I need help.. badly!!!

[phill9700]

no sooner have i changed my epox board for a abit NF7-s like i said i would, im having yet more problems with that than i ever thought possible!
now i have changed a total of three cpus out of it to see if there would be any differences in the amount of overclockablity in them (they are all xp1700s) and im having, i must say some very weird problems..
for starters this last cpu that i have put in, the temp reading from the bios is telling me its at about 58C.. (after a few minutes) i know for a FACT its nowhere near that, as on the cpu heatsink, i can physically put my finger on it and its not that hot at all. whilst i was in the bios, the machine shut itself down, just like a click of a mouse..
i have set the shut down temps for 70C and the one in the soft set menu is at about 85C. so why is this shutting down? on my epox board the cpu temps of the xp1700 i had in the board never went above 50C, never. but now it seems to be a regular thing happening.. but as of now when its shut itself down, i cant seem to get it to turn on again. great eh? also the warning temp is set at 65C, i never had any sign of warnings or anything.. it just shut itself down.. also, it never said it got to 65C either...
i have no idea whats going on with this board, i have had so much trouble getting this board today its unreal.. but its even worse then the epox board for everything, overclocking, stabilty and more importantly, actually working!!
something is definitly wrong with this board, has anyone really got any sugguestions on what it could be? its a brand new board, bios hasnt been flashed or anything, its running out of the box....
when i was trying to overclock the cpu, the voltage wasnt high at all (never above 1.8v) same as the vdimm (never above 2.8v) and same with the chip set.. so why is it performing so bad? the board wont boot with the same cpu that was in the epox with the same settings, it wont run at half the settings that the epox did and when trying to overclock it slightly higher than 200fsb.. all i get is problems..
please please please please please, can someone give me some insight as to what is happening with this apparently, great board..
oh and yes the heat sink is on right and there is thermal paste on the cpu...
before the below problem, with a 1.55V setting, cpu set to 2ghz (10x200) it was under load using folding 3.24 and was reading at 50C.. and now its reading the temp at -48C in the bios and in Windows XP using the Motherboard monitor 5 program.. something isnt right here guys... please help me!!
oh and i have just noticed after taking the board out of the case and putting it back in the box, the thermal probe aint there!! what the hecks going on!?!?!?

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
something is definitly wrong with this board, has anyone really got any sugguestions on what it could be? its a brand new board, bios hasnt been flashed or anything, its running out of the box....

This sounds like a BIOS issue to me, especially because of the weird temperature readings and the autoshutdown feature to kick in. You'd better check if there's a newer BIOS revision available.

Another thing that comes to my mind is your power supply. What maximum wattage does it output and how old do you think it is? It may not give enough power to drive your motherboard (hence the erratic readings on the voltages) or your PSU is beginning to die. If you have a spare power supply (or your friend to borrow you one for a few moments), you can test if that provides a solution.

One more thing you should double-check is that no screws or brackets make contact with the motherboards connections on either side and cause any minor or major shortcircuit(s).

If these don't resolve your problems, the board itself is defective and you should RMA it. Good luck.

 

[phill9700]

well the board works fine, but like i have said, the temperature probe has come off.. its not connected to the board in any shape or fashion..
the power supply is a 550W Q-Tec, its been working fine, i have also put in the 4 pin plug that the ABIT board lets you use.. i think its the one that they use for the intel systems? im not 100% sure..
well somehow im not sure the bios will make any difference to with the temps..
im already going to get a replacement or exchange the board for something else.. its not in my good books. i have also had a friend with one of the XP1700s on his asus board running at 2.3ghz @ 1.65v... i couldnt get mine to run that speed stably on either the epox board i had (bios problem again...) and now this abit being even worse.. i dont understand it as i thought by reading all the reviews, these two boards i have had where the best avaiable... go figure...
oh and what the heck does RMA stand for?

