Hi !
Im having problems with my ASUS MB M2N-SLI Deluxe that I had for 4-5 years working well but after some Windows SW issue decided to re-install OS and clean up computer. Though after initial success with Windows/computer re-install and clean up, machine worked great. Though had two blue screens during OS installation that made me a bit concerned?? So I decide to also upgrade MB BIOS (stupid ) as to make sure everything was tip top. That made things to go seriously downhill (Probably user error on my side) and now looks like I have dead MB and a nice book-stop.
So looking for advice on how to restore the MB
I have the following Equipment/setup
MB: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Rev. 1.02G
CPU : 2.70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
Original BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS M2N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS, rev 1102
RAM: 4 GB (2 x 2 GB , each a Crucial Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module
Display Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
SDD (60 GB) Crucial as (C:)
HDD (2 x 320 GB in RAID-1=> 298 GB Mirrored as (D:), 2 Maxtor Diamond Max 21, STM3320620AS
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 (fresh install)
This is what I did to cause the problem
Installed a new Crucial 64 GB SDD to use as Program Drive
Re-configured my stripped (RAID-0) HDD (2 x 320) as a Mirrored Local Drive (using MB Nvidia nForce 570 SLI MCP on MB), so resulted in a 298 GB RAID-1 drive
Re-installed New fresh Window Vista + SP2
Installed Basic Application SW (MS office 2003, Microsoft Essential, Java, , KeePass, Dropbox, .). Took a System Back & and created restore point
Decided to upgrade BIOS .. (First Big Mistake)
o Installed ASUS Update Utility from MB System Disk
o Attempted to fetch BIOS using ASUS Update Utility,
this failed could not connect to Servers
o Decided to upgrade ASUS Update Utility to latest version from asus.com, Still could not connect and fetch New BIOS
o Fetched BIOS manually online from ASUS.com Website (BIOS rev. 1804)
o Ran ASUS Update Utility (windows BIOS update) that seem to work ok, however at completion of upgrade complained that file/upgrade was not successful/completed, that something was corrupt
o Decide to leave it alone and already then cursed myself that I was stupid enough to have tried it (Why ???, if it aint broke dont mess with it )
Continued to load Application SW
Though now after first shutdown/restart system could not find any OS to load!!!
o Repeated numerous time with same result every time
o Tried to run Windows Repair, however this failed.
o Suspected the failed/incomplete BIOS Upgrade being the source of this problem
Read up on the BIOS in MB manual and found out that there is the ASUS EZ Flash 2 Utility can be initiated from BIOS during startup/POST
Decided to use this to try to fix BIOS problem
o As BIOS 1804 did not seem to work for me, made second (bigger) mistake, as decided to take a different version of BIOS
o Downloaded BIOS Rev. 5001 from asus.com and put on a Floppy Disk and ran ASUS EZ Flash 2 Utility. That seem to have worked (dont recall any error codes)
However after this machine is dead, as I try to restart/power up
o I can hear fans and disk drives make some initial attempts, however does not seem run POST (no sound indications, display is dead )
o Only way to get out of this is to Power off.
o When power on same thing occurs
o ..
What I have tried to do to fix problem, to get MB back into operation
Tried to use the AWARDBIOS Flash utility
o Collected new BIOS re-named BIOS 1102.bin as m2nsli.bin and put on boot disk (tried both floppy & CD) with awdflash.exe as per instructions.
o Supposedly you trigger this BIOS load in DOS mode.
However how do I boot a MS Vista system in DOS mode??
Also even if possible to Boot in DOS mode, it does not seem to get past any BIOS activities, as does not succeed to run POST ??
o So gave up on that..
Also tried the ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 Utility,
o With this one you turn on system and load MB support CD, no success
o Can also use USB with BIOS file on it, have not tried this yet, but not sure I had USB as bootable option so not sure that would do any difference
Chased threads for similar issue on support pages, forum and support groups to see if I could finds some help
o Found that clearing CMOS RAM (Clear RTC RAM, CLRTC) could maybe do the trick. Did that and no difference .
o Saw suggestion to power up without any other equipment connected, to see if I can get POST to execute .may be next step
What else can I do? Any good suggestions to resolve?
Hate to toss MB away, think it still has some life in it ..
Also irritates me that if I cant use the MB not only do I have to buy a new MB and CPU, I also have to buy a new OS. As I can re-install my current OS on old machine/MB, but pretty sure I can not migrate to a new one so also means more money out the door .
Also engineer in me want to solve the problem .
