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What BIOS comes originally with MSI NEO4 Platinum?

Serch

Member
Hi everyone. Today, January 16th I have bougth the MSI Neo4 Platinum, I am very happy with it..seems to feet perfectly in my plans.

I have a question for the people that has it working. Which is the exacto BIOS that comes with the Motherboard? Is it 7125v1A or 7125v1B? I will be running an Opteron 170 or 175 and in the MSI page they say they support them after v1B, for what I understood... I don't have any other chip to use to update the bios before installing the Opteron, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Serch
 
even if you have a bios that doesn't support the opteron, you should be able to update the bios anyway, the post screen will say something like - CPU - Unknown then just boot with the floppy and update it.

i know my current is not a msi based board, but i have used them in the past...
 
I?m in the middle of setting up a Neo4 Platinum with an Opteron 165. It?s 99% built, just waiting on the RAM to be shipped here tomorrow, so I can?t tell you yet which BIOS it ships with.

The one thing you do NOT want to do is boot from a floppy to upgrade. The flash instructions warn of this over and over. You have a good question and you might want to follow the MSI forums HERE.

THIS thread was just started over there and will probably answer both of our questions.

In addition, there are a bunch of people, including all of the moderators, that are raving about some 3rd party BIOS that was written for the Neo4. It seems to have solved most of the previous issues and opens the board up even wider for overclocking. Check out the
BIOS forum over there and a guy by the name of ?Syar? who wrote the BIOS. You can get to his BIOS collection via this thread:

Hope this helps?
 
this quote is from a msi bios i d/l that was created 11/25/2005 for the K8N SLI Platinum and at first it tells you not to boot from a floppy, but these instructions only tell you how to do it from a floppy, seems kind of weird. how else are you suppose to update the bios? am i missing something? mgravy, i am not trying to start anything, i am always learning and many of my friends come to me for assistance, so i like to be on top of things. many have msi nf4 boards so that is why i am asking. again, this is not to start anything, i am just asking for my own personal knowledge...

Special Note:
The BIOS and DEVICE DRIVERS contained here are exclusively for Micro-Star products only. Micro-Star assumes no responsibility for any damages resulting from improper use or lack of technical expertise.

WARNING!!!!!
DON'T FLASH FROM A FLOPPY DISK!!!!
DON'T FLASH WHEN YOUR SYSTEM IS RUNNING FINE!!!!
DON'T FLASH IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!

Award BIOS Flash Procedure
(Special Thanks to Forum Moderator Bas for his valuable contribution)
1. Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH DISABLED and ENABLE it, some boards have this function.
For Example:
K7N420 Pro (MS-6373) ? BIOS setup/Integrated Peripherals/BIOS Protect/Disabled

2. Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like ?W6373MS v2.1 122101? This means the board is MS-6373 with BIOS version 2.1
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press ?PAUSE? or disable the ?Quick Boot? in the BIOS setup.

3. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel P4 478 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/socket_478.php
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php

4. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test

5. Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don?t have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinMe, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.


7. When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> awdfl783m BIOS file
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user?s decision)

8. Reboot your system when prompted

P.S. If your system doesn't boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/note.htm

AMI BIOS Flash Procedure
(Special Thanks to Forum Moderator Bas for his valuable contribution)
1. Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH DISABLED and ENABLE it, some boards have this function.
For Example:
K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) ?BIOS setup/chipset setup/BIOS protection/disabled

2. Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like ?A6380MS v1.7 122101? This means the board is MS-6380 with BIOS version 1.7
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press ?PAUSE? or disable the ?Quick Boot? in the BIOS setup.

3. Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel P4 478 type then look here
http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/socket_478.php
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php

4. Extract the BIOS-archive that you have downloaded by double clicking to c:\test

5. Boot your system from a Win98 or WinME boot-floppy.
How to make boot floppy in case your don?t have it ready:
For Win9X, You can type [C:\ format a:/s] from the DOS prompt.
For WinMe, You can make a boot floppy from control panel--> add/remove program-->make boot floppy. Remove autoexec.bat & config.sys file if there's any.
For Win2000, there's no way to make boot floppy, so you have to either use Win9X or WinME boot floppy.
For WinXP, you can make a DOS boot disk. Go to Your Computer, right click drive A:, select Format, select copy system files.

