Dang, have I got a strange one. I've had my A7N8X-X for less than 3
weeks now. After around a week of flawless performance, it began failing
bootup after a cold start. Immediately after it reports the PCI bus
devices, it locks up on the old keyboard error. Sure enough, it is not
talking to the kbd, as hitting DEL doesn't get the BIOS screen.

I've tried hitting DEL before it gets to that halt point and the BIOS
screen doesn't show, so it really isn't seeing the keyboard. Now, if I
boot 10-15 times, and wiggle the PS/2 plug, it will finally boot.

I have proven that it is not the female socket in the back of the mobo
by using a USB adaptor; still get the keyboard error. I swapped out a
known good kbd and still got the error. So, it seems that it is a mobo
or a BIOS problem.

Now for the wierd stuff; if I simply "restart" rather than come down to
a cold boot, it boots up every time. Also, if I turn off the PSU and let
the mobo LED go out, it *seems* to work OK. I am not stating this last
too strongly, as I have done that only 3 times, but it does seem that
the problem occurs only after a full shutdown when flea poewr is still
on the mobo.

I have mobo Rev. 2.00-A02 with BIOS Rev. 1006. I have seen that there is
a BIOS 1007 on the ASUS DL site, but I am hesitant to FLASH it as the
description does not say anything about this problem. Also, I have this
new computer because I killed my old reliable TX-97e by flashing the
Steinbruner (???)BIOS patch that allows larger HDD to be used. After one
reboot (worked fine) it woudn't even show the Energy Star logo, let
alone POST. Yep, I tried a different monitor and graphics adaptor. The
BIOIS was just dead!! Anyway, I don't want to chance killing this one as
I can still RMA it from newegg.com. I want to figure out for sure what
is happening before my time to RMA it passes, though I don't really want
to go back to my old K6/450 computer while the A7 makes a return trip :-)

Any help with this is really appreciated.

Cheers/John Fader