NEWBIES Please Read. Update Information.

[Kevin Keenan]

Hi all,

There's links shoved all over this site regarding files that will hopefully help others get their systems in working order.

I thought I would eliminated the leg work for newbies and those too lazy to search and post links to many important/vital files that may aid users in making the most out of their MSI experience, even if the BIOS is a pain in the arse.  

875P BIOS Files

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=434

865P/PE BIOS Files

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=433

Intel Chipset inf Installation Utility 5.02

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp?strOSs=44&strTypes=DRV%2CARC&ProductID=816&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&submit=Go%21

Intel IAA RAID Edition 3.5

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df/filter_results.asp?strOSs=44&strTypes=DRV%

2CUTL&ProductID=961&OSFullName=Windows*+XP+Professional&submit=Go%21

ATi Radeon Catalyst 3.6 Drivers

http://www.atitech.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=6&submit.y=1

Nvidia Detonator Drivers 45.23

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_45.23

Blaster Worm Patch

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2354406C-C5B6-44AC-9532-3DE40F69C074&displaylang=en

Windows XP SP1a REDIST (Entire)

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/servicepacks/sp1/sp1lang.asp

DirectX 9.0a REDIST (Entire)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A6DEE0DB-DCCE-43EA-87BB-7C7E1FD1EAA2&displaylang=en

On-Board Network Drivers

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_list.php?part=1&kind=2&CHIP=2&ID=1

On-Board Sound Drivers

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_list.php?part=1&kind=3&CHIP=3&ID=1

On-Board IDE Drivers

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_list.php?part=1&kind=4&CHIP=4&ID=1

Best of Luck,

MR BREEZE
-----------------------------
P4 3.0G 800FSB @ 3.45 G/230(924)FSB
MSI 875P Neo FIS2R Bios v1.74b
Kingston HyperX3500 1GB Dual DDR433
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB @ 441/371
WD1200JB Primary Drive
Pioneer DVR-105 (unlocked firmware 1.33b)
2xWD2000JB on IDE in RAID-0
Antec TrueControl 550
Sandra MAX3! CPU: 11696
Sandra MAX3! Mem: 5565
Sandra MAX3! HDD: 49500
HDTach 2.61: 64MB/sec Avg. 80MB/sec Max. 36MB/sec Min.
3dMark2001SE: 20995
3dMark2003: 6848

---------------------------------------------------------
Maesus : I edit this post with other users' great inputs.
Below is by Petej61
---------------------------------------------------------
System Information / Benchmarking links:-

AIDA32
http://www.aida32.hu/aida32.php

ClockGen
http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

CPU-Z
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Sisoft SANDRA
http://www.sisoftware.net/

Other usefully progys (All links have Free downloadable versions):-

Adobe Acrobat reader (Needed to read PDF files)
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

AD-Aware (Removes tracking cookies/spyware)
http://www.lavasoft.nu/

AVG Anti-Virus
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

DAP (Download accelerator/resumer)
http://speedbit.com/DAPDL.asp?

SUN JAVA (Needed to run some web-based programs)
http://www.java.com/en/index.jsp

ZoneAlarm (Firewall)
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

------------------------------------------------
by KingFisher
----------------------------------------------
Hi,

I hope the following may help. :]

ATI CATALYST 3.7 (Windows XP):

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=2&submit.y=6

CD Speed 2000 (contain softwares that can test your CD-ROM and DVD-ROM):

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

Futuremark (included products like 3DMark®03 Pro and 3DMark2001 SE Pro):

http://www.futuremark.com/products/

Intel® Processor Frequency ID Utility:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/

Winzip:

http://www.winzip.com/ddchomea.htm

Thank you for your attention.

[Kevin Keenan]

That's DirectX9.0b and NOT 9.0a...  Sorry about that...

