ASUS P5WDG2 WS PRO: Using SATA connectors not on Southbridge

[egd]

Hi

I have the abovementioned board with the following config:
BIOS version : 0905
CPU: Quad Core Q6600
RAM: 4GB
Adaptec 29160 (Ultra 160 SCSI) Card, BIOS v3.10.0
HighPoint RocketRAID Card

HDD: 1 x 250GB SATA Samsung SP2504C [yep I know buyer beware ]
HDD: 1 x 80GB SATA WDC WD800JD-75MSA1
DVD/RW: 1 x Samsung SH-S203B SATA
DVD/RW: 4 x Samsung SH-S223F SATA

Basically the board seems stable and until now I've not had any issues with it. In an attempt to use the PC as a ripping station for my cd collection I went out and bought abovementioned DVD/RW's and installed them in the box.

Two of the DVD/RWs are connected to the SATA connectors on the Intel ICH7R Southbridge.
The remaining three are connected to the SATA connectors controlled by the on-board Marvell 88SE614x.

On-board device configuration:
Marvell SATA Controller: Enabled
Marvell Boot ROM: Disabled

Because I'm running WinXP on the box, I have IDE configuration set as follows:
Configure SATA as: Std IDE, Enhanced Mode
Enhanced mode support on: S-ATA

In any event, none of the SATA devices connected to the on-board Marvell 88SE614x are visible, although they are powered up (confirmed). When looking in the BIOS, the PC configures itself as follows:
Primary IDE Master: Not detected
Primary IDE Slave: Not detected
Third IDE Master: Detected
Third IDE Slave: Detected
Fourth IDE Master: Detected
Fourth IDE Slave: Detected

Which basically represents only the devices connected to the Southbridge.

I've tried setting the BIOS "Configure SATA as" to AHCI and I've also changed Marvell Boot ROM to enabled and nothing has made any difference.

I've no idea what to look at next to resolve this, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[tcsenter]

My initial hunch would be the Marvell controller supports only hard drives, not optical SATA drives. My second hunch would be the Marvell controller supports optical drives but is more buggy with them. Even Intel recommends avoiding the Marvell ports for SATA optical drives on its 975X and X38 boards.

Try unplugging one of the optical drives connected to the Marvell ports. Could also be some firmware/BIOS glitch with those particular Samsung units.

 

[egd]

Thanks for your response. I tried swapping HDD's to the Marvell ports and came up with the same result - whatever gets connected to the Marvell ports is not recognised. I resorted to installing a Promise SATA300 TX4 controller and disabling the Marvell chipset as a stopgap and now have the drives working, albeit I remember from previous experience that all of these cards cannot co-exist happily on this board, so unless a recent BIOS update has solved the problem, as soon as I attach something to the 2322 controller I'll have to remove the TX4.

Why Asus keep insisting on using those 2nd rate Marvell chips on so called premium boards is beyond me. When I'm next in the market for a board, if it has Marvell SATA chips on board there is no way I'll go near it.

 

[tcsenter]

BIOS V1.6 for RR-2322 appears to have implemented a solution for this:

v1.6 07/02/2007
* Fix EBDA reallocate issue if other SCSI controller also reallocate it

See RR23xx FAQ

The latest BIOS is actually V1.7, which should include all previous changes:

http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/bios_rr2322.htm

 

[egd]

Thx, I'm running v1.7 on both my RocketRAID cards - have the same card in my P5E64WS Pro. I'm not sure whether I'd made the firmware updates post or prior my troubles getting the cards to coexist, so I may be in luck. Thanks again.

Having a look at the RR FAQ you referenced, I do recall doing this for an earlier version of the card's BIOS - I'll have to check whether or not I've configured them in the same manner at present.