The only problem I have ever had with my EPIC is the programming voltage was down a bit. That little preset pot down under the voltage regs is the adjustment. Set if for 13 & a bit volts (I think that's about right, 13.4 or thereabouts? RTFM). Measure between ground (5) and VPP (4) on the empty on board 18 pin skt while telling it to program something.

Isn't Microzed selling EPICs any more??

I've got a lot of 16C715s to program and the EPIC is the only programmer I've found that will do them. So I plugged a 18 pin ZIF into the on board socket and it makes life a lot easier.