My broken motherboard (New Abit NF7-S on the way!)

[MDE]

Originally posted by: BigFatCow

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: BigFatCow
Have you tried reseating the CPU and HS/Fan? Also you might want to try a PCI video card if you have one lying around.

I have the 8rda+ and my capacitors are bulging at the top with some electrolyte oozing out but the board still runs fine (ill try to get pics later).

Epox will replace it for free. Once my A7N8X Deluxe comes back from Asus my Dad's Epox 8KHA (KT266a) is going back, which I was very pleasantly surprised to get a replacement for (hopefully they'll just junk the board and give me an 8RDA3+, but I doubt it ). Try to PM EPoXTech or post in the Motherboards forum.

Will they still replace it if I put a zalman on the NB.

Don't know. Email them or PM EPoXTech.

 

[ProviaFan]

Ok, I think I've got it down to the problem component: the motherboard. I tried my known good Duron 800MHz CPU in the board, cleared CMOS before and several times after, and could not get any results other than seemingly random POST codes (most of the time it was 25). The Duron is now back in its home system, and is working fine (so this was no case of it being damaged by me before being put in the motherboard for testing).

Since my Epox board was ordered over a year ago, I don't think the warranty would cover it. Plus, I looked at the capacitors once I had the board out of the case, and they don't look bad from the outside (comparing to pics from that badcaps site).

Well, I guess it's time to go off to Newegg to do some shopping. I'm looking forward to getting into the crunch again in full (though in my case, miniscule) force, and perhaps even with a bit more power than before, if I can afford it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: jliechty
Ok, I think I've got it down to the problem component: the motherboard. I tried my known good Duron 800MHz CPU in the board, cleared CMOS before and several times after, and could not get any results other than seemingly random POST codes (most of the time it was 25). The Duron is now back in its home system, and is working fine (so this was no case of it being damaged by me before being put in the motherboard for testing).

Since my Epox board was ordered over a year ago, I don't think the warranty would cover it. Plus, I looked at the capacitors once I had the board out of the case, and they don't look bad from the outside (comparing to pics from that badcaps site).

Well, I guess it's time to go off to Newegg to do some shopping. I'm looking forward to getting into the crunch again in full (though in my case, miniscule) force, and perhaps even with a bit more power than before, if I can afford it.

Every little bit helps.

 

[ken008]

I would recomend the Pro board for $39 . I am using two right now Very nice for the money. Biostar refurb NE Good luck getting it going again.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: ken008
I would recomend the Pro board for $39 . I am using two right now Very nice for the money. Biostar refurb NE
Good luck getting it going again.

Thanks for the recommendation. However, I was planning to get one of the Epox 8RDA3+ boards, with the hope that I wouldn't have to reinstall Windows right away (it needs to be done in a month or two anyway, but it would be more convenient if I could avoid doing it right now).

 

[Unforgiven]

not to hijack the main point of this thread but has ANYONE had successful prolonged operation of a nforce 2 chipset board? i was doing a lot of searching in regards to this thread and there are a ton of people having issues with anything to do with nforce 2 chipsets and i was just wondering if it was purely coincidence or is it really truth? i plead ignorance on nforce 2 chipsets due to the fact that i had my fill of amd and via combinations and went intel because i was about to hang myself with my mouse cord! anyhow id like to hear some prolonged success stories from people who own nforce 2 chipset boards...

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Unforgiven
not to hijack the main point of this thread

I don't care, I was about ready to place an order with Newegg... until you brought up this point.

but has ANYONE had successful prolonged operation of a nforce 2 chipset board? i was doing a lot of searching in regards to this thread and there are a ton of people having issues with anything to do with nforce 2 chipsets and i was just wondering if it was purely coincidence or is it really truth? i plead ignorance on nforce 2 chipsets due to the fact that i had my fill of amd and via combinations and went intel because i was about to hang myself with my mouse cord! anyhow id like to hear some prolonged success stories from people who own nforce 2 chipset boards...

Well, tons of people have bought Nforce2 boards. When I bought my 8RDA, it was pretty new and was quite popular though relatively untested. During its operation, the only issue I had was with RAM pickiness (solved that by replacing the Kingston ValueRAM with Corsair XMS), until, of course, this Sudden Death Syndrome occured.

As a matter of fact, 3 out of the 4 motherboards that I've owned have had SDS. Two older Socket 7 boards (an Ali chipset and a SiS chipset), and this 8RDA - all after about one year. The only board that's kept working for several years now without any issues is my Gigabyte GA-7ZXE, based on... you guess it... a VIA KT133A chipset. :Q

Given this track record, I would have suspected dirty power being the cause of the death, but my 8RDA had a ThermalTake Purepower 360W PSU for all of its life (not exactly high-end, but no crappy no-name either), and a UPS for the greater part of the last half.

Argh... I was about ready to pull the trigger on a new 8RDA3+, but now you've got me wondering...

