Yet another Pro2a problem....

[tjdavis1138]

Ok, too add to my many list of problems with this number one rated motherboard I know get random lock-ups with a nice red or green line about one inch from the top of the screen.

I also get many blue screens as well, but they don't lock it hard. I can't even re-boot when I get the line accross the top. Me is getting tired of fighting this @##$%@ motherboard.

and my anguish continues.................

 

[toph99]

a lot of people have the green line problem it seems. my only gripe about it is the problem i'm having with the multiplier :|

 

[jimmygates]

I thought the "green-line" problem was related to the MS BACKUP software. I heard if you don't choose to install it, the problem should go away. Hope this helps.



-Jimbo

 

[Philly C]

So WHY is the Pro2a supposed the best KT133 motherboard out there?

 

[Informant X]

The Pro2 is supposed to be the best. No one said the Pro2A would be the best, althought being a sucessor of the Pro2 you could make that assumption.

 

[tjdavis1138]

I don't really care if it's the best, I'd just like for it to work. I never install ms backup.

I don't doubt MSI makes great motherboards but I obviously didn't get one of them.

 

[Wolfman35]

I've had all the problems with the Pro2A boards and I've found that on SOME of them with the green line, you can work around by disabling 4X AGP in BIOS and re-installing the 4 in 1 AGP driver in Standard mode rather than Turbo. (Nvidia cards) I've found workarounds for most of the other "Issues" as well but the one I can't "fix" is the multiplier problem. This one has me tearing my hair out (and I don't have much to begin with).

I really believe this is a CMOS Pull up problem that is specific to SOME MSI Pro2A's and based on MSI's implementation of the 686B SB. While I know that the 686B has some of it's own problems that show up in all boards using that SB, the MSI Pro2A seems to have a unique set of problems that do not show up on all Pro2A boards.

 

[tjdavis1138]

I disabled AGP x4, here's hoping.

 

[SACANDAGA]

My friend has this board and has had nothing but problems with
it. He has tried all the different bios versions, 4 in 1 drivers,
MS hot fix and several combinations of these fixes and every time
it is a tradeoff. One setup wont burn cd's, one detects drives as
SCSI units, one will not run as DMA etc. etc. By the way he is
running win2k.

Lucky for him he was able to RMA this MOBO and pick up a pro2 with
the (686a chipset) and knock on wood, has had no problems with it
so far. MSI makes an excellent quality board but that (686b chipset)
seems to be causing some serious issues and it seems every fix leads
to other problems and or slowdowns, conflicts etc.

I should also mention that he had these problems with two different
boards from two different vendors and with different arrays of hardware.

I am running the original K7T-PRO with a one gig T-BIRD and WIN2K
and have had no problems.

 

[oldfart]

This goes to prove you have to take reviews with a grain of salt. This is even true with our own Anandtech reviews. Sometimes issues just don't show up during testing. Issues may not be known until real users spend some time with a product. I also bought a motherboard that was AT editors choice. Coincidentally it was also an MSI board (BX-Master). It was also highly recommended by forum members. This thing had several issues that could not be resolved. I was the first one to have them. Everyone was helpful trying to help me get by them, but nothing worked. Soon after, many other people started to report the same problems. I was lucky that the vendor I bought it from replaced the board for another brand (ASUS P3B-F) after several polite phone calls and emails.

 

[tjdavis1138]

Monday morning I'm going to call my vendor and plead for another board. Seems odd that the new motherboards based on the KT133A chipset seem fine. At least I haven't heard of these issues on them.

 

[skapegoat]

a friend of mine has the same mobo and the same problem. i ended up tracing it back to his videocards. he has 2 ati video cards and when i took out one of the cards the problems went away. i was able to get the newest drivers for his mobo and for the agp video card and when i replaced the pci card back in, it worked and he has not had a problem since

 

[sharkeeper]

And people were blaming all the problems on Abit alone.

Cheers!

 

[tjdavis1138]

My old Abit BH-6 (which never game me one problem in three years) is starting to get restless thinking I shelved it for this buggy thing.

 

[andrey]

Interestingly enough, when Anand reviewed this board, he decided MSI K7T Pro2A is the greatest thing out there and at least 60% of us purchased this board for their new upgrade. At the same time, Tom and quite a few other hardware sites put MSI boards in the average ratings. Don't get me wrong, but simply because one person thinks MSI K7T Pro2A makes awesome boards doesn't necessarly means that board is really the greatest.

