D975XBX2 Marvell Controller Problem

[Prizy]

done done and done! this forum site had been nothing but help so i wanna thank every1 for posting what you have and thank you Apoptosis, you helped me out a bunch. ah finally the sweet boot up thats even quicker now

thanks for everything.

[bob1at7shore]

I am have a slightly different problem with the Marvell Controller. My intention was to RAID with the Intel controller while putting my DVD burners on the Marvell controller. Well, the Pioneer DVD-212D burners on the Marvell controller can only be used as readers!

I updated firmware to 2777, and all the drivers I could find.

Here is what I tried:

Windows Vista:
Vista does not recognize the drives as burners but they work as DVD readers.
Nero does see them as burners but when I try to write, the Machine "Blue screens".
Gear supplies their own drivers, their application locks up when I try to burn.

Windows XP:
XP does not recognize the drives as burners but they work as DVD readers.

After reading this forum, I don't think I want my RAID on the Marvell. Have the issues been resoved or did everyone disable the Marvell?
Anyone have ideas before I RMA/exchange this board I thought was solid?

Edit: The burners work fine connected to the intel Matrix controller.

Thanks,
Bob

[mickrussom]

[quote="progolf"][/quote]

If you are using the black ICH7R ports, and don't care to use the broken dangerous non-WHQL Marvell crap ports, simply disable that piece of trash ASIC in the BIOS. There is an option to disable the secondary SATA controller there.

[bob1at7shore]

If you are using the black ICH7R ports, and don't care to use the broken dangerous non-WHQL Marvell crap ports, simply disable that piece of trash ASIC in the BIOS. There is an option to disable the secondary SATA controller there.

I messed-up up... I had the burner plugged into the Intel controller. The drive is not working from the Marvell controller.

[conian7]

I recently purchased the BOXD975XBX2 and am currently having problems just getting started.
For sake of context, here is the build:

Intel BOXD975XBX2
Intel Duo Core E6700
Corsair XMS Dominator 6400 DDR2 Dual Channel (2 2X1024MB)
XFX 8800 GTX 760MB GDDR3
2 liteon DVD Burners
3 WD 160GB SATA 300 HD's (for use in Raid 5)[/list]

What is happening: I have the 3 WD HD's plugged into the black (ICH7) SATA headers. I have the two Liteon DVDR's plugged into the Blue Headers (SATA5 and SATA6). When booting I get sporadic behaviour...Hanging at the Splash Screen with EB the last Hex Code to show...hanging after the Splash Screen with the cursor blinking...hanging on a blank screen/monitor loses signal...Every so often the Marvel and/or Intel Matrix Raid prompts will appear. I have only been able to access the BIOS twice, most times it will not respond at all to the F2 keypress.

Thought I'd give it a shot on a forum like this before I just opt to RMA. The sporadic way it is behaving leads me to believe there might be a defect, but I would like to remove doubt before I get to that point.

Also - just for the sake of clarity, because I am no RAID expert....should I put both DVDR's on the Marvell headers and the 3 HD's on the Intel headers, seeing as that I am setting up Raid5 with 3 Drives? Or can I have the 3 drives set to raid plus one of the DVDR's on the Black headers? and trhe other DVDR on one of the blue? I am a little confuse with it.

Thanks.

[bob1at7shore]

As you can see from this forum, the Marvell is a problem. I'm confused too. I hope you will also contact Intel about it. I hope they will fix it.
Did you disconnect the burners? First, if you can.... disable the Marvel is the BIOS by setting the secondary SATA controller to disable. Does your system then boot ok? ... somehow I think you have another issue but please let me know if you ever get those burners working with the Marvell.

The Intel board may default to 1.8V memory. Do you have any other DDR2 memory you can try? If you can get it to the BIOS look at the memory settings(performance page), do they match your memory spec? Ask Corair if that memory will run at 1.8V. Maybe Intel is not setting the volatge to 2.1V for this memory? Even still, I would think you could at least get into the BIOS setup.

Purhaps this problem belongs in another topic thread.
Bob

[ubiquityman]

This Marvell controller has been nothing but trouble.

I have 5 HDs in my system. 4x400GB on the Intel Matrix Raid running Raid 10 and Raid 5.
That works fine.

1 HD is on the Marvel controller and it is problematic at best.
Drops out occasionally.

I've tried 2 different motherboards, 2 different HDs, and even a DVD drive. Similar behavior.

