Official GIGABYTE Forum
Questions about GIGABYTE products => Motherboards with Intel processors => Topic started by: Max on April 18, 2011, 01:16:46 pm
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I currently have a Ga-P55a-UD6 and a Ga-P67A-UD7-B3. Neither will identify or communicate with Seagate 2TB hdd's when plugged into the Marvell 88SE9128 SATA controllers present on both motherboards, both ok with smaller hdds on the Marvell controllers, both ok with 2TB hdds on non Marvell SATA controllers.
I am using Windows 7 ultimate edition on both systems, and the problem occurs with both IDE and AHCI mode.
I would like to access the 2TB hdd's via ESATA and external caddy's in both cases. The Ga-P55a-UD6 is ok (uses Jmicron for ESATA) but the
Ga-P67A-UD7-B3 (uses a Marvell 88SE9128 for ESATA) will not identify or communicate with them.
Can anyone solve this problem?
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Hi Max and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.
Have you made sure that you have the correct settings in the BIOS for the ESATA ?
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Dark Mantis
I believe so, works fine with a variety of hdd's up to 1.5 TB
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Have you made sure that you are using the latest BIOS ?
If it is working on other drives then I can't imagine why it wont work on the Seagates.
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Dark Mantis
I am using the latest BIOS.
It works with everthing I have tried except for two Seagate drives, one a 7200rpm series 12 drive, the other one of the newer 5900rpm green hdd's, Both are 2TB. and both work fine on any other controller I have.
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Are you using the same cables to connect them ? If so try swapping them.
Check with Seagate and see if there are any known problems or firmware updates for the drives.
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The problem is not the cables, I have swapped them.
I would like to hear from anyone who has successfully used 2TB hdd's with a Marvell 88SE9128 controller.
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Dark Mantis
Thank you for your input, my previous post was not intended to exclude people who had not used 2TB hdd's with a Marvell 88SE9128 controller.
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Fair enough. I can't really think of any scenario whereby the other drives would work but the Seagates not. This is the first time this problem has come up on the forum. They are definitely not over 2TB ?
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Fair enough. I can't really think of any scenario whereby the other drives would work but the Seagates not. This is the first time this problem has come up on the forum. They are definitely not over 2TB ?
No DM they are over 2TB. Could it be that the Marvell chip needs an update to allow access to the bigger drives?
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Hi Absic, I couldn't see anywhere that he says they are over 2TB. He keeps listing them as 2TB.
If they are over 2TB then he needs to be using EFI with the GPT instead of MBR.
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As you say DM Max has said they are 2TB not over that but you and I both know that a 2TB can be either just under or just over when it comes to actual capacity.
As the Marvel controller is working with drives upto 1.5TB my best guess would be that the problem is with the Marvel 9128 chip not recognising larger drives, which is why I suggested what I did. :-\
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Dark Mantis
They are a ST2000DL003 and a ST32000641AS both nominal 2TB hdd's.
absic
lets not quiblle over the definition of terabyte, be it 1,000,000,000,000 or 1,099,511,627,776 these are 2TB drives and are either equal to or less than 2 terabytes. I strongly suspect that the Marvell chips are the problem, hoping that a firmware or driver update will fix it. The Ga-P67A-UD7-B3 is a newish board, and 2TB hdd's have been around for ages.
Of course if someone out there is using a Marvell controller with a 2TB drive this could sort the matter out.
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Yes I do agree that in theory they could be over 2TB in reality but the system should still deal with them as 2TB. If they are true 2TB drives then it probably is as you suggest that the Marvell driver needs an update. I cannot believe this is the first time someone has tried to use a 2TB disk on this controller though. :-\
I'm afraid that I can't prove the problem as I don't have access to a drive of that size.
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for the ST2000... i have found a firmware update :
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?Tab=search&Module=selfservice&TargetLanguage=selfservice&DocId=218171&NewLang=en
Pierre
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F5BJR
the dricves have current firmware.
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I have two Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD7-B3 boards with the Marvell chips in systems. I have EXACTLY the same problem.
The ports controlled by Marvell chips are fine with my 1TB drives, as well as a Hitachi 3TB SATA3 drive. However, they won't recognize a Hitachi 2TB drive nor do they recognize a LaCie 2TB eSATA drive. There is no problem when the P67 ports are used.
I've reported this on a trouble ticket to Gigabyte.
My solution is to rearrange port usage and add the external eSATA bracket plugged into a P67 port. Not very satisfying.
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Hi
It certainly is a weird issue this. It works with drives smaller than 2TB and with drives larger than 2TB just not with drives of that size. I can think of no reason why this should happen at all. :-\
Maybe it is just another of Marvell's problems that they don't seem able to fix.
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for the ST2000... i have found a firmware update :
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?Tab=search&Module=selfservice&TargetLanguage=selfservice&DocId=218171&NewLang=en
Pierre
Pierre beat me to the punch.......firmware update could fix the issue and would be my port of call.........and to prove it to your self aswell as all partys, You could try slicing a 200gig piece off one or both (partition) and see if that works, even if it's only too......."See what Happens"
Aussie Allan
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Hi,
A late response to this.
I am running a GA-P67A-UD7-B3 with a pair of WD2002FAEX drives on the Marvell ports, configured as RAID1.
The drives are accessible and the Marvell RAID Utility claims that all is well.
However, I am getting very large disk IO on my C: drive by the mvraidsvc.exe process and the Marvell Tray (but strangely, no reads from the Marvell array).
I also get occasional CPU spikes and system freezes of 2 to 10 minutes, over a period of 1 hour or so.
After a few weeks of debugging, re-installing Windows, disabling services as per BlackViper, and many searches around the Marvell 9128 controller, I think I will next back up the Marvell array and revert to simple disks under ACHI, removing the Marvell raid driver and RAID service processes and setting up a backup service to external SATA disks.
I feel a friustration at having 2 Intel Sata3 ports which I have to use for the boot disk, and Sata3 disks running off Sata 2 ports. I tried installing Windows on a disk on port 2 and hit lots of problems.
The ports are:
0: WD500 boot disk
1: Asus DVD drive
2&3: WD2003FYYS RE4 in RAID1
4&5: Seagate ST3 1500 in RAID1
6&7: Marvell: WD2002FAEX in RAID1
eSata: various disks.
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
i5-2500 CPU 3.3GHz
16GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 (4x4GB, claims 1600MHz, actual is 1333MHz)
nVidia GTS250 graphics 1GB DDR3
ZoneAlarm Pro firewall
AVG Free antivirus.
All drivers up to date from Gigabyte and nVidia websites.
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Hi
I would suggest doing a thorough scan with an up to date anti virus scanner and also check for other maleware. Try something other that your free AVG if you can.
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"Super Anti Spyware" is free and excellent!
Aussie Allan
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Yes there is plenty of choice. As Allan says that one is well respected and tested.