Unofficial Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR thread

[imported_Bucko]

DANG, I keep forgetting that I have two more channels unused on the NVIDIA controller.
I guess I win the pest award for this thread.
Ok then are peeps happy with the Sata to Pata adaptors available some where for 15 bucks
:thumbsup: :thumbsdown:

 

[overclock]

I put my board in and had nothing but problems. First it would copy over all of the XP installation files and setup Windows. The Windows would be highly unstable. I would get all sorts of errors while trying to install programs or drivers, random reboots, and way too long of shutdowns. I tried reinstalling Windows again last night. This time it wouldn't even copy over the installation files correctly. So I had a grand idea, underclock the memory. I have some Buffalo PC3200 Winbond CH-5 double sided memory. After I did that I didn't have a problem one. I put the memory down to 166, or 333MHz. So I lost 67MHz of memory goodness. I haven't tried to raise the voltage or anything.

Could my memory be the limiting factor? Should I get some single sided memory? I have an Antec TruePower 430 with 20 amps on the 12v rail. This should be enough for this board. Not many other PSUs have 12v rails over 20 amps. I'll keep installing tonight and see how it goes.

EDIT: Just for kicks I checked Soltek's Web site and there is a new bios:
Supported K8 Sempron CPU 3100+ is all it says. So if that is all, then who cares. But if someone would like to test it and let us know...that would be so kind of you.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey OC, thanks for the update on the new bios. I won't be able to try it until tomorrow night, but will report back if there's any good stuff to tell. I'd try pumping 2.8V into your CH-5 and see if that helps with stability. Get your OS installed first at 166 and then run Prime 95's blend test to see if your mem is stable at 200MHz and 2.8V. It takes 2.8V to get my Ballistix stable at 1T-2-2-5-2 at around 200~210MHz so it may just need more voltage.

doobie

 

[krose]

Flashed to the new BIOS K8AN211.bin. There are no changes that I can see. I was hoping to see HTT up to 280 or 300 since clockgen works. Maybe someday...:frown:

 

[cyberknight]

[Athlon 64 3000+] [Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR] [MSI RX9800 (green)] [Seagate 120GB S-ATA] [512MB Samsung DDR400] [Viewsonic P95f+] [SB Audigy 2] [Antec Sonata w/380W]
Using stock heatsink with Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste.

hey guys, what temps are you guys getting? Also, anyone use the Cool'n'Quiet yet? When I set my Power Scheme to "Minimal Power Management" my CPU temp jumps up like 10 degrees. I'm not sure if it's reading problem or what...

Also, I've flashed the most recent BIOS and downloaded the updates from both the AMD and Soltek sites.

Here are my temps, I'm giving the numbers on both the Soltek Hardware Monitor and SpeedFan
CPU temp on normal
Soltek: 49
SppedFan: 41

CPU on Cool'n'Quiet
Soltek: 61
SpeedFan: 53

note my CPU Fan RPM remains constant at around 3400-3500 RPM

My system temp is about 32 degrees btw if that is useful.

*edit*
I tried another hardware monitor, AIDA32, and it gave me the same numbers as SpeedFan. Which is approximately 40 degrees on both the CPU and System temps. Possibly the Soltek monitor is inaccurate.
If I turn on Cool'n'Quiet, the CPU temp still rises 10 degrees regardless of the monitor program.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Your temps seem about right with the stock heatsink. I'd trust Aida and SpeedFan since they're showing the same numbers. I use Soltek's HM and my temps are showing 43~44C idle and 46~47C under heavy load with the SLK-948U and a Panaflo 92mm H. I'll have to try Aida and SpeedFan now to see what they say.

doobie

Edit: Forgot to mention with the temps that I'm running the 3000+ at 2.5GHz.

 

[overclock]

As a continuation of my above post...