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
well the board works fine, but like i have said, the temperature probe has come off.. its not connected to the board in any shape or fashion..
the power supply is a 550W Q-Tec, its been working fine, i have also put in the 4 pin plug that the ABIT board lets you use.. i think its the one that they use for the intel systems? im not 100% sure..
well somehow im not sure the bios will make any difference to with the temps..
im already going to get a replacement or exchange the board for something else.. its not in my good books. i have also had a friend with one of the XP1700s on his asus board running at 2.3ghz @ 1.65v... i couldnt get mine to run that speed stably on either the epox board i had (bios problem again...) and now this abit being even worse.. i dont understand it as i thought by reading all the reviews, these two boards i have had where the best avaiable... go figure...
oh and what the heck does RMA stand for?

Oh... Scratch the PSU from the list, then. If the temperature probe is off, and you have no idea where it goes back in, it has probably been soldered on the motherboard. Finding that particular place for it is a real pain, let alone soldering it back in.

But on a contrary what you said about the temps and the BIOS. My older EPoX board had such a problem. It got very bad readings all over the motherboard and the voltages were incorrectly shown, too. I got a BIOS upgrade, flashed the sucker and PRESTO! No more problems. The old BIOS had a possibility to disable the temperature shutdown feature so all I needed to be is very quick, so that the flashing wouldn't go haywire because of a sudden system shutdown. 🙁

You must have a defective board, otherwise all the reviews would bash the board to heck. Try RMA'ing it.

RMA stands for "Return Merchandise Authorization". This is usually a string of numbers received from the board's tech support by calling there (if there's a valid warranty available). The other way to get the board RMA'd is to take the board to the place from where you bought it to get it replaced or exchanged.

 

[squidman]

No, it doesnt sound like he has defective board, per se. It sounds like the thermal resistor is "open" ie picks up interference that it isnt supposed to, thus resultng in crazy temperatures. Unfortunately, u cannot replace the thermal resistor, it would kill the circuitry. Getting a new mobo is the answer. Your problem is one out of 10 thousand boards. Just bad luck.

 

[phill9700]

well when i get to tuesday i will be phoning up the company that i got the board from and i will be sending it back, the same time i should be able to get back a working epox board.. i just hope this one lasts longer than a month..
well its defective now, because the probe under the cpu has come off the motherboard, its not on the board, so no temps will be read for the cpu.. its constantly at -48C.. which if i remember correctly is something like a prometia temp.. im only using a spanner cool.. a falcon rock!!
hopefully they will replace it, but the board seems faulty to me anyway, its just not as stable as i figured it should be.. abits where normally great, but this one has let me down badly..

 

[phill9700]

i hopefully will be should the company that i bought it from lets me have a new one.. its the second one i have bought from them that has been faulty, they do have a years warrenty on it so i hope it will be ok.. god do i hope it will be ok.. otherwise its nearly £90 down the pan.. :evil:

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: squidman
No, it doesnt sound like he has defective board, per se. It sounds like the thermal resistor is "open" ie picks up interference that it isnt supposed to, thus resultng in crazy temperatures. Unfortunately, u cannot replace the thermal resistor, it would kill the circuitry. Getting a new mobo is the answer. Your problem is one out of 10 thousand boards. Just bad luck.

That's something unheard of by my standards (=never ran into such a problem). In the mean time (while he's waiting for a replacement board), I think he should try taking part in a state lottery. The odds look good for him. 😀

Seriously speaking; It's never fun to get a defective board and RMA it and wait half of your life for a replacement. Not only it takes time, RMA doesn't guarantee a fully functional board. Let's hope everything turns out OK.

 

[phill9700]

i hope it works out ok to, or i will be rather annoyed mate!!
i just dont know what else to be doing..

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
i hopefully will be should the company that i bought it from lets me have a new one.. its the second one i have bought from them that has been faulty, they do have a years warrenty on it so i hope it will be ok.. god do i hope it will be ok.. otherwise its nearly £90 down the pan.. :evil:

Don't worry, they will most likely change the board. After all, it's your money you spent on the board, not the company's. If they don't change it, make a complaint about it or at least threaten to do so. That will stop them from nagging since they see you're on top of the issue.

