e8400 with msi p6n diamond issues...

[dalekdukesboy]

I currently am upgrading from an athlon fx-55 system a couple years old to an e8400/msi p6n diamond/supertalent pc2-6400 mem system...SO far after all the research and finding the best pricing possible I can play in the bios and watch the picture of a diamond come up in the boot screen and everything right up till windows SHOULD start and show it's loading screen. At this point, it just decides to reboot...and continue an infinite circle if I so chose to spend the rest of my life having so much fun. At any rate, everything I read said dual core 45 nm cpus WOULD be 680i compatible, but not 45nm quad...and so far the msi website shows one of the 45 duo's compatible the rest are still testing. So, now that evga has released a fix for compatibility with 680i/45 nm duo's...I have NO answers as to if my setup is compatible OR will be. Unfortunately after scouring the internet I see nothing online addressing this whatsoever...so yes I'm rather frustrated and this completely sucks to say the least. However the other crinkle is I have windows xp which was acting up recently and I in a move to a new house lost the disk, so it's possible windows itself is the real issue and it just is more pronounced on the new setup. Because the bios DOES recognize the e8400, lists it's speed, front side bus etc etc...so it seems it should work for most cpu/motherboard incompatibility issues I've read about talk about how the bios won't even run or it does but won't list the processor correctly or at all...


One word...HELP!!!!

 

[Darknova]

To be perfectly honest. Unless you desperately need SLi. I can't recommend a 680i board if you are using a 45nm chip.

You want either a P35 or X38 board, and again, unless you need Crossfire, I can't recommend an X38.

It sounds like XP has corrupted though. If the BIOS is seeing the CPU then it's not a problem there.

You may have to either run a repair on it. Or totally reinstall.

I'm assuming you have a backup PC, so you can take the HDD out, plug it into your backup PC, pull everything you need off of it. Wipe and reinstall.

 

[BullGod]

Well do you have the latest BIOS installed? I don't think it will ever work if you do not. Check the MSI site and download it.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

well...yes I have a backup pc, unfortunately it is from emachines so the windows is part of the system recovery disks and that isn't useable on a new non crap e-machine lol. Anyhow after some research and coming back here to read your post darknova I completely agree and what you say not only makes sense but was what I was figuring it seemed to be to start with...just odd it did work on the other system but refused to even boot at all or even try on this one. And to bullgod I have 1.2 bios the latest on their website is 1.3 but I don't know how to update bios without the windows flashbios, not something I've done a lot unfortunately and it seems windows is probably my first order of business anyhow,

 

[Mediocre]

First, Welcome to tpu!

Bull, He wouldn't get POST if the BIOS was hosed. The board boots all teh way to the windows logo, so his BIOS is OK (could probably use an update regardless)

Sounds like an OS issue.

I would update the bios just to be safe, but it sounds exactly like what dark says - repair or re-install your operating system.


I'd also disable that boot logo and get the detailed text...always good to know whats going on



edit: If all you have is an e-machines recovery disk, use that to make an XP CD using nlite for XP. It is a program that incorporates drivers into your install (no more hitting F6 to install SATA/RAID drivers).
Pretty simple program to use. If you're using Vista, that version is vlite.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

also to darknova...why would you not go with 680i? granted the 780 is out now and has a few fixes, I got this board at a steal plus the onboard xfi and other features is what I wanted to start with. I have read reviews press etc on x38/p35 and it seemed they actually don't perform as well or only as well as 680...only real strength is overclocking which the 680 also is no slouch at, again, just what I've read, and granted this is from a guy who currently can't even get his pc working

 

[Mediocre]

I think its about the overclocking TBH. The P35's and X38's go further with the FSB than most 680's partially because they support 1600mhz fsb (x38's)

We just built a Q6600 in an EVGA 680 board....couldn't even get 333x9 (1333fsb) out of the board. We didn't sit down and spend 4 hours trying to OC, but my VALUE p35 board does 333fsb with NO other changes.

