The *Official* MSI K8NGM2-FID GeForce 6150 Motherboard Thread

[SDPlissken]

Those of you using this board not as a htpc but as a desktop how are you getting around the issues with the lan chip? from what i have read the drivers need to be compiled for linux. since at this time linux does not suport this chip. For now i plan to use the biostarTforce6100-939.

@renethx thanks for the help, and this thread as a whole has been very insiteful.

 

[tempoct]

Hi renethx,
I follow your guide closely The thing I don't understand is, how can I check how stable my mobo are. For instance, I wanna set the multiplier to low and make the processor run close to stock speed but force the board to run CPU-LDT @ 250Mhz (or slightly slower) stable.
If this possible? Can I lower the CPU-NB and NB-SB frequency to be lower than 800MHz and try to force higher CPU-LDT?
Says to keep Hyper Transport to be around 1000. What happen if I lower it? Says NB-CPU 400MHz (x2) and set CPU-LDT to 250, so I have Hyper Transport = 500. Would this make other components, but the motherboard, run at the stock or lower than stock speed?

BTW, my BIOS is v3.20, so no voltage option. Do you recommend flashing it to v3.13??

Thanks,
tempoct

Originally posted by: renethx

Originally posted by: tempoct
Seems like everyone can run this over 2.3GHz but mine can run stable @ 2.27GHz!
How can I verify which components I have is bad? (Mobo vs CPU vs RAM)...

Have you read 16. Overclocking II. Quick Overclocking Recipes > Remarks 2 & 4?

 

[renethx]

tempoct, first flash BIOS to v3.13 (or v3.00). Then you can lower CPU multiplier. Follow Zebo's article, "ISOLATE no. 1. MAX HTT/FSB shouldbe first". Set

"CPU to NB Frequency" and "NB to SB Frequency" to 800MHz,
CPU multiplier to 6 or 7,
Memclock value to 100MHz.

Then increase "CPU-LDT Frequency" up until you fail to boot. This is the max stable "CPU-LDT Frequency" of your board. In most case it is 250MHz. But it depends on each board.

BIOS v3.13 or v3.00 also allows you to boost CPU voltage by +0.05V that will help to increase max stable CPU frequency.

 

[tempoct]

Thanks a lot renethx. I'll try BIOS v3.13.
Look like the AVSForum is down now so I can't download the bios. Hopefully, it will be up soon.
I'll keep you posted.

 

[tempoct]

Thanks again renethx. I got the BIOS v3.13 and did some test run. This BIOS seems to be much better than v3.2! Here is my setup.

BIOS v3.13
Athlon 64 Venice 3200+ @ stock speed 2GHz
CPU-NB & NB-SB: 800MHz
CPU-LDT: 250MHz
CPU multiplier: x8
Corsair XMS 512x2, 166MHz limited (actual = 200MHz)
Also, I got +0.05 Vcore bump by fixing the multipler.

Since last night, I got Prime95 running for about 8+ hrs without any error now!!! I'm gonna try raising the multiplier (and lowering CPU-LDT) soon.

BTW, just to confirm, does this mean my mobo and RAM are fine but the Venice is a lazy chip? Time to look for another CPU? Maybe I should try the Opteron since many people have a high success rate on that?

Thanks.
tempoct

 

[renethx]

tempoct, your motherboard seems to be fine. RAM is OK if Memtest86 shows no errors.

IMO, buying another single-core CPU is a waste of money. If you do lots of CPU instensive tasks, buy a dual-core processor. Otherwise Venice @2.2GHz is enough.

 

[genegold]

I stumbled across this thread just before buying the Assus board, while searching for an alternative. Many thanks to renethx for his genuinely extra-ordinary work getting this thread up and keeping it going, and to everyone else who's made it so informative. I'm about to order the MSI board that is the subject of this thread (with Athlon 64 3000) and have a question.

