A7N8x Deluxe CPU and FSB Speed Settings

wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:12:43 -0500, Paul <> wrote:
>
>> wrote:
>>> I finally had time to put the CPU back on the MB. Previously I was
>>> getting "overclocked" messages from the BIOS even though it was
>>> underclocked. Then it would boot normally and run for a while before
>>> freezing up.
>>>
>>> Now that the CPU was removed and then reinstalled it doesn't work at
>>> all. When I hit the power button the fans all turn for about three
>>> seconds, and then it shuts off. No beeps, no nothing. It looks to me
>>> like a cooling issue, as if the the heatsink isn't making good contact
>>> or something. Or maybe the chip's completely shot from static or
>>> something from when it was off the MB. What do you think?
>> The board has CPU overheat protection, so it could be thermal. Did
>> you get paste on the pins ? Be careful, as you can chip the edges
>> of the die - that is what those rubber pads are for on the corners,
>> to help protect the silicon die from chipping on the edges.
>>
>> Paul
>
> I fixed it. I had ordered a shim from frozenCPU.com to replace the
> pads - it serves the same purpose. They sent me six of them. They
> looked extremely thin, so I figured you stack them until you get to
> the right thickness - why else would they send me six of them? lol -
> so I started with two. Turns out just one of them is the perfect
> thickness and two of them holds the heatsink off the die. Thank God
> for built-in thermal protection. Do all boards have that nowadays?
>
> Anyway the rig has been running stable at the proper clock speed for a
> couple of hours now, and no warnings from the bios either. I'll have
> to leave it on for 24 hours or so before I declare it fixed.
>
> I can think of two possibilities, at this point, of what could have
> been wrong with it:
>
> 1) I went to the arctic silver site to see their recommended way to
> use the compound. They say do not get any compound anywhere except
> the die, especially not on any lands. They explain that although the
> grease is nonconductive, over time dust can migrate under there and
> contaminate any excess grease and it can begin to get some electrical
> properties such as capacitance - and that can cause the CPU to do
> eratic things.
>
> Well I bought this board and CPU together from Aberdeeninc, and they
> mounted the CPU and heatsink and tested it before they shipped it. It
> cost more that way, but I got a guaranteed working mobo and CPU. When
> I pulled that heatsink off the CPU I could see that whoever assembled
> it had gotten grease all over the place. So I cleaned it all off.
> Maybe that was the problem.
>
> 2) Heat. When I had this apart I took the fan off the CPU and there
> was a lot of dust gunked on the fins. I've seen much worse on
> computers that were working fine. But this was a package deal, and
> the supplied heatsink was probably just adequate - when completely
> clean. So I cleaned the heatsink, and I added another fan to the
> case.
>
> Of the two possibilities I think heat is more likely, but I'll never
> know for sure, at least not until the dust builds up on the heatsink
> again.
>

I checked the manual (I have a bunch of manuals on disk here), and
"C.O.P." is listed for CPU Overheat Protection. On my A7N8X-E
motherboard, there is actually a separate 8 pin chip charged with
protecting the processor. What that chip does, is monitor the
"thermal diode", which is part of the CPU silicon die. The diode
tracks the CPU temperature very well, so that the instant an
overheat is detected, the 8 pin chip figures it out. Then the
power gets shut off (you'd hope). The 8 pin chip, protects
faster than some BIOS/software based methods.

Glad to hear it is working again :-)

Paul

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 03:21:53 -0500, Paul <> wrote:

