**Official Epox 8K5A Series (KT333) Thread** (Files, Reviews, and Info Inside!)

[mooo]

Originally posted by: Ruroni
At the point I posted the NEW RETAIL CPU message, I had already tried it. I don't know why I put that I hadn't yet tried it, there in parenthesis.

The BSOD error message I windows XP setup displayed was revealed to me with the NEW Retail CPU.

I thought that the Abit KT7 Raid & the Iwill KD266 wouldn't boot because they are too old. Both of them use PC133 SDRAM (They don't even support DDR, so I thought maybe an XP 2200+ processor would not be compatible with these MoBo's.)

Considering the last BSOD message I got,

<STRONG>

***Hardware Malfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support

***The System has halted***

</STRONG>
I imagine something has to be deffective.

With no support from the MoBo manufacturer (Except for their irrelevant generic email reply), and the apparent abundance of faulty devices I don't know what else to do except try a new (different) motherboard.

Ruroni, I had a slight problem while installing the CPU. Here is the snippet from my previous post on this thread:

2. while installing the cpu into the socket, i found that i had to press down slightly on the end of the cpu while relatching the release lever so that all the pins stayed well in the socket. without doing this it seemed that the cpu was getting raised out of the sockets a little at the end near the step. is this a normal thing?

You might want to try reseating the CPU while keeping this in mind and then try again. Another thought is to ensure that you have clean power in your location. though the power supply should take care of fluctuations, it can sometimes be too quick and too large (in either direction). try a ups or check the power supply from the outlet.

 

[russr]

Ruroni, when you installed the new processor (The Retail one), did you do a clean format on the hard drives or just do repair? If you just do repair you carry over the corrupt installation from your previous attempts. Reformat the hard drive and do a clean install.

Besides the video card, do you have anything else in the PCI slots?

I really can't think of any other advice to give, it seems like you've tried two of everything. Maybe the components are just possessed

 

[Ruroni]

Thanks for the suggestions, mooo. I've tried reseating the CPU, changing the Heatsink, changing the FAN with the heatsink

Priginally posted by: mooo
Another thought is to ensure that you have clean power in your location. though the power supply should take care of fluctuations, it can sometimes be too quick and too large (in either direction). try a ups or check the power supply from the outlet.

What is UPS and how do I try one? When you say "check the power supply from the outlet." What do you mean, ho do I check it?

Priginally posted by: russr
Ruroni, when you installed the new processor (The Retail one), did you do a clean format on the hard drives or just do repair? If you just do repair you carry over the corrupt installation from your previous attempts. Reformat the hard drive and do a clean install.

I didn't do any formatting, I didn't get that far. The BSOD is before the formatting stage.

Priginally posted by: russr
Besides the video card, do you have anything else in the PCI slots?

No, nothing, and the Vid Card is AGP.

 

[russr]

Ruroni, what stage do you get to in Windows XP setup? You put the CD in, it boots, loads all the different drivers, then comes the license agreement where you hit F8...what stage do you get to?

Right after the license agreement, setup scans your hard drive and will tell you that you had some setup done on there before and then it gives you options to start fresh or 'repair'.

can you give me details as to where in windows setup you're going up to?

 

[Ruroni]

I boot the machine up, slide in the CD, then after the POST and system check the machine prompts me to hit a key, if I want to start form the CD. After I hit a key (Sometimes enter, sometimes spacebar) The machine boots up from the cd and goes through the Windows is starting setup. Then, setup is loading files. After that, it says to install windows hit enter for reapair press R to exit hit F3. After I hit enter, then Wham Bam Thank you man BSOD for you. This is the stage before the F8 lisence agreement, and before asking me if I want to format a partition and all that happiness.

 

[russr]

yeah that's what I'm talking about...after setup loads all its drivers, it gives you the option to repair, hit f3 to quit and there's another option to install windows from scratch. My point is you don't HAVE to select repair. If you do, you'll get that BSOD cuz that's all corrupted on your hard drive now.

Or you can always put in a DOS startup disk, run fdisk and partition your drive or wipe it clean all over again...taht way you won't get that repair option at all.

