MSI G31TM-P21

Recently purchased a MSI G31TM-P21 and a Celeron e3400 wolfdale. The board is listed as supporting this cpu but on newegg I found a review stating that there was a problem with this cpu and the bios resulting in a bios flash to resolve the problem. Is this still a problem to anyones knowledge? And if so how can i flash the bios to get these two components to work together? Thank you in advance.

So long as the motherboard's BIOS is updated to version 4.5 it will work fine. >>Use the MSI HQ Forum USB flasher<<
See if it boots first.

Similar Messages

Problem with 8800GT + MSI G31TM-P21

For a while now, I've been using an 8800GT + MSI G31TM-P21 as a secondary gaming system. This has been working admirably for a few months. Lately though, I've moved the board to a new case+PSU, have changed out the RAM and added a new hard drive. Now, I'm starting to have problems. The system will boot with the 8800GT + WinXP, but is sluggish and crashes (usually a crash to desktop instead of a complete lockup) within 5 minutes of launching a 3d game. The 8800GT works fine in another system - it stood up fine to an extended gaming session on a different P35 board. I loaded Win8 just for testing purposes, and the display driver crashed just doing desktop operations. I also ran Memtest86+ for about 12 hours on the RAM with no failures. The head scratcher is that an even more ancient Radeon X1800 GTO seems to work fine with the MSI board. System config is below:
MSI G31TM-P21 (not sure about BIOS rev)
Intel Pentium Dual-core E5500 @ 2.8GHz
2x2GB Kingston Value RAM 800MHz DDR2 (dual channel)
LG DVD+RW
2x7200RPM drives and one 5000+ RPM "Green" drive
Windows XP SP3 32-bit
Arrow "500w MAX" PSU
A bit more about the PSU - it's a cheap, older model with a 20-pin power connector. As I understand it (and I could be wrong) the extra 4 pins just power the PCIe video card, which are unnecessary since the video card has a power cable all its own. This setup worked fine in my old case, with an even older PSU. I guess my next step would be to resurrect my old 300w PSU and see if it works properly, but I wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas before I tear my case apart. BTW, there is no overclocking going on anywhere in this setup...
UPDATE: Took a closer look at the old PSU, and it was an Allied/Apex 300 watt with (get this) 10 amps on the +12v rail. Nonetheless the 8800GT seemed to work fine on it. The "new" PSU has 17 amps on the +12v rail.

That $25 Arrow 500W with +12V~17A is a joke. Any decent 500W PSU should have at least +12V~30A. I wouldn't trust that thing any further that I could throw it and at my age that's not very far. Even a Corsair 3 year old VX450W that I have has +12V~33A. You need minimum of +12V~26A for system with that graphics card to begin with, see the chart here: https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/power-requirements-for-graphics-cards. You're lucky that PSU you had before worked at all in your system.
Get a Corsair PSU, a CX430W V2 +12V~28A would do but better would be the CX500 V2 +12V~34A. Even more power would be needed if you intend to upgrade to later and greater more power hungry VGA card any time soon.. See the Corsairs here:
>> Corsair PSU @ newegg <<

MSI G31TM-P21 intermittent crashes

Windows 7 x64
4 GB ram
500 GB hard drive
14 month old 450 W PSU
EVGA 9600 GT KO
Sometimes after I press the START button, seconds later i get an appcrash. I'm not sure if BIOS is the issue but there are newer BIOS than 4.1

So long as the motherboard's BIOS is updated to version 4.5 it will work fine. >>Use the MSI HQ Forum USB flasher<<
See if it boots first.

MSI G31TM-P21 cpu question

If this motherboard supports the E6500, should it support the new Pentium E6600 3.06 cpu? Out of the box bios 4.1.

Thats what I was thinking. I saw on newegg that someone has one in a p43 board that worked even though it was not listed as compatible. I am going to try one and see if I can update the bios via flash drive to the latest one. I'll let you know what happens. I'm thinking that an overclock to 350 fsb would be sweet and my ram can do 700 at 4-4-4-12 1t with1.8v. I just have to start small and work my way up.

