MSI 745 Ultra problems

[rogue1979]

I bought two of these boards, originally motivated to have absolutley no Via anywhere on my my motherboard. Though, I must say my old Epox 8K7A with a Via southbridge was on of the most stable, compatible motherboards I have ever used. Sad to say when I removed it from my case I broke off the I/O voltage mod and messed a voltage regulator.... Dead! Anyhow the MSI 745 Ultra boards are picky as hell, how ironic. I tried three different sound cards and couldn't get any of them to work properly, had to use onboard sound. I couldn't get a Logitech Extreme 3D Digital or a Top Gun Fox 2 Pro to work either, although my ancient Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro works fine. The bios setting for cas 2 won't allow me to boot any of three different sticks of Ram at anything above 133MHz although they all ran Cas 2 160MHz on my 8K7A, one of them being a Samsung original PC2700. I had to reformat twice to get Internet Connection Sharing to work properly.
I have both boards running nicely now, one at 143MHz (memory limited) and one at 171MHz. They are stable and fast if you can get everything working, but I cringe at the thought of changing components. I switched video cards and came up with a IRQ mess and had to reformat again. The 761 chipset allowed me to change anything anytime I wanted and worked perfectly. I don't know if I should blame MSI or the 745 chipset for this crap, but it is a lesson learned for me. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! That's my motto and anyone considering this motherboard beware.

 

[yodayoda]

here is some advice to help out with stability:

I had to reformat twice to get Internet Connection Sharing to work properly.

get a router

switched video cards and came up with a IRQ mess and had to reformat again.

don't disable ACPI. before you remove a video card, go to add/remove hardware and remove the video card. then power down and replace the video card. don't ever use ATI crap.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

truest statement i have heard today

 

[WetWilly]

You're the first person I've seen with that many problems with a 745 Ultra. Over at OCWorkbench the only real issue is booting from SCSI/RAID controllers, and that one's usually fixed by either a SCSI card BIOS flash or some 745 BIOS adjustments. In fact, when I went from an Abit KT7 to the 745 Ultra I didn't even reinstall Win98. No problems at all. BTW, which 745 Ultra BIOS version and what version of Windows are you using?

I tried three different sound cards and couldn't get any of them to work properly

That's REALLY odd. The 735/745 are better at compatibility than VIA boards. I've got a Diamond MX300/Aureal Vortex 2 card that required WPCRSET register patches to function on my old VIA board; it works perfectly on the 745 Ultra. What cards were you trying to use?

The bios setting for cas 2 won't allow me to boot any of three different sticks of Ram at anything above 133MHz

High end for CAS2 on the 745 Ultra seems to be ~150-155MHz. CAS2 seems to require lots of voltage to work - more than the 2.8v Vmem the 745 Ultra can supply. CAS2 doesn't seem to do a whole lot for performance on the 745 anyways.

one of them being a Samsung original PC2700

The 745 Ultra LOVES Crucial PC2100. I'm running my 745 Ultra at 1806MHz (9.5x190MHz) with a 256MB stick of Crucial PC2100 (and a Vcore voltage mod). Over at OCWorkbench, people with Crucial PC2100 seem to be getting overclocks as good as or better than PC2700.

They are stable and fast if you can get everything working, but I cringe at the thought of changing components. I switched video cards and came up with a IRQ mess and had to reformat again

Definitely agree with the stable and fast part. As for the other stuff, what yodayoda said. I haven't had that problem either. How did you set ACPI and the APIC BIOS options?

The 761 chipset allowed me to change anything anytime I wanted and worked perfectly

I've had no problems as long as I followed universal rules, e.g. don't put a resource hog in PCI slot 1 since it shares its IRQ with the AGP slot.

That's my motto and anyone considering this motherboard beware.

Like I said earlier, your experience is definitely the exception and not the rule. Either you got two bad boards or something else is going on - problems with sound cards, joysticks, ICS, video cards - that's WAY more than any 745 Ultra report I've seen or read.

 

[rogue1979]

Maybe it's just bad luck, I am not sure. But before I change any video card I go to standard display adapter first. Then add/remove programs for the driver, then delete any folders and any registry entries. Then I use find to remove any Ati, NV or 3dfx files. I then use Nortons Windoctor to smooth thing over and only then install the new video card and driver. I don't see why I need a router to have two computers lanned together to play games and share an internet connection. Thanks for the input though, everything is OK for now, but I miss my Top Gun Fox Pro 2 and my Diamond Monster Sound M80. The DSP sound engine is utilized by both the M80 and MX200, later Diamond sound cards use a different chipset and it just doesn't compare to the sound quality of the DSP.

 

[rogue1979]

I just had a thought.... I am still using WIN98 SE, is it possible everybody else having good results is using WIN XP? I haven't had any reason to upgrade yet, but I know that one day I will be forced to, I wonder if that's now?

 

[WetWilly]

The DSP sound engine is utilized by both the M80 and MX200, later Diamond sound cards use a different chipset and it just doesn't compare to the sound quality of the DSP.

If you're talking about the ESS-based MX400, S100, etc., I'd agree. The MX300, I wouldn't. The MX300's Vortex2 is the only chip that supports true A3D 2.0 (incredible if you can use it and still unbeaten - even Creative admits EAX 2.0 doesn't match A3D 2.0) The Vortex2 also had slightly better S/N specs than the Freedom 5600 DSP/Dream combo on the MX200. The MX200 did have better MIDI because of the daughterboard with the Roland 4MB sample set. I ended up going with a Korg 4MB sample set instead via a daughterboard I slapped on my MX300. In fact, one reason I went with SiS was that VIA chipsets don't like Vortex 2s.

I am still using WIN98 SE, is it possible everybody else having good results is using WIN XP?

I'm still using Win98 First Edition that's been patched to death. Most other people seem to be using it with XP.