Phenom 9500 w/ MSI K9A2 Platinum

[jesteronyer6]

You did set BIOS defaults before you flashed, right?

When did you get this problem, running stock or overclocked?

What did you type to flash the P0H BIOS?

If it froze on booting after Windows basic libraries, then maybe you have something starting up which is causing this, i.e. AOD Assistant. I never leave this running as it usually causes me this problem (freezing).

This BIOS is the most stable so far. A BIOS doesn't cause such a problem, the rebooting and whatever caused the freezing is what will cause no subsequent bootup. You might also have had a power surge/spike. Can you verify if you generally experience electrical problems at your house?

Can you check your power supply voltages idle/load?

Leave it off yet. The reboot loop will mean BIOS isn't clearing. You will have to only try one DIMM after clearing for over 30 minutes and shutting down power whilst doping so with minimal peripherals connected to get into the BIOS, set everything up at stock and then reboot.

EDIT:
Dave I've just seen a 0749[mxxw] and it's so far hitting 3.0-3.1GHz at 1.3-1.312V stable stock cooler. Test your CPU fully, yours is the closest batch.

I did not set the BIOS to defaults.
I was not overclocked I have given up on that I was running stock.
I have the computer plugged into a battery backup system so I dont think it was a surge.
I used the USB Flash program to flash the BIOS.

Edit: I just called NewEgg for an RMA I am sending this board back now which board should I get the DFi or ASUS with the 790FX chipset?

[Oc-Ghost]

I read about the core2 issue some people are having.

Question: will disabling core2 grant stability and/or higher oc?

[KTE]

Make sure Offset:BEh using 16bit access mode
or Offset BCh using 32bit access mode
or Offset BFh using 8bit access mode

make no mistake ok

It didn't work tictac

When I restarted, the 1b went back to 0b. I set 1b for core2 (0100b) and restarted. This is what I got after restart:



If I use Windows to disable a core would that not change this register?

I did not set the BIOS to defaults.

Ah well, there you go.

Edit: I just called NewEgg for an RMA I am sending this board back now which board should I get the DFi or ASUS with the 790FX chipset?

If they check the BIOS you had flashed (a BETA) you'll get the board back again since you weren't warrantied to do that.

I also doubt very much the board is dead, they don't die like this. It looks like your old settings causing problems. They can put an X2 into it and have it started up IMO.
Between those two I would chose the ASUS, but I'm not saying it's worth it or you'll get miracles with it over this board at all. It's very similar, better BIOS though.

[tictac]

i will check back later. thx

[informal]

I did not set the BIOS to defaults.
I was not overclocked I have given up on that I was running stock.
I have the computer plugged into a battery backup system so I dont think it was a surge.
I used the USB Flash program to flash the BIOS.

Edit: I just called NewEgg for an RMA I am sending this board back now which board should I get the DFi or ASUS with the 790FX chipset?

Before you do that(RMA),please try this:
http://www.msicomputer.com/support/B...I_Recovery.asp

BIOS Recovery Feature

For AMI BIOS

1. Rename the desired AMI BIOS file to AMIBOOT.ROM and save it on a floppy disk. e.g. Rename A569MS23.ROM to AMIBOOT.ROM
2. Insert this floppy disk in the floppy drive. Turn On the system and press and hold Ctrl-Home to force update. It will read the AMIBOOT.ROM file and recover the BIOS from the A drive.
3. When 4 beeps are heard you may remove the floppy disk and restart the computer.

BIOS Recovery Feature

For Award BIOS

1. Make a bootable floopy disk
2. Copy the Award flash utility & BIOS file to the said floppy disk.
3. Create an autoexec.bat with "awdfl535 biosfilename" in the content e.g. awadfl535 a619mj21.bin
4. Boot up system with the said floppy (it will take less than 2 minutes before screen comes out)
5. Re-flash the BIOS & reboot.

If this doesn't work out,try it again but before doing this time remove the battery and clear cmos.Leave the system 30 minutes,then put back the battery and try the procedure described in the Quote above .

Hope it helps,good luck!

[Daveburt714]

Does anyone know what the extra set of pins next to the CMOS reset jumper is? I couldn't find any docs on it. I was really hoping you guys were going to tell me it was a static/backup bios...

I pulled one stick of ram, still no post (monitor doesn't even light), so I pulled the battery, unplugged it and left the jumper in the reset positon till I get home from work tonight.

