Motherboard related questions

Hi Tim,

the Z97S SLI Krait Edition will be in the shops around the middle of November.

Regards,
Marc

HI MSI!
I have a question about an old Motherboard.
I have a MSI BIG BANG XPOWER X58. I want to know which XEON cpu is supported with this motherboard Besides W3520.

The Xeon W3520 was the only one that was tested by MSI, so that's the only one we know for sure.

Hi.

I have a question regarding voltages settings on a z77ia-S01 motherboard.

I've been trying to find any info on where I can find these settings, otherwise my overclock is very limited.

I've even consulted the manual but it doesn't say anything.

Is this motherboard not oc compatible?

I've tried to overclock with both click bios 2 in windows and control center but the overclock isn't engaging. The only way is to overclock in bios but I can only do 4.2 ghz on what it seems to be on auto voltages

Regards

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Yes, this is a know limitation on Z77 ITX motherboards.
The space for the power circuit is limited which results in only a slight overclock possible (e.g. 4.2GHz on i7-4770K).

Does every m-itx motherboards msi makes have this?

Why does it have it btw?

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

it appears certain motherboards has conflict with nvidia drivers when you have gtx 900 series.
this is my 3rd gtx 970 replacement card. please note that ive returned the cards and bought different brands, 1sst was msi, 2nd was evga and the current one is asus 970
all those 3 cards ends up with my monitor losing signal after windows logo. when i use my old card 570 it works just fine again. so i highly doubt its bad pci express slot. since when i use gtx 970 and uninstall nvidia driver i can actually go to my desktop and using data device, it does recognize and list my gtx 970 as installed.
my psu is 750watt and brand new at that.
my motherboard is MSI ZH77A-G41 and ive already created support ticket at your website but your support response time are extremely slow which is why im here as a last resort to get this under investigation.

Only the "classic" mini ITX boards have a limited power circuitry.
The Z77IA-S01 (based on Z77IA-E51) is a classic model.
With the Z87I GAMING model we improved the power circuitry (Same applies for Z97I GAMING).
Small and powerful power delivery circuits are expensive so we only put them on the GAMING ITX models.
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews/cpu_mainboard/msi_z87i_gaming_itx_motherboard_review/3

Maybe I am stating the obvious but have you updated the motherboard bios to v1A0 and installed the latest Nvidia driver (nv344.24):
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/ZH77AG41.html#down-bios
Can you boot to safe mode?
Are there any error messages in eventvwr?

Maybe you can also try another display since this seems to be related when the driver is/becomes active.

using latest bios and latest nvidia driver and i can boot ro safe mode. like i mentioned monitor only loses signal after windows splash. thats when it should activate nvidia drivers.

how do i access eventvwr?
ive tried different monitors still the same thing.
it could be issue with motherboard incompatibility with nvidia drver? can you investigate

To access eventvwr press Windows+R, type evenvwr [Enter]
Did you try another monitor.

I don't have ZH77A-G41 in the office atm so I cannot test it myself. (I will check if HQ can test this).

The Nvidia driver doesn't do much with the motherboard.
All MSI motherboards are tested with multiple Nvidia (and AMD) graphics cards and drivers, so the chance that the motherboard is incompatible with the Nvidia driver is very small.
But then again this motherboard is much older than the GTX970 so these products have not yet been tested together by MSI.

This week Nvidia launched another driver update (also for GTX 900 series) v344.60, can also try that one.

BTW are you using Win7, Win8, Win8.1 or other?

i will try the eventvwr later tonight
344.60 still doesnt work. if you check the release notes on the previous version 344.48 they actually state they had incompatibility issue with certain motherboards

GM204: Device does not start (error code 49) in certain OEM motherboards.

edit: just bought ASUS z77-a motherboard and reinstalled windows and everything and nvidia driver and i can play games just fine. after switching back to MSI ZH77A-G41 i still face the issue of losing monitor signal after windows splash. please note when i switched to msi motherboard i reinstalled windows and everything!!!!!! and im certain its not bad motherboard since i tried my old gtx 570 on msi motherboard and it works just fine.

after talking to ray from nvidia they said they had several customers having issues with msi motherboards who experience the same thing as i did.
ray said for example MSI BIG BANG-XPOWER II had this issue and msi released bios update which fixed the no signal issue.
i already said i tried different monitors but same thing.

Can you tell me which Windows version you have tested (win7/Win8.0/Win8.1)?
Can you also tell me the rest of the spec: CPU, Memory, PSU.

BTW X79 chipset did not officially support PCIe Gen3.0 (while it was enabled by default in older bioses) causing the black screen issue with certain newer GPU's. Changing the PCIe default to Gen2 solved that issue on all X79 motherboards.
The CPU's for Z77/H77 officially support and are tested with Gen3 graphics cards so that shouldn't be a problem. You can still try to disable the PCIE GEN3 setting in the bios.

Most likely your graphics card vbios is a Hybrid/UEFI one and your motherboard's bios is not compatible with those vbioses yet.

