Help! The SATA ports running off my chipset's storage controller don't work

[Spork829]

I discovered recently that there's something wrong with 6 out of the 8 SATA ports on my motherboard (ASRock Z97 Extreme4), which happen to be the ones that use the Intel storage controller on the chipset. The two functional ones, (which happened to be the only ones I've used up until now, which is why I never knew about this) are on a separate ASMedia controller. Drives plugged into the Intel ports won't show up if I'm already booted into Windows and plug them in (yes the board supports SATA hotplugging and it's worked in the past). Furthermore, the system will freak out and BSOD on boot if there's anything plugged into these ports on startup, when the boot drive is plugged into a working ASMedia port. BSOD code is MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION.

 

The reason this came up is because I've always just had two HDDs in the system, but I finally bought a boot SSD, meaning I now have three SATA drives and two functional ports. I guess I could get an external USB to SATA enclosure type thing for one of the HDDs, but that's kind of a clumsy solution.

 

Any recommendations for getting these SATA ports working correctly?

 

 

[knightslugger]

are they enabled in BIOS? some boards allow you to turn them on and off.

 

What does BlueScreenViewer tell you about the crash?

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, knightslugger said:

are they enabled in BIOS? some boards allow you to turn them on and off.

 

What does BlueScreenViewer tell you about the crash?

I assume they're enabled. The only option like that in my BIOS that I can find is "Storage Controller(s)" Which just has "Enabled" and "Disabled" options. Obviously it's set to Enabled. I never knew about BlueScreenViewer. Downloaded and ran it and nothing's coming up, so I'm not sure. I don't want to try getting the BSOD again if I don't have to though, because it always got stuck on 0% complete and would never restart on its own, meaning I had to hard power off, which scares me a bit

[AshleyAshes]

Maybe the integrated Intel controller is just dead.

I mean hate to say it, but usually they have little more than 'Enabled' or 'Disabled' options in the BIOS plus some specific functions like AHCI or IDE or hotplugging such, not that can make them 'not work' or fail to post.

Hardware failure seems the likely culprit.

[Spork829]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

Maybe the integrated Intel controller is just dead.

I mean hate to say it, but usually they have little more than 'Enabled' or 'Disabled' options in the BIOS plus some specific functions like AHCI or IDE or hotplugging such, not that can make them 'not work' or fail to post.

Hardware failure seems the likely culprit.

Yeah, I can't find any BIOS options specifically related to the Intel Controller. Oh well, I guess I'll just go with an external enclosure.

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Yeah, I can't find any BIOS options specifically related to the Intel Controller. Oh well, I guess I'll just go with an external enclosure.

Or add a PCIE SATA controller...

[Spork829]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

Or add a PCIE SATA controller...

Oooh true. How many PCIE lanes would that take up though? I only have 16 lanes, and already have my GPU and a PCIE wifi card. 

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Oooh true. How many PCIE lanes would that take up though? I only have 16 lanes, and already have my GPU and a PCIE wifi card. 

It would depend on the controller.  Cheaper ones use one lane, better ones use 4 or 8 typically.  Like, higher end RAID cards tend to be 8 lane.

[Spork829]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

It would depend on the controller.  Cheaper ones use one lane, better ones use 4 or 8 typically.  Like, higher end RAID cards tend to be 8 lane.

Would I be able to get a 4x one, and run the three cards in 8x for the GPU and 4x for the other two?

[AshleyAshes]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Would I be able to get a 4x one, and run the three cards in 8x for the GPU and 4x for the other two?

Er... Just so you know, those controller cards have multiple ports each.  Typically 2-4 ports, where as high end 8 lane SAS/SATA RAID controllers have 8 ports.  You probably only need ONE card.

The cheap ones I use for my dumb storage server have 4 SATA3 ports and use one lane.

[Spork829]

Just now, AshleyAshes said:

Er... Just so you know, those controller cards have multiple ports each.  Typically 2-4 ports, where as high end 8 lane SAS/SATA RAID controllers have 8 ports.  You probably only need ONE card.

The cheap ones I use for my dumb storage server have 4 SATA3 ports and use one lane.

Haha nonono, by 3 cards I meant my GPU, wifi card and the SATA controller card

[NumLock21]

So your board only has 3 SATA ports? Try the other ports.

[Spork829]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

So your board only has 3 SATA ports? Try the other ports.

The board has 8 ports. I've tried all 6 of the Intel ones and got this same result.

[NumLock21]

4 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

The board has 8 ports. I've tried all 6 of the Intel ones and got this same result.

Did you try a different SATA data and power cable? How about trying one of the original drives that was plugged into the Asmedia controller. Reset bios back to defaults. Update motherboard bios. Disable SATA hot swap feature.

Plugged in drive when your system is powered off and hotswap won't work without the proper drivers, even when it's enabled in bios.

[Spork829]

23 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

Did you try a different SATA data and power cable? How about trying one of the original drives that was plugged into the Asmedia controller. Reset bios back to defaults. Update motherboard bios. Disable SATA hot swap feature.

Plugged in drive when your system is powered off and hotswap won't work without the proper drivers, even when it's enabled in bios.

I was troubleshooting for a couple hours yesterday. SATA data and power cables were swapped, tried all three drives on both controllers, updated BIOS. The only thing there I didn't try was disabling hotswap, but I don't see why that would be causing the issue.

[NumLock21]

28 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

I was troubleshooting for a couple hours yesterday. SATA data and power cables were swapped, tried all three drives on both controllers, updated BIOS. The only thing there I didn't try was disabling hotswap, but I don't see why that would be causing the issue.

Plug your drive when the system is off like a normal person. 

[Spork829]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

Plug your drive when the system is off like a normal person. 

The reason that I tried the hotswap was because when I did that, I got the BSOD.

[NumLock21]

Just now, Spork829 said:

The reason that I tried the hotswap was because when I did that, I got the BSOD.

So have you try without hotswap? Like plugging in when system is off.

[Spork829]

2 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

So have you try without hotswap? Like plugging in when system is off.

Yes. When I plug in a drive into one of the Intel ports when the system is off, it BSODs on startup.

[NumLock21]

1 minute ago, Spork829 said:

Yes. When I plug in a drive into one of the Intel ports when the system is off, it BSODs on startup.

Does the bios see the new drive plugged into the Intel's sata port? Yes, then reinstall the os onto your new boot drive. 

[Spork829]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

Does the bios see the new drive plugged into the Intel's sata port? Yes, then reinstall the os onto your new boot drive. 

Don't know, It doesn't give me a chance to get into the BIOS. The startup screen before even getting into Windows is all screwed up.

[NumLock21]

Just now, Spork829 said:

Don't know, It doesn't give me a chance to get into the BIOS. The startup screen before even getting into Windows is all screwed up.

Press repeatedly the bios key for your motherboard.

[Spork829]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

Press repeatedly the bios key for your motherboard.

I did. It literally just won't work.

[Spork829]

1 minute ago, NumLock21 said:

Press repeatedly the bios key for your motherboard.

However when I had a device plugged into the Intel port with no boot drive installed, it did show up in the BIOS.

[NumLock21]

14 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

However when I had a device plugged into the Intel port with no boot drive installed, it did show up in the BIOS.

So bios shows device plugged into intel sata port? This verifies, the  controller is working.