MSI G31TM-P21 and the sapphire HD 4850 single slot compatibility issues?

Here's my specs
Antec 500 watt Earthwatts
4 gb KByte DDR2 ram
500 WD IDE
Q9550S
SATA DVD+RW DL
DLink PCI Wireless
Diamond xs51 sound card
Windows 7 Ultimate X64
In this mobo there are checksum issues with this card that the 9600 GT never had. I know because after i got the first checksum, i removed the card and reinserted the 9600 GT . no checksum. switched to 4850, checksum Here was what I did to try to remedy this
1. Cleared the jumper cable, checksum
2. Removed CMOS battery for 15 minutes and reinserted, checksum
3. Upgraded BIOS from 4.1 to 4.4 via liveupdate. Still checksum but the latest BIOS feels a lot smoother
4. repeated step 2 after the BIOS update, checksum
5. added a Visiontek juicebox, checksum as it's not a Power issue
I seriously doubt it's the voltage battery because it's a new mobo and i never got the checksum error on the 9600 GT.
Can someone help me please?

What issue you have
Quote
In this mobo there are checksum issues with this card that the 9600 GT never had. I know because after i got the first checksum, i removed the card and reinserted the 9600 GT . no checksum. switched to 4850, checksum Here was what I did to try to remedy this
1. Cleared the jumper cable, checksum
2. Removed CMOS battery for 15 minutes and reinserted, checksum
3. Upgraded BIOS from 4.1 to 4.4 via liveupdate. Still checksum but the latest BIOS feels a lot smoother
4. repeated step 2 after the BIOS update, checksum
5. added a Visiontek juicebox, checksum as it's not a Power issue
I seriously doubt it's the voltage battery because it's a new mobo and i never got the checksum error on the 9600 GT.
Can someone help me please?
What "checksum" is after you?
Quote
4 gb KByte DDR2 ram
What 4 "gb" && "Kbyte" ?
What memory sticks you use? Exact models and how many are they?
Quote
1. Cleared the jumper cable, checksum
what "jumper cable"?

New MSI Motherboard G31TM-P21 bios recovery

So I just got a new motherboard delivered to me yesterday from Newegg and installed it right away. At first it was working fine I just had a few other problems going on, just put a newly bought Pentium Dual core inside it and was trying to increase the processor speed thru the bios bus clock. So what happened was my friend recommended me trying to get to 3.8 ghz (originally 3.00 ghz), when I was currently on 3.3 ghz or so from increasing the bus clock to 220 (default 200). That seemed to be working out fine so I decided I'd try to get to 3.8. The bus clock on that turned out to be 254, and at the time I didnt even think about lowering ratios or ram/gpu affections. I restarted after saving the settings and then my computer started to just stop loading all together. It was like it was trying to load everything normally but would stop at random points and stay on whatever screen was there last.
So now comes the problem, after a few reboots of freezing, I finally ended up just getting a Bios recovery requested screen before any type of other screen shows up. Its telling me to put in a usb with the bios file for the motherboard. I've had my friend helping me look up problems and we've tried soo many tests, all of them resulted in the same bios recovery screen.
-Using 1 stick of unnaffected RAM
-Clearing CMOS by taking out battery for at least 5 minutes
-CMOS Jumper clearing
I've also tried to create a bootable USB for bios flashing and put in the latest bios file and flash tool onto the USB. That results in a screen saying,
"Please copy latest BIOS file into USB flash drive to recover your BIOS
File not found"
then it loops that until I take out the USB or turn off the computer.
Also there is no FSB switch on my motherboard like there is supposed to be, there is an empty square with 6 solder holes on the board so I cant toggle the FSB back to default using those switches.
I was using this to make a usb bootable for bios flashing: http://www.biosflash.com/e/bios-boot-usb-stick.htm
and I was using these files from MSI to transfer on USB after making bootable USB: http://www.msi.com/product/mb/G31TM-P21.html#/?div=BIOS
So... if anyone can help me to make this work at all I would very much appreciate it. Once I get the bios working again (assuming I can) I'm keeping to default.

