MSI RS480M2-IL

Hardware of this machine.

  • box: Arctic Cooling Silentium T1 with psu.
  • power supply: Seasonic 350W, active PFC
  • motherboard: MSI RS480M2-IL (MS-7093)
  • memory: 4096MB ( 4 x 1024 MB DIMM) was: 3072MB (2 x 512MB + 2 x 1024MB) 4 slots - max memory is 4 GB
  • cpu: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ @ 1.8 GHz
  • cpu cooler: Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu.
  • hard drives:
  • ad0: 152627MB at ata0-master UDMA133
  • ad4: 953869MB at ata2-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s
  • ad6: 953869MB at ata3-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s (was: ad6: 190782MB at ata3-master SATA150)
  • ad8: 1907729MB at ata4-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s (was: ad8: 953869MB at ata4-master SATA150)
  • sata - this motherboard only supports sata / 150.
  • optical drive: acd0 ATA/ATAPI revision 0
  • video: ATI Radeon X550 Series (RV370)
  • display: LCD monitor 1280 x 1024
  • sound: snd_atiixp - IXP_AUDIO_400 IXP AC'97 Audio Controller
  • network: re0 - Realtek RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter
  • usb: IXP SB400 OHCI USB Controller, IXP SB400 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
  • firewire: VT6306 VIA Fire II IEEE-1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller
  • other: Hauppauge PVR-350,
  • bios: v3.5 (W7093AMS V3.5 070105)

OS testing: FreeBSD,

links

local links: o1 - Asus F2A55-M LE,

back to machines page.

work log

2021-02-10: I connected the Sapphire R9 280 card to the motherboard and psu, and connected the monitor to it with a DVI-to-VGA adapter, and the card works, it shows display and it show up in pciconf -lv output in FreeBSD.

2021-02-10: I tested this motherboard again, to verify that the RM750 psu used on o1 still works. Connected the motherboard to the RM750, monitor, keyboard, comes straight up, appears to work. Nice. Also booted from a FreeBSD install usb stick, everything looks ok.

2013-02-12: I retired this motherboard. The new quiet machine uses the Asus M2A-VM HDMI motherboard.

2013-02-01: slice 3 - dmesg and /var/log/messages now say this about the drives:

ad0: 152627MB <WDC WD1600AVJB-63J5A0 01.03E01> at ata0-master UDMA133
ad4: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata2-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s
ad6: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000528AS CC49> at ata3-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s
ad8: 1907729MB <SAMSUNG HD204UI 1AQ10001> at ata4-master UDMA100 SATA 1.5Gb/s

and the (non-working) DVD writer:

acd0: DVDR <NEC DVD RW ND-3540A/1.01> at ata1-master UDMA33
acd0: FAILURE - ATA_IDENTIFY status=51<READY,DSC,ERROR> error=4<ABORTED>

Just information.

2012-12-19: slice 3 - after drive replacement, dmesg says this:

root@kg-quiet# dmesg | grep ^ad
ad0: 152627MB <WDC WD1600AVJB-63J5A0 01.03E01> at ata0-master UDMA133
ad4: DMA limited to UDMA33, device found non-ATA66 cable
ad4: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata2-master UDMA33
ad6: DMA limited to UDMA33, device found non-ATA66 cable
ad6: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000528AS CC49> at ata3-master UDMA33
ad8: DMA limited to UDMA33, device found non-ATA66 cable
ad8: 1907729MB <SAMSUNG HD204UI 1AQ10001> at ata4-master UDMA33

and atacontrol:

root@kg-quiet# atacontrol list
ATA channel 0:
    Master:  ad0 <WDC WD1600AVJB-63J5A0/01.03E01> ATA/ATAPI revision 8
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 1:
    Master: acd0 <NEC DVD RW ND-3540A/1.01> ATA/ATAPI revision 0
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 2:
    Master:  ad4 <ST31000340AS/SD1A> SATA revision 1.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 3:
    Master:  ad6 <ST31000528AS/CC49> SATA revision 2.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 4:
    Master:  ad8 <SAMSUNG HD204UI/1AQ10001> SATA revision 2.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 5:
    Master:      no device present
    Slave:       no device present

2012-12-19: drive physical locations in the machine:

Nec CD / DVD at the top
ad8 (Samsung HD204UI) below that (not secured)
ad0 (WD WD1600, PATA boot drive)
ad4 (Seagate 7200.11 1 TB)
and ad6 (currently Seagate ST3200822AS 200 GB drive) in the internal "vibration damped" drive case. Oh well.

