Attention all ASUS P5Q PRO Orange SATA Port Users!

[Scabtacular]

Attention all ASUS P5Q PRO Orange SATA Port Users!

Has anyone got there ORANGE SATA PORT working with a data drive? Or a DVD Burner?

I CAN'T GET ANYTHING TO WORK ON THAT DARN ORANGE SATA PORT FROM HELL!!!

ZERO, ZILCH, NADA......its like they don't exsist!!!

Yes, I've gone through all the Drive Xpert 101 from BOTH software and BIOS Mode changes!
Yes, I've gone through installing the Marvell 88SE6111 drivers that say upon boot up...No hardrive found!
Yes, I know there is NO SUPPORT for ATAPI Drives of any kind hence the utter uselessnes of the white sata port!!
Yes, I've tryed new cables, only one drive by itself, and various forums for help, but NADA!

The few that HAVE tryed are using these separate Silicon Image chipset ports for either EZ Backup or Super Speed functions, where i simply WANT MY NORMAL ORANGE PORT BACK!!!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.....I NEED MY ORANGE SATA PORT NORMAL MODE PERIOD!!!!

ps. - the 6 red Intel ICH10R ports work fine....I have 2 of them in raid 0 with 190meg/sec!

[Scabtacular]

I just ignore the orange and white sata ports forever.... was in one post forum....

Not a very helpful solution!

[tiraco]

I have the same board and I believe the e1 and e2 sata ports have to be use together as

they are dedicated to raid HD configuration.

You need 2 drive's

Its basically a raid setup, raid0 (super speed) and raid1 (EZ backup)

No doubt its asus's way of making it easier for ppl to setup a raid array

[Shawn]

I have the same board and I believe the e1 and e2 sata ports have to be use together as

they are dedicated to raid HD configuration.

You need 2 drive's

Its basically a raid setup, raid0 (super speed) and raid1 (EZ backup)

No doubt its asus's way of making it easier for ppl to setup a raid array

Basically the Orange and White port look to be part of the Silicon Image Sil5723 chipset which is separate from the red ones which are the intel chip set.

Manufactures have been doing this adding 2 different types of chipsets to their motherboards to support raid, and from the looks of it they have colour coded them to help the user be able to tell where they should plug things in if they read the manual...

[Scabtacular]

Holy Gramma with her glasses on her forehead!!!

YOU HAVE TO PHYSICALLY ATTACH 2 SATA DRIVES PERIOD!!! NOT JUST ONE!!!

Don't matter if your only wanting to use just one drive! To coin a phrase from the 80's cartoon show....."WONDER TWINS ACTIVATE!!!" ...or wonder twins "x2" activate!

You HAVE TO physically plug in 2 drives PERIOD, THEN GO BIOS, change mode to normal, and surprise...BOTH NOW WORK NORMAL SATA CONNECTORS!!! WOW!!!

It even says in the manual....THE HDD LED WILL FLASH OFF AND ON IF YOU DON'T!!!!

....Ok...so WHY WHY WHY, did I NOT plug 2 drives?

BECAUSE IT SAID I WOULD LOSE MY DATA ON THE DRIVE/DRIVES!!!! No thanks!! Hence the vicious circle I was in!!!

Soultion ultimately was....DRUM ROLL...

Unpluged 2 raid drives (they only had os on them) from Red Sata ports and pluged them into BOTH Orange AND White Ports!

Went into BIOS and changed MODE to NORMAL. Rebooted WITH THE DRIVES STILL PLUGGED INTO ORANGE AND WHITE.

Complained about no Booting device.

Shutdown and switched back to Raid Red Sata Ports, then added my NORMAL Sata DATA Drives with my Gig's and Gig's of Data.

Turn on the computer and booted back into OS, and BOOOOOM!!! The Icon went from GREYED OUT to a greenish (Normal) Mode and the Drive Xpert software appeared notifing me it was there!

OF COURSE Vista bubble popped up to notify me FIRST that it found a new hardrive!!

WOOT!! This is a lot of BS just to get all 8 of my sata ports working like they should out of the box!!! What if the user only has ONE DRIVE AVAILABLE!!! HOLY KOALA POPSICLE PISS!!! You'd be screwed!! Not to mention not having much in the department of being tech savy!

Thanks for restating the obvious, and I hope that anyone that reads this won't have to go through this ever again!!

ROCK ON!!!

[Scabtacular]

My setup for all 8 ports is now as follows....

Raid 0 Samsung 320x2 on Red Sata Port 1, Red Sata Port 2
DVD Burner Red Sata Port 3
Samsung 1TB Red Sata Ports 4 throu 6
Esata for External Drive on ORANGE Sata Port 1
Seagate 1TB Enterprise NS on WHITE Sata Port 2

Total Drive Space = 5.6 Terabytes!!!
Sooo nice having a eSata bracket on the back now!!!

....now if only I make the switch to 2TB drives...MmMhhaha!!!

[Scabtacular]

Out of curiousity..... IS THERE A MOTHERBOARD WITH ONLY ONE CONTROLLER, 8 SATA PORTS???? Is there a MB with MORE than 8 ports??? Buying a decent raid card is expensive and won't fit with the SLI taking up all the real estate.

[Hans]

I can't remember, but mine has 2 sets that can be used with single configurations.