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

[scmills]

Hi everyone,

I have a wierd issue with this board i was hoping you could help with.

I'm hooked up to the onboard VGA. I cannot see anything displayed on the screen until the Operating System starts. I don't see any of the post screens (so i can't get into the bios). this happens whether i'm plugged into my 42' flat screen or my 15' dell monitor.

I'm trying to install Vista, but i can't boot from the cd and see anything. also, if i run an upgrade from within xp, it still needs to reboot to do some things, and i can't see this either.

any ideas? thanks

 

[ra990]

Hahha, I wouldn't say it fit well....the GTS blocked all my SATA ports so I had to find an old IDE hard drive to use. It is the BFG version of the GTS.

 

[bigsnyder]

Sounds like the display preference in the bios is set incorrectly. Try clearing the cmos and see what happens.

 

[thestain]

Renethx,

What version of pci-e does the video card slot use in the MSI K8NGM@-FID? I was tired last night and posted question in official lcd thread.. to xt knight... oooops... I bought a evga Geforce 8800 GS and get black screens in windows, card works ok in linux and dos, but not windows.. also another pci-e 2.0 spec card, the msi Geforce 8600 gT black screened in windows too.

 

[Roca05]

Originally posted by: thestain
Renethx,

What version of pci-e does the video card slot use in the MSI K8NGM@-FID? I was tired last night and posted question in official lcd thread.. to xt knight... oooops... I bought a evga Geforce 8800 GS and get black screens in windows, card works ok in linux and dos, but not windows.. also another pci-e 2.0 spec card, the msi Geforce 8600 gT black screened in windows too.

From all the research I've done I'm 90% sure its PCI-ex16 version 1.0a, but lets see what Renethx has to say about this. And it also seams weird that the evga or the msi card wasn't working in your system evga is pretty compatible and msi is the same brand as the motherboard so I don't know why it isn't working. Maybe because the motherboard bios is an old version???

 

[thestain]

Thanks for input on pci-e 1.0a.. should this work with newer Pci-e 2.0 cards? I did more testing.. not same system but with another MSI K8NGM2-FID, fresh install of windows XP SP2 and.. it looked like install was going to work up until final boot where windows logo shows.. right after this screen went black. I tested with live CD of Muppy Linux right after this and booted up with full video no problems, tried to boot into windows and black screen again. Could this be M$/nVidia issue?

I then removed card and put in a GeForce 7600 GT and.. first two tries nothing.. but on third got windows had recovered from some kind of problem and had to retrieve lost file from registry.. kind of strange.. but after all this system does recover.. but I think it was impacted by interaction with new cards in my case. I read on another forum where someone estimated this is a hdcp related bug that has nothing to do with pci-e 2.0 and impacts small number of the cards, or that it is a driver issue, etc.. I got rma with postage on their nickle from newegg, but will try, try again over the weekend and if I can't get to work with windows.. will mail back to Newegg on Monday. I really wanted to use the EVGA 8800 GS for my brothers HTPC I am building for him.. nice and quiet and can play most games.. but he is windows only for now, so linux machine not an option.

 

[Roca05]

let us know how it went

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: thestain
Renethx,

What version of pci-e does the video card slot use in the MSI K8NGM@-FID? I was tired last night and posted question in official lcd thread.. to xt knight... oooops... I bought a evga Geforce 8800 GS and get black screens in windows, card works ok in linux and dos, but not windows.. also another pci-e 2.0 spec card, the msi Geforce 8600 gT black screened in windows too.

I checked with SiSoftware Sandra 2007. PCIe is version 1.00.

 

[thestain]

Thanks renethx! My goal is to buy a newer card for this motherboard. Are there any good pci-e 2.0 cards that clearly work with this board?

I have read on this thread of a couple people having success.. if you have, can you share model and board maker of the cards that work?

The Stain

 

[Roca05]

Originally posted by: thestain
if you have, can you share model and board maker of the cards that work?

The Stain

Yeah, that would be totally awesome!

 

[renethx]

I ordered a GeForce 9600 GT card that should arrive in a couple of days. I'll let you know the result.

Originally I planned buying GeForce 9800 GT dGP to experiment HybridPower with GeForce 8200 mGPU (for both AMD and Intel that should be a good choice if you are planning upgrading GeForce 6150 in the next half year), but GeForce 8200 is likey to be delayed until late May (here) ... so I changed my mind (9600 GT does not support HybridPower, but cheaper, ~$150).

 

[BernardP]

Concerning the whole PCI-E 2.0 vs 1.x thing, I found some precise info on the PCI-SIG website.

PCI-SIG or Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group is the industry consortium responsible for the PCI and PCI Express specifications.

