Sata Hard Drive Freezing

JoshjjeJoshjje
edited April 2009 in Hardware
Hello all..I have read the previous posts, but am not quite sure what to do, so I will outline my problem. I got a new Seagate Barracuda 120 GB SATA drive from a friend so I decided I wanted to have my OS, page file, program files, etc. on this new drive because its faster than ATA133 obviously. My mobo is a FIC AN19E, KT400, sil 3112A sata raid on board controller, etc.

The problem I was having was my computer kept freezing for like 2-30 seconds and then would go back to normal like nothing ever happened. It seemed like this occurred during heavy access of the SATA drive, but sometimes it occurred OFTEN. Then I would start getting blue screens (I am on Windows XP Pro SP2), and several times windows said I needed to check a disk for errors...and my partition table would get all screwed up (missing files, errors, ntldr missing, etc, etc, etc) Now, I know the drive is good, and after countless hours of searching for drivers, flashing bios, reading forums, etc. I cant figure out how to solve the problem. Interestingly enough I am on the SATA drive right now and it doesnt seem to have too many problems (this is a recently fresh install so might not see problems for a little bit), but it has frozen once or twice during intense hashing of large files and what not.

The drivers for the controllers in the device manager say SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller (version 1.0.0.51)...shouldnt it be 3112A ? I just wanted to outline my problem in case there is some other solution, but anyways how do I flash the controller with these updated SATA bios or whatever? I have seen many people requesting modded BIOS, but do I need that? Thanks.

Comments

  • grapentingrapentin
    edited July 2006
    I have the exact same problem too with the same drive. Are there any solutions?

    Joshjje wrote:
    Hello all..I have read the previous posts, but am not quite sure what to do, so I will outline my problem. I got a new Seagate Barracuda 120 GB SATA drive from a friend so I decided I wanted to have my OS, page file, program files, etc. on this new drive because its faster than ATA133 obviously. My mobo is a FIC AN19E, KT400, sil 3112A sata raid on board controller, etc.

    The problem I was having was my computer kept freezing for like 2-30 seconds and then would go back to normal like nothing ever happened. It seemed like this occurred during heavy access of the SATA drive, but sometimes it occurred OFTEN. Then I would start getting blue screens (I am on Windows XP Pro SP2), and several times windows said I needed to check a disk for errors...and my partition table would get all screwed up (missing files, errors, ntldr missing, etc, etc, etc) Now, I know the drive is good, and after countless hours of searching for drivers, flashing bios, reading forums, etc. I cant figure out how to solve the problem. Interestingly enough I am on the SATA drive right now and it doesnt seem to have too many problems (this is a recently fresh install so might not see problems for a little bit), but it has frozen once or twice during intense hashing of large files and what not.

    The drivers for the controllers in the device manager say SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller (version 1.0.0.51)...shouldnt it be 3112A ? I just wanted to outline my problem in case there is some other solution, but anyways how do I flash the controller with these updated SATA bios or whatever? I have seen many people requesting modded BIOS, but do I need that? Thanks.
  • zero-counterzero-counter Linux Lubber San Antonio Member
    edited July 2006
    I know this is old, but check the event log for an Event 51. If you have that, many have corrected the issue by using an offboard controller, especially promise chipset boards. I had this problem recently, but as I have read...the resolution for many has been different. I have seen people update every driver in the syste,. the BIOS, disable tagged queuing, disable synchronous transfers, reformat, back up and re-create the raid array, replace hard drives, replace motherboard, etc.

    My problem was resolved by first ensuring the drive integrity using the HD maker's utilities. Then I verified that the controller worked fine using a spare drive. I then ran each drive (2x250GB Maxtor SATA Drives) independantly with OSs loaded and would continually perform 3GB+ transfers between them (I could not do this with the initial stripe, kept getting data corruption), with no problems. I would leave to burn in over the course of a couple of hours transferring heavy data with small breaks. I now have no problems, still using the Via 8237 SATA chipset. LOTR Battle for Middle earth II is now working fine (which is my time burner, currently).

