AOpen VK8T800 User Manual

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ................................................................................... 1

1.1 A Thank-you Note Before You Get Start ...........................................................3

1.2 Features of This Manual.................................................................................4

1.3 Safety Information........................................................................................ 4

Chapter 2 Introduction to This Motherboard ............................................... 5

2.1 How does your motherboard look like? ............................................................5

2.2 Specification ................................................................................................6

2.3 Block Diagram .............................................................................................. 7

3.1 Quick Installation Procedure...........................................................................8

3.2 Installation You Have to Know ........................................................................ 9

Installing CPU ............................................................................................... 9

Installing CPU and System Fans ..................................................................... 10

Installing Memory Modules ............................................................................11

Connecting IDE and Floppy Cables .................................................................12

Connecting ATX Power Cables........................................................................ 13

Connecting Front Panel Cable ........................................................................14

3.3 Other Installation for Your Reference............................................................. 15

Setting CPU Voltage and Frequency ................................................................15

Connecting Serial ATA ..................................................................................16

Adjusting your Hard Disk Setting ...................................................................17

Connecting AGP 8X Expansion Slot ................................................................. 18

Connecting IrDA ..........................................................................................19

10/100/1000Mbps LAN Supported.................................................................. 20

Connecting USB2.0 ......................................................................................21

Connecting 1394.......................................................................................... 22

Connecting S/PDIF .......................................................................................23

Super 7.1 Channel Audio Effects ....................................................................24

1

Connecting Front Audio................................................................................. 25

Connecting Game Port ..................................................................................26

Connecting CD_IN........................................................................................27

Connecting Case Open ..................................................................................28

Colored Coded Back Panel ............................................................................. 29

LED Indication .............................................................................................30

3.4 Jumper Settings ......................................................................................... 31

RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)..................................................... 33

Other Useful Features ....................................................................................... 34

Chapter 5 Setting BIOS......................................................................... 35

Introduction ................................................................................................35

How To Use Phoenix-Award™ BIOS Setup Program ..........................................36

How To Enter BIOS Setup .............................................................................36

BIOS Upgrade under Windows environment ....................................................37

Vivid BIOS technology ..................................................................................39

Chapter 6 Installing Drivers ................................................................... 40

6.1 Installing Drivers ........................................................................................ 41

6.2 Installing Utilities ........................................................................................ 42

Chapter 7 Troubleshooting..................................................................... 44

Chapter 8 Technical Support .................................................................. 45

Model Name and BIOS Version ......................................................................46

Register Your Motherboard ............................................................................46

2

1.1 A Thank-you Note Before You Get Start

First of all, we would like to express our gratitude for purchasing AOpen products.
Once again, this motherboard is designed uniquely to meet all your personal
needs with our great industry-designing ability and our everlasting perseverance
to the quality of all our products.

This manual will introduce you how this motherboard is installed. Please keep it
well for your future reference. If you lost your printed manual, you may also go to
our website at http://www.aopen.com to download the updated file.

Now, we would like to invite you to personally experience this user-friendly
manual and all of the powerful functions this AOpen product offers.

The logos of Adobe and Acrobat are the registered trademarks of Adobe Systems
Incorporated.

The logos of AMD, Athlon, and Duron are the registered trademarks of Advanced Micro
Devices, Inc.

The logos of Intel, Intel Celeron, Pentium II, III and Pentium 4 are the registered
trademarks of Intel Corporation.

The logos of nVidia are the registered trademarks of nVidia Corporation.

The logos of Microsoft, Windows are the registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in
America and other countries.

All the titles of the products and the trademarks mentioned in this manual are for the
purpose of illustrative conveniences and are possessed by their respective firms.

We regret not informing about any changes in usage standards and other related
information. AOpen reserves the right of altering or modifying the content of this manual. In
case of any mistakes or incorrect descriptions, which include those on the products, AOpen
makes no guarantee or commitments.

This document is based on the copyright laws in order to protect our company and reserve
all rights.

Under no circumstances are any types of duplicating and loading this brochure in any
databases and media permitted except the permission signed on formal document by
AOpen Company.

1996-2005 Copyrights, AOpen Ltd. All rights reserved.

3

1.2 Features of This Manual

To help you grab the useful information of this motherboard and aware of certain
conditions that you might need to know, you will see the icons below frequently:

Note

Warning / Caution

Warning

Tip

Warning

This contains knowledge you should know in process
of assembling, or some helpful tips.

Please be careful when you see this mark. It
highlights mistakes that occur often during
assembling, or something you need to pay attention
to.

This tip tells you some useful information that will
make your installation smoothly.

1.3 Safety Information

Please wear a wrist strap and attach it to a metal part of the system unit
before handling a component. Alternatively, you can also touch an object
that is of ground connection or with metal surface.

Always unplug the power before you make any jumper setting.

Before you install or remove any components on the motherboard, please
make sure to disconnect the power first in case of damaging motherboard
or other components.

