No more Asus motherboards for me!
Here is the story: I got this Asus M2N-E Deluxe MB in June and bundled it with AMD X2 3800+ and other "regular" stuff. According to Asus, the motherboard should support DDR2 800 RAM, which I had. But it never recognized it. It was always DDR2 667 no matter what I did (BIOS updates, etc.). Since last June, Asus released, at least, 2 different BIOS updates for this motherboard, and apparently none of them were stable. If you didn't disable some options in BIOS, Windows will show "unrecognized hardware" in the profile. Worst thing was sound drivers. Higly unstable and unreliable - means when I plug in headphones, speakers still work (unless I unplug them). Updated drivers two times - still the same.
Last week, I saw Asus released new BIOS version, which, according to them, would correct the memory problem. Downloaded it and flashed using Asus update and that was the last time I used the computer. It never "woke up" again. Tried Asus Crash Free BIOS utility - it didn't even work. All recovery attempts (exaplined in the manual) were useless. Removed CMOS battery, resetted the jumper - nothing.
Past two days I read, in several forums, more horror stories about this MB. This MB was one of the first AM2 ones Asus released (I think). I think it is very bad to release an unrefined product assuming it would be OK. People (like me - until few days ago) wouldn't second guess an Asus MB - no matter what is the model.
I still remember my first (P3) desktop with Asus CUSL-2C, which was rock solid, reliable, and served me for over 4 years without a hitch. What has happened to Asus since then?
Here is the story: I got this Asus M2N-E Deluxe MB in June and bundled it with AMD X2 3800+ and other "regular" stuff. According to Asus, the motherboard should support DDR2 800 RAM, which I had. But it never recognized it. It was always DDR2 667 no matter what I did (BIOS updates, etc.). Since last June, Asus released, at least, 2 different BIOS updates for this motherboard, and apparently none of them were stable. If you didn't disable some options in BIOS, Windows will show "unrecognized hardware" in the profile. Worst thing was sound drivers. Higly unstable and unreliable - means when I plug in headphones, speakers still work (unless I unplug them). Updated drivers two times - still the same.
Last week, I saw Asus released new BIOS version, which, according to them, would correct the memory problem. Downloaded it and flashed using Asus update and that was the last time I used the computer. It never "woke up" again. Tried Asus Crash Free BIOS utility - it didn't even work. All recovery attempts (exaplined in the manual) were useless. Removed CMOS battery, resetted the jumper - nothing.
Past two days I read, in several forums, more horror stories about this MB. This MB was one of the first AM2 ones Asus released (I think). I think it is very bad to release an unrefined product assuming it would be OK. People (like me - until few days ago) wouldn't second guess an Asus MB - no matter what is the model.
I still remember my first (P3) desktop with Asus CUSL-2C, which was rock solid, reliable, and served me for over 4 years without a hitch. What has happened to Asus since then?