ASUS - Official AMD 9xx Chipset Series Motherboard Support

[Daveburt714]

Raja: Any new bios/AHCI drivers in the works for the Sabertooth 990FX?

I like the board, but I'm having some serious problems with my WD 1TB SATA3 drive.
The OS drive is an OCZ V2 120, the WD is never fully recognized (when the bios does see it, it says it requires formatting).
However, formatting never works and causes a system hang. On reboot the drive is gone again....

I thought maybe the drive had died (even though it's less than 1yr old) so I moved it to a bench rig where it formatted and works fine.
Both drives are running in AHCI mode BTW....

Is this a known bug, or do you have a workaround?

Thanks..... Dave

[BeepBeep2]

Raja: Any new bios/AHCI drivers in the works for the Sabertooth 990FX?

I like the board, but I'm having some serious problems with my WD 1TB SATA3 drive.
The OS drive is an OCZ V2 120, the WD is never fully recognized (when the bios does see it, it says it requires formatting).
However, formatting never works and causes a system hang. On reboot the drive is gone again....

I thought maybe the drive had died (even though it's less than 1yr old) so I moved it to a bench rig where it formatted and works fine.
Both drives are running in AHCI mode BTW....

Is this a known bug, or do you have a workaround?

Thanks..... Dave

Since you most likely arent using TRIM on the SSD, have you tried RAID mode?

Also, is that a 1TB Green? What model is the OCZ drive?

[Daveburt714]

Since you most likely arent using TRIM on the SSD, have you tried RAID mode?

Also, is that a 1TB Green? What model is the OCZ drive?

I'll admit, I'm a rookie when it comes to SSD's Beep...
I'm not sure about TRIM, I just assumed that since I was running Win 7 it was active.

The SSD is an OCZ Vertex2 120 and the WD is a 1TB Black SATA3 with 64mb cache.
I'm probably not doing things the best way, but I always just redirect all my "User" files to the WD, and when I install programs
(non system), I direct them to the WD too...

*EDIT*: Why would I use "raid mode" if I'm not actually running a raid config?
Not saying it wouldn't work, but I'm old school, and you only ever did that if you had 2 identical drives...

[Dirk Diggler]

Raid mode also supports JBOD (Just a bunch of disk) I have my bluray burner on the port 6 where ports 1-5 are WD Black 1TB FAEX drives that are raided for 4.5 TB. I am running a CV. Ive used the latest raid drivers from AMD's website

[charged3800z24]

Dave,

Glad to see you back!

I use AHCI mode for all my drives since they are all pretty current drives. There is no benefit to using RAID mode for a single drive anymore, It would only offer NCQ support when IDE did not. AMD chipsets drivers never were up to par back in the day anyways. My SSD is on the AMD controller using AHCI like I said which is supose to support TRIM, I am not sure what Beep means about it being a option over RAID mode? TRIM is basically a command that keeps the SSD in shape. In the Bios on the Sabetooth there is an option menu that will allow you to set the SATA controllers to Hot Swap. I haven't enabled it or tested it yet though. I don't know if it might be enabled on your board, and me be causing you the issue... Just a wild thought.

[Raja@ASUS]

Raja: Any new bios/AHCI drivers in the works for the Sabertooth 990FX?

I like the board, but I'm having some serious problems with my WD 1TB SATA3 drive.
The OS drive is an OCZ V2 120, the WD is never fully recognized (when the bios does see it, it says it requires formatting).
However, formatting never works and causes a system hang. On reboot the drive is gone again....

I thought maybe the drive had died (even though it's less than 1yr old) so I moved it to a bench rig where it formatted and works fine.
Both drives are running in AHCI mode BTW....

Is this a known bug, or do you have a workaround?

Thanks..... Dave

New BIOS is in the works - don't have a release date at present but it should be soon.

We will try and replicate your problem, it is not one I have seen before. So check all basic things like SATA cables etc for now.

-Raja

[bingo13]

Raja: Any new bios/AHCI drivers in the works for the Sabertooth 990FX?

I like the board, but I'm having some serious problems with my WD 1TB SATA3 drive.
The OS drive is an OCZ V2 120, the WD is never fully recognized (when the bios does see it, it says it requires formatting).
However, formatting never works and causes a system hang. On reboot the drive is gone again....

I thought maybe the drive had died (even though it's less than 1yr old) so I moved it to a bench rig where it formatted and works fine.
Both drives are running in AHCI mode BTW....

Is this a known bug, or do you have a workaround?

Thanks..... Dave

Hi Dave,

We will have a new EFI shortly with some memory and core unlocking improvements. However, on the drive side this the first problem I have seen. Can you please PM me your drive model as I have three different WD 1TB drives here (Green, Black, Blue) and hopefully can dust off a OCZ V2 that is lying around here somewhere.

