K9N2 SLI Platinum - JPW2 connection essential? Also, question about diagLEDs

I've been running a K9N2 SLI Platinum with a Phenom 9950BE and 2 Geforce 9800GT video cards for half a year now, running as stable as any computer could and I couldn't be happier. However, there's one thing that I've always had a question about - the molex connection on the board labeled JPW2. The manual says that JPW2 is "used to provide power to stable the operation of graphics card", but using the PCI-E connectors on the card appears to be adqeuate to running a stable system.
In regards to this though, am I running the risk of an underpowering my motherboard not having JPW2 plugged in? The 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors on the board are of course plugged in and my concern is merely (hopefully!) academic at this point, but I'm just curious if not having power running through JPW2 would cause any problems down the line. My components are power hogs and I believe my power supply is up to it, but I'd love it if someone wiser than I could indulge my curiousity.
Also, my diagnostic LEDS are reading something other than four green solid lights in normal operation (successful POST, Windows loaded and running). If you were to view the motherboard correctly mounted in the case, the order of the lights are: [G][R][R][G]. The manual refers to this as "BIOS Sign On - This will start showing information about logo, processor brand name, etc..." which is as incredibly unhelpful as it can be when it comes to this sort of thing. I state again that this doesn't effect normal operation - it's just another thing that I'm curious about.
Thank you for helping me put my mind to rest!
SPECS
K9N2 SLI Platinum
AMD Phenom 9950BE
8GB G.Skill 800MHz DDR2 RAM
2x Geforce 9800GT 1GB
Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS 320GB HDD
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB HDD
LITE-ON DH-20A4P-04 20x DVD-DL Writer
Thermaltake W0116RU 750W ATX Power Supply
CM Storm Sniper ATX Case
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Quote
1. Will not plugging in JPW2 will adversely affect system performance stability.
No, but its recommended to be connected.
Quote
2. Diagnostic led is shoring GRRG during normal use. No apparent adverse effects. Manual quite unhelpful. Cause?
If the system works OK ignore it. Else ask here: http://ocss.msi.com/

Similar Messages

K9N2 SLI Platinum JPW3 connection needed?

Is the JPW3 12v connection on the K9N2 SLI Platinum essential to the operation of the CPU? My PSU doesn't have an 8 pin connector :(

May I ask why is that? I think I plugged in two 4-pins into when I installed the new PSU from Corsair way back.
Quote from: Henry on 08-August-09, 06:10:26
You should not need to use 8 pin from PSU unless you happen to use a 125W or 140W CPU.

K9N2 SLI Platinum video won't initialize with monitor connected

Hi,
I've gone through the RMA process with my vendor and I am on my third motherboard right now and I am still having an issue (so, basically, nightmare scenario here ). The first and second motherboard failures seemed slightly different but the failure seems to be the same for the second and third and it is making me think that another factor may be at play other than the motherboard. All of the failures have been with the integrated video (which is all I plan to use at the moment --I don't even own a PCI-E video card right now nor have any plans to get one in the near future).
In the first motherboard, everything seemed to work (as far as I could tell --4 green diagnostic LED's and all that) but no video signal was produced. Testing with an antediluvian Virge DX based PCI card (some of you kiddies may be too young to remember such things) did show normal booting with that video card (as far as I allowed it to go) and I suspect, from the pattern of hard drive activity, that with the integrated video the boot process was also normal (I just couldn't see it because of no video signal being produced). But that is past and has been RMA'd.
The replacement motherboard and the motherboard replacing the replacement motherboard, on the other hand, have seemed unable to initialize video whenever my monitor is connected but if the monitor is not connected, they work fine (but then video defaults to a 1028x768 mode and I cannot run my monitor at native resolution). Curiously enough, my second motherboard worked correctly twice before exhibiting the described behavior making me think, at the time, that I just got really unlucky and simply had had it fail shortly after testing it those two initial times.
Not being able to initialize video while the monitor is plugged in means that if I try to start it while the monitor is attached, the motherboard will not even POST and that the diagnostic LED's will be stuck at the video initialization stage (three reds, and one green at group 4).
Furthermore, if I start it with no monitor attached and plug the monitor in after I get 4 green LED's, it will start booting the OS (Windows XP) but the screen will go black when the Windows XP logo should be appearing. I can also leave it unplugged until it should be at the Windows XP logo stage (or plug it after the 4 green LED's and unplug it again before the video mode switch happens) and when I plug it back in I can see the Windows XP logo. However, as soon as it switches to the Windows XP desktop, I get a black screen.
And again, if I leave the monitor unplugged until the Desktop should be showing up and I plug it in at that point (or go through the process of plugging and unplugging the monitor while avoiding having video mode switches happen with the monitor plugged in) I do get a Windows desktop at the 1024x768 resolution. Once in the desktop, as far as I can tell, I can do anything there that I normally would be able to do (so I mostly have a working system, as far as I can tell). I have even installed drivers, verified that the sound works, etc.. I will still do a repair install at some point because I am not doing this the "right way" and I probably needed to do it anyway (though I think it's using the right kernel and everything --showing 3 CPU's, etc.) but I am not looking for answers with that as my issue shows up before the system even goes through POST. Again, note that I cannot even take advantage of my monitor's native resolution with the current kludge.
Curiously enough, if I try to switch to my native resolution of 1920x1200 it will do it but only by switching me to a virtual 1920x1200 desktop on a 1024x768 display (so there's no actual video mode switch involved and the desktop becomes bigger than what my monitor can show). It's as if part of the subsystem is reading the monitor and "knows" that it supports 1920x1200 but another part of the subsystem is just assuming some sort of 1024x768 default common lowest denominator for digital displays. I attribute this to the fact that video has been initialized with no monitor connected.
I originally had a 350W Enermax power supply (which worked as long as the monitor was not plugged in) supplying 32A on the +3.3V rail, 32A on the +5V rail and 26A on the +12V rail but I replaced it with the power supply shown on my profile (which was probably totally unnecessary as I'm only using the integrated video --but hey, I now have a blue light coming from my power supply so that makes it all worth it ). I suppose both power supplies could work badly with this motherboard model but it seems exceedingly unlikely that that would be the case (specially since everything works as long as there is no monitor plugged in during video mode switches).
I currently am running it, on cardboard, with a single stick of RAM (on the slot next to the CPU) and nothing else connected to it except the power supply (including JPW3 & JPW4), the CPU, a hard disk with a working Windows XP install, a mouse on the mouse port and a keyboard on the keyboard port (specification as on my profile minus one RAM module). I did play with RAM timings at the request of tech support but I can't imagine how it could be a RAM problem when everything works as long as a monitor isn't plugged in during video mode switches.
I did update the BIOS from 3.4 to 3.5. 3.5 did not seem to be available at the time of my previous motherboard and I knew it was a real long shot for this to be a BIOS issue that would be fixed with the 3.5 update (specially since the update mentions only CPU support stuff and nothing about video) but I am desperate. Yes, I have done the whole resetting the CMOS thing.
I am even considering the possibility that there may be some weird incompatibility between the video on this board and my monitor (under the assumption that, quoting Holmes, once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth). I don't even know how that would work. Note that my monitor worked in my previous system with the digital input (my previous system is no longer available to me for testing --but I did get a chance to test it, after having problems with my first K9N2 SLI Platinum motherboard which I returned, and it worked). Note that my monitor works with the system in question (I simply cannot have it connected while there's a video mode switch under way). Note that the lack of a picture seems to be related to the motherboard as evidenced by it being stuck at the video initialization stage if I attempt to start it with the monitor connected.
Any wild ideas? I do not want to return this motherboard a third time and I specially do not want to return this motherboard a third time if it's something that can be easily fixed.

