SSD Not Compatible?

[jimlau]

I have the ASUS M5A88-M motherboard. I have used 3 different SSD's of size 120GB successfully. I now have had a problem with 3 separate Kingston 240GB SSD's (not seen by computer, or intermittently). ASUS help was minimal, but it was suggested perhaps this motherboard is incompatible with an SSD of that large size.


Any legitimacy to that idea?


Thanks.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Very peculiar.

But I've never heard of a motherboard making a distinction between an HDD of a certain size and an SSD of the same size. Does the mobo accept 240 and above HDDs?

Have you tried the Kingstons in various ports?

 

[jimlau]

yes, have tried all ports and cables. I also had a 250GB HDD that worked.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are these brand new Kingstons?

Or have they had data or operating systems on them?

I'm thinking of perhaps a secure erase or "clean all" from Diskpart. Just a wild guess, but I can't think of anything else right now.

 

[jimlau]

yep, all new kingstons. tried diskpart, but the drive doesn't show up.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Have you hammered Kingston support or forums?

 

[jimlau]

told Kingston of the first 2 non-working ones. they decided to send a third. will try them again and see what they say.

thanks.

 

[essenbe]

jimlau, Your motherboard has 6 Sata III ports that run off the SB850 chipset. As long as you stay with those ports (white), there should be no problem. The size of the SSD makes no difference, any size should work the same. If you have Marvel ports, I would avoid them with SSDs. Marvell sata controllers and SSDs have a long history of not getting along well. Also, I would recommend never running 'clean all' with diskpart on an SSD. Use the clean command, it works fine, as does a secure erase. But, as long as you stay with the SB850 controller, any ssd of any size should work.

 

[jimlau]

jimlau, Your motherboard has 6 Sata III ports that run off the SB850 chipset. As long as you stay with those ports (white), there should be no problem. The size of the SSD makes no difference, any size should work the same. If you have Marvel ports, I would avoid them with SSDs. Marvell sata controllers and SSDs have a long history of not getting along well. Also, I would recommend never running 'clean all' with diskpart on an SSD. Use the clean command, it works fine, as does a secure erase. But, as long as you stay with the SB850 controller, any ssd of any size should work.

so are u saying this motherboard does not have marvel ports?

what do u think could be the problem then? I've tried 3 new SSD's.

 

[essenbe]

I'm not that familiar with your motherboard. I looked up the specs on it and it did not mention Marvell ports. It said there were 6 sata III ports run by the SB850 Chipset and designated by white sata ports. Now, the way I think is they said white ports, which implies there are other colored sata ports run by some other controller. I may very well be wrong. It may have only the SB850.

It is possible there was something wrong with the SSds. I would start by switching cables, making sure they are seated correctly and using a known good hard drive and trying each port. See if there are some ports that work differently than the others. It could also be a motherboard problem or the sata controller problem. I don't believe that a sata controller or port knows whether you have connected it to a hard drive or an SSD. The board does not care or notice, the OS does but not the board. I have about 8 SSds form 5 manufacturers, and have used them on just about every chipset there has been from the AMD 850 to the Intel Z77, which I have now. I have never found any of them to operate any differently than they do with a hard drive. The only time I have found a difference is with boards with add on sata controllers. The board's chipset controllers are all the same and provide the same function. But, if the SSD is OK and the sata ports are OK, then check the connections and the sata cables in between.