K9A2 Platinum + 2xATI 3870 CF + x8 PCI-E Adaptec Raid 5405?

I have a K9A2 Platinum mainboard and 2x Ati HD3870 videocards (Crossfire-X). Would a x8 PCI-E Adaptec Raid 5405 card work in one of the remaining x16 PCI-E slots? Or are those x16 PCI-E slots reserved for videocards only?
The mainboard manual says: "When 4 PCI Express x16 slots are all installed, the PCIE x 16 lanes will auto arrange form x16/ x0/ x16/ x0 to x8/ x8/ x8/ x8". Does this mean if i install 2 videocards, the other 2 x16 PCI-E slots will be disabled?

And the card you mention will not have a higher speed because it is in a fast lane.

Similar Messages

K9A2 Platinum bios 1.4 or 1.5 Promise RAID fail Boot.

Ok I have BIOS version 1.3 running fine. I want to upgrade to a bios that officially support the phenom and its power usage. So back in may I try to upgrade to bios 1.4. No good the machine will not boot the RAID set that contains window XP. :( Reverted back. Contacted support. Not much help... a few weeks pass. Contact support again they send me bios version 1.51. Same issue. Reverted back to 1.3. Recently I tried the final release of 1.5 with the same issue.
Anyone out there using a phenom on the K9A2 and booting with the Promise RAID controller in a striped 0 set ? How did you get it to work with the current bios version. Tech support 'claims' they have no problem with the bios and that they have tested it with the promise controller booting to XP.
Thanks,
Jon Harrell

Considering the very large files that regularly run through the system and the extra cpus that windows inefficiently uses I doubt a software controller would impact the performance gains significantly. The units we have prep large format presentations and regularly handle very large files. Bandwidth is key. If this was the average desktop or even a web server yes 1 drive would most definitely be faster. But that would be a different subject.
Although now we might just be considering scraping the whole MSI created mess, and purchasing a hardware solution like that of the quad sata raid in our server.
But for now:
Does any one know the perfect combination?
e.g. Promise driver 1.1.1030.47 !work with Bios 1.50 (promise 2.8.1030.0032)
Thanks,
jh

PROBLEM RAID K9A2 Platinum

hello,
I have a problem for the raid on my msi k9a2 platinum.
currently, I have 2 SATA hard drives, on first (samsung 750 GB) I have vista ultimate 64 installed, and on second (maxtor 200 GB) I have games. in the bios I see "Raid: Ide" and when I met "Raid: Raid" blue screen at startup vista.
thanks
phenom 9600 Be
MSI K9A2 platinum
Sapphyre 3870 hd toxic
2 x 1g 1066 Mhz Kingmax
Samsung 750 Go & maxtor 200 Go
2 x HPw2207h

Why are you trying to run a single drive in RAID mode? Sounds logical that Windows would Blue Screen, you have no RAID array. Just keep it running at IDE mode, should be fine...
PCI latency should be set as low as possible, though I doubt you will notice any difference between the 64 and 32 settings. This setting mostly applies when you have add in cards that need to hold the PCI bus longer than default...

K9A2 Platinum + crossfire Toxic 3870

Here are my system specs - I will list these first so you get an idea of my system as a whole to better understand my issue.
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos 1000
Power Supply: Ultra 1000w Modular Power Supply
Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum
Processor: Phenom 9600 Black Edition
Memory: Corsair 4 x 1 GB Dominator
Video Card x 2: Sapphire 3870 Toxic
Hard Drive 1: Western Digital 500GB
Hard Drive 2: Western Digital 150GB Raptor
Optical Drive: Lite On DVD-RW
Operating System: Vista Ultimate x64
Last night, I RMA'd the two TOXIC 3870 video cards because I was having reboot problems with my PC whenever the video cards went under load from a video game. I tried a nVidia 7950GX2 that I had laying around and I had absolutely no issues whatsoever.
Even simple graphics tests or movies would cause my system to immediately reboot, upon which my keyboard and mouse would stop functioning until I power cycled the computer.
I RMA'd the cards for a full refund, but I was curious if there were any other people with crossfire issues with this board or if anybody had any recommendations for a different manufacturer that was proved working? I looked long and hard and couldn't find any posts of someone listing this motherboard and video card combination.
I installed Vista X64 just fine, I tried the motherboard and video drivers from the CD, and older and newer versions from the AMD website, from catalyst 8.1 to 8.4, doing a driver sweep in-between each one. It ran smooth and happy as a clam, until I tried to load any game. Crysis, C&C3, UT3, WoW, didn't matter. I also tried a 32 bit version of windows XP for testing and still had the same errors. Memtestx86 came back fine, and if I swapped the 3870's for the 7950GX2 I had, I could run the installed games just fine. Also, I tried running the cards not in crossfire mode, and I even removed one card from the setup so only 1 3870 was installed, in the topmost PCIe slot. No difference. The issues seemed to follow both cards, regardless of their placement or configuration.
I wanted to give AMD video cards a chance, I've been an AMD and nVidia fanboy for a long time, and after the AMD/ATI merger, the release of the 3800 series of cards looked promising along with an AMD mobo and Phenom processor. I decided to take a chance and get the complete spider platform, and I had some expectations for an amazing system. However, this first attempt has kind of let me down, but I am willing to give a replacement part equal benefit of doubt before I start downplaying the awesomeness of AMD/ATI video cards. I read a lot of reviews on the TOXIC video cards, rating them to be one of the best choices for the 3870, especially with the mail in rebate price. So, I tried them, but they did not turn out so well.
Is there a configuration I am missing? I believed the system to be a fairly decent build with fairly good components - not the best gaming PC out there but definitely nothing to snuff at. Would it be better for me to get the MSI 3870 OC or something of the like? Do MSI video cards/motherboards combo well? I'm just looking for a little guidance in the video card realm for this motherboard, as ATI is a bit out of my league when it comes to knowing the in's and out's of which manufacturers to choose from and mix & mash motherboard/video card brands.
Any and all help is much appreciated!

