Zoomer wrote on 2024-11-19, 22:31:

However, if this is indeed connected to SATA3 version, then you should be looking for the devices, that allow forcing the SATA version with jumpers, I think.

OK, thanks - I'll look into this further. I wonder if it's just going to be easier to find an older IDE drive and use that for the OS and a few programs?

Then I can use the more modern drives for storage, which I presume won't cause as many issues as using one for the OS drive.

Sure. IDE is much safer in this case. I'd also skip any IDE-to-SATA adapters just to be on the safe side if you're going the IDE route. And also, be sure to disable the onboard sata controller then. This would free up a couple of IRQ lanes in Windows 98 (if you're using that at all)

However, just to reiterate - currently I am using a SATA3 SSD drive without any problems both in Windows XP as well as in 98. So IDE isn't mandatory, it's just safer.

None of these boards have SATA3 issues.

I would take an IDE or a SATA 1.5 GBit HDD. The VIA VT8237 southbridge definitely has a bug concerning SATA 3.0 GBit (and higher!?)...go search "VT8237 bug" or something similar, German Wikipedia says:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIA_Southbridges#VT8237(R+) wrote:

Mit dem Aufkommen von SATA-II-Geräten stellte man bei der VT8237 einen schwerwiegenden Fehler fest, SATA-II-Geräte werden entweder gar nicht oder nur nach langer Verzögerung erkannt. Die einzige Umgehungsmöglichkeit ist, die Geräte per Jumper oder Herstellersoftware in den SATA-I-Modus zu zwingen.

...and I had this problem with an SATA II HDD myself back then. Maybe with SATA 6 GBit aka SATA III HDDs this problem changed or has been mitigated!? Nonetheless I would take what I mentioned in the first place.

There must be an option for the VT8237's SATA controller in the BIOS with options like "IDE", "RAID" and/or "AHCI" - if set to RAID/AHCI SATA mode will be used (but you will need the diskette drivers), if set to IDE it just behaves like a IDE HDD and standard storage drivers will be used during installation of Windows. I think it doesn't make a big difference because interesting SATA features like NCQ came with revision 2.x (SATA 3.0 GBit / SATA II) and aren't supported by the VT8237(A,R+), SATA II support came with VT8237S incarnation (which sits on 4CoreDual-SATA2 and 4CoreDual-SATA2 R2.0).

kind regards
soggi

None of these boards have VT8237/VT8237R south bridge.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2024-11-20, 10:08:

None of these boards have VT8237/VT8237R south bridge.

I wrote VT8237(A,R+) and my 4CoreDual-VSTA definitly has a VT8237A!

kind regards
soggi

Yrs, but SATAII/III issues affect only original bridge revision from Socket A/Socket 754 days. VT8237A and VT8237R Plus are unaffected.

I never found any comment that the issue was resolved before VT8237S which fixed it by supporting SATA II and I own a ECS KV2 Extreme (S939) which has the bug behavior (can't say which exact version sits on the board). It isn't said that the other versions/revisions have no issues with SATA II HDDs. And what's the difference between VT8237(A, R Plus)?

kind regards
soggi

Can confirm, I did use numerous SATA3 devices with this motherboard's SATA controller (775dual vsta and 4coredual) and only one of those devices did have problems, that I've mentioned earlier.

Edit: okay, there were two. After re-reading the German excerpt I remembered, that I tried using some old Lenovo SSD which would either be detected really slowly (like, after 2-3 minutes) or would hang the system during POST. This SSD still works in a more modern system, so there's that.

The other SSD, the more modern Kinston one had no problems during POST, however later would randomly stop responding when copying a large (2gb+) file. Again, this SSD still works fine in a laptop so, again, there's also that.

soggi wrote on 2024-11-20, 13:06:

I never found any comment that the issue was resolved before VT8237S which fixed it by supporting SATA II and I own a ECS KV2 Extreme (S939) which has the bug behavior (can't say which exact version sits on the board). It isn't said that the other versions/revisions have no issues with SATA II HDDs. And what's the difference between VT8237(A, R Plus)?

kind regards
soggi

As a previous owner of 4CoreDual-VSTA with the 8237A southbridge and also an owner of numerous boards with 8237 southbridges (also my current in use ASUS A7V600 board has this too), I can confirm that the A variant had almost if not all the problems solved. I remember using SataIII SSDs and HDDs on the VSTA, whereas I can't use them at all on the A7V600. I do remember faintly some problems with maybe one or two HDDs/SSDs I tried on the 4CoreDual-VSTA, but I used over 20-30 random disk drives over the years I owned it, but nothing serious at all.

PS: I eventually found 4 old WD Blacks 1TB that had a jumper to configure them to SataI mode, so I kept them and use 2 of them (2 as a backup) on the A7V600. 😁
PS2: I really must invest on some branded good PCI IDE controller with its own ROM.

You can pair old VIA motherboards with SSDs on old Sandforce controllers. They have a utility that can force them to work in SATA1 mode.

