Gigabyte Z77 Mobo Sata ports not working, help

NathanP2007

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
1,697
So SATA ports 7 & 6 on my Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboard have both my DVD and Bluray player/burner plugged in them. All of a sudden they stopped showing up in "My Computer". I seem to remember them having been there as recently as a few weeks ago...the only thing i have done to my PC since then is take out my GPU's (i sold them).

As far troubleshooting that I have already done; i have unplugged the SATA cables that are connected to the Optical Drives and plugged them into a different SATA port on my Mobo, they showed up in "My Computer". I then tried to plug something besides the Optical Drives into port 7 & 6 (a SSD that's always plugged into a different port and always shows up in "My Computer") and it doesn't show up.

Is the only option i'm left with just dealing with it or clean installing Windows?


(If so I imagine i will just wait, i plan on going through the hassle of clean installing Windows once Windows 10 comes out. I originally installed Windows on my SSD but then installed programs on a HDD, so now when you wipe the SSD and re-install Windows none of the programs on the HDD are connected to Windows OS anymore. Now I own a bigger SSD which i will install Windows 10 on along with my programs.)
 
The higher ports on the board are provided using an additional controller outside of the intel chipset, I think its a marvell controller.

There's a separate option to enable/disable this controller in the bios, if the ports in question are part of that I'd reset the board to factory and then reconfigure it to try. You can also try a newer bios, what are you using now?
 
The higher ports on the board are provided using an additional controller outside of the intel chipset, I think its a marvell controller.

There's a separate option to enable/disable this controller in the bios, if the ports in question are part of that I'd reset the board to factory and then reconfigure it to try. You can also try a newer bios, what are you using now?

Okay well I will boot into the BIOS to see if its enabled or disabled. I am using the latest stable BIOS for my Motherboard (F14).
 
Good info above from the others.

I have the same MB and have no problems. I've read of problems running optical drives on the Marvell ports from others. Also, if you are using the Marvell drivers, uninstall them and use the generic MS/Windows drivers loaded at initial install. I tried the Marvell drivers a couple of times on this MB and others, and had serious problems with them. The generic drivers work just fine.

Just my two cents...Good luck

EDIT:

I also use the F14 bios and find it to be without problems.
 
Good info above from the others.

I have the same MB and have no problems. I've read of problems running optical drives on the Marvell ports from others. Also, if you are using the Marvell drivers, uninstall them and use the generic MS/Windows drivers loaded at initial install. I tried the Marvell drivers a couple of times on this MB and others, and had serious problems with them. The generic drivers work just fine.

Just my two cents...Good luck

EDIT:

I also use the F14 bios and find it to be without problems.

Thanks! I haven't tried anything recommended yet (but will). Thanks for the tip on the F14 drivers, do you know if you use F15o or F15q?

As for the generic MS/Windows drivers and them being loaded on initial install, do you know how i can get them after i uninstall the Marvel drivers?

Update: So I uninstalled the Marvell driver, restarted my PC, the generic Windows drivers installed, restarted, and still no optical drives. I am going to update my BIOS to F15q and see if that does anything. I hope the SATA controller for those ports isn't dead. That would suck.

Update 2: So I just checked my BIOS settings, and for some reason on the page that lists all of my ATA slots, it only lists 0-5. Now this would make sense considering port 6 and port 7 are the ones I'm having problems with (which would make me think maybe they are dead), but port 8 isn't listed either, yet i have a HDD connected to port 8 and it is shown in "My Computer". Will try some messing around and then if that doesnt work, update the BIOS.

Update 3: Just updated my BIOS to F15q and nothing has changed. I guess i'm going to just assume the SATA 6 & 7 ports are dead until Windows 10 comes out then i can install Windows 10 fresh and who knows maybe they will show up.
 
Last edited:
The Sata ports are as follows:

Ports 0-5 are the Intel ports with 5 being the M2/Sata port.
Ports 6-9 are Marvell ports with 6-7 on one Marvell controller and 8-9 on the other Marvell controller
(There are 2 separate Marvell controllers onboard).
Port 9 is the eSata port on the backplane.

-Did you try moving the optical drives to the Intel ports and a HD to the Marvell ports?
-Try booting into Safe Mode, look in Device Manager and see if your missing ports are showing. If so, delete them and reboot in normal mode and see if they load.

If none of that works, you may have dead ports.
 
The Sata ports are as follows:

Ports 0-5 are the Intel ports with 5 being the M2/Sata port.
Ports 6-9 are Marvell ports with 6-7 on one Marvell controller and 8-9 on the other Marvell controller
(There are 2 separate Marvell controllers onboard).
Port 9 is the eSata port on the backplane.

-Did you try moving the optical drives to the Intel ports and a HD to the Marvell ports?
-Try booting into Safe Mode, look in Device Manager and see if your missing ports are showing. If so, delete them and reboot in normal mode and see if they load.

If none of that works, you may have dead ports.

Yeah so i looked in my Mobo User Manual and it had a picture of what I am supposed to see when i look at the Marvell SATA controllers, and the first controller (which has ports 6 & 7 on it) aren't there. If the BIOS of all places doesnt even see the Controller/ports them i'd imagine im screwed (its dead).

I booted into safe mode and looked in the Device Manager and saw no change (additional ports) from when i boot in normal mode.

Thanks for the help guys/gals.
 
Odds are if you can't see the controller in bios its dead. To confirm this was the separate Marvel controller information section right? The default ATA information page only shows the status for the intel ports.

If you want to try a newer bios I ran 15q for about a year, and have been using 16g for the last 5-6 months with 0 issues. Of course, ymmv, but the board does have the dual bios banks if you have issues.

There are also modified versions where people replace the oRoms/firmware for the integrated devices with newer versions, but I've never tested those.
 
Back
Top