 

[Duxx]

Check your video drivers. I had the SAME exact problem as you, and nobody mentioned anything about my video drivers. I updated to the last ATI drivers(8.1) and encountered numerous errors. I dropped back down to 7.12 and i haven't had a single issue since. BIOS loaded fine, XP loaded fine, then it would go black, low shade of black, dark black, then restart... did this for 5 minutes until i had had enough. So double check your drivers, if u have loaded the most recent 8.1 try dropping back to 7.12 like i did. Hope something works

 

[dalekdukesboy]

interesting...well OC'ing was the only thing I could think of, though most results seem better than yours that I've seen but...every board is different. However, the xfi built in was huge, as well as I have seen this board up to high 400's on fsb with dual cores so for starters I'd be fine with it, and I got it for just over 100 bucks as a return on mwave.com...so...lol seemed the way to go, now just to fix the OS it seems...ugh. Also one other note that does make me unhappy as well as uncomfortable with the bios situation is that it does NOT allow me to change the cpu FSB OR the memory speed, nor does it let me touch the memory voltage...however it does display everything, THAT is the only reason the bios is still somewhat suspect to me.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

that last post was for mediocre by the way, duxx slipped in there while I was away doing something else, and as for video drivers duxx...I have nvidia 8800gts not ATI but the theory is still the same...I believe I have the latest driver version for it but I could check that easy enough when I get to hooking up my old pc guts to the hard drive hopefully it still will work

 

[Darknova]

I think its about the overclocking TBH. The P35's and X38's go further with the FSB than most 680's partially because they support 1600mhz fsb (x38's)

We just built a Q6600 in an EVGA 680 board....couldn't even get 333x9 (1333fsb) out of the board. We didn't sit down and spend 4 hours trying to OC, but my VALUE p35 board does 333fsb with NO other changes.

That's exactly why.

My P35 will do an FSB of over 510Mhz (did a trial run just to see how high I could get) and was a LOT cheaper than an equivalent 680i, that won't do anywhere near 500Mhz FSB, and doesn't OC quads as well either.

Also, about the BIOS. MSI likes to lock everything down until you turn off SpeedStep (EIST) etc. only then will all your overclocking options open up.

 

[Mediocre]

I haven't really tried to find the max fsb on this board. too busy getting to 4ghz I think its around 480ish

Anyone know if you can make an nlite xp cd from an OEM recovery disk?

 

[MarkJohnson]

ok, let me see if I understand you correctly.

You are using your hard drive from your eMachine and putting it on the P6N Diamond and expecting it to boot the emachine version of Windows?

If yes, then that is why it doesn't boot up. Different processors and chipsets not to mention windows knows it is on a different machine and won't let it boot.

You may want to create a bootable floppy to see if it will boot to it. maybe even download and run memtest 86+ to a bootable CD and run it to check for memory errors. I find most issues with new systems that crash often are memory timings. Maybe set your memory timings manually and set the voltages to 2.1v any decent RAM will handle that.

http://www.memtest.org/

There's a bootable CD ISO image to burn and you don't have to create a special setup. just need a ISO burner which most burning programs have built into them.

Hope this helps
-=Mark=-

 

[MarkJohnson]

after reading all the replies I have a few more things to add.

To enable the overclocking on this board just set the "System Clock Mode" to manual.

If you want to change the voltages just highlight the one you want to change and hit the + or - keys on your keypad.

also, your resetting could be the front side bus. This board is horrible for overclocking and most can't get 1333 stable and your cpu comes stock at 1333mhz. Try lowering it to 1066. To overclock this board you need to up the "FSB VTT Voltage" I'd start at around 12% and test from there.

There are many, many, many more issues with this board. If you care to check them out go to the MSI forums and search "P6N Diamond" and you'll get pages and pages of info.

I already ordered an X38 to replace my P6N Diamond and I'm gonna try an RMA as the only user I know that has full success with this board did an RMA.

Good Luck
-=Mark=-

 

[dalekdukesboy]

hi everyone who has added to this thread I haven't been on in a while but just to update everyone who has put in their two cents...I did get the pc working, actually a friend of mine did but all he did basically was take out and put back in a few of the components to make sure they were seated properly and after a couple times removing the memory on his last reseating of the memory everything worked...no particular reason he could be sure of, it just did. As he and I surmised the case was a bit dusty from being taken apart from the old build and some dust probably got into the memory dimms and caused them not to work properly causing the weird install issues I was having. As far as overclocking...you CANNOT overclock this 45nm duo core with this msi board, you can tab down and highlight the FSB field or the multiplier field and even with intel speedstep off...it gives no options, you can hit enter or + - all you want but it simply displays no other speed than 1333 for fsb and 9 for multiplier and it does not allow any changes...also it does NOT allow memory speed to be changed and acts the same way, it does allow you to put in 12 % or any other value on the fsb vtt voltage but that is the only voltage you can change other than the northbridge voltage I believe is the only other option it allows you to touch. AND this is still the case after I have the newest bios 1.3 loaded.

