*** Official Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 (VIA K8T890) Thread ***

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imported_footh

Junior Member
Feb 23, 2005
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I've had a problem with this board (possibly). See this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1532512&enterthread=y

The jury is still out as to the actual cause. Although, the Soltek support staff said they've never seen anything like it and recommended that I return the board. I've sent the M-board, CPU and memory back to NewEgg to test. I'll let everyone know if it in fact was a problem with the M-board.
 

epicwave

Junior Member
Feb 27, 2005
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A replacement PowerColor X800XL finally arrived today from newegg.com.

And the result is .................................... it worked. My PC posted with it and went all the way showing the Windows XP desktop on my Samsung SyncMaster 900IFT. And not only that, it runs Half-Life2 smooothly at 1280x1024 with 4x anti-aliasing enabled.

At last, my PC has become complete. Here is the final spec.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester, Revision DH8-D0
Mother Board: Soltek SL-K890Pro-939
Main Memory: Mushkin Dual V2 LII PC3200 (2-2-2) 512MB x 2
Video Card: PowerColor X800 XL 256MB DDR3
PSU: Zalman no fan 400W
Case: Zalman TN500AF
HDD: Maxtor Diamond Max 10 SATA 300MB
DVD Drives: Pioneer DVR-108 (double layer RW), Memorex Dual-X1 (for read-only)
Sound: Realtek AC97 (built in MB)
NIC: US Robotics 10/100 Mbps (substitute for built-in network chip which does not work reliably for me)
 

thecdn

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2005
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I've recently put together my new machine and I was looking to investigate the world of overclocking, which I have never attempted before. I'm pretty competent with pc stuff in general, but very much a noob when it comes to overclocking.

At the "CPU Ratio/Voltage Control" screen, I set the CPU Ratio Control to x11, the CPU Vcore Select to 1.525 V, and the CPU Clock to 238 - based on setting I'd seen in a review. When I press F10 to save/continue the machine goes back to 200 after reboot. Am I missing a step or something?

I loaded the RedStorm2 software that came with the cd but it doesn't run, it installs but won't run. I looked on the Soltek site but the versions listed there do not support this motherboard. Did anyone get a version of that software that runs for them?

My systems specs:
SL-K890Pro-939 (Soltek)
AMD 3500+
1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Select
ATI Radeon X800 XL
Seagate sata 160gb

Any help or ideas anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

I just got a reply from soltek, after only a couple of hours :). They said this board currently does not support RedStorm2 but they are working on it. So I guess that route is out.
 

impeachbush

Banned
Feb 22, 2005
185
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DOH!!

Hopefully you didn't go too much farther than this! I started to do something similar, and luckily read up a bit more before frying everything.

First, you need to lower the 'LDT bus frequency' to at least 800mhz. This can be found under Advance Chipset Features>LDT&PCI Bus Control (in bios). If you don't lower the bus speed, it will run at 1190 instead using the 238 cpu clock. From what I've read, its not safe to run this more than what its rated, so by lowering to 800 it will equal 952mhz instead (238 x 800)/2.

You also need to set a 166mhz 'Memclock Index Value' for your memory, unless its rated at 480DDR or more. Guessing your RAM is rated 400DDR, you need to lower it it so that 166mhz x 238bus =395mhz ram speed. This setting is found under Advancd Chipset Features>DRAM Configuration (in bios).

Your Vcore may be higher than what you need. I don't know what voltage the 3500+ usually takes, but I've got a 3000+ and have the Vcore set at 1.425 and everything runs flawlessly. More volts=more heat, so use the least you can get away with while keeping it stable.

One more thing, you need to set 'Async AGP/PCI clock' AND 'Async PCIEX Clock' to ENABLED. Otherwise it will return back to its stock settings.

And yet one more thing :)0....I've edited this now 4 times in an hour)... Redstorm 2 does not work with this board. It only works with the Soltek KT8Pro, not the K890pro. Why they include it in on the boards CD is a mystery.