You are correct. Motherboards have from 1 to 3 years of warranty so the company's only option is to change that board if you find it defective since it's their job to do so. You are on top of things, because you haven't OC'd it, nor had any real chance of doing so. They may test that board before granting you another but they will find themselves at the same situation as you. Expect a replacement board to arrive shortly. 🙂

My advise is that if the third board is still faulty, go back to the company and order them to either give back the £90 you spent or get another board that has a similar price tag, or alternatively a cheaper board and a refund of what's left from the £90. If they refuse the other two, take the money and walk out to a company that knows, what the word "warranty" actually means.

 

[phill9700]

well they are looking at the epox board for me, i think they will be shocked to hear about my abit going wrong as well, but such is life!!
it took me nealry 5 hours to get the board when it should have taken 3 possibly 4.. i couldnt believe it, the same day i got my board (and the same day pretty much it packed up) my dads turbo went in his nissan 200SX... it was a nightmare getting to where i needed to go!! ahhhhhh... why am i having such bad luck????
anyway, heres a question, i have a spire falcon rock (mk 1 i think) and it cools nicely on the epox board (at stock vcore 1.5v, it manages to get the cpu to about 30C, this is with a case temp of no more than 22C) what other sort of fan would be best to use if i want to get these bad boy cpus above 2.2ghz or something?

 

[squidman]

Check this out son: i run stock. Just replaced the fan from the sink with a 6000 rpm one, and added some arctic silver...Overclocked to 200 FSB, and t's were 45 idle, 52 load...thats WITHOUT the intake fan being turned on. Just one exhaust, to drive heat from vga (me steam powered GTS produces a lot of heat from its coal furnace 🙂 . But then i went back to 175 (instead of 166). Don' need THAT much performance. Seriously i dont understand: people overclock Radeon 9500...wtf for? They get MORE than 30 fps in Ut2003, and still overclock.

Here's my advice tho:
DONT get a replacement. If you can GET your money back. Your fate has warned u - twice. Then buy somewhere else. Trust me on this one, i know from experience (bad one, of course 🙁 )
If u get your $$$ back (u should) buy an ASUS, or an Abit. Them epoxes are cheapo.

 

[mechBgon]

The usual cause of auto-shutdowns is a reversed heatsink. It only goes on one way, consult figures 7, 13 and 14 of this guide for a clear illustration of the three things to watch for:

• The heatsink's base has a step cut into it, to provide clearance over the solid-plastic end of the CPU socket. It must be oriented that way.
• The heatsink's clip is asymmetrical, and the pressure point must be over the CPU core, not the other way round.
• If the heatsink can slide back & forth on its clip, keep it as far away from the solid-plastic end of the CPU socket as the clip will allow, so it doesn't ride up on it.

Also, I assume you are using a quality thermal compound between the heatsink and CPU core, and re-applying it with each removal/reinstallation of the heatsink...? The stock thermal pads are good for one use only.

edit: also, I would bail the Q-Tec power supply and get me a good name-brand one like Antec if it were my system. Cheapies can nuke your whole rig. Quality wattage over raw wattage... 😉

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
well they are looking at the epox board for me, i think they will be shocked to hear about my abit going wrong as well, but such is life!!
it took me nealry 5 hours to get the board when it should have taken 3 possibly 4.. i couldnt believe it, the same day i got my board (and the same day pretty much it packed up) my dads turbo went in his nissan 200SX... it was a nightmare getting to where i needed to go!! ahhhhhh... why am i having such bad luck????

The good news is that you made it back in one piece (since you're writing here). 🙂
How far away is that company you bought that board since it took you so long to get there and do you trust that company enough. I've seen few PC-stores here that actually don't give a flying f*** about the stuff their selling and then they start complaining to the client about the level of returned material with either DOA or RMA status.

I've learned to avoid those stores (there are two of those within 2km radius) as if they would contract plague.

Hope you'll get a decent and working board this time. 😀

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: squidman
Check this out son: i run stock. Just replaced the fan from the sink with a 6000 rpm one, and added some arctic silver...Overclocked to 200 FSB, and t's were 45 idle, 52 load...thats WITHOUT the intake fan being turned on. Just one exhaust, to drive heat from vga (me steam powered GTS produces a lot of heat from its coal furnace 🙂 . But then i went back to 175 (instead of 166). Don' need THAT much performance. Seriously i dont understand: people overclock Radeon 9500...wtf for? They get MORE than 30 fps in Ut2003, and still overclock.

Good for you. However, I bet your PC is now even noisier than before. The faster fan and the Arctic Silver are the main reasons that your PC can run better when OC'd. Expect to reapply the Arctic Silver in a year or so, especially if you do run it OC'd constantly. For the record, my CPU (AMD Athlon XP 2000+) has Titan TTG-S101 Silver Compound on it and a Glacialtech Igloo 2x00 heatsink and on it is a 5500 RPM fan. Temps at 42 idle, 50 on full load (Tested with Prime95).

People, who OC their Radeon 9500's are either rich (can afford to buy another/better if it burns due to OC) or simply want to push even better and better scores on 3DMark. Pick one reason. My ELSA Gladiac 920 GF3 is running on stock speeds because I don't need anything better (at least for the time being).

Here's my advice tho:
DONT get a replacement. If you can GET your money back. Your fate has warned u - twice. Then buy somewhere else. Trust me on this one, i know from experience (bad one, of course 🙁 )
If u get your $$$ back (u should) buy an ASUS, or an Abit. Them epoxes are cheapo.

Your critique is well targeted against the company which is selling the equipment and the refunding. I'd also wish to thank you on your critique about the EPoX boards. I can see you're not a great fan of them.
My personal experience with EPoX boards is extremely positive. My first AMD-powered computer (a Duron 600MHz) was running on EPoX 8KTA+ (still running strong with a 1GHz Athlon on board) and my current computer is running on EPoX 8KTA3Pro. So far, all of them have been perfect and a solid performers and the only reason ever for a change were hardware limitations (FSB and/or CPU can't go any faster). My next motherboard is going to be EPoX 8RDA+. The reason for change is that there are bottlenecks in both SDRAM and FSB speeds, severely limiting performance of the Athlon XP 2000+ and my GeForce3. :frown: Well... the XP2000+ is the fastest processor it can use on stock speed.

My favourite motherboards are those with good/exceptional OC'ing capabilities. They run bedrock-solid on stock speed (because they are "tuned" for more).

I know, it's a matter of personal taste. If you dislike EPoX, fine. If you like ABIT or ASUS, great. I'm not going to badger or "convert" my friends to join the he EPoX-camp either (They like Soltek better). 😀

 

[Z80]

dude, sounds like ya got a smokin' board

 

[phill9700]

well dad, 🙂 i only have a falcon rock cpu fan (come on, all you people can laugh if you want) but coupled with the xaser 2 case i have with all the 5 fans inside (yes i know they are orange, but it really dont bother me because i dont see them!!!) i could barely get my cpu over 30C when idling in xp pro with my epox board.. at LOWER voltages my abit board sucked as it told me it was 42C... something really wasnt right, same problem with the abit board again, its reading a constant -48C... i know why, can anyone else say why???? answers on a post card 🙂 )
but more to the point..
when i was overclocking the cpu, it was going a lot faster (and boy do i mean a lot) and i was hardly pushing it at all. i mean, stock voltage of 1.5V and it was hitting 2ghz, 10 x 200fsb and it was fine (on both boards, although it was reporting to be hotter on the abit by about 15C with them both on full load) after pushing higher, i managed to get 2.3ghz (at a big push from the epox board only, the abit was just to unstable) it was working at a 1.75v and was giving me about 42C of heat idle, about 46C under full load, which i thought wasnt bad at all..
so at the cost of one cpu (£45 maximum) i was able to get my 1.467ghz cpu to a nice 2.266ghz cpu for now extra cost.. now answer me this, why shouldnt i do that if everything in the system is going to be faster? (the 3dmark scores with this baby knocked me from 12400 points, to just 250 points under 18000... worth it? i think so... 🙂 )

thnking about it tho, i did prefer the epox board, it was quickier and it was a lot better at doing things that i wanted, although bad press hasnt helped me with buying it, i only bought it because i knew it was the best for overclocking, with the nf7-s.. but im starting to doubt both of them..
i have considered for a second, msi, asus boards, but i just dont want to be bothered by sending more to home and then having to send them back as they arent what im wanting or they wont do what i want them to do.. waste of time.. stick with what you know..
i know my epox didnt get me exactly what i wanted, but hopefully a new one might.. 11 multiplier or better at 200 fsb will be more than enough for me.. 12.5 would be ideal, but something tells me i wont get it..
BUT, heres to hope everyone!!! :beer:

 

[phill9700]

i have always wondered why i should add a £100 power supply into my system when i figured a £35 would do!!
yes im replacing the heat sink stuff after every move.. reminds me, need to get some more soon!!
there wasnt anything wrong with the heatsink, i think it was down more to the board. after all, it didnt even warn me that it was going to shut down, it just did, not even near its temperature either.. about 58C rather than 65C for the warning and 70C for the auto shut down.. weird really.. waiting for them to contact me as i sent them an email on saturday about all of this.. hopefully i will be able to get something decent.. that will work for more than just a month.. which would anyone stick with? epox or abit ? or would they have one of each?
what type of power supply would be best then? need some recommendations!!

 

[phill9700]

well im not saying that they are bad and im not saying that they are particulary great, but with what the reviews say they are.. but my sorry sad experiences arent good.. even though i will be getting another one to try anyway!!! i figured may as well give it another chance..
i dont just give up on one board, i give it a go..
im a tweaker, i always have been ever since my first duron 650 setup.. i was playing around with that till god know what time in the am one morning.. i just enjoy messing about trying to get more from something.. whats the point in having something if you dont try and push it a little bit harder? i see no reason to say no or not going to bother.. i love it!! when it works its a great feeling.. finding a limit is also a good thing, as it will say to you, youve gone the whole 9 yards... (or is that 8 miles???? 😀 )
i push everything i can in my system to go as fast as it can. i always have done and i always will.. im bound to make mistakes thats what learning is all about.. so far i have only lost one cpu, which wasnt even my fault.. i dont care, if i break something, i will just replace it!! after all its only money...

 

[phill9700]

well mate, im happy for being here, i just wish i had my pc system as well!
sometimes i do wonder why i bothered with all of that, as im no better off, probably worse off than ever, but hey, it was an adventure!!
lets say im hoping to get a better board somehow, im not sure whether or not this is possible, but i really do hope that i can. i just want to get my setup stable with a big overclock (as much as possible anyway) and then to leave it, bask in glory and say, thank f*** for that..
well i try and avoid pc world as best i can, but they always make temping offers, until you look inside... 😀
thanks for the vote of confidence.. 🙂 best wishes to all.. and thanks for all the replys!!

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
which would anyone stick with? epox or abit ? or would they have one of each? what type of power supply would be best then? need some recommendations!!

Stick with EPoX and take a 8RDA3(+). As far as they are concerned, they're great for OC'ing (exceptional when run at stock speed).

For the power supply, I have two recommendations.
If you're planning on running everything at stock speed and don't have too much equipment on board, like:
- one HDD,
- one OD,
- two PCI-cards
- less than GeForce3
then the average power supply of 200-250W is sufficient. Anything more in equipment and you should consider 300W, just for a good measure. Brand of the PSU is irrelevant.

But if you are to OC the machine, then take a name brand PSU, such as Antec and it's power rating should be from 350-450W, respectively. The name brand PSUs usually have better warranties and they are able to generate more stable power in their +3.3V and +5V rails (which are the most loaded rails on a PSU).

