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

[raymeus3]

did you use a back plate for your cooler Dogg? If so, which one?

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If anyone has a GeminII (non S) w/ the 2x120mm fans on this mobo, please let me know if the mobo is longer than the top of the CPU Cooler. Thx

[dogg]

Yes, I used it... Solid metal backplate is included in package.. I used plastic backplate with Zalman before and after 7 months board is visible bended anyway.. Zalman w 475grams .. GeminII S w560grams.. Intel says something up to 450g is a safe weight.. I have no MB functionality problem...

[raymeus3]

Just found this. Might help w/ people having trouble cooling their NB. Fan would be pretty far away, but this would at lease give you a mount in the area to play arround with.

http://www.quietpcusa.com/Zalman-Ove...3-P339C22.aspx

[raymeus3]

yea yea, more fan stuff... I'll get to the overclocking goodness once I order the dang thing.

Anyways, I'm goin with the GeminII S (since it will fit) and workin out all the other goodness.

ATTACHMENT: got another mspaint masterpiece here...

If you would, take a look and tell me what you guys think. I think the NB should be cool enough, and hoping for enough cooling for stable 3.6 gHz overclockness.

[raymeus3]

Is this your memory Dogg? thx

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820146784

[dogg]

looks like mine.. mine are 1066 CL5 in default.. 2x2GB package..http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/...ail.asp?id=661

[stickboy00]

This board has been invaluable to me in my effort to overclock my P7N... thanks to its contributors. I currently have my board with 8500 up to 3.7 with voltages that aren't too high (using stock muffin fan). Can't seem to hit the 3.8 mark (400FSB) without extreme voltage adjustments, though.

My question.... is there a overclocking utility like MemTest86 that is bootable and runs outside of windows?

[loonym]

My question.... is there a overclocking utility like MemTest86 that is bootable and runs outside of windows?

Not sure I understand the question? Sounds like bios.

[stickboy00]

What I'm asking is there a cpu stress testing application that is like MemTest86 and doesn't require Windows. This would eliminate any Windows corruption problems.

edit- I suppose a version of linux that I could run off of a CD would work.

edit#2 - I mean a stress testing application, not overclocking, d'oh

[loonym]

You have windows corruption issues with this board? If so it's almost certainly ram related.

[stickboy00]

I consider my machine crashing in the middle of any write operation a corruption issue. But no, I don't have any general corruption issues... just thought it would be cool to have something like OCCT that ran directly from BIOS and not Windows, like MemTest86.

[FedericoUY]

Hi. I desperately need help!. My motherboard does not show any signs of life. I was overclocking my q9450 and reached 3500mhz (1750fsb), so I was happy with those values (1800fsb were a little problematic to reach). Had my system 2 days running with those specs on 1.2 official bios. Tried out p07 bios with no better results, and then tried 1.2b3 bios. Right away put my system just how was previously on 1.2 bios (@ 3500), booted to windows... made a short test with prime95, and started to play Call of Duty 4 online. 5 minutes later I had a freeze on call of duty 4, and the system never posted again. My first thought was a cpu problem (altough the temperature was correct), so I went to a friend's house to verify it, and it wasn't, my cpu It's ok. Tried different memory kits, mine (dominators) plus (super talent pc6400), other CPU (Pentium D 915), other VGA's (8800GTS, 8800Ultra, 7300GS). Nothing. I removed the mobo from the case and made all those test's with nothing more than the cpu, 1 memory and vga. Also tried another PSU. After all that I put a official bios on a diskette and renamed to AMIBOOT.ROM, started and hold ctrl+home, the floppy won't read it. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Edit: of course I had removed battery and cleared cmos lots of times.

[PapaMambo]

Hi. I desperately need help!. My motherboard does not show any signs of life. I was overclocking my q9450 and reached 3500mhz (1750fsb), so I was happy with those values (1800fsb were a little problematic to reach). Had my system 2 days running with those specs on 1.2 official bios. Tried out p07 bios with no better results, and then tried 1.2b3 bios. Right away put my system just how was previously on 1.2 bios (@ 3500), booted to windows... made a short test with prime95, and started to play Call of Duty 4 online. 5 minutes later I had a freeze on call of duty 4, and the system never posted again. My first thought was a cpu problem (altough the temperature was correct), so I went to a friend's house to verify it, and it wasn't, my cpu It's ok. Tried different memory kits, mine (dominators) plus (super talent pc6400), other CPU (Pentium D 915), other VGA's (8800GTS, 8800Ultra, 7300GS). Nothing. I removed the mobo from the case and made all those test's with nothing more than the cpu, 1 memory and vga. Also tried another PSU. After all that I put a official bios on a diskette and renamed to AMIBOOT.ROM, started and hold ctrl+home, the floppy won't read it. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

Edit: of course I had removed battery and cleared cmos lots of times.

Sounds like RMA Time to me. Call MSI or email them and ask them what your course of action would be. I have never had to request an RMA, but I know some companies will either do a straight swap, board for board, or may send you a new board so you don't have any downtime, provided you send yours in at the same time. Have you done anything to the board at all like taking the circu-pipe off, as so many others here have done? That might complicate matters, and may have voided your warranty, in which case I would think you might be screwed..