    I have more suggestions and can elaborate on the ones I offered if you or anyone else needs to. My drives do support NCQ, but as a precaution and wehn performing my process of elimination, I turned off. I will be re-enabling soon with more tests.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    Hi. I have the exact same problem. I do not think it has to do with processes..I have 4 Sata drives and I think the problem lies with the SATA drivers. I have swapped the drives around and I think is SATA 3,4 position that is the problem. I have an Abit IC7-G motherboard (4 SATA slots), 4G of Ram, Windows XP SP3. When I unplug the drives from that SATA 3,4 ports everything goes back to normal. Have you found any solution? Does Windows XP have a problem dealing with 4 SATA HD and no IDE??

    Was there a solution??

    Joshjje wrote:
    Hello all..I have read the previous posts, but am not quite sure what to do, so I will outline my problem. I got a new Seagate Barracuda 120 GB SATA drive from a friend so I decided I wanted to have my OS, page file, program files, etc. on this new drive because its faster than ATA133 obviously. My mobo is a FIC AN19E, KT400, sil 3112A sata raid on board controller, etc.

    The problem I was having was my computer kept freezing for like 2-30 seconds and then would go back to normal like nothing ever happened. It seemed like this occurred during heavy access of the SATA drive, but sometimes it occurred OFTEN. Then I would start getting blue screens (I am on Windows XP Pro SP2), and several times windows said I needed to check a disk for errors...and my partition table would get all screwed up (missing files, errors, ntldr missing, etc, etc, etc) Now, I know the drive is good, and after countless hours of searching for drivers, flashing bios, reading forums, etc. I cant figure out how to solve the problem. Interestingly enough I am on the SATA drive right now and it doesnt seem to have too many problems (this is a recently fresh install so might not see problems for a little bit), but it has frozen once or twice during intense hashing of large files and what not.

    The drivers for the controllers in the device manager say SiI 3112 SATARaid Controller (version 1.0.0.51)...shouldnt it be 3112A ? I just wanted to outline my problem in case there is some other solution, but anyways how do I flash the controller with these updated SATA bios or whatever? I have seen many people requesting modded BIOS, but do I need that? Thanks.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Are these SATA ports differently colored?
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    Nope..... they are all black, the only difference between them is the numbers, SATA 1,2,3,4. And I presume that these slots use different controllers?? I tried HD tune on the "freezing" drive and never ended....


    Thrax wrote:
    Are these SATA ports differently colored?
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    Correction to that...it ended after a couple of hours :-) unfortunately I did not save the screenshot.I will do it again and I will post the shot.

    Aragorn26 wrote:
    Nope..... they are all black, the only difference between them is the numbers, SATA 1,2,3,4. And I presume that these slots use different controllers?? I tried HD tune on the "freezing" drive and never ended....
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    any ideas?? Still having the problem, and I am thinking of unplugging the sata drives on slots 3-4...but this is not a solution...

    Thrax wrote:
    Are these SATA ports differently colored?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    I used to have a couple IC7 motherboards. Great boards! I don't remember the layout very well. If the SATA slots are numbered sequentially 1 through 4 and they are the same color, then they should all be on the same controller. If that is also the RAID controller, the problems you describe might be hardware or software induced: 1) might be a hardware problem at the controller chip level -- if not already performed, reinstall the motherboard drivers/SIL3112 drivers, 2) software -- isn't there a RAID utility program? check the settings in the utility. Or, if RAID is not engaged, check the BIOS to ensure you do not have RAID mode engage, but rather set to "IDE" mode.

    (sorry not enough time to read this thread thoroughly right now - in case I'm reiterating what's already been suggested)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    I would try updating the drivers for the controller. If you cannot find them on the motherboard mfgrs site then try the maker of the controller's site. If all else fails try back here and we will see. That FIC board is also the same as an Epoch board produced at the same period of time.

    Also, there have been several bios updates for the early Silicon Image onboard controllers that fixed a lot of issues.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    I did try to update the drivers for the controller to the version 1.3.68.2 which was the newest I could find (13/04/2007) from their site http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=63&cat=3
    but no luck, when I restart I get no working controller and no drives... I have to roll back to the old one 1.0.0.50 in order to see the drives but to get the freezing problem.

    I could try the bios update for the controller, can I do it through Windows?? Do I have to do it on the Bios Menu? All I can find is this link
    http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=63&cat=15
    is this the BIOS update that I should use??

