*** Official Soltek 75FRN-L/75FRN2-L (nForce2) Thread ***

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: joshg
Ok.. Well like I said if I get 2x SATA to PATA adapters can I run RAID 0 out of the box? Also, do I need to use the Soltek adapter, or can any of them work?

Thanks again!

Yes, you should be able to use any adapter and not just the Soltek ones and RAID zero will be available with the 2 drives immediately after you setup the array.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: dminimal
Quick question, as Southbridge cooling was mentioned: how high should I dare to take the FSB without a heatsink on the Southbridge chip?

The SL-75FRN2 series ships with the ultra400 chipset and no cooling on the southbridge so 400fsb is garanteed by them with that config. I don't think you have to cool the SB it's just a good preventitive measure to insure you don't damage the chip eventually.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Huntress
If anyone would like to help me out with a no post problem on a SL-75FRN-L please check this thread.. Warning... very long post and concerns more than the Soltek itself.

Also, how do I tell what revision of the board I have... not very clear to me, either Soltek doesn't label it on the PCB, or I am just not seeing it.

Any help would be appreciated, I have wanted this board for so long, and this no post issue is so depressing.

Thanks!

Diana

PS... this is the first board I ever got that actually has a NEW BOARD smell.... LMAO

Left you a reply though it's not overly helpful in light of all that you've done to troubleshoot already, I hope you it gets workedout through RMA if nothing else

 

[Huntress]

Thanks DAPUNISHER!

I will give that a try... nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You probably got lost in that other topic and missed my question about telling revision on the board, can you help me figure that out?

Thanks!

Diana

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey Diana, The board has in the bottom left hand corner a black stamp that looks like VER: D for example. I'm not certain it's the revision though I suspect that's Soltek's way of doing it but it is the closest thing to a revision I've seen on them. On my SL-75FRN-L it was just the D but on my 75MRN-L it also has printed upside down and right next to the VER: D a stamp that says G1 which is evidently for the purpose of designating it as the IGP integrated G4MX core, HTH

 

[Huntress]

Thanks, I'll tell you when they unchain me here at work and I can go home and look

 

[Huntress]

I got into the board... I had NOT tried the fail safe boot method (holding the insert key during power up).

I am so happy!!!

Thanks for your help!

Diana

 

[Naruto]

Originally posted by: Huntress
I got into the board... I had NOT tried the fail safe boot method (holding the insert key during power up).

I am so happy!!!

Thanks for your help!

Diana

Luckily I read the manual and found out about the insert key procedure for nforce boards. If not, I would have been in the same situation as you Diana.

 

[Huntress]

Is that true of ALL nForce boards?

 

[Naruto]

Oh shouldn't have said all nforce boards cause I really don't know.

 

[Huntress]

hehehe

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Huntress
I got into the board... I had NOT tried the fail safe boot method (holding the insert key during power up).

I am so happy!!!

Thanks for your help!

Diana

Excellent! it's always the little things ain't it? Glad it's up and running now, just use expert and set everything manually for best results.

 

[joshg]

OK, I'm still adamantly trying to decide between this board, 8RDA+, and 8RDA3+ ....

My next question that I couldn't find in the manual is this:

If I want to use 6-ch audio, how do I do it? I mean, is there a BIOS setting or jumper that I can set that converts this:

Line Out
Line In
Mic

To this:

Front Out L/R
Rear Out L/R
Center/LFE Out

(I thought I read somewhere that this is the case on some recent boards?)


If this is the case, how is it done? Also, what is the header on the Mobo for? Is the ONLY way to use 6-ch audio to use a special bracket plugged into this header, or may it be done like I said above?

Also, if you can change line in and mic in to Rear and Center/LFE, are there headers on the board somewhere where I can plug in a front-access mic in ?? I couldn't find any of this information in the manual...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Yes, you can remap as you listed for 5.1 output

Line Out=Front Out L/R
Line In=Rear Out L/R
Mic=Center/LFE Out

You just go to the volume config and set the speakers select to 5.1 surround sound speakers then in the advanced tab and click the check boxes for 1 and 2 under other controls to activate the rear and center/subwoofer channels. If you need to use the mic just return to the original config but if you want the 5.1 and a mic simultaneously you need the add on bracket.

 

[joshg]

Ok, well... :frown:

Then there is no header for "Front Panel Audio" like are on the EPoX boards?

