Guide for Asrock 4Core1600Twins-P35

[cyberjunkie]

I purchased this board for its cheap price and for the ICH9 (plain, not -R) with AHCI support, enabled with all the bioses released

so far (unlike the P5K model of the mother company, that i had to crossflash to P5KR to get recent cpu support and AHCI...but

this is an intirely different story).

I wanted to run a vanilla kernel, and after plugging a cheap (and overclock friendly) E2160 cpu on the board, i was ready for

a smooth Leopard installation.

I didn't know how much i was wrong!

 

After some time, a lot of trials and errors, and a nice advice from a forum user that sent me on the right path:

here is a short Leo install guide for Asrock 4Core1600Twins-P35.

 

Install with Leo4All v3 or Kalyway 10.5.2, both have the old ACPI package, that is mandatory to get a working installation.

Boot from the install DVD with the cpus=1 switch, choose the old ACPI, and after installation boot from HD again with cpus=1.

The Gigabit ethernet chip is recognized from scratch, while the ALC888 must be enabled with a kext from Taruga web site.

I used HDAEnabler instead of ALCInject to get the audio recognized in System Profiler, then i loaded a user-supplied kext,

identified as 3 input channels. The audio is recognized, but i have to experiment later on, cause the mobo is sitting on my table,

without case and front audio connections.

The plain ICH9 SATA controller (set to AHCI, to be able to run vanilla kernels) is recognized like a generic AHCI SATA, and

the icon of the HD is orange. I have read somewhere that it's only cosmetics, everything is working just fine.

If you want to edit the kext to actually recognize ICH9 AHCI, let me know about it, cause at this point i'm too lazy to do

it myself...

 

All this was the guide...but now you can browse to http://osrom.net/biosmod/, and get the latest Asrock bios (1.40) patched

to fix the DSDTs problem that affects all the bioses released so far for this motherboard.

So now, thanks to Kabyl, it should be possible to install without any trick.

 

I don't have a clue about what ACPI/APIC kexts should be used with the patched bios, and if it will allow to remove the cpus=1

boot switch without doing anything to the installation (done as per the previous guide).

I am not going to test the patched bios right away, until i arrange a USB HD for Time Machine, just in case the new bios will

break my installation...restarting from scratch again would be too much!

But if somebody (with a backup or without an already installed system) will give it a try, please keep me informed.

 

Please PM me and post details in response to this topic

Thanks

 

ciao

 

CJ

[glitchbit]

I was the second person (as far as I know) to apply a patched bios from kabyl and successfully on an Asus laptop. I would not worry too much about screwing your board up if it was meant for yours and has been verified by others.

 

Although no one verified mine I still risked it... foolishly on a $2000 laptop.. but I came out ok!

 

I am looking at a motherboard like yours but the version with wifi built into the motherboard. Does all of it work for you? Are you aware of anything that does not work?

[cyberjunkie]

The model with wi-fi is much better IMHO, it has solid state capacitors, and ICH9R (if i remember).

All the rest is the same, apart a different audio codec, as far as i know.

The Realtek Gigabit LAN works with no need to play with kexts.

The audio should be ALC890 instead of ALC888, if you try Taruga kexts, i think you will get a working

audio, at least basic audio from back panel.

You could also make a codecdump with a Linux live cd, and feed it to the latest Taruga patcher, to modify

AppleHDAaudio kext.

I tried it only once, with an ALC881 codec, and i got a non-functioning kext...so i went for one of those test

kext you can find on Taruga site.

 

I used HDAEnabler instead of ALCInject to get audio recognized in System Profiler.

You will find it on the same web site.

 

I tried the latest iMac SMBIOS kext, but the RAM was not correctly recognized, so i placed the right boot

options (MemSpeed= and MemType=) in com.apple.boot.plist.

maybe i'm dumb, but i don't understand the memory/FSB divider set by jumper, cause there is also

an option within the bios.

In my case, with default jumpers settings, i get both 667Mhz and 800Mhz choices in the bios:

if i choose 800, and leave the default clock at 200, everything works just fine; if i overclock i have to choose

667, because choosing 800 it will failt thrice the booting process and i kicks you back to the bios settings.

What is strange is that if i choose 667, the RAM working frequence apparently doesn't change, even if

i increase the cpu clock.

I don't understand the rationale behind the double settings (jumpers and bios), and how should i configure

my system to get the RAM working at 800mhz, with the cpu overclocked from 200 to 266 Mhz.

As i have just explained, if i choose 667 at 200 mhz cpu clock, i'd expect to get the RAM at 800 Mhz with the

cpu overclocked to 266, but the frequence of the RAM doesn't change! But if i choose 800 and then overclock,

i get non-working system, so i suppose the RAM increase their frequency beneath their capcity...

