Solved GA-X58A-UD7: How to go about safely installing the latest drivers?

[Azure Prower]

Hi every one.

Lately I've been having trouble with my SATA3 Hard Drive hanging and discovered I had them plugged into GSATA3 Marvell 9128 ports. I promptly replugged them into SATA2 ICH10R ports and now I have no troubles with the SATA3 Hard Drive with too major hanging. But it does skip a bit time to time and it's a new hard drive.

I've heard there is a bug with the Marvell 9128 port connectors if they're not updated to the latest drivers. I am wondering if this is the case and how should I go about updating the drivers for all my SATA ports from GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD7 (rev. 1.0) will stop the hard drive hanging / skipping?

Is it safe to install the new drivers right on top of the old ones? Or is there some thing special I have to do?

 

[pooch]

If there are updates on the Gigabyte site I would go ahead and install them, it should be OK to just install them, I would also check for Chipset drivers and make sure that the BIOS is up to date.
I am not sure I understand what you mean by skipping, but the PC hanging may possibly be caused by something else.

 

[sygnus21]

Is it safe to install the new drivers right on top of the old ones? Or is there some thing special I have to do?

Hi Azure Prower

I have the GA-X58A-UD5 rev 1 board. Anyway yes, it wouldn't be a problem at all to update the drivers on top of the old ones.

However I'm not sure that might fix the issue, seeing how you moved from one controller to another. I would say that if the issue continues, you might consider a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R. Be aware though that if you have SP1 installed and your retail disk doesn't include SP1, the repair install won't work. Read the tutorial warnings.

Also are you running in AHCI or IDE mode?

 

[Azure Prower]

Thanks for the replies.

By skipping, I mean. When running programs (specially games and skype), the picture and sound freeze for a split second time to time.

When I try accessing my two 1TB hard drives that are not my first system drive, some times they have 10 second load times when using windows explorer to browse file and folder contents.

As for ACHI or IDE mode, I'm unsure. I have not touched the bios and left it on its default settings since I got the mother board straight from the box. (Edit: They're all IDE)

Also it is not likely that my DVD copy of Windows 7 has SP1. It's Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, a student copy that I obtained back in 2009.

 

[pooch]

I would check that you are on AHCI mode, if your BIOS is set to IDE then you will need to make some changes before setting it to AHCI see here; http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html

You might want to defragment your drives see here; http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/171821-disk-fragmenter.html and enable write caching see here; http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10392-write-caching-enable-disable.html

After you are finished let us know how you get on

 

[Azure Prower]

Alright.

Just checked my BIOS settings. They're all set to IDE.

Would this be the issue that is causing my 1TB hard drives to hang for up to 10 seconds when accessed?

I just want to make sure since I'm a little nervous about changing the BIOS on my current computer. The last time I tried messing around with the BIOS on my previous computer, I managed to up the voltage on the CPU with out knowing what I was doing and caused the computer to shut it self off to prevent further damage done. I had to take out the BIOS battery to reset it.

 

[sygnus21]

Alright.

Just checked my BIOS settings. They're all set to IDE.

Would this be the issue that is causing my 1TB hard drives to hang when accessed?

While it would probably give you better performance if enabled I highly doubt it's the reason for your hangs. Also be aware that if you now enable it, Windows may hang (you can't get into Windows). If that does, you'll have to set it back to IDE to get into Windows. If you want AHCI there are two ways to get it - One would be to reinstall Windows, the other involves this procedures - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html?ltr=A. Either one of these methods require that AHCI be set in the BIOS.

I just want to make sure since I'm a little nervous about changing the BIOS on my current computer. The last time I tried messing around with the BIOS on my previous computer, I managed to up the voltage on the CPU with out knowing what I was doing and caused the computer to shut it self off to prevent further damage done. I had to take out the BIOS battery to reset it.

Since you removed BIOS battery you'll need to go back in the BIOS and hit "Load Optimized Defaults". I'm also betting your clock/time under Windows 7 is wrong? If so, you'll need to enter the BIOS and reset the "Date" - this should be under "Standard CMOS Features".

After that, if you're unfamiliar with the BIOS, leave things alone, including removing the battery. Unless the battery is dead, there's NO reason to remove it. If you need to reset the BIOS you have a BIOS reset switch on the back of the board near the PS/2 connections.

Amswers to your questions in blue.

Anyway Pooch gave an excellent suggestion which was to try defragging the drives. Give that a try and let us know what happens.

One other thing - hitting "Load Optimized Defaults" may actually fix your hanging issue since you pobably aren't running at the setting anyway.

Again, let us know.

 

[Azure Prower]

Alright.

Just checked my BIOS settings. They're all set to IDE.

Would this be the issue that is causing my 1TB hard drives to hang when accessed?

While it would probably give you better performance if enabled I highly doubt it's the reason for your hangs. Also be aware that if you now enable it, Windows may hang (you can't get into Windows). If that does, you'll have to set it back to IDE to get into Windows. If you want AHCI there are two ways to get it - One would be to reinstall Windows, the other involves this procedures - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61869-ahci-enable-windows-7-vista.html?ltr=A. Either one of these methods require that AHCI be set in the BIOS.

I just want to make sure since I'm a little nervous about changing the BIOS on my current computer. The last time I tried messing around with the BIOS on my previous computer, I managed to up the voltage on the CPU with out knowing what I was doing and caused the computer to shut it self off to prevent further damage done. I had to take out the BIOS battery to reset it.

Since you removed BIOS battery you'll need to go back in the BIOS and hit "Load Optimized Defaults". I'm also betting your clock/time under Windows 7 is wrong? If so, you'll need to enter the BIOS and reset the "Date" - this should be under "Standard CMOS Features".

After that, if you're unfamiliar with the BIOS, leave things alone, including removing the battery. Unless the battery is dead, there's NO reason to remove it. If you need to reset the BIOS you have a BIOS reset switch on the back of the board near the PS/2 connections.

Amswers to your questions in blue.

Anyway Pooch gave an excellent suggestion which was to try defragging the drives. Give that a try and let us know what happens.

Removing the CMOS battery for a minute to reset the BIOS was preformed on my previous computer. So no needed to Load Optimized Defaults on my current computer. Just sharing my reason why I am hesitant in changing BIOS settings outside of the basic features.

My drives are defragged monthly, so I don't think that's the answer.

I'll probably then update the drivers and edit the registry to prepare an AHCI install for Windows 7 later on. Yet if you say the up to 10 second hanging when accessing my two 1TB hard drives is caused by some thing else, I'm looking to try and fix that first before any thing else.

My 232 gig system disk seems to have no troubles with hanging and every folder is accessed instantly unlike the other two. Unsure why that is. I tested one of my 1TB hard drives on another computer and worked fine with every folder accessed instantly. So that rules out faulty hard drives.

 

[pooch]

My drives are defragged monthly, so I don't think that's the answer.

Ok

I'll probably then update the drivers and edit the registry to prepare an AHCI install for Windows 7 later on. Yet if you say the up to 10 second hanging when accessing my two 1TB hard drives is caused by some thing else, I'm looking to try and fix that first before any thing else.

Its best to follow some sort of order here so I would say do the AHCI thingy first, after all it may possibly help.

 

[pooch]

I just want to make sure since I'm a little nervous about changing the BIOS on my current computer. The last time I tried messing around with the BIOS on my previous computer, I managed to up the voltage on the CPU with out knowing what I was doing and caused the computer to shut it self off to prevent further damage done. I had to take out the BIOS battery to reset it.

Ok I can understand this you do not have to make any changes, but I do think it may make a difference.

You can download a manual for your MB here; GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 1366 - GA-X58A-UD7 (rev. 2.0)

It should be a help when changing this setting.

