Hello unraid community,

I apologize if this is posted in the wrong forum, my first time posting on the unraid forums.

 

I got a 5-port pcie sata adapter I would like to use with my zimaboard 832 that's running unraid but it doesn't seem to detect it. I have tried unplugging and replugging the expansion card, swapping it for a different expansion card (I had two identical PCIe) but to no success. Below is the full log that I found under Tools->System Devices, under pci devices

 

[8086:5af0]00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series Host Bridge (rev 0b)

[8086:5a85]00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 500 (rev 0b)

[8086:5a98]00:0e.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series Audio Cluster (rev 0b)

[8086:5a9a]00:0f.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series Trusted Execution Engine (rev 0b)

[8086:5a9c]00:0f.1 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device 5a9c (rev 0b)

[8086:5a9e]00:0f.2 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Device 5a9e (rev 0b)

[8086:5ae3]00:12.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series SATA AHCI Controller (rev 0b)

[8086:5ad8]00:13.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series PCI Express Port A #1 (rev fb)

[8086:5ad6]00:14.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series PCI Express Port B #1 (rev fb)

[8086:5ad7]00:14.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series PCI Express Port B #2 (rev fb)

[8086:5aa8]00:15.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series USB xHCI (rev 0b)

[8086:5acc]00:1c.0 SD Host controller: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series eMMC Controller (rev 0b)

[8086:5ae8]00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series Low Pin Count Interface (rev 0b)

[8086:5ad4]00:1f.1 SMBus: Intel Corporation Celeron N3350/Pentium N4200/Atom E3900 Series SMBus Controller (rev 0b)

[197b:0585]01:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB58x AHCI SATA controller

[10ec:8168]02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

[10ec:8168]03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)

 

Any help to point me in the right direction is appreciated.

Edited August 25, 20223 yr by CanadianGuy
It has been resolved.

1 hour ago, CanadianGuy said:

I got a 5-port pcie sata adapter

Link?

Haha! Been a long day ... that would help a lot eh?

 

Link to PCIe to 5 sata expansion: https://shop.zimaboard.com/collections/diy-nas-media-server-bt-client/products/5-channel-sata-6g-pcie-adapter-host-card-pci-express-x1-to-x4-sata-connector-supports-ahci-fis-ncq-marvell-chipset

 

If I found the correct model number to the PCIe, it is: G536PCE5850V10

 

However an update and solution to the situation in hopes that this helps someone else, especially if you have a zimaboard like me. Seems like this PCIe expansion card works just fine and I have identified the two problems

1. Seems like there's a few bios settings you might want to double check which you can find in the next few lines below.

Storage: Enable (The default was UEFI)

Other PCI devices: Enable (The default was UEFI)

 

I'm also providing the rest of the settings in case they're important as reference and they're not set by default for you in the image below:

 

The moment these settings were set, the PCIe card illuminated and the boot screen recognizes the PCIe to sata expansion card before reaching the bootloader screen.

 

I'm not sure what these settings are to explain but the idea was inspired by the following link: https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/mobo-and-win10-not-detect-pcie-card-and-connected-sata-drive-solved.2597403/

 

Perhaps someone else with more technical knowledge can explain the BIOS settings that I changed.

 

2. Make sure you test the PCIe card first with a working HDD/SSD before you try setting up your new hard drive. It turns out that I also had a dead on arrival hard drive that I did not realize right away. This caused me to run in loops with my bios settings for hours before doing a sanity check with a known working HDD/SSD.

Hope this helps!

The linked page doesn't really tell what chipset it is, but the url itself seems to indicate it is Marvell, which is NOT recommended.