Replacement: I disconnected the cables to the drive, and took out the drive case (it is only secured at the front). I took off the back cover, the drive slid out easily, inserted a new one and put the cover back on. Put the drive case back in, connected it up and connected the cables.

2012-12-19: preparing for drive change. Here is what the current drives look like from FreeBSD:

root@kg-quiet# atacontrol list
ATA channel 0:
    Master:  ad0 <WDC WD1600AVJB-63J5A0/01.03E01> ATA/ATAPI revision 8
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 1:
    Master: acd0 <NEC DVD RW ND-3540A/1.01> ATA/ATAPI revision 0
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 2:
    Master:  ad4 <ST31000340AS/SD1A> SATA revision 1.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 3:
    Master:  ad6 <ST3200822AS/3.01> SATA revision 1.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 4:
    Master:  ad8 <SAMSUNG HD204UI/1AQ10001> SATA revision 2.x
    Slave:       no device present
ATA channel 5:
    Master:      no device present
    Slave:       no device present

it is ad6 which is going to be replaced.

2012-12-19: From my local Siba shop I bought a 1TB Seagate Barracuda (ST310005N1D1AS-RK aka 7200.12) for NOK 890.- (retail packaging). It is going to replace the current ad6, which is starting to fail now. I connected the drive (via a sata-to-usb adapter) to a machine and ran smartctl on it, here is the output:

smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [FreeBSD 8.3-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
Device Model:     ST31000528AS
Serial Number:    5VP9R9H7
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 03e5d7db9
Firmware Version: CC3E
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Wed Dec 19 22:54:54 2012 CET

==> WARNING: A firmware update for this drive may be available,
see the following Seagate web pages:
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/207931en
http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/213891en

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

Ok, let's check to see if there is a firmware update. Yes, it seems firmware version CC49 (Barracuda12-ALL-CC49.iso) is available. After downloading the ISO image, I connected my Plextor usb buerner to my workstation and proceeded to burn the image. Scanning for devices:

root@kg-v2# cdrecord -scanbus
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.00 (amd64-unknown-freebsd8.2) Copyright (C) 1995-2010 Jörg Schilling
Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'.
scsibus0:
    0,0,0      0) 'Generic ' '2.0 Reader    -0' '1.00' Removable Disk
    0,1,0      1) *
    0,2,0      2) *
    0,3,0      3) *
    0,4,0      4) *
    0,5,0      5) *
    0,6,0      6) *
    0,7,0      7) *
scsibus1:
    1,0,0    100) 'PLEXTOR ' 'DVDR    PX-608CU' '1.00' Removable CD-ROM
    1,1,0    101) *
    1,2,0    102) *
    1,3,0    103) *
    1,4,0    104) *
    1,5,0    105) *
    1,6,0    106) *
    1,7,0    107) *

Ok, burn the image:

root@kg-v2# cdrecord -v dev=1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree ./Barracuda12-ALL-CC49.iso
cdrecord: No write mode specified.
cdrecord: Assuming -sao mode.
cdrecord: If your drive does not accept -sao, try -tao.
cdrecord: Future versions of cdrecord may have different drive dependent defaults.
Cdrecord-ProDVD-ProBD-Clone 3.00 (amd64-unknown-freebsd8.2) Copyright (C) 1995-2010 Jörg Schilling
TOC Type: 1 = CD-ROM
scsidev: '1,0,0'
scsibus: 1 target: 0 lun: 0
Using libscg version 'schily-0.9'.
Driveropts: 'burnfree'
SCSI buffer size: 65536
atapi: 0
Device type    : Removable CD-ROM
Version        : 0
Response Format: 2
Capabilities   :
Vendor_info    : 'PLEXTOR '
Identifikation : 'DVDR    PX-608CU'
Revision       : '1.00'
Device seems to be: Generic mmc2 DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM.
Current: CD-R
Profile: DVD+R/DL
Profile: DVD+R
Profile: DVD+RW
Profile: DVD-R/DL layer jump recording
Profile: DVD-R/DL sequential recording
Profile: DVD-RW sequential recording
Profile: DVD-RW restricted overwrite
Profile: DVD-RAM
Profile: Removable Disk
Profile: DVD-R sequential recording
Profile: DVD-ROM
Profile: CD-RW
Profile: CD-R (current)
Profile: CD-ROM
Using generic SCSI-3/mmc   CD-R/CD-RW driver (mmc_cdr).
Driver flags   : MMC-3 SWABAUDIO BURNFREE
Supported modes: TAO PACKET SAO SAO/R96P SAO/R96R RAW/R16 RAW/R96P RAW/R96R LAYER_JUMP
Drive buf size : 1267712 = 1238 KB
cdrecord: Warning: Cannot read drive buffer.
cdrecord: Warning: The DMA speed test has been skipped.
FIFO size      : 4194304 = 4096 KB
Track 01: data     6 MB       
Total size:        7 MB (00:45.32) = 3399 sectors
Lout start:        7 MB (00:47/24) = 3399 sectors
Current Secsize: 2048
ATIP info from disk:
  Indicated writing power: 5
Disk Is not unrestricted
Disk Is not erasable
  Disk sub type: Medium Type A, high Beta category (A+) (3)
  ATIP start of lead in:  -11634 (97:26/66)
  ATIP start of lead out: 359846 (79:59/71)
Disk type:    Short strategy type (Phthalocyanine or similar)
Manuf. index: 3
Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corporation

