The *Official* MSI K8NGM2-FID GeForce 6150 Motherboard Thread

[HT2001]

Guys,

I've just had a powercut and when I boot the PC came back on, I could smell something burning and when I opened up and case I could see smoke rising from one of the small chips directly above and next to the cpu fan input (3-pin) on the motherboard.

So far the only thing I have noticed differently is that upon boot up, is that there is no 'beep' sound anymore and I can't seem to change the fan speed on the Zalman 7000 when connected to the CPU fan input whilst on the other 2 remaining fan inputs, everything works as normal.

As I have had the motherboard for just over a week, do you think that the place I brought it from would exchange it for a new one?

Thanks

 

[UnbiosedOpinion]

I'm going nuts with my first build using an MSI mainboard; I've had great results with AMD processors in at least five Asus motherboards in the past. Maybe someone here has seen something like this.

After fresh Win-XP/SP2 Home builds (three so far), the system fails with various BSOD. The stop codes vary from 0x7E, 0x8E, 0x05, 0x0A. Usually no modules are listed, but these have appeared: kmixer.sys, win32k.sys, amdk8.sys.

The problem has never happened during my "stress tests" (I run about 8 windows apps concurrently, including a full disk search, audio CD through Media Player, web audio streaming, fullscreen 3D pinball game, and a calculator operation that takes the CPU to 100%--all of this runs beautifully). The crashes only occur when I maneuver through various apps, like web surfing. (I even tried a different mouse and port, since the crashes seemed so linked to ACTIVITY--but that did not help.)

The key thing is, I can get the problem to stop only by disabling onboard audio. I've got a new Audigy soundcard to try, but if this solves the problem, then I probably have a bad motherboard. But I can't RMA it due to the vendor's lack of stock. I'd switch to the ASUS 6150 board, but it seems to have its problems. I'd prefer this be a software problem--I have trouble blaming hardware when the failures are so random, and things work fine 95% of the time.

The system has gone through at least six cycles of memtest with no problems. CPU is from a working system. New hard drive passes its diagnostics. I'm not overclocking. Temps are no more than 40C under load. The actual Windows and driver installation run perfectly. I've read this forum and heeded the suggestions: Load latest BIOS, disable Cool&Quiet, play with Legacy USB and Spread Spectrum--none of these have any effect.

As for drivers, I've tried the versions from MSI as well as various Nvidia and Realtek versions. I also tried using just the Microsoft HD Audio driver without Realtek's bloatware--no difference. Being current with Windows Updates also has no effect. I even found an obscure old MS fix for paging problems (the "LargePageMinimum" registry patch for AMD processors, mentioned in the Forceware release notes as still applying to XP systems.) This didn't help either.

It's a very basic system I'm trying to stabilize: just simple stereo speakers and a microphone from the rear panel jacks, simple VGA video. These features are disabled in BIOS: SATA, RAID, Floppy, Com1, IR.

I've ruled out power supply and heat problems because the BSOD NEVER occurs during stress testing. It only crashes doing the simplest things like opening or closing a window.

So, any ideas? I'd really like to give MSI a chance.

Thanks!
----------------------

MSI K8NGM2-FID Bios 3.50
A64 3200+ Venice
Thermaltake CL-P0200 Silent heatsink
Corsair VS 2 x 512 VS1GBKIT400
2.5-3-3-8 (1T or 2T has no effect)
Integrated 6150 graphics, 128MB page frame
Seagate ST3160023A 160GB PATA HD
Pioneer DVD-113 (Compaq)
Compaq Presario MV700 CRT
Logitech M-S48 mouse (Compaq)
Compaq SK-2700 keyboard
Seasonic s12-380 PS
Antec SLK1650 case

 

[dtube]

Originally posted by: UnbiosedOpinion

So, any ideas? I'd really like to give MSI a chance.

