EPoX "EP-9NPA+Ultra" NVIDIA nForce4 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard

[dahuang1]

I have some issues with this board - when it has been idle and the HD spins down, sometimes it won't wake back up after the monitor comes back on. It then locks and needs a hard reset. I've noticed that the volt reading in USDM varies from 1.49 down to 1.47 - so I don't know if that should be an ok variance, or if I need to turn it up a bit. I used an antec sonata case with a 350w supply, so it should be sufficient even though it's a 20pin connector... but then again, it's having issues, so I'm not sure.

 

[UKnowWhat]

Originally posted by: UKnowWhat
I am helping my nephew to build a system with this mb just bought from Chiefvalue. Booting up is fine with the initial screen showing proper CPU, right amount of RAMs, HD, DVD etc but no keyboard responded to the F1 & Delete message. LED code is 7F meaning waiting for keyboard entries. Keyboard does flashes during power up sequence but that's it. I have changed 3 kbds but no luck. Have any one ever have this problem before? BTW, he has the 20 pins PSU into a 24 pins connector too. Could it be an issue?

TIA

The solution to the above problem is holding the DEL key down when hitting the power switch and keep holding it down till you see the BIOS set up blue screen. Make sure your KB does flash the LEDs during booting up or change to one that does. This MB does have some problems with keyboard's initialization.

Obviously the 20 pins PSU connector is not an issue, neither the 400W PSU he has. It has plenty of juices. My nephew is extremely happy now.

 

[funks]

I bought one of these mainboards..

Populated it with 4 x 512 MB Dual Sided Corsair Value Rams.

Board works perfectly, and doesn't have any problems running 4 DS DIMMS at 200 MHZ (finished a day's worth of memtest) - 2T

I've been using it for a couple of days now and the board is rock solid, not one blue screen of death.. It's paired up with an ANTEC SmartPower 2.0 PS (500W), and a 7800GTX video card, and the CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case, latest BIOS, Venice 3000+ CPU

 

[MadScientist]

Has anyone gotten the Network Access Manager (firewall) part of the Windows XP/2000 - nForce4 AMD (version 6.53) drivers to work with this board? It worked fine with the version on the Epox supplied install disk. When I installed the 6.53 version it wiped my network. I uninstalled all nforce4 drivers, including nvidia display, and disabled Norton before installing v6.53. Uninstalling the v6.53 Network Access Manager got my network back. I re-installed the Epox supplied drivers and everything works. What's the trick to getting v6.53 to work or is it just not ready for prime time?

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: MadScientist
Has anyone gotten the Network Access Manager (firewall) part of the Windows XP/2000 - nForce4 AMD (version 6.53) drivers to work with this board? It worked fine with the version on the Epox supplied install disk. When I installed the 6.53 version it wiped my network. I uninstalled all nforce4 drivers, including nvidia display, and disabled Norton before installing v6.53. Uninstalling the v6.53 Network Access Manager got my network back. I re-installed the Epox supplied drivers and everything works. What's the trick to getting v6.53 to work or is it just not ready for prime time?

I had the same experience with a customer who was running a home wireless network. The idea is to either setup one of the custom profiles to allow the network free access (the default MEDIUM setting causes huge headaches with anything bet net surfing....) or simply use the nVidia driver and not use NAM and revert back to the XP firewall or ZoneAlarm. There is a wizard in the NAM web interface that allows you to get a home network up and running, but I thought the CPU utilization was way way too high and simply uninstalled NAM and then reverted back to the XP Firewall and all has been fine since. It is not the board, it is NAM and how crazy picky it is about what it will allow in and out.

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: UKnowWhat
I am helping my nephew to build a system with this mb just bought from Chiefvalue. Booting up is fine with the initial screen showing proper CPU, right amount of RAMs, HD, DVD etc but no keyboard responded to the F1 & Delete message. LED code is 7F meaning waiting for keyboard entries. Keyboard does flashes during power up sequence but that's it. I have changed 3 kbds but no luck. Have any one ever have this problem before? BTW, he has the 20 pins PSU into a 24 pins connector too. Could it be an issue?

