K8n Neo2 never again

I don't know if it's nvidia's or msi's fault, but I'm returning this motherboard right now. My patience has its limits. After 3 weeks I have not found a solution for continous annoying system freezes, specially when playing games. After billions of tests the only real "solution" I found out was uninstalling gart driver, and believe me, I have tried everything. So now, without gart driver, gaming performance with this motherboard is worse than that of my last 4-year-old system.
I think it is quite unacceptable that a board supposed to be top performance (and expensive too) is still plagued by such bugs, and with no response yet from parties involved. I can accept that every system has its minor bugs, but companies should test their products more thoroughly before they hit the market.
I'll try via chipset for this socket. I'm not taking the risk of being plagued once again by this dubious -to say the least- nvidia chipset.

If the only way of fixing the problem is removing the gart driver then its the famous punkbuster freezing problem no?
And no amount of tweaking and fiddling with the hardware, is going to fix it.... the mobo just plain sux for gaming imho.
The only things you can do is:
use ATI catalyst 3.9 or 3.10 (does not work for all)
OR
remove the nvidia gart driver (system performance will suck)
OR
Use windows 2000 (yes this mobo does not work properly with windows XP)
Also pb_sleep 500 gives you an extra few mins before your PC will lock-up and you will be killed in your game.
If your having some other unrelated problem... then I dont know...

Similar Messages

Regarding "K8n Neo2 never again"

Sorry, it was not my intention to flame anybody. I just wanted to see if more people were having this problem and how to deal with it, and in fact some nice people were suggesting some solutions until you closed the thread.
Thank you for your censorship. Don't worry, I won't be posting anymore.

Tiresmoke, as far as I'am aware it affects all K8N motherboards (MSI, Asus etc) Therefore responiibilty falls on all the manufactures of these nforce 3 motherboards, aswell as Nvidia. You say ATI should fix this, but as there are also cases of this happening to Nvidia graphics cards (as Nvidia themselves admit), its hard to pin point this problem on only ATI. As the common denominator here is the Nforce 3 motherbaords, I would say its Nvidia's and in turn MSI and Asus etc responsibilty to resolve this problem, aswell as the software at the heart of the problem punkbuster (Evenbalance.com).
Here is the dilema Evenbalance say its not their fault, and that its Nvidia's problem for not producing hardware that works properly, and stating that their software is not the only software to suffer from from this problem with Nvidia's Nforce 3 version of motherboards. Evenbalance doesnt know how to correct this / doesnt think it is their problem. Evenbalance knows that it is the memory scan portion of punkbuster that triggers the freezes. They suspect that something in punkbuster triggers the Nvidia GART driver but they do not know how/why as that should not happen. While inturn Nvidia does not believe this to be a problem with their chipset nor their drivers as the problem is seen on other platforms.
This leaves end users like myself basically with a defective piece of hardware, no?

FSB Frequency Problems on K8N Neo2 Platinum

I am using the K8N Neo2 Platinum with Newcastle 3500 and 2x512 Kingmax Hardcore ram, and I stumbled across a problem.
Whenever I try to set the frequency above 225 Mhz, something freezes during boot-up.. I tryed setting the HT at 4x, CPU mul. at x9 and FSB at 250Mhz, but I cant boot, I get a message... something like Disk Read Error, press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart. My HDD is SATA Maxtor 120GB. This is really driving me crazy, plz help.

My K8N Neo2 never liked Kingmax hardcore RAM - they gave all sorts of instability, errors and boot up problems.
They also gave errors in memtest86, even though they work fine with no errors in a P4 system later on.
I had to replace them and after that things worked fine.
You also may have to repair your windowsinstallation and try some other RAM.
Does not hurt giving RAM some extra voltage as well.
When your system is stable - you might want to update bios for best hardware support.
Syar´s EasyBios 7025CU2.1C3 is a good version and it sets 2.75v at default which would be enough for most RAM to boot fine and run stable.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=59711.0

