WARNING to Winchester/90nm A64 buyers

M

matt9669

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
490
There are several threads on the net pertaining to the issue I'm describing, but for those who aren't aware - all current Socket 939 boards require a BIOS update to operate with the new Winchester core (90nm 512k) CPU's (the only exception is the Asus A8V, which will POST with the new CPU's allowing you to update the BIOS). If you have a buddy with a 130nm S939 A64 handy, he can boot the board with his CPU, run the BIOS update, and then you can use the 90nm CPU, but not too many of us have buddies around who can/will do that . . .

MonarchComputer went out of their way for me in updating the BIOS on the Abit AV8 I ordered a few days ago (and is already here - props to Chuck of Monarch tech!) to ensure that the board would operate with my 3200+ 939, so I highly recommend ordering your motherboard from them and letting them know of the issue by email/phone prior to order ship, as their techs are aware of the issue. Plus I'm extremely impressed with Monarch so far even though that was my first order, so give them the business if you can :D

I'll post some links so you guys don't think I'm on crack:

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=2360

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?threadid=64923

Hope this keeps those of us like me (who love to jump on unproven technology) from having unnecessary issues.

-- Matt (reader since 1996)
 
oh wow! so im basically screwed? i have a msi k8n neo2 platinum on my shelf that i got about a month ago, i was waiting for the 939 3000+ to come out.
 
from what i've heard the msi neo2 is shiping with a newer bios that will work.

but if it doesn't it should boot with ONLY 1 stick of ram.
 
SPARAT1K said:
from what i've heard the msi neo2 is shiping with a newer bios that will work.

but if it doesn't it should boot with ONLY 1 stick of ram.
Click to expand...


should or will work with only 1 stick?
 
I always do EXTENSIVE reseach on my next build prior to upgrading or building a new system. When I heard that the AMD 939 3200+'s were coming out I jumped on the bandwagon and upgraded from my P4 3.0C.

I read about the bios problems and the new winchester core's not reconizing the nforce 3 or via chipsets except the Asus A8V Delux Rev 2.0 motherboards. I bought the Asus A8V + the 3200+ from monarchcomputers little under 2 weeks ago and ended up building the system with a few hitches.

Build issues

#1. Obviously the bios needed to be flashed to 1007 so I made the dos boot disk prior to my install.

#2. The motherboard will only Initally post with 1 dimm of memory in slot B1 I naturally tried both sticks of my OCZ 3500 memory and no posting happened! So I ended up trying a single slot in A1, A2, B1 *BINGO!* so it posted in B1 for some odd reason... After the bios flash I could post in any dimm slot as well as run duel channel.

#3. Asus did not include sata/raid floppys! So I had to go find another PC and make all 5 (yes count em 5) floppys for the various F6 installs needed. I will most likely end up recreating my slipstreamed version of XPSP2 to include the new drivers for my motherboard into my xp version.

If you do your research ahead of time on these motherboard/processor combo's you will not have a problem. However if you decide on a mobo other than the Asus A8V REV 2.0 (the Abit AV8, MSI, Gigabyte etc.) you will have 2 options. #1. Hotflash the bios (very complicated and I will not get into it) or #2. RMA the bios into the respectable motherboard company and have them ship you a new bios chip. This problem (like all others) will allivate themselves in due time with the current older bios being bought up for FX boards and non 90nm processor setups. I would say give it 3 - 6 months and the problem will most likely allivate itself.

I've always gone with Abit for my motherboards but I felt due to the looming problems with the other motherboards I would go with asus for a change ;) I still feel that Abit/Asus are the top 2 companys for gaming machines. =)

If anyone has any questions feel free to email/IM me any questions. ;) :D
 
I was thinking of getting a 90 nm 3000+ from newegg w/ a msi k8n neo 2 platinum, do you think that it's a safe bet the board will have the newer bios already? I don't have any friends with socket 939(or any other one besides socket 478 and A)
 
pandora's box said:
should or will work with only 1 stick?
Click to expand...
from everything i've seen, it will boot with one stick. though i dunno which slot that one stick should be in.
and if you buy a k8n neo2 from a fairly large store like newegg, chances are they've run out of boards with bios 1.1 on em, and there's even a good chance that you'll manage to snag a board with bios 1.3 by now.
 
Well then Friday night will be interesting. I have a Abit AV8 and 3000+ on the way for a friend. Very interesting night.
 
The Epox EP-9NDA3+ does not need a bios update to support the 3000+ and 3200+. I was able to boot up with 2 DIMMs with no problem.
 
I just dropped in to ask this very question. www.overclockers.co.uk have displayed a warning next to their Winchester chips saying to check for a bios update, which made me think "How can I update without a 130nm chip?"

I had heard elsewhere that bios issues with two dimms occupied can be flashed with one occupied.

They don't have any in stock as it is... I'm going away next weekend (no, nowhere nice), and can only accept deliveries on Saturdays. So I'm looking at 6/11/4 at the earliest. With luck, by then they'll be shipping with a fully operational bios.
 
I ordered, and received a 3200 with an asus a8v. As an added bonus they included an amd fan, and the motherboard had the newest bios already. All I had to do was swap out my motherboard, and I was up, and running. Also at the time the price from monarch was $20 less for the cpu, and included a copy of far cry.
 
My MSI Neo2 that came from newegg a few days ago came stock with 1.2 bios. I didnt need a bios update to run this s939 3200+.
 
ColinR said:
I just dropped in to ask this very question. www.overclockers.co.uk have displayed a warning next to their Winchester chips saying to check for a bios update, which made me think "How can I update without a 130nm chip?"

I had heard elsewhere that bios issues with two dimms occupied can be flashed with one occupied.

