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Fatal1ty z97 Killer |
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AsRockGuy 
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Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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 Topic: Fatal1ty z97 KillerPosted: 10 Jul 2015 at 10:38am |
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I recently updated my BIOS to 2.10, then I re-installed Win7 Pro x64 (from Win8.1 Pro), I did a clean install, was having big problems with MCE and HD tuners, so...
I built this machine late 2014 using Win8.1 Pro x64, the eVGA gForce 740 had a problems, so I RMAed it back for a replacement, it has duel BIOS on the card and they suggested I also update the MB BIOS also, if I wanted to run the "performance" BIOS, I did and everything to be running well for Gaming, but MCE was another story. I could never get it to utilize my HD tuner, no matter what brand I tried, so I reverted back to Win7 Pro x64 which has excellent MCE support... This machine is part of a 4 machine setup running through a Linkskey 4 port duel monitor switch box, while reverting back to Win7 I noticed the USB KB/mouse would stop working if I rebooted the machine, to regain control I would need to power OFF the box and restart it. Somewhere along the way my Fatal1ty z97 Killer stopped going into BOIS setup, I can hold F2 or Del and it just bypasses setup. There used to be a long pause with the splash screen to select what you wanted to do, but now its very short pause. I bought a new KB and tried plugging into the front access port, but it still goes right by the setup. I also goes right by the ctrl-I for entering RAID setup, so I figure there something wrong with the USB  I'm not sure if clearing cmos will fix this, can anybody advise me please...
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parsec
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Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996 |
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Posted: 10 Jul 2015 at 12:13pm |
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If you are using USB 3.0 ports for the mouse and/or keyboard... don't. Those ports may not work right until their drivers are loaded.
Or is the keyboard connected to the Linkskey switch box? I would only use the USB 2.0 ports on the board's IO panel for a keyboard and mouse, if you have problems like you describe. What is the "front access port", a USB port on the PC case? Clearing the CMOS might help you, and is no big deal to do. Do you use many non-default BIOS settings? It sounds like you use RAID, so at least some. You can save BIOS option settings with profiles in the BIOS itself, usually in the Tools section. Then you load the profile after the CMOS clear. If you have Fast Boot set to anything but Disabled, getting into the BIOS can be difficult. |
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AsRockGuy
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Joined: 10 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 6 |
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Posted: 11 Jul 2015 at 4:31pm |
Hello, thanks for responding... Yes, the front panel is the case, there's audio, USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections, I made them all active. I am emailing with the linkskey tech and he was asking me to swap the USB on the box, but instead I checked all the connection to the computers first and I did find I had #1 plugged into a 3.0 port, so I changed it to what I thought was a 2.0 port, but my booklet says it was a port for a Fatal1ty mouse with a special driver. I don't have that model of mouse, so used the ports next to the dinn used for KB/mouse combo... Now the KVM is working fine, but I can't get into BIOS on #1, so I'll try that next clearing cmos... Yes, I'm using a RAID so I need to be able to get into the setup for that, even though it's already setup. I have 2x SSDs for drive0 striping, and 3x 3gb HDD and these are set to striping also, but I also created 2x volumes out of the whole. Which brings up my next problem, when I installed Win7 it didn't ask me for a RAID driver, the SSD volume was already there, as was the other 2x volumes. After the install was complete, it no longer had the other 2x volumes, these volumes are GPT, so I'm wondering if Win7 can read GPT volumes. At this point I don't want to do anything with them. If anything I can restore the backup of the Win8.1 OS from my WHS-2011 if that's what I need to do to retrieve those volumes. Thanks for any insights...
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parsec
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Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996 |
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Posted: 12 Jul 2015 at 9:04pm |
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Win 7 has a built in Intel RAID driver obviously, or your array of SSDs would not work.
You needed to format your HDDs as GPT because of their capacity, and Win 7 should be fine with GPT formatted drives. I think your problem may be caused by the switch from Win 8.1 to Win 7. The Intel RAID driver in Win 7 is older than the Win 8.1 version, and may not be able to handle the capacity of the HDDs. I suggest installing the Intel IRST RAID driver and Windows UI package from your board's download page, the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver and utility ver:13.1.0.1058. http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Fatal1ty%20Z97%20Killer/?cat=Download&os=Win764 You did not mention installing this after your Windows installation, so I assume you didn't. Note that you must install the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 software before install the Intel RAID software. The IRST Windows utility will let you monitor the state of your RAID arrays, and will show you any problems they might have. |
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AsRockGuy
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Posted: 13 Jul 2015 at 3:28am |
I was thinking the same thing or it pulled the RAID driver from Win 8.1, either way it worked... Yes, these volumes were originally formatted under Win 8.1 as GPT, this problem arose under Win 7, and NO, I didn't install the IRST driver/utility... I'll try that... Do you think I should use the version off the AsRock disc or the current version? I realize the one on the disc is probably older, but... Thanks for the link, and the help...
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AsRockGuy
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Posted: 14 Jul 2015 at 10:39am |
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Thanks, Parsec... You the man...
I cleared cmos and was able to get into BIOS just fine, then I found I had already downloaded the IRST package, but never installed it... So when I did, all the drive volumes became active again, and whoohoo, I'm back in business...
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odiebugs
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Joined: 07 Jul 2015 Status: Offline Points: 193 |
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Posted: 14 Jul 2015 at 11:48am |
If you installed win 7 and had win 8.1, it's impossible that anything was picked up from the win 8.1. If the non OS drives were set as GPT, then they were initialized by the utility and that's why you didn't see them at first. What the best driver is, that depends on everything, usually and I mean usually the best driver is the same series as what the Option ROM series is. Which we know that your Option ROM is a 13 series because your download driver is a 13 series. At boot hit CTRL + I, at the top you can see what version the Option ROM is, if it's 13, then try the last driver in that series, the last driver for that series has the most bug fixes , but doesn't always yield the fastest read write and IOPS . The driver on the site, 13.1.0.1058 is probably newer than what's on disk. This is a stable driver . And ASrock want's you to use it because they haven't had problems with it. But people who try every driver looking for the fastest read an write speed probably would use another newer driver. These speeds make no difference in the real world for applications, just usually benching and transferring data. 128KB is the best STRIP size, you can see this if you open the option ROM. When you create the RAID set, you're asked what STRIP size, just in case you didn't know.
Edited by odiebugs - 14 Jul 2015 at 11:55am |
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asrocking
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parsec
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Posted: 14 Jul 2015 at 3:55pm |
Great, that was relatively easy for you. I always like to have the IRST Windows utility installed instead of relying on the Ctrl I utility. Some people think it is bloatware, but I don't. Plus there are new options like Dynamic Storage Accelerator (DSA) that cannot be configured in the Ctrl I utility. I've found the Intel RAID arrays to be very tough to ruin, except for failures of the drives themselves. Don't try to delete them just by formatting in Disk Management or even with Diskpart. I had to delete the arrays in the IRST utility to truly get rid of the RAID metadata. odiebugs, you are right about nothing being brought over from Win 8.1. But the RAID arrays that were missing after changing to Win 7 were created in the Ctrl I utility but used with the Win 8.1 native Intel RAID driver, which is different than the Win 7 version. The unrecognized arrays were not new, uninitialized RAID arrays, so the IRST Windows utility did not initialize them. Installing the IRST package in Win 7 is what allowed those arrays to be recognized again. The Win 7 native IRST driver must be a version 10 driver, which could not work with large HDDs formatted as GPT. |
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parsec wrote: