ardfi

was wondering where i can get the newest bios for this board? I notice some people have a bios build of: DFI K8M800-MLVF (bios 07/06/2005) the most recent bios of know of is from the dfi website dated 03/15/2005 which is the one i have. I would like to have a more updated bios since i'm installing a sata drive on this board and experiencing nothing but problems with the via sata controller Thanks

hi i'm not sure if you resolved your problem but i had a similar problems trying to install a brand new maxtor 250gb sata drive for the 1st time with this board. before i had a normal pata drive but it died unexpectedly. i tried forever installing XP professional sp2 on the machine but for the love of me, i couldn't get the sata drive recognized. checked the bios, power sata cables; nothing. Finally i think i read something that the board doesnt recognize sata2 drives so i set the jumper on the drive physically to sata1 and it worked! i've subsequently tried reinstalling the os on this board but have ran into numerous difficulties with sata and the via chipset. to put it bluntly, the via8237 chipset does not like sata and is giving me nothing but problems. Hope yours works out. lets us know your outcome

what is involved in swapping out one cpu for another? I'd like to go from a socket 754 sempron 2800 to athlon64 3000. Can i simply disconnect the power cord, lift out the old cpu and put in the new one, reinstall cpu cooler then reboot and everything will be fine and dandy? or do i have to make adjustments in my bios (reset?) before and after swapping? Thanks.

Ive made a htpc with the below listed components. problem is the machine is very loud. the zalman cooler seems to be running at max and although i've read they're supposed to be very quiet, mine seems to operating at around 2760 rpm @30 degrees celcius (according to the lcd module) and making a world of noise. add in my 6600gt card and there is so much airflow noise that its actually distracting to watch a movie. in figuring out how tackle this problem, the simplest solution would be to tune down the zalman's speed wih the nmedia pc's rotary knob on the front of the machine for controlling fanspeed, but this has no response from the board, no matter how much i turn it, the rpms stay above 2700 range. i know i hooked up the lcd module correctly to the fan but i'm not getting any response. heat is very noticable so i know the cpu isnt overheating making the fan run so high. is there some setting for my bios that i'm supposed to switch on to allow fan speed adjustment?? my motherboard bios is also only recognising my sempron 2800 as an amd hammer family processor. could this also be the noise problem? i am running a current bios. what about the 6600? is there a way to tone down its fan use? I'm not overclocking or doing any gaming, just straight dvd viewing right now. could someone please point me to how to operate this machine in a cool and quiet fashion as indicated in the mobo literature (amd cool and quiet technology support? where)? how do i figure out whether my bios is set currectly for adjusting fan speed, detecting the right cpu etc. i have a feeling its not set to allow me to fully exploit the sempron 2800 performance. any help would be appreciated and i will try to provide more info if required, i just dont know where to start Thanks

I'm still having problems with this board. Along with the previous poster, I've also noticed that the nmedia led display does some weird things: on bootup, if its a successfuly boot, the led display will show all icons for fanspeed, date, hd rpm etc, but every subsequent reeboot will reset itself. in other words all my date and time setting for the led have to be reset on every successful reboot. If mobo does a warm boot (?) hd, fans spin up and power up, but does not post, the hd led red light will stay on. in this situation, the case led display will not show much of anything. if have to continuously hit the reset button in both situations to get any viable data from the lcd display if it is accurate at all. Could all this mean that my mobo cmos battery needs replacing?? when i do get a successful boot, windows does keep accurate time and date, ie i dont have to reset it continuously. other than that, i cant figure out what else could be wrong.

bump did you ever resolve this issue? Im in the same boat

i have almost the exact same problem but even more severe. i will be posting all of my issues later. have you tried upping your ram voltage in your bios settings? i noticed a couple of posts mentioning that and tweaked mine up from 2.6 to 2.7/2.8volts the problem hasnt gone away entirely but seems a little less frequent, but this isnt how i want to live with this motherboard acting like this. just a suggestion. I'm as frustrated as you