ConRoe865GV Report

[kingofthespill]

I recently bought 3 of these motherboards on ebay, intending to build up a very quiet, relatively low-power 98SE/XP system with backup parts to last a long time. I call it a redundant array of inexpensive motherboards. They were listed as refurbished and came with a 6 month warranty. They seem to be ok after fiddling with various things which are listed below.

The #1 problem is that the BIOS chip has a version number on the label that does not match the actual BIOS version number. In order to run CPUs like my Celeron 450 the system must first be brought up using an older P4/Celeron (which are listed on their website), and then have a BIOS update via floppy.

The board uses a limited AGP variant called AGI (8x/4x 1.5v). I recommend setting the BIOSs' initial graphics option for AGI, PCI, or internal graphics accordingly before getting started on an OS. The integrated graphics work fine, and so does a GeForce2 MX 400 64MB which is only a little bit faster than internal graphics.

Two different DDR400 sticks came up as DDR333, but it was easily set to the correct value. I am using 2.5-3-3-8 RAM and BIOS has it as Auto-4-4-8 by default, so more things to correct.

I do not have any experience with the 775 socket, but I have read that the pins can easily be bent. Under a bright light it was evident that the socket had some slightly irregular pins, but I was careful installing the CPU + HS in testing all the motherboards. The slot has a little bit of play after the CPU is put in, but it did not seem to matter.

The parallel port on two of them had some rust spots, like it was sitting outside for awhile before being soldered on the motherboard.

The #2 problem was microphone recording using the integrated sound card. I always use Dragon Dictate to replace keyboard and mouse input, and 98SE is the last supported Windows version. Unfortunately 1 out of 4 times Dragon Dictate is run it crashes, although delaying running it using (r2 Studios\Startup Delayer) mates it much more reliable.

The output of integrated sound card is good but occasionally has gaps, like when inserting a USB memory stick.

NUSB got the USB ports working, after the Asrock version failed that is. Although there is no obvious USB-boot support, if you leave a bootable memory stick in and reboot it can change the drive enumeration order, putting the memory stick as D:.

I could not find a serial number, normally on label on parallel port or the box that the motherboard came in. The serial number is a required input field for ASRock support web page. If something was seriously wrong in the first 6 months the seller (eBay "ClaimThis") will swap it for another though.