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

[ali.tayyab]

Well i finally solved the problem. The old SiS card was bad. It wont work in my other rig! Hadnt used it for some time (like 6 years!), thought it was okay as it booted up fine.
I got another card to check the system (waiting for 7800), and it workd okay.

 

[shd17]

any info on this board?

MSI K8N SLI-F

 

[z00mX]

does anyone in here have a problem when trying to boot up to windows after raid detection saying invalid disk please insert etc... even thought i have windows installed.
the only way i can boot into windows is by leaving windows xp cd in there and let it read the cd asking to boot then after that it will boot.

btw this windows is installed on raid.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: z00mX
does anyone in here have a problem when trying to boot up to windows after raid detection saying invalid disk please insert etc... even thought i have windows installed.
the only way i can boot into windows is by leaving windows xp cd in there and let it read the cd asking to boot then after that it will boot.

btw this windows is installed on raid.

Do you have the correct settings in the BIOS? ...boot sequence, and enabled the RAID controller?

 

[imtherealsok]

Hey dude,

I've no idea whether your question about the sound problem in the MSI K8N Platinum board has been answered to your satisfaction yet but I may have an answer for you. In the user guide that comes with it, I noticed that "MSI reminds you that this board must use a power supply with a -5V pin supply." A wee bit cryptic I know, but it means that the PSU you use must have a -5V rail, which then means that the 24 pin ATX connector will have a -5V line in pin number 20. Unfortunately, only older power supplies (ATX 1.3 for example) actually have a -5V rail. Newer ATX 2.0 PSUs have no -5V rail and thus leave pin 20 in the ATX connector empty. It is this -5V line that powers the onboard creative chip. So, if you have no -5V rail, then no power goes to the chip. If this is the problem, then I'm surprised that it works for you at all.

Hope this is of some help. I have one of these boards myself and am just trying to find a suitable power supply...... MSI may make good boards but that doesn't mean they aren't stupid at times.

 

[imtherealsok]

Sorry, posted this way back on page 2. Seems that this has been answered several times.

And I was wrong anyway. Lol. Some people can get it to work, sound and all, with a 20 pin PSU, or so it seems.

As an aside, does anyone know of an ATX 2.0 or better PSU that is 24 pin AND has a -5V rail? Suitable for SLI as well? Perhaps I ask too much.......

 

[imtherealsok]

Actually, after all the hassle I might just flag this MSI board and go for the new ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe board. they look so sexy with that heat pipe. *Ahem*

 

[rusted embrace]

I've had this board for a few months now, no problems to date. I too suffer from the NBF noise situation. I just installed CoreCenter...I was wondering if you guys could just check that everything is going ok? I have no idea what the figures should be.

CPU temp 31
Sys temp 33
CPU fan 3000 +/- rpm
NB fan 7670 rpm.
The voltages are all good. Very close to what they're supposed to be.

I'm concerned about the nbf. That seems pretty damn high. Also I think that's what's setting the alarm off, even though no matter how many times I move the slider up it keeps going back to 2k. What do you all think?

 

[imtherealsok]

For anyone wondering about the possible problems with new PSUs lacking a -5V line (powering the onboard creative chip) check these out:

Suitable power supplies

and this:

Voltage adaptor fix

Apparently MSI will add the '-5V fix' component if you RMA the board to them. Or if your board is a newer revision, it will come with the fix already done. Luckily mine has this fix. Unfortunately, MSI didn't have the sense to label the fixed versions in any way. The only way to spot it is to look at the board itself and see the little black transistor like thing right next to the creative chip. The second link above has a pic of it.

 

[mrxaero]

 

[Carova]

Does anyone know how to contact MSI to get "replacement" parts? I purchased a pair of refurbished MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum boards from Newegg and need to get a couple of the Back IO Shields.

Thanks!

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: rusted embrace
I've had this board for a few months now, no problems to date. I too suffer from the NBF noise situation. I just installed CoreCenter...I was wondering if you guys could just check that everything is going ok? I have no idea what the figures should be.

