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

[sharkAttakk]

Hey folks. I had a problem with my 8RDA just today, and somebody touched on the subject earlier in this thread, but I did not see any clear answer for the problem. I wrote Epox with the issue, so I will post the letter here again, and if anyone can be of help I will be grateful:

Hi:

I am having a problem with my new 8rda+ board. I bought this board a little over a week ago, and it was working good, except for some problems while booting. I flashed to the latest BIOS and everything was OK. Now, I needed to re-install Windows XP and reconfigure my drive partitions, so I started working on that. The setup hung up on the section where the drive partitions are defined, so I rebooted.

At this moment, the motherboard started sounding an alarm, I checked all my connections and everything seemed to be perfectly fine. I rebooted again and the alarm came up again. Thinking that maybe the CPU was running hot (even though the display at boot showed a healthy 39 degrees) I cleared the CMOS and rebooted. I was able to get to the BIOS and load the defaults without a problem. When I rebooted again, the PC did the POST perfectly fine, but then it hung when the CD-ROM was booting up. I decided to boot with a floppy instead, but I got the same result, the PC was hung a few seconds after the floppy was being read.

I watched the 80 port display and it stops at 'FF' after a lot of numbers fly by. I've read in forums that this could be an issue if the user cannot get to the BIOS, but I can do that. My problem is after the POST, and while drives are being accessed. None of the drives can boot the computer, and the HDD LED stays 'on' continuously. I have not seen any information on user's forums about this particular problem. Please give me some pointers for fixing my board.

Here are my system's specs:
Athlon XP 2100
VANTEC AeroFlow VA4-C7040
2 x Corsair 2700 DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9500 128 MB
Western Digital SE 80 GB - alone on IDE channel 1
Lite-ON 16x DVD
Mitsumi CD-RW
450W Power Supply


I was able to OC my 2100+ to 11x200 at 1.7v stable.
I know I could have gone higher. BTW, I'm amazed at how nobody mentions how good and relatively silent the VANTEC AeroFlow VA4-C7040 is! I never had temps go over 41 C after 8 hrs. of running Prime 95 (if we can believe the Epox monitoring app.).

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome sharkAttakk If you haven't tried this already, check the label on your WD drive and set it to the "Single Drive" setting, which may mean taking the jumper off the pins entirely. Please post back with your results, and welcome to the forums

 

[dinde]

can i run an 8rda+ without a video card? or do i need a vid card for the monitor

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: dinde
can i run an 8rda+ without a video card? or do i need a vid card for the monitor

You'll need a video card. If you want a motherboard with integrated video, get the 8RGA+.

 

[Mark]

Originally posted by: Mark
Anyone know the number for Kingston? I have that sam ram everyone is talking about.

 

[cvb]

Originally posted by: MARMADUKE
Memory tips for setting up new unflashed mobo.
Use Corsair XMS Series ONLY! (NOT TWINX XMS-LL series)
XMS3500 DDR Memory runs @ 5222 over 220 FSB!
XMS3200 DDR Memory runs @ 6332 over 220FSB!
TWINX1024-3200LL (no good)
CMX3200 LL Memory(no good)
XMS2700 LL Memory(no good)
TWINX/EL/LL/OCZ series is not nforce2 supported!(bios fixes are on the way!)
Use Mushkin Enhanced black & purple
Use Twinmos
HyperX -kingston is taking this stuff back?
Geil some failing memory test86?
do not use kingston 2700 value ram!
do not use crucial pc2700 ram!
do not use samsung pc2700 ram!
These are all low budget modules that can give you a C1 code or run unstable (replace memory module) in ALL nforce2 systems!

How do you know that these are good/no good types of memory (I mean where did you get the info from?) I learned from my own stupid personal experience that ValueRam 2700 and TWINX512-3200LLPT are no good.

 

[Mark]

just called kingston and they're sending me a new module, but they're NOT guaranteeing it wont come with infineon chips. they said if i ran it at 266 it would run fine:disgust:i told the guy if i wanted my ram to run at 266, i would have bought 266 ram.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Mark
just called kingston and they're sending me a new module, but they're NOT guaranteeing it wont come with infineon chips. they said if i ran it at 266 it would run fine:disgust:i told the guy if i wanted my ram to run at 266, i would have bought 266 ram.

This is going to be a big problem for Kingston from our community if that is how they are going to support us. Running PC2700 at PC2100 speed so that it will "work" is just not the right way to do it. :|

 

[sharkAttakk]

Thanks mechBgon, kind of funny that I registered in 2001 and did not post until now!!

I did what you recommended and that was not the issue. But, I fixed the problem! Here is a recount so anybody with a similar problem can have a reference.