Okay, got two new HD 3870 Toxic's in from a different vendor than where I previously ordered them (just in case it was bad luck).
I am still having problems and I am about to go out of my mind. I really want to just switch back to nVidia, but I like AMD enough that I want to keep giving them another chance, at the expense of my money and time.
I have tried the following in addition to what I have previously stated:
After receiving my new video cards, I downloaded the Western Digital diagnostics utility and did a "write zero's to drive" on both of my hard drives. Then, I reinstalled a nice, fresh, clean install of vista x64. As soon as Vista installed, I installed SP1, then finished updates and then I installed all of my drivers.
I have tried using just one single card, in all 4 slots, and both cards, in varying slots, and I am still having problems. It is hard for me to elaborate effectively as I get a different BSOD almost every time. The one thing I notice, is that *every* time my computer hangs/restarts, my Logitech G15 Keyboard / G9 mouse stop working. The LCD of the G15 goes from displaying the "logitech" to being just blank, and it is fully unresponsive after a restart. I have to flip the ATX power switch on the PSU and wait 5 seconds before the keyboard lights turn off, before I can restart the system and get a response out of *any* USB device.
This has made me believe that mayhaps my motherboard may be the source of my difficulties. Does anyone else think so or have any other suggestions?

K9A2 Platinum PCIe lanes

Hi this is my first post so don't do what grues does when they are gruesome.
The question is:
K9A2 Platinum with two Sapphire 6770 in Crossfire. So the PCIe lanes are naturally 16/0/16/0.
I am going to install a third Nvidia 8800GT (with PhysX) in one ofthe vacant lanes. Is there a way to install this so I can keep some sort of 16/8/16/0 configuration or is it going to be 16/8/8/0 no matter what ?
Because I already tried the Crossfire/PhysX hybrid setup and it worked but it ended up beeing 16/8/8/0 and I would rather prefer it to be 16/8/16/0 ! The questionw would be also how much of an impact would going from 16/16 to 16/8/8 since the second Crossfire card does not always do very much anyway, as far as I understand it, the balance load occurs in driver level anyway.
It may also be worth mentioning that I have a regular PCI IDE controller in a regular PCI slot.
Edit: 1: Or do i understand the PCIe workings right as to, since this card has a total of 32 PCIe lanes, it can not be done since 32-16-16=0. ?
Edit 2: Or do I also misunderstand the number of PCIe lanes?
Edit 3: Typos and better clarifications
Any ideas?
Thanks for any help!
Sorry for all the reedits. This should be the last.

Nope! You still need to add something to the first post of yours. I am not a moderator, only gruesome.
What is needed is more info. about your system, especially processor, PSU and memory. There are also two, slightly different models of your motherboard.
I hope someone else has better knowing of the issue, can only cite:
K9A2 Platinum, Slots
• 2 mazarine PCI Express x16 slots (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant; supports CrossFire Technology)
• 2 light-blue PCI Express x16 slots with x8 operations (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant; supports CrossFire Technology)
• When 4 PCI Express x16 slots are all installed, the PCIE x 16 lanes will auto arrange form x16/ x0/ x16/ x0 to x8/ x8/ x8/ x8
• 1 PCI Express x1 slots
• 2 PCI slots, support 3.3V/ 5V PCI bus Interface.
I would also like to ask, do you really have a performance problem, or is it to further increase the experience? A quicker hard disk can do good things too.

