System Loses Power Randomly

So I have now solved the issue where my hard drive was showing as a SATA II device with speed 3Gb/s when it was connected to a SATA III - 6Gb/s port.

This issue was NOT caused by the Marvell SATA Controller as pointed out by some members earlier, instead this was down to a firmware mis-programming on my Western Digital HDD.

This firmware issue relates to the following Western Digital Hard Drives:

• WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0
• WD7502AAEX-00Y9A0
• WD6402AAEX-00Y9A0
• WD5002AAEX-00Y9A0
• WD5002AAEX-32Y9A0

To fix this issue I had to do the following:

Note: Before doing any of the the HDD must be set in AHCI mode not IDE. For details on how to do this visit this link from a thread on this forum: AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

1. Find an empty USB Stick
2. Format the USB as FAT (not FAT32)
3. Create a USB boot drive using unetbootin: UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads
4. When it opens choose FreeDOS, select the USB Drive and then press "OK"
5. Copy the file "WdSSpd.exe" on it - This is attached below
6. Shutdown PC
7. Connect your HDD to a SATA port (that isn't a 6Gb/s slot) on your motherboard.
8. Change BIOS to boot using the USB Stick
9. Boot into the USB Stick > Press "Default" > Press "FreeDOS Live CD" (Option 5)
10. When "A:\" appears type: "C:" then hit ENTER
11. Type "dir" then hit ENTER
12. Type the following: "wdsspd.exe -A" (There is a space between the .exe and the dash)
13. Wait about 10-20 seconds to let it apply the fix.
14. Shutdown PC
15. Replace HDD back into a SATA III port
16. Change BIOS to boot using the HDD
17. Restart PC - Voila! Your WD HDD should now be running with a 6Gb/s Transfer Speed!

Hopefully this will help someone in the future. The firmware file from WD took me a very long time to find so I've uploaded it here for ease of finding it in the future.

GokAy said:

I wish you had done a HDD benchmark before and after the firmware update :)
What if we didn't have a SATA II controller?

I did do a benchmark before using Defraggler:

Before Read Speed: 2800Mb/s - Average
After Read Speed: 5900Mb/s - Average

I don't quite understand your second question?

GokAy said:

That bench is not true as in it only shows the interface speed not the actual transfer speed. A HDD can't transfer that much data regardless it is SATA II or III. I was hoping like a HDTune or AS SSD sequential read/write.

7. Connect your HDD to a SATA II port on your motherboard.

What if we don't have such a port? Will it not work connected to a SATA III port?

What tool would you suggest for running a benchmark on the HDD? I would like to run one anyway to see some statistics.

Also for the port question, my motherboard (as most of them are similar) has 2x SATA 3 6Gb/s slots which are run on a Marvell controller and 6x SATA ports on an Asus Controller. In the BIOS only the 6x ports show up the other two don't. If you were to do this for your PC you would have to check the BIOS to see which SATA ports show and plug the HDD into one of those. If it is already in a port that is shown in the BIOS then no swap/change is necessary.

Hope this clarifys things.

Thanks for jumping in everyone. My connection has been up and down since TS Bill blew by. Lots of rain and wind but spared the worst since I was on the West side of the storm.

Right guys, i'll be running the benchmark later.

Unfortunately i think my Marvell controller has gone funny and is causing BSODs so i've taken LaybackBears's advice and have connected my HDD to the Intel SATA port on my Motherboard.

However, there are loads of 'atapi' errors showing in the event log and they only started after plugging in my HDD into the Intel SATA port.

I've attached a new log zip file - If you could list every problem you guys come across in the logs then I will endeavour to sort each one of them out, step-by-step.

Thanks,

MistUnleashed