Well with the CMOS clearing I already did all of the above, except I left out the battery for 5 minutes, and ended up with the same result for bios recovery. I want to clarify that I cannot even get to the BIOS, as soon as I boot with that motherboard I get an instant black screen with text telling me to insert a USB flash drive with the latest BIOS file. There is no type of menu or anything of any kind.
The specifications of this build was:
MSI G31TM-P21, MS-7529 Version 1.6 (New motherboard)
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 3.00GHz (New Processor)
2 x1GB of DDR2 667 or 800 not sure (same ram on my old motherboard)
Nvidia 8600GT 256 MB DDR3 (same card on old motherboard)
300W Power supply (efficient enough to run old build)
Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
Thats about all I can think to add right now that you would possibly need. I know the 2 x1GB of memory still works, as its in my old motherboard again and thats what I'm currently on. I dont have any other way of testing if the Processor was fried, but I'm pretty confident that it was capable of that overclocked speed since there were reviews saying so. If there's any other way I can help please let me know what u need, I would love to get this working.

G31TM - P21 boot up bios beeps

I just installed this board into the system. It is unable to boot and gives me 1 beep, sometimes 2 beeps.
I changed memory from a good system and still no results.
I also have this same board and processor and swapped memory from this system to verify if memory was at fault. Memory from bad system shows up good at running system.
any ideas, besides RMA.

Ok, here are my specs
I running a Intel E3300 processor with a MSI G31TM - P21 motherboard with AMI v4.6 bios. I have only one stick of Micron 1 gb pc2-5300 ram installed in slot one. Currently running onboard video. I attempted to run this new setup with a preinstalled 32 bit Vista OS HD(sata, 160 gb). I removed all peripherals with the exception of the USB keyboard/mouse (wireless). No add on cards.
The previous setup was running windows XP on a PATA HD. This info is probably irrelevant since there is nothing similar and I did attempt to run this new system on this PATA drive (known good) and got the same results (beeps).
I have this same setup (upgrade) that I did about 1 month ago on another system. This "older" system is working fine.
I swapped memory from the "older" system since my research tells me that two beeps is a parity issue. Known good memory from the "older" system resulted in no new results. Both set of windows (XP and Vista) attempted to "fix" my problem but were unable to.
I have reverted in the meantime to the previous setup using the PATA HD with XP os and am having no problems with this setup.

P4 HT 650 possible on G31TM-P21?

My sister has a Dell GX280 with a P4 HT 650 that I would like to put in a new case with my old G31TM-P21 board. The are no P4 HTs on the approved list, however this reviewer (neweggdotcom/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-130-234&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=ht) claims to be running a 531 on it without issue. Anyone know if it really possible and whether it could hurt to try the combo?
Thanks!

That P4 CPU is too old to use on the G31TM-P21. None of the old P4s will work on it. That 531 is even older than the 650 so I don't see how it would work.
That guy you refer to probably has a G31M3/4 MB of one variety or other and doesn't know what he's doing posting his review/remarks for the G31TM-P21 MB.
You need to go by MSI list or this one which would be more up to date than the MSI CPU support list:
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-MSI/G31TM-P21.html

"BIOS Expand" after POST, G31TM-P21

I installed a second-hand Adaptec AHA-2940 /2940U PCI SCSI-2 Adapter. Right after POST, I get a "BIOS Expand" message and the boot halts. According to Adaptec's site:
"This error usually indicates that the motherboard BIOS is incompatible with the Adaptec RAID controller BIOS. Please contact the motherboard manufacturer for the latest Motherboard Flash BIOS update."
I haven't tried the latest BIOS update. I'm mostly curious to know if this was ever addressed in an update or if this board can support a SCSI controller card. Yes, I know it's an ancient controller. Has anyone had luck with a newer one?
This is an MSI G31TM-P21 board. MS-7529 Ver. 1.6.