> wrote:
>> On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:12:43 -0500, Paul <> wrote:
>>
>>> wrote:
>>>> I finally had time to put the CPU back on the MB. Previously I was
>>>> getting "overclocked" messages from the BIOS even though it was
>>>> underclocked. Then it would boot normally and run for a while before
>>>> freezing up.
>>>>
>>>> Now that the CPU was removed and then reinstalled it doesn't work at
>>>> all. When I hit the power button the fans all turn for about three
>>>> seconds, and then it shuts off. No beeps, no nothing. It looks to me
>>>> like a cooling issue, as if the the heatsink isn't making good contact
>>>> or something. Or maybe the chip's completely shot from static or
>>>> something from when it was off the MB. What do you think?
>>> The board has CPU overheat protection, so it could be thermal. Did
>>> you get paste on the pins ? Be careful, as you can chip the edges
>>> of the die - that is what those rubber pads are for on the corners,
>>> to help protect the silicon die from chipping on the edges.
>>>
>>> Paul
>>
>> I fixed it. I had ordered a shim from frozenCPU.com to replace the
>> pads - it serves the same purpose. They sent me six of them. They
>> looked extremely thin, so I figured you stack them until you get to
>> the right thickness - why else would they send me six of them? lol -
>> so I started with two. Turns out just one of them is the perfect
>> thickness and two of them holds the heatsink off the die. Thank God
>> for built-in thermal protection. Do all boards have that nowadays?
>>
>> Anyway the rig has been running stable at the proper clock speed for a
>> couple of hours now, and no warnings from the bios either. I'll have
>> to leave it on for 24 hours or so before I declare it fixed.
>>
>> I can think of two possibilities, at this point, of what could have
>> been wrong with it:
>>
>> 1) I went to the arctic silver site to see their recommended way to
>> use the compound. They say do not get any compound anywhere except
>> the die, especially not on any lands. They explain that although the
>> grease is nonconductive, over time dust can migrate under there and
>> contaminate any excess grease and it can begin to get some electrical
>> properties such as capacitance - and that can cause the CPU to do
>> eratic things.
>>
>> Well I bought this board and CPU together from Aberdeeninc, and they
>> mounted the CPU and heatsink and tested it before they shipped it. It
>> cost more that way, but I got a guaranteed working mobo and CPU. When
>> I pulled that heatsink off the CPU I could see that whoever assembled
>> it had gotten grease all over the place. So I cleaned it all off.
>> Maybe that was the problem.
>>
>> 2) Heat. When I had this apart I took the fan off the CPU and there
>> was a lot of dust gunked on the fins. I've seen much worse on
>> computers that were working fine. But this was a package deal, and
>> the supplied heatsink was probably just adequate - when completely
>> clean. So I cleaned the heatsink, and I added another fan to the
>> case.
>>
>> Of the two possibilities I think heat is more likely, but I'll never
>> know for sure, at least not until the dust builds up on the heatsink
>> again.
>>
>
>I checked the manual (I have a bunch of manuals on disk here), and
>"C.O.P." is listed for CPU Overheat Protection. On my A7N8X-E
>motherboard, there is actually a separate 8 pin chip charged with
>protecting the processor. What that chip does, is monitor the
>"thermal diode", which is part of the CPU silicon die. The diode
>tracks the CPU temperature very well, so that the instant an
>overheat is detected, the 8 pin chip figures it out. Then the
>power gets shut off (you'd hope). The 8 pin chip, protects
>faster than some BIOS/software based methods.
>
>Glad to hear it is working again :-)
>
> Paul

I wrote about this last night, but I guess I forgot to send it: I
forgot to hook the speakers up. When I connected them I discovered
that the bios is still giving warnings, alternating between "CPU
failed!..." and "Memory failed!" From other reading I know that
others were getting the same the same warnings but with no actual
problem. I have the original bios version that came on the board:
1001. They went up to 1009 for my version of the board. I'll betcha
updating the bios will fix it.

On the Asus site it says that the bios can update itself, without the
need to boot from a floppy. Do you know if this works?

Here is the text:

Use Built-in BIOS Refresh Procedure

1. Download latest ASUS BIOS from ASUS WWW?FTP for newest version BIOS
and save it in a diskette.

2. Reboot the system.

3. When the system is at POST after reboot, please hold down + to view
the following image.

4. Insert the diskette containing latest BIOS version into the floppy
drive. If you skip this process and move onto the next one without
insert the floppy into the drive, you will receive an error message
stating "WARNING! Device not ready" .

5. The remaining steps are identical to step "1. Use AWDFLASH.EXE BIOS
to begin refresh." section 3 to 6. Please refer to the steps shown to
proceed BIOS update.

wrote:

>
> I wrote about this last night, but I guess I forgot to send it: I
> forgot to hook the speakers up. When I connected them I discovered
> that the bios is still giving warnings, alternating between "CPU
> failed!..." and "Memory failed!" From other reading I know that
> others were getting the same the same warnings but with no actual
> problem. I have the original bios version that came on the board:
> 1001. They went up to 1009 for my version of the board. I'll betcha
> updating the bios will fix it.
>
> On the Asus site it says that the bios can update itself, without the
> need to boot from a floppy. Do you know if this works?
>
> Here is the text:
>
> Use Built-in BIOS Refresh Procedure
>
> 1. Download latest ASUS BIOS from ASUS WWW?FTP for newest version BIOS
> and save it in a diskette.
>
> 2. Reboot the system.
>
> 3. When the system is at POST after reboot, please hold down + to view
> the following image.
>
> 4. Insert the diskette containing latest BIOS version into the floppy
> drive. If you skip this process and move onto the next one without
> insert the floppy into the drive, you will receive an error message
> stating "WARNING! Device not ready" .
>
> 5. The remaining steps are identical to step "1. Use AWDFLASH.EXE BIOS
> to begin refresh." section 3 to 6. Please refer to the steps shown to
> proceed BIOS update.