I put it on video. Thank goodness for youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odJbxes88ik

[blurb2m]

Ok i built my system back in Jan. And yes i have been dealing with the blank black screen, but i get BA in the bottom corner. I have my 1 sata WD HD hooked up to the blue sata header...do i need to:
-hook it up to a black header
-reload windows
-disable secondary sata headers (blue)

and my problem will go away?
<edit>
i changed it over to black and disabled secondard sata headers in bios
running 9/5/07 bios
i still get a blank black screen after bios screen with BA in the corner and it just sits there...doing absolutely nothing for about 3 mins...then it goes to vista loading screen and starts up normal. why oh why does it sit there like that for 3 mins?

[Prizy]

i have the xbx2 aswell and if i change something harware wise then sometimes just sometimes the intel screen stays on for about 1 min in stead of 1 second but it doesnt happen that often for me 2 rage at it hehe. im not sure mate what it is but the letters and numbers in the corner are post numbers that will always be there as long as you jave the badaxe2 board. mabe try putting ur HD into the black sata 1port and let it boot a few times before u rule it out.

[ubiquityman]

Is your Intel SATA controller set up as SATA or RAID?
If RAID, try changing it to SATA.

Also, configure your system to not boot from:
Floppy,
Removable Drives,
Optical Drives,
USB devices,
Network.

[bob1at7shore]

I just received an email from intel regarding my open case about the Marvell controller not working with DVD drives. They indicated that they are working a bios update to fix it.

I think if we continue to open cases with Intel, they will fix the problems. They have been updating the bios (2792).

[DJL]

I had a bit of a scare with my RAID 0 on the intel controller this morning - Matrix Manager reported a drive missing and I could only access some of the files. Rebooted and all was ok again.

Anyway - the data on the RAID array used to be unimportant, but thats changed, so i'm looking at going RAID 10. All really important stuff is stored on a server.

Here comes the dilema. I currently have 3 disks - a 150GB Raptor as system and then two 500GB RE2's as a RAID0 volume. I see three options:

1) get two more RE2's and create a RAID 10 volume on the ICH7 and move system to the marvel controller
2) get two more RE2's and create a RAID 10 volume on the ICH7 and use a SATA-to-IDE converter on the raptor and run it on the IDE controller.
3) Buy another PCI-Express SATA controller for the system disk and use the ICH7 for RAID 10

Not too kean on using the marvel for RAID.

Thanks guys.

[Monk]

I faced basically the same questions with 2 150gb Raptors in a Raid0 array. I opted for splitting the array and just run the 2 Raptors by themselves. To be honest I don't notice the difference except in benchmarks.

I used the Raid0 array for data storage for Access databases (yes I backed them up often). I have one database that has a macro that runs just over 150 queries against tables that contain between 300,000 and 4 million records, one query after the other. The beginning and ending commands in the marco print a time stamp. To be honest running database with this macro on a stand alone drive versus the Raid0 array just a bit quicker (16 minutes 30 seconds versus 17 minutes 15 seconds). Granted this could have been an anomaly but it proved to me that Raid0 in MY was a waste of money and drives. Honestly, before I made the switch to single drives, I would have argued with anyone making the previous statement.

So my advice would be to try it and see if you really need the Raid. If not just use single drives and save money and eliminate potential breaking points.

Good Luck!

[jacque]

use this http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... 8&lang=eng for mi is good

[ubiquityman]

I used the Raid0 array for data storage for Access databases (yes I backed them up often). ... To be honest running database with this macro on a stand alone drive versus the Raid0 array just a bit quicker (16 minutes 30 seconds versus 17 minutes 15 seconds). Granted this could have been an anomaly but it proved to me that Raid0 in MY system was a waste of money and drives. Honestly, before I made the switch to single drives, I would have argued with anyone making the previous statement.

RAID0 without spindle synchronization will be SLOWER than a single drive if your application does a lot of short reads.
To get the 1st piece of data from a (non spindle synchronized) RAID0 array, the system will need to wait for the slowest (longest latency) drive in the array.
So for every additional drive you add to a RAID0 array, latency increases, on average, by approximately
((1/2)^(n-1))*t where n is the number of drives in the system, and t is the average latency.

So if your drive is rated at 3ms average latency,
1 drive is (1/2)^0*3 = 3ms
2 drives is 3ms + (1/2)^1*3= 4.5ms
3 drives is 4.5ms + (1/2)^2*3 = 5.25ms
etc.

