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

[T-man]

What is the BEST BIOS, and Nforce chipset version for this board fro stable overclock?!?

thanks guys!!!!

 

[SPQQKY]

I am using the 6.53 nForce drivers and 5525 beta BIOS. The beta's are not on Epox's web site but can be found at AOA.

 

[MadMax]

Thanks SPQQKY. I'm going to reinstall Windows and see if it solves some of my problems. I'll use the 6.53 drivers along with the 5629 bios.

MadMax

 

[enwar3]

how many ide devices can i run on this? and it doesnt hafta be in raid.. cuz it says its got two ide ports (four devices) but can run raide on four ide ports (eight devices). which one is it?

 

[Davegod]

two IDE ports, with two drives on each port = maximum of 4 IDE (P ATA) drives
four SATA ports = maximum of 4 SATA drives
= 8 drives total

plus more if you bought a IDE controller on a PCI card.

 

[Azkarr]

Hey everyone, I just joined the forums. I own this motherboard and I like it a lot, but I do have a few questions.

1. The utility Thunder Probe, as said by others earlier in this thread, does NOT allow the control of fan speeds. I wonder what Epox actually meant when they said that it did. I even emailed their tech support and they said the motherboard does not support the fan speed control.

2. Will a Zalman CNPS7700-Cu fit on the motherboard? I routed the main power connector around the top of the motherboard (behind the IO panel), and I don't think that it'll interfere. The RAM slots may pose a problem, but the DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D motherboard seems to have the RAM slots even closer to the CPU, and people say that this HSF will fit on it, so...

 

[SPQQKY]

The Zalman will fit fine, I have seen several people who are using the same cooler on this board.

 

[jotosuds]

hey guys i just got this mobo w/ the 6/29/05 bios, and i was wondering if there was a way to specifically set the CPU voltage. all i have is "auto" and "+.025v" etc. etc. i want to run it at 1.45v, but there's no option for it. even at stock 1.8ghz, the voltage is like 1.515v and it fluctuates a little bit all the time in CPU-Z.

PSU specs
+12v = 12.95
3.3v =1.55
Vcc =5.01
5Vsb=5.04

3000+
epox9npa
512mb
80gb ide
x800 vanilla
2 optical drives
2 fans

 

[enwar3]

i just built a computer on this mobo, and i cant figure out how to update bios. my computer wont boot into windows, and i dont know how to make a bootable floppy to update.

 

[Davegod]

anyone tried a zalman ZM-NB47J nb cooler on this thing, it liable to interfere with a GTX? or is the nb probably too hot anyway?

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: jotosuds
hey guys i just got this mobo w/ the 6/29/05 bios, and i was wondering if there was a way to specifically set the CPU voltage. all i have is "auto" and "+.025v" etc. etc. i want to run it at 1.45v, but there's no option for it. even at stock 1.8ghz, the voltage is like 1.515v and it fluctuates a little bit all the time in CPU-Z.

This board is built for overclocking. If you enable Cool'n'Quiet in the bios this will drop the CPU voltage when it is under light load. With Cool'n'Quiet enabled (Auto) my 3200 at idle is running between 1.45 and 1.48V.

Just checked the latest bios version. It adds a negative 0.1V CPU voltage option.
2005-08-10
05.08.04
** Added CPU voltage adjust support to negative 0.1V.
** Fix Athlon 64 E6 3800 CPU (ADA3800DAA4BP) hang at post if single side Dimm*4 exists.
** Show "Sempron 64-bit CPU" string.
Download Link

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: enwar3
i just built a computer on this mobo, and i cant figure out how to update bios. my computer wont boot into windows, and i dont know how to make a bootable floppy to update.

Are you sure you need an updated bios? Are you getting any post code errors?

 

[SPQQKY]

Sounds like you didn't do a fresh install of Windows. As MadScientist points out, an update for the BIOS will probably not help.
Also, if you want to update the BIOS, you don't need a boot disk. Epox boards have built in AWDFlash, all you have to do is load the .bin on a floppy and press alt+F2 to update.

 

[perdomot]

How does this mobo compare to the Chaintech VNF4 mobo? Thinking of getting one and want to make sure its worth it. Thanks.

 

[Dave Sz]

I like this board so far and I loved the beta BIOS as well, however I tried to flash it to the newest BIOS and now my comp is dead. I tried boot from floppy but the floppy died a few minutes later. Does anyone have suggestions? I get code 0d on the LED.

 

[SPQQKY]

Originally posted by: perdomot
How does this mobo compare to the Chaintech VNF4 mobo? Thinking of getting one and want to make sure its worth it. Thanks.

The Chaintech doesn't even compare to this board. It's not in the same league.

