official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI thread

kirbyrj · Mar 17, 2005

lt_wentoncha said:
So anyone know if Maxtor or MSI have released firmware or BIOS updates for those respective products?

Thanks.

I don't have any problems with my Maxtor 300GB. Am I doing something wrong?

lt_wentoncha · Mar 17, 2005

kirbyrj said:
I don't have any problems with my Maxtor 300GB. Am I doing something wrong?

Don't know yet. It seems that drives enabled with NCQ (I don't know if that's the right idea about NCQ) are dropped in BIOS.

DlStreamnet · Mar 22, 2005

My Seagate has NCQ and is working perfectly?

Can someone help me, this motherboard says that it is USB 2.0 but when I plugged things in I get the "this device can perform faster, plug into a usb 2.0 drive etc etc."

Can someone help me? I installed drivers because installing Sp2 and it came up saying I need Sp1 to get Usb 2.0 so I carried on the install and then installed Sp2 and no usb 2.0, so I then installed the drivers again and still no usb 2.0???

Plz help

Ravenrex · Mar 22, 2005

As far as hard drives go my
system partition is on a Western Digital 320GB 8MB SATA
I also have a Maxtor 300GB 16MB SATA
a Western Digital 160GB 8MB SATA
and a Seagate 80GB SATA drive

I haven't had any problems with the drives as such, but I do have one odd thing showing. In my system tray the "safely remove hardware" icon is showing and all my SATA drives are showing up there. I know SATA can have hot swap capabilities but I've never seen this show up on other machines I had with SATA drives. Not that I'd try it, but the idea that I could attempt to stop and disconnect my drive with my system partition on it looks amusing. Is this a normal response from WindowsXP to list these devices like this?

Is NCQ an option to enable or disable in the BIOS or just a feature of the NVIDIA SATA controller? I haven't had much time to look into the BIOS as I had a LAN party to goto last weekend right after I assembled the machine.

Happiness is a clean registry.

LittleMe · Mar 22, 2005

NCQ is an option supported by the nvidia controller. if the drive supports it, it's on, if it doesn't, then the controller doesn't use it. but you can turn it off in windows i believe if you really want to.

Ravenrex · Mar 22, 2005

LittleMe said:
NCQ is an option supported by the nvidia controller. if the drive supports it, it's on, if it doesn't, then the controller doesn't use it. but you can turn it off in windows i believe if you really want to.

Errrr, so this means that the NVIDIA controller could turn my 300GB Maxtor into swiss cheese with little or no warning?

LittleMe · Mar 23, 2005

no, notice i have 4 of the exact same drive running in my box. they support ncq and god are they fast. they actually give my 2 36gb 15krpm scsi 320 drives in a raid0 a run for their money. these 4 maxtor drives give me 1.2TB of space for well under a grand. those 2 36gig drives give me 72gigs for close to 2 grand after the price of the controller i put them on. the price/performance ratio is in a huuuge favor of the maxtor's.

DlStreamnet · Mar 23, 2005

Can someone help me, this motherboard says that it is USB 2.0 but when I plugged things in I get the "this device can perform faster, plug into a usb 2.0 drive etc etc."

Can someone help me? I installed drivers because installing Sp2 and it came up saying I need Sp1 to get Usb 2.0 so I carried on the install and then installed Sp2 and no usb 2.0, so I then installed the drivers again and still no usb 2.0???

phatfarley · Mar 24, 2005

Hey all, I have been adamently checking this thread when right after I got my system up and going and thx to all of you for helping me with a lot of q's just from reading ur experiences...But I have alittle problem I hope someone can help me with:

The other night, I powered my new pc down, no problems right? well I tried to boot it up today, and I get to that grey platinum screen, where I have to hit the delete key to enter setup, and my computer just sits there, like it's frozen...I've troubleshot everything I can think of I guess, but to no avail. If anyone has any ideas, or a solution I would be very much obliged. Thank you.

sauria · Mar 24, 2005

kirbyrj said:
I don't have any problems with my Maxtor 300GB. Am I doing something wrong?

I had massive trouble with the 16M PIDE 300G model. I did not like coexisitng with my Raptors.

kirbyrj · Mar 24, 2005

sauria said:
I had massive trouble with the 16M PIDE 300G model. I did not like coexisitng with my Raptors.