I have encountered the mentioned issue before on another AsRock "dual" motherboard with VIA chipset. Here is what I found out.
VT8237 - Based on VT8235 south bridge, but with integrated SATA/RAID controller. First south bridge from VIA with SATA and RAID support. Poorly detects SATA II and SATA III drives. By the time VIA chipsets appeared with support for both AGP and PCI-E, south bridges under this name were no longer produced.
VT8237R - The same south bridge as VT8237, which was renamed around the beginning of 2005 due to the problems with registered trademarks (and also to emphasize support for RAID). Obviously, it does not detect SATA II and SATA III drives well. Can be found on the motherboards: AsRock P4Dual-880Pro, AsRock 775Dual-880Pro (early revisions).
VT8237R Plus - Almost the same as VT8237/VT8237R, except that forward compatibility with SATA II/III has been fixed. Manufactured since mid-2005. Can be found on the motherboards: AsRock 775Dual-880Pro (later revisions).
VT8237A - Based on VT8237R Plus, but the integrated AC'97 sound has been replaced by HD Audio. Also SATA II/III compatible. Manufactured since late 2005. Can be found on the motherboards: AsRock 775Dual-VSTA, 4CoreDual-VSTA.
VT8237S - Based on VT8237A but with the integrated SATA controller upgraded to the new SATA II but without NCQ support. Can be found on the motherboards: AsRock 4CoreDual-SATA2.

OK...so the "ugly" part of SATA II/III incompatibility has been fixed with VT8237A and VT8237 R Plus (that what I also saw on the ECS KV2 Extreme), but there still can be some "small" issues like XavierX described above (or is it the Creative software!?).

BTW Intel learned from the Pentium FDIV bug disaster and releases publicly available Specification Updates since then, but unfortunately the very most of the other manufacturers didn't and don't until today - therefor it's almost impossible to track any bugfixing (and other changes).

BTW2 this reminds me that I wanted to write an article about VIA chipset bugs for many years...

kind regards
soggi

Even back then I used to say VIAs chipsets had so many bug fixes they were basically emulated on the CPU

Hi

Iam trying to instal the drivers of an nvidia gforce gt 210 graphic card (pci express) on a asrock 4coredual sata 2 motherboard on windows 10 pro. Windows detect the nv218 chip and try to install the latest drivers but when restart the screen got black and freezes and i have to enter with f8 and uninstall de drivers. Seems like an issue with 1x pci express port or maybe is a faulty card?

Anyone had success with a gt 210 on this mainboard?

Any help will be apreciated,

Regards.

Ok i answer myself, hope this could be hellpful for someone with the same issues as me.

I updated my bios from 1.10 to 2.20 (last one) and changed from the nvidia gforrce 210 to an ati hd 5450.

Now works perfect with full opengl and catalyst drivers correctly installed.

The only thing i didnt try was to re-install the gforce gt 210 with d rivers again, but either the graphic ca rd is faulty or this motherboard (4coredual sata 2) is more compatible with ATI cards.


So yeah that solved my nightmares trying to install a pci express graphics card on this motherboard .

If i try the gt210 i will post here results.

Regards.

I have checked Phils video about 771->775 there is some part about get special bios, it was for 1$, now i found it for like $10 paywall.
Can someone share it, or these Xeon updates are already within these beta unofficial bioses which are already in public domain?

I also wonder if will some 2 core Xeon work with similar Asrock Conroe865PE mainboard?

Google the paid bios name.

More often than not, someone has put out for free.

This is very true for the repair sites that charge for schematics. Find the name of the file and go hunting.

If this special bios is just a cpu micro code update for xeon cpus, why don't you do it yourself? asrock has ami bios which is the easiest to modify.
these are the 2 micro codes for quad core xeon cpus (C0,E0 stepping)
https://github.com/platomav/CPUMicrocodes/blo … RD_8FE1A203.bin
https://github.com/platomav/CPUMicrocodes/blo … RD_A3107D75.bin

load the bios in mmtools 3.22 go to cpu patch tab, load the micro code, click apply.

genocho wrote on 2025-01-20, 01:09:

Ok i answer myself, hope this could be hellpful for someone with the same issues as me. […]
Show full quote

Ok i answer myself, hope this could be hellpful for someone with the same issues as me.

I updated my bios from 1.10 to 2.20 (last one) and changed from the nvidia gforrce 210 to an ati hd 5450.

Now works perfect with full opengl and catalyst drivers correctly installed.

The only thing i didnt try was to re-install the gforce gt 210 with d rivers again, but either the graphic ca rd is faulty or this motherboard (4coredual sata 2) is more compatible with ATI cards.

So yeah that solved my nightmares trying to install a pci express graphics card on this motherboard .

If i try the gt210 i will post here results.

Regards.

Hi, sorry for being late but seeing as you still have issues with gt210 and haven't mentioned disabling pcie features in Bios, this might be it? At least the symptoms sound pretty familiar.

For better compatibility with some pcie cards you need to disable both of these features, as mentioned in op:

PCIE Downstream Pipeline to DISABLE (Auto is default)
PCIE VC1 Request Queue to DISABLE (Auto is default)

Have you tried that?