Are Epox motherboards reliable?
My wonderful(till last evening) homemade video editing machine just died while surfing late last night.
It is based on an Ep-8RGA+ and suited me to a T.
Numerious reboots yielded several different post codes (23, FF, CF among others)
After reading the emergency forum I'm going to get the ram checked first thing tomorrow but fearing the worst I'm here to ask about the rep Epox has.
This is something like my 6th homebuilt machine since the 80286 I started with years ago so I've seen a lot of electrons flow under the bridge and am beginning to believe some hardware is a lot less reliable than average.
What do you all hear about Epox mobos with Nvidia chipsets?
Do they fail any more or less often than average?
Any one hate them?
Any one love them?
If it is a dead motherboard I'd like replace it with another of the same model but I don't want to be a sucker.
Thanks
Steve
It is based on an Ep-8RGA+ and suited me to a T.
Numerious reboots yielded several different post codes (23, FF, CF among others)
After reading the emergency forum I'm going to get the ram checked first thing tomorrow but fearing the worst I'm here to ask about the rep Epox has.
This is something like my 6th homebuilt machine since the 80286 I started with years ago so I've seen a lot of electrons flow under the bridge and am beginning to believe some hardware is a lot less reliable than average.
What do you all hear about Epox mobos with Nvidia chipsets?
Do they fail any more or less often than average?
Any one hate them?
Any one love them?
If it is a dead motherboard I'd like replace it with another of the same model but I don't want to be a sucker.
Thanks
Steve
0
Comments
There are more than enough dead EPoX boards to go around. I personally have had 2 dead EPoX boards on 2 solid chipsets.
I see that Thrax beat me to the punch on the answer too, but he was polite.
That said, do you know if they will fix a board for $$ so I can have a chance of it lasting longer than the winter?
Steve, they will fix it for around $15-20 but you also have to pay to ship it to them and there is no guarrantee the board will work right when you get it back. I had shipped my 8KHA+ to them for the bad cap problem and they sent me back my board with the caps changed all right, but the board was still borked. So I wasted around $25-30 for nothing. You just might check into buying a BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" replacement instead of trying to get the Epox fixed. I've messed with a few nf2 Biostar boards and they aren't bad, for inexpensive mobo's.
I've been using Epox mobos for >4 years including my 8KRA2+ (1.5 yrs old) & 8K9A2+ (2+ yrs old). (Also a 8KHA+, 8K3A+ 8K5A2+ and several 8RDA+). I never had one fail on me and my comps run 24/7. All of my old Epox mobos were sold to people in my local area and I haven't had ANYONE come back to me saying their mobo doesn't work anymore!
Unlike what Thrax (Resident Epox Hater!
And if you do a quick search you can find many threads about Abit mobo problems #1, #2, #3....ALnog with problems by every other manufacturer. The capacitor issue has affected many Motherboard OEMs. Link 2, Link 3
Try and RMA yor motherboard (for free), If it's still under warrenty. If it's not, my recommendation is to buy a new NF2 motherboard from Newegg. Either Epox (8RDA3+ or 8RDA6 Pro) , Abit (NF7-S v2 or AN7) orAsus A7N8X. BTW I have a Abit NF7-S v2 you can have cheap! $65 shipped
Mobos last a long time but not forever!
Wow! First post and I get answers and entertainment!
Om, Thrax, thanks for the replacement ideas but I want the dual on board VGA, IEEE1394, and 6 channel spidf in/out.
Om, has Epox made a replacement for the 8RGA+?
Thrax, it looks like if I go Biostar I'd need the M7NCG PRO.
Right now it looks like for the smallest out of pocket, if the RAM checks OK, I'll RMA the mobo (if they still fix that model and if the price seems fair).
If Epox repair isn't up to it, I don't know which way I'll go.
Thank you all. I'll keep you posted on this saga.
Steve
Make that two. I loved my Epox board. I sold it into the SMx project and Kwitko discovered that the caps on it were bad, but it was running great for me before I sent it. The caps lasted about three years for me.
Epox 8RGMI
Also IMO Onboard video sucks. I have video cards gathering dust on a shelf that are faster. Besides people across several forums are selling 9700 Pros for $110-125 & GF4-4600 for ~$85. Heads and above the 8RGA+ GF4-MX level graphics.
I get what your saying but for audio and video editing you don't use any 3d or use the rendering power at all. Beside the app interface, only thing on the screen is 800X600 television video (that's also why I need two screens and spidf in/out).
Steve
Welcome to short-media, they do that alot around here...
My 8RDA+ is going strong for almost 2 years now....its my main board....although Pseudo has already gone through his....I think it just must be luck of the draw.
Just picked up RAM. It ran flawlessly for two hours at max bus speed on a repair shop's machine running a memory diagnostic and though they made me sign for a 25 buck estimate, they didn't charge a dime!
Also found I have 20+ days left on the mobo warranty.
Woohoo!
RMA here I come!
(Insert wacky signature here)
I didn't have any problems with the way my 8KHA+ performed right up until the caps took it out; it was a great performing mobo and overclocked like crazy. I just have issues with them continuing to use the cheap caps even after they started to be a problem that just about everyone else had addressed by using better caps on their motherboards. As far as motherboard design goes, I would say that their engineers rank up with the rest of the top rank.
BTW, the motherboards that got the GSC caps are by far the worst offenders on the bad cap issue.
Got the 8RGA+ back from Epox repair yesterday and fired it up.
I noticed the caps were a different color so it's either a new board or they did change them out.
Now, settings for best *stable* performance:
It's populated with an Athlon 2500+ and a single 512 stick of 2700 ram.
Thing is, letting it autoconfig (new bios chip) it wasn't stable; spontaneous reboots every few minutes.
The auto config set FSB at 166 and that put the ram at 166 with tras=7, trcd=3, trp=3, and CAS late=2.5.
To make it stable I slowed the FSB to 100. 5,2,2,2.0 came up in auto mode and it is steady as a rock.
Now, WTF does this mean? Maybe the ram stick is a piece of crap?
Also if it is marginal, is there likely another set of numbers that might work with the FSB kept at 166? I don't like giving up the 166 FSB unless I have to.
I know the ram is the cheapest I could find at Fry's so it has to be the prime suspect even thought the repair shop claims to have tested it thoroughly.
BTW, the CPU is coasting at 40C with a stock cooler.
Steve