Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[AdamWoz]

Hi Bohemian9999

I am a one of those struggling with this issue (you can find my post in this thread).

From my point of view the originator of this problem is a motherboard vendor. I've got a Gigabyte mobo too and i'm facing the same problem. I've been trying to contact Gigabyte online support. They told me that they prepare a new BIOS with appropriatefix for Silicon SATA chip. But ... they have never relased such corrected BIOS for my mobo

Finally I gave up

... and I bought one of the chipest PCI SATA controllers to workaround this problem. It is not expensive solution and I'm sure that your time is more valuable than this piece of hardware. And remember your mental health Trying to google a solution which doesn't exist can be exhausting

Take care,

Adam Wozniak / Poland

[Bohemian9999]

Hi Adam,

I usually don’t engage in the blame game and see this situation as a challenge. I agree the motherboard vendor is a large part of the problem, although Plug-N-Play devices should be just that. Seagate has had microcode problems with many recent Thailand build disk drives, they may not be fixed. I plan on plugging another brand of drive into my system before reaching a conclusion.

I’ve dealt with GigaByte, Taiwan before, eventually they respond to my inquiries although it may take several weeks. IMO this problem is a lack of flash utility instead of bad code.

Your suggestion of buying a PCI SATA card may be the easiest workaround, although I’ll buy a RAID 6 capable unit. I’m in the design stage of my next high-end computer, and I’m waiting for a debugged version of Windows 7, usually SP1, before finalizing specs and starting construction.

I’ll reuse my current Antec metal server case and recently replaced internal parts (power supply, optical drives, modem, new cables and wiring). Add a new M. B., sufficient memory, processor, miscellaneous items and the new system will be good for another OS cycle.

I replace worn-out parts during the life cycle and keep custom machines for many years. Don’t believe in short product cycles.

I’ve used Seagate drives for years. They’ve been reliable, durable and quiet. This may have changed. I purchased a troublesome Seagate mass storage device a few weeks ago, looking at alternatives. Maybe time to reluctantly switch to other vendors. I plan on buying 5 internal drives for a new raid assembly. My current new Barracuda is a simply a test model replacing a failing Maxtor unit, 4 more to buy.

Nonetheless, you may be right, working on one incompatible setup may not be worth the time.

I appreciate your comments.

Dylan

[fzabkar]

There are several people at the wimsbios.com forums who can patch BIOSes:

http://www.wimsbios.com/phpBB2/

[Geoffke]

Hey Bohemian,

I solved this issue by patching my bios using MMtool. I had an AMI bios, these can be patched by MMtool, Phoenix award bioses should be patched with a tool called CBROM from award itself (you can probably find it on their website).

I'm not sure what kind of bios yours is, but if you give it a try with MMtool, the thing I did was download the latest bios version from the vendors website wich was Asus in my case and load it into MMtool, I also downloaded the latest Silicon driver bin file from silicon images.

Then i used the replace function in MMtool to replace the last "PCI option ROM" with the latest bin file from Silicon.

Last thing to do when replaced is to save the modified bios to "new_bios.rom" and flash it using the vendors utility for flashing bioses, either EZflash or in my case AFUDOS wich I also downloaded from the Asus website where I got the latetst bios version.

Hope this will help you out... 

Message Edited by Geoffke on 11-07-2009 02:00 AM

[AdamWoz]

Hi guys

This thread: http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?p=390928

... looks interesting.  In this thread those guys already patched several BIOSes. Some of those patched BIOSes are published in this thread.

Hope this helps.

Take care,

Adam Wozniak

[Bohemian9999]

Hi guys,

Thank you for the ideas and suggestions, a good forum.

I checked the links and tools you suggested. They appear designed for specific hardware. I’m sure with the right documentation I could modify one like MMTOOL, yet to find any docs.

While I have no problem going into the registry and rewriting code, using unknown flash tools is beyond my current level of knowledge.

I did discover a work around for my machine, using a secondary SATA controller found on my motherboard. Switched a few connectors and remapped the Bios and both drives are connected.

Still would like to find a universal flash tool, I’m going to fix that S.I. controller one way or another. Unfortunately life happens while you’re making other plans, my time is too limited to search through those other forums.

If you find something specific, let me know.

Dylan

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

– Groucho Marx

[Bohemian9999]

Heard back from Gigabyte technical support. I told them the motherboard has already been flashed to the most recent bios and current SI3112 driver version 1.3.68.0.

Their reply: "There are no updates available for the silicon Image controller."

I followed up by asking if there was a workaround allowing the controller and Seagate Barracuda to communicate well enough to allow the computer to boot, without hot plugging?

Also how large a drive the controller was designed to support?

[AdamWoz]

Thank you, for update, Bohemian9999!

Write a word, if you will get some further information / hints, please.

[fzabkar]

Bohemian9999,

Curiosity got the better of me so I modified your BIOS for you.

Here is my procedure:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/GA-8KNXP2/sii3112.txt

This is the resulting BIOS image:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/GA-8KNXP2/8knxp2.mod

I'll take all the credit if it works, but none of the responsibility if it fails. :-)

[Bohemian9999]

Fzabkar,

Thank you for the work. I can look at the tools in detail when I’ve got time. Now that I see the process, the question becomes what exactly is delivered in the patch and would it work with Gigabyte’s dedicated controller?

The S.I. fix you used is for:  Problems resolved (4.2.84) A system with 2 ODDs attached to a Sii3112 may not boot. No release paper on what the patch does and does not fix.

My current S.I. bios boots two smaller drives without problem. Only the 1TB Seagate hangs where it should display the disc size. As the bios can display the disk model, it can read the drive. The problem appears to be with either the disk size in general and/or specifically a Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive.

I’m trading email with Gigabyte’s tech support. So far they have not answered my question about any drive size limitations.

I wonder how close the code is between the two products? Many hardware vendors have parts custom modified by the manufacturer.  

Seems to me the only other answer would be comparing both product's code. I’ve run into previous problems trying to use code from one product to another, even when they’re virtually the same. I believe some of the large computer venders do this on purpose. $$$$$

Both S.I.’s site and Gigabyte’s tech support warn not use each others products. Gigabyte’s tech support’s answer so far is there are no bios updates and to install a PCI SATA controller.

 In computer years, quite a bit of time between the two items.

If the product was new, I would understand protecting their profit margin. Since we’re dealing with nearly an obsolete product, are the warnings worth respect? They could be blowing smoke, or not. Question is, do I feel luckly? <s>

 If I was dealing with anything other than a flash bios, I'd simply try it. I had to obtain a replacement bios chip for this machine 3 years ago and it wan't easy or quick.

Have you got a method for displaying the actual code? Hex would be great.

So far, the secondary Intel SATA controller I found on my board is working perfectly with both old and new drives.

Waiting to hear back from Taiwan.

Thanks again.

Dylan

Never trust a computer you can't throw out the window.

-- Steve Wozniak