TIA

Set USB Mouse Support to Enabled, and then set Halt On Errors to "All, but keyboard." That fixed it for me. I think the latest x2 supporting driver fixes the issue entirely.

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
I have some issues with this board - when it has been idle and the HD spins down, sometimes it won't wake back up after the monitor comes back on. It then locks and needs a hard reset. I've noticed that the volt reading in USDM varies from 1.49 down to 1.47 - so I don't know if that should be an ok variance, or if I need to turn it up a bit. I used an antec sonata case with a 350w supply, so it should be sufficient even though it's a 20pin connector... but then again, it's having issues, so I'm not sure.

Make sure you are using the latest x2 supporting BIOS (currently it is BETA, but it works great), and I would recommend a true 24 pin PSU. Some motherboards, even though they SAY they can work with 20 pin PSU's, display bizarre issues from time to time. A good choice is the Enermax Noisetaker 420Watt ATX 2.0 12V PSU (w/o PFC) and it only costs about $70 with shipping off of NewEgg. If you intend to OC, then either the same Enermax iin 485W Active PFC form, or the OCZ 520W PowerStream.

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: ChicagoPCGuy

Originally posted by: MadScientist
Has anyone gotten the Network Access Manager (firewall) part of the Windows XP/2000 - nForce4 AMD (version 6.53) drivers to work with this board? It worked fine with the version on the Epox supplied install disk. When I installed the 6.53 version it wiped my network. I uninstalled all nforce4 drivers, including nvidia display, and disabled Norton before installing v6.53. Uninstalling the v6.53 Network Access Manager got my network back. I re-installed the Epox supplied drivers and everything works. What's the trick to getting v6.53 to work or is it just not ready for prime time?

I had the same experience with a customer who was running a home wireless network. The idea is to either setup one of the custom profiles to allow the network free access (the default MEDIUM setting causes huge headaches with anything bet net surfing....) or simply use the nVidia driver and not use NAM and revert back to the XP firewall or ZoneAlarm. There is a wizard in the NAM web interface that allows you to get a home network up and running, but I thought the CPU utilization was way way too high and simply uninstalled NAM and then reverted back to the XP Firewall and all has been fine since. It is not the board, it is NAM and how crazy picky it is about what it will allow in and out.

The nforce4 drivers that came with my board are v6.37. I am running a wireless home network between mine and 2 other computers and have had no problems with NAM v6.37. I have it set at the default Medium setting, did not have to use the Wizard in the NAM interface to set up my network, and have not seen any increased CPU utilization. You do have to use the Wizard to set up file sharing, remote access control, open ports for other network apps, etc., but not for simple web browsing or email. It's NAM v6.53 that is buggy.

 

[UKnowWhat]

Originally posted by: ChicagoPCGuy

Originally posted by: UKnowWhat
I am helping my nephew to build a system with this mb just bought from Chiefvalue. Booting up is fine with the initial screen showing proper CPU, right amount of RAMs, HD, DVD etc but no keyboard responded to the F1 & Delete message. LED code is 7F meaning waiting for keyboard entries. Keyboard does flashes during power up sequence but that's it. I have changed 3 kbds but no luck. Have any one ever have this problem before? BTW, he has the 20 pins PSU into a 24 pins connector too. Could it be an issue?

TIA

Set USB Mouse Support to Enabled, and then set Halt On Errors to "All, but keyboard." That fixed it for me.

Not for me ... but holding the DEL key down works.

I think the latest x2 supporting driver fixes the issue entirely.

How could a driver fix something when it's not even loaded yet during the 1st initial boot up to BIOS screen?

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: UKnowWhat

Originally posted by: ChicagoPCGuy

Originally posted by: UKnowWhat
I am helping my nephew to build a system with this mb just bought from Chiefvalue. Booting up is fine with the initial screen showing proper CPU, right amount of RAMs, HD, DVD etc but no keyboard responded to the F1 & Delete message. LED code is 7F meaning waiting for keyboard entries. Keyboard does flashes during power up sequence but that's it. I have changed 3 kbds but no luck. Have any one ever have this problem before? BTW, he has the 20 pins PSU into a 24 pins connector too. Could it be an issue?

