Questions RE: K8N Neo2 Install

I've always been an Intel man, and my new build represents the first time that I'll be delving into the world of AMD, so I have some questions.
First, some quick specs:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
K8N Neo2 Platinum
1 Gig Corsair TwinX XMS 3200LL 400Mhz (4x 256MB sticks)
2x 36 Gig WD Raptors for RAID0
Seagate Barracuda 200 Gig Standalone
Chaintech GeForce 6800 GT
Antec 430w PS
And now on to the inquiries:
1) The processor seems to come with some thermal goop already applied to the heatsink. Is this sufficient out of the box or will I need to use more? Intel chips have always included a little bottle of the stuff.
2) What will I have to do in the BIOS in order to get this memory working optimally? I've read through some threads briefly but so far I'm still a tad confused as to how to go about doing this properly.
3) I read the RAID FAQ that's floating around here, and it seems simple enough. Is there anything I should watch out for given my specific hard drive combo?
That should do it for now.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Just set up a similar system myself although I had hell getting my WD360 Raptors setup in a Raid0 configuration - turned out that it would only work after I swapped my optical drive out for another - weird or what?!
Whilst on the subject, in the Bios DMA transfers for the SATA ports is disabled by default so you'll want to turn that on. Personally, I set the stripe size in the Raid Bios to 64K and also formatted the array with 64KB clusters. I did this with my last Nforce2 board which went great guns for 18 months and with this board I'm getting 10 - 20% performance increase over that.
I've not tested this theory myself yet, but going on what others have posted, SATA ports 3&4 (next to the CPU) seem to allow for better overclocks.
Regarding the thermal pad that comes attatched to the cooler - I too have heard it sticks like glue and if you ever wish to remove the heatsink it's likely to destroy the CPU in the process. You'll need a solvent remover to easily clean it off (don't use a scourer!). You'll want to invest in some decent thermal compund such as Arctic Silver.
As for Ram, I know that it's pretty much touch and go using 4x512MB sticks - you might be lucky with your 256MB modules though. It used to be that Intel boards offered superior compatability and overclocking performance with Ram. However, with the advent of the new Samsung and Micron performance Ram, the A64 offers even better overclocking albeit with newer modules. Also, more important with A64 is not the bandwidth but the latency. Theres an option for 1T or 2T - 1T is worth 40Mhz or so bandwidth at 2T so try to keep it at 1T. It's a matter of trial and error in your case so you'll need a tool such as Memtest86 which will allow you to test withut screwing up your OS installation.
In addition to this, there's an option for Max memory speed with options of 200Mhz down to 100Mhz. These are in fact ratio's - 200 being 1:1 and 100 being 2:1 (FSB to Ram). Using these, you can raise the FSB for CPU overclocking while keeping your Ram speed down to a usable level.

Similar Messages

  • Question about K8N Neo2 Platinum mainboard.

    About a couple of weeks ago I found that none of the USB ports of the K8N Neo2 Platinum mainboard are working correctly. Every time I plug a USB device I get the following error message:
    "USB Device Not Recognized.
    One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message."
    Because of this, I found that there's a device in the Device Manager called:
    Under SCSI and RAID Controllers section:
      + AUL14T9L IDE Controller
    The question is for the ones having this same motherboard:
    Do you see this device as well?.
    Thank you very much!

    Quote
    Think you might try to clear CMOS.
    I did it twice this week.
    First time I left clearing the CMOS all night. The problem was not fixed.
    Second time I left clearing the CMOS all night and I removed the battery as well. All night too. No luck 
    Quote
    But first please say what BIOS you got now
    The most updated one: 1.0D. Should I try 1.B?
    Quote
    About the unknown device, are motherboard drivers installed? Is there some USB or other devices attached you haven't mentioned?
    I installed the motherboard drivers downloaded from the MSI web site:
    http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=587
    They are the NVIDIA nForce3 System Drivers:
    Win2K/XP driver package 5.03 contains the below components:
    Ethernet NRM driver version 4.42 (WHQL)
    Network management tools version 4.42
    GART driver version 3.77 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files
    SMBus driver version 4.04 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files
    Win2K IDE 2.6 driver version 4.46 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files
    WinXP IDE 2.6 driver version 4.46 (WHQL) with updated uninstaller files
    And believe me. Nothing is attached to USB ports.

