*** Official EPoX 8RDA/+ (nForce2) Thread ***

[Stephan28]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
Key item: when installing the nForce driver package, answer No if you're asked if you want the SW IDE driver installed. This is likely to fix the issue (in conjunction with the Nero update patch), it usually does.

What is it with these drivers?!!? What are they supposed to do and what kind of problems are they causing? Fortunately I had read about this before I did the installation and answered "no" but not sure why.

 

[mechBgon]

It's a driver which works extra-well for IDE hard drives but at the expense of optical drives. It is strange that nVidia puts out drivers that are almost guaranteed to make optical burners freak out If you had installed them, you could re-run the driver installer and say No, and I think you'd be back to normal.

 

[Mark]

im having a problem with this board. when i try and power up my machine, it turns on for a split second then turns off. anyone know what could be causing this? when i installed and ran it yesterday with my new cpu(xp 1800 palomino) and new ram(512mn 2700 ddr) it said something about the cpu not being configured properly and i noticed it was onl running at 1150. so i figured it was asking me to change the fsb from 100 to 133. so i did, restarted and this problem came up. i know its not the power supply, cause today i bought a new case with an antec 430 watt power supply(previous was 300) and got the same problem as yesterday. any help would be appreciated.


thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Maybe your heatsink is on backwards. That prevents flat contact between the CPU core and the heatsink, and will result in immediate CPU overheat & emergency shut-off. The base of the heatsink will have a step cut into one end to provide clearance over the solid-plastic end of the CPU socket, which is the top edge on the 8RDA+.

If you bought a heatsink which comes disassembled, such as a Volcano 7+, you would also need to ensure that you put the clip into the heatsink so that its pressure point matches the location of the CPU core.

Good luck, hope it's something this easy to correct or otherwise post again. Also take note of my info about the USB3 header (third post in this thread).

 

[Mark]

 

[Mark]

didnt work and i know it isnt the usb3 because i dont use it. this is really frustrating. also, how do i reset my cmos? do i change the jumper, then boot it up or do i change the jumper, change it back then reboot? i did it the first way and im thinking i may have damaged by board.

 

[mechBgon]

To reset the CMOS, unplug your system from the wall, move the CMOS jumper for about ten seconds, move it back, plug the system in again and start it up.

What BIOS revision do you have? What heatsink/fan unit are you using? If there are any slow-turning fans being powered from the motherboard, try unplugging them. Also try with no IDE drives plugged in, if you haven't already, and make sure that none of the springy contact thingies are getting into the rear USB or LAN ports at the I/O panel.

 

[Mark]

thanks for the help. i can get it to power up now, but i dont get any screen and get beeps from the motherboard. on the led, i see "AA". dont know what that means, and i tried resetting the bios like you instructed but didnt do anything. any other suggestions?

 

[mechBgon]

Beeps... hmm, I keep thinking overheat problem. You're sure the CPU core and heatsink are making good thermal contact with eachother?

If you can get to the BIOS, do make sure to hard-set the RAM to 133MHz (DDR266) speed rather than leaving it at Auto. If you have the 3/5 BIOS then I suggest back-grading to the 1/29 BIOS right away by putting it on floppy (just the .BIN file) and pressing Alt + F2 at POST... I wish I could take this advice myself, but [ Darth ] It is too late for me [ / Darth ]

 

[Mark]

i think the bios is somehow screwed. because the bios chip directly next to the led has a printed "AA" right on it, and "AA" is what im getting on the led. and the fan im using is the one i pulled off my tbird, which im told runs hotter than palominos. also the beeping that im hearing sounds somewhat like an ambulence.




edit: i may have found something, but it might not be of use. appearantly this board used to have an issue hanging at the post with an post code of "aa" whenever you saved any bios settings using the f10, which is exactly what i did yesterday. this was fixed with a bios update but that doesnt do me any good seeing as how i cant get into the bios anymore.

 

[webley]

Here's how my 8RDA+ 166 FSB problems worked out. I received the new mainboard (also 8RDA+) and it was DOA so I can't test if the mainboard was the problem. I also got 2 of 512 MB sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3000 ram to replace the Crucial PC2100 ram (2x512 MB). So I ended up testing the new ram on the old mainboard and it works but only up to 166 FSB and not to about 185 FBS as it's rated to work at.

