The MSI Neo2 Platinum Owners Help Thread

ThE-NiNjA said:
Can someone confirm 3 sticks of 512 ram will work on this motherboard? im planning on going upto the shop tomorrow to get one and a 3200 venice. so can anyone confirm this fast? as someone said it would work with a bios upgrade.

Any fast responses would be apreaciated.

Thankyou.
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A big NO.
See page under memory.

Please select the identical memory modules to install on the dual channel, and DO NOT install three memory modules on three DIMMs, or it may cause some failure.
 
Fluffy Bunny said:
sussed it,
broken pin on hdd oh well has gone to hdd heaven
put different hdd (with all the pins !!!!!)on system and is now fine.
Thanks for the time
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Ah-HA!! Makes a lot of sense. It is hanging during hard disk detection.

I would have expected it to of still got into the BIOS - eventually. I bet if you had left the system "hung" and gone off for five minutes to make a cup of tea. Then you would have returned to a PC on the BIOS screen. Timeouts can be long. :)
 
Got some feedback from the MSI forums and it confirms that CnQ is not working correctly with Venice core chips.

This is a relief as I now know it wasn't anything I was doing wrong. Venice chips are currently being tested on the Neo2 so hopefully a new BIOS will resolve this soon. There is an unofficial Beta 1.95 which apparently gets CnQ working but I would rather wait for an official one myself...

So good news really :D
 
Ok, got my motherboard yesterday. Isn't going well...

When I power-up, I'm getting 4 red LED's indicating I have a problem with my CPU. Installed incorrectly or damaged...Was working before my old motherboard went. I've tried reseating it again but no luck :(

I'm just curious if anyone else had problems with this board? The reason I ask is because how the CPU slots in and out is a little different from all other CPU's I've fitted. It's pretty tight getting it out. Defiently doesn't just slot out like other CPU's. I was playing around with my old board which has an athlon XP in it, literally slots out of the CPU socket when I pick it up from each side. I need to "pick" each side with my finger nails and sort of wedge it out, getting my finger nail to lift up one side, supporting it up, then I get the other side up doing the same then it will pop out. Defiently not right...

I'm just wondering if this is the norm with this board and will just take a few reseatings (I hope..) or this points towards an RMA? I don't know any mates who have a winchester in there PC (Any AMD 64 chips for that) so I can't really test another CPU. Looking at the prices I really don't fancy buying another CPU, considering buying this board in the first place was way past my budget. Problem is one of the 3 I think. Dodgy CPU slot, dodgy CPU or I was sent a very old BIOS version with my motherboard (unlikely..)

Any input is really appreicated, all these PC problems are starting to make me feel pretty ill...No means of getting my work done is pretty lame. Thanks..


Edit

Just resat it again, no bloody luck. I can take back what I said about it coming out weirdly though. I grabbed it from the other sides this time and it come out reasonably nice. Pretty annoying reading posts like this. His bloody CPU pin was bent and it still booted.

Argh! :mad:

I thought it'd be best to make my own thread about it. It's here, has some info about a flash that may of caused the CPU problem..
 
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k8n neo 2

what a nightmare!!!!!!!
had nothing but trouble with this board so far......so could some nice persons help me?
Problem 1. After I shut the pc down Iam having to pull the power cable out of the psu for two to three mins before I can reboot..(psu is a hyper 450 thingy)
problem 2. I have got two 3200 512 ddr(1 is crucial and the other is kdata)
If I use them seperatly in the board They register as ddr 400. If I put both in together (using the green slots) they register as ddr333 .

I am hoping someone can help me

Thanks
 
Fluffy Bunny said:
problem 2. I have got two 3200 512 ddr(1 is crucial and the other is kdata)
If I use them seperatly in the board They register as ddr 400. If I put both in together (using the green slots) they register as ddr333 .
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If you look in the manual that comes with your motherboard it'll tell you what is likely to happen, I honestly can't remember whether that is right or not. Its rather dependant on whether the memory chips are dual sided and so on.