The issue seemed to be that when the Windows XP setup failed during the drive partitions configuration it really hoaxed the drive's partition table. I've got another PC (still my main PC) so I took out the WD drive in the Epox system and put it as a slave in my main PC; even then the drive would screw up the system - meaning that the boot process would fail somewhere between the finished POST and XP loading. My other PC would not boot either. Putting the drive in different IDE channels would only give the same result.

So it definitely was the HD. I then decided to leave the HD as a slave in the 2nd IDE channel and ran the Win XP setup. The setup would fail when it was trying to read or write data to the hard disk! I thought I was reaaaaaaally screwed! So without another thought, I took out a copy of Mandrake Linux and ran the setup. I got to the part where I define my drive partitions (most of the Linux setup runs from memory, not really accessing the drives until you format or select packages) and was alerted of the damaged partition table, so I let Linux reconfigure the drive, defined one big 80GB ext3 partition, and canceled the setup after formatting.

Then it was a simple matter of running the Windows XP setup again, deleting the ext3 parttion, and defining the new partitions I wanted! My Epox system is now running stable again.

Here are the specs of what my is still my main PC looks like:

Athlon T-Bird 900Mhz (Slot A)
Some dual fan HSF, can't remember
MSI 6167 mainboard (not really overclockable)
640 MB PC100 SDRAM
NVidia GeForce 2 MX
1 x Matrox 80GB HD, 8MB cache
1 x Matrox 30GB HD, 2 MB cache
Plextor 12x10x32 CD-RW
Pioneer 16x DVD, slot loading
SoundBlaster Live! Value
Windows XP Pro (used for everyday stuff)
Windows XP Pro (in a second partition, used for development)
Mandrake Linux 9.0 (used to stick it to the man)

 

[farscape]

Putting together 8rda+ setup and am having a few problems.

Post is good. Software and updates OK. Can get online is great - FASTER DLs than ever.

Networking - gets online OK, DLs fast, takes F O R E V E R to see the rest of our home network. Everyone else can see this computer, but 20 minutes is not uncommon for access to anyone else on the home network. All protocols, services, etc are there. If you get out of network neighborhood, we have to wait again for this system to recognize the network.

I doesn't want to shut down 3/4 of the time - reset is OK, just shutdown.

Device manager - USB are OK, but we have a disabled (yellowed) "other device/ PCI universal serial bus" that we can't seem to 'find any type of driver for. Take it out and system finds it again at reboot.

Have tries the drivers that came with the board, the latest and a few in between. Same problems throughout this rebuild.

8rda+
XP2400
512 DDR
40 gig WD HD
10 WD HD
12X Plextor
Nforce 2 MX400 - until more $ comes in

2.03 MB drivers
Latest Vid drivers
98SE w/All MS updates

This is getting to be FRUSTRATION CITY. And definitely NOT impressed so far, but I want to be.

 

[mechBgon]

Are the other systems running different operating systems than this one? Sounds like a Windows networking issue, not the motherboard itself. What protocols do you have installed?

As for the Mystery Device, have you tried aiming Windows at the folder to which the 2.03 package got unzipped? If you need an excuse to upgrade to Win2000, I can vouch for it working very smoothly with Win2000.

 

[farscape]

One thing I just found out is that the BIOS doesn't want to save the MAC address. Enter the MAC, save, boot, go to Net Neiborhood and every thing is there. Leave NN and later come back, and it won't even search - or if your lucky, it may come back after 10-15 min. Go into the BIOS and the MAC is disabled. Go through it all again and everything is there.

EDIT:

Protocols - NetBEUI, TCP/IP, IPX, MS Network log on, file & printer sharing enabled

All other comps are running 98 and all can see it.

2.03 just goes to install - no prompts. Everything else (well almost everything) works. Tried pointing to the file, 98SE CD, and anything I could find to point it to for a driver.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: farscape
One thing I just found out is that the BIOS doesn't want to save the MAC address. Enter the MAC, save, boot, go to Net Neiborhood and every thing is there. Leave NN and later come back, and it won't even search - or if your lucky, it may come back after 10-15 min. Go into the BIOS and the MAC is disabled. Go through it all again and everything is there.

EDIT:

Protocols - NetBEUI, TCP/IP, IPX, MS Network log on, file & printer sharing enabled

All other comps are running 98 and all can see it.

2.03 just goes to install - no prompts. Everything else (well almost everything) works. Tried pointing to the file, 98SE CD, and anything I could find to point it to for a driver.

When you run the 2.03 installer, it should decompress its contents to a folder on the C: drive... see any likely-looking folders whose name starts with "nvidia?"

