Epox 8RDA+ Problems

[M@dOc]

Hello,

I have a few problems with my newly installed 8RDA+ board and didn't find any effective help so far.

Before posting my questions here is my setup :

- TBred 2100+ (JIUHB 0249 DUT3C, I'm sure about the year/week but not for the rest but I guess it's right)

- 2 X 256Mb PC3500 Corsair XMS CAS2

- 2 X Maxtor 80Gb 8M Cache HDDs

- Hercules 3D Prophet II GeForce2 GTS 64Mb

- 16/48 Samsung DVD

- 52/24/52 Asus CDRW

- Antec TruePower 550 PSU (for the mobo, dvd, cdrw, hdds and two of my 80mm case fans)

- 1 Digital Doc 3 - 8 Channels

- 1 Digital Doc 5 - 8 Channels

- AMK OCD-810 Full Tower Case

- 1 Enermax 550Watts for the Digital Docs controling the case fans, and also for the fans that are on my WC setup radiators.

- DangerDen Maze 2 CPU WaterBlock + DangerDen Chipset WaterBlock each have their own WC circuit, the CPU have a MaxiJet MJ-1000 pump and an acquacoil radiator, the chipset have a Rio 600l/h (if I remember well) pump and a small radiator I used at the time I had my Athlon 850 SlotA / Abit KA7-100 rig.

- There are 2 ADDA 120mm on the acquacoil, one pulling air on the rad and another pulling air out both are on 7V, the other rad have a single Sunon 120mm 69CFM fan.

Details of the case fans setup :

- 2 Delta Black Label 60mm fans as HDD coolers on the two lower 5" 1/4 bays pulling air in

- 1 Sunon 80mm Fan pulling air in (with filter grill on a hole made on the plastic front pannel and a chrome grill on both sides of the fan through a hole made in the case's metal) at the front bottom of the case.

- 1 ADDA 120mm 108.4CFM under the Sunon 80mm

- 2 YS-Tech 120mm 131.5CFM on the left side pannel in front of the CPU pulling air in (with filter grills and chrome grill)

- 2 ADDA 120mm 108.4CFM in front of Chipset and RAM pulling air in (with filter grill and chrome grills)

- 1 Sunon 80mm and 1 ADDA 120mm on the top of the case pulling air out

- 2 3DCOOL 80mm fans and 2 Sunon 80mm fans pulling air out at the top rear of the case

- 1 3DCOOL 80mm at the bottom rear near the CPU pulling air out

Here are my questions and problems :

1- The 80mm fans that are in front bottom and rear bottom are plugged on the Antec's connectors dedicated for fans but only one is working.
Has anyone using Antec PSUs have ever had this problem?

2- My comp randomly restarts and start beeping giving the FF Post
Code, to allow my comp posting properly I must switch off the Antec and pull out then pull back the power cord, sometimes several times. Or take off and back in my vidcard.

3- On the user's manual they don't give clear instructions on how to plug on the mobo the SPDIF Cable (which is in my case a 2 female pins cable) so I assumed it had to be connect on the pin illustrated in the manual as SPDIF In... And... it wasn't the right way to plug it.
Smoke went out of the case and the cable seems visibly damaged at the end which is on the mobo side, on of the 3 small wires is cutted, and the end which is plugged into the DVD Drive does not want to get unplugged... Now what should I do ? I can't remember the use of that SPDIF cable, but if it is needed for DVD playback, I'm affraid I'll have to buy another DVD drive What do you guies think?

4- I want to be able to play audio cds from my CDRW too. Can I use the mobo's AUX-IN connector for that?

5- Another thing, my +5V line is at 4.945V and my +12V line is
fluctuating from 11.795V and 11.856V, that's kinda low for a non
overclocked and non overloaded system, my Tbred 1700+/Abit KG7 rig is over 5V even when overclocked and this with a PowerWin 450W PSU.

6- When I click on start > shutdown the comp doesn't shutdown it gives me the message that I can safely shutdown my comp.
I've browsed the bios, there is no setting that refers to this.

7- There is a thing that is really starting to make me mad : each time I reboot (software or driver installation, remember this is a new windows install, I've just mounted this comp), change some settings in the bios , the mobos beeps and I have to turn the PSU's switch off take off the power cord, most of the time I have to repeat this process several times to be able to post and boot.
It does not take in account the mult and FSB settings that tells I
have a 2100+ Tbred b. I'm manually modifying CPU settings because most of the time the board detects my CPU as a 1500!!

Other hardware than listed in my today's first post is only my usb
webcam, I've not yet installed my usb printer, laser printer, serial
IR receiver. I've unplugged Epox add-on cards (USB, FireWire, Game Port). I also have my ethernet ADSL Modem/Router connected on the onboard NIC.