Quote from: Svet on 25-May-09, 02:21:06
Have you tried with just memory stick in 1st DIMM near to CPU socket and mainboard out of PC case?
Yes, I currently am running it, on cardboard outside the case, with a single DIMM (on the slot next to the CPU) and nothing else connected to it except for the power supply (including JPW3 & JPW4), the CPU, a hard disk with a working Windows XP install, a mouse on the mouse port and a keyboard on the keyboard port (specification as on my profile minus one RAM module). And it works,... as long as the monitor is not ever connected while video mode switches occur (including power on). And this is exactly how the previous motherboard which I returned also behaved.
Addendum: As an additional note, I have tried the other DIMM on the same socket by the CPU with the same results (everything works as long as there's no monitor connected during a video mode switch). I also managed to make a bootable Memtest86+ (is that what people use to test memory these days?) USB stick and I am running it right now. It has shown no errors right so far but it has only been running a few minutes. I do not really expect any memory errors to be at fault since they would have to be magical memory errors which only cause problems when there is a monitor connected while a video mode switch is happening but I'm desperate to try anything to find out what the issue is.

K9N2 SLI Platinum led questions

Hello all, I have the K9N2 SLI Platinum, everything is working pretty well for me, I just have a couple questions about the motherboard LED lights..
from the manual>> "LED 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
These four LEDs allow users to identify system problems through 16 various combinations
of LED signals."
First question: All are leds in that group are "green" meaning "Operating System Booting".....these LEDS stay on the whole time though when running Windows, is that normal? Everything is running fine in Windows XP SP2
Second question: Also on the board near the bottem LED15 and LED16, now led15 lights whens the system is power on, I understand that, but LED16 constantly stays lit as well, a orange color, states it's for "standy mode", so basicly I don't get why it would stay on all the time, doesn't seem to be causing problems though.
my specs: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ AM2 125W, Thermaltake Toughpower 850W ATX12V / EPS12V, mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB)DDR2 800 1.8V, DIAMOND Viper Radeon HD 3870 PCI Express 2.0 x16, MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum (MS-7374) BIOS version 3.1

Everything you describe is perfectly normal for the LEDs.
1 - normal, will show all green after successful POST and loading OS and remain lit from there on untill shut down.
2 - LED 15 lit when PC is powered on, normal
LED 16 shows that PSU is on and providing stand by power to MB, basically shows that PSU is plugged in, turned on and ready to power PC and will stay lit as long as PSU is on, again normal.
If that's it then

