Issues with SATA port expansion board with PCIE connection

S

somebody2978

Member
Hello. I have found an bug in this disk monitoring program that is not present in other similar programs.

A few days ago I bought a SATA port expansion board for PCIE connection. To be more specific, this model:

SSU "SU-SA3034A" (PCIE 3.0 x1 to SATA 3.0):

Interface Cards: SSU SATA 3 III 4-Port PCI-e Card, [SU-SA3034A] - Plug & Play for Windows / Mac / Linux, with Low Profile - Australia Computer Online

SSU SATA 3 III 4-Port PCI-e Card, [SU-SA3034A] - Plug & Play for Windows / Mac / Linux, with Low Profile details, buy SSU SATA 3 III 4-Port PCI-e Card, [SU-SA3034A] - Plug & Play for Windows / Mac / Linux, with Low Profile from computeronline.com.au
www.computeronline.com.au

This board uses the "ASM1064" controller chip:
www.asmedia.com.tw

ASM1064|ASMedia Technology Inc.

ASMedia Technology was founded in 2004 and went public in 2012 (stock code: 5269.TW). Headquarter is located in Taiwan. ASMedia specializes in high-speed interface technologies with strong expertise in high-speed SERDES in house development. Company strives for continual innovation and the...
www.asmedia.com.tw www.asmedia.com.tw

With this driver:

- "Asmedia ASM-106x Sata 6G controller Drivers Version 3.3.3.0 WHQL" (Windows 7 x64):

Asmedia ASM-106x Sata 6G controller Drivers Version 3.3.3.0 WHQL

Windows
www.station-drivers.com www.station-drivers.com

- It also has for "Windows 10 x64", but it is not my case:

Asmedia ASM-1x6x Sata 6G controller Drivers Version 3.3.5.0 WHQL

Windows
www.station-drivers.com www.station-drivers.com

I tried this on an old PC. Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard with Q6600 CPU, 8GB RAM, with Windows 7 Professional x64.

The expansion board works perfectly with the driver and the drive behaves as if it were native. But I noticed that this disk monitoring program does not detect the drives connected to the expansion board. However, "AIDA64" disk monitoring and disk monitoring inside "Auslogics Defrag Ultimate" defragmenter can see the disk and monitor it normally.

I am notifying you of this because I have a hunch that this problem is fixable.
 
Martin said:
Please attach the HWiNFO Debug File so I can analyze the details.
Click to expand...
Well, I updated HWiNFO to the latest version (7.24) and now this happens...

97XCEuf5_o.png

System configuration scan...
Detection of ATA/SCSI Drivers...

...and from there it does not advance. The process gets stuck in memory, and not even a kill process to "HWiNFO64.exe" can close it.
I don't see any log files in the program directory.
 
The problem seems to be with the Hitachi HDS721616PLA380 drive. When HWiNFO queries the ASMedia driver for its SMART data the drive hangs.
So the problem seems to be similar to:

System crash (BSOD) or disappearing of drives when using ASMedia SATA or USB drivers

Due to the growing amount of problems I'm receiving that are caused by ASMedia SATA or USB drivers handling devices connected to those controllers, I'm publishing more details including a guide how to resolve these problems. HWiNFO performs standard queries to storage (SATA) and USB drivers, but...
www.hwinfo.com www.hwinfo.com
Try to replace the ASMedia driver with the generic SATA driver in Windows.
 
Martin said:
The problem seems to be with the Hitachi HDS721616PLA380 drive. When HWiNFO queries the ASMedia driver for its SMART data the drive hangs.
So the problem seems to be similar to:

System crash (BSOD) or disappearing of drives when using ASMedia SATA or USB drivers

Due to the growing amount of problems I'm receiving that are caused by ASMedia SATA or USB drivers handling devices connected to those controllers, I'm publishing more details including a guide how to resolve these problems. HWiNFO performs standard queries to storage (SATA) and USB drivers, but...
www.hwinfo.com www.hwinfo.com
Try to replace the ASMedia driver with the generic SATA driver in Windows.
Click to expand...
HWiNFO starts and recognizes the drive without the drivers with the PCIE/SATA adapter. But Windows boot is extremely slow, and Device Manager shows an unknown device item, which should be the missing storage controller. When I refresh Device Manager Windows freezes for a few seconds.
Windows doesn't seem to register the generic drivers for the adapter it uses and loads them on every startup. It is very annoying and makes the system unstable.
I leave attached the debug file started with the generic drivers.

