*** Official MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (nForce4 Ultra chipset) Thread ***

[bob661]

mgjunk,
I would say your heat issues are a combination of poor airflow through the case and lack of proper heat removal (case is inside a TV cabinet). I find the that cases with the best airflow have a nearly unobstructed path (cable management is important) from the front of the case (where air is ingested) to the rear. And most of your components are in that path. It's at those two points where you need decent fans with good cfm. Also, if you want quiet with losts of airflow, 120mm fans are the only way to go. Anything else is too noisy or if it's quiet it doesn't flow air that well.

I would make sure your cables are routed in a manner that doesn't hinder your airflow but in all honesty I would get a case with 120mm fans or room enough to cut open the case and install 120mm fans. I prefer Speeze (Masscool) fans personally (80 and 120mm) as they have a good combination of acceptably low (for me) noise levels and good airflow.

 

[darbius]

Hi all, have an MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI board and I just started up the comp. It goes to the startup Platinum screen, but refuses to recognize any keyboard I plug into it. Any hints? I've tried resetting the CMOS and that doesn't seem to do the trick either. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Oh, and if you want to check out what else is in the system, just look at the link below.

 

[darbius]

Hmm, think I got it. I think something was causing a short of some kind, which was locking it at that first screen. Thanks though!

 

[Pr0d1gy]

You may also want to reseat your CPU heatsink if you're getting that kind of overheating. If you use Artic Silver, make sure you follow the directions given on their website.

 

[gmorganVA]

Built the following system:
AMD64 3500+ Newcastle (tried to get a Winchester but ZZF sent the wrong item)
MSI Neo4 Platinum
Corsair TWINX1024-3200XL (512MB x 2)
Thermalright XP-120 (blocks two dimm slots) w/Panaflo L1A non-speed controlled fan
Artic Silver Ceramique
Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Plextor 712A Serial ATA DVD/CD-RW
Tagan 480W PSU (cheap, quiet, and works good)
Gigabyte GV-RX80L256V (SilentPipe -- no loud fan!!!)
Sony black floppy with blue led mod
Lian-Li V1200B (not the plus -- the old one)

Only problems with the build so far is that the Lian-Li front panel cables for Firewire and front audio are way too short for this board. Was very careful during assembly and the system booted and posted just fine first time. Have only played with BIOS settings so far and tried booting Knoppix 3.7 (worked fine) and Gentoo 2005.0 (does not work yet). MB came with BIOS 1.1 would like to try 1.2 but cannot get the system to boot off a floppy. Boot floppy works fine in a 2nd (much older) system. Might have to make a BIOS flash boot CD... Plan to install 2x pcHDTV HD3000 cards and maybe a MIT MDP120 with hopes to port driver to linux. Yo, rhwimmers, I'll let you know what happens when I install these capture cards (I have all three waiting in their boxes for a successful linux install).

 

[gmorganVA]

The "4X" slot is really a PCI-E 2 lane slot which will accept a 4X connector. So if you found some phat 2X hardware raid card you could plug that in. Or a dual Gigabit Ethernet card or something that might use 2 lanes worth of bandwidth. Personally I was quite disappointed that it was only really a 2 lane slot since I planned to upgrade to a nice raid controller later when more PCI-E devices came on the market.

 

[imported_mammothboy]

Worry not bro, 2x bandwidth will easily handle real world performance of a 4-8 port RAID setup. Having the 4x connector allows you to still fit a 4x card, and the 2x bandwidth will suffice.

 

[Deadspace]

Chalk another one up for using Clockgen. I got it running at 240FSB x 9 (2200 MHz) for a 400 MHz overclock. However, I can't boot over 225 and I get memory errors unless I run at 220 or below via bios.

 

[anewlearner]

Originally posted by: thuff
Here's my issue (I sent this to MSI's Tech Support):

After POSTing, my system will hang (with a blank screen) just before the normal "Windows XP" splash screen would appear - It will remain there until I reboot it. When I boot it again, it will then display the "Reboot using last known good configuration" screen from which I usually choose, "Continue..." From this point, it will then boot into Windows fine, but I MUST perform this method EVERY time after POSTing. I've completely reinstalled twice with the same results both with each version of the BIOS installed.

This is a total mystery to me. I've built hundreds of systems and I've never come across an issue like this one.

