I'm dying here!!!

[Cr0nJ0b]

I'm trying to install the system listed in my sib below...and It's a mess. Most of my issues are storage related. some examples of my horror this weekend.

RAID on bottom four Light blue Intel SATA ports
DVD on 1 Blue Marvell port
WD drive on other dark blue marvell port
SSD on grey Intel 6GB port

1) RAID 0 FAILURE -- My Fault, but rebuilt data to WD2TB drive
2) reinstalled the os from scratch with the latest drivers -- intel's new Gig-e driver fails at boot, so I go back to the old one
3) WD drive won't show up as mapped drive letter. I go into store manager and it's there, healthy, but no assigned drive letter. I can assign it, but then it won't stay after reboot.
4) random lockups all of the time
5) Tried booting into linux 10.10 live CD just to get to the memtest, to see if that's the issue, but memtest just sits there...it's not running at all v4.10
6) rebuilt the intel raid0 volume with NEW drives, just to be safe. I can init the drives, but then when I go to format it the system will hang or the storage manager will crash....

I'm have decided at this point I will never buy another ASUS product again. It's the 3rd time I've gone down this road with their motherboards and I'm not going to do it again.

If I can't figure it out, I'll likely ebay this board and get a Gigabyte board...Damn I hate this!

 

[janas19]

Someone help this poor man.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

to add more to this, I can't seem to format my RAID volume now. It starts and then I get an error in the storage management page. "The operation failed to complete because the disk management console view is not up to date. refresh..." Can't refresh can't do anything but delete the volume.

If I didn't mention this, it's a fresh install with default settings in the BIOS.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I'm running the Intel Disk tools on my SSD and will download a current memtest to see if I can at least check the memory.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Drivers are:

Intel 10.8.0.1003 -- from 10/17/11 for Intel RAID
JMicron 1.17.58.2 -- now using this port
Marvell 91xx 1.0.0.1045 -- 8/27/2010

 

[Doougin]

do you have evything plugged in while your trying to do this all. id only have the ssd plugged in when id install the os. then plug the other drives in with no raid let them configure then raid. going the bare minimum then going thru the rest helps distinguish whats causing the problem.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

This is the latest from a full scan of the SSD.

Error: Data mismatch detected. Contact your reseller or local Intel representative for assistance.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

late night progress....I ran the SSD optimize and another full scan and this time it came back clean. I also found that the front of my new RAID 5 set was stamped with a 128MB protected volume that stopped the format process etc. Fixed that. Next my 2TB backup drive wouldn't get a drive letter...I could assign it, but then it would go away after reboot. Again using diskpart i found that for some reason the drive was set as hidden? all wierd stuff...

So far, I'm in pretty good shape. Haven't seen a lockup in hours and I'm now copying data back to the RAID set. Hopefully it will complete sometime tomorrow and I can get over this....ugh

 

[Railgun]

I'm all about RAID storage, and this is a little OT, but you're using 0 for your storage? That's a little risky isn't it?

 

[somethingsketchy]

I'm thinking the Marvell SATA controller might be at fault here. When you got the motherboard, did it come with a CD full of drivers, or did you download them from the manufacturer's website? Your best bet would be to go to the website and get the latest SATA drivers for the Marvell chip and the presumably second SATA chip (another Marvell?)

 

[Zap]

RAID on bottom four Light blue Intel SATA ports
DVD on 1 Blue Marvell port
WD drive on other dark blue marvell port
SSD on grey Intel 6GB port

Regarding the lockup issues, make sure everything is running fine at defaults before you try to tweak the BIOS. By this I mean BEFORE you reinstall Windows (if you go this route) clear BIOS to default settings and then change Intel controller to RAID mode, enable a fan profile if desired and make sure date/time is right. Don't change anything else!

I would put the DVD on the second Intel SATA 6G port. As Doougin said, have ONLY the DVD and the SSD drives hooked up for the Windows install, and reinstall Windows (if you are still having problems). Leave the Intel controller in RAID mode during the install. After Windows install, install drivers and do Windows Updates. Then, add the 4 drives and set up the RAID partition. After making sure Windows is happy, then add the solitary drive on the Marvell port.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Yeah, I'm thinking i have to go back through it all again. I'm still getting lockups doing data transfers between the RAID and my backup drive. I think the next items for me to pursue are:

1) Load and test memory with memtest86 disk.
2) Re-Install to the SSD with all defaults and RAID set, as mentioned above and have the marvell turned off completely.
3) swap out the SSD for a different drive to see if there might be an issue with the SSD.

man I hate this.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Well, I've exhausted all of the options that I can think of.

I reset the BIOS again, and then reloaded the OS to a single SATA drive (NEW). Nothing set in the BIOS other than RAID.

The OS loads, but when I added a USB Hard drive and did a data transfer the system locked up again.

I took out my sound card, and ran MEMTEST with no errors.

Marvell ports are turned off.

I'm just stumped here.

I finally called ASUS and I'm getting an RMA. I'm hopeful that it's a motherboard issue...if not, I'll be looking for a new motherboard, probably a similar Gigabyte board.

 

[Pheran]

While you are memtesting, also try HCI memtest. I had a nasty problem a while back with a bad DIMM that would survive memtest86+ for quite a long time, but HCI identified a problem right away.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

so, I called and setup a cross-ship for the motherboard and did the same for my Intel SSD. I figured kill two birds at once. The SSD was throwing errors on the full pass diagnostic, so I figured that could be a problem as well. I doubt it, but better safe than sorry.

Next I'll try the memtest thing with HCI, whatever that is.

 

[janas19]

Why do you keep setting the RAID in the BIOS if that's the aspect that most likely failed? I had a mobo that kept giving me the same error, "floppy drive failure," over and over. Finally I just disabled the floppy and got on with it. It worked fine other than that.

If you absolutely must have RAID, is there a way to locate the physical RAID controller? Is it on the board, or on the chipset? If it's on the board, it's possible you could manually replace it.