K8N NEO2 Platinum Dead once again

This is my second K8N NEO2 that dies!!!! What is going on at MSI I mean what are the odds? Both boards have worked fine in about 3 days but for some reason just died on the fourth day.
I RMA the first one and talked with the store where I bought it and they said the board was totally dead so they sended me a new one. Now this one died so I will send this one back and take my money back. Is there anyone that have experienced this problem?
BTW my PSU is an Antec TruePower 430W and yes I know that it has a weak 12V line but what kind of board needs more than 20A? And if the PSU is to weak as some say, how can the board be killed by the PSU? I have also tested the PSU and it's nothing wrong with it.

crar,
The short answers to your questions are no and no . The reason being that the board flexs all the time while it is in the case. It also heats up and expands unevenly causing uneven flexing. It might just be that the metal piece hasn't hit the right spot to cause a short and that over several days the odds are much higher that it will. You may never have noticed on your previouos board because there may not have been anything shortable near the metal piece.
A UPS is fairly effective at blocking AC line transients. It is a good idea to have one regardless of whether the power in your area is poor or not, but a necessity if it is.
RB

K8N NEO2 Platinum rebooting

Hi all,just got myself a 64bit MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum board & a 3200+,am happy with it but a couple of days ago i got a blue screen with a long message that i didnt have time to read before the pc rebooted,after the reboot i checked the event viewer log file in administrative tools/control panel but couldnt narrow it down as my particular error code wasnt among the possible causes.
Among some of the possible causes were incorrectly installed USB drivers or the BIOS,i downloaded the latest BIOS update before this problem started(V1.40) which i am using now,i used the MSI live update software to flash it which i did in windows mode.Sorry for prattling on!well it did it again tonight and i managed to read a bit of the writing on the blue screen which mentioned flashing the bios to the latest version.I was wondering if anyone else is having the same problem and if so could you please advise me? Thanks for your patience and any help Heres my sys specs:
Model: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
Speed: 2.01GHz
Model Number: 3200 (estimated)
Performance Rating: PR3015 (estimated)
Type: Standard
L2 On-board Cache: 512kB ECC Synchronous Write-Back (16-way, 64
byte line size)
Bus(es): ISA AGP PCI USB FireWire/1394
MP Support: 1 CPU(s)
MP APIC: No
System BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG
Mainboard: MS-7025
Total Memory: 1023MB DDR-SDRAM
Model: Micro-Star International Co Ltd (MSI) ???
(00E1)
Front Side Bus Speed: 1x 201MHz (201MHz data rate)
Model: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon 64 /
Opteron HyperTransport Technology
Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed: 1x 201MHz (201MHz data rate)
Total Memory: 2048MB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed: 2x 201MHz (402MHz data rate)
Monitor/Panel: CTX EX950F series
Adapter: RADEON X800 Series
Adapter: RADEON X800 Series Secondary
Removable Drive: Floppy disk drive
Hard Disk: Maxtor 6Y080L0
CD-ROM/DVD: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4081B (CD 32X Rd, 24X Wr)
(DVD 4X Rd, 3X Wr)
CD-ROM/DVD: MSI CD-RW CR52 (CD 40X Rd, 52X Wr)
CD-ROM/DVD: AXV CD/DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device (CD 32X Rd)
(DVD 4X Rd)
1.44MB 3.5" (A:): N/A
Hard drive (C:): 76.3GB (51.9GB, 68% Free) (NTFS)
CD-ROM/DVD (D:): N/A
CD-ROM/DVD (E:): N/A
CD-ROM/DVD (F:): N/A
Serial/Parallel Port(s): 1 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub: Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub: Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub: Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub: USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub: USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub: USB Root Hub
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub: VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard: Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/
2 Keyboard
Mouse: PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Device: Creative SB Live! series
Device: Creative Game Port
Model: EPSON Stylus CX3200
Windows System: Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86)
5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)
Network Drivers Enabled: Yes
Warning 100: Large memory sizes should be made of
Registered/Buffered memory.
Tip 101: Large memory sizes should be made of ECC/
Parity memory.
>
>
Device Type: VGA Video Adapter
Device ID: bus 1, device 0, function 0
Windows Device Name: RADEON X800 Series
OEM Device Name: ATI Technologies ??? (4A49)
OEM Hardware ID: FUN_0, VEN_1002, DEV_4A49, REV_00
Device Name: PC Partner Ltd ??? (4A49)
Product ID: VEN_174B, DEV_0D42
Revision: A / 1 (0)
Version: 3.00
Command Queue Length: 256
Fast-Writes Support: Yes
Over 4GB Addressing Support: No
Isochronous Mode Support: No
Addressing Support: 32-bit
Data Transfer Modes Support: 4x 8x

