Problem with Destroyer, Vista64 and 3870X2

[hrahn]

Hello there,
got a slight problem with my Destroyer and my 3870X2.
Just switched to Vista Business 64 and wanted to install the drivers for my hardware.
The Ati drivers will always hang at "detecting graphics hardware", no matter which driver release I choose.
I read a bit about this issue and whenever it occured it had been fixed by a Bios upgrad for the motherboard from different manufacturers.
Any compatibility fixes in the pipeline from Foxconn? Any Beta Bioses to try out? Currently running P12 here.
I don´t want to switch the graphics card as it is part of my watercooling loop and has a nice EK full waterblock attached to it.
(and btw, it ran fine under XP64)

[negev]

Apologies if you've already thought of this, but have you tried using Driver Cleaner Pro in between installing the different drivers?

Also, you could try extracting the driver manually, go into device manager and update the driver from there and point it at the driver directory, then you're not relying on ATI's software installer to detect the card.

[hrahn]

no need to apologize,
I did all installs on a fresh install of the OS, there were no other drivers installed.
I also tried your method, it resulted in installing only one instance of the card and getting a yellow exclamation mark in the device manager followed by a prompt to reboot the machine.
Upon reboot I only got a black screen, no desktop or anything else. It wasn´t the known frequency /out of sync DVI issue, since I also got the black screen on a standard RGB connection.

It really bugs me that it worked without any problem under XP64 which is normally plagued with really poor support.

But I also have to say that I´m kinda disappointed with the Foxconn support. The board is quite expensive, but the frequency of bios and/or driver updates is pretty low to say the least. On the Quantum Force pages you only find Blackops stuff and some Mars downloads, but nothing else.
If this doesn´t change soon I´m going to sell the board and go back to Asus, their Strike Extreme is still running in my secondary machine and going stronger than ever (they just released another bios which allowed me to lower the voltage on my overclocked CPU to stock leves while still keeping the same FSB).

[Ryan12]

no need to apologize,
I did all installs on a fresh install of the OS, there were no other drivers installed.
I also tried your method, it resulted in installing only one instance of the card and getting a yellow exclamation mark in the device manager followed by a prompt to reboot the machine.
Upon reboot I only got a black screen, no desktop or anything else. It wasn´t the known frequency /out of sync DVI issue, since I also got the black screen on a standard RGB connection.

It really bugs me that it worked without any problem under XP64 which is normally plagued with really poor support.

But I also have to say that I´m kinda disappointed with the Foxconn support. The board is quite expensive, but the frequency of bios and/or driver updates is pretty low to say the least. On the Quantum Force pages you only find Blackops stuff and some Mars downloads, but nothing else.
If this doesn´t change soon I´m going to sell the board and go back to Asus, their Strike Extreme is still running in my secondary machine and going stronger than ever (they just released another bios which allowed me to lower the voltage on my overclocked CPU to stock leves while still keeping the same FSB).

I'm considering going back to Asus after ive never paid $550 for a motherboard and im disapointed with the blackops, however i will continue the battle to get a nice stable overclock at 4ghz with an 8400 haha... poor

[hrahn]

It´s just a shame because design-wise I really like their boads.
I also own an Nforce 680i-based board from Foxconn and it is really nice, but the bios is still a mild catastrophe.
Adding to this was the major annoyance that the board shipped with a 512k bios chip which could only hold the very first bios release. To upgrade I had to search for a shop who could sell me a new chip since Foxconn support was unable (or unwilling) to provide me with a bios chip which would allow me to flash the newer bios versions (1MB).
And still it will not correctly recognize FSB800 CPUs (E21xx-series). They stopped releasing new bios files about 5-6 versions earlier than other manufacturers which used the reference design.

The same now appears to be true for the Destroyer. 250€ motherboard and little to no support from the manufacturer. A real shame.

It´s not surprising that rumours were spread that several Nvidia partners would be given the axe in Europe and Foxconn was one of the top names on that list. Nvidia now denies that it will end partnership with these companies, but on the other hand, they´ve selected a few companies which will get increased support and Foxconn is clearly not among them.

But back to the main problem:
Do I need a new bios to fix this problem? If so, when will it arrive?
It´s my main rig that´s currently out of order, I´d like it fixed rather sooner than later. If I won´t be able to get it up and running in a few days time I will switch back to Intel and sell of all Foxconn stuff.
On the other hand if something moves and some good advice comes from their staff I might be persuaded to recommend the brand to others seeking out to build their own rigs.

Oh, and please incorporate a WORKING fan control on the board. As the ad slogan for a tire company once said:" Power is nothing without control".

Look to the IN9-32X Max for inspiration, all fan headers individually controllable by selectable temp sensors OR by set values.

[Gendo]

So if I understand correctly everything was working fine on the same motherboard until you switched OS? Then how on earth do you come to the conclusion it's a bios issue, it worked before didn't it?

