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

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avi85

Senior member
Apr 24, 2006
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Originally posted by: BernardP
Originally posted by: Saucepot
I note from some reviews that the chipset gets very hot (...)
I am a bit puzzled/worried by this. For example, if you read the reviews on Newegg some people say that the chipset gets very hot (too hot to touch), while others mention that it runs cool and is only warm to the touch.

What is the impact on a chip's longevity of running constantly at 70 to 80 degrees C?

Is there a simple way to put a fan on the chipset? Also, if anyone can suggest an improved ***easy to install*** passive heatsink, I would be willing to listen.

However, I also understand that replacing the heatsink will void the warranty.

On newegg there is a Reviewer (the second one from the top when sorted by date) who says that he mounted a 30mm fan on the heatsink.

I have a 30mm fan lying around and I will try this when my board arrives.
 

NoStateofMind

Diamond Member
Oct 14, 2005
9,711
6
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To the owners of this board, i would like to know something. How well does the 6150 onboard do for gaming? I only play DOD:S and was wondering if it will be enough. Just to get me through for a months or so til I can get a PCI-e card. Thanks much for your help.
 

Crusty01

Junior Member
May 28, 2006
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Thanks, I'm going to the electronics shop tomorrow for a coax digital out, but i'll ask about this one as well. The headphone output of this motherboard is pretty crap btw. Played Quake 4 on it and the audio is simply crackling on occassion. If the digital output isn't any better I'll put my old terratec on it, which has toslink in&out.
I note from some reviews that the chipset gets very hot and would like to know if I should go for a CPU cooler with a fan that blows towards the board of across the CPU heatsink (eg Arctic freezer 64 Pro)
My chipset doesn't get very hot at all. Yes it gets warm, but I have plenty of airflow in my case. I have 2 fans in the psu, 1 on the boxed cooler, one 12 cm fan @5volts, and one 8 cm fan on my brand new heatpipe cooled 7600gt. Even without all this airflow the chipset doesn't get very hot.

The easiest way to place a cooler is to superglue it to the heatsink. Works fine, as long as the superglue is applied to a clean surface. But a better solution is simply to use a 8 cm fan, and have it blowing in the direction of your chipset. At 5 volts you shouldn't be able to hear it with the case closed.
What is the impact on a chip's longevity of running constantly at 70 to 80 degrees C?
It shortens the lifespan considerably, but even then, it's not something you really need to worry about. This has been discussed plenty of times all over the net btw. In short, several life-shortening physical processes run faster at higher speeds, but it's not something you'll have to worry about in a period of 5 years. It's more like, at 20dC it can last for eternity, at 50dC it can last for 25 years, and at 70dC it can last for 8 to 10 years.

 

pctwo

Senior member
Oct 12, 2003
397
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I don't know how demanding DOD:S is. FWIW, I get 20-30fps on half life 2 with 1280x800 high detail, no AA. newer games like FEAR aren't really playable unless you go down to 640x480
 

BernardP

Golden Member
Jan 10, 2006
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Originally posted by: Crusty01

My chipset doesn't get very hot at all. Yes it gets warm, but I have plenty of airflow in my case.

(...) running constantly at 70 to 80 degrees (...) shortens the lifespan considerably, but even then, it's not something you really need to worry about. This has been discussed plenty of times all over the net btw. In short, several life-shortening physical processes run faster at higher speeds, but it's not something you'll have to worry about in a period of 5 years. It's more like, at 20dC it can last for eternity, at 50dC it can last for 25 years, and at 70dC it can last for 8 to 10 years.
Thanks Crusty01 for the info. So you are amongst those who don't burn themselves on the chipset. Case airflow might explain the variations in temps from user to user. And even at 70°C, my board should be good for at least 8 years. Hopefully, I will be able to trade up to an entry-level AMD 5 Ghz OctoCore system before that.

 

rei

Member
Dec 2, 1999
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UPDATE ON ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE FREEZING:

I tested for 5 hours every which way. It would freeze randomly during usage of the boot CD/ISO. It's because the Linux runtime environment is incompatible with this board's ACPI implementation.

You have to type in manually, every time (!) you want to boot the CD and restore or else you risk losing your partitions: "quiet acpi=off noapic"

After Acronis Loader starts and before you load True Image, you press F11 for a dialog to open to allow you to enter "quiet acpi=off noapic"
 

pctwo

Senior member
Oct 12, 2003
397
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rei: I tried acronis once and had a bad restore. since it was my first time using it, I thought I did something wrong.

what happens if you disable acpi in bios before using acronis? does that also work?
 

