Please, Please help me with my XP1800+and Epox 8K7A+...

[killem1x1]

I laid out the bucks for this baby today..., and no boot. I have an Iwill KA266plus, but I wanted to get it working with my Epox 8K7A+.
If anyone can tell me if they know of this chip running in one of these mobos?!?
I have it in the EPox now, and will change as soon as I can determine if this thing willfunction in one of these.
I appreciate any help.
I have a 1.4 in both of these with DDR.
Symptom is definately the Pally, because as soon as I popped it in, cleared the CMOS, no boot. The error is an "FF" on the epox mobo.
Any advice is surely welc0ome!

[Tacoman667]

The FF you see means everything is fine and your system is ok. I get FF whenever I get into windows. Have you tried your XP in the other motherboard? It is hopefully not, but I feel that the CPU may be to blame. Good luck to ya!

[killem1x1]

before I placed it in the other mobo, I am trying to determine for sure, that both these mobos support this chip.

[Microsoft]

you may need to update the bios to the most recent or even a beta that supports the meltable chip

[CrackedSKull]

A new bios came out today for the 8k7a and it supports Athlon XP.
Go to epox's website and download it and update the bios. It's what I'm running, but I don't have and Athlon XP yet.

[Genis B]

it would be nice if u can provide us some links, as i always got lost in the epox's web site:D

[CrackedSKull]

np

Bios page:

http://www.epox.com/html/english/support/motherboard/bios/8k7a.htm

8k7a+ main page:

http://www.epox.com/html/english/products/motherboard/ep-8k7a+.asp

[Genis B]

thanks heaps

[clocked1]

woo-hoo!

I got my 1533 palomino today! I soldered the L1's and dropped the multiplier to 11. It wasn't overly difficult, but then again I design circuit boards for a living and build the prototypes by hand. I first tried unlocking the chip with conductive ink like with the old chips, I only got the .5# multipliers so I obviously had a bad connection. When that "failed" I cleaned off the ink, and just grabbed my solder in an all or nothing attempt.

The soldered chip works flawlessly. I knocked the multiplier down to 11 so I can run it at the same settings as my old 1.4 tbird (151x11) in my 8k7a+ for a temp comparison. It's noticably quicker at 1661 then the tbird was, and even more importantly it's 6C cooler! Under full load I have 38C and my old tbird usually sat around 44C. I didn't try the chip with the 8/24 bios, but it was properly detected with today's 10/12 bios..

Tomorrow I'll crank it up and see how high she goes on air. I have before and after pics of my chip with both the ink and the solder, and I'll run the standard benchmarks and get some screen shots posted later this weekend. Don?t get too excided, I won't have the interesting benchmarks until next week when the new vapochill arrives. :)

[killem1x1]

Originally posted by clocked1
woo-hoo!

I got my 1533 palomino today! I soldered the L1's and dropped the multiplier to 11. It wasn't overly difficult, but then again I design circuit boards for a living and build the prototypes by hand. I first tried unlocking the chip with conductive ink like with the old chips, I only got the .5# multipliers so I obviously had a bad connection. When that "failed" I cleaned off the ink, and just grabbed my solder in an all or nothing attempt.

The soldered chip works flawlessly. I knocked the multiplier down to 11 so I can run it at the same settings as my old 1.4 tbird (151x11) in my 8k7a+ for a temp comparison. It's noticably quicker at 1661 then the tbird was, and even more importantly it's 6C cooler! Under full load I have 38C and my old tbird usually sat around 44C. I didn't try the chip with the 8/24 bios, but it was properly detected with today's 10/12 bios..

Tomorrow I'll crank it up and see how high she goes on air. I have before and after pics of my chip with both the ink and the solder, and I'll run the standard benchmarks and get some screen shots posted later this weekend. Don?t get too excided, I won't have the interesting benchmarks until next week when the new vapochill arrives. :)

I'm glad it's working great! I'm still working with mine, and will post results/Benches tonight!

