4g4a+ nightmare

[maSp]

Hoya guys,

my first time at the forum! :-D

Since I switched from the best P4 board (4BDA2+) ever to the 4G4A+ i was having nothing but troubles...

Ok, the highpoint hangs most of the time at warmboot.
Hmmm, seems to be solved with the latest bios release at epox.nl.

However, what caused me some sleepless nights is the fact the manual AND the bios are simply wrong when it comes to PnP/PCI Configuration.

The bios list shows this:

AGP SLOT INT Assignment
AC97/MC97 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT1 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT2 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT3 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT4 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT5 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT6 INT Assignment

Rubbish, wrong. Throw in some PCI cards and try to assign your IRQ's. You'll be lost.

Example: A NIC in SLOT6 shows up as to be in SLOT1. ROFL.

To make it short, here's how it should be:

INTA Assignment
INTB Assignment
INTC Assignment
INTD Assignment
INTE Assignment
INTF Assignment
INTG Assignment
INTH Assignment

Now, according to your manual you have to find out how the INT lines are hardwired to the PCI SLOT's and devices. But be aware, the INT table schown in the manual is wrong, too.
Here's what I've found out:

INTA: AGP/SLOT4/USB1
INTB: AC97/MC97/SLOT5/SM BUS
INTC: SLOT1/SLOT6/USB3
INTD: SLOT2/USB2
INTE: SLOT3 unshared
INTF: Highpoint device
INTG: Onboard LAN
INTF: USB2.0

Just take a deep breath...

Now, since we can turn off some devices like usb onboard sound
and LAN we should have enough (8) INT lines for our 6 PCI SLOT's
shouldn't we? Wrong again. The board layout limits the INT's to
actually 4 available for 6 PCI SLOT's.

Not to mention that the lack of the 12V connector seems to limt the boards OC ability...

Come on Epox, think over it again...

Have fun. Cheers

[barenziah]

What Os are you running??? If it is Win XP then if I remember reading right on Microsoft's web page then you cant change the IRQ settings period even if you do in the bios XP wont take it, XP will automatically assign the IRQ's. There is a big article someplace on their web page about it relating to ACPI compliant boards and IRQ's and XP.

[EPoX Tech]

Originally posted by maSp
Hoya guys,

my first time at the forum! :-D

Since I switched from the best P4 board (4BDA2+) ever to the 4G4A+ i was having nothing but troubles...

Ok, the highpoint hangs most of the time at warmboot.
Hmmm, seems to be solved with the latest bios release at epox.nl.

However, what caused me some sleepless nights is the fact the manual AND the bios are simply wrong when it comes to PnP/PCI Configuration.

The bios list shows this:

AGP SLOT INT Assignment
AC97/MC97 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT1 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT2 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT3 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT4 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT5 INT Assignment
PCI SLOT6 INT Assignment

Rubbish, wrong. Throw in some PCI cards and try to assign your IRQ's. You'll be lost.

Example: A NIC in SLOT6 shows up as to be in SLOT1. ROFL.

To make it short, here's how it should be:

INTA Assignment
INTB Assignment
INTC Assignment
INTD Assignment
INTE Assignment
INTF Assignment
INTG Assignment
INTH Assignment

Now, according to your manual you have to find out how the INT lines are hardwired to the PCI SLOT's and devices. But be aware, the INT table schown in the manual is wrong, too.
Here's what I've found out:

INTA: AGP/SLOT4/USB1
INTB: AC97/MC97/SLOT5/SM BUS
INTC: SLOT1/SLOT6/USB3
INTD: SLOT2/USB2
INTE: SLOT3 unshared
INTF: Highpoint device
INTG: Onboard LAN
INTF: USB2.0

Just take a deep breath...

Now, since we can turn off some devices like usb onboard sound
and LAN we should have enough (8) INT lines for our 6 PCI SLOT's
shouldn't we? Wrong again. The board layout limits the INT's to
actually 4 available for 6 PCI SLOT's.

