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

[pctwo]

good4now, if pressing Return doesn't work, hit + (plus) or - (minus) key

 

[buleyb]

while I appreciate the idea, $20+shipping is hefty for a connector I can mod up myself. Perhaps if you had something else like USB on it, I'd be more inclined...actually...SATA + Molex would do it for me....

 

[mikeaco]

good4now: Just to add on to jough's comments...once you get there, it looks like the voltage setting is greyed out and can't be adjusted. You can, however, by pressing the '+' or '-' keys. Initially, I thought it would be like adjusting all of the other settings...you hit the 'enter' key and then you have a list of voltages to choose from. But this is not the case for adjusting the DDR Voltage.

 

[jough]

Looks like a couple of others beat me to the answer.

Yes, I thought it was unchangeable too, but if you press + or - (on the number pad - the regular keys with +\= and -\_ don't work on mine) you CAN change it. Why the UI for this one setting is different than everything else in the BIOS is a mystery. I will assume, though, that you did not read the manual (as I did not) as there are detailed instructions for each BIOS menu screen in there (albeit with some huge mistakes that leave the rest of the text in doubt, like the part where they tell you to install the ATi drivers when this board comes only with an nVidia GPU).

I had to set my memory voltage at 2.7v to stop random reboots, which turns the number yellow in the BIOS. So far I haven't noticed any ill-effects, and I'm sure the BIOS colouring scheme is more a caution than an absolute DANGER sign, but still, the voltage is a bit higher than the default. But I bought value RAM too, on the advice of folks here.

 

[good4now]

Thanks jough, mikeaco and pctwo, seems so simple when explained.

Now that I have the attention of you experts I will share more difficult issues. Every morning I and other OC's have coffee and a Skype session where we are discussing OC'ing. Needless to say we end up at dead ends on certain issues. One of the issues has to do with on board video. We recognize the cpu and memory are part of the video processing equation. Our real question what does the NB really do regarding the video load? What BIOS settings influence video performance and why.

Thanks again

 

[jough]

I have 2Gb of RAM in my system, so I tend to up the onboard video to as much memory as I can share - which tops-out at 128mb in this mobo.

The onboard video is actually really good on this card - I'm upgrading to a PCI-E card to do get some better game and HD video performance, but overall I've been really impressed with the 6150 so far. I can play Half-Life 2 with just about everything cranked all the way up.

From what I understand they separated out the 3D and 2D between the North and South bridge chips, right?

Since you're relying on system memory, getting your memory timings and voltage running at peak performance will affect video. As far as other settings go, I will defer to those more knowledgable on the issue.

 

[pctwo]

Originally posted by: good4now
Thanks jough, mikeaco and pctwo, seems so simple when explained.

Now that I have the attention of you experts I will share more difficult issues. Every morning I and other OC's have coffee and a Skype session where we are discussing OC'ing. Needless to say we end up at dead ends on certain issues. One of the issues has to do with on board video. We recognize the cpu and memory are part of the video processing equation. Our real question what does the NB really do regarding the video load? What BIOS settings influence video performance and why.

Thanks again

well for best video perf you want to set NB<->CPU speed to the max (1000mhz) and NB<->CPU linkwidth to 16. (NB=northbridge which is your 6150 onboard video chip.) Then test with 3dMark and your favorite games to make sure you're stable. If you like to play 3D games, then set video memory to 128M (the max).

Since the video chip uses system memory, you also want to set your mem speed to the highest that you can run stable at, 166 (or 183, for BIOS v3.00)

I think that's about all you can do. If you want to be adventurous, download nTune from nVidia.com and see if you can OC the video chip. I don't know if nTune will let you do this, but you can try. You need good airflow in your case so your NB doesn't overheat.

 

[aeroguy]

Never mind, I figured it out.

 

[aeroguy]

Since I'm asking questions, I guess I should give out some advice too. If anyone else is building an nMediaPC 200...

1st, if you're confused about the pin connections for the front audio header like I was, see this thread.

Second, the SPDIF bracket that comes with the nMediaPC has pin placement backwards from the motherboard (I copied the text below from that thread also).

