Epox 4PEA+ won't shut down properly in WinXP

[LiQiCE]

Hey this is my first Epox board, and so far this board has been really great. Just a few minor problems with this board so far ... My biggest gripe however is that when I go to shutdown in Windows, the machine does not shut down. Instead it sounds like the machine goes to power down and instantly turns back on. I don't think it is a Windows issue, because the same thing happens if I set "Instant-Off" in the BIOS for the power button, and press the power button down in a DOS prompt or the BIOS. I've tried removing all of the "case" wires (ie. HD light, power button, reset button etc etc) and the same thing still happens so I know it isn't anything like the reset button is stuck or the power button is stuck. I've tried fooling with some BIOS settings too without any sucess. Does anyone have any ideas? I had everything running fine previously on a KR7A-RAID with an XP1900+. Incase it matters, I have an Enermax 350w PSU, a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz processor, 512mb Corsair XMS PC3500 DDR RAM, and a GeForce 2 Ultra AGP card. I've also reproduced this problem running non-overclocked and overclocked.

Additionally, has anyone noticed that the newest BIOS'es from Epox don't include the HighPoint v2.34 BIOS anymore? I know that the BIOS from 10/30/2002 has it in there, but after I upgraded to the BIOSes in December, they all came with v2.32 again ... None of these things are a big concern, just confused based off of what the BIOS updates say and what they actually do.

Thanks so much for any help that can be provided ... Hope that I can resolve all of these problems soon, this board has been really great otherwise!!!! (Couldn't find anything else on the market that could come close to this board's feature set)

[LiQiCE]

Anyone out there have any ideas? If this board is defective I'd like to know ASAP so I can RMA it for a new one! Thanks!

[PSUGorilla]

Hmmm...the shutdown problem is an odd one. My 4pea+ suffers from occasional fits of rebooting loops (i.e. the Windows XP splash screen gets ready to come up and then it's back to the POST screen again). I don't know what's causing that. Could it be a driver problem that you (and I) are having?

I too have noticed that the Highpoint BIOS is back to 2.32

As for the divider issue, we're not allowed to discuss that topic here (see the Epox topic rules sticky at the top of this page). We have a divider thread going on the Intel MOBO board though...

[LiQiCE]

PSUGorilla,

I don't know. I don't think my problem is driver related because if I set the Power Button function to "Instant-Off" in the BIOS and press the power button in the BIOS or at a DOS Prompt, the same thing happens! I'm really hoping the board isn't bad, because I don't really want to spend the time RMA'ing the board. I e-mailed EPoX tech support, so hopefully they'll have an answer for me soon.

[PSUGorilla]

Originally posted by LiQiCE
PSUGorilla,

I don't know. I don't think my problem is driver related because if I set the Power Button function to "Instant-Off" in the BIOS and press the power button in the BIOS or at a DOS Prompt, the same thing happens! I'm really hoping the board isn't bad, because I don't really want to spend the time RMA'ing the board. I e-mailed EPoX tech support, so hopefully they'll have an answer for me soon.

Well I'm stumped. I threw the driver issue out there becase that problem can be fixed without an RMA (I was trying to be optimistic).

[LiQiCE]

Originally posted by PSUGorilla


Well I'm stumped. I threw the driver issue out there becase that problem can be fixed without an RMA (I was trying to be optimistic).

PSUGorilla,

Yeah I'm hoping its still something stupid like a BIOS setting that I need to change!!! *crosses fingers* Thanks for the optimism, and hopefully we'll both be able to resolve our problems!!!

[LiQiCE]

Glad to say I've found the problem! One of the settings in the Power Management settings of the BIOS is called "Power on by RING or WOL", and this is set to "Enabled" by default! I turned that sucker off and now the computer shuts down like normal. Glad to say that the board is otherwise functioning normally (although, does anyone else notice that the floppy drive is accessed at random sometimes? ... It always seems to happen when I'm opening an Explorer window, and always on bootup). Not a big deal, possibly just some stupid setting in XP that I've neglected to change ... but I thought it was odd. (I've done virus scans too, and I didn't pick up anything so I don't think its anything like that) ... Anyways, PSUGorilla, thanks for your help, and I hope that you can resolve your rebooting problem ... I know that I have that problem once in awhile too ... but its usually due to me setting my memory timings way too aggresively or overclocking!

[PSUGorilla]

Originally posted by LiQiCE
Glad to say I've found the problem! One of the settings in the Power Management settings of the BIOS is called "Power on by RING or WOL", and this is set to "Enabled" by default! I turned that sucker off and now the computer shuts down like normal. Glad to say that the board is otherwise functioning normally (although, does anyone else notice that the floppy drive is accessed at random sometimes? ... It always seems to happen when I'm opening an Explorer window, and always on bootup). Not a big deal, possibly just some stupid setting in XP that I've neglected to change ... but I thought it was odd. (I've done virus scans too, and I didn't pick up anything so I don't think its anything like that) ... Anyways, PSUGorilla, thanks for your help, and I hope that you can resolve your rebooting problem ... I know that I have that problem once in awhile too ... but its usually due to me setting my memory timings way too aggresively or overclocking!

Get this:

I was writing a reply to this thread suggesting that you go into your power management settings in the BIOS and set them to fail-safe defaults so see if that made a difference...but while I was writing my reply, I got a BSOD with a "Page fault in a non paged area" error so I never got to finish my reply. I was runnung Prime 95 in the background while I was replying, so I thought I had a memory issue. So for the last hour, I ran Memtest86 to check for errors but didn't get any. So I've toned my memory settings down from "Turbo" to "By SPD". So for the time being I'm running Prime 95 and everything is fine. I suspect my memory settings were too agressive, as you suggested.

So all's well that ends well, huh?