Not to mention that the lack of the 12V connector seems to limt the boards OC ability...

Come on Epox, think over it again...

Have fun. Cheers

Study your Windows documentation before pointing the finger at us please

[NWEng]

MaSp

1. Why are you running a PCI NIC in the first place? Onboard NIC works just fine. If you want to manually assign IRQs, that's your business. However, I have APIC enabled and let Windows handle the rest.

2. I think by practical application, the lack of the 12v does not limit the OC capability of this board. I'm at a 166 FSB and DDR415, all day long; there aren't many boards/components that routinely perform beyond that, at least at this time, AND have the 12v connector. I think that's just a misperception because no one else it doing it yet, and it's an obvious "culprit".

The board may have it's bugaboos, but it's certainly not an underachiever. There are other threads in this forum that have addressed the 4g4a, read through them at least for other knowledge other than your personal experience.

ciao

[EPoX Tech]

When we have worked with our reviewers on this we have always managed to get 1.6A's to a minimum of 170MHz.

And why a need for a 12V connector for better overclocking when the split plane for CPU, northbridge and memory is of 3.3v and 5v orientation which is fed from the 20pin

We design mainboards and are very good in comparison to any other manufacturer in terms of power regulation, our choice to place or not place a 12v connector does not need for questioning really.

[maSp]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@barenziah
I'm currently running Win98Se/W2K/WXP and RedHat7.2 on this board.

@NWEng
A second NIC is needed here. I use them both at the moment.
Other cards I use on the 4G4A+ are a TV card, a SCSI Controller,
a ISDN Controller, a SBLive! and a GeForce3.

@EPox Tech
Dunno if it's the lack of the 12V connector or simply the chipset.
I have changed nothing else but the board istself. My 1.6A was running @2.8 for months now (4BDA2+) where it only hits 2.4 stable on the 4G4A+. Same power supply (430W).

Oh and btw did I say anything about Windows in my initial post?
Sometimes there's simply a need for manually assigning IRQ's...
Beside that, WindowsXP for example handles the IRQ's exactly the way I maually have assigned them...

However, like I mentioned before the bios and the manual are wrong, period. Crosscheck that prior to pointing the finger at me.

Anyway, thanks again for reading.

Cheers.

[barenziah]

Hey just remember that you came here for help and that if your rude then nobody is going to reply to your post.

[Holst]

Why do you want to manually assign IRQ's ?

If you where running a old 486SX33 based system and you had shared IRQ then you might have problems, running a modern board you will casue problems by disabling ACPI and trying to botch it yourself.

I recently had a a end user contact me about instability with his board (I forgett model number) it turned out that he had disabled ACPI in the bios and that was the cause.

Unless you have a genuine reason for messing (linux maybee ?)with it its best to leave ACPI enabled winXP and win2k will shove everyting on the same IRQ, but it wont affect performance or stability at all.

As for poor overclocking on the 4G4A+, its a strange one. Many users get good overclocks and performacne (such as NWEng) others cannot get it to run. There is probably a reason for this, maybee NWEng will be able to give you some help.

[maSp]

barenziah, I didn't want to be rude at any time. I you feel so, I'm sorry. My 'pointing the finger' came with a smiley, same like EPox Tech did.

Holst, by manually assigning IRQ's I don't turn off ACPI.
While like you said W2K will shove everything on the same IRQ WindowsXP did not. At least on my box.

Anyway, I'm back on the 4BDA2+ now @2.8.
Everything is smooth again. Love this mobo.

Cheers.

[Alexandrus]

Well, just got me a 4G4A+ and I was able to get my P4 1.6A to 16x166MHz=2667MHz from the first try, and that with the Intel stock cooler. The VCore was increased to 1.60V, but that's not so much. I will try 2.8GHz next, maybe I can beat your 4BDA2+ maSp