Asus A8V System problem, plz help

[boxleitnerb]

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First here is my system:

Athlon64 Newcastle 3500+ S939
Brand new Asus A8V Deluxe Rev. 2.0, Bios 1008 (replacement for my first A8V Rev. 1.02)
2x512MB Corsair PC3200 TwinX1024 C2Pro 2.5,3,3,6
Powercolor X800XT PE AGP
2 Seagate HDDs IDE
NEC 3500A DVD-RW
Power Supply BeQuiet 400W PFC 1.3
more info:
28A, 40A and 20A on +3.3V, +5V and +12V rails respectively
+3.3V and +5V rails combined: 220W, +12V rail: 240W, all combined: 380W

The Mainboard is giving me trouble without end...
First I had the issue, that the PC would not do a cold boot - no video, HDD and power LEDs were on the entire time and nothing would happen. Then there were spontaneous reboots once I got the damn thing to boot to Windows. Then this morning there was no video signal again, no matter what I tried or how often I called Asus support hotline. I did everything they told me short of replacing the CPU cos I dont have a spare one. I tried every possible combination of my memory slots, with vid card, without, CMOS clear...everything I could think of. And I have the extra 4pin power connector connected.
Then I went to the store I bought that board at and they testet it too and said, it was fried. So they exchanged it for a new one, Rev. 2.0 and in the store it booted just fine, but with a vid card they had there, cos I had my X800 not with me. Once I arrived at home, the damn thing would not post again.
I'm trying to get my hands on another card and additionally test my X800 in another rig, but honestly, since November that board gave me nothing but headaches and I really dont think my vid card is fried.
And everytime I try to boot and have the speakers hooked up I get the error message "system filed, cpu test". But it worked just an hour ago in the store!!

I'm broken and dont know what to do anymore. Never had I so much trouble with a component and I had an Asus board before and it worked fine.
Mind you, I have a Newcastle core, so the Bios 1008 should recognize the CPU as it is not 90nm. Is there anything short of ditching that thing that could solve my problems?

 

[bystander]

I have the same motherboard as you and had a similar issue, whereby sometimes it just refused to POST at all. I sent it back to the retailer, who tested it and said it was working ok. When I got it back it started working again, so the motherboard does seems to have some issues...

Asus have released another BIOS update 1009 to address a boot sequence issue, maybe that might fix your problem?

The 1008 BIOS has no problems recognising my Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester, so I can't see why it would have difficulty recognising your CPU.

Edit: Spelling

 

[boxleitnerb]

The PSU was fried, now everything is fine again

 

[boxleitnerb]

Sooooo close...
New PSU installed, PC worked yesterday, even today the cold boot worked fine and I had problems with tha for a long time. Then my onboard Gigabit Lan failed, I tried to reboot the comp and then again: No video, wont post, boot or anything.
I guess it's really the board this time, cos of the fialed LAN. My DSL works fine on my laptop, though, so there is no provider problem.

I could cry, never before had I such computer problems...
Is there anyone with a similar system, who could help me out with some tips?

 

[Dio]

I've an A8V but it's never had any serious problem - a badly clogged fan on an antique 9700 Pro caused a few 3D hangs, and the combination of XP SP2 and my firewall software hit me with a lot of bluescreens, but since both of those have been sorted it's been solid as a rock.

 

[Dave Baumann]

I've been through no less than 3 AV8's for the test box. Lan failure before the entire thing dying was one of the ones that I've had - I had put that down to the location LAN chip being next to the AGP port and it being shorted by the bottom of the graphics card pack panel when inserting it.