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

[jackea]

I tested the 1.B TCCD version and it seemed OK, but I could not
get DMA mode to work on my hard drives. So I flashed
back to 1.8, now the drives work OK but the MAC on the Nvidia LAN is
FF FF FF FF FF FF.
The Nvidia LAN doesn't work after this, it seems as if
the flash erased the MAC adress of the Nvidia LAN.

Is there a way to get it back?

[sinister1st]

AWFL833D.EXE 7025nms.180 /py /sn /nvmac:xxxxxxxxxxxx /wb /cc /cd

[Losphoron]

Jackea the thing with MAC happens exactly like that but on a Cable modem Motorola Sb4200.Try rewriting the MAC adress from bios.In 1.B bios modded by SideEfect (MAN thanks for those firmwares.Awesome!!) there is a NVMAC where you can type the MAC adress.Try there.

I am a MSI fan (i have cd-writer, vga, 2 maiboards from them) I got my Neo2 today so my specs are:
A64 3000+ venice with Arctic Cooler Ultra 64 TCl..this cooler is awesome.Very quite, performant and inexpensive. 17$..My CPU temp stays between 27 degree and 32-34 degrees Celsius
MSI K8N NEO2 P 1.B (sideefect bios)
I got the card OC-ing up to 250x9 by now.I tried to boot at 260 and 270 and the even don't boot.I will try adding more power to cpu.Windows is ok by now.The most intersting thing is the NB rev is 05062 Korea. :P.unfortunetly my memory banks are not so good.I have a Dialog with hynix memories banks it works 2.4.4.8 DDR400 and a KIngmax DDR333 2.3.3.8.The stupid thing is if i set the memory to 1T windows 2000 sp4 will report a BSOD during loading that ACPI is not compatible or something like this but i am 100% that is memory problem.Anyway this board is better than my old Kt3V (MS-6712) with Xp2200+.Any advices other than changing the memory banks is apreciated and BTW another thing that i got when i put the two memory banks in the first slots near CPU DIM1 and DIM 2 like all guys said here: my system don't boot and it give a looong beep.After putted green with green like in the book..ALL OK.

[Garrett]

Jackea the thing with MAC happens exactly like that but on a Cable modem Motorola Sb4200.Try rewriting the MAC adress from bios.In 1.B bios modded by SideEfect (MAN thanks for those firmwares.Awesome!!) there is a NVMAC where you can type the MAC adress.Try there.

I am a MSI fan (i have cd-writer, vga, 2 maiboards from them) I got my Neo2 today so my specs are:
A64 3000+ venice with Arctic Cooler Ultra 64 TCl..this cooler is awesome.Very quite, performant and inexpensive. 17$..My CPU temp stays between 27 degree and 32-34 degrees Celsius
MSI K8N NEO2 P 1.B (sideefect bios)
I got the card OC-ing up to 250x9 by now.I tried to boot at 260 and 270 and the even don't boot.I will try adding more power to cpu.Windows is ok by now.The most intersting thing is the NB rev is 05062 Korea. :P.unfortunetly my memory banks are not so good.I have a Dialog with hynix memories banks it works 2.4.4.8 DDR400 and a KIngmax DDR333 2.3.3.8.The stupid thing is if i set the memory to 1T windows 2000 sp4 will report a BSOD during loading that ACPI is not compatible or something like this but i am 100% that is memory problem.Anyway this board is better than my old Kt3V (MS-6712) with Xp2200+.Any advices other than changing the memory banks is apreciated and BTW another thing that i got when i put the two memory banks in the first slots near CPU DIM1 and DIM 2 like all guys said here: my system don't boot and it give a looong beep.After putted green with green like in the book..ALL OK.

I have the FF FF FF FF FF mac 'problem' too... what MAC should I enter anyway, can you just enter anything?

[sideeffect]

Losphoron - Yes you have 1x 512 mb stick and 1 x 256 mb stick. This will cause you big problems and wont work properly in dual channel. Best to get rid of the 256 mb stick and buy another 512mb.

If you do that get the same make as the other ddr 400 512mb stick you have and you should be able to run dual channel and 1T.

