Asrock Dual SATA2 freezes/hangs when loading Windows

[LinuxBravo]

But I'm not the only one can work well after disable SSC of Hitachi HDD.
It seems many thread talk about SATA II hdd incompatbile with sata controller due to SSC enable , even POWER MAC G5.

Do you use feature tool of hitachi to check SSC status ? My hitachi hdd enable SSC as default , so strange !?

Maybe you can set hitachi hdd to 1.5G mode to make sure if it work well.

 

[qsrk]

SSC is disabled for me as well. On the HDD and in BIOS. The setting in the Feature Tool, however, shows no dot next to either Disable or Enable, even though I have set it to Disable.

EDIT: Tech support says it still disables SSC, but just doesn't show. LinuxBravo, how could you tell that SSC was enabled?

 

[designit]

Originally posted by: qsrk
SSC is disabled for me as well. On the HDD and in BIOS. The setting in the Feature Tool, however, shows no dot next to either Disable or Enable, even though I have set it to Disable.

EDIT: Tech support says it still disables SSC, but just doesn't show. LinuxBravo, how could you tell that SSC was enabled?

Do you have CnQ enabled? if so disable it, and uninstall AMD drivers.
If that didn't work, then enable Gated clock in bios.

Edit: have you installed your vid card driver? the one from vid card after asrock agp driver installed

 

[qsrk]

CnQ is disabled. AGP driver was installed after the freezing began. Vid card driver was installed after AGP driver install & reboot. Installed AMD drivers today (but not on last install of Windows), and also installed hotfix for dual-core CPUs. I did not have them installed when freezing occured previously, so perhaps installing them will improve compatibility. No freezing today, yet.

 

[designit]

If you have CnQ disabled you dont need AMD drivers, its for CnQ. you need to install the hotfix thu.

 

[qsrk]

The AMD Drivers are not just for CnQ, at least that's what's stated here and here.

 

[designit]

I dont know about the hotfix, but amd drivers are for CnQ(not sure about hotfix).
But in any case to be on safe side, enable the CnQ in bios. Just remember you can not overclck as good w/ CnQ on. I think you can overclcok it just a little (maybe 240 FSB/HTT).
And I believe the reason your system froze, was because you had AMD drivers installed but CnQ disabled, or Vice versa.
the 2 work in conjunction.

 

[qsrk]

I don't intend to overclock at all, and as stated two posts ago, my previous installation was freezing even with CnQ disabled, and no AMD drivers or hotfixes. If I do see freezing this time, I will enable CnQ to see if it helps.

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

I tried to overclock too, trying to see what happens to stability. I setup my Athlon64 3200+@2.4Ghz, HTT @4x (960 effective), DDR@166->(200 effective), machine is stable..but I have same problems...cold boot problem on SATA1 and XP is not loading at all on SATAII :-(

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION!!! We can end this thread!
I was having with overclocked system too...same problems (hardware machine check exception). Today I connected my Hitachi T7K250 (with latest firmware...upgraded by me) to the Asrock 939 Dual SATA2 of a friend in front of my home . I connected it on the red sataII controller.....and XP loaded correctly many times! All was working good! It was very fast and stable...no machine error exception, no cold boot problems. I noticed his motherboard was the *same* hardware revision as mine, R1.04, same bios. But mine is defective and his motherboard not! So.....RMA this board! Some boards have SATA/SATAII controller defective! I already contacted the shop, I asked for a fast RMA....I hope I will get soon a new motherboard with *all* working good! End of story for me....I hope

 

[qsrk]

I hope that works for you, and for me, when I have the time. Just beware that plugging / unplugging the HDD can sometimes have the effect of one to several days of stability.

EDIT: Also, unless your hardware is exactly the same, you can't rule out hardware conflicts.

I know it's unlikely, but what if the (loose) SATA connectors oxidize over time? With plugging and unpugging, they may get scraped and work well for a short period.

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

1) I tried many cables....this is NOT the problem. I used the same cable I am using now (hdd is connected on sata1 controller...on sata2 I can't start XP)

2) hardware was very similar:
his config is:
3500+
939dual sata2
Ati 9800 128MB
Creative Audigy
2 maxtor ide drives (that I disconnected)
other optical devices (I tried my hdd alone without optical devices but still I get XP freezing in booting on mine, on his system all is working good)

It's not a question of oxide, connectors are new for me...can't see any sign of oxid. Never worked so good my Hitachi on that motherboard. On his motheboard it was running fast and without any problem or BSOD! Believe me, qsrk, we have a defective motherboard!

 

[designit]

Originally posted by: Athlon64SSE3
I HAVE FOUND THE SOLUTION!!! We can end this thread!
I was having with overclocked system too...same problems (hardware machine check exception). Today I connected my Hitachi T7K250 (with latest firmware...upgraded by me) to the Asrock 939 Dual SATA2 of a friend in front of my home . I connected it on the red sataII controller.....and XP loaded correctly many times! All was working good! It was very fast and stable...no machine error exception, no cold boot problems. I noticed his motherboard was the *same* hardware revision as mine, R1.04, same bios. But mine is defective and his motherboard not! So.....RMA this board! Some boards have SATA/SATAII controller defective! I already contacted the shop, I asked for a fast RMA....I hope I will get soon a new motherboard with *all* working good! End of story for me....I hope

Finally........
Now are we going to hear some upbeat posts about your experience w/ this board ?

