anyone have Epox 4PDA2+ (Rev 2.0)

kubalaTF said:
Hey yall, I've finnaly gotten my EP-4PDA2+ going, and I did have difficulty getting it to like my SATA HD. But it's going now, kindof. It doesn't want to play sound, which I suppose isn't really a problem because I've got a sound card on the way. But is it really required? And do I need to get the new BIOS, because when I was looking through the BIOS to enable SATA the manual AND the discription on the left said I'd probably want to use the enhanced (I think it said enhanced, I'm pretty sure whatever it was started with an e) setting, but then it wasn't an option. I finally got winXP goin and plan on putting 2 other drives (IDE maxtors) in RAID 0, I sure hope that won't be a problem. And that's where I stand for right now.

Congrats kubala.

You should definitely get the latest bios from Epox. The updated bios should take care of any issues you're having, and once the bios is flashed (very easy), then you don't have to worry about it again.

As for the onboard audio, you have to turn it on or off in the bios. I've never actually used mine as I put my Audigy 2 ZS in from the start. When you put in your soundcard, turn off the onboard audio.

What cpu and memory are you running on the board?
 
I'm running a 3.0C 12cap with Kingston HyperX 3700. About how long does it take to flash the bios? I need to get me one of them emergency power supply things. I've partioned my HD and it's goin pretty good so far. I only worked on it last night, but I think I'm goin home for thanksgiving. And my laptop just went boom, and had to have winXP reinstalled. I have alot of loading ahead of me.

Edit: How accurate do you find the temp guage to be? It's saying something like 45-47 without hard load, and I'm not sure of I just don't like it or if it doesn't sound right.
 
After the download, the actual bios flash takes about 5 minutes. The latest bios download is dated 03/19/04, and after extracting there is a readme.txt file that gives step-by-step instuctions (print that out as you'll have to reboot to floppy to do the flash).

Are you asking about the cpu temp guage in the bios, under PC Health, or which temp guage? Mine, not under load, sits at around 31-33 C.
 
ok, I'm getting like 45 right off the bat. I'm not exactly sure why either. Well. My zalman instructions said to spread that junk on, and the arctic silver instructions said to but a bit in the middle and just plop the heatsink on it with a little twist. I've heard that the arctic silver needs a break in period, but 45? Maybe I should put thins problem in the cooling section.
 
kubalaTF said:
ok, I'm getting like 45 right off the bat. I'm not exactly sure why either. Well. My zalman instructions said to spread that junk on, and the arctic silver instructions said to but a bit in the middle and just plop the heatsink on it with a little twist. I've heard that the arctic silver needs a break in period, but 45? Maybe I should put thins problem in the cooling section.

Where are you getting that temp reading from?

There should be a disc that came with the board that has utilities on it. Once of the programs is called Unified System Diagnostic Manager. If you install that, there is a monitor that watches various temps and voltages. I'd suggest installing that, then checking the cpu temp from it, and/or, checking the cpu temp from the PC Health in the bios, and compare them to the temp you have seen so far.

As for the Arctic Silver thermal paste, it should be spread across the heatsink evenly with your finger or applicator, then drag a credit card or such across the paste at a 45 degree angle to remove the excess. Before mounting, there should be a thin, even coating. If you have it on too thick, then the heatsink won't pull as much heat away as it should.
 
I got an overclock question for you badger sly, I read stuff about raising the FSB and how if you raise the speed of the AGP slot (especially for ATI I hear) it can be bad. Does this board have a setting where you can raise FSB seprate from the AGP speeds? I'm trying to hack my way through the jungle of information, and it's rough going so far. This question just bothers me more than some others. I saw something in the BIOS about AGP/PCI clock, and I don't really understand what the user manual says about it in it's oh-so-tiny discription.
 
just leave your agp/pci set on "auto" in the bios. it will stay where you want it no matter the frontside bus. you can also click on it in the bios and click on fine tuning and there set it at 66 agp. Either way it will remain at stock setting and let you run a muck elsewhere. It is truly the best board I have ever had! And I have had nearly 50 of them.
So relax and enjoy it. It will take you far! Here is a screenie of my latest processor running on this board
dddd.jpg

This board makes it easy. Here is a 1:1 screenie for you
fixed.jpg


WZ
 
hmmm, sounds easy enough. Now I guess I need to find out how memory works. And find out what's going on with my tempratures.
 
Install the USDM and the Magic bios when you loaded up the chipset disc that came with your motherboard? USDM (Unified Sytems Diagnostic Manager) It will show you system and cpu temps as well as all voltage settings and fan speeds of all fans plugged into the mobo. I would also download speedfan and run it just as a comparison. As fasr as mem timings go. you said you have PC 4000 mem corect? I would set mem to Max and start at 250 1:1 for DDR500 what mem is it exactly my ocz 4000 gold rev 2 liked runniong at 2.5-3-3-6 although it will show up in your bios as 2.5-6-3-3 make sure to enable the watchdog function. you usually won't have to pull the CMOS jumper with this enabled. Although you may have to. Set your mem volts to 2.9 and your cpu to 1.575 to 1.625 and start playing. I always leave my mem on the max setting. Well hey get after it. Remember you can run the mem much higher on the voltage if you need it. And if it still won't stabilize try 2.5-3-3-7 or 3-3-3-6 just keep playing with it. Good luck!!