[el]

crackedskull thanks for the linkage!

[killem1x1]

I'm still fighting with the floppy drive on my epox mobo. If anyone can help me nail this problem down it'd be appreciated. Right now I have the pally in my iwill ka266plus, and so far I was able to overclock higher with my T'BIRD
Although the temps are running about 10 degrees cooler, the system is just plain not as stable at high FSB settings, I could hit 167 with no problem, and now I can't even do 150.
FYI:
If there are any KA266plus owners out there (because I sure haven't found anyone else with this mobo) I really could use some help!
Right now I'm running at 136x11.5. In the latest BIOS for this board you can change the multiplier, and the voltage, but the system just will not post, so I'm sure I'll need to do the "rear window defogger job" to it, but I'm going to wait to ensure I have a decent chip.
As far as the EPOX MOBO
The floppy will not work (all of a sudden), it's been working fine for weeks, now It doesn't?!?!?!?!
All of a sudden it can't make a startup disk, or boot from floppy, it reads the disk(s), but can't fully write to one it kicks out at different places, and gives a disk i/o error when I try to boot.
Please help me confirm if I need to go pick up a new drive?
I know this chip would do a ton better in my epox mobo,
Thanks!

[killem1x1]

Anyone know where you can tell the BIOS rev #? I flashed the mobo, but don't know if I did everything 100%.

[Bubba]

Killem, I had that same floppy problem with 2(count em 2)different 8K7A+'s.I RMA'd both and decided to try one more time so I bought one from a local store and the same dang thing!I have returned the board and am waiting to get an 8KHA+ which should be in tommorrow with my new xp1800(can't wait)I never did figure it out but I know of quite a few others who had the same problem so I'm sure it's an issue with the board that Epox hasn't adressed yet.It really sucks because they're really good boards otherwise.

[killem1x1]

I have remedied the floppy problem with a new drive, (Thank God)
Now I can't get the thing to flash, this is starting to **** me off.
After I flashed the only BIOS identifier I can find is at the bottom of the POST screen:
07/11/2001-761-6863-6A6S6PAAC-00

This would suggest the BIOS date is 7-11 right?

[killem1x1]

Bump for any1 that can tel me where I can find what the BIOS should read on the POST screen after the latest flash?

[killem1x1]

Finally got it flashed, and the pally installed on this machine, WooHoo, it screams, bebacklater with some results if anyone is interested, looks like I'm gonna beat my old 3dmark2k1 score BAAAADDD!

[fullroast]

clocked1 - Did you get any multipliers to work besides 11? What board are you using?

[killem1x1]

Originally posted by fullroast
clocked1 - Did you get any multipliers to work besides 11? What board are you using?

BUMP
Ya did you?

[TRANCER24]

BUMP AGAIN

Whooo Hooo you did do it.

[clocked1]

Sorry I've been busy... :) Anyway, yes it seems I have all of the multipliers. I have an Epox 8k7a+ BTW.. :) I've only tried going down to 8.5x but I have all of the steps up to 12.5 so I'm happy with that part of it.

Strangest thing happend today, the machine isn't posting. I had everything working on Sunday night but had the machine off since I wasn't here to watch it. I was running at a nice comfortable 12x150 or a true 1800.. :) The LED's were showing a steady FF without going through the normal cycle of getting there before I just cleared the cmos, and now I'm getting a 00 message which isn't even listed in the book. I'm running the bios from last week and the chip worked so I don't think it's the problem. I have tomorrow off work and the machine is going to be sitting with guts all over my workbench until then. I've been dealing with other people puter problems all day and as a result I'm too tired to tackle my own tonight.

If anyone has some thoughts I'd be happy to read them. I'm going to start by reseating the chip and maybe putting the old tbird back in to make sure the mobo and memory is still alive.. Beyond that I'll just yank everything and start over. I already have everything but the video card and the memory out so it's a naked system.

