Yes throw it to the bin!
The problem seems to be in VIA KT 400 chipset, so avoid A7V8X-X and be suspicious about any mobo with this chipset. Mail me if I'm wrong.

I have the same problems on win2000 as you guys - reboot for nor reason, screen flicking, freezing.
But ONLY on win2000.
I installed Linux (Fedora) recently on and this bulls**t does not happen on this OS.
So it must be the OS or the drivers which are causing the problems.

I'l try shwitching win2000 to xp.

/mindaugas

Guys - I wasted time on the beast and I am a certified tech with experience. The retail outlet I got it from trashed me cause they can. I got a certified tech trainer friend to test it and no fix.So I took it to the distributor. They are REQUIRED to support you although they will still try to make it like it's your config. Keep complaining about the lack of a suitable BIOS update and the pathetic AGP conflicts etc to them.

Perhaps if we all complained to the distributor and waste THEIR TIME then ASUS will pay attention. To get in contact with the distributor, ask from the shop you got it from or another retail outlet may tell you who they are in your area. You have warranty for 3 years and testing and replacement is free of charge (in Australia). Good luck.

(to help earlier post, the WD h/d has no jumper on it when it is a solo master - weird little new thing).

I picked up one of these at my friendly dealer at a reasonable price a couple of days ago without reading anything about i first. Then I spent an evening trying to get the thing to boot. It almost did one time, all the other times it just went into bios setup. I tried almost every trick without any success. Then yesterday I read about all the people with just about the same problem. So I decided to just make one more go and upgrade to the latest bios. If that wouldnt work I would print out all your problems, show the dealer and ask for my money back.

After upgrading the bios everything worked just fine. I got everything in, made a lot of tests and could not find any problem.


CPU: AMD Barton 2500+
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS A7V8X-X
RAM: 512 MB on two sticks, different makes
PSU: 350Watts
VIDEO: ATI RADEON 9000
KEYBOARD/MOUSE: Logitech wireless

OMG finally i found a thread with posts similar to my problem. I am not THE expert on putting pc's together, but i did put together a couple of boxes (like 20) and i know quite a bit of the internals. Out of all the boxes i have put together this one is the only one which i have been unable to fix. After 3 months i have come to the conclusion this must a pc straight from hell, an absolute nightmare.

Here's my story:

1. Put a pc together for a friend:
case: AOpen qf50a (300W psu)
mobo: ASUS a7v8x-x --> this should ring a bell
cpu: AMD Athlon 2800+ Barton
gfx: oem gforce2 64 mb sdram (AGP 4x)
mem: 512MB DDR 400MHz @ 333MHz
OS: XP Pro
(this seemed to me like a basic no-nonsense setup)

2. Had constant random reboots since:
(wonnabe) fixes in chronological order
upgraded to biosversion 7 which according to ASUS fixes the random reboots with AGP 4x gfx-cards
updated XP (especially reboot-related patches)
added extra casefan coz cpu was running hot coz of warm environment (cpu-temperature close
to 70 degrees celsius, now around 60 degrees celsius)

Well, 3 months later, and a lot of waisted workinghours, and this bloody box still reboots, not that often as at the beginning so i made some progress, but imo a box should NEVER reboot on it's own initiative. Kinda takes away the functionality of a pc.

Maybe the cooling is still an issue so i am gonna test that some more (just by leaving case open for a week (takes another 10 degrees off). I am also gonna put in my own :'( gforce fx5200 @ AGP 8x coz i suspect very strongly the AGP-issue still being there (is a known issue with bios version 6). Maybe adjust some AGP-settings with the present gfx-card before that, dunno. And finally, if all else fails, i am gonna replace the mobo.

After reading this thread my suspicion the mobo is the culprit strenghtens even more. I am an ASUS-fan, have a a7v333-mobo which i am very very pleased with - best mobo i ever had - but this a7v8x-x is just intolerable. If the mobo is to blame i am gonna think twice before buying an asus-mobo again and my regard for ASUS (which was at max) will certainly drop.

As for now, this problem has caused me a lot of headaches, not to mention loss of credibilty from my friend. Will post a follow-up if i ever get this fixed.

Guys - send the board back to the distributor. It is their problem. I did everything with the beast as problems were various.
The tech who took it back said it was just as I said "motherboard drivers could not be installed on the board without causing the problem" (Northbridge and Southbridge).
I also asked for the Asus a7n8x-x (or deluxe) instead and asked for Asustek to tell me how to arrange this.

