# ASUS M2NPV-VM Issues



## Schmengrum (Jun 29, 2006)

Did not see this mobo yet, so, thought I would start a new thread for issues on this series.

I have brought up only one machine on this one (our business uses the 939 socket version, A8N-VN CSM, though). So far the main issues apear to be very minor;

1) Memory - this board/BIOS is selective on DDR2, I would advise not to deviate from the vendor lists published by ASUS. If the memory fails it produces a video interface failure post message (beep - one long + 2 short) rather than a memory failure (several long continuous beeps). Replacing the DDR's with something it likes resolves this.

2) nVidia 6150 Drivers - the drivers supplied with the mobo I purchased were unstable on Windows XP/SP2. These caused many application crashes. Go to the nVidia site and download the latest graphics driver package, run the install ... everything settles down afterwards.

So far, that appears to be it, nice mobo price/performance for a business workstation.

Regards, Wayne


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

Wayne, thanks for the heads up. 
Sadly as you found out....memory today is much more selective than days gone by, sticking to the qualified vendor list is always good advice, but many times its unrealistic. Mainly because the memory on the QVL may be difficult to find. In such a case, some of the better memory mfg's like Corsair, Mushkin, Kingston do their own qualifying and give reccomendations on their respective websites which are very good. As for drivers....its always a good idea to keep your drivers up to date....unless of course you are not having any issues (same goes for the bios !)
Again, thanks, and please don't be a stranger on the forum.


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## Schmengrum (Jun 29, 2006)

twajetmech,

Thanks ... and agreed on all points.

Per memory, the issue was this was a solo DDR2 board for me, so no 'backup' reliable DIMM to work with. The first memory I tried was OCZ Gold series, which turned out to have issues (I suspect SPD). The nVidia chipset used is not supported by the SMBus software I have ... so ... I was stuck. The ASUS vendor list did include KingMax, which is what I ended up swapping the OCZ for (same speed but no heat spreaders).

Per drivers, I forgot to mention, they are NOT showing up on the ASUS site yet for this mobo model, so you need to go directly to nVidia. I am used to dealing with MSI which has always provided me with the drivers required (no need to visit the chipset vendors site).

Lastly, per BIOS, ASUS lists an upgrade but offers no real description of what it is supposed to deal with other than a one liner. Perhaps this mobo is simply more 'hot off the press' than I'm used to dealing with.

Regards, Wayne


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

:grin:


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## Schmengrum (Jun 29, 2006)

OK, this one is pretty MAJOR and caused a LOT of misdirected suspicion in other area’s for me. It comes back to my first issue on memory, this time it has to do with timing;

I’m using a pair of KingMax 667MHz DDR2 DIMM’s (part # KLCD48F-A8EB5, these use Elpida E5108AE-6E-E DRAM’s). Initially the mobo BIOS was left to default setup and MOST install’s went without problem (everything looked fine). A few that failed, I simply chalked up to faulty media. Soon after a lot of random issues started popping up; new virus checker conflicts causing service crashes, random reboots, application crashes (that were dramatically reduced when the 6150 driver was upgraded).

First thing, obviously, is to test the RAM … this was stress tested (2 hour run) without problems; assorted tests, bit walk, pattern, random, cache on & off, all pass. So … looking around the web there’s some scuttlebutt on various forums about nForce 4 data corruption issues … started to sweat a bit at this point. I ran a simple test (my system is set up with a single Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA 3.0Gb/s drive using NCQ) and simply copied a large (4.5GB) file and then compared the copy with the original. On mobo SATA connector 1 I was seeing about 200 bytes corrupted, this dropped (for some strange reason) on connector 3 to 37 bytes. Cable changes had no real effect. Removed and reseated memory as well with no effect. PS was Antec 350 and was not stressed, cooling was also showing no overheating (CPU running around 40, mobo 44).

Bottom line here was the DMA on the nForce chipset appears more sensitive to memory timing than the processor. Dropping the memory timing to 533 solved everything. I have not tried any further tuning; however, I think this is most likely due to borderline timing design on the system and you probably could boost the timing on the lower clock rate or try reducing the timing on the higher clock rate. This type of problem is hard to trace without equipment and could be caused by a lot of things like; chip design/test/spec’s or mobo layout, so I would not go blaming any manufacturer. I simply chalk it up to a complex design which is in need of some more tuning.