EDIT: I would say that it sounds like a corrupt BIOS on your last flash. I'm not sure if there is a workaround for this - You MAY be able to try booting from a flash drive, to re-flash the bios with something that you know will work (maybe back to 1.2 official). But if you're not able to post at all, this may not work.

[FedericoUY]

Thank you for your reply PapaMambo. I have tried the diskette flashing (had put an official bios into it, and renamed it to AMIBOOT.ROM, also renamed it to AMIBOOT.120, just in case). My motherboard wouldn't even start reading the diskette (pressed ctrl+home every time). By the way, YES, I have removed circupipe and applied new thermal compound (Artic cooling MX-2) to nb, sb and nf200. Do you think that would void my warranty? Do anyone think this should be what made my mobo die?
Anyway I have bought this motherboard in newegg on USA, but I live in uruguay, so to rma'it I have to send it there.
The last option I have before sending it is to flash it via SPI, but i'm not sure my problem is the bios, because before the trouble, I flashed without problems, and mobo posted, after that had a freeze and you know....
When I turn on my system the mobo starts all fans and lights, even the 3 leds of standby, power, and hdd are on but all of them quiet.
Ideas?

[nugzo]

The 1.2b3 bios for me would only post with older cpu's. It wouldnt post with my E8600, Q9450 and Q9650. Well it would post but would lock up as soon as it did. I couldnt even get in to bio before it locked. This may be your problem though it is strange that it would boot into windows that first time. I had to throw a Q6600 in to get it to post far enough to install the 1.2 bios. Even though are problems are different, it could be bios incompatibility with the 9450. Hopefully you have access to an older chip to try. I'd say E8500 or older or any 65nm quad. Good luck!

[FedericoUY]

The 1.2b3 bios for me would only post with older cpu's. It wouldnt post with my E8600, Q9450 and Q9650. Well it would post but would lock up as soon as it did. I couldnt even get in to bio before it locked. This may be your problem though it is strange that it would boot into windows that first time. I had to throw a Q6600 in to get it to post far enough to install the 1.2 bios. Even though are problems are different, it could be bios incompatibility with the 9450. Hopefully you have access to an older chip to try. I'd say E8500 or older or any 65nm quad. Good luck!

Thank you very much for your post.
I tried a Pentium D 915, and same happened. Do you think I should try another cpu like e6600 or q6600?
Thank you

EDIT: I used 1.2b3 bios some months ago, but I just switched for 1.2 official (about a month ago) because I didn't liked it.

[nugzo]

Thank you very much for your post.
I tried a Pentium D 915, and same happened. Do you think I should try another cpu like e6600 or q6600?
Thank you

EDIT: I used 1.2b3 bios some months ago, but I just switched for 1.2 official (about a month ago) because I didn't liked it.

If you have an e6600 or q6600 sure try it. I tried a p4 3.0 and it wouldn't post at all.

[raymeus3]

Well, got everything, POST went fine first time. Now winblows won't install. Have tried IDE and SATA, Raid and non Raid. Have tried old XP install CDs and new XP install CDs. Tried manually settting FSB to 1066 and memory to 533 and latency's to 5-5-5-15 @ 2.1v. Have tried w/ just 1 DIMM installed.

Flashed BIOS to 1.2 w/o incident.

Here's what happens:
Boot off of windows 32 bit CD.
Goes through all the blue/gray screen stuff.
Says restarting in 15 sec.
Restarts.
Shows windows logo and loading bar.
Now here is where it varies sometimes:
- sometimes it says "setup is being restarted..............." then it restarts again...and again....and again
- sometimes it flashes the teal colored screen for a fraction of a second, then restarts.....again....and again....

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks.

--------------
P7N Diamond
Chenbro SR10769 Case
SEAGATE Barracuda 7200.11 320GB x 2
MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
Rosewill RX950-D-B 950W PS
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (G0 Stepping)
Cooler Master GeminII S CPU Cooler w/ SilverStone SST-FM121-B 120mm Case Fan
SilverStone SST-FM91 92mm Case Fan x2
Silverstone FM121 120mm Case Fan x2
Silverstone FM123 120mm Case Fan x2
Rosewill RFX-100 90mm PCI Fan

[FedericoUY]

Hi. tryed E6600 and nothing. Any other suggestion?

[raymeus3]

I'm just at about wits end here. It wont even boot into a linux distro (ubuntu) from a CD, but could boot using the Nero 6 bios flash method. Tried a friend's ddr2 800 at 533 and 800, still no go. I figured the motherboard should be good, since I can go into the bios fine and at least halfway install windows. Memory should be ruled out (even underclocked it and tried different dimms). Graphics seem fine. Power supply should be ok (all fans/lights/graphics work fine).

So essentially, I have a $1400 paperweight.


EDIT: Emo emotions above.... sorry. I am pissed. Well, gettin further along. Figured out I had to OC the CPU and up the voltage on the CPU and NB to get any further. Now I can get about 85% through a windows xp install, then it either restarts or blue screens with "Driver IRQL Not Less Than Equal" error. Gettin closer at least...

