EPoX "EP-9NPA+Ultra" NVIDIA nForce4 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard

[Ultralight]

Mem, sgtdic, thanks for the quick and helpful replies.

I attempted using the Magic BIOS but I kept getting the warning that it could not connect to the server. Of course this was before I read Mem's tip on shutting down my anti-virus. Perhaps that was the issue. Do I need to shut down my firewall and spy sweeper as well? The only thing I don't like is being open to the internet without security.

 

[sgtdic]

i just shut down my main programs. i use my router as my firewall so i don't have a software one. i also don't shut down my anti virus. i haven't had any problems yet. if you use a router there's no point in the extra firewall. sounds like your firewall and/or spy sweeper should do the trick. other than that, i believe i have gotten that message before. something with them, not the pc. i just waited a bit and tried again and it worked.

 

[Mem]

do I need to shut down my firewall and spy sweeper as well?

Ultralight:Normally should be ok with them up,I did run mine behind a router and software firewall with no problems while flashing,anti-spyware wise I use SpywareBlaster,Spybot,Ad-Aware.

The only thing I don't like is being open to the internet without security.

You can always temporary disconnect from the net(after you have downloaded the new BIOS file) if you are that concerned,then reactivate it after flashing and bootup.



.

 

[Ultralight]

Appreciate you guys hanging with me on this. Here's the thing. I attempted using the Magic BIOS several times with AV shut down and I kept getting a red flashing message that I couldn't get the BIOS information. It went one step further than before but still nothing.

In addition I disabled my firewall, but I still couldn't cnnect. Now I have doenloaded and saved the latest two BIOS releases in Zip format. Would you recommend flashing this way? Whayt must one do to make sure it is done properly?

Thanks again.

 

[Mem]

Ultralight;I use to flash via floppy before Magic BIOS Flash was around on my old boards.

The ALT+F2 Method:

Download the required BIOS image file from the EPoX website.
Copy or extract the BIOS image file (named xxxxxxxx.bin) to a blank floppy disk with no bad sectors on it.
Restart the machine with the floppy disk in the floppy drive
When prompted at machine initialization, press ALT+F2 to begin performing the flashing of the BIOS.
The BIOS will automatically flash and reboot the machine.
After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT"
Please note that this does not create a backup of the BIOS binary file.
This does not require you to have a bootable floppy disk.


The Boot Disk Method from floppy:

1. Create a bootable floppy disk in accordance with the instructions laid out in the manual of your particular operating system. This bootable floppy needs to be able to boot to a DOS console capable of executing normal MS-DOS batch and executable files.

2. Download the required BIOS image file from the EPoX website.

3. Ensure the mainboard is set at LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS and is not overclocked in any way.

4. Copy to this floppy disk this latest copy of AWDFLASH and also a copy of the BIOS binary image file called xxxxxxxx.bin

5. Insert the diskette into drive A, reboot your system and boot from the diskette.

6. When booting is finished, type awdflash *.bin /cd/cp/cc (* = the name of the BIOS image file)

7. Then press return to run BIOS upgrade program. The BIOS will automatically flash and reboot the machine.

8. After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT"

9. Please note that this does not create a backup of the BIOS binary file.

10. For Command line help on Award Flash utility, type AWDFLASH /? at the command prompt and press return.

The Boot Disk Method from CD:

1. Incase you don't have a floppy drive in your computer than you can download a bootable ISO which offers you all files in a bootable ISO file, which you need to burn on a CD.

2. Insert the CD-Rom into CD-Rom, DVD-Player, DVD-Writer, etc., reboot your system and boot from the CD-Rom.

3. When booting is finished, type awdflash *.bin /cd/cp/cc (dependent of the name of the BIOS image file)

4.Then press return to run BIOS upgrade program. The BIOS will automatically flash and reboot the machine.

5. After this, press DEL to enter the BIOS setup and select to "LOAD OPTIMIZED DEFAULTS". After doing this select to "SAVE & EXIT"

6. Please note that this does not create a backup of the BIOS binary file, also is it not possible to back-up the BIOS on the CD.

7. For Command line help on Award Flash utility, type AWDFLASH /? at the command prompt and press return.

BTW I guess it's possible SpySweeper might be causing a problem with Magic BIOS program,try disabling that and see if it helps at all.

 

[TheSleeper]

just a quick question:
What is your chipset voltage ? mine is 1.5 by default
If i overclock, do I need to add some voltage in it ?

thanks

 

[sgtdic]

i have never touched my chipset voltage away from 1.5, when overclocking or not. i haven't had any problems with it, so i haven't had to.

 

[stef01]

Hi all

My motherboard is a 9NPA+ Ultra.

I experienced some BIOS freeze with the last BIOS from Epox (flash with MagicFlash from Epox).

Shutdown computer solve the problem the first time but had do to do a ClearCMOS the second time (strange artefacts appears at boot screen).
I was changing my ram timing before the bios crash. I notice that my change was not set correctly in bios, i reset computer and then the problem appears.

Everytime you change a setting in BIOS do you have a "DMI pool update successful" after the boot screen ?
Cause i have an "update success" only if i change my FSB settings. Changing my ram setting don't give me an DMI pool update.
Is it normal ?

-sorry for my bad english-

 

[stef01]

I reflashed my BIOS with 6418 one from Epox.

I do it under DOS using the method given by Mem (Thanks for that m8)
Everything fine for the moment.

I notice than my Opteron is more stable with a lower voltage (he was 2.7 GHZ at 1.47 now its 2.7GHz at 1.44).

A BIOS can change the overclocking capability ?

 

[eplebnista]

The EP-9NPA3 Ultra version is an excellent board! :thumbsup:

 

[vsonerud]

Hello!

I just built a new system 3 days ago using the EpoX-9NPA+ Ultra motherboard and have so far experienced 3 strange freezes of the machine.

I have BTW read all 82 pages of this thread, but I am not quite sure if my situation fits what others have experienced/reported here..

The 3 freezes have all happened very shortly after the Windows XP desktop appears and various startup applications are loading in the systray. The system then freezes completely; no more mouse movement or keyboard response.

The motherboard is a revision 1.1 board running a BIOS version from 2005.12.21. I will of course upgrade to a newer BIOS version (just have to "borrow" and install a floppy drive from one of my older PCs ). However, most of the problems people here seem to have reported regarding system freezes have been related to USB 2.0 problems.

I have absolutely no devices connected to the USB ports on the motherboard. Currently I am even using an old Microsoft PS2 mouse and a PS2 keyboard (before switching to my newer wireless keyboard and mouse - when the system have stabilized )

There are no extra PCI cards inserted into the system, just my PCIE graphics card. And there is just 1 EIDE device (a DVDRW drive ) which is set as cable-select on the primary IDE-port. And then there is 1 250 GB SATA Seagate NL35 HD drive.

The CPU is an AMD X2 3800+.

After physically assembling the hardware, I booted the machine using an 'Ultimate BootCD' and ran Memtest86+ for quite a few hours without any errors.

* I then installed Windows XP w/SP2
* Installed Nvidia Chipset drivers from the EpoX CD which was included with the motherboard
* Visited Microsoft Windows Update and downloaded/installed all necessary updates.
* Installed A64 drivers from the EpoX CD
* Uninstalled A64 drivers
* Installed A64 X2 drivers from AMD instead
* Installed AMD Dual-Core Optimizer
* Installed drivers for my graphics card (Geforce 7300GT )
* Installed AMD Power Monitor
* Installed AMD CPU Clock
* Installed EpoX Thunderprobe

it was upon reboot after installation of Thunderprobe when I for the first time experienced a system freeze, but I guess this could be just coincidental?


The freezes I have experienced so far have all consistently occured shortly after the XP desktop appears when starting up various system services/applications. If the system survives through this "startup phase" everything has been fine after that without any lockup/freeze.

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Jawo]

vsonerud

I always thought that the x2 cores were AMD's new 940 pin set, where the motherboard only supports the 939 pin set. A quick search on NewEgg confirms it. There is the EPoX EP-MF4Ultra that supports the AM2 chipset.

I did have trouble with USDM...it would randomly freeze my machine after awhile. I prevented it from running and my system is rather rock stable now.

 

[Mem]

* Installed AMD Power Monitor
* Installed AMD CPU Clock
* Installed EpoX Thunderprobe

vsonerud
I would not install them,only really need the AMD optimiser and dual core driver from AMD website.

Try disabling Cool n Quiet in BIOS too,that has helped some people.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Oops. Blank post. Hope it gets deleted.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Games crash with 4 x 512 but not 2 x 512 RAM (revisited)

In Septemter I put up some posts describing my problem with 4 x 512 Corsair Value RAM. I have an update. Yesterday I removed the 2 sticks I'd added and went back to 2 x 512. Tada! Unreal Tournament 2004 and FEAR Combat run just fine after "downgrading".

However, earlier the RAM had gone for at least three hours and 4.5 passes on Memtest86 without any problems.

So, it definitely looks like it's some sort of issue with the RAM? Could it have been a bad installation on my part? Could it be bad RAM in spite of the Memtest? A problem with my processor's memory controller? Or a problem with the motherboard's RAM slots?

I guess the next test is to swap out the original 2 x 512 sticks and replace them with the new ones and see what happens. If it all runs fine, then take the original two sticks and add them to slots 3 and 4. I have my memory timings set to Auto, so I would presume that the 1T-2T issue issn't a problem.

September's post follows:

-----------------

My problem:

Certain games seem to run for a couple minutes (3-5) and then crash, freezing the system. UT 2004 and FEAR Combat crash, but UT 1999 does not. I have 4 x 512 Corsair Value RAM in an Epox EP-9npa+ Ultra motherboard. Before I upgraded to 2 GB, I had 2 x 512 and everything ran fine. I ran MemTest86 on it (with 4 x 512) for three hours (4.5 passes) and it didn't reveal any errors.