Recently, I installed a new hard drive and XP didn't quite set up right. After a couple of repair installs didn't solve the problem, I'm stuck in what seems to be SP1 -- SP2 is leaving an empty desktop except for background. It's working ok, but I was preparing to do a clean install. Looking at the suggested Windows installation instructions in the original post (item 9), I'm wondering how I should approach this with the new board on the way. My current board is an Athlon+. Thanks.

 

[SDPlissken]

genegold the msi board is a great board from the reviews of it.however if you plan to run linux on it from i have read the networking drivers might need to be compiled.

 

[tempoct]

Hi renethx,
I tried a little higher (2.32GHz @ CPU-LDT 232MHz x 10 and +0.05v). It's *almost* stable.... Prime 95 failed at 10hr 30mins
I'd like to get dual-core too but it's a little costly. I use photo editing program called Nikon Capture which is single thread. Not sure if the dual-core will do me much good.

Anyway, I've just notice another problem now. During boot, it gives error msg "NVRam Update Failed" everytime but everything seems to work fine (NEVER lost bios setting from cold boot). I dig up several forum and people said it might be BIOS battery related. (NVRam = Non-Volatile RAM, I think). However, my mobo is brand new and BIOS battery is still give good voltage (CR2032 @ 3V). What could this be?

Not sure is the problem exist before or after I flash the BIOS to v3.13 (from 3.20). I'll try to flash the BIOS to v3.2 again to test this problem.

Originally posted by: renethx
tempoct, your motherboard seems to be fine. RAM is OK if Memtest86 shows no errors.

IMO, buying another single-core CPU is a waste of money. If you do lots of CPU instensive tasks, buy a dual-core processor. Otherwise Venice @2.2GHz is enough.

 

[renethx]

tempoct,

It seems that your Venice (perhaps stepping E6, ADA3200BWBOX) is the bottleneck of overclocking. I have seen several people reported low oc with E6. But 2.2-2.3GHz is fast enough if you don't often do CPU intensive tasks.

As for "NVRam Update Failed", try reflashing BIOS with WinSFI.exe. Before doing so, disable "Flash Protect" in BIOS. This time check all three options: BootBlock Programming, NVRam Programming and Clear CMOS in WinSFI.exe.

 

[renethx]

SDPlissken,

In my experince with Linux, compiling a driver is relatively easy. I don't know if you need to do so as I am not running linux, though.

 

[RjG]

Originally posted by: tempoct
Hi renethx,
I tried a little higher (2.32GHz @ CPU-LDT 232MHz x 10 and +0.05v). It's *almost* stable.... Prime 95 failed at 10hr 30mins
I'd like to get dual-core too but it's a little costly. I use photo editing program called Nikon Capture which is single thread. Not sure if the dual-core will do me much good.

Anyway, I've just notice another problem now. During boot, it gives error msg "NVRam Update Failed" everytime but everything seems to work fine (NEVER lost bios setting from cold boot). I dig up several forum and people said it might be BIOS battery related. (NVRam = Non-Volatile RAM, I think). However, my mobo is brand new and BIOS battery is still give good voltage (CR2032 @ 3V). What could this be?

Not sure is the problem exist before or after I flash the BIOS to v3.13 (from 3.20). I'll try to flash the BIOS to v3.2 again to test this problem.

Originally posted by: renethx
tempoct, your motherboard seems to be fine. RAM is OK if Memtest86 shows no errors.

IMO, buying another single-core CPU is a waste of money. If you do lots of CPU instensive tasks, buy a dual-core processor. Otherwise Venice @2.2GHz is enough.

"NVram update failed" is weirdness specific to BETA bios 3.13.
Reflashing it won't help.
You have to go into bios setup once, turn off the "Flash protect", then WITHOUT making another change, save and reboot, and then go into BIOS and make your changes the second time. The "Flash Protect" will get stuck on again the second time too, but at least your changes will stick. Loading defaults is a losing battle... it turns the flash protect on and is unable to save ANY of the defaults you just loaded. Unable to update the NVRAM (PNP/interrupts etc) is no big deal with XP, it's just annoying, and likely related to the "Flash protect" problem.