I have the SATA version. But I've heard people have problems with that too

. I have never had a problem with the drive at all. Don't know if I'm just lucky or not.

Tazdrummer · Mar 24, 2005

Maybe this is the spot to ask (since it is the Neo4 SLI thread).

I am about to buy this board next week. My current system is as follows;
DFI LAN Party rev A
Athlon XP 1800
512 Meg PC2100 (one stick Micron, one stick generic)
Antec TruePower 430 Watt power supply
Maxtor 80 gig 7200 rpm

My son is going to "inherit" my current parts once I have my new system built up.

My new system will have the following;
MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI
Athlon 64 3000
MSI 6600GT
(and hopefully) 1 gig PC3200 RAM dual channel
160 gig 7200 rpm Maxtor
80 gig 7200 rpm Maxtor
Liteon CD burner
Liteon DVD burner

I was going to use my current Antec power supply until I can get a new power supply and case to replace it. The Antec is not intended to be the final power supply.

My question is will I be able to get by with getting a 20 pin to 24 pin adapter or do you think I need to get the new power supply first? I am hoping I can get by with the adapter so I can get the 1 gig of RAM, but if one of you guys thinks I need to get the power supply first, let me know.

Thanks

3-Phase · Mar 24, 2005

Has anyone with the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI mobo had problems with seating two PCI-e video cards like dual 6800GT's? The reason I ask is because the HARD|OCP review said that the chipset cooler is a bit tall and may give you seating issues with the second PCI-e X16 slot. Here is what the review said:

The biggest issue with the board is the height and proximity of the chipset cooler to the secondary PCI-Express x16 slot. Therefore, you may have issues fully seating a card with a large PCB in the secondary slot due to the height of the chipset cooler.

This seems like a huge problem. Have any of you had this problem?

kirbyrj · Mar 24, 2005

Tazdrummer said:
Maybe this is the spot to ask (since it is the Neo4 SLI thread).

I am about to buy this board next week. My current system is as follows;
DFI LAN Party rev A
Athlon XP 1800
512 Meg PC2100 (one stick Micron, one stick generic)
Antec TruePower 430 Watt power supply
Maxtor 80 gig 7200 rpm

My son is going to "inherit" my current parts once I have my new system built up.

My new system will have the following;
MSI Neo4 Platinum SLI
Athlon 64 3000
MSI 6600GT
(and hopefully) 1 gig PC3200 RAM dual channel
160 gig 7200 rpm Maxtor
80 gig 7200 rpm Maxtor
Liteon CD burner
Liteon DVD burner

I was going to use my current Antec power supply until I can get a new power supply and case to replace it. The Antec is not intended to be the final power supply.

My question is will I be able to get by with getting a 20 pin to 24 pin adapter or do you think I need to get the new power supply first? I am hoping I can get by with the adapter so I can get the 1 gig of RAM, but if one of you guys thinks I need to get the power supply first, let me know.

Thanks

From the parts you're using, it doesn't look like you'll run into problems other than whether or not your PSU has the -5V for the audio to work. If you were going to run SLI or something like that, I'd say definitely get a new PSU, but you should be ok. I ran this board with an adapter for a while until I put it in SLI and it worked fine.

Tazdrummer · Mar 24, 2005

kirbyrj said:
From the parts you're using, it doesn't look like you'll run into problems other than whether or not your PSU has the -5V for the audio to work. If you were going to run SLI or something like that, I'd say definitely get a new PSU, but you should be ok. I ran this board with an adapter for a while until I put it in SLI and it worked fine.

So essentially I will be without audio for a while?

When I found out what I did about the power supply I figured worse case scenario I would get the power supply before I get the 1 gig of RAM.

Interesting.

I think it will be time to see what I can scrounge up to sell for the power supply funding.

Thanks for the info.

LittleMe · Mar 24, 2005

3-Phase said:
Has anyone with the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI mobo had problems with seating two PCI-e video cards like dual 6800GT's? The reason I ask is because the HARD|OCP review said that the chipset cooler is a bit tall and may give you seating issues with the second PCI-e X16 slot. Here is what the review said:

The biggest issue with the board is the height and proximity of the chipset cooler to the secondary PCI-Express x16 slot. Therefore, you may have issues fully seating a card with a large PCB in the secondary slot due to the height of the chipset cooler.

This seems like a huge problem. Have any of you had this problem?

