Intermittent SATA 3.0 (6G) ports ASUS P6X58D-E, AHCI mode

[geraldreisner]

Built Core i7 system running Windows 7 Pro, ASUS P6X58D-E motherboard.
Through the BIOS (in two places), set AHCI mode for the two SATA 3.0 (6G) ports. Connected 2 WD Caviar 2TB drives. Use the Marvell 91xx driver. My OS (Win 7) is on a separate drive. I use the two 2TB drives for Data and Backup.

Good News: System works very nicely most of the time.
Bad News: Once in a while the 6G SATA drives disappear. I need to either reboot to get them back. Or sometimes just disabling/enabling the Marvell driver will get them back.

I have searched this Forum, and many others, but can't find someone with the exact same problem.

 

[rhill2901]

If it will make you feel better, I have an Asus P6x58D-E also, with an OCZ Agility 3 120GB drive, and it does the EXACT same thing....

 

[geraldreisner]

If it will make you feel better, I have an Asus P6x58D-E also, with an OCZ Agility 3 120GB drive, and it does the EXACT same thing....

What OS are you using?

 

[Rainey]

I had the same problem with an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board.

When ever i had two drive connected one or both would disappear. If only one 6G drive was connected it would work fine. It did not matter what 6G port that i connected to they both worked but with only one drive connected. Once two drives were connected to the 6G port i had the problem.

There is some thing wrong with the 6G controller or firmware of the controller or drives. I gave up and only connected one drive to the 6G port and the other to a 3G port and all has worked fine. The one drive on the 6G port has never disappeared with only one drive connected.

Oh, i am running Win 7 64bit

Other threds
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276473-30-marvell-sata-problem

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284754-30-asus-p6x58d-marvell-91xx

 

[rhill2901]

What OS are you using?

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. One other thing I noted, was I got better performance when I put the drive on the ICH10 sata 2 port. I've seen others say that they configured the board w/o the marvel driver and got better reliability. Are you using the marvell drivers? If you are, put the drive on the sata 2 port and change the boot setup in bios to see the boot drive (for some reason I need to do this step on mine). Boot the computer back up and then remove the driver. You'll also need to delete the driver that was put on the C drive (in a folder labeled Marvel) then shut down again and put the drive back on the marvell controller. Start up again and the OS won't locate the marvell drivers and then just install the microsoft drivers. Try the microsoft drivers to see if it is more reliable. It wasn't for me, so I settled for the drive on the sata 2 ports. Again, my performance improved by doing this. Sad, isn't it...

 

[jaquith]

I have 10 ASUS P6X58D-E an no such a problem, my best guess is that you changed from IDE->AHCI 'after' installing Windows and corrupted the registry. Also, use the first SATA3 Marvell port closet to the PCB {SATA_6G_1}.

Use 'Fix it' or set the 'Start' values = 0 ; see -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

In addition update both your BIOS and at minimum the Marvell drivers -> http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6X58DE/#download If updating the BIOS the only use the ASUS EZ Flash 2 method with a FAT-32 formatted USB.

Another 'trick' is to play musical SATA ports and switch the cables around, but only IF needed; this re-inits the drivers.

ASUS EZ Flash 2:
Info -> http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070215223109668&board_id=1&model=P5B+Deluxe
Video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKQj_aASCQ

Good Luck!

 

[geraldreisner]

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. One other thing I noted, was I got better performance when I put the drive on the ICH10 sata 2 port. I've seen others say that they configured the board w/o the marvel driver and got better reliability. Are you using the marvell drivers? If you are, put the drive on the sata 2 port and change the boot setup in bios to see the boot drive (for some reason I need to do this step on mine). Boot the computer back up and then remove the driver. You'll also need to delete the driver that was put on the C drive (in a folder labeled Marvel) then shut down again and put the drive back on the marvell controller. Start up again and the OS won't locate the marvell drivers and then just install the microsoft drivers. Try the microsoft drivers to see if it is more reliable. It wasn't for me, so I settled for the drive on the sata 2 ports. Again, my performance improved by doing this. Sad, isn't it...

thill,
Thanks for the additional info. I'm surprised (not really) that a fully functional driver for the Marvell hi-speed ATA ports is not available. As you suggested, I moved one of my 6G drives to a 3G interface. My system seems (hard to tell) to be a little more responsive. It's only 3 days since I made the change, so it's not enough time to know if it will solve the original problem of the drives disappearing, and requiring reboot. But hope springs eternal. I'll keep you posted.

