Tips, Tricks, and Mods

[AWC]

Good one Pop

[czaja74]

Originally posted by Radiohead
If you're experiecing lagging boot times ie hanging at windows logo screen on boot up it vey likely it could have something to do with the NVidia IDE drivers. If you check your event viewer and see nvide errors then roll the drivers back to the MS native for ide contoller.

Also if you are have MS networks installed. This will hang for a while on boot screen or just after. Here solution is easy. If you use your network interface for broadband you can uninstall all components on your network adapter and leave only TCP/IP protocal. Reboot and you should see faster boot.

[bork]

Originally posted by czaja74
Also if you are have MS networks installed. This will hang for a while on boot screen or just after. Here solution is easy. If you use your network interface for broadband you can uninstall all components on your network adapter and leave only TCP/IP protocal. Reboot and you should see faster boot.

Originally posted by Radiohead
If you're experiecing lagging boot times ie hanging at windows logo screen on boot up it vey likely it could have something to do with the NVidia IDE drivers. If you check your event viewer and see nvide errors then roll the drivers back to the MS native for ide contoller.

Both of these statements are not true for mine setup. Maybe I'll have to drop a list how I do mine setup, I don't install automatically al ther stuff from soltek.

What I did test because I had a new setup with a brandnew Seagate Barracuda V 120 GB 8 mb Cache. I'm enjoying the silence but this one is slower than mine 'old' noisy maxtor 740 DX.

But what dis I do. I benched with Sandra both harddrive and memory. The first time with the Microsoft-drivers another 2 runs with the most recent ide-drivers and mem-controllers of nvidia.

No significant difference measured! So stick with the one's from microsoft, saves time and troubles.
Mine startup takes half a blue bar and then it's finished!
Power on, 10-15 seconds later online, that's faster as mine SPV!

[MoNk]

Motherboard Monitor Setup. Confirmed by MBM maker and a few hours research with temp probe. Also matches with Soltek HW.

Case = Winbond 1 - 32C
ABS II = LM90 REMOTE - 45C
CPU External = LM90 LOCAL - 38C
CPU Die = Winbond 2 - 39C
Motherboard = Winbond 3 - 35C

My temps shown for example. (2100+@ 2255mhz on SLK-800@3300rpm)

[MoNk]

^ unnecessary.

I should add that to be able to have Hard drive temperatures with the Soltek FRN-L (and all other versions) you must uninstall the Nvidia DW IDE drivers (scsi ones) and then you can monitor the HDD temps.

[Harryc]

If you are looking for a BIOS Savior for the SL-75FRN2-L or RL, the correct IOSS model # is RD1-PMC2. You must use Awdflash 8.23I(I) or higher version to flash the RD1's BIOS chip or it will not work. Winflash ver. 1.51 has also been proven to work. See this thread for details.

[Popcicle]

Tired of stabbing your Mboard with a screwdriver?

When changing the heatsink and using a flat-blade

screwdriver on the clip it is easy to slip.

Find yourself a small piece of soft leather and lay it

down next to the CPU socket for protection.



Pops.

[Radiohead]

Good idea Pops. I have been using a piece of felt for a couple of years now. Socket A sinks are getting trickier as time goes on and taking simple precautions before hand helps us from getting into "if only" situations

[MassiveOverkill]

I no longer use a screwdriver. I use a small nutdriver and have never slipped using it.

[Harryc]

As reported by f1ask in this thread, these USB 2.0 drivers for WIN98SE should work for your SL-75MRN-L.