For SCSI/SAS systems where the spindles can be synchronized, this is not an issue because the latency of the drives are always equal.
So, it makes perfect sense that for your data base applications where there are a lot of short reads, RAID0 will be slowly.

[mmackay]

I’m in the UK and am being frustrated trying to use Intel’s support services to solve a problem with the D975XBX2 with an XP Pro Operating System. I started out supplying many technical details to US Support staff but have had to start the process all over again when they woke up to the fact that I was in the UK.

I am new to building computers, so please go easy on any gaffs I make.

The problem is with trying to add a Tandberg RDX back up device that uses laptop drives in removable cartridges to a system that has been running for 6 months without problems. The Tandberg uses SATA connections.

I already have 2 x 320GB Hard Drives connected to the black SATA ports under the spell of the Intel controller in a RAID 0 array and wished to reserve the remaining two black SATA ports for future RAID expansion.

So I connected the Tandberg RDX enclosure to one of the blue SATA ports under the spell of the troublesome Marvell controller ….. but can’t see the drive in Windows. I’ve tried the red port as well …. same result.

The Marvell BIOS does recognise the Tandberg hard drives but begs the question “No Array Defined?” as if it is mandatory to run it in a RAID array ….. so my questions is whether these blue/red SATA ports really do support a standalone hard drive? ( that’s not desired to be in RAID with any partner drive).

Any advice would be appreciated ….. and if someone could give me an up-to-date status on the Marvell fixes that Intel may have introduced that would be a bonus.

Thanks in anticipation.

If needs be, I could switch the short-term plan to make the Tandberg a third standalone (non-RAID) member of the black SATA port group ….. but would like to retain RAID 0 with the 2 x 320GB hard drives …… would this be possible?

Mel Mackay

[DL126]

….. so my questions is whether these blue/red SATA ports really do support a standalone hard drive? ( that’s not desired to be in RAID with any partner drive).

Yes.
A stand alone drive will work on the Marvell controller.
I have a stand alone HDD & a DVDRW hooked to the Marvell and so far have never had trouble. (Both are on blue ports.)

It still gives the "No array defined" message at boot up.
Then directly underneath that message, it detects and lists the drives that are hooked to it.

[mmackay]

Thanks DL126 …. this gives me hope.

I checked the BIOS and confirmed that secondary SATA was enabled, but the U-tube video from Ubiquityman (above) lets me see that my Marvell Raid Controller entry in Device Manager under SCSI and RAID controllers was missing. Do you need this even although you don’t want RAID?

I never “Configured for RAID using Marvell RAID Technology” as per page 64 and 65 of Intel’s D975XBX2 Product Guide. When I didn’t want a RAID facility, why would I have done this?

If you can confirm that I still need to do this, then how should I approach the first stage of the process labelled “Configuring the BIOS” where 1) says to connect two or more hard drives …… I only want to connect a single Tandberg RDX Backup hard drive.

And in 3) should I still select IDE after the step “Advanced / Drive Configuration / Configure SATA as”?

I’m assuming I need do nothing under “Creating Your RAID set” as this seems to be targeted at the acquisition of genuine RAID.

And finally can you confirm that I ought to be “Loading the Marvell Storage Technology RAID Drivers and Software”.

If yes, I’m all at sea in understanding the process in 1) “Begin Windows Setup by booting from the Windows Installation CD”.

Could you describe what this means to this poor demented novice …..I think I know what the Windows Installation CD is (the shiny disc I bought to access XP Pro) …… but the term “booting” is not so clear …… please.

My thanks to anyone who can help.


Mel Mackay.

[ubiquityman]

I can confirm it does support single drives.
It works if you define an array with one drive, and it also works if you don't define an array. I've tried it both ways.
I believe Intel was indicating that if there is a single drive, you shouldn't define an array with it, but I've found no difference good or bad.

Why don't you try it with the Intel SATA ports? You will probably have much better success.

[DL126]

If the Marvell controller is enabled ..
And you don't want a RAID array ....
Just hook desired drives to it and let it boot. (It should list the detected drives under the boot message , "No array defined!")
Oh ... and don't use the Red port. (That port is for eSATA. And that one was kinda flaky even on my board the one time I tried to use it. Might be better now with the newer BIOS releases??)

Presuming you already have Windows installed on a different drive ....
Yes. You will need to install the Marvell driver for Windows in order to access the connected drives.

Simple!
I think ....
At least it was in my case.