ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 User Manual

Copyright Notice:

No part of this installation guide 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 guide may or may not be registered
trademarks or copyrights of their respective companies, and are used only for identifi ca-
tion or explanation and to the owners’ benefi t, without intent to infringe.

Disclaimer:

Specifi cations and information contained in this guide are furnished for informational use
only and subject to change without notice, and should not be constructed as a commit­ment by ASRock. ASRock assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions that may
appear in this guide.
With respect to the contents of this guide, ASRock does not provide warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties or condi­tions of merchantability or fi tness for a particular purpose. In no event shall ASRock, its
directors, offi cers, employees, or agents be liable for any indirect, special, incidental, or
consequential damages (including damages for loss of profi ts, loss of business, loss of
data, interruption of business and the like), even if ASRock has been advised of the pos­sibility of such damages arising from any defect or error in the guide or product.

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions:
(1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and
(2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that

may cause undesired operation.

CALIFORNIA, USA ONLY

The Lithium battery adopted on this motherboard contains Perchlorate, a toxic substance
controlled in Perchlorate Best Management Practices (BMP) regulations passed by the
California Legislature. When you discard the Lithium battery in California, USA, please
follow the related regulations in advance.
“Perchlorate Material-special handling may apply, see
www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/perchlorate”

ASRock Website: http://www.asrock.com

Published November 2012

Copyright©2012 ASRock INC. All rights reserved.

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

English

1

Motherboard Layout

1

2

CI1

22

1

Keyboard

PS2

VGA1

Mouse

PS2

CPU_FAN1

ATX12V1

3

ATXPWR1

5

4

6

DDR3

SOCKET FM2

1

SPEAKER1

FSB800

DDR3_A1 (64bit, 240-pin module)

Fast RAM

X

PANEL1

PLED PWRBTN

1

HDLED RESET

DDR3_B1 (64bit, 240-pin module)

64Mb
BIOS

7

SATA_4

8

SATA_3

SATA_2

9

SATA_1

10

11

12

13

USB 2.0
T:USB0
B: USB1

RJ-45 LAN

USB 2.0
T: U SB 2
B: USB3

LAN

X

Fast LAN

CHA_FAN1

Top:

LINE IN

Bottom:

MIC IN

Center:

FRONT

21

20

19

18

1

HD_AUDIO1

CMOS

BATTERY

AUDIO
CODEC

1

CLRCMOS1

1

1

USB4_5

USB6_7

X

Fast USB

FM2A55M-VG3

PCIE1

Super

I/O

PCI1

RoHS

AMD

A55 FCH

(Hudson-D2)

Chipset

English

17

16

15

14

1 ATX 12V Power Connector (ATX12V1) 12 Southbridge Controller
2 CPU Fan Connector (CPU_FAN1) 13 SPI Flash Memory (64Mb)
3 ATX Power Connector (ATXPWR1) 14 System Panel Header (PANEL1)
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 USB 2.0 Header (USB4_5)
(Dual Channel: DDR3_A1, DDR3_B1) 18 USB 2.0 Header (USB6_7)
7 SATA2 Connector (SATA_4) 19 Clear CMOS Jumper (CLRCMOS1)
8 SATA2 Connector (SATA_3) 20 Front Panel Audio Header (HD_AUDIO1)
9 SATA2 Connector (SATA_2) 21 Chassis Fan Connector (CHA_FAN1)
10 SATA2 Connector (SATA_1) 22 Chassis Intrusion Header (CI1)
11 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Slot (PCIE1)

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

I/O Panel

1

2

3

4

5

9

1 PS/2 Mouse Port (Green) 6 USB 2.0 Ports (USB23)
* 2 LAN RJ-45 Port 7 USB 2.0 Ports (USB01)
3 Line In (Light Blue) 8 D-Sub Port (VGA1)
** 4 Front Speaker (Lime) 9 PS/2 Keyboard Port (Purple)
5 Microphone (Pink)

* There are two LED next to the LAN port. Please refer to the table below for the LAN port LED
indications.

Activity/Link LED SPEED LED

Status Description Status Description

8

LAN Port LED Indications

7

Off No Link Off 10Mbps connection
Blinking Data Activity Orange 100Mbps connection
On Link Green 1Gbps connection

6

ACT/LINK
LED

SPEED
LED

LAN Port

** To enable Multi-Streaming function, you need to connect a front panel audio cable to the front
panel audio header. Please refer to below steps for the software setting of Multi-Streaming.
After restarting your computer, please double-click “Realtek HD Audio Manager” on the
system tray. Set “Speaker Confi guration” to “Quadraphonic” or “Stereo”. Click “Device
advanced settings”, choose “Make front and rear output devices playbacks two different audio
streams simultaneously”, and click “ok”. Then reboot your system.