 

[dalekdukesboy]

and overall the performance with this board seems quite admirable, I run an 8800gts 512 at stock speeds and am playing oblivion at 2560 x 1536 resolution and 16x aniostropic filtering on and 2x antialiasing on and usually at 75 fps which is as high as it goes with vsync on, if a lot of light effects ie spells etc are going on and intense combat with several guys at once goes on then it may be in the 50's and worst I've ever seen is in the 20's if I'm in the middle of an oblivion gate with full screen lighting effects going on with a few oblivionites there fighting me or something...at any rate, if ONLY this thing would overclock everything including the sound and raid which others have whined about not working (mine's never not worked) it's a great board. Maybe I got a good board but considering this pc STILL is not listed as technically even being supported I have to consider myself lucky that at stock speeds everything works fine and it runs quite quickly at that...

 

[MarkJohnson]

You have to change the "system clock mode" to maual before it will let you overclock at all.

I put my E8400 for testing and got it to overclock to 4GHz ( 9X450MHz!!!!) I had to up the vCore to almost 1.5v to get it stable though. The vdroop is horrible with this board, but it will overclock with a little finess(or force).

did you get the hardware RAID to work? It is the only one that has issues and was the only reason I bought this board. The sound issues have finally been resolved and should work unless you use windows 64-bit and then the mic still doesn't work(last I checked anyway).

but I have to agree, once you work out the quirks, the board does get the job done rather nicely. I've got the E4300 back in ad giving it to my brother-in-law, he still has an old socket 754 1.6GHz system from back when the 754 came out way back when.

Good day
-=Mark=-

 

[dalekdukesboy]

my only remaining issue with p6n...

Mark, raid works just fine, never had an issue with it and it boots up fast as hell and runs applications pretty much the same way. "system clock mode"? I do not at least in those exact words see anything of that nature on the bios, unless you mean in the...and before I decided to post this I fooled around a bit in the bios...ONLY thing I now can't change is the memory voltage...it says "auto" and no matter whether I choose "linked" or "manual" for memory/cpu overclocking options it seems determined to stick with the stock voltage in the bios...however not sure how yours works to put in the numerical values I want for FSB and multiplier you simply type in 8 for multiplier for example and 1400 or whatever you're shooting for as far as the fsb goes...so far I just got it working at an underclocked speed I think it was fsb 1337 or whatever random number I typed in with an 8 multiplier just to see if the damn thing would boot and it did! So at any rate you don't need to hit enter or + - on this thing you just type in the number you want...kinda weird and not at all what it says to do or anything but it works at any rate. So at this point (overclocking success aside) I can say it all works, so just a matter of if I can get a decent one and if that memory voltage bug is at all important...thanks for the reply!! Just by getting me in there and screwing around with it with the feeling it HAS to work because you got it to work with the same processor I stumbled upon something as simple as typing in numerical values! However I believe I did try that with the 1.2 bios and it didn't work...hmmm anyhow I will post my overclocking results on here just for shits and giggles for you and anyone else who wants to know!

Just a weird note, I have the odd situation where the pc temp never gets much below 40 Celsius with the stock cooler, but even if it's under a load it never gets above 46 and I checked with several different programs registering the temp...so seems to be a bug or issue with cool temps with these processors but I did read about that in a few articles so seems to be fairly normal with these new 45nm diodes they put in the chips...anyhow I'll probably post more tonight unless my results are so bad I'm sulking over them! lol

 

[dalekdukesboy]

sli issues with p6n diamond...