[Losphoron]

maybe i could OC further after changing the sticks?I love this board.A little correction.I just stabilized the card at 260x9.Booting and windows no problems by now.At 270 the pc is booting but the windows begin to correct hdd errors with scandisk so i got back.No test in games by now.Thx sideefect.

[Losphoron]

I have the FF FF FF FF FF mac 'problem' too... what MAC should I enter anyway, can you just enter anything?

it doesn't matter man.Just put a 12 digit number there.Anyway i will add my NIC mac to make you an idea.
this is my NV mac: 00:11:09:e9:6a:7a.Just put in bios another adrress.Doesn matter.

[sideeffect]

Is anyone here running 3 sticks of memory in dual channel?

Like 2 x 256 and 1 x 512 or 2x 512 and 1 x 1gb ?

Im wondering what the best solution is when i want to move up to 2gb is it to buy 2 more 512mb sticks. Or to sell the sticks I have and buy 2 x 1gb or just buy 1 x 1gb.

[Losphoron]

man.My card is reporting single channel memories.I can put the thrid DDR 333 stick from samsung if you want and put it in first purple slot.

[Lestat]

dont use that same mac address please...

every nic card in the world has a different mac address. duplicate nic's can cause packets from another person to go to you. but you need to be on the same subnet for that to happen. so if your not in the same town and ISP its not really too big of an issue but just change a few letters or numbers in that and it will work

[sideeffect]

man.My card is reporting single channel memories.I can put the thrid DDR 333 stick from samsung if you want and put it in first purple slot.

Yes like i said to run in dual channel you have to use equal size memory. You can use 2 x 512mb sticks or 2 x 256mb sticks you cant use 1 x 256mb and 1x 512mb. You can supposedly use 2x 256mb and 1 x 512 mb stick though and that will make dual channel.

I think it depends though for that to work i think maybe the 256 mb sticks have to be single sided and the 512 mb stick double sided.

[TMM]

i don't think Athlon64s like 3 stick dual chan at all (ie. 2x256+512 or 2x512+1gb)

best stick with 2x512 or 2x1GB, or if you must, 4x512

1)
after flashing you need to go back and turn raid ON for the appropriate hard drive ports
2)
put the boot order of the hard drives in proper order.

the different nvraid roms dont make this happen. its a setting in the bios that you have wrong. although a bad nvraid rom could do it yes,, but i dont think thats the problem.
use the 1.36r4 modded bios or the 1.8 official from msi both are good.

Also the Boot order you need to make correct and also the Hard drive boot order.

It says error loading operating system becuase 1) its looking at the wrong hard drive.
2) its looking at your raid hard drives but they are not raid so it can not load windows properly

its a simple fix.

also you need to use a large string of switches with the flash i cant remember what they are and im at work so i cant tell you what they are but search this thread ive posted them several times, also sideeffect and others know what they are so wait to se eif they reply.

the fix is simple just hang tight...


also the nvraid doesnt like being messed with you have to delete the raid and choose clear data,, then reboot, then go back and make the raid again. then load up the xp cd and load windows.

you added an edit and im not sure i understand it but i highly doubt the MBR of the disk is bad unless the rAID is still intact, you must delete the raid vbia the nvraid setup menu.

Thanks for that, definately some good advice for when i run into harddrive troubles again
Though the problem lay with the Harddrive iteself in the end. Seems like the 1.B bios was making an improper MBR, which it still seemed to boot of fine itself, but get another bios to try and boot it and you get an error. Ended up formatting the whole thing on another PC, and now everything works again

btw, Sata disks work fine with raid off on my board - it boots faster that way too

[jackea]

AWFL833D.EXE 7025nms.180 /py /sn /nvmac:xxxxxxxxxxxx /wb /cc /cd

Thanks alot it did the trick, i found the Mac adress on a sticker on
top of the printer port, typed it in as per the above instructions and
now its working.
Though i just checked and now both the Nvidia MAC and the
other onboard LAN have the same MAC.
Has they always had the same or was it me who typed in
the wrong MAC?

[Losphoron]

I am aware that the dual channel need identical memories so now all i talk is about oc and putting more banks like we all do on older mainboards.The intersting thing is single channell memories must be placed in the same way like dual channel.Now i occupied one channel (green slots).By putting them without respectiv the colours even in single channel the system don't boot.I think older rev are out of book specs.In the book and pirnted with white on mainboard is clear."Channel A" (Green). "Channel B" (Purple) but many said that for stability first green and purple slot must be ocupied in order to boot properly.Is a little confusing.In my opinion this was another problem on earlier rev.This problem is very confusing for begginers.

