Asrock Dual SATA2 freezes/hangs when loading Windows

[Black Raven]

ASRock 939dual-SATA2 mobo

Problem:

Windows crashes and/or fails to load properly
Hard drive light is stuck on during long pauses/freeze
Mouse movement will stutter followed by Windows lockup

Diagnosis:

Memtest86 fails on memory test when BIOS legacy USB support is enabled

Solution:

Disable BIOS legacy USB support
Windows does not crash/freeze and/or pause anymore
Windows loads every time without delay and/or lockup

Try this out and let me know if it works for you.

Rick


San Diego 3700+
ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2 bios 1.5
nVidia TNT2 Riva AGP4x
Samsung 250 GB SATA2
Windows XP Pro SP2
2 x 1 GB Buffalo PC3200

 

[EKTELESTES]

good find mate

I fixed the prob by putting my dvd-rw on the secondary ide controller and set it to master, every time it was on the primary controller, windows would take 4-5 mins to load!...

ps. Tnt 2 on such a great pc is a disgrace..

 

[qsrk]

Black Raven, Legacy USB Support was actually already disabled on my mobo when I was having problems. In one of my previous posts, I suggested turning it on to see if it helps! Anyway, glad it worked for you. For me RMA'ing the board was the only fix. It also seems to let me run my RAM at stock timings of 2-3-2-5. On the defective board, I had to relax them a bit to avoid memtest errors.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Guys, I am building my second system based on this ASRock board and running into issues that I believe are related to the SATA/SATAII controller. My first build used a PATA hard drive and has been running fine with a nice overclock for almost 8 months.

With my new build, I am trying to use a WD2500KS (SATA II). I have tried installing WinXP pro using the SATA II port in "IDE mode". Windows setup properly detects the drive and everything seems to install properly. The problem occurs when Windows reboots. 3 out of 4 times, the system gets a BSOD and instantly reboots when Windows is loading. If I disable automatic reboot, I can see that the errors are related to a failure to load some OS files. Further, in the Event Viewer, I see many system errors labeled as "disk error". Obviously this is a problem with the hard drive or controller.

I am finding all sorts of conflicting information on the web about the SATA and SATA II ports on this mobo. Some insist that you need to load the SATAII drivers before you install the OS, but in the mobo manual it clearly states that you don't need to install these drivers if you use the SATAII port in "IDE mode". This is what I have done, and there are all kinds of problems. As a temporary solution I have tried moving the drive to one of the SATA I ports, but I haven't had time to see if it helped, because I had to go to work.

Has agreement been reached regarding what is causing these reboot issues on this board when using the SATA ports??? I consider myself to be pretty knowledegable and good at troubleshooting, and I have built many systems, including those using SATA II drives, but this one is driving me crazy. Any help you could provide would be appreciated.

PS: I have run Memtest86+ and Prime95 torture test from a bootable CD and both run without errors.

 

[Black Raven]

Firstly, this asrock mobo is one mofo to try and fix but then it runs solid once you find a solution.

"Obviously this is a problem with the hard drive or controller." - KillrBuckey

No this is not obvious because I fixed the same kind of problem on my asrock mobo by disabling USB legacy support from the BIOS, i.e. switch to PS/2 keyboard & mouse.

Regards,
Rick

Hint: don't use memtest86+ instead use memtest86 from a floppy boot disk


San Diego 3700+
ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2 bios 1.5
nVidia TNT2 Riva AGP4x (temporary)
Samsung 250 GB SATA2
Windows XP Pro SP2
2 x 1 GB Buffalo PC3200

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Originally posted by: Black Raven
Firstly, this asrock mobo is one mofo to try and fix but then it runs solid once you find a solution.

"Obviously this is a problem with the hard drive or controller." - KillrBuckeye

No this is not obvious because I fixed the same kind of problem on my asrock mobo by disabling USB legacy support from the BIOS, i.e. switch to PS/2 keyboard & mouse.