 

[phill9700]

cool.. i will try that when i get some know how back from what they think is wrong with the board, im told that the epox read the cpu temp wrong anyway, and there i was thinking that a 30C temp was good for a 2ghz cpu!! DOH!!
i would probably get a 550W psu, as i am going to get another ide hard drive, a dvd writer, dvd rom, scsi drive (with adaptor) and a faster graphics card than the 9800 pro (which i assume will use something like the 4 pin plug for extra power.. im guessing it will probably use it, dont you think?) plus all the current bits i have installed in my system at the moment.. hard drive, floppy drive, board and 5 case fans (but they are sort of daisy chained, its in a xaser 2 case...)
OC'ing will be done, the only thing is, will any of the bits i have listed above have all the connections as standard on the psu? because for example the Q-Tec psu, the 450W has 4 4 pin power connections, where as the 550W (the one i have currently installed) has 6.. need at least 6 of the darn things!! does any psu offer that?

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
cool.. i will try that when i get some know how back from what they think is wrong with the board, im told that the epox read the cpu temp wrong anyway, and there i was thinking that a 30C temp was good for a 2ghz cpu!! DOH!!
i would probably get a 550W psu, as i am going to get another ide hard drive, a dvd writer, dvd rom, scsi drive (with adaptor) and a faster graphics card than the 9800 pro (which i assume will use something like the 4 pin plug for extra power.. im guessing it will probably use it, dont you think?) plus all the current bits i have installed in my system at the moment.. hard drive, floppy drive, board and 5 case fans (but they are sort of daisy chained, its in a xaser 2 case...)
OC'ing will be done, the only thing is, will any of the bits i have listed above have all the connections as standard on the psu? because for example the Q-Tec psu, the 450W has 4 4 pin power connections, where as the 550W (the one i have currently installed) has 6.. need at least 6 of the darn things!! does any psu offer that?

Some of the false readings are usually related to some sort of BIOS issues, but EPoX (and other board manufacturers) don't give it too much attention, as it's not as fix-critical as memory stability issues and the like.
30°C idle temperature on a 2.0GHz CPU is reachable, if you have sufficient cooling and a bit undervolted CPU. Of course, there may be stability problems if you start OC'ing it without increasing Vcore substantially.

550W is more than enough for that type of configuration and they have all the necessary connectors as standard (except if you are planning on getting those S/ATA-drives instead of SCSI and IDE). Probably the most power-hogging device is going to be the Radeon 9800 Pro (or a faster card), right after the motherboard. I think there are enough connectors in the 550W version for your needs, but they have "Y"-connectors for sale (1 connector --> 2 connectors) should you find yourself running short of any.

 

[phill9700]

well i use an xaser 2 case and i have a falcon rock cpu cooler for my cpu.. i managed on a few occassions to be getting less than 30C on my cpu, but then i guess the best thing about it, is that my case was only 20C to 22C so it was farily cool in there.
well to be honest, the abit board when i had it installed, it was doing 2ghz @ 1.5v, it was ok but it was better on the epox board as the epox board i believe in my opinion was a better board.

 

[Jii]

Originally posted by: phill9700
well i use an xaser 2 case and i have a falcon rock cpu cooler for my cpu.. i managed on a few occassions to be getting less than 30C on my cpu, but then i guess the best thing about it, is that my case was only 20C to 22C so it was farily cool in there.
well to be honest, the abit board when i had it installed, it was doing 2ghz @ 1.5v, it was ok but it was better on the epox board as the epox board i believe in my opinion was a better board.

That's very commendable temperature for a Falcon Rock. My GlacialTech Igloo has some sort of problems pushing all the heat out, as it's idle temperature is stuck in 40°C. I think it's my silver thermal compound gone bad and I'll change that the same time as I do with my motherboard (got it yesterday, today, I'm getting the DDR's and a CoolerMaster Silent HeatPipe cooler). The ambient temperature is directly related to the case temperature so your room is quite cool. My ambient temp is never below 25°C, because the sun is shining directly to my apartment most of the day and as I live in a northern hemisphere of the globe, the sun is up very long in summer. 😎

My opinion is that EPoX boards make great OC motherboards and exceptionally stable stock boards. Since you're OC'ing, it's better to have a stable board that can take a high FSB without tripping.