You are most likely better off making your tweaks with V3.20. It doesn't have flakey behavior like that, and you don't want to be tied to a flakey beta bios anyway, since your video card bios is tied into it as well and future BIOS will likely be the same or closer to 3.20 in functionality... you'll have to re-tweak everything again to get it working.

Funny your Venice 3200 won't go to 2500. First one I've heard that didn't make it at least really close. Try (with bios 3.20) resetting with the bios reset button, then load defaults, leave Cool n quiet OFF, and turn ALL the spread spectrum junk OFF (important)
Turn the USB legacy off if you want MEMTEST86 to work.
Then ONLY change the memory to 166 and CPU to 230. (tweak nothing else, all AUTO)
If that works, start bumping CPU-LDT up. I think you might hit the limits of your RAM coming up around 2400, so you'll also have to up your DDR voltage, 2.7 V is OK for that stuff.

 

[tempoct]

Thanks RjG. You have nailed the BIOS problem right on!!
For the Venice, mine is almost early E6 steppings and I believe it's not clock as good as E3. They seems to fix the DDR400 running @ DDR333 with 4 sticks configuration but many mobo still disable this, I guess.
For v3.20 bios, how can I bump up the DDR voltage? Look like Vcore and DDR voltage boost are disabled on v3.20. My mobo originally comes with v3.20 but I flash back to the beta since it give me Vcore bump

 

[pctwo]

has anyone found a nTune version that works with this board? I downloaded one dated Jan xx, 06 and it said you need a nforce2 or nforce3 motherboard. huh? on the list of supported mobos, the 6100 version of the MSI board is listted, but not the 6150 version. But it should work anyway right? Odd.

 

[renethx]

ClockGen v1.0.4.2 allows you to increase CPU-LDT Frequency beyond 250MHz.

 

[RjG]

Originally posted by: tempoct
Thanks RjG. You have nailed the BIOS problem right on!!
For the Venice, mine is almost early E6 steppings and I believe it's not clock as good as E3. They seems to fix the DDR400 running @ DDR333 with 4 sticks configuration but many mobo still disable this, I guess.
For v3.20 bios, how can I bump up the DDR voltage? Look like Vcore and DDR voltage boost are disabled on v3.20. My mobo originally comes with v3.20 but I flash back to the beta since it give me Vcore bump

To bump DDR voltage, go in the Cell menu | Voltage control | Adjust DDR Voltage
use the + and - keys to make it go up and down.

Bios 3.20 Vcore is not "adjustable" since the multiplier trick doesn't exist. If you really want extra Vcore juice just run RMClock and set up a single transition of full speed with 1.45 volts. Easy

PS, mine's a DH-E6 , easy 2500 on default voltage. Bump your DDR up and see how it does. Make SURE you turn all the "spread spectrum" junk off.

 

[tempoct]

Thanks for the tip. Adding DDR voltage is so obvious but somehow I had missed it
I was experimenting with BIOS v3.13b, disabled the spread spectrum, DDR voltage @ 2.65v, the max I can get it to run Super PI 8M w/o any error is 2.36GHz.
On BIOS v3.20, the max I can boot into windows is 2.34GHz (and Prime95 failed around 5 mins). Anything higher will get BSOD while booting. It won't even post @ 2.4GHz. (I guess it's really need that +0.05v).
IMHO, I think my Venice wouldn't go higher... I got it as OEM version but I don't think that's the different. Maybe I've just got the one at the bottom of the pile.

Now I'm trying to improve perf by overclocking other things. Now I left the RAM frequency floating (running at CPU-LDT speed).

Originally posted by: RjG

To bump DDR voltage, go in the Cell menu | Voltage control | Adjust DDR Voltage
use the + and - keys to make it go up and down.

