The OFFICIAL MSI K8N Neo2-939 tips and tricks guide thread

Hello,

I have been reading this thread almost like it was a religion and have a few questions.

I am planning on getting OCZ EL DDR PC-3500 Gold GX Dual Channel Kit 1GB and have not seen any information on how it works with the k8n neo2 plat. Any comments?

I have hit FSB 230 at 3-4-4-8 2T @ 2.7v 4x HTT with the Hynix no problem and would like to test it further. What should I use to test the system for over clocking?

Is 5000+ rpm for the northbridge normal? The fan has started to make a whinning noise that comes and goes.

What can I use to monitor the system other than control center?

AMD 64 3200+ Veince w XP-90
MSI K8N Neo2 Plat. | 2x512mb Hynix BT-D43
200gb Seagatel | ATI AIW x800 xt | SB Audigy Gamer

sideeffect can you post a link to the Build that you have cuz the one i downloaded right off their download section doesnt include the NEO2.

I can't understand why they would lower the voltages even further. thats just well.. i wont say it. Only true reason for it would be stability issues with higher voltages so they forced people to keep them down to see if the issues go away. then raise them in the next version to see if they come back or not.
or quite possible pressure from AMD cuz people are frying chips from over volting them.

Im using version 529 you update to it by holding down ctrl while clicking the update button within systool. Neo 2 was added in build 505 I dont see why u wouldnt see it. Its labeled MSI K8N Neo 2.

Sleepy Samurai use systool to monitor system. The northbridge fan doesnt make any noise for me but other people have also complained about that whining. You can try using Speedfan to limit the speed slightly and it might take the noise away.

What memory chips are on that ocz memory because it really depends on the chips. If its samsung TCCD you should do pretty well with overclocking.

If it is TCCD when you get the memory download and use 1.8rev3 NFM bios set cas =2.5 trcd=3 trp =3 drive stength to weak and HTT multi to 3x and raise Htt till you max out. You might want to set a low cpu multi first so that your cpu doesnt reach its limit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

I can't understand why they would lower the voltages even further. thats just well.. i wont say it. Only true reason for it would be stability issues with higher voltages so they forced people to keep them down to see if the issues go away. then raise them in the next version to see if they come back or not.
or quite possible pressure from AMD cuz people are frying chips from over volting them.

---

Yes possibly to keep it more stable i did notice a much more stable voltage reading when i ran 1.425 +10 percent rather than 1.45 + 10 percent. I doupt its pressure from AMD as the DFI boards and a lot of others go much higher than 1.65 volts.

yeah the AMD comment was just a passing thought.

and update ? hhmm guess i better look for that button lol. yup it works. Thanks!

the download page only offers 0.1 Build 496 too bad the northbridge temps dont work but you always get those temp readings when there is a sensor reader there but no sensor...
sort of like mobo's that have a 3rd or 4th system fan plug but no way to control the fan. It will show whacky fan speeds.

Would you ahve a theory why Prime fails totally at the speeds im at but everything else, benchmarks and games and such work just fine without a single reboot or lock up ? Is prime just that more discreet on the cpu ? where as those other things arent ?
For me a huge test of my memory atleast is Newsleecher. If my ram and sometimes cpu are pushed to far it will download items and they will be checked as bad. but the minute i lower my clocks and redownlaod them they check as good. The program is very ram intensive using anywhere from 100-500+ megs of ram.. and since it is handling and converting binaries... well.... you can see how ram that is pushed to hard might cause bad headers or articles when they really arent bad. (just like memory errors in memtest)

For those having problems with high memory mhz and htt all i can say is you need to spend a lot of time messing with every setting to reach the max speeds.

It took me weeks of trying every setting with a64 tweaker before i got anywhere near the 275 im at now. And also the voltage of the memory plays into it as well.

These are settings that finally proved stable for my Crucial Ballistix but only at 2.65 volts.

http://www.swjka.com/k8nneo2bios//mem.jpg

The settings that really effected stability were Trfc any other setting but 18 would cause crashes. Tras any setting higher or lower than 8 was a no go also. Trc also 13 was the sweet spot. And lastly read preamble at high HTT 5.0 was the best setting and allowed an extra few mhz.

i do believe he means OCZ VX there is no GX and the VX stuff is all Winbond UTT

its gunna take about 3.6v to get that memory up to 260mhz and it will run 2-2-2-5 but even at 3.6v the VX stuff has typically shown that it doesnt go much higher. some have gone slightly higher but its UTT not BH-5

you wanna spend a few extra bucks for some seriously high performance high voltage low latency ram go get some of the Mushkin Redline PC4000 its 196 at newegg and that stuff will pump 270-275 2-2-2-5 at around 3.6v and 300+ on a 166mhz Divider

Im trying to sell my gig OCZ PC4000 El Gold Rev 2 so i can get some redline. ($150 bucks for anyone whos interested) she just needs more volts than the neo2 can provide to go higher than 265


Sideeffect -

with those loose timings what your HTT mhz ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

yeah the AMD comment was just a passing thought.

and update ? hhmm guess i better look for that button lol. yup it works. Thanks!

the download page only offers 0.1 Build 496 too bad the northbridge temps dont work but you always get those temp readings when there is a sensor reader there but no sensor...
sort of like mobo's that have a 3rd or 4th system fan plug but no way to control the fan. It will show whacky fan speeds.

Would you ahve a theory why Prime fails totally at the speeds im at but everything else, benchmarks and games and such work just fine without a single reboot or lock up ? Is prime just that more discreet on the cpu ? where as those other things arent ?
For me a huge test of my memory atleast is Newsleecher. If my ram and sometimes cpu are pushed to far it will download items and they will be checked as bad. but the minute i lower my clocks and redownlaod them they check as good. The program is very ram intensive using anywhere from 100-500+ megs of ram.. and since it is handling and converting binaries... well.... you can see how ram that is pushed to hard might cause bad headers or articles when they really arent bad. (just like memory errors in memtest)

---

Well i spent ages working on prime and now i dont use it anymore since i read a thread about a software bug within it causing problems with newer a64 cpus. Like sometimes for me it would run 6 hours without a error other times it would run 1 hour. That was with my old ram though that did prove to be slightly faulty :). The main reason I dont bother with prime now is because if it crashes after 6 or 7 hours then you have to change 1 little setting then its stable again for maybe the same amount of time and i cant be bothered to do so much testing as i use my pc to much.

