Hi All. I have an Asus K8V motherboard, and am using the VIA VT8237 SATA controller for the drives. I originally had a single 80GB SATA drive, but just got myself a 160GB Seagate 7200.9 drive as a secondary drive for storage (the 80GB will be purely for the OS and system files).
Everthing went well with the install: the two drives use the same SATA power cable from the PSU (one cable which has two SATA power connectors). The 80GB and 160GB drives connect to SATA1 and SATA2 respectively on the mobo. Everything went fine with initialising, partitioning/formatting etc. but the only issue now is monitoring.
Previously speedfan recognised my 80GB drive fine and was monitored as HD0. However now, I still only have HD0. When I check the settings under Temperature, only HD0 is there (no HD1). When I click on SMART, there is only the one drive (80GB primary drive) in the dropdown box.
However, upon loading, I see it find HD0 and HD1. But it says something about a bad checksum. This is what it display:
SMART Enabled for drive 0
Found ST380013AS (80.0GB)
Bad Attributes Checksum ($6D)
Bad Thresholds Checksum ($77)
SMART Enabled for drive 1
Found ST380013AS (160.0GB)
Bad Attributes Checksum ($A8)
Bad Thresholds Checksum ($77)
End of detection
For some reason it finds both drives but they are called ST380013AS. Any idea what it could be? If they shared a data cable I would understand, but the only share an SATA power cable. Does that cable carry the SMART data?
Cheers,
X
SpeedFan Not Picking Up New Drive
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
I've given up on VIA chipsets. I have an Asus A8V. SMART can't detect my second drive either. It only picks up my first drive. Depending on BIOS and / or driver versions, it either picks up only the first drive only, or the first drive twice.
It doesn't matter which drive is first and which is second. I've swapped them around, same result.
And don't get me started about the USB implementation.
PS. I've tried SpeedFan, Everest and a couple of other SMART utilities I can't recall offhand.
It doesn't matter which drive is first and which is second. I've swapped them around, same result.
And don't get me started about the USB implementation.
PS. I've tried SpeedFan, Everest and a couple of other SMART utilities I can't recall offhand.
Actually I've had more trust and faith on the VIA SATA implementation then the continuing crap I've gone through with SATA on the nForce4 boards I have (of which I have 4 different brand boards).
I have a few VT8237 systems still in use, all with pairs of SATA drives. All of them are read by speedfan and/or SmartHDD to pull their SMART stats. However, all of these drives are Seagate 7200.7/7200.8 models or are Samsungs.
It may be that with the 7200.9's SATA-II implementation is causing some compatibility issues with the VIA. Check if there is a jumper to put the drive into SATA-I mode. I know the Samsung drives have a jumper for older SATA chipsets (like the VT8237) - as I have one I had to jumper to get it to work with the VIA.
Also, be sure you are using the latest 8237 RAID drivers from viaarena.com - even if you are not using RAID mode. The drivers for nonRAID are shared, and they've updated the SMART handling in the later driver revisions.
I have a few VT8237 systems still in use, all with pairs of SATA drives. All of them are read by speedfan and/or SmartHDD to pull their SMART stats. However, all of these drives are Seagate 7200.7/7200.8 models or are Samsungs.
It may be that with the 7200.9's SATA-II implementation is causing some compatibility issues with the VIA. Check if there is a jumper to put the drive into SATA-I mode. I know the Samsung drives have a jumper for older SATA chipsets (like the VT8237) - as I have one I had to jumper to get it to work with the VIA.
Also, be sure you are using the latest 8237 RAID drivers from viaarena.com - even if you are not using RAID mode. The drivers for nonRAID are shared, and they've updated the SMART handling in the later driver revisions.
Hi All. Thanks for the responses!
piglickjf: it was a fresh install of my system so thus a fresh speedfan install. But I also completely reinstalled it again after putting in the new drive to see if it helped, but no luck.
lenny and patord: interesting how each person can have such different experiences hey
I guess it all depends on the system components, software, and of course lady luck.
