MSI 850 Pro2 problem \ VOGONS

MSI 850 Pro2 problem

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First post, by th1r5bvn23

Posted on 2019-09-23, 02:57

th1r5bvn23 Offline

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Got a MSI 850 Pro2 mobo and tried to install Windows XP but failed. It always hanged at boot screen or 2nd stage installation with hdd led always on but in fact no activity. Tried both a STEC 8GB CF card and a WD 80GB IDE hdd which were detected by BIOS correctly. (primary master)
Also I found a weird behavior when using that WD hdd. Fdisk from 98SE boot disk reported ~11GB and after reboot it reports ~10GB.
I couldn't boot into preinstall environment either. I used a Samsung TS-H652H IDE DVD writer to boot from a all-in-one preinstall environment CD. With 2003 PE I failed at loading ramdisk and it reported cannot read file, and with XP PE I hanged up at loading shell (explorer, a customed PE).
Since there was no bluescreen I doubt there was problem with IDE controller (ICH2 southbridge), but PE failed too and it made me confused. What should be the problem?
Edit: My PSU don't have 6pin AUX connector. It's a Delta NX350.

Last edited by th1r5bvn23 on 2019-09-23, 03:15. Edited 1 time in total.

Intel Pentium E5300, ASUS P5KPL-AM SE, 2GB DDR2 800, ATI Radeon X300 SE, Creative Sound Blaster PCI 128 CT5807

Reply 1 of 5, by Warlord

Posted on 2019-09-23, 03:03

Warlord Offline

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my instinct is that its bad ram modules. id start with removing the ram and trying individual sticks to running memtest86 if that doesn't work.

Remember that setup and PE load a lot, and work from system memory. If you have a bad stick of ram or a fualty memory module then this kinda thing will happen.

Reply 2 of 5, by Doornkaat

Posted on 2019-09-23, 05:16

Doornkaat Offline

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I'm not very familiar with Socket 423 but I think using the 6pin connector was required. See what the manual says about this.

With IDE troubleshooting it's always a good start to try other cables. IDE cables have a bad habit of breaking all the time.

Warlord's RAM suggestion is also a good idea.

Reply 3 of 5, by dionb

Posted on 2019-09-23, 08:48

dionb Offline

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MSI was using some pretty terrible caps around the time this board was made. Check them too...

Reply 4 of 5, by th1r5bvn23

Posted on 2019-09-23, 14:49

th1r5bvn23 Offline

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dionb wrote:
MSI was using some pretty terrible caps around the time this board was made. Check them too...

All the capacitors are in good shape. 8 Rubycon MBZ caps (with T prefix) were used for CPU VRM and most of other caps were SANYO, except 4 taller Elite 16V caps and one small TAYEH cap near southbridge. All of them look pretty well.

Intel Pentium E5300, ASUS P5KPL-AM SE, 2GB DDR2 800, ATI Radeon X300 SE, Creative Sound Blaster PCI 128 CT5807

Reply 5 of 5, by th1r5bvn23

Posted on 2019-09-24, 13:41

th1r5bvn23 Offline

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Problem solved. It was my using too little memory (64M x2) that caused Windows PE not booting. And the CF card I used to install Windows XP initially was too slow for it.

Intel Pentium E5300, ASUS P5KPL-AM SE, 2GB DDR2 800, ATI Radeon X300 SE, Creative Sound Blaster PCI 128 CT5807

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