    Thanks a lot
    Mt_Goat wrote:
    I would try updating the drivers for the controller. If you cannot find them on the motherboard mfgrs site then try the maker of the controller's site. If all else fails try back here and we will see. That FIC board is also the same as an Epoch board produced at the same period of time.

    Also, there have been several bios updates for the early Silicon Image onboard controllers that fixed a lot of issues.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    Also it turns out that my mobo has two sata controllers?
    2 x SATA 150 Silicon Image based headers, 2 x SATA 150 Intel ICH5 based headers
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via ICH5R south bridge
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via Sil 3112 SATA controller
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via ICH5R south bridge
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via Sil 3112 SATA controller
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Aragorn26 wrote:
    Also it turns out that my mobo has two sata controllers?
    2 x SATA 150 Silicon Image based headers, 2 x SATA 150 Intel ICH5 based headers
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via ICH5R south bridge
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via Sil 3112 SATA controller
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via ICH5R south bridge
    2 channels Serial ATA 150 via Sil 3112 SATA controller

    Correction on my earlier post on the other board that is the same as yours. It is Epox and not Epoch. I have been busy doing other things and got crossed up.

    Can you tell if the Intel controller works better or the SI controller works better? Can you run them one at a time to test this?

    Also, updating the controller bios will need to be done as part of a motherboard bios update since the controller is part of the board and the bios for the controller is in the motherboard bios. I haven't done any bios modding in a long time but there are others here who I think can help. I do not think your board will support a bios flash from within Windows. Even if it did I am leery about doing it that way. As mentioned in other posts above the easiest solution may me to just buy a PCI controller card and be done with it. I had done this some time ago when I was running RAID on my machines and that gave me the ability to move a RAID array from one machine to another since onboard controllers differ too much to do it.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    If the SATA 1,2 slot is the Intel Controller then the Intel controller works better. Assuming the Si Controller is the 3,4 Slot. As for the BIOS for the IC7-G mobo I have the latest update. It has been a while and ABIT has not released an update, since I think is an old motherboard. So I will try a little bit to solve the problem and then I will probably go for the PCI card solution... If there are any other ideas let me know..

    Thanks a lot
    Mt_Goat wrote:
    Correction on my earlier post on the other board that is the same as yours. It is Epox and not Epoch. I have been busy doing other things and got crossed up.

    Can you tell if the Intel controller works better or the SI controller works better? Can you run them one at a time to test this?

    Also, updating the controller bios will need to be done as part of a motherboard bios update since the controller is part of the board and the bios for the controller is in the motherboard bios. I haven't done any bios modding in a long time but there are others here who I think can help. I do not think your board will support a bios flash from within Windows. Even if it did I am leery about doing it that way. As mentioned in other posts above the easiest solution may me to just buy a PCI controller card and be done with it. I had done this some time ago when I was running RAID on my machines and that gave me the ability to move a RAID array from one machine to another since onboard controllers differ too much to do it.
  • SoundySoundy Pitt Meadows, BC
    edited March 2009
    One thing I haven't seen mentioned, is a possible bad SATA cable. I don't know about freezing specifically, but I have had a number of systems where the SATA cables packaged with them turned out to be from a bad batch, and would regularly "drop" drives from the system. Returning to site and wiggling the connections was enough to get it going again in almost every case... at least for a while. Ultimately the fix was to simply replace the bad cables.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited March 2009
    I have replaced all the SATA cables. Sorry for the omission. The problem lies with the drives when they are plugged in slots 3,4....
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Aragorn26 wrote:
    I have replaced all the SATA cables. Sorry for the omission. The problem lies with the drives when they are plugged in slots 3,4....

    That is what I thought would be the problem. Yes, for now a PCI controller card will be your best option without getting into a new system. And it should hold you over till you are ready to do a new build.
  • Aragorn26Aragorn26 Athens Greece
    edited April 2009
    Problem solved....bought as suggested :-) a PCI controller card and everything is in working order.....this will hold me (ouch, point taken though it an old bugger) till I decide I am going for a new build.

    thanks a lot guys... and since when something is fixed something else comes up I am going to move to the network section....
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