MSI P7N Diamond - can't get past the mb spashscreen to enter the bios

[calamus]

hello,

the title may tell my problem but i'll say it again:
i freshly build a new pc with the following hardware:
CPU: Core 2 Quad Q9550 95w
motherboard: MSI P7N Diamond v1.0
vid card: 2x XFX GTX260 black
ram: Kingston HyperX (KHX8500D2T1K2/4G) each bar is 2 GB with two bars in total
PSU: Corsair TX850w
HDD: Seagate Baracuda 1.5TB (SATA)
case: Antec Nine Hundred two
cpu cooler: Thermaltake MaxOrb
optical drive: a SATA burner

the problem is the following: we installed everything like it should, then we press the on button and wait. then the splash screen comes on with the choices: press tab for POST or press del for BIOS.
we need to change the boot order so we press del. but then nothing happens.


things we hear when we do the above:
one short beep and shortly after that a softer beep-boopbeep.

things we tried in chronological order:
clearing the CMOS (we did this everytime we changed something)
removing the sli bridges
removing the power cables for the second vid card
removing the second vid card
removing one of the two RAM's
removing both RAM's (we got the beep error that there is no RAM, 3 long ones i thought)
removing the audio card that comes with the motherboard
getting a RAM bar from a friend that is on the supported list for the motherboard which did nothing diffrent
removing all other power cables from the fans, hdd, optical drive. (this got rid of the beep-boopbeep)
removing all the vid cards and placing an older 8600gt in.
when we pressed the on button we rapidly pressed delete for about 5 seconds which got us to POST, which said

when we had one Kingston HyperX installed it said:

A7510NMS V1.0 011508

Genuine Intel (R) , Speed: 333x8.5=2831 MHz

DRAM Frequency For DDR2 800 (Single Channel)
Initializing USB Controllers .. Done.
2048MB OK



it says DDR2 800 but the RAM is 1066 and the motherboard should support 1066.

we also tried the above and then wait for 5 minutes to see if the BIOS would show, but it didn't.
we also connected the PSU from my other PC to the motherboard but it still gave the same problem.


pls pls pls help me. thanks in advance for any answers.

calamus

 

[jamesm6162]

I have the exact same problem.

Have you found a solution yet?

 

[MMclachlan]

Are you sure the current BIOS version supports the Q9550? If not you may need to put an older CPU in, flash the BIOS to a newer one then put the Q9550 back in.
EDIT: Sounds to me like this is what you need to do as the one time it did POST it didn't recognise the CPU - it just gave the 'Genuine Intel 333x' etc. No model number.

 

[calamus]

i'm very sure that its supported, the list says that the Q9550 i have will work with BIOS version 1.0

the BIOS version off the motherboard is also 1.0

 

[jamesm6162]

Are you sure the current BIOS version supports the Q9550? If not you may need to put an older CPU in, flash the BIOS to a newer one then put the Q9550 back in.
EDIT: Sounds to me like this is what you need to do as the one time it did POST it didn't recognise the CPU - it just gave the 'Genuine Intel 333x' etc. No model number.

If that is the problem, how would you flash the bios?

 

[jamesm6162]

i'm very sure that its supported, the list says that the Q9550 i have will work with BIOS version 1.0

the BIOS version off the motherboard is also 1.0

According to MSI site at

http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=prodcpusupport&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=170&cat3_no=2&prod_no=1372#menu

The Diamond may require v1.2 if the CPU is Q9550 E0 95W. Have a look. You may thus have to download the new bios version and flash like MMclachlan said.

 

[calamus]

oh my.

that other one the E0 wasn't there when i first looked.

i brought the motherboard, CPU and RAM to the store for testing and i have now send an email explaining the current situation. and asking them if they would like to test the motherboard after flashing it.

i also asked that if flashing the motherboard didn't help that they should order a diffrent motherboard and when they get it that they first flash the bios to the latest version before they send it to me.


i'll keep you informed

 

[jamesm6162]

oh my.

that other one the E0 wasn't there when i first looked.

i brought the motherboard, CPU and RAM to the store for testing and i have now send an email explaining the current situation. and asking them if they would like to test the motherboard after flashing it.

i also asked that if flashing the motherboard didn't help that they should order a diffrent motherboard and when they get it that they first flash the bios to the latest version before they send it to me.


i'll keep you informed

Yes then that is probably the problem. It's too much of a coincidence that both motherboards would have the same problem. I'm also gonna have my board flashed on Monday, because I suspect my CPU also needs a newer BIOS version.

Let me know how it goes.

 

[calamus]

hello there i am again. i got my new motherboard which they have updated the BIOS of.

now it works, i have XP installed.... however.....

it seems that now when i install a program for which a reboot is needed at the beginning or end (like drivers) i get a Blue screen of Death when the windows logo apears with the little bar that shows its loading.... -.-

any suggestions for this? what should i try?

 

[calamus]

it looks as if it started after i enabled sli in the nvidia control panel.

error code:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

and then the tech info:

-- STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x000001A8, 0x00000005, 0x00000001, 0xB7F004C0)
-- nvgts.sys - adress B7F004C0 base at B7EEE000, DataStamp 472236eb

 

[calamus]

update: it isn't the sli.. i have removed the second graphics card and reinstalled windows again. when i rebooted after an windows update it got the bsod again

 

[calamus]

this is what i have tried with one graphics card installed.

- install windows
- when windows was done installing i installed the motherboard drivers from the included disc and clicked restart later
- then i installed the graphics drivers from the included disc
- then i shut down the pc and then i rebooted

it worked.. i didn't get a blue screen. after that i shut it down again to take a break. when i tried rebooting when i returned the monitor didn't show anything, after opening the case and moved the graphics card a bit.. then i tried booting again and this time it worked but i again got a bsod during booting.

I left the computer on and it suddenly went further with booting. then i got a bsod when i got to the desktop. then it rebooted again and did the same thing over again but it didn't get a bsod when it came to the desktop so then i did a disk check then it rebooted and it came to the desktop without problems.

after that i installed the latest graphic card drivers that i downloaded from the xfx site (i downloaded them on my laptop and then put them on my computer with a usb stick)

when i did that i wanted to format the other disks (on C i have 50GB, D 690GB, E 670GB) i quick formated the D drive. then i tried the E drive but it it said it was unable to format. so i tried a normal format, when it was done it said at the end it still was unable to format.

what can i do about this?

btw: all the bsod i got were the same one i posted earlier

PS: sorry for double posting but i seem unable to edit my posts

 

[Amg]

BIOS flash it.
damm these MSIs lol and 780i

 

[calamus]

the bios is flashed to the latest version 1.3

 

[calamus]

reinstalled everything (which fixed the formatting issue) and just didn't install the driver right now (so now i don't have the bsods anymore). it works with the windows drivers so until nvidia makes a fix i'll use the windows ones.



thx for all the support all!