Asus M4A785-M - Level 1 tested

[nosro]

Asus M4A785-M

Newegg link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131595&cm_re=M4A785-M-_-13-131-595-_-Product

CPU Socket   AM3/AM2+/AM2

North Bridge   AMD 785G

South Bridge AMD SB710

 

Ancillary equipment

Processor: AMD Sempron 140

USB flash: Sandisk Cruzer Blade 4gb

Power supply: Antec Neo Eco 400c

Hard drives: 2 for data, 1 for parity, 1 for cache

Unraid version: 4.5.6

 

Special Notes

• Set the USB device to "Force FDD" in the BIOS to boot the flash drive
  
• The motherboard can also boot a USB flash attached to the motherboard header, in case you want to mount the USB flash drive inside the case. (I took a standard USB bracket, like one of these http://tinyurl.com/35zwgjt ,  and unscrewed the PCI bracket part.)
  
• This board supports unbuffered ECC memory. (I did not test.)
  
• The front panel power button seems to correctly power down the server. Subsequent power on does not trigger parity check.
  

syslog-2010-08-14.txt

[nosro]

Wait for this to go on sale. I purchased this as a combo with a Sempron 140 for $87 delivered at Newegg.

[queeg]

• [*]This board creates HPA on the drive, presumably for Asus Express Gate (

http://expressgate.asus.com/). Express Gate can be disabled in BIOS. (Since this was generated on

 

Please provide whatever information about HPA on ASUS you have.  This is the first I've read about it and having an ASUS board I'm really concerned.

[BRiT]

Here's what Wikipedia has on the underlying technology used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashtop.

 

Most versions of Asus motherboards no longer come with Splashtop preinstalled, as the manufacturer now limits the inclusion of its built-in ExpressGate flash drive to "Premium" motherboards such as the P6T Deluxe and P7P55D-E Premium. Other Asus motherboards allow installation of the compact OS via a Windows-only based installer on its support CD. Installation from CD requires a Windows partition to store 500 MB of files, which has to be a SATA drive defined as IDE (no support for AHCI).

 

Be careful of what you run!

 

 

[nosro]

• This board creates HPA on the drive, presumably for Asus Express Gate (http://expressgate.asus.com/). Express Gate can be disabled in BIOS. (Since this was generated on
  

 
Please provide whatever information about HPA on ASUS you have.  This is the first I've read about it and having an ASUS board I'm really concerned.

 
If you look in the log, it is for a miniscule amount anyway.  I know very little about the Express Gate (Splashtop). I had not disabled it in BIOS prior to installing everything. Had I done so, I'm sure this could have been avoided.
 
Actually, does anyone know if the Intel disk controller writes any HPA for RAID configurations? This drive had been in an Intel RAID configuration and it is possible I am confusing Express Gate for Intel RAID as the HPA culprit.

[Rajahal]

The problem isn't the amount of space that is wasted (I have some HPA partitions on some of my drives from over a year ago and I haven't bothered to fix them either).  The problem is the potential for HPA breaking your array.  For example:

 

Say your cache drive dies or the cable gets knocked loose or something.  The motherboard now cannot find it's HPA partition, so it goes about creating a new one on one of your data drives or possibly on your parity drive.  Either way, your parity protection is now lost.  It is even possible that it overwrote some of your actual data on one of your data drives.

 

Disabling the HPA feature in BIOS isn't enough either.  What happens when your CMOS battery dies?  Again, an HPA partition will be created out of the blue and has the potential of clobbering your data.

 

This is also the first I've heard of HPA on anything but Gigabyte boards.  Something to look out for.

[queeg]

My research says Express Gate must be manually installed.  It doesn't create HPA partitions.

 

What I'm reading about Express Gate is that it comes in two versions.  One for mobo's with some extra built in flash called Express Gate SSD.  On those it's installed in the flash.  The second is just called Express Gate and has to be installed manually from a CD in Windows.  The Windows version installs it in the C:\ root directory.  

