Maxtor 250Gb SATA-II Hanging BIOS - Not what you think

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

RoachycaL

Soldato
Joined
2 Jan 2006
Posts
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Newcastle Upon Tyne
Hi guys,

First I will introduce you to my system. I have:

Amd 64 3000+
MSI Neo4 Platinum Nforce 4 Ultra
1gig of corsair value select
2x Maxtor Diamondmax 9 80GB
ATi X850XT PE
A very annoying Maxtor Diamondmax 10 SATA-II 250GB Drive

Ok I first got this new drive on christmas day got it into my pc and the BIOS hung when scanning for drives. I literally spent the whole of christmas day trying to sort the problem out but never got to the end of it. I did get it to boot eventually but I cant really remember how. I do remember the pc freezing once booted into windows and a lot friends told me it will be the hard drive broken. So I got a replacement from OC and today Ive tried it again and I still have the same problem. The ONLY way I can get it to boot is if I enable RAID for the Nvidia SATA ports and it boots into windows and the hard drive is in "safely remove hardware". I know this hard drive is fine as I have ran the Maxtor Powermax software on it and it reported all passed.

When I plug it into any of the four nvidia sata ports - BIOS hangs
When I enable RAID for those ports - it boots and uses the drive on safely remove hardware
When I plug it into one of the four Silicon sata ports - it boots and the Silicon RAID utility detects it but the BIOS or windows dosent. Niether does the disk management in admin tools.

I have tried resetting the CMOS and the BIOS to default values and it still does the same. As I say I do think the first drive was broken but I dont think this one is. I do not have any other SATA PC's in the house to test it on.

I forgot to mention. One of my 80gig's has XP on it, the other is full of downloads and backup etc. Hopefully this 250gig will eventually replace the second 80gig and I will use it for backups and downloads.

I would really appreciate some help,

Thanks guys :confused:
 
Well this is what confuses me so much. I have installed the drivers for the silicon but they are RAID drivers. I have also installed the nforce 4 drivers for those 4 sata ports and they are detected and everything.
 
I wouldn't worry about the 'Safely Remove Hardware', that's to allow you to disconnect a drive (though not the system drive at that point) while the machine is running. That's a SATA standard. But it does seem quite weird. I remember there was an issue with NF4 where if you updated the BIOS, you had to use the very latest NF4 chipset drivers otherwise you'd get hard drive corruption.

The Silicon Image controller may not show up in BIOS because it's an add on (correct me on this if I'm wrong) or that it won't show in Windows unless it's in a RAID config. This is just an assumption.

Things to try: Update BIOS, Install latest NF4 drivers - restart and set the NF4 Sata ports to Non-RAID mode. Failing this it could be a dodgy mobo.

Also are you overclocking the system at all?
 
Ok, Im not overclocking no.
Ive already updated the BIOS about a month back and its all fine.
I THINK I have the latest from nvidia. I only downloaded them a few weeks ago.
Your right about it being an add on.
The drive still hangs the BIOS when its plugged in on non RAID mode :(
 
Sounds like the latest BIOS and drivers in which case it should be fine. The only reason I asked about overclocking is a common problem is that certain SATA ports aren't locked (supposedly only 3 and 4 are locked on NF4 boards), in which case would cause the drives to lock up and respond. But since you're at stock, it's not an issue.

After having a look at the MSI forum, try putting any SATA drives into ports 3 and 4 and then try again (try one hdd at a time). Someone had a similar problem where a SATA drive would work for a few boots and then hang at BIOS. The above was a solution posted.

EDIT: http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=92322.0 - There is an incompatibility between your drive and the NF4 chipset it would seem according to this thread.
 
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Ok, I have tried using the drive on ports 3 and 4. Thats what I mainly try it for. As far as I can remember, It did would boot a few times but hang the BIOS aswell. I'll have a look for the topic but I would still appreciate some furthur help.

