ASRock 939Dual - SATA2 install problems

[Daniel]

I'm about ready to pull my hair out here...

I was planning an A64 upgrade. Since I already have a decent AGP card but wanted to go to PCI-E later I figured the ASRock board would be a good choice. I bought that and a 3400+ Venice chip.

I put it together with an Antec Truepower 430 PSU, 2x Crucial PC3200 512 sticks and an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. I put everything together and didn't get any juice at all, no beeps, no lights, no fans, nothing. I had the 12V line in,(and yes, the main power too) tried the power switch pins to the front button both ways, still nothing. I figured the board was bad as I tried 2 PSUs, different memory, in the case, out of the case, with the video card, without the video card, pretty much everything I could think of.

I RMA'd the board and got a new one in, hooked everything up, the new one dd the exact same thing the last one did. At that point I figured the only other thing that hadn't been tested was the CPU. I got a 3000+ Venice chip in. I hooked up the 3000+ chip... same thing!

I called ASRock tech support today to see if there could be anything weird I might be missing. The tech support guy laughed at me for using two Antec PSUs to test (a 350 and a 430) saying that they don't work well with that board since they are ATX 2.0. He said I should try another PSU that isn't ATX 2.0 and isn't Antec.

I just picked up a Enermax 420W, it's ATX 2.0 but they didn't have anything else and really, I don't see why that would have anything to do with it. Anyway, the new PSU is doing the same thing too.

Any ideas here? Anyone? Bueller?
thanks,
Daniel

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

I'm using an Antec Smartpower 450W. I'm not sure if it's the ATX2.0 (don't think so - no SATA or PCIe power connectors). It works fine. HOWEVER - I had a hell of a time getting it up and running, for a while I had no beeps, for a while I was getting the 9 long beeps. While I don't remember exactly what fixed the no-beeps problem, I do suggest pulling your CMOS battery if you haven't tried that already - that fixed a problem I was having that wasn't fixed by shorting the CMOS reset.

Is your power switch actually working on your case? You may try manually shorting the power pins? (I've never done that myself but I think you can)

I feel your pain. Really frustrating. It's all worth it in my case, since my board's pretty solid now.

Edit - do your PSU's have the 24-pin ATX plug? I dunno if those should even work on this board.

 

[qdogforeva]

I had a very similiar problem. A lot of people do, apparently. I've narrowed it down to one setting in the bios, believe it or not.

There is an option along the lines of "Memory Compatibility Mode". No matter what your memory settings are make sure this is ON. But how to get to this if you can't boot?

Take out everything (HDD, CD, PCI Cards) and run just the processor, video card, and a single stick of memory. Repeatedly clear the bios via the jumper. You might have to do this several times, even taking out the battery on the board. EVENTUALLY it will boot...you just have to keep trying to start the machine via combinations of clearing and waiting. It's a royal pain, but once I got that setting ON I haven't had the first problem with the board. It took me forever to figure that out.

And its not your damn PSU. I can't believe those people...I'm running an Antec Truepower 550 and haven't had any issues that could be related to that. You tried all of the obvious stuff and they are trying to get you to replace the rest of your computer instead of something that is thier fault. SHAME!

Good luck, and if you have any more questions about this board feel free to email me at quinton DOT litchford DOT 04 AT cnu DOT edu. I don't usually hang out in the Anand forums much because there is just TOO much activity, but I'm a regular in the Nvnews forums as Qlitchford too. Again, good luck. It's a solid board once you get past this cold boot issue.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

qdog, are you talking about "gated clock function" under Chipset config, or more likely "Flexibility option" under CPU Config in the setup.... both are disabled for me. I'm running Corsair XMS 3200C2 512, one stick rev 1.1 and like a 3.2.

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG
I'm using an Antec Smartpower 450W. I'm not sure if it's the ATX2.0 (don't think so - no SATA or PCIe power connectors). It works fine. HOWEVER - I had a hell of a time getting it up and running, for a while I had no beeps, for a while I was getting the 9 long beeps. While I don't remember exactly what fixed the no-beeps problem, I do suggest pulling your CMOS battery if you haven't tried that already - that fixed a problem I was having that wasn't fixed by shorting the CMOS reset.