K9A2 Platinum Cannot Use RAID and PCI IDE card [SOLVED]

Hello,
I am trying to do the following set-up on my K9A2 Platinum, using a Phenom 9600 processor:
- 2xSATA2 250GB Seagate drives on Promise T3 SATA controller (to be used as RAID 1 devices)
- 1xSATA DVD-RW on Sb600
- 2xIDE DVD-RW on onboard IDE
- One PCI HiPoint RocketRAID ATA100 card (operating in IDE mode) on PCI slot 2 with 1xIDE 40GB hard disk (my Linux partition)
On the BIOS I have enabled the Extra RAID function, in order to enable Promise to work as RAID.
The system POSTs as follows:
- Initial detection (CPU, RAM e.tc)
- RocketRAID gets initialized and detects the IDE disk attached (40GB)
- Promise RAID tries to detect the disks (the RAID array) and the whole system hangs.
I've tried to relocate the two SATA hard disks to the SB600 controller (SATA 1&2 ports), but the same thing happens (after changing the BIOS to disable extra RAID function and enable RAID mode on onboard SATA SB600). The only way to POST the machine, is to remove the RocketRAID PCI card, but this way I can no longer boot my Linux disk.
Using BIOS 1.2 and 1.3beta 2 (sent to me by MSI support).
Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the replies.
Now, I'm going to surprise you: I managed to make both cards (the Promise and HighPoint) work together! Read how...
Somehow, I got the impression that the problems I had were either caused by the BIOS or the hard disks (the SATA ones). I flashed the motherboard back to the official 1.2, doing a complete BIOS reset (removed the battery) and tried again without the RocketRAID card installed. This time, the Promise BIOS (which btw is an earlier version from the one the 1.3b2 BIOS had) reported that the one SATA drive was malfunctioning (and it was a sealed brand-new Seagate). Removed the drive, installed it on SB600 and SeaTools indeed reported that it was failing (it didn't manage to pass even the quick test...).
Now I was curious: could it be that this - together with the beta BIOS - was the cause of my problems? I installed the other SATA disk to Promise T3 (the red socket) and the controller detected it, but all I could do is to set it up as a RAID 0 array (which pretty much does nothing). Next, I installed the RocketRAID also together with the IDE Linux disk and the system detected both disks; I can boot Linux fine and enter both the RocketRAID BIOS and Promise T3 BIOS. I can delete and recreate the array in Promise T3 as I please, but due to the fact that I only have one SATA disk now, I get limited options (RAID 0 and JBOD).
Is it safe to assume that since the Promise BIOS is working with the RocketRAID installed, that my SATA RAID controller is working?
Tomorrow, I shall return the SATA drive to the store I bought it and get a replacement, so that I can set up my RAID 1.
The plan is to have Linux boot from the IDE (I've never managed to set up a Linux disk to boot from RAID) where Windows Server 2003 will boot from RAID.
Will keep you posted about the progress I make.
BTW Bas, I'm sorry I couldn't make out much of your brainstorming
Regarding the Promise controller: the board has a Promise chip right above the SATA ports, which has the number 42819 on it. I can also verify that both SB600 RAID and Promise T3 RAID have EXACTLY the same BIOS menu interface (the only differences are the texts "ATi SB600" and "Promise T3" on the menus, plus that the SB600 has also an option to securely erase the drives which Promise does not have). Are you suggesting that the SB600 RAID is actually the Promise T3? I do not know if it would be possible to have BOTH RAID controllers (SB600 and T3) working at the same time (I do not have enough disks to try...).

MSI K9A2 Platinum has weak MOSFETs

Well gang I am on my fourth K9A2 Platinum board. The first two I got were just plain unstable. The third one I got and put into my kids computer is very stable. I bought a replacement for my second one and I have to say with 8GB (4x2gb), 9850BE, SB Fatal1ty, 4x 3870 voltmodded to 1.675V at 985/1210 this board was running every test perfectly. I was able to get the FSB up to 230 with DDR-920 5-5-4-10-2T and it ran 10 hours stable on Prime95 (4 instances, affinity) with 1920 MB on each instance.
Well I figured without a working northbridge multiplier this was darned good so I started on the CPU. I bumped the CPU voltage to 1.6V in the BIOS and set the multiplier to 13 for an overclock of 2990MHz.
Started Prime95, came back in a couple hours and the system was OFF.
When I press the power button only a flicker on the mobo LEDs then nothing.
Decided to unplug everything except I forgot to unplug the 4-pin power connector, then I jumpered pins 4 and 6 on the 24-pin power supply. A MOSFET decided to go up in smoke.
Did I mention I am water cooling everything now? NB, SB, CPU, VRM, memory, video cards... I checked and the VRM heat transfer pad was secure on and got burnt from the pop.
All I can say is, gang, after working with this motherboard for almost 6 months now and having nothing but trouble I was ***SO*** encouraged to get everything working so stable. I did not experience a single cold boot loop with this new board either. Then POP... I'm so upset now... this board can't handle the settings in its own BIOS.
I have a DFI Lanparty I bought with a Promise FTTX4650. I am going to switch to that now. It has a digital PWM. This shouldn't happen there. I think it does PCIE slots in a x16/x4/x4 configuration though so I am not entirely encouraged and it only has room for 3 of my 4 video cards. It's either that or suffer with PCIe 1.1 on a Skulltrail and drop $1500 for a CPU.
Well anyway, this board in general has so much potential. It's too bad MSI just didn't manufacture or support it properly (no northbridge multiplier, no PCIe setting in the BIOS, etc).

