After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.
Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com
Soltek SL-915GPro-FGR Motherboard Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Bios Features
BIOS Corruption
One of our forum members pointed out an issue with his Soltek SL-915GPro-FGR that was somewhat difficult to identify. We know this because we had a similar problem and of course needed to solve it quick. In a nutshell the issue started out with the motherboard configuring the memory controller at DDR333 speeds despite having manually setting the memory clock to 400Mhz. Our first thought was that the BIOS may need to be upgraded so we downloaded the latest version (v1.3) and flashed the system. This was done using the required software and suggested flashing routine. The result crippled the motherboard even more, CMOS settings were not retained, and a "CMOS Checksum Bad" error was flashed after the initial POST. Typically this error would point to bad CMOS memory or a faulty battery. The issue was actually caused by bad data being written to the BIOS chip, most likely out of order. A Soltek R&D Engineer suggested the following to solve the problem.
Use the following command to flash the BIOS image
A:\>AFUDOS /I[bios image name] /PBNC /N
Then shut the system down, remove the CMOS battery and disconnect all power for at least 2 minutes. After which reconnect everything and power on the system. As you can guess, it worked like a charm.
Use the following command to flash the BIOS image
A:\>AFUDOS /I[bios image name] /PBNC /N
Then shut the system down, remove the CMOS battery and disconnect all power for at least 2 minutes. After which reconnect everything and power on the system. As you can guess, it worked like a charm.
BIOS Screenshots
It has become common to show screenshots from the motherboard BIOS for those curious about what kind of features come with each motherboard we review. Below are some of the highlighted items from the SL-915GPro-FGR using a beta copy of v1.4 BIOS from Soltek.
One of the features that we didn't cover in the layout and features section of this review is an overclocking item called SAT or "Smart Acceleration Technology". The idea behind this feature is to dynamically overclock the processor when there is a load present. Soltek has provided 4 basic settings related to SAT; we of course choose the most aggressive setting for our benchmarks. The POST screen will show you the SAT overclock level. This system topped out right around 225Mhz.
Some other interesting features include this BIOS level error log and manually configurable fan settings, The error log is pretty self expiatory though didn't really record much except for the BIOS corruption issue discussed earlier. The fan control is pretty handy at keeping your processor running cooler with a faster fan setting.