I've had nothing but problems with this board. The SATA is ultra flaky. I finally got it working and installed Windows. So last night I finished installing the majority of my programs and powered down to connect my old IDE hard drives to copy over my data files. I connect my IDE HD and hit the on button and now it won't recognize my SATA drives. I am running 2 Seagate 200GB on the nForce RAID on SATA 1 and 2. No matter what I did it wouldn't boot back to the SATA array again. I have problems getting the system BIOS to see the array properly. The RAID BIOS comes up and shows a "Healthy" RAID array and accounts for the hard drives correctly.

So far I've spent over 15 hours getting this thing to run. A simple upgrade of a motherboard and CPU has never taken me this long. With the problems I had with the memory and now the drives I'm beginning to wonder if my motherboard is defective. Is this common for this board?

 

[DoobieOnline]

Hey OC, did you enable RAID in bios? This is from the manual...

1. Start the system, press < Delete > key to enter BIOS Setup. Choose
?Integrated Peripherals? and select ?IDE function Setup?, then press
enter. The IDE function Setup windows appears.

2. Enable ?IDE RAID? and enable the disks that you want to set as
RAID disks. ( If RAID 0+1 mode is to be set, please enable SATA drives.)

3. Then press F10 to save the change and exit the BIOS. The PC reboots.

I would assume that you only have to enable RAID for the SATA Primary &amp; Secondary and not the IDE channels. If you've already tried this, you may want to use the Promise SATA headers at the bottom of the board and see if those work for you. If you do that, make sure you set the Promise controller to RAID in bios and have the Promise jumper set correctly on the board. Good luck!

doobie

 

[overclock]

Thanks Doobie.

I have done all of what you suggested. I guess I could try the Promise but that would involve reinstalling Windoze.

I have had the array working and installed almost all of my software. Just when I turned off the computer and connected the IDE it went to pot. Seems like all of the nForce 250Gb boards have some sort of major problem.

 

[imported_Bucko]

Seems like I had to make Bios find the drives by going to auto then key up to detect (for each drive)several times when installing.

 

[DoobieOnline]

Sorry to hear that, OC. You should definitely contact Soltek about the problem and they're usually pretty quick about getting out a response.

On a side note - I've decided to try some new RAM after reading the review of the DFI NF3 250GB board at AT and seeing how much success they had with 2 sticks of OCZ Platinum Rev. 2 using only 2.8V. Crucial was very cool about letting me return the Ballistix PC4000 since it wouldn't do 250MHz unless I used 2T with two sticks installed. I should have it tomorrow and will post what kind of luck I have with it tomorrow night.

doobie

 

[Blammo300]

Does anyone know any walk in stores that carry the Soltek K8AN2E?

 

[overclock]

I have tried everything and the main system BIOS simply refuses to acknowledge the two SATA hard drives. I put it on the Promise, I put it back on the nVidia RAID, I enabled, I disabled, I cleared the CMOS and started over, I tried every possible combination. Nothing worked. I give up. This board is going back to Newegg tomorrow. The question is do I get another Soltek or pay the 15% and get another one? I'll have to call them tomorrow. I feel bad that this was my first experience with Soltek. Bummer.

 

[imported_Bucko]

It?s not a board problem.
Windows has to re-map that drive and that is done in Administrative Tools. Raid is really not that easy to achieve. It?s almost easier to use the Windows software Raid instead of the hardware controllers. Why do you think that most forums say Raid is a waste of time? Cause it takes a lot of time setting up. I can't remember why you moved the drives but you could have reloaded again by now. I have been using a Ghost Image to do my setups. One DVD

 

[overclock]

Hey Bucko! (Sorry. I just had to say that. I feel like Richie Cunningham.)

I had the array working perfectly before. I had it in a RAID 0 stripe with Windows installed and working. I simply shut down and BAM, nothing. The BIOS refuses to see the drives properly. The RAID BIOS sees the drives just fine. This isn't a Windows problem, it's a board problem. Specifically a BIOS problem. After all this it really seems that SATA is still in its infancy.

