Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 + ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA + ASRock 775Dual-VSTA

[Faxfane]

(Long time reader/lurker of these fabulous asrock threads)

For the 4coredual-sata2 r2, last offical bios is 2.20, with treiber's being 2.20a. Here's the page (stickied there) for bios releases.

I still have this board, at least for another month or so. Then, hopefully, I would have migrated my current components to a p45 rig if I plan on keeping the ddr2. Last addition to the 4coredual-sata2 was the pci-e gts250 1G to replace my 7600gt agp (256M). Works just fine, though one must remember to reinstall directx after the nvidia drivers. It is touchy though, as anything over stock (266 for me) causes hard locks and vid driver flakiness. The screen starts to flicker, just like when the pcie is first installed but before drivers.

Shame that, as my 295 was rock stable for 13 months, putting my e7400 (2.8) at 3.09 with my gskill ddr2 4gig kit (3.5 seen) at 1:1. Guess that's the trade off for doubling all my synthetic 3dmark scores. I have a PC P&C 500 Silencer (80Plus), so I don't think that's the cause. I'm guessing the pci-e slot isn't really locked at 100, being a little above or below spec, something my XFX GTS 250 obviously doesn't tolerate well.

 

[Mr Vain]

Nice to see you around again, Mr. Vain, tho what gives with the Junior member status? I seem to recall far more than 3 posts of yours. I myself am a bit resurrected of late as well.

That bios is for the 775. Last for 4CoreDual-VSTA is 2.39a. I do not have a reference offhand for the -SATA 2.0. All the bioses on pctreiber are now in dedicated forum threads per-board, no more dandy dedicated download pages.

Hi There Hlafordlaes, I forgot my original Mr Vain account password that was linked to an email account that I can no longer access.
I started this new account with an underscore, back to junior status after 631 posts lol. I have sent Anandtech admin a few emails to try and recover my old account but no one responds.
I’m still running the 4CoreDual-VSTA and the 4CoreDual SATA 2.0 on my kid’s computers with no problems extending the life of my ATI RADEON 9600xt and the RADEON X850 XT PE. I can’t bring myself to throw out my 775Dual VSTA board that I totalled with a volt mod gone wrong lol.
I will look thru the latest bios and see what is new.
Cheers


Update.
Recovered my original account thanks to Anadtech moderators, Nice One Harvey!!

 

[Mr Vain]

(Long time reader/lurker of these fabulous asrock threads)

For the 4coredual-sata2 r2, last offical bios is 2.20, with treiber's being 2.20a. Here's the page (stickied there) for bios releases.

I still have this board, at least for another month or so. Then, hopefully, I would have migrated my current components to a p45 rig if I plan on keeping the ddr2. Last addition to the 4coredual-sata2 was the pci-e gts250 1G to replace my 7600gt agp (256M). Works just fine, though one must remember to reinstall directx after the nvidia drivers. It is touchy though, as anything over stock (266 for me) causes hard locks and vid driver flakiness. The screen starts to flicker, just like when the pcie is first installed but before drivers.

Shame that, as my 295 was rock stable for 13 months, putting my e7400 (2.8) at 3.09 with my gskill ddr2 4gig kit (3.5 seen) at 1:1. Guess that's the trade off for doubling all my synthetic 3dmark scores. I have a PC P&C 500 Silencer (80Plus), so I don't think that's the cause. I'm guessing the pci-e slot isn't really locked at 100, being a little above or below spec, something my XFX GTS 250 obviously doesn't tolerate well.

Thanks for the links Faxfane.

 

[rubix]

Does the Radeon 4850 work in 4CoreDual-SATA2 with 2.20a bios installed? If not what bios do I need exactly?

 

[TaranScorp]

Has anbody been able to download the latest 2.20A bios from the German site? All I get is "Page Not Found" after I hit the links.

 

[Faxfane]

Did some poking around in their Intel Asrock forum and found this bootable iso for 4coredual-sata2. It has 20a, 17a, 16a, 14a and the mac address tool. Download worked fine for me, and it sits around 4,866KB.

@rubix VGA Support List Short answer: it should work fine, providing your psu is sufficient.

@TaranScorp 2.20a download

 

[TaranScorp]

Thanks Faxfane.
I owe you

 

[luckyguess?]

Does the Radeon 4850 work in 4CoreDual-SATA2 with 2.20a bios installed? If not what bios do I need exactly?

my 4870 works fine ^_^

anyone else struggled to load the bios....

contact asrock about 4gb...i was sent a zip file with 2.20a in it.

only they never told me to create a DOS disc (right click floppy and create DOS start up disc)and then to get it to load type in

asrflash.exe 4cds2_2.20a

after the a:/>

 

[vixensjlin]

I emailed Asrock and asked if ATI/AMD HD5700 would work on my 4coredual-sata2, they said:

Ati 57xx gfx is support it with 4coredual-sata2. No bios need it.
Asrock Support Team

And I asked again why under 4coredual-sata2's official VGA support list, the highest chip supported is only Radeon HD4870 instead of 57xx? They replied:

The list on the website is out of date. We have tested ati card it work fine.