That is something you would need to contact MSI about, there's nothing we can do about BIOS hardware support here.
>> How to contact MSI <<

Video problem after hibernation on g31tm-p21

Hi everyone,
The G31TM-P21 board is 3 days old and I am using the Internal video mode. I just finished installing Win 7 and everything is working perfectly except for one thing, I cannot put the computer in sleep mode (S3 setting in BIOS). Once the computer is awaken, the screen is defective but still readible for about 5 minutes. Past 5 minutes, everything is perfect.
While the screen was still defective, I rebooted the computer and the screen defects were still visible in the BIOS setup screens. CTR-ALT-DEL did not clear the defect. Turning off the computer and restarting it still showed the defects. The only things to clear the defects are to: unplug the computer for 5 sec or wait 5 minutes.
These are my tests/thoughts:
This is not a driver error as the defects are still visible once rebooted and in the BIOS Setup menu.
As it last for only 5 minutes, I suspected a temperature issue but the board is running at 30C and I would wait for 8 hrs before waking up the computer and still see the defects. Therefore, not a temperature issue. It looks like the Hibernate state leaves the video chip in a screwed mode.
The only 2 things to correct the screen defects are wait 5 minutes(computer running in BIOS setup screen or Win7) or unpluging the computer for 5 sec.
I reinstalled the BIOS from MSI with the same results. BIOS version is 4.7
I suspect there is a bug in the BIOS, my BIOS setting is wrong or the board is defective.
If you have any suggestions, please go ahead otherwise I will RMA the board within a week.
Thanks
Varso

My computer is a standard Acer Aspire M6540 computer. All parts are original from the 2 years old computer except for the motherboard which died on me and had to be replaced with the G31TM-P21. I have never overclocked or modified the computer and it is now working perfectly with the G31TH-P21 board as long as I do not put in in the sleep mode. I believe the original Acer MB was from MSI.
PW Supply Generic 450W from Acer
HD WDC_WD6400AAKS-22A7B0 (640BG Sata)
CPU Intel Q6600
Memory 2X2GB Ascend DDR2 (from Acer)
DVD HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH15F ATA Device
Graphic card On board G31/G33 chipset
BIOS A7529 V4.7 (same error from original and reflashed BIOS)
No mods in BIOS setup except for disabling PCI, activating power management (S3 mode) and setting fan speed at 50% if below 40C.
CPU Runs at 30C and MB at 26C with 50% CPU fan
Divers None added during Win7 install. All Win7 drivers are from Microsoft (video, LAN, ETC)
If you need more info, please let me know.
Thanks

AHCI AND G31TM-P21

Hi everyone
I have the motherboard g31tm-p21 and I wish to buy a ssd disk but it doesn't seems ahci settings on bios. Intel g31 chipset seems to have ahci feature but not on msi g31 motherboard.
Without ahci, I'm not sure if I want to buy a ssd disk.
Thanks

Quote
Intel g31 chipset seems to have ahci feature
No, that is the northbridge. It has nothing to do with SATA stuff. The Southbridge is what counts and your board has an ICH7 southbridge, which does not support AHCI (only ICH7R and ICH7DH southbridges do). The following southbridges support AHCI:
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-012304.htm?wapkw=ahci
As you can see, the plain ICH7 chipset (non-R and non-DH) is not in the list.
Quote
Without ahci, I'm not sure if I want to buy a ssd disk.
AHCI is in no way a pre-condition for SSDs. IDE/Legacy Mode will work just fine.

G31TM-P21 Onboard LAN Wont Work!!!!

