**Official** Asrock Z68 Gen3 Extreme7 & Extreme4 thread

I have a different pair of problems this time. I wanted to use Intel SSD Toolbox and Samsung SSD Magician tools for SSD optimization. Both tools don't recognize any of the SSDs installed in the system (Samsung 470 128gb, Intel X25-M SATA SSDs (34nm) 80 GB), while they are both working properly and are visible in device manager.
Controller: Marvell 91xx SATA 6G Controller: driver v. 1.2.0.1003 (latest from ASRock website). Did anyone experience anything similar?
SMART enabled in UEFI.

Edit: Both SSDs have latest firmwares.

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Originally Posted by bat4

In case of Windows 7 64 bit users it is exactly the opposite situation. The rear ports are working correctly and the front ports are having problems.

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I don't use W7 x86 so can't test that but its interesting to know, I'll pass it on to Asrock. As you say, the Etron 1.101 driver is the best to use so far although I haven't had a chance to test the beta driver, I'll do that in a bit and if Etron has fixed the broken support with the devices I reported we might have a new winner.

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Originally Posted by zoomee

Yep defo on the Intel SATA3 slots mate, seems intermittant though - Sometimes its ok (benches on AS SSD at 649 score and sometimes 449)

On the positive side though - think I'm finding my way around all these settings! - Using 250, 250 on power limits, vcore of 1.38v (offset), Level 3 LLC, and unfortuantely with PPL overvoltage I get this on my 2700k:

I just noticed the newer BIOS on page 1 KET - Is this ONLY to fix the problems mentioned or does it give us more stability / features etc? thanks

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If the UEFI fixes other issues outside whats mentioned then I'm unaware of them. If possible I would suggest RMAing your SSDs as it seems like the problem could be with them.

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Originally Posted by Ket

If the UEFI fixes other issues outside whats mentioned then I'm unaware of them. If possible I would suggest RMAing your SSDs as it seems like the problem could be with them.

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So theres no change log for the new BIOS mate?

And the problem with my SSD is only evident on this board - I do not have any problems using it with a crosshair IV so its not the drive.....

There might be a changelog in the uefi section on the asrock site, but the last uefi I uploaded was a beta I got from my contacts which was meant to address various issues. As for your SSD, I'll mention it and see what my contacts say. Quite a bit of this stuff would be a lot easier to look into if I had a Gen3 board to test, but currently I don't.

I have a P67 Extreme4 Gen3.

Has anyone had problems with this board power cycling on power-up/restart before booting?

It doesn't do it when everything is set to default, so I tried going through and changing things one-by-one, it came down to Spread Spectrum but then when I loaded up my OC profile, setting Spread Spectrum to Auto didn't fix the power cycle.. kind of at a loss here.

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Originally Posted by richnewman

I have a P67 Extreme4 Gen3.

Has anyone had problems with this board power cycling on power-up/restart before booting?

It doesn't do it when everything is set to default, so I tried going through and changing things one-by-one, it came down to Spread Spectrum but then when I loaded up my OC profile, setting Spread Spectrum to Auto didn't fix the power cycle.. kind of at a loss here.

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Yeah i get this on my Z68 when clocking anything above 4.6 :-(

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No issues I've noticed on the Z68 I have, but its not one of the Gen3 boards. I've also had a chance to try the new Etron beta driver (1.105.394.1) and so far I'm impressed with it, the devices support got broken with are now working a treat again.

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Originally Posted by Ket

No issues I've noticed on the Z68 I have, but its not one of the Gen3 boards. I've also had a chance to try the new Etron beta driver (1.105.394.1) and so far I'm impressed with it, the devices support got broken with are now working a treat again.

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Well, you are using Windows 7 64 bit, I am using Windows 7 32 bit, the Etron drivers for these are two different worlds, they behave differently.

I have reduced the multiplier for my graphic card from x16 to x8 and it seems the rear ports now at least recognize what I am plugging in. With the graphic card running at x16, the rear ports don't recognize anything. I have also powered from another cable the graphic card.