RjG

Member
Mar 14, 2006
82
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Originally posted by: rei
UPDATE ON ACRONIS TRUEIMAGE FREEZING:

I tested for 5 hours every which way. It would freeze randomly during usage of the boot CD/ISO. It's because the Linux runtime environment is incompatible with this board's ACPI implementation.

You have to type in manually, every time (!) you want to boot the CD and restore or else you risk losing your partitions: "quiet acpi=off noapic"

After Acronis Loader starts and before you load True Image, you press F11 for a dialog to open to allow you to enter "quiet acpi=off noapic"


That's not so good. I have True Image as well. It works fine on every other computer I have, but on the FID I had to unplug my USB card reader, mouse, and keyboard to get it to the point of loading and being usable. It DID backup/restore once... I guess I was lucky :)

I could not get the networking to work off the boot CD.
Do you know a hidden setting to make the FID NIC work as well ?
 

rei

Member
Dec 2, 1999
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pctwo: YES, it works, but once restored, XP won't boot if you imaged it in a ACPI state. It's best to have it on in the OS and in BIOS.
 

ranglim

Junior Member
May 31, 2006
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Using K8NGM2-FID with Realtek HD audio, initially installed drivers 1.26 from distribution disk, then updated to driver 1.29, and everything was working. But continuing to add software to my new system, somewhere along the line, the Realtek Audio Sound Manager had a problem. The speaker icon appears in the taskbar and is listed in the control panel, but when you click on 'Sound Manager', the application does not appear on the screen. I get a tab on the taskbar, but clicking on that only makes it change from highlighted or not highlighted, and still no application appears on the main screen. I'm using the analog outputs to my 5.1 speaker system, and as far as I know, the sound is still working properly, I just can't get at the controls to change anything.

I upgraded again to ver. 1.36, problem still there. I un-installed, then went back to the original driver ver. 1.26, but the problem still there. Perhaps another software application has interfered with the proper operation of the Sound Manager program. Does anybody know which other program that might be, or know what else might be causing this?

Alternatively, can anyone recommend another program which might work as a replacement to the MSI/Realtek 'Sound Manager' application - seems kinda hokey, and I miss the nVidia Soundstorm interface with the bar graph display of each channel output. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 

jough

Member
Feb 5, 2006
51
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0
Just updated to the latest version of the Realtek driver, and now even checking "Disable front panel jack detection" doesn't let me use the front panel jacks on my X-QPack. The headphone output worked JUST prior to the Realtek driver update.

FWIW I can hear hiss in the headphones (and the hard drive noise, like usual) and the hiss gets louder if I raise the volume in the WinXP volume control. Just no audio is output.

Driver Date: 4/17/2006
Driver Version: 5.10.0.5247

Do I need to roll back the driver or is there a new fix for this?
 

ftp1020

Junior Member
May 9, 2006
8
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BernardP: I was curious, so I touched the heatsink. Yes, it's fairly warm - and considerably warmer than the stock AMD CPU HSF - but nowhere close to burning hot. The air temperature in this room is 30C right now and the CPU is at 37C according to PCAlert. No fancy cooling for me ... it's an old P-II case that doesn't even have a grille on the back for mounting a chassis fan. The Fortron Sparkle 400W seems to do a good job at removing warm air from the case. What I did do, however, was pull out the very bottom card slot cover (the board doesn't reach that far down anyways) and used some electrical tape to attach a used fabric softener dryer sheet to cover the hole and filter any dust. Very low-tech, but it seems to work. I think the CPU being used might matter, though; mine's only a 3200+ @2400Mhz.

BTW, I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but during the recent heat wave when I was doing some video encoding, the CPU would heat up to about 47C and I noticed in PCAlert that the CPU fan had increased its revs from a normal of 3380 up to 4700 revs. In fact, now that I've been watching it for a few days, the CPU fan speed seems to be a 100X multiple of whatever the CPU temp is currently at. Is it PCAlert that does that, or BIOS?

trueimage: What does MSI USA say about bracket availability? They're certainly slow to respond to questions, but you should hear something back...?

