The OFFICIAL MSI K8N Neo2-939 tips and tricks guide thread

[toreide]

This board is really giving me a headache

I installed my new system yesterday, and all worked for a little while. It seemed very slow booting, and sometimes it did not want to proceed from the first screen, Platinum, requiring a restart. It usuallt booted on a second attempt.

I upgraded the bios to modded 1.37. After this it wont recognise any USB devices (keyboard and mouse attached).

I now tried to do a reinstall after flashing back to 1.36 bios. I attached my floppy, press F6 when XP setup is initialized, but when I am requested to put in my sata floppydisk, the pc can't read the disk. Seems like either my floppy is dead (seems to work ok according to lights and noice) or the MB can't communicate with it. (similar to usb devices).

Questions:

1. What is wrong with the USB?
2. How can I install sata drivers for XP without floppy?
3 Is the board dead?

My ram is OCZ PC 3200 512MB EL Dual CH Platinum rev.2 (only one stick of 512mb installed now), CPU is Winchester 3200+, Samsung 1614C sata disk.

Pls help!

[toreide]

Drivers installed are nVidia 5.10

[split]

See my post here about sata, and note what I said about not using drivers.
Have you got the USB bracket with the D-bracket thing plugged in, if you have try unplugging it (both USB and diagnostic thing) and just use the USB ports beneath the PS2.

[funkflix]

Hi

Strange problem here! Earlier today i benched a bit with 3,65V Vdimm and it works fine
so far. Then i rebooted and take the 3,3V back to standard an
put down the the sys. to 10 x 260 166 divider for ram. Then i surfed
a bit on inet and after 5 min. i get an Bluescreen. Booted again and everytime before
Win is ready i get that bluescreen or an reboot! I've tested all different
Timings / dividers / HTT / all on standard, but no way to go into win...
With one stick in slot one i have no problems. Memtest works fine with both
Sticks over 5 passes @ dualchannel using slot 1&2, but no chance to boot win.
If i will boot with only one stick in Slots 2 or 4 the sys wont start, just beeping.
Its that normal?

Question is : Which part took damage? The motherboard or the cpu/memcontroller?

I'm really confused ...

[Kriller]

I am planing on buying an Neo2 with an Winchester, BUT those problems with BH-5 i don't like to read about? I will use 2x512Meg TwinMOS Winbond BH-5 (think it is different steppings). I asume that I will get an farley new Ne2, so atleast 1.36 BIOS will be there? What do you guys think, will it work? I think I will take the chanse!

[split]

10 X 260 on Sata?
Any chance your hard disc got corrupted?

I am planing on buying an Neo2 with an Winchester, BUT those problems with BH-5 i don't like to read about? I will use 2x512Meg TwinMOS Winbond BH-5 (think it is different steppings). I asume that I will get an farley new Ne2, so atleast 1.36 BIOS will be there? What do you guys think, will it work? I think I will take the chanse!

You might try searching over here for TwinMOS.
There is a thread on there with ram that does / doesn't work on the Neo 2

BTW, the 1.36 BIOS is only beta.

[funkflix]

10 X 260 on Sata?
Any chance your hard disc got corrupted?

No problem with only one Stick at those Speeds and i use normal PATA
ontroller for the harddisks!

[p4z1f1st]

No problem with only one Stick at those Speeds and i use normal PATA
ontroller for the harddisks!

how i told you via icq: look which week your NB has.....refering to onepagebook (and me) the taiwanese-NBs (all beforce 0418A2) aren't that good clocker - they lock up at ~ 260-270MHz.....all NBs after 0418A2 are produced in Korea....and with them onepagebook for example reaches >300MHz

for me it seems, like the MoBo just can't do more....i've the same problems, too

bluescreen means to 80-90% that the system got corrupted memory-access....so, the memory is the problem.....(or the NB....i've GSkill TCCDs PC4400 - but on the Neo2 they can't do even 270MHz stable....)

[funkflix]

Yesterday it was no Problem to bench up to 250 1:1 and 275 with 166
divider for ram! Dualchannel! Im finally @ win again with both sticks ..
10 x 200 Ram @ 166 MHz 2-2-2-5 2T ! with 1:1 and 2T --> reboot.
Im sure the Board or the cpu is damaged, but i dunno.

[p4z1f1st]

the same from me

first it worked great.....benching, short-memtest: no problem!

but after a few "working"-moments the board shows, that it doesn't like that high overclocking....trust me, you aren't the only person who has these kind of problems

your mobo and cpu are working normal, nothing should be damaged

(take a look to your NB-reversion....)

