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Z87 extreme4

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Strandjutter View Drop Down
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    Posted: 19 Jun 2015 at 11:00pm
Hi all
These are my hardware specs:
MoBo: Z87 extreme 4/a, Bios version P2.30

Cpu: i7-4770K, 8 Mb cache

Memory: Kingston 2x4 Gb pc3, 12800 cl11 240-pin UDIMM

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 780/Rev 1.0 3072 Mb GDDR3

Storage: Revodrive Hybrid RVDHY-FH-1T pci-express hdd/ssd cache storage solution

ODD: Optiarc BD-rom

OS: Windows 7 Pro 64 bit


At the actual configuration has been added a PCI expansion card with 5x usb 2.0 ports.

Booting my pc goes like: (1)general ASrock screen (2)announcement of the revodrive hybrid configuration (3)general ASrock screen (4) ?startup windows??screen. After this, booting proceeded as fast and as usual as always and I was able to login to the Windows desktop.

No notion was given about the new inserted hardware. The new hardware and the pc worked together fine. I inserted my Cruzer 8 Gb flash drive and was able to copy data on and off the drive.

On second startup there was clearly a problem:

-          At the first stage the general ASrock screen was shown for a long period

-          At stage four the pc went stuck on the ?Windows startup??screen without showing the 4-colored Windows logo.

I then shut down the pc by pressing the power button for 6 seconds.

After that I wanted to know the all details of the problem. I own a SystemrescueCD 4.5.0 and a UBCD 5.3.0. I first rebooted the computer, inserted SystemrescueCD and pressed the button to enter the boot menu: the pc did not respond to keyboard strokes. First I thought I pressed the button too late because I came at a screen (at stage 4) of the booting process it came clear to me the computer already started from my revodrive hybrid.

To make myself more clear: I got a message that before I was able to start Windows, I had to make a choice. I could either choose ?repair at startup??or starting the normal Windows mode. No button on my keyboard responded. Only by pressing the power button I could try it again and chose to do so two more times.

Each time I refused to use the reset-button. For a long time already I no longer use that button. When a problem occurs, I usually press the power button. That because for me the use of the reset button raises second thoughts, I rather stay away from. The Wikipedia article about the reset button is not clear to me either. Using the reset button might have solved my problem.

After taking note of the error codes, shown in red on the motherboard, it stops at code ?b4?? ?Problem related to USB devices. Please try removing all USB devices??/span>

I also first thought there was a problem with voltages after expanding with a pci usb card (in the right slot). So I removed the pci usb expansion card and also my revodrive hybrid (also from a slot). Wanting to know my pc was still functioning I inserted a live medium ?Sparkylinux-MATE-2.xx?? This to try playing Mahjong from it.

At first I was able to view (u)EFI on the screen and after that calling the boot menu: both keyboard and mouse pointer now seem to work again. Just before start of the Sparkylinux desktop, statistics about cpu usage and others are shown. Normal cpu usage yields maximum 4%, but now it was 10%. Starting the game Mahjong was not possible and the cpu clearly made not any efforts. I decided to power down the computer and leave it for now.

On my pc a Norton antivirus was installed and a firewall.

Before all this my pc seemed at least slower than intended. This could only be proclaimed upon hardware or programming/code on the hardware level. Eventually I also did some research which makes me think ?badBIOS, badUSB??or a variant now manifests my pc.

I already contacted technical support. I'm asking: does somebody know internet addresses where I could get more help?
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Xaltar View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Jun 2015 at 11:43pm
Welcome to the forums Smile

A quick look at your Motherboard product page reveals the latest bios available is 3.20 and it seems there have been several improvements and tweaks made since 2.30 including some USB functionality. My first stop if I were you would be to update to the latest bios and see if that helps.

Let us know how it works out.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Jun 2015 at 12:40am
The five port USB 2.0 PCI card you installed is actually a card with a chip on it to provide extra USB ports, rather than a simple PCI card slot adapter with USB ports that connects to one or more of the three USB 2.0 headers on the board, correct?

When adding new hardware that is active (a card/chip that uses power) it is a good idea to clear the CMOS/BIOS to allow the BIOS and board to detect the (new) hardware on the board.

I've never seen a new hardware connected message when using Windows 7 or 8.

Usually, the message about Windows needing to be repaired appears when some sort of corruption occurs with Windows. Inserting your Windows installation media at that point is the best procedure at that point.

Fear of using the Reset button? I'm not aware of any issues caused by doing that. I've used the Reset button on rare occasions when the PC locks up, and the result was a normal restart.

I would suggest performing a CMOS/BIOS clear and installing your Revodrive and attempting to boot again. Which Revodrive are you using? Those drives can be problematic at times. I would also suggest having your Windows installation media available so you can start a Windows repair.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strandjutter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2015 at 1:49am
Thanks for your response.

@parsec: yes, you?re right the usb 2.0 PCI card is one with a chip on it to provide extra USB ports. My storage medium is a Revodrive Hybrid x4 PCIe 2.0 ssd/hdd with a 1Tb Toshiba hdd.

I think of performing like follows: (1) reinserting my revodrive hybrid (2) ?flashing??the uefi to version 3.20 like suggested by Xalter (3) try to login to Windows desktop.

