Sorry if this is a bit wordy, I'm trying to be as clear as possible while putting my thoughts and memories of the last week into words.
I'm having some issues with my new build. I was trying to use a OCZ Vertex 2 (120GB) SSD as my boot drive, with a Seagate Barracuda 1TB as my storage drive. Of course I have a DVD burner in the mix as well. All 3 of these devices I had connected to the Intel SATA controller on ports 0, 1, and 2.
The board shipped with the F5 BIOS. First thing I did before installing Win7 was to upgrade to the latest and greatest BIOS (F8) so I can't say whether this would have occurred on the earlier version.
Upon the initial install of Windows, I noticed that even with an SSD it took much, much longer than usual to get the base install completed. Normally you can have Win7 installed and looking at a desktop within 20-30min before drivers and Windows updates. This took over an hour. Once at the desktop, attempting to do anything that required HD access was met with about a 30-60 second pause while Windows "thought about it". Clicking on anything else at that time resulted in getting a "(Not responding)" message, until it suddenly decided to work. I chalked it up to not having correct drivers installed yet so I stuck it out to the end - including Windows Updates - hoping it would clear up. It did not.
I then began to suspect the SSD was to blame, so I disconnected it and started the install process all over again on the Barracuda. This was marginally faster, however every 3rd or 4th boot would hang at the Windows splash screen. No errors, no blue screens, nothing would get past it other than a hard reset and once that was done it would boot up into a startup repair screen, which never found any problems. Ultimately this ended up trashing the Windows build somehow and would simply go from POST, to Windows splash screen, to BSOD, then loop back to POST.
Both of these drives were used on my previous system build (which was in use up to the night I accumulated all the pieces to build the new one) so I was fairly certain they functioned fine.
On a whim, and running out of troubleshooting options I decided to connect the the Barracuda and my DVD to the Marvell controller ports and activated the controller in the BIOS. The Marvell controller recognized the HD but not the DVD, regardless of which of the two ports I connected them to(This was curious, but the least of my concerns). Of course it would not boot from the HD due to it being installed and configured from the Intel controller, so I connected the DVD to the Intel controller and left the Barracuda HD on the Marvell controller then began the install process once again. Note that the DVD never seemed to have any issue with being connected to the Intel controller.
From this point forward everything POSTed, installed, configured and performs perfectly with either the Barracuda or the Vertex2 SSD connected to the Marvell controller.
After installing and setting everything up on the Barracuda connected to the Marvell Controller, I decided to connect the SSD back to the Intel controller to check the firmware version and possibly update it. Simply trying to boot the system with the SSD connected (but not trying to boot from it) initially resulted in a handful a blue screens, but then cleared up and I was/am able to run the system using the Barracuda on the Marvell controller as my boot drive. When I attempt to access the SSD (on the Intel controller), it hangs, lags, simply disappears, and other such similar things. the OCZ toolbox software (Not in any particular order) initially sees the drive, then it doesn't, then it says the drive was unplugged, then it says its an unsupported drive, then returns to being able to see the drive.
So, bottom line.. as far as I can tell the Intel SATA controller on my board is not healthy. After searching these forums and Google I have not seen this similar problem on this motherboard.
I'm now wondering if the BIOS has anything to do with it but skeptical of downgrading it for fear of bricking it. I've tried changing multiple settings within the BIOS as well as using the optimized defaults and none have improved anything.
I've already started the return/exchange process with Newegg but would LOVE if I didn't have to tear this thing apart, ship it back and wait for the replacement to arrive.
Has anyone seen or heard of this problem? Suggestions, comments?
Thanks...