At work I just put together a Gigabyte X48 based board and the thing has 14 chokes (the square blocks) labeled R80 while the K9A2 Platinum has just 5 I believe labeled R34 or R45 (I forget, I'm too lazy to go look). It does appear this board is a bit weak on the VRM side. I see more MOSFETs on the K9A2 Platinum than on the X48 board I saw, however. I'm sure everyone will be using a Digital PWM/VRM pretty soon.
Honestly if your board is giving you fits return it to where you bought it and ask for a new one. It took MSI 3-4 weeks I think to replace one of mine and it looks like the "repaired" it but I have no idea what they actually did to it... Anyway that's my advice. The newer ones MFG in 2008 seem to be pretty good. The Promise SAS chip onboard is incredibly fast at RAID0 and 4 PCIe 2.0 slots at 8x/8x/8x/8x is really, really sweet. This board is still very unique in the market, I think these two features make it that way. I would have paid $50 more for the same board, just with higher quality caps/chokes/VRM/etc on it.
Looking forward to the 45nm Phenoms, that's all I can say. I seem to have topped out at 2950MHz on the Phenom 9850 I have. I took one core up to 3.3GHz for a while under Prime95 but haven't been able to do it again (BSOD: failed to receive a secondary processor interrupt)...

K9A2 Platinum - Cannot get win xp2 sp2 installed

Build Setup:
Thermaltake TR2-550 550W - 3.3v/30A - 5v/28A - 12v/14A - 12v2/15A
K9A2 Platinum (Bios 1.3)
AMD Phenom 9850
2gb Mushkin XP2-8500 (running at default 800mhz)
sapphire radeon 3870 in top pci-e slot
x2 sata seagate barricuda 500gb drives
x1 generic sata dvd burner (can plug in external usb drive when needed)
x1 floppy drive
I made a post on here a few weeks ago about getting a raid 0 setup going on a new build and after a few hours of tweeking around got one to work. Windows XP Home w/ SP2 installed fine the first time. Computer ran great for about 3 days. Then I noticed that whenever I tried to install anything using 2 or more install CDs, windows would crash when I opened the cd tray after it asked for the next CD. The cd rom was plugged into an SB600 controlled sata port so I thought maybe it was interfering with the raid setup. Switched the cd rom to a promise sata port and xp refused to boot anymore.
Its now been about 2 weeks since then. I've played around with this new computer everyday I'm off work and it will not let me install xp sp 2. RAID 0 setup on SB600 or Promise controller, standard IDE settings on SB600, no cdrom attached to internal sata ports (used an external usb one). No matter the configuration XP either freezes during the boot screen after the initial install restart or makes it into the second half of installation (after reboot) and gives a validation error of some sort.
I also have a copy of ubuntu 8.04 that I've tried installing with no success, though that may be my lack of experience with using linux.
The only OS i've installed successfully so far is Win2K on straight IDE, didn't bother trying on a RAID.
I've given up on trying to install on a RAID array. It requires the extra drivers and creates more problems, and from what I've read on other posts here won't give me much performance boost with just the two drives anyway.
As of posting this I'm running seatools on my harddrives and fully erasing the hard drive I've been trying to install on so many times.
Thanks for any input you may have for my problems and let me know if you need any more info!
~ Jerome

Alright, finally got the new PSU on Wed. Ended up going with the Corsair 750tx. Better to have extra power than not enough and maybe something to use in a future build.
Had to wait a few days before I had the time to put it in but it fit in the case just fine. Plenty of connectors with the nice shrink-net wrapping around the wires. Plugged it in and turned it on.. nothing. After messing around a few minutes I discovered the power cable that it shipped with was a dud. Luckily I have a few spare ones and used an old. Ok, now the power's running fine.
By this time I had stripped down the new build to the bare and basic essentials. IDE HD and cd rom drive, floppy and one of the nvidia cards from my last computer that had SLI running. Put in the XP install disc, formatted, first part of install went fine. After reboot to finish installs once again the computer crashed with BSOD. Multiple reboots did the same with various different BSOD stop messages.
After searching MS's website for the meanings of the errors I came across a post on another website telling of hitting F5 during install of XP. I'd heard of using F6 for installing third party drivers but not what F5 was for. Further searching on microsoft.com showed that hitting F5 at the start of an XP install allows you to force a Hardware Abstraction Layer. If you have an ACPI capable motherboard XP installer does not always detect this (or ever in my case) the F5 menu allows you to choose it, along with other types of systems. So I chose ACPI PC as my option, finished out setup and rebooted. Crossing my fingers once again as XP tries its first load and.. Wah Lah! I have a functional OS at last on this baby.
Thanks to all for your help in this trying time My slight headache of the last 3 weeks is now gone!
For anyone who has trouble getting xp to install and receives multiple different stop errors I'd suggest looking into the F5 function.

