Need help getting this old MSI 815EP Pro to work with 2k/XP

Questions that don't belong in the other forums.
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Th3_uN1Qu3
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I'm using audioTester (www.audiotester.de) to measure speaker parameters and WinISD/BassBox Pro to model the speakers for the 2.1 setup i am building for myself. Unfortunately my main C2D computer's onboard sound got fried (static discharge, i never believed it till i saw it happen), and the only other computer i can use for this purpose is an antique Pentium-MMX 200 @ 292MHz with 96 megs RAM and SoundBlaster 16 ISA. It works okay for basic measurements but when i get to modeling (and i also have some new progs i'm wanting to try), it doesn't cut it. But at least it can boot to a usable copy of Windows 2000. Btw, i got its BIOS fixed to recognize large HDDs a couple years ago, courtesy of this forum as well. Thanks again guys!

I have two new HP Pavilion AMD dual-core laptops but i cannot use them for this purpose - the input jack is a combined mic/line input and would blow up if i connect the amplifier outputs to it (which is needed for doing measurements with the audioTester program).

So i have gotten this PIII machine i want to use for my measuring software. I'm having tons and tons of grief trying to get this thing together. It's a MSI 815EP Pro with the latest BIOS v3.3. CPU is at 733MHz, RAM 2x 64MB running at 133MHz, Riva TNT2 AGP 32MB, Seagate 20GB. I have tried four 128MB sticks that are tested good in a friend's AMD, but the board doesn't like any of them and just spits out memtest errors like crazy so i'm stuck with only 128MB. But that's the least of my issues.

I cannot get it to install Windows 2000 or XP or 2003 properly no matter what i do. It usually hangs when starting the GUI setup. I got 2003 eXPerience Edition to install a couple times, with drivers and everything (and ACPI enabled), but upon reboot Windows self-destructed. Either NTLDR is missing, or it scrolls and scrolls and scrolls the line forever, safe mode shows it hangs when loading ACPI drivers. I have tried every option possible - swapped HDD, swapped cables, swapped video card with ATi Rage PCI, replaced capacitors, swapped power supplies, disabling ACPI/PnP, UDMA, increasing voltage, lowering CPU/RAM speed, everything. It just doesn't want to work. :cry: Today no matter what settings all Windows versions i've tried hung up at the GUI part of the setup. I'm going to swap the CPU too tomorrow to see what that does.

I haven't tried Windows 98 or ME but i have no use for those as audioTester will only run on NT and higher. I'm betting there's some silly BIOS bug that i cannot seem to find a workaround for, maybe you can help? This mobo does have some pretty nice features so i would like to get it working.
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Th3_uN1Qu3
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After examining *all* BIOS variables i disabled the onboard USB and was able to get 2003 eXPerience Edition to install, and get all my software on as well. It worked... for a few hours. Still locking up - but Windows staying in one piece thankfully. Today, i studied the hardware aspect in more detail. Adding some high frequency filtering to the capacitors in the RAM area (47pF ceramic caps in parallel with the electros, and an additional 2.2uF tantalum at the switching transistor that feeds the VI/O regulator) improved RAM compatibility and Memtest results, and i was able to get two of the four 128MB sticks to work well along with the 2x64 that worked from the start. Thus i am now rolling on 384 megs, enough for what it'll be running.

However it was still locking up. I was also annoyed by the noise the 60mm fan on the CPU was making, and i disconnected it. I forgot to wire it back afterwards. I then went on to calibrate the onboard soundcard - wait - no lockups. The thing ran for three hours without a hitch. When i rebooted the BIOS screen was reading a CPU temp of 103C - ouch! 8O I know from my experience that PIIIs can take 90C, but this was a bit too hot. I turned the wheezing fan back on and temps quickly dropped into the 40C range. But it wouldn't boot into Windows anymore. :| I had this feeling that if i stop the fan it'll boot, so i did, and indeed Windows loaded and my programs were working. Turned the fan on again, locked up after a couple minutes.

I first thought it's the fan circuitry on the mobo influencing stability, but ultimately that wasn't the answer. It turns out that my CPU has a cold bug. Never heard of a cold bug at room temp, but here it is. I didn't want the thing to be melting either, so i slowed down the fan as to keep the CPU in the 50-70C range. Now it runs like clockwork, and there's no more fan noise either. Honestly, that is the last thing i could have thought of. :mrgreen:
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edwin
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Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2002 7:11 pm
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Keep a good eye on the electrolytic caps on your board, they may have gone off (bulging/leaking) as MSI boards from this era are notorious for that.
edwin/evasive

Do not assume anything

System error, strike any user to continue...
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Th3_uN1Qu3
BIOS Rookie
Posts: 32
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:47 am
Location: Bucharest, Romania
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The caps aren't bulged at all. They are probably bad anyway, but i don't use that computer often enough to bother with replacing them.
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