My K8N Neo Platinum [754] did not include a NB fan. But this usually means the overall size of the heatsink is larger. If you remove the fan from yours, the size of the heatsink will not be big enough to cool your NB. As for temps, I've never seen my NB get hotter than 45'C. Note that the core on my NB should be slightly different than yours.
You could try to use the BIOS fan control for the NB. If set correctly, it should reduce some noise.

K8N Neo2 Platinum crashing/reboot in Windows....

After some minor problems with my systems (and almost a year since i did it last) i decided to do a clean install of Windows.
It all worked out well until i tried to deactivate the onboard Nvidia Gigabit LAN port. 1-2 seconds after hitting "deactivate" the computer reboots with no warning what so ever (like hitting the resetbutton). This happened EVERY time i did that. I had installed all the latest drivers for my GFX, Sound and MoBo. The MoBo drivers were the Nforce package from nvidia.com. I then downloaded the MoBo drivers from MSI's homepage and installed just the somewhat older drivers for the Nvidia Gigabit LAN. That fixed the problem with rebooting Windows.....
.....sort of. Now the computer reboots at random (either idle or working on something like photoshop) and has done so 4 or 5 times in the last week since i reinstalled Windows. I have never had this problem before.....
Could it be that i installed Nvidias own drivers instead of the MSI drivers ? I can't remember wich one i installed last time almost a year ago. I can't even remember if i ever updated them. If it ain't broke, why fix it ?
I have another problem thats not MSi related but how the hell do you uninstall the Creative Gameport ? I have unhooked it from my Audigy 2 soundcard but it still shows up in the devicemanager as a working device. Last time i installed windows i never got it to work (a known fact that the gameport isn't supported under Win XP). The strange thing is that this time it installed properly and seemed to be running before i unhooked it.....
If i don't get a working answer from this i will try reinstall Windows again....
So...
What drivers should i use on my Mobo ? Nvidia or MSI ?
// John - Sweden
AMD64 +3500
K8N Neo2 Platinum
Kingston Value Ram 2x1024
Asus ATI XT800 P.E
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Platinum

Quote from: trifix on 14-January-06, 05:28:33
I have another problem thats not MSi related but how the hell do you uninstall the Creative Gameport ? I have unhooked it from my Audigy 2 soundcard but it still shows up in the devicemanager as a working device. Last time i installed windows i never got it to work (a known fact that the gameport isn't supported under Win XP). The strange thing is that this time it installed properly and seemed to be running before i unhooked it.....
the gameport is on your soundcard, what you have unhooked is only the extension bracket (i guess). so as long as your soundcard is in the system, the gameport will show up in the device list. nothing wrong with that one. instead of uninstalling it, just disable it from the device list.
i like to use mobo manufacturer's driver over the chipset maker because technically, MSI will release the drivers after they do some testing with them.

