Windows 7: Marvell SATA-III 6Gb driver failure under Win7 64bit

MY first post... Shame it has to be about the failure of Marvell's SATA-III 6Gb controller driver to load under Windows 7 64bit.

The driver fails to load from both the manufacturers CD as well as from the latest (supposedly 64bit) driver download from their website... the manufacturer being Gigabyte - the motherboard being a GA-X58A-UD3R (revision 1).

Device manager shows the Intel iCH10 SATA channels and the Gigabyte SATA channels loaded and operating correctly... however even after attempting to load 'legacy devices' and pointing to the (supposedly) Marvell 64bit *.inf Windows 7 still cacks itself that the driver is a "non-64bit compliant device driver"...

Now... because I have a dual boot system with Win-XP Pro installed on a separate HDD I've loaded the 32bit version of the Marvell SATA-III 6Gb controller driver from the Gigabyte download centre (and just to be certain, from the Mobo setup CD) without hiccup or problem of any sort; and the Marvell SATA-III 6Gb controller shows up clearly in XP-Pro's Device Manager - giving me the sort of performance from my Seagate 2Tb SATA-III 6gb HDD that I was expecting, as well as hoping to have under Windows7 64Bit!

Bottom line: I have seen nothing regarding the Marvell 64bit SATA-III 6Gb controller and it's performance (or in my case, lack of performance!!) under Windows7 64bit.

That Gigabyte clearly has what they purport to be a "64bit" version of the Marvell SATA controller for download on their support sites, when it clearly won't load on a Windows7 64bit system that has the exact hardware and OS that is supposed to be supported is - in my view, a pretty poor show!

Don't these people test their stuff?!!!



Anyway - rant over...

If there's anyone out there who also has a mothereboard with Marvell SATA-III 6Gb SATA ports, a SATA-III 6Gb Hard Disk Drive and is running a 64bit OS, who has managed to get verified installation (not just assumed installation, simply off the back of the 'console' loading the software to it's destination folder...) - I'd be very, very interested to know how you achieved it!


(BTW - HDD test app shows that the Seagate 2Tb SATA-III 6Gb drive is running as SATA-III 6Gb under Win-XP Pro while it is running as SATA-II 3Gb under Windows7 with 'various options' unavailable, which shows that even if people think (assume) the Marvell 64bit SATA-III 6Gb controller driver has loaded under Windows7 64bit... it hasn't!!)

Welcome to Seven Forums. Hopefully someone on here has resolved this issue, but for now it seems like something I would be on Gigabytes back about. Maybe contacting them will get you some much needed help as it appears you know what your doing.JMO Fabe

Hi TallSteve,

I have an Asus board with Marvell SATA-III 6Gb 64 bit installed, version V1.0.0.1036.
I'm going to give you a link to my motherboard (yes I have an Asus), select download, OS, then scroll down to other...Marvell V1.0.0.1036 is in there.
It should work because it's not "locked" to any particular board.

Mine works fine, if it doesn't, then your mobo maker Gigabyte is at fault.
I hope this sorts out your problem.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc.

Thanks for the replies!

I have posted to Gigabyte's support about the issue - but no response as yet...

And... I reckon your reasoning is sound Sanvean!!

I'll give the Asus version of the Marvell SATA-III 6Gb 64bit controller driver a go!

Fingers crossed it does the trick... it is only loading the driver for the controller chip, rather than Gigabyte's or Asus's iteration of the hardware after all!

I'll let you know how it goes!

I hope it goes well!

Update!!

I found the 9128 Marvell controller chip on the ASUS site (thanks again Sanvean!!), and it has done the trick!!!

Why Gigabyte couldn't supply a proper version of the Marvell 9128 controller installer along with the 'console' is beyond me!


Thanks again for your help. It's most appreciated!!!

LOL that's awesome!!!! Glad I could help

I downloaded the drivers and what is it that they are in 'Floppy64' folders and i cant install windwos 7 because the drive does not appear in the windows installer..... help!!!

Hi Turuca,
You have to go into device manager and right click your Marvell SATA III controller. Select update driver software, then second option "browse" and point it at either the 32 or 64 folder, then install, reboot.

There's no installer, it has to be updated thru device manager manually. If works or doesn't please post back!

Are you trying to install a fresh Win 7 on a drive using the Marvell sata III controller? If that is the case, take the contents of the 32 or 64 version (Floppy32 or Floppy64) just the files (no folder) and copy to a usb drive. When you go to load windows it will ask about drivers, that is when you point it to the usb drive.

On my Gigabyte Motherboard x58a ud3r v2 the Marvell 9128 6Gb/s needs to beenabled in BIOS prior to attempting to load an operating system. There is also a BIOS setting to go in and configure the raid configuration. Then once that is saved to BIOS the computer reboots and the Win 6 64 bit operating system detects the drive or drives depending on whether you have used Raid 0 or Raid 1. It is also possible to load the 64-bit marvell driver from a USB drive prior to installing win 7 but I'm not convinced that is absolutely necessary. But the first step of enabling the BIOS and configuring the raid configuration is definitely needed on my board. I don't know if that is any help. First post. Also on my motherboard you must plug the Sata connectors to Sata 6 and 7 as they are the only ones that support Sata3.