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

[imported_Jordan]

Well I registered on the board specifically to tell you guys how this board is working for me. I've had it for a few weeks now, and its been very stable. No problems whatsoever installing the board and getting my system up and running. Here are my specs...

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester
Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 (VIA K8T890)
Corsair Value Select Dual Channel 1024MB PC3200
BFG GeForce 6600GT OC PCI-E 128MB
OCZ Powerstream 520W PSU

(I have the CPU-Z screen showing my overclocking results. How do you post pics?)

I managed to overclock my cpu to 2250 MHz by using a 9x multiplier, a 5/6 memory divider, setting LDT to 800 MHz (4x), setting HTT to 250 MHz, and raising Vcore to 1.500V (not even sure I need it that high). Pretty decent for my very first overclock. I bettered my goal of 3500+ speeds anyway, and could probably go higher if I had some better RAM.

Overall I have been very happy with this board. Absolutely no problems so far (knock on wood), and I got a modest 25% overclock very easily. One minor annoyance (not problem) I have with this board. In my Antec Super Lanboy, I have to keep the third CD/DVD bay empty because of the position of the power connector. Other than that I love it.

 

[JClimbs]

Same here, so far so good.
I oc'd easily without upping vcore to 2024MHz, ran stabily for hours, but did crash during a game. No telling if it was the OC or not caused it.
The one thing that does seem to happen, which may be a BIOS issue or maybe an OS issue: overfilling the keyboard or mouse buffer seems to cause problems. This is another one of those "don't know if this is the cause, but..." things. I'm not oc'ing anymore (although I noticed an increase in performance, it wasn't enough to warrant it if it wears out the equipment faster), so that isn't the problem, and I noticed it before my one short oc session.
I wrote Soltek and got a quick response to my questions, although (bummer!) my question had to do with RedStorm2's availability for this board.
Compared to my old FIC 503+ w/K6-2 500, it's fast, stable, and fun.

 

[elny3680]

i hope someone can answer this...on my old abit mobo i used coolmon with motherboard monitor to check on case, cpu temps and fan speeds but with this soltek mobo, mbm doesnt support it and coolmon works in conjunction with mbm...at least i think it does...anyway my question is if there is a software or program out there that can monitor these things easily.

so far the gigabit lan works but for some reason takes a while to sync up with my router and when its connected, it shows a 10mb connection, other computers and/or network cards show a 100mb connection but maybe i am reading it wrong since i am stiill new at this...ive done the 2 bios updates & still havent had a problem. i only did the bios update after getting my parts since i didnt want to take the chance of a dead board because of my stupidity...anyway this is almost the same set up as jordan's:

amd 64 3000 winnie
soltek sl-k890pro-939
bfg 6600 gt oc
corsair value select 2x512mb
default psu on a raidmax case of which i cannot recall off the top of my head

 

[thecdn]

I've tried using impeachbush's oc'ing advice from the previous page. It will seem to work great for awhile then the vcore will reset itself back to default. The other settings will remain the same, so the computer craps out and I have to go back in to the bios and put the vcore back up.

Is there some further option I need to change to keep the vcore from changing on it's own? As before, any ideas are appreciated.

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

 

[elny3680]

anyone use any progs to get the temp readings & cpu & memory usage stats? i use to use coolmon & motherboard monitor on my abit but they dont work properly with this soltek mobo...plus the bios readings only show when its in idle, as far as i know there is no way to look at the bios when the computer is fully booted & running...also id like to be able to find the temp readings for my vidoe card if that is possible

 

[cpush]

guys with this board paired with an x800xl, run into any power issues yet? Just curious as this board only has a 20 pin connector on it

 

[thecdn]

The board has one 20 pin and one 4 pin power connectors. I've had no power issues with the x800 xl yet. Runs very nicely.

 

[Chronotis]

Sound Problem with Linksys Dual-Band A+G PCI Wireless Adapter

Thought I would alert everybody to a problem I was having with this motherboard. When ever I would play sound it would slow down the speed of the sound or music and then it would speed up and make sounds like it was skiping digital noise is the best way to describe it. I got a new Hawking Wireless G PCI card with a external Antenna. That seems to have fixed the sound. The problem was with my Dual-Band Wireless A+G pci adapter from Linksys that was causing interference with my onboard sound and a Fortissmo sound I use for testing.

I had some old Mushkin ram I thought was the culprit because the computer wouldn't start up in auto mode it would just hand with the DMI pool. I changed Trrp and Case setting to get it working. I thought that maybe the fudged sound was a result of the memory. It wasn't. Just thought I would post on this just in case anybody out there has had similar problems. Strangest problem I've dealt with since I started building computers ten years ago.

 

[Chronotis]

What 1T/2T Memory timing do you have it set on?

 

[thecdn]

Um, who are you asking the question to?

 

[Chronotis]

I hate to ask this but I am trying to set my memory timings for a new system.
Here is my setup

AMD 64 3000+
Soltek SL-K890Pro-939 Motherboard (latest BIOS)
2x512MB Corsair Valueselect DDR400 (detects as 3-3-3-8)

I read that a command rate of T1 matters a lot of difference on a Athlon 64, but the auto setting is T2. There are also other settings I don't understand. I've gone everywhere and can't seem to get any answers to what timings would be best for my system. I am not overclocking. I would really appreciate it if anybody could help me set each of the individual settings in my bios. I am new to building my own computer and am confused. From reading around I know that when somebody says (2.5-3-3-8) they mean CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRas. But there are several other settings on my motherboard I don't have a clue to.

