Anyone want a Mega 865?

I've got a Mega 865 that has (again) died. Can't remember the actual CPU in the machine and have been too fed up with it to remove it to see. I know it's some sort of P4 - I think around 1.6ghz. MSI has consistently failed to support this product in my case, and I've been unable to get support from MSI yet again. The original unit was DOA 2 years ago. This unit was somewhat flaky all this time (repeatedly had to unplug and replug unit for front panel to work. It has 512mb Corsair DDR memory in it.
Anyone interested in buying it for pennies on the dollar with or without CPU and RAM? I'm not going to waste any more time on it. I want to keep the drives. The unit doesn't have a single, solitary scratch or blemish. I do have the original remote (though I never used it).

Please read and comply with the Forum Rules.
we do not allow buying or selling of any product in this forum. however, if anyone is interested then please contact the topic-starter directly by PM or Email (use the buttons on the left)

Similar Messages

Anyone want a MEGA PC TV Card?

got one with box, drivers cables etc, dont want it as i am going for a digital in card to use with my sky digital.
can setup a buy it now auction on ebay so all kosha etc, i have about 30+ feedback on there and u will be totaly eligible for a refund if not happy by paying through paypal.

only problem i found was that the intervideo software crashes now and again, and i couldnt get the quality of video i was after, the card installed fine, and the software, i never realy used it much, if i could find out how to get a good picture from my sky digital box i would be more than happy with the card

Mega 865 different case colors

Hi,
Does anyone know if mega 865 can have different case colors than red/black. I would prefer silver/black?

Stu,
Thank you for the reply.
No, I have not checked the CPU as I thought it unlikely that it could come loose with the spring loaded heatsink over it. And, the fact that the system powers up and shuts down via the power button indicated to me that the CPU was functioning (at least partly). Is that logic valid? There is no reason I can't check the CPU and I will and will then report back.
Also, I have checked the display with a different video source and have confirmed that it is working.
Again, thank you for your reply!

