006 bios u need th v6.39 drivers, i.e. if you're currently using the v6.39 or earlier than v6.66 drivers (maybe the ones on the mobo CD) it may be causing the filesystem errors. So upgrade, upgrade, upgrade Or re-install windows using the newer SATA drivers during the 'F6' install of SCSI drivers. Or integrate them directly onto the CD (much easier in the long run, i hates floppy disk)

But with your edit about it being hot, it sounds like a over-heat problem

[mike_dowler]

I've seen this (i.e. the problems with the heatpipe & inverted mobo case design) elsewhere. Basically you can't use the A8N-SLi premium in those cases.

I am thinking of getting one of these mobos, so it is something to watch

Seems a bit strange that it is preventing you from formatting though. Maybe take the mob out of the case & try again - even if you decide to rma its worth making sure you know what the problem is first...

[YorkieBen]

I have read at anandtech that the a8n premium cant be used with the v1000 and other motherboards with an inverted set up due to the heatpipe not working properly.

Scan however use the a8n premium in their 'chamaeleon' pc which is in a silverstone tj06 which has an inverted setup as well, so who knows?

also the Abit AN8 Ultra apparently cant be used in inverted set ups

[Bloggz]

Ah, that's interesting, so your suggesting that the condense phase of the heatpipe technology means it's not returning to the main heatsink to be vapourised again (if the motherboard is mounted the wrong way up)?

[Lee H]

Don't most heatpipe solutions now use the capillary effect to ensure that the heatflow flows correctly ?

This is probably why the systembuild team decided to use the premium motherboard in the chameleon's design

[M0nkeyb0Y]

Don't most heatpipe solutions now use the capillary effect to ensure that the heatflow flows correctly ?

This is probably why the systembuild team decided to use the premium motherboard in the chameleon's design

Not sure - I've obviously been giving it a lot of thought, and as Asus makes no mention of orientation being specific to heat flow, it's either a fundamental design flaw, or I'm easily confused (tempted to go with the latter).

WM can you give me an email address of someone on the systembuild team who may know? - cheers.

Anyway - reinstalled now with 6.66, no NV firewall, or Raid drivers, yet to stress test it, but so far no problemo.

And I have no idea why it wasn't formatting it when it said it was .

MB

[M0nkeyb0Y]

I have read at anandtech that the a8n premium cant be used with the v1000 and other motherboards with an inverted set up due to the heatpipe not working properly.

I've just read the anandtech boards - if it's the same post the guy saying it doesn't back up his claim, I wish I could find some definitive evidence.

Could someone with a "normally orientated" Premium check the temps on the chipset and its radiator to see if it's conducting heat efficiently. Actually that'll be some effort - not sure I'll get a massive response from that one!

MB

[YorkieBen]

its on several boards people having problems with the temps on the a8n premium w/upside down mobo. The an8 ultra has the same problem apparently this has been confirmed by abit tech support

a litmus test - turn your case upside down and run it and check the difference?

[herulach]

Xp90Cs work fine upside down, so its not a feature of heatpipes, maybe they use particularly fat ones? Which would make them substantially less effective if i understand correctly how they work.

[Stormsinger]

I've had my premium mobo installed in the Gigabyte 3DAururoa case for almost a fortnight now. I had to reinstall Windows XP once, and that was just after setting up the built in nVidia firewall, which f()*&d up the windows installation, so reinstalled and decided not to use the firewall. (this was my first self build (decided on after I came to the conclusion that I know more than the 'people' at Evesham do when they kept telling me a hardware issue (they eventually replaced the mobo to solve the problem) was a software issue down to me installing the software (even though it also happened when they installed the software).

Everythings running smoothly now with my board, no errors, freezing, or anything strange happening.

[YorkieBen]

apparently the heatpipes in the a8n premium and the abit an8 ultra dont have a 'wick' in them which aids the capillary action, the heatpipes in these mobos allegedly work via gravity alone

note - none of this I have tested myself, but I was looking to get a a8n premium but got put off by this apparently problem when I did research on the interweb

[BubbySoup]

Yorkieben is right. Almost all the work within the heatpipe of the Asus premium is done via gravity.