My conclusion so far is that at least some 8RDA boards require ram to be rated somewhat higher than what you're going to run it at so you may have to underclock your ram to get a stable system. My Crucial PC2100 only ran at 150 FSB and now my PC3000 only runs at 167 FSB. I'm going to keep the old motherboard and RMA the new DOA one (from Newegg) and use the new ram. I wish you could run the ram at it's default FSB setting. Overall though I'm happy to be running at 2254 MHz 167x13.5 at CAS 2 so it's a good rig but I'm most happy that I'm no longer getting a BSOD 10 times a day (now it's zero times a day) .

 

[Megatomic]

Webley, how high will one stick of HyperX run? I have my one stick of Corsair XMS PC3200 running completely stable at 190FSB at 100% with 6-2-2-2 for timings.

 

[JohnnyT]

Hi, I need some help building my first machine.

Everything connected and Bios seems set up correctly, but doesn't seem to access Floppy or CDRW. I have XP in the CDRW and a bootable disk in the floppy drive. I've tried all sorts of boot orders, cable selects, master/slave settings, power connector combos.

Drives are identified in Bios (HD identified incorrectly as WD 1200BB), but just boots to blinking cursor and code 'Ed' in the LCD diagnostic on the MB. CDROM lcd blinks a few times during the post, and allows me to eject the tray. No life from the floppy at all.

Can anyone help?

 

[JohnnyT]

I could always go to Epox's site for help. Oh wait, it's been down for 2+ days. Is there a mirror? I need some kinda help here...

 

[MARMADUKE]

ValueRam is cheap overclocked (voltage) ram that only boots in the 8rda if the voltage is 2.7, so a brand new 8rda will not boot with this type of ram unless you can set vdimm to 2.7 or flash bios!
I suspect all these other sticks of ram that are not booting up the unflashed 8rda are also cheap overclocked sticks!
EPOX has changed the default voltage settings on some of the cheap sticks to 2.7!.. just flash new bios 3/5 if you really wanna run this crap in a nforce2 system!
sticks I have tested:
corsair boots@2.6 (220fsb)
samsung boots @2.7(post errors when you hit 160 fsb)
kingston boots@2.7(post errors when you hit 155 fsb)
extremeddr boots@2.6(209fsb)
mushkin boots@2.6(200fsb)
elixir boots@2.6 (best low budget ram for the 8rda, it boots @ default settings and will overclock some!)

 

[MARMADUKE]

JohnnyT
list all your parts and how they are configured.
first thing.. you need to remove jumper from HD and go to setup and set vdimm to 2.7

 

[MARMADUKE]

Mark
list all your parts and how they are configured.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: JohnnyT
Hi, I need some help building my first machine.

Everything connected and Bios seems set up correctly, but doesn't seem to access Floppy or CDRW. I have XP in the CDRW and a bootable disk in the floppy drive. I've tried all sorts of boot orders, cable selects, master/slave settings, power connector combos.

Drives are identified in Bios (HD identified incorrectly as WD 1200BB), but just boots to blinking cursor and code 'Ed' in the LCD diagnostic on the MB. CDROM lcd blinks a few times during the post, and allows me to eject the tray. No life from the floppy at all.

Can anyone help?

Start by putting the WD drive on its own cable and jumpering it to the "Single Drive" setting, if you haven't already. If it still gives you trouble, consult this thread for another possible issue & solution that's specific to a small number of WD drives with nForce2 boards.

You can press the ESC key at POST to call up a boot menu, by the way... very useful

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: JohnnyT
I could always go to Epox's site for help. Oh wait, it's been down for 2+ days. Is there a mirror? I need some kinda help here...

It keeps giving me an error that the server's getting too much traffic; I haven't been able to access their site during the day for a few weeks now; it does work at night for me though. If I do need something during the day, I usually use their Europe site, though it is a bit slow because of being so far away.

 

[SpideyCU]

Originally posted by: MARMADUKE
ValueRam is cheap overclocked (voltage) ram that only boots in the 8rda if the voltage is 2.7, so a brand new 8rda will not boot with this type of ram unless you can set vdimm to 2.7 or flash bios!
I suspect all these other sticks of ram that are not booting up the unflashed 8rda are also cheap overclocked sticks!
EPOX has changed the default voltage settings on some of the cheap sticks to 2.7!.. just flash new bios 3/5 if you really wanna run this crap in a nforce2 system!

Well, I'm running a GB of ValueRam and there are no boot issues at 2.63 V. Changing to 2.77 V doesn't take away my stability problems at 166 MHz. Sorry, I know it sounds easy to point to the RAM as being crappy, but that's not the problem. Lots of other people have had their sticks work just fine at default ratings, and beyond, in non-nForce2 system, but it just won't do it an NF2. This is also an issue with Crucial PC2700 512 MB sticks in the same boards...are you going to tell me that's "crap" as well?