  • Sound Question for K8N Neo2 Platinum

    Here's my current setup:
    AMD FX-53
    XP-120 heatsink
    MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Mobo.
    1 GB Crucial Ballistix (Slots 1 & 2)
    NVidia 6800 GT 256 MB
    200 GB SATA SEAGATE HDD (SATA3)
    Lite-on Dual Layer  (Model# SOHW-1633S BLK)
    Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU
    I am presently using the onboard sound, and I am able to hear left and right channels of sound when using media player, winamp, etc.  I can play both music and dvds.
    I'm using the optical output on my mobo, and sending it to my Sony Home Theatre amplifier with an internal 5.1 decoder.  No matter what I do, I can't seem to get 5.1 surround sound.  I set the MSI Sound effect manager Speaker configuration to 6 Speakers, and I have my CD player transmitting sound via the normal 2 pin cd rom audio cable.
    Does anyone know why I cannot get 5.1 surround sound when listening to DVD's???  Do I need to connect the digital output on my DVD burner?  If so, where does it connect to the mobo?

    My DVD drive didn't come with any kind of driver CD.  I'm trying to use Media Player to run the DVD's.  Is it compatible with Dolby Digital?
    Has anyone ever used PowerDVD?  This software came with the DVD burner, but I haven't installed it as I don't know much about it.

  • Question about k8n neo2 temperature regulation

    Hi everybody,
    I got a slight problem with my k8n neo2. As posted in the thread of drutten (Always get this message after a cold start up"plz reset overclocking features in the setup menu") I'm experiencing a strange boot behaviour when i turn on the computer the first time. All d-leds remain red for ~ 30 secs and the black screen stays black. Then the computer proceeds through the booting sequence (and my monitor turns on). After the IDE detection i get the error message 'system in safe mode, please reset overclocking features'. After ignoring this message everything runs really perfect.
    I observe this error only, when the computer was off for a couple of hours (and actually unplugged as i had a bad experience with a lightning some years ago).
    I was just thinking could it be that the computer is actually to cold, when i first switch it on. And that this is somehow read by the mainboard and treated as an error ?
    thanks in advance, vanish

    I've just came about a question with the nvidia system utility.
    As stated above it reads a hypertransport frequency of 1005 mhz and a memory bus frequency of 402 mhz. My bios settings are htt multiplier = 5x and fsb = 200.
    And i never came close to the sliders in the nvidia system utility, i mean i did't set there something myself. I basically just use the system utility to read out the temperature values - as the core center reports only rubbish to me. (system temp alternating between 0°C and N/A & cpu temp in my opinion a bit high and constantly fluctuating). By the way: the cpu voltage is reportet as 1.4, something that i dont believe :-)
    The nvidia readout made me guess that the fsb must be 201 mhz to crat such values, therfore i set the fsb in the bios at fsb = 201 and surprise: the nvidia sytem utility reports the htt as 1000 mhz and the ddr frequency as 400 mhz. Does this make sense to anyone of you?
    I also got a second question: Does a fsb of 201 do any harm to my system ? (cool and quiet is off, as i understand that this could be troublesome. the agp frequency is 66 mhz).
    Thanx,
    vanish
    (hope anyone sees this post in this mistermed thread)
    edit: well sisoft sandra reports a htt of 1005 and a ddr freq of 402 regardless of setting the fsb in the bios to 201 or 200. So i guess its a flaw in the nvidia system utility. So
    1. are thes values then normal  
    2. can i reduce the values with the bios to 1000 mhz / 400 mhz in some way

  • Some questions for K8N Neo2 Platinum

    Hi guys I'm quite new to Amd64 and just got the Neo2 plat and 3000+ from garage sales 2 days back. Just wanna ask the experts here is it true that sata 1 and 2 for this board doesn't have pci locked? I read this in 1 of the reviews before and it stated something like this...
    We should note here, that we did run into issues using SATA 1 and 2 and overclocking. We quickly found out that these two SATA connectors did not lock with the PCI lock. We switched our drive to SATA 3 or 4 and everything was just fine. I am not sure if this can be fixed with a bios update, but unless you like hard drives corrupted, you should use SATA 3 and 4 if you plan on overclocking.
    http://www.bleedinedge.com/reviews/msi_neo/msi_neo_05.html
    Anyone has any problems so far about this or this problem has been fixed by newer bios? Another thing is that I'm keen to overclock this chip as I'm reading those overclocking reviews but based on you guys experience, how far can I push using stock hsf with the current idle temp? My load temp for my current setup is 50c max running prime95 stable for 8hrs+
    Cheers 

