Epox FF board error

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16 Jan 2003
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Its been one of those weekends. I bought an asus a8r32 + 2 x1900 cards last weekend, and decided to rma the board as its producing a fair bit of noise from the motherboard... Sent it back friday.

So I resetup my "old" system - epox 9nda3+ with a64 3000+ while I waited for my replacement. Used 2 x Crucial Ballistix PC4000 512mb in it.

Messed around a bit, set it all up etc. Then decided to add 2 additional memory sticks of same type/size/make - knowing that I would have to drop to 2T timing mode....

....but on boot, the bios would pause for a few secs, then put the memory at 100mhz????!!? :confused: Popped into bios, checked settings, everything looked ok - rebooted - same again?

Each pair worked ok on their own at full speed, but all four together caused this wierd problem?

.....and then the board died. :( When I power on, the board stays on status "FF" straight away (i.e. initial state, not the final "everything ok" code) and the power led isn't on? At least I hope its the board as the cpu was clocking to 2.6ghz at stock volts on previous setup.

Checked everything, setup with bare minimum, 1 memory stick etc - nothing, no speaker beeps at all. Cmos clears have no effect. Tried another psu, memory etc. Only current socket 939 board so I can't check the cpu... Thats another one down the drain. :eek:

Dug out my actually old setup (athlon) and that wasn't booting at all....no life, beeps etc... :mad:

I was getting a bit irrate at this point! Got an even older system (low speed athlon) and when loading windows it comes up with the infamous "inaccessible boot device" error - guess it was one I biult out of spare bits and never got around to setting up properly.

Luckily got it working now, but I have to sort out the wreckage from the weekends catastrophe. :(

Checked on the net and it looks like the FF code on the board is pretty terminal?

I hate weekends like this, especially when you start totting up the value of everything.... <sigh>
 
not sure if bulging/leaking caps affected tht series board, but I would give them a closer look, what type psu

editFSP 700 did you use it on all the systems
 
Last edited:
Hi there,
According to my Epox boards manual FF means any of 4 possible causes.
1. Bios chip inserted incorrectly.
2. Incorrect Bios update version.
3. Mainboard problem. (Not that that is a lot of help).
4. Add on card inserted incorrectly.

Mine however, does display FF when everything is up and running ok. It goes through the codes on start up as it brings everything on line then goes to FF when it's running. By the sound of it yours does'nt run through the codes on startup and goes straight to FF which is one of the faults above.

Have you tried contacting Epox UK tech support to see what they say. I had a couple of problems a month or so ago and they actually got back to me pretty quickly and helped me sort it out.
 
Dutch Guy said:
FF after a lot of other codes = succesful boot.
FF straight away = dead mobo (or BIOS chip)

I suspected as much - confirmed when I started checking the net on the problem.

Looks like I'll either need to get another socket 939 board, or cut my losses and sell the cpu etc on. :(
 
God you gave me a heart attack there, mine's always (when i check) on FF, i thought it was capoot until i read on.

Soz for your loss tho.
 
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