Z97 Pro4 IRST and 2 DVD-RW drives

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   After last tests it is confirmed. This crappy mainboard won't start rapid storage technology when there is 2 DVD-RW drives from Optiarc. Tried all combinations with AD-7203S, AD-7241S, AD-7280S even crossflashing these drives to other drives won't change situation. It is not DVD-RW firmware related, but Asrock BIOS as both 3 drives are working on Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR 1.0, Asus Z170-A. It's really problem of Asrock crappy BIOS. E-mailed support and they came with reply to change SATA port which of course was tried and does not resolve problem.

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mapamop Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 01 Mar 2016 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote mapamop Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Z97 Pro4 IRST and 2 DVD-RW drives Posted: 27 Mar 2016 at 4:15am
	After last tests it is confirmed. This crappy mainboard won't start rapid storage technology when there is 2 DVD-RW drives from Optiarc. Tried all combinations with AD-7203S, AD-7241S, AD-7280S even crossflashing these drives to other drives won't change situation. It is not DVD-RW firmware related, but Asrock BIOS as both 3 drives are working on Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR 1.0, Asus Z170-A. It's really problem of Asrock crappy BIOS. E-mailed support and they came with reply to change SATA port which of course was tried and does not resolve problem.

mapamop Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 01 Mar 2016 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote mapamop Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 03 Mar 2016 at 2:18am
	Just another ( useless ) update: - issue with MB refusing to power up with USB devices is present in following BIOS versions: 1.30, 1.50, 1.70, 1.80, 2.10, 2.20 - issue with my both DVD writers and Intel Rapid Storage is present as follows: firmware for AD-7203S: 1.06, 1.B0, for AD-7241S: 1.02, 1.03 (both are latest 2 per model). BIOS: 1.30, 1.50, 1.70, 1.80, 2.10, 2.20 When any of them is exchanged with LG GH24NS95 problem with IRST goes away (tried to exchange both of them). - In all above version Rapid start partition is not detected in BIOS. In a bottom line: As I spent enough time with this crappy mainboard, probably will sell it and it will be my first and last mainboard from this brand. Thread can be closed. I won't spend any time to check for hardware bugs of this mainboard.

mapamop Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 01 Mar 2016 Status: Offline Points: 7	Post Options Post Reply Quote mapamop Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 Mar 2016 at 6:51pm
	Hello, Long story in short: Recently bought one mainboard Asrock Z97 Pro4 as upgrade to my existing system and got some problems from first day after opening the box. System details: Asrock Z97Pro4 hw. 1.20, BIOS 2.20 Intel Core i5 4570 / 3.2GHz 2 x 8GB DDR3-1600 Geil EVGA Geforce GTX 660 Ti Signature2 / 2GB DDR5 Samsung 850Pro 512GB SSD WD Caviar black 1TB - WDC WD1003FZEX 2 DVD-RW drives: Optiarc AD-7203S and AD-7241S PSU Chieftec CFT-750-14C Generic CSR USB bluetooth, usb keyboard and mouse (both cheap generic noname) SATA drives are connected as follows: port0 - Samsung SSD, port1 WDC Caviar, port2 AD-7203S, port3 AD-7241S. DVDs were moved also to ports 4 & 5 with no results. Problems: - Mainboard refuses to power on with USB devices when mains power is cut off. Solution: either removal of ALL USB devices or power button should be kept pressed for maybe 10-15 seconds before plugging power cable. Tried with BIOS 2.20. - Constant "No valid Rapid start partition found" even that on both disks Hibernation Partition is present. Tried with BIOS 2.20, 2.10, 1.80, 1.70, SATA was set to AHCI, RAID, both drives was formatted to GPT and MBR, CSM was enabled and disabled, with enabled CSM settings was at UEFI and legacy - without any change. - IRST cannot start after installation - upon starting throws errors if BOTH DVD-RWs are connected. What is tried: - IRST software versions: from 13.1.0.1058 up to latest 14.8.0.1042 - AHCI/RAID has no meaning - same errors. - Tried with all above BIOS versions. - OS has no meaning - tried with Win7 pro x64 and Win10 pro x64 - Setting in bios any or both DVD drives to "Removable" has no sense. ----> with pulled out SATA cable for ANY (no matter which one) DVD-RW drive, IRST interface works without any noticeable problems. All hardware was working without any problems for years on my old Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR mainboard at AHCI and at RAID, and on previous MB Asus H81M-PLUS. Firmwares for both writers are latest available, there is no issues with reading/writing of any DVD media (+/-R, +RW), Labelflash and Lightscribe are working without any problems. I am looking for solutions for above problems and want to know is only my MB have such problems or it is more global? Should I take any steps for replacement?