 

[Imaginer]

Which is the better memory? 512mb corsair xms pc3200c2 rated at 400mhz with 2-3-3-6 or 512mb corsair pc3500c2 rated at 434mhz with 2-4-4-8?

Is it better to get memory that has a slower rating but a lower latency or a slightly faster memory but higher latency? Or it does not matter?

 

[Live]

Originally posted by: Imaginer
Which is the better memory? 512mb corsair xms pc3200c2 rated at 400mhz with 2-3-3-6 or 512mb corsair pc3500c2 rated at 434mhz with 2-4-4-8?

Is it better to get memory that has a slower rating but a lower latency or a slightly faster memory but higher latency? Or it does not matter?

Between these two it?s not the rating that matters. Normally I would suggest the pc3200 but since the corsair pc3500 is a switch from 6ns memory modules to 5 ns (or was it from 5ns to 4ns?) the pc3500 is the one to get if you want the highest change of a extrem overclock with low timings. Though since both are good you can if you want consider price But there is no doubt that the Corsair pc3500 is hell of a chip.

 

[Live]

A beta bios is out for the 8K5A3+ is out @ www.aoaforums.com

k5a32815.bin - October 26, 2002 BETA BIOS For 8K5A3+

A beta bios is also out for the 8K5A2+ @ www.aoaforums.com

5a2p2909.zip - September 18, 2002 8k5a2+ Beta Bios

I have not tested anyone of these yet and have no idea what is changed. So use at your own risk.

 

[Insane3D]

Thanks for the heads up Live. I have been using the 9/5 beta bios on both of my 8K5A2+ boards, and I will probably try the newer beta you linked to sometime this week. Since I have two boards, it will be easy to compare the two bioses for any differences. I'll let you guys know how it goes..

 

[Ruroni]

Thanks for the idea, russr.

After reading your suggestion, I went ahead and slapped on a good ole DOS startup Disk. And then once I was in a DOS prompt, I slipped in a disk containing PQMagic 7.0 (because I like looking at cute little graphical representations of what's inside the Comp). I don't remember when, where, why, or how but my HDD was formatted into FAT32.

I deleted the partition, then I formatted to NTFS, set the partition to primary and tried to install again. Alas, nothing changed. I still got the option to repair windows, install from scratch, or quit. And I still got the BSOD telling me about the faulty hardware. After that, I tried just simply deleting the partition leaving the HDD without any type of format or anything. Just a plain blank unpartitioned drive. STILL, nothing changed. Hitting F3 simply takes me out of setup, no more options.

 

[Imaginer]

Well, I did it. Got stuff on order.

Athlon XP 1600+

Epox 8k5a3+

Corsair PC3200c2 512mb

Thermalright SK-7 (the SLK800 seemed more expensive for almost similar performace)

and an adjustable 80mm fan

Wish me luck.

 

[RideFree]

Ruroni,
RE: your XP install problems, I have a couple of ?s & a suggestion or two...

Since you have PM, have you used the utility in PM to scan all
disk(s)/Partition(s) for errors? (Not that it would reveal anything other than chkdsk or scandisk)...but maybe you have a corrupt fdisk or format utility.

Here come the suggestions (since you have nothing to lose and, we live in a Holographic Universe.)
1. Regardless of the outcome of the scan(s) in PM (hopefully PM 7 or 8)
do the fdisk /mbr thing to all of your drives.
2. Fdisk & format a 16 bit partition and make it active...use the max limit you are allowed to go to i.e. about 2100MB.
3. Try installing XP from this point. If this fails, see #4.
4. Install W2K and once it's loaded, install XP from within W2K.
5. Oh, and let's get this to work on the first IDE port, position 0 (and check your jumper on the HD) before setting it to run on a raid channel.

Believe it or not, I once (only once) had to use W2K first in order to get XP to install on a customer's PC.

Do let us know if you try this remedy and/or how it goes.
Actually, none of the problems you are having makes any sense unless you are fighting Gramlins. :Q

Of course, in the Holographic Universe, I believe anything is possible.

PS Gremlins are known to use DEDs, occasionally.

