Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 Owners Thread

[qstorm]

after a day in hell, this is what I have to report to fellow z77 xtreme4 users with double raid zero arrays...

if you experience shut downs during window load and / or are unable to install windows (7 or 8) because installation phase ends with an error during "file expanding" phase...

Stick to / revert to bios 1.40 (and better don't install intel stuff for the mobo, especially if windows device manager doesn't report errors). Simple as that. Bios versions 2.70 and 2.80 in particular mess up with the intel sata controller, at least based on my experience.

on a sidenote... if you have an OCZ ssd and at some point it becomes unformatable / unpartitionable under windows administrative tools... take a deep breath and make an OCZ bootable CD with OCZ TOOLBOX. Boot from that CD while your disk is connected internally (SATA) as the only one is your system and then perform a "secure erase" on the ssd (it lasts a few secs only). You will save the ssd. Forget the freeware "low level" format utilities. They will only make things worse and may end up irreversibly bricking your expensive ssd.

 

[Vectronic]

That sucks, but then again so does ASRocks UEFI.

I don't know if you stepped back all the way, 2.8, 2.7, 2.5, etc... but 1.3 and 2.0 were the first RAID changes, so 1.8 might be the best option.

 

[AG123]

Hi folks, I've got a bit of an issue.
I just bought this board a few days ago, and everything is running pretty well, except that the ASmedia USB3 ports on the back don't work at all, for anything. I've downloaded the drivers on ASrock's website, and the newer ones on ASmedia's website, to no avail. Does something have to plugged into the motherboard for them to work or something? I'm stumped on this!

 

[Vectronic]

I think you were just unlucky, as far as I am aware, the USB ports aren't shared with anything (unlike eSATA, and the 2 ASM SATA ports)... so, they might just be dead.

Might have broken during installation, or transit, or came from the factory that way.

 

[dawp]

just a quick question as I just bought 2 of these boards. Can you disable the onboard video and if so where is it?

 

[TJCS]

just a quick question as I just bought 2 of these boards. Can you disable the onboard video and if so where is it?

Advanced North Bridge Configuration > iGPU Multi-Monitor > Disabled

 

[Saffron]

Is anyone else with this motherboard having issues with USB 3.0 Speeds? I have a SanDisk Extreme 32GB that I've used at work on the 3.0 and it transfers around 120MB/s. On my computer at home that is equipped with the ASRock Extreme 4, I only get 20-25MB/s.

I've downloaded/installed the latest and rolled back the drivers with no success. I also tried with the Xfast isntalled (enabled/disabled) and tried it with it uninstalled with no success. Really the only thing left I can think of is a BIOS Update. Any thoughts on this? Or should I just contact ASRock and RMA it?

 

[Vectronic]

I don't have any USB3 devices with storage so I can test, but you could possibly check the BIOS settings, and disable the Legacy stuff for the USB3 ports... maybe it's running your USB3 device at 1.1 or 2.0 USB.

Could also be something like BitLocker, Backups, VirusScanner, interfering with speeds rather than the connection itself.

 

[JETninja]

I need help!

Just did a new budget Game Rig build for my oldest Son.

Case - Cooler Master Storm Scout
CPU - Core i5 3570K 1155
GPU - Evga GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB
Power Supply - Corsair TX650 V2
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB DDR3
Motherboard - ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155
Samsung 1TB 7200rpm HD
Cooling - Cooler Master V6 GT
24" Asus 1080P

So I got it all together a few days ago, we were waiting on the OS to arrive from the Egg. (Win7 HP 64bit) I never had a monitor hooked up to it but after a memory re-seat it booted up the bios fine with no errors. Kid (23, not really a kid) took it upstairs. The OS arrived today so I told him to move it the kitchen table, connect the monitor, KB & Mouse.

I came home, fired it up.....and I get A2 error? IDE Detect.

I have re-seated Sata Cables and Power, Switched Sata cables, just tried another 1TB Samsung HD. I even cleared the CMOS....still get the same error. Any ideas?

 

[CRCSUX]

@JET Is it a new blank hdd? I think I had that prob with a used hdd that had leftovers from win xp. Maybe try toggle the ide /ahci mode in the uefi. Or if it is blank try format it.

 

[JETninja]

One is new (and it did not have this issue a few days ago) the other is not and has data on it. (2yrs old)

What is the UEFI? I cannot get the MB past A2...it stops there.

If I had too I could probably format the new one using a USB enclosure.

 

[CRCSUX]

The UEFI is basically the bios.

Try booting without the gfx card and try another sata port.
Try booting without a hdd and see if you can get into UEFI and toggle the ide/ahci settings.

 

[JETninja]

I did try dif SATA ports....even SATA2 ones. Will try the tricks you mentioned...Thanks!

 

[Vectronic]

UEFI = BIOS

I had an initial boot error when I first put mine together, I forget what the code was specifically (wasn't what it should have been, or supposed to be)... swapping my memory from A1/B1 to A2/B2 solved it. (technically that's how it should be setup for 2 sticks, was in a hurry...lol)

If I'm reading this right, it has never been actually running, you're just going by POST codes? the error display says A2, is the monitor working?... and it just displays A2 as well?

Which SATA ports did you use?... the top 2, or one/two of the bottom six?

[1][0] - Controled by ASMedia chip, SATA3, should be used last/in desperation
[1][0] - Primary Intel controlled SATA3
[3][2] - Secondary Intel Controlled, SATA2
[5][4] - Tertiary Intel Controlled SATA2.