I have added to my system a PCI-E card with two USB 3.0 ports, with the NEC/RENESAS PD720200 controller. Man, it just works! No issues, no beta drivers, no BSOD, no lag, no disconnections, no ignored support requests.

Etron could not fix the issues in 9 months time, I can't wait more.

I have already ordered a new Asus mainboard. Maybe I will keep the Asrock mainboard as a backup or sell it.

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Originally Posted by zoomee

Yeah i get this on my Z68 when clocking anything above 4.6 :-(

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I thought it might have something to do with the OC, so I brought it down to stock and it still power cycles >.>

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Originally Posted by richnewman

I thought it might have something to do with the OC, so I brought it down to stock and it still power cycles >.>

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hmm - I'm just tried the 1.10D bios posted by KET in the original post - I don't get the power cycling at all now mate even at 5ghz :)
Might want to give that a try.

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Originally Posted by zoomee

hmm - I'm just tried the 1.10D bios posted by KET in the original post - I don't get the power cycling at all now mate even at 5ghz :)
Might want to give that a try.

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Damn, nice. I'm on P67 though, not Z68 :(

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Originally Posted by bat4

Well, you are using Windows 7 64 bit, I am using Windows 7 32 bit, the Etron drivers for these are two different worlds, they behave differently.

I have reduced the multiplier for my graphic card from x16 to x8 and it seems the rear ports now at least recognize what I am plugging in. With the graphic card running at x16, the rear ports don't recognize anything. I have also powered from another cable the graphic card.

I have added to my system a PCI-E card with two USB 3.0 ports, with the NEC/RENESAS PD720200 controller. Man, it just works! No issues, no beta drivers, no BSOD, no lag, no disconnections, no ignored support requests.

Etron could not fix the issues in 9 months time, I can't wait more.

I have already ordered a new Asus mainboard. Maybe I will keep the Asrock mainboard as a backup or sell it.

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The issues are all driver related, I agree Etron should of done a much better job at bug testing, but they seem to be on top of things at least right now. On a different note entirely, why use a 32bit OS? Doesn't make a lot of sense to these days.

Hi all. I'm a noob on this forum. Bought the ASRock Extreme 7 Gen 3 mobo about a month ago, and wanted to check with the experts on how to get it setup right and eliminate problems--which (knock on wood) so far have been few.

Here's my setup: i7 2600K, running at 4.8 ghz (don't know how I did it, it just started out that fast), 16GB Corsair Vengence RAM, 256 GB Crucial m4 SSD as boot and system drive, 600 GB Velociraptor SATA3 HD for games and data, 2TB WD Caviar Black for backups and other data, 1 TB Seagate Barracuda for extras, another 1 TB Seagate on eSata external drive, 2 evga GTX 560 SC 2GB (each) DDR5 in SLI, Logitech G510 KB and G700 cordless gaming mouse, displaying on an HP w2408h LCD monitor.

Problems I've noticed: G510 KB not recognized in BIOS, but works in Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit; bootup takes longer than I expect (monitor goes to sleep waiting for video output from system), but once "Starting Windows" comes up it gets to desktop in about 10 secs or less; When external HD is connected via USB 3.0 cable it will disconnect after a few minutes of no activity--stays connected OK with eSata cable connected; I've noticed several programs and drivers won't install correctly and take a long time to return error messages--I suspect Windows is the problem here, but it could be some hardware setup problem that leads to the failed install. I've noticed the system will power itself up with no user input (unless one of my cats is stepping on the keyboard while I'm not home) I don't believe Wake-on-LAN is turned on in the BIOS.

My questions: Is ASRock working on a BIOS update to fix the G510 problem? I can work around it for now as I have a PS2 keyboard connected to the PS2 port to get into the BIOS, but would prefer to have only 1 keyboard attached. Is it recommended to update to the 1.3 BIOS from the 1.0 I'm currently using, and will this latest version solve the long bootup time problem? I'm pretty sure the 1.3 BIOS won't fix the G510 problem, but if it fixes the slow bootup I'll go for it. What are the optimum and SAFE settings for the major features? I don't care if I hit 5 Ghz on OC'ing, the 4.8 out of the box I'm getting now ought to be good for a while, but I don't want to fry anything or have some spec pushed too far that it will cause problems with software and programs or Windows. Does someone have screen shots of the recommended BIOS settings for the Extreme 7 Mobo they can share?

