Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS (mAtx, 939)

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Wed May 18, 2005 6:46 pm

Did you notice that there does not seem to be any driver or bios updates on their website for their motherboards?
Or any other downloads for that matter!

rei · Post by **rei** » Wed May 18, 2005 7:17 pm

foxconn support scares me that way

i truly hope gigabyte gets their matx s939 board out soon and that it is Good. i want to replace my msi with that, and throw it into a shiny new aspire x-qpack.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Wed May 18, 2005 9:20 pm

The board is exactly what I am looking for to replace my A7N8X-VM400
but no way will I buy one without proper support , nor would I recomend one to anybody.
Pretty poor from a second tier company!

vdorta · Post by **vdorta** » Thu May 19, 2005 3:53 am

pony-tail wrote:Did you notice that there does not seem to be any driver or bios updates on their website for their motherboards?
Or any other downloads for that matter!

That's why I decided to buy the MSI RS480.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Sat May 21, 2005 1:19 pm

So let me get this straight, you guys are bitching about the lack of BIOS updates, but none of you owns the board and none of you has any idea if a BIOS update is even necessary? BIOS updates are to add support for new CPUs and to correct problems. Can any of you tell me what new CPUs have come out since the Foxconn was released around March? Can any of you point out a deficiency in the current Foxconn BIOS?

This is an extremely low priced motherboard from a manufacturer known only for low priced boards. It's not an enthusiast board with weekly BIOS updates to improve overclockability. Get real people.

Please start your own thread if you would like to bash a product you don't have any experience with.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:21 pm

So let me get this straight, you guys are bitching about the lack of BIOS updates, but none of you owns the board and none of you has any idea if a BIOS update is even necessary? BIOS updates are to add support for new CPUs and to correct problems. Can any of you tell me what new CPUs have come out since the Foxconn was released around March? Can any of you point out a deficiency in the current Foxconn BIOS?

Their website has NO ONLINE SUPPORT !
For ANY of their boards
NO diagrams
NO specs
NO Driver downloads
NO bios updates
Sooner or later someone will have some compatability issue or bug that will need the latest driver or bios to fix , this happens regulaly
I for one am not going to fork my Dollars to a company that does not support their products.
and further I will need a bios update (according to AMDs website) as I wish to change to dual core when they become available.
Buying a motherboard without support is like buying a car without spare parts .(although I already have done that it's called a Hyundai Lantra)
NO SUPPORT
NO Purchase!
So I think it is you who needs to get real

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:50 pm

Please also note that this is the ONLY mATX NForce 4 board available so the decision not to buy it was not any easy one-
Also that this board is the same price as my Soltek P4 board and it has full support .
I am specificly looking for a mATX Pci express board - Nforce 4 - there is no other as yet so I will just hang off on the upgrade .
If I was to post another thread the mods would lock it as it is already being "discussed" - please note that in a discussion people do not always have the same opinion.
If an item is being discussed and I know of a problem with it - I should let the other members know about it . and lack of support is a very major problem - offence was not intended , but I considered this to be a very important issue - impotant enough not to buy the only board available that fits my required specs.
You may not have any intention to upgrade your CPU and just buy a computer build it and leave it at that but If I can get another year out of a machine by flashing a bios and upgrading a CPU I will.
I have 5 PCs and one Mac If I was to upgrade an entire system every time I would be even more broke than I already am.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Sun May 22, 2005 8:27 am

Pony-tail,

Everything in your four separate posts bashing this motherboard and the company is ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT.

You obviously haven't ever owned a Foxconn board. From what I can tell, you also have zero experience with any Foxconn product. Yet you continue to talk negatively about something you know little or nothing about.

I have no problem with differing opinions, as long as they are informed opinions. If you actually had any knowledge of a Foxconn motherboard not accepting a new CPU because the BIOS was outdated and no update was available, maybe I wouldn't be giving you such a hard time.