Things to know before (and after) building a Mega 865

As I am seeing a lot of the same questions regarding the Mega 865 I created this document,
29-Oct-2004 Added Northwood benefits
29-Oct-2004 Emphasized NOT to use live update for bios update
Processors in general
Start with the processor, I would say get something around 3 gighz (give or take) which is quite affordeble. If you are going for a prescott, make sure you upgrade your bios to 1.3 (see below).It will run a bit hot (understatement) otherwise.
If going for northwood any version is ok I believe. When I chose mine I let $$$ descide, and the prescott was on sale. (If I would buy a CPU for the Mega again, I would most likely go for a Northwood this time). Before buying your processor make sure your processor is supported, you can find the supported processors here;
http://cweb.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=547&kind=4
Harddisk
As for Harddisk, I would suggest anything goes but take a serial ata since that is becoming the new standard nowadays.
When buying a HD larger than 130 Gig, make sure you install from a Windows XP SP1 CD (or higher) or divide your HD in smaller pieces. Otherwise you will not get a bigger partition than 130 Gigs.
DVD/CDROM
As for DVD/CD player, there is a special thread (see below) where everyone states if their DVD/CD player is working with the mega (there are some issues with some drives in HiFi mode, EVEN if they are MSI)
Mega PC barebones optical drive compatibility list
Memory
As for memory, get at least 512 Mb or 1024 Mb if you want to sit cosy. two sticks of DDR400 (a.k.a 3200) will do. Get a a-brand like Kingston, Samsung or look around on the forums what will work.
Installing Windows XP
Before installing Windows disable your USB devices, if you fail to do this you run the chance of not installing Windows XP on your C: drive (harddisk) and this will cause you trouble later on. After installation is complete you may enable them again.
Prescott processors & full size AGP cards
As for the GPU (Graphics card), this depends on what you are going to do with it. If you wanna try out at showshifting, and viewing get one with integrated TV tuner. Or use the on-board (some people are quite happy with it) and add a separate PCI tv tuner. If you wanna do hefty gaming (Doom3, Far Cry ... etc) you may want to get an better one. I'm quite happy with my Radeon 9800.
Please note; According to MSI, Prescott processors in combination with full-size AGP (add-in) cards are not supported. This is most likely a power issue since the full-size cards use a lot of power to run. Some forum members, stuborn as they are, are running with a full-size card.
Also note that you are installing a full-size card on your own risk in combination with a Prescott processor.
To calculate your estimated power supply take a look here;
http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/
The following graphics cards seem to be working (please add to this thread if you have tested a full-size card with a Prescott processor so I can add it to this document)
Club3D Radeon AIW 9800 PRO
ATI Radeon ALL-IN-WONDER 9600 XT
ATI Radeon 9800 SE
AOPEN Aeolus 5900XT 128 Mb
Wise words from Stu:
If you do not want to take chances, go with a Northwood processor. Apperantly there is little perfomance difference between a Northwood and a Prescott processor, and the Northwood runs slightly cooler too.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 & Bios Update
When installing Windows XP with SP2 make sure you have the latest Bios version loaded (1.3) or install a Microsoft work-around fix. SP2 will not install without it, and you will have a hard time getting your system to work.
The Microsoft work-around fix can be found here;
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;885626
The latest bios version can be downloaded here;
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=547&kind=4
To install the latest bios, I would advise against using live-update. Use one of the following options instead;
1) Burn a bootable CD-Rom also containing the bios and flash software, (note some of the original Win98 CD's are bootable to MS-DOS prompt)
2) Create a bootable USB-memory key
--- Download the HP util to create one
--- http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/hpcpqdt/us/download/20306.html
--- Then create a bootable floppy on an other system or download from
--- http://www.allbootdisks.com/
--- (I used the Win98SE No ramdrive )
--- Then use the HP tool (on an system with an floppy drive) and enter a: as the source for booting,
--- and use the above created floppy.
--- Then copy the rest of the files from the a:\ drive (like autoexec.bat, config.sys etc) to the memory key.
--- ... and ... voila one bootable USB
--- make sure in the bios that the boot order of the USB key is before the Harddisk and your set to go.
3) Attach a floppy drive to the Mega 865
Bios update failure
Some people still manage to goof-up their bios, by doing the bios update from windows (winflash, live-update). I think there is only one road to travel when this happens, you have to attach a floppy drive to your mega. Then follow the following instructions (Award bios)
http://www.msi.com.tw/html/support/bios/note/boot.htm
Good luck !
PC-Alert
Do not use the PC-Alert version from the MSI website as this does not work together with your Mega 865, instead only use the one on the CD-Rom that was supplied. In general even the supplied PC-Alert has caused a lot of grief (Taking up resources, reboot problems ... etc). If you choose to install PC-Alert, at least remove it from your start-up folder where it is installed. You can always start it manually from the MSI menu in your Start menu.
A good alternative to Pc-Alert is Speedfan, this program should be able to spot your 2 temeperature sensored CPU fans. You can then connect these fans to the CPU temperature sensor and be able to tweak the RPM's according to your need. Speedfan 4.17 can be found here;
http://www.almico.com/speedfan417.exe
Temperatures
As these tiny PC's have very little space, it is quite normal for them to run a bit hot. Do not be alarmed to see CPU temperatures around 60-65 degrees when running on load (depending on your processor of course).
Wireless Network adapter
As for wireless internet, the mega865 has a built-in mini-pci nic (network card). which supports only the 11 Mbps data rate. I think you have to try it out and see how it goes, you can always upgrade to 54 Mbps. I would suggest to get a 54Mbps access point, so you can always upgrade if needed (54Mbps will also work with 11 Mbps) Some forum members have succesfully replaced their Wireless Network adapters with a 54Mbps one. The following network adapters seem to be working;(please add to this thread if you have tested a wireless 54Mbps network adapter so I will add it to this document)
Intel PRO/Wireless BG Network Adapter
6 Channel sound
I recently bought a 5.1 set from Soundblaster. You can connect the 3 connectors to the back of your Mega, then in the Sound util set it up for 5.1 surround sound and you are ready to go. Definately worth it !
Reboot problems
When you run into problems when the Mega reboots suddenly, watch out for a couple of things.
Always check your event/log viewer. It is in your configuration management, but the easiest way to start it is to enter the following in your Run or Command line entry
eventvwr /s
Check if you see red-dots in your application section or system section. Google the problems before dropping them on the forum ! (As most problems are not Mega related IMHO)
One problem I had was caused by BITS 1.5, I had to upgrade to BITS 2.0. (I think it was recently released by Microsoft-Update but I mention it anyway). Bits 1.5 caused my Mega to reboot.
LCD Display / Sound problems
If you have any problems where your front LCD display is not working or your on-board sound is 'missing' first try unplugging your mega from the power outlet (so completely powering down) for 2 minutes. If you still have problems, drop them on this forum.
LCD API ?
Alas, no external programs are available to 'drive' your LCD display. Nor will MSI release an API/Blue print on how to control it.
If you find anything missing here or have additional tips, please add them to this thread and I will update this document.
Good luck with your Mega !
Raymond