Finally, does anyone have any issues to report with Win2K (SP4, of course), Western Digital 16MB cache SATA-II drives, and the FID? I like the price, and my 80GB IDE WD has been a trooper.
 

u02sgb

Junior Member
May 29, 2006
3
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Hi,
Managed to solve my problem. Not sure if it was to do with Linux being on my SATA drive but I unplugged the SATA, plugged in an IDE drive and installed Windows. Next I rebooted with the SATA plugged in and formatted it with NTFS. Rebooting with just the SATA connected and I could install windows. Loooooooong way to have to go for a Windows install:).

As for the heat of the motherboard. I've got a Zalman 7700AlCu in a Silverstone LC16M case and it seems to keep everything suitably cool and fits with no problems. If you turn the zalman resistor down to it's lowest setting you can't hear it over the hard drive either. With the resistor turned back up it's not the quietest fan in the world though.

Stu.
 

pctwo

Senior member
Oct 12, 2003
397
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76
ftp1020: I have the WD2500KS (250G sataII, 16mb) and it's fine. But it runs kind of hot (53C normally) and I have a low speed 120mm fan blowing right on it. My previous Seagate Barracuda ran 30C normally in a case with no front intake fan. I bought another drive to see it I just got a bad unit and that one ran over 60C!
 

LouSly

Junior Member
May 17, 2006
11
0
0
I'm an OC newbie and I've got an OC ?.
All my all my attempts to OC are failing. I'm trying to use Renethx pg1 OC quick recpie but I cheated a little and started with CPU-LDT=244 then started backing down to =232 before giving up.
With every attempt XP boots no problem but I fail Prime 95 withing a couple of minutes.
My question is regarding CPUZ. I brought up CPUZ with the =244 attempt and verified the CPU setting of 24xx.xx and HTT =24x.x. then I jumped down -2 with each attempt but did not check CPUZ each time. The next time I looked at CPUZ was around a setting of =236. To my suprize CPUZ still displayed settings of CPU: 2421.9 x 10 and HTT: 242.2 Mem frequency was always 201.8. These settings all stayed the same regardless of how many additional times I changed the CPU-LDT value, up or down it did not matter.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THE CPUZ DISPLAY WAS NOT CHANGING?

To resolve I had to reset the BIOS to default using the onboard reset button. CPUZ display afterwards shows correct valuse CP0: 2009.1 HTT: 200.9 MEM freq: 200.9

Setup is K8NGM2-FID, Bios V3.20 with Venice 3200+ E6 and (2)512 Corsair Valueram.
All Memory tests pass with CPU-LDT=212 using both instructions (Renethx pg1 & Olive Yew pg7 w/separate PCI-E video card installed). WinXP runs well and Prime95 ran without errors for 48 hours using MB default Bios settings.
 

rei

Member
Dec 2, 1999
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pctwo: Acronis True Image is really the best of its class imaging program. You just have to do that workaround every time. You can get ISOs with the switch already part of it but we can't set it ourself.

The non-ACPI builds are not always up to date with their newest version unfortunately. And no, don't turn it off in BIOS. It will work, but if you restore an image with ACPI it won't boot.
 

imported_nbv4

Junior Member
Jun 3, 2006
6
0
0
Hi, I'm thinking of getting this motherboard, but I'm not sure if it will work with my monitor. The native resolution is 1680 * 1050, which is not listed in the OP. Will I need to get a new card to run my monitor in it's native resolution?
 

Crusty01

Junior Member
May 28, 2006
4
0
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BernardP:
And even at 70°C, my board should be good for at least 8 years
Well, it doesn't mean your board will last 8 years, just that processes like electromigration etc shouldn't be considered a problem within the timeframe you and I use the board.

ranglim:
I upgraded again to ver. 1.36
Latest version is 1.37 btw. Get it from Realtek.
I just can't get at the controls to change anything
Have you tried Start Menu --> Settings --> Control Panel? It also shows up as a control panel applet there.
Does anybody know which other program that might be, or know what else might be causing this?
Difficult to say if you don't list the programs you installed....

jough:
FWIW I can hear hiss in the headphones (and the hard drive noise, like usual) and the hiss gets louder if I raise the volume in the WinXP volume control. Just no audio is output.
I have no harddrive noise in my headphone output. Try these steps:
-Plug your headphone into another port and map the port to "headphone out" using the realtek applet. The mobo manual has clear instructions on doing this.
-Is the harddisk you hear a Pata or Sata harddisk? Do you use Acpi?
-Sometimes adjusting Pci parameters can fix the harddisk glitch. Pci latency etc. Go read Rojakpot's bios optimization's guide. (Google is your friend).

