Interessant BIOS-Problem, MSI K8N SLI-FI

[Hawk_AA]

Hei,

 

Satt meg ned her for å skrive et lite skriv til MSI. Desverre gikk siden ned i det øyeblikk, men uansett tenkte jeg å høre litt med mine norske venner før jeg forstatte. Noen som har peiling?

 

Msi,

I am having a bit of a problem booting my computer. The screen does post, however it is stuck at the “PCIE VGA Link Width : X 16” and the system would keep searching for a floppy disk (you would hear the sound from it) in all eternity. I will describe the problem more detailed; I am just posting my computer specs:

Motherboard: MSI K8N SLI-FI, nFroce4 SLI, Socket-939, SATA, GbLAN, ATX, Raid, Firewire, PCI-Ex16, (Read from inside the box: MS – 7185 VER: 1.0

Bios: “Phoenix – AwardBIOS v6.00PG”, W7185NMS V1.4 122105 10:48:05, (read from inside the box: “Phoenix BIOS D686 BIOS, 286661049”)

Graphics card: XFX GeForce 7800GT 256mb GDDR3 PCI-express, Dual DVI, VIVO, 450MHz

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ 2.2GHz Socket 939, 2mb, BOXED

Floppy drive: Sony MPF 920-Z

CD/DVD drive: Sony DWQ30AB2 IDE OEM Black, DVD +R/ +RW and DVD-R/-RW

Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint P120S 250GB SATA2 8MB 7200RPM

Power Supply: NorthQ 4775-500BULK, ATX 500W, 120mm Fan, 12-17 dBA, 4xSATA, SLI 20/24pin

RAM: Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 DDR-DIMM 2048MB kit w/two matched CMX1024-3200C2 DIMMs

Bought from: www.komplett.no – Norwegian Web Store.

Modifications:  The computer has not been changed inside, except that I have installed a Zalman Reserator1 Water Cooling system. The tank and cooling tower are external, standing on the floor. From there, there are lines that create a circuit via the processor and the graphics card. This has never troubled, no leaks or anything. I never did any overclocking to the system.

 

Since I got my computer in the start of February 06, it always tended to post a flurry image, with red lines across the screen in the bios. It never bothered me too much, because a single restart would solve the problem (I had to turn the computer completely off and on again, not hit the reset button). This happened about each every fifth boot.

But for a month ago, my computer started “Clicking” pretty intense in the boot sequence, from the time I turned on my computer till I hit the OS selector screen (I had a windows/linux dual boot). Come to think of it, I have been suffering problems with a stuck keyboard button, and this might be the reason for the “clicking”. However, this is not confirmed.

One day, not too long ago, I was sitting in my windows OS. Then the computer suddenly restarted by itself (I think the OS hung up for some short seconds, kind of still working, registering mouse input, but would not change applications etc.) I reckon that the clicking was gone when I booted this session.  I hoped that this was not anything serious, but then my computer would not boot. And this is still my problem.

 

The screen outputs: “Phoenix -  AwardBIOS V6.00PG, An Energy Star Ally

Copyright © 1984-2005, Phoenix Technologies, LTD

 

W7185NMS V1.4 122105 10:48:05

 

Main Processor : AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+, 2 CPUs

Memory Testing : 2097152K OK

Memory information: Dual Channel, 128-bit

Frequency:201MHz Tcl :3 Trcd :3 Tras :8 Trp :3 (2T Timing)

PCIE VGA Link Width : X 16 ”

 

I have been checking the D-Bracket, it runs the normal sequence until it freezes at ‘Initializing Floppy’(Led 2 = red, rest= green). By unplugging Hard Drive and Floppy, this message still persists. When the hard drive is disconnected, the computer would keep on making these sounds like it’s looking for a floppy. When the floppy drive is off, it’s stuck still with the same LEDs.

I have been trying to boot from a bootable CD (OS), but it would not get any further. Additionally, I tried the supplied RAID driver floppy, but the problem persists. I have tried to access the Setup and boot order menu with F11 and Del with both an USB- and PS2 keyboard. It obviously registered it, since when I pressed the buttons enough times, the same “click”-sound would click every key press. However, it would not take me any further.

 

I have been trying to search the problem the best I can, but I don’t have too many spare parts to test out with, so I can’t eliminate problems that easy. The only things I know is that by unplugging either RAM or Graphics card, the motherboard would make beeping sounds. So these parts apparently seem alright. Unfortunately, I have not been able to check the power supply, but the hard drive seems to at least spin. The computer would not recognize an OS on an external hard drive (which I use for my laptop).

 

So, would there be any possibilities to provide me info about where the problem is expected to sit? So I can look closer on the specific part. Is the motherboard broken? I hope I have provided you with enough info.

 

Thanks in advance,

Håkon Åmdal

 

Håper det er greit det står på engelsk;)

 

Takk på forhånd

Håkon