Foxconn Motherboards
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I had the same problem with a Gigabyte board. Finally replaced it with an ASUS, didn't replace anything else!, and my BSOD problems vanished.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
Finally replaced it with an ASUS
Back in 2003 I build an Athlon XP system with an ASUS motherboard and I have been extremely satisfied with it. It still works and I have run the beta 2 and RC 1 of Vista on it and it runs pretty fast considering the old hardware installed.
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This is going to end up sounding like a tech support problem, because I've had nothing but problems with mine - the brand new one that runs the Intel Core 2 Duo (2 x 2.66) whatsit. Model number on the board itself, is RC4107MA. I'd tell you more about it but no program in the world seems to know what "FOXCONN" is. Things I hate about them: - Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs. - It's brand new hardware, and none of the drivers begin to run on Vista without hassle. Also, the sound drivers use more memory than explorer does, under XP. - BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2. :confused: - Memory was corrupted when I got it - rather than crash normally or restart or display an error message in BSOD-esque style, the entire system locked up like the computer had stalled. - I'm having USB problems, though I might have largely fixed it with a PCI 6 slot hub. Now I'm getting weirder errors: "Power surge on USB hub". Though, I'm convinced the surge is occuring on a device still plugged into the motherboard. Just a rant and a half, I suppose I'm only trying to put people off buying Foxconn's. If anyone has any opinions then I'd be glad to have sparked some discussion off. And if anyone knows where to get Vista drivers I'll be grateful. I'll have a search later, but it's 3AM local time and I have better things to do than bore people with motherboard nonsense.
Yet another spam post on yet another forum! I am the lazy one, who sleeps as it suits him, codes what he wishes, and has many years to look forward to. I love being a student.
"Here's a nickel, kid. Go buy a real computer." - to quote a Dilbert cartoon... People who try to save a dime buying noname parts from offshore vendors generally end up paying far more than they would have buying quality components from reputable vendors. I'm sorry you got taken on this one, but if you can't resolve it in short order, dump it and consider it a lesson. Buy quality, from vendors with many good reviews in trade publications, and spend a little extra. You can't put a price on the time and frustration you'll save yourself. I don't mean to sound heartless; I'm really not. But I've seen so much grief self-inflicted by people who cut corners to save a few hundred bucks, only to end up wasting their time - and often a lot of mine at many $$ per hour - fixing what never should have happenned. By all means, use it as a learning experience, if you have the time. I wish you the best. But don't waste too much time on it. You got burned - move on and do better next time. You've only got so much time, and you aren't getting any more of it. Wouldn't you really rather use what you have using a nice, reliable machine?:-D
"...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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This is going to end up sounding like a tech support problem, because I've had nothing but problems with mine - the brand new one that runs the Intel Core 2 Duo (2 x 2.66) whatsit. Model number on the board itself, is RC4107MA. I'd tell you more about it but no program in the world seems to know what "FOXCONN" is. Things I hate about them: - Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs. - It's brand new hardware, and none of the drivers begin to run on Vista without hassle. Also, the sound drivers use more memory than explorer does, under XP. - BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2. :confused: - Memory was corrupted when I got it - rather than crash normally or restart or display an error message in BSOD-esque style, the entire system locked up like the computer had stalled. - I'm having USB problems, though I might have largely fixed it with a PCI 6 slot hub. Now I'm getting weirder errors: "Power surge on USB hub". Though, I'm convinced the surge is occuring on a device still plugged into the motherboard. Just a rant and a half, I suppose I'm only trying to put people off buying Foxconn's. If anyone has any opinions then I'd be glad to have sparked some discussion off. And if anyone knows where to get Vista drivers I'll be grateful. I'll have a search later, but it's 3AM local time and I have better things to do than bore people with motherboard nonsense.
Yet another spam post on yet another forum! I am the lazy one, who sleeps as it suits him, codes what he wishes, and has many years to look forward to. I love being a student.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
- Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs.
MBM hasn't been supported for several years and won't work with any new hardware. Get SpeedFan instead.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
- BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2.
SOP for marketing different level boards. You design to the highest level and then pull parts out to make the cheaper ones. Since most companies just use nvidia/ati/intel reference designs they may not make the highend models but will still have default support for them. Not turning the options off in the BIOS is sloppy though. Beyond that, like all cheap mobo makers quality is really hit and miss, you really need to do your research and check user hardware reviews on sites like newegg first. I've got a foxconn s939 nVidia 6150 board that works great.