In any case: if it worked before, rollback your drivers.

trueimage:
Anyone have any new ideas on where to get the spdif bracket or another brand that works?
I have my digital out working now, it was really easy.
Parts needed:

-One two-pin connector from an old front-panel from an old pc with the cables still connected to it. You know, one of those hd-led, power led, reset switch or power switch connectors. The connector that fits into the mobo header also fits into the digital out header. Preferably, get one that has one black wire and label that one as ground. The other cable's color isn't important, as long as it's not black.
-Go to the local electronic shop, and get a coax female connector that you can screw into a hole. Take your mobo manual with you and show them the picture of the bracket. They'll most likely have a connector like that. Mine looks almost exactly like this:
http://www.allekabels.nl/product_images...Pluggen2-High-End-Tulp-Pluggen2-Hi.jpg
-A soldering iron and some soldering tin
-some tape to cover the solder spots or if you'r feeling luxurious some heatshrink tape.
-One part like this, don't know it's name in english:
http://www.allekabels.nl/product_images...teenKroonsteenKroonsteenKroonsteen.jpg
You need just one of the subunits, cut it away with a scissor or knife.
-A hole. Either in your case or as a bracket. I found an old isa soundcard and took the bracket from it. It has four holes for these type connectors so I can go wild if I want to. Alternatively, just drill a hole in your case. I don't know the exact diameter, but it looks something like 4-6 mm.

Explanation:
The digital out (and in, for that matter) on this mobo has three connectors. One is NC, Not Connected, the center one is GND, Ground, and one is the Digital signal. There is no 5Volt on this header so you can't use an optical out just by using this header. (this is because the toslink part needs 5volt to power it's emitter)
The Digital Signal isn't allowed to short with the GND, or with the case, so make sure you do your soldering nice and clean. The GND, on the other hand, works perfectly when in contact with the case.

Construction:
By examining the coax connector it should be obvious that there are two places where to solder a wire onto:
http://www.allekabels.nl/product_images...Pluggen2-High-End-Tulp-Pluggen2-Hi.jpg
Solder the black wire to the flat part with the hole in it (the hole is only barely visible in the picture). It's the part that, in the picture, points out to below. That is the part that will certainly make contact with the case or the bracket, so that should be ground. This is also according to spec, everything should be properly grounded.
The signal wire should be soldered to the rightmost part (in the picture) that looks like it's sharp enough to cut into your finger. It also has a hole in it, so stick the signal wire through there and solder it..
Apply some heatshrink tape or else to cover it up a bit, especially when you've exposed a lot of the wire to solder it. Last thing you want is to shortout your brandnew system now would you?
Where does this part come in?
http://www.allekabels.nl/product_images...teenKroonsteenKroonsteenKroonsteen.jpg
You'll find out soon enough once you try to install your end result in the case....with this it's not permanently attached, which is a plus to me.
I can't recall the exact header connections on the spdif headers on the mobo, so double check your manual before plugging it in. The black wire should go to GND, and the signal wire to the digital signal.

That's it. Plug in your cable to the external amplifier/receiver/dac/whatever and voila.
I didn't even had to configure the realtek utility, it immediately started playing from the digital out.

Total cost:
One old cable - - 0.00
One old Isa soundcard out bracket - 0.00
One coax female connector - 1.75 Euro
15 minutes of soldering and fixing - 0.00
One "kroonsteentje"i still had about: - 0.00
Total cost: -1.75 Euro for a digital out.
I had to go crazy of course and bought TWO connectors, in case I also wanted a digital in.

Now I have two left hands when it comes to soldering, and it works, so anyone who isn't a complete retard should be able to do this by himself. Still, if you feel uncomfortable doing this, ask someone to do this for you. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes for an experienced person to do this.

ftp1020:
Finally, does anyone have any issues to report with Win2K (SP4, of course)
Running W2k USP5 without probs. I don't have any sata hd's so I couldn't report on that tho. All the hardware is so new you need to install the drivers anyway, XP probably the same.