The Vocal POST is a separate chip. The chip executes its own code.
So the voice thing is an independent subsystem.

The "System Failed CPU Test" and the "System Failed Memory Test" messages
are based on a timer in the separate chip. If the timer counts down to
zero, before the CPU and BIOS code get there to disable the timer, then
the Vocal POST sends the message. The erroneous messages can be
caused by the BIOS code being "late to the party". It is possible
another BIOS file might work better.

When flashing the BIOS, the first thing you want to do, is archive the
existing BIOS file. If necessary, you can flip floppies on the floppy
drive, and use a second floppy to hold the archive copy. The purpose
of the archived copy, is if there is a problem flashing the new BIOS,
you can immediately flash back the archived one. Don't reboot the
computer, until satisfied that the BIOS flash tool did something
right.

When downloading and decompressing a ZIP file (if one is used),
double check that the resulting file is the correct size and name.
A few people have a problem, where a module inside the BIOS gets
unzipped and they take that 128KB file and try and flash it
(bricking the board). The user manual usually tells you how
many megabits the flash chip is, and dividing that by 8 gives
the byte count needed for the flash file.

The user manual usually has several sections with BIOS flashing
options. For the boards I've done, I use a DOS boot disk with
a copy of the flashing program on it. For the very latest motherboards,
this is no longer feasible, as some of the BIOS chips are getting
bigger than a floppy.

The <alt-F2> is based on a copy of awdflash stored inside the BIOS.
I was surprised to find, that by taking a BIOS tool, and extracting
the code, that in fact the awdflash inside the BIOS is exactly the
same as the awdflash you can download from the web site. So it should
offer the same options.

One thing to watch, with some of these flashing options, is if the
file or media is not ready, when the program wants it. Some of
the code that has been written, erases the flash chip, *before*
checking the media. That kind of stupidity leads to bricked
motherboards. So make sure the BIOS image is available to the
program, just in case you're dealing with some old code like that.

Asus Update is a windows program, for flashing the BIOS. It
isn't mentioned in your manual, but would be another option.
The Asus Update program consults the Asus website, and downloads
some catalog files, and that is how it figures out what
BIOS files to offer to users as a flash option. I've noticed
that the catalog files are not always updated properly, and
for some boards, half the files will not be listed as
upgrade options. A good thing to do, is make sure the file
is downloaded and available on local storage, before
continuing with the flash process with Asus Update. And
even then, my own preference is a DOS floppy, as there are
fewer things that can possibly interfere with the
process (like my antivirus software :-) )

If you brick the board, you can always go to badflash.com
and buy a new BIOS chip. So at worst, if there is a problem,
it'll cost about $25 to fix it. (At one time, people used
to buy a BIOS Savior from ioss.com.tw or a more local dealer
- that would make more sense back when new BIOS were always
being released, but since you'll be doing this just the
once, I don't see a strong reason to bother. If you brick
it, just get another chip from badflash.com and you're done.)

HTH,
Paul

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:16:29 -0500, Paul <> wrote:

