Difference between revisions of "Talk:VTd HowTo"

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* --[[User:Przemoc86|Przemoc86]] 19:31, 3 February 2013 (UTC) : Regarding ASRock Z77 Extreme4 & Extreme6: I am planning on buying one of these mobos so I did some research on the Internet and I think the warning stated here about the recent BIOSes cutting down vt-d functionality may be wrong, but I am not sure yet. On the [http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme6/index.us.asp?cat=Download&os=BIOS Extreme6 Download page] we can read in relevant BIOSes descriptions: <blockquote>Modify VT-d Capability will be unsupported after flashing BIOS P2.30.</blockquote> which may be read as "turning off possibility to change its enable state" (such sites are known for pretty bad English). I know that ASRock America Support [http://www.overclock.net/t/1205216/guide-create-a-gaming-virtual-machine/490#post_19085570 wrote] about Extreme4 to Chetyre user from overclock.net forum that: <blockquote>After you update the BIOS with the 2.70 the VT-D not longer works</blockquote> but it's not a good source of knowledge, because front-line support people are often quite incompetent. (Well, there are naming mistakes in BIOSes too, like I [https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1933#comment:18 showed] once, thus double or triple checking is almost always required.)<br/>Moreover, there is at least one source stating that vt-d still works after upgrade. abel user from tom's hardware forum [http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/326108-12-asrock-extreme6-bios#t2178946 responded] to question about 2.30 and 2.40: <blockquote>I ran across the 2.30 BIOS after I updated while reinstalling Win7 64. Here's what I found: the VTd still worked, it just did not show up in the BIOS pages as a choice (along with VTi). I can confirm this, because I had my discrete video card connected directly to my monitor at the same time I had VirtuMVP enabled. If VTd didn't work, I would have had no monitor image at all. BIOS 2.40 fixed the user interface on the BIOS page, that's all. In sum, the functionality in 2.30 was always there.</blockquote> I can agree it's not explicitly stated here whether abel used 2.40 in the end, so I'll try to contact him to confirm that.
 
* --[[User:Przemoc86|Przemoc86]] 19:31, 3 February 2013 (UTC) : Regarding ASRock Z77 Extreme4 & Extreme6: I am planning on buying one of these mobos so I did some research on the Internet and I think the warning stated here about the recent BIOSes cutting down vt-d functionality may be wrong, but I am not sure yet. On the [http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z77%20Extreme6/index.us.asp?cat=Download&os=BIOS Extreme6 Download page] we can read in relevant BIOSes descriptions: <blockquote>Modify VT-d Capability will be unsupported after flashing BIOS P2.30.</blockquote> which may be read as "turning off possibility to change its enable state" (such sites are known for pretty bad English). I know that ASRock America Support [http://www.overclock.net/t/1205216/guide-create-a-gaming-virtual-machine/490#post_19085570 wrote] about Extreme4 to Chetyre user from overclock.net forum that: <blockquote>After you update the BIOS with the 2.70 the VT-D not longer works</blockquote> but it's not a good source of knowledge, because front-line support people are often quite incompetent. (Well, there are naming mistakes in BIOSes too, like I [https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1933#comment:18 showed] once, thus double or triple checking is almost always required.)<br/>Moreover, there is at least one source stating that vt-d still works after upgrade. abel user from tom's hardware forum [http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/326108-12-asrock-extreme6-bios#t2178946 responded] to question about 2.30 and 2.40: <blockquote>I ran across the 2.30 BIOS after I updated while reinstalling Win7 64. Here's what I found: the VTd still worked, it just did not show up in the BIOS pages as a choice (along with VTi). I can confirm this, because I had my discrete video card connected directly to my monitor at the same time I had VirtuMVP enabled. If VTd didn't work, I would have had no monitor image at all. BIOS 2.40 fixed the user interface on the BIOS page, that's all. In sum, the functionality in 2.30 was always there.</blockquote> I can agree it's not explicitly stated here whether abel used 2.40 in the end, so I'll try to contact him to confirm that.
  +
* --[[User:Przemoc86|Przemoc86]] 00:50, 16 February 2013 (UTC): I received the first confirmation that ASRock Z77 Extreme6 supports VT-d in BIOS v2.40. Quoting Keroberos from his blog http://mo.kerosoft.com/0198: <blockquote>Initially, the BIOS was P2.30 with VT-d capability "Unsupported" when I bought Z77 Extreme6. The default "VT-d" value was "Disabled" as you pointed out. Above first capture image is "VT-d Enabled" because I have enabled it. Of course, it didn't work VT-d capability completely.<br/><br/>After upgrading BIOS to P2.40, all setting parameters had been reset to initial state. The second image was captured at this moment. Then I switched "VT-d" settings on, and it works perfectly. As an evidence, I added one more capture image with working VT-d capability in VMware ESXi.</blockquote>

