Problems with 4CoreDual

Dougiebabe2003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 00:22

Hi there,

Friend had a fried mobo on the old 478 socket and wanted a bit of an upgrade but wanted to get bits as cheap as possible while keeping his ddr1 ram and AGP gfx card.

Got him the ASrock mobo but am now having troubles...

First problem: Can't figure out if it a Rev2 or if not. Does anyone know how to find out?

Second problem: NO SOUND!!! I cannot for the love of all things sacred get ANY sound to work on this board. This could be linked to the above.

Third problem: Having problems getting it to run properly at stock speeds let alone O/C so was going to update BIOS... leads back to problem one.

Fourth Problem: The CPU fan is all full whack and the options in the BIOS don't do anything...

He has it paired with a E2200 and the current BIOS is 1.60. This leads me to believe its NOT a REV2 but it then has 1.02 written on the board....

I have done a bit of searching but at my wits end now so ANY help with this would be great.

Cheers loads and loads and loads, Doug.

ron3003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 09:27

There's more than one type of 'Asrock 4core' motherboard. Which one are you talking about?

The Hitman · 19 Jun 2008 at 10:38

Is the board the 4core dual vista ?

ron3003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 10:52

I suspect he's actually talking about the 4core dual sata2 as that fits in with the revision 2.0 statement but I'll let him confirm that.

bledd · 19 Jun 2008 at 11:13

you have formatted right?

ron3003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 11:30

You have posted in the correct thread right?

bledd · 19 Jun 2008 at 13:05

no, instability like this could easily be from replacing a motherboard without formatting

ron3003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 13:47

LOL, just kidding.
I suspect the o/p has this board
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2&s=n

or this board which is the same but rev2.0
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0&s=n

The original board has a 7.1 soundchip and uses different drivers to the rev2.0 which only has 5.1 soundchip

Until the o/p replies we'll never know (you'd think people had to work all day or something

)

Dougiebabe2003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 17:30

Thanks for replying guys!

bledd. said:
no, instability like this could easily be from replacing a motherboard without formatting

Yar I have reformatted... twice in fact as I thought it was first doing it due to a carppy windows install

ron3003 said:
LOL, just kidding.
I suspect the o/p has this board
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2&s=n

or this board which is the same but rev2.0
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0&s=n

The original board has a 7.1 soundchip and uses different drivers to the rev2.0 which only has 5.1 soundchip

Until the o/p replies we'll never know (you'd think people had to work all day or something )

Sorry I perhaps should have said, it is the 4CoreDual-Sata2 board but not sure what revision. I have no idea how to tell.

Each problem at the top still stands really. I am about to install Vista onto it and see if this helps at all but will not be keeping vista on there.

The only reason I doing this is becasue the XP CD I have is a cut down version and I'm wondering if that might have something to do with it... although I have never had a problem with it before now.

Any more help much appreciated, Doug.

ron3003 · 19 Jun 2008 at 18:27

It'll be a revision 1 (my top link, you can grab the proper sound drivers from the download tab on that page) as rev2.0 only started with bios 1.7

bledd · 19 Jun 2008 at 20:42

a 'cut down' version?

unless you did it yourself (and then would know what's gone from it), it's illegal

Dougiebabe2003 · 20 Jun 2008 at 00:01

bledd. said:
a 'cut down' version?

unless you did it yourself (and then would know what's gone from it), it's illegal

Well a mate made it from my XP CD so not to sure what's missing but it's definitely that. I think he used a program nlite(?) or something where you can make the install quicker and smaller. He must have got rid of something that he shouldn't have.

I just installed vista and the sound worked fine.

Just finished doing another job while his was installing XP again but using a normal XP CD this time. Haven't had chance to install divers yet but will let everyone know how it goes tomorrow after work.

So I believe I have fixed the sound problem but any help on the rest of the problems (No overclocking at all atm... and the CPU fan on full boar constantly) would be very appreciated.

Cheers again, Doug.

Dougiebabe2003 · 20 Jun 2008 at 00:02

ron3003 said:
It'll be a revision 1 (my top link, you can grab the proper sound drivers from the download tab on that page) as rev2.0 only started with bios 1.7

Forgot to say thanks!

Will be getting the drivers when I get's back from work tomorrow so will let you know how I get on!

Cheers again, Doug.

ron3003 · 20 Jun 2008 at 08:41

Fan control on the 4core mobo's has been a problem ever since the early 4core dual/vsta model. I dont know if Asrock ever fixed it in their bios's but there were some 3rd party bios releases for previous models (4core dual/vsta) that did sort it, perhaps there's one for the dual/sata too.
There's a long thread about your board here
http://forums.anandtech.com/message...readid=2063964&highlight_key=y&keyword1=4core
Worth a look, good luck.

Scougar · 20 Jun 2008 at 09:44

Stability issues. You need to disable the PCI-E downstream pipeline if your using a PCI-E card.

General stability try running the pci-e slot at either 99/101/107/109/110

The AGP voltage put on high, as it affects other stuff as well. Try putting IDE drive strength on high as well (if you have ide drives on it).

Sound not sure. DO the CMOS reset. That sorts out most problems, then make sure you configure as above and ensure sound is enabled.

Matthew