Controller Errors

[Litewriter]

I have a Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD4 mobo, Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, with a Kingston 240GB SSD for the OS, a Samsung 120 GB SSD, 2 1TB drives in RAID1, and some miscellaneous other drives, all SATA. After running this set up specifying RAID for the SATA controllers and running my RAID1 from the mobo connections, and using a Vantec SATA II 300 IDE/PATA PCI-E host card with RAID and Port multiplier strictly for the additional SATA ports, my Windows 7 (64-bit, Pro) system refused to reboot after an update. I found that the SSDs will 'only' work with AHCI specified as the controller (and this after a year of successfully using RAID?). I changed the setting in the BIOS, rearranged what was connected to what and started using the Vantec card for my RAID1.

I started noticing I was getting controller errors (event ID 11 and 15) for external harddrives which were running from the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports. I'd turn one off, then reboot later and a different one would be triggering the errors. Now the Vantec seems to be the culprit.

Since the device changes, I'm beginning to wonder if it's the mobo at fault. How can I figure this out? What steps would you suggest? There are no updates for the BIOS for this mobo -- it's still at Rev. 1.0.

 

[Burpo]

There is a Bios update from January 13th, 2014, Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD4 (rev. 1.0) BIOS F2f Beta, but that was for an audio issue. Can you move the Vantec to a different slot?

 

[Litewriter]

Yes, but I already tried (and returned, thinking it was at fault) a HighPoint RAID card, which had the same problems on a different slot.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yes, but I already tried (and returned, thinking it was at fault) a HighPoint RAID card, which had the same problems on a different slot.

Z77 was the second-generation socket-1155 chipset. I quickly scanned through the specs (with my tired old Medicare-eligible eyes) for the Gigabyte mobo, just to get an idea of the PCI-E limitations. And I can see your problem manifests itself from external drive connections via USB3 or USB2.

What I can only suspect at this time is that you've approached a limit to use of motherboard resources -- shared IRQs etc. -- for your hardware configuration.

I say that I suspect this because I'd had similar problems with my ASUS Z68 board. There are limited PCI-E x16 slots, and the use of a third "x16" is limited to either x4, x1, or "unavailable" depending on whether other board features are in use.

For instance -- here's the background first -- I was having very intermittent (7 days to a month) BSODs, resets or freezes that began after I had "fully configured" my system. At the same time, I began to notice that the USB3 front-panel hub I'd connected to the onboard Asmedia controller (mobo: P8Z68-V Pro) was not working properly. Windows reported "not enough resources." And at the time, I was using the onboard Intel SATA controller, the onboard Marvell controller, the onboard Silly-Image eSATA controller (which was at least "enabled") and the Asmedia USB3. Further, I was using ISRT to pair an SATA-III SSD with an SATA-II HDD.

There is a litany of threads and posts here in the forums where I'd sought insight for my troubleshooting beginning last January. Plenty of helpful remarks, but nobody figured it out, and too many were saying "it's your overclock settings!" But tests -- resetting everything to stock -- proved that the overclock had nothing to do with it.

Among other things (like replacing the SSD-caching with a single SSD), I disabled the Silly Image, moved the drives from Marvell to Intel and disabled the Marvel controller, and disabled the Asmedia controller. Once the latter two were disabled, I knew according to the mobo manual that my third PCI-E "x16" slot would at least run as x4, and I put a Hoo-Too USB3 controller in that slot.

All the problems had disappeared.

Now as to your current configuration. You have REALLY jammed up your system with hard disk storage. You say you've specified RAID "for the SATA controllerS" plural, so I suspect you're using all the SATA controllers on the motherboard, or more than one.

Check the mobo manual for a table of shared resources. Try and temporarily simplify and reduce your hardware configuration. Turn off stuff that you're not planning to use, and turn off temporarily those things not in use after simplifying your storage configuration. Then see if you're still having problems with the USB configurations. You should NOT have trouble with USB2. You may find that you no longer are having trouble with USB3.

But it's a bit early to think you have a defective motherboard. It just may not be the motherboard you need for all the storage options you want.

It is possible to use two PCI-E SATA controllers in APPROPRIATE slots, but as I'm doing that in my server, I TURNED OFF the onboard controller to avoid further problems. And that wasn't the Z68 machine that had been giving me trouble.

Are you using SLI or Crossfire graphics in two x16 slots?

 

[Litewriter]

Bonzai Duck -- thank you for your informative reply! I will certainly look into this. However, the first thing that comes to mind is that I'm only using one PCI-e slot -- where the Vantec RAID card is plugged in. I'm not video intensive, so I decided with this build to use the onboard graphics since the Core i7 could handle the graphics for me. However, you make me wonder if this could be part of the problem.

Both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 slots that I'm using are part of the mobo, not addons. Only the 1TB external is truly able to use the USB 3.0.

You're correct that I'm using all the available SATA slots on the mobo. 2 are for SSDs -- the OS drive and another that I'm going to use for Photoshop scratch files. One is for my DVD drive. I'm a photographer, and the RAID1 is for my original images. I use CrashPlan to backup everything to the cloud, but I had been using some of the external drives prior to signing up for CrashPlan. Internal drives are partitioned and used for various other things -- documents, downloads, a few movies (slideshows more than video), music. I probably could consolidate some of them onto one drive. My preference would be to keep the same configuration of course.

This build is only about 1.5 years old, so I really hate to start thinking about an upgrade already. From what you're saying though, I need to look for components that can handle lots of drives on SATA, if I want to continue using the drives that I currently have. Do you have some suggestions?

I'll post my research results here. It might be a few days though -- in the middle of some other projects too. Of course, that's why the computer is acting out....

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Bonzai Duck -- thank you for your informative reply! I will certainly look into this. However, the first thing that comes to mind is that I'm only using one PCI-e slot -- where the Vantec RAID card is plugged in. I'm not video intensive, so I decided with this build to use the onboard graphics since the Core i7 could handle the graphics for me. However, you make me wonder if this could be part of the problem.

Both the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 slots that I'm using are part of the mobo, not addons. Only the 1TB external is truly able to use the USB 3.0.

You're correct that I'm using all the available SATA slots on the mobo. 2 are for SSDs -- the OS drive and another that I'm going to use for Photoshop scratch files. One is for my DVD drive. I'm a photographer, and the RAID1 is for my original images. I use CrashPlan to backup everything to the cloud, but I had been using some of the external drives prior to signing up for CrashPlan. Internal drives are partitioned and used for various other things -- documents, downloads, a few movies (slideshows more than video), music. I probably could consolidate some of them onto one drive. My preference would be to keep the same configuration of course.

This build is only about 1.5 years old, so I really hate to start thinking about an upgrade already. From what you're saying though, I need to look for components that can handle lots of drives on SATA, if I want to continue using the drives that I currently have. Do you have some suggestions?

I'll post my research results here. It might be a few days though -- in the middle of some other projects too. Of course, that's why the computer is acting out....

Several options, some expensive. You could, for instance, get something like an 8-port RAID controller. Even a 4-port controller might cost you $350 or more.

You still didn't say what the BIOS settings were per add-on features. It's a Z77 mobo, so I suspect they still use an add-on controller like my Z68 Asmedia. What about the ubiquitous eSATA controller on the board? does it have one? Mine, I believe, is Silicon IMage.

I used to implement RAID on all my mobos. I'd also used hardware RAID controllers -- Highpoint, Adaptec, 3Ware.

I follow the KISS principle now, and configure my onboard controllers to AHCI.

what YOU need and what you want is another constraint on "simplification." Just simplify where you can until you can get to the bottom of this.

 

[Litewriter]

Bonzai Duck,

I only want to have one RAID 1 array, and the Vantec (using JMicron) is providing that. It's sitting in a PCI-e X1 slot. The other PCI-e X1 slot has a firewire external and internal connection board (I don't know what brand), but I'm not using it. I could possibly move the Vantec to one of the PCI-e X16 slots (one at x16, the other at x4) since they're empty now. I'll need to research this to see what it's capable of doing.

There is only the one onboard SATA controller, set for AHCI.

THe onboard USB 2.0 controller is enabled.

The Intel RST and Smart Connect are both disabled.

The board has 2 USB 2.0 rear connectors, and 2 USB 3.0 rear connectors - that's where the external drives are connected.

The manual states that the I/O Controller is an iTE I/O Controller chip.

I can't find anything about an eSata controller, although the Vantec has 2 rear eSATA ports which I'm not using.

