DFI nF4 Ultra-DAGF, nF4-DAGF User Manual

84900502

nF4 Ultra-DAGF

nF4-DAGF

System Board User’s Manual

This publication contains information that is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced in any form or by any means or used to make any transformation/adaptation without the prior written permission from the copyright holders.

This publication is provided for informational purposes only. The manufacturer makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this manual and specifically disclaims any express or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. The user will assume the entire risk of the use or the results of the use of this document. Further, the manufacturer reserves the right to revise this publication and make changes to its contents at any time, without obligation to notify any person or entity of such revisions or changes.

Trademarks

Product names or trademarks appearing in this manual are for identification purpose only and are the properties of the respective owners.

Caution

To avoid damage to the system:

• Use the correct AC input voltage range

To reduce the risk of electric shock:

• Unplug the power cord before removing the system chassis cover for installation or servicing. After installation or servicing, cover the system chassis before plugging the power cord.

Battery:

• Danger of explosion if battery incorrectly replaced.

• Replace only with the same or equivalent type recommend

the manufacturer.

• Dispose of used batteries according to the battery manufacturer’s

instructions.

FCC and DOC Statement on Class B

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help.

Notice:

1. The changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user's authority to operate the equipment.

2. Shielded interface cables must be used in order to comply with the emission limits.

About this Manual

This user’s manual contains detailed information about the system board. If, in some cases, some information doesn’t match those shown in the multilingual manual, the multilingual manual should always be regarded as the most updated version. The multilingual manual is included in the system board package.

To view the user’s manual, inser t the CD into a CD-ROM drive. The autorun screen (Mainboard Utility CD) will appear. Click the “TOOLS” icon then click “Manual” on the main menu.

About the Package

The system board and accessories in the package may not come similar to the information stated in this manual. This may differ in accordance to the sales region or models in which it was sold. For more information about the standard package in your region, please contact your dealer or sales representative.

Warranty

1. Warranty does not cover damages or failures that arised from misuse of the product, inability to use the product, unauthorized replacement or alteration of components and product specifications.

2. The warranty is void if the product has been subjected to physical abuse, improper installation, modification, accidents or unauthorized repair of the product.

3. Unless otherwise instructed in this user’s manual, the user may not, under any circumstances, attempt to perform service, adjustments or repairs on the product, whether in or out of warranty. It must be returned to the purchase point, factory or authorized service agency for all such work.

4. We will not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental or consequencial damages to the product that has been modified or altered.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Specifications...................................................................................................................................

Special Features of the System Board..................................................................

Package Checklist......................................................................................................................

Chapter 2 - Hardware Installation

System Board Layout ..........................................................................................................

System Memory..........................................................................................................................

CPU.......................................................................................................................................................

Jumper Settings............................................................................................................................

Rear Panel I/O Ports.............................................................................................................

I/O Connectors..........................................................................................................................

Chapter 3 - BIOS Setup

Award BIOS Setup Utility.................................................................................................

NVRAID BIOS............................................................................................................................

Updating the BIOS..................................................................................................................

Chapter 4 - Supported Softwares

Drivers, Utilities and Software Applications......................................................

Installation Notes.......................................................................................................................

7 10 15

16 17 20 26 30 41

55 98 99

101 113

Introduction

Appendix A - System Error Messages

POST Beep.................................................................................................................................

Error Messages.........................................................................................................................

Appendix B - Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting Checklist...............................................................................................

