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

[clubber_lang]

Hey guys....I'm in the process of buying an Extreme 7 board from the guy who posted above " Ckoons1"........and was wondering what the overall thoughts are on the Extreme7 board? I was going to pick up an Extreme4 board , but Ckoons1 was selling his board at a kickass price and I couldn't pass it up. He mentioned that he had the bios flashed to work with the newer IB cpu's , but I plan on running an older SB cpu like a 2500K , 2600K or possibly a 2700K........would I need to reset the bios back? Or will the new bios update for the IB work ok with the SB cpu's?

[Ket]

Theres no need to revert to a older UEFI version nomatter if you use a IB or SB CPU. The Extreme7 is also a very solid board, shouldn't give you any problems and will OC well. I recommend using G-Skill memory, Asrock boards love the stuff.

[clubber_lang]

Thanks ket. That was going to be a future question ( memory )......so you already helped me out there. I was going for 8GB ( 2X4gb sticks ) and would want a set that I could play around on and learn to OC. Basically when I finish this computer ( which will be my first real full build ) I am going to spend a bunch of time this fall and winter learning how to OC Ram , cpu and my video card(s). Always had a fascination with computers....but my hectic life style only lets me play around on them for so long.

[Ket]

You will learn much, youngling. Great potential I sence in you, hmmm.

[apatch]

Z68E4G3 2.20 with Intel OROM 11.1.0.141

[vulture_g7]

Thx man!

Z68E4G3 2.20 with Intel OROM 11.1.0.141

[Ket]

New link is up for UEFI & driver package downloads.

[MoInSTL]

New link is up for UEFI & driver package downloads.

Thanks for the update. Wondering what they did with this: 5. Improve discrete VGA card vBIOS compatibility.

Edit: Ket, are you still using a Z68 Extreme4 board? I found your UEFI settings from May, 2001 on page 9. Do those still apply?

[Ket]

No system is the same, those settings should be taken as nothing more than a very rough ballpark idea. As for the VGA compatibility, thats probably a result of a issue I told one of my contacts about.

[oiwow]

I had a leak in my water cooling rig and the top PCI-e lane got wet while power was on. Dried out now, but debug led stops at "67" on boot.
I'm now currently on a Asus Z77 v-lx board and all other hardware parts working well.
Any hope on saving the Z68 board?

[Ket]

POST code 67 is described as "CPU DXE initialisation", commonly this error pops up with a dead / dying or simply not seated right stick of RAM.

[tipes]

Hope somebody can help me, as I am having huge problems with my Asrock Extreme 7 gen 3 board.

Everything was going fine until I finally gave in and updated my bios to vers 2.30. All initially seemed ok,
but then I noticed that only half of my G skill F3 12800 CL9D memory was being recognised.This was not the only problem:-

No XMP for memory in bios - so only have a choice of 1066 or 1333, neither is correct.
None of the pre overclocks can be applied and cpu multi is only available from 16 to 39 on my 2700K sandy
Unable to set cpu multi any higher than 39 with or without turbo.

So at present I am unable to overclock at all, and only half my ram is available - only 1 bank works at a time - despite
the fact that all memory slots work - hope this makes sense?

What I have tried:-

Memory timings are actually set correctly in bios - the only thing it has got right!!!!
Tested, memory,cpu and mobo under diagnostics at dos level (PC check) all fine.
Can only flash version 2.3 or vers 2.22 - won't allow me to flash back to any 1 series bios.
Tried cmos reset, and battery out, loading defaults, all to no avail.

I very much suspect that somehow the bios has become unreliable - despite the fact it still works otherwise.

Anybody got any ideas how I can solve this issue - Asrock Emily perhaps?
Any one found a reliable way to flash back to earlier 1 series bios - as no dos flash utility seems available for these boards????

Help please!!!!

Mark

[presjar]

Hey All,

Is there any chance of getting RAID ROM v11.5.0.1414 merged into the latest Extreme4 Gen3 bios to use with the Intel RST Driver 11.5.0.1184? I'm not confident enough to do it myself.

I have been reading HERE and they seem to have some pretty good speed boosts.

Also, during system boot I see mention on Intel Management Engine v7 something. Can we actually use this in some way? I have the driver installed on my sytem for a newer version of ME. Does updating the ME ROM help also?

[Ket]

Hope somebody can help me, as I am having huge problems with my Asrock Extreme 7 gen 3 board.

Everything was going fine until I finally gave in and updated my bios to vers 2.30. All initially seemed ok,
but then I noticed that only half of my G skill F3 12800 CL9D memory was being recognised.This was not the only problem:-

No XMP for memory in bios - so only have a choice of 1066 or 1333, neither is correct.
None of the pre overclocks can be applied and cpu multi is only available from 16 to 39 on my 2700K sandy
Unable to set cpu multi any higher than 39 with or without turbo.

So at present I am unable to overclock at all, and only half my ram is available - only 1 bank works at a time - despite
the fact that all memory slots work - hope this makes sense?

What I have tried:-

Memory timings are actually set correctly in bios - the only thing it has got right!!!!
Tested, memory,cpu and mobo under diagnostics at dos level (PC check) all fine.
Can only flash version 2.3 or vers 2.22 - won't allow me to flash back to any 1 series bios.
Tried cmos reset, and battery out, loading defaults, all to no avail.

