troubles

[omga14]

i am putting together my new setup. it's my first time with a new motherboard. i have the epox 8rda+ and a new xp1700 with the jiuhb stepping it's a 312. anyway, when i turn on the computer after everything is in place one the monitor won't turn on and two when i look at the code led it says FF. i looked it up in my manual and that is attempting to boot. i wsa told that i could use my old os and that would be no problem. will i have to buy a new os? i would figure thought that at least i would get the monitor to work. any clues anyone?

[TranceJunkieXL]

omga14, what are the specifics on your system? It isn't an OS problem. Your sig says 512MB SDRAM, and I know the EPoX 8RDA+ doesn't support PC133 SDRAM. The monitor won't turn on because your motherboard boot sequence leaves that until last, and the motherboard is not liking your RAM. If you are using aggressive PC3200 or above, I suggest getting a cheap stick of PC2100. This is a known issue with this mobo at the initial boot.<BR>BTW, there is an updated beta BIOS that roy says has solved this problem with his 8RDA+.

[omga14]

here are the specs for the new setup.<BR><BR>epox 8rda+ mobo<BR>corsair 512 mb xms pc3200 cas2<BR>maxtor 60 gig hdd<BR>xp 1700+ jiuhb 312 w/volcano 7 fan<BR>new case with 6 fans<BR>

[omga14]

how long should the boot take? also i have the corsair 512 mb xms pc3200. is there another way besides going and buying a cheaper ddr stick and trying again? i have heard that XP only lets you reactivate twice. i know that i have activated it and then had to reactivate when i slicked the hard drive. i have the XP upgrade to the ME. will i have to buy the os new and reformat my drive again. i have to much music to backup if i have to do that. thanks for any help.

[TranceJunkieXL]

Booting the computer should be almost instantaneous.<BR>I really don't know of another way to boot the 8RDA+ for the first time when using aggressive RAM. Corsair just won't initialize at the stock settings that EPoX has on that BIOS. 2.5-7-3-3 or something ridiculous like that. A guy I work with <u>just</u> had the exact same situation, and rather than listen to me he took the computer to CompUSA and paid them $100 to mess with it for 6 hours before figuring out it was a RAM issue (LOL!). He coulda paid me the $100 and brought it home immediately.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"> <BR>You can reactivate XP numerous times, as long as you tell MS (you have to call an 800 number) that you swapped the motherboard, or HDD out and only have it running on one computer. No need to buy another one. Bill Gates is already so rich he could never spend all his money in 50 years if he gave away $3000 a day. Sheeeesh.<BR>I do suggest (in the future) you partition your HDD and install the OS on the first 2GB partition. This way you save all the programs to the 2nd partition, and if the OS goes kaput, you don't have to worry about losing all that music. Me, I keep an external 60GB AcomData USB2.0 drive for back up and only run it to save things and restore important files.

[omga14]

thanks bro. i was begining to think that it was going to be a mass money problem. i'll do what you said and get some pc21oo ddr and try again. i'll let you know how it goes.

[TranceJunkieXL]

Once you've gotten it to boot, go into BIOS and change the RAM timings to something more aggressive (like what the Corsair should be 2-5-2-2). Then shut it down, remove the PC2100 and replace with your PC3200 and it should boot fine. Then I suggest searching for that updated BIOS EPoX has posted.<BR>LOL. I can understand the money issue. Computers are far from cheap.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0"> I've just been incredibly lucky this year with my own finances.

[TranceJunkieXL]

Hey, Colin just wrote a few comments about the NForce2 chipset and Corsair memory <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1395">here.</a> Kind of explains the whole BIOS issue in better detail than I have.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">