On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 11:28:44 -0800, "Larry Towner"
<> wrote:
>Having just gone through the nightmare of upgrading to a new AV8
>motherboard, here are lessons learned.
>1: Many early ATX motherboards did not use the second 12v power supply line
>available from the supply. The AV8 does and I missed that early on.
Page 2-5 of the AV8 User's manual.........
> This
>will give you a long and three short beeps, a 9F indicator, and a power off.
>2. The long and three short beeps apparently has multiple meanings.
>Keyboard and video card problems are two of those. But, as you see from #1
>above, not all. Lesson: don't get focused too closely based on the beeping.
>3. After solving the power supply problem (clued in by my 4th plea for
>assistance from Abit), I started getting a 04 indication and a single
>repeating beep. So I started removing add-on boards, etc. I had followed
>directions about installing memory (I have two 512mb modules), I had
>installed them in positions 1 and 2. When I removed the module in position
>2, the computer booted. Recalling a note posted on this newsgroup about
>using positions 1 and 3, I tried that. Walla.... it worked. All 1gb of
>memory is on line.
Are you using totally-identical modules ? With your current
configuration (DIMM1&3), you are operating the AV8 in Single-channel
mode. You need completely identical modules to operate in dual-channel
mode (DIMM1&2) See AV8 User's Manual Section 2-3, page 2-3 and
Table2-2 --- all explained there.
>4. After bringing up the system, Windows XP wants you to reactivate so be
>sure to have the original serial sequence. In my case, it had been less
>than 90 days since I had made another change that required reactivation and
>that's a no-no. You have to call Microsoft and go through a process with 9
>(yes, 9) six-digit (yup) numbers for a reactivation. A real pain, since the
>lady on the other end spoke marginal English and had some difficulty
>pronouncing numbers.
>5. It will take persistence to get Abit to respond to technical questions.
>I suspect they may browse the newsgroup as a reply (actually, two) came
>suspiciously close to the time I posted a message on this newsgroup that
>suggested complaining to some higher authority was in order.
>
>At this point, knock on wood, the system is up and running. All of the
>assorted special features of the board are activated and Windows XP hasn't
>hiccupped. Hope this helps some of you get there quicker.
>
>Larry Towner
>
>
It seems that a thorough read of the AV8 User's manual before system
build would have avoided much, if not all of your heartburn.
Thus probably rendering items #2 and #5 totally unnecessary.
Abit is very spotty about documenting and explaining BIOS functions,
but they document the physical attributes and power-requirements of
their boards very well.
Rule #1 in building up a computer-system with any components
new to you - first read all docs...no matter your prior PC-build
experience !! I regularly build computer systems. For any components
new to me, I always require myself to read all parts of the
documentation relevant to the system-build before ever touching
a screwdriver. I have little or no desire to see $$$$ go up in
smoke... or worse still, flaky operation due to some permanent
damage inflicted by my ignorance.
Neither this group nor Abit could have helped you with
item #4.
John Lewis
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