Here's a link to the Foxconn website for their computer products division:
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/

And here's a link to the drivers section of the first motherboard on their list of boards:
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/productsD ... 7AA-8EKRS2

I see bios updates, driver downloads, product specs and pictures, PDF owners manuals, and utility downloads. Am I missing something, or are you?

Now please, I'm asking nicely, start your own thread if you would like to thread crap. If you have USEFUL knowledge or comments, you can post them here. Posting unsupported or misinformed negative comments is really not helpful to anybody.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sun May 22, 2005 12:14 pm

I "Gained" one of these some time back, it was to be fair an evaluation board.

However I was told that it worked, but alas it did'nt I tried all of the standard stuff, PSU, CPU, RAM, BIOS settings etc.

I then tried to update the BIOS......... Foxconn may be one of the larger Motherboard manufacturers in the world, but just like PC Chips, ECS, and Matsonic, their website is crap.

Anyway, once I found the BIOS, I then updated it, totally DEAD.

The End.

I will no doubt try another Foxconn motherboard, a retail board, I hope the boards are better than their website.

BTW, their website is much better than it was when I was looking at it about 2 months ago, it now half works with mozilla, but I still cant download their motherboard manual.

Andy

Gholam · Post by **Gholam** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:15 pm

Foxconn website only works well with IE, true, but when it does work, it works well - better than many other manufacturers' websites. By now, I've built dozens of systems on Foxconn motherboards (915G7MC-ES, 865A01-G-6EKRS, 865M01-G-6ELS, NF4UK8AA-8EKRS), and none of them gave my any trouble.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Tue May 24, 2005 11:42 am

I primarily use SuSE as an operating system and I.E. is not an option .
But I stand corrected on the issue of no drivers or bios .
But why do they not have them on their primary website or at least a link to them?
I had a computer buisiness up til Feb 04 (i folded it - due to health issues)
and used to buy their OEM gear .
So I have some knowledge of the company (from a wholesale point of view).
I was not Bashing their products (their service maybe) but you can not find their support page with a simple google search - that is not good .

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Tue May 24, 2005 5:58 pm

I agree, their primary website (foxconn.com) is terrible for the end user because it makes no mention that there is another website for their consumer products. Since they are primarily a supplier to other companies, this oversight is understandable but inexcusable. Once you do make it to their consumer website at foxconnchannel.com, I think they make up for it somewhat with a website that is functional (for an IE user) but underwhelming. The basic info you need is there but it’s not an exciting website.

Overall, I think their website (once you find it) is acceptable for their low-end position in the market. Anybody that compares their products to a high-end Asus, Abit, or DFI board is crazy. The NF4K8MC fills a need that is currently unmet in the market – a socket 939 Nforce based micrto-atx board. So far, mine is performing well when you consider its low-end position in the market.

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:14 am

I have one of these boards too.
I managed to install the tall zalman heatsink (NB47J) along with an ASUS EXTREME EN6200TC64/TD 256MB video card (picture). I had to cut the corner fin of the zalman, and to switch the condenser you can see at the bottom right of the video card to the back, but then it fit well.
I agree the chipsed goes very hot, so I put too a small fan on the side of the heatsink opposite to the video card, holding it up with a couple of cable ties (the heatsink fins are too close each other on 2 sides to allow screws - and I had no room on the other 2 sides!).
I have though some trouble with Cool'n'Quiet: it does not appear to work at all, since the cpu (Athlon 64 3000+ Venice) is always on 1.4v / 9x200Mhz.

BTW, I have put all this in an Antec Aria case. The noise level is quite low, and the cpu goes up to 60° under load. I did not make any extensive tests though yet.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:57 am

For cool-n-quiet, do the following:

Download and install the appropriate AMD processor driver from here:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Tec ... 06,00.html

Set the computer to "minimal power management." This setting is in the screen saver settings area, power, power schemes.

With that set and after a reboot, cpuZ should show that the system drops its speed almost all the time. Mine rarely runs at full speed.

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 3:09 am

Thanks for your advice, but I already tried this, and it did not work. I read somewhere that it could be that a bios update is needed in order to have C'n'Q work on newer cores like Venice or San Diego (while it worked well on eg. Winchester). Anyway I sent an email to Foxconn tech support: I'll let you know what happens.