KTE: Yes, I reset to stock speeds/no OC before I flashed, but I didn't use those switches... The wierd thing is I used the same method to flash as Jesterone (USB drive). Oh well, guess I'll find out tonight if it worked.

Jon: Unfortunately I don't have a PCI VidCard so thats not an option. But thanks for the suggestion.

[jonspd]

MSI Tech. 02/21/2008 The answer is no... Will there be an official release bios that allows you to enable and disable the TLB fix? No, since it need to have it enable all the time.

[justapost]

I've tried nearly all the ways to clock Phenom and found the best, quickest and most accurate understanding giver is by working your way up slowly moving from one perfectly stable setting to another.
I usually try max valid and max benchable before this though, but after this too.

Was an easy go up to 2.5GHz by just increasing vcore and the multi. Normaly I oc the same way you do.

AFAIK the multipliers and PLLs are separate, hence the no effect. Otherwise, there certainly would be.

I thought about the tlb bug. He occures in an timeframe whom is affected by both frequencies cuz the core and the l3 cache are involved.

Check out these articles.

1. The following AMD CPU's compared for power efficiency: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/proces...iew-30178.html


Unfortunately, they made a crucial mistake. They used BIOS P0F which disables the TLB Fix only on the first core and not on the other three (unless done manually). Pity, it would've been useful.

Very interesting together with the comparison of intel cpu's. Got an qx6850 ES today, rest of the system arrives tomorrow. Will have that stuff for about two weeks. During all my ocing I ran cinebench 10's opengl and multi-cpu benchmark and noted points/time used and temps and power consumption during the cpu benchmark, so i can do a similar comparison between my be9600 and that qx6850.
BTW: Also an 5000be arrived here today, so much to play with.

2. X2 K8 and X4 K10h compared throughout the clock ranges: http://209.85.135.104/translate_c?hl...-phenom-22756/


Very useful IMO as they tried to show the max possible for Phenom by 2008 compared to what we can already have with X2 (and more really). I'm not sure about the NB though as I'm pretty sure unless they manually clocked it down, it would be 2000MHz which is 200MHz more than retail Phenoms so far. Not a large difference generally if any at all, but in memory sensitive applications, it can very well be.

Happy reading.

Not yet finished.

[Daveburt714]

Before you do that(RMA),please try this:
http://www.msicomputer.com/support/B...I_Recovery.asp

Hope it helps,good luck!

INFORMAL: I know your post was directed toward Jester, but I'm experiencing a very similar problem and that looked promising. Unfortunately it didn't work on my machine... Thanks for the link though, may come in handy in the future.

JESTER: Just curious if you flashed the same version of "P0H" that aGeoM linked back on page 50? Thats the one I used and I'm having similar problems. Although mine never even posted after the flash...

aGeoM: Did you get your version from that link, and did it work OK? I'm certainly not accusing you of anything malicious, but If it's a bad file I'd hate to see someone else flash a bad bios.

I've looked all over and still can't figure out what the jumper right next to CMOS reset does (JCI1), but I'm assuming it's not the backup bios I was hopeing for...

Not sure what I'm going to do now....

[KTE]

Thanks Informal.

You don't happen to play Urban Terror 4.1, do you?

I read about the core2 issue some people are having.

Question: will disabling core2 grant stability and/or higher oc?

It really depends from chip to chip. I definitely agree there is a weak-er core within Phenoms compared to the other three, but it's not always core2, it's been core1 and core3 aswell.

Disabling it should allow higher MHz, higher MHz benchable, higher stable MHz, high MHz at lower volts or a combination of these if it really is the setback. It's up to the user to test and find out whether it is.

The problem is, with Phenoms each core has a separate PLL, they are independent clockers. You can use AOD to keep one poor clocker at stock when oc'ing and you can see very clearly if you will get more MHz (etc) on the other ones. With most users there isn't much increase at all. The ASUS RD790 already has users doing this with their oc's.

Does anyone know what the extra set of pins next to the CMOS reset jumper is? I couldn't find any docs on it. I was really hoping you guys were going to tell me it was a static/backup bios...

Not sure really. Don't have the board here to check either and from memory, I think you're referring to two pins? I haven't seen any documentation on them that I recall. Will checkup later when I get back to flat. It won't be a BIOS backup though.

You guys all flashed the same file it seems, because others haven't had this problem yet (many I know who have flashed it). I've flashed/re-flashed it at least 8/9 times. I flash the files on my disk (originals) and I've had zero problems with P0H but you will get these problems with many BIOSes on all boards if you don't set defaults before flashing, if you don't use the switches and if you don't CMOS clear and then power down after flashing (for BETA's) before starting up. You're all encountering pretty much the same problem here.

