Unofficial Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR thread

[itachi]

Originally posted by: orionbg
The problem is that I have ClawHammer CPU with 1MB Cache! But even on the ASUS K8V Dlx Ikan't get the system running stable over 220MHz HT!!! Not even tha 1.7v CPU Voltage helps! BTW I'm using ZALMAN 7000Cu.

k8t800 has no pci/agp lock.. it's not a good chipset for overclocking. you're getting stuck at 220 because the pci is being clocked too high.

i'm about to post a thread on how to overclock with a pci/agp lock.. so look for that.

 

[juggalojaS]

Okay, Im gonna post a more detailed explanation of my problem. I just posted this in general hardware as well.

Would the exact same model of ram, but with a diff revision number effect compatability? What about with this board???

Heres my problem. About a year about I purchased a 512 mb stick of Corsair XMS pc3200 from newegg. link
Last week, I ordered another stick, of the exact same ram, and this motherboard from newegg. Came yesterday. Now both sticks are labeled IDENTICAL, except the revision#. The stick I got a year ago says rev1.2 and the stick I just got says rev4.2. Now, other than that, both sticks are they same! Same speed, same model number, even ordered from same vendor. You would think they would work right!? Well they do, BUT each by themselves, and not installed together. When both are installed together, only one gets recognized.
My motherboard ( Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR ) has 2 Dimm slots, and both work when i installed the ram one at a time. I have tried each stick, by itself, in each of the dimm slots and they work. But again, whenever I try to go for my full gig with both installed, one of the sticks goes undetected. I run sandra and it will say Dimm1 is empty. Memory difficulties because of the different revisions? Or is it my motherboard? Its weird cuz again, I confirmed both dimm slots work, I guess just not together. Or maybe its the memory??!!! Ugh someone HELP!!!

ALSO!

I have noticed corrupted text in my bios.... when changing a few of the values through out the bios I have encountered corrupted text/glitches whatever. Nothing extreme, but like I said when I cycle thru the values, take the agp speed for example, when it displays 8x4x its all garbled and text is displaced. Just made me curious thinking maybe a bios update or reflash the current bios may fix a few bugs or whatever? Is there any good or updated bios's for this motherboard? Any body else notice this with theirs??

 

[imported_Bucko]

I have noticed corrupted text in my bios.... when changing a few of the values through out the bios I have encountered corrupted text/glitches whatever. Any body else notice this with theirs??

Believe me I have powered cycle my MOBO so many times I think I'll wear out my power switch. (Setting up Raid0) And some times it just starts up with the bad graphics in boot. I was thinking it was my video card. But so far just restart and it goes away.
I have no clue about your ram problem. But contact "RING" Ring [ringlo@soltek.com.tw]

Ring /Soltek
Tel:886-2-26429060
Fax:886-2-26429065
Email: ringlo@soltek.com.tw
Website: http://www.soltek.com.tw

He was trying to register to this forum but never has so far.

My raid arrangement is stripped 20gigx2 ide0/1 masters and 80gigx2 ide0/1 slaves as stripped /mirriored. Working.
Hoping I can get my DVD rw on the promise ide3

 

[itachi]

Originally posted by: juggalojaS
Okay, Im gonna post a more detailed explanation of my problem. I just posted this in general hardware as well.

Would the exact same model of ram, but with a diff revision number effect compatability? What about with this board???

Heres my problem. About a year about I purchased a 512 mb stick of Corsair XMS pc3200 from newegg. link
Last week, I ordered another stick, of the exact same ram, and this motherboard from newegg. Came yesterday. Now both sticks are labeled IDENTICAL, except the revision#. The stick I got a year ago says rev1.2 and the stick I just got says rev4.2. Now, other than that, both sticks are they same! Same speed, same model number, even ordered from same vendor. You would think they would work right!? Well they do, BUT each by themselves, and not installed together. When both are installed together, only one gets recognized.
My motherboard ( Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR ) has 2 Dimm slots, and both work when i installed the ram one at a time. I have tried each stick, by itself, in each of the dimm slots and they work. But again, whenever I try to go for my full gig with both installed, one of the sticks goes undetected. I run sandra and it will say Dimm1 is empty. Memory difficulties because of the different revisions? Or is it my motherboard? Its weird cuz again, I confirmed both dimm slots work, I guess just not together. Or maybe its the memory??!!! Ugh someone HELP!!!