TIA

Set USB Mouse Support to Enabled, and then set Halt On Errors to "All, but keyboard." That fixed it for me.

Not for me ... but holding the DEL key down works.

I think the latest x2 supporting driver fixes the issue entirely.

How could a driver fix something when it's not even loaded yet during the 1st initial boot up to BIOS screen?

My bad...meant latest X2 supporting BIOS. If you update to that, the keyboard issue will probably go away. Mine did. I was able to set the system back to halt on ALL errors.

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: MadScientist

Originally posted by: ChicagoPCGuy

Originally posted by: MadScientist
Has anyone gotten the Network Access Manager (firewall) part of the Windows XP/2000 - nForce4 AMD (version 6.53) drivers to work with this board? It worked fine with the version on the Epox supplied install disk. When I installed the 6.53 version it wiped my network. I uninstalled all nforce4 drivers, including nvidia display, and disabled Norton before installing v6.53. Uninstalling the v6.53 Network Access Manager got my network back. I re-installed the Epox supplied drivers and everything works. What's the trick to getting v6.53 to work or is it just not ready for prime time?

I had the same experience with a customer who was running a home wireless network. The idea is to either setup one of the custom profiles to allow the network free access (the default MEDIUM setting causes huge headaches with anything bet net surfing....) or simply use the nVidia driver and not use NAM and revert back to the XP firewall or ZoneAlarm. There is a wizard in the NAM web interface that allows you to get a home network up and running, but I thought the CPU utilization was way way too high and simply uninstalled NAM and then reverted back to the XP Firewall and all has been fine since. It is not the board, it is NAM and how crazy picky it is about what it will allow in and out.

The nforce4 drivers that came with my board are v6.37. I am running a wireless home network between mine and 2 other computers and have had no problems with NAM v6.37. I have it set at the default Medium setting, did not have to use the Wizard in the NAM interface to set up my network, and have not seen any increased CPU utilization. You do have to use the Wizard to set up file sharing, remote access control, open ports for other network apps, etc., but not for simple web browsing or email. It's NAM v6.53 that is buggy.

When I said "network" I did not mean simply sharing a router. I mean N-E-T-W-O-R-K, as in full blown file serving and print sharing. Ditto that NAM in 6.53 is buggy. I basically said that as well in my previous post, without actually saying "buggy."

 

[dahuang1]

Anyone have any thoughts on an earlier post I had? Temps on the cpu are ranging from 40-44 'C and I have the antec 380w supply that comes with the sonata case. I think it's the IDE drive that is not waking or sleeping when the system tries to go to standby. Is there an easy way to disable the ide drive in BIOS besides just pulling the plug on the drive? I tried it in one screen, but it still showed in explorer when I rebooted... I think I changed the wrong setting!

Originally posted by: dahuang1
I have some issues with this board - when it has been idle and the HD spins down, sometimes it won't wake back up after the monitor comes back on. It then locks and needs a hard reset. I've noticed that the volt reading in USDM varies from 1.49 down to 1.47 - so I don't know if that should be an ok variance, or if I need to turn it up a bit. I used an antec sonata case with a 350w supply, so it should be sufficient even though it's a 20pin connector... but then again, it's having issues, so I'm not sure.

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
Anyone have any thoughts on an earlier post I had? Temps on the cpu are ranging from 40-44 'C and I have the antec 380w supply that comes with the sonata case. I think it's the IDE drive that is not waking or sleeping when the system tries to go to standby. Is there an easy way to disable the ide drive in BIOS besides just pulling the plug on the drive? I tried it in one screen, but it still showed in explorer when I rebooted... I think I changed the wrong setting!

Originally posted by: dahuang1
I have some issues with this board - when it has been idle and the HD spins down, sometimes it won't wake back up after the monitor comes back on. It then locks and needs a hard reset. I've noticed that the volt reading in USDM varies from 1.49 down to 1.47 - so I don't know if that should be an ok variance, or if I need to turn it up a bit. I used an antec sonata case with a 350w supply, so it should be sufficient even though it's a 20pin connector... but then again, it's having issues, so I'm not sure.

