Hello,
I have searched google and have only found a few of hits with my exact problem, but never an answer to the issue.
When RAID is enabled in bios, the computer hangs during bootup at “checking NVRAM”. If I disabled RAID in bios and use AHCI for storage in bios, it boots successfully to desktop.
Windows Intel RST program is installed v 11.2.0.1006 on OS. I changed my old bios ROM Intel MATRIX 8.9 to Intel RST 11.2.0.1527 by using instructions on this site.
I was able to CTRL+I, set two identical drives to RAID 1 and have the system create the RAID configuration. They also recognized the 4TB drives properly! Great. This was my goal.
However, I cannot find a workaround for the NVRAM hang on boot. So, as of right now I have RAID disabled in bios.
The only thread I found on this website that somewhat resembles my problem is below. However, that thread has a different OS, a different issue (the user had an incompatible error, which I do not have) and I do not see how my problem is a RAM dimm module issue.
After Win8.1 install - disks show as “Incompatible” in Intel RST BIOS
I found my board on this website here. Maybe I need to install older Intel RST? The note says “later intel raid rom a no go”. But that does not say much. No go why? Does not work at all etc… There is not enough information there to tell me what part of it is a ‘no go’.
BIOS modding success/failure overview
Config:
ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe, Intel ICH10R
Bios 2105
Windows RST Drivers 11.2.1006
Intel Bios RST ROM 11.2.0.1527
Windows 7 64-bit
I should mention, I have tried clearing the CMOS / bios. I removed power cord, removed CMOS battery, moved jump to pin 2+3, let it sit for 15 seconds, move jumper back to 1+2.
I know this worked, because the bios was reset and all of my Overclock settings were cleared. However, I noticed that the RAID Utility was the updated one. I did not try to reinstall the bios again during this process. I do not know how it would matter, but maybe I need to clear the cmos/mobo and then reinstall the new modded bios?
After the mobo reset, first I tried the RAID with stock bios settings, no Overclocking. Then I reentered my OC information and tried RAID that way. I still get the checking NVRAM hang.
Maybe this is useful
- the P5Q3 Deluxe apparently has 2 bios chips for fail safe.
- the board has 6 internal SATA connections.
- I do not have the SATA drives plugged into the jmicron ports. This board has something called jmicron which I think is a RAID utility that uses special ports on board. Those are SATA E1 and SATA E2. I cannot find much on this jmicron thing. I have my SATA drives plugged into SATA 1 and SATA 2 (see manual). This is correct because I do not think I could enter RAID utlility if I had this wrong.
- my proposed RAID 1 does not include the boot drive. I am trying to use RAID 1 on two HDD. They are not SSD, nor or either a boot drive.
I attached the mobo manual. Page 51 has the most RAID info, but there is RAID info scattered about.
e3783_P5Q3_Deluxe-WiFi.pdf (3.26 MB)
@taekinkai :
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!
The "checking NVRAM" message seems to be misleading.
The problem is not the size of the Intel RAID ROM module itself, but the fact, that the currently available ASUS P5Q3 DeLuxe BIOSes do not contain a utility, which is able to load a >100 KB sized Intel RAID ROM while booting. The latest Intel RAID ROM, whose uncompressed size is smaller than 100 KB, is the Intel RST RAID ROM v10.1.0.1008 and this is the latest one, which can be properly loaded by the ROM loader, which is inside the original BIOSes of the ASUS P5Q3.
As a consequence you will only be able to boot off any drive, which is connected to the Intel SATA RAID Controller, if you "downgrade" the Intel RAID ROM to v10.1.0.1008. Big disadvantage: >2 TB sized RAID Volumes are not detected by that old Intel RAID ROM version (v10.5 is the minimum for the support of >2 TB RAID Volumes).
The only way to solve this problem is to ask the ASUS Support for a BIOS update, which allows you to use any >100 KB sized Intel RAID ROM module.
Good luck!
Dieter (alias Fernando)
When you say bootable system drive, you simply refer to a working drive?
You do not mean the drive with the bootloader and OS?
I ask because I do not need raid for the Boot drive. I am only need RAID for my data drives, non bootable non OS. i.e. storing large quantities of data that I want to keep off my SSD. My SSD holds my OS.
Thank you for your assistance!
EDIT by Fernando: The quoted post text has been customized to avoid any misunderstandings. My original post contained a mistake, which has meanwhile been corrected by me.
@taekinkai :
After having read your last post, I have realized, that my previous post contained a mistake. I am sorry about my mistake and your confusion.
Meanwhile I have corrected my wrong and obviously irritating statement within my last post and customized the quoted part of your reply (to avoid future misunderstandings by the visitors of this Forum).
This may explain the situation better:
As long as
a) the Intel SATA Controller has been set to "RAID" mode and
b) there are any Disk Drives connected to the Intel SATA ports,
the BIOS tries to load the Intel RAID Utility from the Intel RAID ROM BIOS module to make sure, whether the connected Disk Drives are members of a RAID array or not.
Exactly this procedure (the loading of the Intel RAID Utility from the Intel RAID ROM module) seems to be not successful with your current system, because the boot loader is not able to load a >100 KB sized ROM module.
I hope, that this clarifies the previous misunderstanding.