Need help with drive installation for K9N2 SLI Platinum

Hi
I am new to the forum and to MSI
This is my 6th computer build and first time using SATA and PCIe
My hardware includes:
•   MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum Motherboard
•   Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5
•   GeForce 9800 GT 512MB GDDR3
•   AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad Core Processor, Black Edition 2.5GHz
4MB Cache 2000MHz [4000 MT/s] FSB
•   Thermaltake Ruby Orb Aluminum Core CPU Cooler
•   UltraX3 850 Watt ATX Modular Power Supply
•   [1] Western Digital 200MB7200 ATA133
•   [1] Maxtor 80MB ATA133 Drive [Not connected yet]
•   [1] Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA II HARD DRIVE
•   [2] Seagate 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB SATA Hard Drives With 32 MB Cache
[Not connected]
•   LG DVD-RW
•   Toshiba DVD-ROM
•   AMI Bios
•   Antec Full Tower case
The board set up fine, but I can’t figure out how to install my drives. The MSI directions are the worse I’ve ever seen, or should I say non-existent. They don’t even describe the bios entries… I am familiar with the bios, but don’t know all the settings for the board. I set the time and date and had to rearrange my drive placement on the board to have my 2 DVD drives show up on the secondary IDE Channel instead of the primary IDE. The Western Digital 200MB7200 ATA133 is on the primary master IDE. I’m old fashioned so I still use FDISK to erase the old OS and partition the drive… I couldn’t see my SATA drive in FDISK even though I could see it in the bios. Now I want my Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA II HARD DRIVE to be the system drive and the Western Digital 200MB7200 ATA133 to be a slave drive. My previous boards had raid but I just used them as additional slave drives.
My goals: I want to have redundancy for my personal audio/video and my work. I will use the 2 Seagate 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB SATA drives for that.
I also want 2 additional drives not purchased yet for my other data storage needs and for games
My questions are:
Can I use the SATA drive as the system drive if a drive is connected to the primary IDE?
How do I set up Raid on this board? I actually want to use its capabilities this time.
Does this board present any special problems with dual booting XP sp2 and Vista 64bit.
If I put another set of Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 in anticipation of installing Vista 64bit will this cause a problem other than windows XP not seeing the additional memory.
Is there additional documentation for this board somewhere?
Please help…I have been working on this thing for 4 days straight. My last build took 2 hours not including software installation. Hope I stated everything you need to know. Thanks in advance

Hello!
Advice no. 1 will be not to have everything connected at once. Have the chosen SATA and one of the DVD:s connected and install Windows. (Windows can only boot from bootable devices. It "jumps" all un-bootable.) Once you have a successful boot and happy with it, remove other things from the boot-sequence.
Eh, some of your questions suggest you don't have the full manual, but a multi-lingual one. Check this out, bottom of the list:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloadfile&dno=6745&type=manual

K9N2 SLI Platinum shows all green, but no video output

Ok, here goes - I hope you guys can help me...
I built a new setup last night, using the following components:
AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition 2.5 Ghz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core
K9N2 SLI Platinum
OCZ Reaper HPC 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (2 x 2GB)
eVGA GeForce 9800 GTX (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready
Seagate IDE Hard Drive 120GB (not sure of model)
Windows XP Home Edition SP2 installed
Antec Earthwatts 650 - voltages follow:
Min Max
+5V 0.2A 25.0A ±5％
+12V1 0.5A 22.0A ±5％
+12V2 0.5A 22.0A ±5％
+12V3 0.5A 25.0A ±5％
-12V 0 A 0.5A ±10％
+5VSB 0 A 2.5A ±5％
+3.3V 0.1A 25.0A ±5％
I build the board, mount all components, then power on - board LEDs cycle through pattern, then land on all green. There is no video output at all during this process. I tried the PCI-E card, the onboard DVI, the onboard DVI without the video card installed.
During boot, I hear a beep that may be a long (sounds like a faint "power on" beep), and then two fainter beeps in quick succession. They don't seem to be in connection with one another.
During the boot, there is also little to no activity from the hard drive. The board reaches all green, then I hear the CPU fan spin faster, and the hard drive activates, then the board flashes to all red, and the reboot sequence begins again.
I've tried removing memory, seating just one stick, and swapping out for a second stick. The fact that the board reaches all green makes me think that everything is seated properly and functioning, but the fact that there is no video output (hence no way to access BIOS) is obviously troubling, plus the incapability of booting.
Questions - the 8-pin ATX power connection had a cover over four of the eight pins - why is that there? I connected an eight pin to the connector, should I have left the cover in place and just used a four?
I realize that using an older hard drive from a previous build is not the best idea, but I'm hoping it shouldn't be a factor this early in the boot process.
I have not flashed the CMOS yet - would that have any effect on the boot process? Again, getting to all green is promising, but the subsequent return to all red is... not.
I've looked through the forum as best I could, but didn't see any issue where the board got to all green, and then backtracked when starting up.
Any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated...

Hello!
Don't worry about the hard disk for now. You will need a new installation of Windows, but that would be next step.
9850 needs the latest BIOS version. http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodcpu2&prod_no=1443&maincat_no=1
Use the MSI forum tool. https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=116721.0 Impossible of course! Ask the store to update BIOS for you, or find an earlier, simpler compatible processor friend.
The single beep is a power-good signal. The two fainter ones are probably USB things attached.

