Intel RST/RSTe Drivers (latest: v20.1.0.1015/ v9.0.0.1836)



I have the x99 up and running-not without a hiccup: I had to RMA the first board due to faulty BIOS chips for refund, so, went out and purchased another one locally. I tried to insert the ROG forum link, but, when one clicks the link an advertisement page comes up and there is no redirect to posted URL. A bug in the forum…?

Rampage V Extreme
The legacy RAID OROM is 13.10.2126 in latest BIOS 0901; I stuck with the 13.2.4.1000 F6 drivers to keep inline with your recommendation to match the driver and OROM development branch. They work well. I don’t benchmark-do not believe in them. But, gaming and everyday use they are fast enough and stable so far. The Legacy and UEFI only ROM’s agree in version number-no more RSt and RSTe. Trim is availble in RAID.

The BIOS is 128 mb not the usual 64 mb-double the size. None of the older drivers RSTe or Intel chipset (I used 10.0.17) are compatable I would think. Device manager does not list individual Intel modules by name:



x99 is a different animal for sure. :slight_smile:

@ RickSteele:
Thanks for your feedback.
There are 2 questions left:
1. Which Intel RAID Utility (RAID ROM/EFI SataDriver) version is your Intel SATA RAID Controller using?
2. Why haven’t you installed the OS in UEFI mode?



…both have the same ROM version number and the AHCI/RAID drivers are the same for both; not sure if that answers your question.



I loath it with a passion. I tried it once and it has a long way to go…compatability…especially with graphics cards-even the latest. I do not like the idea of secure boot with the M$ sanctioned Digital Certificates; I do not require a GPT partition and boot times are not much faster if at all from what mine are now. M$ probably will have come out with their new self healing file system by the time UEFI mode is all ironed out and adopted main stream. I never will use UEFI until I absolutely have to.

?!
You do not have to enable secure boot at all to UEFI to work. Neither to enable full UEFI GOP (in the case the card do not have a UEFI GOP BIOS) but enable CSM compatibility and no problem of graphics compatibility at all!!
So you probably didn’t configure it right otherwise it is “ironed out”…



First I’ve heard…



My point being you have a hybrid concoction as far as I’m concerned, the latest do have a UEFI BIOS…very buggy.



I have not tried it on the x99 which has come a long way from x79 in the UEFI department, but, absolutely nothing you or anyone can say would make me change my mind in any way, shape or form. I will not use it period.

Zitat von RickSteele im Beitrag #503

…both have the same ROM version number and the AHCI/RAID drivers are the same for both; not sure if that answers your question.



No, I wanted to know the version of the currently in-use Intel RAID ROM module.



13.10.2126

Zitat von RickSteele im Beitrag #507

13.10.2126



Thanks.
By the way: The correct version is 13.1.0.2126. So this Intel RAID ROM module is from the RST v13.1 development branch.



Thanks
The latest F6 driver on the ASUS driver download for this motherboard is 13.2.4.1000, so, I slipstreamed it and things seem to be OK. That, I guess would be the latest driver in that development branch then, or should I be using the 13.5.0.1056? They have done away with "RSTe Enterprise" drivers completely; does not matter what mode the install-legacy or EFI-the RAID drivers remain the same. Finnally heh Fernando, no reason-as you said many times-why they could not do this for x79!
One thing I don’t think will ever change is ASUS slow-nonexistant-adoption of newer, updated OROM’s and with this comparatively huge BIOS, the different way ASUS programmed them, there probably will be no way to modify the BIOS-at least in the near future.
I’m not going to overclock for a month or so just to get the feel of things and let the system settle in.


It’s not a problem of ASUS, but of every OEM, that buys a BIOS platform code from independent BIOS vendor like AMI and adapts it platforms of it’s own.
Every update costs a decent amount of money, because to integrate and test it, you will need some time of RnD department, QA department, product release team and so on, and all that people have enough work to be busy 100% of their work time, so the strategy right now is "update only to solve problems of current platforms" (I’m smiling everytime see a message like "Update CPU microcode" as the only reason for new BIOS release).
Different parts of BIOS are updating each day, and if you will integrate anything newer than current, you will have 3-4 BIOS releases a day, which will cost you all your money and all your time.
The whole "OROM Updating" thing is not 100% pointless, but it brings too little and costs too much in both time and money, that is why no one, except enthusiasts, will ever bother about it. Much like overclocking, DSDT and P-states optimization, fine tuning and so on.
As BIOS developer, I don’t have any time for such things, there are major problems to be solved and new features to be developed, so I’m perfectly fine with any OROM version that just works, be it old or not.

Zitat von RickSteele im Beitrag #509

The latest F6 driver on the ASUS driver download for this motherboard is 13.2.4.1000, so, I slipstreamed it and things seem to be OK. That, I guess would be the latest driver in that development branch then, or should I be using the 13.5.0.1056?.



The latest Intel RST RAID driver from the v13.1 development branch is v13.1.0.1058.
If you want to have a matching RAID driver/OROM combo, you should either update the Intel RAID ROM/EFI RaidDriver BIOS modules to v13.2.0.2134 or "downgrade" the Intel RST RAID driver to v13.1.0.1058 WHQL (has to be done by using the "Have Disk" button).