Good Luck
 

WraithAkaMrak

Member
Apr 23, 2003
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Does anyone know if an XP120 heatsink can be used with this board ?

I think it fits, but DIMM 1 is inaccessible. You can fill DIMM 1 before installing the XP-120, you just won't be able to access it while the XP-120 is installed. Though if you're only using 2 DIMMs, you can still run dual channel in DIMM 3 & 4.
 

thecdn

Junior Member
Feb 13, 2005
13
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Originally posted by: impeachbush
DOH!!

Hopefully you didn't go too much farther than this! I started to do something similar, and luckily read up a bit more before frying everything.
Good Luck


No, I didn't get any further than this and everything seems to working just fine since. Thanks alot for the info and I'll give it a try tonight when I get home.
 

ciborium

Junior Member
Mar 23, 2005
6
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Help needed--I also posted this in tech support but thought I might have luck in this thread as well.

I am putting together my new rig; only the second time I've done so (and last time was in 1996 so it's been a while). Full details on the system below, but I have two problems/questions:

1) The system powers up fine but the keyboard is not detected, so I can't get into the BIOS etc. Since I'm using an OS-less hard drive, obviously, this is a problem. Any troubleshooting ideas?

2) I would like to set up the drives as follows:
SATA - 80gb WD (on which I will install the OS)
IDE1 - 160gb WD (for music and other stuff)
IDE2 - DVD as master, DVD-RW as slave

But right now the system doesn't seem to detect my SATA drive--though since I can't check the BIOS I'm not sure of this. So I'm wondeirng more generally if this kind of setup is possible.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Full rig details:

Antec Sonata / 380 TruePower
Athlon 64 3200 Winchester + Zalman 7000
Soltek K890PRO-939
ATI x800xl
80gb WD sata
160gb WD ide
NEC DVD-RW
Samsung DVD
 

impeachbush

Banned
Feb 22, 2005
185
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Hmmm... What kind of keyboard? USB or PS 2? If its a usb like mine, you need to get into the bios and set it to recognize legacy usb. Hunt around for it and you will find it. But, you say you can't get into the Bios?? As soon as you power on, try hitting the delete key over and over until into the bios, if that doesnt work im not sure what to tell you (someone else?).

If using SATA, you may need to use the promise drivers found on that disk that came with the board. Bios will detect it, but windows wont, so load them when windows asks if you have any drivers you need installed during the begining of your new windows install. If you dont, and install windows, windows wont run.

 

ChineseDemocracyGNR

Senior member
Sep 11, 2004
920
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I would suggest plugging your SATA HD to the VIA controller (black connectors). You will need a floppy disk to get it recognized for Windows XP installation.

Also, don't install your IDE HD until after Windows is installed.
 

ciborium

Junior Member
Mar 23, 2005
6
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Thank you for the advice regarding the hard drives; glad at least to know it's possible.

As for the keyboard, it's a ps2 keyboard, and it was working fine earlier in the day on my old system. I hit delete like crazy but can't get into the BIOS at all, and when I am told to "press any key to restart" (after putting in a floppy with no OS) no key I press works. Weirdly, the kb lights flash when I first press a key, which I figure means that power is getting there somehow.

So somehow the system is not registering the keyboard input at all... /boggle

I am an idiot

This morning it occured to me that maybe I'd plugged the kb into the wrong connector. Of course that was the problem.

I think last night after spending 5 hours putting everything together I was so frazzled I couldn't handle thinking clearly.

Thank you for all your help--the SATA drive is formatting as I type and I'm very excited.
 

imported_footh

Junior Member
Feb 23, 2005
9
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Originally posted by: footh
I've had a problem with this board (possibly). See this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=32&threadid=1532512&enterthread=y

The jury is still out as to the actual cause. Although, the Soltek support staff said they've never seen anything like it and recommended that I return the board. I've sent the M-board, CPU and memory back to NewEgg to test. I'll let everyone know if it in fact was a problem with the M-board.