BTW, i do not know how it works, but isn't it strange that voltages and multiplier can go down with C'n'Q, although there is no way to set them from the Bios?

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 3:27 am

No news yet from Foxconn... I hope they answer sooner or later.
In the meanwhile, I found that AMD certifies this motherboard for C'n'Q:
http://www2.amd.com/us-en/recmobo/Detai ... ryID=98035
but they say bios date > 5/19/2005... while the latest bios available from Foxconn is dated 04/08/2005

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:12 pm

Probably a stupid question texwiller, but have you enabled cool-n-quiet in the BIOS?

Also, I have recently hit a snag with my own board. I tried to install a TV card with the ATI 550 Pro chipset and the board wont boot no matter what PCI slot it is in. I updated to the latest BIOS with no luck. I guess I'll do some research and fire off my own email to Foxconn. The 150MCE is going to stay in for a while.

In defense of the foxconn board, I have read many posts about the ATI 550 pro having similar problems with other Nforce based motherboards.

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 11:29 pm

Yeah I did enable it

I received this answer from Foxconn:

We have duplicate this issue. Our R&D will verify it and let you know the result.

I'm not entirely sure what "duplicate" means, I hope it means that they tried my configuration and experienced the same problem. I admit I'm impressed, I thought it was more likely that they just ignored me.
Stay tuned

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 9:54 am

Wow, I already got a response from Foxconn. They replied in less than 12 hours. No fix yet, but impressive.

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:57 am

I've got some good news. Foxconn has released a new firmware for this motherboard. After installing it, the system did not POST (blank screen): fortunately, resetting the CMOS bring it back to life.
Cool'n'Quiet now partly works: voltage goes down, from 1.40 to 1.04, and temperature goes down too, from 60 °C to around 48 °C. However, there is still no variation for multiplier: my Venice 3000+ is still at 9x200 Mhz. All this according to Foxconn Superstep - I won't be able to try other programs for a couple of weeks.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:59 pm

Texwiller - Have you tried CPUz to look at the CPU speed? That works a lot better than the Foxconn program. My multiplier on my older core 3000+ drops to 5.0 (I think) and the voltage goes to about 1.05-1.1v.

I still have no fix for my issue. As of now, I would not try to combine this motherboard with a Sapphire 550 pro TV tuner. The Hauppage 150MCE card works perfectly.

http://www.cpuid.org/cpuz.php

nosoup_fouru · Post by **nosoup_fouru** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 4:17 am

Well add me to the Foxconn Blows club roster, I had a S754 Sempron 3100 I got really cheap so I grabbed a Foxconn NF4K8AB board and at first it seemed great. There was only one minor issue that the PCI-E kept getting reported as an AGP bus, but after emailing Foxconn they said it would be fixed in an upcoming BIOS. After about 3 weeks I started getting some other odd behavior, the temp sensor on the CPU socket would swing wildy from 2C to 28C, on occaisional reboots CMOS would reset itself to defaults and blow out my settings, etc... So I decided to tear everthing down and do a clean install, and all the issue got worse. So Foxconn released a BIOS on June 21st, I flashed it from a floppy, showed it was succesful and then the board stopped booting after I restarted the computer. Did clear CMOS and every trick in the book, this board was dead. Talked to Foxconn again, they said the BIOS was defective and they would swap the board ASAP. They pulled that BIOS from their web site and put up a BIOS from March 29.

New board showed up last Thursday and at first seemed okay, but within a day the same issues showed up with a couple new ones. The board was downclocking my PC3200 DDR to PC2700 speed even though every system utility in the book was reporting it properly as PC3200 that was underclocked. No amount of tinkering in the BIOS would fix this, then it started resetting my BIOS tweaks again (and these are nothing fancy, I just disable serial and paralellports, power back state, etc...). So I call Foxconn and they say to use the March 29 BIOS. I decide to wait a couple days, clean install, etc... So the problem persist, I go to get the BIS, and big shock, they pulled it as well. So I call Foxconn and now they have no idea what to tell me so they say to return the board.

