Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2

[imported_rebel]

Originally posted by: Ileader36
Don't have any experience with that kind of fault, so a few ideas only

1. Power supply? how have You hooked the card up?
2. Set Vagp to high in bios, this is also Northbridge volts.
3. Try running the card at 2d levels in games to see if that helps.
4. See if You can borrow another card and see what happens
5. tried the 8.12 drivers ?
6. You may have to read through the whole thread for answers
7. Latest 2.12a bios from pctreiber?

No other ideas, so hopefully someone else with a pcie hd3870 can help.

hi iv done everything above even used my graphics card in someone eles's pc without any problems.. i really want anti aliasing !

 

[Ileader36]

It might just be easier to go and get a pci-express x16 motherboard, keep the asrock as a backup unit.

Just had one last idea, a bit risky but try another HD3870 bios.

http://www.mvktech.net/compone...nc,selectfolder/cat,8/

 

[lowrider69]

Originally posted by: Ileader36
It might just be easier to go and get a pci-express x16 motherboard, keep the asrock as a backup unit.

[/L]

That's what I did and I don't regret it at all.

As I mentioned previously I went for:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overv...sp?Model=P45TS-R&s=775

 

[francisA]

Just a question out of curiousity. With the 2.12a bios from pctreiber, there is now an option for Speedstep which I have left at Auto.

Will allowing SpeedStep to control the speed and/or vcore cause the instability issues I'm having with this board?

I've checked all PCI-E related BIOS settings and had them all disabled. There's got to be something dumb that I'm missing in the bios to make my E5200 not clock to where it was @ 3.5GHz with my AGP x1950xt.


Thanks

 

[Ileader36]

FrancisA, it seems someone else has come across Your overclock issues with a similar (not the same though) mobo and HD4850.
He had no answers either, maybe You should try and get hold of a HD3850 agp, then You and Your Son can play games with
better matched hardware.

http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs/...ead.php?t=75467&page=3

 

[lowrider69]

Not to be a d*ck but maybe you should opt for a Nvidia card if you're going to use the PCIe slot in the Sata2. I was using a 9600gt in this board with no issues, I didn't have to adjust anything in the BIOS. I think somebody in this thread(or another forum I was reading) was even using a GTX-260 in this board without issue.

 

[Phatjayunoi]

Hiya guys.

I will finally be upgrading my motherboard hopefully within a few weeks to make better use of my Q6600 (+ more RAM, better graphics card etc) and will be turning my faithful SATA2 into a second PC as a backup/HTPC/mid-gaming rig.

Because I will probably get a E5200 or E5300 CPU to put it in and since my SATA2 motherboard is the first Rev 1 version, will these CPUs work? On the official ASRock site for this board, it doesn't list the E5200/5300 for the Rev.1, but for the Rev.2 it is supported. My SATA2's BIOS is the latest 2.10 official one.

I know I could easily save myself money and trouble by getting the older E2200, or be really crazy and get the E7300, but I just want to make sure. Oh and I'm not exactly going to be doing too much overclocking with this.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: francisA
Will allowing SpeedStep to control the speed and/or vcore cause the instability issues I'm having with this board?

It is common to disable this stuff (halt states, throttling, et. al.) for overclocking purposes.

 

[Ileader36]

Originally posted by: Phatjayunoi
Hiya guys.

I will finally be upgrading my motherboard hopefully within a few weeks to make better use of my Q6600 (+ more RAM, better graphics card etc) and will be turning my faithful SATA2 into a second PC as a backup/HTPC/mid-gaming rig.

Because I will probably get a E5200 or E5300 CPU to put it in and since my SATA2 motherboard is the first Rev 1 version, will these CPUs work? On the official ASRock site for this board, it doesn't list the E5200/5300 for the Rev.1, but for the Rev.2 it is supported. My SATA2's BIOS is the latest 2.10 official one.

I know I could easily save myself money and trouble by getting the older E2200, or be really crazy and get the E7300, but I just want to make sure. Oh and I'm not exactly going to be doing too much overclocking with this.