4

14 16 17 22 19 20 21 28 27 29 24 26

18 23 30 13 25

Chapter 2 Introduction to This Motherboard

Chapter 2 Introduction to This Motherboard

2.1 How does your motherboard look like?

15

1. CD-IN Connector 16. Onboard AC’97 CODEC

2. JP28 PS2 KB/Mouse Wakeup Jumper 17. Front Audio Connector

3. AGP 8X Expansion Slot 18. S/PDIF Connector

4. 4-pin 12V ATX Power Connector 19. 32 bit PCI slot x4

5. AGP Protection LED 20. Case Open Connector

6. 754-pin CPU socket supporting
AMD

7. VIA K8T800 + VT8237 22. COM2 Connector

8. SYSFAN1 Connector 23. Game Port

9. Power Fan Connector 24. USB 2.0 Connectors

10. CPUFAN Connector 25. Serial ATA Connectors x2

11. 184-pin DIMMx3 26. IEEE 1394 Connectors x2

12. FDD Connector 27. JP14 Clear CMOS Jumper

13. IDE Connectors x 2 28. Stand By LED

14. ATX Power Connector 29. System FAN2 connector

15. Realtek LAN Chip 30. Front Panel Connector

TM

Athlon

TM

64 CPU

21. IrDA Connector

2

4

6

8

10

12

1

3

5

7

9

11

5

2.2 Specification

Here is the main function of your motherboard.

Models vK8T800a-LF

CPU

Chipset VIA K8T800 + VIA 8237

Main Memory

Graphics 8X AGP slot

IDE

LAN Realtek Gigabit LAN Controller, support 10/100/1000Mbps
Sound

USB

IEEE1394

Slots

Back Panel I/O

On Board
Connector

BIOS Award PnP 4Mb Flash ROM BIOS x1
Board Size 305 mm x 220 mm

AMD Athlon 64 CPU
Socket 754

DDR 266/333/400MHz
DDR DIMM x 3
DIMM Type :
64/128/256/512MB & 1GB
Max Memory : 3GB

Integrated ATA133 and Serial ATA Controller [Support RAID 0,1]
Max Disk: 144,000,000GB [by 48 bits LBA Spec.]

Realtek AC'97 CODEC onboard, support 7.1 Channel
Integrated in Chipset

USB 2.0 x 8
Integrated VIA 1394 Control Chip
AGP x 1
PCI x 4
PS/2 Keyboard x 1
PS/2 Mouse x 1
USB Port x 4
LAN Port x 1
COM Port x 1
Printer Port x 1
Speaker_Out x 1
Line_In x 1
MIC_In x 1
Side Surround x 1
Rear Surround x 1
Center/Subwoofer x 1
Front Panel x 1
Front Audio x 1
CPU FAN x 1
System FAN x 2,
Power FAN x 1
Power Temperature Connector x 1
SmartEar Connector x 1
Case Open Connector x 1
S/PDIF Connector x 1
CD_IN x 1
IrDA x 1
COM2 Connector x 1
Game Connector x 1
IEEE 1394 x 2
USB Connectors x 2

6

2.3 Block Diagram

p

AMD Athlon

64 CPU

Socket 754

AGP 8X

AGP 8X Slot

DIMM Sockets x3

DDR400/333/266
Up to 3GB

Realtek

LAN

Chip

Gigabit LAN connect
Com

onent

4Mbit Flash EEPROM

AGP bus

VIA
K8T800
Chipset

VIA 8237

PCI Bus

ATA 66/100/133

150MB/s

VIA

VT6306

32-bit PCI Slot x 4

IDE Drives x 4

Serial ATA Ports x 2

Realtek AC’97

ALC850

CODEC

IEEE 1394 Ports

Floppy Disk Drive

USB Ports x 8

Winbond
Super IO

Parallel Port

Serial Ports x 2

7

Chapter 3 Hardware Installation

Chapter 3 Hardware

q

Installation

3.1 Quick Installation Procedure

2. Installing CPU
Fan & System Fan

3. Installing
Memory Module

4. Installing HD,
CD-ROM and
SATA Disk, etc

5. Connecting Front
Panel Cable

1. Installing CPU

6. Connecting ATX
Power Cable

12. Installing Drivers &
Utilities

11. Installing
Operating System
(such as, Windows
XP)

8. Installing Other
Devices (USB, Front
Audio, etc)

7. Installing AGP & PCI
Cards

10. Loading
Default BIOS,
Setting CPU

uency

Fre

9. Connecting
Back Panel Ports
(Keyboard,
Mouse, etc)

8

3.2 Installation You Have to Know

Installing CPU

This motherboard supports AMD® Athlon 64 Socket 754 CPU. Be careful of CPU
orientation when you plug it into CPU socket (with CPU Overheat Protection
function implemented, the system will be automatically power off when the
temperature of CPU reached 97 degree).

