Toshido

Recently went well over budget on a computer upgrade but 6 weeks later the moterboard is having issues. Iy is an ASUS K8n4-e motherboard. The chipset fan is dead on it. I have read reviews were they said that fan was wonky and had reliability issues.
My question is best course of action to fix this. The card is still under warranty from the store so returning it for another is still an option.

Now the tricky part...

Obviously I want to fix the computer. What is best? Current options I see open to me, before researching, are as follows.

- Exchange the MOBO for identical MOBO.
- Fix fan on MOBO (if possible)
- Exchange for new socket 754 MOBO (S-ATA, PCI-E, memory compatibility required)
- Exchange MOBO and CPU for a 939 MOBO and CPU. (cost restrictions.){too expensive}


Factors influencing my decisions.

- Cost (upgrade was already over budget)
- Ease of repair (just fan would be easiest if possible)
- Any possible need to re-install OS and all Apps.


Any input or advice would be appreciated.

=DdogG=

I would try for the cheapest and easiest first... but hold on to that old fan, in case the rma is still needed.

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Varp

I have exactly the same MOBO.

I get reliability issues...sometime a blue screen. Not a "Blue Screen" as in memory core dump, but just a blank blue screen. What symptoms have you seen with yours ?

Gonna check the chipset fan later...

I thought my problems might be caused by having double-sided DIMMs (Corsair TwinX) rather than single-sided....any info would be gratefully received tho...


PS
I updated the BIOS to the new version (recently released) and on reboot "discovered" new hardware; IDE controllers and a PCI Memory Controller - which seemed to improve things...though it's still not fully stable

Toshido

1st issue... Moniter would go black and everything would lock up.

2nd... Very rare failure to boot up

3rd... RPC error. Computer worked fine but NO internet.

4th... Warning on bootup that chip fan either slow or not working.



Visual inspection of computer showed that the Nforce chip cooling fan was no longer working. In one review they had issues with tthe fan. I think they went through 4 fans on the thing, or four MOBOs until they had one work through the review.

I orginally blamed the first issue one the mildly overclocked video card. Clocking it down to normal made the lock-ups rarer but still there. Biggest indication though that that was not the issue was that everything would lock up (i.e. no sound) not just lose of video.

Anyways found the review. pc stats review

After a little reading looks like I will simply exchange the MOBO for another one and hope for better luck with that fan. It just looks like the K8N4-E deluxe is the best 754/PCI-E MOBO out there.

Toshido

The MOBO manual has a very good list of compatable memory you could check.

Varp

thanks for the run down

problem is I bought these sticks specifically to go with my previous MOBO, and as they cost me a kidney I'm kinda stuck with them for the moment - lifetime guaranteed, paired, registered loveliness....just double-sided

SuperSteve

If at all possible, I would reccommend upgrading to a socket 939 due to the fact that socket 754 is not the one that is going to be getting new processors. If you go ahead and get a good 939 mobo, then it will last much longer than a socket 754. I'd take the mobo back and go for the new 939 mobo and processor. The upgrade it rougly 300$ on newegg for an Athlon 64 and a good Asus mobo. Not too bad, don't hold me to that, but when I last checked on the 64 bit upgrade, thats what the price was if i remember correctly. right at 290$ actually... (rambling about PC parts inserted some more here). Thats what I would do, just save some money for a bit, new mobo and processor that will last longer.

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