K9N2 SLI Platinum - 12v connectors

Hello again,
This motherboard is the best I've used yet but I still have some questions about it, ( K9N2 SLI Platinum (MS-7374 ver1.2) ) .
1. If I do not intend to use the on-board video and have it disabled in CMOS Setup do I still need to connect the 12v+5v IDE molex power connector to the motherboard connection required to power the onboard video?
2. Above the processor, (looking at the board mounted in a tower,) there is a space for 2x 12v P4 connectors, half of that 8-pin connector was covered by a temporary "cap". I only connected my power supply to the half that was uncovered -- Can someone explain when/why the other half should be used? Please refer to my signature for what processor, motherboard, PSU, ram and graphics card I am using.
Thanks in advance for all advice, I was unable to find answers to these two questions via MSI documentation or Googling.
~Nico

Quote
1. If I do not intend to use the on-board video and have it disabled in CMOS Setup do I still need to connect the 12v+5v IDE molex power connector to the motherboard connection required to power the onboard video?
Its recommended to be connected, also its not related to the onboard video.
Quote
2. Above the processor, (looking at the board mounted in a tower,) there is a space for 2x 12v P4 connectors, half of that 8-pin connector was covered by a temporary "cap". I only connected my power supply to the half that was uncovered -- Can someone explain when/why the other half should be used? Please refer to my signature for what processor, motherboard, PSU, ram and graphics card I am using.
If you PSU has 8pin CPU power cable use it, else use 4 pin.

K9N2 Sli Platinum + SSD OCZ Vertex 3 = Slow Speed Problem [PARTIALLY SOLVED]

Hey folks,
I have a problem with my new SSD. I only get sequential reads of 140MB/s and writes of 114MB/s.
I think it is a driver related issue. I once got faster SATA2-like speeds but cannot reproduce the system settings again... Everything back to SATA1-like speeds after reboot.
First my pc specs:
MSI K9N2 Sli Platinum, BIOS v3.9
- 6 SATAII ports by nForce 750a SLI
- 2 ESATA (External-SATA) ports (back panel) by JMB363
- Supports storage and data transfers at up to 3 Gb/s
AMD Phenom II 965 Black
Patriot PV224G8500ELKB Viper II Series DDR2 4GB (2 x 2GB, CL5 PC-8500/1066MHz)
SSD SATAIII OCZ Vertex 3, 120GB, FW v2.11
LG Internal BlueRay BH10LS30
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
I only get very slow speeds with the SSD. I tried so many things that I am getting very frustrated now, I am even thinking about getting a new board and ram just to get the SSD up to speed...
1)
I installed Win7 first with all the default settings in Windows Setup from DVD. Default "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" driver was "Standard AHCI1.0 Serial ATA Controller".
SSD was connected to SATA1-port, On-Chip Sata Controller AHCI enabled in BIOS, Extra RAID/IDE Controller disabled.
All fine, but whichever benchmark I used (AS SSD, HD Tune Pro, Atto Disk Benchmark, CrystalDiskMark; other tools used: DriveControllerInfo, AIDA64/Everest, CrystalDiskInfo ) I got e.g. 140MB/s Read and 114MB/s Write sequentially (CrystalDiskmark, similar with random data AND only zeros ).
Trim working (it seems) with AHCI driver. I also changed to nvstor64 driver (nforce driver setup 15.56), with is marginally faster but not what you would expect from a SATAIII drive on SATAII controller.
2)
I installed Win7 using "diskpart" (Shift-F10) during disk setup, setting a cluster size of 64k instead of default. No real change.
3)
After reinstall of Win7 x64 (again...), I changed from SATA1 port to SATA6 port, also enabled Extra Raid/IDE controller set to AHCI as well.
Nothing changed. With all settings to default in Windows (ahci default driver), I then manually updated the ahci to nvstore64 driver in Device Management, rebooted.
Then a minute later after reboot I got the following Sequential speeds with CrystalDiskMark:
273MB/s read and 137MB/s write (random data) + 274MB/s read and 220MB/s write (with zeros) !!!
While I ran this benchmark Windows came up with a message: "You must restart your computer to apply these changes - Restart Now/Restart Later".
After the previos reboot, when I changed manually from AHCI to NVSTORE, I had changed nothing in the current session, apart from running CrystalDiskMark.
I did reboot and I was back to the slow SSD speeds again = 140/114 MB/s...
4)
I have tried every possible combination of mainboard SATA ports, drivers changing with nvidia setup/manually, deleting and disabling controllers (incl BSOD and startup repair :D ), chaning bios settings around, but I just cannot get back the faster speeds
There is never any change in speed, whether I use ahci or nvstore64, whichever benchmark I use, whether random or zeros...
5)
Could the SSD be broken, something internally preventing it from faster speeds (with this one random exception)?
Could it be that my K9N2 SataPorts only allows for / reduced to SATA1 speeds?
Am I missing something with the driver setup?
Do I need additional drivers for the extra JMicron Controller when using SataPorts 5/6 ?
I have no other mainboard to test this with...
Please guys, I am going to jump out of the window if I can't fix it... :(
Thanks, Mike