Why are you trying to enter a MAC address in the BIOS, by the way... are you trying to spoof a different NIC's MAC address for some reason? The board comes with its own MAC address and shouldn't need one entered. Also, is there a reason you've got IPX installed? If not, you might want to remove it. It's non-routable IIRC, as is NetBEUI.

 

[farscape]

Tried pointing to every file and folder in the nvidia folder(s).

Went into the MAC in order to get it to recognize anything. Just copied the 1st six digits from winipcfg addr. (found info from 8rdafaq.com - some people not being able to access Net after a BIOS upgrade - thought that it couldn't hurt) Not trying to spoof.

IPX - was having trouble in the past when trying to play over a LAN - could play outside, but not internally. Will dump it.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: farscape
Tried pointing to every file and folder in the nvidia folder(s).

Went into the MAC in order to get it to recognize anything. Just copied the 1st six digits from winipcfg addr. (found info from 8rdafaq.com - some people not being able to access Net after a BIOS upgrade - thought that it couldn't hurt) Not trying to spoof.

IPX - was having trouble in the past when trying to play over a LAN - could play outside, but not internally. Will dump it.

Try this: start WinZip, assuming you have it or something equivalent like FilZip, then click File > Open and change the filetype to .exe's and archives. Now you can open the 2.03 driver pack and extract its contents to a folder of your choice. Hope that helps some

edit: actually, maybe it won't help, since the result is probably the same. I'll see if I can find anything else out...

 

[mechBgon]

Hmm, I see nVidia recommends starting with the nForce driver pack, then installing the video drivers after a reboot: info at nVidia's site, along with the two downloads. Still looking...

 

[farscape]

Tried but same result. Might try to pick out one of the stock MS drivers and see what happens, altho it didn't seem to find anything it liked before. Will keep plugging away - tho the little woman is getting a bit miffed by now.

 

[farscape]

Followed the recommendations. I have noticed the same results on my part no matter what I have tried to use - disk that came with board (1.4 sometHing or other), 2.00 or 2.03. Have reloaded ( and formatted) a few times (4) trying to get it all to work seamlessly before I start loading someting other that the Op Sys or tweaking. Still the same roadblocks.

Well - I was thinking of springing for 2K

 

[MARMADUKE]

your problem sounds like W98 ICS bug to me?

 

[farscape]

OK.

I believe that the shutdown problem is due to a MS update that is supposed to put a time delay in before the system shuts down so that the IDE drives can finish writing from cache. IDE Harddrive Cache Package. Had it on another one of my computers and would let it shutdown. There's no uninstall feature (well except for a reformat)

That's one down and 2 to go!!

 

[hkssupra69]

I just installed my 8rda+ and it posts fine but it won't boot into XP. I see the xp logo screen for like a split second and the computer just ends up rebooting, its really annoying, any suggestions or answers?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: hkssupra69
I just installed my 8rda+ and it posts fine but it won't boot into XP. I see the xp logo screen for like a split second and the computer just ends up rebooting, its really annoying, any suggestions or answers?

If you simply tranferred your hard drive with its existing WinXP installation, the best thing to do is to reinstall Windows after backing up your data using your old hardware.

Alternately, you can try booting from the WinXP CD, then saying you want to do a fresh install the first time it asks if you want to install or repair. The setup will then detect the old WinXP installation and ask if you want to repair it, at which point you say yes. That's thirdhand info, since I don't have WinXP, but I believe it's similar to Win2000, which I have successfully done this with.

 

[hkssupra69]

worked like a freaking charm, thanks mechbgon!

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: hkssupra69
worked like a freaking charm, thanks mechbgon!

 

[mboy]

Originally posted by: farscape
One thing I just found out is that the BIOS doesn't want to save the MAC address. Enter the MAC, save, boot, go to Net Neiborhood and every thing is there. Leave NN and later come back, and it won't even search - or if your lucky, it may come back after 10-15 min. Go into the BIOS and the MAC is disabled. Go through it all again and everything is there.

EDIT:

Protocols - NetBEUI, TCP/IP, IPX, MS Network log on, file & printer sharing enabled

All other comps are running 98 and all can see it.

2.03 just goes to install - no prompts. Everything else (well almost everything) works. Tried pointing to the file, 98SE CD, and anything I could find to point it to for a driver.

Why on earth are u running all that crap. ALl u need to run is tcp/ip.
I would also dump win98se and go with a better OS like 2k or XP.

98 is soo 5 years ago (more like 50 years ago in IT terms).

It is def. your OS and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the 8rda+ or any other hardware you may have