[funkflix]

I have two Boards here. The one that i have not installed have an
0411A2 Taiwan Northbridge. Later i will tell u the week of the other
Northbridge.But that sucks, the Board must run with 200 MHz 1T !!
Cant understand that ..

[Kriller]

1

You might try searching over here for TwinMOS.
There is a thread on there with ram that does / doesn't work on the Neo 2

BTW, the 1.36 BIOS is only beta.

Yes, I've been lookin' there, didn't find so much of great value.

k, didn't know that, what bios is the new card shipped with? And what I found out the standard vdimm is set to 2,7volt, BH-5 @ SPD, will make that, atleast what I remebmer. I've seen post where they say that someone shall use an other ddrmem and crack the voltage up, but wont 2,7 will be enogh? I will exchange all my other ddrmems (2x256 333+400) for an 512 BH-5 so I will get 2x512, IF it not will work, I have a problem

[charlie]

how i told you via icq: look which week your NB has.....refering to onepagebook (and me) the taiwanese-NBs (all beforce 0418A2) aren't that good clocker - they lock up at ~ 260-270MHz.....all NBs after 0418A2 are produced in Korea....and with them onepagebook for example reaches >300MHz

for me it seems, like the MoBo just can't do more....i've the same problems, too

bluescreen means to 80-90% that the system got corrupted memory-access....so, the memory is the problem.....(or the NB....i've GSkill TCCDs PC4400 - but on the Neo2 they can't do even 270MHz stable....)

Interesting...
My board came with BIOS 1.0 loaded so I had a feeling that it was a bit "dated". Now I take a look at the NB and yes, indeed it is a 0409A2..... hopefully this explains why my PMI Turbo TCCD 2 x 256mB tops out at 240HTT..... when my BH-5 running asynch can do 325HTT!!!

C

[funkflix]

My NB is 0409 too! Now im on my other Neo2 which have an 0411 NB.
1T is working fine now again! i'm on 10 x 240 1:1 2-2-2-5 1T. Full stable.
The only question is, how long does this board work, before it craps out
like the other ...

I swear there is one electronic component on those Neo2s that is
from a really bad quality! But dunno which it is!

[Perc]

so what date are we looking for to determin if we got a newer one vrs the older one? i get my MSI this up comming week and would like to be able to tell before wasting my time installing it if i got a good one or a one....

thx perc,

[funkflix]

0418 China

[p4z1f1st]

0418 China

0418A2 Korea

@ charlie: "how" async?

6:5 ?
5:4 ?

[funkflix]

Besserwisser ...

Sorry my fault.

[jinu117]

Interesting... Don't know what I have on NB yet as I didn't check it before putting it into my prommy.... (well maybe sometime later... tired of seal string jobs after jobs recently with my winchester venture).
Funny thing is, Dual channel tops around 270FSB stable. Single Channel tops around ... who knows... past 300FSB now. Does that mean it is typical board? Or are there people going well over 270FSB on dual channel 1gb setup? Wondering if it is my 3700EB or board which is not quite clear yet. Now that I figured out I can get higher FSB on single memory, time to check to see how high my 3500+ will go again... was FSB limited :P

[funkflix]

Why dont u use an divider for the Memory, to top out ur cpu?
No prob here to go above 300MHz HTT.

[p4z1f1st]

Besserwisser ...

Sorry my fault.

hehe

@ jinu117: hm, with singlechannel i can't pass 300MHz....one of my two GSkill-stick acheive this on DFI lanparty-ut @ 1T:



(look, WHEN exactly the errors came.....595passes of test#5 and first errors in test-passing #513...somehow strange, but doesn't matter)

but on the Neo2 i get thousands of errors with that stick @ 300MHz.....

so, it HAS to be a nb/motherboard-issue

[mike.elmes]

What about a VDD mod for the lousey Northbridge?? My last 8rda needed a VR to fix the problem. Maybe a similar problem with the better NB having a superior chipset voltage.

[p4z1f1st]

What about a VDD mod for the lousey Northbridge?? My last 8rda needed a VR to fix the problem. Maybe a similar problem with the better NB having a superior chipset voltage.

hmm...dunno.....try it and tell us

[longshot]

Is this board's CPU temp sensor way off? My evap temp is -23c but MB is reporting the chip temp as 59c This is a FX-53 @ 2.8ghz under full load.

[jinu117]

i will do vdd mod if there is any know pictures and explanations :P