What does the BIOS show for boot sequence and has it found the HDD? I presume the dead CR battery has been changed?

The cr2032 is new.. it dont get to the fase of searxhing for drives. Just stops always after memory test. Witch i beliave says test ok.

Dont let me enter BIOS, dont let me try to flash the BIOS. Dammit...

Another thing. If i put pc133 SDRAM and out the jumper on 133 mode, it just dont do nothing... Not even starts.. works ONLY on 100mhz mode.... Another sign something is bad

The sequence is: shows graphic card, then cpu info, then nem count and stops... No error, nothing. Just stops there

Have you tried with the motherboard not mounted in the case?

I wonder if somebody flashed the wrong BIOS to the motherboard or maybe a BIOS update didn't complete correctly.

A POST test card might help here as well.

Do you have another board you could use to hotflash the EEPROM with a BIOS image?

EDIT: just remember i have a post card. used it on the pci bus

gives me the error code 26... Something related with the memory.. right.. but i've tried like 9 or 10 sticks of sdram.. no all can be bad.. cool this be the cache of the cpu ?

nuno14272 wrote on 2020-12-15, 12:29:

Another thing. If i put pc133 SDRAM and out the jumper on 133 mode, it just dont do nothing... Not even starts.. works ONLY on 100mhz mode.... Another sign something is bad

Setting it to 133 probably changes the FSB to 133MHz which overclocks the CPU, so keep it at 100.
Using PC133 capable RAM is a good idea though because it will be more capable of aggressive timings at PC100. It's unlikely, but possible that the BIOS has been modified and defaults to aggressive timings.

dont see any bulging capacitors or anything

Caps are always a suspect on Epox boards of this period. What brand are they? If you put your finger on them, do they still feel flat? Any variation in "bumpiness" from one cap to another?

If you have a multimeter, check what voltages you have while it's trying to boot. Put the negative (black) probe on the case of the PSU, or stick it into a black wire on one of the drive power connectors, or some other safe and easy ground point. Put red on whatever you're measuring.
Easiest voltages to check are +5V and +12V which are on the hard drive power connectors. 3.3V is accessible by backprobing an orange wire at the ATX motherboard connector. CPU Vcore should be at the metal tab on the top of 2 of the 4 heatsinked MOSFETs you see near the CPU. The tab on the other 2 will be the +5V supply that's powering the VRM. Might as well also probe the battery voltage.

I had such an error years ago. Drove me crazy. The solution was to remove the battery AND to clear the CMOS. Did you try this?

Have you tried different memory combinations too? 2 x 64 etc? Maybe a problem with the memory socket? And pressing F1 (or whatever it is, screen cuts off the key in your post) doesn't let you enter BIOS? You should press it a few times right after boot to make sure the startup sequence doesn't go too far.

cproell wrote on 2020-12-16, 13:44:

I had such an error years ago. Drove me crazy. The solution was to remove the battery AND to clear the CMOS. Did you try this?

tryed a million times..

sf78 wrote on 2020-12-16, 15:50:

Have you tried different memory combinations too? 2 x 64 etc? Maybe a problem with the memory socket? And pressing F1 (or whatever it is, screen cuts off the key in your post) doesn't let you enter BIOS? You should press it a few times right after boot to make sure the startup sequence doesn't go too far.

tryed like 10 modules, in simm1, simm2, simm3... the computer doesnt respond to any key after this moment.. cant enter bios, nothing.. but like i said, keybord works because i can start computer from keyboard. so everything seens fine..

NOW, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS 26 ERROR ABOUT ?

Trying once more: What you describe sounds a lot like a corrupt BIOS.
Do you have any way of flashing the EEPROM outside of the board?
You have multiple PCs in your signature. Why not use one of those to perform a hot flash?

My one and only encounter with the 7KXA was kind of bitter. Back in the day I was building a system for someone, among the stuff I got this board and a 650MHz Athlon and after building the rig it pretty much behaved like your board, hanging at various stages during POST. At the time I didn't have a bunch of parts to swap out, and since most of the stuff was bought from the same shop I brought the complete system there and asked them to see what's wrong. Dead motherboard, they said, and since the Slot A was on its way out they swapped the motherboard and cpu for a spanking new Socket A + Duron combo.

More recently I've seen a similar board on sale on a local classifieds site, I think it was advertised for more than 1 year. Southbridge chip was burned (exploded) but asking price was as if the board was in perfect order so I passed 😀

Doornkaat wrote on 2020-12-16, 22:06:

Trying once more: What you describe sounds a lot like a corrupt BIOS.
Do you have any way of flashing the EEPROM outside of the board?
You have multiple PCs in your signature. Why not use one of those to perform a hot flash?

^ This.
Looks like there have been at least *some* memory-related issues, so updating might not be a bad idea:
https://soggi.org/motherboards/epox/EP-7KXA.htm

Flashing might even be possible with a suitable NIC. I've used flashrom and a 3C905B to read BIOS chip contents, worked ok (haven't tried writing them).
Can't rule out the bad caps though...

The very first thing I would do at this point is to check over the voltages with a multimeter. If voltages aren't where they should be then it's not going to be stable and problems like this can appear.
I'd still do that even if it was working correctly. It's a fundamental step in building a PC in my opinion. It's sort of the analog version of making sure everything is plugged in.

If you're interested in the details of what the BIOS is doing, grab yourself a copy of Pinczakko's BIOS Disassembly Ninjutsu Uncovered. It has a whole section about Award 6.00PG, nicely dissected.

shamino wrote on 2020-12-17, 05:36:

The very first thing I would do at this point is to check over the voltages with a multimeter. If voltages aren't where they should be then it's not going to be stable and problems like this can appear.
I'd still do that even if it was working correctly. It's a fundamental step in building a PC in my opinion. It's sort of the analog version of making sure everything is plugged in.

i thinh everything is the volage department is ok. i tried tree power supplyes, multimeter and...the post card gives me the lights for all the voltages.. so in that department.. it's ok

UPDATE:

tried a hot bios swap flash... with a DFI P2XBL.. uses the same 32dip award bios... but.. it gave me error in half the flash.... dammit...
decided to test it on the EP-k7Xa... and. now we have problems.. serious problens..

download/file.php?mode=view&id=98469

i'm going to try again tonight, with uniflash, and the option to unlock the winbond w020. let's see what happens.

That sounds like the EEPROM is defective and would explain why it locked up during POST.
Luckily that's a cheap fix. 😉👍