7. When you get the A:\ prompt, type the following sequence:
C: <enter>
cd\test <enter>
C:\test> amifl827 BIOS file
(to save or not to save old BIOS is the user?s decision)

8. Reboot your system when prompted

P.S. If your system doesn't boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/note.htm

Flashing the BIOS for Non-FAT file system (Thanks to Forum Moderator Assaf for his valuable contribution)
1.Check your BIOS for BIOS FLASH DISABLED and ENABLE it, some boards have this function.For Example:
K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) -BIOS setup/chipset setup/BIOS protection/disabled

2.Know Your model number
a. Open your case and look for the MS-XXXX number on the motherboard between the PCI slots, also check the version number that is written there as well. (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number)
b. Boot up your system & take a look at the top left screen during POST, you should see something like "A6380MS v1.7 122101" This means the board is MS-6380 with BIOS version 1.7
Hint: Many systems are clearing this message very fast, the bios version is then unreadable, you can either press ?PAUSE? or disable the ?Quick Boot? in the BIOS setup.

3.Download the BIOS that matches your motherboard AND version number (some motherboards are named like K7T Turbo, make sure you have the right version number). BIOS can be found according to the CPU type of your board like if your CPU is Intel P4 478 type then look here
<http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/socket_478.php>
if you cannot find the BIOS that matches your board, try here <http://www.msi.com.tw/support/bios/more.php>

4.Extract the file you have downloaded to a floppy (not the win ME/98 startup floppy) by double clocking the file in windows mode and supplying the path a:\

5.Boot the computer using a windows ME or windows 98 startup disk. It must be one of these! A plain boot disk will not be good enogh.
If you do not have Windows ME or 98 to create the floppy you can make one on a friend's computer.

6.When boot is done there will be a message on the screen showing :"Diagnostic tools were successfully loaded to drive" followed by a single letter.
This letter is the leter assigned to the RAMDRIVE. This RAMDRIVE is a virtual drive in the system memory and can be accessed and controlled like any other drive with DOS commands such as:
MD - Make Directory
Copy - copy a file
Deleate - Deleate a file

There is one important difference which is that being in the system memory this drive is wiped once the computer is restarted or shut down.

7.Replace the startup floppy with the one containing the flash utility and bios ROM files previously extracted in windows.

8.Copy the 2 files to the RAMDRIVE by using the DOS command copy.
Here is an example, in this example the flash utility is AWFL814B.EXE ,the ROM file is w6373nms.220 and the RAMDRIVE letter assignment is D

copy awfl814b.exe d:\
copy w6337nms.220 d:\

9.Change the current working directory to the RAMDRIVE root directory, with the example case of the RAMDRIVE being drive D this is done by simply done with the command d:

10.Execute the flash utility with the ROM file as a command line argument, with this example:
awfl814b w6373nms.220

If you wish to save the current bios you must specify the full path a:\filename. Specifying only a file name will save the bios to the RAMDRIVE which will be wiped after restarting the computer and the file will not be saved.

a:\bios.old is an example of the correct way to save the bios.

11.Reboot your system when prompted

12. If your systen'''''''t boot after you flashed, please refer to the BIOS recovery method as described
<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif" border
 
No, I agree, Bob. It is very wishy-washy. My only guess is that in the average situation, it is best to flash from within windows (seems like quite an arguable statement to me).

In the case of the Neo4 not able to recognize an Opteron, unless you happen to have the luxury of having an earlier 939 chip to flash first and then swap, I don?t see how else one could do it without an optical drive.

Perhaps in this situation, the floppy drive warning is given an exception. I don?t know, but I?m about to find out over there?
 
Originally posted by: mgravy
No, I agree, Bob. It is very wishy-washy. My only guess is that in the average situation, it is best to flash from within windows (seems like quite an arguable statement to me).

In the case of the Neo4 not able to recognize an Opteron, unless you happen to have the luxury of having an earlier 939 chip to flash first and then swap, I don?t see how else one could do it without an optical drive.

Perhaps in this situation, the floppy drive warning is given an exception. I don?t know, but I?m about to find out over there?

good luck 🙂

also, it looks like i found a bug in the forum software by placing a quote at the end of a post - look at my sig in the post directly above yours and then my other post a couple of posts up...weird (yes i am extremely tired....starting prime95 and going to bed..)
 