Originally posted by: Dave Sz
I like this board so far and I loved the beta BIOS as well, however I tried to flash it to the newest BIOS and now my comp is dead. I tried boot from floppy but the floppy died a few minutes later. Does anyone have suggestions? I get code 0d on the LED.

If I remember correctly, you should be able to keep the floppy with the BIOS on it and keep trying to reboot. The board will automatically reflash the BIOS if it is corrupt. At least that was the way it was with my 8RDA+. I thought I had screwed it for sure, but I loaded an older BIOS with AWDFlash and an earlier BIOS and the board went to the flash menu without touching anything. I was astounded and pleased when my board was brought back to life.

 

[Dave Sz]

I tried that today but it didn't even try to access the floppy. I read some instructions somewhere to put the flash utility, the bios and an AUTOEXEC.BAT file with this written in it awdflash 9npa5804.BIN /py/sn/f/cc/r Problem is that I just get a black screen which probably means the boot sector was damaged during the flash. XP strikes again I guess, my floppy just died during the flash with no warning. It was weird, when you flash the little box fills with white stripes, well the second to last row only filled half of white stripes, the rest was left blank. The screen went black, I wasited and nothing. I ordered a new bios chip so hopefully that works.

 

[SPQQKY]

That sucks, bro. Hope you get it sorted out soon.

 

[jotosuds]

hey guys the new BIOS 8/04/05 is nice. finally my CPU VCORE is down to 1.4v due to the -0.1v option in the BIOS. used MagicFlash and it worked like a charm.

 

[Davegod]

Originally posted by: funks
Some notes: The 9NPA+ULTRA IDE1 (PATA) is blocked when installing a 7800GTX, the SLI version doesn't have this problem. The only thing I don't like the 9NPA+SLI is the location of the power plug.

As I've just noticed. [edit2: finally got pic off digicam image

any tricks to get around this, or am i stuck using IDE2 and having to go SATA for any future drives? I'd rather be able to keep my small second hdd in there. The supplied rounded cabled (ATA100...) certainly wont allow for a 7800GTX, and I dont think ye olde flat cables will be any better.


edit: i found an IDE cable with a fairly low profile plug, and broke off the clip thing which clamps the cable. I'm pretty sure that clamp is just there to make it harder to accidenally pull the cable out of the plug, either way I got the 7800gtx in while still making use of IDE1. Very tight fit though.

 

[SPQQKY]

They just need to quit making those damned nVidia cards so big!

 

[RobbyG]

Have any of you guys tried the new Thunder Probe utility? Any cool new features in it? I'm still using the 03/22/05 Bios so I don't think it will work with my version.

 

[SPQQKY]

Unfortunately, it's a memory hog and pretty lame. Not worth installing IMO.

 

[imported_Husky55]

I have a problem, possibly relating to my Epox chipset.

I have a Belkin Pre-N wireless router to share broadband with my desktop and laptop. I plugged in the new HP 2600N printer into my router.

I cannot install the HP network software. Something about encounting an error and have to shut down setup. I have the router firewall enabled and WXP SP2 firewall enabled also. I suspect that the firewall on the router stops the HP application from accessing the network. Although subsequently, I found out this was not the case

But then, I did find out that my Laptop, an Acer Centrino, with builtin Ethernet port has no trouble to find and install the HP 2600N wirelessly.

I knew that I had trouble with the Nvidia NF4 Ultra chipset driver 6.66 version so last night I did a clean install of XP and Nvidia chipset drivers and video card. It was late and I quit.

This morning I tried again to install the networked printer to my desktop. The driver did not install. I keep looking at my Network connection and for some reason 1394 keep showing as a LAN or hi speed internet connection in addition to the Local Network Connection which is also LAN and hi-speed internet with an Ethernet. I could not disable the 1394 connection, something about other protocols depend on it. Did you guys see this 1394 and Local Network Connection?

I wonder if anybody with an Expox 9NPA Ultra has installed a network printer to their XP - SP2 system.

With a clean install of XP and Nvidia chipset driver 6.66, I thought that it would be a slamdunk install but that was not the case.

I only installed the Ethernet, Network Bus Enumerator. I did not install Nvidia IDE, NAM and Sound codec and applets.

MS IDE drivers and Realtek drivers 3.76 were used.

I finally installed the HP LaserJet on the USB connection and it's working OK.

 

[RobbyG]

Originally posted by: SPQQKY
Unfortunately, it's a memory hog and pretty lame. Not worth installing IMO.

Thanks for the info - every time I try to download it from the global site it takes forever and I end up cancelling it. I'll stick with the USDM and Ntune since it shows me everything I need to know (except for the darn 12V line!).