Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

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Mar 9, 2008
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Well thats it, it killed my HD, or either my HD committed suicide. Thought I had things figured out. I formatted the remaining space on my HD in Computer Management via Logical Disk Manager. Left to take a break, a few hours later came back and LDM said it was unable to format cleanly or something to that effect. Then it would lock up (LDM that is). It would freeze up when I opened My Computer. When I tried to restart LDM it only showed one partition. It cooked my OS partition. Rebooted and that was it, couldnt boot at all.

XP Setup couldnt get past the "Windows Setup is loading" after it finishes loading all the drivers. Using some HD diagnostic tools with Ultimate Boot CD it couldnt even find the drive.

So either the HD is dead (which would be a surprise seeing as it was working fine 4 days ago after 3 years or so of flawless use) or this mobo flippin sucks. So I'm back on my trusty old rig, an 8 year old P3800 with 512mb that has no trouble with anything. I DROPPED this computer once from the stairs and it still works great.

Either way, tomorrow I'm going to buy a SATA drive from BB just to see if that fixes anything. If not, I can always return it and RMA this goddamn mobo back to hell.
 

prsorfc

Junior Member
Mar 24, 2008
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My comp crashed blue screen, while compiling a dvd at 240 fsb now down at 235:(, still not been able to use memtest. aaarghhh!!
 

marathan76

Junior Member
Mar 25, 2008
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I need help i'm trying to install my new agp card Sapphire HD 3850 512MB and the pc does not boot. The fan of the card is ok, the psu is ok. the cpu and the memory is ok. My BIos version is 1.50.
What can be wrong?

Please help
 

jimmor

Member
Dec 16, 2007
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Originally posted by: marathan76
I need help i'm trying to install my new agp card Sapphire HD 3850 512MB and the pc does not boot. The fan of the card is ok, the psu is ok. the cpu and the memory is ok. My BIos version is 1.50.
What can be wrong?

Please help

As posted in your original thread,

The 3850 didn't exist when mobo bios 1.5 was issued, so first thing I suggest you do is flash your mobo with latest 1.90 bios from the Asrock website ?


;)
 

jimmor

Member
Dec 16, 2007
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Originally posted by: marathan76
i try that flashing the bios from vista and the same problem came again

After flashing with a new mobo bios, it is often necessary to clear the cmos then switch off and on to reboot in order for the new parameters to be properly read ---> so did you clear the cmos then reboot?

 

jimmor

Member
Dec 16, 2007
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Originally posted by: marathan76
how can i clear the bios from vista?

You can't !

Read the booklet that came with mobo ?

You switch off your computer, remove the side cover, then short out the two "cmos clearing" pins on the mobo ---> keep shorting link on for 10-15 secs.

After completing "cmos clear" procedure, switch on and hopefully your new vga card will now be recognised?

Of course, you did remember to fit the power connector(s) to the rear of your new card?

And when you say your PSU is ok, what exactly do you mean ? Keep in mind your new vga card is likely to require more power than what you were using before ?

What Wattage rating is your PSU, and specifically what is the amperage rating of the 12v supply ---> this info will be printed on side of PSU?
 

cpmee

Senior member
Dec 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: marathan76
my psu is chieftec 750W


Continuous power 750 W
Max. current 12 V - Rail 1 18 A
Max. current 12 V - Rail 2 18 A
Max. current 12 V - Rail 3 18 A
Max. current 12 V - Rail 4 18 A
Amperage 12 V - Rail 5 0
Amperage 12 V - Rail 6 0
Amperage 12 V - Totaal 72 A
Max. current 5 V 28 A
Max. curren 3.3 V 30 A


After flashing the bios, did you did see bios 1.9 on the boot screen ?

Do I understand correctly, you had this board for a while with another video card, and just now bought the 3850 ?

Or is everything a new build ?
 

marathan76

Junior Member
Mar 25, 2008
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u r correct i have the card for almost 2 year and the mobo for 4 months. when i boot with the old card the bios is 1.90 when i try to boot with the new one the bios does not loaded . i'm telling u again that, when i try to boot with the new one the bios does not load when i swap the card everything is ok!
 
Mar 9, 2008
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Quick question: Do I need SATA drivers during XP install on a Sata drive? I've never used SATA before. I made a custom XP cd using nLite but I'm wondering since I dont have a floppy drive (I have old one I can gut from another system) if the mobo will recognize it during setup? It'll just be a single HD, no RAID. I've read that I there is a setting in BIOS to make the Sata appear as a normal IDE, but Im not sure if that should be enabled. I suspect that my problems with this mobo are either drive related or something with the IDE channels.

Also, what should be the best settings in BIOS for an Sata/IDE combo? I'll be using my NEC 3520aw DVDRW IDE drive.
 

cpmee

Senior member
Dec 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: marathan76
u r correct i have the card for almost 2 year and the mobo for 4 months. when i boot with the old card the bios is 1.90 when i try to boot with the new one the bios does not loaded . i'm telling u again that, when i try to boot with the new one the bios does not load when i swap the card everything is ok!