K9A2 Platinum Bus Interface problem

Currently running:
Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum 1.6 Bios
CPU: AMD Phenom 9950 BE (O.C. to 3.0 [200 x 15])
RAM: 8 GB G. Skill 1066 RAM (Underclocked to PC 6400 4-4-4-12 for stability)
GPU: 2x Radeon HD 3870 Sapphire Edition
HDD: 2x Seagate 640 HDD's RAID 0 thru SB600
OS: XP Pro x64
My problem is my 2 GPU's have a max bus width of 16x 2.0. When using GPUz, only the first card is rated at 16x 2.0, while the second is 16x. Both cards are in the dark blue "mazerine" slots, and the BIOS option for High Speed mode in slots x1 and x4 are turned on "auto." Any ideas?

Quote from: Stu on 03-January-09, 02:49:08
Are you actually having any problems using the cards?
Normally I can run Farcry2 on Ultimate at 30-40 FPS no problem, however, with the bus width labeled as such i'm running around 4-5 FPS, so the 2nd card is creating a slowdown. I know the card is fine, because when it runs by itself not in x-fire at PCI-E x16 2.0.

External hard drive and ESata connection on K9A2 Platinum (inop)

I have the same problem as the user who posted on this topic in Oct last year. I have two eSATA external drives, one a Lacie, the other a GForce. Both are 1TB and, luckily, have USB, FW and eSATA ports. When I got my PC it was running XP Pro 32. In that OS the GForce works fine USB or FW but is not recognized at all when plugged into either of the eSATA ports. I tried different cables. I then upgraded to W7 Ultimate 64. Same results. I also purchased the Lacie drive. It works fine USB or FW, but is not recognized eSATA. The only difference with the LAcie drive is that my PC did try to load a PCI device driver.
Reading the old topic I went to Fastbuild but could not see the drive attached via the eSATA port to add. No additional drives were recognized. I am not the experienced with setting up RAID, FYI.
I am reluctant to falsh the bios with an MSI update as everything is working otherwise. I do have the XP and Vista CDs with the MSI drivers on them that the builder (Powermax) gave me.
I really would like to get these drives running eSATA. Any suggestions on how to proceed?
Thanks in advance.
Specs:
Operating System
   MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU
   AMD Phenom X4 9550    28 °C
   Agena 65nm Technology
RAM
   8.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz 5-5-5-13
Motherboard
   MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD MS-7376 (CPU 1)
Graphics
   Generic PnP Monitor on ATI Radeon HD 3870
   ATI Radeon HD 3870 (VISIONTEK)   47 °C
   ATI Radeon HD 3870 (VISIONTEK)   47 °C
Hard Drives
    1000GB MICRONET FANTOM DRIVE IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device (1394)
    749GB ATI 1X2 Mirror/RAID1 SCSI Disk Device (SCSI)
Optical Drives
   ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P ATA Device
Audio
   High Definition Audio Device

This post is my attempt to add some clarity on the issue of making the eSATA ports on your K9A2 board usable. My conclusion is based on a lot of trial and error and reading a lot of old posts on this board on the subject. I have purposely made a new post so that it is searchable and will hopefully save someone else a lot of time and grief.
If you are like me you will be frustrated because the eSATA ports on your machine appear inoperable and do not recognize an external drive although the drives work fine connected with a USB or FW cable. This is because the eSATA ports on the K9A2 are controlled by a Promise T3 on board RAID controller (it may be pseudo RAID but that's for another discussion-- all we need to know is it controls those ports). It also controls the internal SATA ports 5 and 6, FWIW.
You will probably find that the Promise is disabled in Setup. <DEL> at POST to see setup on the K9A2. You are looking in the Integrated Peripherals menu choice, submenu Extra RAID Controller (for Promise RAID). When you enter here you will see if your Promise is enabled or disabled. If it is enabled you have another problem. Likely it is disabled, BUT DO NOT ENABLE IT AT THIS TIME.
Go back to the Integrated Peripherals Setup menu. Then go to the On-Chip ATA Devices submenu and then the SATA Mode (for SB600 RAID) menu under that. If the enabled selection is either AHCI or IDE, you can leave it be and go back and enable the Promise controller making sure that you have first loaded the drivers which can be found here: http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1332
Please note I do not know if the Vista drivers for the Promise will work with W7. Likely, but I never got to find out. It's probably a good idea to load a set of SB600 drivers to a floppy right about now in case you need to restore them later too.
If however, you find that your you SB600 is set to RAID (not IDE or AHCI) then unless you are prepared to give up your RAID array, you are done now and can never use your eSATA ports or the Promise controller. This is because -- as I have read in older posts -- the Promise controller loads its own BIOS, and if the SB600 controller is also set to RAID there will be a conflict. (My SB600 is set to RAID, the end result of enabling the Promise -- before I knew all this -- was the destruction of my RAID drivers and a never ending boot/BSOD loop). If you are like me, you may receive answers answers on this forum like:" AHCI has to enabled for the eSATA ports to work". A more accurate and helpful statement would be that if your SB600 controller is set to RAID you cannot use the Promise controller. If you want to use the Promise controller your *SB600* controller should be set to AHCI (if you have an existing RAID set, wave it goodbye).
Summary: If you want to use your eSATA ports and are not using RAID, set SB600 to AHCI, load Promise drivers and enable Promise is setup. If you are using a RAID set driven by the SB600 give up now and go buy a PCI card with a couple of eSATA ports on it and hope you can install it around your video cards (not a lot of room on the K9A2 with modern video cards).
I would be ecstatic for someone to tell me I'm wrong, but I don't think they will. I have no idea why someone thought it was a good idea to design the board this way, but it is what it is, eh?
I hope this post saved you some time.
R/Anthony
PS: Stating the obvious: have a recent system image, startup disk and a full set of drivers before you screw around in Setup if you are of limited experience like me.

