Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

I have been using the 8KHA+ since the fall of 2001. It was the first time I
built a PC from scratch, and it brought me into a new level of performance
and expertise. The board had been running with a slight overclock (bus
pushed to 140 MHz) with the Athlon MP 2800+ CPU which replaced my original
XP 1800+, and it had been rock-stable for months. I even allowed me to beat
my SETI@Home record in 2004.

Last week, I stopped the machine, which was running 24/7, for an extended
period in order to install a new USB 2.0 PCI card and all the associated
cabling (I was running out of USB outlets). The machine never rebooted, kept
hanging at post code 68. I immediately suspected my new PCI card and removed
it, to no avail. I removed every other components, disabled all inboard
devices, switched memory modules, but it still wouldn't boot. Then, upon
close inspection of the board, I realized that 3 capacitors located near the
north bridge had burst! And an other smaller one to the left of the CPU was
leaking. How long ago had this happened, was it caused by the USB card, I
don't know. Maybe it just kept running because I never stopped it. "Et
voilà", my board is finished, I don't have the soldering skills to replace
these components and anyways, I was planning to upgrade my system to
Athlon64 level next Spring. Maybe my 8KHA+ felt this coming and commited
suicide! That was a sad end to a board that had served me well for over 3
years, and introduced me to the high-performance realm. I will always have
fond memories of it.

I am now temporarily using an Asus A7N8X-X borrowed from my boss. It works
fine but although it is based on the much-hyped nForce2/400 chipset, I
noticed a 10-15% *decrease* in performance, which is probably due to the
single-channel config (I am using the exact same components throughout, CPU,
memory, etc.) SETI@Home units used to take about 3½ hours, now take up to 4¼
hours to complete. In retrospect, this is a nice compliment to EPoX, for the
8KHA+ is a nearly 4-years old design! The Asus board clearly is a quality
product, but we are comparing a Ferrari to a GMC truck.

My system (at the time of the fatal cap burst):

EPoX 8KHA+ mobo, latest BIOS
Athlon MP 2800+ processor
Thermalright SK-7 heatsink w/ 80mm ThermalTake fan
2x Mushkin 512MB hi-perf 222 PC2100 memory
Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
Western Digital Caviard 40MB 7200rpm (8MB cache) HDD
Generic No-name 50x CD-Rom (fast but noisy)
Intel Pro100+ Server NIC (bought from my employer at a ridiculous price)
Hercules Muse XL sound board
3Com 56k v.90 PCI modem
Symantec Firewall/VPN appliance 100
APC Smart UPS-1000
Enermax EG465P-VE whisper PSU
Antec 600-series case with plenty of fans

Good evening to all

GC

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

"G Couture" <gars.cool@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:AL3xd.34845$%p1.2253875@news20.bellglobal.com...
>I have been using the 8KHA+ since the fall of 2001. It was the first time I
>built a PC from scratch, and it brought me into a new level of performance
>and expertise. The board had been running with a slight overclock (bus
>pushed to 140 MHz) with the Athlon MP 2800+ CPU which replaced my original
>XP 1800+, and it had been rock-stable for months. I even allowed me to beat
>my SETI@Home record in 2004.
>
> Last week, I stopped the machine, which was running 24/7, for an extended
> period in order to install a new USB 2.0 PCI card and all the associated
> cabling (I was running out of USB outlets). The machine never rebooted,
> kept hanging at post code 68. I immediately suspected my new PCI card and
> removed it, to no avail. I removed every other components, disabled all
> inboard devices, switched memory modules, but it still wouldn't boot.
> Then, upon close inspection of the board, I realized that 3 capacitors
> located near the north bridge had burst! And an other smaller one to the
> left of the CPU was leaking. How long ago had this happened, was it caused
> by the USB card, I don't know. Maybe it just kept running because I never
> stopped it. "Et voilà", my board is finished, I don't have the soldering
> skills to replace these components and anyways, I was planning to upgrade
> my system to Athlon64 level next Spring. Maybe my 8KHA+ felt this coming
> and commited suicide! That was a sad end to a board that had served me
> well for over 3 years, and introduced me to the high-performance realm. I
> will always have fond memories of it.
>
> I am now temporarily using an Asus A7N8X-X borrowed from my boss. It works
> fine but although it is based on the much-hyped nForce2/400 chipset, I
> noticed a 10-15% *decrease* in performance, which is probably due to the
> single-channel config (I am using the exact same components throughout,
> CPU, memory, etc.) SETI@Home units used to take about 3½ hours, now take
> up to 4¼ hours to complete. In retrospect, this is a nice compliment to
> EPoX, for the 8KHA+ is a nearly 4-years old design! The Asus board clearly
> is a quality product, but we are comparing a Ferrari to a GMC truck.
>
> My system (at the time of the fatal cap burst):
>
> EPoX 8KHA+ mobo, latest BIOS
> Athlon MP 2800+ processor
> Thermalright SK-7 heatsink w/ 80mm ThermalTake fan
> 2x Mushkin 512MB hi-perf 222 PC2100 memory
> Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
> Western Digital Caviard 40MB 7200rpm (8MB cache) HDD
> Generic No-name 50x CD-Rom (fast but noisy)
> Intel Pro100+ Server NIC (bought from my employer at a ridiculous price)
> Hercules Muse XL sound board
> 3Com 56k v.90 PCI modem
> Symantec Firewall/VPN appliance 100
> APC Smart UPS-1000
> Enermax EG465P-VE whisper PSU
> Antec 600-series case with plenty of fans
>
> Good evening to all
>
> GC
>