Thanks!
----------------------

MSI K8NGM2-FID Bios 3.50
A64 3200+ Venice
Thermaltake CL-P0200 Silent heatsink
Corsair VS 2 x 512 VS1GBKIT400
2.5-3-3-8 (1T or 2T has no effect)
Integrated 6150 graphics, 128MB page frame
Seagate ST3160023A 160GB PATA HD
Pioneer DVD-113 (Compaq)
Compaq Presario MV700 CRT
Logitech M-S48 mouse (Compaq)
Compaq SK-2700 keyboard
Seasonic s12-380 PS
Antec SLK1650 case

My guess is some files on your hard drive may be corrupted. Did you try a reinstall?.
Do not install the Nvidia IDE driver.
Good luck

 

[UnbiosedOpinion]

Yes, I've reformatted the drive 3 times for full reinstalls. And never used the Nvidia IDE/storage drivers, since I'm PATA without RAID. Thanks for the tips.

 

[knightc2]

OOS everywhere! Anyone know where I can get this or should I just throw in the towel and by the AM2 version and get the TV out adaptor elsewhere. Any ideas?

 

[UnbiosedOpinion]

...Well I only THOUGHT the system was stable with onboard audio disabled.

No such luck. After reformatting and reinstalling WinXP once again, Windows crashed again with a BSOD--even though onboard audio was disabled. It's the first time that happened in over a week of trying to fix this thing. It happened after drivers and Windows updates were complete. The Audigy soundcard wasn't even installed yet.

I've tried virtually all BIOS options and all available drivers. I just about give up on this MSI board.

 

[subcodec]

Originally posted by: UnbiosedOpinion
...Well I only THOUGHT the system was stable with onboard audio disabled.

No such luck. After reformatting and reinstalling WinXP once again, Windows crashed again with a BSOD--even though onboard audio was disabled. It's the first time that happened in over a week of trying to fix this thing. It happened after drivers and Windows updates were complete. The Audigy soundcard wasn't even installed yet.

I've tried virtually all BIOS options and all available drivers. I just about give up on this MSI board.

I had the same type of problem as you and it drove me nutz. What did the trick for me was using version 8.22 of Nvidia's chipset drivers. You can find these drivers at:
ftp://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/standalone/430_410/

I would recommend to do another clean install and use these drivers. Make sure that if you use any mass storage drivers (SATA or RAID), use the ones from v8.22 also.

I hope this might possibly work for you. I hate to see the board go to waste since, when working good, it is a very decent board.

 

[imported_derekn]

Originally posted by: UnbiosedOpinion
...Well I only THOUGHT the system was stable with onboard audio disabled.

No such luck. After reformatting and reinstalling WinXP once again, Windows crashed again with a BSOD--even though onboard audio was disabled. It's the first time that happened in over a week of trying to fix this thing. It happened after drivers and Windows updates were complete. The Audigy soundcard wasn't even installed yet.

I've tried virtually all BIOS options and all available drivers. I just about give up on this MSI board.

UbiosedOpinion,

Ugh, sorry to hear you are having problems with this board. I love this board.

I own 2 of these boards. I bought a version 1 board from zipzoomfly in Feb. I bought a version 2 board from newegg in July. Each board is using different parts. I have zero problems. I followed renethx directions exactly for installing the OS and drivers and didn't run into any problems.

1)Did you make sure you didn't install NVIDIA FireWall and ForceWare Network Access Manager (NAM)? (included with nforce 430/410 drivers install).

2)Also, I know Seagate is a very reliable brand. They have great warranties. I have 2 Seagate SATA drives in one of my MSI boards. Did you think of trying another HD in your system instead of the Seagate? I have built 30 machines in the past 5 years (10 for me and 20 for friends/side jobs) and only ONCE has an HD failed on me. It was a strange way it failed too. It was only after I ran the Maxtor HD utilities on that one did I find out it was a bad one.

3)I know you have ruled out a bad Power Supply because during your stress tests it seems fine, but do you have another PS to try? I am using the same Antec 480W v2 true power supplies in both MSI boards. Only other brand besides Antec I have tried has been Thermaltake.

