REFURBISHED: MSI K8NGM2-FID

[imported_taku]

REFURBISHED: MSI K8NGM2-FID Seems that refurbished dont have cables, set up disk etc. I am looking at one on line and the price seem right. I would like to have a back up motherboard that would accept all of the parts from another brand name similar mother board that has both dvi and rgb video output and Gforce 6150. I broke my CD for one of my machine builds a few years ago, but was not a big deal. i just download all the files form the manufactors web site. Cables and stuff I have a junk box full.

The manual is available online. So i dont think that is a big deal. I just dont know what would be on the CD that would be required. Yeah, it would save some hassle, But most of the stuff on the CD will be updated anyway

$30 for the CD for the start up drivers seems to be the only advantage to me If someone has had any experience with buying refurrbished motherboards i would appreciate a comment? good or bad?

 

[pctwo]

I bought mine new but the box came without a shrinkwrap and the lid partially popped open. Odd. Everything seems to be there though; the mobo is in an opaque bag and the cables etc are in plastic bags.Do other people's come shrinkwrapped?

Mine does come with the component (not composite) bracket. At least I think it's component -- it's color coded R G B, not Red White Yellow. That seems pretty valuable, as I don't think that comes standard with other boards. And SATA cable, which I have none of. The drivers and manual you can just download.

Unless you need another board right now, why not just wait? I'm sure the price will only come down.

 

[renethx]

I have bought three new MSI K8NGM2-FID (two from Buy.com, one from ZipZoomfly). None of them was shrinkwrapped. In the past I bought more that 30 motherboards (all new) and none of them was shrinkwrapped. It seems that non-shrinkwrap is the norm in retail motherboard packages.

 

[imported_taku]

wow. yours seems to have be a return.

not the first time i have heard similar tales.

getting to the point where i want a back up machine

 

[aaaajunk]

Mine came with no cables, no backplate, no box, no manuals and unfortunately no functionality. I'm deeply suspicious that this is not really a refurbished mobo, but just an RMA'd board that had a bad flashing. I've tried full and stripped down version of h/w setup and get the following error:

CMOS Checksum Error, Press F1 for Setup or F2 to continue using default settings (from memory it has been a few days since I tried after a weekend involving lots of frustration). Then the screen starts to blur and there is an instant shutdown.

The only way I have been able to get beyond this is to hold down F2 during the intial post and then I am able to get into the BIOS. Inside BIOS I can see that the mobo has recognized the hd, fd, and cd-rom, and I can select boot order, but on exiting BIOS I cannot get the mobo to boot. Whatever the order it will ignore drives and go to the nVidia boot item, then give an error message - Possible bad cable. I've tried different cables/configurations, but am unable to get any success through the IDE connectors.

Any suggestions? This is my first painful build so have not had to struggle through these issues before.

 

[Ivan05]

I just recieved my K8NGM2-FID from ZZF yesterday - no shrink wrap around the box, but the mobo is in the standard anti-static bag and all accessories are included.

aaaajunk - Stupid question, but have you tried clearing the CMOS?

 

[aaaajunk]

I have tried clearing the CMOS - one obvious issue I have checked (although I'm sure there are other obvious issues I'm unaware of).

I've tried searching other forums and have seen other mobos with the CMOS checksum error, but providing you check the battery and can get into the BIOS it generally seems possible to correct, save and reboot. I have not seen anyone describe the sudden powerdown my mobo has if you are not holding down the F2 key ready to tell the board to continue with default settings when asked. Coupled with the unwillingness to boot, I'm suspicious that this is indicative of a more serious problem.

Incidently the BIOS is listed as 3.10 during the initial post, but after getting into BIOS using F2, v2.59 is shown at the bottom of the BIOS screen. Not sure if these are both refering to the BIOS version tho'.

Anyone had a similar problem that could be fixed?

 

[pctwo]

First of all, I don't know if you want to struggle with this. Maybe more trouble than it's worth. I think you should let whoever sold you this know this is not acceptable as a "refurb" item. Refurb doesn't mean unusable.

But if you want to try fixing it, maybe you should try flashing the BIOS. see this thread

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=1783139

uninstall everything except your floppy and one stick of memory and see if you can boot into the floppy. incidentally, try holding down F11 when the BIOS screen first pops up. On mine, this gives a boot menu where you can select which device you want to boot from.

 

[aaaajunk]

Thanks - I have not tried with FD only. Last effort before RMA I think. I'm not too hopeful as I have not been able to read from FD/CD/HD at all, hence no DOS prompt. I've been through the F11 menu but was not able to get it to boot from FD or CD at all.
My search for a mATX 6150 continues. I went with the MSI mostly due to the positive feedback on the Egg (especially compared to the other 6150's). I may just try a younger version of the same board after a little break.