 

[sygnus21]

I just want to make sure since I'm a little nervous about changing the BIOS on my current computer. The last time I tried messing around with the BIOS on my previous computer, I managed to up the voltage on the CPU with out knowing what I was doing and caused the computer to shut it self off to prevent further damage done. I had to take out the BIOS battery to reset it.

Since you removed BIOS battery you'll need to go back in the BIOS and hit "Load Optimized Defaults". I'm also betting your clock/time under Windows 7 is wrong? If so, you'll need to enter the BIOS and reset the "Date" - this should be under "Standard CMOS Features".

After that, if you're unfamiliar with the BIOS, leave things alone, including removing the battery. Unless the battery is dead, there's NO reason to remove it. If you need to reset the BIOS you have a BIOS reset switch on the back of the board near the PS/2 connections.

Removing the CMOS battery for a minute to reset the BIOS was preformed on my previous computer. So no needed to Load Optimized Defaults on my current computer. Just sharing my reason why I am hesitant in changing BIOS settings outside of the basic features.

OK I see I misread that statement about the removing the BIOS battery. Yeah I would agree, if you're not sure of the BIOS/BIOS settings then do leave them alone.

With that said I guess doing a BIOS update is out of the question. The reason I bring this up is because BIOS F7 for you board deals with SATA 3 compatibility issues.

BIOS F8M deals with 3TB (terabyte) hard drive support. However I would suggest you stay away from this one since it's still in beta. On the other hand if you had a 3TB drive that was absolutely giving you issues, well you might look to this one.

Anyway I would suggest you have at least the FC BIOS IF you felt like updating.

Outside of that, yeah you might wind up having to reinstall Windows if the issue doesn't get better.

Good luck.

 

[Azure Prower]

@ Pooch: AHCI change does seem simple enough though. I also have the hard copy of the manual with me. So should be no problem. Just weighting all my options before I proceed.

@ Sygnus21: Yeah, never done a BIOS update before. My version is F2. Unsure how out of date that is.

So I have these on my to do list:

- Updated mother board drivers
- Change Windows 7 registry and SATA port controllers to ACHI in BIOS
- Update the BIOS


Just summing it up as I'm going to take my box over to a relative tomorrow, who has been in the PC tech industry for a decade or more to help me get to the bottom of this problem. He thinks it may be a hardware problem, but I suspect it had some thing to do with the SATA port controllers themselves. It has been bothering me ever since I built back in 2009. Just been figuring out the symptoms only recently.

Thanks for your input so far. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[sygnus21]

While you're over there you might want to have him update the BIOS as well as check the settings.

And F2 is the first BIOS release back in 2009. And when you go to update the BIOS MAKE SURE you get the right one for your board. You said your board is revision 1 so make sure you're on the revision 1 page you linked to. Double check you revision number just to be sure.

Good luck.

 

[Azure Prower]

Found the solution to my problem.

It was actually the power settings. Although I red some thing about this before and set my power settings to "high performance" previously. I didn't dive deep enough into the advanced settings. I eventually found out that my hard drives were set to power off every 20 minutes, so I increased the timer to 4 hours and haven't had a problem with hanging since.

I also updated my motherboard drivers for good measure.

How ever, I will deal with the IDE/AHCI for extra performance at a later date and leaving my BIOS the way it is as it doesn't really need an update.

 

[sygnus21]

I eventually found out that my hard drives were set to power off every 20 minutes, so I increased the timer to 4 hours and haven't had a problem with hanging since.

Hmmm..... that's kind of weird because they shouldn't be powering off if there is any kind of activity.

I have mine set to shutoff after 2 hours and the timer doesn't start until there is no activity for awhile. I use "Balanced" myself.

Anyway glad to see that appears to have solved your problem.

BTW you might want to check this tutorial out - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/778-power-plan-settings-change.html

Good luck.

 

[pooch]

Glad to here that you have solved your problem