How to install W7 Promise driver for K9A2 Platinum

First of all i assume no responsability for any loss of data ,everything described here is done on your own risk.BACK-UP data before doing this.
Any K9A2 Platinum v1 user was disapointed when looking on the product page seeing no W7 driver.As a MSI tech recommended a driver from Promise i said to myself to try it and of course , it did not installed the normal way.You could force it tru HAve Disk from within Windows 7 only when running form the SB 600 .Also Windows updates installs an update for the cip.
The procedure is simple ,practically you only need to edit one or 2 INF files depending on the W7 version.
FTTX4650-2650 controllers are both compatible with Windows 7 as the Microsoft website shows.
Download driver from Promise website the driver for FTTX4650-2650 Win7 Win2008R2 WHQL V 1.3.0.4 -> file name FTTX4650-2650_Win7_Win2008R2_WHQL_V_1.3.0.4
Unzip the archive and navigate to the i386 or/and amd64 folders locate <FTT3s.inf> file/s ,open with Notepad.For the .inf extension to be visible go to File & Folder Options and enable extensions to be visible.
Under the [Promise] section add the folowing lines ,this ID s were harvested from within Windows 7 Promise properties ,when no driver was installed
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462&REV_00
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_010400
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_0104
After the copy/paste that [Promise] section will look like this
[Promise]
%SATA_TX2650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F29105A
%SATA_TX4650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F2A105A
%SATA_TX4652_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F2B105A
%FastTrak TX2650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F21105A
%FastTrak TX4650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F22105A
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3716105A
%FastTrak TX4652_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F24105A
%FastTrak T2_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_377d&SUBSYS_3772105A
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462&REV_00
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_010400
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_0104
%Promise_Raid_ControllerDesc%=NODRV,SCSI\ProcessorPromise_
If it looks like this save the file.
Go and Install it.
A warning message for the driver will appear as with any beta or unsigned driver ,ignore it.
When in W7 update the Promise as offered by Windows update.
I will not be held resposable for any damage or data loss.You are doing this on your own risk.Back-up your data and test the driver for yourselves before long term usage.
If it works for you post feedback.

Quote from: wlahdone on 21-February-11, 21:51:07
First of all i assume no responsability for any loss of data ,everything described here is done on your own risk.BACK-UP data before doing this.
Any K9A2 Platinum v1 user was disapointed when looking on the product page seeing no W7 driver.As a MSI tech recommended a driver from Promise i said to myself to try it and of course , it did not installed the normal way.You could force it tru HAve Disk from within Windows 7 only when running form the SB 600 .Also Windows updates installs an update for the cip.
The procedure is simple ,practically you only need to edit one or 2 INF files depending on the W7 version.
FTTX4650-2650 controllers are both compatible with Windows 7 as the Microsoft website shows.
Download driver from Promise website the driver for FTTX4650-2650 Win7 Win2008R2 WHQL V 1.3.0.4 -> file name FTTX4650-2650_Win7_Win2008R2_WHQL_V_1.3.0.4
Unzip the archive and navigate to the i386 or/and amd64 folders locate <FTT3s.inf> file/s ,open with Notepad.For the .inf extension to be visible go to File & Folder Options and enable extensions to be visible.
Under the [Promise] section add the folowing lines ,this ID s were harvested from within Windows 7 Promise properties ,when no driver was installed
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462&REV_00
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_010400
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_0104
After the copy/paste that [Promise] section will look like this
[Promise]
%SATA_TX2650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F29105A
%SATA_TX4650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F2A105A
%SATA_TX4652_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F19&SUBSYS_3F2B105A
%FastTrak TX2650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F21105A
%FastTrak TX4650_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F22105A
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3716105A
%FastTrak TX4652_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_3F24105A
%FastTrak T2_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_377d&SUBSYS_3772105A
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462&REV_00
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&SUBSYS_37161462
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_010400
%FastTrak PDC42819_Desc%=Napa_Inst,PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3F20&CC_0104
%Promise_Raid_ControllerDesc%=NODRV,SCSI\ProcessorPromise_
If it looks like this save the file.
Go and Install it.
A warning message for the driver will appear as with any beta or unsigned driver ,ignore it.
When in W7 update the Promise as offered by Windows update.
I will not be held resposable for any damage or data loss.You are doing this on your own risk.Back-up your data and test the driver for yourselves before long term usage.
If it works for you post feedback.
I made the changes specified above. How do I install the driver ?

