Hot Swapping SATA on Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Issues

[jcclow]

Hello All...

First off, here's my build...

• Windows 7 Pro (x64)
• i7 2700K, not OC'd currently
• AsRocks Z68 Extreme7 Gen3
• 32GB G.Skill Ripjaws X DDR3-1600 (x4 Sticks of 8GB)
• Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD
• EVGA GeForce GTX 460 (x2)
• Plextor PX-L890SA DVD Burner
• LG HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH12LS35 Blu-ray Burner
• Corsair HX1000W Power Supply
• Corsair H100 CPU Cooler
• Corsair Obsidian 800D Case
• Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Black (x3)
• Western Digital 300GB Velociraptor
• Handful of miscellaneous other HD's

I'm having issues with my system locking up every time I utilize the front hot swap bays of my case. I just came from an Intel Core2Quad 9650 on an Asus P5E Deluxe, that didn't have this issue ever. I upgraded the backplate of the hot swap bays to the 6GB/s model and it didn't make any difference. Here's the layout of my system...

• SATA3_0 = Corsair Force GT (main system drive)
• SATA3_1 = Western Digital 300GB Velociraptor
• SATA3_A1 = Hot Swap Bay 1
• SATA3_A2 = Hot Swap Bay 2
• SATA3_A3 = Hot Swap Bay 3
• SATA3_A4 = Hot Swap Bay 4
• SATA2_2 = LG Blu-ray Burner
• SATA2_3 = Plextor DVD Burner
• SATA2_4 = Empty
• SATA2_5 = Empty

Whenever I insert a drive into any of the hot swap bays, no matter what drive or bay, the PC completely locks up for about 15 seconds and then regains its composure and works fine until I try to insert another drive. I have no issues when I take a drive out, only upon insertion. Other times, when I insert a drive, it will completely kick a different drive out of the PC...obviously not physically, but the drive becomes unavailable in Computer Management or My Computer. I have to remove said drive and re-insert it. I should mention that I do not have any volumes setup as RAID and I'm running the most current Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, 11.0.0.1.32.

Anyone else seeing anything like this? If not, this is a complete deal breaker and I need to get a different motherboard.

Thanks....Jeremy

[SaphireX]

Re: Hot Swapping SATA on Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Issues

Hi Jeremy

I took a look at this article and looking at the pic of your hot swappable backplanes Corsair Obsidian Series 800D ATX Chassis Review - Internal Impressions - Legit Reviews It looks like when the drive is inserted or removed into your hot swappable bays that both the power to the drive and the SATA data connection to the board from the drive is instantanous and that may be where the problem lies. The manual says that in order for the SATA2(Intel) and SATA3 (Intel or ASMedia) ports to work as hot swappable the power needs to be connected to the SATA drive then a moment later the SATA data connection the reverse when unplugging--first disconnect the SATA data cable then disconnect the SATA power connection a moment later (pages 56-57 in the .pdf version of the manual) So the key here is most likely the sequence and from appearances from the picture there might not be that delay between when the power is connected(or removed) and when the data connection is connected(or removed) or if the backplane has some sort of chipset that is involved that might be the sequencer itself. If you can physically as opposed to using the backplane go thru the steps of manually connecting the drive as hot swappable and the reverse and you don't have problems then it would appear that the hot swappable bay /backplane might be the linchpin and perhaps someone on the Corsair Forums might have some ideas short of putting in a time delayed relay as an add-on on the data side and maybe a diode on the power side...
Please post back and keep us in the loop on your findings

Good Luck
SaphireX

ps: You do have the SATA ports that the hot swappable bays set to AHCI in the UEFI right?

Also since you are using the ASMedia SATA3 ports for the hot swapping update the ASMedia drivers to the latest version 1.3.1.00 from here: http://station-drivers.com/page/asro...treme7gen3.htm

[jcclow]

Re: Hot Swapping SATA on Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Issues

SaphireX...

First off, nice response. Thank you! Second, you pretty much confirmed my fears. I was thinking the same thing and am now kicking myself for throwing away the old back planes for the 800D.

I do have the SATA channels set to AHCI, both the 6.0GB/s and 3.0GB/s ports, in the UEFI.

It's too late now and I have to be up early, but when I get home tomorrow night, I'll test your theory by removing the back plane altogether and disconnect the SATA data cable and see what happens to the PC.

The upside, I do CAD for a living and I'm working on designing my own PCB. What a great first project...redesign the back planes for my Corsair case.

Thanks again!
Jeremy

[jcclow]

Re: Hot Swapping SATA on Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Issues

Ok SaphireX...so I haven't had a chance to do any physical testing, but I did some research. Even before your post, I was questioning the upgraded backplane that Corsair sent me so I could use my 6GB/s drives. However, after researching the SATA standard, I found out that the connector on the drives is designed to engage and disengage the necessary pins up insertion/removal. The pins are staggered on the connector of the drive like in this pic File:SATA Ports.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

However, the new backplane did away with the separate power connectors, in favor of a single connector supplying power to all four drives. I wonder if that's the culprit and inserting or removing a drive sends a "spike" to the others (I'm really going out on a limb here). Once I finish converting these audio cassettes I have to wave files, I'm going to test the theory.

Also, there a ton of people experiencing this problem according to the Corsair forums.

[SaphireX]

Re: Hot Swapping SATA on Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 Issues

Sounds like you are on the right track thinking that there is a spike / drop on the power to each backplane that might be part of the problem with the hot swappable bays...Hence the complaints on the Corsair forums of problems...
You would think that putting a diode for each backplane to prevent current reversing direction -- not very expensive --- along with a momentary capacitor which is the digital equivalent of the old analog momentary latch relay to hold the source voltage from vDrop would have been part of the Engineering development...

Curious when you have the opportunity to test the manual method of hot swapping in/out drives if the problems disappear...
Please post back
SaphireX