JMicron 36X on Gigabyte DQ6 (v3) ...RAID instability. Help Please

[HHocker]

Hey hey,


I'm at my wits end as they say about my Gigabyte 965P DQ6 rev3.3
GigaRAID/JMicron 36X controller. I have been Googling for help for a
week now....if you even think you may have a helpfull suggestion please
post a reply.


Alright ..I have two new and verified healthy Western Digital RE2
(WD5000YS) enetrprise hard drives I want in a mirror raid array setup.
The drives are in good condition.
I have a single healthy Western Digital 150Gb Raptor main OS drive on
the Intel SATA controller. The cables are brand new with which came
with the mainboard.

Other drives are a Sony floppy and new Pioneer DVR (SATA).

I do not overclock right now.

Ram is two Buffalo Firestix of 1Gb each in dual channel....ram runs
only with 2.2 volts at any speed and doesn't boot the system
otherwise..... was working with 2.175v - suspect. I have however been
using a new stick of Kingston 512Mb value ram with no difference in the
problem following.


My array will not stay together.

I have the latest drivers and
management software installed from gigabytes site. I have tried the
latest JMicron drivers and software from thier site and it was BETTER -
more stability but it still goes whacky after a while.

Whacky? Huge delay time with Windows in general ( I did reinstall a
clean unmoddified Windows to troubleshoot ) and eventually a total
lockup of Windows (Windows XP Pro btw...) and it hasn't been specific
to any one program.

When I reboot from lockup there is often a drive dropped from the array
and not detected at all! I Hold the power button and power down
completly and then the drive will reappear. It's worth mentioning my
power supply at this point - PC Power and Cooling 750w and brand new.

So ..I keep trying to rebuild the array but they same lag/delay in my
system, locking up/freezing, and drive dropping then reappearing on
cold boot.

What in the hell could be the problem? I am thinking its the driver
buggy or controller gone bad. Is there anything left to try? Update
the JMicron BIOS or does that happen with a mainboard BIOS update? I
have the F11 BIOS for the motherboard. Please go ahead and post
becuase I have no idea what to try next.


Thank you for reading all of this!

 

[Namslas90]

Check your mobo manual; Only two SATA connectors 0 and 1 are connected to the RAID controller chip array, those two connectors must have your RAID drives connected to it. To boot off the Raptor you must change the settings in BIOS to Boot From that drive (if possable on that model Gigabyte mobo, should be able to).

 

[Xtant25]

I have a P965 DS3 and i use the JMicron controler for Raid 0 but i havent had any issues with it about the only thing i know to tell you is to double check and make sure its set to Raid/IDE in the BIOS....When you installed windows did you use the F6 option and install the Raid driver from a floppy?

 

[Xtant25]

I looked at the specs of your board it has the ICH8R so if i were you i would run my Raid off of that and use the other drive on the JMicron controler and set it to IDE in the BIOS.

 

[HHocker]

Xtant25 the BIOS is configured right.

I think I'll try your suggestion in swapping - best idea. Probably will work best....I hope I can do it without reinstalling Windows again. I didnt install the drivers at the F6 option because I wasn't going to boot from the array ..should I have?

Thing is it should work the way it is.

 

[Xtant25]

Xtant25 the BIOS is configured right.

I think I'll try your suggestion in swapping - best idea. Probably will work best....I hope I can do it without reinstalling Windows again. I didnt install the drivers at the F6 option because I wasn't going to boot from the array ..should I have?

Thing is it should work the way it is.

Yeah you need to install the drivers using the F6 option i had to otherwise windows couldnt find my drives....But i think swapping is the best way to go intels Raid is alot better then Gigabyte's solution.

 

[Namslas90]

Thing is it should work the way it is.

Most Gigabyte boards only allow a RAID on the two specific SATA connectors they are always the two GSATA (GSATAII0 / GSATAII1) and are directly connected to the GIGABYTE SATA2 (raid controller chip) and then the pcie Bus. The other SATA connectors are connected to the ICH8R chipset along with the BIOS etc. See the block diagram on page 8 of mobo manual.