I'm not sure if any of this answers your questions. I did disconnect the 1TB USB 3.0 drive and have not had any of the Controller errors since. Actually, although the other 2 externals (in one Kingwin box) are plugged into the USB 3.0 port, but they're only using USB 2.0. I do have two USB hubs connected - one is a 4 port USB 3.0 (connected to the USB 3.0 port, and that's where the USB 3.0 1TB drive was connected). The second hub is in a USB 2.0 port. These have my camera, Wacom tablet, and printers attached, and a USB extension cable that I use for card readers, etc. that I want to use briefly.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Bonzai Duck,

I only want to have one RAID 1 array, and the Vantec (using JMicron) is providing that. It's sitting in a PCI-e X1 slot. The other PCI-e X1 slot has a firewire external and internal connection board (I don't know what brand), but I'm not using it. I could possibly move the Vantec to one of the PCI-e X16 slots (one at x16, the other at x4) since they're empty now. I'll need to research this to see what it's capable of doing.

There is only the one onboard SATA controller, set for AHCI.

THe onboard USB 2.0 controller is enabled.

The Intel RST and Smart Connect are both disabled.

The board has 2 USB 2.0 rear connectors, and 2 USB 3.0 rear connectors - that's where the external drives are connected.

The manual states that the I/O Controller is an iTE I/O Controller chip.

I can't find anything about an eSata controller, although the Vantec has 2 rear eSATA ports which I'm not using.

I'm not sure if any of this answers your questions. I did disconnect the 1TB USB 3.0 drive and have not had any of the Controller errors since. Actually, although the other 2 externals (in one Kingwin box) are plugged into the USB 3.0 port, but they're only using USB 2.0. I do have two USB hubs connected - one is a 4 port USB 3.0 (connected to the USB 3.0 port, and that's where the USB 3.0 1TB drive was connected). The second hub is in a USB 2.0 port. These have my camera, Wacom tablet, and printers attached, and a USB extension cable that I use for card readers, etc. that I want to use briefly.

Is it THIS Vantec? . . .

http://www.vantecusa.com/en/product/view_detail/578

Specs say x4, x8, x16 slot.

I never thought to determine whether the physical slots of x1 PCI-E were the same size as x4. I have an x16 which only works as x4.

Mmm . . . you're talking about a different model? That has IDE and SATA-II (300)?

Move it to the x4 slot anyway, unless you need that slot for something.

Again, check the motherboard manual. You can't just populate all the PCI-E slots on many motherboards. You use one slot, then resources may be withdrawn for something else.

If you ask me, and from what you're saying ("two USB hubs" etc.) your system is overloaded with too much . . . stuff. I explained how my own motherboard didn't have enough resources to connect a USB3 hub to the onboard 20-pin Asmedia port.

Personally, I wouldn't have that many hubs connected. I'd use a 4-port USB3 hub for both types of devices. Do you need to have that many extra USB ports?

I use several USB2 ports at the mobo I/O panel -- kybd, mouse, joystick . . . game-controller . . etc. Joy and game I only plug in one at a time. I use my USB drives as backup devices, unmount, disconnect, unpower and remove them when the backup is done. Even my camera -- I connect it when I want to upload photos, then unmount, disconnect and unpower.

I've seen other folks here load up a system with piles of SSDs and HDDs. If a person were going to do that, it would be better to have a NAS or server. Remember the KISS principle.

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to have a two-disk RAID1 on a separate controller from that of the boot/system disk, and there should be several configurations that are within your hardware resources. But they way you're describing the system -- I only suspect that it's "choked up."

Tablet . . . printer(S)? Do you have any other desktop computers? If you do, do you have them on an Ethernet LAN? Some -- many-- printers provide Ethernet as well as USB connectivity. We've got three printers in the house for 5 systems, two of which plug into Ethernet hubs/switches.

Definitely true, though, if you need some single drives on AHCI-mode, you need a separate controller for the RAID1.

I want someone else to come in here and either challenge/correct me, or offer an opinion. I think you're trying to connect too much stuff to one machine. That's why I don't sell my older computers. Ethernet switches can be had for <=$50; RJ-45-terminated cables are cheap; you can even throw wireless Ethernet into the mix. You can do peer-to-peer sharing; share printers; put a scanner on one machine; printer on another.

You can add a NAS device, an old computer commandeered to be a server, other workstations. There's just a limit to the number of things you can connect to one machine and expect it all to work on demand.

I think you can sort all this out, and just removing the USB3 drive seemed to indicate the kind of problems you're running into with this.

Some folks have said in other threads that they just leave their USB drives running and connected, but I explained what I do with mine.