Epox 8K5A2+ and USB BIOS setting problems: I think I found a major glitch!!!

[MichaelD]

I believe I have discovered a major glitch in the Epox 8K5A2+ motherboards. This relates to if you are booting from the Highpoint controller, which I'd imagine most people that have this mobo are.

I have the 8K5A2+ mobo, Rev 1.0. I was using the shipping bios (August 2002) and tried to solve the problem by flashing to the November 2002 bios. The BIOS itself had nothing to do with it. It was the SETTINGS in the BIOS.

I've been having major problems w/this board...refusing to boot and hanging at the Highpoint bios. I've spent literally WEEKS going back and forth trying to eliminate the memory, the CPU, the power supply or the board itself.

I noticed that once I cleared the CMOS and "loaded optimized settings." It would boot. It would boot after I changed the memory timings as well (as long as I wasn't using Corsair XMS memory...more on that later.)

Well, I went thru and one by one (took two damn days....) changed a setting and rebooted; in order, starting from the "Advanced Bios Settings" screen.

Here's what I found out.

If you enable USB Keyboard and USB mouse support and you DO NOT HAVE A USB KB OR MOUSE plugged into the USB ports, the board will hang!

At first, I thought it was the "enable USB 2.0" setting. I was close.

I also noticed that my frickin' $200 stick of Corsair XMS3200 DDR won't boot at 166MHz with "Turbo" timings enabled. What a crock of crap. I'm RMAing this bastard and they had BETTER hook me up bigtime...$200 for a stick of memory....my first car wasn't worth $200 :| <--but that has nothing to do with this EPOX mobo.

As a general rule, when setting up a BIOS, I disable onboard sound, and enable everything else. Why? Because--- > It's not given me a hint of trouble on ANY VIA or INTEL mobo up until this one.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem with this motherboard? If not and you're using a PS/2 mouse and KB, can you go into your bios and enable USB keyboard and mouse and see if you can duplicate this problem? If enough of us can duplicate the problem, maybe Epox can work on a fix and hopefully prevent others from experiencing this same horror.

 

[Technonut]

I also noticed that my frickin' $200 stick of Corsair XMS3200 DDR won't boot at 166MHz with "Turbo" timings enabled. What a crock of crap. I'm RMAing this bastard and they had BETTER hook me up bigtime...$200 for a stick of memory....my first car wasn't worth $200

The RAM is rated at 400MHz 2-3-3-6-T1, not Turbo timings. In comparison, the XMS 2700 is rated at 2-3-3-6-T1. Corsair will honor their warranty with a maximum voltage of 2.8, so see how far you can go there.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Technonut

I also noticed that my frickin' $200 stick of Corsair XMS3200 DDR won't boot at 166MHz with "Turbo" timings enabled. What a crock of crap. I'm RMAing this bastard and they had BETTER hook me up bigtime...$200 for a stick of memory....my first car wasn't worth $200

The RAM is rated at 400MHz 2-3-3-6-T1, not Turbo timings. In comparison, the XMS 2700 is rated at 2-3-3-6-T1. Corsair will honor their warranty with a maximum voltage of 2.8, so see how far you can go there.

I wasn't even CLOSE to 200MHz! I was at 166! The two timings you posted for the two different sticks of RAM are identical. Please explain.

 

[Technonut]

I wasn't even CLOSE to 200MHz! I was at 166! The two timings you posted for the two different sticks of RAM are identical. Please explain.

Depending upon the revision of the XMS 2700, both the XMS 2700 and 3200 use Winbond chips. My point is that the XMS 2700 is rated at the same timings as the 3200. To be within RMA specs, I would imagine that you cannot exceed 2-3-3-6-T1. Have you actually tried 2.8V to see how far you could push it?

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Technonut

I wasn't even CLOSE to 200MHz! I was at 166! The two timings you posted for the two different sticks of RAM are identical. Please explain.