-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.
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FoxConn is a Chinese board manufacturer that will get parts from any source, reputable or not, to build 'em with. Dell uses them to build their motherboards for certain lines of machines. I've replaced about 38 motherboards in my Optiplex machines. I HATE FoxConn with a passion.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
Foxconn is Taiwanese (not that there is much difference). They manufacturer parts used by around 95% of all PC manufacturers, not just Dell, especially chassis parts and connectors. They also make a lot of Apple's consumer electronics (including iPods*, Mac minis, etc) and all the Intel motherboards. Foxconn are OEMs for all of the current consoles too -- Playstations (2 and 3), Wiis and XBox 360 consoles. I know they make all of Motorola's cell phones too and maybe others - my phone has a small Foxconn print on the reverse of the mainboard. * they were the focus of that sweatshop news last year
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
I've replaced about 38 motherboards in my Optiplex machines. I HATE FoxConn with a passion.
One thing I learnt about Dell machines is to always take out the extended warranty. Failures are common 1-3 months after the normal warranties expire. What year are/were those Optiplexes from? A whole generation of them were fitted with those dodgy stolen capicitors, and with our work machines all but one board from a whole batch failed due to 'bulging capacitors'. (Optiplex GX270's, ~2 years old)
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milk -
Foxconn is Taiwanese (not that there is much difference). They manufacturer parts used by around 95% of all PC manufacturers, not just Dell, especially chassis parts and connectors. They also make a lot of Apple's consumer electronics (including iPods*, Mac minis, etc) and all the Intel motherboards. Foxconn are OEMs for all of the current consoles too -- Playstations (2 and 3), Wiis and XBox 360 consoles. I know they make all of Motorola's cell phones too and maybe others - my phone has a small Foxconn print on the reverse of the mainboard. * they were the focus of that sweatshop news last year
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
I've replaced about 38 motherboards in my Optiplex machines. I HATE FoxConn with a passion.
One thing I learnt about Dell machines is to always take out the extended warranty. Failures are common 1-3 months after the normal warranties expire. What year are/were those Optiplexes from? A whole generation of them were fitted with those dodgy stolen capicitors, and with our work machines all but one board from a whole batch failed due to 'bulging capacitors'. (Optiplex GX270's, ~2 years old)
Ðavid Wulff What kind of music should programmers listen to?
Join the Code Project Last.fm group | dwulff
I'm so gangsta I eat cereal without the milkDavid Wulff wrote:
A whole generation of them were fitted with those dodgy stolen capicitors, and with our work machines all but one board from a whole batch failed due to 'bulging capacitors'. (Optiplex GX270's, ~2 years old)
Bingo! Exact same machines. We had Dell out acrossed the country replacing motherboards and hard drives. But, Dell said the machines at my port weren't in the affected serial number range. Hmmm...60% failure rate because of those capacitors, the exact same problem as the rest of the country, and they're not in the affected range?? Bastards... They're still covering all parts, but I'm doing all the labor...
David Wulff wrote:
I know they make all of Motorola's cell phones too
That explains the comments I heard from a Verizon rep. The RAZR's are having all kinds of problems...
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
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I can say I have build over 100 pcs for my department and others in the last 10 years and for the most part I do no have these problems but at that the 2 foxcomm boards I have purchased have had their quirks. My recommendation is to spend a little more money and get an ASUS board but make sure you stay away from VIA chipsets.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs.
I have seen this with a lot of boards. Didn't the driver disk come with a utility program?
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
Memory was corrupted when I got it
It could be bad memory, power supply or motherboard. Have you ran memtest86+ for a day or more?
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
It's brand new hardware, and none of the drivers begin to run on Vista without hassle.
Did you try to download the drivers directly form the companies involved? Also Visa is quite new so don't expect all the drivers to be ready. I know there has been quite a backlash over nVidia not having their drivers working 100% reliably.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2.
Possibly is it mapping sata disks as ide? Or maybe they sell other boards of the same model with more ports and did not disable this on the bios screen.
John
There are no drivers for Motherboard Monitor. There hasn't been an update to it for at least a couple of years now.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
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There are no drivers for Motherboard Monitor. There hasn't been an update to it for at least a couple of years now.
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic
I thought that was the case but I have not used it for a few years.
