Post motherboard installation problems

[genegold]

Installed this board and Athlon 64/3000 chip yesterday, followed by a clean XP install and reinstallation of applications. Afterwards, I find two problems that people on the MSI board haven't yet been able to figure out, so I'll ask here.

1) The audio isn't working, presumably because Control Panel/Sounds... doesn't show any audio hardware device(s) loaded. Shouldn't the integrated audio show something and shouldn't it have been picked up during the XP or MSI drivers installation? A pair of speakers on one cord are plugged into the middle of the three audio holes (line out, 2-13 in the manual, but tried the others). I initially installed the latest Realtek driver, but also tried the one on the CD without success. The BIOS Azalia setting is 'auto.' Not sure where to go next.

2) I've got 1 GB of memory installed and it's working ok, but Everest and Belarc Advisor both show the motherboard system memory only to be 960mb (they list all the individual modules correctly). With three DIMMs, I wasn't aiming for dual channel. The set up is currently as follows:

Slot 'DIMM0' has 512 MB (serial number SerNum0) - Kingston 'value' PC3200
Slot 'DIMM1' has 256 MB - Elixir PC2100
Slot 'DIMM2' has 256 MB - Elixir PC2100
Slot 'DIMM3' is Empty

Any suggestions about either of these? Thanks.

 

[dball3]

the memory will get truncated when you use memory with different sizes, i'm not sure how your memory is supposed to be placed, but on mine for dual channel i need to put my memory in slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. so if you place the 256 mb sticks in the same colored slots it won't be cut down to the smaller amount. For the audio, the only thing i can think of is check if there are any jumpers two switch to front panel audio, and if there is to be sure they are in the right position. and make sure that onboard audio is enabled.

 

[genegold]

Originally posted by: dball3
the memory will get truncated when you use memory with different sizes, i'm not sure how your memory is supposed to be placed, but on mine for dual channel i need to put my memory in slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. so if you place the 256 mb sticks in the same colored slots it won't be cut down to the smaller amount. For the audio, the only thing i can think of is check if there are any jumpers two switch to front panel audio, and if there is to be sure they are in the right position. and make sure that onboard audio is enabled.

Actually, it turns out the memory 'loss' had to do with the VGA frame buffer setting in BIOS. I'd been using a video card for so long this setting didn't even dawn on me.

I don't have front panel audio except for the speaker attached to the case. Those front connections (power, speaker, led, etc.) look fine per the manual. What's got me puzzled is that Windows doesn't show any video device loaded under hardware. Wouldn't the integrated unit be picked up either by the system or in loading the BIOS/Realtek drivers? The BIOS on the CD looked like it was from a year ago and I haven't flashed the most recent. The Realtek drivers, if they matter for my simple usage, are current.

Thanks.

 

[genegold]

A follow up because the problem has been found, but not the solution. I've been installing the right audio file, but installation is breaking down somewhere without saying so (I am administrator on my XP account). The installation process is supposed to put an icon (speaker?) in the system tray, an Azalia program in the Control Panel and something in Start>Programs, but it's not. In fact, in the Realtek folder most of the applications are X'd out, as is Realtek in Add/Remove Programs. Pretty strange. Any guess why this might be happening and what to do about it?