Update to my post...it was the video card all along. After waiting three weeks for the RMA, I had the same problem so I replaced the video card and everything works fine. The Motherboard is solid.
 

The Pentium Guy

Diamond Member
Jan 15, 2005
4,327
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Wow. It's been so long that I completely forgot I was the original thread starter.
Well aside from some problems, not caused by the motherboard (ex: user fault with the keyboard connector :), and graphics card problem) - I think this board is looking really great.

My friend's looking for a budget 939 board as well. I'm pretty impressed with soltek, they're doing well for being newcomers into the motherboard market. I realize that they're made by china and not taiwan (Is this why they're cheaper? Chinese vs Japaneese/Taiwaneese capacitors?), but ... taking a look at some of those ASUS A8V-E and A8N-SLI threads make me want to run like hell away.

Good job Soltek.
The only thing that's worrying me a bit is their customer support... I realize they have an employee (Lydia) who regularly posts on this forum, but I'm slightly worried about... just in case I need to RMA the board, shipping it to soltek whose offices are located who-knows-where. But then again, if I buy from newegg I woudln't have to worry about this problem as they're geenrally good with RMAs and Return policy.

By the way, I'll update the prices in my original thread. Sorry guys for not having updated in a while.

-The Pentium Guy
 

JClimbs

Junior Member
Jan 16, 2004
8
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I just bought and installed this board.
Installation was easy (though tight for my Antec 1650 case).
It's a quiet board, the only active fan on it is on the CPU (A64 3000+).
RedStorm2 does NOT work on this platform "yet". I emailed Soltek and got a prompt reply that their software engineer is working on it. Only thing that worries me is the singular noun (one software engineer!?).
I too was tossing between Chaintech's board and this one, and chose this after reading about the prodigious heat output of the Nforce chipset. While overall speed may be reduced by implementing a N/S chipset approach, integrating everything on one chip seems to create heat issues. I'll gladly sacrifice a wee bit o' speed for longevity; hopefully I've done just that. Considering that I'm upgrading from a FIC 503+ Socket 7 board, longevity is something I need!
There are a few peculiarities that I'm experiencing; though with this being such a huge upgrade (All new system, all new OS, etc.), I'm not certain where the peculiarities arise.
My new system for instance, won't/can't find my external modem if I forget to turn it on before I boot up. On my old system, running Win98SE, if I forget to turn the modem on it's no problem to do so after the fact. In this one (running WinXP), the same modem must be on before boot or I have to turn the modem on and reboot to access it.
Also, while the board package is very well supplied, there is a parallel port option that is not supplied. I would have liked that for my printer.
The only other beef is the one supplied serial COM port (for that modem) is a 15-pin male jack; my modem is a 25-pin male jack. Using an adapter close to the system port makes it impossible to access the keyboard PS2 port (the serial port is aligned vertically, so even the 15-pin's end piece gets close to the PS2 port; with a 25-pin adaptor, there's no way). Aligning this port horizontally would have avoided this problem.
Also, by default, the BIOS is set as 'non-PNP OS'...might this be a problem?
And lastly, any suggestions on overclocking? I would like to bump my 90nm 3000 up to a true 2GHz (mostly for the thrill of quadrupling my last CPU's speed ;) ); and while I've an idea of what's best, I'd love input as to your results.
I'm running Corsair ValueSelect PC3200 btw, so I can't push the mem hard, I'm sure.
TIA
 

elny3680

Member
Mar 15, 2004
70
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i just got this mobo & it looks great out of the box, havent used it yet since im still waiting on my hard drive. is it possible to update the bios without having the OS installed or having a hard drive? another question, how do you guys run the stress tests? like mem or prime95? i dont know much about the internal workings of a computer but i know enough to be able to put together one, still learning though. thanks for inputs

soltek sl-k890pro
amd 64 3000
corsair value select 2x512mb
160 seagate hd (not yet arrived)
RAIDMAX ATX-668WSP SLV 420W
evga 6600 gt (not yet arived)
 