Depending upon the revision of the XMS 2700, both the XMS 2700 and 3200 use Winbond chips. My point is that the XMS 2700 is rated at the same timings as the 3200. To be within RMA specs, I would imagine that you cannot exceed 2-3-3-6-T1. Have you actually tried 2.8V to see how far you could push it?

Nope. Too afraid of frying a $200 stick of memory.

When I bought this Corsair, I honestly thought I was buying "The Stuff." Guess I was wrong. I have a stick (brand new, got it TODAY) of Crucial PC2700 in the rig as we speak. Just finished a one-hour session of RTCW with about 5 things open in the background. It's running CAS2, 2-5-2, 4-way, Fast Turnaround, etc. Max timings at 166MHz and stock voltage. Perfection.


*EDIT*
but my point is that this error happens regardless of what memory/memory timings you have/have set.

 

[Technonut]

Nope. Too afraid of frying a $200 stick of memory.

Every stick of XMS that I have or had was "the stuff" Like I said, Corsair's warranty allows the voltage to be set as high as 2.8V. Don't get me wrong, if I had a stick that would not dance at aggressive timings, I would not like it either. I have had to run most of the XMS sticks between 2.7-2.8V to run such timings though. Corsair will probably go ahead and issue an RMA for your stick. Just post at Their Warranty Forum and give RAM GUY a shout.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Technonut

Nope. Too afraid of frying a $200 stick of memory.

Every stick of XMS that I have or had was "the stuff" Like I said, Corsair's warranty allows the voltage to be set as high as 2.8V. Don't get me wrong, if I had a stick that would not dance at aggressive timings, I would not like it either. I have had to run most of the XMS sticks between 2.7-2.8V to run such timings though. Corsair will probably go ahead and issue an RMA for your stick. Just post at Their Warranty Forum and give RAM GUY a shout.

Thanks. That's exactly what I've done. I noticed a few other people there having the same exact probs as I w/the same exact stick. Bad batch maybe?

On a side note, if RAM is guaranteed to run at XXXMHz at XXXtimings, it shoud not have to be at insane voltages...should be at stock voltages. If not, they should specify that in their literature...that's fair, IMO. Not being a jerk, just speaking my mind.

Thanks for the help Technonut.

 

[CraigRT]

You won't fry the memory if you just put it at 2.8...
I often run my memory at voltages like that just because I can, and it ensures stability.
I've never had an issue at ALL with VIO.
I say push it .1 or .2V.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: Yield
You won't fry the memory if you just put it at 2.8...
I often run my memory at voltages like that just because I can, and it ensures stability.
I've never had an issue at ALL with VIO.
I say push it .1 or .2V.

OK, but if this memory is so great, why does it need extra voltage to run at timings that Crucial RAM runs at w/normal voltage?

I feel that Corsair's advertising is very misleading...if it needs so much extra voltage, they should say that. :/

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: MichaelD

Originally posted by: Yield
You won't fry the memory if you just put it at 2.8...
I often run my memory at voltages like that just because I can, and it ensures stability.
I've never had an issue at ALL with VIO.
I say push it .1 or .2V.

OK, but if this memory is so great, why does it need extra voltage to run at timings that Crucial RAM runs at w/normal voltage?

I feel that Corsair's advertising is very misleading...if it needs so much extra voltage, they should say that. :/

well i am not sure about the memory and how it's rated or whatever, i just think you should try the extra voltage.. if they will RMA when they KNOW extra voltage is applied, that's totallly cool.. give 'er!
maybe try some Kingston HyperX or something..

 

[Megatomic]

Not just the 8K5A2+....

I found this out on my 8K3A+ back in November.

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: SeekingTao
Not just the 8K5A2+....

I found this out on my 8K3A+ back in November.

Damn dude, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one experiencing this problem. Thanks for linking that. I feel better.

 

[panhead49]

this is a common problem with the 8k9a2+ boards too!!!.................when will epox address this??

i hope soon........i too spent a few hours messing with my new board trying to get it to boot ........till....i loaded optimized settings......

