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  • Motherboard Updates

    I have recently obtained a replacement motherboard for a faulty one. The replacement is an ASRock B95M-DGS Bios Version C1.30. Is it advisable to check for updates and if so, how do I do that. I am new to the forum and willing to learn the correct way of doing computer related tasks.

  • #2
    Re: Motherboard Updates

    What type of updates are you asking about? Updates to drivers and utilities?

    What model was the mother board you had replaced? That will answer many of my questions.

    The answer is probably yes, but knowing what board you were using previously is key.

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    • #3
      Re: Motherboard Updates

      Thank you for responding to my questions. I don't know what the original motherboard was, but it was a cheap one and it did not last more than six months. I had a Gigabyte replacement, but that did not solve the problem I had at the time (turned out to be faulty RAM). The next (and current) motherboard sent to me was a ASRock B95M-DGS (CPUSocket). The BIOS is American Megatrends Inc. Version C1.30. I hope this helps. I wanted to know if there is an easy way of checking the currency of drivers/BIOS and if there is a later update, should I install it/them, or leave what is working OK alone. My knowledge in this area is extremely limited (the first time I had ever taken a side panel off a case, let alone changed a motherboard). I am aware that hardware updates are made from time to time to fix problems or potential problems and to enhance the hardware. So, any advice will be much appreciated.

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      • #4
        Re: Motherboard Updates

        Originally posted by dgb27 View Post
        Thank you for responding to my questions. I don't know what the original motherboard was, but it was a cheap one and it did not last more than six months. I had a Gigabyte replacement, but that did not solve the problem I had at the time (turned out to be faulty RAM). The next (and current) motherboard sent to me was a ASRock B95M-DGS (CPUSocket). The BIOS is American Megatrends Inc. Version C1.30. I hope this helps. I wanted to know if there is an easy way of checking the currency of drivers/BIOS and if there is a later update, should I install it/them, or leave what is working OK alone. My knowledge in this area is extremely limited (the first time I had ever taken a side panel off a case, let alone changed a motherboard). I am aware that hardware updates are made from time to time to fix problems or potential problems and to enhance the hardware. So, any advice will be much appreciated.
        So are you (not clearly) telling us that the new board is in place and the PC is running? Given that, you are now asking about driver and BIOS updates to possibly better match your new board?

        What you apparently have done is put the ASRock B95M-DGS board in the PC case, put your i5-4670 processor into that board, and connected everything to the board including the HDD that has Windows on it, that was used with the first board you had. Is all this correct?

        Plus you don't know what the original mother board model was.

        I'm sorry, but you have not explained your situation very well at all. Hopefully I have explained what the situation is, please correct me if it is wrong.

        There is a fairly easy way of checking the currency of the drivers and BIOS, but there is more to it than that.

        I'm reluctant to continue when I still don't know what the history and current state of that PC is.

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        • #5
          Re: Motherboard Updates

          My apologies. I am new to delving into the inner secrets of a computer, so please forgive me if I did not fully explain what has happened. Yes, you are correct in what you state.

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          • #6
            Re: Motherboard Updates

            Originally posted by dgb27 View Post
            My apologies. I am new to delving into the inner secrets of a computer, so please forgive me if I did not fully explain what has happened. Yes, you are correct in what you state.
            Parsec is trying to protect you from making (more) mistakes. Changing the motherboard (MB) without understanding differences in chipset between them can lead to many driver conflicts. In most cases a fresh install of the OS is recommended for optimum performance and to avoid future issues.

            Assuming you are using windows, go to device manager and check how many items have a yellow highlighted ! - that tells you if you have many driver conflicts. If you ran the driver installation disk that came with the MB you may have got lucky in the same generation chipset applied to both MB.

            This MB last had its BIOS updated in July 2014 and you have the latest version i.e. 1.30

            Depending on your OS version, Windows can be quite clever about updating drivers, but its a risk an inexperienced builder should try to avoid.

