Unofficial Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR thread

[Megatomic]

It's so weird for me to see people have problems with Fast Writes. Since the very first mobo I had that supported it I have ran with it enabled and never really had any problems as a result. And all my systems have been overclocked, both the CPU and the GPU... I wonder what's up?

 

[VVarewolf]

Dude, you're the bomb! Played FarCry for an hour straight and not one freeze. Thank you much for the help. Now, why would FastWrite enabling cause this to happen? Any ideas?

 

[Megatomic]

I have some interesting news regarding the failure of many system utilities to detect the chipset properly on my SL-K8AN2E-GR motherboard. I found and installed a beta version of EVEREST Home Edition, build number 220. This beta build of EVEREST is able to detect the chipset as NF30250Gb, it even recognizes the Soltek name as well as the exact model of the motherboard. No other utility that I have does this.

Apparently all the other utilities lack certain hooks required by the software to get this info properly from the BIOS and chipset. It appears that the problem lies not with the Soltek BIOS but with the utilities themselves. I'm very surprised that the nVidia System Utility is unable to see the chipset correctly, I mean it is made by nVidia themselves.

I'll post a screenshot of this later today, I'm at work on a crappy P4 system not my beautiful A64 rig.

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
I have some interesting news regarding the failure of many system utilities to detect the chipset properly on my SL-K8AN2E-GR motherboard. I found and installed a beta version of EVEREST Home Edition, build number 220. This beta build of EVEREST is able to detect the chipset as NF30250Gb, it even recognizes the Soltek name as well as the exact model of the motherboard. No other utility that I have does this.

Apparently all the other utilities lack certain hooks required by the software to get this info properly from the BIOS and chipset. It appears that the problem lies not with the Soltek BIOS but with the utilities themselves. I'm very surprised that the nVidia System Utility is unable to see the chipset correctly, I mean it is made by nVidia themselves.

I'll post a screenshot of this later today, I'm at work on a crappy P4 system not my beautiful A64 rig.

Thanks for the info. Where did you find that build of Everest? I can only find an older version from their website. (which doesn't recognize the mobo)

 

[Megatomic]

It was in a review somewhere and it had nothing to do with the Soltek... I guess it was just a lucky find eh? If you have an ftp or gmail I can send it to you.

 

[mgsvr]

Originally posted by: VVarewolf
Dude, you're the bomb! Played FarCry for an hour straight and not one freeze. Thank you much for the help. Now, why would FastWrite enabling cause this to happen? Any ideas?

For real? You don't have any slow down/hiccup/freeze with FC when disable Fastwrite? Damn! I've been playing Far Cry with everything Very High, and got hiccup/freeze many time during play time. I cuss at the 1.3 Patch cuz I think it doesn't compatible with the 6800 OC or something. So I turned everything to High instead, still got some lockup/hiccup. I should have know it that Fastwrite create the problem.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Don't know if you guys saw it yet or not, but Hexus did a nice review of the board Text He managed 280mhz before instability :beer:

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: mgsvr

For real? You don't have any slow down/hiccup/freeze with FC when disable Fastwrite? Damn! I've been playing Far Cry with everything Very High, and got hiccup/freeze many time during play time. I cuss at the 1.3 Patch cuz I think it doesn't compatible with the 6800 OC or something. So I turned everything to High instead, still got some lockup/hiccup. I should have know it that Fastwrite create the problem.

Thowing in my experience with the same board and a 9800 pro. This setup handles fastwrites fine. The XP2600+/nForce2 board I replaced needed fastwrites off with all other parts being the same. (very impressed with the board so far)

EDIT: Running Farcry patch 1.3 (and several other newer games)

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: mgsvr
wait...how do you get Everest to showed up your CPU? My Everest show me like this in the sensor:

mobo: 27c
Aux: 36c (according to Everest FAQ, Aux can mean anything)
Samsung HDD: 16c

So which one did you look to get the CPU's temp, Megatonic?

ps: btw, Soltek Hm showed me as 44c/45c as well. What's about everyone else?

So far speedfan is the only program that seems to read my CPU temp right. Everest is great for everything else.

 

[Brule]

Thanks for the link DAPUNISHER. Now if only Soltek could keep their site up. I can't seem to "get" OCing yet with the A64 boards. The BIOS and apps have some odd temp readings on the CPU. Soltek's HW monitor has my CPU at 8 degrees C. That would be okay if I was super-cooling it but I happen to be using a stock HSF. Speedfan seems more accurate.

I just bought 2 sticks of RAM off of a forum. The stickers clearly state Buffalo pc3200 cls 2.5 2x256 matched pair. The ram itself is imprinted with Winbond 252WE W942508BH-5 and are in great shape. I'm replacing some pc2700 and wanted to take advantage of this board's speed.

Now there's a problem. I cannot get the RAM recognized as pc3200. The BIOS option of max memclock lists 00, 133, 166, or auto. (200 tops according to specs before any tweaking) I can't seem to get the ram to run at 1:1 although through OCing the A64's FSB (or HTT I guess) it runs fine at higher speeds. All diagnostic software reads it as pc2700 ram. (BIOS, Sandra, Everest, CPUID)

CPU-Z speed
CPU-Z memory

I've tried both sticks at once as well as either stick at a time. I know that this CPU(3200+ clawhammer)and/or board has been somewhat picky concerning RAM before from other posts. Is it likely just a compatibility problem or some setting? (everything's auto configured, HT at 4) Or am I just an A64 noob and should be beat for making an obvious mistake? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Edward Lee]

Anyone know where I can get a I/O cover panel for this MOBO. The one that came with it doesn't fit grrr

 

[Brule]

After I had the problems with memory in an earlier post, I e-mailed their tech support. Within 2 hours they e-mailed back the beta BIOS with a 200 memlock option. (working great right now)

Best tech support I've ever received from a hardware company. Things like that assure Soltek repeat customers, which I plan to be.