ALSO!

your problem is bios related.. so you'll have to wait for a revision to come out.

 

[juggalojaS]

Ring is awesome! Excellent, quick support He told me he tried 2 sticks, of the same ram, and it worked. He also sent me a screen shot! Ok so here is the only thing I can think of.

Both sticks of ram he used looked exactly like this.. and worked

2 x CMX512-3200C2PT XMS3202v1.2

Now for me, I have one thats slightly different. Here is what I have

1 x CMX512-3200C2PT XMS3202v1.2
1 x CMX512-3200C2PT XMS3202v4.2

Thats it! Identical except for the last revision #. Could this be the problem? I could rma the older v1.2 stick and hopefully newegg will send me another v4.2 one. Do you guys think this would solve my problem? This is like the only thing I can think of before replacing the motherboard.

your problem is bios related.. so you'll have to wait for a revision to come out.

About the bios... Ring sent me the original one. I relflashed and the problem still remains. Is there gonna be an updated bios released any time soon??? Would the updated one fix the problems with my memory or would it just be best to try like I said and get 2 IDENTICAL sticks?

Thanks!

 

[imported_Bucko]

Does anyone have any other Bios settings that we should be changing?
I was wondering about maybe IDE latency. Or what about AGS aperture setting for a 9800 /128 ATI. Default is 64 seems like 128 would make since?
And I think this Athlon64 Quiet Driver: http://www.soltek.com.tw/solte...%2FSL-K8AN2E-GR#driver
Is new?

 

[scots]

Hi, Soltek users, a few questions from an interested shopper....

Has anyone had regular trouble contacting the official website and downloading drivers? The Taiwan site wasn't coming up for a while (reached it today) and the file download page on the German site didn't have active download links (they're now visible on the TW page). Is this unusual?

Can anyone say anything bad about the Soltek SW?

Is there a list somewhere of memory known to work or fail on this board? I'm not planning to overclock, but I'd like to put in either one or two 1-GB sticks.

Not as important...anyone having trouble with the extra Promise IDE ports in standard (non-RAID) configurations? In other words, with *no* RAID enabled, do the extra ports ever need tweaking to be recognized? Also, does the Promise driver usually stay out of the way (vs. eating CPU cycles or crashing programs) when its drives are inactive?

There were a few comments about some layout problems. Anything that would cook cables, block heatsinks, bend capacitors, or overstretch cables in a midsize tower (Antec P160)?

Finally, I'm trying to choose between ol' reliable Newegg and Soltek-focused A&M/MISR for my purchase. I'll post this one as a separate thread.

Thanks for your help!

 

[itachi]

Originally posted by: scots
Has anyone had regular trouble contacting the official website and downloading drivers? The Taiwan site wasn't coming up for a while (reached it today) and the file download page on the German site didn't have active download links (they're now visible on the TW page). Is this unusual?

not consistently.. but occassionally it gets tough to access their taiwan site. when i was looking at mbs couple months ago i couldn't access their website for a week.. hasn't happened since though.

About the bios... Ring sent me the original one. I relflashed and the problem still remains. Is there gonna be an updated bios released any time soon??? Would the updated one fix the problems with my memory or would it just be best to try like I said and get 2 IDENTICAL sticks?

i have no idea when they're going to release a new bios.. i've been wanting to know that for quite some time now. it could be in a few days.. or in a few weeks.
if they identified that problem then it should be fixed with one of the revisions.

try forcing timings instead of using spd values.

