GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

[Ahhk]

Hi all!

I have a GA-MA790X-UD4P that's been running great for 1.5 years now with my system drive running as a mirror RAID on the GSATA ports (dual 500G WD Blacks).

Today, the machine shut down by itself and when it went to boot, I got the NTLDR missing error. Tried doing a W7 boot repair, but after adding the GB preinstall drivers (latest correct one), the OS was not recognized/listed. No error or anything. Just no OS listed.

Went in to the BIOS and made sure everything was ok and noticed that the RAID wasnt listed in the disk boot order list.

The GRaid screen pops up after the post and shows the RAID as being Ok/normal and going into the util shows everything as ok/normal as well.

If I set the GSATA mode to IDE, then both drives show up on the POST screen on Ch. 4 but still dont show up in the boot order list.

Tried updating the BIOS from 10A to 10C with no luck. Reset to safe defaults and reconfid....no luck.

So, the summary is that the only place the RAID is recognized is at the "press ctrl-g to enter raid util" screen. Drives not listed in the boot order and not recognized by Windows.

Is the RAID controller fried?

The 4 HDs on the AMD controller are all working fine.

Help!

[Acebmxer]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

What does the raid utility show for status for these drives?

have you tried Optimized defaults?

[Ahhk]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

What does the raid utility show for status for these drives?

have you tried Optimized defaults?

The raid util shows both drives as fine. And no, I only tried updating the BIOS and safe defaults. Since there are basically only two BIOS options related to the GSATA (on/off and IDE/ACHI/RAID) I didnt see how Optimized defaults would make a difference. Am I wrong?

[Chike]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Did you clear DMI data when updated BIOS?
Try extended BIOS clear, 20+ minutes with the battery out and CLR_CMOS pins shorted. Power off or disconnected of and capacitors discharged by pressing the power button.

[Acebmxer]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Try as chike said. I asked about Optimized defaults as thats is the suggested starting ground. Always used Optimized defaults; If they dont work then fail safe is suggested. This mainly for system stability. Gigabyte and intel raid rom are part of the bios but they are separate from the bios at the same time.

Usually drives will not show up in boot odder if they are not considered "bootable".

[Ahhk]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Did you clear DMI data when updated BIOS?
Try extended BIOS clear, 20+ minutes with the battery out and CLR_CMOS pins shorted. Power off or disconnected of and capacitors discharged by pressing the power button.

No, I didnt clear the DMI when I updated the BIOS.

But wow......clearing the BIOS (pulled battery since I couldnt find the jumper) worked! Thanks!!!

Any idea what could have caused this? Unstable BIOS on this mobo or something? Any way to prevent it from happening again?

Thanks again. GRAID showing up in the boot order and its running normal.

[Chike]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Good to hear it's solved.
I don't know how to prevent such things or the exact reason they happen.
The CLR_CMOS pins are just near the battery.

[Ahhk]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Geez...I was looking right there and didnt even see it......and the PDF copy of the mobo manual was on the machine in question (whoops!).

My vid card is quite thick and covers the half of the battery. I just presumed it was under the card somewhere.

Im a big Gigabyte fan (all 5 of our machines have GB mobos) and this is the first issue Ive ever had with one of them. I hope this BIOS issue doesnt keep occurring, but I am do for an upgrade so... :)

Thank you for your time. This one really had me stumped.

[Acebmxer]

Re: GA-MA790X-UD4P GSATA RAID Chip Failure??

Most likely just a bios corruption of some sort. If you did not clear dmi pool data when you flashed the bios. Not a big deal you can just reflash the bios this time make sure to clear dmi pool. If you motherboard has 2 bios which most gigabyte boards do now a days you might want to update the back up bios so it matches the main bios. To see which bios version are installed; Enter the bios and press "F9". To copy the main bios to the back up bios hold the "ALT" key + "F12" key at startup.