Problems integrating Sil 3112 Raid Driver...

[Fernando 1]

i have stability difficulties, and the last days i have spent trying to rule out working components. and it seems that the source of my problems is (...drumroll...) the raid controller (or its driver).

I suspect, that your stability problems are caused by an inappropriate Sil3112 RAID driver and RAID BIOS combination.

It is a wellknown fact, that Silicon Image RAID users will not get the best results by just updating the Sil3x12 RAID driver. They have to update the driver version and the appropriate RAID BIOS version simultaneously.

Edited January 7, 2010 by Fernando 1

[galocza]

well i used the latest bios and driver (sii homepage emphasises to upgrade the bios to use with the latest driver).

AFTER the problems started i downgraded to the previous bios to see what happened. i really dont want to bother you with this problem, this is an another issue and i think i pinpointed the source (2-3 days of testing and hw/sw changes).

cheers,

g

ps, ontopic: whatever the outcome the sii card is still good enough to test vista with the 64bit driver and ill do that (because otherwise im out of ideas) when i get to it and report back

[Fernando 1]

well i used the latest bios and driver (sii homepage emphasises to upgrade the bios to use with the latest driver).

The mainboard BIOS version is less important for the function of the Sil3112 RAID Controllers than the RAID ROM version from Silicon Image, which is part of the mainboard BIOS.

Since you will not get the latest Sil3112 RAID ROM version from your mainboard manufacturer DFI, you have to create an updated mainboard BIOS with actual RAID ROM part yourself or find it by chance within the internet.

What I can do is to flash the newest available Sil3112 RAID BIOS version 4.2.84 (dated 19th January 2007) into the latest available mainboard BIOS version RDXDB01 (dated 1st November 2007) for your DFI mainboard "Lanparty UT RDX-200 CF-DR" and upload it for you.

Before we start anything like this, please give me the following informations:

1. Are you sure, that your currently used RAID Controller has a Sil3112 chip?
   I ask this, because I had a look into the description of your "DFI Lanparty UT RDX-200 CD-DR" at DFI's support pages and found the following feature:
   • Silicon image3114~RAID5 ready
     

[*]According to the DFI support page your mainboard has 2 different sorts of SATA Controllers, which do support RAID:

Serial ATA with RAID:
# Four Serial ATA ports supported by the ATI SB450 chip - SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s - RAID 0 and RAID 1
# Four Serial ATA ports supported by the Silicon Image Sil 3114 chip - SATA speed up to 1.5Gb/s - RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5

Which SATA ports are you using?

[*]To make everything clear for me, you may give me the exact HardwareID's of the in use RAID Controller of your system.

Open the "SCSI and RAID Controllers" section of the Device Manager and do a righ click onto the listed RAID Controller > "Properties" > "Details" > "Property" > "HardwareID's".

Regards

Fernando

[galocza]

hi Fernando,

thanks for taking interest also in this issue.

"Before we start anything like this": we wont 8).

1. the controller has a sii3512, which is similar to sii3112 i think (probaby its successor), they share the same drivers eg.

2. you really shouldnt work that hard 8). i never mentioned said motherboard. i have an "asus p5q se plus" + a sii3512 addon card (not mb integrated). however i would really appreciate if somebody could tell me where have i read that particular model because i did during the last week and its killing me not remembering where. i know i did because first i couldnt believe its a real motherboard model...

3.

PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3512&SUBSYS_65121095&REV_01

PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3512&SUBSYS_65121095

PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3512&CC_010400

PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3512&CC_0104

but as i said i upgraded the controllers bios to the latest (actually 4.3.84), and after that did the problems start. then i downgraded back to 4.3.83, because the timing made the new bios the first suspect.

only read the following if you are really interested in my course of thought. very offtopic, long and boring!

first, only the motherboard is new. ram (2x2gb kingmax), processor (intel core2 6400), raid controller (noname sii3512), hdds (samsung 2x250gb) all worked for about two years. not overclocked.

freezing occurs quite randomly, but it ocurred to me that mostly under hdd intensive actions, seemingly nothing to do with cpu.

suspects:

-ram. i did some very ram intensive work before (panoramic photo stitching, tonemapping etc), + i tried both ram modules alone in different slots + 1 ran memtest86+ 4.00 (although only one cycle). i think not the ram.