CPU temp 31
Sys temp 33
CPU fan 3000 +/- rpm
NB fan 7670 rpm.
The voltages are all good. Very close to what they're supposed to be.

I'm concerned about the nbf. That seems pretty damn high. Also I think that's what's setting the alarm off, even though no matter how many times I move the slider up it keeps going back to 2k. What do you all think?

I think you should get rid of that NB fan and drop in a Zalman passive heatsink...does the job for me (a dremmel tool helps to get it to fit under the vid card). I also happen to have two 120mm case fans near the cpu...one intake from the rear straight onto the cpu cooler (also Zalman) and the other as an exhaust above it. My idle temps are around 27-28 for both the cpu and system. and I have the cpu fan at spinnin' at about 1500 rpm. But as for the alarm always going off, have you tried the latest version of CoreCenter? I had that happening a while back and, if I remember correctly, installing the latest version did the trick.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well it's been over 9 months since I've been here commenting on this mb but today I reinstalled it and it actually works. I put my old winnie 3500 and xfx 6800gt on it along with some kingston hyper-x and a scythe fcs-50 hsf. She fired right up and has been behaving herself ever since. I also flashed the bios to 1A. The difference this time is that I have an enermax 550w ps hooked up to it and it will still boot even with usb devices attached at bootup. I upgraded another machine running an abit nf7-s v2 to this setup. I remembered nvidia stating that it was possible to upgrade from a lower nforce chipset to a newer one so I tried it on windows xp pro and it worked. I uninstalled the ati video drivers and the nf2 drivers before I shut it down. With an all new mb windows booted just fine and then I installed the nvidia nforce drivers and video drivers and all has been well ever since. I hope it will hold together this time around and not give me any more problems.

 

[chumba]

I've got an MSI K8N Neo4 and an Antec True480 w/20pin, Athlon64 3800, a little piddley ASUS EN6200TC. I can't get the thing to boot. I thought it might be a bad mobo, but I RMA'ed it and the new one does the exact same thing. In a bare-bones setup (PSU, Mobo, CPU, Vid card). It powers on, yet no post beeps and the DLEDS never change from the first position. I've tested the ram in another machine, so it's not that. I've tried a PCI video card, still nothing. I'm curious if anyone knows if it's a PSU issue. I know the manual says a 20pin will work, but I can't imagine it's the CPU.

Any ideas?

 

[Puffnstuff]

Try another ps and see if it does the same thing. Listen I had an antec tp550w attached to my neo4 and it wouldn't run right.

 

[kwarkers]

Im consiedering buying an MSI K8N Neo4 to replace my *cough* Asus A8V-E-Deluxe. Im running an a64 3500 venice. Would the MSI be an ideal option for a keep OCer?

 

[Puffnstuff]

If you want to oc then look at the dfi lanparty ultra-d as it has a myriad of adjustments available.

 

[Wentelteefje]

No need to pick DFI if you want to overclock, I have a MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum, and it is the best mobo I ever had (better than Asus and GigaByte)... My highest "FSB" was 312MHz with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice... I currently have it at 8x300MHz, but to test its full capacities, I had it at 9x300MHz as well, and the board could still do better IMO...

This is a very solid overclocker, no doubt...!

 

[hcdunk]

Had a quick question...what is this D.O.T Ranger they're referring to in the manual that needs to be disabled (forgive me if this is a stupid question.)

 

[Tweakin]

Originally posted by: MayanGuy

Originally posted by: letired
So I took the plunge and got one of these boards, my setup (what it will be in about 3 days) you can see in my sig. Any tips for getting this board to work right first try? I currently am running an MSI NEO2 Plat with a GeForce FX 5900.

The manual is actually pretty good imo. If you are loading your OS on SATA drive, make sure you get the drivers installed first before attempting to load the OS. Oh...and for SATA drives, use the nVidia SATA ports, not the Silcone ports. As other have suggested, disable the USB Storage option. I would aslo make sure that you don't enable any of the Dynamic Overclocking, Cool & Quiet or Agressive timings...do that stuff manually once you have everything goin' smooth.

Good luck!