 

[jaquith]

I agree with Marvell vs ICH10R to use the ICH10R for ANY Mechanical HDD PERIOD and with most SSD's. The SSD must be faster than the 290 MB/s SATA3 to justify the Marvell SATA3 port(s). Also, the Marvell 9128 is ONLY x1 lane and it craps-out at ~360± MB/s. Meaning it will NEVER get anywhere near 600 MB/s.

A mechanical HDD barely, regardless if it has a SATA3 'Interface', will hit above 140~155 MB/s and not a one HDD can saturate the SATA2 ICH10R 300 MB/s {280~290 MB/s real world} limits.

Only Marvell 9182 {no typo} with its x2 lanes can hit the 500+ MB/s.

 

[rhill2901]

I have 10 ASUS P6X58D-E an no such a problem, my best guess is that you changed from IDE->AHCI 'after' installing Windows and corrupted the registry. Also, use the first SATA3 Marvell port closet to the PCB {SATA_6G_1}.

Use 'Fix it' or set the 'Start' values = 0 ; see -> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

In addition update both your BIOS and at minimum the Marvell drivers -> http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/P6X58DE/#download If updating the BIOS the only use the ASUS EZ Flash 2 method with a FAT-32 formatted USB.

Another 'trick' is to play musical SATA ports and switch the cables around, but only IF needed; this re-inits the drivers.

ASUS EZ Flash 2:
Info -> http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20070215223109668&board_id=1&model=P5B+Deluxe
Video -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQKQj_aASCQ

Good Luck!

Good ideas.... In my case, all these suggestions and then some were tried already. I've reloaded win7pro64 about 6 times since i've gotten this p6x58d-e in the past 2 weeks. It came with the most updated firmware, but I even went ahead and reloaded firmware using the same method you suggested. The probelm isn't a constant. The problem is highly intermittent, may happen 1 to 6 times a week, could be when it is idle or in use. Typical senario is bsod, computer resets and it doesn't see the drive at all. I power off and power back on, and all is good again.

 

[jaquith]

What about the SSD Firmware? Have you updated it as well? If you're trying to run ANY HDD on the Marvell then you're 100% wasting your time and are better-off disabling the Marvell all together. In some instances disabling the USB 3 can also correct the problem(s).

I've seen 'some' WD SATA3 HDD do this before, and only the initial Crucial C300's but the SSD firmware fixed those issues.

Also, as I stated the SATA port 'order' is an issue. The Primary 'OS' SSD/HDD drive should be on the LOWEST port number and DVD or BR left off the first 4 SATA2 ports {SATA_1 or SATA_6G_1}. Some DVD's & BR's don't like AHCI and can BSOD.

Q - What exact SATA Ports have what HDD/SSD/DVD/BR/etc?
Q - What exact HDD/HHD/SSD do you have?

 

[jaquith]

SATA 3.0 (6G) ports. Connected 2 WD Caviar 2TB drives. Use the Marvell 91xx driver. My OS (Win 7) is on a separate drive. I use the two 2TB drives for Data and Backup.

Just noticed -- this is a Western Digital problem. Move them to the SATA2 ports. It's not the MOBO.

RMA the HDD(s) to Western Digital this is a know issue with some of their HDDs.

These drives are 1/2 of the SATA2 speed, or about 135~140 MB/s.

 

[rhill2901]

What about the SSD Firmware? Have you updated it as well? If you're trying to run ANY HDD on the Marvell then you're 100% wasting your time and are better-off disabling the Marvell all together. In some instances disabling the USB 3 can also correct the problem(s).

I've seen 'some' WD SATA3 HDD do this before, and only the initial Crucial C300's but the SSD firmware fixed those issues.

Also, as I stated the SATA port 'order' is an issue. The Primary 'OS' SSD/HDD drive should be on the LOWEST port number and DVD or BR left off the first 4 SATA2 ports {SATA_1 or SATA_6G_1}. Some DVD's & BR's don't like AHCI and can BSOD.

Q - What exact SATA Ports have what HDD/SSD/DVD/BR/etc?
Q - What exact HDD/HHD/SSD do you have?

In my case its a ssd with the OCZ agility 3 (SATA3) drive. Advertises up to 525Mb per sec. AS SSD actually shows about 200Mb seq reads which according to OCZ is normal. I use the Port 1, and the ssd's firmware is latest greatest. i even reloaded that too. Most SSD blogs i've seen say that the marvell chipset is an inferior product and to just disable it and use the ich10 ports.

 

[jaquith]

In my case its a ssd with the OCZ agility 3 (SATA3) drive. Advertises up to 525Mb per sec. AS SSD actually shows about 200Mb seq reads which according to OCZ is normal. I use the Port 1, and the ssd's firmware is latest greatest. i even reloaded that too. Most SSD blogs i've seen say that the marvell chipset is an inferior product and to just disable it and use the ich10 ports.