USB 2.0 win9xMe driver.zip

[f1ask]

btw,i think that driver should also work
with SL-75FRNxx or any nForce-2 MB
that needs USB 2.0 win9xMe driver

[screaminglemon]

part 1/3 - intro
originaly posted in thread: http://www.amdforums.com/showthread....hreadid=231330

the short version:
LM90 remote = AMD's on-cpu diode
LM90 local = cpu socket (LM90 chip)
winbond1 = RT1
winbond2 = cpu socket (RT2)

the long version:
after setting up my new FRN2, i installed motherboard monitor 5 (mbm5) but labeling the different temp sensor readings i was seeing seemed to be more guesswork than anything else. well, suffice it to say, i dont like guessing when it comes to temps, so a quick search, and i found MoNk's thread:
http://www.amdforums.com/showthread....hreadid=220293
but after reading through it i was rather confused. it seemed that everyone was saying different things so i decided to tackle the issue myself. i started a thread over at mbm5 forum:
http://www.livewiredev.com/bbs/showt...&threadid=3924
and you can go over there to read exactly how i came up with this info. i also sent some emails to soltek but they didnt help much. hopefully this will help so others wont have to go through all this (but it was rather fun).

onto the next part....

[screaminglemon]

part 2/3 - soltek & sensor chips
originaly posted in thread: http://www.amdforums.com/showthread....hreadid=231330

first, lets start with the hardware side of things. the 75FRN2's come with 2 sensor chips and 2 thermistors.
sensor chips:
Winbond W83627HF-AW (sitting next to the bios chip)
National Semiconductor LM90 (sitting in the cpu socket next to RT2)

thermistors:
RT1 (just above and left of the agp slot)
RT2 (sitting in the cpu socket under the cpu core)

then of course AMD's on-cpu diode

the winbond is capable of measuring 3 different temps (as well as other things like fan rpm, voltages, etc), and the LM90 is capable of measuring 2 temps (one being itself). so it seems as though the frn2 can measure 5 different temps, but this isnt exactly so as 2 of these are measuring the same thing and 1 seems to be measuring nothing at all.

so onto the soltek software. in bios we see 3 temps:
ABS II
system
cpu-external

if you instal the latest version of solteks hardware monitor (HM) we also see 3 temps:
cpu die
ABS II
RT1

the official word from soltek regarding these are:

in bios       |  in soltek HM | it measures
              |               |
ABS II        |  ABS II       | AMD's on-cpu diode
cpu-external  |  cpu die      | RT2
system        |  RT1          | RT1

as you can see the terminology is rather confusing especially if youre running the original version of HM and you dont see ABS II.

onto the last part....

[screaminglemon]

part 3/3 - mbm5 settings
originaly posted in thread: http://www.amdforums.com/showthread....hreadid=231330

first off, get the latest version of mbm5 from http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
after install, you need to 'uncheck' the "Detect smbus before detecting primay" on the advanced tab. close and restart the program and you can now select LM90 local and remote.

now there seems to be 5 valid temp readings:
LM90 remote
LM90 local
winbond1
winbond2
winbond3

by running mbm5 and HM concurrently, we see that:
LM90 remote = ABS II
winbond1 = RT1
winbond2 = cpu die

now we know that LM90 sensor measures only 2 things, itself and a diode. since we know it IS measuring the on-cpu diode, we can conclude that the other temp is the socket because thats where the LM90 chip is sitting. plus, ive never seen LM90 local and winbond2 more than 2C apart.

as for winbond1, if you doubt it, just point a fan directly at RT1. you'll see which temp drops in mbm5.

now winbond3 is a little trickier. some have stated that its the northbridge temp but its definately not (just unplug the NB fan and watch the temps, none of them rise). so what else could it be? on my board, i thought it was the ambient temp in the case, but there is no third thermistor. and when i raise Vdd, winbond3 gets bumped up as well but still stays lower than any other temp. well, as of right now i think winbond3 is a 'fake' temp. just a garbage reading that the winbond chip somehow produces by having nothing hooked to it. if you disagree, then please, prove me wrong.

so heres the conclusion:

in mbm5       | in soltek HM | in bios      | its measuring
              |              |              |
LM90 remote   | ABS II       | ABS II       | AMD's on-cpu diode
LM90 local    |              |              | socket through LM90 chip
winbond1      | RT1          | system       | thermister RT1
winbond2      | cpu die      | cpu-external | socket through RT2

all other temp readings can be ignored.

kind of anti-climatic, isnt it?

[BubbaJudge]

It was a good read, and I'm glad we finally got these sensors straight. Thanks for investigating and posting your result.