I just checked the cpu support list, both Rev 1 and 2 mobo's are good for the e5200, and also e7200, e7300, and e7400 cpu's.
It is the Dual vsta which doesn't officially support the proc's.

 

[francisA]

Just a little update post PCI-E HD4850 install.

After fiddling around endlessly trying to find out why suddenly my E5200 or HD4850 won't OC, I made it to oc a little bit to a certain extent. The piece that changed was switching to DDR2 800 (G.Skill PI Black 2x2GB)

Current setup:
E5200 @ 3.48GHz (278fsb)
4GB G.Skill PI Black DDR2 800 @ 4-4-4-10 2T
Sapphire HD4850 (660/993)

3dMark06 - 11859
3dMark05 - 18290
Aquamark - 145650

Orthos stable - 4hrs so far (didn't get to test it any further)


Compared to:
E5200 @ 3.33GHz (@ 266fsb)
2GB OCZ DDR400 @ 3-4-4-8
Sapphire HD4850 (625/993)

3dMark06 - 11376
3dMark05 - 17408
Aquamark - 128,771

Orthos stable - 12hrs

It didn't go up by much but what's interesting is what I changed. First, the DDR2 800 works fine but I still cannot oc from 266fsb and 625/993 GPU. It just resets the VPU after tests. So as others did, I also had my PCI-E Clock locked to 100Mhz and I thought, hmmm, why not SYNC it WITH CPU. I made the change and surprisingly, it gave me the results above. No crashes, no VPU resets. I'm not sure if setting PCI-E clock to be sync with CPU is ideal though.

So just for kicks, I set PCI-E clock back to 100Mhz and 3dMark06 completed but VPU reset again.

There was a point where I was able to push the CPU to 288fsb (for 3.6Ghz) and GPU to 675/993 with the following results:
3dMark06 - 12237
3dMark05 - 18286
Aquamark - 149979

But in this setup, it's not Orthos stable. Crashes after 37mins for rounding error. Guess it's my vcore not being enough this time.

Also, I tried pushing the RAM to 348Mhz @ 5-5-5-15 2T (with my CPU @ 278) but it's a no-go, VPU resets again. The RAM pair is running at 5:4 ratio which I assumed should be ok but 4CoreDual doesn't like it

I don't know what to make out of the results. But from what I've done so far, it has got something to do with the flakiness of the PCI-E clock on this mobo.

Even played Crysis for 2hrs and it didn't crash on my current setup (1920x1200, all settings on high, averaging 29fps)

 

[francisA]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: francisA
Will allowing SpeedStep to control the speed and/or vcore cause the instability issues I'm having with this board?

It is common to disable this stuff (halt states, throttling, et. al.) for overclocking purposes.

Thanks tcsenter. I disabled SpeedStep and already had the others disabled before. But unfortunately, it didn't work well still. The PCI-E clock sync with CPU made me oc it a little bit which I find odd.

 

[Nsaney]

Originally posted by: anonxlg

Originally posted by: Nsaney

Originally posted by: fortunzfavor
I noticed there are several e5200 users here, but all the oc results I found were after a bsel or volt mod. Anyone remember results from before they modded? What was the best stable OC you could get?

I'm considering this board combo as a way to hold on to my AGP card and delay buying new RAM while still getting a stellar clock boost. I don't really feel the need to get every ounce of juice out of it, but if I could get 2.9ghz, that would make me happy. Is that doable without mods?

Thanks.

I've got an E4500 running stable at 2.79ghz with just bios settings.

i have the e4500 and i've only got it to 2.4ghz stable with bios, what settings and what's the rest of your setup

i wanna get this, OCZ (OCZ2P8004GK) DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum 4GB (2x2048) Kit Dual Channel
i wont have problems right? i think this mobo supports 4gb ram even though it says 2gb

I don't believe it supports 4Gbs with the official bios but I am not positive. I lowered my FSB a hair so I am at 2.77Ghz now but here's my settings if it helps.

