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ASRock 939 DualSATA2 Boot quirks

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funkrocker049

Member
I just helped my friend build a new system yesterday, and everything went fine but there are a couple quirks about the system that seem odd. When the system is first powered on it hangs at the first screen (where you can hit F2 to enter the BIOS) for about a minute before continuing the boot process. Then, after it recognizes the hardware, and whatnot, it switches to a blank screen w/ a blinking cursor for another minute or so before starting to boot windows. Once the system boots into windows, it runs smooth as silk so this is really just an annoyance but it seems strange that it would take so long to even start booting windows. Is this normal for this board?

We updated the BIOS to the latest version, but that didn't seem to help. Here are the specs:

ASRock 939 D-SATA2 mobo
Athlon64 3200+ Venice
768mb RAM (one 256mb DDR400 stick from a cheapo Dell, and one 512mb DDR333 stick of Kingston)
Chaintech Volari V3 (no, barn-burner but a cheap card that can run some games)

Clearly an upgrade in progress to save money. I'm thinking the RAM could be a culprit, but I'm not sure. I suggested he aim to get a single 1gb stick to replace the current ram and allow him to move to 2gb later on.
 
the CPU support dual channel. running 2 differents memory stick disable this ability and cut about 5% performance. Better run 2 identical memory stick to get better compatibility and performance.

But that shouldnt cause any problem. maybe the board is having trouble to access the cdrom. I have one here and when I have many USB storage devices, it seems to take more time to post. Maybe that the IDE cable is bad and the controller has to slow down to have good communication with the devices.. I would check that..
 
Originally posted by: funkrocker049
I just helped my friend build a new system yesterday, and everything went fine but there are a couple quirks about the system that seem odd. When the system is first powered on it hangs at the first screen (where you can hit F2 to enter the BIOS) for about a minute before continuing the boot process. Then, after it recognizes the hardware, and whatnot, it switches to a blank screen w/ a blinking cursor for another minute or so before starting to boot windows. Once the system boots into windows, it runs smooth as silk so this is really just an annoyance but it seems strange that it would take so long to even start booting windows. Is this normal for this board?
Click to expand...

I have that board and I had the exact same problem. After trying a million different things, I finally fixed it by switching the order of the memory DIMMs around. Sounds strange I know -- but it worked. I went from 256-256-512 configuration to 512-256-256 and that did it. (Then later I replaced the 2-256 sticks with another 512 stick for dual channel, but that's beside the point.) I've even heard stories of people running 2-512 sticks having this boot problem, and solving it just by swapping the order of the 2 DIMMs. Try it and report back!
 
Apparently the problem has mysteriously fixed itself, because the boot up time is now cut pretty much in half. No hangs, pauses, blinking cursors, or anything. Weird.
 
I have the blinking cursor but it only lasts about 5 seconds.

Great board! Everything is running perfectly with 4 DIMMs (2 Kingston, 2 Samsung) in dual channel mode.

 
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