I seated my 2 Ultras in just fine. I've been thinking of switching back to this board with the release of their new bios but this a8n is doing great. so i'm unsure. i might have to throw one of them up for sale. but no, you SHOULD be fine with any stock cooling.

kirbyrj · Mar 25, 2005

Tazdrummer said:
So essentially I will be without audio for a while?

When I found out what I did about the power supply I figured worse case scenario I would get the power supply before I get the 1 gig of RAM.

Interesting.

I think it will be time to see what I can scrounge up to sell for the power supply funding.

Thanks for the info.

My 20-pin PSU didn't have problems with audio with the adapter. Hopefully neither will you

. Worst case scenario you can always go out and get a cheap sound card for $20 or so until you get a PSU. I'd stick with the gig of RAM because I think you'd be "happier" that way.

CMAN · Mar 25, 2005

LittleMe said:
I seated my 2 Ultras in just fine. I've been thinking of switching back to this board with the release of their new bios but this a8n is doing great. so i'm unsure. i might have to throw one of them up for sale. but no, you SHOULD be fine with any stock cooling.

What does the new bios fix that didnt work for you.

Ravenrex · Mar 25, 2005

Ravenrex said:
...I do have one odd thing showing. In my system tray the "safely remove hardware" icon is showing and all my SATA drives are showing up there that are attached to the NVIDIA controller. I know SATA can have hot swap capabilities but I've never seen this show up on other machines I had with SATA drives. Not that I'd try it, but the idea that I could attempt to stop and disconnect my drive with my system partition on it looks amusing. Is this a normal response from WindowsXP to list these devices like this?

Anyone know anything about this?

LittleMe · Mar 25, 2005

CMAN said:
What does the new bios fix that didnt work for you.

I've heard the lockups on xp load because of usb devices and they upgraded the nvraid firmware to 4.81 i believe which fixes the maxtor's frop dropping. i'd have to do about 10 cold restarts just to get the thing to bootup into windows, but the it ran perfect. a tiny bit faster than my a8n.

Max-Powers · Mar 25, 2005

iv been having a problem. it says stuff like file \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded. the error code is 7. stuff like that. or other coruption errors before i can instal winxp. i replaced the mobo and still doing it. what could be the problem? i took a stick of ram from my other computer and it still does it. could the cpu be the cause? cpu that still works but is just a little damaged somehow

kirbyrj · Mar 25, 2005

Max-Powers said:
iv been having a problem. it says stuff like file \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded. the error code is 7. stuff like that. or other coruption errors before i can instal winxp. i replaced the mobo and still doing it. what could be the problem? i took a stick of ram from my other computer and it still does it. could the cpu be the cause? cpu that still works but is just a little damaged somehow

It seems like you're Windows CD is scratched or something because the i386 directory is on the install CD. I'd say clean up the CD and try again. It's not a problem with the motherboard, it sounds like either a harddrive problem (unlikely) or a CD problem (very likely).

kirbyrj · Mar 25, 2005

LittleMe said:
I've heard the lockups on xp load because of usb devices and they upgraded the nvraid firmware to 4.81 i believe which fixes the maxtor's frop dropping. i'd have to do about 10 cold restarts just to get the thing to bootup into windows, but the it ran perfect. a tiny bit faster than my a8n.

Are the 10 cold restarts due to giving more than stock voltage to the CPU?

Max-Powers · Mar 25, 2005

kirbyrj said:
It seems like you're Windows CD is scratched or something because the i386 directory is on the install CD. I'd say clean up the CD and try again. It's not a problem with the motherboard, it sounds like either a harddrive problem (unlikely) or a CD problem (very likely).

iv tried winxp pro, winxp home, and winxp pro corprate. all dont work

LittleMe · Mar 25, 2005

kirbyrj said:
Are the 10 cold restarts due to giving more than stock voltage to the CPU?

