Asrock P67 Extreme4 UEFI & Drivers thread [Extreme6 & Pro3 owners welcome]

[Arska]

Nice to see that most of the Pro3 issues reported here may have been fixed. I'll wait for a non-beta release and then flash it.

[radier]

There will never be non-beta version of the UEFI I have linked above.
So enjoy the eternal waiting ....
....or be a MAN and flash it right now.

[bat4]

Yet another driver for Etron USB 3.0.

http://www.station-drivers.com/telec...ivers.com).exe

[bat4]

Yet another driver for Etron USB 3.0, build 111, after only two days.
http://www.station-drivers.com/telec...ivers.com).exe

[GregoryDonner]

Yet another driver for Etron USB 3.0, build 111, after only two days.

Thanks for the heads-up!

On a slightly different note, has anyone else run into the odd situation of only one of the Extreme4's front USB 3.0 ports responding to devices (even with this latest set of drivers?)

[papatsonis]

just an observation..
with 0.110 i get crackling sound on realtek.... which got resolved either uninstalling realtek drivers and using intergrated win7 drivers(unacceptable..), or reverting to 0.109 which sounds ok...

[GripS]

just an observation..
with 0.110 i get crackling sound on realtek.... which got resolved either uninstalling realtek drivers and using intergrated win7 drivers(unacceptable..), or reverting to 0.109 which sounds ok...

I highly recommend getting a dedicated sound card. On-board is garbage.

How is it with .111?

[bat4]

just an observation..
with 0.110 i get crackling sound on realtek....

Yes, another user had this problem with older drivers. He found that the Etron controller was causing extremely high latency and the issue was present with several types of sound cards:

I may have solved the problem. I had problems with all my audio devices (though only the two creative cards needed reboot), but mostly while playing games:
- Realtek onBoard Sound - bad sound / heavy distortions
- Asus Xonar DX (PCIe) - bad sound / heavy distortions
- nVidia Audio (HDMI) - bad sound / heavy distortions
- Creative X-Fi Titanium (PCIe) - bad sound / heavy distortions / sound crash (need reboot)
- Creative Audigy 2 ZS (PCI) / bad sound / heavy distortions / system crash (need reset)

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.

See this thread, search for Etron:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-dr...d-crashes.html

[radier]

Write this to ASRock Support.

[papatsonis]

In Media Res, i pinpointed down to the 1st USB3 controller..



yes that one asrock advises to connect devices for best performance... no wonder it was the same controller, 1 year back, that gave me from start various problems.. - the other 2 (1 in case of Extreme4) controllers which are connected thru multiplexer chip, may work with lower performance but do work stable in general. Also the same one controller is that which from time to time, cant find resources on windows (check pix)



(After disabling 1 by 1 and checking) i found that just disabling it and reboot, resulted in much much better performance.



Also noticed some correlation in dpc latency spikes, when i had enabled from realtek control panel the noise cancelation option in mic settings, with that enabled, it could pop (not so often) 1 "14k" spike, with it disabled, it was more stable.

[GripS]

Is this still an issue when using .111?

[GripS]

Been bored the past few days so I've been trying to overclock my setup beyond the 4.2ghz on all auto settings that I have been running to this point.

Radier,

I have seen your posts from earlier in this thread and my question is what bios settings are you currently running for your 5ghz OC? Are they the same from your posts earlier? If I remember correctly you recommend the following:

Turbo power limits:

255
255
300

VTT: .986
VCCSA: .925
CPU PLL: 1.709

Are you still leaving the C states to all enabled?

[papatsonis]

Is this still an issue when using .111?

this is with 0.111 driver... no difference at all, if i disable the upper back usb (the best performance according to asrock..) the dpc has way lower latency.. (the "spikes" are rare and up to 900-1000μs)

[swampy]

Is there any wary of stopping USB3.0 attached devices slowing down the boot?

[radier]

@Grips

My settings: http://min.us/mvbFnm7

[radier]

@papatsonis

No spikes here on Extreme4 + Xonar D1 while making copy data on USB 3.0 external drive. Drivers 0.110.