    Capacity  Blklen/Sparesz.  Format-type  Type
           0             2048         0x00  Unformated or Blank Media
Blocks total: 359846 Blocks current: 359846 Blocks remaining: 356447
Starting to write CD/DVD/BD at speed 24 in real SAO mode for single session.
Last chance to quit, starting real write    0 seconds. Operation starts.
Waiting for reader process to fill input buffer ... input buffer ready.
BURN-Free is ON.
Performing OPC...
Sending CUE sheet...
Writing pregap for track 1 at -150
Starting new track at sector: 0
Track 01:    6 of    6 MB written (fifo 100%) [buf  98%]  10.8x.
Track 01: Total bytes read/written: 6961152/6961152 (3399 sectors).
Writing  time:   29.200s
Average write speed   2.0x.
Min drive buffer fill was 92%
Fixating...
cdrecord: Input/output error. flush cache: scsi sendcmd: retryable error
CDB:  35 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
status: 0x0 (GOOD STATUS)
cmd finished after 9.768s timeout 200s
Trouble flushing the cache
Fixating time:   12.371s
cdrecord: fifo had 107 puts and 107 gets.
cdrecord: fifo was 0 times empty and 23 times full, min fill was 93%.
root@kg-v2#

check that the image got burned ok:

root@kg-v2# mount /cdrom
root@kg-v2# df -h /cdrom
Filesystem    Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/cd0      6.7M    6.7M      0B   100%    /cdrom
root@kg-v2# l /cdrom
./               Autorun.inf*     FreeDOS/         README.txt*      seglogo.ico*
../              BCDW/            PH-CC49.ima*     drivedetect.exe*
root@kg-v2#

Seems ok, unmount it:

root@kg-v2# umount /cdrom
umount: unmount of /cdrom failed: Device busy
root@kg-v2# umount -f /cdrom

Now I need to find a machine to connect the drive to, so I can perform the upgrade. I decided to use the f4 machine. After the upgrade, herer is what smartctl reports:

smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [FreeBSD 8.3-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.12
Device Model:     ST31000528AS
Serial Number:    5VP9R9H7
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 03e5d7db9
Firmware Version: CC49
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Thu Dec 20 00:00:13 2012 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

Good, update done.

2012-07-11: removed the firewire hard drive (previously da0, mounted at /d8) because it is old and showing errors. Reordered the remaining usb hard drives (da1 is now da0, da2 is da1, da3 is da2, da4 is da3 and da5 is da4) in /etc/fstab.