Bossybum: I experince the same BIOS crash whenever I attempt to auto-detect either of my two SAA HDDs. I have to reset the system both times I attempted it, and this is with both version 1 and 1.1 BIOS revisions.

 

[anewlearner]

My first post.

This is my first self-built computer: MSI K8N NEO4, AMD 3000, 160GB SATA, 1GB Kingston dual ch., Connect3D X600 video card, ATI HDTV wonder, Antec SLK1650B case w/350W PSU.

Everything seems OK even HDTV part is working. But there are two issues:

1. First power up is always give me blank screen. The LED on the mornitor shows yellow that indicates there is no SYNC signal to the mornitor(?). But if push reset button or restart the computer, or shut down then start again.... as long as don't disconnect the power from the main, everything is just fine. Once power to the computer is interrupted, I got a blank screen.

2. I have two memory moduals. I cannot put them as dual channel because it will make the system unstable (unexpected reboot). So I am leave them in two green slots for now and the system is stable.

I don't have solution. Any help on these issues is highly appriciated!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I really like this board out of all the NF4 boards out there. I don't want SLI, so this is what I WOULD get if I upgrade my system now (a serious consideration .... you can't live with a 1.5 ghz desktop forever).

So I'm a memory freak. I love 2-2-2 timings. I've always run at 2-2-2, bought the best ram, etc. Ballistix looks sexy, and that can achieve 2-2-2, but I'm definitely wanting OCZ VX. 2-2-2 even at crazy 500 speeds? WHOAH. The main problem is voltage with the K8N Neo4. Is there any way to break the 2.8 V barrier? Apparently DDR booster by OCZ doesn't work on this board. I guess I have to go with DFI then? Or some other board that supports DDR booster...

 

[prosser13]

I'm planning on building a new PC. Specs :

AMD 64 3000+ Venice core
XFX 6600 Extreme Gamer's Edition
NEC 3520-A
1GB (2 x 512MB) Scan Elixir PC3200
Coolermaster Real Power 450W
200GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7
Aerocool Jetmaster Jr Case

I'm thinking about the MSI K8N but from the troubles everyone has had with it I'm not sure if it would be worth it. This will be my first build so I don't want to have to RMA the board a couple of hundred times before I get a good one. Would you recommend it to me as a first build board?

 

[GotSomethingCheaper?]

what settings can you use with Motherboard Monitor (or download a profile) for the Neo4 Platinum, as its not listed in the configuration wizard.

 

[DMonkey]

Originally posted by: anewlearner

Originally posted by: thuff
Here's my issue (I sent this to MSI's Tech Support):

After POSTing, my system will hang (with a blank screen) just before the normal "Windows XP" splash screen would appear - It will remain there until I reboot it. When I boot it again, it will then display the "Reboot using last known good configuration" screen from which I usually choose, "Continue..." From this point, it will then boot into Windows fine, but I MUST perform this method EVERY time after POSTing. I've completely reinstalled twice with the same results both with each version of the BIOS installed.

This is a total mystery to me. I've built hundreds of systems and I've never come across an issue like this one.

Bossybum: I experince the same BIOS crash whenever I attempt to auto-detect either of my two SAA HDDs. I have to reset the system both times I attempted it, and this is with both version 1 and 1.1 BIOS revisions.

Have you installed Nvidia IDE SW driver yet? If you have, uninstall it, it is what is causing the problems, or you could just disable NCQ if you have it. Mine would do this until I disabled NCQ and decided to just throw away the Nvidia drivers anyway, they suck!

I would recommend not installing Network Access Manager or the firewall and just using the Marvell NIC with a software firewall until Nvidia fixes some issues that cause BSODs and cut offs of the Nvidia NIC. These issues all seem to be software related, so the motherboards aren't defective.

 

[dakata24]

i just setup the system below in my sig. havent tweaked it or anything. what's the best settings in the bios if i plan to overclock?

 

[DMonkey]

It depends on what your OC will be. A good idea is to turn off Cool and Quiet in the BIOS, lower the HT multiplier (not the CPU multiplier) to 4x or 3x instead of 5x, and turn off CPU spread spectrum. After that, just OC, I suppose you know how?

 

[DMonkey]

There is a new BIOS out, version 1.4B1. Don't use it, HT Frequency Multiplier settings are messed up, and so is my OC after I have tried it.

