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

[gfngfgf]

@boris: I installed my XP-90 without taking out the motherboard. It's a little tricky, especially if you're not used to it, but yes, you can simply unscrew the stock retention bracket and put on the new one. As for chipset cooling, I'm using the Zalman NB-47J. It's passive, so no noise at all, but it's a little tall. It should fit fine on this board (depends on your gfx card), but if it doesn't, you can always bend some of the fins a little bit.

 

[Bayrus]

Any info's why EPoX "EP-9NPA+Ultra" NVIDIA nForce4 ULTRA Chipset was faced-out by EPOX company?

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: thesurge
Does the 9npa+ have any LED ports? I have a twopin LED wire from my front blue LED fan (Antec SuperLanBoy). Where do I plug it in? HD_LED and PWR_LED are taken up???

You'll have to decide which of the two LEDs you want to use on the LanBoy...the EPoX will only handle one, AFAIK. I've got both.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Originally posted by: gfngfgf
@boris: I installed my XP-90 without taking out the motherboard. It's a little tricky, especially if you're not used to it, but yes, you can simply unscrew the stock retention bracket and put on the new one. As for chipset cooling, I'm using the Zalman NB-47J. It's passive, so no noise at all, but it's a little tall. It should fit fine on this board (depends on your gfx card), but if it doesn't, you can always bend some of the fins a little bit.

Thanks but how is it a bit tricky if you are not used to it? Could you give a few tips because this would be the first time I have done this and I am scurred.

 

[Boris teh Spider]

Originally posted by: teddyv

It was my first build and installing the CPU heatsink (really tough to put on, I though I was going to crack the board) and turning it on for the first time was the most nervewracking thing ever. When I first turn on the fans and the lights went on but the monitor was blank.

I had a lot of apprehension about it too, mechBgon's guide has a great little video showing how easy it is for a pro

http://www.mechbgon.com/build/AMD64.html

Yeah it was crazy, I felt like I was gonna crack my mobo too. I think the trick is to use a flathead screw driver to apply a bit of pressure on only the lever, I have yet to try it but seems like a good idea.

 

[harobikes333]

I'm planing on getting a 3800 X2 and I was wondering about the capability with the nf4 chipset.

If you go to the bottom of the page a guy says that there are some problems....

My thread

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: Bayrus
Any info's why EPoX "EP-9NPA+Ultra" NVIDIA nForce4 ULTRA Chipset was faced-out by EPOX company?

Gah, I just purchased one of these! Seems to be out-of-stock at Zip Zoom Fly and the price decreased significantly at ChiefValue.

 

[thesurge]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: thesurge
Does the 9npa+ have any LED ports? I have a twopin LED wire from my front blue LED fan (Antec SuperLanBoy). Where do I plug it in? HD_LED and PWR_LED are taken up???

You'll have to decide which of the two LEDs you want to use on the LanBoy...the EPoX will only handle one, AFAIK. I've got both.

thnx. I realized that the FAN LED is powered through the FAN power, not a seperate LED power.

 

[thesurge]

Originally posted by: RideFree

Originally posted by: thesurge
Does the 9npa+ have any LED ports? I have a twopin LED wire from my front blue LED fan (Antec SuperLanBoy). Where do I plug it in? HD_LED and PWR_LED are taken up???

You'll have to decide which of the two LEDs you want to use on the LanBoy...the EPoX will only handle one, AFAIK. I've got both.

quick question:
Did you get the FrontPanel Audio connectors to your CPFA ports on your motherboard? I can't seem to reach it with the plug. The graphics card gets in the way. How did you do it?

 

[Boris teh Spider]

What the hell is up with EPoX thunder probe? I am assuming that's what did it, but I just started a game of CS:S and these siren noises started going off, I disabled EPTP and then I get some high pitched continous tone from the computer that wouldn't go away so I rebooted. I am running my 3800+ X2 @ 2.4 GHz and it's Prime Stable for hours, plays games just fine but these just randomly happened. It also happened a few weeks ago, I forget what I was doing when it did though. CPU temp was only at 38C so what gives?

 

[Serrinon]

So how does this MOBO do with X2's? Does it provide the same level of performance that it does for other 939 AMD's?