1. hdds or opticals not detected intermittantly
2. drivers caused problems regardless of version or order of install
3. os's failures (program closing etc)
4. poor performance of components that have won awards
5. application failures
6. os installs aborting so as not to damage hardware
7. spontaneous reboots
8. hated direct x of any version
9. it liked being a typewriter

* tried other known good HDD - (best has 8mb cache and the performance was PATHETIC).
* tried other drivers and install orders
* used default BIOS and settings (never admit to flashing it - they can blame you and you've lost the warranty-
* tested the ram
* tried various OSs - always clean -
* used different molexes (power cables)
* used different ribbons (new, old, speed)
* used different controllers
* didn't use slaves
* tested the CPU and all HDDs
* used different optical drives
* case and power new and properly grounded
etc whatever it was boring.....


With regards to those of you who built systems for friends, I consider that you are doing them a favour. The charges and customer service would cost them far more grief. Whilst components may be incompatible or fail, hardware problems are not your fault so settling for less or poor treatment is not fair. Get rid of it!!!!!!! Stop hoping and worrying about other parts and grounding, flashing etc..... BE TREATED WELL - YOU DESERVE IT AFTER ALL THE HARD WORK.

nanya 512 ram (passed test)
wd 80gig hdd 8mb cache (and others)
various high end video cards
350 watt power new
generic case

oops - sorry XP2600+ CPU to go on the list

My a7v8x-x works perfect until i install a ati 9200 agp 8x card. then internet explorer crashes, system reboots, all kinds of problems occur? any one else with these issues?

crank down that overclock frequency. had a problem with an individual like this and he was just overclocking it way to much.

has anyone experienced a problem where while installing windows xp, it crashes showing the blue death screen, in there it suggest disabling cacheing, so i did, L1 and L2 cache are disabled and OS installs fine but instead of 40 - 50 mins it takes more than 5 hours, its very slow, enabling cache installs it fast but it crashes eventually.

i have
a7v8x-x
athlon xp 2600
512 mb ram pc 2100

Hi,

I have the same problems with Asus A7V8X-X. I use GF4 64MB 8x graphic card. I took out it and put a S3 Trio 64UV+ in the PCI slot. Just for test. As a result my box is working fine. I think this mobo have problems with AGP.

regards

Hi Guys I was having all the same probs as you and, I have yet to figure out why I was able to resolve it, but I resolved the problems painfully slow.
I tried several diff bios upgrades and down grades, and it fixed some of the problems but not all.

Now get this...my AMD 1800 MHZ (AMD 2200+) at normal operation SUCKED!!!! I'd get lock ups, blue screens of death , and random reboots.

I started doing slow over clocking and taadaaa with the bios rev 1007 and an over clock as follows.
CPU = ...............................Manual
CPU frequency multiple =......12.5
CPU external=......................318
CPU core=1.........................650 v
It started working stable to my surprise, I ran it several weeks with no troubles at all!

I've now bumped it up to a 2.5 and she screams stability!

PLEASE BE ADVISED MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REAL GOOD COOLING BEFORE HAND; THIS SUCKER WILL JUMP TO A TEMP OF 65 BEFORE YOU KNOW IT. That’s why I put in a liquid cooled sys I made myself at the cost my fish tanks pumps lol. Now if anyone can figure out why overclocking it fixed the problems please e-mail me. tonycap57@hotmail.com
I hope this helps you all out, and good luck.

This MOBO is HELL in board's shape...

... I think the problem is the CHIPSET... I've never heard good things about that one...

Your right, I've never ever had as many probs with a mommy board ever. but once you figure out its bugs, hell it seems stable and good for over clocking.

I bought an ASUS A7V8X-X with ATI 9600 XT. After installing the stuff, the game Urban Terror (a Quake 3 MOD) crashed... I took a look at some forums and lot of people had problems with this motherboard.
But I've replaced VIA Hyperion 4.51 with version 4.49v from ASUS Website and it seems things are working fine now.
I'm even using AGP Aperture Size 64 instead 32.
I disabled Fast Writes in SmartGART, and Enabled both AGP Fast Writes and AGP Performance in BIOS.
I'll do some other tests, but I guess VIA 4.51 was the cause of the problem.

Hi,

I have had endless problems with my A7V8X-X and my ATI RADEON 7000. When I received my
PC, the first thing I did was update my BIOS to the then current version 1.006. I installed the ATI drivers
that came with the card an everything seemed fine. This did not turn out to be true as I soon noticed
that Windows XP Pro SP1a crashed with the classic "screen freeze". The uptime of my PC ranged from
about 2 hours to 36 hours before the dreaded screen freeze (PC locked up totally).

At first I blamed my ATI RADEON card. So I installed the latest drivers but the problem only got worse,
PC frozen after about 5 - 10 min. This lead me to believe it may be my XP installation, but.after re-installing Windows I realised that this was not the case.

