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

[avi85]

Originally posted by: dongarb
Does anyone have a K8NGM2-L with an MSI bios that they can email me?

Try asking for it at MSI customer support, they're usually pretty good about it.

 

[dongarb]

An excellent suggestion. I went to MSI customer support and found that they had forums there. There was a forum named "bios" and in there a search for "K8NGM2-L" produced a thread that gave this link:

ftp://msicomputer.org/K8NGM2-L140.rar

I downloaded and burned it and things seem to be running much better. The old eMachines bios was truly a piece of garbage. Hopefully I have broken the evil's back and this box will soon run again.

 

[indiekiduk]

I upgraded to Vista and now have a problem with this board. Since Cool'n'quiet isn't detected you need to use RightMark to control the CPU speed but thats no biggie. My problem is that the fans are on all the time. Anyone know a fan control utility for this board which works in vista?

 

[grits]

Google around and you will find CnQ is supported in Vista Power Management. You do have to manually configure it.

I don't remember if fans are included. Would speedfan work on them?

 

[magnux]

Quick question to K8NGM2-FID owners.. how many beeps does your PC make on post? As far as I can remember, mine always had 2 quick beeps (3 if I have an external USB drive plugged in). However, after digging around I found that this indicates a memory problem -- however, I've never had a problem.

Just curious if the general documentation applies here. Most PC's I've ever owned always had just 1.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: magnux
Quick question to K8NGM2-FID owners.. how many beeps does your PC make on post? As far as I can remember, mine always had 2 quick beeps (3 if I have an external USB drive plugged in). However, after digging around I found that this indicates a memory problem -- however, I've never had a problem.

Just curious if the general documentation applies here. Most PC's I've ever owned always had just 1.

I just get 1

 

[magnux]

Originally posted by: avi85
I just get 1

Hrm.. methinks there may be a little investigating I need to do. Do you by chance use a USB keyboard and mouse?

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: magnux

Originally posted by: avi85
I just get 1

Hrm.. methinks there may be a little investigating I need to do. Do you by chance use a USB keyboard and mouse?

PS/2 Keyboard
USB mouse

 

[magnux]

Hrm.. I can't seem to find anything wrong. I just flashed to the latest beta BIOS (3.73) -- reconfirmed all BIOS settings, swapped RAM. I know it sounds weird that I'm even bothering, even though there's not problems being exhibited.. but it keeps tapping at the back of my mind. Argh.

Are you using any IDE drives? I'm not. I wonder if that matters. I wish this was better documented.. heh.

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: magnux
Are you using any IDE drives? I'm not. I wonder if that matters. I wish this was better documented.. heh.

1 dvd-rom
1dvdrw
1 ide hd

 

[aeroguy]

Extra USB devices give me extra beeps. I get three right now, but if I unplug them, I just get one.

 

[magnux]

Originally posted by: aeroguy
Extra USB devices give me extra beeps. I get three right now, but if I unplug them, I just get one.

Ah hah! I had a sneaking suspicion.. I'll check that out when I get home today.

Thanks.

 

[dongarb]

So I flashed the official MSI bios on my K8NGM2-L and wiped out the emachines bios that was crippling the machine. Right away things ran faster and I had a much more complete cmos settings. BUT, the board became unstable and started rebooting itself and I could not install service pack 2 for XP. So I switched to hardware troubleshooting mode and decided to swap the memory sticks. I saw that the memory slots are purple and green. A quick trip to the MSI page showed that the green slots had to be filled first. I did this and now all is well. So if anyone follows the same path I did: the emachines bios doesn't care where the memory sticks are, and the MSI bios wants to see green sockets filled first.

 

[murmy]

I installed Vista on my system and could never get the Processor Power Management to show up and thus Cool 'n Quiet would never work. I wrote MSI technical support and I just got their reply. I tried it and it seems to work.