To give you a good example, a while back when Anand reviewed Abit BX6, he was praising that board left and right. At the same time Tom's Hardware site mentioned about instability of this board with different kinds or SDRAM, inability of that board to assign correct IRQs to various PCI cards, etc... Well, mistakenly enough, I've decided to get Abit BX6 because of Anand's excellent review. On the first week, of course, all my three fan connectors burned. When I posted that here everyone said: don't connect all the fans to all of the connectors. WTF? What are those connectors suppose to be there for? Unless they're there just to make that stupid board look pretty or what? Well, since it was only one week and none of my fans didn't work already, I RMAed the board and received another Abit BX6. Guess what happened to this? Floppy connector simply stopped recognizing my floppy drive. Am I suppose to not use floppy now? After 2nd RMA and using third board, instead of 128Mb motherboard saw only 63Mb and it didn't matter what kind of memory and what kind of OS I use. That was it. No more Abit for me whatsoever, no matter how great they make their boards, or how they make them sound by putting all of the useless overclocking features. If your boards doesn't work or works like a crap, none of those multiplier or frequency chnages will do you any good. At the same time Anand still is saying Abit develops greatest things in the world.

To make this long story short, now before making any sort of decision, I read other reviews as well. Hope I didn't write an entire book here

 

[bernse]

I have never seen an Anand review of the Pro2A...just the Pro2. I have yet to hear of anyone having a problem with the Pro2.

 

[Vinny N]

bernse:

That was exactly my concern...when I posted here about it, everyone said there shouldn't be any difference between the two and the new south bridge was changed only to support ATA100...

Oh well.

I think I've gotten all the kinks out of mine.

 

[Vinny N]

tjdavis1138:

What's your video card?

Mine is an NVIDIA one so I used the same version of the reference drivers and same via4in1 drivers as the one in the Anandtech board roundup.

You wouldn't happen to have Napster installed, would you?

 

[SACANDAGA]

The Pro2 has the 686a not the 686b chipset thus it does not
suffer from conflict issues that have plagued many Pro2a boards.
Toms Hardware has mentioned this conflict in his reviews of boards
with these 686b chipsets. That is why the the Pro2a does not match
the performance of Pro2 in most benchmarks and why it was smoked
by a $75.00 ECS K7VZA (this board uses the 686a chipset)
By the way, the Pro2 is getting hard to come by lately. I just went
looking on the net and everyone has a Pro2a but Pro2s are rare.

 

[tjdavis1138]

I have and use napster. I cured the blue screen problems by disabiling legacy sound in the cmos. Which seemed to take care of my lock-ups with the green line.

I had reset the bios to default and forgot to disable the on-board sound, which was conflicting with my sblive.

My vendor told me I couldn't exchange the board without a re-stocking fee so I'm trying to sell it in the for/sale forum. They don't seem to think there's anything wrong with the board other than compatibility problems.

 

[ndee]

OK, it's not an MSI problem, it's the Southbridge 686B, isn't it?

 

[Wolfman35]

OK ... Before I get accused of MSI Bashing .. This is just my opinion based one integrating several hundred VIA KT133 boards (Abit, Epox and MSI) but SOME of the problems are specific to the 686B South Bridge and SOME of the problems are VIA 4 in 1 driver related BUT Some of the problems are specific to the MSI Pro2A and not found in other boards (Epox 8KTA2). Only the Pro2A has the multiplier issue and the onboard Audio issue. Of course these "issues" are random and not found in all Pro2A's so this leads me to believe that MSI has a CMOS pull up problem with the 686B SB that only shows up in Some boards (about half in my experience). Of course the Epox is not going to have the multiplier issue because it's a Dip Switch adjustment rather than a BIOS Item but the Abit's do not seem to have the multiplier issue either (and of course the Abit is not going to have the onboard Audio problem).

You have to remember that Review sites test ONE Board and determine the Quality/Stability of the entire model line based on that ONE Board. Sorry but that just isn't an effective sample when the board has "Issues". It assumes that manufacturer Quality Control is perfect and (ala Abit) it NEVER is.

 

[WindBoy2000]

i cant find the msi pro2 board

 

[Wolfman35]

MSI is no longer manufacturing the Pro2 board. Actually the Pro2A is a revision of the Pro2 (and it a revision of the original Pro) since all the boards share a common model # (6330). Even if MSI did revert back to the Pro2 boards they would be the Pro2A Configuration less the 686B SB and would likely have many of the same problems. MSI Changed the layout of this board (6330)in Dec. 2000 and also initiated a new production line at that time. Seems like the new layout or the new line has a problem that Nobody (MSI or thier re-sellers) is going to acknowledge. If they did publicly acknowledge a production problem it would mean a re-call and they will avoid that like the plague. (ala Abit in Lat 98).

 

[Instigator]

bump