I'm really starting not to like the 87ka+ mobo.. I had something similiar happen last month where it just stopped recognizing my tbird. I was still able to RMA that, but this time I'm out of the warranty period.. Until tonight I was planning on ordering the 8hka+ as soon as newegg would accept an order, but now I'm just gonna try the MSI K7T266 PRO2 for my kt266a needs.

[clocked1]

Ok, minor update...

Just moved the palomino to my ECS k7s5a and the chip still works. Put my tbird back into the Epox 8k7a+ and it works.. Tried the palomino back in the 8k7a+ and it's not posting under the 133x11.5 it just sits there, doesn't even send a signal to my monitor and the on board leds are again frozen on "00" I did the normal garbage (rebuilt the box, cleared the cmos, reflashed the bios with the tbird back in etc...) Suddenly the board won't recognize the XP, but it did on Sunday and the machine has been powered off, where only I have access to it. I tried a couple power supplies, a couple different vid cards, some different memory, and even stripped the box down to just mem,video,power with no dice...

I'd be happy if the ECS board had some options for "braindead" overclocking. I really don't want to keep the palomino in the ECS... I started the support option with epox in the hopes they know a trick but I'm at a loss on this one. :( Everything looks like it should work, and I can't even blame ambient temps because it's cooler here today then it was when it worked on sunday.

[el]

What PS are you using the epox are very picky about power I would use a 400 watt Antec to be safe.

[clocked1]

Tried my antec 400 and my enermax 630 with no luck..... After clearing the CMOS again now I can't even get the old 1.4 tbird to post. Unlike the PAlomino the tbird jumps immediately to an FF code without going through the dozen or so other codes it usually should do before getting there.

Still no word from epox support with ideas.. Both chips still work in my other systems, so I'm going to go try and find an kt266a board at some of the local shops today. :(

[TRANCER24]

Oh man that really bites the big one. it sounds like to me that your board has something shorting out it could be a defective board have you checked your mounting screw the one in the middle right below the northbridge chipset ive heard that a nylon washer will solve that. Im not sure if that is the symptom to that problem but worth a try. Luckily i havn't had any problems with my board with post im using rev 1.1.. Good luck i hope you figure it out .

[killem1x1]

I'm very sorry you are having probs! When u were sailing I was fighting, but now I'm kickin it, and your DOA. I've still not done anything to the bridges except clean them up really well tonight, make sure all the "gold" is visible, I picked up the reaer defogger, but I'm trying to find some info/pics on the web of someone actually going through the process of unlocking. It would seem like someone would do this, imagine the hits that page would get. I'm attaching my latest 3dmark @ stock xp1800+ with my GF3 Ti
Well, I didn't save the screenshot, but it was just over 7800, my previous high was 7300 with my T'bird and regular GF3

[clocked1]

Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've had problems with the 8k7a+ the first one I had was RMA'ed after the first week with a bad socket. That one was a rev 1.0 and I was lucky enough to get a rev 1.1 as a replacement, or so I thought.

Unfortunately there is no chance of the back of the board shorting out right now. As a nice bonus to trying different power supplies I have my board out of the case on a non conductive rubber pad on my workbench. I think I'm dealing with a dead board, I've tried my old tbird and it's not even recognizing it anymore. Both chips work in my other motherboards, and I've gone so far as to move video/memory from one of the others to the epox in the hope but haven't been lucky.

I ordered an MSI kt7pro2 earlier today and should have it by Friday. I love the EPOX board, but after facing 2 dead boards in 3 months where they just stop posting for no reason I'm afraid to buy another epox. When they work they're arguably the best out there, but when they don't work there is no support, and they leave you to fight with their vendor's for RMAs instead of just handling them directly.

This palomino is working great in my ECS board at 1725, but this board doesn't have near the goodies as my 8k7a+ and I've reached the limit for this board and what I'm willing to do to it.

I got another bios plcc and a battery for the epox coming tomorrow so hopefully it will work.

[killem1x1]

Can you take a pic of your unlocked pally?