rkoppen i salute you
a truly glorious summing up of the main points asked about the Mega 865 in particular, although many points will invariably refer also to the other Mega series
if i can add my tuppence worth, anyone considering going for a powerful graphics card can always shy away from the prescott
i was reading an article just when the prescott core cpus came out and the review basically said that there wasn't really much performance wise between the new prescott and the older Northwood cores.
obviously newer prescotts have higher clock speeds now (3.2? 3.4??), but surely a 2.8ghz CPU is still going to be powerful enough to play the latest games!! (in conjunction with a top graphics card obviously)
is the extra temp increase surely worth the extra couple of hundred mhz?

Where can I buy a MEGA 865 in China - Beijing

Hi there-
I'm a Belgian guy living in Beijing want to buy a Mega 865.
Does anyone know how I can get one over here ?
All help appreciated !!!
thx
johnny

hi Danny - your post in the forum kinda mislead me - i had put it in the right forum first
sorry for that
and thanks
johnny

MSI Mega 865 Reserator cooling, Northbrige passive cooler?

Hi all,
Have been running my mega as a media centre for five years or so. Have been through two sets of fans which though quiet at first have got progressively noisy again, especially when starting up or working PC hard.
I want to go as fan free as possible but before I do....
Is the reserator system the only fan free system and the best for me, it is ferociously expensive but I will pay it if it really is worth it.
The Northbridge(?) also has a noisy little fan, can I do away with this and fit a passive heatsink? Could I also water cool it?
Any options for laptop style external power supplies or water cooled PSUs that will fit in the box.
Many thanks all, lookforward to your answers,
Epirb, or Barney if you prefer!

Hi Barney,
If you'd looked in the sticky topics, then these topics listed in here might be of help to you:
How to cool your Mega PC down
In particular, Emma's topic about how she fitted a Reserator 1 to her Mega 180, which essentially should be the same process as for the Mega 865. Unfortunately, her pics no longer seem to exist, but otherwise, her topic might help you.
Quote
What I need to know is if anyone has any ideas about the other chip which I am calling the North bridge. Is this the right name, I am not sure.
Yes, that will be the Northbridge chipset.

Prospective Mega 865 buyer with a few questions...

I'm looking into upgrading my Home PC, and I really like the small form factor of the Mega 865. My main goal is to have a very quite computer (my current PC has a noisy Maxtor hard drive), and the small form factor is a real plus. Here are a few questions:
1) How quiet is the Mega 865? Is the power supply fan very quiet?
2) If I use a Northwood 3.0 GHz CPU, do I need to buy a standard cooling fan or does the Mega 865 have it's own CPU cooling fan system? If so, how quiet is this fan?
3) What's the highest screen resolution that the Integrated 865G Video can output in True Color?
4) Can I fill one of the two memory slots with a single 512 MB module, or do I need to fill both slots with a module?
If anyone can help answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Any other comments would also be appreciated!
Thanks,
ppcinfo

