The MSI Neo2 Platinum Owners Help Thread

[hedgey]

its a buggy board, the korean early ones were flaky as fk, prolly cheap components. many accounts of them dying, ppl on 2nd/3rd mb's, loss of overclock after a month, psu's blowing up, need i go on? shame cos it clocked so well. oh yea, DONT use corecell.

update

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20050203045656.html

after reading that ill never ever buy MSI again.

 

[handsy]

its a buggy board, the korean early ones were flaky as fk, prolly cheap components. many accounts of them dying, ppl on 2nd/3rd mb's, loss of overclock after a month, psu's blowing up, need i go on? shame cos it clocked so well. oh yea, DONT use corecell.

update

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20050203045656.html

after reading that ill never ever buy MSI again.

I hear you man ! I'm on my 2nd K8N Neo2 and I reckon either it's up the swanny again or my PSU's been knacked by it, dunno how but I'm convinced. I will never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, buy MSI again

Problems I've had with mine :
1. Does not recognise 2nd LAN port (Realtek) either in BIOS or in Win XP.
2. Audigy 2 does not work in *any* PCI slot.
3. Erratic overclocks....one minute it works, next nowt.
4. Will not start up (possible blown PSU being replaced as we speak).

I will be sending it back at earliest opportunity for full refund. Just need a PCI-E board recommended to me now (stable as possible please ).

 

[ryu]

aaaaaaaha

just got my pc setup and working again.. was trying to push to 250fsb and tryed numerous combinations. however after messing around it corrupted my sata hd, and made windows unloadable with a partition error. i know of no way of getting round this so had to format and install windows again.. however the motherboard stopped responding for some reason (just wouldnt turn on) until i reset cmos and removed the battery and replaced it.

setup
-winchester 3200
-msi neo 2
-Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX

ive tryed everything to get it running at 250fsb but it just either wont boot or it just crashes in games at this speed
-lowering ram timings to their worst poss
-increasing vcore upto over 1.6 (although it didnt seem to say higher than 1.525 on cpuz)
-increasing vdimm to 2.75

ive set a 166 divider and x4 ht
just leaving it at 2400mhz atm 10x240, runs stable 247 at this

3dmark2001se score was 25042

any1 have any other suggestions, you think my cpu is just not a good clocker?
im not sure on the week number (think the guy i bought it off said 43).

is my ram good enough or would it be better to get pc4000+, i know it should be fine running with the divider. (what chips are on this ram? i.e. bh5 or whatever, some1 who knows as i cba to take the ramsinks off)

i have the 1.3bios running. temps seem to be fine but im not sure how reliable the temp reading with this bios is. idle temps change from 34-38 with mbm5 and im only using the stock cooler.

 

[Minstadave]

What sata connector is your drive attached to? use the top left ones by the CPU only.

 

[ryu]

yeh i did mate... when i first set up my hd i plugged them in the other ones, but it kept crashing trying to partition. had the sata drive in the other ports since.

 

[BiShOpBaShEr]

I hate this mobo. I have never had any problems with other boards and now this one just takes the ****.

--------------------------
Athlon 64 Winchester 3200+
Msi Neo 2 Plat
Akasa 460W PaxPower
Raptor 36GB sata
Caviar 80GB sata
CD/RW, DVD Combo
DVD/RW
2 x 12cm Akasa Amber series fans
Akasa Fan Controller
Leadtek 6800GT!
2x256 Kingston hyperX BH5 2,2,2,5
Akasa Eclipse 62 Case + Window
Floppy Drive
--------------------------

Problem 1

I keep getting the dreaded BSOD, not all the time but one a day i would say. Last night i installed half life 2 and it all went fine i even played a few levels! WOW, but then i decided to have a go on counter strike source. The game loaded and then it BSOD'ed on the choose a team screen. It mainly does this when i install a game or an app like quick time or sp2 etc. Mid install my rig dies with an error message - blue with white writing and then reboots.

Now i believe this is a memory problem. I have kingston HyperX 3200 BH5 runing at 2.7v it only says 2.6v on the label so i put a few more volts thropugh which did work.

Could i try 2.8v is this safe? I did use this seting and it seemed good but i dont want to kill the memory....

Also does the K8N Neo Undervolt memory as it undervolts the Cpu? Am i correct in thinking my cpu should be set to 1.5v to give it stock 1.4v?

Problem 2

The computer turns its self on? After investigation i have decided this is not a ghost . If i have my computer turned off and then turn the switch on my surge protector off and on again the computer will boot. Therefore if i go on holiday and have a power cut when the power goes back on the computer will boot.

