Problems with EPoX EP-8KHA

[Barium]

I have an Athlon 1400
with 512 Mb DDR ram (PC 2100)
An EPoX 8KHA motherboard, latest ViA drivers, latest BIOS (last checked 18 dec 2001)
Geforce 2GTS (64 Mb DDR)
SB Live Player! 1026 sound card
Windows 2000 Pro.

When I start my computer it sometimes starts without problems, it goes into Windows. But if I try to copy, install or erase any larger files it crashes. Sometimes it just makes my C drive disapeer. (Seagate 30 Gb, ATA 100) connected to IDE0. Sometimes with the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) error message. Sometimes this occurs when working too much on the harddisk. Have scanned it for physical errors, but there were none (Using Norton Utilities 2002)

Sometimes it won't find my harddisks when its first searching for them at startup, and prompts to boot from CD.

Heating is not the problem, it has a temperature always below 50 celcius. And have scanned for virusses.

Last night it started to do something else as well. When starting windows showing the screen with the "Press F8 to ..." at the bottom it blanks the screen as soon as this "Press F8 to..." i visible, no matter wether I press F8 or what.

This is written from another computer. Please help me, I really need that other computer to function.

Thanks
Tommy Andersen

[Barium]

Problems with EPoX EP-8KHA

[access1]

Have you installed the "service pack 2 (SP2)" update

[Greggy]

1) If you have a bootable CD-ROM in your CD/DVD drive and your boot sequence gives priority to a CD-ROM over Hard Disk 0 then it's normal to see the prompt to boot from CD. If you don't like it just change the boot order in the BIOS. If the boot order is not the problem, try adjusting the IDE delay in the BIOS - as this will give your IDE devices a few more seconds to spin up and be ready for use by the system.

2) Try changing your display drivers. Many people find different drivers work best for them (eg. for me the best drivers are the 22.50 - as the 23.11's cause a BSOD). Try several drivers and see what works best for you.

3) Your using a SB Live! sound card? - These have been known to cause problems when dealing with with large files on VIA based boards. Temporarily remove your Live! card and see if it improves things (better still throw it away and buy a decent RELIABLE card). I think the 4in1 drivers were supposed to 'fix' this issue but you never can really trust a SB Live! sound card on a VIA motherboard

4) In case you've got your memory settings set to anyhing othr than normal in the BIOS (eg. TURBO) try setting them back to default (NORMAL). Also, try memory timing at CAS 2.5 if you've got it at CAS 2.

5) If your overclocking your system  - don't. Also, try underclock your system (to 100MHz FSB) to make sure your CPU and RAM are truly not at fault here.

6) Are you sure your IDE hard disk is 100% AOK. If you can, Ghost your existing partitions to another hard disk and see if it makes any difference.

7) Finally, as access1 stated, make sure you've got the latest patches etc for your operating system such as Win2K SP2 and all the Pre SP3 hotfixes. Also, make sure you've installed the AMD/Win2000 AGP patch from www.amd.com --> Support...

I hope some (or all) of ths helps, Good Luck!

[Fox7cf]

Wait, are you saying that the system sometimes doesn´t detect your HardDrive during POST? In that case, there are 3 possible reasons:
1) Your HardDrive isn´t working properly. Try it in another PC and see if the problem shows up.
2) Your BIOS may have some incompatibility issues with your HardDrive or may be defective (very unlikely unless you have recently upgraded your BIOS)
3) Your IDE cables may be defective or incorrectly plugged.