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Motherboard Problems??

G

getem

Member
I?ve got an EPOX 8K5a3+ and it?s doing some weird things. I first installed the motherboard, then ran the Maxtor drive utility to wipe the disk clean, and when the utility loaded up, it was NOT picking up any devices on the IDE channel. I moved the drives over to another computer and the diagnostics ran fine and the disk was low-level formatted ok. I then moved the hard disk back over to the computer with the NEW EPOX board and started the Windows setup and format. I booted the Windows 2000 CD and it hung in setup after it loaded the setup files off of the CD into memory with a stop error related to ?Ntoskernel?. I thought that it could be CPU, so I swapped CPU. The setup booted and loaded files just fine and actually got to the installation menu and began a format. A little way through the format, the computer essentially restarted itself. Any ideas??
PARTS RULED OUT (AS TESTED: WIll add more, stay tuned)
hard drive - maxtor 30gig (low level formatted just fine on another computer)
 
PARTS RULED OUT CONT'D:
CPU- AMD Athlon XP2400
Video Card-Gainward GeForce Ti4600 Golden Sample

**Both of these are now running 77% of the way through a format in Windows 2000 setup and going on the test rig(rig #2)...
 
hi,
if it hung in setup, it is likely the memory. try running docmemory on it. you can boot docmemory from a floppy and get it free here
good luck
 
Ok, just got online with the cpu and vid card, downloaded latest detonators...
RULED OUT PARTS LIST CONT'D
1 DIMM 128MB (Generic ) Win2k is running fine with one of the generic dimms...
 
First stick of generi-ram ran perfect for about 1.5hours...
UPDATE LIST
1 DIMM of Generic 128MB DDR266 RAm,


Ok. so the RAM, CPU, Video Card, and Hard Drive have all been excused, this leaves only the motherboard that could have caused setup to hang and restart, right???
 
Welcome to AnandTech, getem.
Okay, stupid question here...have you tried setting resetting the bios settings via the motherboard jumpers? Have you tried removing any hardware not essential to load the os-- such as the sound card, nic, etc? Have you looked at Epox's site to see if there is a newer bios you could flash to which might fix a compatibility issue? I seem to recall reading about one of the Epox boards having an issue with win2k...which a newer bios took care of. Go HERE to read about it.
 
YEs i have reset the CMOS via the jumper and tried fail-safe defaults, also I have flashed the bios (time for the kicker), this was all done BEFORE I sent the board back to CNETPC.COM and it apparently worked fine for their tech. I just got it back lasnight and tried to work with it, obviously they sent the same board back to me because they 'said' it was OK...MY ASS.... All the testing I've done since I got the board back has confirmed that this is a motherboard problem. When I run PowerMAX utility to low-level format my HD, NONE of the IDE channels are regiustering at all, but on "The CHeat" they register as either the device name or "No Device Attached"... Could this be a busted northbridge??
 
hi,
it sounds like all of the parts checked out on other systems except for the motherboard. so i guess it must be the motherboard. i've only seen one mb ide controller go bad in my time with computers, but it does happen. sounde like you should rma it.
good luck
 
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