 

[imported_Imp]

I should also add that I finally put my RMA'd DVD back in (Oblivion disc wasn't recognized in 6 year old Hitachi). While doing this, I also saw that my board was revision 1.04. So it IS possible that we may have all gotten a bad batch, which is BS anyways. But like qrsk said, may just be hardware conflicts. Also, don't forget that I once went ONE complete week with no BSODs or cold-boot; it went on to die on day 7. Don't fall into the ASsRock trap, you are sounding like me when I found "solutions" 5 times. Although, seriously hope you get it fixed by RMA. I'm still happy with my IDE, its loudness is comforting...

*Just looked back to when I asked about your revisions. Looks like I got 1.04, Athlon has 1.04, think Carstea said 1.04 and qrsk has 1.04. Professor said 1.00, but I'm guessing he got it from CPU-Z like I did, which is wrong. Also, OCWorkbench people had problems with 1.04, but not 1.05. Bad batch??? I originally thought this up, guess I was in the denial stage (I have since moved on to bargaining, guess acceptance is coming up?). If it was a bad batch, ASsholes could have sent out some type of notice...

 

[LinuxBravo]

Congratulation!
Nice to hear your mobo work well as mine.

 

[qsrk]

congrats to who?

 

[qsrk]

Athlon, do you have a floppy drive in your system? If so, and if you haven't RMA'd your board yet, can you disconnect it and let us know if helps?

EDIT: Don't bother - I thougt it might be helping me, but I was wrong. I have exhausted all attempts and configurations, and more than a reasonable amount of patience. I will proceed with my RMA ASAP.

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

Yes I have a floppy drive...but my motherboard today is arrived to Rome ihih maybe tomorrow it will be in the shop where I buyed it . Qsrk, I think revision is not a factor that can help with this problem. I tried my hdd on another asrock 1.04 same bios and it was working perfectly. I think it was a bad batch. I hope that this will let disappear all us problems....I'm tired of trying things to let it work. Does it exist a 1.05 revision?? So I hope to get one ;-). I wrote on a paper (sent to the shop togheter with mobo) to test sata2 controller of the motherboard they will send me. My controller never worked fine...even in the initial XP Setup...If they have success in installing XP in sata2 mode and rebooting and starting it for a few times I think mobo is ok

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

Shop tested my motherboard with a Western Digital 200GB SATA2 and...it's working!! But I'm sure that If they send me back that motherboard, I get the same problem! How to tell them all that! :-( My motherboard doesn't like my hard disk and my hdd hates my motherboard but loves motherboard of a friend :-(( what can I suggest them now?? Very strange problem...

 

[qsrk]

Can you take your hard drive with you to the shop? That is what I am planning on doing, but I am concerned that the problem may not show up immediately when they run their tests. Might even take the whole computer, but it's heavy and I'd be worried about static during travel, and disassembling my components in the shop. I wish ASRock could just advance RMA like many other manufacturers.

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

no...i sent my motherboard to the shop...I buyed it online. I buyed my hard drive in another shop near my home...so I don't want to send them my hard drive, that could get damaged in the trip

 

[Gstanfor]

Hi guys, have not read all the way through this thread yet, but, having read a fair bit on these boards it seems to me that there are two problems in general.

1) SATA ?SATA II support is flaky

2) The motherboard doesn't seem to like optical drives on the ATA connectors. It also seems to prefer ATA HDD's to SATA drives.

My suggestion would be to pick up a cheap IDE controller card (preferably non raid) something like this one and connect your optical drives to that. It's what I currently do with my nForce2 board since the nForce 1 & 2 series has always been slightly weird when it comes to optical storage. When I get my cpu in and set up my Asrock it's the way I'll set it up also.

I'd also avoid using SATA hard drives if at all possible (not a problem for me, all my drives are currently ATA) and see if that solves your issues.

Someone on ArsTechnica forums discovered that some power supplies (he had an Antec model) do not supply -5 volts anymore. Apparently this board requies -5V to function properly.

Perhaps it may be beneficial to place a small heatsink on the clock generator chip (the ICS chip beside the PCI-e 1x slot) - some of you feel the boards gets more unstable with time, perhaps the chip overheats?

One last thing, can people list their board revision in their posts - mine is a V1.05

 

[Athlon64SSE3]

Today arrived my new Asrock 939 Dual SATA2, I asked for a rev 1.05 and receveid it today! I just connected my HDD with previous XP installation (with SATA2 driver already installed) on red connector SATAII and turned SATA mode ON and STRONG mode too! XP loads very fast! All is working good! Only 4 hours to mount and remount all...because of a stupid connector of the floppy with a pin not connected but now all is ok! I hope it's stable too...XP now loads perfectly!

 

[imported_Imp]

:thumbsup:Good to hear you got it fixed. :thumbsup: Now, wish they would admit they let a pos batch out.

 

[carstea]

hi there. i gave up long time ago figuring it out what was going wrong with my board and the problems with the sataII HD connected to the sataII port. The system has run for about two months now with out any problems. all i did was moving the sataII HD from the sata II port to the sata_1 controller(i had previously intalled the sataII drivers on it, now on sata1 i have not intalled any drivers). I havent reintalled windows and i hope i dont have to for more than a year now.
i could have rma it but i didnt want to mind all the trouble of mounting and unmounting the system. i still have 1.5 years of warranty and if something get's wrong i just can't wait to replace it with another brand of MB.
after all this time all i can say for sure is that the sataII connector is bad, faulty or defective or how damn do you call it in english