I think using the generic drivers is not the way to go. HWiNFO should have an alternative algorithm to recognize drives via PCIE interface. I have used this same drive (Hitachi HDS721616PLA380) with a USB/SATA adapter and it worked with HWiNFO without any problems.
As I said at the beginning, AIDA64 and Auslogics Defrag Ultimate have no problems with accessing the drive's ATA and SMART via PCIE.
 

Attachments

Martin said:
Try to enable SMART in BIOS.
Click to expand...
The motherboard has this function:
HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability
Enables or disables the S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology) capability of your
hard drive. This feature allows your system to report read/write errors of the hard drive and to
issue warnings when a third party hardware monitor utility is installed. (Default: Disabled)
Click to expand...
There are no improvements. The problem is the same. HWiNFO freezes when scanning the disk interface. Programs were always able to access S.M.A.R.T. even if that option is disabled. I even tried the optimal stable BIOS settings.

CrystalDiskInfo doesn't crash, but it doesn't recognize the drive. The problem is in the software and not the hardware, and it's not the driver files. Otherwise, the other monitoring programs that I mention could not either.

Anyway, I'll leave you with the debug file, but it's probably similar to the first one.
 

Attachments

I assume that enabling SMART in BIOS had no effect on this controller as it's not embedded.
If you run some tool (e.g. AIDA64) that recognizes the drive and polls its SMART data and after that HWiNFO64, will it then go thru?
 
Martin said:
I assume that enabling SMART in BIOS had no effect on this controller as it's not embedded.
If you run some tool (e.g. AIDA64) that recognizes the drive and polls its SMART data and after that HWiNFO64, will it then go thru?
Click to expand...
I tried both ways, with AIDA64 running and without it. I do not think it's that.
From what I can see in BIOS boot, that SMART function is for IDE mode. I tried in IDE mode too and it didn't make a difference either.
Original SATA ports are controlled by the motherboard chipset, that's no problem.

There seem to be problems with "SATA to PCIE" interface, not any scanning protocol seems to work.

For a moment I thought that the chipset of the motherboard could be conflicting with that of the PCIE card, but that would create a lot of instability or directly crashes.
Or that maybe with the "SATA to USB" adapter there was no problem because the chipset itself treated the drive as IDE, and the "SATA to PCIE" adapter chipset treats it as AHCI.
 
I know.. My point was that if HWiNFO hangs because the SMART feature is not enabled and AIDA64 works (which might enable it), then try HWiNFO64 after running AIDA64. If it will work then, it means this is the issue and I know where to look.
 
Martin said:
I know.. My point was that if HWiNFO hangs because the SMART feature is not enabled and AIDA64 works (which might enable it), then try HWiNFO64 after running AIDA64. If it will work then, it means this is the issue and I know where to look.
Click to expand...
I did that and it didn't work.
 
Martin said:
Please try this build and let me know the result: www.hwinfo.com/beta/hwi64_725_4776.zip
If it still crashes please attach a new Debug File from this version.
Click to expand...
Something good and something bad happened.

The good: HWiNFO opened and recognized the drive via PCIe. But it collected little data from the disk, and it doesn't seem to read your SMART.

The bad: and strange is that when I run HWiNFO with Opera browser opened, it got stuck in memory again with the message "Flushing buffers...".
 

Attachments

Wow, that's great :) Hopefully this will also fix issues with some other ASMedia controllers/drivers.
Thanks for the feedback.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
No SMART info for drives connected to Areca RAID
Replies
4
Views
638
Sob
S
VictorVG
Study of the operation of USB 3.0 controllers with high current loads. A brief description of the situation - there are machines on mother
Replies
4
Views
6K
madvillain
madvillain
N
Bluescreen 0x3B when an LG Ultrawide monitor with USB3 hub is connected
Replies
14
Views
9K
Martin
Martin
Martin
  • Locked
Known Issues
Replies
0
Views
60K
Martin
Martin
Martin
  • Locked
Known Issues
Replies
0
Views
31K
Martin
Martin
Back
Top