Help..! Formula Z and the mystery of the vanishing SATA II Samsung F3's

[mooncat]

Hi Guys, noob here, just upgraded my rig to a Formula Z, FX8350, hyper 212 cooler, 16gb Corsair 1600, HD 7970. 2x 1G Samsung F3, 1 x 3Gb barracuda, 1x 128gb SDD



I did a fresh install of win 7, bios initially overwhelmed me but took the stock settings and installed everything.

All was ok but took the usual action to grab the latest bios from asus an installed it.

It was then when in windows I noticed my two Samsung drives were missing (gone...) not under disk manger or anything?
Reboot into the bios... nothing? they were not listed just my barracuda, my SDD and my DVD drive..
took machine to bits, messed around with cables (changed all SATA cables) even messed around with power, but nothing, they just would not show in the bios. (panicking as this point as one is my documents drive (all my photos for ever of my children and family since the dawn of digital photography) the other is the backup of that drive... aghhh, nearly in tears at this point..
Then I booted windows, said installing drives and low and behold they were back? odd.. checked they are not shown in the bios but appear in windows?
I then discover if I run any of the ROG utils to mod the bios, fan control anything... the drives disappear again. The only way I seem to be able to get them back it to reset the CMOS, change the cables around so they are on different ports, they still don't show in the bios but low and behold, installing drivers they appear in windows..

What is going on here...?

The only thing I can figure is these are SATA II (3gb) but I would have thought he 6gb SATA ports on the board would be backward compatible? Is this an issue with the drive firmware? Issue with the bios? any thoughts whats going on.

This is really getting on my nerves as I have a very configurable board but I cant change a single thing otherwise my HD's disappear and the only way to get them back is reset, swap cables and pray I get the drivers reinstalled message from windows...

Help......!!!!

p.s. on another minor point my memory is corsair CML 16GX3M2A1600 but the bios only picks it up at 1333, why is that?

Thanks!!!!

[Zka17]

Welcome to the ROG Forum!

First of all, please understand that BIOS updates are for those cases when you're having some trouble, as well as graphic drivers... the new versions always fix some problem from previous version - but if you don't have problem, then do not update!

Can you describe at what connectors are your drives connected? Maybe a picture... there are two SATA controllers on your board, perhaps the native is working and you need to double-check the other one...

1333MHz for your memories is the default, you have to set manually 1600MHz...

[mooncat]

Hi there and thanks for the response really appreciate it! The drives are all in the first 6 ports from the right according to the manual the AMD SATA ports. Never realised there were two controllers, if I am reading the manual correctly the last two ports on the left are ASMedia ports. Why two controllers, what's the difference?

Anyway this is what I have found, under the current config the bios does not see the drives, maybe it has issues seeing SATA II 3gb drives? I would have thought the 6gb interface would be backwards compatible, or maybe its just the Samsung F3 1Gb drives that causes a problem but then I would have thought someone would have bumped into this issue by now.

The ONLY way I can get the drives to appear is this;

Clear CMOS, drives not shown in bios
boot, drives not shown in windows
shutdown
move the sata cables around on the back of the HD's not the motherboard connections
reboot (still not shown in bios)
windows says installing drivers
reboot (still not in bios)
they appear in windows

however.. as soon as I change anything in the bios even via the AI suite i.e. fan speed... they disappear. I can only get them back by doing the above. I did email ASUS tech support and got a response after 48hours nothing to do with my problem, very frustrating customer support but that's another story.

I am now shutting down to move the 2 SATA II drives to the ASMedia ports to see if it behaves any differently... back soon.

p.s pointless putting up a pic as my 7970 completely covers the sata connection area so you cant see anything!

Back soon.... thanks!!!

[HiVizMan]

Could you please list your CASE and or if your hard drives are in a caddy or dock at all.

[mooncat]

case is an antec 1200, 650w antec signature PSU (SG650) , all the HDs are internal, no cadies etc.

OK, this is getting stranger...

When I shift the HD's on the ASMedia ports they are both seen but give a S.M.A.R.T error. grabbed seagate tools to check them and they hang on smart test but fail the short term test... both drives, just like that, narr... I then put them back to the AMD ports, went through my frig around to get them to appear as above, both pass the SMART and drive tests with flying colours... what the hell is going on here. I don't think the drives are problematic, I did a full scan on one yesterday no issues, this has to be something wrong with the BIOS on this MB with incompatibility with Samsung F3 drives? Also been using these drives prior to upgrade without any issue at all, for both to start causing problems at exactly the same time as installing this motherboard, identical drives, too much of a coincidence. this has to be formula Z specific. Any further ideas / suggestions? Thanks!!!

[mooncat]

OK, so here is the latest, I flashed my BIOS back to 1503 from 1602.... guess what.... all drives appear in the bios, no smart errors, pass the drive test flying colours. Conclusion : There is an issue with 1602 BIOS with SATA II drives or specifically the Samsung F3 1TB.

Now here is the annoying thing. In my panic I ordered a new 3TB barracuda £90 quid and an external SATA USB 3 caddy dock £36 as I thought I could takes these drives out and at least get the data off and use via the caddy if and when, what a waste of money, what a waste of time...

How do you report these types of issues to Asus and get someone who is prepared to listen and then action, in my experience their customer support is nothing short of appalling.. For now I'll stick with an old BIOS version, but appreciate your help. Not sure if there is a known bugs / warning section on here for users but if so this might be worth adding... Appreciate the support though guys... Thanks!

[HiVizMan]

All good mate leave the reporting to me.

Just very happy you are sorted.

[mooncat]

Aghhhh... OK bad news... they have gone again... Not listed in the bios, not listed in windows. This is now starting to do my head right in..

Let me see if I can capture some screens of the bios..

In the mean time keep thinking this one through clearly there is something a miss here...

Thanks!

[mooncat]

Woot, its not just me!! check this out!

http://rog.asus.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-3532.html

No solution though, where do I stand, can I insist on my money back as clearly the Z has issues with the Samsung S3 hard drives.

Small mercy in that its not just me being stupid...

Any thoughts on where I go from here

[HiVizMan]

How recently did you buy the board? And which retailer did you buy it from?

Not really sure that your hard drive incompatibility, if it is that will be ground for a motherboard refund. 🙂 But I honestly do not know.