Official MSI P7N Diamond (780i) Discussion/Review/Overclock/Guide/BIOS Thread

[Cal]

Does anyone know of a good way to get the bios back after a bad flash died at 37% tryed holding ctrl and home but i dont have a ps2 keyboard and im not sure if it still works with a usb to ps2 block plz help im losing it with this board

[loonym]

This sounds like an unrecoverable fail. My guess is rma time.

[Cal]

Doh.
just pluged a speaker onto the board i get a bleep of i take the ram out but nothing just on boot up

[Kyros]

It's so frustrating. I'm getting constant reboots.
Specs:
CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core
Mobo: MSI P7N Diamond
RAM: 8 GB of Corsair Dominator (DDR2 1066)
Video Card: EVGA 8800GT 512MB Akimob Superclocked
Hard Drives: 2x Seagate SATA 3.0 GB - Raid 0
Sound: X-FI that came with the P7N
OS: Vista Ultimate 64bit
Power supply: PC Power and cooling Silencer 750W

Basically the system constantly reboots on me. I am running the 1.1 BIOS downloaded from the MSI website. I also took out 4gb so that I'm running just 4 right now. Any thoughts on why this is happening and how to fix it? Thanks.

[loonym]

It runs with 4gb but not 8? I've never tried running more than 4gb but I can see how 8 could cause problems. Could you list your bios settings?

[Cal]

It's so frustrating. I'm getting constant reboots.
Specs:
CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad Core
Mobo: MSI P7N Diamond
RAM: 8 GB of Corsair Dominator (DDR2 1066)
Video Card: EVGA 8800GT 512MB Akimob Superclocked
Hard Drives: 2x Seagate SATA 3.0 GB - Raid 0
Sound: X-FI that came with the P7N
OS: Vista Ultimate 64bit
Power supply: PC Power and cooling Silencer 750W

Basically the system constantly reboots on me. I am running the 1.1 BIOS downloaded from the MSI website. I also took out 4gb so that I'm running just 4 right now. Any thoughts on why this is happening and how to fix it? Thanks.

Check the Trfc it could be that ocz forum has some good notes on it

[Kyros]

Under Cell Menu I have:
D.O.T Control: Disabled
Intel EIST: Enabled
SLI-Ready Memory: Disabled
System clock mode: Auto

The only thing not standard is that I have:
Dram Voltage (V): 2.2

I've played around with tons of other settings but nothing has worked. I'm about out of ideas. I've tried so many different configurations but nothing has worked. Also, I am only running 4gb right now just for testing purposes. Thanks.

[Kyros]

Check the Trfc it could be that ocz forum has some good notes on it

I'm not sure what you mean. Sorry, I'm a network admin but I know little about OC'ing. Sorry to be so dense. I've been researching for over 8 hours the past 2 days and nothing has helped

[Cal]

No probs heres a link have a read might help might not i see your not using ocz ram but still worth a read

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/fo...ad.php?t=35435

[Kyros]

Sadly, I don't see a tRFC option with the P7N.. Am I just missing something?

[Cal]

no the P7n doesnt have the option to change that setting so you need to use a app like memset to check and see what its set to then if its low check with your ram maker and see if there is a spd file to change it

[BababooeyHTJ]

Unfortunate you didn't get good results with the P7N Diamond but I know it oc's very well because I do get good results and I've read lots of good results from others in this and other forums. It really took a lot of tinkering and learning the kind of weird bios though, not for the impatient, gimme results now crowd.

Bababooey, I wouldn't put too much faith in the ps efficiency readouts in hw monitor. It's really only been kinda sorta accurate in 1 or 2 bios releases I think. Don't stress over it. Have you tried clearing the cmos to solve the stock speed problem? Are the settings all bios defaults when you get the blue screens? If so it might be your ram settings need to be set up manually.

Yeah I cleared cmos and everything was at the stock settings that I had used for about a month I know it was accurate in bios 1.0 I am usin 1.1 nowwhich didnt give me too many problems but I am very afraid to flash if Im not stable at stock speeds. The blue screen error I am getting is a hard drive error and I am using raid0 with two WD caviar 250gb drives I think it is the onboard raid controller not geting enough voltage but the added voltage to my NB causes it to be stable enough not to crash. Im afraid to run it for too long

[BababooeyHTJ]

My hw moniter says
3.3v = 3.280v
5v = 4.198v
12v = 11.968v
Icore = 13.000a (average)
I12v = 1.480a
efficiency = 22% (average)

[Kyros]

I "think" I may have got it running stable. I found an article and kind of went by the spec that they had. Amazing the damn thing won't run stable at default speeds. I had to OC it to 3 GHz and 444.4 on the RAM and now it's not crashed yet *crosses fingers".

I hope I didn't OC things too much. I really don't know what I'm doing hardly, but all my core's seem to be running around 40 degrees celcius according to Core Temp.

