Unoffical SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939" -Memory Problems

[BF04]

System
AMD64 - Winchester 3200+
Thermaltake SILENT BOOST For AMD Opteron and Athlon 64 (All Copper)
Lian Li PC 61
SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939"
OCZ Powerstream 520w
OCZ Performance Series Dual Channel Kit 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3500
Nvidia 5700U
Seagate SATA 7200 160g
Ide temp 39-40c
under load 40-42c
not overclocking

Installation was easy, issue on installation was getting the MB to reconize the HD and art of that is this is first time using SATA so newbness was there.
The 1 problem I am having is the memory is running 333mhz single channel. According the Doc's your suppose to populate banks 1&2 for dual, if you do an error code beeps and you dont boot. I have tried every combination of banks and only banks 1&3 work, however it comes up in single channel 333mhz. I have played with the manual settings, nothing. I do not have any other RAM to test. Couple of questions,
FSB - 200mhz - this is correct, isnot the HT running at 1000mhz? If so how do you calculate its speed?
Memory - 166mhz - Isnot this suppose to be 200mhz for PC 3200?

Current test Ive done,
D3 mark 05 - 750
Doom3 1280x1024 med. settings no AA - 20fps
* I think in both test that my 5700U is whats having the difficulties. I will be upgrading to a 6800NU soon.

How much performance difference is there between,
1G RAM single channel 333mhz
1G RAM duel channel 400mhz

I know there is some, but is the difference alot? I play lots of games from AO, CoH, Doom, Americas Army. I am tempted to wait it out and see if they fix anything in a bios update rather than pull the MB and get a new one, as it took 6+ hours to get everything together and do the cabling

Thanks for any observations, help, suggestions

 

[Schwan]

It's not just you. I'm having the exact same problem. 2x512 of Mushkin 3200 ram. Runs at 333 instead of 400. Single channel instead of dual. You're supposed to use banks 1&2 for dual channel but this just gives you the beep. 1&3 is the only combination that works.

There are others that have this problem too. Check out this thread: http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=354358

Does anyone have a solution to this?

Is this something a future BIOS update will fix?

 

[Schwan]

bump

 

[thextreme1]

I had this problem also, it was taken care of today with the new bios upgrade!

KT8PRO-939 NEW BIOS

This fixes:

Memory Issues (allowing 3200 RAM to run in 200mhz mode that you can select in the bios)
More CPU Multipliers(up to 4000mhz)
Allows Via SATA controller to run in IDE or Raid Mode
Control over Promise RAID controller in Bios

These are what I remember off of the top of my head.

Enjoy your new 200mhz frequency!

thextreme1

 

[BF04]

Thanks I will check it and post back.

So far other than the memory not running dual/200mhz the board has been rock stable. Ive been playing CoH, AO, AA, Doom3 and have not had a single crash. While Im away I run Seti on it.



thx for the info.

 

[Schwan]

Thanks, I'll check this out later today.

 

[DJanish]

hey man howd u get the driver for ure soltek motherboard. I cant find it on the cd they gave to me. Could you tell me the file name or something?

 

[thextreme1]

You have to download it from their site at the link I gave above, put it on a floppy and make sure you make the floppy a bootable when you format it.

Their are instructions in the zip file you download. There is a file not in the zip you need that is actually on your system, just do a search for it, I think it is Io.sys. You need to put that on the floppy too.

 

[BF04]

Please reply when you have updated with results. I maynot get to the bios update till the weekend.


thx

 

[Schwan]

Seems to have worked fine for me.

It now does dual channel @ 400.

 

[BF04]

What slots do you have your memory in.

 

[thextreme1]

I have all 4 slots full and it is working great! 2GB's is a god-send, especially when editing video.

 

[thextreme1]

Is there software that lets you see what speed your memory is running at?

Just wondering,
B.

 

[Schwan]

BF04 - I now have it in slots 1 & 2 for dual channel. Before it would only work in 1 & 3.

theextreme1 - I've found "CPU-Z" to work pretty well.

 

[thextreme1]

Tell me what your readings are under memory with CPU-Z

 

[MadMikeSS]

Any of you out there who are using this board know if it has AGP/PCI locks? I'm considering purchasing one and that would really make my decision easier.

 

[najames]

Can someone with this board reply about the status of working AGP/PCI locks please? Also, what BIOS you're using? Version 1.2 is the latest I believe, can't get to the Soltek site again.

Bonus question, has anyone used this setup with an AMD64 with 64bit Linux? :>)

 

[Ishamori]

Yeah, it's been asked many times already with no definate answer to it. Hope someone can give a definate answer to it soon.

Also, will Kingston Valueram 2x512mb dual channel run with no problems on this board?


Cheers

 

[isaacyang]

According to Soltek's TEST, and if you believe the pictures they take, this board's PCI/AGP lock is working.

 

[Ishamori]

I've seen those pictures. It doesn't prove anything to me, because to be honest, i dont understand what the pictures are showing. The site being in another language doesn't help either.

If you have the board, can you show some overclocks with screenshots with the FSB going higher then what AT achieved, who believes that the board's PCI/AGP does not work.

Cheers.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

This board can't go very high on the FSB because it's very optimized for speed at default settings. There's one review Link where they could reach a 250MHz clock.

Soltek's pictures show the PCI frequency is 33MHz when the option is enabled and "FSB" is higher than 200MHz, so a PCI lock is working on that board. Just because 228MHz was AT's limit doesn't mean the PCI/AGP frequencies were holding it back.

 

[Omega Ohm]

Originally posted by: ChineseDemocracyGNR
This board can't go very high on the FSB because it's very optimized for speed at default settings. There's one review Link where they could reach a 250MHz clock.

Soltek's pictures show the PCI frequency is 33MHz when the option is enabled and "FSB" is higher than 200MHz, so a PCI lock is working on that board. Just because 228MHz was AT's limit doesn't mean the PCI/AGP frequencies were holding it back.

I sure would like to know what the hell they did to get it to 250. The only setting I can even get to somewhat work is 220 @ 11x with a 3500+ Winchester and it's not very stable. It's like 95% of the FSB speeds don't even register on this board.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: BF04
Thanks I will check it and post back.

So far other than the memory not running dual/200mhz the board has been rock stable. Ive been playing CoH, AO, AA, Doom3 and have not had a single crash. While Im away I run Seti on it.



thx for the info.

sounds like your typical Soltek board

 

[Rongisnom]

Heeeelp

I updated the bios but it still doesn't recognize my sata hd. I have it plugged into the SATA 1 port. Is this correct? In very simple newb language what are the steps that I should go through to get it to recognize my hd?