Intel's SRT Woes

NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
edited September 2011 in Hardware
Just picked up a Z68 board and have been toying with the SRT tech that comes along with it (caching to SSD and using an HD as the boot drive.) I'm having trouble, though.

For some reason, cold boots seem to reset SRT's cache drive, causing it to disable. I'll get a DISK DRIVE ERROR message, and I'm forced to desync and remove the link between the HDD and the SSD before I can boot back into Windows.

A second problem has just reared it's ugly head as well, I can no longer select a device to accelerate. See attached. Normally, the Accelerated Device: and SSD configuration would report a match.

attachment.php?attachmentid=29305&d=1316575208

attachment.php?attachmentid=29306&d=1316575208

attachment.php?attachmentid=29307&d=1316575208

Has anyone else gotten the chance to play around with this stuff, and is anyone aware of the issues I'm having?

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    What SSD, and is the drive on AHCI mode?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    OCZ Agility, 60GB

    Not AHCI, but RAID(XHD) to be exact - but from what I can gather essentially the same thing.

    GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 board
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Update the BIOS on that board, yet? Confirmed you're running the latest Agility firmware?
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Hmmm.... I'm figuring you know both your HD and your SSD have caches and that if you have an IDE HD on an IDE/SATA adapter it probably will not be SRT compliant and SSD will maybe conflict with HD in resources in drivers(SSD is new tech, other things need to be adjusted for it to work with older stuff . RAID 0 may keep all sorts of things from happening right.RAID 0 is not intended for use accellerated a lot with SRT accelerating, and base RAID 0 standard was written for older hardware of like kind by standard. An older mobo with older chipset, BIOS flash file, and/or older than Win 7 Windows version might mess up what you want to do also with perhaps mostly software support or only software support perhaps (firmware chips contain software, BIOS setups that try to deconflict and inform Windows about what resources it is assigning to what specific device are programs and BIOS chips have data files with limited info about mobo resource needs (HD and SSD drives and cables in your case are first things to check)with firmware info as to what resources taken into account. Using a boot drivve in a RAID other than RAID 0 will sometimes keep it from booting, and having a drive that boots doing SRT caching. To SRT what you posted says you are trying to cache to full size and want your OS and other stuff to stay intact rather than be written over while writing data while caching. If you want a full size cache, get another HD or another SSD for cache use.

    Therefore, some questions:

    No bent pins on drive or port (either drive), and cables are known good, right?

    BIOS recognizes both drives, and Windows in the specific storage device line properties for each drive says the drives are ready, right? If no for one, you can focus more on one drive and mobo-- if no for both I will have to handle possible resource conflict fixing.

    SSD drive has latest firmware on it, right?

    It is funny to me how the same or almost the same procedures fix things year after year on Windows boxes.

    John.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Thrax wrote:
    Update the BIOS on that board, yet? Confirmed you're running the latest Agility firmware?

    Oh good call, downloaded update, about to restart now (@BIOS is pretty sweet.)

    Agility is running FW1.6, no update available in OCZ toolbox.
    Straight_Man wrote:
    Hmmm.... I'm figuring you know both your HD and your SSD have caches and that if you have an IDE HD on an IDE/SATA adapter it probably will not be SRT compliant and SSD will maybe conflict with HD in resources in drivers(SSD is new tech, other things need to be adjusted for it to work with older stuff . RAID 0 may keep all sorts of things from happening right.RAID 0 is not intended for use accellerated a lot with SRT accelerating, and base RAID 0 standard was written for older hardware of like kind by standard. An older mobo with older chipset, BIOS flash file, and/or older than Win 7 Windows version might mess up what you want to do also with perhaps mostly software support or only software support perhaps (firmware chips contain software, BIOS setups that try to deconflict and inform Windows about what resources it is assigning to what specific device are programs and BIOS chips have data files with limited info about mobo resource needs (HD and SSD drives and cables in your case are first things to check)with firmware info as to what resources taken into account. Using a boot drivve in a RAID other than RAID 0 will sometimes keep it from booting, and having a drive that boots doing SRT caching. To SRT what you posted says you are trying to cache to full size and want your OS and other stuff to stay intact rather than be written over while writing data while caching. If you want a full size cache, get another HD or another SSD for cache use.
    Lost you here, but using SATA not IDE. Program controls amount of caching done, I cannot. Perhaps you're getting confused between the drive I've selected TO cache (500GB) and the SSD linked to it?
    No bent pins on drive or port (either drive), and cables are known good, right?

    Yes, drive caching worked earlier today before it decided to stop working seemingly by itself.
    BIOS recognizes both drives, and Windows in the specific storage device line properties for each drive says the drives are ready, right? If no for one, you can focus more on one drive and mobo-- if no for both I will have to handle possible resource conflict fixing.