You need to reread what I posted about Marvell; see above. These ain't guesses.

Also, the Marvell 9128 is ONLY x1 lane and it craps-out at ~360± MB/s. Meaning it will NEVER get anywhere near 600 MB/s.

SATA2 ICH10R 300 MB/s {280~290 MB/s real world} limits.

Only Marvell 9182 {no typo} with its x2 lanes can hit the 500+ MB/s.

The only ASUS X58 with the Marvell 9182 is the ASUS Rampage III Black Edition -> http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1366/Rampage_III_Black_Edition/#specifications

Therefore, to achieve > ~360± MB/s on ANY X58 you have 2 choices: 1. X58 with Marvell 9182, or 2. a SATA3 PCIe Card e.g. LSI.

edit: OCZ, Crucial, Corsair, etc ALL use ONLY USE ATTO to bench their speeds, nothing else, and ONLY USE the highest R/W Speeds in the test. Besides optimizing the fastest MOBO, CPU, OS they can find.

ATTO download -> http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=Disk_Benchmark

 

[rhill2901]

This evening my SSD wasn't detected again. This was on the intel ich10 port 1. OCZ either has some problems with this drive or I have a bad one.

 

[jaquith]

Check here -> http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/

Also, note I made several suggestions: e.g. move the port, boot, move it back and reboot, and don't use the first 4 Intel SATA2 ports with a DVD or BR - move those to SATA2 port 5 & 6, plus the Fix It Microsoft link above.

 

[geraldreisner]

Best answer selected by geraldreisner.

 

[geraldreisner]

I had the same problem with an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board.

When ever i had two drive connected one or both would disappear. If only one 6G drive was connected it would work fine. It did not matter what 6G port that i connected to they both worked but with only one drive connected. Once two drives were connected to the 6G port i had the problem.

There is some thing wrong with the 6G controller or firmware of the controller or drives. I gave up and only connected one drive to the 6G port and the other to a 3G port and all has worked fine. The one drive on the 6G port has never disappeared with only one drive connected.

Oh, i am running Win 7 64bit

Other threds
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276473-30-marvell-sata-problem

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284754-30-asus-p6x58d-marvell-91xx

Rainey,
I picked your answer as the best. I moved one of the two hi-speed SATA ports to the 3G SATA port. It's only been about a week, but I haven't seen the disappearing drive. My hope was that someone found a new driver update that corrected this problem. I don't know what kind of feedback has been given to Marvell, but I'm not sure they would fix the problem anyway. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Rainey]

Glad you got it working.

Marvell's site sucks, and i can't even find the drive at that site i am using the one from the ASUS site.

It is very possible the problem is in the HDD firmware also. All i know i don't have the time or resources to trouble shoots it. Once i found out i would not get any better speed using those ports i called it quits.

I was going to put those two drives into a raid array to get double the speed but could not do it in the end. I have used all SATA port on my board , all but one of the 6G ports.

 

[geraldreisner]

I had the same problem with an ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board.

When ever i had two drive connected one or both would disappear. If only one 6G drive was connected it would work fine. It did not matter what 6G port that i connected to they both worked but with only one drive connected. Once two drives were connected to the 6G port i had the problem.

There is some thing wrong with the 6G controller or firmware of the controller or drives. I gave up and only connected one drive to the 6G port and the other to a 3G port and all has worked fine. The one drive on the 6G port has never disappeared with only one drive connected.

Oh, i am running Win 7 64bit

Other threds
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/276473-30-marvell-sata-problem

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/284754-30-asus-p6x58d-marvell-91xx

Well, I spoke too soon. Today, after about 9 days of operation, I lost the one drive I have attached to the 6G port. So reducing from 2 to 1 the number of disks attached to the 6G connectors, it still not a solution. There truly seems to be a problem with the Marvell driver. Don't know what to do about it.

 

[jaquith]

The only other issue is on some PCB the wrong Marvell controller is being recognized incorrectly as a Marvell 9123 instead of 9128. If you cannot access via CTRL+M the Marvell RAID setup and with drives installed on Marvell SATA3 port(s) then chances are you have this problem. Verify with MMTool is another alternative. IF you have this problem and are using the latest Marvell drivers/ROM then start a Ticket with ASUS.

Again, the Marvel 9128 is really only good for (1) ONE thing, a SINGLE SSD with rated R/W > 300 MB/s but < 370 MB/s. This is a Marvell 'problem' global to ANY MOBO with that chipset; by problem an x1 lane limitation.

Also, running ANY mechanical HDD on the Marvell will have S-L-O-W-E-R Writes and equivalent Reads.