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
There are no drivers for Motherboard Monitor.
Hmm. After rereading your reply I am under the impression that the you thought I was talking about drivers for motherboard monitor... Sorry for that, I meant the driver disk for the motherboard. Just about every motherboard comes with some software monitoring program.
John
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I can say I have build over 100 pcs for my department and others in the last 10 years and for the most part I do no have these problems but at that the 2 foxcomm boards I have purchased have had their quirks. My recommendation is to spend a little more money and get an ASUS board but make sure you stay away from VIA chipsets.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs.
I have seen this with a lot of boards. Didn't the driver disk come with a utility program?
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
Memory was corrupted when I got it
It could be bad memory, power supply or motherboard. Have you ran memtest86+ for a day or more?
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
It's brand new hardware, and none of the drivers begin to run on Vista without hassle.
Did you try to download the drivers directly form the companies involved? Also Visa is quite new so don't expect all the drivers to be ready. I know there has been quite a backlash over nVidia not having their drivers working 100% reliably.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2.
Possibly is it mapping sata disks as ide? Or maybe they sell other boards of the same model with more ports and did not disable this on the bios screen.
John
Memtest: I'd ran it on the advice of someone on a forum. The memory basically froze the system so it would run to 9% and completely and utterly stop dead, no matter how long it was left. Memtest wouldn't even display an error, it just crashed. It was a cheapass company from Newcastle, who suck. IDE slots: there's only 2 bus slots on the board itself. Not that I'm complaining although it doesn't make sense if there's 5 channels available. My last mobo had a VIA chipset, and I had few problems. This one isn't making the system unstable but it's a farcical board.
Yet another spam post on yet another forum! I am the lazy one, who sleeps as it suits him, codes what he wishes, and has many years to look forward to. I love being a student.
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Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
- Motherboard Monitor has no support for it, nor do many other programs.
MBM hasn't been supported for several years and won't work with any new hardware. Get SpeedFan instead.
Ninja-the-Nerd wrote:
- BIOS has support for 5 IDE slots - the board has 2.
SOP for marketing different level boards. You design to the highest level and then pull parts out to make the cheaper ones. Since most companies just use nvidia/ati/intel reference designs they may not make the highend models but will still have default support for them. Not turning the options off in the BIOS is sloppy though. Beyond that, like all cheap mobo makers quality is really hit and miss, you really need to do your research and check user hardware reviews on sites like newegg first. I've got a foxconn s939 nVidia 6150 board that works great.
-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.
I have SpeedFan; it comes up with the figures, with no labels, but in the part where you select the mobo/etc, Foxconn isn't there. v4.3 which I got off a recent PC Format disk. Your sig has a strange irony to it now that I look back at this blasted (for want of a stronger word) motherboard.
Yet another spam post on yet another forum! I am the lazy one, who sleeps as it suits him, codes what he wishes, and has many years to look forward to. I love being a student.
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I have SpeedFan; it comes up with the figures, with no labels, but in the part where you select the mobo/etc, Foxconn isn't there. v4.3 which I got off a recent PC Format disk. Your sig has a strange irony to it now that I look back at this blasted (for want of a stronger word) motherboard.
Yet another spam post on yet another forum! I am the lazy one, who sleeps as it suits him, codes what he wishes, and has many years to look forward to. I love being a student.
I don't know why more codes aren't bundled with it, but you need to get a config code off the website. Goto the info tab. Click the get config button. Click the link label. At present there're 4 models listed. If none of them are close, use one for a major brand using the same chipset and config level. Odds are good that board and yours will both be reference designs and the alternate will work.
-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.
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I thought that was the case but I have not used it for a few years.
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
There are no drivers for Motherboard Monitor.
Hmm. After rereading your reply I am under the impression that the you thought I was talking about drivers for motherboard monitor... Sorry for that, I meant the driver disk for the motherboard. Just about every motherboard comes with some software monitoring program.
John
John M. Drescher wrote:
After rereading your reply I am under the impression that the you thought I was talking about drivers for motherboard monitor... Sorry for that, I meant the driver disk for the motherboard. Just about every motherboard comes with some software monitoring program.
Yeah, you're right. I find it odd that nearly every Mobo comes with its own monitoring app, but nearly none, at least the last time I built a machine, come with any WMI Providers to let you do the same thing in your own apps easily...
Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP - Visual Basic