 

 

Anybody's got a clue?

 

 

ciao

 

CJ

[cyberjunkie]

UPDATE:

I couldn't wait until someone flashed the patched bios.

I used the AFUDOS utility from Asrock, and flashed the patched 1.40 bios from a bootable pen drive.

To be on the safe side i removed the cpu overclock, bringing back most of the bios settings to their

default options.

All went well. I flashed, restarted and loaded the bios defaults.

Then i enabled the NX bit, i disabled SpeedStep and enabled the option that bring the system to a

lower multiplier when idle (i don't remember the option right now).

Then i overvolted the RAM as per factory specs, enabling the manual choice of RAM timings (i did

choose those for 800+ Mhz, hoping to find the right solution for the memory divider -look at my

previous post and give me an advice if you know the right jumpers settings-).

I removed all the non-needed hardware, but you could enable JMicron PATA controller, as i have seen

the kext loading with no problems at all.

Before flashing the new bios i removed cpus=1 from com.apple.Boot.plist, and i updated the system

to 10.5.4 with the Delta Update from Apple. I gave a look with Pacifist inside the package, and i choose

to install everything, including the new 9.4 kernel.

Everything seems to work just fine now, with the two cores enabled. The bios from Asrock made for

a wrong recognition during the boot, as 4 cores where identified. I thought that i hads two cores with

HT, but i think i was plainly wrong, it's because of those aliases, that are not supported by Apple software.

More on this issue on Kabyl posts on this forum.

I repeat here what i wrote him in a PM:

Kabyl, you're great!!

 

Now any owner of this mobo can flash the patched bios without fear, and get a snappier system with

all cores working as they should

I can't give an Xbench reference, as i still have to overclock again my E2160 cpu.

Now i should install the latest ACPI/APIC files, known to work with vanilla 9.4 kernel.

Can you give me the right link?

 

 

ciao

 

CJ

[alexdc]

How you do the bootable pen drive? I waste about 5 or 6 hours and I can´t do it. I get 2 bootable cd´s and a lot of pen drive tries but when I boot I can´nt see the AFUDOS and the 1.40 bio fron msdos or dr-dos

[Goron]

Google is your friend

 

http://www.google.de/search?q=bootdisk2boo...lient=firefox-a

 

Works fine

[alexdc]

Don´t work for me

 

Anyone know if is possible flash it on Windos Xp using AFUDOS?

[Fuzzy_Logic]

These are great news for me.

 

I have AsRock 4CORE1600 Twins P35 and e2180 , also tried all bios'es from Kabyl but none of then did the trick.

 

I also have a question fot the topic starter, can you modify the CPU Multiplier from the BIOS, or how do you intend to do a good overclocking, i'm just asking because I can't change that,it's greyed out in the BIOS.

 

And what jumper settings do you use, I can't find a helpful guide to set fsb:dram ratio so I can overclock the system at least from the FSB.

 

Thanks.

[alexdc]

Great, I could flash http://osrom.net/biosmod/, but whe I try to boot 4 begin the Kalyway installation this message appear "System config file /com.apple.Boot.plist´ not found" after that my pc also don´t restart on Windows XP, It said I´m trylling to start with the wrong device.

 

help please

[Fuzzy_Logic]

To ALEXDC: most likely your installation DVD isn't correctly burned. Try burning it again at 4x(or even less) with a good burning software.

 

I had an old DVDRW which didn't burn the dvd's correctly at higher speed, now I have a new one, on SATA and now the burning speed doesn't matter.

[cyberjunkie]

There is an HP utiltity, i can't rememeber the name, but if you google for HP and USB boot, you'll find it!

If you don't jave a Windows system you could use Parallels, install any Windows version (i'm just trying 2008 Server on parallels)

and give to USB devices the choice to be connected to the virtual machine when connected.

Then you format the USB pen drive (or flash card) with HP utility.

Keep at hand a boot floppy (physical or image) to get the needed Dos boot files.

Of course you could do the same with Linux, but i don't know if you need to use the terminal or there is some

graphical interface available.

 

have fun

 

CJ

[cyberjunkie]

These are great news for me.

 

I have AsRock 4CORE1600 Twins P35 and e2180 , also tried all bios'es from Kabyl but none of then did the trick.

 

I also have a question fot the topic starter, can you modify the CPU Multiplier from the BIOS, or how do you intend to do a good overclocking, i'm just asking because I can't change that,it's greyed out in the BIOS.

 

And what jumper settings do you use, I can't find a helpful guide to set fsb:dram ratio so I can overclock the system at least from the FSB.

 

 

 

Sorry for being late, but the latest bios, still not available at asrock web site, has been just modded by kabyl.