Video card is a Connect3d x800 GTO unlocked to 16 pipes running at stock speed (no need to overclock it yet). I don't suspect it's the culprit since UT 2004 seemed to run fine on it before I added the other two sticks of RAM. CPU is an Opteron 148 (stock 2.2 Ghz) overclocked 25% to 2.75 Ghz.

The RAM was purchased at two different times in two 2 x 512 pairs. I'm pretty certain that I would have installed the first two into the proper slots for dual channel. Is it possible that the two different RAM orders, although the exact same model, aren't completely compatable? If you had 4 sticks instead of 2, would you want to put the matching sticks in different RAM banks than the banks you would put two sticks in for dual channel if you only had two sticks?

Is there anything that I can do to solve this problem without buying new RAM (2 x 1 GB), or will I have to resign myself to simply removing the two new sticks and going with 2 x 512?

Has anyone else dealt with this, and how did you fix it? Might I need to tweak BIOS settings for the RAM?

[Note--I'm putting this under Motherboards since it's an issue that might be specific to nForce 4 Socket 939 motherboards and processors.]

 

[Ultralight]

Whipper Snapper, I'd run the MemTest at least for 10 passes minimum. I run a 4x512 configuration in 2T which this motherboard automatically set. My first two sticks of 512 were separate purchases and my second set came together. No problems for 6 months (fingers crossed). It does sound like bad RAM especially if two sticks are running fine.

Now for my issue:

My motherboard came with the 8/4/05 BIOS and it really worked fine except that 2 weeks after the computer was up and running (I built it this past May) instead of booting from the splash screen logo to Windows it would freeze at the Logo Screen. EPoX told me to disable said screen in the BIOS which I did and it took care of the issue except that in order to boot to Windows I had to press the Esc button every time.

So, tonight I decided to use the Magic BIOS and everything went perfectly in the process, booted up -- and I freeze at the Logo Screen. I went into the BIOS, diasbled screen, rebooted, had to press the Esc button and booted fine.

I was hoping the new BIOS would take care of this problem. Anyone have any suggestions? The APCI is enabled, and like I said, when the initial screen comes up minus the Logo Screen all I have to do is press Esc and everything goes accordingly.

One more thing, since I flashed my BIOS Windows keeos telling me that it has found new hardware and bla, bla, bla. Should I just let it go? Thanks.

 

[MBrown]

I have this motherboard. Does anyone have one of these in a Antec P180? How would you hook up the motherboards power?

 

[dahuang1]

I am interested in upgrading the proc in my board from a 3000 winchester to something like an opteron or a x2 - any suggestions? I've been running fine at 2.4 for a while, but wondered if an upgrade would be worth it (or wait and just upgrade everything).

 

[Hrochard]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
I am interested in upgrading the proc in my board from a 3000 winchester to something like an opteron or a x2 - any suggestions? I've been running fine at 2.4 for a while, but wondered if an upgrade would be worth it (or wait and just upgrade everything).

I'm also interested in doing this -- upgrading from a 3500+ here. A post on the previous page suggested these boards don't support the X2s, but I'm seeing conflicting reports. Anyone know for sure?

 

[Mucker]

X2 and Opteron work A-OK on my 9NPA+ Sli

 

[dahuang1]

Is a 4400+ @ 2.8 going to be a lot faster than my 3000+ @ 2.4? Or is it apples & oranges?

 

[Mucker]

Originally posted by: dahuang1
Is a 4400+ @ 2.8 going to be a lot faster than my 3000+ @ 2.4? Or is it apples & oranges?

Should be a good upgrade if it can go to 2.8. My 4400 maxes out at 2.7 with 1.475 volts. An Opteron has a better chance of reaching the speed you anticipate.....

 

[MadScientist]

Originally posted by: Mucker
X2 and Opteron work A-OK on my 9NPA+ Sli

Just want to be absolutely, positively sure that my + Ultra supports a dual core Opteron before I upgrade to one. Did you actually run an Opteron on your 9NPA + SLI?

Thanks,
MS

 

[Mucker]

Originally posted by: MadScientist

Originally posted by: Mucker
X2 and Opteron work A-OK on my 9NPA+ Sli

Just want to be absolutely, positively sure that my + Ultra supports a dual core Opteron before I upgrade to one. Did you actually run an Opteron on your 9NPA + SLI?

Thanks,
MS

Single core Opty and dual core X2 3800. E-mail Epox support. They were very responsive to me when I had a problem with a newer SD 3700 E6. They actually sent me a beta bios that works perfectly. I was impressed (took a couple of days for a response)

 

[MadScientist]

Thanks for the quick reply Mucker. I submitted the question to Epox. I'll post their answer. I'm almost certain, but just want to be sure, it supports the dual core Opteron 100 series, because their 8-01-05, version 05.07.28 bios revision added support for Dual core CPU(E6). The Opteron 100s have E6 steppings.