Let me know if you've both flashed the file aGeoM linked and I'll hunt him down.
I'm kidding.
I'll flash the file myself and see if it's the file that's corrupt.

Also, clear CMOS and then power down, i.e. switch the power supply off or disconnect it. Leave it like that for an hour. Then connect again and restart with a minimal build. Does it POST (keep pressing Del)?

KTE: Yes, I reset to stock speeds/no OC before I flashed, but I didn't use those switches... The wierd thing is I used the same method to flash as Jesterone (USB drive).

I always use the failsafe and established stable method and through good [nightmare] experience across boards too.
Many boards react differently but FDD flash is always set to work right. You should always use the pbnc switches or you're setting yourself up for error, especially with BETA's. The good thing about FDD's is that you can access them on all systems in all ways.

Behind the scenes the amount of troubleshooting I do is really ridiculously tedious when dealing with a new platform, like this. It comes part and parcel of "BETA testing" though.

MSI Tech. 02/21/2008 The answer is no... Will there be an official release bios that allows you to enable and disable the TLB fix? No, since it need to have it enable all the time.

I strongly hope he was talking out of his rear there.

I'm now planning on getting rid of the board actually and maybe swapping to see if other boards have made any progress.

BTW, those replies are pretty poor. Maybe you should tell him that we pay not the other way round.

Very interesting together with the comparison of intel cpu's. Got an qx6850 ES today, rest of the system arrives tomorrow. Will have that stuff for about two weeks. During all my ocing I ran cinebench 10's opengl and multi-cpu benchmark and noted points/time used and temps and power consumption during the cpu benchmark, so i can do a similar comparison between my be9600 and that qx6850.
BTW: Also an 5000be arrived here today, so much to play with.

Nice, looking forward to it.

The QX6850 is hot though, you'll need a good cooler or it'll start throttling under loads as it reaches plus 85C with many aftermarket air coolers. So results might be less than accurate if it does.

[informal]

@KTE
Not playing UrbanT. (not really a Quake mods player ),but will DL it later today and see if i can hit someone .
I do play Americas Army .

[Jaivan]

@KTE
Scrap the MSI board and get a DFI and learn us how to tweak the phenom with it

[KTE]

informal: I play it to check my system at times. Only game I still play randomly (or HL2:LC), dropped gaming since my studies started.

Jaivan: If only I knew how.
I can't find the DFI board here anymore, I am after it though.

Can you tell me which BIOS you're running and how stable it is? (any major issues)

[madfaze]

Official BIOS 1.3

change log

- Support AM2+ CPU.
- Update CPU Module.
- Update SATA ROM version.
- Update Promise ROM version.
- Support memory EPP mode

[jonspd]

I strongly hope he was talking out of his rear there.

I'm now planning on getting rid of the board actually and maybe swapping to see if other boards have made any progress.

BTW, those replies are pretty poor. Maybe you should tell him that we pay not the other way round.
Nice, looking forward to it.

we shall see soon enough I would also make a move to another board but at this time when b3 comes I will give it a go and if I'm still not happy then I quess I will be off to intel land

[Debello]

@KTE
Scrap the MSI board and get a DFI and learn us how to tweak the phenom with it

I have been playing around with the MSI 790FX board since release, while I am not completely impressed with it, for me alteast it feels like a waste of money to replace it with another motherboard with the SB600. I will happly replace the K9A2 when the SB710 790FX motherboards are released.

The issues we are having with the first round of 790FX motherboards are very similiar to the issues that around with the first 754 socket motherboards where released. Bios fixes where promised and in the end the only solution was to buy the latest motherboard with the fixed features.

[KTE]

Thanks madfaze.

Official BIOS 1.3

CRAP!

Recommendation: Stay away!!

Includes TLB Fix by default with no options to turn it off. No more options than the last official BIOS, only CPU/HT multiplier and voltage controls in BIOS for oc, nothing else. Abysmal BIOS for oc and performance.

It may offer good compatibility and support issues for others but not any for me that P0H doesn't. It also allows running all memory dividers.

Look at the performance, this is worse than a single core P4 at 3.3GHz. Who the heck does MSI think will buy a Phenom+MB for this performance?




Obviously I can mod it to have proper performance but that's my own (and others) painful research and testing, MSI didn't allow. I am now seriously looking at modding one of these BIOSes because I'm getting fed up.