It might just be a DOA video card. See if you can put it in another friends pcie system. Just because the vga fan spins doesnt mean anything.
 

cpmee

Senior member
Dec 3, 2007
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Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
Quick question: Do I need SATA drivers during XP install on a Sata drive? I've never used SATA before. I made a custom XP cd using nLite but I'm wondering since I dont have a floppy drive (I have old one I can gut from another system) if the mobo will recognize it during setup? It'll just be a single HD, no RAID. I've read that I there is a setting in BIOS to make the Sata appear as a normal IDE, but Im not sure if that should be enabled. I suspect that my problems with this mobo are either drive related or something with the IDE channels.

Also, what should be the best settings in BIOS for an Sata/IDE combo? I'll be using my NEC 3520aw DVDRW IDE drive.

Yes, hook up the floppy temporarily. Then press F6 at the winXP install.

The loaded Optimized Defaults setting is fine for the SATA/IDE combo.

I've read that I there is a setting in BIOS to make the Sata appear as a normal IDE, but Im not sure if that should be enabled.
Nope, no mobo has. SATA is SATA, IDE is IDE.
But both HD drive types need to be partitioned and formatted.

 

Mr Vain

Senior member
May 15, 2006
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Sl4yer

Member
Feb 5, 2008
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Originally posted by: cpmee
Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
Quick question: Do I need SATA drivers during XP install on a Sata drive? I've never used SATA before. I made a custom XP cd using nLite but I'm wondering since I dont have a floppy drive (I have old one I can gut from another system) if the mobo will recognize it during setup? It'll just be a single HD, no RAID. I've read that I there is a setting in BIOS to make the Sata appear as a normal IDE, but Im not sure if that should be enabled. I suspect that my problems with this mobo are either drive related or something with the IDE channels.

Also, what should be the best settings in BIOS for an Sata/IDE combo? I'll be using my NEC 3520aw DVDRW IDE drive.

Yes, hook up the floppy temporarily. Then press F6 at the winXP install.

The loaded Optimized Defaults setting is fine for the SATA/IDE combo.

I've read that I there is a setting in BIOS to make the Sata appear as a normal IDE, but Im not sure if that should be enabled.
Nope, no mobo has. SATA is SATA, IDE is IDE.
But both HD drive types need to be partitioned and formatted.

Set the RAID controller to RAID (as opposed to non-RAID) in the BIOS, and load the driver from the floppy when requested. Otherwise the drive will run in IDE mode (actually UDMA mode 6) although connected to the SATA port.


 
Mar 9, 2008
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I had RAID distabled, installed XP Sp2 fine without errors without having to use the floppy. If I go into BIOS now and turn on RAID, my HD isnt detected in BIOS. If its not detected by BIOS when RAID is enabled, what am I doing wrong?

On my old comp, I made an image of GTR2 from my CDs, and put the ISOs on my external HD. I then turned off Onboard IDE , and installed GTR2 via those images from the external. GTR2 installed and ran fine. I rebooted, enabled Onboard IDE. Tried to install GTR2 again, and got the same corruption error. I thought I had narrowed it down to a bad IDE controller on the mobo or something. But when I turned it off and rebooted and tried to install GTR2 I got the same corruption error near the very end, with the onboard IDE disabled. I aborted the install, tried again and was able to install GTR2 fine. I'm still having major corruption issues with some files I install. When I download a bunch of files that have PAR files, I get corrupt or incomplete files with most of them in Quickpar.

I'm so confused here. I mean I dont know if its a hardware issue or a software issue. I dont know how many times I gotta reinstall XP but its taking its toll. Do I need to download the SATA2 drivers from the ASrock site? Its a file called "Floppy_IV8237S-12.zip". If so I'll do a new install and try the SATA drivers.

I'm going to order a cheap SATA DVDRW drive this week and see if that fixes things. If not, I'm RMA'ing this mobo back and never touching an ASRock product for as long as I live.
 

nickime

Junior Member
Feb 3, 2008
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Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
I had RAID distabled, installed XP Sp2 fine without errors without having to use the floppy. If I go into BIOS now and turn on RAID, my HD isnt detected in BIOS. If its not detected by BIOS when RAID is enabled, what am I doing wrong?


The best way is to install Windows from the start with AHCI support (pressing F6
and installing drivers from floppy) it is not all that easy to do it afterwards, here
is an instruction for Intel controllers for example, and as you can see it requires
messing with registry. Please note that it is questionable if you will see any
improvement over plain ATA MODE

I'm going to order a cheap SATA DVDRW drive this week and see if that fixes things. If not, I'm RMA'ing this mobo back and never touching an ASRock product for as long as I live.

the frustration is understandable, but don't over react, a few days ago I replaced Asrock
board with MSI P35 Neo2 FR which died after just one day, problems do happen,
that is reality, hang in and try to find what is the issue, good luck

 

Sl4yer

Member
Feb 5, 2008
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Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
I had RAID distabled, installed XP Sp2 fine without errors without having to use the floppy. If I go into BIOS now and turn on RAID, my HD isnt detected in BIOS. If its not detected by BIOS when RAID is enabled, what am I doing wrong?