K8n neo2 won't even power on power supply

I was logged onto windows xp pro sp.2 and plugged in a usb device the computer shut off and i could never get it to turn back on.!!. I tried dang near everything like: removing each of and all my pci cards...nothing! I tried different ddr and still nothing!! I tried the power source on a diffrent board and it worked great! Could the usb device possibly somehow short out the board?? I'm alittle p.o.'d!! Do I have to go buy another board or would this be covered by the warranty??
MSI K8N Neo2 w/ AMD athlon64 3500+ (socket 939)
512 mb ddr
256 mb nvidia agp
80 gb hd
30 gb hd
lite-on dual layer dvd r-rw
sound blaster 5.1 live
linksys usb 54g wireless adapter
PSU
agi 235 watt 3.3volt 14 amp
5v-25a 5-0.5a
12v-8a 12v-0.5a

Quote
PSU
agi 235 watt 3.3volt 14 amp
5v-25a 5-0.5a
12v-8a 12v-0.5a
You must be kidding to try to have your system powered by this kind of psu. I used better ones for Athlon XP 2000+ systems.
Sorry I also had to say but I'm still stunned. Try another psu then report again.
Quote
256 mb nvidia agp
This isn't very informative. What kind of nvidia vga?

K8N Neo2 strange power problem ...

My specs:
K8N Neo2 Platinium / Athlon64 3500+/ Antec Neo Power 480W/ 6800GT Winfast/ 2 x 512 MB Kingston HyperX PC3200
Everything works good but i have one strange problem with my comp ...
When i turn off system and then i will turn off power supply (Antec Neo Power 480W) my comp is unplugged (no power).
Then when i turn on power supply (switch on Antec Neo Power 480W) immediately my comp start to live ! But ! There is no system booting ! Only what happen is fans on CPU, mobo, Graphick card and other fans starts working, my neon lights start flashing etc ...
Then when i push start button system starts booting ...
The problem is seriuos, coz when i turn off my comp and then in the night they turn of the power and then they turn on the power in my home my comp will start to live ! Fans start to works, neons starts to light etc !
I'm sure i have correct plugged every wires to my mobo ( i'v check few times with an intstruction).
What the problem ?

i called .after stateing my issue i was quickly told to rma the psu. :biggthumbsdown:i called again dreading not haveing the use of my computer for more than a day .and was told this is an issue with abit av8 mobos and msi neo plat. 2.there tech team was currently testing this issue.i was told wo email [email protected] with system specs and issue.i was also told
there was no reports of hardware failure caused by our issue. :undecided:that was monday and no reply yet.the support person told me that this was a circuitry standard that was used on the 2 different mobo. i love the power supply.i hope this issue[i know its small]is resolved easily.ive always used antecs products and never had any kind of problems.i still recomend them as well as msi.

Why K8N Neo2 PT cannot see my Mitsumi 7in1 Internal Media and Floppy Drive????

I have this board from a month or so, the first time I installed it I noticed it failed to detect and install (in windows) my 7in1 internal MultimediaCard reader included in my mitsumi floppy drive. The reader is USB and it's attached to one of the available onboard USB extra pin headers. It works regularly, infact if I attach it to another mainborad like ASUS A8V, it is detected and self installed in windows everytime. K8N Neo2 simply ignores it as the reader has never been attached to it. Sometimes it happens that I turn on my pc and the reader is detected and installed in windows but when I restart or I turn off my pc, the reader disappears again for an unlimited time....I have tried everything, from flashing any existing bios, to change USB pin header, disable every unused controller or port from bios (Serial port, parallel port, firewire etc) but nothing fixed the problem.
is there someone else who has the same problem with an internal USB card reader on MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum MB?
any suggestion?
thanx

Thanx for your help WONKANOBY! but I have different pins connected on my USB internal reader as shown in the modified picture here:
PIN2 X X X O X (pin 2-4-6 and 10 not connected)
PIN1 O O O O X (pin 9 not connected)
as you can see I have pins from 1 to 7 connected and on the other row only pin 8 connected...tell me what to do, should I cut pin 8?
Thanx

News - BIG PROBLEM - MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - DOES NOT POWER!!!