 

[harobikes333]

thats what I'm asking too:

I'm wondering whether to get this one, a DFI ultra d or something else...

 

[gfngfgf]

Originally posted by: Boris teh Spider

Originally posted by: gfngfgf
@boris: I installed my XP-90 without taking out the motherboard. It's a little tricky, especially if you're not used to it, but yes, you can simply unscrew the stock retention bracket and put on the new one. As for chipset cooling, I'm using the Zalman NB-47J. It's passive, so no noise at all, but it's a little tall. It should fit fine on this board (depends on your gfx card), but if it doesn't, you can always bend some of the fins a little bit.

Thanks but how is it a bit tricky if you are not used to it? Could you give a few tips because this would be the first time I have done this and I am scurred.

I was just talking about actually putting the XP-90 on there. The first time I did it, I got two of the clips on, and the other side popped up because I wasn't expecting it to do that. Not a big deal, but it meant that I had to reapply my thermal paste and start over.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: thesurge
quick question:
Did you get the FrontPanel Audio connectors to your CPFA ports on your motherboard? I can't seem to reach it with the plug. The graphics card gets in the way. How did you do it?

I did not marry the EPoX & the LanBoy. I put the a Biostar TForce4U in the LanBoy with an XP-120. Went very nicely. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[firewolfsm]

would a Scythe Ninja fit in there?

does anyone know if it can run four sticks of ram at 1T?

 

[Krogoth255]

The Scythe Ninja should be able to fit fine, as there is plenty of clearance around the socket. My very wide, PAL8150 heatsink fits like a charm.

There is no current A64 that can handle 4 sticks at 1T timings. The E3, E4 and E6 settings just allowed 4 sticks with 2T timings. A large number of the older Winchesters had problems with running 4 sticks of memory.

 

[curran]

Hey well I hope the topic about the USB 2.0 freezing issue isn't dead yet. I'm glad i've finally found others w/ the same problem. I have been working since mid-september trying to resolve the issue. System is very stable under usb 1.1. Here's a brief summary of what I've done:

- tried windows xp pro sp2, MCE 2005, & win2000
- tried all latest windows updates, bios (using magicflash & european sites), & every forceware driver I could find
- tried w/ & w/out SW IDE driver
- replaced every piece of hardware (some more than once), except PSU & CPU (see specs below)
- have used 2 9NPA+ultra boards & now am using the 9NPA+SLI (w/ same problem)
- tried all kinds of bios settings
- tried about 4 USB 2.0 wireless adapters (all w/ fresh installations of XP)
- tried removing all but the necessary hardware (vid card, HDD, etc)
- tried using hardwire ethernet instead of 2.0 wireless adapter....SYSTEM MUCH MORE STABLE, BUT STILL FREEZES or gives a machine check error after a couple days at random...but much less often
- tried failsafe & optimized bios, including changing lots of voltages including chipset, RAM, CPU, whatever
- underclocked everything
- tried RAM in single & dual channel; 1 dimm and 2 dimms, & 2 brands
- no problems under prime95 (both cores) or memtest86
- I do not use any USB hubs, but have not tried a PCI USB 2.0 card, which still wouldn't suit me since I need the 3 internal headers
- not a cpu/chipset temperature issue

So again, as long as I'm not using a 2.0 wireless adapter, freezing is much less frequent. However, I found it does freeze even when using my external 2.0 hard drive (although VERY RARELY even on huge transfers).

I haven't yet been able to get epox to admit to the problem, even after a few yelling session w/ 'ol Mike at tech support. And of course epox is not on AMD's supported list, so no help there. Epox has mentioned that there are reported problems w/ the Athlon X2, NF4 ultra combination. Sounds like a crock to me. Before reading you all's posts, I was considering trying another PSU just in case, but I'd say I'm 99.9% sure this is an unresolved Epox issue. Or has it been resolved??? I would really, really appreciate any help. I've posted on boards everywhere & called all my hardware manufacturers w/ no luck & have spent too much time & effort on this. Thanks in advance

-curran


9NPA+SLI
X2 3800+
geforce 6600 256MB
Corsair valueselect (2x512MB) PC 3200 (have tried Geil valueRAM, also)

 

[RideFree]

Two solutions.
1 that worked for me is to disable s.m.a.r.t. in the BIOS.

