Hate my EPOX 8RDA board.. what's a good replacement?

[MDesigner]

I hate this thing. The USB on it is really flakey..maybe I just got a lemon. First of all, some ports are USB 1.0, and some are USB 2.0, which is highly annoying. And the USB 2.0 ports seem to be "bad." When I plug my printer into one of the ports, it works sometimes... and sometimes I get an "USB unrecognized device" error. Actually, last night I plugged the printer in, and nothing happened at all. I plug my iPod mini into the USB 2.0 port, and it just connects/disconnects repeatedly.

I don't know if Epox support can do anything for me. I think I made a mistake going for an Epox board.. people said good stuff about it, but I have doubts about their quality.

So..can anyone recommend a good quality budget motherboard? It should be no more than say $60-$80 or so.. (give or take), and it has to support Athlon XP, USB 2.0 (no 1.0 hanging around!), and AGP 8x. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[dvinnen]

Have you tried updating the bios? I use a 8rda and never had a problem with it. Great board, and I think Anandtech gave it their gold medal award.

 

[MDesigner]

Actually I think I've got the 8RDA+. I don't remember the difference between the 8RDA & 8RDA+ (+ has firewire?).

Anyway, yeah, that's why I bought it.. it had great reviews everywhere, as a really good budget m/b. I probably just got a lemon. I wonder if the company would be so kind as to cross-ship me a new one, so I don't have to be without a computer. Hmm..

 

[Megatomic]

The difference between the 8RDA and the 8RDA+ is that the SB is MCP-T on the + board. That means SoundStorm, though on the 8RDA+ you need to buy an optional bracket with the optical connector on it.

A good replacement for your board would be an Abit NF7-S. The optical out is built onto the motherboard so if you have a digital receiver or speakers you can take advantage of SoundStorm right out of the box.

The USB works great on the NF7-S and it also has 2 x SATA150 ports on it. It's a solid gamer/workstation board. And I did upgrade from an 8RDA+ to an NF7-S, I was very pleased to have done so, too.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Where the heck is EpoxTech when you need him?

 

[MDesigner]

Yeah I saw that an Epox employee frequents the AT forums. Maybe I could talk to him and get a cross-ship. I can't be without my machine, I run a business and it's the only computer I have. I'm convinced something is wrong with the USB ports, but I'll go home tonight and do some more troubleshooting to see if something else might be causing problems.

 

[JSSheridan]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
The difference between the 8RDA and the 8RDA+ is that the SB is MCP-T on the + board. That means SoundStorm, though on the 8RDA+ you need to buy an optional bracket with the optical connector on it.

A good replacement for your board would be an Abit NF7-S. The optical out is built onto the motherboard so if you have a digital receiver or speakers you can take advantage of SoundStorm right out of the box.

The USB works great on the NF7-S and it also has 2 x SATA150 ports on it. It's a solid gamer/workstation board. And I did upgrade from an 8RDA+ to an NF7-S, I was very pleased to have done so, too.

I concur with this opinion.

 

[CraigRT]

I hate EPoX in general... only board I've ever personally had die on me was EPoX... I hold grudges

 

[osage]

I've had 3 Epox boards I think, liked them all pretty well. The 8RDA+ has been a great one for me.
I did just send it back to Epox as a RMA for bulging caps, but they are taking care of it. I give them credit for that.

MSI is the board that has given me the most trouble, but I've had a lot of them.

As far as a replacement I have had very good luck with the Shuttle AN35 ultra, but now that the Abit is so cheap why not.....

 

[MDesigner]

Support sucks. I sent in a ticket day before yesterday, and no response. :|

I noticed when I opened my case up, that those four capacitors are also bulging at the top, and there's a brownish crusty substance that seems to have seeped from the top of the capacitors. Is this cause for worry?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: MDesigner
Support sucks. I sent in a ticket day before yesterday, and no response. :|

I noticed when I opened my case up, that those four capacitors are also bulging at the top, and there's a brownish crusty substance that seems to have seeped from the top of the capacitors. Is this cause for worry?

Yes, they can not only kill the board but also take some of the other components with it too. I'd replace it ASAP.

 

[MDesigner]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: MDesigner
Support sucks. I sent in a ticket day before yesterday, and no response. :|

I noticed when I opened my case up, that those four capacitors are also bulging at the top, and there's a brownish crusty substance that seems to have seeped from the top of the capacitors. Is this cause for worry?

Yes, they can not only kill the board but also take some of the other components with it too. I'd replace it ASAP.

I would, if support would respond to my ticket! :| Arrggghh..

 

[Mem]

I noticed when I opened my case up, that those four capacitors are also bulging at the top, and there's a brownish crusty substance that seems to have seeped from the top of the capacitors. Is this cause for worry?

Yep if they blow,they can take out other hardware,I had 11 leaking caps on my Epox which was running stable but got a new motherboard (DFI NF2 Infinity Ultra,awesome board btw) to be on the safe side.

 

[Zap]

Bulging/leaking capacitors = recipe for trouble

Had two problems with my own 8RDA+, first was that sound either lags or cuts off after system heats up. Problem was alleviated a bit by putting a Zalman heatsink on the Southbridge and having a fan blow onto it (in a well ventilated case). Problem was totally solved by putting in a PCI sound card. Other problem was that the Firewire ports sometimes didn't detect stuff plugged in. I stopped using that board in my "main" machine because of those two problems.

 

[osage]

MDesigner, did you register your motherboard on the Epox site ?

seems odd that they would respond to my trouble ticket almost instantly and then not respond to yours. Just curious....

 

[MDesigner]

I registered, yah. Nevermind, they responded.. looks like maybe late yesterday, I just didn't get an email notification for some odd reason.

They're gonna take care of it for me.. I still have to buy a backup motherboard though, so I'm getting that PCChips motherboard on NewEgg for $30 shipped.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
I hate EPoX in general... only board I've ever personally had die on me was EPoX... I hold grudges

I have a dead one sitting here too =) It's an 8RGA though. Time to RMA and sell the replacement on eBay

 

[Jeff7181]

Holy sh!t that was quick... 5 minutes later I have a response to my RMA telling me to try things one more time and if it doesn't help they'll issue an RMA number.

 

[EPoXTech]

MDesigner, Jeff7181

Glad support took care of it for you.

 

[CraigRT]

I have leaking caps on my Soltek SL-75FRN2-L as well... not all of them, just a few, and not too much stuff coming out yet... I'm still holding off on upgrading for a while.. i figure it's been like that for a month or 2 at least anyways.

this leaky cap business seems to be very common on motherboards thesedays.

my SL-75DRV4 has the same thing, but is respectably much older at least.

something funny: out of the 3 PC's in my house, the only one without some leaky caps is my MSI K7T Turbo limited edition strange indeed.

 

[EPoXTech]

Hi All

If you send messages to EPoX using the ticket system ensure your email address info is accurate. Also sometimes emails still do not get delivered due to SPAM filters on some ISPs. Just check back on the website as most tickets are answered the same day or next business day.

 

[MDesigner]

Can someone please verify that the Epox 8RDA+ has ALL USB 2.0 on it, and no 1.x USB ports?