ASROCK G31M-S Motherboard

[Loman]

I'm sure there is a big problem with the Asrock G31M-S motherboard.
i've bought two of them and both are very unstable.
i've bought it to replace an old foxconn mb and i've double checked. All hardware are said to be compatible with that motherboard.
So, this is just a warning to those about to get a new board. rather pay R 15 more and get foxconn.

It would randomly restart, sometimes takes anywhere from 15s to 2min before it posts. at startup there is a 20% chance that the safe boot or some such error states that it has failed to boot to the os several times and i have to restart it again.

Now it might be some fluke that i'm stuck with two useless boards, but i'm not going to buy another just to find out i was right.

just some info, use it, don't use it. Just don't hit me over the head with it.

[SilverNodashi]

Are you sure it's the motherboard, and not perhaps a CPU / CPU cooler / power supply issue? This sounds more like an overheating problem - which could be caused due to insufficient power, of poor cooler mountings.

[Loman]

Definitely not overheating, Bios reports it as 34C used temp mon to confirm.

460W PSU
E7300 CPU
9500GT GPU
500GB HDD
4GB Ram

It all worked fine with my one year old Foxconn 45CM-S board.

I'm going to swop it back soon.

The first one i bought about three months ago for a buddy of mine. He absolutely adores Asrock (no idea why) Shortly after i've installed all the programmes as well as his 20 games, it started to reboot for no apparent reason, i would switch it on, look at the pretty background, go make myself a cup of coffee and come back only to find that it somehow managed to throw itself into a terribly constant chain of BSOD - Reboot. Naturally it didn't do XP a world of good and i had to reinstall the whole bloody thing. Then after the second time it did this i made a image of the HDD just incase it does it again. I finally found out the instantboot was to blame but even without it it would still do it every now and again. Then there is also the loooong POST time.

Do you know what i find extremely funny? perhaps i should rather post this in the jokes thread.
On the box it says "Designed for windows XP, Certified for Windows Vista"

Kinda like saying this product was made especially to be used with Windows XP, but if you have no other choice short of suicide then you can try Vista.
I dunno, maybe thats just the way it sounds to me.

[Dave A]

On the box it says "Designed for windows XP, Certified for Windows Vista"

Wasn't that what all the hullabaloo was about in the early days of Vista? Hardware that was "Vista ready", but actually wasn't?

[Loman]

I'm still running XP, and will continue to do so until i get Win 7 at a decent price.
NOT willing to pay R 2500 for a OS that SUCK. Nor will i pay that much even if Win 7 is better.

Perhaps i'd be better off if I convert to Linux

[SilverNodashi]

Did you find it difficult to switch to XP from ME? No offence, but you'll probably hate Linux more than anything else. But, it's free and well worth a try.

Windows 7 has been running on my laptop for about 3 months now, and is rock solid & quick. Quicker than my Windows XP machine. But it doesn't compare to Linux. It never will. Linux is much different and you can't compare an apple with an orange.

by the way, Windows doesn't cost R2500

[tec0]

Have a look at your memory. Sometimes these boards don’t like particular memory types like Samsung; I am not saying that IS your memory but it is worth testing with a Kingston rather than any other brand. Just have a look at it if don’t have anything better to do.

[Loman]

I'm incredibly sorry for taking such a long time to respond. Its been hectic couple of weeks.

Did you find it difficult to switch to XP from ME? No offence, but you'll probably hate Linux more than anything else. But, it's free and well worth a try.

Windows 7 has been running on my laptop for about 3 months now, and is rock solid & quick. Quicker than my Windows XP machine. But it doesn't compare to Linux. It never will. Linux is much different and you can't compare an apple with an orange.

by the way, Windows doesn't cost R2500

I must say that i have been very fortunate to skip the whole ME extravaganza since i went from 98 to XP.
I've got a old price list of Sahara where vista (just when it came available) was R 1900. Which brings it to R 2166. And its still too much for that piece of %$@& in my opinion.

Tried switching to linux twice. didn't last a week.
i guess i should stop bitching and pay for Win7.

Have a look at your memory. Sometimes these boards don’t like particular memory types like Samsung; I am not saying that IS your memory but it is worth testing with a Kingston rather than any other brand. Just have a look at it if don’t have anything better to do.

First board had a 2GB Hynix 800mhz module in the and the second one i'm still using is 2 x Apacer 2GB 800mhz.

Don't have kingston lying around to test with.

But before i spend another R 350 on mem, i'd rather add a hundred or so and buy a Foxconn MB.

[twinscythe12332]

Tried switching to linux twice. didn't last a week.
i guess i should stop bitching and pay for Win7.

This is so frequently the case, there should be an option on a survey with that.

"why did you choose windows 7?"
a) friend suggested it
b) Windows nutter
c)Tried switching to linux. failed. was my last resort.

[Loman]

This is so frequently the case, there should be an option on a survey with that.

"why did you choose windows 7?"
a) friend suggested it
b) Windows nutter
c)Tried switching to linux. failed. was my last resort.

On the contrary:

I don't have win 7 and it is not my final choice, just an option.
Although many suggested it i'm not going to buy it because they like it.
a buddy of mine is downloading the 30 day evaluation version off the internet.
the reason he's doing it and not myself is that Bloemfontein has faster and cheaper internet than the karoo.

Windows 7 is very far from my last resort (i still have XP, and i'm happy with it)

All the potential is here to let this thread mutate into a:

Linux, XP, Vista, Win 7 War.

That's not what i want and not something i particularly care about. I have XP, i'm happy with it, don't have nor will i spend over R 2000 on an OS that i don't need.

This thread has slightly wandered. It was about the dangers of the Asrock G31 motherboard. I wanted to warn you, you're warned.

I appreciate the help offered to get the MB operating correctly but frankly, i'm not bothered with it anymore. i'll give it to some kids to go nuts with.