Official BIOS Version 2.10

FSB - 252
PCIE Clock - 100 Mhz
AGP/PCI Clock - 66 / 33 Mhz
Spread Spectrum - Disabled
Ratio CMOS Setting - 11

Dram Frequency - Auto
Flexibility Option - Enabled
Dram CAS# Latency (CL) - Auto
Precharge To Active (trp) - Auto
Active To Precharge (tras) - Auto
Active To CMD (trcd) - Auto
Dram Command Rate - 2T

Dram Voltage - High
AGP Voltage - High
Primary Graphics Adapter - PCI Express Gfx

V-Link Speed - Fast
IDE Drive Strength - Ultra High


2GB Mushkin 667 HP ram (3-3-3-9) all on Auto
Of course the E4500 w/Arctic Cooler
MSI NX8800GT OC

I'm sure I'm not doing it right but it works for me. :laugh:

 

[dragonsm]

Alright-

I finally can start to feel good about what is inside of my case as I beging to hit the home stretch of one long upgrade process.

Current setup:
4coreDual - Sata2 board (I believe I still have the 1.5 bios that it came with)
Q6600 (picked up last night) still at the stock speed (less 5%) with a coolermaster HyperTX2 cooler
2 gig of DDR2-800 Super Talent
PCP&C S61EPS Power Supply
ATI X1300Pro AGP 256mb
Coolermaster Ammo Box Case

In the near future, I wanted to somewhat cap off this process with a new video card, and one of the cards I was looking at was the
EVGA 9800 GTX+ due to the price. If the link doesn't work, it is item # N82E16814130416
Between free shipping, and the dropped cost, along with the free COD5 game, I thought it was a pretty good deal for a decent card plus I have been wanting to add COD4 or 5 to my games to play as right now I am pretty much capped with Battlefield 1942 and Vietnam due to video card.

What all am I looking at to possibly get this card to work with my mobo? (I am guessing a flash on the bios for the mobo, but anything else?)

How much will the performance of the card be affected by this mobo due to the x4 pci-e?

or

Am I better off upgrading the mobo also when I make this video card step? (if it is going to be to much of a PITA to get it all working and keep it running I am better off probably getting a different board as my wife also uses this computer for email and internet surfing and she knows zero about trouble shooting a pc)

Thanks,

Steve

 

[lowrider69]

There's around a 30% performance hit with the newer generation cards on PCIe 4x bus. I read that either here or at Toms Hardware several months ago. I would get a new mobo, overclock the quad and install that card into a PCI-e 16x slot. You will see a difference, I did.

 

[imported_rebel]

hmm id like to know if anyone has a 3870 and has no problems using anti aliasing etc

 

[Frall ITA]

Hello. i'm an italian boy, so sry for my poor english. i'm not able to flash the bios from boot floppy. i put into the floppy the 2 files (flash.exe and update.bat), then i reboot my pc and in the black screen i write: flash update.bat, but it says error reading.... can you help me?

 

[Ileader36]

Originally posted by: Frall ITA
Hello. i'm an italian boy, so sry for my poor english. i'm not able to flash the bios from boot floppy. i put into the floppy the 2 files (flash.exe and update.bat), then i reboot my pc and in the black screen i write: flash update.bat, but it says error reading.... can you help me?

Use a USB stick, floppies are the most unreliable form of data storage ever devised, You would not want it to go wrong.
You are missing the bios file I suspect, should be a .bin or something like that, use edit or notepad and look inside the update.bat file.
Your English is good btw

 

[Frall ITA]

Originally posted by: Ileader36

Originally posted by: Frall ITA
Hello. i'm an italian boy, so sry for my poor english. i'm not able to flash the bios from boot floppy. i put into the floppy the 2 files (flash.exe and update.bat), then i reboot my pc and in the black screen i write: flash update.bat, but it says error reading.... can you help me?

Use a USB stick, floppies are the most unreliable form of data storage ever devised, You would not want it to go wrong.
You are missing the bios file I suspect, should be a .bin or something like that, use edit or notepad and look inside the update.bat file.
Your English is good btw

thanks for the reply. i don't find .bin file. there are only FLASH.EXE, 4cs202a, update.bat

 

[Ileader36]

OK, sorry, the bios file doesn't use an extension, it is 4cs202a.