Done; I try to comply with your matching RAID driver/OROM combo (it just works best in my experience) and because I cannot upgrade the OROM at this time I "downgraded" to the 13.1.0.1058 WHQL many; thanks again Fernando

@ all users with an X79/X99 Chipset system:

According to >this< via Google translated article Intel has secretly removed the Intel RSTe drivers v4.1.0.1046/1047 from their Downöoad Center because of the following severe bugs:
1. no TRIM in RAID0 support with these drivers and
2. only limited usage of the X99 chipset SATA3 ports.
It was our Forum member hcwuschel, who posted this info >here<.

As a consequence I have crossed out the related part within the start post of this thread and added a warning.

Update of the start post

Changelog:

  • crossed out: 32/64bit Intel RSTe drivers v4.1.0.1046 WHQL
  • crossed out: Intel RSTe Drivers & Software Set v4.1.0.1047 WHQL
  • added: a warning regarding these drivers

Thanks to hcwuschel for the info.

Regards
Fernando



I have installed them at home rig right after you uploaded them. No issues. But no RAID and no X99 here.

The F6 RSt v13.1.0.1058 WHQL drivers on the Rampage V Extreme result in the BIOS losing the RAID configuration completely so that only the DVD is visible as a boot option on warm reboot almost everytime-BIOS 0901 OROM 13.10.2126. Quite a number of people are reporting this issue to ASUS. I updated to F6 RSt v13.2.4.1000 WHQL to try it and the problem disappeared-performance in gaming and everyday tasks is very good (I don’t benchmark). I am considering trying the F6 RSt v13.5.0.1056 WHQL drivers just to see…
As a side note, all those RST(e) drivers that did not support trim on x79 in RAID now do with the x99 chipset. So, trim compatability is no longer a concern or factor in the driver choice for Haswell-E.

That is an interesting find. Maybe the specific and usually hidden "alternate" DeviceID of the Intel X99 SATA RAID Controller is only supported by the latest Intel RST(e) drivers from v13.2.x.xxxx series up.
Request:
I would rather like to check that by opening the related iaStorA.sys files with an Hex Editor.
What I need from you (or any other RAID user with an Intel X99 Chipset mainboard) is the "alternate" DeviceID of the on-board Intel X99 Chipset SATA RAID Controller.
You can check it by running Dufus’ (CPL0’s) fantastic SataID Tool, which I have attached (just unzip it run the SataID.EXE as Admin).

The only exception may be the Intel RSTe drivers v4.1.0.1046, which obviously have been pulled by Intel.

Dufus SataID Tool.rar (44.3 KB)


Let me know if there is anything else…

Controller ID 2822
Alternate ID 8D06


I think Intel is done with the underperforming "Enterprise" drivers for desktop boards. What good is anything that does not support trim in RAID; even in the enterprise. Intel releases the x99 and then hamstrings the chipset because they did not have their s**t together-profit before proper R&D and testing (aka v4.1.0.1046)


I downloaded the drivers from your first page this thread.

I have been running the F6 RSt v13.2.4.1000 WHQL for 5 days now and have not lost my RAID in the BIOS at all under any condition; I know this is not a long enough period-or tested by enough owners- for ASUS to publish it as a fix, but, my system would’ve acted up by now many times using the F6 RSt v13.1.0.1058 WHQL drivers.

Thanks for having checked and posted the "alternate" DeviceID of your on-board Intel X99 SATA RAID Controller.
Meanwhile I have compared the Intel RAID driver named iaStorA.sys v13.1.0.1058 and v13.2.4.1000 regaring the DEV_8D06 hex codes, but I couldn’t find any differences, which might be responsable for your reported problem with the v13.1.0.1058 driver.

Your report, that the installation of the Intel RST(e) driver v13.2.4.1000 solved your problem, surprises me, because the list of the bootable devices, which is shown by the UEFI Setup, has nothing to do with the storage driver, which is being used for the device by the related Windows OS.

I know what you’re saying, does not make sense. I just tried it because Chino and the gurus at ASUS are unable to pinpoint the problem at present, so, for want of anything else, I just tried it-nothing to lose…ya’ know…
Whether or not updating the driver, or the system just decided to stop doing it, is anybody’s guess really. The fact my system is not doing it anymore with just the driver update and nothing else changed…
Just as another mind tease, when the x79 was still going through the bug stage-new-using any of the published BIOS-I could enter safe mode, but, if I tried to do anything at all-and I mean anything, right clck the desktop for instance, BSOD immediately. The fix for me was to install the latest Intel Management Engine Interface from Station Drivers compatable with the C600 at the time. No idea updating this-the firmware was already at the latest from a previous update-would do anything. A couple of days or so after updating the MEI i went into safe mode to spend some time trying to analize and troubleshoot the BSOD, but, it never happened again with that present BIOS or any future flashes-no other changes at all other than the MEI update. Go figure…no rhyme or reason, but, as is the case now, I’m not going to question it LOL, just enjoy the result. :slight_smile:

there seems to be a revisioned RSTe driver of 4 series:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_…deu&ProdId=3804

it seems to give some performance improvements according to:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/thread…-0-0147.208172/