Read it a little more closely..it says not to FLASH from a floppy. It has you booting from a floppy, and flashing from the hard drive..
 
Yes, that is correct.

I still do not understand how an Opteron can be recognized with an earlier BIOS (known not to recognize the Opteron dual core) without Booting and Flashing up from a floppy.

If the mobo can't recogize the chip to begin with, can you transfer the flash file from an optical drive to the hard drive?!?!
 
Originally posted by: mgravy
Yes, that is correct.

I still do not understand how an Opteron can be recognized with an earlier BIOS (known not to recognize the Opteron dual core) without Booting and Flashing up from a floppy.

If the mobo can't recogize the chip to begin with, can you transfer the flash file from an optical drive to the hard drive?!?!

my gigabyte shipped with a bios that didn't support or know what a opteron was, it just said cpu - unknown. the bios new a chip was there, just not which one.
 
Originally posted by: stevty2889
Read it a little more closely..it says not to FLASH from a floppy. It has you booting from a floppy, and flashing from the hard drive..

what if your hdd is not yet formatted? flashing from floppy is the only way i do it...not that it is correct, but out of the 50 or so machines i have flashed, i have never had a problem.
 
Originally posted by: bob4432
Originally posted by: stevty2889
Read it a little more closely..it says not to FLASH from a floppy. It has you booting from a floppy, and flashing from the hard drive..

what if your hdd is not yet formatted? flashing from floppy is the only way i do it...not that it is correct, but out of the 50 or so machines i have flashed, i have never had a problem.

Personaly, I don't use a floppy drive at all. I boot with my windows 98 CD, and flash the bios from a CD-RW.
 
A little off topic but related to the MSI Neo4 mobo.

Whenever I do a proper shut down, it powers off fine. However, the computer decides to power up again anywhere between 30 seconds to 5 minutes after I shut down.

Can anyone help me through this problem?

Also, if I need to flash my BIOs, could you please walk me through step by step in doing this?

Thanks,
I lack much wisdom in computers.
 
This was an old problem solved by a newer BIOS. I cant remember what version fixed this, but I had this problem on one of my computers with a Neo4 mobo I had and the BIOS update fixed it as it said it would. Worth a try of course.
 
wow thanks for all the answers, I thought this thread was dead, but I have found the answer, in the manual itself:

If you don't have a formatted disk..in page 44 (last page) of the manual that comes with the ROM file it says that you have to boot with win98/me (i guess win98se too.. as it is win98) and then you must insert a disk with the award flash utility and the ROm. then you MUST COPY these two files to the virtual drive created in the RAM (RAMDRIVE), can be D: or C:.. then you flash like from the Hard drive: awdxxxx lsdjsiijs.ksk


done. C ya and good luck.
 
Originally posted by: galbicake
A little off topic but related to the MSI Neo4 mobo.

Whenever I do a proper shut down, it powers off fine. However, the computer decides to power up again anywhere between 30 seconds to 5 minutes after I shut down.

Can anyone help me through this problem?

Also, if I need to flash my BIOs, could you please walk me through step by step in doing this?

Thanks,
I lack much wisdom in computers.


If I were you I would ask to the ppl who sell it to me to RMA it or know whats is going on. I don't know really, maybe the cables of power and reset are messed.. don't know really, just saying.


To flash bios, you have step by step indications, depending on your situation, in the manual that comes inside the zip file with the ROM (updated info for BIOS), find your model in the MSI web page and then click on BIOS in the left menu, that should take you to the file. Good luck.
 
Ohh and I forgot, what manual says is that you mustn't run the awd utility from a floppy disk (have to copy it to hard drive/ramdrive), but you must boot with one though
 
Originally posted by: Serch
Ohh and I forgot, what manual says is that you mustn't run the awd utility from a floppy disk (have to copy it to hard drive/ramdrive), but you must boot with one though

what i quoted was from the 11/25/05 bios for the K8N SLI Platinum, not the manual

can anybody please tell me the advantage of doing the bios update from a ramdrive vs a floppy? especially since you are copying the bios file from the floppy in some instances?
 
Yeah I know, I ment the manual that comes in the BIOS zip file.

The advantage is that with a disk running such an application can cause errors easily, and is much slower. Thats what I think, it is more safe imho

PS: Download the latest BIOS for NEO 4 Platinum and you'll see the information in the last page.
 
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