> wrote:
>
>>
>> I wrote about this last night, but I guess I forgot to send it: I
>> forgot to hook the speakers up. When I connected them I discovered
>> that the bios is still giving warnings, alternating between "CPU
>> failed!..." and "Memory failed!" From other reading I know that
>> others were getting the same the same warnings but with no actual
>> problem. I have the original bios version that came on the board:
>> 1001. They went up to 1009 for my version of the board. I'll betcha
>> updating the bios will fix it.
>>
>> On the Asus site it says that the bios can update itself, without the
>> need to boot from a floppy. Do you know if this works?
>>
>> Here is the text:
>>
>> Use Built-in BIOS Refresh Procedure
>>
>> 1. Download latest ASUS BIOS from ASUS WWW?FTP for newest version BIOS
>> and save it in a diskette.
>>
>> 2. Reboot the system.
>>
>> 3. When the system is at POST after reboot, please hold down + to view
>> the following image.
>>
>> 4. Insert the diskette containing latest BIOS version into the floppy
>> drive. If you skip this process and move onto the next one without
>> insert the floppy into the drive, you will receive an error message
>> stating "WARNING! Device not ready" .
>>
>> 5. The remaining steps are identical to step "1. Use AWDFLASH.EXE BIOS
>> to begin refresh." section 3 to 6. Please refer to the steps shown to
>> proceed BIOS update.
>
>The Vocal POST is a separate chip. The chip executes its own code.
>So the voice thing is an independent subsystem.
>
>The "System Failed CPU Test" and the "System Failed Memory Test" messages
>are based on a timer in the separate chip. If the timer counts down to
>zero, before the CPU and BIOS code get there to disable the timer, then
>the Vocal POST sends the message. The erroneous messages can be
>caused by the BIOS code being "late to the party". It is possible
>another BIOS file might work better.
>
>When flashing the BIOS, the first thing you want to do, is archive the
>existing BIOS file. If necessary, you can flip floppies on the floppy
>drive, and use a second floppy to hold the archive copy. The purpose
>of the archived copy, is if there is a problem flashing the new BIOS,
>you can immediately flash back the archived one. Don't reboot the
>computer, until satisfied that the BIOS flash tool did something
>right.
>
>When downloading and decompressing a ZIP file (if one is used),
>double check that the resulting file is the correct size and name.
>A few people have a problem, where a module inside the BIOS gets
>unzipped and they take that 128KB file and try and flash it
>(bricking the board). The user manual usually tells you how
>many megabits the flash chip is, and dividing that by 8 gives
>the byte count needed for the flash file.
>
>The user manual usually has several sections with BIOS flashing
>options. For the boards I've done, I use a DOS boot disk with
>a copy of the flashing program on it. For the very latest motherboards,
>this is no longer feasible, as some of the BIOS chips are getting
>bigger than a floppy.
>
>The <alt-F2> is based on a copy of awdflash stored inside the BIOS.
>I was surprised to find, that by taking a BIOS tool, and extracting
>the code, that in fact the awdflash inside the BIOS is exactly the
>same as the awdflash you can download from the web site. So it should
>offer the same options.
>
>One thing to watch, with some of these flashing options, is if the
>file or media is not ready, when the program wants it. Some of
>the code that has been written, erases the flash chip, *before*
>checking the media. That kind of stupidity leads to bricked
>motherboards. So make sure the BIOS image is available to the
>program, just in case you're dealing with some old code like that.
>
>Asus Update is a windows program, for flashing the BIOS. It
>isn't mentioned in your manual, but would be another option.
>The Asus Update program consults the Asus website, and downloads
>some catalog files, and that is how it figures out what
>BIOS files to offer to users as a flash option. I've noticed
>that the catalog files are not always updated properly, and
>for some boards, half the files will not be listed as
>upgrade options. A good thing to do, is make sure the file
>is downloaded and available on local storage, before
>continuing with the flash process with Asus Update. And
>even then, my own preference is a DOS floppy, as there are
>fewer things that can possibly interfere with the
>process (like my antivirus software :-) )
>
>If you brick the board, you can always go to badflash.com
>and buy a new BIOS chip. So at worst, if there is a problem,
>it'll cost about $25 to fix it. (At one time, people used
>to buy a BIOS Savior from ioss.com.tw or a more local dealer
>- that would make more sense back when new BIOS were always
>being released, but since you'll be doing this just the
>once, I don't see a strong reason to bother. If you brick
>it, just get another chip from badflash.com and you're done.)
>
>HTH,
> Paul

Thank you Paul for all of that advice. I just learned a lot from you
about how my bios works and the voice messages being on its own chip
and the way it works with the bios.

And the bios flashing advice may be saving me a lot of time and
trouble. I'll let you know how it goes.

On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 13:51:09 -0500, wrote:

>On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:16:29 -0500, Paul <> wrote:
>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I wrote about this last night, but I guess I forgot to send it: I
>>> forgot to hook the speakers up. When I connected them I discovered
>>> that the bios is still giving warnings, alternating between "CPU
>>> failed!..." and "Memory failed!" From other reading I know that
>>> others were getting the same the same warnings but with no actual
>>> problem. I have the original bios version that came on the board:
>>> 1001. They went up to 1009 for my version of the board. I'll betcha
>>> updating the bios will fix it.
>>>
>>> On the Asus site it says that the bios can update itself, without the
>>> need to boot from a floppy. Do you know if this works?
>>>
>>> Here is the text:
>>>
>>> Use Built-in BIOS Refresh Procedure
>>>
>>> 1. Download latest ASUS BIOS from ASUS WWW?FTP for newest version BIOS
>>> and save it in a diskette.
>>>
>>> 2. Reboot the system.
>>>
>>> 3. When the system is at POST after reboot, please hold down + to view
>>> the following image.
>>>
>>> 4. Insert the diskette containing latest BIOS version into the floppy
>>> drive. If you skip this process and move onto the next one without
>>> insert the floppy into the drive, you will receive an error message
>>> stating "WARNING! Device not ready" .
>>>
>>> 5. The remaining steps are identical to step "1. Use AWDFLASH.EXE BIOS
>>> to begin refresh." section 3 to 6. Please refer to the steps shown to
>>> proceed BIOS update.
>>
>>The Vocal POST is a separate chip. The chip executes its own code.
>>So the voice thing is an independent subsystem.
>>
>>The "System Failed CPU Test" and the "System Failed Memory Test" messages
>>are based on a timer in the separate chip. If the timer counts down to
>>zero, before the CPU and BIOS code get there to disable the timer, then
>>the Vocal POST sends the message. The erroneous messages can be
>>caused by the BIOS code being "late to the party". It is possible
>>another BIOS file might work better.
>>
>>When flashing the BIOS, the first thing you want to do, is archive the
>>existing BIOS file. If necessary, you can flip floppies on the floppy
>>drive, and use a second floppy to hold the archive copy. The purpose
>>of the archived copy, is if there is a problem flashing the new BIOS,
>>you can immediately flash back the archived one. Don't reboot the
>>computer, until satisfied that the BIOS flash tool did something
>>right.
>>
>>When downloading and decompressing a ZIP file (if one is used),
>>double check that the resulting file is the correct size and name.
>>A few people have a problem, where a module inside the BIOS gets
>>unzipped and they take that 128KB file and try and flash it
>>(bricking the board). The user manual usually tells you how
>>many megabits the flash chip is, and dividing that by 8 gives
>>the byte count needed for the flash file.
>>
>>The user manual usually has several sections with BIOS flashing
>>options. For the boards I've done, I use a DOS boot disk with
>>a copy of the flashing program on it. For the very latest motherboards,
>>this is no longer feasible, as some of the BIOS chips are getting
>>bigger than a floppy.
>>
>>The <alt-F2> is based on a copy of awdflash stored inside the BIOS.
>>I was surprised to find, that by taking a BIOS tool, and extracting
>>the code, that in fact the awdflash inside the BIOS is exactly the
>>same as the awdflash you can download from the web site. So it should
>>offer the same options.
>>
>>One thing to watch, with some of these flashing options, is if the
>>file or media is not ready, when the program wants it. Some of
>>the code that has been written, erases the flash chip, *before*
>>checking the media. That kind of stupidity leads to bricked
>>motherboards. So make sure the BIOS image is available to the
>>program, just in case you're dealing with some old code like that.
>>
>>Asus Update is a windows program, for flashing the BIOS. It
>>isn't mentioned in your manual, but would be another option.
>>The Asus Update program consults the Asus website, and downloads
>>some catalog files, and that is how it figures out what
>>BIOS files to offer to users as a flash option. I've noticed
>>that the catalog files are not always updated properly, and
>>for some boards, half the files will not be listed as
>>upgrade options. A good thing to do, is make sure the file
>>is downloaded and available on local storage, before
>>continuing with the flash process with Asus Update. And
>>even then, my own preference is a DOS floppy, as there are
>>fewer things that can possibly interfere with the
>>process (like my antivirus software :-) )
>>
>>If you brick the board, you can always go to badflash.com
>>and buy a new BIOS chip. So at worst, if there is a problem,
>>it'll cost about $25 to fix it. (At one time, people used
>>to buy a BIOS Savior from ioss.com.tw or a more local dealer
>>- that would make more sense back when new BIOS were always
>>being released, but since you'll be doing this just the
>>once, I don't see a strong reason to bother. If you brick
>>it, just get another chip from badflash.com and you're done.)
>>
>>HTH,
>> Paul
>
>Thank you Paul for all of that advice. I just learned a lot from you
>about how my bios works and the voice messages being on its own chip
>and the way it works with the bios.
>
>And the bios flashing advice may be saving me a lot of time and
>trouble. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dang, it froze up again. Good thing I wasn't flashing the bios when
it happened. Now I don't know what to do. It seems to be more stable
than it was before I started mucking around. It is running at the
proper clock speed which it wouldn't do before. This has me stumped.

wrote:

>
> Dang, it froze up again. Good thing I wasn't flashing the bios when
> it happened. Now I don't know what to do. It seems to be more stable
> than it was before I started mucking around. It is running at the
> proper clock speed which it wouldn't do before. This has me stumped.

