Asrock FM2A55M-VG3 manual

1 FM2A55M-VG3 User Manual V ersion 1.0 Published November 2012 Copyright©2012 ASRock INC. All rights reserved.[...]

2 Copyright Notice: No part of this manual may be reproduced, transcribed, transmitted, or translated in any language, in any form or by any means, except duplication of documentation by the purchaser for backup purpose, without written consent of ASRock Inc. Products and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be regis- tered trade[...]

3 Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................ 5 1.1 Package Contents ......................................................... ............ 5 1.2 Specications ............................................................................. 6 1.3 Unique Features ..........................................[...]

4 3. UEFI SETUP UTILITY .................................................. 33 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................ 33 3.1.1 UEFI Menu Bar ................................................................ 33 3.1.2 Navigation Keys .............................................................[...]

5 1. Introduction Thank you for purcha sing ASRock F M2A55M-VG3 motherbo ard, a reliable mo th- erboard produced under ASRock’s consistently stringent quality control. It delivers excellent performance with robust design conforming to ASRock’s commitment to quality and endurance. In this manual, chapter 1 and 2 contain introduction of the mothe[...]

6 1.2 Specications Platform - Micro A TX Form Factor - All Solid Capacitor design CPU - Support for Socket FM2 100W processors - Supports AMD’s Cool ‘n’ Quiet TM T echnology - UMI-Link GEN2 Chipset - AMD A55 FCH (Hudson-D2) Memory - Dual Channel DDR3 Memory T echnology - 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots - Support DDR3 1866/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-bu[...]

7 Connector - 4 x SA T A2 3.0 Gb/s connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and “Hot Plug” functions - 1 x Chassis Intrusion header - 1 x CPU Fan connector (4-pin) - 1 x Chassis Fan connector (4-pin) - 24 pin A TX power connector - 4 pin 12V power connector - Front panel audio connector - 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 U[...]

8 CAUTION! 1. Whether 1866/1600MHz memory speed is supported depends on the CPU you adopt. If you want to adopt DDR3 1866/1600 memory module on this motherboard, please refer to the mem- ory support list on our website for the compatible memory mod- ules. ASRock webs ite http://www .asrock.com 2. Due to the operating system limitation, the actual m[...]

9 1.3 Unique Features ASRock Extreme T uning Utility (AXTU) A SRock Extre me T uning Utility (AXTU) is an all-i n-one tool to ne-tu ne di f fe rent syste m fun ctions in a user -friendl y int erface, whic h in clude s Ha rdware Moni tor , Fa n Co ntrol, Ove rclock ing, OC DNA, IES and XFast RAM. In Hardware Monitor , it shows the major readings of [...]

10 ASRock APP Charger I f y o u d es i r e a f as t e r, l e ss r es t r ic t e d w a y o f c h a rg i n g y o u r Apple device s, su ch as iPhon e/iPad/iP od T ouch, ASRock has prepared a wonderful solution for you - ASRock APP Charger . Si mpl y in sta ll t he AP P C har ge r d riv er, i t m ake s y ou r i Pho ne charge much quickly from your com[...]

1 1 ASRock Crashless BIOS AS Ro ck Cr as hl es s B IO S a ll ow s u se rs to u pd at e t he ir B IO S without fear of failing. If power loss occurs during the BIOS up- date process, ASRock Crashless BIOS will automatically nish the BIOS update procedure after regaining power. Please note that BIOS les need to be placed in the root directory o[...]

12 ASRock Interactive UEFI A SR oc k I nt er act iv e U EF I i s a b len d o f s ys tem co nf ig ura ti on to ol s , c oo l s ou nd ef fe ct s a nd st u nn in g v is ua ls . T he u np re c- edented UEFI provides a more attractive interface and brings a lot more amusing. ASRock Fast Boot W it h AS Ro ck’s e xc lus ive Fa st B oot te chn ol ogy , i[...]

13 1.4 Motherboard Layout 1 A TX 12V Power Connector (A TX12V1) 12 Southbridge Controller 2 CPU Fan Connector (CPU_F AN1) 13 SPI Flash Memory (64Mb) 3 A TX Power Connector (A TXPWR1) 14 System Panel Header (P ANEL1) 4 CPU Socket 15 Chassis Speaker Header (SPEAKER1) 5 CPU Heatsink Retention Module 16 PCI Slot (PCI1) 6 2 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM Slots 17 [...]

