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Chapter 1:
Product introduction
Chapter 2:
Hardware information
Chapter 3:
Powering up
Chapter 4:
BIOS setup
Chapter 5:
Software support
Chapter 6:
NVIDIA® SLI™ technology support
Federal Communications Commission Statement
Canadian Department of Communications Statement
Electrical safety
Operation safety
How this guide is organized
Where to find more information
Conventions used in this guide
Typography
M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition specifications summary
CPU
Chipset
System bus
Memory
Overclocking features
Special features
Rear panel I/O ports
Internal connectors
BIOS features
Manageability
Accessories
Support CD
Form factor
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Product1 introduction
Chapter summary
1.1Welcome
Thank you for buying an ASUS® M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition motherboard
1.2Package contents
1.3.1Product highlights
Latest processor technology
NVIDIA® Scalable Link Interface (SLI™)
NVIDIA nForce® 500 SLI™
AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology
PCI Express™ interface
Gigabit LAN
IEEE 1394a support
USB 2.0 technology
C-MediaSuperior Quality Audio
1.3.2ASUS AI Lifestyle features
AI Remote
ASAP (ASUS Accelerated Propeller)
AP Trigger
TPM Support
1.3.3ASUS Special features
ASUS Q-Fan2 technology
ASUS MyLogo2™
ASUS CrashFree BIOS
ASUS EZ Flash
1.3.4ASUS features and the supporting OS
Hardware2 information
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Onboard LED
2.2.1Placement direction
2.2.2Screw holes
2.2.3Motherboard layout
2.2.4Layout contents
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2.3.1Installing the CPU
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2.3.2Installing the heatsink and fan
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M2N-PLUSSLI CPU fan connector
2.4.1Overview
2.4.2Memory configurations
Important notice on installing Windows® XP 32-bitversion
General Search
Search
4GB memory installed but less memory size detected
2.4.3Installing a DIMM
2.4.4Removing a DIMM
M2N-PlusSLI Vista Edition Motherboard
Qualified Vendors Lists (QVL)
DDR2-800MHz capability
DDR2-667MHz capability
DDR2-533MHz capability
2.5.1Installing an expansion card
2.5.2Configuring an expansion card
2.5.3Interrupt assignments
Standard interrupt assignments
IRQ assignments for this motherboard
2.5.4PCI slots
2.5.5PCI Express x1 slots
2.5.6PCI Express x16 slots
2.6Jumper
1.Clear RTC RAM (3-pinCLRTC)
2.USB device wake-up (3-pinUSBPW12, USBPW34, USBPW56, USBPW78)
M2N-PLUSSLI USB device wake-up
3.Keyboard power (3-pinKBPWR)
M2N-PLUSSLI Keyboard power setting
2.7.1Rear panel connectors
LAN port LED indications
Audio 2, 4, 6, or 8-channelconfiguration
2.7.2Internal connectors
M2N-PLUSSLI IDE connectors
M2N-PLUSSLI SATA connectors
4.CPU, chassis, and power fan connectors
(4-pinCPU_FAN, 3-pinPWR_FAN, 3-pinCHA_FAN)
M2N-PLUSSLI Fan connectors
5.USB connectors (10-1pin USB56, USB 78, ASAP)
6.IEEE 1394a port connector (10-1pin IE1394_2)
M2N-PLUSSLI IEEE 1394a connector
7.Chassis intrusion connector (4-1pin CHASSIS)
M2N-PLUSSLI Chassis intrusion connector
8.ATX power connectors (24-pinEATXPWR, 4-pinATX12V)
9.Front panel audio connector (10-1pin FP_AUDIO)
M2N-PLUSSLI Front panel audio connector
10.Internal audio connector (4-pinCD)
M2N-PLUSSLI Internal audio connector
11.Digital audio connector (4-1pin SPDIF_OUT)
M2N-PLUSSLI Digital audio connector
12.TPM connector (20-1pin TPM)
M2N-PLUSSLI TPM connector
13.System panel connector (20-8pin PANEL)
•System power LED (2-pinPLED)
•Hard disk drive activity LED (2-pinIDE_LED)
•System warning speaker (4-pinSPEAKER)
•ATX power button/soft-offbutton (2-pinPWRSR)
ASUS Q-Connector(system panel)
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3.1Starting up for the first time
3.2.1Using the OS shut down function
3.2.2Using the dual function power switch
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4.1.1ASUS Update utility
Installing ASUS Update
Updating the BIOS through the Internet
Updating the BIOS through a BIOS file
4.1.2Creating a bootable floppy disk
4.1.3ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility
4.1.4 Updating the BIOS
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4.1.5 Saving the current BIOS file
4.1.6ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3 utility
Recovering the BIOS from the support CD
Recovering the BIOS from the USB flash disk
4.2BIOS setup program
4.2.1BIOS menu screen
4.2.2Menu bar
4.2.3Legend bar
4.2.4Menu items
4.2.5Sub-menuitems
4.2.6Configuration fields
4.2.7Pop-upwindow
4.2.8General help
4.3.1System Time [xx:xx:xx]
4.3.2System Date [Day xx/xx/xxxx]
4.3.3Legacy Diskette A [1.44M, 3.5 in.]