[jonspd]

I think msi might have there head in the wrong place

nice performance gain lol

[jesteronyer6]

INFORMAL: I know your post was directed toward Jester, but I'm experiencing a very similar problem and that looked promising. Unfortunately it didn't work on my machine... Thanks for the link though, may come in handy in the future.

JESTER: Just curious if you flashed the same version of "P0H" that aGeoM linked back on page 50? Thats the one I used and I'm having similar problems. Although mine never even posted after the flash...

Yep that is where I got it and I couldnt recover the BIOS the board is shipped back to the etailer.

[Jaivan]

@KTE
Well I find that the DFI is more stable and can overclock the HTT higher, but my Phenom is the problem it won't do more than 2.42ghz stable.
I had a Gigabyte DS5 before the DFI and i couldn't reach 245 HTT stable on it while with the DFI I'm currently running at 255 HTT stable haven't really tested to see if it could go higher since I'm pretty happy at this speed for now.
Compared to the Gigabyte the DFI has better features and for me a more stable BIOS. There were lots of freezing in the BIOS on the Gigabyte and I think that it didn't like my RAM since sometimes it wouldn't even post and I would have to remove two sticks to get it started. I get none of those problems on the DFI.
I'm Currently running the 01/30/2008 BIOS which is the latest non beta.
Oh BTW this is where I got my board from:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...anufacture=DFI

[Daveburt714]

Yep that is where I got it and I couldnt recover the BIOS the board is shipped back to the etailer.

Thanks Jester, I thought that may have been the one you used too.

I've done everything I know to do and followed the instructions per Informal & KTE... Mobo is just bricked...

KTE: Did you get a chance to DL that version of P0H? Personally, I wouldn't flash it just in case! But you may be able to run a checksum comparison with your known good copy.

The only other thing I can think of is that we both used a USB drive to flash the bios. Thats the first time I've ever used that method, but everything seemed to go as it should, ie: ran all the steps and completed as expected.

[KTE]

I'll get back to you all in a bit, just found some free time.

I heard midday today that there is a Phenom FX CPU yet to release within the next 3 months. FX-82 it was dubbed. Have yet to check online on it yet, will do after I start-up Phenom and flash the P0H you guys flashed.

[EDIT]

Yep, I'm sure there was such a model. Whether it'll still release or not, I'm not sure. No motherboard manufacturer lists Phenom FX compatible until they've fully tested and verified samples of this product. Infact, check out what I found listed on MSI site for our board:



Bit of a giveaway that.


Guys, the BIOS file P0H aGeoM attached is fine, checksum is also perfect. I've flashed it without even setting defaults although I did follow the safe known procedure and did use the flash parameters.



Heck, look at my lowest voltage 2700MHz boot so far... (no crashes)



It is safe and working. Looks like the method being the root error.
1.30 official release is based off P0H fully.

Jaivan: no DFI in this country, one I briefly tested is gone back to DFI for some reason so I have to get the Sapphire instead. I can get hold of the Sapphire, which is DFI half rebadged.

[gOtVoltage]

@KTE
Not playing UrbanT. (not really a Quake mods player ),but will DL it later today and see if i can hit someone .
I do play Americas Army .

Does Phenom work with AA and PBuster,, I havnt tried to play it in several months..

P.S. KTE ,AA is a pretty decent shooter game.lots of maps to run on.
82 info will be interesting.

)x(ElitejArHead)x(

[KTE]

P.S. KTE ,AA is a pretty decent shooter game.lots of maps to run on.
)x(ElitejArHead)x(

Yea I know, the military would feed us it day and night. I trained with the military in 3 countries from '99-02 and then in '04 and we would play it very often. Haven't played it since late 2004 now, and I don't have it here either. There's no US military recruitment sites to give it away free here.

I can check it out if I could get it free to test somewhere, maybe even a playable demo. Did want to play v3.0 when it comes out though.

[Daveburt714]

Guys, the BIOS file P0H aGeoM attached is fine, checksum is also perfect. I've flashed it without even setting defaults although I did follow the safe known procedure and did use the flash parameters.

Thats really strange... Must have been the USB flash procedure then, have you ever Flashed a BIOS like that KTE?

Now the even stranger thing is, I swapped out the PSU and the VC. Same results and they both work fine in other machines. I went and got a new board today, same results... I'll put the 9600Std back in tommorow, about the only thing left would be the 9600BE went bad...

Thanks Much for all your help Man...
And sorry about muddying your thread with my problems...