And never forget quantum force only has a few people working on the motherboards, they are not nearly as big as asus or other manufacturers of high end motherboards. Foxconn doesn't HAVE to produce these kinds of boards to survive. You should be happy these people do what they can to make QF successful.

lol @ myself for calling an amd motherboard high-end:ROTF:

[hrahn]

I suspect that it is a bios issue since there are several reports on the net with exactly my symptoms (Vista 64, 3870x2, not being able to install graphics driver, always hanging while detecting hardware) and on every occasion I read about it was fixed by installing a new mainboard bios.
Alas, none of them was using a board from Foxconn.

Foxconn is still mostly known by the connectors on a lot of boards which bear its name. But you are flat out wrong if you thank that we should be happy that they produce these boards and thats it.

They decided to create the Quantum Force range of boards and market them as premium stuff. The price difference to similar boards using similar or the same chipsets is high. Therefore, if you ship premium stuff, customers expect premium service and rightly so. If Foxconn can not live up to these expectations they should have never entered this market segment in the first place! (and apart from that, other manufacturers ship out free SLI bridges, northbridge fans or ATX shields as a free replacement and Foxconn can not be bothered to send me a simple bios chip even if I agree to pay for it?)

DFI is a small manufacturer too, yet their service is top notch. If you have post an issue on a messageboard frequented by their support staff you get contacted by them and they try to straighten it out.
They brought out a new bios for the ICFX3200 with 45nm support, a board which is not only not produced anymore, but which also uses a chipset which was only produced for such a short time that they were the only manufacturer to actually put it into production!

And why not call an AMD motherboard high end? It´s as good as any Intel-supporting NForce 780 board, in some respects even better.
The CPUs are not up to their Intel counterparts in some ways, though you can´t really go wrong with an 9850BE for 120 Euros boxed (that´s what I paid for mine)


To get back on topic and sum up my gripes with the Destroyer:
- HD3870X2 works under XP32,XP64 - but strangely not under Vista64
- X-Fi Xtreme Music produces crackling audio on this boad, same card works fine on several other mainboards (had the time to do a few tests)
- Lots of fan headers, but no fan control on most of them rendering them useless for anyone who wants to adapt his fan speeds to the heat levels in his machine. Either I lose my hearing because I use fans that can keep up with the load temps or I can´t use the board to its full potential because my silent, but low speed fans cannot cope with the heat of an sli gaming rig.
- Power management settings are disabled when you change voltages, so you can´t undervolt on purpose without losing the chips built-in power management functions and you also cannot retain a modest level of powermanagement while overclocking

The last thing is something that has to be treated design-wise when creating the mainboard and programming the accompanying bios though and I don´t suspect it will be "fixed" anytime soon if ever.

The board looks cool, has nice features, but it also gets very hot if you watercool the CPU only, and since they didn´t include the chipset block from the blackops, you have no easy way of integrating it into your watercooling loop.
With only passive cooling, the PWMs get too hot to touch, you really need some airflow over them and the chipset with its "cooling extension pipe thingy".

[demonkevy666]

did you download the 64bit drivers?

disable the on board video in bios.

[hrahn]

The first question was a joke, right? What else should I use with a 64bit-OS?
Ofcourse, everyone makes stupid mistakes in a while, and I´m bound to do so as well, but that would´ve been a really stupid one.

The onboard video cannot truly be disabled with the Destroyer, and that´s exactly what´s causing the problem. You can only switch it to "don´t use onboard if PCIe card is present" or "always on".

I´ve found the solution to the problem yesterday, against ALL recommendations found anywhere on the web you have to switch the onboard video to "always on", then disable it in the Vista device manager and afterwards the drivers for the 3870X2 will install and work.

Quite a strange behaviour, but it could be easily cured with a setting in the bios that will actually shut down the onboard video for good.

I have to note that this step seems not to be neccessary under any OS other than Vista.

The old "crackling sound with X-Fi" problem persists though, it´s actually worse than before. Again, the card itself works fine in two different PCs with different mainboards. Does anyone have any experience with a X-Fi Titanium and the Destroyer? Don´t want to fork over 100 Euros just to experience the same problems all over again.
I need another soundcard though because the onboard sound from the Destroyer is a POS, it sounds very muffled and compressed, I cannot reach the volume levels (and volume difference measured over the whole range of the vol. slider) that I can reach with an extra soundcard. Also, the recording capabilities of the microphone input are very, very, very bad.
With a good Plantronics Callcenter-style microphone with separate amp the card sounds WORSE in chat programs than the X-fi does with a simple cheap 10€ Logitech headset.

I just hope that Saaya took my advice to heart and that they use better amp circuitry and better filters on their next onboard cards. The sound clarity isn´t bad on this one, it´s not even there - I could pull a sock over the speakers and it wouldn´t change the sound dramatically because it´s so mushy already.