(SOLVED) Strange "Conflict" With SATA and Video Card?

[FireDemon]

Hey guys. Got a bit of a strange issue I was hoping for some insight on or an idea on where to begin "looking". Basic info on my system:

- FX8320
- Asus Crosshair V Formula (NON-Z version)
- 16GB DDR 2300
- 2x EVGA GTX1070Ti in SLI
- 1300watt EVGA Supernova PSU
- Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1 (PCI Version)
- Windows 10 Enterprise 64 bit

Here's the issue I'm having. I am currently running two 480GB SSDs (TR150s) in RAID 0 as the system/game drive. OS and all games are installed to this partition. I have a separate 3TB mechanical drive for all my "storage" and multi-media.

Anyways, I am just about out of free space on the RAID array. I figured that since I'm needing to add space, why not add speed as well. I bought a 6x 2.5 bay 5.25" hot swap rack and was planning on running not two, not four but six SSDs total for a near 3TB RAID0 array and a nice increase in speed as well (Not that 1TB/s is bad, but 2+ TB/s would be even better). My board has 6 SATA ports on the same controller able to run in RAID mode. For the 3TB mechanical drive, I figured I would just enable the additional seventh port via the onboard ASMedia controller. Here's where things get funky.

When I turn the controller on in the bios, the system will startup and boot just fine however, one of the video cards goes haywire. Both 1070Ti cards and listed in device manager but one of them reports "windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems". Nvidia control panel won't load and states something to effect of "No compatible devices were detected on your system".

If I go back into the BIOS and disable the ASMedia controller, it goes right back to normal. Tried it 10x now. Whenever the ASMedia controller is enabled, the video cards go haywire and then go right back to normal once the controller is turned off. Just for S&Gs I tried disabling the LAN and USB3 controller to see if it would free up some resources. No dice.

FYI the seventh SATA port DOES function correctly and recognize drives. It's the video card that goes awry. I COULD just say screw it and run 4 drives with a 2TB array but that's not as fun if there's a way around this.

Any ideas where to start?

 

[BinarySynapse]

In the manual it says that one of the PCIe slots shares an IRQ channel with the ASMedia SATA controller. Try moving the card to one of the other PCIe slots and see if that solves the problem.

I also saw that only SATA ports 1-4 are able to run in RAID mode. You might want to check that before you buy the extra SSDs.

 

[Deleted member 214115]

IRQ's and sharing does not do that, and most likely the AIC is an MSI anyways. But memory addresses can be a different issue and you have two 1070Ti. Look for 4GB decode in the BIOS/EFI and enable that. See if that moves the 1070Ti's to the 64bit range and opens the 32bit range for the AIC.

Look for something like " 4GB above decoding" in the EFI. Usually, its latter in the menus. You may or may not have that support, it can depend on the integrated support but most modern boards do have it. Here: https://www.google.com/search?q=4gb...9i57j33i160.1771j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

[FireDemon]

If ports 1-4 are set to RAID, it gives the option to set 5/6 to either IDE or RAID. The RAID controller definitely detects whatever is on 5/6 so yes, it is possible to have a 6 disk array with this board.

Looking in the manual, it indeed does indicate that the ASMedia controller has a shared IRQ but doesn't say what it is shared with. Moving the video cards around is also not doable because #1, there are only two x16 slots on the board, The other for 3 way SLI only has 8 lanes. #2, I would have to get rid of the my Auzentech soundcard which is not on the table for debate. It just sounds leaps and bounds better than the onboard sound.

In the manual it says that one of the PCIe slots shares an IRQ channel with the ASMedia SATA controller. Try moving the card to one of the other PCIe slots and see if that solves the problem.

I also saw that only SATA ports 1-4 are able to run in RAID mode. You might want to check that before you buy the extra SSDs.

 

[FireDemon]

IRQ's and sharing does not do that, and most likely the AIC is an MSI anyways. But memory addresses can be a different issue and you have two 1070Ti. Look for 4GB decode in the BIOS/EFI and enable that. See if that moves the 1070Ti's to the 64bit range and opens the 32bit range for the AIC.

Look for something like " 4GB above decoding" in the EFI. Usually, its latter in the menus. You may or may not have that support, it can depend on the integrated support but most modern boards do have it. Here: https://www.google.com/search?q=4gb...9i57j33i160.1771j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

There is no such option in my BIOS.

 

[BinarySynapse]

If ports 1-4 are set to RAID, it gives the option to set 5/6 to either IDE or RAID. The RAID controller definitely detects whatever is on 5/6 so yes, it is possible to have a 6 disk array with this board.

Looking in the manual, it indeed does indicate that the ASMedia controller has a shared IRQ but doesn't say what it is shared with. Moving the video cards around is also not doable because #1, there are only two x16 slots on the board, The other for 3 way SLI only has 8 lanes. #2, I would have to get rid of the my Ayzentech soundcard which is not on the table for debate. It just sounds leaps and bounds better than the onboard sound.