MR BREEZE
-----------------------------
P4 3.0G 800FSB @ 3.45 G/230(924)FSB
MSI 875P Neo FIS2R Bios v1.74b
Kingston HyperX3500 1GB Dual DDR433
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB @ 441/371
WD1200JB Primary Drive
Pioneer DVR-105 (unlocked firmware 1.33b)
2xWD2000JB on IDE in RAID-0
Antec TrueControl 550
Sandra MAX3! CPU: 11696
Sandra MAX3! Mem: 5565
Sandra MAX3! HDD: 49500
HDTach 2.61: 64MB/sec Avg. 80MB/sec Max. 36MB/sec Min.
3dMark2001SE: 20995
3dMark2003: 6848

[C0NAN]

Originally posted by Kevin Keenan
That's DirectX9.0b and NOT 9.0a...  Sorry about that...

You can edit your 1st post and input your corrections, you know.

Oh and by the way, you type out your system specs for all your posts? Just enter them as your Sig in Profile.

[Maesus]

This is a top-rated post and should be sticked on top!!

[Petej61]

System Information / Benchmarking links:-

AIDA32
http://www.aida32.hu/aida32.php

ClockGen
http://www.cpuid.com/clockgen.php

CPU-Z
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Sisoft SANDRA
http://www.sisoftware.net/

Other usefully progys (All links have Free downloadable versions):-

Adobe Acrobat reader (Needed to read PDF files)
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

AD-Aware (Removes tracking cookies/spyware)
http://www.lavasoft.nu/

AVG Anti-Virus
http://www.grisoft.com/us/us_dwnl_free.php

DAP (Download accelerator/resumer)
http://speedbit.com/DAPDL.asp?

SUN JAVA (Needed to run some web-based programs)
http://www.java.com/en/index.jsp

ZoneAlarm (Firewall)
http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/home.jsp

[NovJoe]

I agree with maesus and give 2 thumbs up or more(if I have a few more hands) for this thread   !

Good work guys :]!!!

[Dasbooter]

If you are using dynamic overclocking in order to find your clock speed you will need another utility from this page http://www17.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030522/
This page also explains why..."the overclocking does not show up using conventional benchmarking utilities such as WCPUID, Intel CPU Frequency Display, CPUZ or SiSoft Sandra 2003..." etc quote msi from above url :P

[Wonkanoby]

well done Kevin Keenan

memmory testing

www.memtest86.com

western digital drives

please note these have two master jumper settings

W.D drives have a separate setting for master with slave and stand alone (master without a slave).


Jumper settings below are with the drive oriented:
|----IDE----||jumpers||power|
They may not match all drive models! You can usually find this information directly on the hard drive body.

W.D:
Normal
::::: Stand alone
::|:: Master
:::|: Slave
::::| Cable select

so if it will not boot to it chances are all you have to do is remove the jumper

myself i just got in the habit of putting all drives in my box cable select,that way i dont miss lay the jumper

[Fajin]

http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030522/index.html
With this tool here it is saying my Clock Freq. is 2839.840 Measured with alternative timer is 2793.00.  Anyone else getting this.  I wish I could see this while running futuremark.  I have my bios setting on General Fast.

[overvolt]

Yes Wake up your Neo Lan . Intel 10/100  

Here is a nice software for this job .
And there is alot of info in this site too .  
http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-gui.asp

[Kingfisher]

Hi,

I hope the following may help. :]

ATI CATALYST 3.7 (Windows XP):

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp/radeonwdm-xp.html?type=xp&prodType=graphic&prod=productsXPdriver&submit.x=2&submit.y=6

CD Speed 2000 (contain softwares that can test your CD-ROM and DVD-ROM):

http://www.cdspeed2000.com/

Futuremark (included products like 3DMark®03 Pro and 3DMark2001 SE Pro):

http://www.futuremark.com/products/

Intel® Processor Frequency ID Utility:

http://support.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/

Winzip:

http://www.winzip.com/ddchomea.htm

Thank you for your attention.

[chuckster]

Great Post!  The info here is helpful and all in one place.  I am just now completing my first computer and I used the MS-6758.  My question is - I don't know if my Raid is configured correctly, even though all is working well.  Tried to configure 2 Raptor WD360 drives as Raid 0 using the on-board promise utility. I have not been able to access the Fast Build Utility to define my array.  When I boot the computer It tells me "No drive attached to Fast Track Controller.  Bios not installed.  Any help would be appreciated.  And on a side note,  would it be better or worth the money to configure my raid setup through a controller card  connected to a PCI slot as opposed to using the lite version on the mobo?

