3 vika-kysymystä liittyen Epox 8RDA6+ Pro:hon (Englanniksi & pitkä)

Hei. Ajattelin copy-pasteta emailin minkä lähetin Epoxin tekniseen tukeen muutama vko sitten. En ole vielä saanut sähköpostiin vastausta ja nyt kun muistin sen, en varmaan tule koskaan saamaankaan. Kun se nyt palasi mieleen ja seikkailin täällä, ajattelin kopioida tekstin ja kysymykset sähköpostista suoraan tänne.

Pääsen vähemmällä vaivalla kun en rupea tuota uudestaan Suomentamaan, -pahoittelut. Englanninkielentaitoiset voivat lukea tekstin, ja kiitos kaikista replyistä.

Tuo ensimmäinen kysymys sähköpostissa on tavallaan selvinnyt niin, ettei asialle voi mitään ja se johtuu NForce 2 piirin nirsoudesta muistien suhteen.

================================================
Hi,
I just bought about a week ago a new EP-8RDA6+ Pro m-board from a retailer. Soon I discovered problems with it. I'll explain them later in the text. For the problems I returned the board and got a exact same new one, with wich sadly the problems persisted and remained exactly the same. So I'm left with very little options but to report the problem to you and hope you'll might have some solutions perhaps in a later driver updates or so on.

My thorough system configuration follows:

+Antec Sonata Piano (360W) case and power.
+Epox 8RDA6+ Pro board.
+AMD Sempron 2600 processor.
+EPert RAM 1024Mb 2700 333MHz.
+Viking DDR 256Mb RAM (either 266MHz or 333MHz and probably 2700).
+Abit Siluro GeForce 2 MX400 64Mb.
+EP-SPD650 SPDIF-out expansion card.
+Maxtor Diamondmax 9+ 80Gb IDE master and a Maxtor Diamondmax 9+ 160Gb IDE slave.
+Plextor 52/24/52A cd-rw IDE2 master and a Samsung SD-616 dvd-rom IDE2 slave, both with latest firmware.
+Viewsonic P95f+ 19" CRT.
+standar FDD.

All of the mainboards available integrated CFPA (Front Panel Audio Connector), Firewire 1394-ports, USB-ports, game- & COM-port and extra SPDIF-port are in use. The Sonata case uses the CFPA, 1x Fireware and 2x USB 2.0 ports, and the rest are used by the case back panel extension cards wich came bundled with the main board. And I also had the Epox's extra SPDIF-card from my previous configuration, wich I thought I'd install since there's a dedicated place for it.

+OS is Windows XP Pro with SP 1 & 2 and all the latest possible OS updates.
+Norton Internet Security 2004 Professional, also with all the latest possible updates. I have turned down the mainboard integrated (NVidia's) Firewall as well as the Win XP's built-in one.
+Latest NVidia NForce chipset and Geforce drivers.
+Latest motherboard BIOS.
+Latest Realtek AC '97 sound driver.

So now I get to the problems. There are three of them.

1. First one is that the motherboard identifies the XPert 333MHz 1024Mb RAM-comb as a half 512Mb. I have tried to place the RAM individually in all the three possible DIMM-sockets, and I've tried to coupled it with another 256Mb DIMM with all (mathematically) possible six different physical configurations. And yet it always counts the RAM at the system startup as if the 1024-piece was only a 512.

2. Both, the m-board's integrated SPDIF- and the optional accessory EP-SPD650 SPDIF-out are not working at all. I have a about three years old Sony's DHC-MDX10 home stereo system with SPDIF-in wich is connected to either of the computer possible SPDIF-out's. Thing worth mentioning is that in Win XP's lower right corner's volume control, the SPDIF-glider is ghosted out and doesn't move anywhere. And this is the strange and most interesting part of the problem: In the Realtek AC'97 sound central manager, wich comes with the official AC'97 driver installation, at the 'Connector Sensing'-leaflet when you press the 'Start'-button and you have for example Winamp playing music at a backround & the optical cable is connected from either one of the two possible opt-out's on my computer to the stereos, wich it is set to play the sound from opt-in, it works! The sounds are working for about 1-2secs for the time it 'scans' the connectors (you can hear the Winamp or anything else making sound at the time). I have tried to start the system without the optional SPDIF-card, and still the integrated SPDIF does not work any better, just the way I explained at the connector sensing part. I even had the friggin' stereo checked-out at a Sony's official care center becouse of the problem, and result was that the stereo's SPDIF-in is 100% working (I even had the change to try it out myseld at the scene!).