How to Setup RAID 0 on K9A2 Platinum using SATA 5&6 Promise Controller

Setup:
MSI K9A2 Platinum
2 x Sapphire 3870 HD in Crossfire Mode
2 x 500 GB WD Caviar Hard drives ( I want to put these in RAID 0)
Pioneer 115DBK DVD Burner
LITEON BD/DVD Player SATA
Phenom 9850
GSKILL 4 GB 1066
Antec P182 Case
Rosewill 850 W Power Supply
Windows Vista 64 bit
I am trying to set the RAID up on the PROMISE SATA ports 5&6. I have enabled the additional RAID controller in the BIOS and set the SATA controller to RAID. One drive shows up as JBOD and I can set the other to RAID 0 in the Fast Track utility. What do I need to do to change the JBOD to RAID? I'm sure its showing that I am a newbie at this and first RAID attempt. It's a new setup so I don't mind having to re-load VISTA.
Additionally - I cannot get the IDE DVD burner to work. If there is any obvious fix for this I'd appreciate input. The SATA BD Player works just fine.
Thanks for any advice!

Sorry, my explanation seems to be too short... some remarks:
- Yes, you need to go to the Promnise Setup prgram like you say;
- Yes, you have to delete the JBOD-array, but you also need to delete the RAID-0 array. Both drives become available now to setup RAID.
- Make a new striping (0) array and select both drives to use -> make array and reboot.
- go into bios and select the RAID-0 array as second boot device and your DVD/CD as first boot device (for now);
- reboot and boot off the Vista Setup CD/DVD.
- Wait until Vista asks to select the drive to install to. It will show you the RAID-array or it will show you nothing. If it shows you noting (and I bet it won't ), then choose to manually install a driver. Now, you can select the Promise driver to use. Vista will load it and recognize your RAID array. Select the array and tell Vista to install.
- Now start hoping that it will work out!
Good luck!!

My six year old K9A2 Platinum Mobo (Is it failing?)

Hey All, I'm a long time MSI customer. I've owned at least three MSI mobo's. On my day-to-day rig, I've maintained a K9A2 Platinum. Which, is rather old (6 years). I've attempted to keep it in good working order, but over the past year. I have been encountering a persistent problem with the on-board Sata ports. Sata ports 1-4 have trouble reading my HD, during the boot sequence it fails to read the drive. The AMIBios will not recognize the HD if, I have it connected to port 1. 2-4 it works, however once booted and in windows. The system is unstable. I experience freezes and delays in HD processing. Essentially, I abandoned the on-board Sata ports and bought a HDD Controller, it's a Rosewill Sata II/ATA PCIe card. It runs and works, but lately I have been experiencing disk read errors upon boot, after my PC has been shut-down for 6+ hours. I have to restart, enter bios and "trick" it to boot. Basically just restarting a few times.
I've attempted multiple troubleshooting techniques, ranging from Memory test diagnostics all the way to Hijackthis and looking for any malicious programs on my system. It's clean, I use Nod32 and the HD is defragged and optimized on a weekly basis. I've flashed the BIOS, running the latest version. Upgraded the CPU from dual-core to quad-core (more so because, I wanted a faster processor). I've pretty much exhausted, what options I can think of to combat the issue. I'm running windows xp pro sp3. I know this mobo is 64bit compatible and windows 7/8 ready. However, I just haven't made the leap yet.
Wondering, if anyone could provide information on how to properly diagnose Sata II port problems. Thank you in advance.
Apologies forgot to include system specs:
Board: MSI K9A2 Platinum AMD 790FX based chipset.
Bios: Version 1.B0
VGA: GeForce 450 GTS 2gig
PSU: Raidmax ATX 500w (+3.3v +5v +12v) (Stock case PSU)
AMD Core Phenom II Quad core 960T 3.0GHz (oc capable)
MEM: Kingston DDR 2 PC-6400 4gigs (3.25 in use)
HDD: Seagate 1TB HD
COOLER: 4 Stock fans + stock CPU heatsink/cooling fan
OS: Windows XP professional sp 3

