MSI K9N SLI Platinum BIOS 1.3 Released

[Bateluer]

Yesterday, MSI released the 1.3 revision for the K9N SLI lineup. I decided to upgrade to this newest BIOS from version 1.2. Not having a floppy drive and never having any issues with windows updating on any previous motherboard, I went ahead and did the online DL and windows flash.

Thats when the trouble started. First, the system rebooted, as it was supposed to. However, it failed to detect my USB and mouse. The system didn't bother to halt at the POST, and continued all the way to the XP login screen. Having no KB or mouse control, I tapped the power button on my case to trigger a shutdown. XP displayed the correct 'saving settings, windows is shutting down' screens and powered itself off. I then grabbed my PS/2 mouse and KB, unplugged the USB devices, and plugged in the PS/2 devices.

After that, I turned the system on. Nothing, no POST. The LCD went into standby and the fan on the X1900XT held at 100%, as the system does when hanging during bootup. I pushed and held in the power button to shut down the system entirely, unplugged the power cable, and pushed the mobo's CMOS reset button.

I then pushed the power button again, and watched the MSI image flash across the screen. Since the KB lights flashed, it was functioning. Then it displayed a 'CMOS Checksum error, F1 to enter setup, F2 to load defaults.' I hit F1 and entered the BIOS, I turned on the USB controllers and disabled the Floppy controller since I don't have one and don't want to waste the time at bootup searching for one. I saved and exited. The System then hung again, the LCD going into standby and 1900XT's fan idling at a near silent speed.

Pushing the power button again produced the same results, only with the 1900XT at 100% fan speed. I used the CMOS reset option again, getting the same error, and hitting F2 this time, loading the defaults.

This allowed me into windows, where everything seems to appear to function normally, sound, internet, etc. Just no USB devices. This is also the only way I can get into windows. If I restart the system, or power down from here, it will hang without POSTing, with the 1900XT at 100% fan. Numerous attempts to reflash to the 1.3 BIOS have met with the same results. Uninstalling and reinstalling MSI's Live Update 3 software, switching versions from 3.77 to 3.78 and back again, all met with the same results. In fact, trying the windows FLASH with LiveUpdate 3 3.77 won't even allow the flash, the prompt closes before the flash begins and nothing occurs.

MSI's BIOS recovery guide is useless. I do not have a floppy drive to boot from, and I can't even set it to boot from my CD, where I have a bootable CD with the necessary BIOS files to restore to the 1.2 BIOS.

At the moment, I think I'm going to run to Walmart and buy a floppy drive and some floppy disks. Something I thought I'd never have need of again.

Thank God I've got a notebook, so I still have access to the internet, email, online classes, etc.

If anyone has any advice, I'd be glad to hear it, as I'm not even sure I can boot from a floppy disk either.

 

[Bateluer]

Well, Walmart has no internal floppy drives, had to drive out to Best Buy to get an internal drive. I was able to make a restore disk and reflash to the 1.2 BIOS. No issues there, and I was able to change the cmos settings. Everything seems to be working now.

Be warned if you have an MSI K9N mobo and try to flash to the 1.3 BIOS.

 

[Broncowolf]

I also flashed to the 1.3 Bios. For me, everything went relatively smoothly, although I did get the same CMOS Checksum error. The one thing I am noticing now that doesnt work is the CoreCenter program does not recognize the CPU fan. The fan is spinning fast, but the utility reads the speed as '0'. I doubt the Cool-n-Quiet function is working now if it doesnt even see the fan...

I'm going to try to find the 1.2 BIos again and reflash back to that one. Good luck getting your problem fixed. When you went to Bios, did you readjust your memory voltage? My OCZ memory needs a boost up to 2.0V.

 

[Bateluer]

My Mushkin RAM is rated at 1.9v. The K9N Bios reset it to 1.8v for its failsafe defaults. I reset it back 1.9v and 2.0v during the course of my T/S.

I've got the files for the 1.1 and 1.2 BIOS revisions, if you want them, send me a PM.

 

[colossus]

Since this seems to be the only active K9N thread, have you guys noticed this problem?

I am using 2x1GB sticks of Kingston PC4200 (533). If I set the CPU speed to 200 (stock) the BIOS and Windows reads the memory properly as 2GB. At 210FSB it again reads it as 2GB. At 220FSB it sees it as only 1GB. In BIOS it also reports it as 1GB. This is happening with BIOS 1.0, 1.2, and 1.32

I even went out and bought some other Kingston PC4200 (stick which are double sided) to see if that solves the issue but same thing happens. Only program that sees the true 2GB is CPU-Z (can see SPD of slots 1&3)

Kinda nuts that if I try to overclock it "loses" a gig. I set HTT to 800MHz (that should be good up to 250FSB). I even boosted CPU to 0.25V and memory to 2.0V

 

[Bateluer]

Haven't seen that before. Have you run Memtest on those sticks, or tried them in another system?

 

[colossus]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Haven't seen that before. Have you run Memtest on those sticks, or tried them in another system?

Well the single sided sticks I bought from the FS/FT forums from somebody with good Heat. The double sided pair I bought new in store. They're both Kingston so maybe that's the cause. Can't seem to find anybody else with this problem.