WZ
 
Ok, either my motherboard temp readers are off or I'm just fucked. I just put the FSB up to 210 to see what would happen, and the temprature thing went even more crazy than usual. It used to be doing 44 with the occasional 55, and then it was averaging 50 and then sometimes jump to 65 then back to 50something. It's just never constant or consistant. Then when I saw it say 72 during 3Dmark03 I just stoped it there and changed it back to 200. I don't understand it at all, does it do this to just me? I'm almost to the point where I want to reinstall the heatsink. It's a zalman 7000A with arctic silver 5 so I really don't want it to be that part. I think if it's not the sensor I'm going to have to redo the heatsink. poopies. What's the max heat supposed to be for a 3.0C?
 
72C is pushing it really pushing it
The beauty of the p-4 is that it will cycle down to protect itself

you may need to remount you zalman
 
I remounted the zalman, and it's pretty much the same thing. The readout will bounce around between numbers. I just KNOW it can't really be going from 50 to 69 to 52 in a period of 9 seconds. Or at least I think I know. I don't beleive it when it says it got to 72, that's just what it said. I sent a message to the epox people asking them if numbers like that is normal, but who knows what they'll send back. I'm gonna research this problem some more.
 
to verify if your cpu got to the 70c mark, google a utility called throttlewatch. It will monitor your cpu activity for throttling cycles and display them on a graph. To get a good reading of it...run it alongside folding@home or superpi or something equally cpu intensive. I believe that Intel has the throttle temp set on the p4's at 70c...so if you are in fact hitting above 70c then your chip should be throttling to compensate...and it would show up on the throttlewatch program.

If it doesn't show up...then either the program is crap :p , the chip isn't throttling like it should, or it really hasn't gotten to 70c and the temp reading is wrong.

my bet is on the wrong temp reading.
 
Now that really does sound like a good idea. I'm going to take a look at that and see what happens.

Edit: OK, I turned on the throttle watch while I ran 3Dmark03 at 210 and 215 FSB. It gave me a few 74s but nothing came up on the throttlewatch. But even if it might not be at 74, I don't know how far it is from the right temps. Maybe it's getting to 68 or something, but I don't know because it says all kinds of other things.
 
Did you make sure that the bottom of the heatsink and the top of your cpu were perfectly clean, before applying the AS5?

Also, what is the cooling setup for your computer case (how many fans / what size, going in, and, same thing going out)?

If you're not pushing enough of the hot air out, then the heatsink won't be able to do it's job correctly and you'll get higher than usual temps.
 
When I reinstalled the heatsink I cleaned it up real good with papertowels and 91% alcohol. I've got an Antec Superlanboy so there should be at least a decent amount of air running through this thing. The PSU is almost right above the HS so it's blowing the air out that way. But none of that changes how the temp monitor is all over the place. I'm just going to have to think of something probably.
 
would you be able to post a pic of your case and it's inside layout? sometimes something very simple that you've overlooked can have a big impact on system temps. On my Antec case, I moved my 7200rpm drives to the top and bottom of the hdd cage so the air from the front 120mm fan would flow through with no obstruction....the end result was my hdd's were the same temp as before, but the vid card was cooler, the nb was cooler, and the cpu ended up with a few degrees drop (around 3 if I remember right)...not to mention it's a little quieter.
 
I could probably give that a try. It might take me a couple days though. I haven't tried photobucket yet, but I've heard they'll hold pictures. is there anywhere better to put them?
 
kubalaTF,

Maybe I missed it somewhere in one of your posts, but did you actually flash the bios?

If not, before you spend time doing anything else, do the flash first.

I honestly can't say what my temps were when I first installed, because as soon as I had the basic XP installed, I flash to the latest bios gotten off of Epox's site.


kubalaTF said:
........The PSU is almost right above the HS so it's blowing the air out that way. .............
If that's the only exit for air, then I'd really suggest adding another fan to push more air out. But first, make sure you have the latest bios.
 
I've got the latest BIOS, and it's an antec lanboy, so there's a 120 bringing it in and a 120 and the PSU taking it out.
 
WeldZilla said:
just leave your agp/pci set on "auto" in the bios. it will stay where you want it no matter the frontside bus. you can also click on it in the bios and click on fine tuning and there set it at 66 agp. Either way it will remain at stock setting and let you run a muck elsewhere. It is truly the best board I have ever had! And I have had nearly 50 of them.
So relax and enjoy it. It will take you far! Here is a screenie of my latest processor running on this board

WZ

well bud, you've convinced me into trying out this board even though it seems like its a pretty old board by today's standards.

I'm currently using an IC-7G Max II board but something's telling me that I should return it while I still can.

hence the reason why I just ordered the Epox board like you recommended to me in my other thread. hopefully I didnt make a big mistake by ditching my IC-7G Max II over this Epox board.

I'll be using my 2.8C 30cap chip along with some Corsair PC3200 BH-5 memory. I'm currently getting 3.5Ghz from my Abit setup on air cooling but I'm hoping the Epox may give me just a little bit more.
 
It's probably worth giving it a try. Don't know if I'll use it again next time around, but we'll see what happens when we get there
 
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