Epox 8RDA Audio, WTF?

I recently purchased an Epox 8RDA+ Nforce2 motherboard and it seems to be working just fine. However, I have a major issue with the sound on this board. Apparently some genius at Epox decided to make it so that the 3 output plugs on the back of the board would be shared for 2 speaker and 6 speaker mode. No other add-on board is included, so, not only is there apparently no digital output on the board but if you are using a 5.1 setup you have no mic input. I'm sorry, but this is just ridiculous and totally unacceptable for those of us who play online games. I mean, We can't have our system both configured for 5.1 sound and a mic at the same time????!!!

Apparently there's some front bracket you can buy to allow mic input and output from the front, yet it doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere. In fact there's not even any mention of it on the Epox site.

Please someone tell me that I'm just doing something wrong, or that something was left out of the motherboard I received, because otherwise this is just ridiculous...

that is realy wierd there is NO spdif? wierd wierd wierd


im happy i juz got my spdif optical on my kt400 abit to output actual dolby 5.1 to my kenwood reciever weeeee

that is realy jacked that u cant get digital output i mean who wants 5.1 analog :/

the s/pdif daughter card for 8RDA+ will be out tuesday and you can get a front panel audio to have mic input etc.

Where do you get the extra addons and how much are they gonna cost Elusion? I haven't seen anything on them yet.

all my info are from AOA forum.... However, I do not advise you go to there.... it is a BAD forum sponsored by Epox. Nothing negatvie can be said about Epox over there.

I did search for an Front Panel Audio (if you check your manual on page 3-10, it describe the header pins on the board for front panel audio) However, few I found its as good as Creative Live Drive IR. They roughly cost about US$ 20~30.

I have no idea about the SPDIF card is going to cost.

Yeah.... Epox 8RDA+ is only US$ 102 @ mwave.com, it did lack of some of the essential for hardcore gamers, however, with much $20 cheaper in price and rated best OC NForce2 board by Anatech, Epox is trying to capture more market than satisfy us.

ftp://ftp.epox.com/motherboard/support/FAQ/accessory-purchase.pdf
Ouch...spdif adapter card for $35. Maybe I'll just get a A7N8X.

ouch... that hurts.... $35.....

any info on a good front panel audio?

At this point I guess I'll have to buy the front panel, but if I had it to do over again I'd just go with the A7N8X. I wish Anandtech would actually be thorough in their stupid reviews and not just run through and benchmark everything without sound. It's ridiculous that they didn't notice the strange sound situation on the Epox board which is a major strike against it, IMO.

Actually, at this point I haven't been able to even get the audio output to work at all except in 2.0 speaker mode. The drivers on the CD don't install the Nforce control panel for some bizarre reason. I tried to install the newest Nforce drivers online but the installer crashes at 1%. I finally got the stuff installed by manually searching for the .infs in the device manager... Audio output still only works on 2.0 and NOLF2 freezes after about 10 seconds, regardless of the fact I've backed off all settings to default in the BIOS...

So far, not so good...

I am using my klipsch 5.1 speaker with the onboard sound. I have no problem installing the drivers from the CD and use the nVidia Control Panel to set up my speakers perfect.... EAX 2.0 works well too. Only thing I missed is my Live Drive II IR.....

What OS are you running? I'm in Win98. Finally got the drivers off the CD to install properly. It seems like the problem was the installer came across a file that already existed, causing a prompt for overwriting, but instead of stopping and waiting it just kept installing in the background, causing a big mess. After the drivers were installed right, speaker selection works properly.

Unfortunately sound in games is totally screwed up. The sound in the 3Dmark2000 demo does not run at the right speed. It plays too fast then stutters to a stop. In NOLF2 the game will only run about 10 seconds before freezing up.

The newer Nforce drivers still won't install properly, but I guess I'll try to manually install them again. At this point I'm totally at a loss as to what the problem is, except it seems like it all revolves around the sound.