Motherboard connector:
__-__
[o o o]
1 2 3

Pin 1 - Data
Pin 2 - Ground
Pin 3 - No Connection

SPDIF cable from NMedia:

[o o o]
1 2 3

Pin 1 - Ground
Pin 2 - Data
Pin 3 - No Connection

So basically I cut the empty pin off the SPDIF cable (a hacksaw worked surprisingly well, very clean cut) and put it in correctly, then digital coaxial output finally worked. This is slightly off topic for this thread, but it may help someone.

 

[notareal]

Originally posted by: renethx
___________________________________________
14. Tweaking the System III. Safety Caution
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Running PC Alert is mandatory!

After I closely looked into BIOS, I found that there is no mechanism of auto shutdown of the system in BIOS in the event of CPU overheating or CPU fan failure. In Power Management section there are menus "Force Throttle" and "System Thermal", but none of them forces complete shutdown of the system. Therefore installing PC Alert and running it all the time is critical. (None of MBM, Everest, or SpeedFan can detect the motherboard's sensor chip.) There is one problem in running PC Alert: user must have the administrative privilege. If you always run your computer as an administrator (that is not recommended), there will be no problem.

I asked about this from the MSI support and suggested that they should change PC Alert to work without the need of administrative rights. Got this reply:

When the temp is too high, our board has been designed to shut down automatically to protect the CPU even without applying PC Alert.

It is just company policy that PC Alert must run at Administratior or the same level account. As to your suggestion, we would inform of our engineers. Thanks!

 

[nordicpc]

So I apologize in advance if I've skipped the answer to all of my questions so far, but I've got a couple of issues with this board. I've sold probably 10 machines that are pretty stock setups, but I have a friend who has one and I'm trying to tweak it out.

First off, in your first post you claim that the heat from the heatsink is normal. I've never been able to place a finger on that HS for more than about a second or two in 2d mode, let alone 3d. I've been very hesitant to do too much with it because of that. This is not just one board, but every one of them I've fired up so far.

Second, I run all of them on the 3.13 BIOS because of various stability issues with the 3.1 engineering BIOS, just so you know.

Lastly, in the overclocking department, the machine in question is this board, 3.13 BIOS, Kingston ValueRAM DDR400 (2x512), Venice 3500+, MSI Theatre 550 Pro, W/D Raptor 36.7, 3x W/D 320gb RAID-5, Lite-On DVD burner, all slammed in a Silverstone LC-16B. It's really quite a nice setup.

I started playing around with this machine over the weekend, and was able to get some initial results on the LDT frequency support for the board. Dropping the HT to 4x, CPU multi down to 10x and the RAM down to 133, I was only able to get the board to POST at ~235. Anything around 240 killed it. I had the SATA ports disabled while testing, and only the CD-ROM with USB Keyboard/mouse hooked up for Memtest. I could not get anywhere near the 250 limit.

So I decided to play around with the proc a bit. I swapped the stock HSF for the older heatpipe model with some AS5, since I had one laying around, and that was able to keep the temps in the 40's constantly. I booted Memtest at 230x11=2.53 with the memory still at the 133 divider. Memtest ran fine for the first 60-some percent then errors came in like crazy. We're talking tens/second. If I dropped the multi back down, everything was good. Is this the memtest error that you reported some people having?

I ended up with the board at 234 and the proc at 2.34, memory right below 400 with 2.5,3,3,7 1T timings. It runs like a bat outta hell, but with the multimedia crunching it'll be doing, I'd like to get that extra couple hundred MHZ out of it.

Thanks!

 

[sjschwinn]

Here are a couple other options for coax SPDIF jacks (in or out).

FrontX Panel Mount
FrontX Modular Mount (fits into their modular case - pretty slick)

I just ordered one of these. I assume they will work (they have the 3 pin header connector - but the GND wire needs to be moved).

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: notareal

When the temp is too high, our board has been designed to shut down automatically to protect the CPU even without applying PC Alert.

I have contacted MSI for more details because this function is not documented. I should get an answer in a couple of days.

 

[renethx]

nordicpc,

Have you checked the CPU temperature with PC Alert? How high is it? What rpm is your CPU fan running at? The stock heatsink/fan is designed to cool down CPU sufficiently for nonoverclocking systems.

Lower CPU multiplier to not x10 but x8 and mem divider 133 MHz and see what is the max LDT of your board. You may try to raise CPU voltage by +0.05V. This usually helps OC. Your Kingston ValueRAM seems to have compatibility issue with the motherboard. You may raise DDR Voltage slightly or try BIOS v3.20.