Drop the clock speed, and test stability again.

As you correctly note, flashing an unstable system is asking for trouble.

Paul

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:15:04 -0500, Paul <> wrote:

> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dang, it froze up again. Good thing I wasn't flashing the bios when
>> it happened. Now I don't know what to do. It seems to be more stable
>> than it was before I started mucking around. It is running at the
>> proper clock speed which it wouldn't do before. This has me stumped.
>
>Drop the clock speed, and test stability again.
>
>As you correctly note, flashing an unstable system is asking for trouble.
>
> Paul

Flashing now is very risky, but that presents a big dilemma because
I'm starting to wonder if the bios may be the whole problem.

One of my other computers developed problems that resulted in it
almost never booting. It seemed bios related, and sure enough,
reflashing the bios with the same version fixed it. So I know the
code held in the bios can "fade" or get corrupted. So I am tempted to
take a chance and flash the bios as a last resort.

For now, though, I will take your advice and drop the speed.

If it becomes rock solid stable at a lower speed, what does that mean?
Does it mean the CPU is marginal? That is one possibility in my mind,
but are there other possibilities? I wouldn't mind buying a new CPU
because I can get a faster one for pretty cheap, but I would hate it
if it turned out to be the board. Actually, I am tempted to buy a
whole different board and CPU.

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:33:02 -0500, wrote:


>
>For now, though, I will take your advice and drop the speed.
>
>If it becomes rock solid stable at a lower speed, what does that mean?
>Does it mean the CPU is marginal? That is one possibility in my mind,
>but are there other possibilities? I wouldn't mind buying a new CPU
>because I can get a faster one for pretty cheap, but I would hate it
>if it turned out to be the board. Actually, I am tempted to buy a
>whole different board and CPU.

If lowering the speed makes it stable, are you considering getting
another board? If so, are you interested in getting rid of this one
(cheaply), I also have an A7N8x Deluxe and am having no problems with
it.... but I also have a box with a cheap ECS board in it that is real
flaky.... so... I sure would like to replace that ECS with something
that wouldn't cost me a lot.

If interested you can contact me off list at charliehoffp at yahoo dot
com.

--
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:43:39 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir
<> wrote:

>On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:33:02 -0500, wrote:
>
>
>>
>>For now, though, I will take your advice and drop the speed.
>>
>>If it becomes rock solid stable at a lower speed, what does that mean?
>>Does it mean the CPU is marginal? That is one possibility in my mind,
>>but are there other possibilities? I wouldn't mind buying a new CPU
>>because I can get a faster one for pretty cheap, but I would hate it
>>if it turned out to be the board. Actually, I am tempted to buy a
>>whole different board and CPU.
>
>If lowering the speed makes it stable, are you considering getting
>another board? If so, are you interested in getting rid of this one
>(cheaply), I also have an A7N8x Deluxe and am having no problems with
>it.... but I also have a box with a cheap ECS board in it that is real
>flaky.... so... I sure would like to replace that ECS with something
>that wouldn't cost me a lot.
>
>If interested you can contact me off list at charliehoffp at yahoo dot
>com.

You seem confident that my problem is not the board. Hmmm...

On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 12:52:43 -0500, wrote:

>On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:43:39 -0600, Charlie Hoffpauir
><> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:33:02 -0500, wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>>For now, though, I will take your advice and drop the speed.
>>>
>>>If it becomes rock solid stable at a lower speed, what does that mean?
>>>Does it mean the CPU is marginal? That is one possibility in my mind,
>>>but are there other possibilities? I wouldn't mind buying a new CPU
>>>because I can get a faster one for pretty cheap, but I would hate it
>>>if it turned out to be the board. Actually, I am tempted to buy a
>>>whole different board and CPU.
>>
>>If lowering the speed makes it stable, are you considering getting
>>another board? If so, are you interested in getting rid of this one
>>(cheaply), I also have an A7N8x Deluxe and am having no problems with
>>it.... but I also have a box with a cheap ECS board in it that is real
>>flaky.... so... I sure would like to replace that ECS with something
>>that wouldn't cost me a lot.
>>
>>If interested you can contact me off list at charliehoffp at yahoo dot
>>com.
>
>You seem confident that my problem is not the board. Hmmm...

Not at all! I'm interested in it ONLY if lowering the speed makes it
stable, which would then indicate to me that the board was OK.

--
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/