hi everyone, now that I basically have it all running fine, I added a second video card, an ecs 8800gts 512 to my existing xfx 8800gts 512...everything shows sli is enabled working etc...however atitool in 3d mode runs oh about 800 fps slower and works terribly, and it doesn't appear of the couple games I've played any play better, maybe even worse hard to tell with sli...wondering if anyone else has any clue here and if this may be because my board doesn't like my e8400 processor...for I use gpuz and other tools and both cards are detected as being there and sli is enabled etc, but also I pulled the sli bridge off and reseated it and even ran it without it and NOTHING runs any differently, I even took it off and put it back on as it was in windows and nothing changed in any way whatsoever...only other thing is possibly the sli bridge is crap but I'm about to just get a new one on ebay or wherever I can find one cheap and test out that theory...before that I'm going to try and download some benchmarking tools and see if any scale properly with sli. I used pcwizard 2008 and the graphics tests actually were slightly worse with sli enabled so another strikeout for wonderful sli technology so far in my experience.

 

[MarkJohnson]

yes, try other benchmarks. Remember, only programs that specifically support SLI will run SLI. It is a special feature and doesn't work with everything. Try 3DMark06 and see what it says. They have a database that you can compare other users rigs and see how you stand.

Good Luck
-=Mark=-
ps. try the MSI forums and search there as I remeber someone else had issues with SLI, I had no issues with SLI, but I was running a pair of eVGA 7800GTXs

 

[dalekdukesboy]

hey Mark, practically old friends we've sent so many messages back and forth regarding my stupid setup on here lol. Anyhow thanks for the reply, and per usual my inexperience with a new (to me) technology (sli) led to a few things that explains my issues...I had overclocked both gpus to the same as I had the old one as well as tried stock settings...and I forget at which point the atitool was registering a stuttering and abysmally bad 200 or so frames per second and granted I know not everything scales well or at all, but it shouldn't be THAT significantly worse usually unless a problem is somewhere, and I changed a few settings and went from single gpu to sli and then atitool was showing in the low 1000's for the 3d view which was more reasonable. However I still had games crashing or stuttering sometimes and running fairly well other times, I realized in the nvidia tools you overclock BOTH gpu's at the same time, however, the fan speed is controlled for the gpu's seperately, and of course, the one gpu on top sucking up all the heat from the cpu and the gpu below it was running at really slow stock speeds like 30% and heating up to at least 70-80 Celcius probably more while the other gpu I had 3/4 of fan speed on and chilly at 44 celcius or so. Anyhow I obviously adjusted that, and still the top card due to its position really does take on a lot of heat simply due to where it is in the case...Everything runs better now, but still in games I get a lack of smooth gameplay in scenarios the gpus are working hard, for the top card still hits 60 or so even with fans up to 84% or so and beyond that the fans are unbearably loud and still only helps 2-3 degrees more...SO it seems a better cooler is in order to overclock and probably just add stability even at stock speeds to keep both cards at good temps. And a couple games I do see 20-30 fps increases at least if not more so sli is working, but the temperature really is causing an obvious throttling effect and gets particularly bad in intensive games/long sessions...but considering I have a cpu in a non-supported board I can't complain, everything else works great except cpu overclocking and a few little quirky things thanks to the fact msi STILL has not put out another bios for this board which I admit is just plain lame ass, guess they really want you to get the 780 or 790 board and hope this board just fades away considering you can buy it now for over a 100 dollars cheaper than the aforementioned 700 series boards...

 

[MarkJohnson]

can you please run 3DMark06 and let me know the scores. use stock speeds on everything for a baseline.

Does these weird effects happen when not overclocking?

Do you have a lot of fans in your syhstem? A large case? what is your power supply's make and model?

if you can, could you make a sig with a list of all your components. It makes it easier to diagnose problems.

and yes, MSI gave up on the P6N Diamond a long time ago.

also, having two different models of graphics cards masy cause problems as well as some companies make a lot of changes to them that may give you issues.

-=Mark=-

 

[dalekdukesboy]

I'll have to get 3dmark06 or any of the other benchies for that matter for I have none of them, assumably I can download some of them online for free but I'll work on that for I want to bench this system anyway for it'd be interesting to see what kind of numbers it is capable of putting up as well as seeing sli vs non sli and see how well it works, anyhow when I do I'll let you know...I'll update my system specs on my profile you can just click there, and I have windows xp pro 32 bit as operating system.

Jonathan