Epox 8K7A and trouble

[HighLander]

Hi !
I am new here and i have been told that some tech from Epox visits here so i am posting this here

Hardware is at the end of message

I have trouble with random reboots with my Epox 8K7A mortherboard...and trouble getting IP adress from my dsl modem.
The IP thing is occuring often when i start the comp after been shut for the night , my dsl modem (nokia) flash a red light and i get no ip , its all 0.0.0.0 at first and then it sets 169.bla bla = windows sets the ip. This problem occured in Win 2000 Pro also but more often and there it could loose IP adress even while surfing sometimes. I need to restart the comp several times to get the IP i need to get able to go online.

Then there is the Random reboot thing....
Was on 21.83 geforce drivers at first and the comp rebooted randomly around every hour , installed the 22.80 driver (was told they should fix it) and they did a better job but today i have had 1 random reboot so far (around 12hours up time so far and 1 random reboot).

Any one have any ideas?

Hardware = Amd T-Bird 1400 , Epox 8K7A , 512Mb DDR ram , Lead Teak Geforce 3 Graphics , SB live sound card , Realtek based network card , maxtor 40gb 7200rpm harddrive , Plextor 12x burner and sony 48x cd

Edit = The Random Reboot thing almost only happens in windows XP , it has occured once in Windows 2000Pro during 4 months...

Edit 2 = Nothing is overclocked or anything like that , everything is default exept for some tuning in bios and such normal stuff...

[EPoX Tech]

What is the PSU within this system ? (manufacturer and model number ) ?

[HighLander]

Oh hard question on the modelnumber but i know its an Antec PP 303**(**=some letters i dont remember) 300Watt anyway

The Random Reboot thing almost only happens in windows XP , it has occured once in Windows 2000Pro during 4 months before installing Windows XP...
The IP thing has occured more often in win2000 than in win XP so i am sooooo confused here

[HighLander]

Update the random reboot thing=
I have now installed MbM5 and checked the voltages , the +5 is 4.95 when in idle (surfing etc etc) and 4.86 -4.88 in full load (did run cpuburn to get full load)

I have turned off the "reboot automaticly" thing also so i get an blue screen and most of the times its an "irc_less_or_equal" error message, but once it was some other message...thats the things i have checked so far with the reboot thing

The IP thing i dont know what to do , i have tryed my friends network card and it does not loose IP as often as it does with mine but it still does and its when i start my machine in the morning.

[Wazer]

Originally posted by HighLander
Oh hard question on the modelnumber but i know its an Antec PP 303**(**=some letters i dont remember) 300Watt anyway

The Random Reboot thing almost only happens in windows XP , it has occured once in Windows 2000Pro during 4 months before installing Windows XP...
The IP thing has occured more often in win2000 than in win XP so i am sooooo confused here

I would be definately suspicious of your powersupply. Especially if you have a few ide devices.
Most of the 300w power supplies just dont cut it on the 8k7a. Im running an old inwin 300w (powerman/sparkle/fpg) supply. Which is probably the only one i would even attempt to run.

I would toss out some cash and get a sparkle or enermax power supply.

Wazer

[HighLander]

Originally posted by Wazer


I would be definately suspicious of your powersupply. Especially if you have a few ide devices.
Most of the 300w power supplies just dont cut it on the 8k7a. Im running an old inwin 300w (powerman/sparkle/fpg) supply. Which is probably the only one i would even attempt to run.

I would toss out some cash and get a sparkle or enermax power supply.

Wazer

Well i have 3 IDE devices and 4 Papst 1500RPM fans in the case...can it be the powersupply?

I am back on Win2000Pro and no reboots now for 3 days...??
So i am not so sure that it is the powersupply if not WinXP makes things take more from the powersupply ?

[Wazer]

<<<Well i have 3 IDE devices and 4 Papst 1500RPM fans in the case...can it be the powersupply?

I am back on Win2000Pro and no reboots now for 3 days...??
So i am not so sure that it is the powersupply if not WinXP makes things take more from the powersupply ?>>>

Cant garantee its your powersupply but it is verly likely. Most of the stability problems Ive seen have been do to undersized or poorly designed power supplies with the epox 8k7a.

Either that or your bios/drivers are not up to snuff.
When you install the via drivers for the 8k7a you should install them in win2k compatability mode. And remember not to install via agp drivers.

I would make sure you have the latest bug fixes or service packs. I would also be sure to put on the latest bios for winXP. Also be sure to have the latest and most stable Drivers for you Sound, Video ect.

The reason that Epox tech asked you about power supply is because of how picky the epox 8k7a is. 3ide devices and the epox 8k7a is not a good idea for the antec 300w. Especially since i consider the antec 300w to be generic because it is not amd certified. The 350 and 400 antecs are amd certified if i remember right.

Wazer

[HighLander]

Well the random reboot thingy has not occured yet with win2000 pro....and it has been a week now with running the comp 12hrs per day or more.

And the IP thingy , i need to release the IP everynight before shutting the comp down and everything works fine when i start it again in the morning. No problem getting IP then , its seems like if i dont release the IP adress before turning it off i have trouble getting an IP when i turn it back on in the morning.
And then i ask my self , is it the motherboard or the network card that is causing this?
I have used my friends network card for a few days before and i had no problem getting IP with that card...

Anyone have any suggestions?