    Correct, both drives shown.
    SSD drive has latest firmware on it, right?
    Appears so.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Kenkel, from what you posted in your screenshots, the SRT software is configured correctly. And from what you told me about your BIOS settings (my AHCI question), it looks like your BIOS is up configured correctly, too.

    Let's see what happens after that BIOS flash and go from there.

    //EDIT: According to the OCZ page, the latest Agility firmware is v1.7, so it looks like you can update that, too.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    It's the weirdest thing, though - the way the program looked earlier was different than how it looks now. The Accelerated Device: None is what bothers me most. I've selected my HDD to be "accelerated", yet it doesn't show it?

    No real noticeable change with the BIOS update.

    Shouldn't the OCZToolbox be giving me a download firmware option?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    I've never had an SSD that uses the OCZ toolbox, so I couldn't tell you how it's supposed to work.

    It may be worth uninstalling the Intel software, cleaning the registry out with CCleaner and trying a re-install.
  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Toolbox is for Agility2 and Agility3, not Agility.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Hmmmm... Just a small mention set-- some efforts to accellerate won't work if any of the following will not be true:

    1. Some software insists (early first efforts or first writes of a program) on not using a volume they do not themselves make. Some support some RAID types and not others.

    2. Check BIOS please (if you haven't already), update may have destroyed your RAID setup in it. Because of 1. above, you might try different RAID if you get desperate.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Straight_Man wrote:

    1. Some software insists (early first efforts or first writes of a program) on not using a volume they do not themselves make. Some support some RAID types and not others.

    Not applicable in this post.
    2. Check BIOS please (if you haven't already), update may have destroyed your RAID setup in it. Because of 1. above, you might try different RAID if you get desperate.

    Not applicable, as RAID is not being used. Intel uses a technology called XHD to perform SRT caching. It's like RAID, but it isn't RAID, and there's no array to destroy.
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    This is a known issue on a large number of motherboards, due to BIOS bugs. The indicators are that it's an issue with the base BIOS on non-UEFI systems, which means a fix is probably unlikely. Did you disable the Marvell SATA controller? That can definitely cause problems.
    Gigabyte's well known for having MAJOR issues with the Z68 boards in particular, too. Check out OCN; boot loops galore, SSD issues like this, and more, all unaddressed. So I wouldn't hold out much hope for seeing this resolved. Sorry.

    FYI, RAID-XHD mode for the SATA controllers is AHCI-XHD with RAID BIOS enabled. That's the only difference really; flips on the Matrix Option ROM.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    [Citation needed]

    RootWyrm wrote:
    This is a known issue on a large number of motherboards, due to BIOS bugs.
    Gigabyte's well known for having MAJOR issues with the Z68 boards in particular, too.
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Thrax wrote:
    [Citation needed]

    http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1081757-gigabyte-ga-z68xp-ud5-revision.html
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1106516-gigabyte-z68x-ud3h-b3-problems-computer.html
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-memory/1046440-f3-17000cl9d-8gbxld-ga-z68x-ud4.html
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-general/1031827-need-some-help-gigabyte-z68x-ud4.html
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1038219-gigabyte-z68x-ud3r-wierd-issue.html
    http://www.overclock.net/intel-motherboards/1034724-gigabyte-p67-z68-boot-cycling-problem.html

    You done?
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    So you bring the following as evidence from Overclock.net*:

    1) A Z68 board thread announcing the mobo that mentions 1/10 chance of boot loops. No mention of SRT.
    2) A Z68 board thread regarding boot loops. No mention of SRT.
    3) A Z68 board thread regarding memtest failures. No mention of SRT.
    4) A Z68 board thread regarding odd initial 2500K settings on original BIOS. No mention of SRT.
    5) A Z68 board thread regarding occasional boot loops. No mention of SRT.
    6) A Z68 board thread regarding boot loops. No mention of SRT.

    See a pattern?




    *
    RootWyrm wrote:
    OCN is not authoritative, nor is that indicative of anything other than the ugly fact that that particular user is too lazy to bother building a system right.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Add that to the fact that Gigabyte has quickly become the go-to supplier for enthusiast motherboards and, hey, I think we have a biased sample set!

    So glad to dismiss another anecdotal-shoot-from-the-hip-but-I'll-present-it-as-fact-anyhow Phil post.
  • RootWyrmRootWyrm Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Thrax wrote:
    So glad to dismiss another anecdotal-shoot-from-the-hip-but-I'll-present-it-as-fact-anyhow Phil post.

    Troll harder; maybe I'll care then and you'll be the more experienced and knowledgeable dude? (nope.avi)
    Call me when you boys aren't too lazy to do your own research and use it as an excuse to act like children.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2011
    Lol u mad
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