**Official** Asrock Z68 Extreme4 thread. Share your experiences, OCs & tech issues!

[jpm]

ket, where do you find the latest broadcom drivers? the latest version on the broadcom site is 14.6.1.0.

[EzyRyder]

As in what kind of stability issues are resolved? One suggestion you could pass to Asrock is that it would be good to include the release date of all the drivers (like they do for their own stuff in the Downloads area). Another suggestion would be to include more informative Release Notes against a new Bios update.

Do you know if any of those bios fixes have finally fixed the eSATA problem? Getting a bit peeved off that after 4 months they have done nothing with it.

Cheers,
Gabriel

[Ket]

ket, where do you find the latest broadcom drivers? the latest version on the broadcom site is 14.6.1.0.

I found the drivers on station-drivers. Everything appears to be in order with them, but when in doubt, stick with 14.6. Also, for anybody experiencing slow USB3 performance via the front panel it may be unrelated but with Etron drivers 1.105 and 1.104 front USB3 support is broken with the USB devices I tried, go back to Etron driver 1.101.

[cmthomson]

Hi Ket, did you ever hear back from Asrock about changing the fan control to percentages with low limits?

Also, could you ask them what chip (part number) is used for the sensor on the CPU2 fan header, and speed on the CHA2 fan header? Currently SpeedFan throws an error message "unknown ADM1" and is unable to deal with these two values...

[radier]

Intel Releases New Sandy Bridge Graphics Drivers

[radier]

Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 UEFI 1.10

1. Support XMP 1.3.
2. Patch XAI mouse.
3. Update USB code.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.as...%20Gen3&o=BIOS

[Ket]

^ wrong thread for the Gen3 boards. See siggy for link.

[jpm]

Intel Releases New Sandy Bridge Graphics Drivers

just a note for those using on-board graphics, i was still having some occasional system crashes when playing video and upgrading to these latest drivers finally seems to have fixed it.

[Ket]

Any gaming results? Last time I had to use the IGP for somebody it was a real turd and couldn't even handle Stalker SoC running my Soc mod. Intel have a lot to learn still.

[jpm]

Any gaming results? Last time I had to use the IGP for somebody it was a real turd and couldn't even handle Stalker SoC running my Soc mod. Intel have a lot to learn still.

sorry but i'm not using this machine for games so i can't say. according to intel the gaming performance has improved, i still wouldn't expect SB's graphics to perform beyond a current $50-$70 discrete card. for basic productivity apps (windows aero, GPU-accelerated web browsers) and multimedia encoding/decoding it works quite well. it's also driving my 2560x1600 monitor over displayport just fine.

[Ket]

Even a £50-70 independent graphics card could run SoC without any problems at all. We all know intel IGPs blow a big one, but not even being able to run a game like SoC with mods smoothly is just really bad even for intel. I might do some of my own tests if I get a chance, but I don't use the IGP at all.

[jpm]

Even a £50-70 independent graphics card could run SoC without any problems at all. We all know intel IGPs blow a big one, but not even being able to run a game like SoC with mods smoothly is just really bad even for intel. I might do some of my own tests if I get a chance, but I don't use the IGP at all.

no argument from me on intel's horrific track record of trying to build GPUs that can deliver on gaming performance. not only is their hardware lacking but their drivers are still buggy and inconsistent.

but the reductions to heat, power, noise and airflow that result from using an IGP are extremely compelling for systems that aren't used for games. my SB system is inaudible, it runs at a significantly lower temperature than my previous C2D system and is substantially more powerful. the whole machine is effectively cooled by 120mm/140mm fans that all run in the range of 600-900rpm. this would not be possible with any decent discrete GPU out there right now, they are all power-sucking furnaces that generate an bubble of 70C-90C heat smack in the middle of your case. this heat needs to be removed unless you want it to dramatically raise your ambient, which complicates CPU overclocking. so your choice is to either use an active GPU cooler, which are all loud because of the space constraints that dictate using tiny fans at very high RPM, or using a huge passive cooler and amping up your case fans a significant amount to offset the air turbulence big GPU+cooler cards create. this is all worthwhile if you are maxing out the GPU for games, but otherwise it is the single most inefficient piece of a system design.

unfortunately every single driver intel has had out there for the SB IGP has suffered from intolerable crashes. it seems that with this new driver release they finally have a viable product, at least for business/non-gaming use.

[Ket]

I have a heavily OCd GTX460 and when just doing normal stuff its totally inaudiable, and runs very cool. Even gaming my system doesn't get overly hot and remains pretty quiet, but I do use some of the best 120mm fans you can get - Coolermaster sickleflows, quiet, and shift a lot of air. My main point with the current intel IGPs is that intel themselves have even tried telling people their IGP can now do games, yet with my Stalker SoC mod using the IGP it could barely do 20FPS in a grassy area. What makes it worse is on paper the HD2000/3000 IGPs aren't actually totally horrible, the big problems all come from the driver side. If intel can't get their drivers right, they should ask ATI or NV for a crash course to bring them up to speed.