4.3.4Primary/Secondary IDE Master/Slave
Primary/Secondary IDE Master/Slave [Auto]
Access Mode [Auto]
PIO Mode [Auto]
UDMA Mode [Auto]
Transfer Mode
4.3.5SATA1~4
Extended IDE Drive [Auto]
Landing Zone
4.3.6HDD SMART Monitoring [Disabled]
4.3.7Installed Memory [xxx MB]
4.3.8Usable Memory [XXX MB]
4.4.1JumperFree Configuration
AI Tuning [Auto]
Overclock Options [Disabled]
CPU Frequency [XXX] (value is auto-detected)
PCI Express Clock [100Mhz]
DDR2 Voltage [Auto]
4.4.2CPU Configuration
DRAM Configuration
Load Fail-SafeDefaults
USB Keyboard Support [Disabled]
USB Mouse Support [Disabled]
Onboard FDC Controller [Enabled]
CKE Fine Delay [Auto]
Hyper Transport Frequency [Auto]
AMD Live! [Disabled]
AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet Function [Disabled]
4.4.3PCIPnP
Plug & Play O/S [No]
Primary Display Adapter [PCI]
4.4.4Onboard Device Configuration
IDE Function Setup
NVRAID Configuration
USB Configuration
Onboard nVidia LAN [Enabled]
Onboard LAN Boot ROM [Disabled]
Onboard USB Audio [Enabled]
ASUS ASAP [Disabled]
4.4.5SLI Configuration
AI-Selector[Auto]
4.5.1ACPI Suspend Type [S1&S3]
4.5.2ACPI APIC Support [Enabled]
4.5.3APM Configuration
Restore on AC Power Loss [Power-Off]
PWR Button < 4 secs [Instant-Off]
Power Up On PCI/PCIE Devices [Disabled]
Power On By External Modems [Disabled]
Date (of Month) Alarm [xx]
Alarm Time (hh:mm:ss) [xx:xx:xx]
HPET Support [Enabled]
Power Up By PS/2 Mouse [Disabled]
Power Up By PS/2 Keyboard [Disabled]
4.5.4Hardware Monitor
CPU Q-FanControl [Disabled]
CPU Q-FanProfile [Performance]
Chassis Q-FanControl [Disabled]
Chassis Q-FanProfile [Performance]
Vcore Voltage, 3.3V Voltage, 5V Voltage, 12V Voltage
CPU Temperature, M/B Temperature
CPU Fan Speed
CHASSIS FAN Speed
4.6.1Boot Device Priority
1st ~ 4th Boot Device [Removable]
4.6.2Removable Drives
1. Floppy Disks
4.6.3Hard Disk Drives
1. SATA1:
4.6.4CDROM Drives
4.6.5Boot Settings Configuration
Case Open Warning [Enabled]
Quick Boot [Enabled]
Boot Up Floppy Seek [Disabled]
Bootup Num-Lock[On]
4.6.6Security
Supervisor Password
User Password
Password Check
Security Chip [Disabled]
4.7.1ASUS EZ Flash
Exit & Save Changes
Exit & Discard Changes
Load Setup Defaults
Discard Changes
Software5 support
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5.2.1Running the support CD
5.2.2Drivers menu
ASUS InstAll-InstallationWizard for Drivers
NVIDIA nForce Chipset Driver
C-MediaCM6501 Audio Driver
AMD Cool ‘n’ Quiet Driver
5.2.3Utilities menu
ASUS InstAll-InstallationWizard for Utilities
ASUS PC Probe
ASUS Update
ASUS AI Gear
ADOBE Acrobat Reader
Microsoft DirectX 9.0c
Symantec Norton Internet Security
WinDVD Copy5 Trial
Corel Snapfire Plus SE
5.2.4Make Disk menu
NVIDIA 32/64bit 2000/XP/Vista SATA RAID Driver
5.2.5Manual menu
5.2.6ASUS Contact information
5.2.7Other information
Motherboard Info
Browse this CD
Technical support Form
Filelist
5.3.1ASUS MyLogo2™
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5.3.2Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology
Enabling Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ Technology
Launching the Cool ‘n’ Quiet!™ software
5.3.3C-MediaCM6501 audio utility
Main Setting
Mixer
Effect
Information
5.3.4ASUS PC Probe
Installing PC Probe
Launching PC Probe
Using PC Probe
Preferences
Hardware monitor panels
WMI browser
DMI browser
PCI browser
Usage
Configuring PC Probe
5.3.5ASUS AI Gear
5.3.6ASUS AI Nap
5.3.7AI Remote
Overview of the ASUS AI Remote
USB IR Receiver
Software Installation
Activating HID-CompliantDevices
ASUS AI Remote Settings
Use Profile
Browse
AP-2
Save
User Define
AP Menu Button and Application menu
Define Hotkeys for Application
The Function Buttons and AP Profile
5.4.1ASAP (ASUS Accelerated Propeller)
ASAP
5.5RAID configurations
RAID
RAID 0+1
RAID 1+0
JBOD
5.5.1Installing hard disks
Installing Parallel ATA hard disks
Installing Serial ATA (SATA) hard disks
5.5.2NVIDIA® RAID configurations
Setting the BIOS RAID items
Entering the NVIDIA® RAID utility
Creating a RAID Volume
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Rebuilding a RAID array
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Deleting a RAID array
Clearing a disk data
5.6Creating a RAID driver disk
5.2.4 Make Disk menu
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Requirements
6.2.1Installing SLI-readygraphics cards
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6.2.2Installing the device drivers
6.2.3Enabling the multi-GPUfeature in Windows®
8.Click the Enable SLI multi-GPU check box