My OS is Win 2k Pro SP4 + all the latest patches.

So far I've only installed : Nvidia WHQL localized drivers 2.03 (and upgrade them yesterday to 2.24), MSN msger, Yahoo, Messenger, DU Meter, Epox USDM, eDonkey, KAV5, SPF 5.5 Pro, and some of the softwares that comes with my webcam.

I'm gonna install PestPatrol, and SpamNet, and some other softwares in the coming days.

The comp is not yet overclocked or bios heavily tweaked, because I haven't already finishing organizing wires, plugging fans on the digital docs, placed all the thermal probes.

I also have unplugged USB, FireWire, and Game Port add-on cards for now the time to solve the problems I'm having.

I hope that those problems are fixable, this is my fisrt step outside Abit's world, and so far I'm not really reinsured.

[Steve]

Um, tacking things one step at a time, yes you can use AUX_IN for CD Audio, I have done it in the past.

I also get the feeling the Antec PSU is maybe tripping out on a resettable fuse, causing a problem somehwere.

That's one hell of a complex system, maybe if you reduced the amount in it while you worked out what was wrong, you'd find it easier to diagnose.

[M@dOc]

Um, tacking things one step at a time, yes you can use AUX_IN for CD Audio, I have done it in the past.

I also get the feeling the Antec PSU is maybe tripping out on a resettable fuse, causing a problem somehwere.

That's one hell of a complex system, maybe if you reduced the amount in it while you worked out what was wrong, you'd find it easier to diagnose.

So you are saying that my antec PSU is having some fuse problem?

Is that possible to replace that fuse?

[BUFF]

Have you got any case left with all those fans in it?
With WC why do you need all of those fans?

I wouldn't worry too much about the voltages - they are within limits & there is always a question about how accurate the sensors are anyway.

The DVD & CD should send the signal over the IDE cables anyway so you should not need any extra cables for input.

have you had a read through the following EpoX orientatednForce2 site?
http://www.motherboardfaqs.com/content.php?content.23

Have you got your RAM/CPU speeds at a 1:1 ratio or are you trying to run asynch?

I'm not sure that your GF 2 GTS is a good match for the mobo - maybe someone els can chime in if they have run a Gf2 on nForce2 OK?

& finally - why didn't you buy an NF7-S V2.0?

[Steve]

So you are saying that my antec PSU is having some fuse problem?

Is that possible to replace that fuse?

Sorry, I should have been more specific. No, it's something resattable that's going off, if that's the problem at all. In which case, it may be an overcurrent, shortage or something else causing it to cut out...

I aren't certain though.

[M@dOc]

Have you got any case left with all those fans in it?
With WC why do you need all of those fans?

I wouldn't worry too much about the voltages - they are within limits & there is always a question about how accurate the sensors are anyway.

The DVD & CD should send the signal over the IDE cables anyway so you should not need any extra cables for input.

have you had a read through the following EpoX orientatednForce2 site?
http://www.motherboardfaqs.com/content.php?content.23

Have you got your RAM/CPU speeds at a 1:1 ratio or are you trying to run asynch?

I'm not sure that your GF 2 GTS is a good match for the mobo - maybe someone els can chime in if they have run a Gf2 on nForce2 OK?

& finally - why didn't you buy an NF7-S V2.0?

I'm gonna check that website tonight

I'm running pretty standard settings.

I'm not an hardcore gamer, so the GF2 is ok for me, it does what I need so far.

I didn't got the NFS7 because at the time I had to buy a mobo the NF7 didn't had the four holes aroun the cpu socket or had problems with them, can't remember. NF7 rev. 1.1 or 2 (can't remember, again it was about 1 year and a half ago) got available a little bit after I bought my Epox.

I've turned on ACPI and it seems that it solved the beeping problem after reboot and correct cpu detection aswell I didn't had such issues after all those years using Abit boards.

It nevertheless reboots/beeps when ram timings are set at what is seems to be too aggressive, no big deal, it can be solved with a voltage tweak, but I'm not overclocking this comp untill everything is plugged, organized, debugged....

[BUFF]

I didn't got the NFS7 because at the time I had to buy a mobo the NF7 didn't had the four holes aroun the cpu socket or had problems with them, can't remember. NF7 rev. 1.1 or 2 (can't remember, again it was about 1 year and a half ago) got available a little bit after I bought my Epox.
..

It was the newly installed bit at the start made me think that you had just bought it

[M@dOc]

It was the newly installed bit at the start made me think that you had just bought it

I bought it a while back but took it out of its box to mount it just few days ago.

I'm gonna try to see if the other problems are fixed or not tonight and will try to fix them tomorrow morning, I'll get back on you guies as soon as I'll have news.

