Problems powering on cold w/MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

[therealmeal]

This is a cross-post, it probably didn't belong in the mobo forum, sorry.

I recently got a new system without a video card. I slapped my GF 6800GT in there right away, powered it on, and ... nothing. Well, not nothing -- the fans and HDs spooled up, and the front green LED (power) turned on, and the red one was blinking slowly. I wasn't sure if the video cables were loose, or the video card wasn't in tightly, so I fiddled around with things and tried again. A few attempts later, everything came on, so I installed windows and whatever. The next day, I went to turn it on in the AM, and the same thing happened. I turned it off (holding down the soft power switch) and back on, and it powered up fine. Same problem this morning.

When it boots up successfully on the second attempt, a message from the BIOS mentions something about disabling my OC settings (of which I've set none aside from setting my RAM timings from AUTO to explicitly what the spd timings are) and booting in "Safe Mode".

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Here's the system breakdown:

480W Thermaltake PS
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
Corsair 3200 DDR400 twinX 2x512MB
(which I read does not work with this board, but I have no problems other than the first power on)
Athlon64 3500+ (939 pin, 130nm)
Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
SATA HD, DVD*RW

Any theories?

 

[spunducky]

try flashing to the new bios maybe i dunno i had a problem like that too i think the board is buggy myself i still got my fx55 oced to 2970 275 x 11 so its a good overclocker but quirky ill say

 

[therealmeal]

Supposedly they flashed "the latest" bios on it, but I forgot to check the number before I left for work (I'd guess 1.3 or 1.36/7). I doubt 1.4 is on it, which came out since they shipped I believe. I'll give that a try, as well as using my old Geforce 4400Ti as a test. The problem is that it only happens once and then I have to have it off for at least 30 mins (or more, not sure) before I can repro it.

 

[therealmeal]

I'm reading others are having problems with this same scenario. Supposedly the 1.41beta bios (not on msi's website from what I can see so far?) "fixes" this problem, at least for them. FYI, the symptoms for some are:

1. SATA drives not recognized
2. USB devices not recognized/powered until unplugged and put back in
3. The same as mine, above

I've actually seen something like #1 after soft boots, and it took a hard reset to fix it (which I've read from others). What a POS this mobo is.

 

[XRaider]

I agree to some point. I'm having quirky probs too. Random reboots.. Fuqqin pissing me off!!!!
Also, my Mitsumi USB/Floppy 7 in 1 Media card reader stopped showing up in My computer / Explorer. I've formatted and reinstalled twice, no luck. They were there the first time, but it seemed like after I installed all of the Windows Updates it went away. I first thought SP2 for XP was the issue.... So that's when I reformatted my drive and installed all of the critical updates for XP SP1 - still no luck.!
Got my board from Monarch Computer b4 Thanksgiving if that means anything.
My sys specs are:
AMD 3200+ 939 .90nm
MSI K8N Neo2 1.3 bios
1gig OCZ Plat. Rev 2
1x 74gig Raptor on SATA 3 conn.
420w Enermax EG425P-VE-SFMA
SB Audigy2 ZS
Nvidia 5.10 board drivers

One thing that gets me is that my 12v rail is always bouncing around 11.85 - .92 ?!
Has anyone else experienced any of these issues and if so what drivers and BIOS did you use?

 

[therealmeal]

Originally posted by: XRaider
I agree to some point. I'm having quirky probs too. Random reboots.. Fuqqin pissing me off!!!!

I had a bad BSOD a couple days after running at least 8+ hrs of prime95 with it overclocked to a whopping 216mhz (sarcasm). I couldn't get the machine to boot without either hanging during POST or verifying dpmi settings, and then it eventually settled down and was just a disk problem that was solved by unplugging the SATA HD and plugging it back in. Go figure. Now it works fine, and I"m leaving it at 200mhz until I talk to the monarch people to see if i can rma the board for the asus equivalent.

I tried BIOS 1.4B1mod, and that doesn't fix the cold boot problems for me. I'm using a PS/2 mouse/kbd, and there's no way I'm changing to crappy USB.

Also, my Mitsumi USB/Floppy 7 in 1 Media card reader stopped showing up in My computer / Explorer. I've formatted and reinstalled twice, no luck.

I'm *sure* you've tried unplugging it and sticking it back in, right? I've heard the USB controller is junk and that can "fix" it until you power off again.

1x 74gig Raptor on SATA 3 conn.

Any reason it's on SATA3?

One thing that gets me is that my 12v rail is always bouncing around 11.85 - .92 ?!

Do you mean 11.85-11.92? or .92? I get great CPU/system fan/temp readings that go from 8000RPM -> 0 -> 8000RPM on different refreshes. And the BIOS still hangs (w/1.4b1) when reading the temps/voltages.

Have I mentioned that I hate this board yet?

 

[therealmeal]

Anyone have any other ideas? Anyone use the v1.5 BIOS that I've seen?

 

[diasjp]

Im also having problems with my K8N Neo Plat

- had it for a month
- raid doesnt show up sometimes on boot or takes forever..

- NOW, my usb doesnt work just finished encoding a movie .. and went to open nvidia system utility
and my mouse froze, restarted the machine and .. no more usb .. i tried everything .. diff mouses games pads all the ports even the dbracket,
- reseting bios
-flashing 1.4 no luck
- even reformatiing my machine..
- i was pretty happy with the performance until now
- was an asus guy and asus isnt looking so bad right now

 

[therealmeal]

I case anyone is searching later, here's what happened:

RMA the old motherboard. New one powers on cold with no problems.

Yay.

 

[glanglitz]

I have had nothing but trouble with this board as well. I had to RMA 2 of these boards and my third is already a HUGE issue. All have been defective in one or more ways. The first one I was able to get a replacement in the week I owned it; the second wasn?t so easy. The one I have now, I can?t even get a reply from them, and it?s been 3 weeks! It?s as if they are ignoring my requests.

That being said, MSI Customer service/ RMA is HORRID! The second Neo 2 Platinum I sent back to them (because 31 days had lapsed since I owned it - it fell back on the manufacturer and not vendor) it took me a week to get a response from their online help form. It took 5 WEEKS to get my board back!!!!!!!!

My issues that continue to plague this POS?

1. USB is sporadic. Sometimes it works, most it doesn't. In half the instances, I need to unplug the device and replug, the other 50% I need to reboot.

2. No Ac'97 Realtek sound. I went through every possible correction both hardware and software. No drivers supported what I was trying to do even when it did work. Forget Half-Life 2 because there is only a center channel to hear from. I ended up buying a SB Audigy 2 gamer, but shouldn?t have had to. The board markets that it has 7.1 sound and charges a premium for it.

3. NVIDIA Ethernet drivers are quirky. I have had to reboot and even repair/release/renew on numerous occasions to get the onboard jack to work. Thankfully Realtek?s Ethernet still works. Otherwise, I would need another PCI device.

4. Boot issues and hang ups.

I have pretty much given up on MSI RMA and customer service as they don?t reply. Even if they do, I can?t afford to send back another board based on the time alone it takes. Notwithstanding, I have already spent $30 in RMA postage and $100 for a new sound card. To that end, I have spent $270 for something that retails $140. In light of my experience thus far MSI Computers value is MUCH less. Don?t buy this board. You will have a headache, and worse, GERD!