On the note of crashing, the new IGP drivers are no better than the ones that came out in April, I still get regular virtu BSODs when the IGP is enabled. The BSOD only ever happens at a fresh boot, and I can even simply just hit the reset button and 2nd time round no BSOD. During my testing I of course used the llatest Virtu software and intel drivers. If I had to point the finger at the specific cause of the BSOD I'd say it happens as the Virtu software initiates and loads the intel driver.

[sin0822]

ket is there anyway to take a screenshot in the BIOS?

[sin0822]

nvm,i found it its F12

[ClockZ]

nvm,i found it its F12

Yea, just have to have a usb flash drive in, works good.

[jpm]

On the note of crashing, the new IGP drivers are no better than the ones that came out in April, I still get regular virtu BSODs when the IGP is enabled. The BSOD only ever happens at a fresh boot, and I can even simply just hit the reset button and 2nd time round no BSOD. During my testing I of course used the llatest Virtu software and intel drivers. If I had to point the finger at the specific cause of the BSOD I'd say it happens as the Virtu software initiates and loads the intel driver.

that's unfortunate. perhaps these are virtu-specific issues in the drivers. prior to this release i would get freezes/BSOD just from playing mp4/h264 videos (!). it was atrocious. at least that has been fixed.

[EzyRyder]

I am disappointed with Asrock.

I have been having issues with the eSATA functionality of the mobo from day one, I am also not the only one, some other users have reported similar problems.

I have emailed Asrock personally (and received no answer) and Ket has followed the issue personally as well but no answer from that has been received or solution been offered.

Everything else works fine, it is a good board but...

I am so disappointed that my issue has been ignored that this is the first and last Asrock board I am ever going to buy.

[Ket]

that's unfortunate. perhaps these are virtu-specific issues in the drivers. prior to this release i would get freezes/BSOD just from playing mp4/h264 videos (!). it was atrocious. at least that has been fixed.

Indeed, the intel drivers are very bad. You might want to try the latest 2509 intel have released along with my INF mod (for 2509) and see how it goes. Just extract the inf file to the "Display" folder of the intel drivers prior to installing them.

I am disappointed with Asrock.

I have been having issues with the eSATA functionality of the mobo from day one, I am also not the only one, some other users have reported similar problems.

I have emailed Asrock personally (and received no answer) and Ket has followed the issue personally as well but no answer from that has been received or solution been offered.

Everything else works fine, it is a good board but...

I am so disappointed that my issue has been ignored that this is the first and last Asrock board I am ever going to buy.

I done a lot of testing on this issue, the best explanation I can offer is the problem is probably to do with the controller chip itself. I will endevour to ask Asrock about the problem again though, perhaps they have been able to look into it since.

@ EZ; if you can get me a list of hardware being used on the eSATA port by other users experiencing the same issue you are that would help greatly.

[jpm]

Indeed, the intel drivers are very bad. You might want to try the latest 2509 intel have released along with my INF mod (for 2509) and see how it goes. Just extract the inf file to the "Display" folder of the intel drivers prior to installing them.

what exactly does the inf mod do?

[Ket]

Tweaks some things and changes others. Should solve a few minor issues but the main point in the INF changes are to help smooth out and improve FPS.

[EzyRyder]

I done a lot of testing on this issue, the best explanation I can offer is the problem is probably to do with the controller chip itself. I will endevour to ask Asrock about the problem again though, perhaps they have been able to look into it since.

@ EZ; if you can get me a list of hardware being used on the eSATA port by other users experiencing the same issue you are that would help greatly.

Hi Ket,

Thanks for answering! Asrock should hire you mate, at least I can get an answer from you.

Regarding the eSATA issue, I have now given up and I am selling the caddy and putting the HD in my PC so can't really check it anymore. But you say you tried it... did you reproduce the issue? It would be interesting to hear your results.

Thanks

[Anusha]

sorry to disrupt the flow, but is there news about ivybridge support on this mobo?

[Anusha]

Ket are you aware of the BSODs you get on this board when running off the iGPU?
The BSOD says something like, "Failed to receive the clock interrupt from the second processor."
Apparently, a lot of people are getting this with this motherboard. Same people say it is not there with the Asus's Z68.
I am getting the same thing because I sold my graphics card so that I could upgrade, and am currently running off the iGPU. The more I use this board, I feel like I've made a mistake by not going with Asus

[EzyRyder]

Ket are you aware of the BSODs you get on this board when running off the iGPU?
The BSOD says something like, "Failed to receive the clock interrupt from the second processor."
Apparently, a lot of people are getting this with this motherboard. Same people say it is not there with the Asus's Z68.
I am getting the same thing because I sold my graphics card so that I could upgrade, and am currently running off the iGPU. The more I use this board, I feel like I've made a mistake by not going with Asus

Are you getting them? I haven't actually tried myself but if that is the case that would be really poor show, again!

The support for this mobo is dead. No more BIOSes or any further driver updates. The whole IvyBridge thing reinforces this feeling - where as with Asus, Gigabyte and other manufacturers this is a possibility with Asrock it isn't.

Next time I would go with Gigabyte or MSI, they give their products the support they need, and their RMA service is one of the best.