The BIOS has an option to set the ' AC POWER RECOVERY' to off, on and last state. I have tried them all and it stays the same on all settings.

Any Thoughts?

Problem 3

The magic diasapearing optical drives. Booted up my pc yesterday and the optical drives where not detected in windows - but they where in the bios fine? I search and found a reg key to change and it booted and reinstalled them in windows.

Why was this?

Out of interest did you install the Nvidia SW IDE drivers? I kept getting lots of BSOD's with a "kernal stack inpage error" when installing games and patches/mods also had the odd occasion when like you windows wouldnt see my second hard drive, After lots of hair pulling/research/twiddling with settings etc..I uninstalled the Nvidia chipset drivers and reinstalled them WITHOUT the SW drivers and it was better! I still had the odd problem but i think all the tinkering I'd done had knackered my windows install, So i reformatted and reinstalled windows again WITHOUT the SW drivers and all has been well for the last 3 weeks.

Hope this helps


BiSh

 

[ThyFlame]

I must've gotten lucky, I think, building this system. My neo2 worked 100%... though my 12v rail seems to stay around 10.9V, but I'm betting that's the power supplies fault.

 

[Sputnik II]

I must've gotten lucky, I think, building this system. My neo2 worked 100%... though my 12v rail seems to stay around 10.9V, but I'm betting that's the power supplies fault.

I have not really had any problems with my Neo2. The only problems were the Maxtor drives which have now been replaced by WD drives.

 

[shamus21]

For me this was the firstime i have had a MSI MotherBoard (Neo 2 Plat) and i can say i have had no problems even with my old crucial pc3200 ram and and older still enermax power supply 20A on the 12v+ . all MotherBoards come with problems what ever the make and thats part of the overclocking game.

 

[Warbie]

Woohoo my cpu temp is 4c less than my system temp. Gotta love those stock heatsinks :/

 

[Kendo]

I'm going to set my Neo 2, 3200+, Freezer 64, Ballistix pc4000, Enermax NT 485 etc up tomorrow. I've been reading the whole thread and making sure I'm up to speed on everything. It's pretty confusing at times!

Can someone just run through my list of things to do and check it please?

Right, Going to setup the basics in the case (including as5 on the northbridge), then update to the latest bios (1.52) via floppy drive. Install my Audigy 2 Value (middle slot). Then install Windows XP with sp2 slipstreamed on the CD, using the sata floppy if it asks. Will make sure my sata hdd is in sata 3 nearest the cpu socket.

Then DX9 and Nforce 5.1 drivers (or is it the other way around?)

I'll not be using onboard sound so won't install this and will disable in the bios, likewise for the onboard lan, only using the NV lan port. Will set the agp to 67mhz in bios and turn off fast writes. Disable cool n quiet and dynamic overclocking(??).

Fingers crossed this will all work ok, Ghost the system, then start playing!??


edit - Just looking at the motherboard manual, not seen a retention mechanism thingy before, is this necessary for all coolers? You can tell it's been a while!

 

[Reality Bites]

I hate this mobo. I have never had any problems with other boards and now this one just takes the ****.

--------------------------
Athlon 64 Winchester 3200+
Msi Neo 2 Plat
Akasa 460W PaxPower
Raptor 36GB sata
Caviar 80GB sata
CD/RW, DVD Combo
DVD/RW
2 x 12cm Akasa Amber series fans
Akasa Fan Controller
Leadtek 6800GT!
2x256 Kingston hyperX BH5 2,2,2,5
Akasa Eclipse 62 Case + Window
Floppy Drive
--------------------------

Problem 1

I keep getting the dreaded BSOD, not all the time but one a day i would say. Last night i installed half life 2 and it all went fine i even played a few levels! WOW, but then i decided to have a go on counter strike source. The game loaded and then it BSOD'ed on the choose a team screen. It mainly does this when i install a game or an app like quick time or sp2 etc. Mid install my rig dies with an error message - blue with white writing and then reboots.

Now i believe this is a memory problem. I have kingston HyperX 3200 BH5 runing at 2.7v it only says 2.6v on the label so i put a few more volts thropugh which did work.

Could i try 2.8v is this safe? I did use this seting and it seemed good but i dont want to kill the memory....

Also does the K8N Neo Undervolt memory as it undervolts the Cpu? Am i correct in thinking my cpu should be set to 1.5v to give it stock 1.4v?