    Thanks for the posts guys been a great help. Now I'm reading the issues of this board for the link below and thanks Supershanks for the link. You been a great help 
    I like MSI products especially their board coz I find their stuff well design and distro is good. I'm also using 865PE Neo2 PLS on my prescott no problem so far but after reading the related problems of this Neo2 Plat from the link above, can I say this board is a quite a failure product? 
    When I just got this board, I'm having problems when trying to change the HT Multiplier. It just empty when I hit enter and refused to go back even when I hit esc key. Reboot and tried a few times till I figured out it can be changed using the +/- key but this problem is gone after that and my first impression is my new board spolit? I mean don't the engineers or tech guys check through before they released these board to the market? There's no QC for this? Maybe I'm wrong to use the word, QC or etc sorry I might not be good at this. I wonder if they knew this bug in the first place? If they do but refused to fix it and just release the board that's lame. If they don't then the QC or whatever final checking/testing is real bad for this board coz they don't even realized this problem 
    Now I saw the link for another problem of mine again
    Problem description:
    Starting-up the system gives you a hard lockup (freeze) with or without blank screen.
    Some times, at boot time, the system says it is overclocked, but you know there is no overclock.
    You must clear CMOS for be able to boot at every system startup.
    I have this problem too and I'm going to read it but I don't need to clear bios, I just need to hit the power button again and the machine will boot to bios but this is quite irratating haha now I'm going to read to see how can I fix this problem.
    Once again don't get the wrong idea, I'm not here to flame MSI coz I like their products too just that a quick browse of the link above made me realized this board has so many problems haha
    Anyway thanks again for your time guys take care 

  • Ram question for K8N Neo2 Platinum

    Hi all. I have the above mentioned motherboard in my system, with 2 x 512mb of DDR400 ram installed. I want to upgrade to 2gb at some stage in the near future, and was wondering if I can throw another two sticks of 512 in, or will I have to get 2 x 1gb sticks?
    Cheers.

    4x512MB stick works, however not guaranteed to run att full speed DDR400 ( depending on what CPU model / RAM controller - winchester/Venice/Opteron etc.). In general the later cpu models handles 4 sticks better then the older.
    If not the CPU onboard RAM controller is up for the task, the RAM will run at 333mhz speed and give some worse performance compared to DR400 1T setting, however you will still enjoy the 2GB performance compared to 1GB 1T setting, when using application that use that much RAM.
    Best would be 2x1024 sticks, to be sure about getting DDR400 speed 1T setting, but it could be worth trying adding another two 512MB of same model, because of the lower cost and set DDR400 ( 200mhz) manual in bios and increase RAM+CPU voltage some.
    ( Syar´s Easybios 1C3 is a good and stable biosversion that sets RAM voltage to 2.75v and some other RAM settings as good levels as default.)
    https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=59711.0
    Some time ago, I did run 4x512 stick at DDR400 2T speed with a Winchester and Venice cpu, but suffered from less OC potential, compared with 2 sticks.
    With my new opteron cpu, I can have a good OC with same 4 sticks of RAM, so for me it´s clearly a big differance between the "desktop" and "server" cpu models, and how they handle RAM.

  • Problems/questions on K8n Neo2

    Hey, just got this board a couple days ago and any help would be appreciated.
    Main issue right now is with the onboard sound.  I've got it hooked to my home theater through the SPDIF port and I can't get anything out of it besides stereo (need to get 5 channel out of it).  I can't find any helpful references to it in the documentation or any drivers or helpful software on the CD.  I'm running Bios 1.2 right now.  When I click on the sound icon in the toolbar and attempt to test it I get sound out of the front right and left speakers but no sound out of the center or either of the rear channels.
    I've got Corsair XMS memory and for some reason it kept autodetecting at either 100 or 166 depending (I think) on whether or not I had it set at 1T or 2T.  I went into the DRAM control and adjusted the "Maximum FSB" to 200, and it loads at 200 (although it won't do 1T at 2-2-2-5, but I'll play with all that later).  Is this maximum really a minimum?  What's the deal?  I overclocked to 205 just to test it out and it said my DDR clock was then 205, but I was just confused by the wording here, and wanted to make sure there wasn't a conflict (because it wasn't really stable at 205, although I hadn't relaxed the timings or upped any voltages so I'm not too concerned about that yet).
    Thanks for any help.

