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#1 | HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Fri Jul 14, 2017 4:30 am (Last edited: Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:29 pm)

I recently upgraded the ME firmware of a Asrock H170M Pro4 motherboard to v11.6.29.3287 and now have HDD's dropping offline after resuming from sleep (I didn't have these previously). I've also am getting write errors on my HDD's in the event log along with errors with LMS driver comms. The latter error is followed by a connection message though.

Before doing the upgrade I flashed BIOS v7.10. UBU reports this BIOS comes with ME v11.6.0.1126 COR_H_D0. The BIOS flash also upgraded the RST firmware from v14.6.0.2285 to v15 and took ME v11.0.0.1191 COR_H_D0 to v11.6.0.1126 COR_H_D0. As such, based on the first post info, I should be good to upgrade.

The upgrade went without error and MEManuf passes. Before upgrading the ME firmware I also took a dump of the firmware. MEA shows this as being v11.6.0.1126 COR_H_D0 (VCN 120).

Checks of the HHD's are showing some sector errors but nothing that suggests impending doom. I'm also running Samsung Magician v5.1 on my 840 EVO and RST drivers v15.2.16.60. Magician is misreporting the speed as 1.5Gb/s rather than 6Gb/s whereas RST reports the speed correctly.

Are the issues I'm having related to the ME firmware or RST firmware? I tried to reflash my dump but got an error, which I assume was due to the VCN being lower in the dump file. Should I reflash BIOS to force a downgrade of the RST firmware and see if this resolves the errors? Could it be an issue between Magician and RST?

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#2 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:27 pm (Last edited: Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:29 pm)

@StroppyOz

Post was moved to the correct forum. You should do some testing to see where the problem lies. I don't believe it is ME related. You've done so many things which could cause issues that it's hard to understand what happens. New BIOS, new ME, new RST, Magician running in the background etc. Hopefully Fernando can help you with this.

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#3 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Fri Jul 14, 2017 1:48 pm

@StroppyOz:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Zitat von StroppyOz im Beitrag #1
Should I reflash BIOS to force a downgrade of the RST firmware and see if this resolves the errors?

Has the Intel SATA Controller been set to "RAID"? If yes, which Intel RAID ROM/EFI module version is within your current BIOS?

Zitat
Could it be an issue between Magician and RST?

You can find it out by ininstalling one or both of them. Why did you install Samsung's Magician at all?

Regards
Dieter (alias Fernando)

My current System:
MB: ASRock X570 Pro4, CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600, System Drive: 500 GB Samsung 980 Pro, Graphics: Sapphire Radeon RX570, OS: Win10 x64 Pro
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#4 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:45 am (Last edited: Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:27 pm)

@Fernando @plutomaniac - guys, thanks for your feedback and my apologies for miss-posting. I thought it might have been MEI due to it being related to resume.

I've never had these issues before despite modding BIOS well before EFI and UBU came on to the scene, so had not prepared to do only change at a time.
Just checked BIOS and the RST firmware is v15.2.0.2647. I use AHCI if that matters.
I've uninstalled Magician but it's made no difference as a drive is still dropped after resuming from sleep. Haven't uninstalled RST yet (downgraded the driver originally to a lesser v15 to see if that helped but it didn't).

On my office PC i run both RST and magician without an issue, so I saw no harm in running them both.

I'm also getting a lot of timeouts on services when resuming.

Should I do a reinstall??

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#5 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:35 pm

Zitat von StroppyOz im Beitrag #4
Just checked BIOS and the RST firmware is v15.2.0.2647. I use AHCI if that matters.

The Intel RAID BIOS module doesn't matter at all as long as you are running your Intel SATA Controller in "AHCI" mode.

Zitat
Haven't uninstalled RST yet (downgraded the driver originally to a lesser v15 to see if that helped but it didn't).

It is not a good idea to change the in-use Intel AHCI driver version without having previously uninstalled the Intel RST Software from within the Control Panel.
By the way: AHCI users do not benefit from the Intel RST Software, but may get a less performant system due to the Services, which are running in the background.

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#6 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:45 pm

When i did the install, I used the F6 option to load the RST INF drivers. BIOS was set to AHCI at that time and was never changed (aside from when i checked the firmware version). Are you saying I don't even need to do that if I only use AHCI?

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#7 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:03 pm (Last edited: Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:04 pm)

Zitat von StroppyOz im Beitrag #6
When i did the install, I used the F6 option to load the RST INF drivers. ... Are you saying I don't even need to do that if I only use AHCI?

For users, who are running their Intel SATA Controller in AHCI mode, I do not recommend to install any Intel RST Drivers & Software Set. The Intel AHCI driver should be installed/changed manually from within the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section of the Device Manager.
The first and most important step for you is to uninstall the listed "Intel Rapid Storage Technology" program from within the Control Panel. After the reboot you should check from within the "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" section, which driver the Intel SATA AHCI Controller is currently using (right click onto it > "Properties" > "Driver" > "Driver Details"). If you want to change the driver version, you can do it now without any problems.

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#8 | RE: HDD instabilities after BIOS update datum

Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:19 am

Have uninstalled RST and left it using the MS Standard AHCI Controller to see what does or doesn't happen. Will report back.

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