Hey guys - problem 'solved':
I tested the OCZ SSD Vertex 3 120GB with following sata3 controller card http://www.lycom.com.tw/PE-115H.htm.
The card itself works immediately (needs at least PCIe x4 slot, will work slower otherwise but still faster than the OCZ SSD @sata1 with nvidia chipset).
There is some raid setup, doesn't apply to me, the boot even with the card is really only a few seconds longer and not annoying at all. Windows (7 x64) needed a driver, supplied on CD (which is cheap and making noise like h**l). The card works w/o the driver but doesn't harm to install it...
Also, just to clarify, this sata controller card did not need any specific setup at all. Just put it in, plug in sata cable (I use akasa sata3-rated), maybe change boot device in BIOS (I didn't even have to), done - booting Windows as usual.
Benchmark CDM with sata controller card Lycom PE-115H:
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3845/cdmpe115hahci0x00.png
http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/7549/cdmpe115hahcirand.png
Speed is much better than before with nvidia chipset 750a SLI controller: sata1 (sata2 whenever it randomly worked):
http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/505/cdmahci0x0.png
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6258/cdmahci0x0sata6contnv64.png
Final thoughts:
Well, I am happy with the SSD speed now (PCIe limited to 5Gbps). However, I had to spent quite some time to get it working on my sata2-cabable mainboard. Finally, I had to buy a extra controller card to get it working reliably at speeds faster than sata1. There is hardly any useful information on why this problem occurs with (older) nvidia chipsets and OCZ (sata3) SSDs. I still think that OCZ must know about this problem, but regards this issue as low priority, while at the same time not planning on giving up on sales to people with nvidia chipsets. Maybe OCZ should just make a big sticker on the box the drives come in with something like "Does/Might not work with nvidia chipsets, please use third-party sata controller card or different SSD manufacturer". But then none of these potential customers would buy OCZ SSDs...
I will keep the sata3 controller, anyway handy to have, but return the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB and replace it with a SSD from a different manufacturer (Corsair Force GT, Patriot and OWC are not that great to get around here). The benchmarks for most people will not achieve the maximum advertised OCZ speeds anyway, so why not go with a brand that allows for some plug'n'play with some customer support.
Hope this post helps others like me with their nvidia chipset + sata1 speed problem
Cheers, Mike

K9n2 SLI Platinum DRAM timings will not stay

First off, I would like to say that I am posting this for my friend and that we both love MSI products. His setup is
K9n2 SLI Platinum,
Phenom 9950 140 watt black edition,
2 gigs OCz sli ready 8500 1066 1x2 kit,
BFG 8800 GTS G92 core 512mb graphics card,
and Corsair 650 watt PSU.
I don't at this time of writing have any screens, I can only explain whats going on. When he goes into BIOS and sets the Dram timings to 5.5.5.15 moves the voltage to 2.0, sets the Dram to run at 1066 which I think is 1.2.66, it reads at the top of the BIOS screen 1066. He then saves and exits reboots into windows runs CPU-z and it shows the timings have changed to 5.6.6.16, when he shuts down and goes back to BIOS it has changed there as well to the 5.6.6.16. The BIOS is the most current 3.2 also all the drivers and updates are the most recent for hardware and windows Vista home premium 32 bit. I Am trying to be as specific as possible to help you guys help us. The ram is in Dual channel Unganged. Please note it reads in CPU-z even with the 5.6.6.16 timings 1066 rather 533 DDR2 however the ram supports 5.5.5.15 in timings so I don't think that this could be good for it. We have done Memtest on the ram all test did fine we also used the windows version no errors on both test, We have not used Prime95 yet.
Any help would be great and much appreciated at this point. His computer has crashed twice, once was the Blue screen of death and the other was just a lockup. I also should mention CPU, mobo temps I think are well within specs CPU idle 37c load 45c graphics card at idle 40c load 46c. Thank you for reading Shucky.

You are most welcome! Ever so kind!
No performace lost, instead higher efficiency like you noticed.
Think of it like this:
A pipe with a big diameter can transport a lot of fluid.
A pipe with high pressure, where things have a high speed, can transport a lot of fluid.
A pipe where the diameter is not the same in both ends. Well, you can't say how much fluid will come out the other end, at least not without a lot of calculating and testing. (Like you also noticed. :D )
What is a pity is that program(mer)s have difficulties making use of all the cores. Phenom have four true cores. I think it will take about two years until all four can be put to full use, but if there ever is any real use in using all four cores is hard to say and a different question.
Sure AMD and Intel and Microsoft et al have found ways of distributing processor work, but they are far from optimized. And it isn't easy: Think of the project your work group got from your chief or teacher: How many should be involved? Or if you are 300 people in your dorm, or even just four of you in your family, should all help out with the washing up after supper?
No, is the best answer to that. So what has begun is developing processors, with a variety of cores. One may - as a silly example - make icons until or unless it can do better work somewhere else. - Not an easy thing making it do tasks like that, either! So that is why I did the washing up just now.

K9N2 SLI Platinum Powers down.

Big Problem starting! I purchased the K9N2 SLI Platinum board a couple months ago. For the first month everything went well except that my games would freeze such as Everquest. Never made any sense could freeze with in 5 minutes or, could be fine for over 5 days. Either way it was annoying so going through some information online I loaded optimal defaults on the Mobo BIOS and stopped loading the NVidia control panel at start up and it was great for a couple weeks no freezing. Now lately the computer just turns off. Like if you just pulled the power plug out. BOOM and its off. Could last 5 minutes or 5 days again. Very random. Nothing is over heating. Board is cool and CPU never goes higher then 49C. Most of the time I can hit the power button and turn the PC right back on again and its fine. Could blow again in 5 minutes or 5 days whether the PC is idle or I am playing a game. Now sometimes when it powers off. I can't turn it back on for a while. Ussually when this happenes there are no LEDs on in the Mobo. If I pull the power plug, let it sit for a min then plug it back in, it so far has powered back up ok. Another wierd thing is when I access the BIOS on start up now it seems to be shutting off. I want to say Power Supply may be? Prolly would be the first to try but would it explain the freezing games also int he beggining? It's 650watt and I am ussing the 8 pin rail since I have a pwoerfull CPU. May be there is a better recommended one for this type of Mobo. I tried the research the best one. My video card and ram worked great in my last PC but I had gotten the XFX 750 board and it was just horrible so I got rid of it. Rather of stayed with MSI which has been running better except for these issues. Any help would be greatly appriciated!
**** UPDATES ARE IN MY REPLIES UNDER THIS. DIDN'T KNOW I COULD UPDATE IN THE SAME POST ****
MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum Socket AM2+ Motherboard with Nvidia 750a SLI Chipset, PCI Express 2.0
Logisys 650 Watt 24 Pin Green Gamer Power Supply w/ SATA and PCI-E
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad
OCZ Platinum XTC 4GB Dual Channel PC6400 Memory - DDR2-800MHz
XFX GeForce 9600 GSO Video Card - 768MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, Dual Link DVI, SLI Ready
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-300