That does suck! Thats why I bought a sound card!

Thats why i bought a A7N8X. I have alot of movies stored on my harddrives and i plug the s/pdif into my home receiver.

With NF2 sound you dont need any other sound cards.

I am using WinXP... and it is been smooth for me...

What IRQ is used by the onboard sound on your Win98?

mine use IRQ 3 and I have both Com Ports and Parallel Port disabled from the bios.

nForce audio sucks in Win98

Nagorak,

I recently installed an nForce original a7n266-vm for a friend and have had nothing but grief with the sound drivers for Win98.

Neither the Asus nor nVidia reference drivers solved the problem. What's worse is if you read all the readme's, they all tell you to manually install the sound drivers for win98. The setup.exe works fine for xp, 2000, and WinME. A friend did the same board for someone else with 2000 and it went seamlessly.

I did some probing in other forums and found other people with the same problem. The answer is either new OS or new sound card. I fear win98 support will be dieing soon... so sad.

Good luck.

Yeah, I had no driver install issues with my A7N266-VM albeit I have used it with WinXP and Linux. Not sure if it's possible to get the 5.1 Surround in Linux.

This is why I'll probably stick with my Audigy when I switch to a new setup, rather than relying on a board that has onboard sound.

Audigy is a good sound card.

However, the benchmarks shows that audigy 1 reduce about 3% of performance vs using onboard sound on Nforce2. (Nvidia must optimized their MCP-T especially for the sound storm)

NForce2 Onboard sound's quality is same as audigy in many Audigy owner's opinion. However, Epox didn't make a S/PDIF out put for a 5.1 onboard sound is just wrong.

Win98 support is dying no doubt about that. M$ has tried to push WinXP home very hard and I really find XP more stable and cleaner (I have disabled all the fruity interface stuff of XP... it looks more like W2k).

Also, another beta bios is out for Epox 8RDA. 8RD12C06.BIN not for the 8RDA+. 8RDA+ owner can use this bios but they will lose the onboard sound. This bios is only made for MCP and not for MCP-T.

Fixed:
1.) Patch Athlon XP 2400+ (166*12) main processor information shows incorrect at boot screen.
2.) Patch CPU ratio adjusts failed for the some 0.13u Athlon XP CPU.
3.) Added code for Athlon Model 10(Barton) support.
4.) Patch PS2 mouse crazy on the Win98SE resume for 8RDA.
5.) Fix USB 2.0 enable failed.
6.) Change Optimized/Setup default DIMM voltage to 2.77v for Kingmax module.
7.) Added "Auto" mode for Memory Clock follower BPL 2.73.
8.) OPEN FSB 250MHZ Selectable.
9.) Patch Flash Write Protect Init fail.
10.) Enhance FAN detectable range.

That is why ladies in gentlemen why I bought my Audigy Gamer. Now I can love my 8rda+ without any reservations.

NOTE: This 8RDA Bios is not intended to 8RDA+.
Flash at own risk.

To flash I used this commando:
awdflash 8rc1c206.bin /py /sn /cc /QI

You will still get that error but can force flash.

Nagorak,

i have this thing that plugs into one of the ports on the back of my sound card and it has 2places for things to plu into it...so you can share 2 things on the same channel..why dont you try picking something like that up? although i am sorry i just got mine at a comp show so iunno where to get 1...i saw it and jumped on it...

I finally got the sound working by setting the DX acceleration levels down 2 notches. That's not really ideal, I suppose, but I guess it will do for now. I've decided the 5.1 setup on the board isn't really that bad, because if you're using a mic you're going to be running with headphones anyway. So, hopefully, you can just leave the mic plugged into the mic slot along with the sub by using a y-splitter... Haven't tested it out to see how it works yet. I'm actually more or less satisfied with my purchase of the Epox board since I prefer them to Asus. I guess I'll have to look at upgrading my system though...