I am using the latest VIA RAID/SATA drivers (5.20C) as well as the latest VIA "hyperion" 4-in-1 chipset drivers. Regarding the SATA II issue: my drive is locked to SATA 150 in any case (using a jumper) as that VIA controller (I don't think any VIA controller yet) handles SATA II. All it means though is that it is in SATA I mode.
I assume it cannot be because they share a power cable, right? I really wanna be able to monitor the drive as it is stacked on top of the other drive, at the bottom of the case. What is separating them is 4 pieces of roughly 1.2cm thick sorbothane. They are however right behind a Nexus 120mm fan blowing right over them so that should keep them cool. The temp reported is around 29-31 degrees.
Cheers,
X
piglickjf: it was a fresh install of my system so thus a fresh speedfan install. But I also completely reinstalled it again after putting in the new drive to see if it helped, but no luck.
lenny and patord: interesting how each person can have such different experiences hey
I guess it all depends on the system components, software, and of course lady luck. I am using the latest VIA RAID/SATA drivers (5.20C) as well as the latest VIA "hyperion" 4-in-1 chipset drivers. Regarding the SATA II issue: my drive is locked to SATA 150 in any case (using a jumper) as that VIA controller (I don't think any VIA controller yet) handles SATA II. All it means though is that it is in SATA I mode.
I assume it cannot be because they share a power cable, right? I really wanna be able to monitor the drive as it is stacked on top of the other drive, at the bottom of the case. What is separating them is 4 pieces of roughly 1.2cm thick sorbothane. They are however right behind a Nexus 120mm fan blowing right over them so that should keep them cool. The temp reported is around 29-31 degrees.
Cheers,
X
xen - no, sharing a power cable should absolutely no effect on SMART.
lenny - I am typing this reply via an Epox 8KRA2+. I have a 7200.7 as HD0 and a WD drive as HD1 on the SATA connectors. Both are read fine with speedfan polling SMART attributes normally.
I have two other similar Epox and an Asus (don't remember the exact model) boards that are reading both HD SMART values fine as well. Mixes of 7200.7, 7200.8 seagates and one has a samsung sata drive.
I installed the VIA VT8237 RAID drivers from about 1.5 yrs ago, which even though I do not use the RAID mode, it will install more recent IDE drivers for the SATA subsystem.
Suggestions:
1. check your motherboard's BIOS settings, and enable SMART if the option is available. Sometimes a drive's SMART monitor has to be enforced by the BIOS whereas some drives automatically track SMART regardless of the BIOS settings.
2. if you are using recent VIA drivers, maybe try a version or two back. Again, the ones I am using are from a year ago. Haven't tried anything recent.
3. get the MHDD tool, burn it to CD and boot to it and see if it can pick up your SMART attributes from both drives. MHDD is compatible with VT8237 and should detect your SATA drives. If it can read SMART from both drives, then the VIA drivers you are using are possibily busted.
lenny - I am typing this reply via an Epox 8KRA2+. I have a 7200.7 as HD0 and a WD drive as HD1 on the SATA connectors. Both are read fine with speedfan polling SMART attributes normally.
I have two other similar Epox and an Asus (don't remember the exact model) boards that are reading both HD SMART values fine as well. Mixes of 7200.7, 7200.8 seagates and one has a samsung sata drive.
I installed the VIA VT8237 RAID drivers from about 1.5 yrs ago, which even though I do not use the RAID mode, it will install more recent IDE drivers for the SATA subsystem.
Suggestions:
1. check your motherboard's BIOS settings, and enable SMART if the option is available. Sometimes a drive's SMART monitor has to be enforced by the BIOS whereas some drives automatically track SMART regardless of the BIOS settings.
2. if you are using recent VIA drivers, maybe try a version or two back. Again, the ones I am using are from a year ago. Haven't tried anything recent.
3. get the MHDD tool, burn it to CD and boot to it and see if it can pick up your SMART attributes from both drives. MHDD is compatible with VT8237 and should detect your SATA drives. If it can read SMART from both drives, then the VIA drivers you are using are possibily busted.