 

[Unforgiven]

yeah im just concerned because there are a few guys here at work that have had serious issues with ram, random rebooting and just overall bad luck with nforce 2 chipset mobos. like i said i plead ignorance but ive really never heard anything postitive about them that would make me personally want to purchase one. dont second guess based on just one person's concerns though, im really not familiar with the chipset and just thought some good discussion would help broaden my knowledge as well as possibly help you out to realize you arent alone in your struggles

 

[MDE]

I've had TWO Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards die on me as well as an Epox on its last legs (KT266a, bad caps). I'd recomment the Abit NF7-S or NF7 jliechty. I've had my NF7-S for a while and it's been rock solid, the only crashes were from unstable overclocks.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Unforgiven
yeah im just concerned because there are a few guys here at work that have had serious issues with ram, random rebooting and just overall bad luck with nforce 2 chipset mobos. like i said i plead ignorance but ive really never heard anything postitive about them that would make me personally want to purchase one. dont second guess based on just one person's concerns though, im really not familiar with the chipset and just thought some good discussion would help broaden my knowledge as well as possibly help you out to realize you arent alone in your struggles

Well, as I said before, it's a known matter that lots of these boards are picky about RAM. I was kind of aware of that when I bought my 8RDA, but was dumb enough to get some just totally [insert adjective of your choice here] RAM; all of my instability problems, random reboots, etc. were solved when I bought some decent RAM.

My main concern here is not dealing with little everyday issues, but rather that I don't want to have to spend tons of money on what would have otherwise been a perfectly good computer every year. In the end, it's really hard to make a definite decision in this area. NF2 boards haven't been out that long, and neither have i875P boards. If we wanted tried and true stuff, we'd just now be upgrading to 10 year old technology, like they have on the Shuttle.

 

[Confused]

I've been running an 8RDA+ for a year now, no problems. Of course I can't talk about the longer term, because tbh, i don't know!


I think that the reason we've seen so many posts regarding NF2 boards is that they're so damn popular. The same with the K7S5A. A good board (if you didn't skimp on power supply and memory), but so many threads because it was so popular. People generally don't post when they have no problems, only when there are problems. Hell, i'm sure you'll even find about the same number of BH6 (i think that's the model number) threads when they were released, and popular, but many people are prasing them as the best motherboards ever made!!


The nForce2 platform is still the best out there for Socket A processors

Or, if you're wanting a more substantial upgrade, get yourself a Athlon 64 3000+ and board for a little bit more


Garry

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: MDE
I've had TWO Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards die on me as well as an Epox on its last legs (KT266a, bad caps). I'd recomment the Abit NF7-S or NF7 jliechty. I've had my NF7-S for a while and it's been rock solid, the only crashes were from unstable overclocks.

Can you please define slightly more specifically, what you mean by "a while"?

 

[Unforgiven]

Originally posted by: Confused
I think that the reason we've seen so many posts regarding NF2 boards is that they're so damn popular. The same with the K7S5A. A good board (if you didn't skimp on power supply and memory), but so many threads because it was so popular. People generally don't post when they have no problems, only when there are problems.

excellent points there! i just know that ive heard some personal horror stories from a few people here at work which in turn led me to spawn my initial questioning of these chipsets in general. then again i had a ton of issues with anything via chipset and asus related early on in my first building experience and many others didnt. i guess to each his own but this discussion should be able to help jliechty get some good info on a purchase that will be a lasting one rather than a hastily purchased quick fix that is going to die on him in a year.

 

[Freewolf]

I have two Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards and both has been running fine for about a year now and both was newegg refubs

 

[ProviaFan]

Well, I ordered an Abit NF7-S from Newegg, along with some other stuff. It's too late to go back now.

 

[Unforgiven]

w00t! never a bad deal to do business with the egg no matter what you are buying!

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: MDE
I've had TWO Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards die on me as well as an Epox on its last legs (KT266a, bad caps). I'd recomment the Abit NF7-S or NF7 jliechty. I've had my NF7-S for a while and it's been rock solid, the only crashes were from unstable overclocks.

Can you please define slightly more specifically, what you mean by "a while"?

It's been 4-6 months. You won't regret the choice.

 

[Coolkid]

Been using my Asus A7N8X Deluxe for almost 12 months now with no problems at all (apart from problems caused by overclocking too much )

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Unforgiven
yeah im just concerned because there are a few guys here at work that have had serious issues with ram, random rebooting and just overall bad luck with nforce 2 chipset mobos. like i said i plead ignorance but ive really never heard anything postitive about them that would make me personally want to purchase one. dont second guess based on just one person's concerns though, im really not familiar with the chipset and just thought some good discussion would help broaden my knowledge as well as possibly help you out to realize you arent alone in your struggles

Weak 5 volt Rail Power Supplies wil cause the above mentioned problems with NF2.