Issues & BIOS Recovery

iPod Blues

I had full intention of using my iPod to measure USB performance for this review but my iPod just wouldn’t work with the EP-9U1697. When I plug in the iPod into the rear USB port, the system would hang and stutter as it struggled to identify the new hardware. Once the iPod appeared as a “Removable Disk” on my system I tried to view the properties of the device, and the system again started to stutter and struggle.

EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI Motherboard Review - SLI Killer? - Motherboards 66
Some iPod issues – it is not recognized by the EP-9U1697.

Finally, the properties dialog came up and it showed my iPod as being 0 bytes in capacity and 0 bytes occupied. I tried various software and BIOS settings, but it still didn’t work.

BIOS Issues

The initial BIOS that was shipped with the board we are reviewing was not particularly stable – on random soft resets, the system would hang with an error code 25 or 26. When these freezes occured, the BIOS would automatically reset itself to factory defaults on the next reboot which then required the user to re-input all their settings. Some other review sites reported other BIOS problems as well, though I did not experience the same issues.

When I emailed EPoX for help (see below), all of my boot hang-ups disappeared with a new BIOS they provided. It appears they are aware of the problems with their initial BIOS versions and their latest revision helped immensely. This bodes well for the end-user.

Rescuing a BIOS on the EP-9U1697

In trying to fix the above USB problem, I accidentally corrupted my BIOS by doing a bad flash (the BIOS image which I was using was damaged). When I tried to boot, the POST but hung on Code 50 meaning USB initialization. Going back into the BIOS, I disabled USB emulation and restarted. This time, it hung on Code 94 which is one of the last steps in the whole boot procedure. But the board still didn’t boot!

After about an hour of unplugging hardware, resetting the BIOS, and different BIOS configurations, I was getting desperate. I even tried ALT+F2 during boot-up to enter into AWDFlash, but that froze as well! Clearly I was having some serious BIOS issues.

Finally, I asked EPoX for help and their response? An updated BIOS. Now how do I get the BIOS image loaded if the system won’t even POST or enter into AWDFlash? At this point most users would sink into a pit of despair because they realize that they would have to RMA the board or get another BIOS chip.

For the EP-9U1697 I didn’t have to do either – GhostFlash saved me a costly and time consuming RMA.

When hard-booting with a BIOS that has been damaged, the GhostFlash screen would appear as it did in my case.

EPoX EP-9U1697 GLI Motherboard Review - SLI Killer? - Motherboards 67

GhostFlash allows you to use either a CD or a floppy to load AWDFlash and the BIOS from. Having selected the floppy option, AWDFlash ran and began to flash the BIOS with the .BIN file that was stored.

Reboot … SUCCESS! Where it froze on USB initialization, it flew past and booted right into Windows. The GhostFlash feature on the EP-9U1697 really saved me this time.

With a problem like this, it really makes me appreciate EPoX’s effort and attention to important enthusiast details. The debug LED helped immensely in diagnosing my problem (to think some manufacturers don’t have any diagnostic readout of any sort!), and the GhostFlash saved time, money, and my rear.

After flashing with the new BIOS, I no longer experienced any problems during boot-up.
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