Further, chances of 'improvements' are: Marvell firmware, HDD/SSD/HHD firmware, sometimes disabling the NEC controller, and slim chance for 2TB a MOBO BIOS update.

That's it...well documented.

 

[mini-e]

Well, I spoke too soon. Today, after about 9 days of operation, I lost the one drive I have attached to the 6G port. So reducing from 2 to 1 the number of disks attached to the 6G connectors, it still not a solution. There truly seems to be a problem with the Marvell driver. Don't know what to do about it.

Were you ever able to fix this problem? I am having the exact same issue (I think). I have the P6X58D Premium motherboard, Windows 7 Pro, and Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache Internal Bare Drive ST32000641AS.

The computer works great most of the time, until it crashes, which could be during idle or while I'm using it and there seems to be no consistency to why. Then I get the message:

1 Marvell 88SE91xx adapter -
BIOS Version 1.0.0.1025
Initializing...

This message stays up for a long time, then I get the message:

Reboot & Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected bot device and press a key.

At this point, I have to power off, select "Start Windows Normally"...and Windows opens fine again. It wouldn't be such a big deal as it doesn't happen very often, but now when I try to install Firefox 5 or Explorer 8, the machine crashes as soon as I try to launch either browser (even though it runs older versions fine). Have you noticed that happening to you too?

Anyway, is anyone still working this problem, I'm getting *really* frustrated trying to troubleshoot it on my own. This was my first attempt at building my own set up and initially felt like this was a good opportunity to learn but I'm running out of things to try.
Elise

 

[geraldreisner]

Were you ever able to fix this problem? I am having the exact same issue (I think). I have the P6X58D Premium motherboard, Windows 7 Pro, and Seagate Barracuda XT 2 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 64MB Cache Internal Bare Drive ST32000641AS.

The computer works great most of the time, until it crashes, which could be during idle or while I'm using it and there seems to be no consistency to why. Then I get the message:

1 Marvell 88SE91xx adapter -
BIOS Version 1.0.0.1025
Initializing...

This message stays up for a long time, then I get the message:

Reboot & Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected bot device and press a key.

At this point, I have to power off, select "Start Windows Normally"...and Windows opens fine again. It wouldn't be such a big deal as it doesn't happen very often, but now when I try to install Firefox 5 or Explorer 8, the machine crashes as soon as I try to launch either browser (even though it runs older versions fine). Have you noticed that happening to you too?

Anyway, is anyone still working this problem, I'm getting *really* frustrated trying to troubleshoot it on my own. This was my first attempt at building my own set up and initially felt like this was a good opportunity to learn but I'm running out of things to try.
Elise

Elise,
My symptoms are similar, but not exactly the same. The driver for the 6G ports just goes away, randomly, whether I have one or two disks connected the the Marvell interface. It didn't happen for a week, then it happened 4 times today. I believe I need to put the final disk on the 3G port, and I expect the problem will go away. The root cause seems to be the Win7/driver for the Marvell device. It's the thing that always stops working. To me it's a lost cause trying the get the vendor to build a better driver. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that these ports are usable. My son is running these 6G ports on a Linux system, and has never had the problem. Leads me to believe it's the Win7/driver, not the hardware interface or the disks.
Gerald

 

[Joeley]

I have an ASUS P8P67 with a OCZ Vertex 3 60GB and the same happens to me, sometimes it can be a week at a time and sometimes several times a day. very annoying and no amount of tweaking i have tried will fix it. I am getting to the stage where i may return the motherboard under warranty with said fault as the reason and see if it could be a common hardware fault if this does not fix the issue it can only be rendered as the driver causing the issue, in which case we are pretty much screwed on that front!!

 

[Mike S]

Hi,

I just wanted to add that I am having the same issue. I have a RAID 1 config on the 9128 controller one the P6X58D-E board. Once in a while when I do multiple downloads to the RAID set the volume just goes off line. I check event viewer and I see the 91xx driver has stopped working. I reboot the system and all is well. I also have WD Caviar blacks on the Marvell ports. I suppose what bothers me the most is that Marvell is invisible in supporting the issue. All the folks that bought boards with these controllers are S.O.L. Another example of Grand claims with no substance.

"Experience the Future of Storage!
Supporting next-generation Serial ATA (SATA) storage interface, this motherboard delivers up to 6.0Gb/s data transfer rates. Additionally, get enhanced scalability, faster data retrieval, double the bandwidth of current bus systems. " I call BS on Marvell.

Like other have said, the Intel SATA 2 ports deliver what's promised. The thing is, I bought the board in part for the 6Gb/s feature.

I feel ripped off.