----------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,

We have released the new BIOS for your issue. Please download it from ftp.
BIOS/7207/A7207NMS.374.
Please unplug the power supply to clear CMOS as described in the manual, then enter BIOS to Load Defaults and enable Cool 'n' Quiet.

Best Regards
MSI Technical Support Team

------------------------------------------------------

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: murmy
I installed Vista on my system and could never get the Processor Power Management to show up and thus Cool 'n Quiet would never work. I wrote MSI technical support and I just got their reply. I tried it and it seems to work.

----------------------------------------------------
Dear Customer,

We have released the new BIOS for your issue. Please download it from ftp.
BIOS/7207/A7207NMS.374.
Please unplug the power supply to clear CMOS as described in the manual, then enter BIOS to Load Defaults and enable Cool 'n' Quiet.

Best Regards
MSI Technical Support Team

------------------------------------------------------

Thanks alot! I installed it and it works great!

 

[roy179]

Anyone know where these are still in stock? thx

 

[avi85]

Today I received the Zalman ZM-NB47J Chipset cooler, till now I had my chipset cooled with the stock heatsink (with ceramique) and a 30mm fan that I mounted on it, but the temps were not that good even with the fan (which I hate cause of the annoying noise it makes) here are some pics comparing the size of the stock HS and the zalman:
Pic 1
Pic 2
Pic 3
As you can see, the zalman is much larger than the stock HS which makes it a pain to mount, but it just takes a little patience.
Here are some pics of the hetsink after I mounted it, it sits at an angle because there are 2 capacitors which prevent it from being straight.
Pic 4
Pic 5
Pic 6

And for the most amazing part *drumroll* the temps (room temp was about 22 and the case was open for all tests) I tested load by running the GPU intensive tests on 3dmark05 over and over till the temp wouldn't rise anymore, using the onboard graphics of course, this may not be the hottest it can get but it gives a pretty good idea. Also I used Nvidia monitor to check temps.

At 5 bucks on newegg, it's a steal and if you're already ordering something else it will barely add to your shipping.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

FYI, it says on the product page at zalman that it's not for chipsets with onboard graphics but I figured that if MSI could use that puny little HS then this can't be worse (and boy was I right...)

One more thing, I took off the south bridge and the thermal paste was hardened crap, so I cleaned it and put normal thermal paste on it and now the HS finally gets warm (before it would stay relatively cool cause the heat was never transfered to the HS), just something to consider doing...
Pic 7

 

[seelee]

hi, renethx,

I am new in overclocking. My system won't boot (no Video, no POST) after the bios update. I updated the bios (V3.10) and overclocked as per your post. The system re-started and the windows ran fine but some of the hardware drivers were missing. I ignored that and ran the winavi.exe, the system froze. I re-started but this time the system won't start, no video and can't go into bios. I turned off the PSU for a few minutes and re-started and no luck. Panic! Need helps. Thanks

mobo: MSI K8NGM2-FID
video:EVGA 6800GS
RAM: 2gig - PC3200
CPU: AMD A64 3000+

 

[renethx]

seelee

Possible fixes are:

• Clear CMOS
• Turn off the switch on PSU and leave the system for a couple of minutes. Then start the system.
• Flash BIOS by BIOS Recovery Feature. "In this method you need only a blank formatted floppy disk. Copy the BIOS file A7207NMS.3xx to the blank floppy disk and rename it to AMIBOOT.ROM. To flash BIOS to v3.xx, insert this disk in the floppy disk drive, turn on the system and press and hold Ctrl + Home (the timing of pressing keys may be a little difficult). "FLASH Recovery" begins. The system restarts automatically after flashing."

 

[magnux]

I decided to try some very, very mild overclocking today with my FX-60. I couldn't get Windows to boot with even the slightest FSB bump. I tried 210, 205 and 203. The windows loading bar will appear, then the system will reboot.

Since I have an FX-60, I also tried changing the multiplier only -- still, no windows boot. Oh well.

I don't care, because the system is rock solid otherwise. I was just bored.