3. I have a 8-port HUB. It has three RJ-45 connectors plugged in. The first one is going to a Motorola SB5100E cable modem. The second one goes out to this computer. And the third goes down to my second computer, wich is a bit older but is also running Windows XP Pro. The problem is that whenever a internet connection is present, as in the cable modem is lit on, the home network connection between the two computers is not working. For instance, I press the standby button on my cable modem which blocks the internet connection, I start or boot-up both my machines and start the Windows XP. The network connection works flawlessly and the system automaticly informs me that a network connection is present and asks me weather to join in (Norton Internet Security). I can browse and access easily both machines and transfer files in Win XP between the computers etc. and all that. But soon as I push the standby button OFF from my cable modem, the network connection dies and naturally an internet connection comes available on-the-fly for both computers. It doesn't work the other way around, meaning I can't make the network connection available between the two computers on-the-fly. I need to boot them both up with the internet connection blocked. I know that the problem in this case is the main computer and the new mainboard. I had the exact same configuration working with my previous main system, only the mainboard and CPU has been changed (previous was EP-8K9AI and Athlon XP 2000+). And when you try to browse My network neighborhood with the main computer it freezes the browser up and after like 20secs it says you don't have sufficient permissions to acces the whole workgroups, wich the very computer belongs to. The older computer doesn't have a problem with this, as it can view the whole network neighborhood fast and with no problems, just the main computer isn't showing up in there.

So, I think I made a somewhat good job explaining in details the frustating problems that I'm having with my new 8RDA6+ Pro board. If these problems were to be solved somehow, I'd be very please to new mainboard. I think it had excellent outfit and accesories. One of or perhaps the main reason why I bought the board was becouse of it's 7.1 integrated sounds. Good soundcard means a lot for me, and it is somewhat sad that I really actually can't use the potential, now that it became obvious that the SPDIF-out is really not working at all for me. And both the memory and integrated local area network card problem are also pretty nasty.
=======================================================

Lisään mukaan vielä toisen sähköpostin minkä lähetin heti perään, samaan osoitteeseen.

================================================
To quickly return to my previous mail I sent, I just browsed the 8RDA6+ Pro paper manual and at the page 6-4 there's a picture of the Realtek Sound Manager on the SPDIF-leaflet, and it shows the option for SPDIF-[bold]in and -out[/bold]. I only get the 'in'-part! There's nothing below the SPDIF-in section's 'autolock' & 'Real-time SPDIF-in monitor' -buttons.

That is strange!
================================================

Haluan vielä sanoa suurkiitokset niille jotka mahdollisesti tosiaankin jaksoivat lukea läpi koko tekstin ja joilla olisi neuvoja asiaan.

 

No ainakin tohon muisti asiaan voisin ehdottaa, että kokeilisit sitä muistipalikkaa jonkun toisen koneessa. Eli näkisi josko se näkyy "puolikkaana" myös jossain toisessa kokoonpanossa. Yks vaihtoehto tietty olis et sulle on myyty tahallisesti/tahattomasti 512MB palikka 1GB sijaan. Tarkista lukeeko muistipalikan kyljessä että se on 1GB palikka.
Jos saat kokeiltua jossain toisessa koneessa ja edelleen näyttää 512MB, niin sitten kannattaa ottaa myyjään yhteyttä.

 

Muisti toiminut edellisessä emolevyssä EP-8K9AI täysin oikein ennen emolevyn vaihto. Edellinen taisi puuttua tekstistä tyystin. Testattu myös ongelmien ilmettyä toisessa, ehkä vuoden-pari vanhemmassa, emolevyssä täysin oikein toimivaksi.

 

Jaha jollakin muulla samanalaisia ongelmia.
itselläni on tuon emon ei pro malli ja sama ongelma netin kanssa.
Voisitos pasteta tänne jos sait/saat vastauksen tuohon.

Kokeileppas minulla vaikka ei suostukkaan avaamaan verkkoyhteyksiä koneiden välille pääsen selamaan koneita kirjoittamalla esim resurssien hallintaan osoitteeksi //koneennimi/asema esim. //jaskankone/c
Toimii noin mutta verkkoyhteyksien kautta en pääse.

Toinen huvittava juttu on se että kyseinen emo jättää tuon piirin onlineen vaikka kone ei ole päällä. Joudun aina irroittamaan koneen verkosta että se suostuu toimimaan, veikkaan että sinulla sama juttu.
Katsoppas että palaako valo sekä hubissa että verkkokortissa vaikka kone ei ole päällä, minulla palaa.

 

Olen tosiaan huomannut, että kone jättää HUBiin sekä takalevyn verkkokorttiin valon palamaan sammutuksen jälkeen. Tosin en ole siitä huomannut olevan mitään haittaa.

Kummaa kun Epoxilta ei ole vieläkään tullut minkäänlaista vastausta. Tuntuu vähän siltä, että siellä ei sitten osatakaan vastailla oikeisiin kysymyksiin, vaan kaverit on vaan palkattu sinne vastailemaan enemmän turhanpäiväisiin sähköposteihin, kuten 'missä on koneen virtanappula' tai 'mitenpäin hiirtä pidetään kädessä' tyyppisiin asioihin.

Turhauttavaa. Byrokratiaa.

Miksei minulla ole oikeutta vaatia, että kaikki levyn mainostetut ominaisuudet oikeasti toimisivat? Tämän kokemuksen perusteella Epox sucks...