GD-85 and SATA III

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vern2010

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  Guy's, have a new build on the GD-85 with a single WD black sata III HD. On the marvell controller post screen it shows the drive running as SATA II. The drive is connected to the white MB SATA connecters, using the MSI supplied
SATA cable, no jumpers on the drive. HD tuner shows the HD running as SATA II in win 7.All drivers are loaded in win 7 and the device manager shows all controllers. I'm missing something in the BIOS to get this HD into SATA III mode,
what is it that I'm missing?

Bruce
 
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No need for a new SATA cable.  SATA III will work fine with any SATA cables.  Don't let the "Monster Cable" types out on the net try to fool you.

In BIOS check Integrated Peripherals and make sure the SATA 6Gb controller is set to AHCI.

Did you try entering the Marvell BIOS utility during POST?  I doubt it, but maybe there's something in there to set?

Also, did you install the drivers from MSI's driver page?  These are a little old and a newer driver is available.  Not sure if the newer driver may help, but its worth a try.  See here for a link to download.  I checked the package and its clean.  New Marvell utility and driver in one download (separate installs after the file is unpacked).  Scroll to bottom and look for V1.0.00.1042 under the Marvel 88SE91xx driver link.  Don't mess with the BIOS download!

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/marvell.htm

Let us know how it works out for you.

BTW, checked Newegg and saw a couple reviews from someone claiming they also couldn't get this drive running in 6Gb/s mode.  Was that you?
 
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Ya Clay, seems like marketing with the SATA III cables. I've been thru every setting in the BIOS that has to do with HD's, tried every comb of on/off AHCI/IDE/RAID, nada. Been in the marvel bios and it shows SATA II, nothing else to in there but set up raid. The 1042 AHCI driver is already loaded, this isn't really a windows problem, but a MSI BIOS/WD HD firmware issue. In all reality I know the drive running in SATA II mode isn't going to make any difference over
SATA III, just drives me crazy when stuff doesn't work the way I want it to. That wasn't me over at Newegg. I'm gunna swap SATA cables around and play with the jumper settings on the HD, maybe something will clear it's head and start working? Overall I can't complain, the system went right together no problem, the GD-85 is badazz, i5-750 @ 4.0G 1.2V.
If I ever do get this working I'll be sure to post back.
 
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If the Marvell BIOS is detecting as SATA II, then its likely there's a compatibility issue with this disk.  The Newegg review from another user indicates that you're not alone.  WD or Marvell likely have something bungled in their firmware/BIOS.  I've previously inquired with MSI as to when they'll update the Marvell and JMicron embedded BIOS but I never got an answer.

Its a good idea for you to file a support inquiry with MSI so hopefully this will be passed along to HQ.  Maybe they'll finally update the embedded BIOS.

http://service.msicomputer.com/msi_user/ts_form.aspx

P.S.  I see that MSI added the Marvell 1042 driver to the GD85 download page a couple days ago.  Good for them!
 
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They found that there are two versions of WD1002FAEX in the market. They are with firmware version either 01.01v01 or 05.01D05.

The Marvell chipset can detect SATAIII 6Gbps for the WD1002FAEX with 05.01D05 but only 3Gbps for WD1002FAEX with 01.01v01.
Click to expand...
Looks to be a WD firmware problem.
 
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