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: MichaelD


If you enable USB Keyboard and USB mouse support and you DO NOT HAVE A USB KB OR MOUSE plugged into the USB ports, the board will hang!

Oddly enough, I do have a USB mouse attached to my computer. M$ Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 USB. Even with this mouse I can't enable USB mouse support in the BIOS. Oh well, WinXP still recognizes the mouse and I have no problems using it.

And I'm glad I'm able to help substantiate this glitch for you MichaelD. Perhaps this will be addressed in the next round of BIOS updates.

 

[techfuzz]

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Has anyone else experienced the same problem with this motherboard? If not and you're using a PS/2 mouse and KB, can you go into your bios and enable USB keyboard and mouse and see if you can duplicate this problem? If enough of us can duplicate the problem, maybe Epox can work on a fix and hopefully prevent others from experiencing this same horror.

I can duplicate the problem you described. PS/2 mouse and keyboard, set Use USB Keyboard/Mouse options in BIOS to Enabled, and it refuses to get past the HighPoint detection. Even more strange it doesn't COMPLETE the hard drive detection when it gets to the HighPoint screen. It detects the types of drives (for me WD800JB's) but it fails to display the container name I game them which would be BOOT.

Now it's on to another strange problem I was previously working on with this board.

techfuzz

 

[BZeto]

Mine would hang during bootup if I had my hard drive on either the IDE 3 or 4 connectors using the highpoint controllers, but I didn't need it there so I took it off and put it back on primary and everything is fine. But I noticed occasionally my USB mouse (I have a PS/2 KB) with not respond upon bootup, it doesn't happen often, but it recentley did after coming how from a vacation. It requires me to unplug and plug back in the mouse before it recognizes it.

 

[RideFree]

Ram-guy states that 1.8v. is ok and within spec.

 

[MichaelD]

Argh. I don't know if it's related or not, but now Max Payne won't play right!!! The game loads, but when it starts to load a level, the machine hangs, mid-load (red progrss bar at bottom gets about 1/2 way across) Yep, I'm running the 1.05 W2K patch. Yep, I removed the game and reloaded it.

I swear....I just may buy an NForce yet!!! :|

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: techfuzz

Originally posted by: MichaelD
Has anyone else experienced the same problem with this motherboard? If not and you're using a PS/2 mouse and KB, can you go into your bios and enable USB keyboard and mouse and see if you can duplicate this problem? If enough of us can duplicate the problem, maybe Epox can work on a fix and hopefully prevent others from experiencing this same horror.

I can duplicate the problem you described. PS/2 mouse and keyboard, set Use USB Keyboard/Mouse options in BIOS to Enabled, and it refuses to get past the HighPoint detection. Even more strange it doesn't COMPLETE the hard drive detection when it gets to the HighPoint screen. It detects the types of drives (for me WD800JB's) but it fails to display the container name I game them which would be BOOT.

Now it's on to another strange problem I was previously working on with this board.

techfuzz

Thanks Techfuzz. That's EXACTLY what mine was doing. Sucks, eh? You remember that "Official Epox 8K5A Thread" that was like, 500 posts long? In ALLLLLLLLLLLL those posts, nobody found out about this problem? I mean, sh1t man1!!! SOMEBODY must've known.

 

[techfuzz]

MichaelD, yeah it had just about every other problem known with this series of motherboards. I'm suprised too that someone didn't stumble onto this problem before. Are you going to inform Epox about it? Someone should...

techfuzz

 

[MichaelD]

Originally posted by: techfuzz
MichaelD, yeah it had just about every other problem known with this series of motherboards. I'm suprised too that someone didn't stumble onto this problem before. Are you going to inform Epox about it? Someone should...

techfuzz

Too be honest, I'm none too impressed w/this board at all. Yeah, it's got lots of features....but the damn thing doesn't work half the time! I'm this close to getting an Intel-branded mobo/P4 and saying "the hell with it." Really.

I'm considering NForce as I already have the AMD CPU...would save me money.