Luckily I was within the return period at Newegg so I got an RMA and replaced it with a Gigabyte K8VT890-9 and a Venice 3200+ and put the Sempron on eBay. What a pain, but now everything works with this board and it did get me on to current architecture, but lesson learned, Foxconn is not ready for prime time.

TexWiller · Post by **TexWiller** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:38 am

Hello, I'm back.
I tried with Cpu-z: you're right pooh-bah, the multiplier is going down. So with the 17/6/05 bios my mobo is working fine.
Strange enough, I got an email from Foxconn a few days ago with another bios - dated 01/07/05.
I did not put it on yet, however... I generally change BIOS with a "If it works, don't fix it" policy, so I probably will not try it.

toddgarza · Post by **toddgarza** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 10:41 am

I ordered my Foxconn motherboard yesterday and just found this thread. Dang!

After doing some research I think I'm going to go with the following video card at New EGG:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814135173

It has a passive heatsink and what looks to be a short length (which should allow me to put in a new chipset cooler). This will basically be an audio workstation for me so fast graphics are not a big priority. I was worried about the adapter sharing ram from the bus.

1. Does anybody know if this card has any onboard ram at all? It looks like it get's all of it's ram from the system.

2. How does the ram sharing functionality affect the overall performance of the machine? I would imagine it would be better to have the RAM on the video card, but so far I can't find any with a short enough length.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:41 pm

I use a Gigabyte 6200TC in my system so that Aopen card should work well. These are 64MB cards that share the system memory to achieve "256MB." Given the budget nature of these cards, the turbocache thing seems to work extremely well if you look around at some reviews. You cant really do much better for less than $70.

If it does hit the passive chipset cooler, just bend or break the chipset cooler until it fits. The aluminum bends extremely easily and it is not difficult to make the video card fit.

toddgarza · Post by **toddgarza** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 1:30 pm

Just what I needed to hear. Thanks!

Jalum · Post by **Jalum** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:52 am

I recently bought Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS M/B.

I am running AMD Venice 3000+ overclocked to 2.17 ghz on this m/b without any problems.

However, the speedfan and the (crappy) Foxconn utility is reporting ~50c idle and ~60c load temp on my CPU whether I run it at stock speed of 1.8 ghz or overclocked speed of 2.17Ghz. The CPU heatsink isn't hot enough where I can't touch it even under load. So I just wanted to get a comparason from other NF4K8MC M/B users.
The temp seems high for AMD CPUs as I am hearing load temp of mid-40s. I'm hoping Foxconn M/B temp is just reporting higher temp then other M/Bs.

So, if you have this Foxconn M/B, please post your CPU/Ghz and idle/load temp.

anaqer · Post by **anaqer** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:18 am

Jalum wrote:The CPU heatsink isn't hot enough where I can't touch it even under load.

Sounds suspiciously like less-than-ideal contact between heatsink and CPU.

Pooh-Bah · Post by **Pooh-Bah** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:50 pm

Well, my MCE machine with this motherboard is tuned to run quiet and warm. My A64 3000+ runs with a 220mhz bus (memory limitation) in a case with minimal airflow at very acceptable temps. I have speedfan targeting a 50c CPU temp, which keeps the fan speeds down. I also have cool-n-quiet enabled. At this CPU speed and with this temp target, my CPU fan regulary runs at 30% and 50% (Zalman 7000cu). Even when I'm running at 70%+ cpu utilization (i.e. cool-n-quiet in high mode), the temp doesnt get much above 55c with a fan speed limit of 70%.

So, if you're runnig your CPU fan at full speed and still getting the temps you're talking about...you need to figure out what is wrong. The Zalman 7000 is a great CPU cooler that runs almost silently on this CPU.

Foxconn NF4K8MC-ERS (mAtx, 939)

Can anyone post some temps for this m/b?

Re: Can anyone post some temps for this m/b?