And, it's quite possible you could have a bad board after you have ruled out everything else.

 

[tedward]

1) Will OCZ Platnium DDR500 2x1GB play nice in this board? It seems like overkill, but with the rising prices & shrinking availablity of DDR, I bit on what seemed like a great price: $207 shipped! OCZ5002048EBPEK

2) Is it worth going for an X2 4400+ over an X2 3800+?


Thanks!

 

[korinel]

Am I the only person having this problem?

I have been trying to install the new Vista RC1 to dual-boot with the existing XP Home (running flawlessly) on my machine (specs below - all my hard drives are non-RAIDED SATA-2). The installation process seems to go fine until the first reboot, at which time the bootloader reports the following error:

File:\Windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

XP can still be accessed without problem, and I can see the installed operating system files including winload.exe. I have tried the following:

Re-install (a total of 5 times now!) both 32- and 64-bit versions
Download and burn ISOs again
Remove all additional hard drives during installation
Upgrade BIOS (3.5)
Restore BIOS to original settings
Change target hard drive

I suspect that the problem is with the bootloader: for some reason it can't read the contents of the SATA drives on this motherboard. Searching the internet reveals that other users have reported similar problems for NForce 4 boards using SATA drives, but these were usually for Vista Beta 2, with drives in RAID mode, which I don't use. Furthermore, I successfully installed Vista Beta 2 without problem, although the bugs caused me to wipe it within a week. I do not presently have access to a PATA drive, and really don't want to have to resort to this.

So I'm stumped. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

-Karl

--
MSI K8NGM2-FID
AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+
2 GB Paired PC3200 DDRAM
SATA1: Samsung 250GB SATA-2 drive (XP)
SATA2: Seagate 320GB SATA-2 drive (Spare)
SATA3: WD 500GB SATA-2 drive (Spare)
DVD-RW

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: tedward
1) Will OCZ Platnium DDR500 2x1GB play nice in this board? It seems like overkill, but with the rising prices & shrinking availablity of DDR, I bit on what seemed like a great price: $207 shipped! OCZ5002048EBPEK

2) Is it worth going for an X2 4400+ over an X2 3800+?


Thanks!

1) I would think that it would be fine as this board has voltage control which can go pretty high

2) that depends on what you plan on doing with your computer, supposedly extra cache helps alot when encoding

And where is that deal on the RAM??? I want some at that price!!!

 

[dtube]

Originally posted by: tedward
1) Will OCZ Platnium DDR500 2x1GB play nice in this board? It seems like overkill, but with the rising prices & shrinking availablity of DDR, I bit on what seemed like a great price: $207 shipped! OCZ5002048EBPEK

2) Is it worth going for an X2 4400+ over an X2 3800+?


Thanks!

1. That's good memory. I don't know if that will play well with this mobo but I guess your intention is to overclock the mobo right?. If so, this MSI mobo does not overclock well into the range that you would need ddr500.

2. No - I don't think so. The 3800 operates at 2.0 GHz and 4400 at 2.2 GHz. 10% difference in clock speed. The 4400 has a larger cach though.
A so so mobo can always overclock your 3800 by 10% with DDR400 easily.
My 3800 X2 runs at 2.7 GHz with DDR500 and a zalman 9500 cooler.

 

[Raydur]

Originally posted by: dtube

2. No - I don't think so. The 3800 operates at 2.0 GHz and 4400 at 2.2 GHz. 10% difference in clock speed. The 4400 has a larger cach though.
A so so mobo can always overclock your 3800 by 10% with DDR400 easily.
My 3800 X2 runs at 2.7 GHz with DDR500 and a zalman 9500 cooler.

something to consider is the 3800 is not capable of playing a Blu-ray or HD-DVD movie (at least according to the software vendors who make the software players, such as Cyberlink), but the 4400 is (4200 is listed as minimum). Depends on whether you plan on using it for that when the technology is (actually) here....

