The MSI Neo2 Platinum Owners Help Thread

Acolyte · 1 Jan 2005 at 21:31

Originally posted by madmaca
Quick question - is there any other difference between the Neo2 Platinum and the Neo2 Platinum Wi-Fi Edition *apart* from the wi-fi adaptor. i.e. will I still be able to clock the wi-fi version as well as a normal Neo2 Platinum???

Yup they are identical apart from the aditional card

Minstadave · 1 Jan 2005 at 21:33

Originally posted by Mook
Just to echo what Minstadave said on previous page, I removed the northbridge fan and there was a very very small smudge of thermal paste underneath in the middle. About half a centremetre wide, so its def worth slapping a bit more on.

Stingy old MSI :rolleyes:

How much effort does it take to put the right amount of paste on?

Mook · 1 Jan 2005 at 21:39

Yeah i know the amount on mine wasn't worth putting on.

masterk · 1 Jan 2005 at 22:32

Originally posted by Minstadave
Stingy old MSI

How much effort does it take to put the right amount of paste on?

Well they probably thought if they put enough paste on every Neo2 they had made so far, they may be £100 down on profit.

Remember as soon as they leave the factory the company doesnt care

Minstadave · 2 Jan 2005 at 02:01

Just went round the house and both rigs here have MSI boards (KT400A and K7N2 Delta, I'm definately not an MSI fanboy but I seem to have a lot of MSI boards :confused:

) and both of these had a measly smudge of thermal paste under the northbridge too. I sorted that out and now I'm getting better temps on both boards and even got some more FSB out of the K7N2 delta

xenole · 2 Jan 2005 at 09:08

Quick question about updating the bios when fitting the board etc for the first time:

Should this be done before or after a clean install of Windows?
i.e should I fit the hardware, update the bios then format and then install a clean version, or just format first then update.

pre · 2 Jan 2005 at 09:18

Originally posted by xenole
Should this be done before or after a clean install of Windows?
i.e should I fit the hardware, update the bios then format and then install a clean version, or just format first then update.

Either if you use a DOS/bootup based flash. If you want to flash in windows though then its kind of forced.

xenole · 2 Jan 2005 at 10:01

I don't have a floppy drive so looks like windows might be the only option for me?

Stormrider · 2 Jan 2005 at 10:26

Originally posted by xenole
I don't have a floppy drive so looks like windows might be the only option for me?

You can always burn a boot cd with the bits you need. I always find it a bit of a waste of a CD though (all 5p of it

).

Stormrider · 2 Jan 2005 at 10:28

Originally posted by Minstadave
Just went round the house and both rigs here have MSI boards (KT400A and K7N2 Delta, I'm definately not an MSI fanboy but I seem to have a lot of MSI boards ) and both of these had a measly smudge of thermal paste under the northbridge too. I sorted that out and now I'm getting better temps on both boards and even got some more FSB out of the K7N2 delta

hehe - guess its time I pulled off my NB fan and see whats there

xenole · 2 Jan 2005 at 16:29

Are there any primary differences between the WIFI version (other than the obvious and £2-4 price difference at OC) and the non-Wifi version?

Possibly will be going for this once it starts coming back into stock:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (939 Pin) - Retail
OCZ 1GB PC3200 EL-DDR (2x512MB) Platinum CAS2 Re. 2

Minstadave · 2 Jan 2005 at 22:22

There's no difference the Wifi version just bundels a wifi card with it.

Mook · 2 Jan 2005 at 23:51

Finally got it all installed. Had some problems. Wouldn't initially boot, even with only one stick of ram. Agp an PCI slots are one down from my previous mobo, but luckily my case has an extra one so it was ok. The ide, floppy and atx connectors are a squeze to get in.

I've tried to have a fiddle in bios and get acustomed to things. But when i press enter on the HTT setting to try and change it from 5x it pops up with a blank window and freezes up. I'm guessin it shouldn't do that. Bios is 1.3 i think.

Jokester · 2 Jan 2005 at 23:55

Originally posted by Mook
But when i press enter on the HTT setting to try and change it from 5x it pops up with a blank window and freezes up. I'm guessin it shouldn't do that. Bios is 1.3 i think.

Instead of pressing Enter to select that menu use Page Up/Down to change the value directly.

Jokester

Robbie · 3 Jan 2005 at 00:10

Originally posted by xenole
Are there any primary differences between the WIFI version (other than the obvious and £2-4 price difference at OC) and the non-Wifi version?

Possibly will be going for this once it starts coming back into stock:
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (939 Pin) - Retail
OCZ 1GB PC3200 EL-DDR (2x512MB) Platinum CAS2 Re. 2

Thats the exact same setup I am planing on going for when everything is in stock.

Minstadave · 3 Jan 2005 at 07:28

Originally posted by Mook
I've tried to have a fiddle in bios and get acustomed to things. But when i press enter on the HTT setting to try and change it from 5x it pops up with a blank window and freezes up. I'm guessin it shouldn't do that. Bios is 1.3 i think.

Mine did that too, I found that using the "Reset all values to defaults" option on the main page or something similar, allowed me to set it fine afterwards (no need to reboot, just reset the defaults then go and enter your settings).

FantaMK212 · 3 Jan 2005 at 09:42

Originally posted by Minstadave
Mine did that too, I found that using the "Reset all values to defaults" option on the main page or something similar, allowed me to set it fine afterwards (no need to reboot, just reset the defaults then go and enter your settings).

to change this you need to press Page Up / Page Down. I had the same problem.

Do i need to update my bios if a new one is available, i tried yesterday and it didnt like it, it rebooted and just didnt boot past the IDE Detection bit, then it have me some weird message, so i trued reflashing to the older one, and still didnt work, chucked my XP CD in and it seemed to boot again :confused:

so, using a AMD64 Winnie and MSI Neo-2 Platinum, do i have to update the bios? and how can i do it succesfully

Stormrider · 3 Jan 2005 at 10:01

Originally posted by FantaMK212

Do i need to update my bios if a new one is available, i tried yesterday and it didnt like it, it rebooted and just didnt boot past the IDE Detection bit, then it have me some weird message, so i trued reflashing to the older one, and still didnt work, chucked my XP CD in and it seemed to boot again

so, using a AMD64 Winnie and MSI Neo-2 Platinum, do i have to update the bios? and how can i do it succesfully

Normal rule of thumb is if your system works then dont do it.
If your overclocking though a new bios can help.
The MSI recommended way is:
- first make sure your system is NOT overclocked
- put the award flash ultilty and the bios onto your harddrive (make sure its a FAT partition)
- boot up using a standard boot disk,
- run flash utility from hardrive with the bios you want.

alternatively tou can flash from withtin windows using one of the msi utilities or winflash ( I think thats right).

I tend to stick to flashing using a boot disk though.

Mook · 3 Jan 2005 at 10:37

Is a difference between which the mem slots on this mobo? I'm using the top 2 atm.

Also using the 2 sata slots next to the cpu, because those are locked?

Minstadave · 3 Jan 2005 at 10:44

Originally posted by Mook
Is a difference between which the mem slots on this mobo? I'm using the top 2 atm.

Also using the 2 sata slots next to the cpu, because those are locked?

Doesn't matter which two you use out of the mem slots, as long as you use the top two or bottom two, and not two of the same colours.

And you're right about the SATA ports, the two nearest the CPU on the right (in a typical install) are the only ones that work when you overclock, the other two give up and start corrupting drives when you go above 220FSB ish.