i don't have a mega 865 personally, but i'll try and answer what i can.
1) the mega 651 was very quiet under normal loads, you'd only hear the cpu fan whirr faster when the cpu was getting hot. i imagine its the same on other megas.
2) all the megas come with their own custom designed heatsink and fan, i doubt you'd get anything else to fit. BTW the northwood is probably a better bet than the prescott, as they don't run as hot
3) i don't know about the mega 865, but i recently built a PC for my mom, based on the Aopen XCCube EY65, which uses the same intel 865g chipset as in the mega 865 (only doesn't support any prescott cpus ). it runs on her 18.1" tft in 1280x1024 in truecolour mode, but only allows for a max of 16mb shared VGA memory. as she don't play games (she's an architectural glazing designer, using AutoCAD) thats fine for her.
4) you can just use one stick of RAM if you want, but stick to some good stuff, cheaper generic RAM usually causes problems on MSI mobos
thats my tuppence worth, can any mega 865 users clarify anything for us?

Booting Xp with wireless set to gateway on Mega 865 Pro

Hi Guys,
Does anyone know how I can set the wireless card up to automatically switch to Gateway mode after XP has booted.
It goes into Station Mode by default but I can see a setting to say I want it to start in Gateway mode.
Any Ideas?
Danny

Dunno if you allready did, but you need to have the latest BIOS to run Win XP SP2 on the MEGA 865 Pro. When i bought mine, Sp2 wasn't out yet and things worked fine. When i tried installing SP2, everything went fine, untill i boot. Black screen and nothing, after a while MSI released a new BIOS fixing the problem, newest BIOS i think is 1.30
Mosher

Mega 865 Duluxe - Graphics card upgrade

Hey there, I have a mega 865 Deluxe and I have just brought an LCD TV. I am currently using the onboard graphics card, but thinking about adding in a new card that has DVI output.
Can anyone suggest what sort of card i can get away with adding. I'm gonna use it for the occasional game, watching dvd's and using the LCD TV as my new PC monitor.
My current set up is:
Mega 865 Deluxe
Win XP Pro SP2
Northwood P4 2.8
Maxtor 80gig harddrive
1Gig
Soundblaster 24 bit Live sound card

Thank you. I just picked up an ATI AIW 9800...I read here that a lot of people are using that. I am using the 2.8GHZ Northwood processor, so I hope I don't run into over heating issues

MSI Mega 865 DVDRW Drive

Hello. Can you please tell me which DVD writer I need to buy for my MSI Mega 865. I want to add a DVD writer behind the panel and my third party Sony doesnt open the front panel. Do the MSI drives work OK. Thanks.

Hi williac10,
Though you are right in asking for a better alternate optical drive here but I think it'll be better if you ask the Mega PCs users in our Mega PCs, SFF PCs Forum .

MEGA 865 CPU heatsink FAN FAILURE.

Got my Mega 865 less than six months ago, and the CPU heatsink fan is making annoying loud grinding noises.
Anyone know where I can get an adequate replacement FAST online in the USA? (I need it in
The fan is the 60mm x 60mm x 13mm near the AGP slot, Delta Electronics model AFB0612VHC and the specs are DC12V 0.36A 28cfm 3pin motherboard connector.
Is it worth contacting MSI Support? Can they FedEx me a fast replacement overnight? (If it's under warranty, great, if not, fine I'll pay for it.)
Otherwise, the MEGA865 is great, I liked it a lot.
Config:
ATI Radeon 9600 (fanless)
Hauppauge PVR250MCE
3.2 ghz Northwood
250 GB Maxtor
OEM NEC 2500A DVD RW black.
and
Windows Media Center 2005 (rocks)
Thanks for any help you can give.