Thanks
 
Hmm, could it be the problem that appeared before in the diamondmax10's. They would appear sometimes and then disappear. Apparently a firmware flash fixed them but these drives must already have the firmware fix which is why it is so weird. I don't think it can be a dyig mobo because your other drives show up and work just fine. The platters themselves are probably fine as you tested, but that is not where the problem eminates from. This is looking more like a controller board on the HDU problem. Have you used a different SATA cable and used a different power connector (worth a shot). nForce4 chipsets don't require drivers to run SATA drives. Are there any jumpers set on the back of the drive, if so, remove them completely. I'm miffed tbh. Other than returning for a refund, not much I can suggest.

One thing though RoachycaL, your sig is huuuge. 4 lines of text max OR 1 pic of no more than 400x75 + 1 line of text. Just edit it before an Admin sees it :).

EDIT: Damn you Dunky! :p You beat me to the firmware flash fix suggestion. This is an ongoing thing with Maxtor - another reason I never buy them.
 
Im baffled too - I dont get it and I'll edit my sig lol.
I doubt I need to do a firmware update and I dont see how I can when it only accept the damn drive if its RAID enabled or if its plugged into the Silicon. Ive tried 2 SATA cables but I havent tried another power connector. I do hear the drive spin up and I did manage to format it using the powermax software which I heard it working away. As I say I dont have a clue. I'll wait for a day or two for some more response and mabey I'll just get a refund and buy another drive :(
 
Yeah, and the problem with enabling RAID is that you cannot see the drive in Windows - good one. A drive which only works when you cannot use it. :rolleyes:. Keep at it, google the net but beyond that, not much more I can suggest I'm afraid. Perhaps double check all the HDU settings in BIOS are on [Auto] e.g. transfer mode - don't set CHS/LBA etc, leave it on auto. That's as far as I can help you. :(.
 
smids said:
EDIT: Damn you Dunky! :p You beat me to the firmware flash fix suggestion. This is an ongoing thing with Maxtor - another reason I never buy them.
Click to expand...

Unlucky :p The more people I see with Maxtor drives, the more it's starting to sink in that it is probably a manufacturer to avoid. Touchwood though with my DM10 (it's only got XP x64 on it, not that fussed).

OP: I'd probably get another drive because the firmware solution will only work if you've got a friend who could hook it up. Not much else you can do I'm afraid as it seems like you've nearly tried everything. If you're going to look at other drives, Western Digital is a good all-rounder, Seagate for the 5 year warranty or Hitachi for speed (no major reports of any incompatibilites with these 3 makes and your NF4 board)
 
RoachycaL said:
Thankyou for all your help guys. At the moment Im just contacting MSI to see what they say - then possibly Maxtor. If I can i'll get another drive, probably Seagate. I doubt the problem will still lie will it? :confused:
Click to expand...
Never heard of seagate problems with any boards, nor WD or hitachi as Dunky suggested. He was pretty much spot on with his remarks about each of the drives too. I sincerely hope it isn't a motherboard problem though, I'm sure you will know more once you have spoken to MSI though.
 
One thing I just thought of - does your drive require a jumper to run in 150MB/s mode as opposed to the SATA-II feature of 300MB/s? If so, set that jumper to force 150BM/s and run again in the Silicon Image SATA ports. The SIL controller on your board is a SATA 1 IIRC and it just might work. If it does, (and Disk management sees it), then your chipset/nforce sata ports are damaged/not functioning properly.
 
Just send it back to OC's and get them to replace it with a Seagate or Hitachi Hd. It is not performing as advertised so you are legally intitled to a replacement or refund.
 
Ive sent a form off to MSI and Maxtor after reading the tread in one of the edited posts, Maxtor say they brought out a firmware upgrade which I have requested. If that dosent work I'll pobably get a Seagate drive. Yes my drive does have the jumper, I have tried it with the jumper and without and on both lots of ports. Thanks for your help guys and if you have any more info or help please dont hesitate to reply :)
 
Ok well Maxtor are being annoying asking for tonnes of info when they dont need it. I ask for a simple link and I dont get it so Ive decided to just RMA it with OC. Do you think this drive would be ok with my system? I just want to make sure - it should be.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 200GB ST3200826AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-019-SE.

Thanks guys :)
 
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