 

[Megatomic]

I've sent numerous tech support requests in and have received zero replies so far. I'd say their tech support is hit or miss. I do like the board, though, I guess that's what's important.

 

[imported_kitty]

Megatomic,

Are you send the email to support@soltek.com.tw??
As my experience, they always replied the customer's problem very soon.

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: kitty
Megatomic,

Are you send the email to support@soltek.com.tw??
As my experience, they always replied the customer's problem very soon.

That's where I sent it. Is there still a person (Linda?) from Soltek posting in some other threads? They sent me out the Test20-1.bin bios which fixed my issues. (@ POST it's listed as "NOT FOR RESALE")

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: kitty
Megatomic,

Are you send the email to support@soltek.com.tw??
As my experience, they always replied the customer's problem very soon.

I used the online support submission form on the Soltek server. I've received no replies from Soltek tech support yet after a few weeks of waiting. Lydia has responded to me directly here on these forums but no, I've never received a reply from Soltek officially.

 

[imported_kitty]

[/quote]
I used the online support submission form on the Soltek server. I've received no replies from Soltek tech support yet after a few weeks of waiting. Lydia has responded to me directly here on these forums but no, I've never received a reply from Soltek officially.

[/quote]

That't too bad!!

Maybe they have no received the email you sent.
But don't give up them. If you have any question in the further, please don't hesitate contact them.

 

[Megatomic]

kitty, are you, perhaps, an employee of Soltek or just an enthusiastic fan? You are very supportive of them.

 

[imported_kitty]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
kitty, are you, perhaps, an employee of Soltek or just an enthusiastic fan? You are very supportive of them.

I am just an enthusiastic fan.

 

[Brule]

Originally posted by: kitty

Originally posted by: Megatomic
kitty, are you, perhaps, an employee of Soltek or just an enthusiastic fan? You are very supportive of them.

I am just an enthusiastic fan.

Wow, very much so. I thought you were an employee as well.

 

[Megatomic]

Is anyone running with the HT bus running over 800MHz, especially say 5 x 200? Is this possible? Is there any benefit?

 

[Massive Overkill]

Hi guys, first post here. I'd visit more often if they would create individual forums for each mobo manufacturer. It seems I have one of the highest if not the highest overclock for this board for 2 DIMMS. I friggin love my Soltek and all the Soltek boards I've had before this one.

This is for Lydia: I'm really glad to see a Soltek rep here and encourage you to visit the other popular forums as well, because official representation means alot to us. I know you're probably a busy lady, and Soltek is gaining solid ground in this market, but to grow to the scale of the bigger manufacturers such as Asus, Gigabyte, Abit, and MSI, you have to take advantage of all the PR you can.

-I would like a revised BIOS that would allow me to quit using clockgen to get past the 250 barrier as I may be able to get an even higher overclock if I were able to do it strictly through BIOS

-I would like to represent Soltek in my benchmarks, but unfortunately, the SL-K8AN2E-GR motherboard is unrecognized in all my benchmarks. Once again, this is a BIOS issue. Also my overclock shows what's in BIOS, not what clockgen has it at. Both these items can lead people to believe I'm somehow cheating on my benchmarks.

-I could cool my CPU to 0 degrees Kelvin, or place it in a volcano, and my CPU temps never vary by more than 2 or 3 degrees. I'm hoping this is once again a BIOS issue and not a borked motherboard CPU diode sensor.

With that being said, these issues are really more annoyances than major faults. I'd gladly forego any fixes if it meant I'd have to give up my awesome overclock or stability. I'd just like to return the favor and represent Soltek and look more official in my benchmarks (I'm usually in the top 5 or 10 in my class) for making such an awesome motheboard.

 

[Megatomic]

Hi Massive Overkill, welcome to AnandTech. I've reported all those problems to Lydia only it was in another thread. I showed her screenshots from my own system so she's aware of the problems.

Here's a question for you: did you know that there is a beta version of EVEREST Home Edition that actually recognizes our boards and chipsets properly? I found it on the web somewhere and I hope Lavalys releases it to the public soon. And I, too, am waiting for an updated BIOS. I'm hoping to be able to select between 1T and 2T command rate, currently I can't. I don't know if it's my CPU (3400+ Clawhammer 1MB L2) or my RAM (2 x 512MB Geil Ultra Value PC3200).

 

[Massive Overkill]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm currently using Everest version 1.51.195, and it doesn't report my motherboard ID. Do you have a link to the BETA version? I can select between 1T and 2T command rate because I'm using a Newcastle, but I believe the reason why you can't is because Clawhammers will only work at 1T command rate, so BIOS won't even give you the option

 

[Megatomic]

Ahh, Ok. As long as I'm currently getting the best performance then I'm fine. As to the beta version of EVEREST, I don't have a link, but I can gmail it to you if you have a gmail account or an FTP server I can upload it to. PM me if you do.