 

[JETninja]

I've tried all sorts of SATA ports, top, bottom, Sata 3, Sata 2. Pulling the Vid Card didn't help. Have the Card back in, not a single SATA device connected and still getting the A2 Code.

Due to the size of the cooler, I cannot move the memory to the next pair set. Maybe I'll pull the inside one that just fits and see if that changes anything.

Getting late and I get up real early for work...be back tomorrow. Thank you both for the help. We'll get this figured. Hoping to get it up soon, we race in online leagues and the poor kid has been doing it on his '07 Dell laptop...was topline....6 years ago...LOL!

 

[Saffron]

I don't have any USB3 devices with storage so I can test, but you could possibly check the BIOS settings, and disable the Legacy stuff for the USB3 ports... maybe it's running your USB3 device at 1.1 or 2.0 USB.

Could also be something like BitLocker, Backups, VirusScanner, interfering with speeds rather than the connection itself.

I'll get down and dirty with it this weekend when I have more time to tinker with everything. It seems to me I've already gone through the BIOS settings, but I may have overlooked some stuff so I will double check that. I don't have BitLocker or Backups enabled, could they still interfere?

Maybe this can shed some light on the issue: When I do transfer from USB to PC or PC to USB the transfer speed does start at 120MB/s then loses transfer speed at the rate of 2MB/s down to under 20-25MB/s sustained. I am using an 18.6GB file for testing. I have also tried both the front and back USB 3.0 ports and get the same result.

EDIT:

My primary hard drive is the 120GB solid state and the 3TB my secondary (naturally). I have tried to transfer both to the SSD and the 3TB. On the SSD it will drop down to ~35MB/s, so I do get a higher transfer rate to and from the SSD but it is still unbearably slow.

 

[JETninja]

UEFI = BIOS

I had an initial boot error when I first put mine together, I forget what the code was specifically (wasn't what it should have been, or supposed to be)... swapping my memory from A1/B1 to A2/B2 solved it. (technically that's how it should be setup for 2 sticks, was in a hurry...lol)

If I'm reading this right, it has never been actually running, you're just going by POST codes? the error display says A2, is the monitor working?... and it just displays A2 as well?

Which SATA ports did you use?... the top 2, or one/two of the bottom six?

[1][0] - Controled by ASMedia chip, SATA3, should be used last/in desperation
[1][0] - Primary Intel controlled SATA3
[3][2] - Secondary Intel Controlled, SATA2
[5][4] - Tertiary Intel Controlled SATA2.

So your saying the uppermost controller is ASMedia, the next 3 are Intel?

I may try clearing the CMOS tonight, and starting out with an Intel port. Wish me luck...

Also, the board has an HDMI port on the backplane, is fed only from the Intel GPU or can the dedicated GPU also ouput through it?

His Video has 2 DVI and what looks like a mini HDMI.

 

[Vectronic]

Yup, the top 2 SATA3 ports are controled by the ASMedia chip, which also controls the eSata on the back I/O... you can use the two SATA3, or you can use the eSata, not both.

Same deal with two of the USB3, and PCI slots (the two chips above on the ASMedia site), I don't think either one of those toggles anything on/off depending on what's being connected though (haven't tested, don't recall reading about it).

Rear HDMI will work, *may* not work by default using the dGPU, but it can use the dGPU through that using Lucid MVP... either way, the iGPU has to be enabled.

 

[JETninja]

Ugh! This is giving me a headache. Thinking it may need to be RMA'd. Cannot get passed A2, which is pretty early in the Bios, so nothing even on the screen yet. (Monitor says no signal) I did find I had a new HDMI>Mini HDMI cable so it is hooked up to the Video card now.

I cleared the CMOS, connected just the HD & DVD to the Intel SATA6 ports. No change.

Have to figure out how to RMA it, we had a friend purchase it at Microcenter (We lived in SoCal forever until 6 months, now in PNW and no Microcenters) and it was part of a CPU bundle.

 

[Vectronic]

Is the sticker still on the BIOS chip? (just above the error code display).

Which version is it?... it's possible that it's a really early release and isn't compatible with your RAM/CPU, or just sucks.

If you can get any sort of monitor working (disconnect everything but CPU/RAM try a VGA connection if you have a monitor with VGA input - usually most reliable) then updating the BIOS might work.

Is there any response from the keyboard?... for instance hit the power button, start tapping the Delete key.

If the Keyboard doesn't work and it's a USB keyboard try using a PS/2 keyboard if you have one...

If you can get that to have any sort of reaction, like switching from A2 to anything else (preferably AB)... then me or someone else could probably guide you blindly through the BIOS to test stuff, or to update the BIOS.

No need to RMA yet.

 

[JETninja]

Ok, I'll look into trying some of that stuff today. I do have a PS2 Keyboard around, don't think I have a VGA monitor though. Monitor is pretty new and we know it works, it was hooked up to a PS3 the last couple months.

 

[JETninja]

Picture of the Bios Sticker....

 

[Vectronic]

Not seeing the picture (as of this posting), but it should be just a while square with black digits on it.

1.40
1.80
2.00
2.20
2.40
2.50
2.70
2.80

You got the board awhile ago, so it will probably be 1.80 or 2.20

 

[JETninja]

Really? Can't see the Pic? Just got the Board last week....it's 2.70.

 

[Vectronic]

That should be new enough to not be a problem then.