FAQ about ASUS Motherboard M2N68-AM SE2 Mainboard Frequent Asked Questions-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

FAQ about ASUS Motherboard M2N68-AM SE2

BSOD during HDD hot plug under AHCI mode

CPU Vcore voltage drops as CPU load goes up

4GB memory installed but less memory size detected

Fail to enter Standby mode under VISTA OS

Blu-ray Disc Playback under Windows XP

Memory compatibility Issue

Inaccessible Seagate hard drive

System show ACPI Error under VISTA Event Log

Fail to enter Standby (S3) mode under Windows XP

I have set HDD mode to AHCI mode because I would like to hot plug SATA HDD. However, when I tried to hot plug a SATA HDD, my system crashed and gave me a BSOD. How do I resolve this issue?

- Answer:
This is probably caused by the power fluctuation on the SATA HDD power wire. Some power supplies come with multiple SATA power connectors on one power wire. With this type of wires, when you hot plug the SATA HDD power, a sudden voltage drop may occur on the SATA power wire due to the additional loading from the newly plugged HDD. Operating system would detect this power instability, and execute the self-protection action (BSOD) to avoid further damage to the HDDs. To work around this issue, please use a separate, dedicated SATA power wire for the HDD with OS. This would avoid the SATA power fluctuation on the HDD with OS when you try to hot plug.

Both Asus and third-party utilities such as PcProbII/AISuite/CPUZ shows that my CPU Vcore reading drops as the CPU load goes up.This also happens after I set CPU Vcore to a set value instead of the preset [AUTO]. Why does the motherboard act like this?
Will this effect the overall stability of my system?

- Answer:
As Intel specification clearly states Vcc (CPU Vcore) should drop in propotonal to the increase of Icc (CPU current consumption), in order to prevent causing permanent damage to your CPU. When CPU is under stress (in other words, under higher load), the current consumption of the CPU will go up, and the CPU Vcore will then drop to conpensate this change. This is a perfectly normal behaviour, and will not effect the overall stability of your system.
For more information, please refer to Intel CPU datashee, under "DC Voltage and Current Specification".

I have install total 4GB memory on my motherboard. However, it can only recognize around 3.1GB or less. My friend's SLI board even less than 3GB. What's up? How should I do to recognize 4GB totally?

- Answer:
If you installed total 4GB memory, the system will detect less than 4GB of total memory because of address space allocation for other critical functions, such as:
- System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..)
- Motherboards resources
- Memory mapped I/O
- configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI
- Other memory allocations for PCI devices
Different onboard devices and different add-on cards (devices) will result of different total memory size.
e.g. more PCI cards installed will require more memory resources, resulting of less memory free for other uses.
On a SLI system, since PCI-Ex graphic cards will occupy around 256MB, another 256MB will be occupied after you install a 2nd PCI-Ex graphic card. Hence, 2.75GB memory left only if two SLI cards installed on A8N-SLI Premium while 3.0GB memory left with one graphic card without other add-on devices.
This limitation applies to most chipsets & Microsoft Windows 32-bit version operating systems.
If you install Windows 32-bit version operating system, we recommend that you install less than 3GB of total memory. If more than 3GB memory is required for your system, then below two conditions must be met:
1. The memory controller which supports memory swap functionality is used. Chipsets later than Intel 975X, 955X, Nvidia NF4 SLI Intel Edition, Nvidia NF4 SLI X16, and AMD K8 CPU architecture support memory swap function.
2. Windows 64-bit OS which can address more than 4GB memory.
You can check below URLs for reference:
http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/4GB_Rev1.pdf
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/sb/cs-016594.htm

My system fails to enter Standby mode under VISTA OS with pure settings (Untouched freshly installed OS, all BIOS settings set to default, and jumpers are set to default settings as according to user manual.) System returns right back to the system every time when I tried to enter Standby mode.
I have installed all related drivers for motherboard and VGA, and have only PS/2 keyboard and USB mouse connected to the motherboard. Anything I can do to enter standby on this motherboard?

- Answer:
If you have recently updated your BIOS, please clear RTC RAM (CLRTC) jumper first, and load default at the BIOS menu. Sometimes, clearing RTC RAM (CLTRC) jumper and load BIOS default can help eliminate some of unexpected phenomenons.
If this phenomenon still persists, it may be caused by VISTA OS. VISTA does not allow system to enter Standby mode, if "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" for an USB or PS/2 wake-supported device (such as mouse or keyboard) has been checked under "Device Manager", while the USB or PS/2 port has not switched its power mode to +5VSB that allows delivery of standby power to USB or PS/2 ports under soft OFF state. Because VISTA enables this standby option per default, and motherboards often set USB power modes to +5V at the same time, these two settings may result in conflict, hence resulting this phenomenon.
To resolve this, simply uncheck "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" for your USB mouse and PS/2 keyboard under "Device Manager", if you do not desire to wake the system via your USB mouse and/or PS/2 keyboard.
If you would like to wake your system from USB or PS/2 devices, please turn off your PC, set the appropriate USB port or PS/2 port jumper from +5V to +5VSB. Please follow the instructions in your user manual. Then your system will be able to enter and wake from standby mode as you desire.

My system is unable to playback Blu-ray Disc content under windows XP. When I change my operating system to Vista, then it can playback BD content without any problem. Is this normal?

- Answer:
BD content playback needs OS to support "screen scraper defense" feature. Due to OS limitation, only Vista and later OS support this feature. Please use Windows Vista if you would like to view BD content on your computer.

I recently upgraded my memory modules. After the upgrade, sometimes my system is not stable. It may get BSOD or hang during OS loading. How do I resolve this issue?

- Answer:
The issue may be related to the voltage setting of your memory modules. The standard operating voltages of DDR2 and DDR3 memory modules, as defined by JEDEC, are 1.8V and 1.5V, respectively. However, some of the memory modules require higher operating voltage than JEDEC's standards. In such case, the memory may sometimes not be able to function properly without enough voltage.
When you encounter instability issue, please first check the operating voltage of your memory modules, and please manually set the memory voltage accordingly in the BIOS.

I recently purchased a Seagate Barracuda 7002.11 hard drive to upgrade my system. But I find the hard drive tends to freeze or time out for minutes sometimes. When I restarted computer last time, the hard drive cannot be recognized. How do I resolve this issue?

- Answer:
This issue may be related to the recent firmware issue on certain Seagate hard drive series. For more details and to check whether your hard drive is affected, please use the link below at Seagate's official FAQ.
Seagate Official FAQ link: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?Tab=search&Module=selfservice&TargetLanguage=selfservice&DocId=207931&NewLang=en
If your hard drive is not affected by this event, click here to contact us for further assistance.

I have recently build a new system for myself, and loaded Windows VISTA operating system onto it. It works flowlessly apart from the fact that it shows ACPI error under Event Log.
Is that normal?

- Answer:
Yes, this is normal for Windows VISTA to display this error, as this is a known issue of Windows VISTA.
Please kindly refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base KB930062 from the link below for more details:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930062/en-us

My system always resume immidately after entering S3 mode under Windows XP when having any USB devices connected to my system.
What can I do to resolve this problem?

- Answer:
This could be caused by a known issue inside Windows XP.
Please simply apply the registry fix from the link below to fix this problem:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/S3USB.zip
Usage:
1. Extract the attached package into any desired folder.
2. Double click on the extracted file, and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation of this patch file.
For more information regarding this issue, please kindly refer to Microsoft KB number KB817900 from the link below:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900/en-us

(Source:ASUS)

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