[dogg]

I'm just at about wits end here. It wont even boot into a linux distro (ubuntu) from a CD, but could boot using the Nero 6 bios flash method. Tried a friend's ddr2 800 at 533 and 800, still no go. I figured the motherboard should be good, since I can go into the bios fine and at least halfway install windows. Memory should be ruled out (even underclocked it and tried different dimms). Graphics seem fine. Power supply should be ok (all fans/lights/graphics work fine).

So essentially, I have a $1400 paperweight.


EDIT: Emo emotions above.... sorry. I am pissed. Well, gettin further along. Figured out I had to OC the CPU and up the voltage on the CPU and NB to get any further. Now I can get about 85% through a windows xp install, then it either restarts or blue screens with "Driver IRQL Not Less Than Equal" error. Gettin closer at least...

I had similar problem with win instal before.. It just freezed in certain moment of install .. it was 32bit Vista.. CMOS clear helped me to solve it.. as well, I have broken checksum after every BIOS flash so it needs to restart again to rebuild it.. but I'm flashing from windows with afuwin..

[stickboy00]

I had to install Vista64 with only one 2gb DIMM. 4 gig would crash the install at random times. Something about Vista64 pre-SP1 not liking 4gig of memory.

[RCG_Bex]

My input about this board after several months of hell and "support" from MSI - tried every trick in the book and had everything RMA'd 2x

MSI P7N Diamon, Nvidia 780i
Problem: takes 3-5 times to boot successfully on average, freezes and locks up randomly, BSOD rebooted boot ups, random rebooting when the PC doesn nothing
Other: Ran more stable when OC'd - has had muiltiple BIOS's tried and tested along with drivers and several other things that MSI suggested when they could be bothered answering their tech support

Best mate got extremely fed up with it. Bought him a new Gigabyte P45-DS3R which unfortunately took a direct Thermaltake leak all over it while it was on. We dried it out and 30mins later, powered back on perfect, no errors and then OC'd the Q6600 stable 2nd time round to 3.6GHz.

Offered to ebay the board, RMA it. Friend wanted none of it. Never wanted anyone to suffer such a pain ever again..... So it went under the knife like the Asus board did.....



You can see MSI forgot to take the protective strip off the mosfet cooler and there are signs of burning...



Burning confirmed...

We decided we'd seen enough of this board and it's problems....



This is what it gets for crappy CPU support! (most reports showed it worked on 45nm duals but never a case of 65nm quads)



This wasn't enough....



It wouldn't die from me standing on it, we got some better hard hitting tools (we wanted a sledge hammer but reckoned we'd get stopped when carrying it home and that the neighbours might complain)



SAY GOODBYE MSI!!!!











1 happy customer - I've never seen him so happy about this board

For some of you lucky viewers you will have been online and on MSN where the webcam was live for us splitting the board in 2 - bits flew everwhere and it was utter lol!



Original images are still available for anyone who wants to photochop or add captions

Pictures taken by : Bex
Smashing done by: Decilete, Mike & Bex
Board donated by: Decilete
Board quality control by: MSI / Nvidia

~Bex

EDIT:

My reply to MSI's tech support...

[PapaMambo]

My input about this board after several months of hell and "support" from MSI - tried every trick in the book and had everything RMA'd 2x

MSI P7N Diamon, Nvidia 780i
Problem: takes 3-5 times to boot successfully on average, freezes and locks up randomly, BSOD rebooted boot ups, random rebooting when the PC doesn nothing
Other: Ran more stable when OC'd - has had muiltiple BIOS's tried and tested along with drivers and several other things that MSI suggested when they could be bothered answering their tech support

Best mate got extremely fed up with it. Bought him a new Gigabyte P45-DS3R which unfortunately took a direct Thermaltake leak all over it while it was on. We dried it out and 30mins later, powered back on perfect, no errors and then OC'd the Q6600 stable 2nd time round to 3.6GHz.

Offered to ebay the board, RMA it. Friend wanted none of it. Never wanted anyone to suffer such a pain ever again..... So it went under the knife like the Asus board did.....



You can see MSI forgot to take the protective strip off the mosfet cooler and there are signs of burning...



Burning confirmed...

We decided we'd seen enough of this board and it's problems....



This is what it gets for crappy CPU support! (most reports showed it worked on 45nm duals but never a case of 65nm quads)



This wasn't enough....



It wouldn't die from me standing on it, we got some better hard hitting tools (we wanted a sledge hammer but reckoned we'd get stopped when carrying it home and that the neighbours might complain)



SAY GOODBYE MSI!!!!











1 happy customer - I've never seen him so happy about this board

For some of you lucky viewers you will have been online and on MSN where the webcam was live for us splitting the board in 2 - bits flew everwhere and it was utter lol!



Original images are still available for anyone who wants to photochop or add captions

Pictures taken by : Bex
Smashing done by: Decilete, Mike & Bex
Board donated by: Decilete
Board quality control by: MSI / Nvidia

~Bex

EDIT:

My reply to MSI's tech support...

So I guess you're not going to try and RMA it?

[RCG_Bex]

I dunno.... do you think it'll void my warranty? :P

~Bex