Enabling RAID in the BIOS essentially enables a different disk controller. You need to install using this controller (i.e. RAID enabled in BIOS, and use the floppy RAID driver during XP install). It's correct that it won't see the XP install if you turn on RAID after installing! Although doing it this way should improve disk performance, it doesn't account for the other problems you're having.

Originally posted by: nickime
The best way is to install Windows from the start with AHCI support (pressing F6
and installing drivers from floppy) it is not all that easy to do it afterwards, here
is an instruction for Intel controllers for example, and as you can see it requires
messing with registry. Please note that it is questionable if you will see any
improvement over plain ATA MODE

The burst transfer will be improved, although I've yet to see speeds above 2GB/s, never mind 3! As I posted above somewhere, this board doesn't support AHCI, so it's a con to say it supports SATAII. The next VIA southbridge up does, so I don't know why Asrock didn't use it...


 
Mar 9, 2008
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Its just frustrating as you all know. I've built all my computers since 97, and I've never had such problems. I want to exhaust every option because an RMA would be such a PITA. This Asrock has everything I need, 4 PCI slots, DDR2667, AGP and PCIe hence why I got it. There really isnt an another alternative. I just wish I knew for sure what the problem was.

I know you cant enable RAID and boot to XP without it having the drivers (unless you do that hack posted above in that link). My concern is why doesnt the drive become detected in BIOS after I turn on RAID. Even if its one SATA drive on RAID I dont know why it wouldnt detect the drive in BIOS, and give me an error right after POST, i.e. before XP boots up at all. (speaking of which, XP does BSOD when it tries to boot with RAID on, so the system sees the drive in order to boot at all. Why it sees it there, but not in BIOS is beyond me.)

I think that something is wrong with the IDE controller itself and thats the root of all my problems. I shouldnt be having these problems on a new SATA drive (which is operating in IDE mode), and my DVDRW is IDE. It seems when I disable the DVDRW the problems become less severe. I have to do a reinstall of XP with SATA drivers to eliminate IDE from the equation, at least that way I could rule our or in IDE as the culprit. After that theres nothing else I can do software or hardware wise and I'd have to just go back to my old system.
 

Sl4yer

Member
Feb 5, 2008
28
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Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
Its just frustrating as you all know. I've built all my computers since 97, and I've never had such problems. I want to exhaust every option because an RMA would be such a PITA. This Asrock has everything I need, 4 PCI slots, DDR2667, AGP and PCIe hence why I got it. There really isnt an another alternative. I just wish I knew for sure what the problem was.

I know you cant enable RAID and boot to XP without it having the drivers (unless you do that hack posted above in that link). My concern is why doesnt the drive become detected in BIOS after I turn on RAID. Even if its one SATA drive on RAID I dont know why it wouldnt detect the drive in BIOS, and give me an error right after POST, i.e. before XP boots up at all. (speaking of which, XP does BSOD when it tries to boot with RAID on, so the system sees the drive in order to boot at all. Why it sees it there, but not in BIOS is beyond me.)

I think that something is wrong with the IDE controller itself and thats the root of all my problems. I shouldnt be having these problems on a new SATA drive (which is operating in IDE mode), and my DVDRW is IDE. It seems when I disable the DVDRW the problems become less severe. I have to do a reinstall of XP with SATA drivers to eliminate IDE from the equation, at least that way I could rule our or in IDE as the culprit. After that theres nothing else I can do software or hardware wise and I'd have to just go back to my old system.

There is a separate BIOS screen for the RAID controller, which appears after the main BIOS. Press Crtl-Z (I think) to view it, and the SATA drive should be shown, together with it's mode.

It isn't meant to show in the main BIOS screen once RAID is enabled.

Just one thought - have you tried everything with different cables?

 
Mar 9, 2008
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Yeah. 2 different IDE cables, and Im using the SATA cables that the mobo comes with. My system boots so fast I didnt see that Ctrl-z option. I have be fast on the trigger just to get into BIOS.

Well anyway I just rebooted from another BSOD. This time an 8x00000E. I was just surfing youtube and seeking through video (i.e. FF) and then it just BSOD.
 

Sl4yer

Member
Feb 5, 2008
28
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Originally posted by: The Fedex Pope
Yeah. 2 different IDE cables, and Im using the SATA cables that the mobo comes with. My system boots so fast I didnt see that Ctrl-z option. I have be fast on the trigger just to get into BIOS.

Well anyway I just rebooted from another BSOD. This time an 8x00000E. I was just surfing youtube and seeking through video (i.e. FF) and then it just BSOD.

Try setting your memory voltage to High. I had a problem with a system recently (on a Gigabyte MB) where the RAM voltage wasn't high enough, and the system was very unstable. Upping the voltage sorted it.