Ok i want to buy with my same company I bought the PSU from so I bought Prudent Way True One 1000watt nVidia Certified Quad SLI PCI-E w/ Six +12V Rails and Lifetime Warranty. They dont have the Corsair. I figure this one is beefy and solid. If it does power down too we should be able to rule out the PSU hopefully. If you think it's a bad choice please just say so. Should I be using 2 4pin rails or just the 8pin rail??? The manuals say you need an 8pin rail for my processor. I've seen some issues with using two 4 pins together saying it messes with the voltage or something?? What is a better way 2 four pins or just one 8 pin?? I've have checked for loose or frayed wires. No loose metal or screws in the case. Remember also it didn't do this for one whole month. Just some freezing with my everquest game. The only thing I don't like is how my pci-e video card sits in the mobo with this case. Looks like it can't go down all the way but if that were the problem, i figure it wouldn't work at all. I will take a day and rebuild this again in the case just to be safe like you said. I did take my time with mounting holes. Was very careful with this board. The power connections to the mobo seem a little wiggly but it just may be me. They seem to be making good contact. And also it just powered down again as i was typing this. Had to retype it. No shaking or bumping of the case. Plain aggravating this is!
MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum Socket AM2+ Motherboard with Nvidia 750a SLI Chipset, PCI Express 2.0
Logisys 650 Watt 24 Pin Green Gamer Power Supply w/ SATA and PCI-E
AMD Phenom X4 9850 Quad
OCZ Platinum XTC 4GB Dual Channel PC6400 Memory - DDR2-800MHz
XFX GeForce 9600 GSO Video Card - 768MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, Dual Link DVI, SLI Ready
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-300

K9N2 SLI Platinum: USB mouse works, other USB devices iffy or not at all.

I have a K9N2 SLI Platinum running now, and lately it's become rather flakey on me. Windows Mobile device center cut out on me last month when I tried to update the phone software, which I guess should have been the first clue. I notice that the flash drives I connect aren't showing up, and the new Ipod I bought last week doesn't show up at all, either.
Symptoms include:
1. When I connect my HTC Excalibur up, Windows 7 realizes this is a phone, and starts up or installs Windows Mobile Device Center for me. However, midway through installing the actual device, it stops and tells me the device is disconnected. The phone is plugged in, and I've been afraid to touch it during this process. On rare occasions, the phone actually is detected and installed, somewhere in the next dozen connections it reverts back to the drawing board, though.
2. I have a bunch of flash drives that never show up on the computer now. At least one of them showed up in the past, and transferred files just fine. When I plug them in, I don't get the new device connected noise, and they don't show up in the System screen.
3. I've managed to completely kill the batteries of two separate Ipods. (Which actually worked out for me when they let me upgrade the new nano to a new classic). It doesn't detect that anything is attached to the USB line. Doesn't matter if I hook it up in disk mode, run "the 5Rs" or what, these little buggers starve to death on the line.
4. Throughout all of these situations, two devices work no matter which rear USB slots I hook them to: the Microsoft Mouse, and my HP PSC 2700 printer. So long as I don't pull them out while the machine is running, I don't have to do anything special to get Windows 7 to find and use them. Unplugging the printer will get the device disconnected noise, but does not free up any resources to detect anything else attached.
5. The front two USB slots don't work at all. I don't think they've ever worked for me, so I'll deal with that mess sometime later. Turning the computer off, unplugging these, and restarting with just the 4 rear slots enabled does not help the problem.
What I've tried so far:
1. Reinstalling Windows 7 after formatting the partition.
2. Reinstalling the Nvidia nforce drivers from Nvidia's site using my board/processor specs.
3. Reinstalling the software that normally detects these devices: Itunes, Windows MDC, etc.
4. I've attempted to uninstall the USB drivers, but as the mouse connects here, that's been forcing a hard restart instead of shutting Windows7 down as normal. On restart, mouse is reinstalled but problem remains.
5. I've tried disabling Legacy USB drivers in the BIOS. No dice.
6. I can't get a BIOS flash to work from the Live Update tools, (perhaps for the better), and the USB sticks aren't working to flash from one of those. (Granted I can still boot and I'm otherwise stable).
All I can think of is that maybe prior to reinstallation I pulled off something with CCleaner that I actually needed, but the reinstallation should have fixed that if it was a registry error.