As long as my pc never crashes during games like far cry and doom3 etc then im happy. I dont have any Important calcalations that need doing with pin point accuracy with the results of which would decide the future outcome of the world as we know it. If i did i would use stock speeds and maybe not a intel or amd and definitely not microsoft xp :p:

BTW about systool make sure you hold down control when u click the update button and if its not showing new versions completly uninstall it and restart then get the newer version and try again.

yup its updated and working
and yes voltages are pretty accurate even the 3.3 and 12v http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_68.gif
sure wish there was a memory voltage sensor
http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_63.gif

Yes me to at first i thought there was one because of the way corecenter works showing the voltage but now i think thats not a measurment but a setting from the bios and thats why the vcore shows the wrong setting as well where as the reading is correct.

You could solder or grip a wire from the vddr measuring point and link it to a lcd screen and mount it on the front of the case if you were really bored :rolleyes:

ahh but then its about finding an LCD with the proper sensor in it to understand the signal.

but yeah i thought about getting one of those. I have the SuperFlower Fan/Temp controller and its a sweet piece of hardware but it doesnt have any voltage monitoring.
Now the Digidoc 5 i put in the girlfriends system has voltage, temp and fan monitoring but no way to control the fan speeds.....
i cant win for lose can i ?

I wonder,,,, hhmmm...... could on look around ebay for some old passive voltage gauges and use those. as long as you could verify that that the voltage reading they show is accurate. say compare it with a DMM
that would be nifty...

more modding i dont have the workspace for http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_2_49.gif

hmm that Digidoc 5 sounds cool. You could make your own switches to control the fan speeds separately like 5volt to 7 volt to 12 volt switches. yellow to black, yellow to red, red to black.

If you find something cheap that works let me know cause i might consider it to :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sideeffect

Hi guys Systool has been updated to allow exporting to 3rd party apps so you can now make your own motherboard monitors for neo 2 that actually show the right +12v and +3.3v rails. MBM and speedfan and most other tools dont show the correct reading for the neo 2. Systool does though so try it out if you havnt already.

Heres mine :p:
http://www.swjka.com/k8nneo2bios//monitor.jpg

---

hey side would it be possible to get that skin/config off ya?

Yes i can send u the skin config and u can just change it to what u like. once u loaded it in sumurize you will be able to see what i did easier and make a better one im sure :)

Link to download

You will need to put all the files in C:\Program Files\Samurize\Configs for the pictures to work properly.

Edit - the samurize plugin works by detecting the available sensors enabled by systool and then aloting them a number. When you disable or enable different plugins in systool it changes these numbers to a different value. My numbers are based off cpuload.dll, hddtemp.ddl, lm78.dll, memory.dll and nvsensors.dll being enabled only. Also i have 2 hardrives so if you only have 1 it will change the numbering also.

If you rely upon an onboard voltage monitoring device, you will always be getting a subjective voltage reading. Pick up a Digital Panel Meter from a surplus house like MPJA and hard wire it. They have a .05% accurate unit for $18.95. To put that int perspective, Measure 2.70 Vdimm would range from 2.699-2.701. One of those and a rotary switch to select between Vcore, Vdimm, Vagp and LDT/Chipset voltages will take care of being at the mercy of bios and application variances.

You can fit the DPM and rotary switch in a drive bay knockout. Worse case would be to mount some banana jacks on a drive bay knockout, wired to the above-mentioned voltages and plug into your Digital MultiMeter. Every overclocking enthusiast should have a DMM. They have a million uses, both in the PC and around the house/car.

Hoot

Thanks hoot going to try and find one in the uk.

something like this ? Link

hmm how exactly do I use the systool plugins in samurize? I copied the dll's over to samurize but when I try to load them it says "incompatible DLL"

that would work but it looks to be AC only no ac/dc

i couldnt agree more about having a meter but the issue with having one is knowing where on the various mobo's out there to test voltages. the popular boards can be found via google searches but the other ones would probably have to have a schematic emailed ot you via the mobo mfg'r
What i was actually thinking about doing the other day was similar to what Sideeffect said and simply solder a wire on the check points and then instead of a meter in a cdrom bay just run the wires up to the bay cover and drill a few small holes and mount female plugs there.. of course having the wires soldered to them along with a Ground. that way you can just grab your meter and test them any time you want instead of what i do which is lay on the floor with a flashlight in my mouth trying to see and maneuver thru my psu wires and other hardware. Same for a molex which with my OCZ Powerstream 600 i have a few extra of you could even mount a molex there to do tests of the psu under full load.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by uniacid

hmm how exactly do I use the systool plugins in samurize? I copied the dll's over to samurize but when I try to load them it says "incompatible DLL"

---

Maybe you have the wrong version of samurize? try 1.62

gettin 1.62, I had 1.61 since the samurize site it down, didn't know which was latest

ok I tried 1.62 of samurize and it still says incompatible dll

any ideas? would it be possible to send me your whole samurize dir or tell me if theres any other options you used?

Nope i just put SystoolSamurize.dll in the plugins directory of samurize. And it works. If it doesnt work for you then either the plugin you have is corrupted. Your not putting it in the right plugins folder. Or samurize didint install properly pehaps.

You are using windows right? Not that i think this is just for windows im not sure but it could be. Im not really an expert on samurize so pehaps ask at their forum if you cant get it working or contact the maker of the plugin in systool forum.

Hope you get it working :)

where is this systoolsamurize.dll ? that would explain why its not working

since the samurize webiste is down can you give us the dll ?

the cpu speed is showing but its wrong,

incase no one noticed a brand new version of Core Center Digi Cell and PC Alert were released today
and something called V Center was released on the 11th.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/suppor...ist.php?kind=1

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sideeffect

Thanks hoot going to try and find one in the uk.

something like this ? Link

---

With all due respect, I would not get that one. It is scaled for measuring rather high voltage. Also, be leary of DPMs where they specify the resolution, but not the accuracy percentile. This one sports a resolution of 1V at 600V. That means it can tell the difference between 600 and 601 or 599, but no reference to how accurate that actula voltage reading is. I'm sure the UK has surplus houses like Alltronics, MPJA, Surplus Sales, etc. also. Just a matter of finding the right site. If you know of a neighbor who is an Amateur Radio enthusiast, ask them. They always have the scoop on stuff like that. I know, I've been one since 1971. :)

You can't hurt a motherboard by simply probing points to determine where to get voltage readings as long as you don't slip and short out two adjacent conductors. Missing electrolytic capacitors are alwyas a good starting point as they are usually situated after the PWM circuitry and often close enough to the destination so as to give an accurate reading.