Revision as of 00:50, 16 February 2013

  • --1Samildanach 05:03, 7 June 2012 (UTC) : I have attempted to contact a few motherboard manufacturers directly. It has been a week and ASRock has not gotten back to me (it was hard to find an email address, too). Asus has very limited contact options, and the person I talked to by phone was unable to find information on VT-d. MSI and Gigabyte, however, were quite prompt and helpful. Here are the boards they listed:
MSI: Z77A-GD80, Z77A-GD65, Z77A-GD55, Z77A-G45, and Z77A-G43     
        
Gigabyte: GA-X79-UD5 (rev. 1.0), GA-X79-UD7 (rev. 1.0) and GA-Z77X-D3H (rev. 1.0)
  • --Lars.kurth 08:40, 7 June 2012 (UTC) : I am quite happy for you to update the main page with the information you found, unless you are looking for somebody to do a quick sanity check. Thank you for the efforts.
  • --1Samildanach 06:59, 13 June 2012 (UTC) : Done. Feel free to change the wording if you can think of a clearer way of putting it. May also be worth contacting them again in six months or so, to get information on any boards released in that time... though I might not remember to do so.
  • --Przemoc86 19:31, 3 February 2013 (UTC) : Regarding ASRock Z77 Extreme4 & Extreme6: I am planning on buying one of these mobos so I did some research on the Internet and I think the warning stated here about the recent BIOSes cutting down vt-d functionality may be wrong, but I am not sure yet. On the Extreme6 Download page we can read in relevant BIOSes descriptions:

    Modify VT-d Capability will be unsupported after flashing BIOS P2.30.

    which may be read as "turning off possibility to change its enable state" (such sites are known for pretty bad English). I know that ASRock America Support wrote about Extreme4 to Chetyre user from overclock.net forum that:

    After you update the BIOS with the 2.70 the VT-D not longer works

    but it's not a good source of knowledge, because front-line support people are often quite incompetent. (Well, there are naming mistakes in BIOSes too, like I showed once, thus double or triple checking is almost always required.)
    Moreover, there is at least one source stating that vt-d still works after upgrade. abel user from tom's hardware forum responded to question about 2.30 and 2.40:

    I ran across the 2.30 BIOS after I updated while reinstalling Win7 64. Here's what I found: the VTd still worked, it just did not show up in the BIOS pages as a choice (along with VTi). I can confirm this, because I had my discrete video card connected directly to my monitor at the same time I had VirtuMVP enabled. If VTd didn't work, I would have had no monitor image at all. BIOS 2.40 fixed the user interface on the BIOS page, that's all. In sum, the functionality in 2.30 was always there.

    I can agree it's not explicitly stated here whether abel used 2.40 in the end, so I'll try to contact him to confirm that.
  • --Przemoc86 00:50, 16 February 2013 (UTC): I received the first confirmation that ASRock Z77 Extreme6 supports VT-d in BIOS v2.40. Quoting Keroberos from his blog http://mo.kerosoft.com/0198:

    Initially, the BIOS was P2.30 with VT-d capability "Unsupported" when I bought Z77 Extreme6. The default "VT-d" value was "Disabled" as you pointed out. Above first capture image is "VT-d Enabled" because I have enabled it. Of course, it didn't work VT-d capability completely.

    After upgrading BIOS to P2.40, all setting parameters had been reset to initial state. The second image was captured at this moment. Then I switched "VT-d" settings on, and it works perfectly. As an evidence, I added one more capture image with working VT-d capability in VMware ESXi.