MSI K8N Platinum BIOS Problems

[wbell]

I've just built my first PC using the above board, Sempron 3100+, 1Gb Ram, dual Seagate 160Gb Sata 7200.8, Plextor 712A, Audigy 2 ZS Platinum sound, Galaxy 6800GT graphics, Thermalright X-90 HS, SilenX fans throughout, Tagon 480W psu, all in an Akasa Eclipse-62 case with window side panel - in other words, my dream machine!

Before this turns into a nightmare, I'd like to ask a few [hopefully easy] questions...

1. I need to connect my cable modem via ethernet to the pc using the board's Gigabit capability (this is to allow a wifi router to eventually be connected.)

Unfortunately, I'm haing difficulty configuring WinXP Pro to recognise the cable modem / Gigabit connection. The MSI manual shows an 'Onboard Giga LAN' option in the BIOS and I think I need to enable this, but my version of the BIOS (despite flashing to version 1.4) does not display this 'Onboard Giga LAN' option.

Attempts to configure ethernet in the Network Connections window also fails because nVidia's Forceware Network Access Manager is not present for some reason...

Your help in configuring ethernet would be much appreciated?

2. From reading about SATA drives on the Web, I'd expected my two little beauties to be recognided as SCSI devices - but for some reason the BIOS refers to them as IDE Primary 3 and IDE Primary 4. Why is that?

Finally (and for information), all the above components were purchased in the last month from new, so i'm at a loss to know why some bits are different or missing from what's required.

Thanks to you all in advance!!
Will

[Firelord]

1 - is your board OEM or retail? Does XP see the NIC?

2 - SATA drives are only seen as SCSI devices IF they are raided or use a 3rd party SATA Card. The nForce3 SATA chipset is integrated into the northbridge and as such recognises single non RAID devices as ATA/IDE devices even though they are SATA. Nought to worry about Also make sure you use SATA3+4

3 - Don't follow the question?

[wbell]

Thanks for replying to my post FireLord!

1) It's a retail board - I've now been able to fix this by downloading nVidia's new Unified Driver - this gave me the Forceware Network Access Controller utility which then kick-started my ethernet port. God knows why this didn't come as part of my MB pack...?

2) I don't use RAID at the moment but I had read that they were recognised as SCSI. The bit about them being recognised as ATA/IDE if they're non-RAID was completely new to me!!! I wonder how many other people know that one??? THNX!

3) Wasn't really a question, just me musing out loud about why MSI 'missed' a few bits out of the MB retail box - like the 'Onboard Giga LAN' BIOS option no longer being available but still showing in the manual!!

Glad to say my very first self-build is working like a charm now, but not quite the silent beast I was after!! Will figure that out when I build my next rig!

Cheers,
Will

1 - is your board OEM or retail? Does XP see the NIC?

2 - SATA drives are only seen as SCSI devices IF they are raided or use a 3rd party SATA Card. The nForce3 SATA chipset is integrated into the northbridge and as such recognises single non RAID devices as ATA/IDE devices even though they are SATA. Nought to worry about Also make sure you use SATA3+4

3 - Don't follow the question?