A lot of people make the mistake of using any point on the chassis as their meters return path (minus lead). That is not a good practice and the accuracy of the reading can be compromised. The more current the particular voltage you are looking at is drawing, the worse the error will be the further you have the probes from the load when taking a reading. You can thank Mr. Kirchoff for quantifying that phenomenon (Kirchoff's Loop Law).

Hoot

Hoot what do you recommend for a good common.... common ground...... ?
i have a spot sanded on the inside of my case that i clip the ground alligator clip to.

We all know or hope we know that grounding as close to the point of power or the device its self is best and that wiggling a ground can result in varied readings. and that a ground on the mobo itself is the bes tbut to say a nice little spot , one like mine that i sanded isnt good enough ? or MAY not be good enough ? i disagree.
sure if you just go slapping a ground any 'ol where yeah thats not smart. but a nice little sanded spot (to help with conductivity) on the side of the case, would suffice wouldnt you agree ? Especially since no motherboard out there can regulate the voltages with any sort of control or accuracy.
floating voltages is a hardware issue of motherboards that cant be fixed bu grounding properly or using a different positive lead on the mobo.
maybe someday when mobo makers start using GOOD voltage hardware including Caps and other regulatory devices then maybe we can get good voltages.
which by the way it still baffles me why mobo makers still use the same crappy hardware year after year when other boards have proven to have severely flawed voltage regulators.

anywho.. your electrical expertice is so much appreciated by all of us and your expertice in PC electronics is one thats hard to find. I say you start a website or some how to's with pictures for various common needs of the overclocker. voltages readings proper testing, proper equipment, pictures of where to test for those mobo's you have used.
proper setup of temp and voltage probes.

I for one would dearly love to know how to get good temp readings with this Venice. I got to used to my CG Clawhammer that of course was a mobile chip without the heatspread so i stuck a probe right smack dab on the side of the die. you cant do this with these chips... :( so im a little lost on what to do. your little mod with the onboard temp probe is a peachy keen idea to me and id love to see some pictures and a "how to" on how to do it.
My super flower temp monitor is simply going to waste right now... it has 4 temp probes and i am not using a single on. Although tommorrow im going to put on on the Northbridge chipset.
and before i forget,, did i hear correctly that MSI has these northbridge HSF epoxied on ? is this true or was that another mobo. ?
I imagine Radio Shack has Epoxy for the sinks i have for various spots on the mobo but last time i went in there asking for a Solder Pen they had no bloody clue what i was talking about.

edit
i wonder how well jbweld transfers heat and if it will have a chemical reaction and hurt anything i stick it to... lol just kidding i would never jbweld anything liek that lol... although it is a thought.....hhhmmmm O_o

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

incase no one noticed a brand new version of Core Center Digi Cell and PC Alert were released today
and something called V Center was released on the 11th.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/suppor...ist.php?kind=1

---

v-center thinggy.... tells me my mobo isn't support..

yes hoot tell us where is a good grounding point on the neo2...

yeah if you look at the supported mobo list i believe its nforce4 and 775 boards.

nothing new in corecenter for this board must have been stuff for nf4 boards.

but its still the only tool that will allow me to go up to 1.7v and higher. the bios no matter what i choose stops all voltages at 1.65v *yawn* oh well...


oh yeah has anyone had any issues booting with 2x HTT multi ? i cant i have no idea why but i cant... it just wont boot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

Hoot what do you recommend for a good common.... common ground...... ?
i have a spot sanded on the inside of my case that i clip the ground alligator clip to.

We all know or hope we know that grounding as close to the point of power or the device its self is best and that wiggling a ground can result in varied readings. and that a ground on the mobo itself is the bes tbut to say a nice little spot , one like mine that i sanded isnt good enough ? or MAY not be good enough ? i disagree.
sure if you just go slapping a ground any 'ol where yeah thats not smart. but a nice little sanded spot (to help with conductivity) on the side of the case, would suffice wouldnt you agree ?...snip

---

Regarding the best place to get your return. As you said, close as possible to the load. Even though the chassis is grounded through 9 or 10 standoffs to the board ground plane, minute amounts of resistance (milliohms), in the presence of large current flow, can cause voltage drops. I'll give you an example. Running Prime95 Torture Large FFTs, I took Vcore reading from different ground points and this is what I got:

DMM (Fluke 189) plus lead attached right next to the CPU socket on the missing capacitor + solder pad. Minus lead placed at the following locations:

Bare spot on chassis floor = 1.582V
Black wire at the ATX connector = 1.575V
Black wire right where it first emerges from the PSU: 1.567V
Minus pad at the capacitor where plus lead is attached = 1.570
Minus pad on a missing capacitor at the other end of the motherboard = 1.564

As you can see, the subtle variances in ground current effects DMM readings. Admittedly, the difference in readings can be small as long as the point is somewhere on the motherboard. The closer to the load, the better.

When I used to glue strip thermistors onto my CPU cores, in the days before the thermal diode, I used Arctic Silver epoxy and as little between the thermistor and the core as possible. Naturally, with an IHS over the core, external probes are worse than the so-so accuracy that the Winbond 83627 in my honest opinion.

The MCP heatsink is not epoxied to the chip. The TIM between them is just ornery. Heat up the heatsink with a heatgun and workit slowly in a gentle twisting back-and-forth pattern until you feel it start to give.

Off to bed now. 5AM comes early.

Hoot

thanks hoot.

as for your various voltages i think your aware that those readings are almost identicle to the the crapy floating voltages of this mobo. and other mobo's for that matter. I just want a product that matches its pricetag. one that actually regulates voltages. one that actually reads temps properly, which friends is a VERY VERY rudamentary electrical thing to do and yet we still pay up to 200 dollars for a mobo that can not do either very well.
anyways we all agree that grounding closest to the positive testing point is best.

and sorry for my lack of knowledge of terms but TIM by that do you mean the thermal tape they use on the back of northbridge and south bridge chips ?

as for epoxy on the cpu itself, no way i want to be able to RMA this chip if anything ever happens lol.
personally i have 2 types of probes. one is thing and has the gold colored tape surrounding the probe. the other has a bubble of ceramic or epoxy covering the tip of the probe. the 2nd type dont use. the first type is my probe of choice as its thin and more accurate in my eyes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

i do believe he means OCZ VX there is no GX and the VX stuff is all Winbond UTT

its gunna take about 3.6v to get that memory up to 260mhz and it will run 2-2-2-5 but even at 3.6v the VX stuff has typically shown that it doesnt go much higher. some have gone slightly higher but its UTT not BH-5

you wanna spend a few extra bucks for some seriously high performance high voltage low latency ram go get some of the Mushkin Redline PC4000 its 196 at newegg and that stuff will pump 270-275 2-2-2-5 at around 3.6v and 300+ on a 166mhz Divider

---

The ram is GX (gamer extreme) although it is almost the same as VX. It is garrented to 3.1V ± 5% instead of 3.5V ± 5%.