They don't have any in stock as it is... I'm going away next weekend (no, nowhere nice), and can only accept deliveries on Saturdays. So I'm looking at 6/11/4 at the earliest. With luck, by then they'll be shipping with a fully operational bios.
Click to expand...

damn foreigners, i think you mean 11-6-04.... :D ;)

anyway, you'd think they would realize this bios problem before they ship the things??? Thankfully I am not affected by this problem since my next upgrade won't be until the dual cores are out... mmmm.. dual cores :)
 
I bought a referb neo2 platinum from newegg... I hope it works with my 90nm, even with the earliest bios, is should still boot with just 1 stick, right?
 
Recent good news. I orderd, and received an asus a8v with a 3200. Hidden bonus number one was I received an amd fan for free with my cpu. Bonus number 2 was my motherboard came with the most up to date bios so all I had to do was swap out my motherboard, and I was up to go.
 
sixandout said:
Recent good news. I orderd, and received an asus a8v with a 3200. [Hidden bonus number one was I received an amd fan for free with my cpu. Bonus number 2 was my motherboard came with the most up to date bios so all I had to do was swap out my motherboard, and I was up to go.
Click to expand...

What do you mean you received a free fan with your CPU? Are you talking about the stock heatsink/fan that ships with every retail A64?
 
I ordered my Neo2 Plat from Monarch along with the 90nm 3500+ about a week ago, booted fine with 2 sticks of ram. Unfortunately one of the first things I did was flash to most up to date BIOS available, and spaced checking out which version it was shipped with. It did however work just fine =D
 
EmptyWallet said:
My MSI Neo2 that came from newegg a few days ago came stock with 1.2 bios. I didnt need a bios update to run this s939 3200+.
Click to expand...


i love yah man! i got a msi k8n neo2 from a friend about a month ago, it has the 1.2 bios installed. was worried that when i bought a 90nm processor it wouldnt work. now i have faith it will.
 
sixandout said:
Recent good news. I orderd, and received an asus a8v with a 3200. Hidden bonus number one was I received an amd fan for free with my cpu. Bonus number 2 was my motherboard came with the most up to date bios so all I had to do was swap out my motherboard, and I was up to go.
Click to expand...

Wait, can you confirm this? Is Monarch shipping Retail HS/Fans with the 90nm chips?
 
If you happen to get an MSI Neo2 board with the 1.1 bios it'll boot up fine with the 90mm as long as you don't have memory in slots 1&2 and 3&4 (dual channel). It needs to be in 1&3 (single channel) to boot up. Flash the bios to 1.20 or greater and then switch the memory sticks over to 1&2 or 3&4 for dual channel mode.
 
PsySabreW said:
If you happen to get an MSI Neo2 board with the 1.1 bios it'll boot up fine with the 90mm as long as you don't have memory in slots 1&2 and 3&4 (dual channel). It needs to be in 1&3 (single channel) to boot up. Flash the bios to 1.20 or greater and then switch the memory sticks over to 1&2 or 3&4 for dual channel mode.
Click to expand...

exactly
 
They might have messed up, and forgot to remove the heatsink. Maybe they were nice, but mine came with one from newegg. I thought I was suppose to be getting an oem fanless cpu. They might have installed it because they supposedly do a "burn in test" before shipping the product to the customers. anyways i removed it, and replaced it with my zalman 7000 so the retail heatsink/fan is just sitting on my floor.
 
I just send the new Abit off to a friend so he could flash the BIOS using his FX53. More waiting... :(
 
Abit-Fan said:
I always do EXTENSIVE reseach on my next build prior to upgrading or building a new system. When I heard that the AMD 939 3200+'s were coming out I jumped on the bandwagon and upgraded from my P4 3.0C.

I read about the bios problems and the new winchester core's not reconizing the nforce 3 or via chipsets except the Asus A8V Delux Rev 2.0 motherboards. I bought the Asus A8V + the 3200+ from monarchcomputers little under 2 weeks ago and ended up building the system with a few hitches.

Build issues

#1. Obviously the bios needed to be flashed to 1007 so I made the dos boot disk prior to my install.

#2. The motherboard will only Initally post with 1 dimm of memory in slot B1 I naturally tried both sticks of my OCZ 3500 memory and no posting happened! So I ended up trying a single slot in A1, A2, B1 *BINGO!* so it posted in B1 for some odd reason... After the bios flash I could post in any dimm slot as well as run duel channel.

#3. Asus did not include sata/raid floppys! So I had to go find another PC and make all 5 (yes count em 5) floppys for the various F6 installs needed. I will most likely end up recreating my slipstreamed version of XPSP2 to include the new drivers for my motherboard into my xp version.

If you do your research ahead of time on these motherboard/processor combo's you will not have a problem. However if you decide on a mobo other than the Asus A8V REV 2.0 (the Abit AV8, MSI, Gigabyte etc.) you will have 2 options. #1. Hotflash the bios (very complicated and I will not get into it) or #2. RMA the bios into the respectable motherboard company and have them ship you a new bios chip. This problem (like all others) will allivate themselves in due time with the current older bios being bought up for FX boards and non 90nm processor setups. I would say give it 3 - 6 months and the problem will most likely allivate itself.

I've always gone with Abit for my motherboards but I felt due to the looming problems with the other motherboards I would go with asus for a change ;) I still feel that Abit/Asus are the top 2 companys for gaming machines. =)

If anyone has any questions feel free to email/IM me any questions. ;) :D
Click to expand...


You just saved me a ton of money with the B1 suggestion.

NEWBIE IS GOD! :D

thanks man, a BIG thanks!

EDIT: NM... damn it. Freezes with post code 52 and won't let me get any farther to update the bios.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top