ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - Socket 939 with PCI-E and real AGP and Socket AM2 upgrade path

[SynthDude2001]

I also did an AGP to PCI-E upgrade (6800GT to X1900XT specifically) without having to reinstall Windows. It's been a few months now, but IIRC all I did was run Driver Cleaner to get rid of all the old Nvidia stuff (then physically swap the cards of course). I don't believe I even had to uninstall the AGP drivers or that they caused any problems once I had the X1900XT in.

Of course this was several Windows installs ago now. I've since moved from XP to XP64 to Vista RC1 to Vista 5728 to Vista RC2 (all x64).

 

[Double Echo]

Originally posted by: Araemo


Double echo: Is there any particular reason you removed the AGP GART drivers?

I removed them pretty much because I figured I had no use for them, since I'm never going back to AGP.

 

[WT]

The reason I left the AGP drivers on mine were simply for flexibility. I indicated that I would like to make the Asrock my main rig again because I also love the case. Its a HUGE Compucase 6919 unit (think an Antec 1040 full case) and my current Thermaltake Swing main rig case was cut and customized for the EVGA board in that, but the case is way too small for my liking. I may decide to go back to the 6800 AGP card in the Asrock board after another year or two (I upgrade a lot), and having AGP drivers ready to go makes it hasslefree to do this, rather than digging through the Asrock posts to determine in what order that AGP driver works best.

I expected weirdness, but finding none at all decided to leave it as such. I did forget to mention that before shutting down the rig in preparation for the card swap, I did set the initial display to PCIe. Nothing major there though .. and my LCD tried the Analog output port before scanning to DVI and showing the display image as well. No biggy ... but the board is now certifiably bulletproof.

 

[EKTELESTES]

I went from a 6600 gt agp to an X1900XT, but I thought it would be a good idea to format...so.. ^^

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Araemo

Originally posted by: Navid
If I power down the PC and unplug the power cord, after I plug it back in, the case fans and CPU fan spin and the LEDs turn on for a moment (may be a second). It also happens if I flip the switch at the back of the PSU off and back on after a minute.

During that short period, the hard drives receive power too, which is my concern.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior on this motherboard, or is something wrong with mine?

BTW, this behavoir is extremely common on many modern systems. The IBM ThinkCentre systems I work with at work do that every time you plug them in. I can't speak to my ASRock board's behavoir, since I never have it unplugged/physically powered off anymore, but it really isn't as odd as it seems.

You don't have to unplug anything. Just flip the switch at the back of the PSU off while your PC is shut down. Wait 10 seconds. Flip it back on. The fans will spin.

It is quite odd! You are effectively powering up your hard drives but then disconnect their power before letting them power up completely. There is no reason for this behavior.

 

[Araemo]

Originally posted by: WT
I expected weirdness, but finding none at all decided to leave it as such. I did forget to mention that before shutting down the rig in preparation for the card swap, I did set the initial display to PCIe. Nothing major there though .. and my LCD tried the Analog output port before scanning to DVI and showing the display image as well. No biggy ...

I honestly wouldn't expect any problems or weirdness, unless the drivers or hardware was badly designed. AGP is a port, nothing more. If it is unused, the resources go mainly unallocated, and it sits around looking pretty. I would honestly expect no issues using pci-e AND agp cards at the same time(If you needed 4 monitors for some reason). But, really, I couldn't say for sure if the drivers and hardware were designed right. Thanks for the responses guys

but the board is now certifiably bulletproof.

Never say that.. It's like asking for trouble. ;P

Originally posted by: Navid
You don't have to unplug anything. Just flip the switch at the back of the PSU off while your PC is shut down. Wait 10 seconds. Flip it back on. The fans will spin.

It is quite odd! You are effectively powering up your hard drives but then disconnect their power before letting them power up completely. There is no reason for this behavior.

Well, like I said, it has never been fully unplugged or fully off. As for powering up your hard drives, I have to imagine that modern drives are designed to deal with it, because it really IS fairly common. I do think that powering on all peripherals is a questionable design choice, but it is an industry norm.