Bios 3.20 Vcore is not "adjustable" since the multiplier trick doesn't exist. If you really want extra Vcore juice just run RMClock and set up a single transition of full speed with 1.45 volts. Easy

PS, mine's a DH-E6 , easy 2500 on default voltage. Bump your DDR up and see how it does. Make SURE you turn all the "spread spectrum" junk off.

 

[DetoXL]

First of all: Thank you for this great review, renethx!

Second: Please excuse my bad english... i'm coming from germany and found this exciting thread on google.

I bought this mobo just two weeks ago with an opteron 148 which has been tested up to 2.8ghz (primestable). Today i tried out if i can get the maximum possible 2.75ghz out of the mobo by setting LDT to 250mhz and using 1.45V (by the way, the opteron made it up to 242mhz LDT with stock voltage). And thats where im getting a problem... when i set the ldt up to 250mhz it is accepted by bios, but cpu-z shows me only HTT @ 242mhz... is this a known problem? Im using the 3.0 Bios right now.

Thanks for your replys!

 

[rbogardt]

Originally posted by: Clive
I have a problem running two PCI TV tuners on this motherboard.

I have an ATI HDTV Wonder and a Sapphire Theater 550 Pro and each one works individually on this motherboard, but when I try to boot with them both in the PCI slots, the computer wont boot (no video signal & no beep codes).

I have to install both, because of the limitation in MCE 2005 where I need the standard tuner for SD channels and the HDTV tuner for HD channels.

Has anyone tried running these two tv tuners on this motherboard?

I have tried both a VisonTek 550 and and ATI 550 TV tuner (one at a time) in both PCI 1 and/ or PCI 2 slots and the video freezes after about 10 sec. (MS MEC 2005). Anybody else having TV tuner problems? (BIOS 3.2 fresh from the box)?

 

[R3MF]

"* Maxtor DiamondMax 10 SATAII drives. OS cannot be installed. Need to change the jumper from "Normal Operation (3Gbps)" to the "Limit Data Transfer Rate (1.5Gbps)". (Confirmed by MSI.)"

i have this problem, but i don't know if the jumper is on the M/B or the H/D.........?

there is a jumper visible on the H/D, but there appears to be no jumper pin with which to switch it.

any help would be appreciated.

R3MF

 

[renethx]

R3MF,

I don't have a Maxtor drive, but I can see "Data Transfer Rate Jumpter Pin" In Figure 3-4 (page 22) in the manual. Did you get the MSI board?

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: DetoXL
... when i set the ldt up to 250mhz it is accepted by bios, but cpu-z shows me only HTT @ 242mhz... is this a known problem?

I haven't seen such a problem with Venice and Manchester. A primitive fix I can think of is reflash BIOS with BootBlock Probramming enabled or flash to the latest BIOS.

 

[R3MF]

i did, thank you very much.

now got:
A64 3800+ X2
K8NGM2-FID
MSI 7900GT
Sugo 01-E
Dell 2405
2x PC3200 Cas 2.5
250GB Samsung
200GB Maxtor

 

[R3MF]

Originally posted by: renethx
R3MF,

I don't have a Maxtor drive, but I can see "Data Transfer Rate Jumpter Pin" In Figure 3-4 (page 22) in the manual. Did you get the MSI board?

maybe i am just being stupid, but there is no sign of that jumper on my H/D............?

bearing in mind this H/D is installed in my case, but i can still see all of the back of it;
there is nothing on figure 3-4 that resembles my harddrive, and yet the diagram beneath it looks exactly like my harddrive, yet makes no mention of this jumper?

cheers

REMF

 

[renethx]

R3MF,

Are you sure that your drive is SATAII 3.0Gb/s? There are many flavors in DiamondMax series drives. Check the model number of your drive (printed on the surface of the drive or you can see it in device manager) and compare it with the data sheets (pdf files) downloadable from this page.

A user who has Maxtor 6V080E0 (DiamondMax 80GB, 3.0Gb/s, 8MB buffer) reported that he was able to install OS when jumper was set to "Limit Data Transfer Rate"