14 1.5 I/O Panel * There are two LED next to the LAN port. Please refer to the table below for the LAN port LED indications. LAN Port LED Indications Activity/Link LED SPEED LED Status Description Status Description Off No Link Of f 10Mbps connection Blinking Data Activity Orange 100Mbps connection On Link Green 1Gbps connection 1 PS/2 Mouse Port ([...]

15 2. Installation This is a Micro A TX form factor motherboard. Before you install the motherboard, study the conguration of your chassis to ensure that the motherboard ts into it. Pre-installation Precautions T ake no te of t he fo llo wing pr ecau tio ns be fore you in stal l m oth erbo ard components or change any motherboard settings. Be[...]

16 2.1 CPU Installation Step 1. Unlock the socket by lifting the lever up to a 90 o angle. Step 2. Position the CPU directly above the socket such that the CPU corner with the golden triangle matches the socket corner with a small triangle. Step 3. Carefully insert the CPU into the socket until it ts in place. The CPU ts only in one correct o[...]

17 2.3 Installation of Memory Modules (DIMM) This mot herboar d pr ovides t wo 2 40-pin D DR3 (Dou ble Data R ate 3) DI MM slots , and su pport s Dual C hannel M emory T ec hnolog y . F or dua l chan nel co nfigu ration , yo u alw ays n eed to i nst all tw o ide nti cal (t he sa me b ran d, s peed , si ze a nd ch ip- type) memory modules in the DDR[...]

18 2.4 Expansion Slots (PCI and PCI Express Slots) There is 1 PCI slot and 1 PCI Express slot on this motherboard. PCI Slots: PCI slots are used to install expansion cards that have the 32-bit PCI interface. PCIE Slots: PCIE1 (PCIE x16 slot) is used for PCI Express x16 lane width graphics cards. Installing an expansion card Step 1. Before installin[...]

19 Enjoy the benet of AMD Dual Graphics Step 1. Please keep the default UEFI setting of “Dual Graphics“ option on [Auto]. Step 2. Install one AMD RADEON PCI Express graphics card to PCIE1 slot. Step 3. Connect the monitor cable to the onboard VGA port. Please be noted that the current VGA driver / VBIOS can allow Dual Graphics output from on[...]

20 * Dual Graphics appearing here is a registered trademark of AMD T echnologies Inc., and is used only for identication or explanation and to the owners’ benet, without intent to infringe. * For further information of AMD Dual Graphics technology , please check AMD website for up dates and details. Step 9. Click “Enable CrossFire TM ” [...]

21 2.6 Multi Monitor Feature This motherboard supports multi monitor upgrade. With the internal VGA output sup- port and external add-on PCI Express VGA cards, you can easily enjoy the benets of surround display feature. Please refer to the following steps to set up a surround display environment: 1. Install the PCI Express VGA cards on PCIE1 sl[...]

22 D. Repeat steps A through C for the display icon identied by the numbers. 6. Use multi monitor feature. Click and drag the display icons to positions representing the physical setup of your monitors that you would like to use. The placement of display icons determines how you move items from one monitor to another .[...]

23 2.7 Jumpers Setup T h e i l l u s t r a t io n s h o w s h o w j u m p e r s a r e setup. When the jumper cap is placed on pins, the jumper is “Short”. If no jumper cap is placed on pins, the jumper is “Open”. The i l lu s t r at i o n s h ow s a 3 - pi n j u m p er w h os e pin1 and pin2 are “Short” when jumper cap is placed on thes[...]

24 2.8 Onboard Headers and Connectors Onboar d headers and con nectors a re NOT jum pers. Do NOT place jumper caps over these headers and connectors. Placing jumper caps over the headers and connectors will cause permanent damage of the motherboard! USB 2.0 Headers Besides four default USB 2.0 (9-pin USB4_5) ports on the I/O panel, there (see p.13 [...]