2012-07-11: I replaced hard drive ad8 (upper, below CD-ROM drive), because it was showing errors.
old: ad8: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata4-master SATA150
new:
Setting up the new hard drive (from single-user, using gpart):
```sh
@$ gpart show ad8
gpart: No such geom: ad8.
@$ gpart create -s GPT ad8
ad8 created
@$ gpart add -t freebsd-ufs ad8
ad8p1 added

Then I commented out ad8 from /etc/fstab and booted into multi-user. Got this in /var/log/messages:

Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: Device: /dev/ad8, WARNING: Using smartmontools or hdparm with this
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: drive may result in data loss due to a firmware bug.
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: ****** THIS DRIVE MAY OR MAY NOT BE AFFECTED! ******
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: Buggy and fixed firmware report same version number!
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: See the following web pages for details:
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386
Jul 11 20:58:35 kg-quiet smartd[1487]: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/SamsungF4EGBadBlocks

Right. Time to patch / update. I downloaded the program, which is a DOS executable. So I downloaded a FreeDOS usb image from here, and wrote it to a usb stick with:

root@kg-v2# dd if=./FreeDOS-1.1-USB-Boot.img of=/dev/da1
63488+0 records in
63488+0 records out
32505856 bytes transferred in 208.687490 secs (155763 bytes/sec)

mounted it:

root@kg-v2# mount -t msdosfs /dev/da1s1 /media

and copied the necessary file to it:

tingo@kg-v2$ cp -v F4EG.exe /media
F4EG.exe -> /media/F4EG.exe

unmount:

root@kg-v2# umount /media

then try to boot the machine with the HD204UI drive in from the usb stick. Ok, the F4EG program complains that "this system is ATA only", so I just used another machine to do the upgrade. On both F4EG disk drives. smartctl still complains:

root@kg-quiet# smartctl -a /dev/ad8 | more
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     SAMSUNG SpinPoint F4 EG (AFT)
Device Model:     SAMSUNG HD204UI
Serial Number:    S2H7J90BB06310
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0024e9 2067a331b
Firmware Version: 1AQ10001
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 6
Local Time is:    Wed Jul 11 22:22:17 2012 CEST

==> WARNING: Using smartmontools or hdparm with this
drive may result in data loss due to a firmware bug.
****** THIS DRIVE MAY OR MAY NOT BE AFFECTED! ******
Buggy and fixed firmware report same version number!
See the following web pages for details:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/SamsungF4EGBadBlocks

but now I know that the drive is updated.

2012-07-11: memory: I replaced two 512 MB DIMMs with two 1GB DIMMs, bringing the total up to 4 GB.

2011-10-01: today I replaced one of the older WD Elements 500 GB (2) usb hard drives with the new WD Elements SE 1 TB. old drive:

Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/da3s1d    451G    404G     11G    97%    /d6

<WD 5000AAK External 1.06>         at scbus8 target 0 lun 0 (pass4,da3)

new drive:

Filesystem     Size    Used   Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/da3s1d    902G    421G    409G    51%    /d6

<WD Elements 1023 2005>            at scbus8 target 0 lun 0 (pass4,da3)

That's all.

2011-08-28: I added a new external hard drive today, a WD Elements SE, 1 TB, 2.5 inch usb-powered drive (model: WDBABV0010BBK-EESN). It shows up in /var/log/messages on FreeBSD as:

Aug 28 19:20:00 kg-quiet kernel: umass5: <Western Digital Elements 1023, class 0/0, rev 2.00/20.05, addr 7> on usbus2
Aug 28 19:20:00 kg-quiet kernel: umass5:  SCSI over Bulk-Only; quirks = 0x0000
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: umass5:11:5:-1: Attached to scbus11
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: da6 at umass-sim5 bus 5 scbus11 target 0 lun 0
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: da6: <WD Elements 1023 2005> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-4 device
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: da6: 40.000MB/s transfers
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: da6: 953867MB (1953519616 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 121600C)
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: GEOM: da6: partition 1 does not start on a track boundary.
Aug 28 19:20:01 kg-quiet kernel: GEOM: da6: partition 1 does not end on a track boundary.

I just temporarily connected it, so I can label and newfs it.

2011-01-11: the boot hard drive (ad0 - Seagate 120 GB) is failing, so today I bought a WD 160 GB Caviar, 7200 rpm, 8 MB cache, model WD1600AVJB as a replacement. The new ad0 is (from /var/log/messages):

ad0: 152627MB <WDC WD1600AVJB-63J5A0 01.03E01> at ata0-master UDMA133

the old one was:

ad0: 114473MB <Seagate ST3120026A 8.01> at ata0-master UDMA100

2009-11-19: newest BIOS is v 3.9, released 2006-02-13.

2009-03-20: I removed two hard drives 120 GB (ad1 ATA/ATAPI revision 6) and 200 GB (ad4 Serial ATA v1.0) and added two new 1 TB ones:

ad4: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata2-master SATA150
ad8: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata4-master SATA150

Since these drives are from the 7200.11 range, I first upgraded the firmware on them, using instructions and bootable iso image from Seagate. Now the internal drives in the machine looks like this:

ad0: 114473MB <Seagate ST3120026A 8.01> at ata0-master UDMA100
ad4: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata2-master SATA150
ad6: 190782MB <Seagate ST3200822AS 3.01> at ata3-master SATA150
ad8: 953869MB <Seagate ST31000340AS SD1A> at ata4-master SATA150

2009-03-19: spring cleaning inside the machine. Lots of dust. The rubber rings for the silent hard drive box inside the machine have broken again. I must find a way to fix it. I just used wire to hold the silent box.

2005-09-02: downgraded bios from V3.8 to V3.5 (W7093AMS V3.5 070105), because the nVidia GeForce 6200 TC (TurboCache) gfx card didn't work stable. Later learned that this motherboard doesn't work well with nVidia gfx cards at all.

2005-08-29: upgrade bios from V3.3 to V3.8 (W7093AMS V3.8 072105). After upgrade, the network controller was disabled in the bios.