I could also get TWINX1024-3200XL / DDR-400 (XMS-3200XL) / 2-2-2-5 but the LCD display maybe in the way of my HSF, an XP-90.

I have not tested the OCZ GX as I am testing some Hynix BT-D43 2x 512mb (selling them if any one is interested.)

My computer topped out at 285 fsb.

With the hynix at 240fsb 3-4-4-8 2T@2.75v. My CPU can do 2.25GHZ no problem and my ram can do 250fsb but put them together and it crashes.

yeah i looked up the GX stuff some get 250mhz 2-2-2-5 with 3.1v but not much more than that. its shown as a gamers ram since it has low timings which does indeed help but some reviews said its not the overclockers ram.. although 250mhz 2-2-2-5 at 3.1v seems pretty darn good to me. not sure how much higher it goes or what ram chips it has but with those volts its either UTT or the new BH-5 (which is not the UTT chips btw)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

thanks hoot.

as for your various voltages i think your aware that those readings are almost identicle to the the crapy floating voltages of this mobo. and other mobo's for that matter. I just want a product that matches its pricetag. one that actually regulates voltages. one that actually reads temps properly, which friends is a VERY VERY rudamentary electrical thing to do and yet we still pay up to 200 dollars for a mobo that can not do either very well.
anyways we all agree that grounding closest to the positive testing point is best.

and sorry for my lack of knowledge of terms but TIM by that do you mean the thermal tape they use on the back of northbridge and south bridge chips ?

as for epoxy on the cpu itself, no way i want to be able to RMA this chip if anything ever happens lol.
personally i have 2 types of probes. one is thing and has the gold colored tape surrounding the probe. the other has a bubble of ceramic or epoxy covering the tip of the probe. the 2nd type dont use. the first type is my probe of choice as its thin and more accurate in my eyes.

---

1) Yeah, the voltages read all fall within the likelihood of what you might see using the onboard chip. The difference is you can trust what you read with the DMM, though often they only miss one another by a few hundredths of a volt.

2) Tthermal Interface Material. Which can mean Tape, Arctic Silver, Zinc Oxide, whatever. In the case of most motherboards, they use an easy to apply tape type material, but some use zinc oxide. Whatever they use, some are more prone to becoming adhesive in nature even when they are not old. Tape types fall into that category since they rely upon the device heating enough to melt them into place. Kind of like casein based "hot glue" but more thermally conductive.

3) I did some extensive study of the strip thermistors some time ago and published a good article at Overclockers.com. It may still be in their archives of older articles. The most important part of implementing them is removing the capton (yellow plastic) at the tip so that the actual thermistor is exposed. Otherwise the tape acts as a thermal insulator to a certain extent. I found three pictures in at my ftp site form that article, detailing the preparation and mounting of the strip thermistor. Here they are:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~hill195/digitemp/trim1.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~hill195/digitemp/trim2.jpg
http://www.frontiernet.net/~hill195/digitemp/trim3.jpg

Hoot

Hoot what was that new bios like?

And to do that thermistors mod you would have to remove the heatspreader which im not so keen on doing. But i do have spare inputs for temperature reading for a thermistor on my vapochill so maybe in the future ill consider it. Thanks for the pics.

hoot -

dear god dont tell me that that thermistor is soldered to that chip cuz it looks exactly like a drop of solder was dropped on that and then its resting against the die. i mean how utterly foolish can one be ? hot solder sat down on the tip of a thermistor resting right against the silicon ? so much for the resin that covers the cpu die. i hope thats just silver epoxy.

and my super flower will not function with a thermistor that is exposed there is such a delicate amount of stuff that joins the tip of that thing. i already have one that i had to throw away as it got caught on something and tore just a tiny piece of the head of the thermistor tape open and exposed the metal tip and now the alarm goes off everytime i plug it in..
same thing for thermistors that im not using they will randomly throw up an alarm. and especially if they touch the side of the case or something another alarm..
there are times when i touch the tip and the alarm goes off and its not a temp alarm its something like a short alarm or sensor alarm thats not heat related.

again i paid for a warrenty that i dont intend to void by epoxying things on the chip no way no how...
temps on the venice are the least of my concerns they run nice and cool on water even at 1.7v its still 30-33 idle and 44-47 load.

Hi Guys . I new here , first post :D

Does anyone know what has been changed in those last modded bios (v.1.a3mod and v.1.a) ? :confused:

The link :http://www.lejabeach.com/MSIK8N/k8nneo2.html

Thanks

im not even gunna go into that bios,,, its junk just like 1.9

USB issues,,, Temp issues,, RAID issues.... need i go on. also the voltages are limited to 1.6v as was stated here earlier unless they were raised in this release....
They need to go back to 1.8 and rework 1.8 instead of taking 1.9 and messing things up even worse. 1.8 kicks butt... and could do more if they really wanted it to.... but MSI wont.. they will just keep making things worse.

and its all in german lol... go use Babelfish and translate things and see if you can understand whats going on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

im not even gunna go into that bios,,, its junk just like 1.9

USB issues,,, Temp issues,, RAID issues.... need i go on. also the voltages are limited to 1.6v as was stated here earlier unless they were raised in this release....
They need to go back to 1.8 and rework 1.8 instead of taking 1.9 and messing things up even worse. 1.8 kicks butt... and could do more if they really wanted it to.... but MSI wont.. they will just keep making things worse.

and its all in german lol... go use Babelfish and translate things and see if you can understand whats going on.

---

Ok . Seems to me that 1.8 1T moded is the best option so far . Witch one are you using ? I didn`t know that 1.9x is crap .... :(

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

hoot -

dear god dont tell me that that thermistor is soldered to that chip cuz it looks exactly like a drop of solder was dropped on that and then its resting against the die. i mean how utterly foolish can one be ? hot solder sat down on the tip of a thermistor resting right against the silicon ? so much for the resin that covers the cpu die. i hope thats just silver epoxy.

and my super flower will not function with a thermistor that is exposed there is such a delicate amount of stuff that joins the tip of that thing. i already have one that i had to throw away as it got caught on something and tore just a tiny piece of the head of the thermistor tape open and exposed the metal tip and now the alarm goes off everytime i plug it in..
same thing for thermistors that im not using they will randomly throw up an alarm. and especially if they touch the side of the case or something another alarm..
there are times when i touch the tip and the alarm goes off and its not a temp alarm its something like a short alarm or sensor alarm thats not heat related.

again i paid for a warrenty that i dont intend to void by epoxying things on the chip no way no how...
temps on the venice are the least of my concerns they run nice and cool on water even at 1.7v its still 30-33 idle and 44-47 load.

