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

[domineo4]

HI, I have this weird problem with my Kn8 N4 Platinum.
I have my PC for about a month. Everythin running fine (excluding the usual install-reinstall XP thing), since yesterday.
When I boot the PC, it somewhere stops during XP starting up. Tried the usual, startup with/without drivers/system, /bootlog option, but it kept freezing.
IN safe mode, I see no problem in Device Mgr, but when I do a 'Add Hardware', it deinstalls my audio/video drivers/codecs, because apparently the hardware is not present anymore????
And when I immediately do the same thing, XP reinstalls the audio/video drivers/codecs because new hardware was found????
I reboot the PC... everything runs fine (so no Safemode), then I reboot again, and it freezes again.....
Anybody seen this kind of behaviour before?
Will try Bios 1.9 this evening to see if it helps.
Many thanks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon64 3500+ (Venice), no OC
1GB (2x512Mb TakeMS)
MSI KN Neo4 PLatinum
Zalman 7000Cu fan
SATA 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax10

 

[ChairShot]

MSI board beeps (one long repeated beep) when i boot this setup:

FX-53
connect 3D radeon X850XT PE
2x512mb PC2700 generic RAM w/Infineon chips.


Whether I use 1 stick, the other, both, dual channe or not... no go.

I put in a Ultra PC3200 512mb stick in it, and it booted right up.


(ps) I seached and didnt find any posts that deals perticularely with this... sorry if I missed it

 

[doinmybestatlast]

K8N Neo4 Platinum/SLI - I like this board alot after the latest bios revision, but I have lemon-itis. It just died - my second.

 

[NoSpeed]

I just sent off the message below to MSI. Has anyone else tried BIOS 1.9 and experienced this "Shutdown" bug? I will publish MSI's response when I get one.

"I have been using BIOS 1.9 since it came out. Unfortunately, I must say it still has the "Shutdown" bug that was in BIOS 1.8! I have seen others complain of this phenomenon in various tech forums. I recommend you pull it off the web site, reproduce the error in your lab and then create a BIOS 2.0 to fix it. I experienced three hangs on the "Windows is Shutting down..." screen while performing a Start|Turn Off Computer|Turn Off sequence of clicks. I did not experience any hangs when rebooting with the Start|Turn Off Computer|Restart sequence of clicks. While using BIOS 1.8, I did. In all three cases, I ended up having to use the computer's reset button. I have rolled back to BIOS 1.6 and am no longer experiencing this problem. In two of the three cases, Windows recognized an improper shutdown and performed Check Disk. It automatically "fixed" files. In the first case, I found my Netscape 7.2 profile to have been lost. In the second case, my Microsoft Shortcut Bar stopped working. I was able to recover in both cases, but it was a major amount of work. I am speculating, but it appears the BIOS is not allowing running programs to shutdown gracefully via commands from Windows. One should not have to risk losing data during any Shutdown or Restart. Please fix this. Thanks."

 

[MayanGuy]

I've been on BIOS 1.6 running stable at default settings. Unfortunately I have not been able to overclock at all...first build so not too sure how to go about it....plus I think I might need some better memory....these Patriot LLK sticks are fine for default speeds, but I don't think they handle much more.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: catscit
Hi guys, since quite a few here have replaced the chipset cooler, could somebody please measure the distance between the holes on the original cooler?
It would be a great help.
I'm trying to watercool my tyan k8we, but only asus a8n and msi k8n waterblocks are available and nobody has been able to give me the measurement of the hole spacing. thanx.

Several?...who has replaced it? I have yet to get any suggestions on a good replacement.

 

[BayBug]

 

[BayBug]

Originally posted by: domineo4
HI, I have this weird problem with my Kn8 N4 Platinum.
I have my PC for about a month. Everythin running fine (excluding the usual install-reinstall XP thing), since yesterday.
When I boot the PC, it somewhere stops during XP starting up. Tried the usual, startup with/without drivers/system, /bootlog option, but it kept freezing.
IN safe mode, I see no problem in Device Mgr, but when I do a 'Add Hardware', it deinstalls my audio/video drivers/codecs, because apparently the hardware is not present anymore????
And when I immediately do the same thing, XP reinstalls the audio/video drivers/codecs because new hardware was found????
I reboot the PC... everything runs fine (so no Safemode), then I reboot again, and it freezes again.....
Anybody seen this kind of behaviour before?
Will try Bios 1.9 this evening to see if it helps.
Many thanks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon64 3500+ (Venice), no OC
1GB (2x512Mb TakeMS)
MSI KN Neo4 PLatinum
Zalman 7000Cu fan
SATA 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax10

I experience that delay every time I boot up, however give it around 5 minutes and then Windows XP Pro kicks in and everything runs fine. I have the Corsair memory with the LEDs so I see that during the delay period the memory is about half lit which I assume means that its trying to do something, hehe. Another strange this is that I put together my computer (new parts, XP install on new SATA drive, etc.) earlier this year when the mb was shipped with Bios 1.2. Due to whatever is causing this delay, I cannot flash my bios to a newer version and have XP boot correctly. All updated bios that I've tried (1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8) have posted okay and I've been able to go into the bios setup after flashing - but something is causing XP Pro to hang after the mb has done its boot up. My LEDs on my memory show that it basically isn't doing anything and then after like 5 minutes, I get a blue screen with a message saying something like Windows encountered a problem because it couldn't find a certain file and then the system reboots. This is kinda funny seeing as how XP boots up and runs perfectly with the 1.2 bios on the mb!