Hi to everyone.
I'm a proudly owner of a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum that in one year gave me no problem until yesterday morning.
I used the computer in the night before and when I finished I turned it off and I went to bed.
Yesterday morning I found the power led blinking (like if the system was in standby), and there was no way to turn the PC on.
I even took off the battery for more than 12 hours and I left only minimal components installed:
the video card (Gainward GeForce 6800),
the psu (Antec TruePower 550W),
1 x 512 MB Ram Crucial Ballistix,
and I checked them into another computer and they work perfectly.
I tried shorting the MB power switch pins with a screwdriver and I've even tried to power on the system without the Memory or the Video Card... I've tried everything that came across my mind with no efforts!!!!
Every time I give power to the MB appens only that the power led starts blinking, but pressing the button the PC doesn't turn on.
PLEASE HELP ME... I really don't know what else to do!!!
Thanks,
Alberto

Quote from: alberto_melita on 20-August-05, 20:14:56
Hi thanks for the answers.
I do have a D-Bracket, but my problem is not that the system does not boot or does not post... my system DOES NOT POWER ON (!!!!), so d-bracket is useless!
When I plug the system power the only thing that happens is that the power led starts blinking (with the system still in soft-off), and if I press the power switch button nothing happens!
I've the bios for 7025 v1.8 and the settings where for OFF on power-loss ond pressing the button (can't rememeber if it was more than 4 sec) was meant to turn off the computer, but considering that I un-powered the pc more than once without the MB battery the settings should be factory default by now.
I went through the Windows-XP shut-down system, and i could not be an electrical problem as I always used the PC with a pretty good UPS unit.
Right now these are the full specs of my sytem:
- MB MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum nForce3 Ultra
- GAINWARD 6800 2600 GLH 256 MB Ram
- PSU Antec TruPower 550 W
- CPU AMD64 3500+ core Winchester @11*210 Mhz (this cpu has never overclocked very well)
- HEATSINK Thermalright XP-90 with a 12 Cm Enermax Fan (CPU temp in always below 55 °C when stressed)
- 1 x 512 Mb RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR400 optimized for MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
I left only these things inside my computer in the hope that it would turn on... it did not work. I tested each component but the MB, and they work perfectly.
Again...
Thanks for you efforts, any help will be appreciated.
Alberto.
All parts have been tested: CPU/RAM/GFX/PSU/HD/DVD, just not the MOBO ?
Checked if the MOBO is shorting in the case ?
Have you tried using the reset switch as power, on/off switch ? I've seen before when the power switch stops working (lose/bad wire busted spring) after swapping reset to power, then the system turned on. Worth a try, as sending it back to USA won't be cheap. If its over 1 year old it mite not be covered by the re-seller and or MSI. Best to check this out as law and warranty is different from country to country.
Good Luck

Help K8N Neo2 Platinum

hi Having Real Problems The With K8N Neo2 Platinum Board
When Starting Up The PC All I Get Is One LOud Beep That Lasts About
2 Seconds And Then Stops For 2 Seconds Then Does It Again And So On
But Never Gets To Post ,I Thought It Might Be Some Card Not Seated Right
But After Checking All Cards And Memory The Same Thing Happens Ive Now Took
All The Components Out And Rebuilt My Old 2600xp Socket a And All The Components Are Working Fine , So My Problem is HAve I Got A Doa Motherboard
Or Is It The Athlon64 3200+ ,Oh And The memory That I Been Using Is Branded
Samsung Pc3200 512mb And Ive Also Tried Samsung Branded Pc2700 2x256mb
But Since This Memory Works Fine In My old 2600xp System It Cant Be That Could it >?

One Of The problems That I Have Is I Didnt Get the D Card With The Motherboard
As i Bought A OEM Product ,Ive Only Just read About The Memory Config On MSI Site Which Clearly States That You Should Always Start To Populate The Green
First But I`m Sure This Has Only Just Been Added To The Site Check It Here
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=607
And yes The memory Can Work In Dual Channel Mode But Only With The Samsung PC2700 At 256mb A peice
My Thinking Behind The Graphics CArd Change ie (Swapping The Radeon 9800 Pro
For A Old Radeon 9600 Pro ) Is To See If It May be The Power Supply As The The 9800 Pro Shares The Same 12v line As The Athlon64 CPu But Can`t See It Being The Power Supply As its Only 3 Weeks Old And Is A enermax 470w With Dual 12v
RAils
But Still My Biggest Question Is Could This be A Faulty athlon64 3200xp Skt 939 CPU >?

