ok so i made mad money over the holiday season
and i decided to BUILD ME A NEW PUTER!!
I went to the old standby tiger direct and placed my order, the next day it was shipped.
jan 6th its delivered and off we go!! an athlon phenom 9500!!
I tear down my old box , install everything and start trying to format my new hard drive [from best buy]
only to discover that it is defective, turn the machine on to hear what can only be described as a popcorn popping sounds, ok no biggie
i take it back and swap it for a new one.
I get home and install the new one, and start looking around for my windows disk only to discover my dog " bubba" had chewed up my install disk, since
its rather late i decide to check online for the best deal on windows xp.
AHA comp usa is going out of business , i call the closest store to me
at 8 am the next morn " yea we have 3 left"
i drive 45 miles to get the copy, arriveing at 8-45 only to hear i am sorry we just sold the last copy we had for $89 #$%##
ok there is a best buy across the street , i go buy xp and drive all the way home.
i get home am ready to go again , open my new windows xp box and find an rfid chip/anti theft device stuck over the serial number inside the box.
i take out my trusty boy scout knife and gently pry the rfid off , and pry off one letter from the cd key!! arrrrrrrrrrrrghghghghg.
ok no biggie i go to the local best buy again, explain the problem only to be told im sorry this software has been opened we cant exchange it.
i demanded the manager and raised holy hell untill he finally gives me a new copy just to get me out of the store with out further inncident.
ok back to the house and time for an install WOO HOO ITS WORKING!!
things go well for about an hour , then the install quits working.
after much tinkering and tweaking on the mother board techs behalf we discover board # 1 has a faulty bios.
tear it all back apart and rebuild my old box just so i have something to play on. send the box backand wait a week and a half for the new one.
I get the new one installed and all goes well except i have no sound.
ok maybe its because the new install of windows is not updated yet?
i download the windows updater update, go to install it
and it wont let me.
i tinker with it for 2 days untill i finally contact microsoft tech support,
they set up a time the next day for live tech help.
i am contacted by them , and am shuffled through 2 days of live tech help
based in india, before its all straightened out!!
ok good to go again, windows is updated!!
but still no sound, i check the mother board manufacturers forums for 3 days ,trying everyfix they suggested, still no sound
i then contact tech support at asus, they tell me i have a bad on board audio controller $#%^%
tear it all down and send back motherboard #2
wait another week and a half,get my new board installed
same thing NO SOUND ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH
3 BOARDS IN A ROW WITH BAD CHIPSETS!!!
after waiting over a month i contact tiger direct and tell them this is unacceptable and ask would they please just send me a sound card?
wait 2 days before they agree , wait 5 more days and i get a soundblaster audegy se
pop that sucker in and i have sound!!! WOO HOO

now let try installing vista!!
!!!aint life grand!!!

heathen

Heathen I could have fixed it in about 5 min with a big hammer and a drill.If i had to go through that you can bet the hammer would have won.

wow,, thats quite a story! glad you got it worked out!!

flasher dont think the pond out back didnt come into mind
for the dog and the motherboard!!

Ouch!!

Glad you got it going...

I know a few peeps here have gone with the onboard sound, but I like mine better with the sound card ==> I have the SB Audigy SE too and gives me all I want...

Are you going to install Vista too??

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Wow, I don't think I'll ever complain about my PC problems ever again! Also... while gamers and gaming sites raves about the ASUS mobos but all I ever hear from those that bought them are complaints!

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"Down with democracy... we need more dictatorships"! Galamoth
"Derms, celebrate your independance"! Babz

its allready installed es
and this is the third asus ive owned
the first to worked flawlessly

I'm glad it worked for you. We had a guy that went through a bunch of them a couple years ago.

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"Down with democracy... we need more dictatorships"! Galamoth
"Derms, celebrate your independance"! Babz

stup won't touch an ASUS board again. He went through 6 of the same board, all failing because of Northbridge heat issues. Flat out bad design.

I'm not inclined either, given recurring problems with my A7N8X board - the keyboard PS/2 input was never reliable, and the internal clock is erratic at best. The clock tends to operate too fast on 2 out of every 3 boot ups...makes it very difficult to use this in the HTPC, since the system clock gains time (up to 10 minutes every hour!). I have a simple test to run that tells if the clock is on or not. If the test fails...reboot again!

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--> Born in 1972 and unable to PM or post without an editorial review, ! <--


No moose hunting without a license ! Licensing fees available by request .
Why hunt moose anyway? We're just big, slow, dumb, and make for easy kills...oops.

I couldn't remember how many boards Stup went through, I knew it was more than 3!

I like the intel boards, only problem I've had is that the mobo's did not like the ATI card I had when I started my project. I had two "primo" upper echelon intel boards and neither responded well when I disabled and uninstalled onboard graphics to run the ATI radeon x1950x(512mb). The intel boards just would not recognise and install the radeon, I did get a powercooler radeon x1950x to install but the darn thing wouldn't work.

I switched to the darkside and traded the ATI (my fav brand) for a Nvidia GEForce video card. Not only was it cheaper; but it recognised, installed and operated like a charm. Seriously the only installiation that was as easy was switching out power supplies.

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"Down with democracy... we need more dictatorships"! Galamoth
"Derms, celebrate your independance"! Babz

that's why i like to get a barebone setup from a place like monarchcomputers ... they make sure the core peices work before I get it!

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Must add that of the 14 PCs I have built, 12 have been with Asus mobos(other 2 were Intel) and all are still working and running well ==> I did however get those from Newegg although I have a Tiger Direct, Frys and MicroCenter all within 15 miles or less of where I live sooooo I like Asus and tend to use Asus Vid Cards and Rom Drives too; JMTs...

I do tend to stay on the Intel/Nvidia side of hardware too; just works for me...

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avoid asus m3a like the plague
it appears to have issues with the northbridge and the high definition audio
and the onboard raid cirquit has trouble
i dont use raid so i disabled that and the on board sound
i did install vista and surpriseingly the board runs better with vista then xp
there are still a few bugs to work out
the mic wont work,even though its shown as working in windows
i added to 80 mm case fans to the northbridge and so far its not over heating
i am going to get this board tweaked and screaming i it kills me!!