Quote
Originally posted by aaaaa
Quote
Originally posted by Stu Online
if the unit is six months old, you should be able to claim one under warranty - MSI will probably suggest you contact your dealer first - though i doubt if dealers will have seperate heatsinks
I got the MEGA from newegg.
I'd rather MSI just mailed me a fan, not a whole heatsink. Bubble wrap one and drop it in a FedEx overnight envelop.
Even if it's under warranty, I'd totally pay for a new one if I could get it fast.
We're talking about a $15 item (+whatever FedEx overnight costs). I don't really care if I have to buy one myself. Unfortunately I looked on the web, and no one seems to sell this exact fan anywhere.
Wow I'm impressed. I phoned MSI USA support, was on hold for
Great job MSI support. I'm astonished it was this easy.

Mega 865 and NAthans Girder Plugin

Anyone got Nathan's Girder Plugin to work with the Mega 865?
Nathans plugin crashes girder and even his msiKeys program. they just do 99% all the time.
I suspect it might be a dll version problem, maybe even a c++ runtime library.
if you have girder working with mega 865 please post and let me know what versions of MSIDrvIF.dll & ForMpc.dll you have

yeah, I did drop him an email and he said he was too busy.... the source is avaliable, but I ran into problems attempting to compile.
I didnt realise there was different versions of Mega 865.
I've actually got a feeling the problem might be with a C++ dll version. when I look in system manager control folder, it has the MSIDrvIF.dll & ForMpc.dll file as well as a C++ dll. (cant remeber the name and Im at work so will have to wait till im home.)
the C++ dll in windows System32 folder is different from the one in the SMC folder. I tried to replace the C++ dll with the once from the SMC folder, but it is in use by windows.
I will have to try and boot into command promot and overwrite it sometime. will keep people posted.

Audio for Mega 865

Hi, I lost the audio for my mega 865! And I seem to have lsot the CD with all the drivers
Does anyone know where I can download the audio installation software?
best regards
/Johan

bet you never thought to look here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=547&kind=4

Mega 865 Pro and Nlite - SCM Issues

Hello, I have just got a Mega 865 Pro and have installed Windows XP on the system using nlite http://www.nliteos.com to strip windows down to the bare minimum, the boot times are great and it goes in to and out of hibernation is seconds, the problem is that I have stripped out one component that allows the System Control Manager to perform properly, my front LED display stays blank, even if I fire up the Intervideo Hometheatre it does nothing and all the front buttons do not respond. Everything else runs fine though
Has anyone tried out nlite and does anyone know which component of windows I've removed that I should have left in?
Thanks
Niblet

I'll try installing the new SCM program tonight, though the original ones that came on the disc didn't work (they did on a standard install of XP that I did)
I'll post my findings later.

MSI Mega 865 PRO???

Lookie lookie, the next Mega has been unveiled:
http://msices2005.vtion.com/
They're revamping the faceplate, moving the knob and buttons to the right side. Also, it includes a 7-in-1 reader, with new support for MMC cards. It looks like they're finally including a wireless-G card. Most intesting is the claim of "Home Theatre Without Windows". They use different wording on the site than for the Hi-Fi mode of the 180's and normal 865's, which implies that this machine would be able to play movies without booting Windows.
Judging from MSI Athletic Support, they'll probably shaft us with specs to its display and remote too.

i own a MSI Mega 865..and im happy with it..but i never turn the thing off...
so the Radio/CD/MP3 player...and if i waited and got the 865pro...even the DVD player on the would be of absolutely no use to me!
if this wants to be a real all-in-one HTPC...i would really need a few things :
firstly ...DVB card with BDA support.....
secondly ....the on-board graphics must be fully DX9 compliant..including the freaking drivers...and be more than 16MB onboard-VRAM...i would like DirectxVideoAccelleration, VMR9 and HardWareMotionCompenstation support ..which i belive are currently only on the radeon and nVidia FX and later cards
next we need more than just VGA and s-video....we also need DVI-in/out...and while your at it MSI..give us component too
i belive the SPDIF 5.1 in and out are an absolute must and it should stay...the more channels the better
as it stands i had to fork out a whole lot more money to get this the way i wanted it...this MSI *WAS* really a barebones HTPC....but since i finished building it im very happy with it

Anyone want a Mega 865?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for