* Official EPoX 8RDA/+ (nForce2) Thread *

WT · Mar 12, 2003

A friend of mine is picking up an 8RDA combo from accessmicro.com and I was trying to pass along some info on the board. Does the board benefit from two sticks of RAM or will things run fine with only one stick ? I haven't read up a lot on nforce2 but this seems to be a question that comes up frequently. I bought an Asus A7N266 last month (nforce1) and that made no difference. Since this board uses Twinbank architecture my guess is I should tell my friend to go with 2 sticks of RAM.

mechBgon · Mar 12, 2003

Two sticks won't make a significant difference in most situations with the 8RDA+, but having twice as much RAM might

Shimmishim · Mar 12, 2003

what sort of wire do i need for the vdd mod? i know it's a silly vague question but i know someone can help

drewdogg808 · Mar 12, 2003

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
what sort of wire do i need for the vdd mod? i know it's a silly vague question but i know someone can help

any wire...if you have any old case fans lying around, i'm sure you can cut/splice the wiring and use those. good luck. i'll be attempting my mod tonight.

Killrose · Mar 12, 2003

So there are no resitors or cap change-outs with the Vdd mod?

Shimmishim · Mar 12, 2003

no

but becareful...

if you read my post you'll see that i might have jacked up my network controller somehow...

Shimmishim · Mar 13, 2003

it was the new bios

it messed up the network settings for some reason. if anyone else has this problem

go to c prompt and type: ipconfig /all

look for the physical address

should look somehting like... 00-11-22-33-88-33....

write down the first 6 numbers (w/o dashes)

go to bios, type in the 6 numbers in the mac address and your problem should be fixed!

MTDEW · Mar 13, 2003

BTW: I dont believe anyone has mentioned trouble with Corsair TwinX XMS pc3200LL ram and 8RDA on this forum yet.

Seems if the bios is set a defaults with that ram in, the board wont post cuz the spd setting reads the wrong ram timings for the Corsair
dimms. (at least thats my crude understanding )

Solution: Boot with other ram(pc2100 or whatever), change ram timigs in bios to match your Corsair Twinmx XMS LL specs, then shutdown, put Corsair in and you're good to go.

Thought it was worth a mention so if someone has a new build, they know its not a faulty mobo.

Theres a hacked bios for Corsair ram, but it didnt help me, but seems to have helped others.

Can be a real pain at 1st when your seeing how far you can push your hardware and go too far and need to reset the cmos jumper.

Had to swap ram in and out a whole lot while testing. lol

More of annoyance than anything, but combo works great after ram timings are set.

Link to 8RDA / Corsair Twinx/XMS LL thread

Link to Corsair Twinx XMS hacked bios thread

Megatomic · Mar 13, 2003

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
it was the new bios

it messed up the network settings for some reason. if anyone else has this problem

go to c prompt and type: ipconfig /all

look for the physical address

should look somehting like... 00-11-22-33-88-33....

write down the first 6 numbers (w/o dashes)

go to bios, type in the 6 numbers in the mac address and your problem should be fixed!

Thanks for the tip. I wonder why the BIOS update fubars the MAC address? And thank god windows remembers the MAC address.

Electric Amish · Mar 14, 2003

Anybody have an issue with memory addresses with the RDA?

I can't install the Gameport on my TB:Santa Cruz because it says there aren't enough resources....

amish

Megatomic · Mar 14, 2003

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Anybody have an issue with memory addresses with the RDA?

I can't install the Gameport on my TB:Santa Cruz because it says there aren't enough resources....

amish

No, but I'm having other problems. This is the only part of migrating to a completely new platform that I dislike. I don't like not knowing the gear I'm messing with - I only have a small base of knowledge with which to troubleshoot my problems.

Did you enable the APIC mode in the Advanced BIOS Features section of the 8RDA BIOS? You get more IRQs etc... if you do.

webley · Mar 15, 2003

About the NForce Driver Ver 2.00 for the 8RDA+, is it a bad idea not to install the NForce IDE driver when they ask you during installation? Does the Windows IDE driver work fine with the NForce2 (if you don't install the NForce IDE driver)?

What is that Vdd mod you talked about? What is the reason for doing it?

Shimmishim · Mar 15, 2003

the purpose of the vdd mod is to allow people to hit over 200 mhz with the 8rda+.... some people are having problems hitting 200 w/o the mod...

webley · Mar 15, 2003

I see, thanks. I just did a clean install to try to clear up that IRQ_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL blue screen error I was getting frequently on my 8RDA+ system. I'm actually thinking about leaving the default Windows XP driver to run my Geforce Ti4200 because the BSODs were mostly related to the NVidia video driver. I tried older NVidia drivers and got the same BSODs. Maybe the clean intall fixed the problem though I hope.