Speaking as one who has been keeping a close eye on my own "faithfull 8KHA+"
I can at least point you to several posts like yours and their resolution by
Epox repair!!
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread [...] ostcount=6

Matt

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

I would have thought it should have lasted you at least another year... oh
well, time to move on I guess. I knew somebody who had an ECS motherboard
that lasted six years, and I just had to rebuild that computer back in
September. The mobo no longer detected any of the card devices such as
modem, AGP video card, and so on. It quit detecting all of them at once,
and XP would only run in 16 colors. The modem no longer worked, and so on.
"Mattrixx" <someone@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:uH6xd.1852$by5.967@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
>
> "G Couture" <gars.cool@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:AL3xd.34845$%p1.2253875@news20.bellglobal.com...
>>I have been using the 8KHA+ since the fall of 2001. It was the first time
>>I built a PC from scratch, and it brought me into a new level of
>>performance and expertise. The board had been running with a slight
>>overclock (bus pushed to 140 MHz) with the Athlon MP 2800+ CPU which
>>replaced my original XP 1800+, and it had been rock-stable for months. I
>>even allowed me to beat my SETI@Home record in 2004.
>>
>> Last week, I stopped the machine, which was running 24/7, for an extended
>> period in order to install a new USB 2.0 PCI card and all the associated
>> cabling (I was running out of USB outlets). The machine never rebooted,
>> kept hanging at post code 68. I immediately suspected my new PCI card and
>> removed it, to no avail. I removed every other components, disabled all
>> inboard devices, switched memory modules, but it still wouldn't boot.
>> Then, upon close inspection of the board, I realized that 3 capacitors
>> located near the north bridge had burst! And an other smaller one to the
>> left of the CPU was leaking. How long ago had this happened, was it
>> caused by the USB card, I don't know. Maybe it just kept running because
>> I never stopped it. "Et voilà", my board is finished, I don't have the
>> soldering skills to replace these components and anyways, I was planning
>> to upgrade my system to Athlon64 level next Spring. Maybe my 8KHA+ felt
>> this coming and commited suicide! That was a sad end to a board that had
>> served me well for over 3 years, and introduced me to the
>> high-performance realm. I will always have fond memories of it.
>>
>> I am now temporarily using an Asus A7N8X-X borrowed from my boss. It
>> works fine but although it is based on the much-hyped nForce2/400
>> chipset, I noticed a 10-15% *decrease* in performance, which is probably
>> due to the single-channel config (I am using the exact same components
>> throughout, CPU, memory, etc.) SETI@Home units used to take about 3½
>> hours, now take up to 4¼ hours to complete. In retrospect, this is a nice
>> compliment to EPoX, for the 8KHA+ is a nearly 4-years old design! The
>> Asus board clearly is a quality product, but we are comparing a Ferrari
>> to a GMC truck.
>>
>> My system (at the time of the fatal cap burst):
>>
>> EPoX 8KHA+ mobo, latest BIOS
>> Athlon MP 2800+ processor
>> Thermalright SK-7 heatsink w/ 80mm ThermalTake fan
>> 2x Mushkin 512MB hi-perf 222 PC2100 memory
>> Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
>> Western Digital Caviard 40MB 7200rpm (8MB cache) HDD
>> Generic No-name 50x CD-Rom (fast but noisy)
>> Intel Pro100+ Server NIC (bought from my employer at a ridiculous price)
>> Hercules Muse XL sound board
>> 3Com 56k v.90 PCI modem
>> Symantec Firewall/VPN appliance 100
>> APC Smart UPS-1000
>> Enermax EG465P-VE whisper PSU
>> Antec 600-series case with plenty of fans
>>
>> Good evening to all
>>
>> GC
>>
>
> Speaking as one who has been keeping a close eye on my own "faithfull
> 8KHA+"
> I can at least point you to several posts like yours and their resolution
> by Epox repair!!
> http://forums.pcper.com/showthread [...] ostcount=6
>
> Matt
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