 

[anewlearner]

[/quote]

Have you installed Nvidia IDE SW driver yet? If you have, uninstall it, it is what is causing the problems, or you could just disable NCQ if you have it. Mine would do this until I disabled NCQ and decided to just throw away the Nvidia drivers anyway, they suck!

I would recommend not installing Network Access Manager or the firewall and just using the Marvell NIC with a software firewall until Nvidia fixes some issues that cause BSODs and cut offs of the Nvidia NIC. These issues all seem to be software related, so the motherboards aren't defective.
[/quote]

DMonkey,

Thanks for your reply. I am wondering if you can give me more details on how to uninstall Nvidia IDE SW driver and disable NCQ. This may be obvious to you but is totally new to me. Thank you in advance.

 

[complexmath]

Okay I'm going ask a dumb question. Sometime between my last upgrade and this one, people got all fancy and changed the BIOS descriptions on everything. I'm trying to make sense of the memory timing page for my MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum and most of it's greek to me. Say I want to run my memory at 2-2-2-5. What bios settings correspond to what?

FWIW, I'm using OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 RAM and want to start at the timings posted in the SLI review.

 

[synik]

After weeks of adjusting, I finally finished my setup. I tried to build a computer that uses its full overclocking potential without stressing the components too badly. I'm running stock voltages on everything (1.5 core, 2.75 memory) while achieving a bulletproof 2.5ghz(250x10) and DDR500 (2.5-3-3-7-1T). This motherboard has been a great to me and I'm glad I got it over the Asus, DFI, etc...

Only had one issue....this mobo does not like Audigy 2 cards! My system would crash after 10 minutesat load. I tried 3 different cards with the same results. I decided to try the third-party "hacked' drivers and my system was stable again. I used the kx audio driver but I have heard that other drivers also solved the issue.

 

[spyork]

complexmath,
If you want to run your memory at 2-2-2-5 you will want to set the following settings in the bios respectively CAS Latency - (trcd)RAS to CAS Delay - (trp)RAS Precharge - (tRAS)Active to Precharge

I'm fairly sure this is correct, if not someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

In your BIOS screen it would be listed 2-5-2-2 from top to bottom for a 2-2-2-5 latency setup. Don't ask me why they named everything all funky & set the timing values out of their proper order, but my guess is they are trying to keep noobs from screwing something up.

And I agree, this board is terrific. Rock solid, very stable, good overclocker, and it looks nice in my windowed case. What more could you want? I am very satisfied, oh, and they also have a great community at MSI HQ forums to help out people who are having problems.

 

[complexmath]

Thanks.

the only slightly weird thing I noticed is that I get audio interference when running the NVidia firewall (this is with the SLI motherboard that has Soundblaster audio). Otherwise it's rock solid--I've never had a system that worked perfectly just by plugging the parts together and going. I'll be interested to see what it can do once I start tuning it a bit.

 

[Triple B]

you all have great things to say about the ultra/platinum/sli K8N mobo's........but what about the K8N Neo4-F ?

i cant find anyone really talking about it. is it un-oc'able? i might do that someday. but first it would be nice to have a running sys.

there is a big price break between platinum ($140) and neo4-F ($90)

main reason i ask is because i have gotten 2 DOA chaintech vnf4 ultras from Newegg.....and am learnign that chaintech sucks a$$! so i think i will go to MSI. the chaintechs will not post, nor give any kind of error message with any iteration of things connected and disconnected.

another thing, PSU. it seems alot of you are all over the place with using 20 pins. but the boards now have 24pins. i have an antec neopower 480, but thats dual rail with 24pins. with splitting the 12v amprage to 18 and 15 hurt me. i have an ati x800xl so the power for it comes throught the mobo and not an external power cable. so the rummor of using a 20 pin psu in a 24 pin mobo would not give me power?

heres a bonus techy question. on my 24 pinn psu the #20 pin slot is empty. but on all 20 pin psu's the #20 pin is a white wire with -5A on it. is this hindering me in anyway?

thanks to all with any help

 

[d3vilz]

Anyone know why I cant boot my windows HD when im plugged into the silicon image pci-e sata port... It starts booting and gives me a blue screen then it restarts.. My machine boots fine from the nforce sata.


System:

Amd 3200+ Win
MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum
kingston 3200 1gb
WD Raptor 36gb