Epox 8K7A stuck at code 25

[Blundar]

I'm having big problems with the 8K7A I jsut got from newegg for my friend Rachel...
The thing booted *once*
I control-alt-deled it after it got to No Operating system
the bios screen never came up again.
the board gets stuck at code 25.
If I remove the video card (3dlabs Oxygen GVX1 32Meg AGP) it will make it to 7F
I am bringing over a new video card today to see if it is the vid card. code 25 and code 7F both are listed as "reserved" in the motherboard manual. Anyone have a better idea or a URL for bios codes for this board? I love those LED displays.

Hardware config:
Antec case (835?)
Antec PP303X 300W PS
Intel Pro 10/100 ethernet card, PCI slot 3
Toshiba 16X DVD + Aopen 12x10x32 CDRW Master/slave on IDE channel 2
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 7200rpm on IDE channel 1
2 - 256Mb DDR sticks from advanced design (I believe these are Nanya CAS2 sticks. Both tested before being used in this board)
3DLabs Oxygen GVX1 32Mb AGP OpenGL Video Card
Epox 8K7A MB, from newegg maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago
Athlon 1.2 AXIA unlocked
arctic silver
Volcano II HSF (probably soon to be a taisol)
Extra 80mm sunon 26CFM above keyboard/printer/etc ports (exhaust for CPU fan)

I don't understand why it booted once and will not boot again.
The CPU felt very cool after I turned it off, so I dont think it was a heat problem/dead CPU

any/all help appreciated

 

[madthumbs]

You could try; reseating the cpu... take it all the way out, then reseat it. Also, physically Unplug the power cord. This breaks the ground and sometimes resets things. You may want to check this site out as well; http://a.tribalfusion.com/f.ad?site=Amdmbcom&adSpace=ROS&requestID=15

 

[Blundar]

thanks!!! I'll do that when I swap the vid card tonight!

 

[Bellweather]

I got the infamous 7F stop also. I bought a Kyro II from newegg and the 8K7A always stopped at 7F during bootup. I eventually figured out that the video card was bunk. I RMA'd it, got a new one, and all was fine.

 

[Blundar]

the 25 stop is more bewildering - this is the one that happens with the vid card in the system. the infamous 7F happens when the vid card is out of the system.
Go figure

 

[Blundar]

I emailed Epox tech support this morning. I have received 3 responses so far today already. They were very helpful. Alredy, they are sending me a new bios chip.
From the mumblings I hear over at amdmb.com, the batch of 8K7A boards newegg.com bought seem to have a higher-than-normal incidence of problems with the bios chips. Hmmmm.

 

[Courtland]

I don't think that is the case, because a lot of people order from newegg, thus if there was a problem statistics tells me that more people from newegg have this problem.

 

[Blundar]

A PCI Stealth 2000 works ok.
I put the AGP Oxygen GVX1 back in and it still doesn't work.
I tried disabling AGP4X but this did not work.
I'm going to try my ASUS Geforce256DDR in a few and see if it is the AGP slot or the Card.
Thanks for everyone's help.

 

[madthumbs]

Yeah, same reasoning that people are thinking that the 8k7a is a problematic board because it's so freakin' popular! Epox Rox! Anyway been hearing good things 'bout them replacing BIOS chips also. I don't think Asus and Abit even have support do they?

 

[Blundar]

seems like the motherboard has a faulty AGP slot.
I like the board a lot.
My GeForce256 DDR works fine, the GVX1 will not work, even though it works fine in another computer.