114 114

116

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Specifications

Processor

• AMD AthlonTM 64 FX / AthlonTM 64 / Sempron

• Socket 939

Front Side Bus

• 2000MT/s HyperTransport interface

Chipset

• NVIDIA nForce4

Ultra (nF4 Ultra-DAGF)

NVIDIA nForce4TM (nF4-DAGF)

System Memory

• Four 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets

• Supports dual channel (128-bit wide) memory interface

• Supports up to 4GB system memory

• Supports PC2100 (DDR266), PC2700 (DDR333) and PC3200 (DDR400) DDR SDRAM DIMM

• Supports x8/x16 ECC/non-ECC unbuffered DIMMs, up to 512Mb DDR devices

Expansion Slots

• 1 PCI Express x16 slot

• 2 PCI Express x1 slots

• 3 PCI slots

BIOS

• Award BIOS

• 4Mbit flash memory

Introduction

Energy Efficient Design

• Supports ACPI specification and OS Directed Power Management

• Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function

• Wake-On-Events include:

- Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse

- Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse

- Wake-On-LAN

- Wake-On-Ring

- RTC timer to power-on the system

• AC power failure recovery

Hardware Monitor

• Monitors CPU/system temperature

• Monitors VCC3/12V/3.3V/5VSB/Vbat voltages

• Monitors the speed of the cooling fans

• CPU Overheat Protection function monitors CPU temperature during system boot-up

Onboard Audio Features

• 6-channel audio CODEC

• True stereo line level outputs

• S/PDIF-in/out interface

Onboard LAN Features

• Vitesse VSC8201 Gigabit Phy

• Fully compliant to IEEE 802.3 (10BASE-T), 802.3u (100BASE-TX) and 802.3ab (1000BASE-T) standards

• Integrated power management functions

• Supports IEEE 802.3u auto-negotiation

• Supports wire for management

IDE Interface with NVIDIA RAID

• Supports two IDE connectors that allows connecting up to four UltraDMA 133Mbps hard drives

• NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA

• RAID 0 and RAID 1

Introduction

Serial ATA Interface with NVIDIA RAID

• Supports four Serial ATA ports

• SATA speed up to 3Gb/s (nF4 Ultra-DAGF) SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s (nF4-DAGF)

• NVIDIA RAID allows RAID arrays spanning across Serial ATA and Parallel ATA

• RAID 0 and RAID 1

IEEE 1394 Interface

• VIA VT6307

• Supports two 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports

Rear Panel I/O Ports

• 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port

• 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port

• 2 S/PDIF RCA jacks (S/PDIF-in and S/PDIF-out)

• 1 parallel port

• 1 serial port

• 1 IEEE 1394 port

• 1 RJ45 LAN port

• 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports

• Line-in, line-out and mic-in jacks

I/O Connectors

• 3 connectors for 6 additional external USB 2.0/1.1 por ts

• 1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port

• 1 front audio connector for external line-out and mic-in jacks

• 1 CD-in internal audio connector

• 1 S/PDIF connector for optical cable connection

• 1 IrDA connector

• 4 Serial ATA connectors

• 2 IDE connectors

• 1 floppy connector

• 1 24-pin ATX power connector

• 1 4-pin ATX 12V power connector

• 1 front panel connector

• 3 fan connectors

Introduction

PCB

• ATX form factor

• 22cm (8.66") x 30.5cm (12")

Special Features of the System Board

AMD Athlon

The system board supports the AMD Athlon

64 processor. AMD

Athlon

64 provides superior computing for many software applications by allowing both 32-bit and 64-bit applications to run simultaneously on the same platform. The operating system and software are able to process more data and access a tremendous amount of memory which improves the overall system performance.

2T timing which provides better system stability is supported in CG or later revisions of the AMD Athlon

64 processor. You can select the memory timing in the Genie BIOS Setting submenu (“DRAM Configuration” section) of the BIOS.

AMD Cool‘n’Quiet

Technology

The AMD Cool‘n’Quiet

technology allows the system to detect the CPU’s tasks and utilization status. When the CPU’s task slows down, the system effectively lowers power consumption by lowering its CPU speed and voltage, subsequently decreasing its noise level.

PCI Express

PCI Express is a high bandwidth I/O infrastructure that possesses the ability to scale speeds by forming multiple lanes. The system board currently supports the physical layer of x1 and x16 lane widths.