Note: after uefi version 3.20 is in CMOS, I could still need to ?repair??my Windows. ?Repair?? that is to say (1) recovering the revodrive hdd contents equals disassembling its??hdd(fastest) (2)I could also need to reinstall Windows, but then you also need the (Windows 7-only) driver at hand (cd or on a usb stick).

For now(I know I?m a little conservative considering reset or CMOS/BIOS clear) I?ll wait for a response of the technical support from the ASrock website.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2015 at 4:57am
Updating the BIOS should not require a reinstallation of windows, at worst some drivers may reinitialize but that isn't a problem. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote parsec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2015 at 12:16pm
Originally posted by Strandjutter Strandjutter wrote:

Thanks for your response.

@parsec: yes, you?�re right the usb 2.0 PCI card is one with a chip on it to provide extra USB ports. My storage medium is a Revodrive Hybrid x4 PCIe 2.0 ssd/hdd with a 1Tb Toshiba hdd.

I think of performing like follows: (1) reinserting my revodrive hybrid (2) ?�flashing??the uefi to version 3.20 like suggested by Xalter (3) try to login to Windows desktop.

Note: after uefi version 3.20 is in CMOS, I could still need to ?�repair??my Windows. ?�Repair?? that is to say (1) recovering the revodrive hdd contents equals disassembling its??hdd(fastest) (2)I could also need to reinstall Windows, but then you also need the (Windows 7-only) driver at hand (cd or on a usb stick).

For now(I know I?�m a little conservative considering reset or CMOS/BIOS clear) I?�ll wait for a response of the technical support from the ASrock website.



The UEFI/BIOS is independent and not related to any problems with a Windows installation that needs to be repaired.

If you boot from your Windows installation media (disk or USB flash drive), one of the options is Repair. The message about needing to repair Windows that you saw was displayed by Windows itself when it tried to boot, not from the BIOS. Selecting the repair option will cause the file or files that were somehow corrupted to be replaced. A repair does not always work, depending upon what the actual problems are. For example, if you have a hardware problem with your HDD, that cannot be fixed by a Windows Repair.

Windows detected a problem with the installation during the early stages of the boot process, and requested you perform a Windows repair. That is a standard procedure that the Windows installation disk provides for you.

You might not get the message about repairing Windows if you try to boot from your Revodrive again, but if you saw it previously, why would it go away on its own?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strandjutter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Jun 2015 at 5:56pm

Originally posted by Xaltar Xaltar wrote:

Updating the BIOS should not require a reinstallation of windows, at worst some drivers may reinitialize but that isn't a problem. 

Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

The UEFI/BIOS is independent and not related to any problems with a Windows installation that needs to be repaired.

Thanks for making that clear, I didn?t know that.

Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

If you boot from your Windows installation media (disk or USB flash drive), one of the options is Repair.

From my side I need to mention that a revodrive hybrid has unique odd properties making it harder to preserve data after a problem occurs. That?s why I typed:?Note: after uefi version 3.20 is in CMOS, I could still need to ??/span>repair??my Windows. ??/span>Repair?? that is to say (1) recovering the revodrive hdd contents equals disassembling its??hdd(fastest) (2)I could also need to reinstall Windows, but then you also need the (Windows 7-only) driver at hand (cd or on a usb stick) [quoting myself here]. Using windows installation(read: dvd)- or live media is not preferred in the case of repairing/recovering a Windows installation(the Windows installed on the hdd) on it.

I understand your quote:

Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

Selecting the repair option will cause the file or files that were somehow corrupted to be replaced. A repair does not always work, depending upon what the actual problems are. For example, if you have a hardware problem with your HDD, that cannot be fixed by a Windows Repair.

But that would bring us off-topic for now.

Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

You might not get the message about repairing Windows if you try to boot from your Revodrive again, but if you saw it previously, why would it go away on its own?

Logical indeed. I like working with a computer but talking about it I could find confusing or misunderstand. Last but not least: I now better understand what happens upon resetting or clearing CMOS/BIOS.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strandjutter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2015 at 2:48am
OK, I finally updated the (u)EFI of my motherboard: a contact from ASrock technical support also pointed in that direction. To parsec and Xalter I also say: Thank You!

A new question has rised to me but I should be hinted here.

I seem to have issues when working with *nix based live cds.
E.g. on systemrescuecd 4.5.0 an absence of a working 'apropos' or 'man -k' is annoying me.
E.g. Sparkylinux: I refer to my first post.
I have checked the sha-256 checksum for systemrescuecd live .iso and it was a match.
I tried Google but I seem to be the only one with that problem?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Xaltar Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2015 at 12:26pm
I am afraid my knowledge of linux is fairly limited. I can modify and create UIs and use the terminal for all manner of things but when it comes to troubleshooting I am a google baby (I have to look everything up).

What are you wanting to do with live CDs?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Strandjutter Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jun 2015 at 4:46pm
I also need to look everything up concerning *nix live media.
Although I started learning myself using the Bourne Shell and Bash.
I'm using these media to eventually diagnose my computer myself. However I
know what to diagnose but I'm stuck with a non-functional 'apropos' or 'man -k' to
dig up the right command.

Sparkylinux I only use for playing a fun game. Other games I play on Windows.
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