I have read. I have searched. I have spent almost a day on this. It has to be easier than this. I had a wireless card. I had to move computer. It doesn't receieve the wireless signal that well anymore. I say "I'll run a cable and use the on board LAN". I bought a new cable. Before I started I checked it (worked properly). Then I disconnected and uninstalled the wireless card. Downloaded the drivers for the mobo LAN (I have no idea where my disk is?).
I have it to the point where the computer is recognizing the PCI-E family controller as the Network adapter but it says the cable is unplugged (it is not and has been triple checked). It also wants to install a PCI device and SMS controller (I can't get these to install at all - it rejects all drivers I throw at it). I have the drivers from MSI. It didn't take them.
Windows XP SP2
G31TM-P21 mobo
in Set up I have on board LAN enabled and LAN ROM enabled
PCI-e graphics card (I don't remember which one and I'm too frustrated to go look)
Am I missing something simple?? I usually can solve all my computer problems after this amount of time. I'm severely frustrated (this typing did help though). If I need to post more info let me know.
I need to go take a walk.

I'll check the cable again. But I still can't get past this phantom PCI device it is finding. So when I switched to onboard LAN it found 1.) PCI-e Family 2.) SMS Controller and 3.) PCI device. I have gotten the drivers to taken for items 1 and 2 (I found the install disk) but for the life of me I can't get the third thing (the phantom PCI) to install. It is not giving me any clues what i need either.
I'll try again tonight but any help wouldbe appreciated.
I did this on one of other computers last year and all I had to do was change it in the BIOS. No install. No drivers needed. Why is this so complicated.

Problems with G31TM-P21

I`m trying to put a system together but something is wrong with the motherboard .
Mobo: G31TM-P21
Processor: Core 2 Duo E6300
RAM: Apacer 2x1GB 667
GPU: onboard / PALIT 8600GT SONIC
PSU: 400W CHIEFTEC ( 40Amps / 12V Rail )
Bios Version: no idea ( green sticker on bios chip is missing )
Ok so here is the thing ... the E6300 is on the supported CPU list , and should work with any BIOS version . I`ve tested this motherboard about 2-3 months ago with a Celeron dual core , and it was working ( well kinda ) . I couldn`t get into bios though , all i was getting was a message with PXE LAN ROM , can`t remember it . I think it was trying to boot from Lan or something , i might be wrong . So i left it there , in its box , and a couple of days ago i wanted to try a bios update to see if i can fix the PXE LAN ROM thingy . But the board won`t even post with that processor installed .
I tried clearing CMOS ( by jumper , by removing the battery ) a couple of times , and same thing . And no , i didn`t try to reset the bios with the jumper missing , with the board still running , and i did not forger the jumper in clear state .
I`d like to add that im not the first owner , and i have no idea what the previous owner did , or if the motherboard ever worked .
So i have a couple of questions :
1. Is it possible that one CPU ( listed in the PSL as working since the first bios release ) not to actually work ? Anyone encountered such a problem before ?
2. Is it possible that the motherboard came with a wrong bios in the first place ? since i see that its a G31TM-P21 board but under the sticker , there is another motherboard version "hard - printed" . I checked , it seems that there are 3 mobo versions that uses the same PCB and prolly use the same bios anyway , but who knows ..
Things that i want to add : The e6300 is just fine , it works on another motherboard .
The Apacer ram modules work , and are on the QVL .
I tried with different ram modules / same thing , but i really don`t think that the ram is the problem here sinse the board won`t beep without the modules installed . I tried with only one ram module / first slot closer to the cpu socket , switched the ram around . The other modules that i tried with are from Corsair ( 800mhz dimms ) .
The PSU is a pretty decent one , and it`s working properly .
I tried with a dedicated video card , and with the onboard one , same thing .
I cleared cmos everytime i made a hardware change .
I checked some voltages and tbh everything seems OK !
Things that i haven`t tried yet :
BIOS recovery procedures / updating bios , with floppy or cd-rom / sata port . Blind flash or whatever it is called ( but i doubt that would work in my case )...
I don`t have another processor for now , so i can test with . I will try to find another Celeron Dual core that i used the first time and give it another try .