There is no mention that it would create a partition that I can find.

 

http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/forums/asus/express-gate-not-starting-172539.html

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=70655

 

Here's a link saying the non-flash vesion only installs from Windows.

http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Ubuntu/2008-12/msg02400.html

 

Here's a link on how to install Express Gate on ubuntu - Installing Wine is first step.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1049170

 

There is a posting saying it's incompatible with Raid 0 but that was reported by users that have Asus laptops.

[Rajahal]

Thanks queeg, that's a relief.

[mbryanr]

Thanks queeg, especially since I ordered this board (as part of the Sempron 140 combo) last Friday!

 

I found the same as you.  Most of the Asus boards have the Express Gate feature available.  Originally it was pre-installed in the firmware, now it is a Windows install.

 

http://www.splashtop.com/availability.php?subcat=16&cat=1

[nosro]

I corrected the original post to remove the HPA comment.

 

I had two drives in RAID1 on an Intel mobo. I killed this RAID and used one of these drives as a cache drive and put the other in storage. Upon further inspection, the other drive (which has never seen this Asus mobo) has the same HPA. I assume that this is the Intel RAID HPA.

[bonienl]

I am using this type of motherboard and HPA was never created. I had the Asus Express Gate feature turned off in the BIOS from the very beginning (it's not needed anyway).

 

All is running happily here 

[Blofeld]

just got my mobo mentioned here back from the shop...and I'm just wondering - any more updates on the HPA situation with this board? Looks like it should be fine, but does anyone have any experience?

[mbryanr]

just got my mobo mentioned here back from the shop...and I'm just wondering - any more updates on the HPA situation with this board? Looks like it should be fine, but does anyone have any experience?

 

No HPA created here.

[Blofeld]

allright, sounds good (just realized I have the "-EVO" version, for what it's worth - not sure if there are differences). I've taken the unraid flash out, and it just didn't boot then. I hope it's the same once the on-board battery is dead, but I guess I have some time to fidure that out.. 

[mbryanr]

(just realized I have the "-EVO" version, for what it's worth - not sure if there are differences).

 

Comparison

 

6 vs 5 onboard SATA ports, DDR2 vs. DDR3

[queeg]

(just realized I have the "-EVO" version, for what it's worth - not sure if there are differences).

 

Comparison

 

6 vs 5 onboard SATA ports, DDR2 vs. DDR3

 

Nice comparison.  The EVO has one eSata port so the overall 6 sata ports is still the same.  It's a little bothersome to route a converter cable from the backplane back inside the case but only just a little.

[Blofeld]

(just realized I have the "-EVO" version, for what it's worth - not sure if there are differences).

 

Comparison

 

6 vs 5 onboard SATA ports, DDR2 vs. DDR3

 

Nice comparison.  The EVO has one eSata port so the overall 6 sata ports is still the same.  It's a little bothersome to route a converter cable from the backplane back inside the case but only just a little.

oh, ok! wasn't aware of that...well I wonder why I got the EVO then...but nevermind, it's here. Thanks for pointing out the sixth port!

[Flomaster]

EDIT:turns out my 4/8 pin connectors comes apart(its been ages since I got a new PSU) thus letting me plug it into the mobo. it booted into the bios, I set my usb device to FDD, I changed boot order to USB as first boot device and all is well

 

 

I just got this mobo today along with AMD sempron 140 sargus cpu,Kingston low profile 2GB DDR2 pc6400 800 MHz ram and Corsair CX430 power supply.

 

I got everything hooked up and plugged in and nothing, no beeps, nothing on my monitor, no bios, I doubled checked my 24 pin power supply cable and its plugged in solid, I removed the ram and put it back in and still nothing.

 

my little green power led is working, the fans are spinning,  either my ram is bad or the cpu is bad, they only install one way as far as I know and I didn't force anything it just dropped right into place.