This is common for most gigabyte boards.

 

[HHocker]

I appreciate the advice.

Right now I'm formatting the mirror array.

This is RAID specific but ..with a mirror array do I initialize the drives and partition and format them individually BEFORE creating the array or after with the Windows Partition Wizard? I keep wonderign about that.

So far the single main drive Raptor is running better on the JMicron/Giga SATA ports in IDE than it was on the Intel. The Intel array is built, management software installed, and formatting in the Partition Wizard.....I hope formatting doesn't fail.

 

[HHocker]

Hey I just noticed something.

In the Intel Matrix Storage Console I see one of the raid drives is noted as "Generation 1" and the other "Generation 2" for Current Serial ATA transfer Mode....I'm researching it but does anyone know what that means?

Is one of these actually different than the other or one running in 150 instead of 300???

One of the drives fell out of the array (not out of Windows though) right after formatting and trying to add some files. It's rebuilding right now....

EDIT: Yeah one of the drives is in 150gbps mode instead of the 300 it should be. There's no change in the jumpers on the drive so it's not jumpered to run at 150. My best guess so far is that it's the port it's on, it's on Port 0. Anyone have knowledge ont his to share? I look forward to enjoying the security of my mirror array without lockups, freezes, and constant rebuilding. Why would that identicle drive be running at SATA 1 speed?

 

[Xtant25]

Hey I just noticed something.

In the Intel Matrix Storage Console I see one of the raid drives is noted as "Generation 1" and the other "Generation 2" for Current Serial ATA transfer Mode....I'm researching it but does anyone know what that means?

Is one of these actually different than the other or one running in 150 instead of 300???

One of the drives fell out of the array (not out of Windows though) right after formatting and trying to add some files. It's rebuilding right now....

EDIT: Yeah one of the drives is in 150gbps mode instead of the 300 it should be. There's no change in the jumpers on the drive so it's not jumpered to run at 150. My best guess so far is that it's the port it's on, it's on Port 0. Anyone have knowledge ont his to share? I look forward to enjoying the security of my mirror array without lockups, freezes, and constant rebuilding. Why would that identicle drive be running at SATA 1 speed?

Thats not good if thier different speeds thats probably why you have had so much trouble with it then.

 

[HHocker]

It was the Port 0. I moved the drives to ports 2 and 3 and it's all normal now.

Maybe I can enjoy the added mirror array security now. lol

Pain in the ass!

 

[HHocker]

The problem was JMicron quality. I called Western Digital. Western Digital does not support raid, at least with these drives, on the JMicron controller. The drives work perfect on the Intel raid controller. I switched my main drive to the JMicron and the controller does work nicely for just one drive. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. You did help me trouble shoot.

 

[HHocker]

Okay ...the Intel setup was not stable either. The drives would fail, never both at once, or they would drop off the array and Windows all together.

Should I just call Gigabyte? I've been working on gettign this array available for a week.

I've double and tripple checked the driver, drive health, software used. I have to cold boot to soemtimes get the BIOS to even see the drive. I'm constantly repairing a degraded mirror array.

WD advanced tech support isn't sure...

Anyone have the steps (1,2,3) to install a mirror array? Maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Currently I'm attached to ports 0 and 1 and rebuilding the degraded array...

I loaded the drivers at boot even though I do not boot from this array. I install the drivers from the Gigabyte setup CD (tried using the latest from thier site before) and then install Windows Updates. Next I set up the array in the BIOS of the Intel Storage Matrix while booting ...mirror array with two drives. I boot and with Windows I initialize, partition, and format the array. -immediatly the array fails. Once before the array was setup a drive just vanished.

mainboard BIOS is set correctly I think (F11 BIOS) but I wasn't sure about Native Mode or to use Lagacy Mode for the RAID but Western Digital said use Native.

Someone ..? I haven't had to use a Geek Squad of Firedog team for 12 years of setting up computers but the SATA technology on this board....well I really need some help.