With memory prices SO low (under GBP30 for 2x2G 667, versus the GBP137 2x1GB 667 had cost me originally), decided with my Dec 2006 built 776DUAL-VSTA system that the 2GB with Vista Premium should really be more as so much paging activity with so many apps/windows I keep open, so rummaged through here and found the good news that the latest unofficial (?) BIOSes support 2x2GB SIMMs rather than ASRock's own limit of 2x1GB.
Got somewhat confused about the who/what/where/how with updating so thought I would add a posting of how I managed to find stuff and what seemed to work in case it helps others here:
I had been on ASRock P2.90 (after 1.9 2.2 2.4 2.7) since around Sep 07.
The PC Treiber.net section for the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA is at:
http://www.pctreiber.net/downl...667ff725e488c87c60ef66
The latest entry (go to last page of the section !) I found there was for ASRock 775Dual-VSTA Bios 3.15a
http://www.pctreiber.net/downl...=ShowFile&entryID=2984
At the bottom of that page is a German'glish page about "Howto: Biosflash"
http://www.pctreiber.net/artik...ei-asrock-motherboards
Running that through Google Translator at
http://translate.google.co.uk/?hl=en&tab=wT
gave me some idea of how to proceed.
So I then got two things from the PC Treiber.net site:
1) The 4.11 WinFlash .ZIP (not the 4.22 it seemed for our 775DUAL-VSTA board) from the links at the foot of this posting
http://www.pctreiber.net/downl...ge=ShowFile&entryID=76
2) The 3.15a BIOS file from the page (as referenced above)
http://www.pctreiber.net/downl...=ShowFile&entryID=2984
it's the "Verlinke Datei" .zip link tucked away at the foot of the posting.
WINFLASH 4.11
In Vista make sure Run as Administrator
In the setup dialog "Main BIOS Image" seems to work & MUST click "Destroy CMOS Checksum"
The 3.15a BIOS source file won't show up in the flasher Open dialog as it isn't named as a .BIN file; look for ALL FILES and should see it with the 75DVSTA3.15a filename
After flashing my system automatically went into restart.
I was ready with the F2 enter BIOS Setup key and it took a good few reboot cycles through the BIOS settings to get things right:
First I did a reset to Defaults with F9
Turned the SATA out of RAID mode into non-RAID mode
It then found SATA drive & I could turn the SATA SMART and 32-bit on
Set the HW Monitor to Quiet Fan Enabled (left at default 50C)
Played around with boot order
Turned off a few ports I never use
Afterwards I still have Windows Device driver showing up one PCI Serial port as no driver and it can't find one. As I plan to completely reinstall Windows Vista Premium from scratch once got the memory delivery (with a new Samsung 1TB drive) I haven't worried about that yet - but if anyone has any clues/help that would be good - it shows as PCI Bus 0 Dev 10 Function 0.
Incidentally - full marks/credit to the PC Treiber.net for their great work/site - if only they had a fully bi-lingual approach
MKD