Problem 2

The computer turns its self on? After investigation i have decided this is not a ghost . If i have my computer turned off and then turn the switch on my surge protector off and on again the computer will boot. Therefore if i go on holiday and have a power cut when the power goes back on the computer will boot.

The BIOS has an option to set the ' AC POWER RECOVERY' to off, on and last state. I have tried them all and it stays the same on all settings.

Any Thoughts?

Problem 3

The magic diasapearing optical drives. Booted up my pc yesterday and the optical drives where not detected in windows - but they where in the bios fine? I search and found a reg key to change and it booted and reinstalled them in windows.

Why was this?

I get problem one all the time. I can't figure out what is wrong though....could the MB be dying?

Whenever i play a game or anything half intensive it BSOD's with a PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGE AREA or something like that,

 

[Yucca]

1. BH5 loves volts, upto 3.1-3.3V is more than safe. Make sure you're using the SATA ports to the left of the CPU, not the lower right ones, these are unlocked and can corrupt harddrives when overclocking

2. Update to the latest 1.4beta bios.

3. Again try updating the bios.

I thought it was best to use the lower right ones? I have my primary rapton on sata port 1, if i move it to the 3rd one so that its on one of the top left ones will windows throw a wobilly or relise i have just moved it?

 

[Minstadave]

No upper left ones (nearest to the CPU socket) the other ones aren't locked. No problems with moving it to the other SATA port.

 

[Kendo]

I'm going to set my Neo 2, 3200+, Freezer 64, Ballistix pc4000, Enermax NT 485 etc up tomorrow. I've been reading the whole thread and making sure I'm up to speed on everything. It's pretty confusing at times!

Can someone just run through my list of things to do and check it please?

Right, Going to setup the basics in the case (including as5 on the northbridge), then update to the latest bios (1.52) via floppy drive. Install my Audigy 2 Value (middle slot). Then install Windows XP with sp2 slipstreamed on the CD, using the sata floppy if it asks. Will make sure my sata hdd is in sata 3 nearest the cpu socket.

Then DX9 and Nforce 5.1 drivers (or is it the other way around?)

I'll not be using onboard sound so won't install this and will disable in the bios, likewise for the onboard lan, only using the NV lan port. Will set the agp to 67mhz in bios and turn off fast writes. Disable cool n quiet and dynamic overclocking(??).

Fingers crossed this will all work ok, Ghost the system, then start playing!??


edit - Just looking at the motherboard manual, not seen a retention mechanism thingy before, is this necessary for all coolers? You can tell it's been a while!

Anybody think this is ok? Or do you all secretly hate me and not want to talk to me!

 

[bigjonnyauk]

we all hate you kendo and have a secret forum just dedicated to laying into you which you cant see lol

i have just had virtually the same setup as you apart from the sata drive and set it up like you have with no pobs all i get is a weird clicking/buzzing sound which i cant place what it is

my tagan? was ok in old setup

new hard drive seagate ? but its more of a buzz than a click

the 3 resistors on mobo ? i hear that these can do this and need a twist haha with my shovel hands i would prob twist them right off lol


so i dont know have tried putiing my head inside the case and still cant pinpoint it

 

[Kendo]

we all hate you kendo and have a secret forum just dedicated to laying into you which you cant see lol

I knew it!

Thanks for the reply anyway, hope you don't get too much stick for helping me out in the "other" forum!

 

[Sputnik II]

we all hate you kendo and have a secret forum just dedicated to laying into you which you cant see lol

i have just had virtually the same setup as you apart from the sata drive and set it up like you have with no pobs all i get is a weird clicking/buzzing sound which i cant place what it is

my tagan? was ok in old setup

new hard drive seagate ? but its more of a buzz than a click

the 3 resistors on mobo ? i hear that these can do this and need a twist haha with my shovel hands i would prob twist them right off lol


so i dont know have tried putiing my head inside the case and still cant pinpoint it

Tagan's have been known to make a noise like that

Them 3 Resistors are actually Toroidal Inductors, yes they can give a buzzin' sound. you could alway try sticking your finger on them while its running and see if the noise changes. If so a small amount of epoxy glue would stop them, carefully put it on with a matchstick or similar.

 

[Mattus]

Surprised at all the Neo2 haters. I've had mine since Christmas and have never had a crash caused by hardware, or a blue screen unless I was overclocking too far.

 

[Sputnik II]

Surprised at all the Neo2 haters. I've had mine since Christmas and have never had a crash caused by hardware, or a blue screen unless I was overclocking too far.

I Like my Neo2 ...............I like to Hate it

No seriously I like the board, Not had many problems with it that could not be easily fixed.