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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3

1. Introduction

Thank you for purchasing ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 motherboard, a reliable moth­erboard produced under ASRock’s consistently stringent quality control. It delivers
excellent performance with robust design conforming to ASRock’s commitment to
quality and endurance.
This Quick Installation Guide contains introduction of the motherboard and step-by­step installation guide. More detailed information of the motherboard can be found
in the user manual presented in the Support CD.

Because the motherboard specifi cations and the BIOS software might be
updated, the content of this manual will be subject to change without no­tice. In case any modifi cations of this manual occur, the updated version
will be available on ASRock website without further notice. You may fi nd
the latest VGA cards and CPU support lists on ASRock website as well.
ASRock website http://www.asrock.com
If you require technical support related to this motherboard, please visit
our website for specifi c information about the model you are using.
www.asrock.com/support/index.asp

1.1 Package Contents

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard (Micro ATX Form Factor)
ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Quick Installation Guide
ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Support CD
2 x Serial ATA (SATA) Data Cables (Optional)
1 x I/O Panel Shield

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ASRock Reminds You...

To get better performance in Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM /
VistaTM 64-bit, it is recommended to set the BIOS option in Storage Con­fi guration to AHCI mode. For the BIOS setup, please refer to the “User
Manual” in our support CD for details.

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

1.2 Specifi cations

Platform - Micro ATX Form Factor

- All Solid Capacitor design
CPU - Support for Socket FM2 100W processors

- Supports AMD’s Cool ‘n’ Quiet

- UMI-Link GEN2

Chipset - AMD A55 FCH (Hudson-D2)
Memory - Dual Channel DDR3 Memory Technology

- 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots

- Support DDR3 1866/1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered
memory (see CAUTION 1)

- Max. capacity of system memory: 32GB (see CAUTION 2)

- Supports Intel

®

Extreme Memory Profi le (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2

- Supports AMD Memory Profi le (AMP)
Expansion Slot - 1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (PCIE1 @ x16 mode)

- 1 x PCI slot

- Supports AMD Dual Graphics (see CAUTION 3)
Graphics - AMD Radeon HD 7000 graphics

- DirectX 11, Pixel Shader 5.0

- Max. shared memory 2GB

- Supports D-Sub with max. resolution up to 1920x1600 @
60Hz

- Supports AMD Steady Video
processing capability for automatic jutter reduction on home/
online video

Audio - 5.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC662 Audio Codec)
LAN - PCIE x1 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s

- Realtek RTL8111E

- Supports LAN Cable Detection

- Supports Energy Effi cient Ethernet 802.3az

- Supports PXE
Rear Panel I/O I/O Panel

- 1 x PS/2 Mouse Port

- 1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port

- 1 x VGA Port

- 4 x Ready-to-Use USB 2.0 Ports

- 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED
LED)

- HD Audio Jack: Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone

TM

Technology

TM

2.0: New video post

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

5

Connector - 4 x SATA2 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 ATX power connector

- 4 pin 12V power connector

- Front panel audio connector

- 2 x USB 2.0 headers (support 4 USB 2.0 ports)
BIOS Feature - 64Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support

- Supports “Plug and Play”

- ACPI 1.1 Compliance Wake Up Events

- Supports jumperfree

- SMBIOS 2.3.1 Support

- DRAM, SB Voltage Multi-adjustment
Support CD - Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version),
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6.5 Trial, Google Chrome
Browser and Toolbar
Hardware - CPU Temperature Sensing
Monitor - Chassis Temperature Sensing

- CPU Fan Tachometer

- Chassis Fan Tachometer

- CPU/Chassis Quiet Fan

- CPU/Chassis Fan Multi-Speed Control

- CASE OPEN detection

- Voltage Monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, Vcore
OS - Microsoft
Vista

TM

64-bit compliant

®

Windows® 8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / Vista

TM

/

Certifi cations - FCC, CE, WHQL

- ErP/EuP Ready (ErP/EuP ready power supply is required)

* For detailed product information, please visit our website: http://www.asrock.com

English

WARNING

Please realize that there is a certain risk involved with overclocking,
including adjusting the setting in the BIOS, applying Untied Overclocking
Technology, or using third-party overclocking tools. Overclocking may
affect your system’s stability, or even cause damage to the components
and devices of your system. It should be done at your own risk and
expense. We are not responsible for possible damage caused by
overclocking.