Is your power switch actually working on your case? You may try manually shorting the power pins? (I've never done that myself but I think you can)

I feel your pain. Really frustrating. It's all worth it in my case, since my board's pretty solid now.

Edit - do your PSU's have the 24-pin ATX plug? I dunno if those should even work on this board.

Oh, I've cleared the CMOS more times than I can count. I started taking the battery out a few times too, nothing at all. My PSUs have the 20+4 type pin where the 4 are snapped on the end and you just unsnap them and plug them into the 12V line by themselves.

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by: qdogforeva
I had a very similiar problem. A lot of people do, apparently. I've narrowed it down to one setting in the bios, believe it or not.

There is an option along the lines of "Memory Compatibility Mode". No matter what your memory settings are make sure this is ON. But how to get to this if you can't boot?

Take out everything (HDD, CD, PCI Cards) and run just the processor, video card, and a single stick of memory. Repeatedly clear the bios via the jumper. You might have to do this several times, even taking out the battery on the board. EVENTUALLY it will boot...you just have to keep trying to start the machine via combinations of clearing and waiting. It's a royal pain, but once I got that setting ON I haven't had the first problem with the board. It took me forever to figure that out.

And its not your damn PSU. I can't believe those people...I'm running an Antec Truepower 550 and haven't had any issues that could be related to that. You tried all of the obvious stuff and they are trying to get you to replace the rest of your computer instead of something that is thier fault. SHAME!

Good luck, and if you have any more questions about this board feel free to email me at quinton DOT litchford DOT 04 AT cnu DOT edu. I don't usually hang out in the Anand forums much because there is just TOO much activity, but I'm a regular in the Nvnews forums as Qlitchford too. Again, good luck. It's a solid board once you get past this cold boot issue.

Thanks, qdogforeva, I haven't been able to get it to the BIOS yet and I've been trying everything, I'll be dropping you an email soon.

 

[seth13699]

Originally posted by: Daniel

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG
I'm using an Antec Smartpower 450W. I'm not sure if it's the ATX2.0 (don't think so - no SATA or PCIe power connectors). It works fine. HOWEVER - I had a hell of a time getting it up and running, for a while I had no beeps, for a while I was getting the 9 long beeps. While I don't remember exactly what fixed the no-beeps problem, I do suggest pulling your CMOS battery if you haven't tried that already - that fixed a problem I was having that wasn't fixed by shorting the CMOS reset.

Is your power switch actually working on your case? You may try manually shorting the power pins? (I've never done that myself but I think you can)

I feel your pain. Really frustrating. It's all worth it in my case, since my board's pretty solid now.

Edit - do your PSU's have the 24-pin ATX plug? I dunno if those should even work on this board.

Oh, I've cleared the CMOS more times than I can count. I started taking the battery out a few times too, nothing at all. My PSUs have the 20+4 type pin where the 4 are snapped on the end and you just unsnap them and plug them into the 12V line by themselves.

You mean that you un-snap the extra 4pin block from the 24pin power connector and plug that in the 12V plug near your CPU?
If not then I can't think of something else....
If that's the case you found the culprit...
Search for a 2-yellow 2-black wired 4pin connector and plug that near your CPU.
With a little luck you just undervolted your CPU and not caused permanent damage.

Cheers

 

[professor1942]

Yeah I think you plugged the wrong connector into your 12v... it doesn't even fit there so you must have really forced it in. LOL

 

[Somniferum]

Originally posted by: qdogforeva
I had a very similiar problem. A lot of people do, apparently. I've narrowed it down to one setting in the bios, believe it or not.

There is an option along the lines of "Memory Compatibility Mode". No matter what your memory settings are make sure this is ON. But how to get to this if you can't boot?

I would not recommend running with this option turned on if you can avoid it (I think it's actually called "Flexibility Option" in BIOS memory settings). The reason is that it dramatically lowers your memory bus speed, which in turn cripples your memory bandwidth. Only do this as an absolute last resort.

To the OP -- are you sure the power switch on your case is plugged in the right way to the pins? When I first put my system together it wouldn't boot either -- I flipped the 2-pin power switch connector around and lo and behold, that fixed it.