Anyway, maybe try giving around 5 minutes for XP to run and see if it does...

 

[SkaarjMaster]

So, is the most stable bios right now for the K8N Neo4 Platinum non-SLI the 1.6 bios? I was going to upgrade from 1.5 to 1.9 for a computer I'm trying to fix for a friend, but then I read about the shutdown issue with the 1.9s in this thread.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: SkaarjMaster
So, is the most stable bios right now for the K8N Neo4 Platinum non-SLI the 1.6 bios? I was going to upgrade from 1.5 to 1.9 for a computer I'm trying to fix for a friend, but then I read about the shutdown issue with the 1.9s in this thread.

That's what I've been using...it's been fairly stable.

 

[ironk]

BTW, this board (k8n neo4 platinum, non-SLI) works fine in Linux (i dual boot with Ubuntu/winXP):

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showp....php?product=2879&sort=8&cat=53&page=1

Been running it since July of this year without problems in Linux.

 

[taelee1977]

Well, I "upgarded" my BIOS to v1.8 without bothering to check these forums... just hoping that MSI would have fixed the bugs by now. Big mistake. Now my computer won't even shutdown and I have to manually hold down my power button just to power off my computer. I've finally had enough of this... and sent it back to Newegg. Good thing Newegg has a good return policy(1 year exchange policy). It was such a pain in the @ss to pull this motherboard out of my case, but I sent it back regardless. I got an e-mail back saying they are out of stock with this motherboard... strange... I see on their website that they still have them in stock. If given the option, I was thinking of swtiching mobos, but it seems ALL Nforce4 mobos have a lot of problems.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: taelee1977
Well, I "upgarded" my BIOS to v1.8 without bothering to check these forums... just hoping that MSI would have fixed the bugs by now. Big mistake. Now my computer won't even shutdown and I have to manually hold down my power button just to power off my computer. I've finally had enough of this... and sent it back to Newegg. Good thing Newegg has a good return policy(1 year exchange policy). It was such a pain in the @ss to pull this motherboard out of my case, but I sent it back regardless. I got an e-mail back saying they are out of stock with this motherboard... strange... I see on their website that they still have them in stock. If given the option, I was thinking of swtiching mobos, but it seems ALL Nforce4 mobos have a lot of problems.

Why not flash it back to an older BIOS?

 

[KoolHonda]

Originally posted by: MayanGuy

Originally posted by: SkaarjMaster
So, is the most stable bios right now for the K8N Neo4 Platinum non-SLI the 1.6 bios? I was going to upgrade from 1.5 to 1.9 for a computer I'm trying to fix for a friend, but then I read about the shutdown issue with the 1.9s in this thread.

That's what I've been using...it's been fairly stable.

Same here. My Neo4 Platinum came with 1.6 out of the box. Haven't had any problems.

 

[vandozza]

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.

hi all, first post here

i was having issues similar to this with my K8N neo SLI!

i was frequently having difficulty booting my computer, sometimes it would boot, sometimes it wouldnt POST, sometimes it would hang at the windows splash screen for up to 5-10 min before it may or may not proceed.
after much investigation i found the problem to be that i had not secured the SLI chip thingy (excuese my lack of technical knowledge - the bit you turn over to enable SLI mode) properly. I had not used the clip taped to the second PCIE slot to lock this chip down... i know, a pretty n00b mistake!
after using the clip to hold the chip thingy down, i have had NO problems with booting up my system. obviously the connection was somewhat loose, therefore the system would boot properly at times, while having difficulty other times.

hope that this may help anyone having similar problems.

vd

 

[Kyanzes]

Originally posted by: sgl
Dear Customer,

Some information about the question of if you can use a DVD burner on the SATA controllers of the motherboard. I had sent a question to MSI, and this is their response:

>The Nvidia chipset only support reading from the SATA Atapi drives and not burning >functions.

>Sincerely,
>Technical Support Division
>MSI Computer Corp.
>http://www.msicomputer.com

>MSI Platinum Series Motherboards -- In Pursuit of Quality Perfection.
>1-626-913-0828
>1-626-581-7721 Fax

I would assume that they know what they're talking about, but I'm surprised that DVD is ok, but DVD burning is not.

Go figure.