Don't quote me on this, I might have got it wrong, but I thought it was one in green and one in purple slot to get dual channel mode?
 
Fluffy Bunny said:
Problem 1. After I shut the pc down Iam having to pull the power cable out of the psu for two to three mins before I can reboot..(psu is a hyper 450 thingy)
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Cheap power supplies give cheap results. This is a quality board that needs quality power. I often read suggestions of "at least 18A on the 12V rail". The total wattage of a PSU is a misleading figure. It is the quality that it is supplied that is important.

Do you have any other PSUs around you can test? To see if they have the same problems. This will let you know if it is the board or the PSU. Though I expect it is that PSU.

Edit: You are describing the action of a PSU poly-fuse. A fuse which only resets when the power is cut for a few minutes while it resets. I had a Tagan that did this due to a fault in the PSU.

What kind of volts are you getting according to the BIOS? Are they well within 10%?
Fluffy Bunny said:
problem 2. I have got two 3200 512 ddr(1 is crucial and the other is kdata)
If I use them seperatly in the board They register as ddr 400. If I put both in together (using the green slots) they register as ddr333 .
Click to expand...
Who is "kdata"? Never heard of them? Is that cheap brand memory, or decent quality? I know some of the decent memory will appear with odd names on it. But again, you get what you pay for. This is why some of the memory is so expesive on OCUK. It is very high quailty. And that makes a difference.

"Green slots" will be on the same controller. You want different coloured slots for dual channel. Though I doubt dual channel will work with un-matched memory like you are trying to use. You don't actually say if you have tried other combinations yet.

Makes sense to give up on that odd mis-matched memory of yours and buy some Geil Value from OCUK. £76.32 can be a small price to pay for piece of mind and less hassels. You could always flog your old RAM on this forum or EBay or summit. Tell me that you are not going to drink most of that amount of cash tonight in Friday Night beers? :)

Edit: Also have you tried going into the BIOS and setting the memory speed by hand? Instead of relying on auto to try and guess some settings that will work for the two different bits of RAM. This would explain why you are getting 333.
 
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Yes, I was caught out with that one.

I started off with a pair of CRUCIAL 3200s and one is single sided, the other double.

It worked in single channel, but would fail completely in dual.

I got all my stick together, and the only 2 that do allow me to have 2x512MN in dual, is one of the crucials coupled with a stick of Corsair 3500

So, while its fussy, the RAM does not have to be 100% identica for sure!

Crucial 3200 and Corsair 3500 certainly isnt identical.

While I am here, can anyone tell me what kind of 3DMarks I should be looking at with my spec as it is right now...

MSI Neo2 Platinum, Winchester 3200 @ 200x10 / And the crucial 3200 / corsair 3500 RAM. and I am using the Radeon 9800Pro because at this moment in time, the barton is a faster CPU and therefore has the faster GFX card.
 
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I assume the main trick on the RAM will be finding two sticks which have the most similar layout. Both physical number of chips and internal timings.

I can see why single sided won't match with double sided due to totally different layouts. And also it says it won't work in the manual. :)

I assume your Crucial 3200 and Corsair 3500 are close enough to run at same settings. I guess the Corsair is being underclocked to cleanly match the Crucial. Though it's two decent brands there, so more flexible with the settings.

Fluffy Bunny is trying to get that KData stuff to match. Sounds like K-Mart memory to me :D
 
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MAllen said:
I assume the main trick on the RAM will be finding two sticks which have the most similar layout. Both physical number of chips and internal timings.

I can see why single sided won't match with double sided due to totally different layouts. And also it says it won't work in the manual. :)

I assume your Crucial 3200 and Corsair 3500 are close enough to run at same settings. I guess the Corsair is being underclocked to cleanly match the Crucial. Though it's two decent brands there, so more flexible with the settings.
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Thats true. They are very similar to look at, and yes, I didnt expect the crucial pair to work, I just hoped though!

Actually, even though the crucial is rated at 200, the corsair is rated to what? 216?

