MS-1651 occasionally failing to respond to keyboard/hw keys

Has anyone else had this happen with their MS-1651/GX 620?

The machine stops responding to keyboard keys, and the hw keys fail to function including the power key. I've had this happen to mine three times now, twice under linux, and once under Windows XP Pro SP3. I could see in once case IRC continuing to update normally, and glxgears running in the background, so I'm pretty sure that it's just an input problem of some sort as the machine looks to be still functional otherwise.

Both times I was on AC with the battery in place and fully charged, and had to remove the battery then AC power to power it down.

Windows, I'm using the XP drivers from MSI's GX620 page, and the WiFi Link driver from the Intel page since MSI doesn't have the driver for the WiFi card up. (Well, there's a link for one, but there was nothing there even as recently as a few days ago...) This also has the latest BIOS installed (shipped out that way).

Linux, using 32b 8.10 Ubuntu for now with default linux drivers for kernel 2.6.27 and the nVidia 177.80 linux driver.

I don't think that these matter as it has happened under both OSes. Any ideas?

[EDIT]
I posted this to the MSI forums as well...
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=122166.0
[/EDIT]

 

OK, unfortunately I only saw one other thread even remotely similar to this on the MSI forums, but it was for a different model, and that guys keyboard/hw keys eventually started responding again after several seconds whereas as mine seems to stay in la-la land.

My vendor has a enquiry in at MSI. (They seem to be incredibly slow(a little less than 2 business days now) to respond, or at least compared to my experience with Biostar where I got directly(about 10m email) through to an engineer almost immediately whi was VERY helpful (dud CPU troubleshooting with no other board to test on available).)

I'm afraid the guy at the MSI boards may be correct and I may have to RMA it, which would suck, but I'm holding out for hope from the MSI response. (Won't want to RMA at this time of year anyways as it'd just about be pointless, so even if the case if RMA I'll wait for the normalcy of January.)

 

have you checked the cable for the keyboard?

 

Nope, didn't want to open it up, and I have to wonder if the hardware keys would actually be part of the same riboon? I should go look for some photos on the net of the insides of the 620. i.e. I've got no clue as to where it's at, and really wouldn't want to have to go further than removing the main back panel, which I'd hazrd it's not going to be visible from -> taking the whole case apart which is going to be a no go for me unless (see below -- warranty).

OTOH I'd like to not void my warranty with the vendor, so I'll wait until MSI responds, then ask them about checking that here BEFORE I RMA it if that's what they want me to do with it.

It's a very intermittent problem, as in I cannot find a way to force it to happen, and decided to start running memtest on it about 20m ago on the off chance that maybe memory had failed post shipping. No errors so far, though.

All the other components seem to be fine though, it's weird. Programs run great. FAST. Feels faster than my desktop which isn't exactly a lsouch except for an aging GPU. (4800+ X2, 5x512MB Mushkin green, 2x250GB WD Raptors (16MB cache/7200 RPM), 80GB legacy EIDE, eVGA 7600GT KO(was going to replace, but I suspect that shipping the nb back if I have to will delay that as it would put a nice dent in my extra cash on hand))

 

Well, I just had a d'oh moment. MSI responded to my ticket and asked for BIOS info from inside of the BIOS setup, so I took a look and it turned up to be the original(I think) v.1.0E BIOS and NOT v1.0I (latest). (I could've sworn that I checked the POST and inside BIOS before and saw v1.0I but I guess not...)

I suspect that they are going to tell me to flash the BIOS, and then I get to wait and see if that was the culprit.

 

hey it may work you never know good luck

 

Thanks. I DID end up flashing the GX620 BIOS (v1.0I) the other day, and it hasn't locked up since, BUT OTOH it hasn't been that long yet either.

Today MSI sent me what I presume to be the MS-1651 version of v1.0I BIOS (probably same as GX620) AND a firmware update for the embedded controller. I'm going to do both of these tomorrow, as soon as I find out if the EC firmware can be flashed any time or not as their instructions ONLY covered flashing the BIOS itself and NOT the EC firmware flash.

I'm going to do the above eventually (soonish) as I suspect that with all the EC messages right around input being locked out PLUS the fact that they sent an EC firmware update means that there was likely a whoops in the EC firmware (or maybe as far as XP/linux support go, since it was originally Vista only like the Asus nbs...).

[EDIT]
Actually I think that I'm going to do a comparison of the BIOSes and IF they're the same except for maybe some marketing(?) stuff just leave the GX620 1.0I and just flash the EC...
[/EDIT]

 

the 620 bios allows you to use the factory overclock feature the turb boost thing the 1651 version does not and you can use either one it doesnt matter. so if you want that turbo boost feature use the 620 bios

 

I had the keyboard/hw keys stop responding again last night while typing a message in another forum. Acted like a key was stuck as the last key that responded repeated endlessly.

Had the same 7 lines spamming out every second in syslog, 3 repeated lines of inoput buffer not empty plus normal ACPI lines.

So now, I went and put the MS-1651 BIOS on it (don't care about overclocking), it also lacks the MSI logo, just has the press TAB for post, F11 blah blah etc. AND the v4.27 embedded controller firmware update.

So, I'm back to using it again now to see if the EC fw update will fix this. On the MSI forums, another guy with the retail (GX620) model has the same problem under Vista Ultimate and a reseller sounded like he'd seen it before and thought it was an EC problem. (My vendor also mentioned having seen it before as well.)

Also found a couple of other links to different models, one a PM45 + ICH8, and a P965 + ICH er I forgot that sounded like the same problem. In the one case the OP claimed that the vendor claimed it was a hw problem and that they had fixed it. OP said he had no problems after, but I don't know if he used it long enough to really determine that or not as it is an annoying intermittent fault which no one has been able to reliably force to occur at will yet.

I'm still banking on the EC problem as it has occurred with other models, and I really don't want to deal RMAing, but I will if that's what ends up happening, but first if it happens now with the stuff MSI sent me, I'll update my ticket and see what they recommend at that point (hopefully another EC update IF it does re-occur).

[EDIT 12/28/08]
RMAing it on 1/5/09, suspected faulty keyboard.
[/EDIT]