Problems with Silicon Image 3124 FakeRAID controller, need help

[Beer4Me]

System specs:
C2Q Q9300 (stock clock and stock cooler)
GIGABYTE GA-P45T-ES3G
8 GB DDR3-1333 ram
Kingston 64 GB V100 SSD
2 x HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.C 1 TB hdd's, running in RAID 1
1 x Silicon Image 3124 4-port sata-ii PCI soft/fake raid controller
Antec True Power 650 Watt PSU
Antec 900 case

Background:
Fresh install Win 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 w/ all updates, latest drivers, including Intel RST.
Motherboard, RAM, SSD, HDD's and PSU are all brand new - courtesy of Hot Deals.

Problem:
System ran great until I added the controller card.
Now everytime I boot up, the system takes forever getting past "Verifying DMI pool data" after POST. Win 7 hard freezes, locks up during the intial splash screen.
Once I take the RAID card out, computer is fine.
This is the 2nd RAID controller card, as the first one did the same thing, and it turned out to be defective (caps were leaking).
But this was is a different brand.
RAID card has latest 6.6.00 BIOS, and I'm using the latest 1.5.23 driver.

EVEN BEFORE I upgraded to new parts, my system was having these issues. I've tried different PCI slots on the board, same issue.

Anyone have experience with these SI cards?

 

[Spikesoldier]

i had problems with a similar card using the same exact same SI controller. i ended up returning it.

 

[Cerb]

If you need uptime, get a real RAID controller, or quality software RAID (only available on *n*xes and Windows Server OSes). Intel's may be acceptable, but you got the wrong mobo to try that out, I believe.

If you need backup, get backup software, not RAID.

I can't say I've seen symptoms remotely like that, but it was far too easy to hose the RAID array with such a card (Rosewill SI 3132), and there was not a way to check the disks without doing so (big vendor BIOS issues with bootable CDs using DOS). It now runs the non-RAID firmware, and everything is peachy...with file backups, not RAID.

 

[Beer4Me]

Spikesoldier: Interesting...

Cerb: Yea, my board has ICH10 not 10R. Oddly enough it supports RAID0, just not 1.
The Rosewill sil 3124 was the first card I tried, and it bombed. Caps started leaking after 2 weeks. It's currently under RMA. I bought a Syba Sil3124, and that is what I'm testing now.
What functionality do you get with the non-RAID firmware? Just turns them into plain-jane sata-ii ports I assume?

 

[Spikesoldier]

Spikesoldier: Interesting...

Cerb: Yea, my board has ICH10 not 10R. Oddly enough it supports RAID0, just not 1.
The Rosewill sil 3124 was the first card I tried, and it bombed. Caps started leaking after 2 weeks. It's currently under RMA. I bought a Syba Sil3124, and that is what I'm testing now.
What functionality do you get with the non-RAID firmware? Just turns them into plain-jane sata-ii ports I assume?

bingo.

the issue i think i had was it not detecting correctly. sounds like what the hang at bootup would do.

i hear the port multipliers dont work so only two ports out of the four would work.

1 2 3 4

try using 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 instead of 1&2 or 3&4.

 

[Cerb]

Just turns them into plain-jane sata-ii ports I assume?

Yes, and, depending on the chip, hot-swap support, and good support for optical drives.

 

[Beer4Me]

Posting from my desktop now... Spikesoldier: I tried various combinations of aforementioned sata ports on the controller along with new sata cables. Same problem as before. To be safe, I also ran Hitachi fitness test (the long one - Advanced) on both drives overnight, and both came back clean. So the drives aren't the issue.

Well I know now that these things don't play nice with Win 7. Unfortunate it is. I just bought a Highpoint Rocketraid 1720 PCI on ebay, so we'll see how that goes...

This has definitely left a sour taste in my mouth regarding Silicon Image products.

EDIT: the controller and 2 x 1 TB drives are unplugged. Only have the 64 GB SSD and a 2 TB USB external connected to my desktop for now.

 

[Beer4Me]

Returned the Syba silicon image controller back to Amazon for refund. I received a replacement RMA from Newegg for the Rosewill card, but I won't use it.

Received the Highpoint 1720 RAID controller, and it works beautifully. Had to flash the BIOS to v 1.1 and had to google Windows 7 drivers as they werent on the US Highpoint website.

RAID 1 with 2 Hitachi 1 TB 7200 rpm hdd's working flawlessly.
Best part is that the card was only $25 shipped from Ebay (used). Carry on.