            -Is the PC running? I think it is.
            -See you are using W7.
            -Did you run the driver installation disk and if so on automatic or just a few device drivers?
            -How many and which devices show !
            Last edited by Britgeezer; 01-03-2015, 10:28 AM.

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            • #7
              Re: Motherboard Updates

              Thank you for your response. When I lodged the original query I thought it would be appropriate to keep it brief. Obviously I was mistaken. The swapping of motherboards came about because one day my computer was working fine and the next day when I was using the computer it suddenly locked up. I could not free it up or even turn it off. I had to resort to turning it off at the power point. When I tried to turn the PC on a few minutes later it would try to boot up but would not. I contacted the supplier and explained the situation. He initially thought the problem was a faulty PSU and sent me one in the mail. I installed it, but that did not solve the problem. He then sent me a Gigabyte MB, that didn't solve the problem. He sent me the ASRock MB, that didn't solve the problem. He then said it might be the RAM and sent me a new 8MB stick. That did solve the problem.

              My PC has been running fine since, but seems a bit slower than it was before all this drama. Hence the question about updating drivers/BIOS. I have checked Device Manager and there are no items highlighted. I have W7 64 bit installed and it is running OK. I used the MB installation disc and was instructed to use the Install All option, which I did.

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              • #8
                Re: Motherboard Updates

                Originally posted by dgb27 View Post
                Thank you for your response. When I lodged the original query I thought it would be appropriate to keep it brief. Obviously I was mistaken. The swapping of motherboards came about because one day my computer was working fine and the next day when I was using the computer it suddenly locked up. I could not free it up or even turn it off. I had to resort to turning it off at the power point. When I tried to turn the PC on a few minutes later it would try to boot up but would not. I contacted the supplier and explained the situation. He initially thought the problem was a faulty PSU and sent me one in the mail. I installed it, but that did not solve the problem. He then sent me a Gigabyte MB, that didn't solve the problem. He sent me the ASRock MB, that didn't solve the problem. He then said it might be the RAM and sent me a new 8MB stick. That did solve the problem.

                My PC has been running fine since, but seems a bit slower than it was before all this drama. Hence the question about updating drivers/BIOS. I have checked Device Manager and there are no items highlighted. I have W7 64 bit installed and it is running OK. I used the MB installation disc and was instructed to use the Install All option, which I did.
                Britgeezer is right about everything, more information is usually better, and we also need to know your experience level.

                That was good advice, using the driver disk, since the new board probably had a few different things compared to the old board (network chip, audio chip), so needed drivers, or replaced any automatically installed by Windows.

                You can check drivers and software several ways, one by opening Programs and Features from Control Panel. You'll see the drivers that were manually installed by you, and/or by Windows automatically. The version numbers on the far right of this display are what you would compare to determine if newer versions were available.

                Newer versions would be listed on ASRock's site for your board, or directly from the manufacture (Intel for example), but you need to know what you are looking for.

                You can also (tediously) go through Device Manager to find driver versions, but I don't suggest that for the inexperienced. You need to know what you are dealing with, hardware-wise, and whether or not a Microsoft driver should be replaced, or if an alternative is even available.

                For example, your board, a B95M-DGS, should have a B95 Intel chipset, given the naming convention used for mother boards. But there is no such thing as a B95 Intel chipset. Your board does have a B85 Intel chipset, according to the specs:

                ASRock > B95M-DGS

                This board seems to not be sold in the USA market, or is just used by OEM PC manufactures, as I can't find it at any retailers in the USA.

                Frankly, I doubt driver updates will fix the PC from running slower, although sorry to say, that is a rather vague statement. Any chance you can describe this slowness better? What circumstances or symptoms? Fixing issues like that can be on the technical side of things, so may take some work.

                But I want to deal with the retailer you got that PC from, I can tell them I have some problems and they send me new parts, PSUs and mother boards... quite generous.