Sincerely,
Gary

[Daveburt714]

Bingo: PM Sent

Thanks for all the advice folks.
I have Hot Swap disabled in bios and have tested in multiple (brown) ports with different cables with the same results.

Seems odd though that a number of people are running Black drives without issue...

I'll stress the drive on the other system, but my quick test seemed OK.

[Daveburt714]

This may be a little lengthy, so bear with me....

Using the Hardware show in sig.

Port 1 (Brown): OCZ Vertex 2 120gb
Port 2 (Brown): WD Blue 500gb (currently using for user/prg files w/o problems)
Port 3 (Brown): WD Black 1002FAEX 1tb (this is the problem drive, also tried on ports 2+4 with different cables)
Port 7 (Grey): LG SuperMulti Blu-Ray ROM/DVD writer

After the afore mentioned problems, I formatted and thoroughly tested the drive on my 890GX Biostar without any problems whatsoever.
I ran HDTune full error checking and benchmark, WIndows7 Error checking (after reboot) and copied a 4GB HD movie file to it which played flawlessly.

After moving the drive back to the SaberTooth, once again, it was'nt recognized.....
I went into Control Panel/system/disk. The drive was shown, but wasn't assigned a drive letter.
After assigning it a drive letter I was able to run HDTune benchmark on it with the following results:



As you can see the drive is acting VERY erratic and scored poorly.
Reguardless, I tried to use Acronis to image the Blue drive to it since it was at least working. Acronis errored out (as soon as it got to the copy process) and
the drive was lost again, not even showing up in Contorl Panel/Sys/Drives on reboot....

I've been using Acronis for years with 100% reliability, that, and the fact that the drive was acting squirly under the OS leads me to believe the problem lies elsewhere.

Just for reference, heres an HDTune from the same drive on the BioStar 890GX:


And an HDTune of the WD Blue drive on the SaberTooth:



The WD Black SATA3 is the only drive thats causing problems. The Blue drive, SSD and any other drive I've tried all work flawlessly.
Unfortunately, that 1TB black is my prefered drive for this rig....

[Praz]

I have Hot Swap disabled in bios

Retest with hot plug enabled for the port the WD Black is connected to.

[BeepBeep2]

I'll admit, I'm a rookie when it comes to SSD's Beep...
I'm not sure about TRIM, I just assumed that since I was running Win 7 it was active.

The SSD is an OCZ Vertex2 120 and the WD is a 1TB Black SATA3 with 64mb cache.
I'm probably not doing things the best way, but I always just redirect all my "User" files to the WD, and when I install programs
(non system), I direct them to the WD too...

*EDIT*: Why would I use "raid mode" if I'm not actually running a raid config?
Not saying it wouldn't work, but I'm old school, and you only ever did that if you had 2 identical drives...

AMD AHCI Drivers do not support TRIM last time I checked, thats why. If we were running intel setups it would matter, as TRIM cant run on RAID, but see below as to why I suggested it.

Raid mode also supports JBOD (Just a bunch of disk) I have my bluray burner on the port 6 where ports 1-5 are WD Black 1TB FAEX drives that are raided for 4.5 TB. I am running a CV. Ive used the latest raid drivers from AMD's website

This.

Dave,

Glad to see you back!

I use AHCI mode for all my drives since they are all pretty current drives. There is no benefit to using RAID mode for a single drive anymore, It would only offer NCQ support when IDE did not. AMD chipsets drivers never were up to par back in the day anyways. My SSD is on the AMD controller using AHCI like I said which is supose to support TRIM, I am not sure what Beep means about it being a option over RAID mode? TRIM is basically a command that keeps the SSD in shape. In the Bios on the Sabetooth there is an option menu that will allow you to set the SATA controllers to Hot Swap. I haven't enabled it or tested it yet though. I don't know if it might be enabled on your board, and me be causing you the issue... Just a wild thought.

You are right, there is no benefit using RAID mode for a single drive. However as far as I know (and unless this has changed recently) AMD AHCI does not support TRIM. If was just something different to try, to see if his disk was consistent in RAID mode.

[charged3800z24]

AMD AHCI Drivers do not support TRIM last time I checked, thats why. If we were running intel setups it would matter, as TRIM cant run on RAID, but see below as to why I suggested it.


This.


You are right, there is no benefit using RAID mode for a single drive. However as far as I know (and unless this has changed recently) AMD AHCI does not support TRIM. If was just something different to try, to see if his disk was consistent in RAID mode.

I swear AMD in version 11.something and later have supported Trim... There was a post about it on here. Unless it was jibberish

Dave

I set all ports to Hot Swap and it seems to work flawless. Worth a try... I would also update the firm ware on the WD SATA 3 drive... might help.

[Daveburt714]

Retest with hot plug enabled for the port the WD Black is connected to.

Thanks for the suggestion Praz, I tried it, it scored a little better but it's still pretty erratic in HDTune....

Beep: I'll try raid mode (even though I think it's a longshot), guess it's worth a try.