 

[Araemo]

Just to report:
Uninstall ATI drivers and CCC.
Shut down.
Remove card.
Insert nVidia card.
Turn on.
Install nVidia drivers.
Reboot.

No issues so far. (Only tested games were half-life 1 and 2 so far, but hl1 was running ogl, and hl2 was running d3d, so I think it might be a fair test. )

 

[Miah]

Gonna bring this thread back up w/ a question or two.

Anyone playing with the newer 939Dual-VSTA yet? Is it identical except for the Cmedia onboard sound? Anyone know of details on the sound to see if it's any real improvement over the Realtek?

Thanks
Miah

 

[Amaron]

I've a good AGP card still so I was glad to see this board is still for sale. Much to my annoyance though I was looking at newegg and the only 939 X2 they have is a OEM toledo 4400. I'd really prefer a retail chip though and probably a slightly cheaper one.

Forgive me for not reading the entire thread but did a AM2 upgrade option ever pan out for this motherboard? I've tried searching for info but it seems somewhat harder to find.

 

[nealh]

This board has some real issues

I started getting reboots when using a flash card reader(gets power from usb) my usb printer no issues

I thought it was my Audigy2 causing issues..nope

it seems using my LAN, ram and usb flash reader makes my computer reboot, lock or crash on internet use..I give up and I am going to try and RMA this piece of Junk

This is my wife's buisness machine and she is getting all over me...it was stable as a rock for 8mo and poof.....

I hope Newegg is good to me

 

[ferrarifreak93]

My brother has this board and he's having reboot issues on a fresh install of XP Pro with nothing installed but video drivers. It crashes all the time even when just browsing folders. It always reboots when loading video (even youtube).

 

[slag]

Originally posted by: ferrarifreak93
My brother has this board and he's having reboot issues on a fresh install of XP Pro with nothing installed but video drivers. It crashes all the time even when just browsing folders. It always reboots when loading video (even youtube).

I've been using this board as my main system since before 1.80 bios and I've not had a single problem with it. Its probably my favorite board I've ever owned. I went from a 9800 pro to a 7600 pcie card the middle of last year and it didn't even hiccup on me.

 

[Licaon]

Hi all,
i got this motherboard in september 2006

i have some question for you all 939Dual-SATA2 owners:

-does your sound (from the integrated chip) work ok? i usually listen on my headphones ( a pair of cheap TEAC HP-2 and another PHILIPS SHP2500 ) and when setting the volume at 100% (Windows or Linux) the sound gets distorted (like it just hit the hardware limit of the chip or the headphones), but the sound is not loud enough.
compared to my old motheboard ( ASUS A7N266-VM SE / nForce 220D / SoundStorm powered by a Realtek 650 chip ) the 939Dual@100% volume sounds (is loud) like the ASUSboard@75% volume.
at first i thought the headphones could not handle it but on the ASUS board they sound ok even at 100% (not to mention that it just feels like my ears are going to bleed ). any ideas before i get some Audigy SE?

-about OC, i'm just experimenting some stuff, with the stock cooling on my Venice 3500+ 2200MHz (200x11), and so far the max clack was 2530 (230x11), limited only by stability tests with SuperPI (XS), i would lower my clock until Superpi would not get "SQARE ROOT IS NOT CONVERGENT" errors. my setup consists in setting the HTT@800Mhz and DDR@166MHz, the temperatures are always ok, so why do i get the errors at 230MHz?

-afaik the Venice has the multiplier locked (as opposed to the Opterons), but i tried setting my multiplier to 10x, set the bus at 240, rebooted, entered the BIOS and it said 2400MHz, so i rebooted in Windows where the clock was 240x11=2640MHz, why ?

10x

 

[Araemo]

Originally posted by: Licaon
Hi all,
i got this motherboard in september 2006

i have some question for you all 939Dual-SATA2 owners:

-does your sound (from the integrated chip) work ok?

