Epox 8KHAL+ Problem

[arcain]

Problem: When powered on, the system beeps slowly, repeatedly and methodically. Maybe once every 1 or 2 seconds. No video. I thinks it makes the same beeps when there is no memory.

Tried: Swapped out all basic components, and they work on other systems (CPU, video card, RAM).

Background: So my little brother's birthday is coming up, and he's graduating too. I decide to build him a kickass computer. Athlon 2000+, 512MB of Crucial memory, and a Geforce 4 TI 4600. Comes together works great. All his friends are envious for a week. Next time I visit, he wants to put his old harddrives in to the new machine so he can access/copy his old data. Take it apart, add the drives, the computer stops booting and does this beeping thing. I take it apart swap parts here and there, make sure everything is connected, etc.. still beeps.. I take it back to my apt.. swap out more parts.. having swapped out all the basic/necessary components (CPU, RAM, video card) I decide the motherboard is dead. I RMA it with NewEgg (excellent response time). I get a "new" one back. Looks new, I don't really care as long as it works. But it doesn't. It does the same exact thing. Which leaves me very frustrated.

Now before I RMA this one, I would like to know if there is anything obvioius I'm missing/forgetting that I may not have tried (I've built countless "clones", and have been doing this for year). Or is this a known problem with the 8KHAL+?

Really the only thing I haven't tried is a different case. Maybe I'm shorting the motherboard somehow? Ughh. Would hate to RMA it again, to find out I'm doing something stupid.

 

[wasnlos]

Could be some sort of shorting, why not "build" the system without the case.
If that doesn't help I'd say Murphy just paid you a visit.

BTW, when you eventually contact your reseller for another RMA you should try to get another board, refurb if necessary. Usually I'm an EPOX-fan, but I wouldn't recommend this particular mainboard. We had our share of problems, too. The predecessor (8KHAL) was even worse. Something is not right about that product-line...

 

[arcain]

Thanks for your comments..

but I've believed I've figured out what was wrong. I searched the web/newsgroups and I found some issues with the memory slots on some of other Epox boards. I usually need to add a little bit more elbow grease when putting RAM in to most boards, but this one (as in this model, since this is my 2nd board) was fairly easy. That combined with the cylic beeping usually indicating memory problems led me to try again with a little more "force" with the memory. And.. of course it solved the problem. How embarrassing.

So.. let that be a lesson: Just because the memory clips come up and hold the memory securely doesn't mean the memory is completely in and well seated. What a POS. I can imagine it working loose during an earthquake or something. It'll do for now, but I'm leaning towards swapping out the motherboard a little down the road.

Yeah! Now I get to explain to my brother why he was without a computer for the last couple weeks.