K8N Neo2-FX CPU compatibility question

Thinking about upgrading my Athlon 64 to a dual core, and can't seem to find out anywhere if the CPU I want to buy is compatible with my mobo (K8N-Neo2-FX). I don't see why not, but you never know. I'm looking at an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Toledo (Model # ADA3800DAA5CD). The MSI compatibility chart doesn't even seem to know that this CPU exists (the only Toledo cores it lists are the 2x1MB L2 cache models, and this is a 2x512KB). I don't want to buy the CPU if it won't work - anybody know if this combo will work out okay? Thanks for any help anyone can give me.

Thanks guys! I guess I'll go ahead and get my chip. One other question that's arisen, though. I'm also looking at an eVGA 7800GS AGP GPU upgrade. From what I can see this card is BIG (I'm talking physical size). It looks like the HSF on the chipset of the Neo2-FX is pretty much right beside the AGP slot - does anyone know if this GPU will fit on this board, or does that HSF get in the way? Thanks again!

Building a K8N Neo2 based system. Need feedback.

Hello everyone!
I am new to the boards and will be building out a new K8N Neo2 based system over the weekend.
I have read this board, and a couple of others, and now I have the bejeebus scared out of me over the MSI K8N Neo2 board!
This isn't the first system I have built, but it is my first AMD box to build.
Please take a look at my signature and provide me any feedback you think worth mentioning. I am somewhat concerned with my RAM.
Maybe my floppy drive.
At any rate, if something noticeably stands out as a "gotcha" please point it out. I would like to make my transition from Intel as painless as possible.
BTW, this is my gaming rig.
Thanks in advance for your input.

Thanks to those who replied.
However, I have decided not to go with the MSI K8N Neo2. Why? Well mostly because there are several instability issues with the MSI board that haven't been resolved and I opted not to deal with them.
Secondly, I put an order in for the K8N and Athlon 64 proc to Monarch Computer. The A64 chip was on back order with an ETA of 10/15. Not only did they change the ETA after I paid for it, but they lowered the price on the chip and wouldn't sell it to me for the difference. Basically they are sucking in buyers on AMD chips they don't have in stock, have no idea when they will get them, and are adjusting prices on the chips in the meantime. I find such business practices unacceptable. So I cancelled my order and will never do business with Monarch Computer again.
I ordered a new Athlon 64 proc in stock at Newegg.com (but a few dollars more than Monarch, but price doesn't go up and down weekly as it seems to do at Monarch!) and I ordered the Asus A8V Deluxe board. Yes, it is a VIA board that is a bit slower than the NEO, but it doesn't have nearly the amount of problems as the NEO from what I have read. So, bottom line is stability and ability to OC off a stable platform while buying the components at a reasonable price and with a reputable vendor.

The K8N NEO2 is a seriously weird dude.

The past 7 hours I´ve just experienced the most complicated hardward puzzle that have ever come across.
First I tried to set down my ram from 2.5 cas to 2, this didnt go well as the machine wouldnt boot, fine me thinks, I ll just reset the bios and ..... BUT OOOOHH NO ... reset doesnt work, me thinks the mobo engineers must have been drunk or something when they designed this, all I ever did with my asus mobo when oc´ing went wrong was to reset the bios.
Well, I spent 3 hours getting the bios to pop on screen, dont ask me how, I dont even know it, all of a sudden it just did. I quickly sat the floppy in as the only device and flashed the bios to 1.36, at least the bios now seemed stable.
I plugged my HDs in but I found out that the mobo is extremely sensitive to cabling, I couldnt get the pc to boot, it would hang at the bios, but I had just solved that ... so that couldnt be the problem.
Lots of fiddling and cable swapping later I finally got the first two hd´s working, and some more cableswapping and fiddling got me the third hd and burner up and running. This was like a weird dream, all cables worked perfectly on a second rig I have but the K8N seems to have its own very annoying personality.
What on earth were the mobo engineers thinking when they designed this bios reset feature? were they smoking something heavy?
Now to the fun part .... or tragic, hmm, you decide.
My neighbour bought k8n neo2 a week ago, recommend it to me and hence I bought mine. He was over here trying to help me today and stated that my mobo could be damaged because his had been running flawlessly all along. After we got mine up and running never actually knowing what we did right my neighbour decided to go home and install a new harddrive he bought today ... but LOL .. or the opposite, he just called me saying his mobo wouldnt even boot and he is running bios 1.36, he had tried to remove the new harddrive with no luck and now experiences the same problems I had today. So I am heading over to his appartment with some cables to solve another puzzle.
One thing is for sure, I am actually afraid of even touching my pc now.