The x1 PCI Express lane supports transfer rate of 2.5 Gigabytes (250MBbps) per second.

Introduction

CPU Overheat Protection

CPU Overheat Protection has the capability of monitoring the CPU’s temperature during system boot up. Once the CPU’s temperature exceeded the temperature limit pre-defined by the CPU, the system will automatically shutdown. This preventive measure has been added to protect the CPU from damage and insure a safe computing environment.

DDR

Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) is a type of SDRAM that doubles the data rate through reading and writing at both the rising and falling edge of each clock. This effectively doubles the speed of operation therefore doubling the speed of data transfer.

6-channel Audio

The audio jacks at the rear panel will support 6-channel audio only when the audio utility is configured to support this function. The micin at the rear will be disabled. Use the front audio’s mic-in jack.

S/PDIF

S/PDIF is a standard audio file transfer format that transfers digital audio signals to a device without having to be converted first to an analog format. This prevents the quality of the audio signal from degrading whenever it is converted to analog. S/PDIF is usually found on digital audio equipment such as a DAT machine or audio processing device. The S/PDIF connector on the system board sends surround sound and 3D audio signal outputs to amplifiers and speakers and to digital recording devices like CD recorders.

Serial ATA Interface with NVIDIA RAID

Serial ATA is a storage interface that is compliant with SATA 1.0 specification. The nForce4 Ultra chipset supports 4 Serial ATA ports with speed of up to 3Gb/s which is twice as fast as the standard

1.5Gb/s speed supported by the nForce4 chipset. Serial ATA improves hard drive performance faster than the standard parallel ATA whose data transfer rate is 100MB/s. The system board supports NVIDIA RAID that allows RAID arrays spanning across 4 Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drives. It supports RAID 0 and RAID 1.

Introduction

IEEE 1394 Interface

IEEE 1394 is fully compliant with the 1394 OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) 1.1 specification. It supports up to 63 devices that can run simultaneously on a system. 1394 is a fast external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps. In addition to its high speed, it also supports isochronous data transfer which is ideal for video devices that need to transfer high levels of data in real-time. 1394 supports both Plug-and-Play and hot plugging.

IrDA Interface

The system board is equipped with an IrDA connector for wireless connectivity between your computer and peripheral devices. The IRDA (Infrared Data Association) specification supports data transfers of 115K baud at a distance of 1 meter.

USB Ports

The system board supports USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports. USB 1.1 supports 12Mb/second bandwidth while USB 2.0 supports 480Mb/ second bandwidth providing a marked improvement in device transfer speeds between your computer and a wide range of simultaneously accessible external Plug and Play peripherals.

Dual Function Power Button

Depending on the setting in the “Soft-Off By PBTN” field of the Power Management Setup, this switch will allow the system to enter the Soft-Off or Suspend mode.

Wake-On-Ring

This feature allows the system that is in the Suspend mode or Soft Power Off mode to wake-up/power-on to respond to calls coming from an external modem or respond to calls from a modem PCI card that uses the PCI PME (Power Management Event) signal to remotely wake up the PC.

Important:

If you are using a modem add-in card, the 5VSB power source of your power supply must support a minimum of ≥720mA.

Introduction

Wake-On-LAN

This feature allows the network to remotely wake up a Soft Power Down (Soft-Off) PC. It is supported via the onboard LAN por t or via a PCI LAN card that uses the PCI PME (Power Management Event) signal. However, if your system is in the Suspend mode, you can power-on the system only through an IRQ or DMA interrupt.

Important:

The 5VSB power source of your power supply must support

≥

720mA.

Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse

This function allows you to use the PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse to power-on the system.

Important:

The 5VSB power source of your power supply must support

≥

720mA.

Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse

This function allows you to use a USB keyboard or USB mouse to wake up a system from the S3 (STR - Suspend To RAM) state.