Thanks!
chuckster

[jot]

i tried to flash with bios 1.5 and poof! i have a dead board... send it back to store and they replaced it with a new one... and I'm stuck with my problems... games quitting... system restarting... high temp readings on my processor... would anyone please enlighten me... I'm just new with this pc stuff...

[Kevin Keenan]

Jot, What brand, model, and speed memory are you using?  What power make and model power supply?  Most of the 865PE boards like 2.65 or 2.7V for memory to work properly.

I would think you have to go to the BIOS under INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS and set PROMISE to S-ATA (versus the other choices DISABLE or RAID).

When it comes to PCI card versus onboard, its a tough call.  This is what I can tell from my experience.  In theory onboard should be FASTER.  By the nature of it's integration AND ESPECIALLY with the INTEL ICH5R RAID as it is supposedly moved up to the Northbridge eliminating lower PCI bus bottlenecks.

While this sounds good in theory, in practice it doesn't always work out.  Naturally the more independent channels you can put your RAID drives in the faster it will be.  But for a fair apples to apples reference, I took my 2 WD2000JB's on ONE IDE cable in Cable Select Mode.  I tried it on the Promise Fasttrak TX2000 and on the onboard Fasttrak 378 controller.  The onboard 378 held it's ground at 62MB/sec while the TX2000 was a bit faster at 64MB/sec.  However on individual channels this resulted in 74MB/sec.

In addtion, onboard SCSI controllers may use more than 1 IRQ which could be a problem in a a machine that is going to have bucketloads of hardware installed.

But what is also interesting to note, is that when using the onboard promise controller, it takes amuch higher toll on CPU usage.  One of the tradeoffs I imagine with using the NB to conduct heavy data transfers.  While the TX2000 and 378 controllers both recorded the SAME CPU USAGE, the actual USAGE monitor in XP's task manager showed a drastically different picture.  While the TX2000 used about 25% or less on the CPU graph in task manager, the 378 was over 55%!

I've tested this with EVERY 875/865 with Promise 378 and it's the SAME!  I don't know about Abit's boards with the Highpoint Technologies RAID, but I have never had any luck with it (despite blazing reviews on Tomshardware.com).

So in short,  I would recommend using a PCI controller if you want MAXIMUM performance, but it's not necessary...

[DeReD]

CONCLUSION AFTER SOME TESTING ON MY 865PE NEO2-S

So infact i think the 1.52B is better than the 1.3 . I don't have a Radeon so i donno how these bios's work with the cards cause i've read about some problems... I'm getting one soon so 'ill post some info about that in a fortnight..

I personally think this board is great.. atleast the one i have.. never had a problem.. had it for 3 months.. i have a revision 1.. no DOT sticker.. and just the Neo2-S version... I've used Spectec 333 on this board too (dual) had no problems..

Wish i had some DDR-500 so i could test whether this board can do 1:1 above 250...whether it has a 1:1 limitation above 285 like some other boards.. that is my only doubt.. anywayz.. i hope atleast some of u are sailing as smoothly with this board as i have..

Get some nice ram .. this Twinmos Dual channel kit DDR400 with the Twinmos chips are really great.. and i recommend it..

Please read my post for more info.. click below

Is 1.3 Bios really better than 1.52B?? Neo2 Board and Some Observations!

[AnjoAzul]

few more links that i think might be useful

speed fan

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php (great fan monitoring prog)

intel network drivers + diag utils

ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/df-support/4275/eng/pro2kxp.exe


hope this helps

be well

[Kingfisher]

Hi,

Again, I hope the following may help.  

- CPU Burn-in (test the stability of the CPU):

http://users.bigpond.net.au/cpuburn/

- Rage3D Tweak (tweak ATI graphic cards):

http://www.rage3d.com/r3dtweak/

- PowerStrip (tweak for many different kind of graphic cards):

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/

- ZD WinBench 99 (test the performance of your PC):

http://www.veritest.com/

- Finale NotePad 2003 (for those of you who interested in writing music professionally):

http://www.makemusic.com/

Thanks for your attention.