 

[Naruto]

I think I found a serious problem on my Soltek 75FRN2-RL motherboard. Everytime my motherboard bios is set to 195mhz fsb and up and I turn off the stand by power for a brief moment or for a long while, the computer won't boot unless I clear cmos. I extensively tested this with default settings in the bios and I pin pointed this problem to when the fsb is 195mhz fsb and up. I know my chip and mobo can run at this spec and higher cause I tested all the way up to 211mhz fsb and it was stable, couldn't go higher cause I was limited by ram. I looked up the bios for this series and found that the newer bios offer near-official support for 200mhz fsb barton chips, but I already tried this out and discovered they took away control of the memory ratios in these bios versions (it eliminates the 100% ratio at 180 mhz fsb and up). I can live by with this problem, it will be tedious however to set things back to lower speeds everytime I need to move the computer or if there is a sudden power outtage. I think the new bios versions might have fixed this problem, but I need to ask soltek to put those memory ratios back. I also tested to see if the memory ratio of 100% at such a high fsb might be the problem, by using a memory ratio of 80% and fsb of 200, it still couldn't boot after switching off the stand by power for a moment. But it wasn't an extensive test as I didn't use the BY SPD or AUTO memory ratios, which are the only options given by the new bios. Sorry for the long read but I think this might be a serious issue Soltek needs to resolve. Personally, I rather not give up my 100% memory ratio and a significant amount of memory bandwith just to be able to boot at 200mhz fsb and up after switching off stand by power for a moment.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

EDIT: I think your issue may be isolated since I haven't seen many posts with that issue.

 

[joshg]

Has anyone tried Crucial PC3200 memory with these boards? The round-up they did over at Tweaktown showed the Crucial being about even with Mushkin in many tests (higher than Corsair, even), running at stock speed but timings of 2-2-2-5, BUT the Crucial OC'd by far the highest out of all the memory they tried (this was at 2-2-2-5 timings also, 2.8v).

Considering the very nice price of Crucial memory (compared to the other brands, at least ), this is very intriguing information.

And no, I still haven't decided which Mobo I'm going to get!

Now it's between Abit NF7-S and Soltek 75FRN2-RL ...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey Josh Crucial garuantees compatability or your money back and the latest shipping bios for the FRN2 series enhances memory compatability even in DC-DDR and I've used Crucial 2700DDR@400DDR while testing so there should be zero issues. The Abit is a great board! if want all the extras then get it! Only thing I would pick at is the SI SATA controller still having data corruption isseus for some folks. If you don't need the firewire and you can get by on the slightly lees impressive sound of the realtek the FRN2-RL will save you some bank.

 

[joshg]

Oh, by the way...

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=review&dId=486

 

[Naruto]

DAPUNISHER, do you think I should RMA my board? Its annoying to have it overclocked where I like it, but always having to declock it when I move the comp or having to clear the cmos if there is a sudden power outtage. Also my VBAT readings are only 1.5V, are these the same for your soltek boards? Thanks.

Nevermind, I found an alternative fix to this problem. A beta bios sent to me by a soltek csr works. After a failed boot, I simply just need to restart it and I get a CPU frequency failure warning message on bootup, so all i need is to go back into the bios and exit and it works fine without me losing any settings in my bios.

Also note, for all you FRN2 series owners, you mave have noticed that bios versions 1.2 and up have eliminated memory ratio control. I have a beta soltek bios that has 200mhz fsb support and with the memory ratios back. It was sent to me by a soltek csr after I complained about the ratios being gone. It seems to be fully functional and not problematic. He coded it as an "overclocking bios" and it also corrects some of the overclocking frequency text on boot up. So instead of getting a message of 199mhz fsb on boot up screen, it now says 200mhz fsb. If someone can host this bios I will gladly send it to you.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hey Naruto, I think another answer to your problem is here he was kind enough to post it for me on another board. still can't believe I never saw that fix before now

 

[Naruto]

Hmmm that problem is close to mine, but they all have lowered their multipliers. I left my multi on default and went for 200mhz so I can get 2300mhz. It was stable and should boot fine since on initial bootup the multi is still on default. But it still has that problem. Its no biggie now as to I found a workaround. All i gotta do is restart the computer like 15 secs after bootup, which gets the computer to boot with a warning sign on overclocking failure, than I just need to go back into the bios and exit w/out saving and it works fine. Thanks for helping me find that thread Dapunisher, but I'm not willing to pin mod my athlon after seeing all those pins I need to connect.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

LOL! I don't blame you and what you're doing now is easy enough anyways.

 

[NesuD]

New SL-75FRN2 bios version 1.4L here.