 

[RideFree]

Imaginer,
With all the good stuff you mention, you don't need any luck, just Insane's thread here.

 

[russr]

Ruroni, So when Windows XP asks you all those options (quit, repair, install from scratch) and you choose the "fresh install" option, it gives you that BSOD? Does it even get to the point of the license agreement and choose the file system for the drives, etc?

I think Ridefree is right, perhaps there is an evil spiritual force in the vicinity of your machine keeping you from getting it to work.

 

[mooo]

Ruroni,

any body with a ossiloscope and knowledge of how to use it should be able to check the power supply in your location. there may be other devices. call a local electrician or go by a store that specializes in electrical hardware and they may be able to help you.

a ups is an uninterruptible power supply. there are cheap ones and expensive ones. you might consider getting an expensive one just to check this out. however, upon reading your informative feedback on the things that you are trying, it is quite apparent that this is not a random occurance. so random power supply fluctuations are definitely not the problem.

the fact that the failure is always at the same point is a very big clue.

if this were happening on my project my solution would be to ram ALL the parts, and start afresh in the interest of time lost. of course for personal situations it is different. this is a very interesting conundrum and i shall try to think of anything else that might make logical sense. in the meantime do keep posting the things that you are trying. i would also suggest isolating things as much as possible. so perhpas run dos from a diskette with some silly game and see if everything works. no hard disk in the picture, no cd-rom in the picture, no cds in the picture.

then add back one thing at a time.

 

[russr]

I think it's time I asked some questions so here goes:

First of all, I understand that one must install the USB 2.0 drivers off the CD that came with 8k5a2+ regardless of using Windows XP with SP1. This is because although WinXP Sp1 has support for USB 2.0, it does not have the appropriate drivers for the Via USB 2.0 controller.

Ok so fine, I installed Windows XP, then put SP1 and then put the usb 2.0 drivers off the mobo CD v2.41. My question is are there any newer USB 2.0 via drivers? The viaarena website says that winxp usb 2.0 drivers are not available for download due to licensing issues.

 

[Ruroni]

RideFree thanks for the suggestions. Aside from the 16bit partioning, I have tried these. I tried installing other OS'es but have had no luck either

russr, No I don't get any further than when I'm asked to choose Enter to install, R for repair, F3 to exit. When I hit "enter" the BSOD happens. So I don't reach any questions about License Agreements.

Are you guys ready for this one? So I'm all frustrated with my situation and what not. I go down to the local Retailer, and get myself an Abit AT7 MAX2. For some reason I have all confidence things are going to work. So I slap on my new toy, hook everything up the way it's supposed to, in accordance with the manual, crank on the system... Wouldn't you know it, same situation all over.

At this point I've removed the mobo from the case, and only have the power button hooked up (CDRW, HDD, occassioanlly the flopy, when i need it) Remember the Powermax Diag 3.04? I tried that again, and AGAIN, no HDD detected. So I thought maybe my CD-ROM drives was causing conflict. I removed the CD-ROM and that changed nothing. I really don't know what to do anymore.

 

[Ruroni]

Originally posted by: russr
I think it's time I asked some questions so here goes: First of all, I understand that one must install the USB 2.0 drivers off the CD that came with 8k5a2+ regardless of using Windows XP with SP1. This is because although WinXP Sp1 has support for USB 2.0, it does not have the appropriate drivers for the Via USB 2.0 controller. Ok so fine, I installed Windows XP, then put SP1 and then put the usb 2.0 drivers off the mobo CD v2.41. My question is are there any newer USB 2.0 via drivers? The viaarena website says that winxp usb 2.0 drivers are not available for download due to licensing issues.

I hope this helps. Me let know if you already seen this and tried it. Or if it's not at all what you were looking for.
Download

 

[russr]

Ruroni, that link you posted is indeed a newer version 2.44 vs. 2.41 on the Epox CD. There's just one problem though, that setup executable file won't execute on WinXP unless it runs in compatibility mode for Win2000. I thought this strange until I tried running it in compatibility mode and found the executable said it was for Win2000. I guess I'll just stick with the one I have then.