Anything I should pay attention to to make sure I don't fry my system?

[Fiskbit]

Bababooey: I don't know how much this matters, as I don't have hat much experience with it yet, but your 5v looks way too low. It's off by 16%. I don't know what in a computer uses 5v (12v is the most important one), but I can't imagine it being off that much would be good for it.

Anyway, I've not done any OC'ing yet, but my P7N and various other parts are lying in wait for me to put them together tonight or tomorrow. I intend to go with water cooling eventually (probably in a couple weeks), but in the meantime I'll be using my processor's stock cooling. I have a Q6600. I'm a bit curious how far I'd be able to safely push it on stock, and am also wondering if anyone has any good ideas on how to keep my harddrives safe while trying to find a stable overclock. Additionally, if I'm clearing CMOS before doing stuff, I'm losing my harddrive settings every time, right? Is it easy to restore those by hand afterward?

[Kyros]

Can anyone explain these settings as they relate to the P7N Diamond:
CPU GTL Ref: 65
FSB Term: 25

To get those numbers, what value do you actually use in the Bios?

[BababooeyHTJ]

Unfortunate you didn't get good results with the P7N Diamond but I know it oc's very well because I do get good results and I've read lots of good results from others in this and other forums. It really took a lot of tinkering and learning the kind of weird bios though, not for the impatient, gimme results now crowd.

Bababooey, I wouldn't put too much faith in the ps efficiency readouts in hw monitor. It's really only been kinda sorta accurate in 1 or 2 bios releases I think. Don't stress over it. Have you tried clearing the cmos to solve the stock speed problem? Are the settings all bios defaults when you get the blue screens? If so it might be your ram settings need to be set up manually.

I set my ram settings manually but it did not help. Have you ever seen hw moniter off by that much? Should I just try Prime 95 at settings that I know it runs well and if thats stable not worry about it?

[loonym]

Under Cell Menu I have:
D.O.T Control: Disabled
Intel EIST: Enabled
SLI-Ready Memory: Disabled
System clock mode: Auto

The only thing not standard is that I have:
Dram Voltage (V): 2.2

I've played around with tons of other settings but nothing has worked. I'm about out of ideas. I've tried so many different configurations but nothing has worked. Also, I am only running 4gb right now just for testing purposes. Thanks.

I can say without question that you'll never run 8gb ram without pushing the nb voltage. You may have to loosen timings some too and then if you're lucky you can run them at ddr2-800.

[loonym]

Can anyone explain these settings as they relate to the P7N Diamond:
CPU GTL Ref: 65
FSB Term: 25

To get those numbers, what value do you actually use in the Bios?

No, I don't think anyone can explain them except perhaps the MSI engineers that wrote the bios and used those values instead of actual voltages or percentages. How they relate to voltage is unknown at least from anything I can find. In the latest couple of bios releases they have dropped the integers in favor of actual voltage settings.

[loonym]

It will be very helpful to those reading and perhaps answering posts if people looking for solutions or perhaps offering solutions to issues would create a hardware sig and maybe list some bios settings. Specifics will help everyone.

[AaronYuri]

Does anyone know of a good way to get the bios back after a bad flash died at 37% tryed holding ctrl and home but i dont have a ps2 keyboard and im not sure if it still works with a usb to ps2 block plz help im losing it with this board

Cal,

If the bootblock is still intact a recovery is possible.

Was your system overclocked before the flash? You should always make sure your system is stable before flashing...

[loonym]

I haven't had any luck obtaining a decent OC with any of the 6 or 7 series MSI nforce boards. I haven't seen where anybody has had much luck. MSI has been disappointing with the these. I wouldn't touch one if my intentions were to OC.

I know I shouldn't feed this but I have to answer this post one more time. Have you had a P7N Diamond? If so what were your oc issues? I've had this same board since I bought it in feb and it's run at full load 99.9% of the time perfectly stable for the most part with a q6600 @ 3.6ghz on air. I just last week decided to try a new 45nm quad and that's worked pretty much flawlessly too at the same full load 24/7 @ 3.83ghz. I've never run this board with stock settings so I can't comment on any issues people may or may not have while trying that. I ran some quick benches just now, on air since that's all I have, to illustrate overclocking potential. No tricks, no mods, just straight up runs back to back.

[loonym]

Bios screens... with settings for 4ghz benchies and then my 24/7 settings for crunching WCG at 3.83ghz...

[loonym]

Some load temps and a basically useless screen of H/W Monitor...

[panheimer]

Loonym,
saw your bios pics and wonder if you can give me some explanation about your settings:
- you've setted PCI-E freq to 108 Mhz, is it useful for stability or is it just your choiche?
- what is DIMM Memory Reference Voltage use for?
_ PCI Expander PLL Voltage? What does it affect?
thanks!