Multible issues with a Z77 Extreme4

[Mac D]

A couple of weeks a go I change my desktop setup because of some hdd Marvell controller issues with a old Asus board and constantly crashing when you tried to install the PCI soundcard driver.

The desktop is now running on a i5 3570k ,with Arctic Cooling i30 cooler on a Asrock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard .
Right from the start ,I had issues with this board.
It begon with my keyboard not being detected 9 out of the 10 times (now I'm using a VERY old keyboard and this one does work all the time ?? ) and the X-Fi Extrememusic PCI soundcard being broke.
(Okay ,seeing the problems I had with the soundcard on the old Asus board it' s probably broken)

After a couple of days I started to constantly got the the AMDKMDAP Driver Crashed error ,so I change the grafics card from PCi-e slot 2 to PCI-e slot 1 just to try if that would solve the problem.
After the change of slots the deskstop had the AMDKMDAP error for about to or 2 times over the last 4 days ,so in some sense it worked.
BUT now the screens freezes and the sound goes in a loop for about 5 to 15 seconds in Games ,watching live streams ,it even happens if your just watching Windows 7 desktop opening a file.
The freezes and lopes happen almost constantly ,sometimes it runs well for 2 hours ,sometimes not even for 10 minutes

Some one has any idea where these problems could come from and how to fix it ??

(Personally ,I think the motherboard is the reason for al the problems
1 component being broke ,that I believe ... 3 components being broke ,that I don't ... )

Here's the set-up :
Intel i5 3570K ,not overclocked running on stock settings
Arctic Cooling i30 CPU cooler
Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 ,BIOS 1.60 update installed
Corsair CMZ8GX3MA2A1600C9 RAM ,not overclocked
Sapphire HD6950 2GB Dirt edition videocard ,not overclocked
Intel 330 180GB SATA600 SSD
WD 1TB GREEN SATA600 harddisk
Bitfenix Raider housing
Windows 7 SP1 64-bit with all the drivers updated

Temperatures are within maximum tolerance
The CPU gets up to 50 degrees when loaded
The GPU 68 degrees under load
The Z77 extreme4 hits 45 degrees ,which is within limits ,but I find it really high compared to my old Asus board

[imnewhere]

Hi

I have an idea, change to bios 1.4 i have the same MB and went for bios 1.6 which gave me all sort of trouble, random reset, crashes, frezzing etc. On a 2 day old system! Went back to 1.4 and have not have had one issue since!

br

[Mac D]

I just did a full reinstall of Windows ,drivers ... well everything.
If the problems do come back i'll do a rollback to BIOS 1.40
Thanx for the tip

[Mac D]

Got one other question ..
The Z77 extreme4 seems to support ,or have ,Virtu Universal MVP
For some reason or another there isn't any software for Virtu Universal MVP on the disk which is included with the board.

Where can you download this software/driver ??
(Already checked the Asrock site but it ain't there)

[imnewhere]

Hi

It is on the disk and on asrock support page and on virtus own page !

ASRock > Products > Motherboard > Z77 Extreme4 > Download

lucidlogix with GPU Solution

i had trouble with it myself working with BF3, got som wierd errors form an ekang20.exe or similar named file failing so uninstalled it.


br

[Mac D]

Thanx ,already found it on Lucidlogix own site
Totally missed it on Asrock's site :S

(First signs of old age I guess)

[imnewhere]

So how did it go did you get it stable on 1.6 or 1.4? I noticed now that 1.5 and 1.6 is removed from the asrock support site and a 1.7 has been released.

br

[Mac D]

I got the system running stable on BIOS 1.60 after reinstalling everything ,Windows ,drivers ,well the works.
Don't ask me why but it worked.

Asrock relaesed a new BIOS for the Z77 extreme4 this morning , regarding USB compatibility issues.
I've flashed the new BIOS a couple of hours ago and everything is still running perfectly

[TaZ1973]

I had some trouble with the asmedia USB 3.0 (next to the PS2 port) with the 1.6 bios. It froze my computer every time I plugged in a USB device, my mouse, Logitech G35 headset, and a couple of USB sticks (one of the sticks are dead now). But I haven't had any trouble with the 1.7 bios.

TaZ1973

[Mac D]

Even after the 1.70 BIOS the Asrock still doesn'r reconize the Logitech corder keyboard 9 out of 10 times at startup.

If I connect the Logitech when the desktop bin running for lets say a hour it will see the keyboard and have no futher problems
If the desktop bin running for more then a hour ,then it will see the Logitech after a restart
But on a cold start ,say in the morning ... no go