EPoX 8RDA+ motherboard dead?

[ski4ever]

My EPoX 8RDA+ motherboard seems to be dead. The other night I was using my computer. I left it on as I usually do and found both screens were black in the morning as they usually are. Moving the mouse or tapping a key did not wake up the monitors. I've cleaned the ATI 9800 card and the slot to no avail. Neither hard drive sounds like it is going through the boot-up sequence and nothing appears on either screen. Any ideas short of purchasing another mobo? If I must replace it, what is a good replacement board that will accept the current DDR SDRAM PC2100 memory (1 512 MB stick and 1 256 MB stick)? Thanks in advance.

 

[Megatomic]

Any modern NF2 board would be a suitable replacement. With the price of NF2 boards falling as they have been they are all really affordable now, even the high end models are relatively cheap. NewEgg.com carries a wide variety of NF2 boards, you should go check them out. We can give you opinions on any model you are curious about after that.

 

[ski4ever]

How about the Abit NF7-S?

Also, is it possible that the mobo is fine and that the processor has gone bad? I'd hate to buy a new mobo and then find that my existing processor is no good. Is there a way to test my combo to see if the problem is either the mobo or the processor or both?

Thanks.

 

[Megatomic]

You'd have to have another socket A chip to test with. If you do then go ahead, that'd be good troubleshooting.

As to the Abit NF7-S, that's a very good choice. If you click on the "my computer" link in my sig you'll see that I too use that board and have for a year now. It's a solid motherboard and very fast, too.

 

[ski4ever]

I cleared the CMOS to no avail -- same black screen. The Post Code is C1, which is Detect memory with two sub sections. The sub sections are Auto-detection of DRAM size, type and ECC, and Auto-detection of L2 cache (socket 7 or below). I have a 512 stick in slot 1 and a 256 stick in slot 3. Removing one and running with the other doesn't make any difference.

The power supply is running and the CD drives are running. Also, I installed a new CMOS battery, which didn't make any difference.

I guess it's fairly clear that something is dead. With what is known, which of the following is the most reasonable to presume?
1. the processor is dead
2. the mobo is dead
3. both are dead
4. some other component is dead

The way I answer the question determines whether I purchase only a new mobo (looks like the NF7-
S is a good choice) or a new mobo with processor.

Your thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Megatomic]

I'd vote that the 8RDA+ is dead. I had one die on me one day, I woke up and no POST. I can't remember the code though, it could have been anything as far as my memory is concerned.

Go to the For Sale/For Trade forum, there is a guy selling an NF7-S Rev. 2.0 for $70, it's almost brand new.

LINKAGE

 

[Jeff7]

Look at the 4 capacitors (cylindrical components) on the motherboard, between the CPU and the ATX backplate connectors. The tops of them should be flat, not bulging like these. Look at other capacitors of similar size on the board, and see if any are visibly bulging. If so, you'll want to visit Badcaps.net.

 

[gblessington]

Wow.....deja vu.....
My Epox 8RDA+ also seems to have died on Friday. I too leave my PC on all the time. Saturday morning it looked like it was in sleep mode......a deep sleep from which it would never awaken

Anway, rebooting the system does nothing - I never get past what looks like the early RAM initialisation (post codes I get are C0 or C1). I've tried taking out all unnecessary components, changing the RAM around. Tried
a different video card from my 9800. No luck.

After reading this post I did a quick check on the capacitors. All looked fine execpt for one next to where the RAM goes. The top of this one looked like it was pretty bloated.

Anyway, despite my utter dismay I found it somewhat bizarre that somebody had an identical situation.

 

[ski4ever]

Wow -- I wonder if there was something in the EPoX 8RDA+ air Friday night.

I was going to do the video card next, but since you've found that move to be fruitless I'll not do that. After checking my capacitors I found that four of them are bloated, all in the neighborhood of the memory. There two small ones and two that are a little bigger that are bloated. I don't know if there's anything else to check.

At this point I'm going to order the ABIT AN7 from NewEgg, and install my current Athlon XP 2100 with a quieter CPU fan.

BTW, how long have you had the board? I think I've had mine for about a year and a half.

 

[osage]

I found bulging caps on my 8RDA+ a few days ago.

Epox is RMAing the board at no charge.
If you have bad caps got to the Epox site and register your mobo by ser#, then request an RMA. The whole process took about an hour from registering the board till I had the RMA #.

pretty good service in my book, I'm not even the original owner of the board.

 

[gblessington]

Good news on the RMA. I think I'll try that too.
I've owned my board for ........ maybe a year? I've already ordered a new mobo/cpu as I couldn't wait to figure out which went, but if I get the mobo fixed then I guess I can use it in a secondary system.

 

[vexingv]

same thing happened to my mobo 3 weeks ago...i just realized that it was the capacitors today when i took the entire system apart. dont know if i should rma and use the board or get a new one

 

[ski4ever]

I found four bulging caps on the board, so I registered it on the EPoX site. Within an hour I had an RMA#, and I sent it off this evening. All this good news after having purchased an ABIT AN7 from NewEgg.

 

[EPoXTech]

ski4ever

Glad to hear support took care of it for you.

 

[Mem]

I found four bulging caps on the board, so I registered it on the EPoX site. Within an hour I had an RMA#, and I sent it off this evening. All this good news after having purchased an ABIT AN7 from NewEgg.

Epox should really start using better capacitors and get this bulging caps problem sorted,both Abit and Asus have taken measures,this is one of the reasons why I went to DFI over Epox again .

 

[jspeicher]

OMG, my 8RDA+ just died today, 6-11-04. Same symptoms, no signal response, boots with C1, etc,. I think I found a bad capacitor? I'll take pics.

EDIT: It is the one by the RAM too. Its crusty and bulged. DAMN

 

[jspeicher]

WIll Epox replace the board for free? The same board? And this doesn't mean I have to install XP over again and lose all the goods on my (2) HDs?

 

[ski4ever]

WIll Epox replace the board for free?

• From EPoX Support: "It will take 1-2 bussiness week to repair of your board, and we do not charge any labor fee to repair this board. If you have any other question please contact us at 714-680-0898."

The same board?

• Yes, they repair the board and send it back.

And this doesn't mean I have to install XP over again and lose all the goods on my (2) HDs?

• I don't know. I'm in the same situation and don't know the answer to this question.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: jspeicher
WIll Epox replace the board for free? The same board? And this doesn't mean I have to install XP over again and lose all the goods on my (2) HDs?

If they send you the same board, you should be able to plop it back in the system, and Windows should boot like nothing ever happened. Keyword there is "should."

 

[ski4ever]

What's the scenario with a replacement board other than the original EPoX 8RDA+ mobo? I have an ABIT AN7 that I intend to install.

 

[Megatomic]

I'd say the safest thing to do would be:

1. Boot up into safe mode and uninstall all the chipset devices, any other integrated devices (USB, etc...), and the video card drivers.
2. Reboot into safe mode and run Driver Cleaner to remove all traces of your chipset drivers and the video card drivers, also use Cab Cleaner to clean your cab files.
3. Reboot into windows with your network cable disconnected and reinstall the chipset drivers.
4. Reboot into windows with the network cable still disconnected and reinstall the video card drivers.
5. Reboot into windows with the network cable reconnected and everything should be back to normal. You may have to reactivate windows again if you are runnign WinXP.

 

[EPoXTech]

Mem
We use Japanese brand caps for repair.

jspeicher
Contact EPoX support via our website. www.epox.com/usa/support.asp
We will repair the board. If under warranty its free. You just pay to ship it to us. We cover shipping back. Normally the same board is returned. If the same board is installed I do not see a need to reinstall Windows.

ski4ever
If the Abit has significant differences (chipset north or south, audio, IDE, SATA, etc) you may need to reinstall.

 

[Jombo]

man, i remember reading abotu the caps issue just around the time i bought my 8rda+ lil over a year ago. i read that it may or may not become an issue, but you just sort of had to wait and see until the sucker got all bloated and stopped working, or something to that effect.

Originally posted by: Mem

Epox should really start using better capacitors and get this bulging caps problem sorted,both Abit and Asus have taken measures,this is one of the reasons why I went to DFI over Epox again .

iirc, there were a whole slew of bad caps around the time 8RDA+ was released, i dun think Epox was the only company that was using it, and besides it wasn't readily apparent which cap was good or bad. i personally don't know whether Epox bought said parts knowingly or not.. and it seems Epox is RMAing and replacing the board, so i dun really see too much of a problem w/ that..

besides, i bought Epox thanks to high perf and cheap price. something has to give right? this time around, i'm thinking of upgrading to MSI 754 board, due to features and since newegg doesn't have hte latest epox board yet..