 

[nordicpc]

After playing around a bit more, it looks like Spread Spectrum was the culprit. I hadn't turned that setting off yet. From what you were saying earlier, just by setting the multi would increase the voltage, right? I've been doing that all along, with the memory set to 2.7v.

I'm going to run through a few passes of Memtest now at 2.64 and see if the problems creap back up. I hope that spread spectrum was the issue all along, and it may be the issue that those couple of people have with Memtest.

 

[Raydur]

which "spread spectrum" setting are you turning off?

Can anyone explain this spread spectrum thing? I haven't been able to understand it...

Should they all be set to off? (there's 3 things with spread spectrum, I believe).

 

[BernardP]

I just brought home my new k8NGM2-FID based system and I think I might have a problem with the memory modules that were installed. I have created a Topic in the General Hardware section. I would appreciate feedback from people in this thread.

Thanks

Edit: Problem solved, memory has been replaced by the store.

 

[brad42]

I'm putting together a HTPC. I have BTV4 running clean with HDTV / component video at 1080i. The headache is that on reboot the tv out reverts back to NTSC instead of 1080i. Is there some trick to getting the driver to remember the format across a reboot?

 

[jessephilip]

I apologize in advanc if this question has been asked previously or for any other reason I should already know the answer, but . . .

I bought some Corsair DDR/400 RAM that is only running at 333. How do I make it run at 400?

Thanks!!

 

[aeroguy]

Originally posted by: jessephilip
I apologize in advanc if this question has been asked previously or for any other reason I should already know the answer, but . . .

I bought some Corsair DDR/400 RAM that is only running at 333. How do I make it run at 400?

Thanks!!

If you have 2 modules, put it in slots 1 & 2 (one green slot and one purple slot)

If you have 4 units you are out of luck. It will only run at 333.

 

[aeroguy]

I have a problem with my coponent out... outputs fine as windows is starting up, but only outputs shades of blue once it's up and running.

I also posted my problem here

 

[nordicpc]

Spread spectrum tries to help with problems with electromagnetic interference or something to that effect. You can find more about it on the wikipedia or other reference. It's generally accepted by overclockers that when maxing out the bus spread spectrum on the CPU can make for a lower overclock. Usually when going all the way, it's necessary to turn of CPU spread. SATA or PCIe spread should be fine to leave on.

 

[jough]

Originally posted by: Raydur
which "spread spectrum" setting are you turning off?

Can anyone explain this spread spectrum thing? I haven't been able to understand it...

Should they all be set to off? (there's 3 things with spread spectrum, I believe).

I'm curious about this too. I have an A-Data DDR kit and have had nothing but problems with it - reboots all the time, memory fails the POST R/W test, all kinds of errors in memtest86, then I try them in a different board and no problems.

If they fail, all I have to do is leave the machine off for awhile and then it boots right back up again, at least until I do something that's RAM intensive.

I requested an RMA but I want to make SURE it's the RAM before I send it back, only to replace it with new RAM and still have the same problems.

What needs to be set in the motherboard for the RAM other than the voltage?

 

[renethx]

Originally posted by: aeroguy
I have a problem with my coponent out... outputs fine as windows is starting up, but only outputs shades of blue once it's up and running.

Which BIOS are you using? BIOS v3.00 has problems with TV-out.

Some user reported that changing video driver to a lower version number fixed the blue screen problem.

 

[aeroguy]

Originally posted by: renethx

Originally posted by: aeroguy
I have a problem with my coponent out... outputs fine as windows is starting up, but only outputs shades of blue once it's up and running.

Which BIOS are you using? BIOS v3.00 has problems with TV-out.

Some user reported that changing video driver to a lower version number fixed the blue screen problem.

BIOS 3.20, do you happen to know what driver they're using?

renethx, I have one other problem, I can't get my screen to expand out to the edges of my TV (is that underscan?). There are black areas for about 1/2 inch on the top and bottom of the screen and 1/4 inch on the left and right. I can't find a setting to expand the picture. I can more it up and down, but not expand it. It's the same withn using media center, even when I tell it to adjust my picture automatically. I've tried different resolutions, but that doesn't help either. Any ideas?