 

I have no more ram or cpu to test with

 

 

edit: after googling it seems this fellow as my same problem

http://www.overclock.net/amd-motherboards/765452-asus-m4a785-m-help.html

 

I had an old PSU that had no sata power cables on it, but I figured I'd plug is in. it has a 20 pin power connector and a small 4 pin square type connector that the motherboard has a spot for. I plugged it in and fired it up and low and behold i have beeps and bios on my monitor.

 

WTF why doesn't it boot up just using my 24pin cable now I have to return either the motherboard or PSU to newegg.

or do I buy one of these  4pin extension cables and plug it into my 4/8 pin 12V cable?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198005&cm_re=4pin_extension-_-12-198-005-_-Product

 

FML.....

 

 

-=Jason=-

[Rajahal]

If either the RAM or video were bad, you should hear some beeps indicating that.  Do you have a case/mobo speaker hooked up?  Or is there one built into the board?

 

The 4 pin extension cable won't help you.

 

It is possible you have a bad PSU.  Does the PSU fan spin?

[Flomaster]

If either the RAM or video were bad, you should hear some beeps indicating that.  Do you have a case/mobo speaker hooked up?  Or is there one built into the board?

 

The 4 pin extension cable won't help you.

 

It is possible you have a bad PSU.  Does the PSU fan spin?

 

Raj, this mobo requires both a 20/24 pin cable AND a 4pin 12V cable to be plugged in or else it WILL NOT boot.

I have edited my post to in red to reflect that I did in fact get it working.

 

 

its been ages since I built a computer and I've never had to hook up two power cables to a Mobo before.

 

-=Jason=-

[Rajahal]

Oh, I see, I misread.  Since you put your edit at the top of the post, I thought it came before the rest of the post (and that you were still having troubles).  Good to know it was a simple solution.

 

P.S. I build computers all the time, several a month, and I still sometimes forget stupid-simple things like that.  I once ran a computer for months with the little bit of plastic that protects the thermal grease on the CPU fan during shipping still installed!  That means that there was a layer of plastic between the CPU and the thermal grease/CPU fan.  It is amazing that computer even still worked and didn't just overheat all the time!  I know keep that little bit of plastic hanging over my computer work area as a constant reminder to always check the little stuff....

[Flomaster]

ahh crap I didn't remove any plastic from my cpu fan, it didn't look like there was any, just pre=installed gray thermal grease.

 

fml..is there a chance my fan didn't has plastic on it?

 

 

-=Jason=-

[queeg]

Oh, I see, I misread.  Since you put your edit at the top of the post, I thought it came before the rest of the post (and that you were still having troubles).  Good to know it was a simple solution.

 

P.S. I build computers all the time, several a month, and I still sometimes forget stupid-simple things like that.  I once ran a computer for months with the little bit of plastic that protects the thermal grease on the CPU fan during shipping still installed!  That means that there was a layer of plastic between the CPU and the thermal grease/CPU fan.  It is amazing that computer even still worked and didn't just overheat all the time!  I know keep that little bit of plastic hanging over my computer work area as a constant reminder to always check the little stuff....

 

Better check your shoe for toilet paper

[Rajahal]

ahh crap I didn't remove any plastic from my cpu fan, it didn't look like there was any, just pre=installed gray thermal grease.

 

fml..is there a chance my fan didn't has plastic on it?

 

 

-=Jason=-

 

Every CPU fan I've bought in the past year has come with a piece of plastic that protects the thermal grease during shipping.  However, the plastic is such that it would be impossible to install the fan with the plastic still in place, like I did that one time.

 

Chances are you are fine.  The thermal grease should be directly between the CPU and the CPU heatsink/fan.  As long as that is the case, you are good.

 

And then we have Queeg, sensitive as always

[expressexcess]

I'm having incredibly slow boot times from the USB key, and was wondering if anyone with this board experienced similar issues. It took 12 minutes to load bzroot, on a lexar key from Tom.

 

I've checked the BIOs and it looks like hispeed is enabled. Once unRAID loads it seems to work great, it's just very slow to initially load.

 

Any thoughts?