Charged: I think your right. Like I said, I'm not good with SSD's yet but TRIM seems to be working.
I use TuneUp utilities and it never even looks at the SSD as far as defrag goes and I don't see the SSD getting loaded with garbage.
I could be wrong, but I always assumed it was working properly...

I'll play with the SATA settings some more and see if I can find a sweet spot for this drive.
It actually performs pretty well when it's working right and makes a good data drive.

[charged3800z24]

Dave

I am pretty sure you did this, but you verified the AHCI drivers are AMDs and not Windows right? I know sometimes the AMD installer will not automatically install them in device manger. I have had to manually install them.

[BeepBeep2]

I swear AMD in version 11.something and later have supported Trim... There was a post about it on here. Unless it was jibberish

Dave

I set all ports to Hot Swap and it seems to work flawless. Worth a try... I would also update the firm ware on the WD SATA 3 drive... might help.

Yeah, you are right.
11.1 and up support TRIM, I had no idea :p

I suppose its time for me to break out my SSD for OS drive again

[Daveburt714]

Dave

I am pretty sure you did this, but you verified the AHCI drivers are AMDs and not Windows right? I know sometimes the AMD installer will not automatically install them in device manger. I have had to manually install them.

Yeah Jay, I installed the AHCI drivers that where on the mobo driver disk while installing Win7.
I put them on a flash drive and selected "install drivers" during the Win7 settup...

I've been changing all kinds of bios/SATA settings (including RAID and HotSwap) for the last couple hours with no real improvment....

So far, it looks like the AHCI drivers are working best for all drives except the WD SATA3.

Hopefully Raja, Bingo and the Asus Bios team can figure this out. It seems to be a legit problem, at least on my config...

[BeepBeep2]

Yeah Jay, I installed the AHCI drivers that where on the mobo driver disk while installing Win7.
I put them on a flash drive and selected "install drivers" during the Win7 settup...

I've been changing all kinds of bios/SATA settings (including RAID and HotSwap) for the last couple hours with no real improvment....

So far, it looks like the AHCI drivers are working best for all drives except the WD SATA3.

Hopefully Raja, Bingo and the Asus Bios team can figure this out. It seems to be a legit problem, at least on my config...

I own two of the WD Blacks, though my drives are the 640GB SATA 2 versions.
You tried SATA2 mode, right?

I've had weird things happen with my X25-V, on SB850 (UD3H) it sometimes randomly disappears

[Daveburt714]

I really appreciate all the help folks....

I've been doing some more testing.
There's no way to limit ports to SATA2 in bios, but a jumper on the drive does limit it...
I dug a jumper out of my parts and placed it on pins 5+6 (the limit pins).

Here's the results:


MUCH BETTER, and far less erratic!
I still can't help but think I'm loosing a tiny bit of performance though...
At least I can use this drive now.

[Raja@ASUS]

New BIOS for CVF:

updates over 0038:

disable ECC by default
Added ‘Stabilize Memory Timing’ option under DRAM Timing Control


http://www.mediafire.com/file/i141m9...-ASUS-0045.ROM

[fastleo63]

New BIOS for CVF:...

On ASUS FTP site there's a new 0506 BIOS for the Crosshair V Formula...
I don't understand the numbering differences between versions... 0045 vs. 0506?

[Raja@ASUS]

On ASUS FTP site there's a new 0506 BIOS for the Crosshair V Formula...
I don't understand the numbering differences between versions... 0045 vs. 0506?

0045 is the latest beta, 0506 is the latest verified BIOS. Of the two, 0045 is newer.

-Raja

[PatRaceTin]

New BIOS for CVF:

updates over 0038:

disable ECC by default
Added ‘Stabilize Memory Timing’ option under DRAM Timing Control


http://www.mediafire.com/file/i141m9...-ASUS-0045.ROM

thanks i will try this

(using 39 for 2 week)

[fastleo63]

0045 is the latest beta...

Thank you!

[devguy]

I'd like to add in that using the ASUS Raid drivers for my M5A97 EVO, I have TRIM successfully working with my storage controller in RAID mode. Note that my SSD (vertex 2) is not part of a RAID array, and is standalone next to my two HDDs in RAID 1.

[Kelso]

I got myself an M5A79 PRO about week ago and I'm pretty unhappy with it. It seems like the CPU thermal sensor on those boards is a bit off.
I got a 1055T CPU and I can't overclock it over 3500Mhz because when I set the Vcore at 1.4v., when I stress test with Linx, the temperature (according to the mobo sensor) reaches 72C(!!) and at that temperature thermal throttling starts to kick in. And I know for sure that it can't possibly reach that temperature - I tested that CPU under the same conditions (same cooler/Vcore etc.) on many other boards and the temperature never exceeded 60C.

And why there is no option in BIOS to disable thermal throttling? Or at least an option to increase the threshold at which the throttling start to kick in?