[jarvo]

flash to latest bios.
http://www.epox.org/

take entire pc apart and start again, it sounds like something is tripping the power supply.

voltages are fine, the 8rda+ gives low voltage readings.

ACPI = on
APIC = off

(i think, was supposed to cure some problems)

best memory timings for nforce2 board : 11,3,3,2

manually set the cpu and fsb in advanced bios menu. sync mem and fsb.

isnt the shut down message because you havent enabled something in "Power Options" in control panel.

remove the cpu_clk jumper next to the cpu on the motherboard.

pressing the "ins" key (0 on num pad) at boot will set the fsb/multiplier to defalut for that boot. handy to get into bios.

think the manual is wrong about sdif, is it back to foront or something. will check tonight.

[M@dOc]

flash to latest bios.
http://www.epox.org/

take entire pc apart and start again, it sounds like something is tripping the power supply.

voltages are fine, the 8rda+ gives low voltage readings.

ACPI = on
APIC = off

(i think, was supposed to cure some problems)

best memory timings for nforce2 board : 11,3,3,2

manually set the cpu and fsb in advanced bios menu. sync mem and fsb.

isnt the shut down message because you havent enabled something in "Power Options" in control panel.

remove the cpu_clk jumper next to the cpu on the motherboard.

pressing the "ins" key (0 on num pad) at boot will set the fsb/multiplier to defalut for that boot. handy to get into bios.

think the manual is wrong about sdif, is it back to foront or something. will check tonight.

I'm gonna flash to latest bios today, using a Win98 boot floppy disk, better way I think, since it's the only way to backup the current bios.

Can you remind me how to sync mem and FSB. Do I'll have to up V Mem with the timings you gave me.

I've enabled the ACPI in both BIOS and Win2k Pro and it fixed the shutdown issue and cpu detection. That last one was weird because the JCLK jumper was well set.

[jarvo]

some people had better stability removing the cjclk jumper completly.

just set mem:cpu ratio to 100%, will have to go to advanced menu in bios and then change setting to expert.


with your ram there will be no need to change the voltage, i use 2.77vdimm.

[M@dOc]

Ok, the board is again beeping at each reboot or when exiting the bios, and I again have to turn off the PSU and take off the power cord several times to allow it to boot properly. It is again detecting my CPU as 1500+.

Doing a CCMOS and taking of the JCLK is not helping.

[M@dOc]

Following Epox Tech Support advise, I've upgraded the BIOS to the last version and ....

I get a message when I press the power button that tells me "Don't press reset or power button" or something close to that, this message disappears to fast. And then the monitor switches out and the board starts to beep.

I'm disapointed to see that the situation is worst than before updating the BIOS.

I spent about half an hour to try to start my computer. Now the board doesn't want to recognize my CPU as it is ( a 2100+ ) even with the JCLK jumper taken off.

I'm totally lost, that's the first time ever that a motherboard craps out on me like that, I never had such problems after all this years using mainly Abit (I'm using Abit since the SLOT A Athlon time), I switched to Epox because I've only read good things on it, now I don't know what to think or what to recommend to people on the websites I run or where I am a staff member.

[jarvo]

that little message is fine, its just telling you that it is applying your fsb, cpu settings.

first thing have you reset the cmos via the jumper?
the load optimal settings.



second is your chip locked?

if so stick to default (166*10.5) (or what ever that particular 2100+ default clock is)

i had one 8rda board that refused to let a xp2200 go above 166 fsb.

put the jclk jumper back on at 133 setting.

try with just 1 stick of memory in slot1.

[M@dOc]

that little message is fine, its just telling you that it is applying your fsb, cpu settings.

first thing have you reset the cmos via the jumper?
the load optimal settings.



second is your chip locked?

if so stick to default (166*10.5) (or what ever that particular 2100+ default clock is)

i had one 8rda board that refused to let a xp2200 go above 166 fsb.

put the jclk jumper back on at 133 setting.

try with just 1 stick of memory in slot1.

I've reseted via CCMOS jumper, loaded optmized defaults, loaded fail safe defaults... no result.

My chip isn't supposed to be locked that's a T Bred B operating at 133Mhz Default FSB.

I'm gonna try to put back JCLK jumper and use only one stick in slot 1.

[M@dOc]

Ok, with JCLK back on, and one ram stick in slot 1 (the other was in slot 3) I had less trouble booting, but the board have beeped once or twice before allowing me to boot.
I had to manually set FSB to 133Mhz.

Now my CPU is correctely recognized as a 2100+.

Do you think I should use DIMM Slot 2 instead of DIMM Slot 3 for Dual Channel, I think I can remember people on amdmb forums having trouble when using certain memory combinations.