And the crucials have been running 216 in the Socket A for some time just fine, so if need be, I recon I can throw this pair to 216 with no problems... I have only just had the board, so I want to get to knpow it before I dig deeper into the realms of overclocking... Which isnt far off because I am severely unimpressed with the speed so far!
 
I often buy Crucial RAM. Decent quailty and often has plenty of space for that overclock.

Try this handy site to work out exactly what that RAM claims to be. May be able to identify that K-Mart stuff too. Find out who really made it.

Memory Identification
 
The thing here is that the Neo2 is so fussy with memory.
Note say here.
doesnt like ocz eb

Now that is true for the large majority, but there are a few users that got EB up to 270FSB.
Others (the majority) hit a wall at 218.
Now whether that was OCZ using diff chips or not I don't know, but you can never seem to say for sure with the Neo 2 (socket 939 in general I think) what will work for one will the other.

There again, as the memory controller is on the CPU itself, does that make a difference.
Too many variables to anything for sure these days :(
 
I saw a site a short while back where some geezer has managed to get 265 FSB out of his Crucial budget, and thats the same as all mine are...

I checked mine according to his info he gave, and sure enough, 3 of mine had the "G" marker, which meant that they are BALLISTIX RAM, which is cool. I have hit 242FSB with the budget crucial and 248 with the corsair, but thats only with massive volts... 216 is stock... I wont throw volts at the RAM in the A64 PC... Not yet, anyway.

The snag here, is that I am using the best RAM in my 2 other systems, one if an XP17 @ 2.7 and the other a barton @ 2.6 and so they get priority over this A64 at this moment due to the A64 being only a couple of days old, and if need be, I will buy new RAM for it, the crucial / corsair mis I am using now, is a temporary measure!
 
RAM is just like CPUs in that it gets speed binned. So if the production line is churning out loads of top quailty RAM, but there is a huge demand for cheap RAM, then you will often find decent stuff being rebadged as cheap. Meaning those of us in the know get our freebies. :)

And I am now about to dissapear from my PC for a bit. I may have everything connected to a UPS, but that is a huge storm outside and paranoia is taking over. :( Not tried running a chunky A64 system through this old UPS yet.....

If you are pushing your RAM to the limit, have you checked how hot it is getting? A quick touch test will let you know if cooling may help. When trying to push past the top end, try rigging up an 80mm fan to force some cold air over the RAM. If that helps, then some RAM heat sinks or a fan could be worth considering.

Wow - that storm is getting noisey!! Not the best time to be doing BIOS flashes or hard disk backups without a UPS..... :D
 
MAllen said:
And I am now about to dissapear from my PC for a bit. I may have everything connected to a UPS, but that is a huge storm outside and paranoia is taking over. :( Not tried running a chunky A64 system through this old UPS yet.....
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I had a UPS a couple of years ago, that blew up during a storm taking my PC along with it... RAM and CPU were killed as was the DVDROM, but everythign else was ok? ( Why DVDROM but HD was ok? ) anyway, I tried top claim for it, and do yo uknow what I was told?

Act of God!

Bloody hell...

Billy Connolly got it sussed in the Movie "The Man Who Sued God" and boy did I feel like trying to take the church to court on this one!

I never did get a penny for that.

Sickening.
 
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Update on mine - With that mixed RAM ( Crucial 3200 and Corsair 3500 )

Its running at 166FSB, I have the BIOS set to AUTO

I set it to 200FSB which they can bothhappily do, and it does work, but after a short while the system slows to a crawl and eventually hangs? Weird.

At 166 it works, albeit slowly.

Later on today, I am going to use just one stick ( do both, btu one at a time )

Funny thing really... I clocked the CPU to 210, the RAM went to 175, but it failed to play nicely? - it just hung at the desktop... Just before the icons would appear!

WHY? Both stick happily run at 216 onstock volts and do a lot more with more volts applied to them, but here they wont even do 200FSB on this Mobo?

Ok, as I said, they're mixed, so this may be *** reason, and I will be trying it later on.
 
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