A8N-VM Memory & Cool n Quiet Stability Issues

Put together a basic system:

Athlon 64 3000+, Venice core (E6)
512 Meg (2x256) DDR 400
80 gig PATA WD
DVDRW

Loaded bios defaults, loaded XP pro Sp2, & the drivers on the Asus CD.

All is well until turning power management to "Minimal" to enable
Cool-n-Quiet. Instant freezes or spontaneous reboots result. Bios is
corrupted but recovers after a power down. Ran memtest86+ for over an
hour, found no errors.

Replaced mobo with another.

Found problem with dual channel memory config -- it was in single
channel mode. Moved memory sticks to the black slots; dual channel
started working. Cool-n-quiet started working o.k., no immediate
crashes after enabling Minimal Power Mgmt. But system not totally
stable. Occasional crashes, reboots.

Double checked memory slot config -- according to the manual the 1st 2
sticks are supposed to be in the blue slots. Moved them. Now Cool &
Quiet causes instant & severe crashes again when minimal power mgmt is
enabled.

Looks like this board is not quite ready for prime time.

Problem Fixed: Found Bios default setting of
Advanced--Chipset--Northbridge Configuration--Memory
Configuration--User Config Mode-- was set to Manual--9.5ns/11.0ns/2T.
Changed to Auto, rebooted and everything works again. Why Asus would
make such a bios setting manual by default who knows, but it does work
o.k. with Auto.

However, Cool & Quiet does seem to have some other quirks on this
board. I noticed unusual delays in loading some programs off of CD's
occasionally, but no more crashes or reboots. System runs very cool
with the CPU in the mid 30's Celsius. Only other disapointment is
that neither CoolnQuiet or Asus' Qfan controls the System Fan, so it
always runs full speed. So much for Quiet.






"RichH" wrote in message
...
Put together a basic system:

Athlon 64 3000+, Venice core (E6)
512 Meg (2x256) DDR 400
80 gig PATA WD
DVDRW

Loaded bios defaults, loaded XP pro Sp2, & the drivers on the Asus CD.

All is well until turning power management to "Minimal" to enable
Cool-n-Quiet. Instant freezes or spontaneous reboots result. Bios is
corrupted but recovers after a power down. Ran memtest86+ for over an
hour, found no errors.

Replaced mobo with another.

Found problem with dual channel memory config -- it was in single
channel mode. Moved memory sticks to the black slots; dual channel
started working. Cool-n-quiet started working o.k., no immediate
crashes after enabling Minimal Power Mgmt. But system not totally
stable. Occasional crashes, reboots.

Double checked memory slot config -- according to the manual the 1st 2
sticks are supposed to be in the blue slots. Moved them. Now Cool &
Quiet causes instant & severe crashes again when minimal power mgmt is
enabled.

Looks like this board is not quite ready for prime time.

"RichH" wrote in message
...
Problem Fixed: Found Bios default setting of
Advanced--Chipset--Northbridge Configuration--Memory
Configuration--User Config Mode-- was set to Manual--9.5ns/11.0ns/2T.
Changed to Auto, rebooted and everything works again. Why Asus would
make such a bios setting manual by default who knows, but it does work
o.k. with Auto.

However, Cool & Quiet does seem to have some other quirks on this
board. I noticed unusual delays in loading some programs off of CD's
occasionally, but no more crashes or reboots. System runs very cool
with the CPU in the mid 30's Celsius. Only other disapointment is
that neither CoolnQuiet or Asus' Qfan controls the System Fan, so it
always runs full speed. So much for Quiet.






"RichH" wrote in message
...
Put together a basic system:

Athlon 64 3000+, Venice core (E6)
512 Meg (2x256) DDR 400
80 gig PATA WD
DVDRW

Loaded bios defaults, loaded XP pro Sp2, & the drivers on the Asus CD.

All is well until turning power management to "Minimal" to enable
Cool-n-Quiet. Instant freezes or spontaneous reboots result. Bios is
corrupted but recovers after a power down. Ran memtest86+ for over an
hour, found no errors.

Replaced mobo with another.

Found problem with dual channel memory config -- it was in single
channel mode. Moved memory sticks to the black slots; dual channel
started working. Cool-n-quiet started working o.k., no immediate
crashes after enabling Minimal Power Mgmt. But system not totally
stable. Occasional crashes, reboots.

Double checked memory slot config -- according to the manual the 1st 2
sticks are supposed to be in the blue slots. Moved them. Now Cool &
Quiet causes instant & severe crashes again when minimal power mgmt is
enabled.

Looks like this board is not quite ready for prime time.



We who about to take the leap with this board thank you.