6

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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 mem­ory support list on our website for the compatible memory mod­ules.

ASRock website http://www.asrock.com

2. Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size
may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage un­der Windows
bit CPU, there is no such limitation. You can use ASRock XFast

RAM to utilize the memory that Win

3. For the discrete GPUs which support Dual Graphics technology,
please refer to http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/
dual-graphics/Pages/dual-graphics.aspx#3 for details.

®

8 / 7 / VistaTM. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-

dows® cannot use.

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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1.3 Pin Header Easy Installation Guide

ASRock motherboard is equipped with pin headers with obvious colors which indi­cate you to recognize the crucial headers more easily. Please refer to below illustra­tions for the pin defi nition of onboard headers. If you want to have more information
about the usage of these headers, please refer to “Jumpers Setup“ and “Onboard
Headers and Connectors“ for details.

GND

PRESENCE#

MIC_RET

OUT_RET

1

OUT2_L

J_SENSE

OUT2_R

MIC2_R

MIC2_L

Front Panel Audio Header

English

PLED+

PLED-

PWRBTN#

GND

1

DUMMY

REST#

GND

HDLED-

HDLED+

System Panel Header

USB_PWR

P-

P+

GND

DUMMY

1

GND

P+

P-

USB_PWR

USB 2.0 Header

1

SPEAKER

DUMMY

DUMMY

+5V

Chassis Speaker Header

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

1.4 Jumpers Setup

The illustration shows how jumpers are
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
illustration shows a 3-pin jumper whose
pin1 and pin2 are “Short” when jumper cap
is placed on these 2 pins.

Jumper Setting Description

Clear CMOS Jumper

(CLRCMOS1)
(see p.2, No. 19)

Note: CLRCMOS1 allows you to clear the data in CMOS. To clear and reset the
system parameters to default setup, please turn off the computer and unplug

the power cord from the power supply. After waiting for 15 seconds, use a
jumper cap to short pin2 and pin3 on CLRCMOS1 for 5 seconds. However,
please do not clear the CMOS right after you update the BIOS. If you need
to clear the CMOS when you just fi nish updating the BIOS, you must boot
up the system fi rst, and then shut it down before you do the clear-CMOS ac-
tion. Please be noted that the password, date, time, user default profi le, 1394
GUID and MAC address will be cleared only if the CMOS battery is removed.

Clear CMOSDefault

If you clear the CMOS, the case open may be detected. Please adjust

the BIOS option “Clear Status” to clear the record of previous chassis
intrusion status.

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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9

1.5 Onboard Headers and Connectors

Onboard headers and connectors are NOT jumpers. 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!

Serial ATA2 Connectors These four Serial ATA2

(SATA_1: see p.2, No. 10)

(SATA_2: see p.2, No. 9)

(SATA_3: see p.2, No. 8)

(SATA_4: see p.2, No. 7)

3.0 Gb/s data transfer rate.

Serial ATA (SATA) Either end of the SATA data
Data Cable cable can be connected to the

(Optional)

SATA2 hard disk or the SATA2

connector on this motherboard.

(SATA2) connectors support

SATA_4

SATA data cables for internal
storage devices. The current
SATA2 interface allows up to

SATA_3

SATA_2

SATA_1

English

USB 2.0 Headers Besides four default USB 2.0

(9-pin USB4_5)

(see p.2 No. 17)

ports on the I/O panel, there

are two USB 2.0 headers on
this motherboard. Each USB 2.0
header can support two USB

2.0 ports.

(9-pin USB6_7)
(see p.2 No. 18)

1

USB_PWR

P-7

P-6

USB_PWR

P+7

GND

DUMMY

GND

P+6

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

Front Panel Audio Header This is an interface for the front

(9-pin HD_AUDIO1)

(see p.2 No. 20)

panel audio cable that allows

convenient connection and

control of audio devices.

1

GND

PRESENCE#

MIC2_R

MIC2_L

MIC_RET

J_SENSE

OUT2_R

OUT_RET

OUT2_L

1. High Defi nition Audio supports Jack Sensing, but the panel wire on
the chassis must support HDA to function correctly. Please follow the
instruction in our manual and chassis manual to install your system.

2. If you use AC’97 audio panel, please install it to the front panel audio
header as below:

A. Connect Mic_IN (MIC) to MIC2_L.
B. Connect Audio_R (RIN) to OUT2_R and Audio_L (LIN) to OUT2_L.
C. Connect Ground (GND) to Ground (GND).
D. MIC_RET and OUT_RET are for HD audio panel only. You don’t

need to connect them for AC’97 audio panel.