I then decided to flash (upgdate) my BIOS to the now current 1.008. Things only got worse. XP did not freeze any more, it just rebooted shortly after bootup. I found that I could get it to boot with the new Catalyst drivers (4.3) only if I turned off all the AGP options in the BIOS and left AGP speed set at AUTO. Catalyst drivers 2.5 seemed to be the best to use in the configuration.

In desperation I decided to flash by motherboard BIOS with version 1.009 BETA 1 - all my problems seem to be solved now. Plus my DirectX framrates have now doubled when I play N64 games using the 1946 emulator.

It worked for me - it may work for you.

My Setup:
AMD XP 2600+ (not overclocked)
512 MB RAM
ATI RADEON 7000
S3 Trio64V2 (secondry adapter)
Zoltrix BT878 TV Card

PS: The PCI S3 graphics card is set to master in the BIOS.
My BIOS AGP settings are now maxed out (all on AGP x4).
I don't seem to have any APIC problems.
I currently use 4in1 1.449v2

Good-luck
Sygin

I recently upgraded my PC:
300W power supply
sound blaster 5.1
512DDR 2400 RAM
plus other non-related parts
to include:
-Asus A7V8X-X Motherboard " title=">">
-Radeon 9600 XT
-Athlon 2500 XP
-512DDR 3200 RAM
I have the blinking screen, beeping, and typewriter syndrome at my post screen. It gets so far as listing the pci before it fully craps out. I have tried every solution on this forum except for a new power supply or madly overclocking because i don't have the cooling capabilities. The 1009 bios did absolutely nothing. I haven't installed the drivers for my Radeon because i havent been able to get past post since i installed the parts. I heard about the mobo not being able to handle the AGP for some reason so i put in my geforce 2 64mb and guess what? It didnt get any further.

I have called ASUS customer service and have gone through the help desk thing but it's been about a day and i still haven't been called. I decided it would probably be faster to post here and helpful to others who have run out of options. I'm hoping some of those with more readily available resources than me can test to see if its just that my 300W power supply isn't cutting it. My ram is brand new and runs faster than the lying bios told me. By the time someone replies i may already broke this motherboard in a fit of rage and would then be selling it as authentic Shards of Hell on eBay and probably getting enough money from some poor sap to get me a real motherboard.

My problem is different. My Gforce 2 MX 400 works only in 2x ... it should work at 4x right? I check it with aida32

Nathan and others with the same problem,

I if you cant get bast POST and into the boot sequence when you only have a graphics card, PSU, RAM
connected then:

1) remove the graphics card - if it does not beep (PC speaker connected) - confirm this in the manual - then
assume that the graphics card is poked unless you have proved that the graphics card works in another PC .In this case take your MB and throw it at the sales rep. If it beeps then see step 2.

2) remove the RAM. - if it does not beep (PC speaker connected) - confirm this in the manual - then
assume that you RAM is poked, unless you have tested it in another PC. If this is the case, take your MB and throw it at the sales rep. If it beeps then see step 3.

3) Repeat step 1 - if you get the same result, take your MB and throw it at the sales rep.

I have had the same issues as you all. But this is resolved now thanks to the tips each of you have posted. I really appreciate it! I had bought a new A7V8X-X and a gig of RAM (333 MHz) along with a new case with 400w AMD approved PS, AMD Athlon XP 2600 Barton Core, Zalman Copper Flower cooler, 120 gig HD and a DVD-RW. After RMA'ing the RAM and motherboard...neither solved the issue. I tried all possible configurations and could only find two configs that allowed the PC to boot and run. The first was to slow the CPU to 1567 MHz and the RAM to 266MHz. The second was to use only a single 512 Meg RAM chip in slot 3 on the mobo which would allow me to run the CPU and RAM at full speed. It appears to be an issue with the default settings and the default BIOS revision having a conflict with the AGP slot.

After reading through each problem and possible solution that is posted here, I did the following to resolve the issue. I went to the ASUS site and downloaded the BIOS revision BETA 1010.001 and installed it. Then, I went into the BIOS settings and selected the Advanced-->Chip Configuration and enabled AGP Performance Control and AGP Fast Write Control while making sure that the AGP video was set to primary. With this revision of the BIOS and the settings listed, the motherboard is now running very stable with 1 gig of RAM (two 512 chips) in slots 1 and 3 (as suggested on another site) with the CPU at 1917 MHz and the RAM at 333 MHz.

I hope this helps some of you out and you can avoid the hassles of RMA and shipping charges that only nets you the same problems.