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Article Request - ASUS Rampage III Extreme/Gene Fail

W

Wang_Chung

Junior Member
Good afternoon,
The issue at hand is that users attempting to use a Crucial C300 SSD (regardless of size) on Marvell's 9128 SATA 6Gb controller are unable to do so. This error is happening on both ASUS Rampage III Extreme and Rampage III Gene motherboards. When trying to see the SSD in either Win 7 or XP, configured in either AHCI or IDE, you are unable to get a reliable connection. My personal experience is with trying to load Win 7 x64 onto a C300 64GB drive. The drive is seen only in IDE, and when you try to initialize the install it fails anywhere from immediately to a few minutes after the install begins. From within Windows, the drive randomly disappears out of even the Disk Management console.

The only solution so far is to connect the device to the Intel SATA controller instead, but of course this comes at a performance hit. The Intel controller on these boards are having their own issues, but are at least usable with the C300 drives. People have attempted to try and update their own BIOS through various methods but have failed in correcting the issue. And of course, we're all running the latest 1208(Extreme) or 704(Gene) BIOS and 006 SSD firmware. Sadly, the issue is definitely with ASUS and not Marvell as if you reference Marvell's latest releases for other OEMs with the same controller, their firmware and Option ROM are significantly newer.

This has been a problem since the motherboards' inception, and was first reported by other board users in August of 2010. Gigabyte and MSI have both released BIOS updates resolving the issue, and have had no further problems. However, ASUS has completely dropped the ball in resolving the issue and making sure those who paid high(er) dollar for one of their ROG products stay happy. Numerous inquiries have gone to their technical support by many users, only to be stalled with answers like "in just a few weeks," "in two more weeks," or "on X date." The fortnights and dates have come and gone for well over 6 months to no avail. It's been extremely unfair that enthusiasts that supposedly purchase an elite product get brushed aside as an afterthought while they continue to develop new products and leaving the people whose money they took out in the cold.

My objective is to hopefully get some more exposure on this issue, and pressure ASUS from a PR standpoint into fixing the issues at hand. I detest litigation-happy people who jump at the first sign of trouble, and that's definitely NOT my intention here. However, if this issue goes any further I'm sure a lot of people will have no problem jumping on the Class Action bandwagon. Myself personally, I just want my motherboard fixed so I can finish building my system and that's all.

Reference threads:
http://forums.crucial.com/t5/Solid-...ssues-with-marvell-9128-controller/td-p/18218
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2098165
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...model=Rampage+III+Gene&page=1&SLanguage=en-us
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=250635
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=253679
(Of course, there are many others available via search engine)
 
Do you have a thread specifically for your problem on the Asus forums? I think you'd be far more likely to get attention there. If they downplay/ignore it directly then you'd be justified posting it here.
 
Indeed I do (referenced in the links at the bottom of my post). The moderators over there say "this is a end user discussion forum, no relation to ASUS Support." Basically they tell everyone to kick rocks and me posting there is as useful as me posting here. At least here I may have the chance of Anand picking up on it and posting a blurb.
 
Only one of those links is to the Asus support forum, and that is not about your issue. What is your username on those support forums?

This thread is the closest thing I found:
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...el=Rampage+III+Formula&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

The 'solution' Asus offered to a few people was replacing with the P6X58D Premium or P6X58D-E depending on what you wanted. I don't know which board you have, or if changing to one of those other ones is an option for you.

The posters are apparently saying there that tech support doesn't monitor those forums, and that you have to submit a ticket. Did you do that, and have you saved your communciations with them? Nobody from Anandtech staff would even consider helping until you have taken that step, and a few more without receiving help.
 
I am not posting as counted points to come off as a jerk, my mind just works best when I address issues in order. 🙂 So,

1. The link provided is indeed to the ASUS support forum, however as indicated by the moderators is not directly monitored by the Asus technical staff or engineers. Basically its a community support forum to allow others to try and assist with common issues. They state as much when you sign up for their site. The original link is also in relation to the exact same issue, the problem is also happening with Western Digital drives. If you

2. I'm not just posting on behalf of myself. I am posting on behalf of EVERYONE who is currently having this issue with the Rampage III Extreme and Rampage III Gene, as indicated by the body of my post as well as the numerous references from other users in the links provided. After reviewing my original post, I do see that I didn't indicate (here) which board I have, which is the Rampage III Gene. My apologies.

3. Replacing the board is not an option, especially with the motherboards you've listed. I have a Micro-ATX case and build which I have already put an inordinate amount of time into. In addition to the obvious physical constraints, without going into every minute detail the replacement motherboards suggested will not suit my needs or tastes. I want the product that I purchased to work right, not given a replacement that doesn't suit what I already paid for.

4. Yes, I and others have submitted a ticket. Nobody has gotten any resolution, hence my plea for some exposure.
 
I have the exact same issue described by Wang.

Wang, were you able to find a permanent solution? Please advise.
 
Wang_Chung said:
I am not posting as counted points to come off as a jerk, my mind just works best when I address issues in order. 🙂 So,

1. The link provided is indeed to the ASUS support forum, however as indicated by the moderators is not directly monitored by the Asus technical staff or engineers. Basically its a community support forum to allow others to try and assist with common issues. They state as much when you sign up for their site. The original link is also in relation to the exact same issue, the problem is also happening with Western Digital drives. If you

2. I'm not just posting on behalf of myself. I am posting on behalf of EVERYONE who is currently having this issue with the Rampage III Extreme and Rampage III Gene, as indicated by the body of my post as well as the numerous references from other users in the links provided. After reviewing my original post, I do see that I didn't indicate (here) which board I have, which is the Rampage III Gene. My apologies.

3. Replacing the board is not an option, especially with the motherboards you've listed. I have a Micro-ATX case and build which I have already put an inordinate amount of time into. In addition to the obvious physical constraints, without going into every minute detail the replacement motherboards suggested will not suit my needs or tastes. I want the product that I purchased to work right, not given a replacement that doesn't suit what I already paid for.

4. Yes, I and others have submitted a ticket. Nobody has gotten any resolution, hence my plea for some exposure.
Click to expand...


I am talking to HQ about this now. A couple of questions have come back from the initial discussion - just for clarification purposes:

1) Are you using the SATA 6G (white) or black SATA3 cables?

2) Just to clarify - The R3E uses the 9123 Marvell controller while the Gene uses the 9128. The 9123 does not support operating system boot according to Marvell.

3) This may not apply to you directly, but we do need to point it out: Can you please ensure that you are using the drivers on the ASUS site and not the latest ones on the Marvell site (for the respective controllers). The drivers may need specific OROMs and if the OROM is not correct it can lead to issues with certain drivers. We need to validate the OROMs and drivers before we update the BIOSes for these boards, so as a rule it's recommended to use what is on the ASUS page. .

That aside I have raised a test request at HQ so they can look into any problems.

-Raja
 
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