 

[bcborn]

Interesting note;

ASRock has not included any new cpu's on there 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0 support list that were manufactured after May 2009. The latest manufactured CPU's listed are;

E7500 Core 2 Duo - released in Jan 2009
E6300 Dual Core - released in May 2009


There are 3 new CPU's that are based on the above architecture and released after May 2009 and they are;

E7600 Core 2 Duo - Released Jun 2009
E6500 Dual Core - Released Aug 2009
E5500 Dual Core - Released Apr 2010

I contacted ASRock and ASRock says, if its not listed it has issues. I don't buy the fact that these three have been tested by ASRock as there are a small amount of replies of people running these three new CPU's.

Anyone out there care to comment here.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@bcborn,

The CPUs you list are supported in the bios releases from pc-treiber, which is why you'll see people running them on these boards.

 

[Mr Vain]

Hlafordlaes can you please post a direct link to the latest Bios from PC-Trebier for the 4CoreDual-VSTA?
Is Bios 2.39a the latest one for the 4CoreDual-VSTA?
I find it more difficult to navigate thru PC-Trebier site these days and not understanding German makes it harder lol.
Thanks?

Update
Ha, I found it here after quite a bit of navigation.
4CoreDual-VSTA Bios 2.39a

http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/inte...ck_4coredualvsta_bios_2.39a_boot_12384.0.html

 

[bcborn]

@bcborn,

The CPUs you list are supported in the bios releases from pc-treiber, which is why you'll see people running them on these boards.

Thanks, The ASRock site has a Dos and a Windows version of 2.20. I take it the version faxlane listed (2.20a) is a dos version (4 cd's). Do I still need to download portions from the ASRock site (i.e lan, realtech etc.....) or is it included in pc-treiber's 4 disk set? Is a Windows version of 2.20a out their somewhere?

Finally, has anyone translated the german instructions to english?

 

[Faxfane]

@bcborn:
German, at least on a basic level, is easy enough to parse if you flex your mind a bit. If that doesn't work, there are always translation tools.

The 2.20a is treiber's modded bios off of Asrock's 2.20. Install via floppy or floppied usbstick (use the boot menu at startup). Alternately, you could download that iso I linked earlier, burn it to disc, and run that through the boot menu (if you have cdrom disabled as your first boot device). How-To

As for devices, the ones at Asrock work okay, but aren't really current. Rule of thumb is to always check the actual manufacturer's site for updates. Some mobo makers are quick on the ball and have those same updates available, but not always. You'd be better served by going to Via's, for mobo and lan, and Realtek's, for onboard sound, download sites. For realtek, check your manual or mobo for the audio chip version, then plug it into the search box on their download page if you can't find the driver files otherwise.

 

[bcborn]

Much Appreciated, thanks.

 

[Hlafordlaes]

Hlafordlaes can you please post a direct link to the latest Bios from PC-Trebier for the 4CoreDual-VSTA?
Is Bios 2.39a the latest one for the 4CoreDual-VSTA?
I find it more difficult to navigate thru PC-Trebier site these days and not understanding German makes it harder lol.
Thanks?

Update
Ha, I found it here after quite a bit of navigation.
4CoreDual-VSTA Bios 2.39a

http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/inte...ck_4coredualvsta_bios_2.39a_boot_12384.0.html

Glad you got it sorted.

 

[atoi4life]

anyone know why my asrock dual vsta got weird lines in games when i used ati 4850.. i use official bios 3.10 btw..

 

[Mr Vain]

anyone know why my asrock dual vsta got weird lines in games when i used ati 4850.. i use official bios 3.10 btw..

What ATI drivers version are you using?

 

[atoi4life]

new one 10.5 i thnk.. is it posibble running ati 4800 series in official bios?

 

[Mr Vain]

new one 10.5 i thnk.. is it posibble running ati 4800 series in official bios?

I take it that it’s the 4CoreDual-VSTA and not the 775Dual-VSTA that you are talking about?
Your card is not supported by the official bios versions from what up on their site.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/vga.asp?Model=4CoreDual-VSTA

You will probably need to install the modded bios from PC-Trebier as pasted on other postings in this page.

 

[atoi4life]

no i use 775Dual-Vsta.. ati 4850 can run on this modded bios? i also heard that some modded bios can make this mobo use ram up to 4gb.. is it rite?

 

[Faxfane]

Not really. The computer can see all 4 GB, but 32-bit OS's can only address up to 3.5 GB. There's some debate as towards whether the remainder can be utilized by programs or set aside for video buffers, as well as the /3GB switch.

One possible reason for your graphic issues could be overclock, if your system is. When I was running a 7600GT AGP on the 4CoreDual-Sata2, I could go up to Via's stable chip limit of 295. Once I replaced the GT with the XFX GTS250 1GB, I lost my overclock. Anything above stock fsb speed (266 for me) would either fail to boot, or would be mightily unstable, which I place squarely on some quibble with the peg's 100 frequency not being absolute.

After I got the GTS250, my final upgrade in my Asrock upgrade mobo was done, which I've since replaced with a GA-EP45-UD3L. The Asrock is back in its box, ready to be used should the need arise. Heh...all I need is a cpu and it could easily be brought back to life with the components I began with in April 09.

 

[atoi4life]

anyone ever use hd 4800 series on official bios? 775dual-vsta

 

[Hlafordlaes]

@atoi4life,

Go here to get the BIOS you need. Here for the flashing tools.

 

[atoi4life]

thanks a a lot hlafordlaes.. btw i is it any other method to flash bios other than using asrflash in dos.. i wonder is there any bios flashtool in the window,like asus mobo..