The temps you describe are normal for the stock H/S Fan. The CPU has max TCase of 70 degrees C, and you are a long ways from that. What is the load temp under Prime95 max heat and power torture test afte fifteen minutes?

The voltages you describe are also normal. A slight fluctuation will occur. You can disable your IDE HDD in the BIOS screen--under Advanced Chipset Options and IDE devices. You can disable both controllers if you want to.

IDE controller O is the Primary, and IDE Controller 1 is the secondary. This screen is also where you can disable the SATA controllers as well.

 

[dahuang1]

OK - ran prime95 fine, went upto 45' C, no errors. I did find where to disable the IDE channels. I also just found they have a new BIOS on the epox site, 6/29/05. I'll check everything out again and see how it goes with the new bios.
Thanks!
Geoff

 

[dahuang1]

Dang - no help there. Prime ran fine for 15min - disabling IDE HD did not make a dfference either.

 

[dahuang1]

Just to follow up - I saw that someone else hereabouts had a problem waking from suspend as well. I updated to the Iron Madien (get it - ha ha) nforce drivers and it seems to be working well now. I also changed the power settings to sleep HD @ never, and it's sleeping and waking fine now.

Originally posted by: dahuang1
I have some issues with this board - when it has been idle and the HD spins down, sometimes it won't wake back up after the monitor comes back on. It then locks and needs a hard reset. I've noticed that the volt reading in USDM varies from 1.49 down to 1.47 - so I don't know if that should be an ok variance, or if I need to turn it up a bit. I used an antec sonata case with a 350w supply, so it should be sufficient even though it's a 20pin connector... but then again, it's having issues, so I'm not sure.

 

[dahuang1]

... and it appears to be the new nforce that did the trick, not the setting HD to sleep to 'never'. whew!

 

[imported_Husky55]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
... and it appears to be the new nforce that did the trick, not the setting HD to sleep to 'never'. whew!

Did you upgrade to the new Nvidia 6.66 drivers on your Epox board with no trouble?

I have had a ton of troubles, that's why I ask.

This is the 6.66 driver thread

 

[Macro2]

Is this board made by FIC? WHats the maximum multiplier.

 

[wbynum]

I ask this over in the CPU/overclocking group but got conflicting answers so I am asking the following here. I'm a little confused about how the memory clock/divider works on the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra/SLI motherboards. In the manual the only thing I see about the memory clock is the following:

Memory Frequency (Mhz)
This item sets the memory clock. By placing an artificial memory clock limit on the system, memory is prevented from running faster than this frequency. Example, ?200? will set to DDR400 speed.
Options: 100Mhz, 133Mhz, 166Mhz, 200Mhz.

Based on the above description it would seem that if you set the memory frequency to 200mhz it would run the memory at 200mhz even if you set the FSB/HTT higher than 200mhz. But I see people saying you need to bump the memory frequency down to 166 depending on how high you set the FSB.

Does the memory frequency setting on the 9NPA+ boards trully lock in the memory speed or is it really just a divider to be used with the FSB?

 

[RobbyG]

It's a ratio based on the HTT setting. So if your HTT is set to 250 then setting your memory to 200 would set it to 250 (250*1), setting it to 166 would set it to 207 (250*.83), etc..

Check Zebo's o/c guide here for more info.

 

[Addy]

edit: n/m haven't had my coffee

 

[Jader88]

Is the EPOX EP-9NPA+Ultra better than the MSI Neo 4 platnum ? Nforce 4 ultra

 

[SPQQKY]

Originally posted by: Jader88
Is the EPOX EP-9NPA+Ultra better than the MSI Neo 4 platnum ? Nforce 4 ultra

Yes. It is winning over the MSI in almost every review I have seen.

Originally posted by: Macro2
Is this board made by FIC? WHats the maximum multiplier.

No. EPoX (Pronnix) makes their own boards. FIC has never made their own, several manufacturers have made boards for FIC, they just put their lable on it. Max multi is whatever your CPUs default multi is, unless an FX chip, in which case you can set to 22x.

 

[Macro2]

Is there a problem with the power connector being to near the cpu socket? Seems like a large HSF might interfere.