I need to know how to set each of these using my 2x512MB Corsair Valueselect DDR400 memory.

CAS# latency = what value 2.5 or 3 like CPU-z detects as my SPD setting?

Tras= Should I have this set on 8??

Trcd=? now this is a setting that I am not familiar with what do I set this to?

Trc= ? Another setting I have no idea on what to set to

Trfc= What is this and what does it need to be set to?

It says in the bios 1T/2T Memory Timing can I set this to T1 ? Is this the command rate setting? Should I set this to T1, or go with the default T2?

Then it says Read Preamble value= 6ns is this the right setting for my ram or should I change it?

Async Latency value= 6ns what should this be at?

I have the DIMM voltage set at default which I think is 2.5v do I keep it that way or up it to 2.6V?

I know these may seem like stupid questions, but if anybody could help me I would really appreciate it! I've only gotten partial answers thus far from other sites.

Thanks in advance!

Tim Jenson

 

[PSYLOCKE]

Hey do any of you k890pro owners happen to have the original bios that came with the board saved ?

 

[3Aims]

I've been happy with this board for the most part. I think the monitoring software is useless, but I'm hoping the RedStorm program is tweaked for this board. Here is my rig:

Soltek K890
3500+ Venice @ 10x250
Sapphire X800 @ 415/472
Mushkin Basic PC3200 2x512
WD Raptor 74 gig
Antec 430 PS

This setup gives me 24k in 01, 10k in 03, and 5k in 05.

 

[elny3680]

my soltek is running pretty well...no major issues...

my only gripe is the onboard lan...it seems to connect really slowly & when it does connect, i get a 10mbs connection message instead of the usual 100mbs connection message. although the internet does not seem slower than if it were at the 100mbs connection message. the hardware monitor does suck though...i still cant find a way to find the cpu temps, case temps & video card temps...coolmon & motherboard monitor used to do this but motherboard monitor doesnt support this mobo.

 

[timecop67]

Can't get my Soltek motherboard to properly detect my floppy drive to update the bios.
Yes the floppy cable is good and drive is good because I switched drive
and cable into a known good system. So I've had a pair of drives in there now that work fine in my intel system. Anyone have any ideas? Beginning to sound like a motherboard floppy controller problem to me.

 

[vailr]

As a workaround, I'd suggest using a bootable USB thumbdrive, to perform the bios flash.

 

[timecop67]

Soltek said to RMA the board which I am now doing. I'm using the Retail heatsink with my Venice. Can I reuse the thermal pad when I get the heatsink off or is the thermal pad pretty much toast? If so can I reapply another or is it better to go with Artic silver or will it void any warranties.

Looked into this and any use of Artic Silver will void warranty. I am going to just reuse the pad.... it is still in pretty good shape after removing the heatsink.

 

[silverpig]

What kind of fsbs are you guys getting? I'm talking max fsb here.

 

[timecop67]

How many have loaded in the Raid drivers at the F6 prompt for a single sata drive installation on Windows XP? (The drivers on Solteks website.) It wouldn't let me load in any drivers at the F6 prompt... I guess because I didn't have Raid selected in the Bios setup. My Windows XP loaded okay and everything seemed to run normal. Are the raid drivers even needed in single Sata drive installations? I get conflicting reports some say I need them and others say I don't. It just detected my single Sata drive on a IDE channel.

Also are any of the VIA chipset drivers needed from Solteks website? What about the one linked to the Via Site? I am assuming the ones that originally come with Windows XP need to be updated for the 8237 Via chipset.

 

[timecop67]

Looks like no raid drivers are needed here according to Soltek. Here is what I got back from the Soltek engineers:

The K890Pro-939 allows you to install WinXP into a SATA HDD without applying "VIA 8237 RAID Controller driver".
Please follow the steps below to install it.

1>Connect a SATA HDD with ATA1 Port based on VIA 8237 SATA controller.
2> Check if the IDE device and SATA HDD are detected
3> Enter BIOS setup to set as follows :
Integrated Peripherals --> VIA Onchip IDE Device --> Onchip SATA [Enabled]
--> SATA Mode [IDE]
Advanced BIOS Features --> First Boot Device --> CD-ROM
4> Install WinXP.


Does anyone know anything about the Via Chipset drivers maybe nothing else needs to be installed don't know?

 

[Guru4hire]

As some of you are aware, people quote 280mhz as the top end of the FSB. I havent been able to get over 250.

Just so everyone knows.

Dont know if this is one of the things covered in the new bios patches

Also It seems that I have this irritating -.07 where -5 shoul be. Again could be something in the new bios, or it could be the power supply. Just posting my results.

 

[Whateva]

Hey it appears that all bios updates after the first one drops the cpu voltage from max 1.7 to max 1.55. I can boot into windows at 9x278 fsb but it is not stable cuz i need more vcore. will not even post at 9x 280 though. Do any of you have the original bios? Soltek has taken it down off of their site. It is the k8909390.bin bios that I'm looking for will pay for it. Thank You.