    Welcome to the monkey house!
    First, you need to put your complete configuration into your sig so we can know what we are dealing with:
    NOBBY'S MOAN and  MOST  SEEN PROBLEMS THREAD
    Second, you need to confirm your memory is XL instead of C2 or some other variant.
    http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/xms.html
    Third, as you probably guessed from the other thread, you want to put them into slots 1 & 2 to get the best results.
    There was a recent thread about the sound issue. Search the forum for the last week.

  • K8N Neo2-F Hardware RAID question

    Hi guys,
    Question for you. I have a Hitrachi 160GB SATA drive and I installed x64. After all is good and well I went out and got a second identical drive. I would now like to have these two drives Raided with the hardware raid. When I go into the RAID setup after POST, I can see both, add both, and mirror both. When I reboot, all I get is a post and it just stops after showing that box where it lists everything in the computer and what has what IRQ's. No error messages saying no boot drive, no system disk, etc. I switch it back and I can boot with the one drive. I also noticed during the RAID config, it asks me if I want to erase the drive. I always say no because I'm scared that it will erase the primary drive that I need to keep and not the new one for mirroring. Can anyone help me or confirm I'm doing this right. Thank you very much in advance.
    Matt
    -MSI K8N Neo2-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
    -AMD 64 4200+ and fan/heatsink that came with it - NO OVERCLOCK (YET)
    -2 - HITACHI Deskstar 7K250 HDS722516VLSA80 -13G0254 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
    -CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
    -ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply 115/230 V CB IEC 950/ TUV EN 60950/ UL 1950/ CSA 950
    -Windows XP x64 SP1
    -BFG GeForce 6800 GT AGP

    You windows installation don't have the nvraid drivers loaded sou you won't be able to boot that windows installation
    with the xp64 disk put in a enabled raid array .
    But perhaps you can fool the system by doing this .
    Leave the xp64 HD as is (just as a regular sata say at sata 1 )
    Connect the new disk to the other sata controller , say sata 3 ( as they are controlled in pairs )
    Set sata 3 as raid enabled and create a raid-1 array in the nvidia raidbios with just this single drive in it .
    Boot windows xp64 from the normal enabled xp-HD and it should detect new hardware is added and ask for drivers .
    Install the nvidia raid drivers and reboot when asked .
    Then check if you have raid manager and raid drivers enabled in the windows installation .
    After this point you can proceed to do the thing you first tried .(but without clearing the disk)
    Delete the workaround fake raid you made with the new disk .
    Shut down and move the hd-connectors again so that you have the two drives either at sata 1+2 or sata 3+4 .
    Make a new array that includes the xp installation with only this disk in it , leave the other one free .
    Try to boot the system .
    If it boots you use nvraid manager in windows to add the second drive and let the array rebuild (sync drives )
    Note that rebuilding take several hours to complete .
    Look in the nvraid user guide for details .
    To fully understand the nvidia raid it's wise to read this from start to finish a couple of times ,
    and to have a hardcopy of it printed out.
    A copy of the nvraid userguide rev.20 here :
    ftp://ftp.tyan.com/manuals/m_NVRAID_Users_Guide_v20.pdf

  • NOOB -MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum questions

    Hi
    I coming from an Intel background but am now considering changing to AMD; i'd like to keep my agp x800xt pe card and get a MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum board but have got a few questions /concerns.
    I have looked on several forums including MSI's own forum and noticed people having problems with corsair value select memory modules.
    My questions which i'd be grateful for answers to are:
    1. Am gamer and planning to also purchase a 4000+ to put in it - will the board recognise it straight away or will I need to update BIOS..
    2. Want to transfer my current 4x512mb 3200 Corsair Value Select sticks to my new board - will there be any compatibility problems? (cannot afford to buy new memory)
    3. Will I be able to run the memory 200 + ? as heard the boards base clock for a 4000+ is 166
    4. If I can run these at 200 can i do this straight away or will i need to overclock them slowly to get to 200 (will the board see them as 3200 and start at 200?)
    5. Anything else I should know/look out for?
    Many thanks to all. My first post here so hello to everyone.

