Epox EP-8RDA+ Problem

Is your memory not fully recognized? (Intel VX chipset Memory recognition)
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JEWilson
Chip off the ol' block
Posts: 109
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:51 am

Recd this mobo dead.

The mobo had a number of vented caps. Replaced all the bad caps
and checked remainder with ESR meter.

Powered up mobo with an Athlon XP 2600+ (AXDA2600DKV3D)
I installed an Infineon 512MB PC3200 DIMM
The mobo has award bios 20040729 - 8rda4729.bin

I found the battery dead as the mobo would not retain settings

Having problems getting the mobo to start correctly
As it is an EPOX, has a POST Code display.
This halts at 1C and 25 and some other codes.

I reflashed the BIOS but believe, after the above, the BIOS.
load step is not committing and this may, in fact be a bad.
BIOS checksum - hence 1C and/or incompatible memory as
with test extended memory as with 25.

The BIOS device is PMC 4MBit LPC type.
Are these suspect? I could test the device with my fware flasher.
Reseat the BIOS IC?

Any comments? Suggestions?
JEWilson
Chip off the ol' block
Posts: 109
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:51 am

Ok

This mobo has come to life again.
I have recapped it (changed all the lytic caps).

Upgraded BIOS to latest and last i.e. 20040729, 8rda4729.zip

Having problems with DIMMs.

I am using an Athlon XP Barton 2500+ FSB 333.
I have tried several DIMMs such as;
1 of Infineon PC3200 512MB in slot 1
2 of Infineon PC3200 512MB dual channel
1 of Samsung PC2700 512MB in slot 1

With memtest86+ v2.11 running from d/kettes, as soon as it loads
it reports thousands of errors.

If I try to use Hirens boot cd to test the mobo, it
hangs at buliding the ramdisk. Consistent with ram issue above.
However, when using the dos diskette to update the BIOS,
it appeared to work ok.
So... I surmise, the base memory between 512k-1MB would appear to be ok.

I suspected this might be an EMI problem and elected
to changed the spread spectrum BIOS setting to see if had
any effect. These settings are disabled in the stock BIOS above.

This is an AWARD BIOS, so I opted to use modbin
to enable spread spectrum. Done this ok.

Updated the mobo with the modded BIOS. ok

However, I found these settings remain disabled in the BIOS
but found further, the memory started working and the initial
problems with memtest86+ v2.11 stopped.
I could even test the stick of ram installed with test 5, 20 iterations.

I had then had problems with the BIOS loading at POST and
reverted to the stock BIOS above.

Any suggestions here as to what might be the problem?

Also, I want to enable the BIOS to run a copy of
Acer WinXP Pro and
Acer WinVista Home Premium

So, will have to further mod the BIOS to enable pre-activation.

Any help here?

Thanks in advance.
edwin
The Hardware Archivist
Posts: 6286
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
Location: Netherlands
Contact:

SLIC request = trying to run OEM copy of windows on non-OEM hardware = violation of the forum rules.

Locked.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
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