 

[tedward]

Originally posted by: avi85

Originally posted by: tedward
1) Will OCZ Platnium DDR500 2x1GB play nice in this board? It seems like overkill, but with the rising prices & shrinking availablity of DDR, I bit on what seemed like a great price: $207 shipped! OCZ5002048EBPEK

Thanks!

And where is that deal on the RAM??? I want some at that price!!!

I got it from Clubit.com. I notice it's now up to $229.99.

Link

I've decided to go Conroe, (which uses DDR2), so I'm going to refuse delivery of the OCZ. PM if your're interested. (I'll just add freight.)

 

[BernardP]

After reading about problems some people here are having, I feel a bit to present this little question.

My k8NGM2-FID has been running fine since February. Lately, though, it has developped a new habit of emitting a short, discreet "beep" à propos of absolutely nothing. This sound is shorter and not as loud when compared to the beep on bootup, but sounds as if produced by the same device. This little beep happens every few days, when I am actively typing at the computer, or when I am reading on screen without typing. There is no pattern I can see, no relation to any action in Windows for example.

Anyone else has noticed this? Any idea what it can be or mean?

Thanks

 

[ryansebiz]

I?m having a problem with my new HTPC (see sig). Using fresh install of Windows XP Pro SP2. Latest Nvidia graphics driver (91.47), Dvico driver (3.47) and Hauppauge driver (22_23257). I also have the latest version of Nvidia Purevideo.

I am using Beyond TV 4.4 and am having interlacing problems.

Here?s my BTV Playback Settings:

Video: Nvidia
Audio: Snapstream Audio
Renderer: Overlay
Deinterlacing: Hardware (I've also tried None)

And my PureVideo settings:

(Under the Video tab)
Display Type: Content Default
Hardware acceleration: Checked
De-interlace Control: Smart
De-interlace Mode: Best available
TV Overscan Correction: 0
Enhanced nView support: Prefer Overlay
(Under the Color tab)
Color Scheme: Default

I have not changed any settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. This interlacing only occurs on HD channels. The rest of my HD and SD channels are fine.

I?ve tried the 81.98 and 84.21 drivers. These fix the interlacing though the video is fairly choppy. Definitely not as smooth as the latest driver. I also tried 91.31 which had the same results as 91.47 (smooth, yet interlaced, video).

My CPU utilization is around 70-90% while watching HDTV. Could this be a source of the problem (A64 3500)?

Here?s a shot of the interlacing problem:

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4781/videozv1.jpg

The image is perfect with no movement (see the right arm) but any movement at all (such as Manning's hand) results in really distorted interlacing.

I played the same video on another networked PC (w/ the same PureVideo settings ? see sig) and it played back fine.

How can I get this to play back smoothly?

 

[dtube]

Originally posted by: BernardP
After reading about problems some people here are having, I feel a bit to present this little question.

My k8NGM2-FID has been running fine since February. Lately, though, it has developped a new habit of emitting a short, discreet "beep" à propos of absolutely nothing. This sound is shorter and not as loud when compared to the beep on bootup, but sounds as if produced by the same device. This little beep happens every few days, when I am actively typing at the computer, or when I am reading on screen without typing. There is no pattern I can see, no relation to any action in Windows for example.

Anyone else has noticed this? Any idea what it can be or mean?

Thanks

You are probably hearing the built-in on-board speaker emitting a warning. The warning can be overheating, fan not working. Are you using the MSI alert program, when you hear the beep, look at the alert screen to see if you can see anything.

 

[dtube]

Originally posted by: ryansebiz
I?m having a problem with my new HTPC (see sig). Using fresh install of Windows XP Pro SP2. Latest Nvidia graphics driver (91.47), Dvico driver (3.47) and Hauppauge driver (22_23257). I also have the latest version of Nvidia Purevideo.

I am using Beyond TV 4.4 and am having interlacing problems.