E. To activate the front mic.
For Windows

®

8 / 8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / VistaTM 64-bit OS:

Go to the “FrontMic” Tab in the Realtek Control panel. Adjust

“Recording Volume”.

System Panel Header This header accommodates

(9-pin PANEL1)

(see p.2 No. 14)

several system front panel

functions.

Connect the power switch, reset switch and system status indicator
on the chassis to this header according to the pin assignments below.
Note the positive and negative pins before connecting the cables.

PWRBTN (Power Switch):

Connect to the power switch on the chassis front panel. You may con­fi gure the way to turn off your system using the power switch.

RESET (Reset Switch):

Connect to the reset switch on the chassis front panel. Press the reset
switch to restart the computer if the computer freezes and fails to per­form a normal restart.

PLED (System Power LED):

Connect to the power status indicator on the chassis front panel. The
LED is on when the system is operating. The LED keeps blinking
when the sys-tem is in S1 sleep state. The LED is off when the system
is in S3/S4 sleep state or powered off (S5).

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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11

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 front panel design may differ by chassis. A front panel module
mainly consists of power switch, reset switch, power LED, hard drive
activity LED, speaker and etc. When connecting your chassis front
panel module to this header, make sure the wire assignments and the
pin assign-ments are matched correctly.

Chassis Speaker Header Please connect the chassis

(4-pin SPEAKER 1)

(see p.2 No. 15)

speaker to this header.

English

Chassis Fan Connector Please connect the fan cable

(4-pin CHA_FAN1)

(see p.2 No. 21)

to the fan connector and

match the black wire to the

FAN_SPEED_CONTROL

CHA_FAN_SPEED

+12V

GND

ground pin.

CPU Fan Connector Please connect the CPU fan

(4-pin CPU_FAN1)

(see p.2 No. 2)

cable to the connector and

match the black wire to the

ground pin.

Though this motherboard provides 4-Pin CPU fan (Quiet Fan) support, the 3-Pin

CPU fan still can work successfully even without the fan speed control function.
If you plan to connect the 3-Pin CPU fan to the CPU fan connector on this
motherboard, please connect it to Pin 1-3.

FAN_SPEED_CONTROL

CPU_FAN_SPEED

+12V

GND

1 2 3 4

Pin 1-3 Connected

3-Pin Fan Installation

12

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

ATX Power Connector Please connect an ATX power

(24-pin ATXPWR1)

(see p.2 No. 3)

supply to this connector.

24 13

12 1

Though this motherboard provides 24-pin ATX power connector, it can still work if

you adopt a traditional 20-pin ATX power supply. To use the 20-pin ATX power

supply, please plug your power supply along with Pin 1 and Pin 13.

24 13

20-Pin ATX Power Supply Installation

12 1

ATX 12V Power Connector Please connect an ATX 12V

(4-pin ATX12V1)

(see p.2 No. 1)

power supply to this connector.

Chassis Intrusion Header This motherboard supports

(2-pin CI1)

CASE OPEN detection feature

(see p.2, No. 22)

that detects if the chassis cover

1

Signal

GND

has been removed. This feature
requires a chassis with chassis
intrusion detection design.

ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard

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13

2. BIOS Information

The Flash Memory on the motherboard stores BIOS Setup Utility. When you start up
the computer, please press <F2> or <Del> during the Power-On-Self-Test (POST)
to enter BIOS Setup utility; otherwise, POST continues with its test routines. If you
wish to enter BIOS Setup after POST, please restart the system by pressing <Ctl>
+ <Alt> + <Delete>, or pressing the reset button on the system chassis. The BIOS
Setup program is designed to be user-friendly. It is a menu-driven program, which
allows you to scroll through its various sub-menus and to select among the prede­termined choices. For the detailed information about BIOS Setup, please refer to the
User Manual (PDF fi le) contained in the Support CD.

3. Software Support CD information

®

This motherboard supports various Microsoft
8 64-bit / 7 / 7 64-bit / VistaTM / Vista
motherboard contains necessary drivers and useful utilities that will enhance moth­erboard features. To begin using the Support CD, insert the CD into your CD-ROM
drive. It will display the Main Menu automatically if “AUTORUN” is enabled in your
computer. If the Main Menu does not appear automatically, locate and double-click
on the fi le “ASSETUP.EXE” from the BIN folder in the Support CD to display the
menus.

TM

Windows® operating systems: 8 /

64-bit. The Support CD that came with the

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ASRock FM2A55M-VG3 Motherboard