Important:

• If you are using the Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse function for 2 USB ports, the 5VSB power source of your power supply must support ≥1.5A.

• If you are using the Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse function for 3 or more USB ports, the 5VSB power source of your power supply must support ≥2A.

RTC Timer to Power-on the System

The RTC installed on the system board allows your system to automatically power-on on the set date and time.

Introduction

ACPI

The system board is designed to meet the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) specification. ACPI has energy saving features that enables PCs to implement Power Management and Plug-and-Play with operating systems that support OS Direct Power Management. Currently, only Windows

®®

2000/XP supports the ACPI function. ACPI when enabled in the Power Management Setup will allow you to use the Suspend to RAM function.

With the Suspend to RAM function enabled, you can power-off the system at once by pressing the power button or selecting “Standby” when you shut down Windows

®®

2000/XP without having to go through the sometimes tiresome process of closing files, applications and operating system. This is because the system is capable of storing all programs and data files during the entire operating session into RAM (Random Access Memory) when it powers-off. The operating session will resume exactly where you left off the next time you power-on the system.

Important:

The 5VSB power source of your power supply must support

≥

1A.

AC Power Failure Recovery

When power returns after an AC power failure, you may choose to either power-on the system manually, let the system power-on automatically or return to the state where you left off before power failure occurs.

Introduction

Package Checklist

; The system board ; A user’s manual ; One IDE cable ; One floppy cable ; Two Serial ATA data cables ; One “nVRAID Driver” diskette ; One I/O shield ; One “Mainboard Utility” CD

If any of these items are missing or damaged, please contact your dealer or sales representative for assistance.

Hardware Installation

System Board Layout

Chapter 2 - Hardware Installation

The illustration shown above is the nF4 Ultra-DAGF system board which uses the NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chip. nF4-DAGF uses the NVIDIA nForce4 chip.

Mouse

S/PDIF-

out

COM

IEEE 1394_1

USB 2 USB 1

LAN USB 4 USB 3

Line-in

Line-out

Mic-in

Front audio

CD-in

PS/2 power select (JP7)

USB 1-4 power select (JP5)

Socket 939

DDR 4

DDR 3

DDR 2

DDR 1

System fan

S/PDIF

+12V power

Audio

CODEC

1394_2

VITESSE

Gigabit Phy

VIA

VT6307

NVIDIA

nForce4 Ultra

PCIE3

PCIE2

PCIE1

PCI 1

PCI 2

PCI 3

ITE

IT8712

IrDA

BIOS

CPU fan

Chipset fan

ATX p ow er

FDD

IDE 21IDE 1

Clear CMOS (JP2)

USB 5-10 power select (JP6)

USB 5-6

USB 7-8

USB 9-10

Battery

SATA 4

SATA 3

Front panel

SATA 1

SATA 2

Parallel

DRAM

Power LED

Standby Power LED

Channel A:DDR 1 and DDR 3 Channel B: DDR 2 and DDR 4

Hardware Installation

System Memory

Warning:

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can damage your system board, processor, disk drives, add-in boards, and other components. Perform the upgrade instruction procedures described at an ESD workstation only. If such a station is not available, you can provide some ESD protection by wearing an antistatic wrist strap and attaching it to a metal part of the system chassis. If a wrist strap is unavailable, establish and maintain contact with the system chassis throughout any procedures requiring ESD protection.

The system board supports DDR SDRAM DIMM. Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) is a type of SDRAM that doubles the data rate through reading and writing at both the rising and falling edge of each clock. This effectively doubles the speed of operation therefore doubling the speed of data transfer.

Refer to chapter 1 (System Memory section) for detailed specification of the memory supported by the system board. The four DDR DIMM sockets on the system board are divided into 2 channels:

Channel A - DDR 1 and DDR 3 Channel B - DDR 2 and DDR 4

DDR 4 Channel B

DDR 3 Channel A DDR 2 Channel B DDR 1 Channel A

Hardware Installation

The system board supports the following memory interface.

