Attention EPOX 8KHA+ owners. Please do me a favor.

[ddeder]

I just built two systems with this motherboard, one with an Athlon 1700+ and the other with an Athlon 1900+. Both systems from the start experienced periodic freezeups during the boot process and also when I accessed the bios. After much testing, I determined the following:

When I am in the bios, the freezeups only occur when I go into the health status section. I can go into any other section of the bios for as long as I want and make whatever changes I want and the computer is fine. As soon as I go into the health status section of the bios and arrow down a couple of times or make a change, the computer locks up. Sometimes I can make a quick change and exit before the computer locks up, but if I stay in that section for more than 20 seconds, it locks up EVERY time.

This was happening on both computers until I made the following change:

I noticed that the setting to display health status during POST was set to enabled. I managed to disable it in the bios before the system locked up and and save my settings. Since I have made this change I have done many warm and cold boots and the system has not locked up on me even once.

I have the most recent version of the bios (11/2/2001) on both computers.

I am wondering if anyone else has had this experience? Is it likely that something is wrong with both my motherboards? Did I miss a setting somewhere? Will a reflash of the bios fix this?

If you have access to a computer that uses this motherboard, please do me a favor and go into the health status section of the bios and arrow up and down for awhile and see if your system locks up. Maybe change the setting to display the health status during POST to enabled, and see if this causes the system to lockup the next couple of times that you boot. On my systems, it locked up maybe 50% of the time during the POST.

Any help with this problem is appreciated...

 

[gmarcus2001]

Thats a bizzare problem you've got. I've played around health settings on my Epox and never
never hung on me. The health status is also enabled on mine. The weird thing tho on mine is that is reports the h/sink fan RPM as 0. I've also not installed the case fan since I'm still running it w/o the casing. THe date on mine is 11/02 so I assume I'm having the latest version.

 

[Mem]

<< The weird thing tho on mine is that is reports the h/sink fan RPM as 0. >>



Same with mine so seems to be a common problem.

 

[Slawsk]

You may have a defective board. Somewhere I read that certain serial #s can have a bad problem. The easiest way to check out if you have a board prob is to check out which white RAM "grabbers" you have. look at this pic http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-123-149-01.JPG/13-123-149-02.JPG/13-123-149-03.JPG if you have RAM grabbers that look like that, then you have a "good" board. IF they look like this: http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-123-151-03.JPG/13-123-151-04.JPG/13-123-151-05.JPG (not the 8kha+ board but look at the white "RAM" Grabbers." THen you have a defective board. I had the same prob.

 

[ddeder]

I just built a third computer with the 8HTA+ and it does the same d*mn thing... Using AMD recommended PSU Enlight 340W. This is three computers that this is happening on for me. Surely SOMEONE else must be having this problem as well. Anyone?

 

[ddeder]

Called EPOX today and talked to tech support. They told me to clear the CMOS and try again. I removed the "CMOS" jumper for a minute and then replaced it and rebooted. I got a checksum error and the computer froze. At this point I hit the reset button and the computer began to boot but then stopped with an "Unmountable Boot Volume" error.

I was very pleased with the EPOX 8K7A board. Never had a problem with one. This problem is about to put me off on buying EPOX boards in the future...

 

[ddeder]

EUREKA! I believe I have found the source of my problem!

I have a harddrive fan that was plugged into the FAN2 pins on the motherboard. After much experimentation, I found that if I unplug this fan from the motherboard, the computer never locks up. As soon as I plug it back in, the computer locks up.

Those of you who said they have had no such problems with their motherboard, do you have a harddrive fan (or any other fan) that uses these pins? If not, that might explain a lot. Someone that does use this mobo and has a harddrive fan using those pins, please execute my little test and see if your computer locks up. This has happened to me on both of my 8KHA+ mobos and I wonder if it is a problem with all 8KHA+'s.

 

[ddeder]

BUMP.

Isn't anyone out there using a harddrive fan with this motherboard??

 

[ddeder]

Another bump. I would like to know if it is just my boards or all 8KHA+ boards. Someone out there must be using a hard drive fan with this board. If you do, and that fan is plugged into the FAN2 pins on the mobo, please check to see if your computer locks up in the health section of the bios.

 

[RickH]

I am glad to hear you found the problem. The motherboard or processor are usually blamed for problems caused by US and our software/hardware!!!! It's wonderful when we figure it out. RRRRRRR

 

[ddeder]

I believe I have found the problem and it appears to be a problem with the motherboard. I would just like others to verify it for me...