"only support reading from the SATA Atapi drives"

Mine also writes nicely to my SATA HDDs

 

[cconley530]

Does anyone know how to really over clock this MB . I can't seem to get it to even be stable at the built in 11% is has in the Bios. Is there tricks to get it to stablize. Thanks

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Most of us are trying to just get it to run properly....anyone know where I can get the v1.6 BIOS for the Neo4-F mobo? I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

 

[BayBug]

Originally posted by: BayBug

Originally posted by: domineo4
HI, I have this weird problem with my Kn8 N4 Platinum.
I have my PC for about a month. Everythin running fine (excluding the usual install-reinstall XP thing), since yesterday.
When I boot the PC, it somewhere stops during XP starting up. Tried the usual, startup with/without drivers/system, /bootlog option, but it kept freezing.
IN safe mode, I see no problem in Device Mgr, but when I do a 'Add Hardware', it deinstalls my audio/video drivers/codecs, because apparently the hardware is not present anymore????
And when I immediately do the same thing, XP reinstalls the audio/video drivers/codecs because new hardware was found????
I reboot the PC... everything runs fine (so no Safemode), then I reboot again, and it freezes again.....
Anybody seen this kind of behaviour before?
Will try Bios 1.9 this evening to see if it helps.
Many thanks
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Athlon64 3500+ (Venice), no OC
1GB (2x512Mb TakeMS)
MSI KN Neo4 PLatinum
Zalman 7000Cu fan
SATA 200GB Maxtor DiamondMax10

I experience that delay every time I boot up, however give it around 5 minutes and then Windows XP Pro kicks in and everything runs fine. I have the Corsair memory with the LEDs so I see that during the delay period the memory is about half lit which I assume means that its trying to do something, hehe. Another strange this is that I put together my computer (new parts, XP install on new SATA drive, etc.) earlier this year when the mb was shipped with Bios 1.2. Due to whatever is causing this delay, I cannot flash my bios to a newer version and have XP boot correctly. All updated bios that I've tried (1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.8) have posted okay and I've been able to go into the bios setup after flashing - but something is causing XP Pro to hang after the mb has done its boot up. My LEDs on my memory show that it basically isn't doing anything and then after like 5 minutes, I get a blue screen with a message saying something like Windows encountered a problem because it couldn't find a certain file and then the system reboots. This is kinda funny seeing as how XP boots up and runs perfectly with the 1.2 bios on the mb!

Anyway, maybe try giving around 5 minutes for XP to run and see if it does...

Ahhh, I found the reason for the long delay to load XP. Went to MSI forum and found that someone posted the answer. In the Bios, you need to disable the USB KB Storage Support and then it should work. I did this and now computer boots and XP loads in a matter of seconds instead of minutes, hehe.

But this does not solve the blue screen error message I get after I flash to a newer bios than 1.2...

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Originally posted by: BayBug
In the Bios, you need to disable the USB KB Storage Support and then it should work. I did this and now computer boots and XP loads in a matter of seconds instead of minutes, hehe.

This is a need to know for any MSi nForce owners.

 

[spyke136]

well im lucky ive had no problems yet.

overclockings been really easy, got my 3700+ to 2.6Ghz pretty easily. with my ocz platinum rev 2 i was able to use really high fsb's without sacrificing too much on the timings. running at 290x9 at 2.5-3-4-6.

turn off aggressive timings in the bios, it makes it almost impossible to get your fsb over 220, well it did for me. turn that off and disable DOT. manually oc everything.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: Pr0d1gy
Most of us are trying to just get it to run properly....anyone know where I can get the v1.6 BIOS for the Neo4-F mobo? I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction.

MSI MS-7125 bios

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: cconley530
Does anyone know how to really over clock this MB . I can't seem to get it to even be stable at the built in 11% is has in the Bios. Is there tricks to get it to stablize. Thanks

don't use the automatic overclocking features, will result in instability

just overclock it manually

this board is a very strong OCer

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: taelee1977
Well, I "upgarded" my BIOS to v1.8 without bothering to check these forums... just hoping that MSI would have fixed the bugs by now. Big mistake. Now my computer won't even shutdown and I have to manually hold down my power button just to power off my computer. I've finally had enough of this... and sent it back to Newegg. Good thing Newegg has a good return policy(1 year exchange policy). It was such a pain in the @ss to pull this motherboard out of my case, but I sent it back regardless. I got an e-mail back saying they are out of stock with this motherboard... strange... I see on their website that they still have them in stock. If given the option, I was thinking of swtiching mobos, but it seems ALL Nforce4 mobos have a lot of problems.

when you flash bios you MUST CLEAN OUT AND REINSTALL CHIPSET DRIVERS

that is why you are having shutdown problems

 

[SkaarjMaster]

the cobbler, is this just for the Neo4 Plat or should you do this for all motherboards after you flash? I've never heard of this and never do it and never seem to have shut down problems or any other problems that can be traced back to a flash without updating the chipset drivers.