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                • #9
                  Re: Motherboard Updates

                  Generally programs seem to open a bit slower than they use to. Specifically I have noticed Firefox, and within that, Gmail and eBay. Also WPS Writer. I appreciate all the responses, but we seem to be getting away from my initial questions, is it advisable to check for updates and if so, how do I do that?

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                  • #10
                    Re: Motherboard Updates

                    Originally posted by dgb27 View Post
                    I appreciate all the responses, but we seem to be getting away from my initial questions, is it advisable to check for updates and if so, how do I do that?
                    Neither parsec or I think updating drivers will have much impact - however....

                    Follow the link that parsec provided, for your MB. Go to downloads and look at the available device drivers these are the latest versions available from ASrock. Since we know that you have the latest BIOS look for W7 drivers later than the V1.30 date, these could be applied if applicable to your system. Looking at the dates of the drivers it doesn't seem many changes are being made so taking a look once every 6 months should be fine. I would be sure that the LAN driver is current based on your comment above.

                    As for "seems slower" this could be from multiple causes, including "install all" from the CD since there are a bunch of utilities included most of which you don't need but are TSR and can take up memory. You can check what programs are running in the background (msconfig) and stop them, ultimately uninstall those which you don't need.

                    Also you mention sent you a new memory stick, with 8GB of memory hopefully that is 2x4GB and you were sent an identical memory stick or 2 the same, otherwise your memory timing in BIOS may be out, and that would surely slow down your PC.

                    So once you have checked for unneeded programs, its time to deal with potential SW / driver clutter from the exchanging of the MB's. I'm a little reluctant to go there since you mention you don't have a lot of experience, but the free SW CCleaner is pretty safe as long as you make backups (you will get prompted) and clean a little junk at a time.

                    Good luck with your adventure.
                    Last edited by Britgeezer; 01-04-2015, 09:27 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Re: Motherboard Updates

                      Britgeezer, thanks for actually completing my partial description of identifying the currently installed drivers, which I did, and then compare that to what currently exists for driver versions, which you did, in order to discover what new driver versions exist.

                      Also, you reminded me of what I knew from the start, that the Windows 7 installation dgb27 has most likely has all the programs from the two other board's disks still installed.

                      dgb27, it is common for programs to automatically run themselves when a PC boots, but are run in the "background", which means their user interface is not running (you don't see the program running) but they are partially running and when you do "run" them yourself, they are available faster, you don't wait for them very long. But those programs running in the background still use some system resources, which can affect how all programs run.

                      Now consider that you have programs for your previous Gigabyte board still installed and probably running in the background. Since they are designed to work with a different board than the ASRock board you have now, they cannot possibly work correctly and are of no use to you anymore. Those programs may keep trying to work with the board they were designed to work with, but fail to various degrees, causing errors and are using system resources for no good reason. Will that slow down a PC? Yes it does.

                      You need to go into the Windows Programs and Features option in Control Panel, and see what programs are installed. Anything that has Gigabyte in its name or description is worthless with your ASRock board. Those programs should be uninstalled, and then restart the PC to be sure that they are no longer running.

                      Actually you should be careful doing that, just in case. If you could post a screen shot of what you have in Programs and Features, we could determine what should be removed.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Motherboard Updates

                        Parsec, thanks for your response. I cannot get the upload images function to work. I tried dragging and dropping, which did work, but when I clicked on the "submit reply" button, it did not send my message with the images inserted. I have carefully looked through the Windows list of programs and cannot see anything that relates to the original or Gigabyte MB.
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                        • #13
                          Re: Motherboard Updates

                          Parsec, I tried again to upload the screenshots. I managed to get the second one, but not the others. I hope it displays OK. I will keep trying to up load the others.
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                          • #14
                            Re: Motherboard Updates

                            Hopefully No. 3 attached.
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                            • #15
                              Re: Motherboard Updates

                              No. 4 attached.
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