I'm sorry, I need to be a bit clearer, apparently. The devices on the list were not plugged in at the same time. Instead, I decided to see which if any devices would work by plugging them in one at a time. The printer was plugged in for all of them, as was the mouse, then I repeated the one at a time process with both the printer and the mouse unplugged to see if anything new happened. Results were posted line by line on the list above.
Now then, I have managed to get my hands on an x86 version of Windows 7. Surprise, surprise, it works. Phone not only detects, but also installs. When I plug in a Sandisk Cruiser, Windows 7 finds it, powers it up, installs drivers and assigns it a drive letter within about 5 seconds. I haven't gotten around to installing the iTunes yet and getting the iPod running, but I suspect it'll work if everything else is showing up now. Thus far, the only thing that hasn't worked when installed is the Logitec Gamepad, but then again I just plugged this one in to satisfy my curiousity. There are probably some drivers I need if I want to actually play games with it.
While this seems like it would solve the issue, the problem remains that I bought the board so I could eventually upgrade the RAM well beyond the 2GB I have installed. Since x86 seems to only go up to 3GB, that's going to kind of defeat my purpose there. Also, I've only got 30 days on this install, then I'm back to square one where I have to either use my x64 license/disc to get a legal, crippled copy going, or reinstall another x86 build. Pretty sure copy protection will start kicking in soon on that.
Any Ideas?

K9N2 SLi Platinum - Raid Issues

Components:
Enermax Pro82+ 525W
MSI K9N2 SLi Platinum
AMD 5400+ Black Edition
2x2Gb SUPER*TALENT DDRII 800Mhz CL4
MSI 8800GT 512mb
1 X WD Blue 500Gb Sata2
2 x WD Blue 320GB Sata2 (NEW SET)
Basically, I've had only the 500Gb HD as the main disk, Now I've got a set of 320GB's for Raid, which i'd like to add to my current setup without Re-installing OS coz the main drive contains necessary Data etc. So I Enable the Raid settings in Bios as outlined in the Manual. Setup the raid in the Mediashield Raid Bios. Windows Vista 32 simply Bsods at the Windows loading screen, with latest MB RAID drivers from MSI & Nvidia tested, still the same.
I've discovered in other threads, people experiencing something similar. According to what I've learnt is the best is going to have to Set the single 500Gb Drive into a stripe and re-install. I've tried other alternatives, like leaving the the 320's as single drives and setting up the raid through windows Mediashield, same problem after rebooting. Compared to My older rig, RAID seems to not work so starightforward on the K9N2. MSI should be more Specific with instructions and limitations to implementing a Raid.
That's not my biggest problem here though, I've disconnected the 500Gb due to critical data, I've only got the 320's in Ports 1 & 2. Setup Stripe raid in Bios. I cannot succesfully install Windows Vista or XP to the raid, Vista install remains stuck @ the decompressing files window. XP loads until it's about to boot the OS for the first time then Bsods. Using latest Floppy Raid Drivers too. Has anyone with this board got a Raid with OS installed? Am i missing something here? what am I doing wrong?
I'm still Testing, gonna pull out my Aged and beloved Hitachi 80Gb Sata1 Drive from the dead, install OS and then get this baby to work in Raid as I want it to, Hopefully......
Will report back..

The RAID implementation on this board is really obnoxious, if you have installed windows (XP/VISTA) prior to enabling RAID in the motherboard bios, windows will keep restarting itself at the windows load screen. Not an OS problem but the way the RAID controllers work on this motherboard.
My raid setup:
1 X WD 500GB BLUE (System C:\)(Single Stripe)(HAS TO BE IN IT'S OWN ARRAY IN MEDIASHIELD ROM for windows to work if RAID IS ENABLED)
2 X WD 320GB BLUE (Raid 0)(Stripe)
1 X LG Optical Drive (Also shows up in Mediashield post screen when Raid controller is ensbled)
Make sure to back up all data before setting up an array, setting up a array on a single HDD and selecting NOT to delete the MBR should keep your data intact. Booting up the system with the previous installation not deleted but now with the system HDD in it's own array you will continue to get BSOD and auto reboots.
V3.3 Bios Settings:
1) Set 'RAID MODE' to 'RAID" within the Integrated Peripherals Menu.
2)Enable 'RAID' in the Sub-Menu "ON-CHIP ATA DEVICES" --> RIAD MODE set to RAID then enable the ports you want Raid enabled on. SATA 1.2.3.4 are NV raid 5.6 are JMICRON. I have have ports 1,2,3 & 4 enabled as all 4 of my drives are connected to those ports. Optical drives will automatically show up in Mediashield ROM post screen even if port is disabled, and once windows is reinstalled other HDD'S can be connected without having to enable raid or arrays and all will be seen as normal.
Now to install windows, had an issue with the Floppy raid drivers from MSI site so I used the MCP78 floppy from gigabyte
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=2819. Windows working and Raid 0 on 2X 320GB HDD. Once windows is installed to a single disk in this manner windows will work fine with sata raid disabled (deleting array in mediashield will delete MBR) and in IDE mode as but when raid is re-enabled it will detect the disk and work fine too. Another issue unresolved is that I couldn't successfully install to the Raid 0-2X WD 320gb blue stripe, anybody got windows installed successfully to a Raid 0-2X hdd stripe? Note, If installing to Jmicron you will need JM drivers.
Another issue I have since using Raid is that S3 mode is not working well at all. S3 is enabled in Bios power management and definitely worked previously when raid was disabled. Now I cannot get S3 suspend. When i choose sleep it goes into Hibernation, checked all vista settings in power management and it should go to sleep not hibernate. Any Help? When it comes out of sleep all the lights are red and I have to power it down, turn power supply off/on then post-> 'windows resuming' then only does it come out of hibernation, strange... Whether I choose sleep or hibernate this is what I'm getting. Using Vista 32, Nvidia driver version 15.24, display driver version 180.48. Jmicron drivers installed as well.
Components:
Enermax Pro82+ 525W
MSI K9N2 SLi Platinum
AMD 5400+ Black Edition
2x2Gb SUPER*TALENT DDRII 800Mhz CL4
2x1Gb SUPER*TALENT DDRII 800Mhz CL4
MSI 8800GT OC 512mb
1 X WD Blue 500Gb Sata2
2 x WD Blue 320GB Sata2 (NEW SET)
1 X LG Dvd-Rw
Hope this helps & thanks in advance.

MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum - Help

Hi All
I'm new here and as I'm not sure where to look for help I thought posting a question might be best:-
I have 3 hot swap drive caddies only one of which is live. The internal fan became noisy so I simply swapped the connections (SATA, Power, HDD LED) for one of the unused caddies.
I now cannot boot although I clearly have power and the 4/8 boot LED's immediately show 2 green 2 red. According to my book it says that means ‘Initialising Hard Drive Controller' – that’s as far as it get's. I'm not getting anything on screen.
I did briefly reconnect the old Caddy but that made no difference. I have looked to see if I've accidentally disconnected something but thus far nothing appears to be wrong.
Whilst I built my machine there are some things I can't always work out so if anyone has any ideas it would be appreciated.
System Info:-
Gigabyte Aurora Case
MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum
AMD 9850 Quadcore 64bit Black Series
2 x Nvidia GT9800 Graphics (Ones out for now)
8 Gb RAM
OS Windows 7 64 Ultimate (Demountable Drive 250Gb Partitioned)
Plus 1 x 759Gb & 1 x 1Tb internal HDD partitioned.
Barbara

I have solved the problem myself!!
For anybody that it may help:-
I had an old IDE CDR which I disconnected ages ago BUT the IDE cable was still connected to the mainboard without issue. The LED error code (2 Green 2 Red) states - ' Initialising Hard Drive Controller - This will initialise IDE Drive and controller'.
For reasons that make no sense I removed the IDE Cable....and the machine booted without issue. This cable as I said was not in use and had caused no issues before.
By the way 'BAS' - If you read my post properly you may notice clues... like 'I clearly have power and the 4/8 boot LED's immediately show 2 green 2 red'...unless of course you use Steam or Gas :(
Barbara

New K9N2 SLI Platinum isn't booting into BIOS

So i just built a new system with an MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum, and installation went by with a breeze. However, after supplying power, and turning the system on for the first time I'm met with absolutely nothing.
I'm not the most advanced in this category, and I've certainly never experienced the likes of this ever. I've gone through the hardware configuration a thousand times, and I'd know if it were that.
I was wondering if anybody knew a few tricks to get this new board to boot. I'm suspecting it's probably something small and obvious I wouldn't ever think of.
But yeah, any help would be much appreciated.
Current System:
Mobo: MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9850 (black edition)/stock cooler
RAM: Corsair Dominator 2x2048Mb 1066Mhz DDR2
GPU: PNY XLR8 GeForce 9800 GTX
HDD1: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10K RPM
HDD2: Seagate Barracude 1.5TB 7200RPM
No operating systems yet (which is kind of impossible since I can't even set the boot order without the BIOS loading.) But I plan to run XP Pro alongside Gentoo.

All fans are spinning fine, I'll get the PSU info later, I took it from an old system I built before my last deployment. It's an 850 watt (single 12 volt rail) system, not sure the exact specs on it anymore.
I do believe though, that I've managed to knock something loose as it keeps beeping repeatedly now when it boots. Before it was absolute silence on boot. (which is weird because i don't actually remember installing the speaker?)
Oh, the DVD drive is from another system too, and pretty old, but it opens, and functions.
I also swapped between onboard video, and the graphics card to see if it was maybe the graphics card and still nothing.
Though I have to use a DVI converter with the graphics card (which is pretty lame for a 200+ dollar graphics card to have two DVI ports and an SVID port, but no HDMI port.)
Anyway, I originally tried to boot with my 1080P television connected into the HDMI DVI* port for the mobo.
Keep good language in a forum!
Now if I can just figure out what was wrong in the first place eh?
It seems the reset button allowed it to boot into the BIOS, but a regular boot wont?
Edit: Still wont boot into BIOS or POST though, I'm met with a blinking line that's been there for over 10 minutes now.

K9n2 SLI Platinum continuously powers on & powers off

Hey! I just recently bought a K9N2 SLI Platinum motherboard with an Athlon 64 x2 5600+ and when I thought I connected everything properly, the system simply powers up for a couple of seconds and then powers off and then on again continuously when I initially turn on the power. The D-LEDs on the board also are all red.
I'm thinking it might be that I put only a 4-pin power connector in the 8-pin CPU Power slot, since the PSU I have only has a 4-pin connection, but I heard that the CPU I have should really only require that 4-pin connection since it doesn't draw that much power. Does anyone have any definite ideas what might be the cause? Thanks!!

Quote from: Svet on 16-August-09, 18:18:16
Try with barabone setup and mainboard out of PC case.
If no change try with better and decent PSU
I just took it out of the case, but it did the same thing, but when I replaced the processor with another one, (an Athlon 64 X2 3800+) everything ran smoothly. Now I'm thinking about getting a new PSU and a new processor. Hopefully that will do the trick.

K9N2 SLI Platinum - JPW2 connection essential? Also, question about diagLEDs

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