My story: (apologies for the length, and thanks if you bear with me)
Before christmas, a friend and I assembled two nearly identical computers based on the following config:
-tbird 750
-msi k7t pro 2a
-256MB generic pc133
-asus v7700 (gf2 gts)
-ibm deskstar 75gxp 45GB
-etc
Originally, i had planned to use the Abit KT7, but being on a tight budget, I opted for the MSI board. It was cheaper, had multiplier and fsb control, and had a great review from anandtech, being given the editors choice award and all.
I felt comfortable spending money on this, and recommending it to a friend as well.
Then came the problems.
A few days after getting it, the machine wouldn't power up. It would make a bizzare noise from the internal speaker, and nothing would come up on the display. Then it got worse, it just shut down after three seconds of being on. I took it back, they replaced the power supply (it was already 300W, they just added a different 300W supply), and it worked fine.
I always liked to set my display to turn off after 20 minutes. Sometimes the display wouldn't turn back on after a night in off mode. This didn't bother me, I just went without the convenience of power management.
I tried overclocking using the fsb, the board wouldn't even boot at 105. I know the KT133 was an extremely stubborn chipset in terms of overclocking, but to not see anything on the screen at 105 struck me as odd. Again, I disregarded this, and went without it.
Sometimes the machine wouldnt boot if I turned it off and back on again too fast. If it doesn't work, don't do it, so I thought.
I decided to overclock the chip using the multiplier. I probably got a stubborn chip, because it wouldnt make it past 900, and even at this speed, it required the core voltage to be set at the highest the bios offered, which was 1.85. Curiously, the onboard voltage monitoring showed the it as 1.89. Again, this didn't bother me.
Before I even overclocked, the machine would blue-screen regularly when playing any type of video using any program in win98. This bothered me a lot, but again, I didn't blame the hardware. I decided to install win2k, which actually fixed the problem. I couldn't explain it, but I didn't care, so long as my movies worked. While partitioning the drive using partitionmagic, i had the pleasure of losing all my data. I was asleep at the time, I'll never know what caused it... I just found the machine rebooted with a corrupt file system when I woke up.
At 900, the machine would sometimes spontaneously reboot when I was still using win98. So I kept it at 850. When I installed win2k, I tried 900 again, and it was stable for a few weeks. Then, today, it rebooted spontaneously after starting GLQuake. In order to get the machine to even boot, I had to clear the BIOS. I set it to 850 now, and went back to playing GLQuake in win2k. Half an hour later, reboot. Clear BIOS. 850 again, typing the beginning of this post, machine reboots.
These reboots are a bit strange though. Display goes dead, hard drive light is on, but hard drive makes no noise, i hear a wierd high pitched whine sometimes, and the diagnostic LEDs show something different every time.
Now I'm typing this at 750 and so far it's OK, but who knows what this damn motherboard will throw my way next.
I'm reasonably sure I didn't do anything extreme in overclocking. 750 to 900 is hardly a large jump, especially at a high enough voltage.
My friend, with the nearly identical machine, had similar problems, only much worse. His machine crashes regularly and for no reason, and it is not overclocked. His CD writer, a plextor, will not even work.
Anandtech recently had some of their K7T Pro boards fail for no reason, with similar symptoms as my board. Like those that failed, mine is also operational 24/7. Anand also managed to duplicate these types of flaws in a newer MSI board, so it seems to me that MSI has a flaw in their entire line of Athlon boards.
I'm disturbed at the lack of attention this fault has received. The hardware community seems to have the opinion that the board is obsolete, as it is only a kt133, and as such, any problems that arise from its use are irrelevant. This is a nice attitude to take, if you happen to have the cash to replace your board every two months.
I'm sure a lot of people have had similar experiences, so please comment. I would love to hear similar stories. Perhaps these boards should be recalled.
Before christmas, a friend and I assembled two nearly identical computers based on the following config:
-tbird 750
-msi k7t pro 2a
-256MB generic pc133
-asus v7700 (gf2 gts)
-ibm deskstar 75gxp 45GB
-etc
Originally, i had planned to use the Abit KT7, but being on a tight budget, I opted for the MSI board. It was cheaper, had multiplier and fsb control, and had a great review from anandtech, being given the editors choice award and all.
I felt comfortable spending money on this, and recommending it to a friend as well.
Then came the problems.
A few days after getting it, the machine wouldn't power up. It would make a bizzare noise from the internal speaker, and nothing would come up on the display. Then it got worse, it just shut down after three seconds of being on. I took it back, they replaced the power supply (it was already 300W, they just added a different 300W supply), and it worked fine.
I always liked to set my display to turn off after 20 minutes. Sometimes the display wouldn't turn back on after a night in off mode. This didn't bother me, I just went without the convenience of power management.
I tried overclocking using the fsb, the board wouldn't even boot at 105. I know the KT133 was an extremely stubborn chipset in terms of overclocking, but to not see anything on the screen at 105 struck me as odd. Again, I disregarded this, and went without it.
Sometimes the machine wouldnt boot if I turned it off and back on again too fast. If it doesn't work, don't do it, so I thought.
I decided to overclock the chip using the multiplier. I probably got a stubborn chip, because it wouldnt make it past 900, and even at this speed, it required the core voltage to be set at the highest the bios offered, which was 1.85. Curiously, the onboard voltage monitoring showed the it as 1.89. Again, this didn't bother me.
Before I even overclocked, the machine would blue-screen regularly when playing any type of video using any program in win98. This bothered me a lot, but again, I didn't blame the hardware. I decided to install win2k, which actually fixed the problem. I couldn't explain it, but I didn't care, so long as my movies worked. While partitioning the drive using partitionmagic, i had the pleasure of losing all my data. I was asleep at the time, I'll never know what caused it... I just found the machine rebooted with a corrupt file system when I woke up.
At 900, the machine would sometimes spontaneously reboot when I was still using win98. So I kept it at 850. When I installed win2k, I tried 900 again, and it was stable for a few weeks. Then, today, it rebooted spontaneously after starting GLQuake. In order to get the machine to even boot, I had to clear the BIOS. I set it to 850 now, and went back to playing GLQuake in win2k. Half an hour later, reboot. Clear BIOS. 850 again, typing the beginning of this post, machine reboots.
These reboots are a bit strange though. Display goes dead, hard drive light is on, but hard drive makes no noise, i hear a wierd high pitched whine sometimes, and the diagnostic LEDs show something different every time.
Now I'm typing this at 750 and so far it's OK, but who knows what this damn motherboard will throw my way next.
I'm reasonably sure I didn't do anything extreme in overclocking. 750 to 900 is hardly a large jump, especially at a high enough voltage.
My friend, with the nearly identical machine, had similar problems, only much worse. His machine crashes regularly and for no reason, and it is not overclocked. His CD writer, a plextor, will not even work.
Anandtech recently had some of their K7T Pro boards fail for no reason, with similar symptoms as my board. Like those that failed, mine is also operational 24/7. Anand also managed to duplicate these types of flaws in a newer MSI board, so it seems to me that MSI has a flaw in their entire line of Athlon boards.
I'm disturbed at the lack of attention this fault has received. The hardware community seems to have the opinion that the board is obsolete, as it is only a kt133, and as such, any problems that arise from its use are irrelevant. This is a nice attitude to take, if you happen to have the cash to replace your board every two months.
I'm sure a lot of people have had similar experiences, so please comment. I would love to hear similar stories. Perhaps these boards should be recalled.