Bluescreen crash on GA-P55A-UD4P when using Sata 6 or 7 board connect with SSD

[Fizzy]

I recently purchased an SSD (Corsair Force GT 120 GB) and tried connecting it to the board's sata socket 6 or 7 for sata 3 performance. At the first re-boot, my system became unstable and  in most cases a bluescrees.   I do have 2 video cards in Crossfire however. I read somewhere that under SLI/Crossfire,  PCI Express lanes can become "constrained" .
Has anyone tried dual cards while using sata 3 on these boards? Is there a work-around? Is there something I missed or failed to check?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[dikal]

When do the BSODs appear? Loading windows (version ?) or some time after loading?
Have you installed "GIGABYTE SATA2 Preinstall driver (For AHCI / RAID Mode)" ?
Tell us also the BSOD code and the message.

[Rolo42]

I don't know why you would suspect something that worked before over the thing you've changed.

Ensure you have the latest firmware for your SSD; SandForce-based SSDs have issues with Marvell controllers.  Additionally, ensure you have the lastest BIOS for your motherboard, as there have been updates to address this specific issue.  Finally, ensure you've updated your motherboard drivers (most notably, the SATA ones) prior to updating your BIOS.

[Fizzy]

The crashes, (usually in the form of a blackscreen (no activity) or a bluescreen), happens after P.O.S.T. when trying to load Windows (7 Ultimate 64bit). Bios is set to A.H.C.I. and the drivers are current (10.6.0.1002  ).  On the rare occassion, it will get into the annimation showing Windows is loading, but crashes before the log on screen. The fireware drivers for the SSD is up-to-date (1.3.3), so is my Bios (F14) and the drivers (Marvell IDE/AHCI VDriver version 1.0.0.1027) and Intel drivers for AHCI/RAID Mode(10.6.0.1002).  I will include the bluescreen error code next chance I get and edit this post. If you need aditional information, that I can obtain through Sandra Sisoft, or any other freely obtainable software, please advise and I will do my best.

Thansk again.

[dikal]

If you have just installed windows, reinstall including GIGABYTE SATA2 Preinstall driver 1.17.59.0 from the Gigabyte's web site.
Or set "GSATA Ctrl Mode" BIOS to IDE, enter windows (reinstall if you still get BSOD), install GIGABYTE SATA2 driver 1.17.59.0, and finally go to BIOS and change  "GSATA Ctrl Mode" to AHCI.

[Dark Mantis]

Trouble is that the Marvell 9128 controller never did work properly and was a real let down as far as SATA3 speeds goes. It was the same on all the motherboards that implimented that solution (there was no other) to offer SATA3. RAID0 and SSDs just have too much throughput for the Marvell controlled ports to handle and it fails.  This is why you are advised to use the Intel ICH10 ports for the faster SSDs and RAID  arrays. Even though it is only SATA2 it is faster and more reliable than the Marvell ports.

[Fizzy]

Below is a picture of the bluescreen.  The message is consistently the same.





Certainly looks like it is related the the Marvel chipset in some way.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes it certainly does. The STOP code is 3D and that means that the VCore is a bit low normally. You could also try increasing that for a start.

[Fizzy]

Changed the Vcore a couple of times, no change.
Found a dump file viewer to take a look at the files. Not that I know what I am looking at. But there are two entries: The mv91xx.sys as well as the xntkrnl.exe. One may cause the otherI am guessing.


Guess the most obvious thing would be to disable one of the two video cards to see if it runs stable..

[Rolo42]

Trouble is that the Marvell 9128 controller never did work properly and was a real let down as far as SATA3 speeds goes.

I only know of issues with SandForce-based SSDs, which is why I avoid them.

In every board I've had, Intel controllers were always faster than Marvell ones (as such, I relegate them to optical drives), so even if your SSD were to work on the 9128, the performance gain would be questionable/negligible, so the workaround (use the Intel ports) is more palatable.

Interrupt exceptions are device/driver faults; I don't know of any Vcore connection (0x101 is).

Look at your board's block diagram to see if your SATA3 controller shares PCIe lanes with the video card slots; I'd be surprised if it did.

[Fizzy]

Thanks for the info. Rolo.  I did have an optical drive connected to the sata 6 connection. It never raised an issue.

I unplugged above-said device, plugged in just the SSD, unplugging power to my 2nd video card and removed the crossfire bridge and rebooted. Still got a blue screen.

When I bought the card, I said to myself, I doubt I'll be getting a 2nd video card and will not do any Crossfire.  Well.. I did.. can't have the best of both worlds i guess. I think I will just live with what I have. I think the performance boost would probably be negligible after all.
regarding the Sata 3 sharing PCI lanes.. I read that it did in a review way back when the board came out.. I'll check the block diagram to be sure.

[Rolo42]

You really should completely remove the unused card; disconnecting power doesn't keep it off.

Stripping it down to just the CPU, video, SSD would be a good place to start; does that work?  (try to install Windows, run diags on it)

[Lsdmeasap]

That BSOD is caused by MV91xx.sys, the Marvell driver, you should move the drive over to the Intel ports as Dark Mantis mentioned. 

That will likely require a clean install since you installed the Marvell drivers during OS install, however you could attempt to remove them via device manager and then shut down and move the drive and see if windows will correct the drivers without a clean install.

[Dark Mantis]

Thanks Lsdmeasap. I didn't think there was anyone left out there who wasn't aware of the Marvell9128 controller problem any more. The number of times I have written about it on this forum...well I have lost count!

[Lsdmeasap]

I hear that!!  I still have to talk about it all the time too, it's OK at times (Benching, testing, ect - not OS use), but when you are having problems and trying to use it an an OS port and getting marvell BSOD's it's time to move over to the Intel ports for sure!

For the OP, and anyone else reading this thread, check out my C300 review, it compares several controllers and talks about the downfalls of the Marvell controller.   Please do note that it's an older review, since then many drivers have been updated and the Marvell does run a little better now with new drivers and BIOS ROM's (Some of which you may need to manually edit into the BIOS), but it's still not suited for operating system installs onto an SSD.

Link to review at XtremeSystems because for now TweakTown has been down again for a few hours now 
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?261789-Crucial-RealSSD-C300-128GB-Single-Vs.-RAID-W-Marvell-ICH10R-amp-HPT-RR-640-Review