IWill woes...

[MistaTastyCakes]

Argh, and it was my favorite board yet. My IWill XP333-R has died, and I'm wondering if anyone could give me any insight as to what's up as I get ready to RMA the thing.

So, I go to turn it on a couple days ago, and nuttin. Fans and all power up, everything's working.. cept the mobo. Change video, nothing. Start with bare essentials, nothing. Clear CMOS, nothing. Switch RAM around in slots, try diff RAM, nothing. Took it out of the case, started it on a nonconductive surface (namely, a wooden table), nothing. Tried even switching out the battery, just for the sake of testing, and it did nothing. This sucker's dead, Jim. This is just weird as hell, these things have a good rep. My power supply is an Antec dual fan 350w, should be alright.

Could it be an issue of needing to pop filters on my fans or something? Could the small amounts of dust be givin' me some ESD? I have fans plugged into the mobo headers, and I've read that can damage a mobo on some occasions. It's almost funny.. out of all the Athlon boards I've owned, my KT266 Dragon has given me the least amount of problems.

If anyone has any more ideas of how I could test this thing, feel free to share. And I'm up for suggestions on replacements too. In the sub $120 category, I'm willing to mess with any chipset. Stability and overclockability is what I'm looking for, and it needs to be able to handle large coolers like the Alpha.

Thanks.

 

[clumsum]

Have you tried a different cpu ............. ?

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I plunked the 1ghz CPU from the machine I made for my mom in there, no luck.

 

[Doggiedog]

Sorry to hear about your MB.

I went through 2 Iwill KK-266s. The first one short circuited the socket A and fried my new CPU and just this weekend my replacement board blew up and stopped working for some unknown reason.

I am typing this up on my new Epox 8KHA+ that I just installed without a hitch unlike my Iwills.

No more Iwill for me ever.

 

[AllDressedUp]

Sorry to hear about your difficulties. Just out of curiosity, how long did you have this board? And did it exhibit any symptoms before it went belly up, like difficulty booting or powering down?

FWIW, the most common error I've seen so far with these boards is improperly installed memory. People frequently close the clips without making sure the module is fully seated in the center. End results are fried sockets, etc.

And make sure you're using the correct jumper to Clear the CMOS per the Users Manual, cuz the EZ Installation Guide may have it mixed up with the RAID jumper

 

[Tooter]

Sorry to hear about your MB.

I'm in the same boat as Doggiedog. I just RMA'd my first KK266, got another board and the thing doesn't retain my BIOS Settings. Everytime I boot up I have to go into the BIOS and reset the date/time, boot order, USB support and etc. I'm steaming. Hope you have better luck than me!

I'm gonna buy a Soyo Dragon + board. No more IWILL for me either.

 

[AkumaBao]

Wouldn't you expect to see me here. It doesn't sound like it's bad at all. I agree clear that CMOS, and try again. Also are your DDR chips good? Is your PS applying enough power? Is your FSB set to 100 instead of 133, or vise-versa? I've owned 8 Iwill's so far, still use 2, ( upgraded ) and have 6 other's that are still in working order. Never once have I had on go bad. It's hard to kill one, but there is always the chance of a dud, just like any other motherboard. Did you ever get it to work? Sorry, I'm just trying to throw out all the possibilities. If it's dead, I'm sorry to hear about it, and I hope you have better luck next time.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Thank you very much for the help, everyone. I dunno, I think my luck on mobos has been down lately. I've checked the jumpers, everything, and my PS should be alright. I went to Fry's today and picked up the last thing I could imagine myself picking up.. the Epox 8KHA+.. a Via board. I haven't always been the biggest fan of Via I guess, but I'm always up for new things. Well, I get it home, installation is easy, everything works the FIRST TIME!! and things all go smooth. This is something I haven't experienced from Via in a while, hehe.. but I'm convinced this is a quality mobo. I wish I had more luck with the IWill, but alas, this will just have to do.

So far I'm up to 10x152fsb and counting. I'm seeming to have probs breaking 155 though, my CPU's at 1.8v and my RAM's at 2.7v and at 155+ I can't POST. Ahh well...all in all I'm actually glad I opened up my eyes to another solution. I was thinking about getting the K7S5A there, being non-Via and all.. it was on the same shelf...but I think I'm gonna have more fun w/ this board.