You're not alone, I have the same board and had nothing but trouble.
The MSI website is either useless, or their server is down. When I finally manage to download the drivers for the board, they don't run. MSI Provide no instructions with the drivers, or on how to install them.
The pdf manual makes no sense, is full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors, and doesn't seem to have page numbers. If they make hardware like they do manuals, heaven forbid, no wonder it doesn't work.
I'm thinking about just dropping this in the trash and buying a new motherboard- it would probably be quicker to purchase and install, than to hang around trying to find an MSI tech who can help me and decipher a puzzle which changes constantly.
I am never going to buy another msi product again, that's for sure!.

I have constant K8N Neo2 problems advice needed. (long) Update

I need some advice on what my problem might be and if I need to RMA the motherboard or power supply.
I have a new Athlon 64 3500+ processor, MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum BIOS v1.3 motherboard, with 2 512MB DIMMs of Corsair Value Select Memory. I have had and am still having a series of crashes and lock-ups I will list below. FULL SYSTEM SPECS BELOW AT BOTTOM.
I initially installed the motherboard with a SINGLE 120GB hard drive from the old machine and the installed the memory in memory slots 1 & 2 to try dual channel memory mode. I then formatted the C partition and did a clean install of Windows XP Professional with SP2, installed the MSI drivers on the installation CD that came with the motherboard (Nvidia nForce3 Version 5.03 System Drivers, Realtek gigabit ethernet driver, Realtek AC97 audio driver) & the GeForce v66.93 video driver. I then got my first blue screen "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" crash, I ignored this crash and rebooted. I shortly got a black screen crash which I also ignored.
I then installed a new 200GB hard drive and a old 120GB so I could transfer the data from the old 120GB to the new 200GB drive. The data transfer went fine. As I was preparing to install some applications I then got my second blue screen "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" crash. Suspecting the Corsair Value Select Memory could not handle dual channel I ran Memtest-86 for 2 passes and got NO errors with the memory in dual channel mode, so I left it.
With my data backed up on the 200GB new drive I removed the new 200GB and the second 120GB hard did another clean install of Windows XP Professional with SP2, this time with Nvidia’s nForce3 Version 5.10 system drivers, the Realtek gigabit ethernet driver and Realtek AC97 audio driver from the motherboard installation CD & the GeForce v66.93 video driver. I downloaded the latest version of Core Center and installed it and got it working. CPU temperatures were showing a low of around 29C, average of about 44C, and spikes at full loads of about 55-57C. I then ran Ghost to back up the boot partition. I installed all my applications, reinstalled the 200GB and 120 GB hard drives moved some data around with no crashes.
I then installed Rome Total War and played for about 2 hours and had one black screen crash after the reboot played for 4 more hours with no problems so I shut down and went to bed.
In the morning I got up started the computer let it run for awhile the CPU temperatures were in the low 30Cs to low 40Cs I tried to copy some files from the D partition to desktop and the screen freezes I waited about 5 min. with no change and no drive light activity so I hit the reset button. Upon reboot I got a ‘no system disk found” error, I went into the BIOS and checked the drive set-ups and boot priority, everything was correct. I tried for a half hour to get the system to boot with on luck. I used the Ghost to restore the partition image I had made earlier and still no boot. I finally decided to reinstall XP again put in the installation CD and when I got to the screen where you decide where to install Windows I changed my mind quit and bingo the machine boots into the restored Ghost partition???? I started to reinstall my applications got one more blue screen"MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION" crash and another screen freeze that I had to reset.