---

Naw, that's not solder, it Arctic Silver epoxy. The thermistor is mounted so that the active thermistor component on the end barely touches the edge of the core, but flatness is maintained such that it is not higher than the core. That way, it does not touch the face of the heatsink. If you look closely, you'll see the CPU in the picture is a 1.0 Mhz Tbird. That should give you an idea of the age of the pictures. If you look at one of those thermistors under a stereo microscope, you'll see it consists of two plates with a resistive material between them, just like an SMD resistor or capacitor, except it has leads attached to each plate. As long as you don't short the two plates together by having them touch a conductive material, it'll work fine. That's the beauty of AS epoxy. It's non-conductive. An issue that arises from exposing the active component inside the capton tape is the fact that is is a fairly fragile component. Without the tape to protect it, you have to be very mindful not to crush it between two things. It crumbles almost as easy as a piece of Grape Nuts cereal. Having the device actually touch the part you are interested in seeing the temperature of insures as efficient a transfer of heat to it as possible. As for IHS' (Integral Heat Spreaders) are concerned. They exist for one reason. To keep inept owners from damaging the core. No other reason. They add a layer of thermal resistance between the core and the heatsink that only serves to decrease the thermal transfer efficiency and as such, I remove them from any CPU I buy that has one. Admittedly, not until I'm satisfied that the CPU is not defective and meets the manufacturers specified standards. I do not RMA parts just because they don't overclock well. That is dishonest. I do RMA parts that fail under warranty or do not meet the manufacturers specified standards. Bogus RMA costs are passed along to us the consumers one way or another. Just like insurance fraud. I had my SD for about a week before I removed the IHS. There is a thread at ocforums about the endeavor. My temps dropped substantially after I did so because AMD pooched the IHS mounting job. Normally, it only buys you about 1-2C at idle and ~5C under load, but that 5C could be what's holding you from the next step up in an overclock.

Hoot

Edit: I almost forgot. The 1A3 bios still has flaws. One of them is the fact that as you work up an overclock, only restarting between steps, you'll find a stable overclock, only to discover that if you turn the PC totally off for a while, it won't pass POST. This does not happen if you don't overclock too far apparently.

Yes i would have considered removing the heatspreader if they had messed up the contact but mine has pretty good contact as the temperatures are consistent with what the vapo shows.

Also mounting a vapochill on a chip with no heatspreader is an accident waiting to happen :)

Worst thing i ever had to do was mount a vapo on a socket A cpu and was so pleased that these new chips have some kind of protection.

Yes I agree they should have continued with the 1.8 bios for the venice and san diego cpus. Because they work best with it. They only needed the new bios for the dual core cpus. They made us poor san diego uses wait for ages for a bios just to fix the 1T issue that could surely have been fixed quicker.

I havnt tried the v.1.a3. But like Lestat i found the 1.9 bios versions to be not as good as the 1.8. The best version of the 1.8 for a san diego is the NFM rev 3 1t mod version.

i cant recall if im using the 1T mod or the regular Rev3 ,,, hhmm i dont run 2T anyways no matter what,, its way way too large of a loss in memory performance. you ahve to overclock too high to make up for the loss.

and yes my CG Clawhammer had the thermistor smack up against the side of the die so i loved the accuracy but ugh dang heat spreaders id remove mine but i cant afford to replace this chip if it goes bad down the road, nor replace it if the heatspreader removal goes bad.

your mod with hooking a thermistor to the onboard temp gague is something id like to know more about is there any reference for this mod ?
although id have to start using the no temp modded bios's ...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hoot

Edit: I almost forgot. The 1A3 bios still has flaws. One of them is the fact that as you work up an overclock, only restarting between steps, you'll find a stable overclock, only to discover that if you turn the PC totally off for a while, it won't pass POST. This does not happen if you don't overclock too far apparently.

---

Yeah, this BIOS also seems to be a bit wacky when overclocking. Clockgen set 2.6 and 2.7ghz runs prime-stable, but once BIOS set, it won't boot Windows. :slapass:

I've been following the German MSI forum, but I feel like I am completely ignored. :(

If you post in english they will ignore you. Even though they understand what your saying. If you post in bad german they'll tell you to post in English :)

well murdok will reply in english but not very often. only if enough people talk in english hoot and i have asked in english and they have replied in english just not very much.


and yes if you set the bios to lets say 250mhz it wont boot into windows but you can set it to like 260 270 with clockgen and its fine.
the bios really has some issues...

yo guys . from where i can measure the 3.3v in my mobo??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

and yes if you set the bios to lets say 250mhz it wont boot into windows but you can set it to like 260 270 with clockgen and its fine.
the bios really has some issues...

---

Don't know if it makes a difference but I have the same problem with BIOS 1.8 250 is unstable.

Would 255 work?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SNIPoR

yo guys . from where i can measure the 3.3v in my mobo??

---

There's two convenient places. I'm at work, so I can't give you a picture, but look right next to the ATX connector. There is a missing electrolytic capacitor, though its location is silk-screened on the board as a circle that is half-shaded in white. I believe you can read it there. Also, right next to the SATA3/4 connectors is another missing electrolytic capacitor. I also believe you can measure it there.

Hoot

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sleepy Samurai

Don't know if it makes a difference but I have the same problem with BIOS 1.8 250 is unstable.

Would 255 work?

---

that's interesting. I only see that issue using 1.9x and 1A3 bioses. Either 9,10,or 11X250 1:1 runs stable for me using 1.80 bios. These NF3 Ultra boards are a walking contradiction. :)

Hoot

just look in the bios under pc health thats a pretty accurate reading from what i can tell.

and thats hynix ram so 250mhz might not work for that ram are you also upping the voltage and cas timings on the ram ?

what brand and speed of ram is it ?

im using 1.8 rite now ... all non-0.5 multiplier works fine for me as well.... 9...10..

finally got the chance to try out 1.9 official... i can onli say it is worse than the 1.9B5 i previously was running on.... not sure wat the heck happened to MSI tho...

guys.. i just jumped into the sandiego 3700+ for $260 deal on monarch... can't wait to put it onto the Neo2 :))))))))

What about new 1.9 OFFICIAL??

