[Discussion] Firmware for Asmedia Sata 6G Controllers

I recently “upgraded” to the Asmedia SATA/AHCI driver v2.0.2.0 and had many BSOD’s in Windows 8.1 Pro and was forced back to version v1.4.1.0.

The driver corrupted my Windows installation twice and after using system restore I was able to analyse the crash dumps to locate the source of the BSOD’s (asstor64.sys).

Does anyone know if the Asmedia 3.02 firmware possibly resolves this issue? (I am currently using v0.954)

No it does not, even no optical boot with 3.02, I think it to be older…

The ASMedia Firmware v3.02 is dated 07/17/2012.

3.02 that I do not like is the checksum does not equal 00. I can not find byte alignment.

The ASMedia Firmware v3.02 is dated 07/17/2012.




I meant older then 0.954.
And contrery to ModRekrut, I have boot from cdrom with it.

ASMedia seems to have horrible problems with version numbers… Anyway the 0.951 firmware does appear to be the newest that’s available, but maybe there’s a newer one in a current UEFI motherboard BIOS. I tried extracting a few but didn’t succeed.

EDIT by Fernando: The ASMedia AHCI DRIVERS related part of the post has been moved into >this< freshly created thread.

@ mushbert:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum and thanks for your report regarding the ASMedia 106x SATA ROM modules and AHCI drivers.

The ASMedia 106x AHCI ROM v0.951 is dated 07/11/2012. AFAIK the newest working ASMedia AHCI ROM is v0.954, which can be found within the start post of >this< thread.

Regards
Fernando

Thanks! I have this version installed now; it does work, but strangely - attached drives are no longer scanned during boot-up and there is no OROM information screen displayed (though I enjoy this as booting is faster). However, once Windows starts loading it works as expected, with no issues so far. I’m using Win7, a P45/ICH10R board, and a SiI3726 port multiplier connected to the ASMedia PCIe card… Maybe 0954 is built for BIOS insertion and that’s why it doesn’t act as expected?

Absolutely - the information is more useful if people can easily find it. Feel free to copy anything of relevance over.

Thanks! I have this version installed now; it does work, but strangely - attached drives are no longer scanned during boot-up and there is no OROM information screen displayed (though I enjoy this as booting is faster).


There should be an option within the BIOS to force the splash of the ASMedia 106x Utility v0.954 while booting.

Absolutely - the information is more useful if people can easily find it. Feel free to copy anything of relevance over.


I have done it.
Thanks for your compliance with the movement.

Only if you insert it by force like you did using MMTool, I tried it too and (of course "with show OROM while BOOT" or something similar), and now during BOOT right before Intel RAID ROM screen it shows:

WP_20131119_004.jpg



Edit by Fernando: Quoting corrected

The ASMedia chip is on a PCI-Express card, as far as I’m aware inserting the ROM into my motherboard BIOS would not work.?

I don’t believe such an option is present - but even so, I don’t think that’s the issue. The boot order with 0951 is ordered as follows:
BIOS -> Intel AHCI Splash -> Intel RST Splash -> ASMedia card Splash -> DMI Pool update -> Windows bootloader.

With 0954 installed on the card, no splash screen for it is shown but the others appear as normal. Again, while this is strange, for me it is a positive point because if the card is working properly there is no need to slow down the boot process with yet another splash screen.

Edit: Oh yes, one other thing: with the 0951 ROM, the driver (v1.4.0.1) shows the “Enable Safely Remove Disk” switch on the Policy tab in Device Manager, but not the “Enable Driver Cache Mode” switch. With 0954 the latter option re-appears. I have no idea whether that means caching does/does not work with 0951.

I agree: In this case there is no reason for you to change anything.

I have a standalone 2 port SATA card using ASmedia Chipset 1061.

tried flashing the firmware provided on this site and then the 3.0.2 from station drivers.
ASMedia-106x_AHCI-ROM_v0.954.7z

Seems to fail erasing SPI rom.
Entire SPI ROM neeed to be re-programmed!!!

Any idea’s?

ASM-1061.jpg

@ tg:
Welcome at Win-RAID Forum!

Because of the wellknown problems I neither have offered this v3.02 OROM nor recommended to insert it into the BIOS.

Try to reflash the original BIOS.

Good luck!
Fernando

That’s abit of a problem as I don’t have the original BIOS.
It was running V0.90 Bios, and had an anoying bug on reboot the bios wouldn’t load and pc wouldn’t boot.
I would have to do a complete power off and then the BIOS would init.

The card is made in Tawian by this comany.
http://www.forcomtech.com.tw/data/PEU3S3.pdf
I have tried to contact them for technical support, don’t hold my breath though! :frowning:

@ tg:

Have you already tried clearing CMOS?

Fernando,

I am using on my P8Z77-V Deluxe the ASM 106x SATA controller the driver V 2.0.4.0 (w7 x64 in AHCI Mode), dated 25/11/2013.
Seems to work fine.

However i would like to know what FIRMWARE is flashed inside this controller on the motherboard , and what OROM version is flashed inside the ASUS BIOS version 2104.
I assume a couple of these 2 pieces of flashed software must be respected to work fine together.
So,
1) How can we get the both OROM and FIRMWARE versions respective value ?
2) I have tried the “AHCI.bat” command under a USB DOS bootable key and get
a) for ‘ahci302.rom’ this menu:
106spi -u ahci302.rom
DOS/4GW … version 1.97
ASM106x SPI Flash ROM Write V 2.06
Find 1 ASM106x controller
Read-ROM ID Failed !!
Program Stop!!
b)for N0951 piece this menu:

ASM106x SPI Flash ROM Write V 2.5
Find 1 ASM106x controller
Can’t find SPI ROM !!!


Any help/comments ?

@ 100PIER:

I haven’t yet done a look into the BIOS of your mainboard, but the original BIOS of my ASUS P8Z77-V doesn’t contain any ASM 106x OROM module. Nevertheless I was able to insert the ASM106x OROM v0.954 without any problem.
AFAIK the ASMedia AHCI Controllers are managed just by the OROM and not by any special Firmware (like the Intel RAID Controllers), but I am not 100% sure about that.



Fernando, given that it’s a standalone card I couldn’t see doing that having much effect but I did it anyway with no change.
The card has a jumper on it for AHCI/IDE or OFF.
Basically if the jumper is now on the card the PC frezes before POST in either AHCI or IDE mode.

Zitat von tg im Beitrag #31

Fernando, given that it’s a standalone card I couldn’t see doing that having much effect but I did it anyway with no change.



I am sorry, I haven’t read your first post very carefully.
Since the ASM106x SATA Controller is on your discrete PCI card and not directly on-board, the mainboard BIOS should not be affected by flashing any ASM106x OROM into the BIOS chip of the PCI card.