Two key tests you can do if you suspect you have this type of problem are; try stress testing the memory at the same time with the display (nVidia has some free software to do this, called ‘nTune’). I typically found that nTune would crash when you tried this (not a great test result, but a definitive one at least … . The second is to copy a large file on a local hard drive beside itself and compare the results. They should ALWAYS match 100%, any errors (even 1 byte!!!) are probably a result of this issue.

Keep in mind that most memory tests DO NOT test DMA channel transfers, so this problem will not likely be seen until you start using advanced graphics or high payload network & disk access.

Hope this helps save somebody else a bit of time …

Regards, Wayne


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

Wow, you sure did your homework...it is true memory timings can affect data corruption, hence most reputable mfg's will burn in computers for 24Hrs.....this was one of the reasons Gateway was so popular when they first came out....once they stopped the practice the went to crap. To improve the memory performance at higher memory freqs you may want to try bumping the memory voltage up a notch and see what effect that has....while Antec is an excellent psu mfg that 350w unit (from my own experience) is very good but may be a bit under powered for your needs, I've found them to fluctuate more than to my liking when under load....this too can cause data corruption. A ups or line conditioner can also help if your house power is "dirty" or prone to brownouts, spikes or fluctuates when say the fridge kicks in.


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## cbjwthwm (Aug 9, 2006)

In my experiences with this board (using a Sempron 3000+ CPU, DDR2-667 restricted) memory performance has become worse with each BIOS update, and I have done most of my testing with the latest 0303.

There appears to be a restricted bandwidth ceiling at around 4GB/sec, regardless of what type of modules are used and even with incredible low latency timings with a forced 1T command rate. As a result, dual channel setups are rather pointless as any faster modules will see only a 10-15% increase in bandwidth (vs single) when running a dual channel setup. 

I have not had any RAM compatability issues, but this rather sad ceiling in memory performance had better be resolved at some point. It is certainly disappointing compared to the A8N-VM CSM's memory performance, which easily produced around 5GB bandwidth running dual channel DDR400 @ 1T cmd rate, even with mainstream memory modules.


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## cbjwthwm (Aug 9, 2006)

For reference sake, the "incredible low latency timings" I mentioned were with 2x 512M Crucial Ballistix DDR2-667 running 4-3-3-5-11-3 with a 1T cmd rate. Virtually all timings could be pinned to their lowest settings except for the CAS (4) and the Twrt (3 vs 2 min). It will be interesting to see the bandwidth this combo produces once the BIOS is fixed and actually allows it to scale properly. This RAM is actually rated for CAS3 (3-3-3-12), but the board would not post with CAS3 forced on. SPD timings on the modules were 5-3-3-15-20.


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## Lampie (Nov 27, 2006)

Hallo,
I've build a system arround the ASUS mainboard M2NPV-VM and it's working great...
Except for one thing.

I'm using Windows Xp-pro for the operating system, 
First installed servicepack 1 , later servicepack2.

But the USB ports are still USB 1.1 instead of USB 2.0
The manual on the CD-rom tells me, I don't have to haveto install any drivers for usb 2.0 when using XP-Pro with servicepack2.

Can anyone tell me if I have to uprgade the bios, or is it a software problem ?


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## twajetmech (Jul 1, 2004)

Take a look in the bios for usb settings and see if you have to enable usb 2.0 support


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## Lampie (Nov 27, 2006)

Checked, it is on.
I even removed all my USB main (internal) hubs, and let Windows re-configure it all..... no difference , still USB 1.1

maybe you say ....why bother, it is working....don't fix it unless it's broken.
I want to connect an external harddiskdrive, and thats why I have to have USB2...because it's a lot faster

I'll try to get some more details of my system.


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## Lampie (Nov 27, 2006)

check this link to see what sisoft sandra finds in my system.

http://www.4shared.com/file/6780503/fa8fe235/M2npv-vm.html

:sigh: 

I can see USB1.1 and USB2.0 so it's working correctly (I think)
But why does my system tells me my suns camera can work faster on a USB2.0 port , when I've already got an USB2.0 port ???


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