EDIT: Update. I have RMA'ed the board to Newegg and ordered another Soltek. It seems that all A64 boards have issues with memory and SATA. I hope the replacement fixes the problem. It is a fast board, especially with the SATA drives. Hopefully the mobo will ship today!

 

[imported_Bucko]

You know what, I overlooked the fact that you where working with Sata not just a Raid problem.
I forgot Richie used to say that. I heard it before that show was on TV.
I have moved my raid drives around but they are IDE. In fact if I need to use my DVD burner I just unplug the power to one raid (after shutdown of course) and jack in my DVD. Most problems I had was using cable select. And not dedicating drives.
You probably feel about Sata as the spellchecker does :evil:

 

[cyberknight]

hey, do you guys have a red light lit up on your motherboard? I have a red light lit up slightly above my DIMM slots. Is that just a power light? Or does it mean something else?

 

[DoobieOnline]

The red light is normal (I hope, because mine is glowing red).

Well, no joy on running the 2x512MB OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev2 at 250FSB at 1T. I tried all kinds of timings but nothing worked except bumping it to 2T and then it was fine. It only needs 2.7V at 208MHz (1T-2-2-10-2) for total stability and the Ballistix needed 2.8V at the same speed/timing to be stable. Another good thing about the OCZ is that it runs much cooler than the Ballistix did. I stress-tested the OCZ at 2.8V to make a direct comparison with the Ballistix, and it runs 5~6C cooler at idle/load. I used the same temp probe at the same location (between the heatspreaders of the two sticks). The search for the holy grail of RAM continues. I'm hearing good things about OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev3, so I may give it a try with this setup.

doobie

 

[krose]

User on PCper is running at 280 1:1 (using clockgen) with 2 x 512 MB Adata PC4200. Check the Soltek forum.

 

[krose]

Overclocker, what is your boot sequence set at? I set up a RAID array and it showed as Nvidia Stripe then disappeared upon reboot. You need to set the Add-In cards as the first boot device.

 

[Blammo300]

I just recieved all my parts today and put the new rig together. Everything loaded up all right, though when it gets to the Promise Sata screen it says could not find device and no bios installed! Should I disable this in the bios? Also I tried messing around with the settings but I could not get the Bios to read DDR 500 with my 512 PC 4000 Crucial Ballistix memory.

Can anyone recommend some BIOS settings based on my rig?

Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR
Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle
512 PC4000 Crucial Ballistix
eVGA Nvidia 6800GT
Seagate 160 SATA

 

[overclock]

Originally posted by: krose
Overclocker, what is your boot sequence set at? I set up a RAID array and it showed as Nvidia Stripe then disappeared upon reboot. You need to set the Add-In cards as the first boot device.

Krose,

I've tried everything. It should at a minimum show the hard drives in the CMOS as connected to the SATA ports. Even when I had Windows running off of the IDE with the SATA drives connected nothing would recognize the SATA drives. Maybe I'll try some stuff again today.

Blammo300,

Try running your RAM at 166 and see if it works. A64 boards are really picky about RAM.
Do you have your SATA drive connected to the Promise or nVidia SATA port? If you aren't using the Promise you can turn it off in the BIOS.

 

[Blammo300]

I have it plugged into the Nvidia SATA port so I will turn the promise off in bios, thanks for the tip. My SATA drive also says its only running at 133, isnt it supposed to run at 150?

 

[Staples]

I just installed one of these boards yesterday. It seems to work just fine. I want to flash the BIOS though but their website has been down for at least the last 24 hours.

I want to flash because I have a problem in hopes that it will fix it. When I hit reset in Windows or on the board, it does not reset. It powers down or shuts down windows but it does not post. No error code either and the video goes out. Very strange and annoying but I can look past it once I get everything installed and do not have to manually power off power on everytime I install a driver.

 

[Nomad692000]

New Bios are out, I was hoping it would fix my temp readings but it didnt. But anyway there out. I cant get on the site right now or I would post a link.