MARMADUKE · Mar 15, 2003

I set my 1800+ @ 9.5 and can hit 440Mhz and pass burn in but freeze in windows IE after 5 mins? any tips?

CPU-28C 1.7V
X2-256MB XMS3200 set for turbo @ 2.7V
GF4@66MHZ

webley · Mar 15, 2003

I just wanted to let people know a possible issue with the 8RDA+ and 166FSB ram. Apparently some people (like me) have had frequent BSODs when running quality (Crucial here) PC2700 ram at 166FSB on the 8RDA+. The fix is to run it at a lower FSB like 150FSB even though the ram is rated at 166FSB. It may be the NForce2 chipset doen't work well with certain types of 166 FSB ram because the ram tests fine at 166MHz+ on other systems but doesn't on the 8RDA+ (and possibly other NForce2 boards).

I've been having this problem for a long time and finally found this out thanks to SeekingTao On this thread. Hope this helps some frustrated people.

Megatomic · Mar 15, 2003

Originally posted by: MARMADUKE
I set my 1800+ @ 9.5 and can hit 440Mhz and pass burn in but freeze in windows IE after 5 mins? any tips?

CPU-28C 1.7V
X2-256MB XMS3200 set for turbo @ 2.7V
GF4@66MHZ

Up your voltage MARMADUKE. 1.7Vcore is pretty low for an overclocked system. I want to lower my own Vcore to 1.7V also but I'm sure my system will lose it's stability if I do so I'm leaving Vcore set to 1.75V.

When you say you hit 440MHz are you saying you are getting 220MHz FSB????

MARMADUKE · Mar 15, 2003

yes..220MHz FSB but the siren went off and insert key would not work and I had to reset cmos:disgust: and I am tired of overclocking this sucker for now!
I will bring it up to 200 FSB tomorrow and stick with that cause I dont like to up the voltage on my XMS.

Megatomic · Mar 15, 2003

Originally posted by: MARMADUKE
yes..220MHz FSB but the siren went off and insert key would not work and I had to reset cmos:disgust: and I am tired of overclocking this sucker for now!
I will bring it up to 200 FSB tomorrow and stick with that cause I dont like to up the voltage on my XMS.

And all I wanted was 166MHz FSB... I guess I should save my pennies and get some fast Mushkin stuff so I can do 166.

Wag · Mar 15, 2003

Got my FIC AU11 going- flashed to the 3/5 8RDA+ bios. Seems to be ok. Can't run my 1600+ higher than 158 with voltage at 1.80. Oh well, maybe it's the ram but you'ld think that Crucial 2100 would be better than that. At any rate it's better than 147/147 on the K7S5A I had.

So, to get dual-channel support, does it matter what slots I put the ram in? I put them in 2/3 because those two are grouped together.

Also, does upgrading to the latest Realtek 650 audio drivers do anything? The latest release is dated 3/12

Megatomic · Mar 16, 2003

Wag, the RAM sticks need to be in Slots 1 and 2 or 1 and 3. Slots 1 and 3 seem to be the best choice from what I've read around the web. And there is no need to install the RealTek drivers, I didn't and sound is wonderful here.

drewdogg808 · Mar 16, 2003

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Anybody have an issue with memory addresses with the RDA?

I can't install the Gameport on my TB:Santa Cruz because it says there aren't enough resources....

amish

i had the same problem...ended up ditching the tbsc and just using the onboard sound, which sounds decent. i tried different slots, everything....couldn't figure it out. good luck.

drewdogg808 · Mar 16, 2003

btw... Vdd mod success!!

i previously was only able to get up to about 194 fsb, anything higher and i got screen flickers and artifacts. my default vdd was 1.58. after doing the vdd mod about an hour ago, i'm currently at 12x205 and running prime right now. no flickers at all. my vdd is 1.76. it was pretty easy using the grabbers (i'm not good with soldering) and an adjustable 1k resistor. i'll see how high i can get it later.

DayLaPaul · Mar 16, 2003

just got my 8rda+/2100+ set up. looks like my fsb is maxed out at 222mhz out of the box.

Megatomic · Mar 16, 2003

Originally posted by: DayLaPaul
just got my 8rda+/2100+ set up. looks like my fsb is maxed out at 222mhz out of the box.

What memory and how did you set it up? We NEED details man!!

*** Official EPoX 8RDA/+ (nForce2) Thread ***

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* Official EPoX 8RDA/+ (nForce2) Thread *