Boot into Dos again and type Asrflash followed by the bios name, get the spelling correct and hopefully OK.

 

[Deleauvive]

Hi,

Not sure if the "won't go into standby mode" bug has been solved by the Anandtech community with this handy mobo, but I found that completely disabling Suspend to Ram in the BIOS allows me to put the computer into a near standby mode (case fans are still on). I tried many combinations of ACPI settings (Check Ready Bit on/off, HPET table on/off...), but none gave me a stable solution (the computer would go into standby mode but wouldn't wake up, most of the times).

I run a 32-bit Windows Vista, use the latest BIOS (v2.10) and even installed the VIA Hyperion 4 in 1.

EDIT : Despite all this, I cannot go into standby mode on a regular basis, hope someone has a clue to what's going wrong...

EDIT2 : No better luck when reactivating hibernation : the computer won't shutdown, even with its content is copied into the hiberfil.sys file. My guess is this issue is related to VIA chipsets misconceptions.

 

[Deleauvive]

p.20 in the manual :
PS2_USB_PWR1 jumper
Short pin2, pin3 to enable
+5VSB (standby) for PS/2
or USB wake up events.

I located and shorted pin1 & pin2 (+5V), since I do not plug any USB device while the PC is in standby mode. (Apparently, +5VSB allows ipod owners to leave their device plugged on for its battery to be repleted).

Without extensive testing, I dare to say the standby mode works better now... (I discarded hibernate mode). And yes, the keyboard does not respond when the computer is turned off this way.

I know complaining about such a cheap (cheap but valuable) mobo is a bit vain, but I would have appreciated this jumper to be placed differently in the first place.
Please, report upon your standby/hibernate issues/successes.

I think I am done with this, but won't be totally relieved until further testing.


By the way, I disabled HPET table in the BIOS and left other settings to AUTO.

 

[Tasunke]

Hey everyone, first time poster here, and I'm hoping you guys can help me. I'm about at my wit's end here. ^^;

I have a new ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2 R2.0 motherboard, with new RAM and CPU, and I can't get it to boot. At all... no video, nothing.
The fans spin up, Num Lock on my PS/2 keyboard will toggle, but I can't get any video, nor am I getting any beeps out of the PC speaker.
Right now, none of the extra PCI cards are in there... just the AGP video card.

Specs:
ASRock 4CoreDual SATA2 R2.0 motherboard
Kingston KVR677D2K2/2GR 2GB PC2-5300 (667 MHz) DDR2 Dual Channel memory kit
Core 2 Duo E7300 Processor (45nm, 1066 MHz FSB)
ATI All-in-Wonder 9200 2x/4x/8x AGP video card
RaidMaxx RX-530SS 530 Watt PSU

I'm not trying to overclock, I just want it to work normally. I haven't been able to get a single good boot (with video) out of the thing yet, so I can't tell you what version of the BIOS I have. I've tried re-seating the video card and RAM. I've tried resetting the BIOS, even pulling out the battery and attempting to turn it on as suggested earlier in this thread. I even tried both mashing and holding delete and/or F2 to see if I could get a BIOS screen to show up (as was also mentioned in this thread)... still got nothing.

Anyone have any suggestions of what I can try to get this working while I'm waiting on a reply from ASRock support? (I just contacted them about this issue.)

Thanks in advance!

-- Tasunke

 

[tcsenter]

Could be an older BIOS that isn't supporting E7300. Find an older CPU model to test and update to the latest BIOS if it comes to life with an older processor.

 

[Ileader36]

Try some old DDR400 Ram , if that fails then another video card if available.
These mobo's are fussy with ddr2 ram due to voltage requirements.

 

[imported_hiflyer]

Tasunke, I had similar issues. Swapped/reseated the RAM chips (I'm using DDR) and now it's working. I've had similar trouble with other mobos and RAM in the past. I noticed you said you tried reseating the RAM - try all combincations: use just 1 chip, use different slots, etc.