[Draxx]

Isn't the NVMAC written on the printer port?

[Losphoron]

Yes it is.

[Draxx]

So why don't the chaps who have lost it in the BIOS just copy it from there into the BIOS?

[jackea]

So why don't the chaps who have lost it in the BIOS just copy it from there into the BIOS?

I did that, the problem is that it was the same MAC as the other
onboard LAN. So it seems as if the MAC on the printer port
on my NEO2 Plat isn't the one for the Nvidia LAN.

[Draxx]

I did that, the problem is that it was the same MAC as the other
onboard LAN. So it seems as if the MAC on the printer port
on my NEO2 Plat isn't the one for the Nvidia LAN.

hmm odd as everywhere I've been to say the same thing, that the NVMAC is the one on the printer port.

Are you using both LAN connections then?

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=86258.0 is one of them...

[sinister1st]

{Go to cmd then type in ipconfig /all } you will see your address make sure both realtek and nvidia lans are enabled to see both. I dont know what you did but you should have written it down before flash. Both addresses are not exactly the same. If they are the same you can try ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew but make sure you dont have an adresss of EEEEOOOFFFFF or something like that. Maybe you should try and disable your lan connections when you flash your bios thats what i do and i never loose my address. ever.

[jackea]

{Go to cmd then type in ipconfig /all } you will see your address make sure both realtek and nvidia lans are enabled to see both. I dont know what you did but you should have written it down before flash. Both addresses are not exactly the same. If they are the same you can try ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew but make sure you dont have an adresss of EEEEOOOFFFFF or something like that. Maybe you should try and disable your lan connections when you flash your bios thats what i do and i never loose my address. ever.

ipconfig /all
Thats how I found out that they uses the same MAC.
I have flashed this board ith every Bios known to man ;-),
so it was perhaps bound to happen, I solved it know by using
a unique MAC from an old 10 MB NIC.

[el rolio]

sinister, im sorry, but i gotta go OT to let you kno that your avatar is frikken awesome and i want the rest of it for my wall paper.

reminds me of girls back home. sigh, cant find much of that here in the midwest (boo)

uhm back on topic.... NEO2 ROCKS!?

ps: is runnin 1.52-55v for my 250x10 OC good(on a winnie)? i always believe that high oc's with little voltage is where the pride's at...

[Lestat]

hey now no nocking the midwest! Iowan here!

you can find asses that big here but they are usually followed by a top half thats twice as big hahaha eewww!!!

[Losphoron]

Ok.Breaking news.Another friend bought the same board like me but with other config and i begin to test their system for OC.First let me present his config:
A64 3200+
Neo2 P (Absolutly identical with.Bios and NB rev) flashed to 1.B oficial.
1 stick of Kingmax Hardcore Gamer DDR500
6800 simple
Wd 80gb.
Arctic Cooler Freezer 64.Best of for 939 from AC.
The intersting thing is he can't boot the system when it set the FSB at 260mhz but he can boot it and windows works with fsb at 250.At me is the same situation but with more cheaper stickers and two of them.Here is a coincidence or i am stupid.We, both, have the same NB rev 05062A and the same OC stop value.Should i try 1.36 moded versions?For me is even better i get booted at 260 but no more..

[Millyons]

Ok.Breaking news.Another friend bought the same board like me but with other config and i begin to test their system for OC.First let me present his config:
A64 3200+
Neo2 P (Absolutly identical with.Bios and NB rev) flashed to 1.B oficial.
1 stick of Kingmax Hardcore Gamer DDR500
6800 simple
Wd 80gb.
Arctic Cooler Freezer 64.Best of for 939 from AC.
The intersting thing is he can't boot the system when it set the FSB at 260mhz but he can boot it and windows works with fsb at 250.At me is the same situation but with more cheaper stickers and two of them.Here is a coincidence or i am stupid.We, both, have the same NB rev 05062A and the same OC stop value.Should i try 1.36 moded versions?For me is even better i get booted at 260 but no more..

did he try htt x3?