    Hello !!
    Let´s try to answer your questions...
    1. It depends on which Bios Version is installed out of the Box, i suggest version 1.8, if you are not using a Venice / Dual-Core or later CPU Core. The advantages of biosses later than version 1.8 are the new Steppings Support and some new Memory Timing Options available in Bios Setup.
    2. I do not know exactly, i think most corsair sticks are running well on this Board if you are not going to overclock. But it depends on which Chips are used your Corsair Modules. What could be a problem is that you are going to use 4 Ram Sticks, because with Winchester Cores you would not be able to run 4 Sticks in PC3200Dual Channel Mode (DDR333), even if your Ram would be 100% compatible with your MOBO. Venice and later Cores are able to handle 4 sticks at 400Mhz DDR clock. Except you own 4 single sided Ram Modules.
    3. Should be possible if your memory likes it.....
    4. No, the Bios will recognize your SPD Timings. So you will have to overclock them from a 166Mhz Memory Divider Base.
    5. Take a look here:
    http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=46730
    https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=72024.0
    http://www.msi.com.tw/html/products/mainboard/testreport_pdf/7025/memory.pdf
    Good Luck
    Greetz MurdoK

  • K8N NEO2 54G, win xp install problem

    rigg:
    Venice 3000+, 7000cu
    Crucial Ballistix 512Mb pc4000
    Hiper 480W
    K8N NEO2 54G biosversion 1.6 i think
    NEC 1500 dvd+r
    Maxtor 160Gb, IDE
    Ati 7500 32Mb 
    Situation: The problem is after i've formated the harddrive and selected which partition i want to have win xp on and all installation files have been extracted and the computer boots and the win xp log shows. Then it is loading for a quite long while but after that a bluescreen shows. And it stands "Unkown hard error" and my question for YOU is what it means?
    NOTE that i've tried many times but the exactly same bluescreen shos
    Note also that for a week ago i had a ATI Sapphire 200 with x300 onboard. The same rigg but not a single problem. So i supose there is a problem with the motherboard?
    What should i do?
    //Olof
    Situation: I've installed all components correctly (100%)

    It is one stick of ram that i'd got.
    Okey i might try with just a regular cd-rom.. My girlfriend is coming by in a while with 3 diffrent win xp cds. I don't think there is a problem with all of em
    http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/power/hypergroup/Hiper480/2.htm a review of my PSU. The power supply is around two months
    Quote from: hcoshawn on 13-October-05, 05:40:57
    I forgot that DR STU....always follow the DR's orders Malkovic.
    GL

  • K8N Neo2: Stupid question...

    For the past several years, I've been running Raid0 on a variety of boards.
    Just about to do a new Vista RC install on my K8N Neo2, and I want to do a non-raid install on an old 250GB Samsung sata disk I have lying around.
    Stupid question:  Is there any need/advantage to enable the raid controller?  Its been so long since I have done a non-raid install, I can't remember.
    I seem to recall there being some advantage in having the disk running off the raid controller, even though its not in a raid array, but I can't quite remember.
    Any comments?
    Cheers
    Chippy

    Chippy,
    No benefit in enabling the RAID Controller if you are not using it.
    Take Care,
    Richard

  • Problems installing Radeon 9800 Pro on K8N Neo2

    Hi All!
    I am trying to upgrade from ABIT Nforce2 to K8N Neo2 Nforce3. I assumed that this should be possible without reinstalling Windows XP.
    I now ran into problems with re-installing the drivers for the Radeon 9800 pro, the videocontroller is not recognised and the drivers will not install. The same happened when I tried an Nvidia FX-5600 card.
    IMHO this will exclude problems with the 0800, as well as PSU problems. Which will leave me two options: re-install Windows since it looks like a driver/software problem (have I been too optimistic?) or RMA the board right away (even if the d-bracket will show 4 greens ...)
    Thanks in advance for your response!
    Hans

    I am pretty sure this is a windows problem. I would never recommend to use different board on an installation allready made. Anyway you could try to install unifed nforce drivers for the nforce 3 250 chipset. This might fix the problem. If you want a stable system I would install windows from the scratch.

  • MSI K8N Neo2, can't install Windows

    MSI K8N Neo2
    Amd 64 3500+
    Ocz 3700 EB 512Mb x 2 / Corsair pc4400  512Mb x 2
    DDR Booster
    Radeon 9600XT / GeForce Ti 4200
    Audigy 2
    IBM Deskstar 40Gb (My raptor is on rma r&r)
    Psu Enermax 460w
    The system is watercooled.
    My Windows got bad after SP2 was installed so I went to reinstall Windows...
    When I try to install Windows XP Pro I get Blue Screen/system freeze/black screen.
    This happens soon as the cd starts to read the files/installing files after format.
    I haven't been able at all to install Windows successfully (I don't even get to windows).
    My system is listed above and as you can see I have tried with 2 different graphic cards,  2 different rams and with/without the booster, with/without the soundcard, 3 different dvdplayers and 3 different Windows XP Pro.
    Och and yes I have tried the hardware (except mb & cpu, don't have another Amd 64 mb or cpu) in an another computer and they work fine.
    Nothing works.  
    Could it be that the mb that is bad or?