"G Couture" <gars.cool@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:AL3xd.34845$%p1.2253875@news20.bellglobal.com...
>I have been using the 8KHA+ since the fall of 2001. It was the first time I
>built a PC from scratch, and it brought me into a new level of performance
>and expertise. The board had been running with a slight overclock (bus
>pushed to 140 MHz) with the Athlon MP 2800+ CPU which replaced my original
>XP 1800+, and it had been rock-stable for months. I even allowed me to beat
>my SETI@Home record in 2004.
>
> Last week, I stopped the machine, which was running 24/7, for an extended
> period in order to install a new USB 2.0 PCI card and all the associated
> cabling (I was running out of USB outlets). The machine never rebooted,
> kept hanging at post code 68. I immediately suspected my new PCI card and
> removed it, to no avail. I removed every other components, disabled all
> inboard devices, switched memory modules, but it still wouldn't boot.
> Then, upon close inspection of the board, I realized that 3 capacitors
> located near the north bridge had burst! And an other smaller one to the
> left of the CPU was leaking. How long ago had this happened, was it caused
> by the USB card, I don't know. Maybe it just kept running because I never
> stopped it. "Et voilà", my board is finished, I don't have the soldering
> skills to replace these components and anyways, I was planning to upgrade
> my system to Athlon64 level next Spring. Maybe my 8KHA+ felt this coming
> and commited suicide! That was a sad end to a board that had served me
> well for over 3 years, and introduced me to the high-performance realm. I
> will always have fond memories of it.

That's unfortunate. I have been building systems since the days of the 486,
and I just had my 8KHA+ die on me a couple months ago. I built it in the
fall of 2001, and it was rock solid until it's last day. I ended up
upgrading to an Athlon 64, but I did keep all of the Athlon XP components.
I'll probably pick up a Shuttle SFF case for them and give it to my
girlfriend so that she has a PC of her own.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

Hi, you can have most any electronic shop replace those caps and it will
probably start working, their was a bunch of bad caps made a few years back
due to the imcomplete theft of a chemical formula for the fluid inside the
caps and they burst after awhile.


"ocbwilg" <ocbwilg@yahoo.com> wrote in message
newsKrxd.964$mA3.253@fe2.columbus.rr.com...
>
> "G Couture" <gars.cool@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
> news:AL3xd.34845$%p1.2253875@news20.bellglobal.com...
>>I have been using the 8KHA+ since the fall of 2001. It was the first time
>>I built a PC from scratch, and it brought me into a new level of
>>performance and expertise. The board had been running with a slight
>>overclock (bus pushed to 140 MHz) with the Athlon MP 2800+ CPU which
>>replaced my original XP 1800+, and it had been rock-stable for months. I
>>even allowed me to beat my SETI@Home record in 2004.
>>
>> Last week, I stopped the machine, which was running 24/7, for an extended
>> period in order to install a new USB 2.0 PCI card and all the associated
>> cabling (I was running out of USB outlets). The machine never rebooted,
>> kept hanging at post code 68. I immediately suspected my new PCI card and
>> removed it, to no avail. I removed every other components, disabled all
>> inboard devices, switched memory modules, but it still wouldn't boot.
>> Then, upon close inspection of the board, I realized that 3 capacitors
>> located near the north bridge had burst! And an other smaller one to the
>> left of the CPU was leaking. How long ago had this happened, was it
>> caused by the USB card, I don't know. Maybe it just kept running because
>> I never stopped it. "Et voilà", my board is finished, I don't have the
>> soldering skills to replace these components and anyways, I was planning
>> to upgrade my system to Athlon64 level next Spring. Maybe my 8KHA+ felt
>> this coming and commited suicide! That was a sad end to a board that had
>> served me well for over 3 years, and introduced me to the
>> high-performance realm. I will always have fond memories of it.
>
> That's unfortunate. I have been building systems since the days of the
> 486, and I just had my 8KHA+ die on me a couple months ago. I built it in
> the fall of 2001, and it was rock solid until it's last day. I ended up
> upgrading to an Athlon 64, but I did keep all of the Athlon XP components.
> I'll probably pick up a Shuttle SFF case for them and give it to my
> girlfriend so that she has a PC of her own.
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.epox (More info?)

My 8KHA+ died last month. I contacted EpOX support and they said they
would fix it no charge. After I shipped the board, they said the
warranty manager was pissed because they RMAed out of warranty, but
they would fix it if I paid for the return shipping..

I got the/a board back a couple weeks ago and it didn't want to cold
boot, but booted okay from reset. Then it started locking up and
would only boot after clearing cmos. It came back with a U= bios chip
and the latest version of the bios. It had an N+ chip with Nov 2001
bios when I sent it in. I flashed it to the old bios tonight and it
has run longer than it has in a week. Time will tell