Gigabyte Tool to Check 6-Series SATA Issue

tommybhoy · 7 Feb 2011 at 10:12

Gigabyte has released a utility that works on any motherboard (of any brand) that uses Intel's defect-prone 6-series chipsets (such as P67, H67), and checks if the installed hard drives are connected to defective SATA ports, or whether the board is prone to defects at all.

Source:
http://www.techpowerup.com/139999/Gigabyte-Gives-Out-Free-Tool-to-Check-6-Series-SATA-Issue.html

Gigabyte Utility Download Direct link:
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Utility/mb_utility_6_series_sata_check.exe.ZIP

Destroyer^ · 7 Feb 2011 at 12:47

Hmm but is this 100%?...

gcaster · 7 Feb 2011 at 14:02

This seems incredibly useless.

This is what I get when running it:

Yes I am fully aware of that but my SSD and HDDs are occupying all four SATA 3 ports so I have nowhere else to put my optical drives. :rolleyes:

Doppleganger · 7 Feb 2011 at 18:44

I get this:

Seems to suggest that my SATA3 Port 0 at least is ok. My 2 HDDs are connected to SATA6 Ports.

gcaster · 7 Feb 2011 at 19:18

Doppleganger said:
I get this:

Seems to suggest that my SATA3 Port 0 at least is ok. My 2 HDDs are connected to SATA6 Ports.

It's only SATA 2 ports that will be affected, ie 2-5.
SATA 6 does not exist. SATA 3 is 6Gbps whereas SATA 2 is 3Gbps.

Doppleganger · 7 Feb 2011 at 20:06

gcaster said:
It's only SATA 2 ports that will be affected, ie 2-5.
SATA 6 does not exist. SATA 3 is 6Gbps whereas SATA 2 is 3Gbps.

My bad, I meant SATA 3. The tool does seem useless if all it will do is state the obvious.

Efour · 7 Feb 2011 at 21:45

so basically it tells you if you have devices connected to risky ports

if it comes up with nothing, its all good >>! obviously...

yes? am i being thick

gcaster · 8 Feb 2011 at 01:51

Efour2 said:
so basically it tells you if you have devices connected to risky ports

if it comes up with nothing, its all good >>! obviously...

yes? am i being thick

That's as much as I got from it. I was half expecting it to analyse my chipset and then tell me it'd need replacing as opposed to just telling me where I'd plugged my SATA cables in!

Darien · 8 Feb 2011 at 03:10

Pretty pointless utility really.

Davey_Pitch · 9 Feb 2011 at 08:40

It'll be useful for people who may have bought closed systems recently, or don't fancy opening up their case to see what ports devices may be connected to. Beyond that, it's not really much use.

Durzel · 9 Feb 2011 at 12:17

gcaster said:
This seems incredibly useless.

I guess it probably is, but assuming it works on notebooks with this chipset (where most users wouldn't be expected to know, and in many instances will find it difficult even confirming for themselves - e.g. warranty void if case opened, etc) then it could be useful.

e: Beaten by Davey

frankmcg · 10 Feb 2011 at 09:30

Can I plug sata2 devices into sata3 ports without any problems? My SSD, HD and optical drive are all sata2.

Confused · 10 Feb 2011 at 10:02

frankmcg said:
Can I plug sata2 devices into sata3 ports without any problems? My SSD, HD and optical drive are all sata2.

Yes.

Put your SSD and HD onto the SATA3 ports (if you've only got a couple) and the optical drives on the SATA2 ports - that way, any issues you may encounter may only prevent reading of an optical device.

frankmcg · 10 Feb 2011 at 10:08

Cool, will do that thanks. I've only the 3 drives (1 SSD, 1 HDD, 1 optical) in total so probably won't bother to send my asus mobo back. If I ever upgrade the HDDs it will a replacement rather than an upgrade so shouldn't ever need more sata ports.

Durzel · 10 Feb 2011 at 11:05

Confused said:
Yes.

Put your SSD and HD onto the SATA3 ports (if you've only got a couple) and the optical drives on the SATA2 ports - that way, any issues you may encounter may only prevent reading of an optical device.

Or burning one properly.

drunkenmaster · 10 Feb 2011 at 11:07

Its quite literally just made for retarded people who can't read the manual and don't know which port is which, lame tool to say the least.

Frankly theres tools out there, error's in communication are NOT new, they happen on any port, the problem with the Intel chipset issue is these error's increase dramatically over time till the port entirely fails to pick up useable data.

You can use several hdd monitoring tools to read error rates, several of the benchmarking tools do it, and several monitoring tools have hdd parts to them.

Load one up, and periodically check error rates on the sata 2 ports if you want to.

Oma-Lan-DP · 10 Feb 2011 at 17:27

gcaster said:
This seems incredibly useless.

This is what I get when running it:

Yes I am fully aware of that but my SSD and HDDs are occupying all four SATA 3 ports so I have nowhere else to put my optical drives.

Would this mean that only the two ports shown in red are defective ?

Doppleganger's pic shows all ports in green so all his ports should be ok ?

Its_Me · 10 Feb 2011 at 17:50

wow, talk about how to confuse the issue even more.
Very lacklustre effort from gigabyte.

mmj_uk · 10 Feb 2011 at 18:03

Oma-Lan-DP said:
Would this mean that only the two ports shown in red are defective ?

Doppleganger's pic shows all ports in green so all his ports should be ok ?

All the tool basically does is tell you if you have any SATA devices plugged into the 'potentially' affected sockets.

Doppleganger isn't using any of them thus all are green, whereas gcaster is using two of them (the ones in red).

drunkenmaster · 11 Feb 2011 at 11:59

Oma-Lan-DP said:
Would this mean that only the two ports shown in red are defective ?

Doppleganger's pic shows all ports in green so all his ports should be ok ?

As others have said, its not a test for problems AT ALL, it can not detect faults, or issues, or failures, it merely checks if you have a hard drive connected to a port that COULD fail or not, this is every single sata 2 port, if you have something connected to a sata 2 port it will recommend you move it, if not it says everything is ok, its not capable of testing anything more complex than that.