25 Front Panel Audio Header This is an interface for the front (9-pin HD_AUDIO1) panel audio cable that allows (see p.13 No. 20) convenient connection and control of audio devices. J _ S EN SE O U T 2_ L 1 M I C _R ET P R E SE NC E# G ND O U T 2_ R M I C 2_ R M I C 2_ L O UT _R ET System Panel Header This header accommodates (9-pin P ANEL1) several[...]

26 Chassis Speaker Header Please connect the chassis (4-pin SPEAKER 1) speaker to this header . (see p.13 No. 15) HDLED (Hard Drive Activity LED): Connect to the hard drive activity LED on the chassis front panel. The LED is on when the hard drive is reading or writing data. The fro nt pan el des ign may di ffer by cha ssis. A fron t pane l modu le[...]

27 A TX 12V Power Connector Please connect an A TX 12V (4-pin A TX12V1) power supply to this connector . (see p.13 No. 1) A TX Power Connector Please connect an A TX power (24-pin A TXPWR1) supply to this connector . (see p.13 No. 3) Though this motherboard provides 24-pin A TX power connector, it can still work if you adopt a traditional 20-pin A [...]

28 2.9 Serial A T A2 (SA T A2) Hard Disks Installation This motherboard adopts AMD A55 FCH (Hudson-D2) chipset that supports Serial A T A2 (SA T A2) hard disks and RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10) functions. Y ou may install SA T A2 hard disks on this motherboard for internal storage devices. This section will guide you to install the SA T A2 hard[...]

29 Caution 1. Without SA T A 15-pin power connector interface, the SA T A2 Hot Plug cannot be processed. 2. Even some SA T A2 HDDs provide both SA T A 15-pin power connector and IDE 1x4-pin conventional power connector interfaces, the IDE 1x4-pin conventional power connector interface is denitely not able to support Hot Plug and will cause the H[...]

30 How to Hot Plug a SA T A2 HDD: Points of attention, before you process the Hot Plug: Please do follow below instruction sequence to process the Hot Plug, improper procedure will cause the SA T A2 HDD damage and data loss. Connect SA T A 15-pin power cable connector (Black) end to SA T A2 HDD. How to Hot Unplug a SA T A2 HDD: Points of attention,[...]

31 2.12 Driver Installation Guide T o install the drivers to your system, please insert the support CD to your optical drive rst. Then, the drivers compatible to your system can be auto-detected and listed on the support CD driver page. Please follow the order from up to bottom side to install those required drivers. Therefore, the drivers you i[...]

32 STEP 1: Set up UEFI. A. Enter UEFI SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen Storage Conguration. B. Set the “SA T A Mode” option to [IDE]. STEP 2: Install Windows ® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista TM / Vista TM 64-bit OS on your system. Using SA T A2 HDDs without NCQ and Hot Plug functions (IDE mode) 2.14 Installing Windows ® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 [...]

33 3. UEFI SETUP UTILITY 3.1 Introduction ASRock Inter active UEF I is a blend of sy stem cong uration t ools, coo l sound ef- fects and stunning visuals. Not only will it make BIOS setup less difcult but also a lot more amusing. This section explains how to use the UEFI SETUP UTILITY to congure your system. The UEFI chip on the motherboar[...]

34 3.1.2 Navigation Keys Please check the following table for the function description of each navigation key . Navigation Key(s) Function Description / Moves cursor left or right to select Screens / Moves cursor up or down to select items + / - T o change option for the selected items <T ab> Switch to next function <Enter> T o bring up[...]

35 3.3 OC T weaker Screen In the OC T weaker screen, you can set up overclocking features. EZ OC Mode Y ou can use this option to adjust EZ overclocking setting. Please note that overclocing may cause damage to your components and motherboard. It should be done at your own risk and expense. CPU Conguration Overclock Mode U se th i s t o s el ec [...]

36 Multiplier/V oltage Change This item is set to [Auto] by default. If it is set to [Manual], you may adjust the value of Processor Frequency and Processor V oltage. However , it is recommended to keep the default value for system stability . Boost Frequency Multiplier For safety and system stability , it is not recommended to adjust the value of [...]