Digging on their web site, I found some information on the PCI Express 2.0 FAQ Page

There are specific statements about backwards compatibility:

The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling rates, in order to retain backward compatibility with existing PCIe 1.0 and 1.1

The PCIe Base 2.0 specification supports both the 2.5GT/s and 5GT/s signaling technologies. A device designed to the PCIe Base 2.0 specification may support 2.5GT/s, 5GT/s or both. However, a device designed to operate specifically at 5GT/s must also support 2.5GT/s signaling

I don't see how this can leave room for PCI-E 2.0 not to be compatible with PCI-E 1.0 if the specifications are adhered to.

So it appears that if some PCI-E 2.0 videocards are incompatible with some PCI-E 1.0 motherboards, it should be because of an incorrect/incomplete implementation of the PCI-E 2.0 specification in the videocard, or a motherboard that doesn't fully conform to the PCI-E 1.0 specification.

 

[renethx]

I installed the ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT card (the single-slot version like most other 9600 cards). It worked just fine.

BTW the upper two SATA ports are blocked by the card. However you may be able use both of them if you use 90-angle (left-angle or up) to straight SATA cables such as:

- StarTech SATA18LA1 18 inch Left Angle Serial ATA Cable (can be purchased at as low as $2.60)
- Tripp Lite P941-19I 19" SATA Cable, Straight/Up (can be purchased at as low as $2.31)

 

[BernardP]

Originally posted by: renethx
I installed the ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT card (the single-slot version like most other 9600 cards). It worked just fine.

Thanks for the info. As we have also ra990 successfully running a 8800GTS G92 (previous page), we can be reassured that the K8NGM2-FID has no obvious compatibility with PCI-E 2.0 videocards.

 

[Roca05]

Originally posted by: renethx
I installed the ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT card (the single-slot version like most other 9600 cards). It worked just fine.

Cool! So I guess I should be safe to buy the 8800GT OC from MSI? you know the one with the bigger heatsink and fan? Aside from the PCI-E 2.0 compatibility issue, do you think it'll fit without me having to remove the bottom right SATA cable? Its about the size of an old GTS and I've heard of people with old GTS video cards out there installed in the K8NGM2-FID with no problems.

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: Roca05

Originally posted by: renethx
I installed the ASUS EN9600GT/HTDI/512M GeForce 9600 GT card (the single-slot version like most other 9600 cards). It worked just fine.

Cool! So I guess I should be safe to buy the 8800GT OC from MSI? you know the one with the bigger heatsink and fan? Aside from the PCI-E 2.0 compatibility issue, do you think it'll fit without me having to remove the bottom right SATA cable? Its about the size of an old GTS and I've heard of people with old GTS video cards out there installed in the K8NGM2-FID with no problems.

Do you mean this card? It occupies two slots, but the tail of the card is PCB only, so you don't have to remove the bottom SATA cables. You may need angled SATA cables to use the upper SATA ports however (I am not sure of this point).

 

[Roca05]

Do you mean this card? It occupies two slots, but the tail of the card is PCB only, so you don't have to remove the bottom SATA cables. You may need angled SATA cables to use the upper SATA ports however (I am not sure of this point).

Yeah I meant that card. I only have one hard drive so I will only be using one SATA port so I think there should be no problem! I'll let you know when I buy it and install it.

 

[Ivan05]

Originally posted by: h0mi
On the asus board, the memory is in the first 2 slots from the left. On the MSI board, it's in the 2nd and 4th slots. On the MSI board, I also have 2 other dimms (PQI memory I think... dont remember the model # at this moment) on the mb, and I have not tried to run this system with just this corair ram. My goal was to have a 4 gig system but so far no dice. If I can't do that, I'd at least like to get it to work in my Asus system. Again, no dice there.

I've tried just 1 dimm in the Asus board and still, it wont post.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner...

I have 2x1GB sticks of Corsair XML in my K8NGM2-FID, running in slots 1 & 2. No problems.

I'm curious why you want to run 4GB

 

[Roca05]

Update-ok, I bought the MSI 8800GT OC from newegg already. I bought it yesterday night so I'm expecting it to arrive on Thursday or Friday at the latest. I can't wait to install it and see if it works!

 

[grits]

Question about video cards:

My 1080p(?) DLP won't accept a 1080p input, so I use component. Been using a 7300LE and the PQ is great.

But with a X2-4200+, 1080p MKVs are problematic. Lower bit rate ones are OK.

So would a ATI-3470 be a good solution? Does the UVD feature apply to component output?
How about a 8400GS?

 

[renethx]

Hardware acceleration for a 1080p mkv file works only if the file is encoded with the correct number of reference frames (see this) and as a matter of fact HA does not work for most 1080p mkv files. So you will need a fast processor instead of a discrete grahics card supporting UVD or PureVideo HD. Try overclock your processor (to the maximum).

 

[grits]

Thanks for the quick answer.

I guess I need to flash back to the earlier bios, right?

 

[renethx]

2.2GHz is too weak for some files. You will need at least 2.5GHz and any BIOS should be fine.

 

[renethx]

Try also CoreAVC H.264 decoder ($15) that reduces CPU load considerably.

 

[bigsnyder]

What player and codec are you currently using?