occasionally mobo can't find SATA devices after adding SSD, 890GPA-UD3H Rev2.0

[scottlindner]

I have been running my 890GPA-UD3H for over a year with a Seagate 1.5TB drive with an OS partition and data partition as an HTPC.  I recently added a SATA3 capable SSD as the OS drive for performance reasons and sometimes the mobo just drops all SATA devices.  If I remove the SSD it works fine.  This morning I updated the BIOS to FF.  I was previously at FC.  I didn't see anything relevant in the notes but I'm hoping there is something in the update that will help.

Thinking it is something about SATA3 that is causing the issue  I put the SSD on the SATA2 controller and I am not booting from it.  If this runs clean for a week then I will move it back to a SATA3 port, and then after another week of clean running back to the OS disk.

I also have updated the firmware on the SSD to latest, and I bought a new SATA3 cable to ensure that wasn't the cause.  The SSD is Crucial CT128M4SSD2.

Has anyone seen this behavior before, and do you have any other ideas of what might be the cause?

Cheers,
Scott

[absic]

Hi there,

I have come across this before and it is often due to the Firmware on the device, whether it's a standard HDD or SSD.

The fact that you have updated the Firmware on the SSD and also updated the BIOS will hopefully cure the issue you have been having but also check the Power Settings for your OS as this could also be the cause of the drive(s) vanishing.

[scottlindner]

It isn't the drivers vanishing, the SATA devices vanish from the BIOS on the POST screen, and thus, it fails to find a bootable device.

[absic]

Hi again,

have the drives been dropped since you updated the Firmware on the SSD and updated the BIOS?

[scottlindner]

Hi again,

have the drives been dropped since you updated the Firmware on the SSD and updated the BIOS?

Yes to the SSD, but no on the BIOS.  It doesn't always happen.  It can run, reboot, and wake from S3 multiple times before it happens.  It can also drop all SATA devices while booted.  The last time it happened it took several days on a successful boot before it happened.  I have confirmed it only happens when the SSD is connected even if it isn't the boot drive.

The changes I made since the last time I had a problem are:
1. moved SSD to SATA2 controller
2. updated BIOS

What I am suspecting is this is the first SATA3 device I have, and maybe something with this drive using SATA3 is crashing the SATA controller on the SB.  I am hoping that moving to the SATA2 controller will solve it.  Actually, I'm hoping the BIOS update to FF will solve it so I can get SATA3 performance, but even on SATA2, this SSD will provide killer improvement so I can live with that.

[scottlindner]

I have been considering buying a PCIe SATA3 controller to isolate the SSD for the time being.

[scottlindner]

I have been running my SSD as the boot drive on this machine reliably for over a week now so I'm declaring the issue resolved.  There are two changes that I made.  I replaced the SATA cable and I updated the mobo BIOS.  Since it was all or nothing on the SATA devices rather than a single SATA device failing, I am inclined to point my finger at the original BIOS for this mobo as the cause.

Is it common for Gigabyte to make firmware updates and not take credit for all of the changes in the release notes?

[absic]

Hi there,

pleased you seem to have got things working now.

To answer your question, yes, it is very common for ALL motherboard manufacturer's to make updates to the BIOS and not reveal exactly what has been updated!