If you have an MSI R9 280X GAMING 3G you can simply switch the vga bios from (default) UEFI vbios to "Legacy" vbios (for support on older bioses).
That would be the easiest way.
http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R9_280X_GAMING_3G.html#hero-ov...

If you have a graphics card without the possibility to switch to a legacy bios, you can either update the motherboard bios or ask the graphics card vendor for a legacy vbios. If you have an MSI card just tell me the first part of your serial number, i.e. 602-Vxxx-yyy

The motherboard bios can be updated in Windows, just download the bios file v25.8 or vP.8 (7681vP8.zip) from here:
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z68AGD55_G3.html#down-bios
extract the E7681vP8.exe file tot he root of USB stick and run it from the USB stick.
(it's important to run it from a USB stick, since the bios is flashed in two parts, the first part is flashed in Windows and after a reboot the Intel ME firmware is flashed automatically from the USB stick, so don't remove the USB stick before both parts are done).

Yes, there is always a risk that bios updates fail.
The risk of these particular bios updates (one package EXE file) that updates "bios+ME7" to new "bios +ME8" the risk is higher in Windows than DOS.

Myself I have been updating the bioses of these Z68 boards numerous times and saw the windows update only fail once and the DOS version never but in Windows the varaibble are much higher since you can have multiple programs/services running in the background. In DOS this is not possible.
Also our MSI global forum moderator's experience is that the DOS update is much more reliable.
The bios update exe file in 7681vP8.zip can also be run in DOS (both DOS or Windows you need to run the exe file from a USB stick)

If you decide to update the motherboard bios I would use the DOS update.
The easiest way to do this is:
1.) Take a USB stick and make it DOS bootable with Rufus.
Choose MS-DOS (instead of DR-DOS):

2.) Download the 7681vP8.zip bios file and extract the exe file to the root of the USB stick.
3.) Insert the DOS USB stick in the Z86A-GD55 and boot from the DOS USB stick (you can press F11 to access the boot menu to select the USB stick)
4.) run the bios update by typing: "E7681vP8.exe" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
5.) Bios update will be done in DOS and after that it will restart (but don't take out the USB stick yet)

6.) After the restart the ME firmware part will be updated

7.) Go to the bios setup by pressing DEL during boot and "Load Setup defaults (F6)" and "Save and Exit (F10".

And you are done.

A graphics card vbios update is usually less risky. BTW the R9 280X probably won't do crossfire with a HD7970 with the standard drivers anyway. You need two R9 280X or two HD7970's officially.

Hello!
where can I find an I/O-plate to an msi
MSI Z77A-S01 Motherboard?

Best regards Stefan

Skickades från m.sweclockers.com

Dear Stefan,

That will be a challenge to find as a spare part. Please send me a PM with your home address, and I will make sure you get one. Also please let me know the reason you lost your original I/O shield. Thanks.

Regards,
Marc

update: As I am currently in HQ Taiwan, I found the right person and the right I/O shield for you. Please send me your details, I'll make sure to send it to you next week when I'm back in Europe.

Theoretically I would expect it to work.
The only reason I can think of why it wouldn't work is that the R9-290X might have a "UEFI" vbios that might not work with the legacy motherboard bios.
This is a quite common issue with older motherboard bioses in combination with UEFI vbioses. If it was an MSI R9-290X I could have send you the legacy vbios to try.

Since MSI has never tested a R9-290X and we do not develop new bioses for the 890GXM-G65 anymore, I suggest you to contact Sapphire.
Ask them if the R9-290X card has a UEFI or legacy vbios and if it is a UEFI one, ask them for a legacy vbios so you can try.

If that doesn't help I am afraid you need to replace your motherboard if you want to use the R9-290X.

Please note that legacy vbioses won't be available on all future graphics cards (for example there are no GTX970/980 legacy vbioses anymore).

I am currently building an ITX system. Would like to know if I break the warranty if I paint the heatsinks on the motherboard white, MSI Z97I Gaming AC

If it is only painted warranty is no issue.
Just make sure the contact between the heatsinks and the chips is restored properly after painting.

Do you use Win7 or Win8.x?
If you use Win7 please make sure you have installed the Intel USB3 driver:
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z87-MPOWER.html#down-driver&Win...

If it's Win8.0 it might be an initialization issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2811660
(Update to Win8.1 should fix that)

Some USB hdd drives draw more power than is allowed by the USB port (>0.5A for USB2.0 and >0.9A for USB3) which could also cause issues detecting the USB device. You could verify that by using an external power adapter with the USB hdd drive if possible or by using a powered USB hub (powered USB hubs usaully alow a bit more current).

Yes, USB sticks don't draw much power usually, so power shouldn't be a problem.
Locally we have tested two different USB3.0 stick without issues.

but our HQ has tested more USB3 devices:
http://www.msi.com/file/test_report/TR12_2851.pdf

Could you also check in the bios that XHCI and EHCI hand-off is enabled? (or just push F6 in bios setup to load bios defaults).

Btw, coil whine is something that can happen with any switching power supply.
It sometimes helps to change to a different power supply but there is not much you can do about it.