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Help - MSI K8N Neo 2 + 3200 Venice

gregog

Junior Member
I recently purchased an MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum motherboard. After several weeks of waiting, I was finally able to pick up a Venice 3200+ this weekend.

Upon trying to power it up, nothing happens. All the fans and everything turn on, but nothing comes on the screen. The little diagnostic lights that come with the motherboard show 4 red, which apparently means an CPU problem. As this is a brand new CPU right out of the box, I'm skeptical that anything would be wrong with it.

I've heard that the K8N needs a bios update to operate properly with the Venice chips. Could this be the problem? Is this the type of behavior that it would be likely to exhibit if that was the case?
If so, how am I supposed to go about updating the bios when I can't even get the thing to turn on?
If not, any other thouhts as to what the problem could be?
 
1. Bios
2. Video Card
3. Memory

The Bios should be upgraded to the version that supports venice unforunately for you you need it upgraded before you installed Venice. This means that you need a older core.

Video card might be bad or not properly seated.

Memory might be bad or not seated properly.
 
Originally posted by: gregog
I recently purchased an MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum motherboard. After several weeks of waiting, I was finally able to pick up a Venice 3200+ this weekend.

Upon trying to power it up, nothing happens. All the fans and everything turn on, but nothing comes on the screen. The little diagnostic lights that come with the motherboard show 4 red, which apparently means an CPU problem. As this is a brand new CPU right out of the box, I'm skeptical that anything would be wrong with it.

I've heard that the K8N needs a bios update to operate properly with the Venice chips. Could this be the problem? Is this the type of behavior that it would be likely to exhibit if that was the case?
If so, how am I supposed to go about updating the bios when I can't even get the thing to turn on?
If not, any other thouhts as to what the problem could be?


Its is most definitely the BIOS rev that you have in there, when did you purchase the mobo. When i purchased mine the winchester was not even properly supported, the problem was that it did not support dual channel (the BIOS rev that is), the solution was to boot with one stick of mem, and then flash the BIOS to the latest one, i was lucky at the time to have old mem from my older PC as the bios did not support TCCD). Post the full system specs and include when you had purchased the mobo? As the current BIOS's at the moment does support the Venice.

I would say that you should try and boot with one stick of mem in slot 1, and if this does not work then you might be able to ask the place that you bought the mobo from whether they will flash the BIOS for you. I know when i had heard of this i rang up the place that i bought it from and they said that if it did not work then they would take it back and flash the BIOS for me.

I hope this works out ok for you because this can be a pain, i know 😉..

RichUK
 
I guess my main question is, is this the type of behavior you'd expect if the bios doesn't support the chip?
Not turning on, 4 red lights.
 
im not to sure bout the four red lights ... you mention that you have a MSI K8N Neo2 plat .. i have one aswell and am not aware of a 4 red light joby .. anyways apart from that i would say yes to a certain extent, lik i said try 1 stick of RAM
 
Yeah, I've tried 1 stick of ram. Also tried a different vid card. Same problem.
I'm just a little confused because I've never seen this problem before, where nothing even comes up on the screen.
 
No, but I figure if worst comes to worst I can go buy one then return it.
Just want to be very sure that's the problem before I do so.
 
can you try different RAM, like i said before if you bought it from a small retailer then there is the possibility that it is an old mobo with like 1.2 BIOS on there ... try some different RAM in there older the better preferably .. if not try and RMA the board it could be faulty .. also what power supply are you using not a crappy one that comes with some cases?
 
Tried some old ram, still no luck. Power suppy should be fine, it's a 475w Thermaltake that's been running in my old system with no problems.
 
perhaps you can try and RMA, as it might be a fault with the mobo, if you don't here any beeps on the POST this would most of the time indicate a problem with the CPU ...

Hmm i cant think of much else at the mo that could be causing it .. assuming you can confidently build a PC that is..

The main things that is checked in the POST is the CPU, GFX and RAM and that is it .. so you have tried a different CPU so that goes out the picture, you have tried 1 stick of old and current RAM, and you have tried two different GFX cards, and still the problem persists .. it looks like you have tried eliminate the problem and the mobo is the only one left .. i would try and RMA the mobo or exchange it for a new one which ever you can do see if that solves the problem.
 
Ok, everything sorted out....sortof. Just thought I'd give an update and thanks for all your help.l

I went and purchased a Winny earlier today to see if that would fix the problem. Figured I could just return it, or worst case throw it into my other system. No big deal. Well, the system wouldn't start with that CPU either, so I returned it to the store.
Rather, I should say I *tried* to return it. When they were checking it over, the found that the serial # on the box didn't match the # on the CPU. To make matters worse, there's a broken pin on it. (I noticed when I was putting it in, but I figured it was just an empty pin spot and not broken).
So now these guys at the store think I'm trying to pull a fast one on them and that I switched the CPU in the box for a busted one. They wouldn't take it back. I guess someone before me pulled a quick switch and returned a bad CPU to them uncaught. I was lucky enough to inherit the problem.
I've got to talk to their head office tomorrow and hopefully sort things out. (not open on sunday). If they won't take it back, I'm going to be mighty pissed, I'm not sure what my recourse would be at that point.

Anyway, the good news is I got them to flash my bios for me and now I'm up and running.
 
Oh crap... 🙁

I have a MSI K8N NEO2 PLATINUM en route, along with a Venice 3200+

This is gonna make me incredibly mad if i have to somehow update the bios with an older 939 CPU before using the new CPU, especially since i bought this online :|
 
Oh man that sucks...since I have a s754 ima have to sell it in order to upgrade to an Ultra-D and 3500 Venice, I wont have an extra s939 cpu in order to update bios...i feel you gregog, it sucks
 
Gregog - if you paid with a credit card, consider contacting them to do a "chargeback" if they continue to refuse to help you. Try and find out the store's policy on reselling previously returned items. If they admit to doing this, you have a shot.

N7, fear not. I just purchased that exact combo and it's working GREAT! I'm using Corsair Twinx1024-3200C2 ram.

🙂
 
Yeah, i got mine put together a week ago with zero issues regarding the bios/Venice cores.
 
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