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

[iMik]

Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 BIOS L1.15

http://www.filesonic.com/file/424590...68E4G31.15.zip

[apatch]

Hi, did someone tested L1.12 Beta BIOS on Z68 Extreme 4 Gen3 board? I have some issues.

Hello, i have tested L1.12 and all worked ok even my Logitech UltraX Premium Keyboard which didn't worked in offical original stock bios 1.00, this 2 bioses have Intel OROM 10.6.xxx so I was using it paired with Intel RST 10.6 software.

About new OROM - here are all available Z68 Extreme 4 Gen3 bioses link old 1.00A (25) has newest Intel RAID OROM 11.0.0.1124 ! and I'm using it now with Intel RST 11.0.0.1015 software which in fact is recommended for all new SSDs (especially latest sandforce). I think it's not offcial but modded 1.00 bios which in fact didn't recognises my Logitech keyboard in bios/UEFI.

I'm very curious what changes L1.15 brings, all I want is now newset bios L1.14/L1.15 with keyboard/mouse fixes and added newest Intel OROM 11. Here's some info about it. I read somewhere how to modify any bios for this board and add newest OROM, got any tools needed but I wish that someone with better knowledge made it.

From the beginning I got some slow booting problem when my LSI 9240-8i is inserted in this mobo, this happens with old and new OROM, disabling Marvell ROM and other devices didn't helped much but I still hope there are some bios tweaks possible to improve this.

[The Watcher]

tried to use beta L1.12 and 1.10d used my logitech g9 laser on the red usb never had an issue but truly guys i wouldn't care less if it work or not, if my keyboard won't work then i will shout all over the forum.
try to fix what really important first and then do the other think.

[Deuzsta]

Having a few problems ive put my specs in my sig. Seems my overclock throttles @4.0 when i run prime or occt but when i run super pi or gaming in bf3, skyrim and other games runs at full 4.8 o/c tryed turning off cie and all c states in bios still no go just weird. If anyone here knows the fix plz tell me

[Deuzsta]

Having a few problems ive put my specs in my sig. Seems my overclock throttles @4.0 when i run prime or occt but when i run super pi or gaming in bf3, skyrim and other games runs at full 4.8 o/c tryed turning off cie and all c states in bios still no go just weird. If anyone here knows the fix plz tell me

[TEDY]

anyone tried 1.15?

[bat4]

USB3 performance is fine and reliable

Sorry Ket, but I can't leave this remark unanswered. I think the users have the right to know the issues about the Etron USB 3.0 Controller.

Maybe you have no issues with Etron USB 3.0 Controller, but see these links with unhappy users.

Let's start with the most serious bug, until version 0.101 the Etron drivers could cause random BSOD even if you didn't use the USB 3.0 ports. See this forum:

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-d...e-crazy-8.html

http://www.overclock.net/intel-gener...sods-halp.html

http://windows7forums.com/blue-scree...uild-help.html

Not only is it less reliable than the Renesas solution found on most boards, it is slower as well:
http://www.hardcoreware.net/gigabyte...oard-review/9/
Quote: "This board is the first time I have seen the Etron EJ168A controller, and I have to say, it sucks."

See this review:
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1668/6/

On a German site they are building up a list with compatible and incompatible USB devices:
http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/intel...e_14617.0.html

See this user having problems:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...rts-responding

Or this user:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1624179

Users start to RMA Asrock mainboards with this Etron controller and exchange them for Asus:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1785632

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1789651

See this forum:
http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/4...0-problem.html

http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/4...-problems.html

http://forums.tweaktown.com/asrock/4...ont-panel.html

See this German forum:
"The Etron EJ168A USB 3.0 controller is a disaster"
http://www.pctreiber.net/forum/intel...e_15202.0.html

Tell me Ket, have you received a free motherboard from Asrock?

[B Boy Rock]

Let's start with the most serious bug, until version 0.101 the Etron drivers could cause random BSOD even if you didn't use the USB 3.0 ports.

I'm quite curious to know how many USB3 problems have been solved and still remain now. Good to know updates drivers don't cause random BSOD but does using the USB3 ports cause problems, when and why? Just with certain devices or is it hit and miss with different boards? Also are some problems occurring with just some ports, like case ones plugged into the mobos header or random ones? If anyone could offer me some enlightenment on this I'd be really pleased, I'd even help spread the word of any fixes. I've just ordered the Z68 gen3 ext4 and am expecting to have it before Christmas so if I can work things out by then it'd be great.