No, it was to get all my hdds detected. it would drop a drive so then i'd have to restart untill it'd pickup all my maxtor drives. then it would have to get past being locked up when windows loaded. switched back to this board today since the chipset fan on my a8n died and need to purchase something better for it. upgraded it to 3.1 though and haven't had a problem after about 100 restarts to make sure. one thing though is i didn't reinstall windows, left my a8n install alone. everything booted up just fine, installed the sblive drivers and it works perfectly. might stick with this over the a8n even with a new chipset fan.

tesfaye · Mar 25, 2005

I flashed the bios to 3.1 and I still can't boot successfuly when the FSB is above 200 and the voltage raised above stock. I have to set my desired voltage and when I log in Clock Gen sets the FSB during the startup process. Only then will the computer start each and every time. I haven't tried overclocking past what I have it set at now. I'll try tomorrow.

kirbyrj · Mar 25, 2005

tesfaye said:
I flashed the bios to 3.1 and I still can't boot successfuly when the FSB is above 200 and the voltage raised above stock. I have to set my desired voltage and when I log in Clock Gen sets the FSB during the startup process. Only then will the computer start each and every time. I haven't tried overclocking past what I have it set at now. I'll try tomorrow.

I set my voltage as the first option in ClockGen. I bump it up to the highest it will give me (1.45V) and then give it +6.6% with the new BIOS (runs 1.50-1.54V). In order to do this, I set my computer to boot with 1.325V +6.6% at 10x200. I could theoretically run up to 220 FSB, but more won't allow it to post. PM me and I'll send you my ClockGen config if you want to see it (it's pretty simplistic).

kirbyrj · Mar 25, 2005

Max-Powers said:
iv tried winxp pro, winxp home, and winxp pro corprate. all dont work

Do you have a different HD you could try it with? Even so, your problems sounds strange because the only place the i386 directory is located on is the CD.

TwinTurboJosh · Mar 26, 2005

I finally got my new system with the Neo4 running. But it seems like it'll run any game fine for a little while, and then my system will continuously freeze-up while playing. Restarting will only give me stability for a short while. This is leading me to believe it's an overheating problem, but my CPU never goes over 38C, and my GPU stays cool too.

I'm also having problems with my geil dual channel memory. It's DDR500, but I can only get it to run at DDR333. It wouldn't even post when I tried setting it at DDR400 at 2.6V. I've heard I should run it at 2.8V.

Hopefully some of these issues will be resolved by future BIOS releases. I guess that's the cost you pay of having a fairly cutting edge motherboard. I'm just getting fed up since all I really want is a stable rig, and it's being a pain lately

tesfaye · Mar 26, 2005

kirbyrj said:
I set my voltage as the first option in ClockGen. I bump it up to the highest it will give me (1.45V) and then give it +6.6% with the new BIOS (runs 1.50-1.54V). In order to do this, I set my computer to boot with 1.325V +6.6% at 10x200. I could theoretically run up to 220 FSB, but more won't allow it to post. PM me and I'll send you my ClockGen config if you want to see it (it's pretty simplistic).

Thanks but I have everything working. I had my config raising the voltage first then the HTT when I was using the old bios. The voltage would only apply at 1.45 in windows using clockgen and I would crash. Since applying the new bios I have only the HTT being applied. I boot at 200Mhz then once in windows the voltage is set to 1.55 with 9.9 over voltage and the machine boots everytime as well as being stable at 234HTT 210ram. I still havent tried oc'ing past 234HTT with the new bios. I'm also using the NVidia 6.53 NF4 standalone drivers and the latest ATI Catalyst software.

kirbyrj · Mar 26, 2005

TwinTurboJosh said:
I finally got my new system with the Neo4 running. But it seems like it'll run any game fine for a little while, and then my system will continuously freeze-up while playing. Restarting will only give me stability for a short while. This is leading me to believe it's an overheating problem, but my CPU never goes over 38C, and my GPU stays cool too.

I'm also having problems with my geil dual channel memory. It's DDR500, but I can only get it to run at DDR333. It wouldn't even post when I tried setting it at DDR400 at 2.6V. I've heard I should run it at 2.8V.

Hopefully some of these issues will be resolved by future BIOS releases. I guess that's the cost you pay of having a fairly cutting edge motherboard. I'm just getting fed up since all I really want is a stable rig, and it's being a pain lately

Run your memory at 2.8V and it might fix all your problems

. Geil usually requires a little extra voltage to run right. Try running memtest86 after you set your memory voltage/timings and see if you get errors.

kirbyrj · Mar 26, 2005

tesfaye said:
Thanks but I have everything working. I had my config raising the voltage first then the HTT when I was using the old bios. The voltage would only apply at 1.45 in windows using clockgen and I would crash. Since applying the new bios I have only the HTT being applied. I boot at 200Mhz then once in windows the voltage is set to 1.55 with 9.9 over voltage and the machine boots everytime as well as being stable at 234HTT 210ram. I still havent tried oc'ing past 234HTT with the new bios. I'm also using the NVidia 6.53 NF4 standalone drivers and the latest ATI Catalyst software.