-cpu. i gave it some heavy work (partly the above + encoding timelapse movies, compression - 7zip uses both cores etc). temperature never above 32C. not cpu.

-hdds. i unplugged them from the raid card and connected them to the mainboards plain sata plug. booted up from an another hdd and checked them with my usual two software: hddtune and hdscan (these do surface scan, they dont care about filesystem). all ok.

-sata cables. changed them. not the cables.

these more or less eliminate everything except the raid controller card. but i needed an affirming test. i rebuilt my old system: another mainboard, cpu, ram, power supply, only the hdds, the raid controller and the video card the same. the problem appeared on the old computer too. in my book this leaves the raid controller (and eliminates the new mainboard, cpu, ram), the video card and the slight possibility that i changed the sata cables to another bad ones.

primary suspect: the raid addon card...

now i try to torture it under a clean install of winxp x86 where it worked fine with the same drivers for about 2 years. chances are the card will lose: 1 of 2 tests failed.

i cant see an error in my methodology or line of thouhgt, but if you can of course im open to advices.

cheers,

galocza

Edited January 7, 2010 by galocza

[Fernando 1]

@ galosza:

Thanks for your quick answer and for the HardwareID's of your RAID Controller. This verifies, that the latest Sil3112 RAID drivers do support it (PCI\VEN_1095&DEV_3512&SUBSYS_65121095 is listed).

Forget, what I have written and asked regarding your mainboard model and the Silicon Image RAID chip. It was an error of my side, because I didn't realize, that you haven't started this thread. I looked into the first post and thought, that it was you, who has the "DFI RDX-200 CD-DR" with a built-in Sil3112 RAID Controller - my bad.

By the way: The latest Sil3112 RAID BIOS version is 4.2.84 (contrary to the Sil3512 one, which is 4.3.84).

Now - since I know, that you have an actual Asus P45 mainboard with Intel ICH10 Southbridge and just an inserted Sil3512 RAID Controller Card, I want to give you the following advice:

1. Give up your efforts to get any OS installed onto the Sil3512 RAID Controllers.

2. If you want to run your hdd's in RAID0, you should buy a better and more actual RAID adapter card.

3. If you want a much better performance, buy an Intel X25-M SSD for the OS and run it in AHCI Mode (the Intel driver, which I have modified, will work with your ICH10 Southbridge, if you have the AHCI setting option within the BIOS).

Good luck!

Fernando

[galocza]

"you haven't started this thread" yes, THERE i have read it! now i know... when i read it in the first post i thought model description "lan party" was a joke.

"latest Sil3112 RAID BIOS version is 4.2.84" and that was my bad, sorry.

1. are they that bad? i had my share of problems with them but i usually do with every electronic device (my extensive aura 8). many people use them, i used them for 3 years. they werent worse than nvraid.

2. my thoughts exactly. i saw cards based on this:

jmb366

sata raid + ata port which i also need. but my motherboard features a jmb368 (single ide connector) integrated. do you think they would work together?

3. i dont really need a quick os. i need a relatively fast data storage space to manipulate thousands of pictures eg. faster is better but to tell you the truth this setup (nvraid, later sii raid + the 2 samsung hdds divided into system+swap+data partitions - 6-4-4XXgb) was always enough for me.

thanks for your advices, i sure will take them into consideration!

g

[galocza]

ok folks,

now i officially give up. i wanted to try vlite+vista+sii driver x64 but i couldnt even get vlite working. i had a quite ususal error message (based on the forum), tried some of the suggested methods, they didnt work.

i will swap the sii controller card for another (jmicron) in a few days and i can only hope that i will behave better.

that and the fact that everything we try is like running into a wall leads to this: i stop trying with the sii and nlite combo.

id like to thank you, forum members who didnt spare time and effort to help to find a solution to this issue and gave me invaluable advices.

we failed but at least we tried. we deserve points for that.

and, addressing those who may have this problem in the future: good luck!

cheers,

g