Is my Epox M1697 Motherboard failing?

[AzureNightmareX1]

Recently the USB ports on my motherboard have been malfunctioning and working sporadically. In addition to that my dvd burner has been malfunctioning, giving me a power calibration error when i try to erase rewriteables. In addition to all of this I have noticed other malfunctions and failures across my computer. Windows can no longer detect my internet connection, giving me a server execution failed error, even though I have actually connected to the internet, and games have a tendency to be be unstable, causing my system to lockup from time to time, and my chipset's fan is beginning to fail. So please, good citizens of anandtech forums, please tell me what is going on here. I did some software (not multimeter yet) readings on the bios to see if it was the PSU and the voltages seem to be very stable.

 

[Idontcare]

I was just getting ready to make a new thread titled "Is my Asus P5E failing or my PSU?" when I saw your thread.

My situation sounds eerily similiar, although not quite as dire, as yours. About 4 weeks ago my mobo started dropping its USB connections to my scanner/printer. Then it started locking up sporadically with an IASTOR error. (Intel ICH9)

I thought they were two different issues. I replaced my USB hub and updated my Intel matrix drivers. Well the mobo continues to drop the USB hub connection...windows XP will sporadically decide it detected new hardware, configures it, and then tells me it would run faster if I had a 2.0 hub (which I do, two of them in fact, both give me same result).

So then I decided I better get my files off my raid-0 array (I have backups, but wanted to just transfer the file structure intact) so I bought a new 500GB drive. Took forever to get the files transferred. About every 30GB of data transferred the system would lock requring a hard-reboot, checkdisk, etc.

So now I am down to "is it my mobo or my PSU, how would I know without replacing them?".

 

[AzureNightmareX1]

That sounds so similar to mine, I wish someone with a bit of knowledge would help me out though. I seriously need to know what to replace.

 

[Zap]

I had an Albatron socket 478 board that was similar. USB ports started failing, onboard network failed, etc. Turned out to be failing capacitors on the board.

 

[Idontcare]

I put a call in to ASUS technical support. They opened a case number for me but then their phone system went crazy and cut me out and their operator said call back later because she doesn't know what happened to the phone system.

I don't know what having a case# means, but they didn't seem phased by my description of the issue and instead just asked me where I wanted a replacement sent. No idea if they are actually sending me one or not (I thought they required CC number for that upfront) because we got cut-off halfway thru.

 

[Idontcare]

Yep, just got off the phone with the Asus rep (north american tech support, a lot better than I expected based on the notorious bad PR that asus tech support gets) and they said no question it needs an RMA.

The trigger on their end was my mentioning USB issues. They said about the primary culprit with sporadic/intermittant USB issues is the mobo. They required no further diagnostics on my end, no more tests, just send it in to confirm the highly suspected hardware problem.

So it is quite probable that your Epox board is failing, given the confidence that the Asus folks had with my USB issues and their mobo. Good luck.

 

[AzureNightmareX1]

Oh god thank you Idontcare. You're the best.