I gave him the address, and pronto, he did the modding almost immediately!

Any 4core1600twins-p35 owner should be happy, cause the new 1.43 bios reportedtly allows to set the cpu multiplier.

I had no time to try it myself, but other users say so (with the unmodded bios of course).

I don't know if Fuzzy Logic succeeded, but the modded 1.40 bios allowed me to install Leo with no problems at all,

using Leo4All v3 and then updating to 10.5.4 (first with 10.5.3 patched update package, then with Apple online update).

I am using the 4core1600twins-p35 like my primay home machine, so i am not too eager to experiment with it... that's

why i didn't update to 10.5.5 and i still use 1.40 bios. My Time Machine backup drive is a very old 20GB, and too many

things are left out to keep the backup under the 20Gb barrier...so i don't like to try my luck without a lot of time to fix

things in case something goes wrong.

 

I suggest to set the jumpers as per uploaded image, to get 1:1 setting for FSB/RAM

This is good only for overclocking, other way is better to leave the default settings, or the others described in the manual

in case of higher FSB/RAM speeds.

In my case i swapped the E2160 for an E8200 (mainly to enable VT-x acceleration for Parallels), and fitted a 4GB Corsair

kit (to have more RAM for virtual SO).

Leaving the jumpers at their default settings or using the 1:1 configuration made no difference, choosing 333 (667) in the

bios. The overclocking is limited by my cheap memories, so i had to limit the cpu frequence to 3470Mhz.

With 4GB RAM i discovered the limits of the JMicron kext too, with Memory Remap option enabled i had the full 4 gigabytes

available but the JMicron PATA controller gave me random freezes during DVD burning (PATA burner).

If i want to get a rock solid system i have to disable memory remap (loosing around 800MB of RAM), or burn cd and dvd

with a SATA or USB burner.

 

have fun

 

CJ

[Darkn3ss]

Hi.

I have the same motherboard.

Everythings works but poweroff.

 

I use ideneb 1.4 with 9.2 netkas kernel (vanilla and vodoo doesn't work), do you have any solution for poweroff?

(I use poweroff fix too but doesn't work)

[Fuzzy_Logic]

Sorry for being late, but the latest bios, still not available at asrock web site, has been just modded by kabyl.

I gave him the address, and pronto, he did the modding almost immediately!

Any 4core1600twins-p35 owner should be happy, cause the new 1.43 bios reportedtly allows to set the cpu multiplier.

I had no time to try it myself, but other users say so (with the unmodded bios of course).

I don't know if Fuzzy Logic succeeded, but the modded 1.40 bios allowed me to install Leo with no problems at all,

using Leo4All v3 and then updating to 10.5.4 (first with 10.5.3 patched update package, then with Apple online update).

I am using the 4core1600twins-p35 like my primay home machine, so i am not too eager to experiment with it... that's

why i didn't update to 10.5.5 and i still use 1.40 bios. My Time Machine backup drive is a very old 20GB, and too many

things are left out to keep the backup under the 20Gb barrier...so i don't like to try my luck without a lot of time to fix

things in case something goes wrong.

 

I suggest to set the jumpers as per uploaded image, to get 1:1 setting for FSB/RAM

This is good only for overclocking, other way is better to leave the default settings, or the others described in the manual

in case of higher FSB/RAM speeds.

In my case i swapped the E2160 for an E8200 (mainly to enable VT-x acceleration for Parallels), and fitted a 4GB Corsair

kit (to have more RAM for virtual SO).

Leaving the jumpers at their default settings or using the 1:1 configuration made no difference, choosing 333 (667) in the

bios. The overclocking is limited by my cheap memories, so i had to limit the cpu frequence to 3470Mhz.

With 4GB RAM i discovered the limits of the JMicron kext too, with Memory Remap option enabled i had the full 4 gigabytes

available but the JMicron PATA controller gave me random freezes during DVD burning (PATA burner).

If i want to get a rock solid system i have to disable memory remap (loosing around 800MB of RAM), or burn cd and dvd

with a SATA or USB burner.

 

have fun

 

CJ

 

Sorry for not checking this post for so long.

So, I have flashed the 1.43 BIOs and averything works great, I use Voodoo 9.5.(no vanilla for me).

BUT>>> I can't modify the cpu multiplier with this new BIOS neither.

Please post the link to the thread where those users said that they could modify that from the new BIOS.

You wrote that the CPU freq(yours) is limited to 3470 MHz due to your cheap ram, IMHO that is pretty good.

I want just 2800MHz, currently use 4:5 ratio, 9x320 ,a litthe higher voltage for CPU, but I have to do this every time I boot up Windows( Vista) because I use a small tool, and can't do anything from LEO, which SUXXX.