Regards,
Rick

Hint: don't use memtest86+ instead use memtest86 from a floppy boot disk

Well I don't have any USB devices attached as my mouse and keyboard are both PS/2. Also, I tried running chkdsk on my Windows partition and it froze during the test while attached to the SATAII port! I switched to a SATAI port and chkdsk ran without any problems. Pretty much every piece of evidence thus far points to a SATA II controller issue. I've dealt with my fair share of memory/CPU/mobo problems on other systems since I like to overclock, and this problem seems different in nature. I'm hoping the switch to SATAI fixes my problems, but I'm not very optimistic.

PS: Why do you recommend memtest86 instead of memtest86+? Both are run from a bootable floppy or CD, and my understanding is that memtest86+ just uses the basic memtest86 test and adds support for newer mobo chipsets since memtest86 is no longer supported by its creator.

 

[Black Raven]

Your hard drive problem sounds similar to mine, just try this...

1) boot the memtest86 and test for errors (yes, you must use memtest86)
2) disable the USB Legacy Support in BIOS (ignore the ps/2 stuff I said earlier)
3) re-test using memtest86 (errors should be gone)

There, that fixed the SATA2 hard drive problem for me.

Good luck,
Rick

P.S. The drive freezing up may have corrupted XP so do a reinstall as step 4.

 

[DavidS1]

Hi folks,

I've been struggling with all the usual symptoms since trying to install a Maxtor 300GB SATA2 drive on my ASRock Dual SATA m/b: indefinite running blue line on the initial boot-up, failure to reach the login screen, freezing, ... blah-blah-blah.

For me, the epiphany came when I examined the JAHCI.SYS file in windows\system32\drivers. I could see that it had a modification date that was much too early and didn't match the other driver files installed when I set up the m/b. So I manually deleted that file and replaced it with a fresh one from the ASRock download site zip. That was it! Next boot, no problems, straight into Windows, drive was there and has performed faultlessly since. Whoopee!

My theory is that Windows already comes with an old version of JAHCI.SYS and somehow it's not getting replaced when we load the drivers. I assume the old one is not compatible with our m/b.

Obviously, your mileage may vary but it fixed everything for me. I offer it for what it's worth with my best wishes.

*8^)

PS: I tried disabling USB Legacy Support as suggested by Black Raven but it didn't help for me.

 

[Begotten]

Hello all,

im new to the "wonderfull" world of Asrock and blue screen with a 300gigs Maxtor SataII drive.

I tried everything in this thread to install winXP, always with the same result: a blue screen with the code:
Stop: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, something, somethig, 0x805C749A)
I tried to put my sataii drive in ide mode, in the sata connector.
Putting my dvdrom as a master in the IDE0 channel.
About every combination possible.
Upgrading my bios from 1.50 to 2.10
I always get the same errors:
A BSOD with the above error or "a file cannot be copied..."
It seems that the drive completely desapear when installing windows.
Every time that happens i need to shut down the power and restart, if i only press the reset button i cant see the drive (even in the bios).

But last night i managed to get it work.
I removed everything from my USB port. (i had a card reader, my mouse and usb expender).
The installation went well. (Only a freeze in the last configuration about login names and network). But when i booted everything was OK.

My installation was:
1.0- SataII drive in the sataII port (and in sata mode in the bios)
1.1- DVD-ROM in IDE0 as a master (no other disk in the compter)
2- Nothing in the USB port
3- Hitting F6 in the windows setup


I hope "someone" will fix this problem because it's my first ASrock board and probably my last.

My Spec
Venice 3200+
2 x 514Meg Kingston
300 gigs DiamondMax 10 Maxtor SataII drive
ATI 9600 Rage AGP
ASrock 939Dual bios 2.10
Windows XP pro sp2

 

[qsrk]

Have you tried installing on a SATAI port? The SATAII port/controller could be defective as it was on my mobo and Athlon64SSE3's mobo. Only RMA'ing fixed the problem for us.

 

[Begotten]

Yes, i did and i got the same result. A lot of blue screen.