There are no SATA drivers that need to be loaded...just don't use the SI SATA Ports, use channels 3 & 4 from the Nvidia set. The drivers are only for the RAID setup, which should be disabled in the bios unless you are using this.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: Tweakin

Originally posted by: MayanGuy

Originally posted by: letired
So I took the plunge and got one of these boards, my setup (what it will be in about 3 days) you can see in my sig. Any tips for getting this board to work right first try? I currently am running an MSI NEO2 Plat with a GeForce FX 5900.

The manual is actually pretty good imo. If you are loading your OS on SATA drive, make sure you get the drivers installed first before attempting to load the OS. Oh...and for SATA drives, use the nVidia SATA ports, not the Silcone ports. As other have suggested, disable the USB Storage option. I would aslo make sure that you don't enable any of the Dynamic Overclocking, Cool & Quiet or Agressive timings...do that stuff manually once you have everything goin' smooth.

Good luck!

There are no SATA drivers that need to be loaded...just don't use the SI SATA Ports, use channels 3 & 4 from the Nvidia set. The drivers are only for the RAID setup, which should be disabled in the bios unless you are using this.

I was just thinking about this...so If I don't want to use a RAID, don't install the RAID driver? What if they are already installed? How do I go about using a SATA port...no RAID? I'm not sure how to initialize a SATA HD with no RAID having the drivers installed. Would I have to start fresh?

I currently have my OS on and IDE drive and had 2 SATA drives on RAID0...I want to have those HDs just as plain storage...no RAID. I'm paranoid of having anything striped (lost a bunch of stuff) and need the space so I don't want them mirrored either.

 

[Tingc222]

Just a quick question (please can anyone answer this, I can't anyone who can answer this question yet). How fast does the NF4 fan on neo4 platinum run at 5V? (the black fan with the black heatsink, small and gets in the way of the video card).

Please help.

also, Mayanguy, you just have to plug them in to the orange SATA connectors on the mobo. there are no drivers needed for plain storage. If you want, you can do a JBOD on silicon image chip for faster speed (the silicon image chip is faster than the NF4 controller).

It's best that you do a reinstall of windows and partition the disks from scratch.

 

[MayanGuy]

Originally posted by: Tingc222
Just a quick question (please can anyone answer this, I can't anyone who can answer this question yet). How fast does the NF4 fan on neo4 platinum run at 5V? (the black fan with the black heatsink, small and gets in the way of the video card).

Please help.

also, Mayanguy, you just have to plug them in to the orange SATA connectors on the mobo. there are no drivers needed for plain storage. If you want, you can do a JBOD on silicon image chip for faster speed (the silicon image chip is faster than the NF4 controller).

It's best that you do a reinstall of windows and partition the disks from scratch.

thanks for the info...silicone is faster than the NF4? but I'm using SATA II 300Mb/s transfer rates...the silicon only supports 150.

As for the fan on the chipset, I'm assuming that 5V is at the lowend of the spectrum...when I put a Zalman fanmate at around the lowend, it was spinning at about 2000rpm...which I thought was kinda low for that thing. I would have it set at 3000-3500rpm (read using the MSI CoreCenter utility). But I opted to replace the damn thing with a Zalman passive heatsink....with a little help of a dremel tool to get it passed the vid card. Been happy with it...that little fan is annoying!

 

[Tingc222]

I don't know if SATA II actually applies to 7200RPM HDs...I've seen them reaching like 50MB/s transfer rates (due to hardware design), and 150 can only be reached by SCSI drives. I doubt 150MB/s can be reached by those drives, but I've heard that burst rates can read that fast.

If you are going SATA-I, definitely go Silicon. They are proven to be faster in reviews.

I don't know about SATA II tho

 

[chumba]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
Try another ps and see if it does the same thing. Listen I had an antec tp550w attached to my neo4 and it wouldn't run right.

Well I plugged in my brand new seasonic 600, and the same darn thing happens. So I suppose it's down to the video card or the CPU, but I'm betting it's the CPU as it didn't even boot with a standard PCI video card... crap.

Any other thoughts?