EPOX 8KHA worries...

[CKDragon]

OK, all of the parts are ordered for my parent's new computer that I will be building. I finally convinced them to give me a budget and let me put it together instead of ordering a generic Gateway. But now I'm getting a bit worried as I've noticed that there are a few consistent problems people have been having getting the EPOX 8KHA board to work or even POST for them.

A few concerns -

-I remember reading quite a while ago that the order in which you install the drivers matters greatly and I've heard about VIA 4-in-1's specifically. Can anyone shed any light on this?

-I've read about some reports of incompatibilities with SBLive! sound cards. Some have said that it only matters which PCI slot you put it in while others haven't been able to get it to work at all, any definitive answer?

-Is there a good quality guide associated with this board specifically somewhere on the net? I've been searching unsuccessfully and the best material I've come up with is a HowTo on Tom's Hardware that covers an old KT133 board.

I have a rather large amount of pressure on me to get the computer up and running within a day or two of the parts arriving on Monday or so... don't want to feel the wrath of dad.

Thank you for any help you can provide this novice system builder,

CK

 

[Insane3D]

"-I remember reading quite a while ago that the order in which you install the drivers matters greatly and I've heard about VIA 4-in-1's specifically. Can anyone shed any light on this?"

You need to simply download and install the latest Via 4-in-1 drivers. These drivers are for the various components of your Via based motherboard, the 8KHA. You can get the latest version, 4.32, here. You want to install them first after you get the OS installed, before any soundcard or video drivers.

"-I've read about some reports of incompatibilities with SBLive! sound cards. Some have said that it only matters which PCI slot you put it in while others haven't been able to get it to work at all, any definitive answer?"

The problems with the SB Live! soundcard were with Via's 686B southbridge that comes on all KT133A and most AMD761 based motherboards. The 8KHA utilizes the 8233 southbridge that is not affected by this. Even if you had the 686B Southbridge on that board, the latest 4 in 1 drivers fix this problem. You want to try to get the SB Live in a slot that doesn't share an IRQ with anything else, but even if it does, it will probably no cause you much trouble. You should only really worry about that if you install it and start to have problems.

"-Is there a good quality guide associated with this board specifically somewhere on the net? I've been searching unsuccessfully and the best material I've come up with is a HowTo on Tom's Hardware that covers an old KT133 board."

Probably not for this specific board, but a general building guide should work well for you. Check out this guide for some general help.

If you still need help when you are building it, feel free to send me a private message and I will help you out. Good luck and have fun!

 

[CKDragon]

Insane3D - That was incredibly helpful, thank you for taking the time to help out a new guy like myself.

If I run into any problems throughout the process, I will definitely shoot a PM your way.

Thanks for your time and effort,

CK

 

[Insane3D]

No problem...