Single Channel (SC)

Data will be accessed in chunks of 64 bits (8B) from the memory channels.

Dual Channel (DC)

Data will be accessed in chunks of 128 bits from the memory channels. Dual channel provides better system performance because it doubles the data transfer rate.

• DIMMs are on the same channel.

• DIMMs in a channel can be identical or

completely different. However, we highly recommend using identical DIMMs.

• Not all slots need to be populated.

• DIMMs of the same memory configura-

tion are on different channels.

Single Channel

Dual Channel

Memory Configurations

The table below shows the DIMM sockets that must be populated with DIMMs for single or dual channel interface. We strongly recommend that you strictly follow the memory configurations below. Installing DDR DIMMs other than the recommended configurations may cause system boot failure.

DDR 1

Dual Channel

Single Channel

DDR 2

DDR 3

DDR 4

Hardware Installation

Installing the DIM Module

A DIM module simply snaps into a DIMM socket on the system board. Pin 1 of the DIM module must correspond with Pin 1 of the socket.

1. Pull the “tabs” which are at the ends of the socket to the side.

2. Position the DIMM above the socket with the “notch” in the module aligned with the “key” on the socket.

3. Seat the module vertically into the socket. Make sure it is completely seated. The tabs will hold the DIMM in place.

Pin 1

Notch

Key

Tab

BIOS Setting

Configure the system memory in the Genie BIOS Setting submenu (“DRAM Configuration” section) of the BIOS.

Hardware Installation

CPU

Overview

The system board is equipped with a surface mount 939-pin CPU socket. This socket is exclusively designed for installing an AMD CPU.

Installing the CPU

1. Make sure the PC and all other peripheral devices connected to it has been powered down.

2. Disconnect all power cords and cables.

3. Locate the 939-pin CPU socket on the system board.

Hardware Installation

5. Position the CPU above the socket. The gold mark on the CPU must align with the corner of the CPU socket (refer to the enlarged view) shown below.

Important:

Handle the CPU by its edges and avoid touching the pins.

4. Unlock the socket by pushing the lever sideways, away from the socket, then lifting it up to a 90

angle. Make sure the lever is lifted

to at least this angle otherwise the CPU will not fit in properly.

Lever

Gold mark

Hardware Installation

6. Insert the CPU into the socket until it is seated in place. The CPU will fit in only one orientation and can easily be inserted without exerting any force.

Important:

Do not force the CPU into the socket. Forcing the CPU into the socket may bend the pins and damage the CPU.

7. Once the CPU is in place, push down the lever to lock the socket. The lever should click on the side tab to indicate that the CPU is completely secured in the socket.

Side tab

Hardware Installation

Retention module base

Installing the Fan and Heat Sink

The CPU must be kept cool by using a CPU fan with heat sink. Without sufficient air circulation across the CPU and heat sink, the CPU will overheat damaging both the CPU and system board.

Note:

• Use only certified fan and heat sink.

• The fan and heat sink package usually contains the fan and

heat sink assembly, and an installation guide. If the installation procedure in the installation guide differs from the one in this section, please follow the installation guide in the package.

1. Before you install the fan / heat sink, you must apply a thermal paste onto the top of the CPU. The thermal paste is usually supplied when you purchase the CPU or fan heat sink assembly. Do not spread the paste all over the surface. When you later place the heat sink on top of the CPU, the compound will disperse evenly.

Do not apply the paste if the fan / heat sink already has a patch of thermal paste on its underside. Peel the strip that covers the paste before you place the fan / heat sink on top of the CPU.

2. The system board comes with the retention module base already installed.

Hardware Installation

3. Place the heat sink on top of the CPU. Now hook one side of the retention clip onto the retention module base by fitting the holes on the retention clip into the retaining tabs of the retention module base.