Quote from: spectralnubi on 18-November-13, 06:09:27
Thank you again, for the replies. I unhooked the 24pin ATX main power connector, eyeballed the pins and cleaned the caps. I reseated the connector, and I haven't encountered an error yet. However, I'm not convinced and ordering a new PSU. I'm better off with a new one anyway, even though this stock PSU has served me well over the years. I would test, but I don't have another 500w PSU on hand. I do have a digital voltage reader. I'm going to test it. (mostly for science) I was beginning to suspect the PSU, since this has been an on-going issue. You guys, have been much more helpful than the MSI techi-support. The tech immediately assumed it was the HD, in their reply to my concerns. Anyway, long story short. I know it's not the HD. I'll check the bios, voltage reading just for comparison. Thank you once more for the help and advice. :-)
Wanted to reply because I had that board for years and liked it a lot... Yea, I think you can get it running....! Upgrading the PSU is solid advice like the other posters have pointed out. It surely can't hurt *anything*. (Great thing about the PC is upgrading individual components when it suits you, right?) Best of luck in getting it running to your satisfaction!
--About tech support in general...one of the most difficult jobs there is in "PC-dom" is long-distance tech support. Sight unseen, the best technician is still only guessing when he offers suggestions, but the best advice you are likely to get is from people who have long years of experience and who have tackled and solved many a problem themselves--people like the ones in this forum, as you point out. The best anyone can do, though, in this situation is offer advice and opinions based on that experience. As you noticed, people who inhabit a company's "official tech support" are often salaried, scripted employees who can read a problem checklist wonderfully but often have little to no understanding of how the various concepts the checklists cover actually work... So, yea, often you are better off seeking out a forum for its advice--only going back to the company as a last resort if you've tried everything the people advising you come up with--it's probably time for an RMA at that point (if the product is under warranty) or else purchasing new components (as in your particular case.) Again, good luck--I loved that board!!!!

K9A2 Platinum support any kind of ATI graphic cards?

Hi someone can tell me about this borad K9A2 PLATINUM because im going to buy this one or the K9N2 DIAMOND so i need information about those boards emm the K9A2 P support any kind of ati grapchi card (PCI E)?

Quote from: Lethal123 on 28-October-08, 06:26:12
Hi someone can tell me about this borad K9A2 PLATINUM because im going to buy this one or the K9N2 DIAMOND so i need information about those boards emm the K9A2 P support any kind of ati grapchi card (PCI E)?
No problems at all running my CrossfireX 4850's.... Pure bliss. K9A2 P is one sweet board.

Is new MSI K9A2 Platinum DOA?

Bought a new MSI K9A2 Platinum Version 1 MOBO off eBay, installed with spacers between board and case and installed my current hardware. Power came on but, pc would not post. Monitor kept showing no signal, power and HD LED came on for 1 to 2 seconds and Green and White LEDs on MB came on and stayed on. So I cleared CMOS, took out one video card and NIC so was pretty much down to bare minimum, one video card, one stick ram, CPU, HD (SATA) and MOBO but, still suffered same issue. Is MOBO DOA?
Existing Hardware from my PC:
Antec Neopower 500 (500 watts) power supply
AMD Athlon X2 6000+ (3.02 GHz) (Windsor, 90nm, AM2 (940))
Cooler Master Aquagate Viva CPU Liquid Cooling System
2 x 1 GB RAM Mushkin: (XP2-8500, Part Number: 996535)
1066MHz Latency: 5-5-4-12 Parity: Unbuffered
Voltage: 2.2-2.35V Pins: 240
Module: 128Mx64 Chip: 64x8
2 X ATI Radeon 1950 GT running in Crossfire mode (installed both cards in dark blue ports)
Fujitsu 300 GB HD SATA
Sony DVD RW
Bigfoot NIC model: Killer M1
ATX Case with 4 X 90 MM Case fans
Initially thought could be the video cards but, owner's guide and MSI Tech Support state that K9A2 can support up to 16X, so I assume that also means it support PCIe 1.0 as well as PCIe 2.0.
Have read on MSI forum that power could be the issue but, tend to believe if I take it down to bare minimum (CPU, CPU Cooler, 1 Stick of Ram, 1 Video Card, HD (SATA), 2 X 90mm case fans and MOBO) that it should have booted up at the point.
Link to new board, MSI K9A2 Platinum, specs: http://us.msi.com/product/p_spec.asp...tinum&class=mb
Link to MOBO owner's guide on MSI, http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=do...1&prod_no=1332
Any help or ideas?
Thanks in advance

Boombox,
Good morning and thanks for putting my concerns to rest, like I said before, I have to upgrade a part at time. Next piece is AMD Phenom II X4 955 (hopefully gets here NLT Tuesday) with RAM I purchased last month and did not want to fry them first time I boot up the system. Plus I am on Day 2 since switch out of my K9A and still no issues
Also I must weigh in on MSI's RMA process, overall the process is pretty smooth, my issue is with the replacement MOBO. Guess after they tested my old MOBO (NEW OUT OF THE BOX), they had to replace it. Replacement board was USED (assuming until failure by previous owner) and had some "Cosmetic issues", 1. Copper Cooling tube is slightly crushed not sure what that does to air flow and 2. Half of the IDE pins were bent, I can't see thing in front of me, so I had to take a digital picture of IDE plug and blow up so I could see which way to bend them back. Figure there would be some sort of QC before return but, guess not......
Assuming since it all relates to this post, once I install CPU and RAM will let those that have taken time out of their day to help me, know what my latest status is. Again Thanks to all of you, hopefully I can pay back your help in the future.

K9A2 Platinum + 2xATI 3870 CF + x8 PCI-E Adaptec Raid 5405?

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