So I decided to start from real scratch I removed the new 200GB and the second 120GB hard drive ran Killdisk on the boot drive, made a new clean 20GB C partition and did another clean install of Windows XP Professional with SP2, this time with Nvidia’s nForce3 Version 5.10 system drivers, the Realtek gigabit ethernet driver and Realtek AC97 audio driver from the motherboard installation CD & the GeForce v66.93 video driver. I installed the latest version of Core Center and installed it and got it working. CPU temps were as before.
I tested the memory with Memtest-86 again 2 passes no errors. Just in case I then moved one of the memory DIMMs to memory slot 3 out of dual channel mode and to a slower speed and ran Memtest-86 for about 20 hours with 21 passes with no memory errors, so I think memory can be ruled out as the problem.
Next I installed my applications I got one screen freeze that I had to reset. I reinstalled the other 200GB and 120GB hard drives. After I got all my applications install and Ghosted the boot partition. I have had one more one screen freeze that I had to reset.
I have a problem I simply cannot figure out. The memory is obliviously fine. While I have seen CPU temperatures spikes as high as 57C the CPU temps as reported by Core Center averages in the high 30Cs or low 40Cs and most of crashes/lock-ups don’t seem to occur during high CPU load/temp. The power supply might be a little light for the system but many of the crashes have occurred with only one hard drive in the system. The fact after one for the lock-ups the system would not boot for awhile and then magically just booted gives me concern there might be a motherboard problem.
Any solution ideas would be appreciated. Should I RMA the power supply, the motherboard, or both.
Full system specs:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+, Socket 939, 0.13 Micron, with retail heatsink and fan.
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum BIOS v1.3
Memory: Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB (2 x 512MB DIMMs) Kit DDR400 PC3200 CAS2.5 Value Select Memory - one 512MB DIMM in memory slot 1 and one 512MB DIMM in memory slot 3 running at DDR333 speed.
Video Card: Chaintech GeForce4 Ti 4600
Drives:
Maxtor 6Y120L0 120GB hard drive as master on IDE channel 1. 3 partitions C (boot partition), D, & E.
Seagate ST3200822A 200GB hard drive as slave on IDE channel 1. Single partition.
Maxtor 6Y120L0 120GB hard drive as master on IDE channel 2. Single partition.
Sony DRU-500AX DVD-RW as slave on IDE channel 2.
SATA disabled in BIOS.
No PCI cards.
Case: Antec SX 835
4 80mm case fans (2 fans in front blowing in, 2 fans in rear of case blowing out).
Power Supply: Thermaltake W0008RUC Silent PurePower 420W w/Active PFC
Power Supply Specifications:
Maximum Power: 420W
PFC: Acitve
Power Good Signal: 100-500ms
Hold-up Time: > 16ms at Full Load
Efficiency: > 65%
Over Voltage Protection: +5V trip pointInput Voltage: 100 VAC / 240 VAC
Input Frequency Range: 47-63 Hz
Input Current: 8.0A
Output: +3.3V@30A;+5V@40A;[email protected];+12V@18A;[email protected];+5VSB@2A

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I then installed Rome Total War and played for about 2 hours and had one black screen crash
Great isn't it (although not without the occasional crash)
Would you say it's better but not there yet ? or the same ?
I thought the same as Ibn Quote
Your PS unit is a little weak for that much hardware, but I doubt thats your problem as well
re your PSU, given youv'e got a less hungry Graphic Card, thought it was at worse marginal, have seen worse.
To investigate further it may be worth diconnecting one of your HD, maybe the 200gb for a time.
It's a small thing but it may be slightly better to have both your maxtors together on IDE channel 1, given their identical.
good luck - keeo us posted

K8n Neo2 never again

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