Bad Mobo or Coincidence

Hello,
I have a ASUS M3N72-D Motherboard and it seems like everything I put in it goes bad. The latest problem was my PNY GTX260 Core 216 having weird problems in games. Does anyone know what is going on???

 

"Everything I put in it has gone bad" doesn't give me much to go on; however the best way of handling this is going backwards to when the issues started.

• How old is the board? Has it been acting up since day one? If not, did the problems start after a specific point (BIOS upgrade, adding more memory, etc.)?
• Is the memory you're using on ASUS' approved list? I have seen many cases where certain brands or models of memory cause issues with certain boards. Look at reviews of the board on Newegg.com and other review sites carefully for posts involving memory issues; this may help you trace the problem. If you can borrow a stick of a different brand of memory, try it out and see if it solves the problems.
• If you have a monitor or TV with HDMI inputs, remove the video card and try the on-board video. If the problems go away it is likely an issue with either the video card or its drivers.
• Send an e-mail to ASUS tech support with specific problems. Include error messages, complete details of your Windows version, brand/model of memory and what (if any) specific games or programs trigger the issues.

Hope this helps.

 

The system in question has:
AMD Phenom II X4 965
4GB Corsair XMS2 TWINX2048-8500C5
PNY GTX260 Core 216
Zalman CNPS9900A LED
Antec 1200
WD Caviar Blue 320GB
Thermaltake 850W PSU

System is about 1 year old with BIOS revision 1301 for the 965

 

What is your GPU temps?

Don't feel bad. My friend keeps getting bad motherboards and he cant seem to get a good one. He keeps getting problems similar to yours after replacing the GPU motherboard and power supply.

 

circa 51c under normal load

 

At 51C, your CPU is barely breaking a sweat.

If the problems seem to revolve around video issues, I have seen rare cases where a board with an ATI video chipset (such as yours) doesn't always play nice with an NVIDIA card.

As noted in my previous post, if you have a monitor or TV with an HDMI input, remove the video card and do an HDMI to HDMI connection from the mobo to the monitor/PC. If the issues go away it likely validates the above theory.

If this is the case and you still want upgraded video, consider getting an ATI-based video card. Buy it from someplace with a decent return policy in case it doesn't solve the problem.

Hope this helps.

 

First my CPU temp is at 40c at 100%, and my GPU is at 51c under normal load. Second my mobo has a Nvidia 750a SLI chip. ATi or AMD graphics would just make it worse. (I think my next rig will have a Full AMD Platform)

 

Sorry I goofed on the video chipset thing -- pulled up the wrong board specs online by mistake.

 

I don't know this for sure, but I heard that Nvidia chipsets are really lacking(can anyone prove that). Mabye that is my problem

 

In my experience, it's a toss-up.

If looking at benchmark scores and overall graphics quality, ATI usually (but not always) beats NVIDIA when comparing chipsets/cards in the same price range.

The downside of ATI (based on both my personal experience and feedback from friends) is their drivers (especially the 64-bit) are still having issues that can cause system freeze-ups or BSODs. My personal experience indicates the ATI issues are worse on Intel-based systems; however this may just be dumb luck.

Case in point: A year ago I upgraded to a 4870 card in my main system (EP43-UD-L mobo; E8400 CPU, Antec EarthWatts 500 PSU). Almost immediately, I started experiencing constant audio/video playback stuttering issues and occasional system freezes that were logged by Win 7 Action Center as ATI driver issues. Although subsequent driver upgrades cut out most of the freeze issues, the a/v stuttering remained.

I pulled the card and replaced it with an NVIDIA 210; the a/v stuttering disappeared. I put the 4870 in an Athlon Quad-Core HTPC build for a hybrid Crossfire setup, the a/v stuttering is about 80% less than it was on the Intel board.

This brings me to one other issue you might want to check. Although I haven't used your specific board in a build, I remember a few ASUS models that had a hybrid SLI option. When I worked at Fry's, customer feedback on the hybrid SLI was overwhelmingly negative (glitches, freeze-ups, etc.). If your board has the Hybrid SLI option, be sure it is disabled in the BIOS - if it is currently enabled this may be causing some or all of your problems.

 

I don't have hybrid SLi on, because I took an hour one day and disabled everything in the BIOS that wasn't needed.

 

Sadly, at this point you basically have a few options left:

• e-mail ASUS tech support with the specific issues and hope they have a solution.
• Live with the issues.
• Research customer reviews/feedback, bite the bullet and buy a different board. If the ASUS is still under the 3 year mfr. warranty, RMA it after you install the new board. When the RMA replacement arrives in 4-8 weeks, sell it on eBay to help cut your losses.

If I can think of anything else, I'll post it. Hope you can get the problem solved.

 

I will try to RMA the board and get back to you