Maybe I was looking at the wrong manual then.

 

[Deleted member 214115]

I thought you got a add in card for some reason...okay, okay

What I noticed is the ROM mode. Are you in EFI? So, maybe due to the legacy ROM it throws one card out due to option ROM or non-CSM being used. Disabling the ASMedia will not load the ROM, and load the ROM on the secondary GPU. Try changing it to EFI (the next option whatever Asus will call it), and this could be as to why. I cant see in the manual if there is CSM. But has to be....Asus places that option around the "boot" menu.

When ROMs are mixed they need to be all legacy or all EFI unless compatible support module is used.

Oh, and the option is called "memory hole remapping" on your motherboard (manual 3-17)

 

[FireDemon]

I thought you got a add in card for some reason...okay, okay

What I noticed is the ROM mode. Are you in EFI? So, maybe due to the legacy ROM it throws one card out due to option ROM or non-CSM being used. Disabling the ASMedia will not load the ROM, and load the ROM on the secondary GPU. Try changing it to EFI (the next option whatever Asus will call it), and this could be as to why. I cant see in the manual if there is CSM. But has to be....Asus places that option around the "boot" menu.

When ROMs are mixed they need to be all legacy or all EFI unless compatible support module is used.

Oh, and the option is called "memory hole remapping" on your motherboard (manual 3-17)

"Memory Hole Remapping" is indeed enabled.

I would have to finesse Windows in order to boot UEFI however, taking into account your suggestion, I tried something else that *should* have had the same effect. The motherboard allows me to enable to ASMedia controller but disable the OPROM for it, which I did and the problem still persists.

I'm attaching some screenshots of the device manager resources tab for both devices. If you see anything or have any ideas, I'm all ears.

One thing I noticed I figured I'd throw out there. The card that doesn't report any issues in device manager, when ASMedia is enabled is shows as "PCI bus 7". When ASMedia is disabled, it shows as "PCI bus 6". The card that reports errors shows at "PCI bus1" either way.

 

[Deleted member 214115]

PCI bus #'s switching is the routing you are seeing. Intel usually identifies the complex and root ports
, but AMD will usually not have any identification. It will just be a PCI to PCI bridge, which they are if it is Intel or not. HWINFO is helpful to see the root complex. P0 is from the processor and B0 (bus) is from the chipset. If more processors were present you would see a P1 for example, but that would be NUMA and a different conversation. I posted a HWINFO shot of my bus utilizatio. Excellent freebie to monitor, and informing. Matter of fact you may "see" the routing when enabled and disabled.

This is what's known legacy ROM's are used (CSM), not in EFI mode, x16_1 and x16/x8_3 are occupied, IRQ's are LAPICs not in MSI (noticed the ASmedia is IRQ44? It may share a pin, but may not share an interrupt), remapping is enable.

Loading, its ROM should be enabled and doing such will allow you to go into functions before boot, and it will also allow you to boot from the devices attached. If not to boot, nor to create an array from the ROM then you disable. RAID will actually mean native/AHCI, its a bit of misnomer. This has more to do with native or compatibility mode (I couldn't find the Microsoft explanation but this explains it because it may be outdated). When people used to say "natively" they had not a clue what it actually meant. This is what it means: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/447916/Ampro-Com-830.html?page=25


1. Make sure all ROM's are legacy loading. You might see this in the CSM and other places. Asus doesn't update manuals well enough to really know (and sometimes they never place them in there), but they will be where a devices is (at times), and in boot section where CSM is usually located. According to what you say, CSM should be enabled (not auto), and legacy only is the option for each boot section option. There used to be an issue with the integrated chipset AHCI controller and the ROM's selected back -in the day. You had to choose legacy not UEFI first for the AMD controller to be enabled.

2. Leave remapping enabled. Enable Interrupt 19 capture.

3. If no change disable remapping, but leave interrupt 19 capture enabled.

4. Enable UEFI driver first with PCI-E/PCI Expansion Devices
_
_
5. Buy a new add-in-card

A thought, do not have secure boot enabled, do you? You should not with CSM enabled. The issue is most users when setting up do not know these areas and can lead to the oddities because of the mixing of ROM's, or they area unaware of their legacy ROM device. I would have been disable CSM from the get-go, enable secure boot, install keys. All UEFI secure boot mode properly. However, there can be an incompatible device and this would not allow booting into UEFI mode, which is the reason for it.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

CSM booting[edit]​

To ensure backward compatibility, most UEFI firmware implementations on PC-class machines also support booting in legacy BIOS mode from MBR-partitioned disks, through the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) that provides legacy BIOS compatibility. In this scenario, booting is performed in the same way as on legacy BIOS-based systems, by ignoring the partition table and relying on the content of a boot sector.[41]

BIOS-style booting from MBR-partitioned disks is commonly called BIOS-MBR, regardless of it being performed on UEFI or legacy BIOS-based systems. Furthermore, booting legacy BIOS-based systems from GPT disks is also possible, and such a boot scheme is commonly called BIOS-GPT.