Retention clip

Retention module base

Retaining tabs

Retaining

tabs

Side View

Top View

Retaining tab

Hardware Installation

4. Hook the other side of the retention clip (the one near the retention lever) so that the holes on the retention clip also fit into the retaining tabs of the retention module base.

Note:

You will not be able to secure the fan and heat sink assembly in place if it did not fit properly onto the retention module base.

Retention lever

6. Connect the CPU fan’s cable connector to the CPU fan connector on the system board.

5. Move the retention lever to its opposite side then push it down to lock the fan and heat sink assembly to the retention module base.

Note:

Make sure there is sufficient air circulation across the CPU fan and heat sink.

Hardware Installation

Jumper Settings

If you encounter the following,

a) CMOS data becomes corrupted. b) You forgot the supervisor or user password. c) You are unable to boot-up the computer system because the

processor’s ratio/clock was incorrectly set in the BIOS.

you can reconfigure the system with the default values stored in the ROM BIOS.

To load the default values stored in the ROM BIOS, please follow the steps below.

1. Power-off the system.

2. Set JP2 pins 2 and 3 to On. Wait for a few seconds and set JP2 back to its default setting, pins 1 and 2 On.

3. Now power-on the system.

If your reason for clearing the CMOS data is due to incorrect setting of the processor’s ratio/clock in the BIOS, please proceed to step 4.

2-3 On:

Clear CMOS Data

1-2 On: Normal

(default)

JP2

Clear CMOS Data

312312

Hardware Installation

4. After powering-on the system, press <Del> to enter the main menu of the BIOS.

5. Select the Genie BIOS Setting submenu and press <Enter>.

6. Set the processor’s clock/ratio to its default setting or an appropriate bus clock or ratio. Refer to the Genie BIOS Setting section in chapter 3 for more information.

7. Press <Esc> to return to the main menu of the BIOS setup utility. Select “Save & Exit Setup” and press <Enter>.

8. Type <Y> and press <Enter>.

Using Hot Keys to Clear the CMOS Data

Instead of using the Clear CMOS jumper, press the Power button and <Insert> keys simultaneously.

Hardware Installation

PS/2 Power Select

JP7

2-3 On: 5VSB

1-2 On: 5V

(default)

JP7 is used to select the power of the PS/2 keyboard/mouse port. Selecting 5VSB will allow you to use the PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse to wake up the system.

BIOS Setting

Configure the PS/2 keyboard/mouse wake up function in the Integrated Peripherals submenu (“Onboard Device” section) of the BIOS. Refer to chapter 3 for more information.

Important:

The 5VSB power source of your power supply must support

≥

720mA.

312312

Hardware Installation

USB Power Select

USB 1-4

(JP5)

2-3 On: 5VSB

1-2 On: 5V

(default)

2-3 On: 5VSB

1-2 On: 5V

(default)

USB 5-10

(JP6)

JP5 and JP6 are used to select the power of the USB ports. Selecting 5VSB will allow you to use the USB keyboard or USB mouse to wake up the system.

Important:

• If you are using the Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse function for 2 USB ports, the 5VSB power source of your power supply must support ≥1.5A.

• If you are using the Wake-On-USB Keyboard/Mouse function for 3 or more USB ports, the 5VSB power source of your power supply must support ≥2A.

312312

Hardware Installation

Rear Panel I/O Ports

The rear panel I/O ports consist of the following:

• PS/2 mouse port

• PS/2 keyboard port

• Parallel port

• S/PDIF-in jack

• S/PDIF-out jack

• COM port

• 1394_1 port

• LAN port

• USB ports

• Line-in

• Line-out

• Mic-in

PS/2

Mouse

PS/2

K/B

COMS/PDIF-in

S/PDIF-out

USB 1-2 USB 3-4

1394_1

LAN

Parallel

Line-out

Line-in

Mic-in

+ 89 hidden pages

DFI nF4 Ultra-DAGF, nF4-DAGF User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual