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**jr39** · 06-27-2011, 02:55 PM

Re: Z68 Pro3-M issue with SSD

After 4 days of research, I have finally found a solution.
One should enter the BIOS, then Advanced, then Storage Configuration. Click onto SATA3-0: Corsair SSD and Enable Staggered Spin-Up; then click onto SATA3-1: WD HDD and Disable Staggered Spin-Up. Then enter the correct Boot Sequence, Save the settings and Exit.
The parameter "Staggered Spin-Up" never appears in any ASRock document, even the latest published on ASRock internet site.
ASRock probably has an excellent MoBo but communication is hopeless. I sent a message to ASRock support and probably will never receive a reply.

**MrSparky_TX** · 07-01-2011, 04:01 PM

Re: Z68 Pro3-M issue with SSD

What in the world is a "staggered spin-up" on an SSD? Jsut wondering what you found out about this setting. Thanks for sharing

**jr39** · 07-02-2011, 12:32 AM

Re: Z68 Pro3-M issue with SSD

Found in Wikipedia:

Spin-up refers to the process of a traditional (non-solid state) hard disk drive accelerating its platters from a stopped state to an operational speed. The period of time taken by the drive to perform this process is referred to as its spin-up time, the average of which is a S.M.A.R.T. attribute. The required operational speed depends on the design of the disk drive. Typical speeds of disks have been 2400, 3600, 4200, 5400, 7200, 10000 and 15000 revolutions per minute (RPM). Achieving such speeds can require a significant portion of the available power budget of a computer system, and so application of power to the disks must be carefully controlled.

Spin-up generally occurs at the very beginning of the computer boot process. However, most modern computers have the ability to stop a drive while the machine is already running as a means of energy conservation or noise reduction. If a machine is running and requires access to a stopped drive then a delay is incurred while the drive is spun-up. It also depends on the type of mechanism used within.

A drive in the process of being spun-up consumes more electricity than a drive that is already spinning at operation speeds, since more effort is required for the electric motor to accelerate the platters, as opposed to maintaining their speed.

Staggered spin-up

In computers with multiple hard drives a method called staggered spin-up can be employed to prevent the excessive power-consumption of spin-up from resulting in a power shortage. Staggered spin-up typically starts one drive at a time, either waiting for the drive to signal it is ready or allowing a predefined period of time to pass before starting the next drive. If the power supply is able to supply sufficient current to start multiple drives at a time, that, too, is common.

This requires a feature called Power-up in standby (also called PM2) in both the hard drives and the computer's BIOS, as this option prevents the hard drives from spinning up when receiving current, waiting for the staggered spin-up.

Information from the Fujitsu Serial ATA Interface for Mobile Hard Disk Drives whitepaper:

Staggered spin-up is a simple mechanism by which the storage subsystem controller can sequence hard disk drive initialization and spin-up. Having this feature not only provides greater reliability, but it allows the system to avoid power surges if all of the HDDs spin up simultaneously during system power up (in a multi-drive environment). Another benefit to having staggered spin-up is the use of more cost-effective power supplies, which prevents power supply damage and system brownouts.

Note that staggered spin-up of disks is not confined solely to mobile drives, and is a feature of many multi-drive systems using SATA and RAID.

Note also that ASRock has not documented this parameter in any of its manuals.

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Z68 Pro3-M issue with SSD

Z68 Pro3-M issue with SSD

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