[GripS]

@Grips

My settings: http://min.us/mvbFnm7

Cool thanks. That is one nice chip you have. I can't even get into windows with your settings. I've managed 4.5ghz prime95 stable so far with stock voltage and using your turbo limit settings. They definitely helped as 4.5ghz fails prime95 without manually setting short and long durations.

edit: Now running 4 hours so far at 4.6ghz stock voltage. You would think I should at least be able to get into Windows at 5ghz since I am not adding any extra for 4.6.

[banwell]

Had a quick search but couldn't find much discussion about the xfast LAN or xfast Ram utilities. Are people actually using these? they appear to offer some nice benefits. However I've a few questions in case anyone has dug past the initial marketing blurb.

On the XFAST RAM utility it seems too good to be true. I've toyed with Ramdisk a few times and dropped it (considered fancycache but not tired). Mainly due to the time it added to boot up and shut down when reinstalling the backup imagine. But this Asrock utility has negligible to zero impact on these times. Also RAMDISK stuck a RAMDISK imagine size file on my SSD at shutdown (3GB!) - which I wasn't too crazy about! I can't seems to find the back up file for the Asrock utility (I suspect it's doing the right thing and compressing the data which after all should be quite small). (I have 12 gb of RAM so using a 3gb of RAM drive seems like a decent compromise as I have the page file/temp files and browser caches all there - mainly to save writes on the system SSD but also eek out some more performance - like I need it!)

Also the Xfast LAN seems to be in calibration mode forever... but I like it.. don't know why yet.

Can anyone shed any light?

[GregoryDonner]

I'm not using any of the ASRock "extras." Personally, I treat them like I treat all bloatware. Anything that tinkers with Windows to improve boot or internet speed = marketing hax. From what I've read, I'm not the only one who feels this way. All I want are the bare-bones, unadulterated drivers for the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" benefits.

Edit: I could wish that manufacturers would instead spend that time on the drivers themselves; I think they have a tendency to underestimate just how critical they are to the overall stability and efficiency of a system. In ASRock's favor, they do seem to be updating their drivers pretty frequently--my hat's off to them for that! I know marketing would never agree, but IMO fewer mobo models = more time/resources for QA = better hardware and drivers.

[RealTelstar]

I'm not using any of the ASRock "extras." Personally, I treat them like I treat all bloatware. Anything that screws around with Windows to improve boot speed, internet speed = marketing hax. From what I've read, I'm not the only one who feels this way. All I want are the bare-bones, unadulterated drivers for the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" benefits.

+1. I would use the usb boost though, if the etron drivers/chipset wasnt so bugged by itself.

[banwell]

Hmm.. I think its generally a good cut about bloatware - but you don't use it which is your choice. (I've had one of these boards well over a year and only just getting round to toying with it.)

This isn't a one time deal with Asrock. This software is being pushed on all their current boards (incl the x79). As I say it compares well under initial comparisons to Ramdisk (which has a proven application uses).

Software driven 'tweaks' is one of the few areas left to motherboard manufactures to add performance. Especially when Haswell lands and totally cuts motherboard hardware out of the performance picture.

[Ket]

Thanks for the heads-up!

On a slightly different note, has anyone else run into the odd situation of only one of the Extreme4's front USB 3.0 ports responding to devices (even with this latest set of drivers?)

I had a similar issue when testing drivers, use the 101 Etron drivers when in doubt. Thus far in my tests they are deffinately the "go to" driver.

Yes, another user had this problem with older drivers. He found that the Etron controller was causing extremely high latency and the issue was present with several types of sound cards:



See this thread, search for Etron:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/pax-dr...d-crashes.html

Ask him to use the Etron 101 drivers to see if he has the same problem.

this is with 0.111 driver... no difference at all, if i disable the upper back usb (the best performance according to asrock..) the dpc has way lower latency.. (the "spikes" are rare and up to 900-1000μs)

Holy hell thats bad. I've been trying to diagnose this problem for weeks without much joy. Have you tried the Etron 101 driver? Theres a reason why I keep telling people to use it

I'm not using any of the ASRock "extras." Personally, I treat them like I treat all bloatware. Anything that tinkers with Windows to improve boot or internet speed = marketing hax. From what I've read, I'm not the only one who feels this way. All I want are the bare-bones, unadulterated drivers for the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" benefits.