The Compatibility Support Module allows legacy operating systems and some option ROMs that do not support UEFI to still be used.[50] It also provides required legacy System Management Mode (SMM) functionality, called CompatibilitySmm, as an addition to features provided by the UEFI SMM. This is optional and highly chipset- and platform-specific. An example of such a legacy SMM functionality is providing USB legacy support for keyboard and mouse, by emulating their classic PS/2 counterparts.[50]

In November 2017, Intel announced that it planned to phase out support for CSM by 2020.[51]


Your problem is with the ROM's/BAR to enumerate the second video card.

 

[FireDemon]

PCI bus #'s switching is the routing you are seeing. Intel usually identifies the complex and root ports
, but AMD will usually not have any identification. It will just be a PCI to PCI bridge, which they are if it is Intel or not. HWINFO is helpful to see the root complex. P0 is from the processor and B0 (bus) is from the chipset. If more processors were present you would see a P1 for example, but that would be NUMA and a different conversation. I posted a HWINFO shot of my bus utilizatio. Excellent freebie to monitor, and informing. Matter of fact you may "see" the routing when enabled and disabled.

This is what's known legacy ROM's are used (CSM), not in EFI mode, x16_1 and x16/x8_3 are occupied, IRQ's are LAPICs not in MSI (noticed the ASmedia is IRQ44? It may share a pin, but may not share an interrupt), remapping is enable.

Loading, its ROM should be enabled and doing such will allow you to go into functions before boot, and it will also allow you to boot from the devices attached. If not to boot, nor to create an array from the ROM then you disable. RAID will actually mean native/AHCI, its a bit of misnomer. This has more to do with native or compatibility mode (I couldn't find the Microsoft explanation but this explains it because it may be outdated). When people used to say "natively" they had not a clue what it actually meant. This is what it means: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/447916/Ampro-Com-830.html?page=25


1. Make sure all ROM's are legacy loading. You might see this in the CSM and other places. Asus doesn't update manuals well enough to really know (and sometimes they never place them in there), but they will be where a devices is (at times), and in boot section where CSM is usually located. According to what you say, CSM should be enabled (not auto), and legacy only is the option for each boot section option. There used to be an issue with the integrated chipset AHCI controller and the ROM's selected back -in the day. You had to choose legacy not UEFI first for the AMD controller to be enabled.

2. Leave remapping enabled. Enable Interrupt 19 capture.

3. If no change disable remapping, but leave interrupt 19 capture enabled.

4. Enable UEFI driver first with PCI-E/PCI Expansion Devices
_
_
5. Buy a new add-in-card

A thought, do not have secure boot enabled, do you? You should not with CSM enabled. The issue is most users when setting up do not know these areas and can lead to the oddities because of the mixing of ROM's, or they area unaware of their legacy ROM device. I would have been disable CSM from the get-go, enable secure boot, install keys. All UEFI secure boot mode properly. However, there can be an incompatible device and this would not allow booting into UEFI mode, which is the reason for it.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

CSM booting[edit]​

To ensure backward compatibility, most UEFI firmware implementations on PC-class machines also support booting in legacy BIOS mode from MBR-partitioned disks, through the Compatibility Support Module (CSM) that provides legacy BIOS compatibility. In this scenario, booting is performed in the same way as on legacy BIOS-based systems, by ignoring the partition table and relying on the content of a boot sector.[41]

BIOS-style booting from MBR-partitioned disks is commonly called BIOS-MBR, regardless of it being performed on UEFI or legacy BIOS-based systems. Furthermore, booting legacy BIOS-based systems from GPT disks is also possible, and such a boot scheme is commonly called BIOS-GPT.

The Compatibility Support Module allows legacy operating systems and some option ROMs that do not support UEFI to still be used.[50] It also provides required legacy System Management Mode (SMM) functionality, called CompatibilitySmm, as an addition to features provided by the UEFI SMM. This is optional and highly chipset- and platform-specific. An example of such a legacy SMM functionality is providing USB legacy support for keyboard and mouse, by emulating their classic PS/2 counterparts.[50]

In November 2017, Intel announced that it planned to phase out support for CSM by 2020.[51]


Your problem is with the ROM's/BAR to enumerate the second video card.

You brought up some very interesting points. I will try them just for S&Gs but I honestly think the better option would be to get an add-in SATA card and place it in the unoccupied x8 slot. Something like below would give me two additional ports vs 1 and allow me to retain both my 3TB mechanical drive and my internal optical drive. Also, it's small footprint would not block the fan on the primary video card:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCIe-PCI-E...IOnTopCombiner&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219

 

[FireDemon]

So the add-in card came in. Installed it and guess what? It does the same thing as when I use the onboard controller....

Tried all of your above suggestions (Except for UEFI) with no effect. Kind of at a loss at this point....

 

[FireDemon]

Fixed the issue. Strangest thing corrected it to.

I swapped the cards. Same slots, just reversed which ones they were installed in.