 

[mkenney]

Hey guys,

I cannot determine if this thread is for technical support or just general discussion about the motherboard, but I am having trouble getting the promise20579 to work properly in a non-raid configuration, which is a problem scots might be concerned about. I have started a thread on the subject here:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...8566&enterthread=y

If this is the appropriate thread for technical support on the motherboard, please let me know and I will delete the above thread, edit this post, and paste in the question.

Thanks in advance!

 

[imported_Bucko]

All I can say is that I have the same results with no resolve.
Recorders will not work for me on the promise. Either.

 

[cyberknight]

Don't think I saw anyone mention this, but I was wondering if this board supports the Cool n' Quiet features of the Athlon 64.

It seems my MSI K8T Neo-FSR is dead. Gonna RMA it and I'm looking into this board. Which is convenient cuz NCIX just got these in stock on the 1st of September. (as I spent 3 days trying to figure out what was wrong with my system)

 

[krose]

Haven't tried using it, but there is an option in the BIOS for CnQ.

 

[imported_orionbg]

Hi All!

I have finaly changed my mobo (ASUS K8V Dlx) with the K8AN2E-GR! The system is a little faster now, but the CPU will not OC more than 220MHz HT! It's the CPU I presume. After all it is a ClawHammer rev C0. One problem that I had with the ASUS K8V Dlx is now gone and I think that I'll keep the Soltek.
BTW I have removed the IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) from the CPU and now according to the readings the CPU Temp will no go higher than 40C. I'll post a picture of the CPU When I get home and DL it form the Cam.
If someone knows of a BIOS that have 1,9V VDIMM please tell me!

 

[imported_orionbg]

And Here is the photo!

Athlon64 Opened!!!

Sorry for the focus but I'm with two left hands sometimes!

 

[Blammo300]

I am planning on ordering a SL-K8AN2E-GR tomorrow. I am planning on buying a stick of 512 Crucial Ballistix PC4000 2.5cl and upgrade to another stick in a couple of months. But I heard some people were having problems with the crucial ballistix when 2 dimms were used, but 1 stick works fine.

What RAM would you recommend that is PC4000 and I could upgrade later without problems?

 

[ragzilla]

Hi all, quick question for those of you running SLK-948Us on this board, looking at the photos of the board Soltek already have a bracket fitted on this board, I was wondering how the ThermalRight mounting system works out with that? Do you need to remove any brackets from the board or does it all just fit together without modification?

 

[krose]

Originally posted by: ragzilla
Hi all, quick question for those of you running SLK-948Us on this board, looking at the photos of the board Soltek already have a bracket fitted on this board, I was wondering how the ThermalRight mounting system works out with that? Do you need to remove any brackets from the board or does it all just fit together without modification?

You must use the backplate supplied with the the SLK-948U. The stock retention frame and backplate are easily removed, just take out the two screws holding the frame to the backplate.

 

[ragzilla]

Originally posted by: krose
You must use the backplate supplied with the the SLK-948U. The stock retention frame and backplate are easily removed, just take out the two screws holding the frame to the backplate.

sounds good, I was worried they did something like MSI did (dbl sided tape holding the back bracket to the board, taking a pair of pliers and a blowdrier to my brand new board doesn't sound fun )

 

[imported_Bucko]

Ring .. Ring are you here, help us getting DVD R/W's to work with Promise controllers.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have a bootable CD in the cd/dvd drive that is connected to the Promise IDE port the BIOS will be loaded. Other wise it reports no Bios loaded.

 

[overclock]

Originally posted by: Bucko
Ring .. Ring are you here, help us getting DVD R/W's to work with Promise controllers.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have a bootable CD in the cd/dvd drive that is connected to the Promise IDE port the BIOS will be loaded. Other wise it reports no Bios loaded.