- Support AMD E6 CPU.
- Support Cool and Quiet funtion.
- Update NVPXE version to 2.12.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/suppor...UID=607&kind=1

Yes we have tried it and its not as good as 1.8. Not worth it unless you have a dual core cpu.

san diego +neo2 = more issues

you will have to run the 1.9 bios in order for it to work properly or use one of the NFM 1.8mod bios with the San diego fix...

if i were you id stay with the 1.8 san diego fix bios... sideeffect can agree with that i think.

hehe... i believe that is the where the fun begins isn't it... im already done and bye with the venice now.

more like frustrations instead of fun..... the San diego is the 1meg L2 right ? vs the 512k on the venice ? they more or less are the same cpu though aint they ?

Well it seems to me that the san diego has less issues then the venice. Something to do with the memory controllers. But yes i can confirm the 1.8 with 1t fix is better than the 1.9. I might however be moving to the 1.36 bios as i need more vcore now to get any more out of the cpu.

What we really need is a good bios modder to work on the 1.36 bios to add the 1.8 romsip and the fixes made in that bios. But to keep the higher vcore :p:

i heard that a blend of 1.36 and 1.8 would be nice indeed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sideeffect

Well it seems to me that the san diego has less issues then the venice. Something to do with the memory controllers. But yes i can confirm the 1.8 with 1t fix is better than the 1.9. I might however be moving to the 1.36 bios as i need more vcore now to get any more out of the cpu.

What we really need is a good bios modder to work on the 1.36 bios to add the 1.8 romsip and the fixes made in that bios. But to keep the higher vcore :p:

---

That's a great idea! Hopefully the NVRaid bios gets updated too! Is it possible to merge the nvraid module from 1.8 bios into 1.36b?

Try "award bios editor" to replace roms inside bios

there he is...

how about is NFM... you wanna try merging the good stuff from the 1.36 and the 1.8 to make a super bios ?

Yes its all possible to replace romsips and sata bios versions because its been done before for the DFI lanparty. Hellfire and Merlin from DFI Street were doing it and they made some fantastic bios files.

Unfortunatley i dont know how to do it (to stupid).

But NFM would it be possible for you to add 1T fix to the 1.36 rev3 that you made?

Here you go sideeffect and others:

Link

This is 1T V1.3B6 BIOS for San Diegos only. I updated Nvidia's Raid within BIOS so watch out for this BIOS until it will get confirmed that it is working

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sideeffect

Well it seems to me that the san diego has less issues then the venice. Something to do with the memory controllers. But yes i can confirm the 1.8 with 1t fix is better than the 1.9. I might however be moving to the 1.36 bios as i need more vcore now to get any more out of the cpu.

What we really need is a good bios modder to work on the 1.36 bios to add the 1.8 romsip and the fixes made in that bios. But to keep the higher vcore :p:

---

Good Grief, you actually want to throw more that 1.67V at that (not-cheap) San Diego? Even with the Vapochill, I would not do that other than for a brief moment to see how high it would go, then back down as quickly as possible. You can't, in good conscience RMA a chip you damaged from too high a Vcore.

Hoot

Hi Hoot yes i know the dangers of to much vcore and 1.7 volts isnt it. Im running at 1.63 max not 1.67. But i would quite happily push 1.7 volts through the chip with a vapochill. People are using 1.7 volts with air so i dont see your point really. Its not like im trying to run 1.8 or 1.9 threw it.

Thanks for the bios mod NFM. Ill test it out. :cool:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hoot

Good Grief, you actually want to throw more that 1.67V at that (not-cheap) San Diego? Even with the Vapochill, I would not do that other than for a brief moment to see how high it would go, then back down as quickly as possible. You can't, in good conscience RMA a chip you damaged from too high a Vcore.

Hoot

---

there is nothing wrong with 1.7v on these chips with good cooling. ESPECIALLY a vapo.... above 1.7 is that dangerzone though....

personally sideeffect you already probably know this but give the chip some time.
After 2 weeks im now stable at 2.75ghz @ 1.65v a week ago it was 2.65ghz and when i got the chip it was only 2.6 @ 1.65 volts.

what i do is not even burn it in... i just up the HTT a bit until it locks up or wont boot then lower a little then just go into windows and run normally for a few days.... if it crashes alot of course lower the HTT more but no need ot really mess with the vcore much.
i actually had to run at 1.7v @ 2.75ghz for like a day before 1.65v was stable.

now mind you Prime95 will not run but it is 1m Pi stable and all games are stable 100% never had a crash yet...
I have a feeling i may even be able to drop the voltages a little bit which i may just do here in a while or this weekend sometime....


SE.. let us know how the 1.36 feels... i personally have to stay with 1.8 cuz no other bios lets me get to 370 HTT for osme reason 1.8 lets me just crank the heck out of the HTT. i love it...

Yes ill let you know soon. The HTT isnt quite so good for me either on the 1.36 but i think it will let me get to 275 ok. Think from last testing it crapped out at 290ish where as 1.8 would keep going.

Yes im not crazy i dont want to kill my cpu but the only problems i have read about are at 1.75 volts + as well. I just need a touch more than the 1.8 can give me (1.63) to fully stabilise the cpu at 3ghz+.

And have been burning in this cpu since i got it maybe a month ago and yes its helping me to. When i first got it anything over 2920mhz would crash with any vcore after a while but now it never crashes. Plays games fine and super pi is fine. Just prime needs a little more vcore.

wow NFM ur the man.....

also i believe 1.7v should be still quite ok ... especially got vaporchill... or even water.... but i myself would settle for the safe 1.6x... this BIOS is really cool.. i can't wait to test it out....

it is said for sandiego onli... . any problems running it with venice here?

No it will work fine for venice as long as your venice will do 1T. It Just forces 1T because san diego's dont have the option in the bios. But if you dont have a spare bios chip dont try it yet because its untested. Ill post back in 30 mins and let you know if it flashes ok.

sure.. thanks a million.. i really appreciate it..

i won't be flashing it until tomoro... hehe.. downloading a chinese movie which i must watch tonite

hhmm your only getting 1.63 too huh
even at 1.55v +10% it bounces from 1.63 ~ 1.648

just wish there was a way around this.

so did you already verify that the 1.36 will let you go above that even with a higher VID % ?

on a side note.. i know it sucks but Core Center will let you go as high as you want. in my bios is .1.55 +10% but core center says 1.7 so when i go to 1.75v cpu-z says 1.7-ish with it running at about 1.7 under load.

i guess you could just up the settings in windows with that and clockgen if you really wanted to, although i dont like it,, its just a pain...

but it is nice for testing..

