MSI X48C Platinum

[Meso]

Last summer i purchased the system (specs shown below) with the X48C platinum from MSI. In de beginning i had a lot of troubles with the video card driver getting crashed. an update of th ebis and some setting changes fixed it. I still however have the feeling that this mobo is more prone for errors than for instance the ASUS P5 series. I got this feeling since my brother uses a P5 something mobo from asus and has never seen any problem with the video card driver.

Is this true or should i change something in the settings somewhere?

kind regards,

Meso

[harleyman]

Hey Meso.. Not quite understanding your question.

Are you having problems in peticular with something?

The MSI mobo is a fine one...Have you looked into flashing its bios, as you may still be using an old one thats not so good..



You are running DDR3 ram on a X48 platform...?

[Meso]

Well today i had suddenly problems with loading flights in DX10 mode which caused the video card driver to crash. I've had this problem before but bios updates (flash) solved it in combination with a setting in the bios. (dont know which setting my brother fixed it). So thats why i thought it was the mobo again.

I discovered that fsx only causes this problems in dx10 which gives better fps on my system than dx9. But in dx9 i dont get the error.

and yes i have ddr3 from corsair. here are the details:
the package sais:
it is DDR3 @ 1333mhz with DHX (dual-path heat exchange) which should keep it cool.

btw can i somewhere see how the performance of the RAM is?

kind regards,

Meso

btw i use 4 banks of ram of 1gb each.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2GB-(2x1GB)-CorsairTwinX-XMS3-DDR3-PC3-10666-(1333)-240-Pin-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-DHX

[harleyman]

Thats right..Your mobo runs DDR3


Go here to MSI forums and look into flashing that bios..

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=121071.msg914322




And ? Or run Mem Test and see if your ram is causing problems .....

[Meso]

Well, the Bios version is 1.1 something. The troubles i had with FSX not loading in DX 10 preview mode are over. I dont know what caused it, but i let fsx create a new fsx.cfg and reinstalled nhancer. I am a little affraid to flash the bios since it could destroy the mobo. FSX so far (actually the whole system) has been super stable so i do not see a direct reason for updating the bios, unless there is a very big improvement in performance.

kind regards,

Meso

[txnetcop]

Meso that motherboard you are using has a complex BIOS but is very powerful. It also comes with many great reviews. I would stick with it as long as you can.
Ted

[Meso]

Thanks for the reply txnetcop. Actually i'm not that familiar with tweaking hardware or bios settings. I think i need to dive into that aspect more.

So far my system works pretty good, actually running FSX doesnt really make the machine work too much (fan speed doesnt change and heat is quite low). I use tileproxy most of the time so it does not have to calculate trees and houses. The frames are limited to 24 and stay there most of the time depending on aircraft. The only thing that is wierd is that if ATC contacts an airplane the sim stutters to load the voice. I have no idea to fix it although i did not try to lower the sound quality in the game settings.

Kind regards,

Meso

[harleyman]

You can lower the sound quality in windows too, or your EAX if using a sound card....


If all elses is great but DX10..I would say its not your mobo causing it...Might just be a software conflict with in your system somewhere that can not play well with DX10....



Do you have a sound card??? Creative by chance?

[Meso]

I use the onboard sound chipset on the mobo. On a clean fsx install this does not happen so defragging might work. Tonight i will defrag my fsx drive and see what happens.

Kind regards,

Meso

[harleyman]

Hmmm I defragg after every hour of flying.....Or each session

[Meso]

Well i got the same problem again. FSX runs in dx9 but keeps crashing in dx10. Actually the video card driver crashes, but only in dx10. i have no idea how to fix it. I let fsx build a new cfg, did not work. I refuse to go to dx9 since i get crappy performance in that mode.

The problem occured when i went from windows (vista) to fsx by double clicking the title bar. The video card driver crased and it keeps doing it in every plane when i load up a flight.

guess it willl take me another day to get fsx running again, but i have no clue what to do.

any ideas are welcome.

(stil think my msi in combination with the nvidia is a bit unstable).

EDIT: the problem occured when i was going back from vista to fsx. For some reason it looks like vista think im in windowed mode but the sim thinks its in ful screen or the other way around. while fsx crashed i hit the alt + enter combination. after restarting to restore the driver correctly (dont believe vista when it says it has been restored) and it loaded correctly. more to come tomorrow. first i'll defrag the system and see how the sound of atc is.

Kind regards,

Meso

PS it is always an adventure flying with my system, it can be super or it wont fly at all. guess that keeps flying something special.

[harleyman]

I think you should flash the bios if its never been done...It might be what you need..

Typically most manufactures of mobo have a windows flash tool...Their web site should give details on how to do it...

[txnetcop]

Here is the problem Meso. It is in the way the motherboard handles memory.
MSI uses a rare option: the X48C Platinum motherboard contains slots for both types of memory DDR2 and DDR3 (that's a relatively usual situation for a transition period, when such a technology is supported by a chipset) and a circuit to switch between the operating modes of the chipset memory controller. Unfortunately, it's not a very good solution, because a user has to install two stubs into memory slots of the unused type. These cards can be flipped to fit a slot type. To make up for the bulky solution, these stubs are equipped with LEDs that indicate the current memory type and help diagnose startup problems (if they don't light up, you have a problem).

As I said earlier, it has a complicated BIOS more for guys like me instead of guys like you that are not technically oriented. In other words, though very powerful it is a real B**ch to setup. It is even harder to flash the BIOS. If there is anyway to trade that motherboard for an easier to build Gigabyte or ASUS I would do it if I were you. That $69.00 Gigabyte G31M motherboard that Harley uses is almost as powerful as what you have and very overclockable. It would be worth it to make the switch and sell the MSI. If you need help doing it all you have to do is ask. I can walk you through it on the phone if you need that.

By the way Meso this is not meant as an insult in any way. This really is a very complex motherboad.
Ted

[Meso]

thanks guys. About the LED's on the mobo for the ram, they are not on. If i read the manual correctly they should light up with the stubs installed. The stub sould read DDR3 in leds.

"By the way Meso this is not meant as an insult in any way.
This really is a very complex motherboad."

Ted,

I'm not insulted in any way, I ask these questions since i dont have the knowledge.

kind regards and thanks for any help,

Meso

[Meso]

I just checked if the stubs were installed correctly (dimm ddr2 side of the stubs into the mobo). that looked ok.

btw, the installation of the hardware is not the issue for me. it is more the software part with all its variables that im not familiar with. If there is any guide that explains the bios parameters that would be very helpfull.

kind regards,

Meso

[harleyman]

Hey Meso..There is lots of info here at btheir web site...

http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp

[Meso]

aaah thanks. i searched on thier forums for a few minutes, found some interesting reads. I'll dig into this as i said before. first i wil enjoy the weather today.

FSX is cured again. I had to reload a flight in a default aircraft in dx10 mode. switch to windowed mode. than shut down fsx. start up again. load the flight with the default aircraft. than choose the aircraft that was loaded during the first crash of the driver, still in windowed mode. shut down fsx. start up again. choose a default aircraft, load a flight go to full screen mode. shut down again. start up fsx and load in full screen mode with a default plane. choose the aircraft that was loaded during the first crash. shut down again. now it seems the problem is over.

kind regards,

Meso

[harleyman]

Hmmmm


I bet you can't say or do that again....LOL

[Meso]

NO! i do know that if it happens again that i will try to do that dance again before deleting the fsx config. That needs to be tweaked again. luckily i do not do too much of tweaking. the only tweaks are the buferpools, remove the brake messages and setting the wideview aspect to true.

kind regards,

Meso