What version of ClockGen are you using? I can't apply 1.55V in ClockGen. It only goes up to 1.45V. I'm using the CG-NVNF4 one.

TwinTurboJosh · Mar 26, 2005

kirbyrj said:
Run your memory at 2.8V and it might fix all your problems . Geil usually requires a little extra voltage to run right. Try running memtest86 after you set your memory voltage/timings and see if you get errors.

Yea I have been running 2.8V for a while. KOTOR2 ran fine for 2 hours, but now it crashes everytime I try and play again. It'll freeze at the menu after selecting load, or freeze in the load menu while selecting a file. Not sure why it's doing this everytime all of a sudden now. Temperatures are fine.

The only thing I can think of is that I need to be running the 24-pin ATX power cable

kirbyrj · Mar 26, 2005

Are you running SLI? If you are, I'd definitely get the 24-pin cable.

TwinTurboJosh · Mar 26, 2005

Nope. Just a single 6600GT. I wish there was a better way to diagnose this problem. I just hope MSI can sort out this memory issue, and maybe that will residually fix this problem if it's somewhat related. Seems kinda awkward that this mobo only supports up to DDR400. But like I said, my DDR500 is only running at DDR333

Anarchonixx · Mar 26, 2005

TwinTurboJosh said:
Nope. Just a single 6600GT. I wish there was a better way to diagnose this problem. I just hope MSI can sort out this memory issue, and maybe that will residually fix this problem if it's somewhat related. Seems kinda awkward that this mobo only supports up to DDR400. But like I said, my DDR500 is only running at DDR333

Well, first of all, most people have no "memory issue". Not sure what you mean here, but your case seems to be an isolated one.

Also, it is not awkward that this mobo only supports up to DDR400. I challenge you to find any other motherboard that supports anything higher. You have the option to either overclock the processor and run it sync with the RAM, or run the RAM async from the processor. This has been the case for many years.

Are you certain you have the RAM in the correct 2 slots? What slots you have your RAM in makes a difference. You probably do, but you haven't given many specifics.

3-Phase · Mar 26, 2005

How do you get the memory on the board to run in dual channel? I have heard mixed things about it saying that you need to use both green slots and also that you need to use one purple and one green slot. Which is it?

Also, would this memory be compatible with the board and will it run in dual channel?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-523&depa=0

Anarchonixx · Mar 26, 2005

3-Phase said:
How do you get the memory on the board to run in dual channel? I have heard mixed things about it saying that you need to use both green slots and also that you need to use one purple and one green slot. Which is it?

Also, would this memory be compatible with the board and will it run in dual channel?

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-523&depa=0

I refer you to page 6
You want the first 2 slots. The table on the manual explains this. Some people find it confusing, though.

Yes, that memory is fine.

kirbyrj · Mar 26, 2005

TwinTurboJosh said:
Nope. Just a single 6600GT. I wish there was a better way to diagnose this problem. I just hope MSI can sort out this memory issue, and maybe that will residually fix this problem if it's somewhat related. Seems kinda awkward that this mobo only supports up to DDR400. But like I said, my DDR500 is only running at DDR333

This sounds like a BIOS configuration problem, not a board/power problem.

CMAN · Mar 26, 2005

TwinTurboJosh said:
I finally got my new system with the Neo4 running. But it seems like it'll run any game fine for a little while, and then my system will continuously freeze-up while playing. Restarting will only give me stability for a short while. This is leading me to believe it's an overheating problem, but my CPU never goes over 38C, and my GPU stays cool too.

I'm also having problems with my geil dual channel memory. It's DDR500, but I can only get it to run at DDR333. It wouldn't even post when I tried setting it at DDR400 at 2.6V. I've heard I should run it at 2.8V.

Hopefully some of these issues will be resolved by future BIOS releases. I guess that's the cost you pay of having a fairly cutting edge motherboard. I'm just getting fed up since all I really want is a stable rig, and it's being a pain lately

If you are using 4 dimms of memory thats fastest it will run at (333). It's an issue with the memory controller in the CPU and not related to the motherboard.

official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI thread

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