What modell/brand is this mobo? HELP PLZ!

kardanase · Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:44 pm

Hey!
Just the other day I bought a dirt cheap motherboard from my local dealer. The dealer told me that they got it without the proper box and manual since they returned a broken motherboard to the manufacturer (RMA might be the word for it). So I bought it in a brown box without anything else in it.
It´s supposed to be called "IA-P4" but it´s just impossible to find any info about it. The mobo clearly states IA-P4 with white bold letters.
It has a 4xAGP, 3xPCI, 2xUSB, 2 slots for DDR, 2xLAN, built in audio (AC97) as well as built in crappy gfx (8Mb).
I belive the chipset is called i845GE or maybe just i845G.
The exact sice is 31cm x 22cm, I belive that´s 12,2" x 8,66".
The BIOS setup lookes just like the one on the EP-4GEAE(I) (Epox) modell. There´s just one problem, I can´t change the FSB speed "since it is light blue" (like when you can´t change the setting) and the multiplier setting doesn´t even exist in the menu.
At the moment my 1,8GHz P4 is detected as a 2,53GHz P4 and since I can´t change neither FSB frekvency nor the multiplier I can´t get it to work properly.
Do I need a BIOS upgrade or have I missed some jumper seting of some sort?

And I can´t see the bootup BIOS code due to a huge startup logo that says "Broadbandbox TM", it´s in grey scale and there's a big B next to the text. Is it common that you can choose wheater or not to show the logo at start up?

The dealer said that it was an Epox one.

It has a white note on it with a barcode and a number: 33003600844.
Here´s the url to a picture of the actuall motherboard.
http://home.student.uu.se/daka6071/motherboard.jpg

Almost forgot, it´s PCB ver 0,4.
I would be most greatful if you could help me with this!

Regards,
Daniel.

Mon Sep 25, 2006 1:14 am

Might be an OEM board with restricted Bios.
Please post the full Bios-ID to get some form of identification. To view the Bios-ID try to disable to Logo inside the Bios.

Maybe you need a Clear CMOS to have your board properly detect the CPU.

Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:02 am

to get rid of the logo push 'Esc' and then 'Pause' to buy some time to write down the bios id.

kardanase · Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:15 pm

Denniss wrote:Might be an OEM board with restricted Bios.
Please post the full Bios-ID to get some form of identification. To view the Bios-ID try to disable to Logo inside the Bios.

Maybe you need a Clear CMOS to have your board properly detect the CPU.

Can´t disable the logo in bios and I´ve allready tried clearing the CMOS.

I´m gonna try hitting ESC when the logo shows up and see what happens.

kardanase · Mon Sep 25, 2006 3:21 pm

When hitting ESC all that happens is that when the logo goes away (takes just as long for it to do so) the choose boot device order-menue shows up.

I´ve realised that it´s a Phoenix BIOS.

Here´s a screen shot of the BIOS menue.
http://home.student.uu.se/daka6071/BIOS ... 20shot.jpg

And another picture of the mobo.
http://home.student.uu.se/daka6071/motherboard2.jpg

There are 2 large chips on the motherboard, as always, and I belive that the one with the passive cooler is the north bridge and the other one is the south bridge. Right?
The one without the cooling says:
FW82801DB
L3020211
SL6DM

I´ve also realized that it has 2xfirewire, 2xlan and at the bottom of the motherboard it says "bluetooth module ready". This combined with where the power connectors are placed on the motherboard makes me think that it has to be the same manufacturer that made the EP-4PE-series for Epox.
Look at this picture.
http://www.epox.com/USA/showimage.asp?ID=EP-4PEAEI

Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:31 pm

i hope you tried hitting ESC more than once..anyways, the board is somewhat unique: it's most probably for a multimedia box by Wellton Way (http://www.broadbandbox.net/). it MAY be a variation of the EPoX board but still it features a different layout and different hardware (..2x LAN). So even if you'd flash the EPoX BIOS and it still works, you'd probably render most of the onboard components useless as they are not present on the EPoX board.

just curious..what options are available for CPU FSB/SPEED?

Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:41 pm

It is EpoX allright:
http://www.tradera.com/auction/auction. ... d=33226235

Now we have to find out where to get the drivers from.

kardanase · Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:29 pm

edwin wrote:It is EpoX allright:
http://www.tradera.com/auction/auction. ... d=33226235

Now we have to find out where to get the drivers from.

Why take that guys word for it when according to Epoxs website they never made a board called IA-P4?

cp wrote:i hope you tried hitting ESC more than once..anyways, the board is somewhat unique: it's most probably for a multimedia box by Wellton Way (http://www.broadbandbox.net/). it MAY be a variation of the EPoX board but still it features a different layout and different hardware (..2x LAN). So even if you'd flash the EPoX BIOS and it still works, you'd probably render most of the onboard components useless as they are not present on the EPoX board.

just curious..what options are available for CPU FSB/SPEED?

That´s my thought exactly! I also found that Wellton Way homepage.
When it comes to options for CPU FSB/SPEED, there are none that I can change.... The board auto detects the rams as being PC2100 and sets the FSB to 533MHz, hence my problem.
I´m gonna send WW an email and ask for BIOS upgrades for that board. I bet that they´re not gonna answer me though.

Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:14 pm

Why take that guys word for it when according to Epoxs website they never made a board called IA-P4?

Because I was too lazy to quote the seven others.

kardanase · Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:38 pm

edwin wrote:

Why take that guys word for it when according to Epoxs website they never made a board called IA-P4?
Because I was too lazy to quote the seven others.

2 different sellers on Tradera are selling cards that they call "EPOX IA-P4" but none of them have an explanation to why EPOX don´t have the card listed on any of their webpages.
Also there are NO support what so ever offerd for a card called "IA-P4" from EPOX´s part. However, I have still sent them an email asking about the motherboard. It might be that it´s specially made for Broadbandbox, or Wellton Way (their new company name). But I don+t think that sounds very likely...

Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:07 pm

Asus is making boards specially for Sony Vaio PCs, HP Pavilion PCs and other OEMs. So are MSI, PcPartner, Intel, TriGem. These are boards that cannot be found anywhere in the retail circuit. So yes, it is perfectly possible these boards are made only for these boxes and not sold seperately as retail items.

kardanase · Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:14 am

edwin wrote:Asus is making boards specially for Sony Vaio PCs, HP Pavilion PCs and other OEMs. So are MSI, PcPartner, Intel, TriGem. These are boards that cannot be found anywhere in the retail circuit. So yes, it is perfectly possible these boards are made only for these boxes and not sold seperately as retail items.

Yeah, but usually if you google the motherboards modell number/name you get at least a couple of hits. Anyways let´s hope they get back to me!