I'm trying all this with BIOS 3.73 mind you, I really have no desire to go to such an early version (3.13) and possibly have problems. Especially since I'm quite happy with my current performance.

Just thought I'd share.

 

[seelee]

HI,

My system won't run certain applications. Can anybody help? I tried to run Bitcomet but it will only run for a few minutes and then the computer rebooted. The Bitcomet would no longer run again after the first reboot. I have to uninstall the Bitcomet and reinstall a new Bitcomet, it ran for a few minutes and the same cycle repeated. I tried to check my hard drive but the Windows check disk kept rebooting before the checking finished and I had to press a key to get in to windows. Any suggestions?

Note: I used to use the same hard driver and the softwares on my old P3 and there were no problems before.

Bios: v3.50
mobo: MSI K8NGM2-FID
video:EVGA 6800GS
RAM: 2gig - PC3200 (dual-channel arrangement)
CPU: AMD A64 3000+
Hard drives: SATA (for OS), ATA (for Bitcomet)

 

[jealouse]

hi there. another fx-60 user here

i didn't encounter any problem with slight fx-60 overclocking.

i tried up to 210mhz fsb and the system is rock solid.

i also tried multiplier-change overclocking. i set it at 14 to achieve 2800mhz and it's also

rock solid. but for some reason, every time i 'wake up' the system from sleep mode, the multiplier would reset back to 13, resulting 2600mhz...

so i just use the fsb at 210mhz for 2.73ghz and it works just fine.

(btw, by rock-solid, i mean it passes at least 6 hours of prime95...)

my bios is 3.5 and i didn't try any other version cuz of laziness...

btw, with my slight overclocking, i didn't change anything other than fsb, and in case of multiplier change, multiplier itself and nothing else...

 

[gman81]

I'm running with the stock BIOS rev 3.10 and I'm not overclocking, not gaming, not doing anything but running a std config. This is an MCE2005 machine and would like to go into and out of S3 seemlessly. I've turned off CnQ. Does 3.50, 3.60, 3.7x buy me anything?

I saw in the notes for BIOS 3.20 that going in/out of S3 with a keyboard was added. Does this mean that 3.10 was not able to do this?

 

[magnux]

Originally posted by: jealouse
hi there. another fx-60 user here

i didn't encounter any problem with slight fx-60 overclocking.

i tried up to 210mhz fsb and the system is rock solid.

i also tried multiplier-change overclocking. i set it at 14 to achieve 2800mhz and it's also

rock solid. but for some reason, every time i 'wake up' the system from sleep mode, the multiplier would reset back to 13, resulting 2600mhz...

so i just use the fsb at 210mhz for 2.73ghz and it works just fine.

(btw, by rock-solid, i mean it passes at least 6 hours of prime95...)

my bios is 3.5 and i didn't try any other version cuz of laziness...

btw, with my slight overclocking, i didn't change anything other than fsb, and in case of multiplier change, multiplier itself and nothing else...

Weird. I can't imagine I have the only FX-60 in the world that won't overclock 10MHz.. I had the same problem with an earlier X2 3800+ I used to use. Any change in multiplier/fsb would prevent the system from booting into Windows.

The board has never exhibited symptoms of being anything other than in perfect health. In fact, it's been the most stable board I've ever owned. Like I stated before, I didn't buy this system to overclock, so I'm not exactly concerned -- but my curiosity has definately been peaked.

I got bored during a reformat the other day, so I tried v3.00 (among others) -- all which yielded the same result. So, it's definately not the BIOS version..

Very odd..

 

[crispyfish]

Hey all, I've found this thread really helpful. Thanks to all who made it what it is!

I do have one contribution: the Scythe Ninja Rev. B installs just fine on this board in exactly the manner described in the manual. I'm not sure why CthulpiSS had problems with it (maybe it was Rev. A?) but I can assure you that installation of the Rev. B is smoooooooth.