MSI K9AGM-FID : Any luck with Vista? Spontaneous reboot.

Has anybody been able to install Vista on the MSI K9AGM motherboard?

Everything works fine for hours under Windows XP MCE 2005. Meanwhile, under
Windows Vista Home Premium, the machine resets spontaneously every 10 minutes
flat (very precisely).
I've been investigating the issue for 2 days now without any luck. Even Safe
Mode does not survive the 10 minutes delay.

Any additional input would be appreciated.

 

I've been tryingto get Vista to work on my k9agm-based system for over
week. The system goes through periods of extremely slow activity (HD
light active, but no read or write activity), then after leaving it fo
several minutes/hours speed becomes good. Then it freezes or slow
again after being active for a short while. Also, I couldn't get Saf
Mode to work and several drivers (including from Windows Update
wouldn't install! The problem appears to be with the SB600 chipset an
drivers released with Vista.

Microsoft issued a hotfix (se
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931369/en-us), which I tried, but i
didn't work. There are several reports on the web of slow Vist
performance, which some appear to have been narrowed down to the SB60
chipset (see eg http://forums.amd.com/lofiversion/index.php/t90897.htm
an
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=M2R32-MVP&SLanguage=en-us)
Aparently, Microsoft are still working on a fix.

Any updates on any progress would be greatfully received

 

I should have also added that my system originally ran XP Pro, and my
problems only started during the upgrade to Vista Business a week ago.
Vista installation was painfully slow - several hours. The system is
configured RAID 1 with two WD 200GB HDD. I understand that non-RAID
configurations might not be affected by the SB600 and Vista conflict.

 

GREAT NEWS!

The new BIOS version 3.2 fixed the issues with Windows Vista! The computer
has been running for hours now. There hasn't been any unwanted behaviour or
loss of performance according to my tests.

If you're a K9AGM motherboard owner and plan to use Windows Vista, make sure
you have a version 3.2 BIOS (or over). Anything below this version will
result in spontaneous reboots every 10 minutes. This behaviour is also
present with Windows Server 2003.

I don't know if the BIOS has been released to the public yet. If not, it
should be available very soon (mine has been provided directly by MSI USA to
fix this show-stopper issue).

The following topic covers the problem details:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=105547.0

Again, thanks MSI USA for the support.

 

Over the weekend, I updated my k9AGM BIOS to v3.3, but this didn't solve
my problems. After a short period of uniterrupted computer activity (eg
surfing, word processing), the HDD becomes 100% active (light on, blue
line at top of disk meter in Reliability and Performance Monitor) but
no audible read or write activity. The HDD light dims briefly (and
blue line drops) after 8 or 9 seconds, when I can hear a short burst of
read or write activity, then comes full on again (and blue line rises)
for another 8 or 9 seconds.

Any more ideas?

 

Hi,

The only thing I can see is the RAID setup. Have you tried an installation
in "Native IDE" mode for the SATA controller? (I understand you'll lose the
RAID feature but it would narrow down the possible cause). I use Native IDE
with no slow down and a rock solid system.

 

Thanks for the advice. I gave up with Vista after trying the ATI
updates, and will try in slower time to get it installed on my now
reinstated XP system. Interestingly, an XP reinstallation option to
overwrite existing Windows’ files failed - for some reason no XML or
related files could be installed, but they did after I did a quick
reformat.

From what I have read, the key to getting Vista to work efficiently
appears to be the RAID controller driver. Non-RAID operation does not
appear to be an issue. Firstly, I tried the ATI v7.2 SB driver update
released last week, which contained Promise SATA RAID Driver v
2.5.1540.35 (versus my existing v 2.5.1540.28) and the South Bridge
Filter Driver v 1.00.0000.1. I could not get the RAID driver to
install after a number of attempts, but the filter driver did. There
was no obvious change to my slow Vista system.

I then tried the ATI v7.2 CCC driver update, which contained the same
RAID and filter drivers, plus a new display driver (v 8.342.0.0,
compared with v 8.333.0.0 released a few weeks earlier). Again, the
RAID driver would not install, but the display driver did. A previous
attempt to upgrade the display driver to 8.333.0.0 had also failed –
not sure why.

My troubles then started. The system would then not reboot, either
normally or in safe mode! This time, the only difference was the
upgraded display driver. I’m not sure if this was the fault of the
display driver, or perhaps a corrupt file in the installation process.
I’d installed MS Hotfix 931369 a week or so earlier, which was supposed
to have addressed Vista driver installation problems associated with
the SB600 chipset.

It was at this stage that I decided that more than two weeks trying to
get Vista running was more than enough, so went back to XP. I’ll try
again when I’ve got another two weeks to waste!