asus a8n-sli and sata hard drive problems

xillix

xillix

New Member
having problems with my motherboard and hard drive. first of all it's an asus a8n-sli motherboard, pc3200 512mb ram (forgot the other stuff), amd athlon 64 cpu 3200+, western digital 200gb, 200gb maxtor.

problem is that the chipset fan is not working. don't know what is wrong with it but i can't make it work anymore (don't know if it'll affect the computer in some ways). the next is that since sata does not use the master/slave jumper like ide i was having difficult times making the computer find maxtor at boot. maxtor didn't show up till i reboot. when i switched the sata wires on the hard drive the computer beeped and frozed. it keeps making one beep everytime the computer turns on. the drives are not raid and don't know what the beep stands for.

help needed! thanks

xill
 
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Typically a single beep is a POST OK audible message. Some newer sytems don't have it. My M.B. has the pins for it but my new case doesn't have a speaker so obviously I don't get a beep. In the past a solid beep that doesn't go away or a pulsating beep would mean my memory is not installed correctly, the cpu fan is not running or something else like that. About your chipset fan. I had a M.B. fan header fail after a few months because I was running a high performance fan off of it for the CPU fan. Then had to switch to use the PSU power to run the fan and disable the fan detection in the bios. Check your bios and see if there is a fan alarm enabled or something. The only thing I can tell you about the SATA is check your connections. I've had trouble with SATA connections before. Sometimes they are kinda flimsy and its easy to break the connection on the hard drive.
 
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i know about the single beep but this one goes beep, pause, beep, pause, beep (and so on) while hanging the computer. and last time i checked there was no fan alarm options. i can't go into bios anymore cause it of the beeps when the computer turns on.
 
can't find anything that would short it out. and i hope that i didn't short it out. so in this case i should get a new motherboard or new comp right?
 
Its probably not your M.B. Its probably a connection on the SATA or one of the hard drives itself. Switch things around some. Disconnect all hard drives and see if you can access the Bios. If you can do that, power down, then connect one hard drive and try it again. If you can still access the Bios then disconnect that hard drive and connect the other one and try it again. Process of elimination to find cause of beep. Also reseat your RAM. Or if you have more than one RAM chip try the slots and the chips individually also.
 
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it's still beeping. i have the speaker plugged in and each time it beeps it says "system failed memory test." what to do from here?
 
xillix said:
it's still beeping. i have the speaker plugged in and each time it beeps it says "system failed memory test." what to do from here?
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Did you take out your RAM and look at the sockets and pins closely? Are you sure its seating properly. Did you try each stick separately in a different socket each time?
 
xillix said:
yeah, i did. it still gives me the same thing. did my mem stick got short? i hope not.
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Well I'm just about out of ideas, I doubt it will help but its worth a shot. Did you clear your CMOS? If you can get your hands on a known good stick of RAM you might try that. It doesn't normally happen just by switching the SATA cables but I guess its possible you did fry something on the M.B. When you said you switched the wires around you are not talking about the power correct? Why all of a sudden your memory test fails I don't know. I take it you still are not able to access the bios right? Are you tapping on the delete key as soon as you power it on up to the point you get the beeping? Or does it instantly start beeping as soon as you switch the power on? :(
 
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I know that pretty much A8'-SLI's had trouble with a defective Chipset Fan... mail asus about it (the customer support that is) and they should
send you a new one. as for the HDD,.... i have a SATA2 hd in my pc too... i think i just setted the Jumper to master (or Cable select) and it worked.
Make sure to try different SATA ports,.. Ill have a look at my pc when im back home :)
 
I remember when I was making my first PC and I had similar problems. This is going to make you laugh but I forgot to put the motherboard raisers on so I screwed the motherboard directly onto the motherboard!

Are you using the motherboard raisers? (Typically gold coloured thingys that you screw into the case and then you screw the motherboard onto the raisers)

I blew 3 PSUs, wrecked 2 Asus motherboards and 2 P4 3.0Ghz CPUs! Luckily the place where I got them from replaced them all without any questions as I said they were DOA :-)

I don't intend to make you look dumb but it's probably worth a try?

Also, if you've got anything plugged into the PCI slots that you may have installed, take them out too and see if it works.
 
merc_fan said:
I remember when I was making my first PC and I had similar problems. This is going to make you laugh but I forgot to put the motherboard raisers on so I screwed the motherboard directly onto the motherboard!

Are you using the motherboard raisers? (Typically gold coloured thingys that you screw into the case and then you screw the motherboard onto the raisers)

I blew 3 PSUs, wrecked 2 Asus motherboards and 2 P4 3.0Ghz CPUs! Luckily the place where I got them from replaced them all without any questions as I said they were DOA :-)

I don't intend to make you look dumb but it's probably worth a try?

Also, if you've got anything plugged into the PCI slots that you may have installed, take them out too and see if it works.
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Yea, you want to start as basic as possible. As few items plugged into the M.B. as possible yet still allowing it to boot to at least the Bios. Unplug your CD/DVD drives and floppy drives too.
 
yeah. i'll try them all. but the beep comes on when the computer is turn on. so i won't be able to do anything except fixing the hardwares for now. i'll get back to ya'll about the results.
 
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