1. Pull up the CPU socket lever and up to 90-degree angle.

2. Locate Pin 1 in the socket and look for a golden arrow on the CPU upper
interface. Match Pin 1 and golden arrow. Then insert the CPU into the
socket.

3. Press down the CPU socket lever to finish CPU installation.

CPU socket lever

Socket Pin 1

Golden Arrow

9

Installing CPU and System Fans

t

Plug the CPU fan cable to the 3-pin CPUFAN connector. If you have chassis fan,

you can also plug it in SYSFAN1 or SYSFAN2 connector.

GND

SYSFAN1 Connector

SENSOR

+12V
SENSOR

+12V

SYSFAN2 Connector

GND
+12V
SENSOR

Note: Some CPU fans

do not have sensor pin so
that they cannot support fan
moni

GND

CPUFAN Connector

GND
+12V
SENSOR

PWRFAN Connector

oring.

10

Installing Memory Modules

DIMM slots are designed in Navy Blue or Electronic Blue which are very easy to
recognize. Insert the module straight down to the DIMM slot with both hands and
press down firmly until the DIMM module is securely in place.

Tab

Key

Note: The tabs of the

DIMM slot will clip to hold the
DIMM in place when the DIMM
touches the slot’s bottom.

Pin 1

11

Connecting IDE and Floppy Cables

Connect the 34-pin floppy cable and 40-pin, 80-wire IDE cable to floppy

connector and IDE connector. Be careful of the pin1 orientation. Wrong
orientation may cause system damage.

Primary

Slave (4nd)

Pin 1

Secondary

Slave (2th)

ATA 66/100/133

IDE Connector

Primary

Master (3st)

IDE

1 (Primary)

Secondary

Master (1rd)

Pin 1

FDD Connector

12

Connecting ATX Power Cables

This motherboard comes with a 20-pin and 4-pin ATX power connector as shown

below. Make sure you plug them in the right direction. We strongly recommend
you to insert the 4-pin connector before connecting the 20-pin connector.

1

Ground

+12V

+12V

Ground

13

Connecting Front Panel Cable

Attach the power LED, speaker and reset switch connectors to the corresponding
pins. If you enable “Suspend Mode” item in BIOS Setup, the ACPI & Power LED
will keep flashing while the system is in suspend mode.

Locate the power switch cable from your ATX housing, which is a 2-pin female
connector from the housing front panel. Plug this connector to the soft-power
switch connector marked SPWR.

14

3.3 Other Installation for Your Reference

Setting CPU Voltage and Frequency

Setting CPU Core Voltage

This motherboard supports Voltage ID (VID) function to detect CPU voltage

automatically during power-on. However, if users are willing to do overclocking,
we also provide a range from 0.80V to 1.80V in the BIOS. Sometimes increasing
the original core voltage a little bit will make CPU overclock more properly.

Setting CPU Frequency

This motherboard is of CPU jumper-less design; you can set CPU frequency by
1MHz stepping CPU Overclocking in the BIOS. CPU Core Frequency = CPU FSB
clock x CPU Ratio. However, all CPU now sold in market belong to "Fixed
Multiplier". That means users can not adjust the CPU Ratio but change CPU FSB
clock to achieve overclocking only.

BIOS Setup > Frequency / Voltage Control > CPU Speed Setup

(Users will do the overclocking at their own risks!!)

CPU Ratio From 4x to 25x step 1x

CPU FSB (Adjustment
manually)

FSB = 200 MHz-250 MHz by 1 MHz Stepping CPU Overclocking

AMD CPU CPU Core Freq. CPU Clock L2 Cache Ratio

Athlon 64 2800+ 1800MHz 200MHz 512KB 9x

Athlon 64 3000+ 2000MHz 200MHz 512KB 10x

Athlon 64 3200+ 2000MHz 200MHz 1024KB 10x

Athlon 64 3200+ 2200MHz 200MHz 512KB 11x

Athlon 64 3400+ 2200MHz 200MHz 1024KB 11x

Athlon 64 3400+ 2400MHz 200MHz 512KB 12x

Athlon 64 3700+ 2400MHz 200MHz 1024KB 12x

Note: With CPU speed changing rapidly, there might be faster CPU on the
market by the time you received this installation guide. This table is kindly for
your references only, please contact with your distributor for more information

Note: If your system hangs or fails to boot because of overclocking, simply use

<Home> key to restore the default setting or you can wait the AOpen “Watch Dog ABS”
reset the system in five seconds and system will auto-detct hardware again .

Warning: Supposed you have had adjusted CPU ratio on your current CPU,

and you plan to replace a new CPU. Please use <Home> key or Clear CMOS to restore
the default setting when changing a new CPU, because the system will still implement
the previous CPU setting on the new one.

15

Warning:

VIA K8T800
chipset supports
maximum
200MHz system
clock and 66MHz
AGP clock; higher
clock setting may
cause serious