I very much suspect that somehow the bios has become unreliable - despite the fact it still works otherwise.

Anybody got any ideas how I can solve this issue - Asrock Emily perhaps?
Any one found a reliable way to flash back to earlier 1 series bios - as no dos flash utility seems available for these boards????

Help please!!!!

Mark

I would suggest you load setup defaults, then reflash UEFI 2.3. Also, as obvious as it is, you are sure that you have put the DIMM modules in the right banks for dual channel?

[tipes]

Hi Ket,

Thanks for the suggestions, but have already tried re setting to defaults and numerous flashes. Dont think you quite understood my ram problem;-
I can only get individual slots working and or 1 bank i.e 2 slots per bank working at any one time - it will not use all four slots at once in dual mode or any other
mode - only sees two sticks of ram. Hope I have explained it better?

Any suggestions as to how I can flash back to earlier 1 series bios or get this working as it used to?????

Mark

[Ket]

There is a way to flash back to a older UEFI version, but its somewhat of a hoodwinking process. Your best bet would be to email Asrock explaining your situation asking for a new ROM chip flashed with whatever UEFI version you want. Asrock may even have a beta UEFI they can send you fixing your problems. If you want, I'll email my contacts for you and ask them.

[tipes]

Hi Ket,

Yes please if you would email your contacts I would be much obliged. I have in the meantime contacted support about this - will await a reply.

Mark

[tipes]

Have as yet not received a reply from Asrock support - realise they are busy, but these are serious issues for an expensive board so
would appreciate some timely assistance from Asrock on this one as my current experience is not good.

Mark

[tipes]

There is a way to flash back to a older UEFI version, but its somewhat of a hoodwinking process. Your best bet would be to email Asrock explaining your situation asking for a new ROM chip flashed with whatever UEFI version you want. Asrock may even have a beta UEFI they can send you fixing your problems. If you want, I'll email my contacts for you and ask them.

Hi Ket,

Sorry to be a pain, but any luck or news from your contacts about my issues with bios?
Thanks very much for your input/help - much appreciated.

Mark

[MoInSTL]

Did a search and came up empty on these two coolers.Thermalright HR-02 Macho Or NZXT Havik 140? Both coolers are within $7 of each other so price is not a factor.

I'll be mounting it to an ASrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen 3 and installing it in a Fractal Design R4. I plan a moderate OC on my i7-2600K and battling a very hot summer here.

Both have their pros and cons and 1 versus 2 fans. Would be great to hear from owners of either.

[saphirex7]

Hi Ket,

Sorry to be a pain, but any luck or news from your contacts about my issues with bios?
Thanks very much for your input/help - much appreciated.

Mark

If I were you I would order a replacement BIOS chip pre-flashed to the last known good working UEFI/BIOS for the board for Sandy Bridge CPU's which is version 1.30 from badflash.com
There is no known way to downgrade the UEFI if you made the mistake of upgrading the UEFI to the latest Ivy Bridge CPU UEFI/BIOS when you are running a Sandy Bridge CPU. The ASRock Forum at Tweaktown is full of horror stories of folks with Sandy Bridge CPU's (gen 3 boards) that updated their working pre-Ivy Bridge UEFI only to discover that amongst memory issues and others and have basically "borked their boards" Emily at Tweaktown has essentially been silent on helping...leaving folks to order a replacement BIOS chip pre-flashed to the pre-Ivy Bridge CPU such as version 1.30 or the 2 beta versions 1.32 or 1.34 that were designed/engineered for Sandy Bridge CPU's
Good Luck!

[tipes]

Hi Saphire,

Thanks for the input. As it happens Asrock Emily has sent me a new bios chip for my board - but strangely enough she has sent vers 2.30, but maybe this is a special
version that has the microcode for sandy chips - have not tried it yet, as I have been too busy. Will post back with result as soon as I am able too.

Mark

[presjar]

Hi Mark,

How much did it cost for the replacement chip and who did you email the request to?

[tipes]

Hi Mark,

How much did it cost for the replacement chip and who did you email the request to?

Hi Presjar,

I am glad to report that Asrock came through for me on this issue. I contacted one of their support people via Tweaktown forum and she sent me a new bios chip.
They sent me vers 2.30 but presumably with different microcode for sandybridge chip - initial testing seems all good - so a happy camper again.
Hope this helps.

Mark

[MoInSTL]

PC dead. Had unplugged from wall socket due to bad weather and came home, plugged it back in and nothing. Tried another outlet, moved the rocker switch. Went and bought another PSU and still dead. Fans do not spin up---nothing. Tried power button on motherboard. It's as dead as a door nail. Anything else I can try? I am freaking out. Just bought a new Fractal R4 case and HR-02 Macho heat sink and was planning on installing tonight. Tried turning on PC to warm up the TIM.

EDIT: Turns out it was my 560 Ti. Removed it and booted fine. As soon as I hooked up the PCI-e cables, no boot, fans, etc. Called EVGA and setting up RMA. So glad I went with them as they are 24x7 and based in Southern California. Card is only 3 months old.