Here?s my BTV Playback Settings:

Video: Nvidia
Audio: Snapstream Audio
Renderer: Overlay
Deinterlacing: Hardware (I've also tried None)

And my PureVideo settings:

(Under the Video tab)
Display Type: Content Default
Hardware acceleration: Checked
De-interlace Control: Smart
De-interlace Mode: Best available
TV Overscan Correction: 0
Enhanced nView support: Prefer Overlay
(Under the Color tab)
Color Scheme: Default

I have not changed any settings in the Nvidia Control Panel. This interlacing only occurs on HD channels. The rest of my HD and SD channels are fine.

I?ve tried the 81.98 and 84.21 drivers. These fix the interlacing though the video is fairly choppy. Definitely not as smooth as the latest driver. I also tried 91.31 which had the same results as 91.47 (smooth, yet interlaced, video).

My CPU utilization is around 70-90% while watching HDTV. Could this be a source of the problem (A64 3500)?

Here?s a shot of the interlacing problem:

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4781/videozv1.jpg

The image is perfect with no movement (see the right arm) but any movement at all (such as Manning's hand) results in really distorted interlacing.

I played the same video on another networked PC (w/ the same PureVideo settings ? see sig) and it played back fine.

How can I get this to play back smoothly?

What's your share memory for the onboard video is set at (in the BIOS) and also the CPU to NB and NB to SB frequency set to?.

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: dtube
You are probably hearing the built-in on-board speaker emitting a warning. The warning can be overheating, fan not working. Are you using the MSI alert program, when you hear the beep, look at the alert screen to see if you can see anything.

Thanks.

I had also thought about this and checked my temps in PCAlert. Everything is normal. It is also my understanding that the Audio Warning from PC Alert should be through the audio chip and speakers, not the little board speaker.

 

[comdw]

Can anyone help me with this board?

I just installed it into my rig but it won't power up. As soon as I turn on the PSU, I the power LED flashes steady on for 2 seconds then off for 2 seconds, but I can't power up the PSU using the motherboard power switch, no fans spinning nothing.

All I have connected to the motherboard is the CPU & fan, 2 DIMM modules, ATX 24-pin power connector, and 4-pin 12V CPU connector. I've tried resetting the CMOS but it makes no difference.

Could I be doing something really dumb or is my board toast? (really hope not as its a pain to have to re-install my old one now). Any suggestions of what else i can try?

Does anyone know what the significence of the flashing power LED might be?

 

[ryansebiz]

Originally posted by: dtube
What's your share memory for the onboard video is set at (in the BIOS) and also the CPU to NB and NB to SB frequency set to?.

I think the default 64MB. I will try increasing it to 128MB (good call).

I"ll reply back with the results.

 

[avi85]

Has anybody installed vista on this board (or any 6100/6150)? If so, what "nforce 410/430" drivers did you use?

 

[comdw]

Made some progress - I tried an ancient ATX power supply I had spare and to my surprise I could power up. So there must be something about my Antec Truepower 2.0 that the MSI doesn't like. I know that the Antec works fine with my old motherboard and is much more modern and powerful than the old PSU that the MSI seems to agree with.

Any ideas why this might be? Hoping not to have to buy a new PSU (the old one is no where near powerful enough for the full system).

 

[grits]

Comdw, I have read about occasional problems with certain mobo/psu combos caused by the psu not sensing enough load on a particular rail to start.

Don't know if that's the case here, but you did good in substituting. You could try adding some load to see; just plug some spare molexes into some loose hard drives.

 

[comdw]

Originally posted by: grits
I have read about occasional problems with certain mobo/psu combos caused by the psu not sensing enough load on a particular rail to start.

Don't know if that's the case here, but you did good in substituting. You could try adding some load to see; just plug some spare molexes into some loose hard drives.

Just to clarify the motherboard won't even send the power on signal to the Antec PSU. Having read up on the ATX power standard a bit more, the only supply to the motherboard before powerup is via +5VSB pin (the normal rails shouldn't be active yet and the motherboard can't know whether these are "good" or not).

So I figure +5VSB is what the MSI is having a problem with. I'm going to test that on a voltmeter later and compare to the other PSU +5VSB before power on.