Seems i bent a pin on my spare bios chip so i cant test this bios now....

Yes 1.36 has the higher percentages so allows about another 0.15 volts. I have tested with core center but dont really want to do that every time i boot.

1.45 +10% = 1.63
1.55 doesnt do anything cause maximum is 1.45

that voltage control is all in the bios.. VID or % over VID all MSI has to do is unlock the full voltage control and it should work fine.

the chip has no way of stopping the motherboard from giving it more volts other than built in voltage regulation or a signal to the mobo telling it to stop the voltage at 1.63~ 1.65. the % over VID was only a thing MSI and every one are doing cuz they are so :banana::banana::banana::banana:ing stupid and expect everyone to have a calculator in their brain to do %'s.

none of these boards need the % over VID the mobo makers just do that cuz they think its cool... its not.. its totally retarded. just give the stright up voltages.

the bios can be told to ignore the cpu i believe and volt it as high as it wants....
thats what core center is doing, its telling it to ignore the cpu and volt up to 1.7 and 1.75 anyways..

edit -

im so ready for a different mobo with better voltages and vdimm.. ugh....
btw my gig kit of ocz pc4000 is available. 145 usd shipped to your door.
if dfi gets that ultra-D straightened out i think im switching back to dfi. i miss my 250GB.

NMF can u make MOD - bios version 1.9 Official (2005-7-12)?

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/suppor...UID=607&kind=1

NFM has made a bios mod of 1.9 official lol.

And Lestat why would every motherboard designer use vid + a percentage if they could just choose a value. Its because AMD has looked the maximum VID to 1.45 like i said.

Maybe its the motherboards fault they cant unlock the cpu higher multis too ..... not.

This official 1.9 bios is different than that which was used by NFM.

Bios 1.90 - 08.07.2005
Official 1.90 - 12.07.2005

side effect.

the % over VID didnt matter with the winchester and newcastles correct ? maybe it did and i just was never told about why the % is there.
and the % over VID is nothing more than more VID its not saying, "lets sneak an extra 5% voltage in the back door and trick the cpu". thats impossible. its simply upping the voltage more than the 'VID' setting.

they dont need to have the %. Murdok made a bios where he had the % removed and the standard VID showed all voltages all the way to 1.7 and it worked...

i guess i can say ok yes the cpu is locked to not allow more vid than xxx amount. but if thats the case then i dont understand how the % is making the cpu not realise there is more voltage there.... unless the % stage is added in after the CPU VID Check.. which again is impossible in my thinking. the CPU would be constantly aware of what voltages its receiving.

you kind of see what i am saying ?

No the VID does matter with newcastle its just that the maximum set by ~AMD was 1.55 instead of 1.45 because it was a different manufacturing process.

Thats why corecenter shows a reading of 1.7 when u set 1.6 with a 0.9nm cpu.

Didnt try Murdoks bios that used all values instead of percentages the only one I tried had normal method. But if he did do that then he is still using the percentages he just labelled them as values to make it easier for the end user.

hhmmm i didnt know the max was 1.55 on the newcastles... interesting.
i figured it was just the mobo makers doing that to prevent massive over volting..

ill have to read up on how the % over VID actually works. id like to know how and at what stages its 'tricking' the cpu. as i just dont see howyou can trick something with a voltage lock to not know there are more volts going into it.

and yeah , his bios was flakey as are most of the ones he does lately.. sorry murdock but your slipping. and yeah i pretty much figured he just renamed the % and removed it then added them under VID but it was still the same thing as using a %.

i dont know somehow i can actually see AMD telling mobo makers,,, "dont you try to bypass or voltage locks cuz if you do,,, your in trouble" or its an actual stipulation from amd when making these boards. lol so they dont do it.

either way thanks for the info.. its rather early for learning especially on a saturday that should be nothing more than a "mindless overclocking with disregards to all limits of your hardware" type of day.http://smilies.sofrayt.com/^/aiw/crazy.gif

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_12_2.gif

hiya,

couple of days ago I wrecked my pc
so I'm going to get a s939 setup (MSI k8n neo2 prolly)
I guess that nobody has any bad experiences with this mobo?
plz reply

xyus

Its not so much tricking the cpu. The cpu is programed to have a maximum of 1.45 volts on the vid so the motherboard manufacturers use that because there is no point not to.

Then the motherboard makers can use percentages to set higher vcores to cpu the cpu doesnt have a limit of 1.45 in the sence of no more voltage can pass threw it. It just wont select more with the VID.

Xyus

Read the thread. The last 40 pages are people griping about how the latest bios revisions suck and the board doesn't properly support venice, san diego, or the new dual core cpus.

If I was buying today, there's no way in hell I'd get this board. If MSI ever releases a bios rev that's as stable for me as 1.8 (works great for me anyhow) AND properly supports the dual core cpus, then I'd be able to recommend this mobo but so far it's been a bad purchase decision because it's just as much of a technological dead end as a socket 754 mobo would have been.

Hell, if I'd just gotten a 754 mobo instead back when I last upgraded, I'd have saved enough money to buy a new nforce4 socket 939 now to go with a dual core cpu.

My Venice works fine in this board with the 1.9 bios, it worked well with the 1.8 bios also, except for 'cool and quiet', which now works in 1.9...

I doubt a lot of these problems people are having are solely the boards fault.

My Neo2 doesn't work with the official bios because of my Prometia. It won't boot and give's the "warning have option rom can not be invoke" message, which is a bios temp problem found way early on. I can't believe they released the bios with this problem. 1.8 doesn't have this problem. I also have AGP problems with any of the 1.9 or 1.A3 bios'. My online gaming in BF1942 Forgotten hope starts to stutter after a couple hours of playing. Then, if I switch to single player mode, the game locks up after loading a map. It doesn't lock the system it just locks the game and I can't get out to the desktop, but I know everything is working because I can hear people in Teamspeak still talking and I can talk to them. Really weird because as soon as I go back to 1.8 everything's fine. I'm using a 4400+ and an X850 XT PE vid card. It's really frustating...stock or overclocked for memory or HT, it doesn't matter. It's definetly a bios problem because everything works right with 1.8, but I can't use the dual core with 1.8 which sucks. :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ibn

I doubt a lot of these problems people are having are solely the boards fault.