Input/ideas welcome
Thanks in advance
Im having problems with my ASUS MB M2N-SLI Deluxe that I had for 4-5 years working well but after some Windows SW issue decided to re-install OS and clean up computer. Though after initial success with Windows/computer re-install and clean up, machine worked great. Though had two blue screens during OS installation that made me a bit concerned?? So I decide to also upgrade MB BIOS (stupid ) as to make sure everything was tip top. That made things to go seriously downhill (Probably user error on my side) and now looks like I have dead MB and a nice book-stop.
So looking for advice on how to restore the MB
I have the following Equipment/setup
MB: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Rev. 1.02G
CPU : 2.70 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
Original BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD ASUS M2N-SLI DELUXE ACPI BIOS, rev 1102
RAM: 4 GB (2 x 2 GB , each a Crucial Ballistix 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module
Display Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
SDD (60 GB) Crucial as (C:)
HDD (2 x 320 GB in RAID-1=> 298 GB Mirrored as (D:), 2 Maxtor Diamond Max 21, STM3320620AS
Windows Vista Home Premium SP2 (fresh install)
This is what I did to cause the problem
Installed a new Crucial 64 GB SDD to use as Program Drive
Re-configured my stripped (RAID-0) HDD (2 x 320) as a Mirrored Local Drive (using MB Nvidia nForce 570 SLI MCP on MB), so resulted in a 298 GB RAID-1 drive
Re-installed New fresh Window Vista + SP2
Installed Basic Application SW (MS office 2003, Microsoft Essential, Java, , KeePass, Dropbox, .). Took a System Back & and created restore point
Decided to upgrade BIOS .. (First Big Mistake)
o Installed ASUS Update Utility from MB System Disk
o Attempted to fetch BIOS using ASUS Update Utility,
this failed could not connect to Servers
o Decided to upgrade ASUS Update Utility to latest version from asus.com, Still could not connect and fetch New BIOS
o Fetched BIOS manually online from ASUS.com Website (BIOS rev. 1804)
o Ran ASUS Update Utility (windows BIOS update) that seem to work ok, however at completion of upgrade complained that file/upgrade was not successful/completed, that something was corrupt
o Decide to leave it alone and already then cursed myself that I was stupid enough to have tried it (Why ???, if it aint broke dont mess with it )
Continued to load Application SW
Though now after first shutdown/restart system could not find any OS to load!!!
o Repeated numerous time with same result every time
o Tried to run Windows Repair, however this failed.
o Suspected the failed/incomplete BIOS Upgrade being the source of this problem
Read up on the BIOS in MB manual and found out that there is the ASUS EZ Flash 2 Utility can be initiated from BIOS during startup/POST
Decided to use this to try to fix BIOS problem
o As BIOS 1804 did not seem to work for me, made second (bigger) mistake, as decided to take a different version of BIOS
o Downloaded BIOS Rev. 5001 from asus.com and put on a Floppy Disk and ran ASUS EZ Flash 2 Utility. That seem to have worked (dont recall any error codes)
However after this machine is dead, as I try to restart/power up
o I can hear fans and disk drives make some initial attempts, however does not seem run POST (no sound indications, display is dead )
o Only way to get out of this is to Power off.
o When power on same thing occurs
o ..
What I have tried to do to fix problem, to get MB back into operation
Tried to use the AWARDBIOS Flash utility
o Collected new BIOS re-named BIOS 1102.bin as m2nsli.bin and put on boot disk (tried both floppy & CD) with awdflash.exe as per instructions.
o Supposedly you trigger this BIOS load in DOS mode.
However how do I boot a MS Vista system in DOS mode??
Also even if possible to Boot in DOS mode, it does not seem to get past any BIOS activities, as does not succeed to run POST ??
o So gave up on that..
Also tried the ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 Utility,
o With this one you turn on system and load MB support CD, no success
o Can also use USB with BIOS file on it, have not tried this yet, but not sure I had USB as bootable option so not sure that would do any difference
Chased threads for similar issue on support pages, forum and support groups to see if I could finds some help
o Found that clearing CMOS RAM (Clear RTC RAM, CLRTC) could maybe do the trick. Did that and no difference .
o Saw suggestion to power up without any other equipment connected, to see if I can get POST to execute .may be next step
What else can I do? Any good suggestions to resolve?
Hate to toss MB away, think it still has some life in it ..
Also irritates me that if I cant use the MB not only do I have to buy a new MB and CPU, I also have to buy a new OS. As I can re-install my current OS on old machine/MB, but pretty sure I can not migrate to a new one so also means more money out the door .
Also engineer in me want to solve the problem .
Input/ideas welcome
Thanks in advance