LouSly:
I'm an OC newbie and I've got an OC ?.
All my all my attempts to OC are failing. I'm trying to use Renethx pg1 OC quick recpie but I cheated a little and started with CPU-LDT=244 then started backing down to =232 before giving up.
With every attempt XP boots no problem but I fail Prime 95 withing a couple of minutes.
My question is regarding CPUZ. I brought up CPUZ with the =244 attempt and verified the CPU setting of 24xx.xx and HTT =24x.x. then I jumped down -2 with each attempt but did not check CPUZ each time. The next time I looked at CPUZ was around a setting of =236. To my suprize CPUZ still displayed settings of CPU: 2421.9 x 10 and HTT: 242.2 Mem frequency was always 201.8. These settings all stayed the same regardless of how many additional times I changed the CPU-LDT value, up or down it did not matter. .

Quick recipe for your specific situation:
-Set memory to 133Mhz and all other memory options to auto
-Disable Cool N Quiet in bios
-Disable cpu fan throthling if enabled (so it always runs at max speed)
-Slowly increase the fsb from 200 onwards, try 3 Mhz per step.
-Test with Prime95 AND cpuburn running at the same time. First start stress test on Prime95 and increase it's priority to normal or above normal (you can do this in the task manager: hit ctrl-alt-del and enter the taskmanager, go to the processes tab, find Prime95, rigthmouseclick on it and setpriority to the desired setting. Realtime is NOT advisable). When Prime95 is running in desired priority, start cpuburn to increase temp even further.
If it doesn't fail in a few hours you're clear to increase the fsb further.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY THE CPUZ DISPLAY WAS NOT CHANGING?
Possibilities:
-You did not save settings when exiting bios. You went from 242 to 236, but if you forgot to save, it would still be 242.
-You reset the fsb from within windows using clockgen. It's most likely that Cpu-Z has to be restarted then.
-Some other thing? I don't know...


@nbv4: This looks like a question better asked directly to Msi or nvidia. Chances are slim anyone here has that exact same setup.
 

imported_nbv4

Junior Member
Jun 3, 2006
6
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Um are you sure? Lots of wide screen monitors have a 1680 * 1050 native resolution. Therefore there is a good chance lots of users out there know whether this card can do the resolution or not...
 

avi85

Senior member
Apr 24, 2006
988
0
0
Originally posted by: pctwo
ftp1020: I have the WD2500KS (250G sataII, 16mb) and it's fine. But it runs kind of hot (53C normally) and I have a low speed 120mm fan blowing right on it. My previous Seagate Barracuda ran 30C normally in a case with no front intake fan. I bought another drive to see it I just got a bad unit and that one ran over 60C!

pctwo: read around online, you'll see that some of the wd2500ks's out there have a defective (incorrectly calibrated) thermal sensor and if it cool to the touch then it's (probably) a bad sensor and you should subtract 20 degrees to get the right temp
 

tempoct

Senior member
May 1, 2006
246
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0
My LCD is 1920x1200 resolution. I'm running fine, as long as you don't try to change CPU vcore/frequency on the fly (i.e. RMClock, CnQ). It gives some horizontal bars while CPU changes frequency. If you have your clock locked, it should be fine.

Originally posted by: nbv4
Um are you sure? Lots of wide screen monitors have a 1680 * 1050 native resolution. Therefore there is a good chance lots of users out there know whether this card can do the resolution or not...

 

avi85

Senior member
Apr 24, 2006
988
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0
I was wondering if anyone knows if the big typhoon is compatible with this mobo?
 

pctwo

Senior member
Oct 12, 2003
397
0
76
Originally posted by: nbv4
Hi, I'm thinking of getting this motherboard, but I'm not sure if it will work with my monitor. The native resolution is 1680 * 1050, which is not listed in the OP. Will I need to get a new card to run my monitor in it's native resolution?

I also have a 1680x1050 monitor. It works fine for desktop, but forget running any recent 3D games at that resolution. Drop it down to 1280x800 and you can run older games like UT2003 and half life 2 w/o AA.

 

pctwo

Senior member
Oct 12, 2003
397
0
76
Originally posted by: avi85
pctwo: read around online, you'll see that some of the wd2500ks's out there have a defective (incorrectly calibrated) thermal sensor and if it cool to the touch then it's (probably) a bad sensor and you should subtract 20 degrees to get the right temp


I did the finger probe and it is warm but not 53C, which would be nearly too hot to touch. of course it's probably hotter where the sensor is