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Update the UEFI to the latest version then see if your KB issue is fixed.

FYI, I'm probably going to take the plunge myself on a Extreme4 Gen3 in the near-ish future so I should be able to get a lot more issues ironed out.

so where is my drive?
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/531/hddd.png

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

8 internal sata port 2 on marvel and 6 on intel, why waste the port if it can"t work.

Ket, any chance to get in touch with your contacts re stupid issue for code 70/71??? I seem to have the same problem as zomee posted earlier, but probably even worse!
Can't even boot with stock/default settings as it keeps restarting. Managed to do some oce prior to that and after it got the code for the first time that is it!
Strangely.. this Turbo 50 setting overclocked the 2500K to 4.8GHz and worked no problem. When I tried to do it manually with exactly! the same setting it didnt work!

I am starting to hate this mobo so much...

Qbaz. U tried clearing the bios like i mentioned mate? Set cmos to clear using jumper and pull battery for 15mins. Seems the bios gets corrupted easily on these boards

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Not yet mate. I was so p*** off last night that I just went to bed. Now working so need to to this first when I come back home.
Have you tried the beta bios at all??

solve problem removing the "intel RST"

I'll only be able to help with those issues once I get a Gen3 E4 board, which right now seems like it'll come out of my own pocket. Especially as Asrock aren't certain if the non Gn3 Z68 and P67 boards can support Ivy. I don't see any real reason why they couldn't but theres been no word from Intel yet about it according to my contacts.

Just flashed my version 1.0 BIOS to 1.3

Logitech G510 KB still not recognized for BIOS, but found in Win7 64

BEWARE!! system now boots much faster, so much so that I missed hitting del on first boot after flash and system went to load Windows, which then became corrupted--because BIOS flash reset SOME parameters back to default. Hard Drives set back to IDE mode from AHCI which caused corruption. Windows prompted for repair option, which I selected before realizing what had happened, and Windows did a roll back to last good settings--which undid my install of XP virtual Machine and some other programs--PITA!

Prior to BIOS flash I installed an old Zip 250 drive through a USB hub and it appears the ASRock XFast USB (?) keeps disconnecting USB devices in rapid succession. I heard the connect/disconnect tones multiple times in 5 minutes and the drive kept disappearing from Windows Explorer. Is this their USB controller issue, the Version 1.0 BIOS issue, my old USB hub issue, or the Iomega Zip drive? What are the Etron drivers I've seen mentioned here? Do they have anything to do with the USB controller?

I haven't reconnected the hub and Zip drive after the reflash yet to see if it still does the disconnect thing, but I will later tonight and report back on that. Has anyone else had this problem with their Extreme 7?

USB2 devices its strongly recommended to connect them to USB2 ports and not the USB3 ports. Device support with the Etron EJ168A is far better than it used to be with the 1.101 and 1.105.394.1 drivers but theres still a lot of work to be done, which best to my knowledge Etron are still working on. As for the UEFI update, whenever you update the UEFI on any board default settings are applied. You just have to put the settings back to what they were and off you go.

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Originally Posted by LJHCPA

Prior to BIOS flash I installed an old Zip 250 drive through a USB hub and it appears the ASRock XFast USB (?) keeps disconnecting USB devices in rapid succession. I heard the connect/disconnect tones multiple times in 5 minutes and the drive kept disappearing from Windows Explorer. Is this their USB controller issue, the Version 1.0 BIOS issue, my old USB hub issue, or the Iomega Zip drive? What are the Etron drivers I've seen mentioned here? Do they have anything to do with the USB controller?

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Don't worry. You motherboard is not affected by the Etron problems, because Extreme7 uses ASMedia ASM104 USB 3.0 controllers, which are reliable.

The Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 motherboard uses the famous Etron EJ168A controller.

XFast does more harm than good, so I after a few test I have removed it.

how to update bios? same way as asus in bios?