Onboard NIC not detected and other problems

[Ketchup345]

The onboard NIC on the motherboard is not being detected by Windows. The lights are lit on the NIC and the router, but the only thing Windows can find is a 1394 port when it looks for networking devices. I will borrow an expansion slot NIC to see if it will detect that, but does anyone have any suggestions? Detecting new hardware doesn't work.

It is an Asus A8N-SLI motherboard with an AMD Athlon 3200+ processor, a Sappphire ATI Radeon X700 PCI Express graphics card, 1 Gig of Corsair PC3200 RAM, Windoes XP MCE OEM, and a Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD.

Also, moving windows around is slow, and the standby option is disabled. How can standby be enabled, and the window movement speed improved (1 gig of RAM and a 2 Gig processor should be good enough to have no lag in moving windows around. The case is also supposed to support thermometers, and have them displayed at the front of the case, but the display area is blank. The case is a ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-02 09:15 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-02 09:16 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

Have you installed the driver files from the CD that comes with the motherboard? The drivers for the NIC should be on that.

When you say Standby is disabled do you mean it is not present as an option or that you simply can't click on it? Have you installed the videocard drivers yet (the basic VGA drivers that windows may select by default don't support power management.) Not installing the video drivers for your card may also cause Windows itself to seem laggy.

Have you attached the thermometer cables?


**UPDATE** after reading through a few reviews, I saw a few people had problems with a slow system until they flashed the BIOS. If your BIOS version is 1012, then update it to at least 1013. After that it supposedly ran extremely fast and smooth. Use the EZFlash feature to do that. Here is the page you need for BIOS UPATES (http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us). In the search area, enter (1. Motherboard (2. Socket 939 (3. A8N-SLI. The first update should be the 1014 update, it is recommended you update to the 1013 update first, then do the 1014 update. You could try just clicking the button under "ASUS Navigation Wizard" also.

Also do not install the Nvidia Network program. If you did then just uninstall.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2006-01-02 11:51 ]</font>

[Ketchup345]

BIOS updated, and I got the network card to work. The Standby button was greyed out and unclickable, but now works.

But everytime I go to start up, the BIOS comes up with a page saying "Floppy dis(s) fail (40)". How can I get this so it doesn't look for a floppy drive? The thermometer cables are attached.

I'm thinking of using AVG Free and ZoneAlarm for the AntiVirus and Firewall? Good? Use something else?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-04 12:41 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

On 2006-01-04 11:42, Ketchup345 wrote:
I'll do the BIOS update in a minute, and I got the network card to work. The Standby button was greyed out and unclickable, but now works.

But everytime I go to start up, the BIOS comes up with a page saying "Floppy dis(s) fail (40)". How can I get this so it doesn't look for a floppy drive?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-04 12:05 ]</font>

Disable the Floppy Drive in the BIOS and that should take care of it.

[Ketchup345]

On 2006-01-04 12:20, VioletSkye wrote:
Disable the Floppy Drive in the BIOS and that should take care of it.
Ok, Floppy drive is no longer searched for, Bios version 1014 does seem to work better.

AVG Free and ZoneAlarms sound good?
Also, the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon appears with the SATA drive as the only thing able to be removed. Why? How can this be disabled?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-04 12:47 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

Perfect!! For free antivirus and firewall programs, they work great and Grisoft is awesome about updating their DAT (definition) files.

Does the motherboard disk have SATA drivers on it (it should.) If so, run it and install those drivers.

BTW this is a common occurence and certainly won't hurt anything. SATA is defined as a hot-swappable device which is why Windows flagged it and puts the icon in the system tray. You can set it up so that the icon doesn't show, but its not a big deal http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2006-01-04 13:02 ]</font>

[Ketchup345]

What would the driver be called? There is a SATA.exe file in the DriversChipsetWINXPSATA folder.

Software Added:
Firefox
Winamp
AVG Free
ZoneAlarm
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ad-Aware
Sunbird
Adobe Reader
OpenOffice.org


Now to get the case exchanged and move the hardware over.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ketchup345 on 2006-01-04 14:36 ]</font>

[VioletSkye]

Since the SATA drive is recognized, I wouldn't worry about running the SATA.EXE file (which is indeed the file I was referring to.)

As for installed software, that all looks great. You may want to update the Flash Player and Shockwave Player for IE and Firefox which you can get from http://www.macromedia.com (which will soon be a part of Adobe.com since Adobe bought macromedia.)

You may also want to install something like Winzip or Winrar. Win XP can handle zip files by itself, but I think most people like having a third party program for them.

If you are looking for some freeware CD/DVD burning software, DEEPBURNER (http://www.deepburner.com/) works great http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2006-01-04 15:33 ]</font>

[Ketchup345]

I will probably get Winrar, and Flash is already installed. Shockwave, I'm not sure about (I'll check tomorrow since I have to keep switching this one with my current PC due to no extra moniters around).

For Burning, I was thinking of WMP for burning, and possibly putting MMJB (free version) on for ripping only (it works fairly well for ripping and song info).

[VioletSkye]

Cool, once you get the new case, you should be good to go http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Is Windows running pretty smoothly now?

[Ketchup345]

On 2006-01-04 15:51, VioletSkye wrote:
Cool, once you get the new case, you should be good to go http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

Is Windows running pretty smoothly now?
Yes, Windows is much better after updating the BIOS. Hopefully Newegg will do something about the case since when I look at the RMA it says:
This item is not eligible for an online RMA. If the product is warranted by the manufacturer, please contact them directly for more information. You may review Newegg.com's warranty guidelines or contact us if you have any questions. If I select carrier damage, this pop-up comes up:
No RMA's will be accepted for items physically damaged during shipping. For any items received damaged, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-390-1119 for immediate assistance.
Nothing comes up for defective/failure or DOA though, so I'd have to use one of those.

[VioletSkye]

Just call the customer service number tomorrow and they should be able to help you http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VioletSkye on 2006-01-04 17:12 ]</font>