[apatch]

L1.15 - Keyboard/mouse fixes obviously includded because my Ligitech keyboard once again works in UEFI/BIOS, Intel OROM 10.8.0.1303, what else do you want to check, I'm rather going back to 1.00A

[TEDY]

What do you do when you have a case with USB 3.0 + this mobo? You can't use both on USB 3.0 HEADER right?

[bat4]

I'm quite curious to know how many USB3 problems have been solved and still remain now. Good to know updates drivers don't cause random BSOD but does using the USB3 ports cause problems, when and why? Just with certain devices or is it hit and miss with different boards? Also are some problems occurring with just some ports, like case ones plugged into the mobos header or random ones? If anyone could offer me some enlightenment on this I'd be really pleased, I'd even help spread the word of any fixes. I've just ordered the Z68 gen3 ext4 and am expecting to have it before Christmas so if I can work things out by then it'd be great.

They have not been able to resolve most of the issues in more than 10 months time. I tend to believe that there is a hardware design flaw in the EJ168A controller chip. Even if they don't cause random BSOD, they might cause high latency as described in the following forum:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-dr...d-crashes.html

Quote:
"I found out that I have very high DPC latencys (sometimes >100000 µs) and that the problem is the onboard Etron USB 3.0 controller. I left a game running in the background and deinstalled the Etron drivers while monitoring the DPC latency. The latency fell from red (more than 50% off the values were above 10000µs) to normal green just as the unistaller finished."

If you plan to overclock, I suggest you to disable USB 3.0 support.
It seems that both EtronTech and Asrock are ignoring support requests concerning the EJ168A USB 3.0 Host Controller.

[bat4]

Asrock have stepped away from the commonly used NEC USB 3.0 controller and chosen to use the EtronTech EJ168 USB 3.0 controller.
The EJ168 certainly sounds like it can do the business, according to the documentation provided by EtronTech they are a world class IC design company. The chip itself is touted as being the world’s fastest USB 3.0 controller and the first to be interoperable with USB 2.0 and 1.1. EtronTech also claim their drivers are WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) tested and certified.

USB3 performance is fine and reliable (if anyone is plugging USB2 devices into USB3 ports... well thats just silly at this point in time with everything transitioning

Tell me Ket, if the Etron controller "is the first to be interoperable with USB 2.0 and 1.1." why do you make the users "silly" if they plug USB2 devices into USB3 ports?

The world’s fastest USB 3.0 controller.

[vulture_g7]

to Ket's defense, he only said that it is "touted" as the fastest and most compatible, which means he simply mentioned what Etron says and not necessarily his own opinion.

[bat4]

to Ket's defense, he only said that it is "touted" as the fastest and most compatible, which means he simply mentioned what Etron says.

Well, I can understand that, but why is he saying "if anyone is plugging USB2 devices into USB3 ports... well thats just silly". Asrock clearly states support for USB 2.0 and USB 1.0 on the Etron ports:

- 2 x Rear USB 3.0 ports by Etron EJ168A, support USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s
- 1 x Front USB 3.0 header (supports 2 USB 3.0 ports) by Etron EJ168A, supports USB 1.0/2.0/3.0 up to 5Gb/s

Now, is it silly to use a product according to its specifications?

I think Ket has received his reward (one free motherboard from Asrock) for presenting in such a nice manner their products.

I must admit that I am one of the users who has been mislead by Ket's review.

Indeed he didn't present his own opinions. He was one of the first users to get BSOD after plugging in a webcam into the Etron USB 3.0 ports.

Ket, why did you plug in your USB2 webcam into the USB3 port if this is a silly thing?

[B Boy Rock]

They have not been able to resolve most of the issues in more than 10 months time. I tend to believe that there is a hardware design flaw in the EJ168A controller chip. Even if they don't cause random BSOD, they might cause high latency as described in the following forum:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-dr...d-crashes.html

Quote:
"I found out that I have very high DPC latencys (sometimes >100000 µs) and that the problem is the onboard Etron USB 3.0 controller. I left a game running in the background and deinstalled the Etron drivers while monitoring the DPC latency. The latency fell from red (more than 50% off the values were above 10000µs) to normal green just as the unistaller finished."