 

[qsrk]

I got a lot of BSODs with my first ASrock mobo (I'm on my third). With that, I had installed Windows in IDE mode on the SATAII port, and then installed the SATAII drivers from Windows. Installing the SATAII drivers during initial Windows setup seemed to help me.

 

[Begotten]

On a french board, Forum Hardware
A lot of peoples are having problems with a Maxtor Sata2 (diamond max 10) and the mb asus a8n-sli. (some are talking about the asrock dual sata2)
These people are talking about a firmware from maxtor for there hard drive.

Anyone here have update there firmware from maxtor (of course if they have a maxtor hd)

thanks.

 

[OKIGiveIn]

:light:

Hi All
I'm new to these forums, but have just got a new Opteron and one of the "problem" ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 motherboards and thought I'd look around the forums before installing them.

One of the things I noticed in the manufacturer's website is that there are 2 BIOS's for each version - a Windows version and a DOS version. The DOS version is larger in all cases.

Would installing the DOS version help resolve what appear to be driver related Windows compatibility problems? Or reverse this if the DOS version is already installed.

Has anyone tried this?

 

[OKIGiveIn]

PS Which one should I install - if any?

 

[Gstanfor]

The dos/windows bios versions are just different ways to flash the BIOS. They won't do anything for windows driver problems. Just install the latest - V2.10.

You'll want to go here and here for drivers.

I've had this board for a while now, and other than getting over the shock of crappy realktek integrated audio (I came from nForce2 MCP-T) the board has been fantastic, rock solid and trouble free. Note that I don't overclock however.

 

[dazisgud]

Hi I was wondering what happens to your HD with this controller problem. I have the same MB and a 300gig seagate SATAI drive I dont remember what error happened but after a week my windows install corrupted and was not able to recover. I installed a IDE as master with a fresh OS an it works fine, I connected the SATAI and the seagate webtools tell me its bad but after that the OS on my IDE wouldnt boot up and the SATAI wasnt found on boot up. but after I disconnected my SATAI the IDE would boot up fine . the seagate tools tell me to RMA the HD but this would be the 2nd HD I have RMA on this MB so I'm looking for other causes.

thanks guys.

 

[qsrk]

I had to RMA a relatively new HD with MB too.

 

[Gstanfor]

I use only P-ATA (traditional IDE) drives with this motherboard and I've had no issues with them. I'd avoid SATA on this board, and frankly, I've yet to see a compelling reason to move to SATA from IDE (short of motherboard makers simply not providing P-ATA headers on motherboards). I'll be installing a 500 gig HDD soon, to replace an old 120 gig unit and it will be P-ATA, not SATA.

 

[Begotten]

It was a bad Hard drive (no more Maxtor for me and everyone i know)
now everything is working great!

 

[alternated]

I was wondering if you guys could help me with the problem I'm experiencing.

When trying to reformat using my WinXP Pro CD, my PC hangs on the ?Setup Windows Screen? part, just before you get the options to reformat.

I don?t know what to do, I?ve tried everything; including using different Hard Drives, sticks of RAM, CPUs, CD Drives, Video cards, and WinXp CDs. But it still restarts just before.

Here?s my PC?s spec:
AMD 64 3000 Venice
ASRock Dual SATA (Socket 939)
Geil 2x 512 pc3200 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
400 Watt PSU

I appreciate any help you guys can give, I'm totally stumped on this one.
Thanks.

 

[qsrk]

Try using a different SATA port. SATAI will probably be more reliable (either SATA1 or SATA2 - the black ones).

 

[alternated]

I have used both SATA 1 and 2 (I have a Seagate 80gb SATA Baracuda HD), and it still hangs when I get to that point. It does it when I use an IDE HD as well (in both IDE1 and 2).

It just freezes. If i press the Num Lock or Caps Lock nothing happens, so I think it freezes.

 

[alternated]

Don't make me cry

 

[Gstanfor]

I ca only suggest removing any overclock you may have in place, remove one stick of memory, flash to latest official bios, set bios defaults and try from there.