    Quote
    Originally posted by kensterman
    Is your CDROM drive okay?  How about the XP CD itself?  Either way, it sounds like it's bombing duing the reading/ copying of the files..
    I have tried with 3 different dvdrom drives and 3 different XP cd's, results are the same.

  • New install issues on k8n Neo2

    Hey all, New to these forums, but not to computers and building them.  I have a couple questions for you before I RMA this k8n neo2.  I have had no issues using the Asus board that I have, so I know that none of my hardware is bad.
    I am running the 1.2 bios now, but it even did it with the original bios that cam eon the board.
    1. None of my PCI slots work... not a one.  I cannot get my Hercules sound card or even a simple lan card to work... any ideas?  
    2. While running tests for a review, so far, both 3dm 2003 AND UT 2003 demos, pause for just a second in various parts of the tests.  I have never had this happen before.
    I am at a loss to figure this out, and could use some help if anyone has some ideas.

    Quote
    Originally posted by pastorjay
    Hey all, New to these forums, but not to computers and building them.  I have a couple questions for you before I RMA this k8n neo2.  I have had no issues using the Asus board that I have, so I know that none of my hardware is bad.
    I am running the 1.2 bios now, but it even did it with the original bios that cam eon the board.
    1. None of my PCI slots work... not a one.  I cannot get my Hercules sound card or even a simple lan card to work... any ideas?  
    2. While running tests for a review, so far, both 3dm 2003 AND UT 2003 demos, pause for just a second in various parts of the tests.  I have never had this happen before.
    I am at a loss to figure this out, and could use some help if anyone has some ideas.
    Full spec including PSU amps on the 12V rail.
    Point 1 i have heard mentioned before but dont know of any fixes - I haven't tried my PCI slots yet, maybe I should :/ does ps2/usb work for you?
    Point 2 what gfx card have you got, turn AGP fastwrites off in your bios, if your overclocking the gfx card clock the 2d and 3d to the same value.
    Try updating the Nf3 drivers whilst your at it...

  • Flashing bios of k8n neo2 plat without installing windows?

    hi
    my k8n neo2 arrives tomorrow to replace an asus a8v which is causing me problems with my x2 4400 and dsp cards (uad-1 and poco mk2).
    with the asus i could use "ez flash" and put a floppy (or cd) with the bios and press a button and the bios would flash.
    does the k8n neo2 have a similar function.  i have skimmed through the manual pdf but can't see a reference to this way of updating the bios.
    or do i have to install windows and then the bios update.  the reason i ask is because it is only the latest bios that recognises the dual-core and so if i installed windows, the hal wouldn't be multi-processor therefore only one core would be recognised and i'd have to install windows xp pro over again.
    thanks very much in advance for any help.

    Quote from: captain caveman on 30-September-05, 02:27:52
    wow!   
    thanks for the quick replies richard and syar, appreciated man.
    can i do this with a cd-rom instead of floppy?
    1. download the bios file and flash tool.
    Unzip them if zipped and have them ready to copy to the cd image.
    2. Goto
    http://www.bootdisk.com/
    Down on the page you find a subtilte called "Bootable CD"
    Download flashcd.zip and read the userguide thouroghly.
    Direct link to flashcd : http://www.bootdisk.com/kentucky/flashcd.zip
    3. Download and install UltraISO from http://www.ezbsystems.com
    4. Start UltraISO and follow the instructions from flashcd's readme :
    File | Open | Select flashcd.iso | Open | Image windows shows bootable |
    Select your bios files in the lower window | Drag to the top window | File |
    Save.
    To burn:
    File | Open | Click on flashcd.iso | Open | You'll see your bios flash
    files on the right | Tools | Burn
    Then you have a bootable cd with biosfiles
    Remember that the bios files will be on drive R:> after booting the cd.
    When the cd has loaded on the dos prompt write R: followed by enter
    Then write the AWFLxxx biosfile string like you do from a floppy boot

Maybe you are looking for