Yes, it works ok, but yes it is quiet. I went back to my Audigy that didn't work so well with my previous mobo, but it works fine on this board. Also, I do use the mic-in from the on-board sound and it works fine.

-about OC, i'm just experimenting some stuff, with the stock cooling on my Venice 3500+ 2200MHz (200x11), and so far the max clack was 2530 (230x11), limited only by stability tests with SuperPI (XS), i would lower my clock until Superpi would not get "SQARE ROOT IS NOT CONVERGENT" errors. my setup consists in setting the HTT@800Mhz and DDR@166MHz, the temperatures are always ok, so why do i get the errors at 230MHz?

What are you using to view temperatures? The newest version of Speedfan can read the temperature off the on-die thermal diode, and tends to read higher and give you quicker readings. You might just have to raise your voltage though. Higher temperatures cause higher resistivity, which higher voltage helps overcome, but if you are merely at the edge of your chip's speed, you might need to increase voltage to overcome manufacturing defects. Just be careful when you do.

-afaik the Venice has the multiplier locked (as opposed to the Opterons), but i tried setting my multiplier to 10x, set the bus at 240, rebooted, entered the BIOS and it said 2400MHz, so i rebooted in Windows where the clock was 240x11=2640MHz, why ?

I don't know for sure, but check your power settings(cool-n-quiet and windows power control panel), cool-n-quiet alters your multiplier automatically(as well as voltage), so it might have popped it back up if it was enabled.

 

[Licaon]

So looks like i'm going to get the AudigySE

What are you using to view temperatures?

Core Temp 0.94

You might just have to raise your voltage though. Higher temperatures cause higher resistivity, which higher voltage helps overcome, but if you are merely at the edge of your chip's speed, you might need to increase voltage to overcome manufacturing defects.

1.450 in the BIOS.

I don't know for sure, but check your power settings(cool-n-quiet and windows power control panel), cool-n-quiet alters your multiplier automatically(as well as voltage), so it might have popped it back up if it was enabled.

i've got the AMD program that lets me be select the Cool'n'Quiet level, on max is 2600MHz, and CPU-Z and CBID said 2640MHz, (240 x11) my problem is why the BIOS says 240x10....and in Windows i got 240x11...

 

[WT]

This board gets my vote for best hardware purchase of 2006 .... I spent at least $1,200 on hardware last year and I still rank the Asrock as my favorite. Its currently #2 in my PC rotation, running a modded 7900GS card that benches just a bit below my 7900GT. I considered another Asrock board, the 775VSTA model, but that PCIe 4x limitation is just annoying enough to push me towards a Gigabyte P965 S3.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: WT
This board gets my vote for best hardware purchase of 2006 .... I spent at least $1,200 on hardware last year and I still rank the Asrock as my favorite. Its currently #2 in my PC rotation, running a modded 7900GS card that benches just a bit below my 7900GT. I considered another Asrock board, the 775VSTA model, but that PCIe 4x limitation is just annoying enough to push me towards a Gigabyte P965 S3.

Same here, except that now that I think about it, I bought the ASRock board in November of 2005.

My ASRock board is sitting in a box right now while I await my "new" single core A64's arrival (I've been using an Athlon XP for the past two months or so, ended up selling my Opteron 170), but I've been extremely happy with it, and it only cost me about $70. Went from an AGP 6800GT to a PCI-E X1900XT earlier this year with no hitches (though I later ended up selling said X1900XT as well ).

So I'm still around, and I'll be using this motherboard again soon...though of course news and BIOS updates, etc. have become very infrequent over the past few months; not a whole lot new to post.

Still, best $70 I've ever spent on a computer hardware item.

 

[MatthewF01]

I ran the Vista RC2 on a separate hard drive using this motherboard, and I cant seem to get Windows to see my [main] XP hard drive...which is connected via SATA II.