Edit: I could wish that manufacturers would instead spend that time on the drivers themselves; I think they have a tendency to underestimate just how critical they are to the overall stability and efficiency of a system. In ASRock's favor, they do seem to be updating their drivers pretty frequently--my hat's off to them for that! I know marketing would never agree, but IMO fewer mobo models = more time/resources for QA = better hardware and drivers.

I agree. Simple straightforward reliable drivers is all that anyone wants, although this MAGIX thing Asrock has going is very nice.

BTW, I'm back people At least for now.

[GregoryDonner]

Not a big deal (and yes, I know it's only during boot or when browsing the UEFI), but some time ago I noticed that the P67 Extreme4 (B3) UEFI splash screen does not properly detect and fill the available screen space on HD (1920 x 1080) monitors on boot, leaving a black border between the splash screen and available, full monitor screen resolution. Here's a snapshot of what I mean:

http://www.gregdonner.org/temp/uefi_border_problem.jpg

This occurs on two solid-rated HD monitors: a 23" Acer G235HAbd and a 23.6" ASUS VE247H.

ASRock tech support explained it to me as: "Some model of HD monitors do not support the high BIOS resolution; therefore your screen is not completed fill the areas."

I'm curious if anyone actually has a monitor capable of properly displaying the UEFI at full resolution like they claim?

[GripS]

Not a big deal (and yes, I know it's only during boot or when browsing the UEFI), but some time ago I noticed that the P67 Extreme4 (B3) UEFI splash screen does not properly detect and fill the available screen space on HD (1920 x 1080) monitors on boot, leaving a black border between the splash screen and available, full monitor screen resolution. Here's a snapshot of what I mean:

http://www.gregdonner.org/temp/uefi_border_problem.jpg

This occurs on two solid-rated HD monitors: a 23" Acer G235HAbd and a 23.6" ASUS VE247H.

ASRock tech support explained it to me as: "Some model of HD monitors do not support the high BIOS resolution; therefore your screen is not completed fill the areas."

I'm curious if anyone actually has a monitor capable of properly displaying the UEFI at full resolution like they claim?

Mine shows it full screen. I'm only running a 22" LG 227WTG at 1680x1050. Honestly....it's a bios screen. As long as you can clearly see it I don't think it's worth trying to fix... The P67 chipset is unfortunately considered old at this point so don't plan on a bios update correcting it. I believe we have the last updates for this board at this point. Aside from Etron USB 3.0 that is.

[Ket]

Not a big deal (and yes, I know it's only during boot or when browsing the UEFI), but some time ago I noticed that the P67 Extreme4 (B3) UEFI splash screen does not properly detect and fill the available screen space on HD (1920 x 1080) monitors on boot, leaving a black border between the splash screen and available, full monitor screen resolution. Here's a snapshot of what I mean:

http://www.gregdonner.org/temp/uefi_border_problem.jpg

This occurs on two solid-rated HD monitors: a 23" Acer G235HAbd and a 23.6" ASUS VE247H.

ASRock tech support explained it to me as: "Some model of HD monitors do not support the high BIOS resolution; therefore your screen is not completed fill the areas."

I'm curious if anyone actually has a monitor capable of properly displaying the UEFI at full resolution like they claim?

To elaborate on what Asrock tech support meant its a simple case of some monitors have weird seperate skewed resolution settings until they hit the login screen where the monitor switches to its native resolution. You can usually fix the issue by simply pausing the boot process at the splash screen and adjusting the height and width options on your monitor settings until the splash screen completely fills the screen.

Oh, and in terms of age of the chipset, while the P67 can't be considered new anymore theres still not a lot of differences between the P67 and Z77 The biggest are no PCI-E 3.0 or ability to use the on-die IGPU. Those really are the only major differences. Technically there isn't even any reason whay any P67 mobo can't have a UEFI update letting it support IB CPUs, you just won't get the PCI-E 3.0. Intel as they are though will probably forbid any such UEFI update so people have to buy a Z77.