37 DRAM Timing Control DRAM Slot Use this item to view SPD data. DRAM Timing Control Use this item to control DRAM timing. Power Down Enable Use this item to enable or disable DDR power down mode. Bank Interleaving Interleaving allows memory accesses to be spread out over banks on the same node, or accross nodes, decreasing access contention. Chann[...]

38 3.4 Advanced Screen In this section, you may set the congurations for the following items: CPU Congu- ration, Nouth Bridge Conguration, South Bridge Conguration, Storage Congura- tion, ACPI Conguration and USB Conguration. Setting wrong values in this section may cause the system to malfunction.[...]

39 3.4.1 CPU Conguration Core C6 Mode Use this item to enable or disable Core C6 mode. The default value is [Enabled].  Package C6 Mode This item appears only when you enable the item “Core C6 Mode”. Use this item to enable or disable Package C6 mode. The default value is [Dis- abled]. Cool ‘n’ Quiet Use this item to enable or disable[...]

40 3.4.2 North Bridge Conguration Primary Graphics Adapter This item will switch the PCI Bus scanning order while searching for video card. It allows you to select the type of Primary VGA in case of multiple video controllers. The default value of this feature is [PCI Express]. Con- guration options: [Onboard], [PCI] and [PCI Express]. Share [...]

41 3.4.3 South Bridge Conguration Onboard HD Audio Select [Auto], [Enabled] or [Disabled] for the onboard HD Audio feature. If you select [Auto], the onboard HD Audio will be disabled when PCI Sound Card is plugged. Front Panel Select [Auto] or [Disabled] for the onboard HD Audio Front Panel. Onboard LAN This allows you to enable or disable the [...]

42 3.4.4 Storage Conguration SA T A Controller Use this item to enable or disable the “SA T A Controller” feature. SA T A Mode Use th is item t o adjust SA T A Mode . The default va lue of th is option is [AHCI Mode]. Conguration options: [AHCI Mode], [RAID Mode] and [IDE Mode]. Easy RAID Installer Easy RAID Installer can help you to copy[...]

43 3.4.5 ACPI Conguration Suspend to RAM Use this item to select whether to auto-detect or disable the Suspend-to- RAM feature. Select [Auto] will enable this feature if the OS supports it. Check Ready Bit Use this item to enable or disable the feature Check Ready Bit. Restore on AC/Power Loss This allows you to set the power state after an unex[...]

44 ACPI HPET table Use this item to enable or disable ACPI HPET T able. The default value is [Enabled]. Please set this option to [Enabled] if you plan to use this moth- erboard to submit Windows ® certication. CSM Please disable CSM when you enable Fast Boot option. The default value is [Enabled].[...]

45 3.4.6 USB Conguration USB 2.0 Controller Use this item to enable or disable the use of USB 2.0 controller . Legacy USB Support Use this option to select legacy support for USB devices. There are four con guration options: [Enabled] , [Auto], [Disabled] and [UEFI Setup Only]. The default value is [Enabled]. Please refer to below description[...]

46 3.5 T ool Sound Effect Enable or disable sound effects in the setup utility . System Browser System Browser can let you easily check your current system congura- tion in UEFI setup. OMG(Online Management Guard) Administrators are able to establish an internet curfew or restrict internet access at specied times via OMG. Y ou may schedule th[...]

47 Internet Flash Int erne t F lash sea rch es f or av aila ble U EFI fi rmwa re up date s f rom ou r servers. In other words, the system can auto-detect the latest UEFI from our servers and ash them without entering Windows OS. Please note that you must be running on a DHCP congured computer in order to en- able this function. Network Con[...]

48 Would you like to save current setting user defaults? In this option, you are allowed to load and save three user defaults according to your own requirements.[...]

49 CPU Fan 1 Setting This allows you to set the CPU fan 1 speed. Con guration options: [Full On] and [Automatic Mode]. The default is value [Full On]. Chassis Fan 1 Setting This allows you t o set the chassis fan 1 speed. Con guration options: [Full On], [Manual Mode] and [Automatic Mode]. The default is value [Full On]. Over T emperature Pro[...]