I'm just trying to clarify some points. As a person who's been experiencing this personally and testing a variety of situations, I can say that the problem isn't because this is "overclocked crap". With or without voltage tweaks, my system isn't stable at over 157 MHz. Since it's been stated that approximately 3% of 8RDA(+)'s have this issue with certain memory (I'm remiss to find the link at the moment), I think it's safe to say that's the problem. Now, as to whether a BIOS update can fix it, or an RMA is needed to fully circumvent the problem - I can't say.

 

[mboy]

Check out my rigs-Big Dawg

8rda+/xp2100/2x256mb twinmos/winbond pc3200

11.5 x 200 mem 5-2-2-2 = 2.305 Ghz Prime 95 certified

I luv this setup!!!!!!!

 

[MARMADUKE]

SpideyCU
Yes it is the problem!, I have seen people trash that no-frills crap for corsair and are now hitting 190-250 fsb, crucial is garbage! AKA generic micron!
so far I know of about 20 people who could not get over 155fsb when using kingston,samsung and crucial, some could not boot up there 8rda unless they flashed or swapped out memory, did they RMA there boards? NO..they got made in the USA corsair ram!

Do a search on the net for memory shootout and you will see all the tests that kingston,samsung, and crucial failed to perform! surprise!

SpideyCU:
Since it's been stated that approximately 3% of 8RDA(+)'s have this issue? LOL

Reminds me of when the msi-k7master came out (2000) and people were rma'ing perfectly good boards because it would not boot no-frills ram and kingston and crucial would choke during overclock.

You dont put no-frills gasoline in a race car do you?

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: MARMADUKE
SpideyCU
Yes it is the problem!, I have seen people trash that no-frills crap for corsair and are now hitting 190-250 fsb, crucial is garbage! AKA generic micron!
so far I know of about 20 people who could not get over 155fsb when using kingston,samsung and crucial, some could not boot up there 8rda unless they flashed or swapped out memory, did they RMA there boards? NO..they got made in the USA corsair ram!

Do a search on the net for memory shootout and you will see all the tests that kingston,samsung, and crucial failed to perform! surprise!

SpideyCU:
Since it's been stated that approximately 3% of 8RDA(+)'s have this issue? LOL

Reminds me of when the msi-k7master came out (2000) and people were rma'ing perfectly good boards because it would not boot no-frills ram and kingston and crucial would choke during overclock.

You dont put no-frills gasoline in a race car do you?

It's not really garbage if it runs just fine on another motherboard. I had 1GB Kingston ValueRam PC2700 that ran at 166MHz FSB all day long on my Epox 8K3A+ but when I put it into my Epox 8RDA+ it wasn't good for anything much over 145MHz FSB. The memory was fine there was just an incompatibility between the memory and either the memory controller on the motherboard or the BIOS code itself. Which is to blame? I'd say neither since the memory is good to go on other boards and the board is fine since it runs well with other memory. Some boards are just finicky, the 8RDA+ happens to be one of them. I learned the hard way.

 

[SpideyCU]

SeekingTao's exactly on the ball, that's the point. The stuff runs FINE elsewhere. It's an issue with only certain 512 MB sticks. Again, if you're not personally experiencing the problem and testing the variety of situations yourself, I'd recommend refraining from blaming the memory outright. There have been a multitude of similar experiences on these forums and others. cvb, webley, SeekingTao, and myself, just to name a few off the top of my head, have run into this, and our memory works fine in other boards at rated speeds, even beyond. I'm not sure how to more clearly state this - the memory itself isn't at fault, it's a combination of certain memory with NF2 boards.

 

[Mark]

this is the biggest pos motherboard ive ever had. today i went to frys to try and get a replacement on this, they said they were out of stock and told me to go 100 miles to another frys. so i go over there, get another 8rda, come home, connect everything, boot up, and it tells me something about an overclocking error and detects my xp1800 running at 1150. so i ignore it and hit enter to bypass this, then the video goes dead. so i restart, change all the settings to the ones suggested in here, and save it(without hitting f10 this time). it restarts, doesnt post, getting an "ff" on the led. shut off computer, clear cmos, and try again, same thing. i dont really understand how its possible to kill the bios by changing a few settings, i should be able to change them back by clearing the cmos am i not? f*ck this motherboard, i knew i should have gotten the msi when i saw it.