like i said , i tried to clear cmos a couple of times by removing the battery and also by placing the jumper in clear pos. . It didn`t work . I`ve used a true PS/2 keyboard , and also tried an USB one with / without an USB to PS2 adapter . It didn`t work ( the manual says that i should hit DEL key , but i also tried F2 F10 and so on , nothing was happening) . I was seeing that MSI splashscreen (logo) without any messages like : press "key" to enter bios or press F12 for boot menu or whatever . Just the splashscreen and after about 5 seconds that : PXE LAN ROM message . This was when the board was posting with that celeron dual core installed . with the E6300 it wont even post so i can`t really get to the point where i should be able to go into Bios or at least try to . I connected a speaker ( buzzer ) to the SPK headers and i get no beeps whatsoever .
So anyway ... anyone encountered such a problem ? A CPU on the Supported CPU list that doesn`t actually work until you update the BIOS to a more recent version / release ?
Ill try to find a celeron dual core E1200 or E1400 to see if the board still works with it and if it does , ill try to update the bios with the CTRL+HOME method .

Overclock AMD Athlon II X2 250 on MSI 760GM-P21 (FX)

I want to overclock AMD Athlon II X2 250 on motherboard MSI 760GM-P21 (FX), integrated video card from motherboard and MS-TECH VERTIGO 520W 80+ power supply.
But before buy this power supply I had a NoName 400w.
And when I oc on NoName PSU after 3,3 ghz I receive BSOD.
How to oc more than 3,3 ?
Ty.

The CPU itself would work just fine up till the current draw exceeds the limit of CPU VRM (Voltage Regulator Module) and fry it. Even tho it's listed as supported don't use CPU over 95W and even then under heavy loads for longer periods of time a 95W CPU could possibly cause damage also. If using a 95W don't OC it any. The VRM on the 760GM was never intended for 125W CPU.
The only reason the 125W CPU is listed is because competing brands show support for them and MSI made the wrong decision to list them also just for competitive marketing purposes.

MSI 760Gm-P21(FX) PCI-E Frequency problem

I'm having difficulties maintaining a constant PCI-E frequency. AMD Overdrive always shows it to be 60Mhz (and It should be 100Mhz - if I'm not mistaken). Always - meaning at any BIOS settings - overclocked, underclocked and/or 'Optimized Default'.
So I got a letter from MSISupport saying basically that PCI-E frequency on my board is in fact proportional to HTLink frequency. Then I overclocked NB Frequency from 2000 to 2020 hence HTlink frequency went from 2000Mhz to 2020Mhz and fortunately got a reading of 101Mhz by AMD Overdrive.
Now it's all good exept for the fact that I can't overclock the system for gaming (by raising FSB and lowering HTlink and\or NB Freqency) sinse Htlink being set to anything other than 2020Mhz (giving me PCI-E Freqency of constant 101Mhz) - is for some reason set to 60Mhz.
Another thing that really concerns me is the fact that you can completely damage the videocard if PCI-E is set above the default 100Mhz. To add - you can really see the difference between 60Mhz and 101Mhz while playing the latest games (which is why to begin with I buit my PC).
Here's my PC:
AMD Athlon x3 450 (3.2Ghz overclockable to 3.6)
MSI 760Gm-P21(FX)
2x2Gb Kingston HyperX 1333Mhz (overclockable to 1600Mhz @1.6)
Sapphire Radeon HD7770 (OC)
250 Seagate 7200RPM 2.5"HDD (SATA)
Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 600 PSU (160fps on OCCT PSU test)

Quote
well it says in the bios menu 'version 17.12' - on the download page it's called H.C.
oki, its right one, but i noted that H.D official is already out:
http://www.msi.com/product/mb/760GM-P21--FX-.html#/?div=BIOS
Quote
and what would be the point of flashing it if it won't add the PCI-E control?
it may help with OCing eventually, its for your review. if don't want dont try it

MSI G31TM-P21

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for