50 3.7 Boot Screen In this section, it will display the available devices on your system for you to cong- ure the boot settings and the boot priority . Fast Boot Fa st B oot m ini mize s y our c ompu ter ’s bo ot ti me. Th ere a re t hre e c on- guration options: [Disabled], [Fast] and [Ultra Fast]. The default value is [Disabled]. Please r[...]

51 Full Screen Logo Use this item to enable or disable OEM Logo. The default value is [En- abled]. AddOn ROM Display Use this op tion to adjust AddOn ROM Di splay . If you ena ble th e optio n “Full Screen Logo” but you want to see the AddOn ROM information when the syste m bo ots, plea se se lect [En abled]. C ongurat ion opti ons: [Ena ble[...]

52 3.8 Security Screen In this section, you may set or change the supervisor/user password for the system. For the user password, you may also clear it. Secure Boot Use this to enable or disable Secure Boot. The default value is [Disabled].[...]

53 3.9 Exit Screen Save Changes and Exit When you select this option, it will pop-out the following message, “Save conguration changes and exit setup?” Select [OK] to save the changes and exit the UEFI SETUP UTILITY . Discard Changes and Exit When y ou select this op tion, it will pop- out the f ollowing message, “Discard changes and exit [...]

54 4. Software Support 4.1 Install Operating System Th is mo th er bo ar d s up po rt s v ar io us M ic ro so ft ® W in dow s ® o pe rat in g s yst em s: 8 / 8 6 4-b it / 7 / 7 64 -bi t / Vis ta TM / Vi sta TM 64 -bi t. B eca use m oth erb oar d se tti ngs and h ardware o ptions v ary , u se th e se tup proc edures in this chap ter f or g eneral [...]

55 Installing OS on a HDD Larger Than 2TB This motherboard is adopting UEFI BIOS that allows Windows ® OS to be installed on a large size HDD (>2TB). Please follow below procedure to install the operating system. 1. Please make sure to use Windows ® Vista TM 64-bit (with SP1 or above) , Windows ® 7 64-bit or Windows ® 8 64-bit . 2. Press <[...]

56 Installing OS on a HDD Larger Than 2TB in RAID Mode This motherboard is adopting UEFI BIOS that allows Windows ® OS to be installed on a large size HDD (>2TB). Please follow below procedure to install the operating system. 1. Please make sure to use Windows ® Vista TM 64-bit (with SP1 or above) , Windows ® 7 64-bit or Windows ® 8 64-bit .[...]

57 7. And then key in drvcfg –s [Drv number] [Ctrl number] to enter Raid Utility . For example: key in drvcfg –s 4E B5 . 8. Choose Logical Drive Main Menu to set up Raid Drive. 9. Choose Logical Drive Create Menu to create a Raid Drive. 10. Choose Usable Physical Drive List to select Raid HDD.[...]

58 1 1. Press Space on keyboard to toggle checkbox. 12. Choose Ld Size setting , and key in the Raid size. 13. After set up Raid size, please click Start to Create . 14. Press <F10> to exit Utility . 15. During reboot, please press <F1 1> to enter Boot Manual. Choose UEFI: SCSI CD/DVD Drive . * This option only shows on Windows ® 8 64-[...]

59 16. Follow Windows ® Installation Guide to install OS. If you ins tall W indow s ® 8 6 4-bi t / 7 6 4-bi t / Vis ta TM 64 -bit i n a la rge har d disk (ex. Disk volume > 2TB), it may take more time to boot into Windows ® or in st al l d riv er /ut il it ies . I f yo u en co unt er th is pr ob lem , y ou wi ll ne ed to following instruction[...]

60 B. Disable “V olume Shadow Copy” service. a. T ype “computer management” in the Start Menu, then press “Enter”. b. Go to “Ser vices and Applicat ions>Servic es”; The n double cl ick “V olume Shadow Copy”. c. Set “Startup type” to “Disable” then Click “OK”.[...]

61 17. Finish. C. Reboot your system. D. After reboot, please start to install motherboard drivers and utilities. Windows ® 8 64-bit / 7 64-bit: A. Please request the hotx KB2505454 thru this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2505454/ B. After installing Windows ® 8 64-bit / 7 64-bit, install the hotx kb2505454. (This may take long time[...]