It won't work. Promise controllers are for HARD drives only.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Blammo - 2x512MB Ballistix PC4000 will work fine with the Soltek until you get to high FSB speeds and then you'll have to run 2T. I think the main reason for this is the board's 2.8 VDIMM limitation. A single stick of Ballistix should be fine at high FSB and 1T. You won't see any improvements with 2x512MB running ~250MHz with relaxed timings versus running ~200MHz with tight timings, so if you get the Ballistix you'll be fine.

scots - I'm using a P160 and it's great with this board. See my sig below for specs.

juggalojaS - it's always a good idea to use matching sticks since the A64 mem controller is so picky. Your different revisions probably use different chips that don't play well together but seem to be fine by themselves. If your sticks are double-sided, that further lessens the chance of running both at the same time at higher FSB.

I wish I had some suggestions for those using the Promise controller, but I'm not using it and have it disabled.

doobie

 

[imported_Bucko]

Originally posted by: overclock

Originally posted by: Bucko
Ring .. Ring are you here, help us getting DVD R/W's to work with Promise controllers.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have a bootable CD in the cd/dvd drive that is connected to the Promise IDE port the BIOS will be loaded. Other wise it reports no Bios loaded.

It won't work. Promise controllers are for HARD drives only.

That?s strange cause I'm using it for reading CD's now. I'll try DVD's tonight.
Could you show me your source of information? I tend to believe this, because I?ve tried just about every thing except forcing aspi (mainly because I don?t know how to with the Promise)

 

[imported_Bucko]

Seem like I'm always barking up the wrong tree.
Cut /Paste: from another forum and about a different MoBo.

Re: Asus A8V Deluxe SATA not found in WIndows XP
I think you'll find that the problem is that your Plextor DVD drive is one
of the first SATA ATAPI devices to become available and (as you'll see
from page 2-25 of the A8V Deluxe manual) the Promise SATA20378 does not
support ATAPI drives (either PATA or SATA).

You can only use the SATA20378 for hard drives (PATA or SATA) - any ATAPI
devices (DVD drives, CD drives, etc) will have to be put on the other
(VIA) controller. The manual does not say that this VIA controller does
not support ATAPI devices so I presume that it should work OK on that one.


Maybe it's not backwards compatible with a Ultra66 IDE. Because promise does make an Ultra66 IDE Controller.


Forgot to add: this is why I'm trying
? Hard Disk and ATAPI Device Channel Sharing: There are several reasons why optical drives (or other ATAPI devices) should not be shared on the same channel as a fast hard disk. ATAPI allows the use of the same physical channels as IDE/ATA, but it is not the same protocol; ATAPI uses a much more complicated command structure. Opticals are also generally much slower devices than hard disks, so they can slow a hard disk down when sharing a channel. Finally, some ATAPI devices cannot deal with DMA bus mastering drivers, and will cause a problem if you try to enable bus mastering for a hard disk on a channel they are using.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd...e/conf_Performance.htm

and

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd...nf_Recommendations.htm

 

[juggalojaS]

juggalojaS - it's always a good idea to use matching sticks since the A64 mem controller is so picky. Your different revisions probably use different chips that don't play well together but seem to be fine by themselves. If your sticks are double-sided, that further lessens the chance of running both at the same time at higher FSB.

I have contacted Corsair and they have confirmed that it is the different revisions. I am gonna rma the older 1.2 revision for the newer v4.1

 

[imported_kitty]

Ring .. Ring are you here, help us getting DVD R/W's to work with Promise controllers.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have a bootable CD in the cd/dvd drive that is connected to the Promise IDE port the BIOS will be loaded. Other wise it reports no Bios loaded.[/quote]

It won't work. Promise controllers are for HARD drives only.

[/quote]


That?s strange cause I'm using it for reading CD's now. I'll try DVD's tonight.
Could you show me your source of information? I tend to believe this, because I?ve tried just about every thing except forcing aspi (mainly because I don?t know how to with the Promise)
[/quote]

As far as I know, the Promise controllers only supports HDD, not support DVD R/W'.