If you plan to overclock, I suggest you to disable USB 3.0 support.
It seems that both EtronTech and Asrock are ignoring support requests concerning the EJ168A USB 3.0 Host Controller.

Ok so maybe I will be disabling USB3 if this fixes problems. Then I guess I'll just buy a PCI-e USB3 card or something for my cases front ports. Also is DPC latency just to do with onboard audio? Could a soundcard fix that and is there anyway of transforming USB3 ports into USB2 after disabling USB3?

Indeed he didn't present his own opinions. He was one of the first users to get BSOD after plugging in a webcam into the Etron USB 3.0 ports.

So does using any usb2 device with usb3 cause problems with the etron ports?

[apatch]

I was struggling with latency problem with this board few days, so thank you for some helpful thoughts. USB3 in my case seems to be not the root of all problems. I disabled USB3 devices in bios and uninstalled driver and Asrock XFastUSB software and the problem still exists. I suspect that my Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic card (also PAX driver) somehow shares interrupts with another device on this mobo and problems appears as sound cracking, one channel stops working with loud crack sound in the same time when DPC latencys shows abnormal latency high peak. If you want to generate some high peak latency , just change audio mode or start channel testing in system panel.

Some older users may already know similar compatibility problems like using SB X-Fi + DVB-S2 card + nForce4 chipset which in worst case resulted in mobo frying, I was using this combination and after some tweaking it was possible to find a culprint of all problems and resolve it.

In the past 7 years I was using 2 different mobos : Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe & Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P with X-Fi card and same problems occoured, after few tweaking, trying different pci port combinations, drivers and disabling unneeded devices this problem was resolved. What I want to say is that highly doubt that it's only Etron USB3 problem, more likely Etron + something ...

[vulture_g7]

Ok so maybe I will be disabling USB3 if this fixes problems. Then I guess I'll just buy a PCI-e USB3 card or something for my cases front ports. Also is DPC latency just to do with onboard audio? Could a soundcard fix that and is there anyway of transforming USB3 ports into USB2 after disabling USB3?



So does using any usb2 device with usb3 cause problems with the etron ports?

No, usb3 cannot be transformed to usb2 ports if they're disabled, they'll just not function at all. Not all usb2 devices cause trouble on usb3 ports. Admittedly, I've been very lucky thus far and all usb2 and usb3 devices I've plugged (webcams, flash drives, external hds, hubs, network cards and tv capture cards) worked fine and no latency problem either, but there have been many reports of problems using usb2 devices on usb3 ports by other people. The latency problem *could* also be related to onboard audio as it could be related to usb3 ports and/or various other things - each system is pretty much unique even if the same motherboard is used.

[RealTelstar]

So does using any usb2 device with usb3 cause problems with the etron ports?

It depends on the device. I had issues with my mouse, but not with the webcam and scanner.

[B Boy Rock]

Ok thanks. Should be getting this board tomorrow or the next day so I'm eager to see what it's like for me.

[RealTelstar]

I have to add that i got bsod twice, when gaming & listening to music (yes at the same time). My first culprit would be the realtek drivers but could have been the Etron, so i updated from 0.96 to 1.07.

[bat4]

You were using 0.96? That is a known source of BSOD.

In case of Etron, newer driver doesn't necessarily mean better driver. A while ago I have seen Ket recommending 0.101.

[bat4]

In case someone is interested, the latest Etron drivers (0.107) still have issues with external HDD enclosures having JMicron chipset. See this thread:
http://forum.mediasonic.ca/viewtopic...2&t=704&p=2969

[RealTelstar]

You were using 0.96? That is a known source of BSOD.

In case of Etron, newer driver doesn't necessarily mean better driver. A while ago I have seen Ket recommending 0.101.

Yeah, used 0.96 since the beginning, but for over one month I have never seen a bsod.
1.05 or 1.01 or 1.07 I dont think they change much. I read that the latest behave like 1.05.

[RealTelstar]

double sry.

[apatch]

Just found out my source of latency problems, it happend cyclically ever 4 minutes and X-Fi wasn't even connected with it, it was "clhnserviceforpowerdvd" working in background as service, one problem resolved, my latency is 60-150ms with max 448ms. Going back to install Etron again and will report later. :-)

edit : naaaa it was utorrent + MSE ;-)

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