 

[Daniel]

Originally posted by: seth13699

Originally posted by: Daniel

Originally posted by: OvErHeAtInG
I'm using an Antec Smartpower 450W. I'm not sure if it's the ATX2.0 (don't think so - no SATA or PCIe power connectors). It works fine. HOWEVER - I had a hell of a time getting it up and running, for a while I had no beeps, for a while I was getting the 9 long beeps. While I don't remember exactly what fixed the no-beeps problem, I do suggest pulling your CMOS battery if you haven't tried that already - that fixed a problem I was having that wasn't fixed by shorting the CMOS reset.

Is your power switch actually working on your case? You may try manually shorting the power pins? (I've never done that myself but I think you can)

I feel your pain. Really frustrating. It's all worth it in my case, since my board's pretty solid now.

Edit - do your PSU's have the 24-pin ATX plug? I dunno if those should even work on this board.

Oh, I've cleared the CMOS more times than I can count. I started taking the battery out a few times too, nothing at all. My PSUs have the 20+4 type pin where the 4 are snapped on the end and you just unsnap them and plug them into the 12V line by themselves.

You mean that you un-snap the extra 4pin block from the 24pin power connector and plug that in the 12V plug near your CPU?
If not then I can't think of something else....
If that's the case you found the culprit...
Search for a 2-yellow 2-black wired 4pin connector and plug that near your CPU.
With a little luck you just undervolted your CPU and not caused permanent damage.

Cheers

Sorry, I didn't type the right thing earlier, I was remote desktop'd home from work and was getting asked many questions at the same time. I wish it was as silly as just not plugging things into correctly, I surely didn't force the wrong plug into the socket. I guess it's this cold boot issue, I'll keep working on trying to get it to come up. Thanks for all the suggestions though.

 

[qdogforeva]

Originally posted by: Somniferum

Originally posted by: qdogforeva
I had a very similiar problem. A lot of people do, apparently. I've narrowed it down to one setting in the bios, believe it or not.

There is an option along the lines of "Memory Compatibility Mode". No matter what your memory settings are make sure this is ON. But how to get to this if you can't boot?

I would not recommend running with this option turned on if you can avoid it (I think it's actually called "Flexibility Option" in BIOS memory settings). The reason is that it dramatically lowers your memory bus speed, which in turn cripples your memory bandwidth. Only do this as an absolute last resort.

To the OP -- are you sure the power switch on your case is plugged in the right way to the pins? When I first put my system together it wouldn't boot either -- I flipped the 2-pin power switch connector around and lo and behold, that fixed it.

I though the setting lowered the bus speeds too. However, I haven't had any performance problems. It retains my timings (which is good) but I do have to use the memory speed selector option and force it to use DDR 400. Auto sets it to DDR 333. I'm going to do some benchmarks and make sure that there is no difference.

 

[qdogforeva]

Well...I tested the change in performance through Sandra 2005 R3.

ON

Memory Bandwidth
Int: 3884 mb/s
Float: 3891 mb/s
91% Efficiency

Cache & Memory
Combined Index: 5798



OFF

Memory Bandwidth
Int: 5587 mb/s
Float: 5592 mb/s
87% Efficiency

Cache & Memory
Combined Index: 6787

So having that setting on reduces your bandwidth by about half. SORRY GUYS! Somniferum, you were dead on correct. I can't believe that I had the settings reported so that they seemed to be what they were sat at. Very weird.

However, I don't have that cold boot issue anymore. Hmm... I am running the newest bios 1.50, so perhaps you guys can run the option until you can update the bios. I know that I had this issue repeatedly with the setting off when I first had the board.

 

[qdogforeva]

UPDATE:

Although that option DOES have a significant impact on performance, it has an ever greater impact on stability. With the option OFF, I constantly reboot once I enter Windows. With it ON I have no problems. I've even tried changing my timings to be very loose, but to no avail. This option MUST be on, for me at least.

I'm running (1gb x 2) PQI Performance (or whatever their highend stuff is). Runs through Memtest fine and I have a physical memory checker at work that's tested the memory fine.

Great.