[kennyrocks]

really helpful post..thanks..hehehe..I'm a newBee  

[Kingfisher]

If anyone want anymore, I can post most here.

[Kingfisher]

I am quite busy recently and that is why I cannot help people who have problems here. Hopefully, I will be back in shape by X'MAS.

[pratt]

Hi
I am intend to update the bios of my 865Pe neo2-LS mobo
The current version is 1.5 and I will update to 1.9
Any suggestions how to, or tips?
CONAN:
what happened with your flash?
As newbie with this mobo please inform me:
1.What is the normal temperature of the CPU, SYSTEM & NB?
2. The fancy lights under the NB cooling fan what color should be? Some times they stack to red only and that scares me.

Thanks
PRATT

[usafa7]

i posted this in another new thread http://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?threadid=34871&sid= but might as well ask here too....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Okie dokie, I'm new here, and I've been pouring through threads for the past 2-3 hours and doing searches, so please excuse these questions if they seem to have already been answered, but I would like to just ask a few (hopefully susinct) questions to get the quickest and most direct answers possible...

I just bought the 865pe-LS board, p-4 2.6ghz 800FSB HT CPU, and value-select Corsair PC3200 512MB dual-channel kit, and it has become apparent that there is or has been a HUGE problem with this board accepting corsiar memory. ARGH  or should is say DOH  for not checking into all of this BEFOREHAND!

But it seems that several bios versions have come out since the majority of those threads I have been reading about back in august. Sooo, can anyone tell me if the current version, 1.9 bios, has fixed these incompatibilities with the corsairs memory sticks? I realize that most people are going the LL version routes for the memory, and I have opted for the value-select versions...but it still seems to be a possible dilemma. I am wondering if it is worth it to try to pay the 15% restock fee or sell it on ebay (hopefully for about what I paid) and go get the same stuff in kingston memory instead, since these seem to be much more compatible? Or has this problem been fixed with newer bios versions?

Another important factor to consider, I think, is that I may not be THAT interested in overclocking much of anything, but perhaps just wishing to use the fast or turbo modes, probably not ultra-turbo since i would need the XMS or hyper-X versions to even try this. If the bios is now accepting corsair, I am trying to figure out, short of "experimenting" since i have not gotten all of my components in yet, if its even possible or recommended to overclock or use the fast/turbo mode with the cas-3 value select dual-channel setup I will be using...any clues?

Lastly, which may have been already answered by now, is it best to use the PAT or DOT settings or opt for manual setting for any sort of higher-performance setup, considering my specs for my soon-to-be new computer? Or does it really make THAT much difference? Im not into squeezing out every nano-second of speed, but if a little tweaking would make a BIG difference and wouldnt require me spending MANY hours or days to do so, then I'm all for it. I'm practically a noob at this stuff, only really educating myself in any depth about all this stuff tonight (going off of what outhers have recommended in making these purchases)...thanks for the understanding and the help in advance!  

*looking for any help*  
 is how i feel, haha...*sigh*

[appzman7]

thanx 

[ratusnatus]

gRGrteat post but is out of date...
 

[jtdoom]

let's see if this url breaks

intel raid, IAA

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=961&lang=eng

chipset installer utility, INF
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=816&lang=eng

opening post URL would break due to scripts on intel's pages.
besides, we don't all use XP pro, don't we?

[pippoff]

hi
the link for 865pe bios files does not work
live update does not connect
msi have effectively have no customer support
and - off topic - those silly emoticons make my cursor flicker!
phil

[GauchoDoyle]

Can you add for monitoring, especially on 975X as few programs read temps correctly for this board.

System Information Viewer - SIV 3.14

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/1605-siv.html

Could do with an update to this post!

Gaucho

[Del UK]

Can you add for monitoring, especially on 975X as few programs read temps correctly for this board.

System Information Viewer - SIV 3.14

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/1605-siv.html

Could do with an update to this post!

Gaucho

Well compile a new post and see if it becomes a "sticky"

[GauchoDoyle]

Go on the blues!