Has anyone gotten the SATA II for this 939Dual-SATA2 working?

thanks!

Need to figure out if Im gonna have to do a mobo swap before upgrading

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: MatthewF01
I ran the Vista RC2 on a separate hard drive using this motherboard, and I cant seem to get Windows to see my [main] XP hard drive...which is connected via SATA II.

Has anyone gotten the SATA II for this 939Dual-SATA2 working?

thanks!

Need to figure out if Im gonna have to do a mobo swap before upgrading

You probably have to set the SATA II controller to IDE compatibility mode in the BIOS before you can see the drive in Windows (Vista). Then you can just install the driver for the controller and set it back to normal mode.

(Actually, since my impression is that you're just trying to see a different hard drive under Vista that's connected via SATA II, you could skip the BIOS change and just install the driver for the controller directly, since you're not trying to boot from or install Vista directly to that hard drive.)

 

[MatthewF01]

Thanks for the quick response

And your impression is correct; in Vista, Im not booting off that drive.

My problem is, what driver to use?
The XP driver doesnt seem to function (nor would I expect it to).

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: MatthewF01
Thanks for the quick response

And your impression is correct; in Vista, Im not booting off that drive.

My problem is, what driver to use?
The XP driver doesnt seem to function (nor would I expect it to).

Are you running Vista 32 bit or 64 bit? I had no problems accessing my drive on the SATA II controller in Vista RC2, but it's been a while now so I forgot exactly what I did. If you're using Vista x64 you'll need to use the Windows XP x64 driver; otherwise the regular XP driver should work fine. If that doesn't work, you could always just try the IDE compatibility mode as I mentioned set for that controller in the BIOS, which should make the connected drive visible without the need to install another driver.

 

[HGC]

I have the newer version, the Asrock 939DUAL-VSTA. Do you guys understand the difference between SATA and IDE modes in the BIOS?

I just installed a new SATA II drive. I loaded the SATA driver to my old drive in Windows XP, cloned the C: drive, installed the new drive, restored the image to the new SATA II drive and now it works great as the main drive. However, it only works in IDE mode. If I try to set the BIOS to SATA mode, it won't boot.

From reading the manual and some Asrock FAQs, I gather you must choose SATA or IDE mode before you install the OS.

My question is, am I missing anything by running an SATA II drive under IDE mode? Does the drive not utilize it's full abilities? I'm reluctant to reinstall Windows from scratch for a minimal or zero performance gain.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[SynthDude2001]

I won't claim that I completely understand the differences between the SATA/IDE modes of the SATA II controller, but my experience has been that setting it to IDE will allow the connected drive to work without having to install the actual driver for the controller (as you noticed). You don't have to do it only before installing the OS; what I've done in the past is just boot into Windows in IDE mode like you're already doing, then install the driver for the controller, then reboot, set it to SATA mode, and it should work.

Are you sure you already installed the correct SATA driver before you cloned the image? Should be the one listed for the JMicron controller.

Edit: Strangely enough, even though the specs pages of the two motherboards lists them as having the same SATA II controller, there is no driver listed for it on the download page for the VSTA version of the board. I would recommend trying to install the one for the SATA2 motherboard, since again it appears that they use the same SATA II controller.

ftp://download.asrock.com/drivers/ULi/SATA/JMicron_XP_2K(207).zip

 

[HGC]

Interesting idea, SynthDude. I do see that the driver I installed was labeled SATA, not SATA II. I think I'll try the other driver you linked too, but I am sure as heck backing up first.

I can't find it now, but I did read on some forum I found when I googled "IDE mode Asrock" an email reply from Asrock to a guy with the Dual board stating that you must choose SATA or IDE mode before you install the OS, and you cannot change that later.

I'm feeling adventurous, though, wish me luck!

 

[HGC]

Btw, I love this board. It has been effortless from day one. Onboard sound is better than my old SoundBlaster Live. I may use an old AGP card to go to four monitors. I love the flexibility, and it was very cheap and has been problem free.