---

I couldn't have said it better myself. Most computer "problems" that I have come accross have been USER problems. Some people on this forum have it set in their head that their chip should hit a certain speed......it is simply the LUCK OF THE DRAW. Sometimes you get a sweet chip and a sweet board, other times you get a lemon. I believe that Lestat should have RMA'd his board a while ago if he is in fact having all the issues that he is. I do doubt that his board has that many problems though.... I'm not going to get into it, but when people without knowledge try to teach others, all you end up with is a bunch of people that don't know anything at all. (The blind leading the blind....."I see, said the deaf man to his dumb wife.) Anyway, that's my rant for today.....I personally have had no problems with this motherboard other than bad software voltage readings. My CPU however is a lemon.....needing 1.6v to hit 2.55GHz.

After reading all the replies and trying to figure out what BIOS to use I narrowed it down to three (1.41Mod -1.81t MOD - 1.9 Offcial). After trying all three it found that 1.9 gave me the best overclock/stable performance. The only problem I have now is that after flashing to the 1.9 I can't seem to get my Nvidia Lan working. I have tried to flash back to an early bios but it still will not work. My system is listed below, nothing special but it plays World of Warcraft superb.


A64 3700+ San Diego @ 2750mhz 1.5v
OCZ 1gb 3200 Rev2 Plat 2.5-3-3-5 @ 250mhz
MSi Neo2 Plat 1.9O
Ati x800xtpe


Does anyone have any idea on how I can get nvidia lan working again? I’m using the official Nvidia Chipset drivers.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by flick

My Neo2 doesn't work with the official bios because of my Prometia. It won't boot and give's the "warning have option rom can not be invoke" message, which is a bios temp problem found way early on. I can't believe they released the bios with this problem. 1.8 doesn't have this problem. I also have AGP problems with any of the 1.9 or 1.A3 bios'. My online gaming in BF1942 Forgotten hope starts to stutter after a couple hours of playing. Then, if I switch to single player mode, the game locks up after loading a map. It doesn't lock the system it just locks the game and I can't get out to the desktop, but I know everything is working because I can hear people in Teamspeak still talking and I can talk to them. Really weird because as soon as I go back to 1.8 everything's fine. I'm using a 4400+ and an X850 XT PE vid card. It's really frustating...stock or overclocked for memory or HT, it doesn't matter. It's definetly a bios problem because everything works right with 1.8, but I can't use the dual core with 1.8 which sucks. :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick: :brick:

---

Hi Flick i have the same cold issues thats why We got NFM to make no temp mods of the 1.9 bios. So you can use them. I think Murdok has also started making no temp versions of the bios files he makes to. They stop the temperature showing in bios so the bios will load setup. Temps in windows still work fine :)

hhmm interested about the nvlan not working... does the Realtek lan work fine 100% of the time ?
try disabling that.
do not use NVLAN MAC in the bios leave that alone dont even turn it on.
hhmm whatelse.... just combinations of different things i guess.
also try NFM's 1.9 modded bios.

have you contacted MSI about this ?

S.E. -

you getting anywhere with your testing of the 1.36 mod NFM did ?
as in overclocking vs 1.8 and overall performance and stability ? oh and did your voltages go higher like you wanted ?

Because i damaged my spare bios chip i havnt tried flashing any bios files yet. Think i might order another spare before i flash again. :stick:

oh thats right... you said you only bent the leg of chip did you do a full break on it.

where are you getting the chip from and how much ? i might have to invest in one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sideeffect

Nope i just put SystoolSamurize.dll in the plugins directory of samurize. And it works. If it doesnt work for you then either the plugin you have is corrupted. Your not putting it in the right plugins folder. Or samurize didint install properly pehaps.

You are using windows right? Not that i think this is just for windows im not sure but it could be. Im not really an expert on samurize so pehaps ask at their forum if you cant get it working or contact the maker of the plugin in systool forum.

Hope you get it working :)

---

hey bro can you post that dll file since I can't find it anywhere

Any of you experiencing this video card freez for 5 seconds and than resuming of the game ? Any fixes for that yet, i am 99% sure its the NF3 chip and the crappy drivers for it. Thanks

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lestat

oh thats right... you said you only bent the leg of chip did you do a full break on it.

where are you getting the chip from and how much ? i might have to invest in one.

---

yeah might be informative to know where to get a bios chip from....


turbodiv:... did u have fast write disable yet?

long time ago. I have done all those little tweaks about it... I wait for ultimate solution

Turbo take it from me or not but i can guarentee you that the card is bad.
The freezing is caused by bad memory on the card. BFG has confirmed this is 100% fact several times with me on the phone and one of them was the Supervisor that i asked to speak with cuz i was on my 3rd 6800 GT with bad memory. He confirmed that the 5 sec stall is caused by bad memory on the cards and ALL 6800 series card makers are aware of this and nvidia is working with them to rectify it. but this was at ATLEAST 10 months ago......
I just got a eVGA 6800 Ultra and it does the same :banana::banana::banana::banana: and im mad as hell... basically most of them will run at stock speeds but any overclocking over stock will cause it to lock for 5 sec's

Lower your overclock on the card and it will go away.... if it does not then the card is REALLY bad...

RMA the card and dont go telling them its overclocked but express to them that its been shown on by several card makers that this issue is indeed bad ram on the cards.

Also be sure to make sure the heatsink screws are tight. If you really want remove the HSF and put some arctic silver on the GPU and ram ,, and of course remove the old white crap they use...

if that dont work just rma it. I went thru 3 6800 GT's before i actually got a good one and when i did wow she would roll at 450/1200 24/7
this ultra of mine starts locking at 435/1150 stock on the eVGA is 425/1100 so i might as well not overclock at all. but this card IS getting rma'd the bad ram may only show during overclocks but it WILL start to show at stock speeds within a month. The ram will start failing.

My card is one of the first LEadtek 6800s so my warranty is gone. The thing is that i changed 2 motherboard with this video card - DFI NF2 Ultra and now i am on NEo2 platinum and I experienced same thing on both boards. I actually take your explanation as locgical since my card does not overclcok its memory very well. Even at 800 memory i am experiencing red dots in my movies from time to time. The freez happens when i play for a long time usually 3 hours and i get 1 of those. I guess heat might the problem but i already put AS5 in there...

the trick is that you dont hear about ATI cards doing this so you know its not the mobo chipset.

are you positive leadtek doesnt have a better warrenty that card is only 2 years old. the 6800's havent been out THAT long.

come to think about it... my 6800U also has this problem... since i BIOS flashed it to 425/1100... summer seems to be too much for it... the freezing went off after i downclock to 400/1000...