 

[RideFree]

Originally posted by: Leporello
might find thids link interesting

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?PHPSE...7612d6&topic=57472.msg381397#msg381397

I found this very interesting...and will possibly have a few of my own comments later.

 

[DrewCU]

curran

Great work in all your testing! Yea, unfortunately, the problem is NOT resolved, at least for me even with the latest Dec. bios. I spoke to ol' Mike at Epox too, and they are really no help over there! I was told to change the Vcore settings in the BIOS to resolve the USB 2.0 issue!!!!!!!!!!! How dumb is that?!

I also have this issue with my wireless 2.0 adaptor, and currently, I have that and only that on my USB 2.0 PCI adaptor and that works fine. My bios is still set to USB 2.0, but since the motherboard is not dealing with the network card, all is fine!

I actually suspect that the issue with the USB 2.0 is in fact related to X2's as I have noticed a trend with those who have posted (with their comp's info in the sig). Maybe I am wrong here, but this really could be the root of the problem, and it may be a problem with nforce4 Ultra and X2 with most or some motherboards, not just the 9npa Ultra.

Andrew

 

[RideFree]

Went a lot deeper than x2 as I had this on all three of the nForce4 boards that I was developing. EPoX, Biostar & MSI, none of which had anything but a 146 or 148.
On the EPoX, at least, it was resolved by disabling s.m.a.r.t.
I haven't gotten around to resolving the issue on the other two as yet.

 

[Mem]

curran

Great work in all your testing! Yea, unfortunately, the problem is NOT resolved, at least for me even with the latest Dec. bios. I spoke to ol' Mike at Epox too, and they are really no help over there! I was told to change the Vcore settings in the BIOS to resolve the USB 2.0 issue!!!!!!!!!!! How dumb is that?!

I also have this issue with my wireless 2.0 adaptor, and currently, I have that and only that on my USB 2.0 PCI adaptor and that works fine. My bios is still set to USB 2.0, but since the motherboard is not dealing with the network card, all is fine!

I have no problem with USB 2 devices,btw that includes USB 2.0 wireless LAN adaptor .

Hate to say it guys my board is running perfect .

FYI only problem I did have was with java and Nvidia drivers, having AF and AA on by default caused BSOD,I have a thread here ,but as you see was a simple fix.

 

[DrewCU]

Look Mem, I know you are just reporting on your experience, but WE GET IT ALREADY!!! You have no problems, congratulations!!! Jeez, I have heard it a thousand times, but that doesn't help matters, you are not telling us anything new.

Since it is not just me, and Epox is working on a solution, it tells you that there is truly a USB 2.0 issue here, despite Mem's brilliant and special case. Maybe it isn't an X2 problem, I don't know, but the one thing I do KNOW is that Mem has no problems (or does he, maybe he wants to tell us again?) and that there are many of us who have this motherboard (at least) and who have USB 2.0 devices, who have their computers either FREEZE or give the BSOD.

Personally, I would get the Freezes more often than BSOD, and to whatever Mem was just referring to does not sound like the same issue. People have NO problems with USB 1.1 and PROBLEMS with USB 2.0, and Java and Nvidia Video drivers SHOULD NOT matter in either case!!!

Sorry to be so angry, but seriously, Mem, we get it, so PLEASE stop telling us about your magical board.

That is all.

 

[sixth]

wow...

FOR THE LAST THREE months i have been like wtf? Everytime i use one of my three external USB 2.0 hard drives on small/large transfers, i get a b.s.o.d. i reformatted, did everything on the sun...and still..get bluescreens wiht USB 2.0 devices. ANNOYS me to NO AVAIL....might have to pick up a DFI board once i get some cash cause this is HORRIBLE. my system locks up at least on average 10 times a week ....

this sucks...

 

[sixth]

O yeah....the other thing, my damn raid doesnt work anymore either! :-( reformatted ten times, tried everything...i think the raid controller is dead, i am only able to get it to work with serial ata. otherwise everytime i install windows and try to boot into it it BSOD's and restarts in an infinite loops...tried everything. so yeah. raid 0 worked for 3 months...dead now. (i suppose?)