Now for your problem...
I know you've tried two of everything, but once you got the new motherboard and that retail 2200+, what have you tried two of? Definitely motherboard, you tried the repalcement 8k5a2+ and your abit you just got, but anything else?

 

[russr]

Guys, I've got an issue with the USB 2.0 VIA driver. So I put in the EPox cd and clicked on the thing to install USB 2.0 v2.41 driver. It asked me to restart and I did, but it only changes 1 of the 4 usb ports/controllers to a usb 2.0.

Check out these two screens, first from device manager, second from Sandra.
Device Manager
Sandra's USB info

I could really appreciate some help cuz according to the above info, only 1 usb port is 2.0.

 

[Ruroni]

Win2K/ XP / Me /98se Reliable VIA USB 2.0 drivers Version 2.47 available HERE. (While supplies last)

I've tried 2 of eveything again, 2 power supply, one case AND one NO case, actually right now I got it all outside of the case with the Air Conditioner CRANKING. I've tried to run the Maxtor Powerdiag 3.04 with nothing but a floppy disk (tried 2 floppy drives, too), different cables, different HDDs. The only thing I haven't tried is DIFFERENT DDR RAM sticks. (I don't have the PNY stick anymore, I returned it.) BUT, when I got the DDR RAM I got TWO sticks of the Corsairs, so I've tried, EACH one separately.

I am at a loss for ideas. I surrender to you, I throw myself at your tender mercies (2 Video Cards too). The only thing that I haven't tried yet, is squatting over the setup, and tanking a big fat juicy dump all over it. Maybe that would end my troubles. Maybe I should just get a dell? (With Pentium inside)

 

[russr]

Stick with that new mobo you just got and the retail cpu/hsf. Are you putting your hard drives on the RAID or IDE controller...use the IDE controller cuz otherwise you might have to give WinXP setup a driver disk during the setup.

Also, have you now tried Windows98SE or Windows2000? I know you had tried them before.

And what kind of RAM are you using? If you are using pc2100 are you sure it is not set to run as pc2700 in the bios?
Try running a stick of pc2700 or make sure it is set to run at pc2100. Get ur hands on another stick of ram if possible.

It's also possible that you are frying components through ESD (electrostatic discharge).

 

[Chappo]

I've got a little 'serious' question.

First my complete setup.
- chieftec 360 watt
- epox 8k5a2+
- Nanya 512 MB pc2700
- 1 maxtor plus 8 - 30gb
- 1 maxtor d740x - 80 gb
- 1 plexwriter cd-writer
- 1 dvd player pioneer
- Creative soundblaster live platinum
- Asus v8420 Special edition 128mb


1.
First of all... the POST (LED 1) debug display.
When i startup my computer is says ' C1 '

In the booklet it said something about memory, but i installed it correctly....so why is it displaying C1 (what is normally displayed ?? )


2.
When i startup my computer it sometimes says this;
' WARNING !! CPU CLOCK OR RATIO ARE PROGRAMMING FAIL PREVIOUSLY '
' PLEASE SETUP CPU HOST CLOCK AGAIN '

i've got no idea why it's saying this... on the first screen is shows my cpu as 1150 MHZ (100x11,5) FSB 200

Surely i have a 1,5 ghz cpu with fsb 266
so why isn't it displaying it correctly ??



Can someone please help me with this ??


BIG THANKS IN ADVANCE !

 

[Live]

Originally posted by: Live
A beta bios is out for the 8K5A3+ is out @ www.aoaforums.com

k5a32815.bin - October 26, 2002 BETA BIOS For 8K5A3+


I have not tested anyone of these yet and have no idea what is changed. So use at your own risk.

Another beta bios for the 8K5A3+ is out. This one I did try and it let me up my FBS another 5 and got my locked 1900+ up to an even 1800Mhz. I can get into windows with 155 but its not 100% stable. I did see another post of I guy running his 1600+ at 2400+ speed with this Bios!
Check it out: XP1600+ @ 1951Mhz!!!!

O and the bios you get here:

k5a32923.bin - EPoX 8K5A3+ 32923 October 14, 2002 BIOS