JClimbs

Junior Member
Jan 16, 2004
8
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<WRONG:> That would I believe be a 'no'. I don't think you can update via a floppy without a HDD on this rig. I haven't tried, to be honest; the original bios works fine. </WRONG:>
Page 50 & 51, motherboard manual.
The only problem with the Soltek software is I believe the Temperatures on the Soltekhm register higher than they really are...the Smartdoc AntiBurn Shield page of the bios is always about 10 degrees C cooler than in the program. Me, I'm waiting for Redstorm2 to get functional on this board!
If anyone else knows a way to update the BIOS sans hard drive and OS, chip in here!
 

JClimbs

Junior Member
Jan 16, 2004
8
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Umm, yes, I was wrong...I've edited my original post too, to avoid screwing anyone else up.
Pages 50 & 51 in the manual.
I would be tres careful, however. Back up the old Bios if at all possible; and if something goes wrong don't turn the system off.
 

furballi

Banned
Apr 6, 2005
2,482
0
0
Hello,

I'm attempting to overclock the Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 motherboard using the AMD 64 3000 (90nm winchester core) and KingMax DDR400 SuperRam. My goal is to raise the LDT bus speed (FSB) to the target number of 250MHz thru the use of the memory divider. The memory speed will be maintained around 208MHz.

After reading the manual, I was able to locate the memory divider under the Maximum Memory Clock heading. At the 166 setting (5:6), the memory speed will be 208MHz will a FSB speed of 250MHz. The CPU speed will be 2250MHz with a 9x CPU multiplier (250 x 9).


My questions are:

1.How do I access the CPU 9x multiplier?
2.How do I increase the FSB to achieve a target of 250MHz AFTER lowering the Maximum Memory Clock to 166? Can I increase the FSB in 1MHz increment?
3.Do I need to maintain the hypertrasport speed around 1000MHz? How can I verify and configure this?
4.How do I set the RAM to SPD and 100?
5.How do I set the Vcore for the CPU?
6.How do I set the Vdimm for the RAM?

Also, can I change the login PW of this forum?

TIA,
F
 

jmat

Junior Member
Apr 6, 2005
4
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Yea,

My onboard gigabit lan doesn't work (seems to have negotiation problems... that is, if it should be 10mbs half-duplex, full-duplex... 100mbs etc) hooked up to a router or directly to a modem. I tried filling out the Soltek support form 3 or 4 times, but no one cared to respond. How unfortunate. I was going to add a sound card to my PCI slot but I have to used a cheap PCI ethernet card to connect to the internet.

Anyone else have similar problems? Or a solution. This is with the newest bios t1.1. I read that someone else in this thread had that problem, but does Soltek care? Also, someone on a different forum contacted them with the same info and they are MIA.

Bust

-- jmat
 

JClimbs

Junior Member
Jan 16, 2004
8
0
0
You can adjust the FSB in 1MHz increments
You should try to keep the Hypertransport Bus at or below 1000; ideally 1000 but don't be afraid to drop this down if you can't get stability. Basically, it's the communication speed between CPU and everything except memory.
RAM SPD is in advanced memory settings
VCore for CPU is in the BIOS, and to get where you want to go you'll probably need to bump it up a bit. But not much, the Winchester core is probably getting more than it needs at standard settings.
As for the memory's voltage, well, I'm in the dark there.
I bumped my Winchester 3000 to 2024 no problem at standard voltage, dropping Hypertransport to 800 and memory at 6:5. Booted fine, but note I did have a fatal sudden reboot about an hour into a 3D game. My temps read fine, but who knows? It may have been the OC, may have been the video card.
Even at that minor oc, I did notice performance improvement (before the crash of course!).
I'm still waiting for RedStorm2 to work with this!