Problems with Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA 6G PCI Express Host Adapter Card and GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard

[Denise]

For the past 9 years, I've been using the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6 motherboard and a HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 v 1.04 PCI Express x8 controller card.  I had 6 hard drives connected to the motherboard and 6 hard drives connected to the controller card, JBOD, running Windows XP x64.  The controller card worked well.   

 

Windows XP x64 was getting too obsolete so I switched to Windows 10 and a bought a new controller card, a IO Crest 8-port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x2 Controller Card Green, SI-PEX40071.  For some reason, only 4 hard drives connected to the controller card would show up.  I thought it was faulty so I RMA'd it and the new one did the same thing.  Thinking that there might be a compatibility issue, I bought a different one, an Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA 6G PCI Express.

 

I connected the adapter card to one of the PCIEx4 slots on the motherboard, connected a hard drive to it, and boot up stopped when it read the hard drive connected to the adapter card and wouldn't continue to boot all the way up to Windows.  I disconnected the hard drive and tried several others and the same thing happened.  The hard drives are good.  They work when I have them connected to ports on the motherboard.

 

My system (DOS?) recognizes the adapter card at boot but when I disconnect the hard drive connected to it and boot to Windows, it's not listed in Device Manager.

 

Does anybody have any thoughts on this about what the problem might be and how I can fix it?

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Denise

[hitman2158]

This shouldn´t happen with SI-PEX40071. I´m using this controller inside my Mediatower with unRAID, see my sig. Usually use the standard AHCI-driver from Windows.

 

Here´s installation procedure:

 

Navigate to Device Manager.

In the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers sections, find "Standard SATA AHCI Controller"
======================================================================================================
If card is device is not recognized in Device Manager:
Remove the card and seat it into an available PCIe v2.0 slot of any size larger than x2 (x2/x4/x8/x16)
======================================================================================================

Right-click and Update Driver Software.

Select: Browse my computer for driver software.
Select: Let me pick from list of device drivers on my computer.
Check in: Show compatible hardware.

Click Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Click Have Disk button
Click Browse, navigate to Driver Windows files:
92XX > Windows OS > Bit Version (i386 = 32bit;amd64 = 64bit) > mvs91xx.inf ; click next

Window will prompt that the driver has no digital signature, Select: 'Install these drivers anyway'

Drivers should be installed.

 

Have a look on http://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=160 to find downloads for the controller.

 

Same thing with Ableconn PEX10-SAT 10 Port SATA 6G PCI Express

 

Compatibility: No driver installation is required. The AHCI drivers are natively built-in on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, 2008, 2012, Linux, Mac 10.x and later.

 

Your MoBo is a real Oldie, maybe there´s an inompatiblitiy MoBo and these tye of controllers. I would suggest to contact Gigabyte-Support.

 

Or try a different OS like unRAID or a Linux Live Distro like Ubuntu or something like that.

[Denise]

Hi,

 

Thanks for responding.

 

In BIOS, AHCI is selected.

In Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > Standard SATA AHCI Controllers, it says that the best drivers for your device are already installed.

The adapter card isn't listed in Device Manager.

I have the card seated in the PCIeX4 slot of my motherboard.

I contacted Gigabyte Support Forum but they never responded.

I just spent about $800.00 upgrading this pc, including buying Windows 10.  I can't afford to put anymore money into it right now.

Can you suggest an adapter card that will work with my motherboard?  A HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 v 1.04 PCI Express x8 adapter card worked with this motherboard but it wasn't compatible with Windows 10 so I need one that's compatible with both.

No drivers are supposed to be needed for this card but I followed the link you gave me and downloaded driver SI-PEX40071.  I'll set a restore point and install it and see if it helps.  Thanks.

 

 

EDIT:  I unzipped SI-PEX40071.  It says at the website that it's for Windows 7, 8, 10 but the options it offers is for 1. Widows 2003_XP and 2. Windows Vista_2008_7_8.  It doesn't contain a driver for Windows 10.

 

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by Denise
Additional information

[whipdancer]

Can you try a different slot? Maybe the 16x or 8x slot?

Edited November 13, 2018 by whipdancer

[Denise]

The 16x slot is only for video cards.  I just tried the 8x slot and it did the same thing, plus my network connection was lost until I shut down, removed the card, and booted back up.  I don't know why it did that.

 

[whipdancer]

I can't find anything that designates the 16x slot as video card only.

According to the specification page for your motherboard the 4x slots are not designated as PCI-E 2.0 compliant.
The 16x slot and 8x slot are supposed to be 2.0 compliant.
The controller card is a 2.0 card.

I also have to ask if there is anything you can return, because $800 is a lot of money to have spent on a system based on the LGA775 architecture. A used system that you could have scavenged for replacement parts would have cost less.


 

[Denise]

Quote

 

I can't find anything that designates the 16x slot as video card only.

 

I read that the x16 slots are only for video cards here:

I have only one x16 slot and I need it for the video card.

 

Quote

According to the specification page for your motherboard the 4x slots are not designated as PCI-E 2.0 compliant.

When I was running XP x64, I had an adapter card connected to the PCIE 2.0 port and it worked well.  It was a "HighPoint RocketRAID 2320 PCI Express (x8 non-RAID) x4 SATA II RAID Card RAID 0/1/5/10/50 JBOD."  It doesn't work with Windows 10, though.

 

Quote

8x slot are supposed to be 2.0 compliant.

I tried the card in the 8x slot and it wouldn't work in that slot either.  My computer wouldn't boot to Windows when I connected a hard drive to it.  Also, when it was in that slot, I lost my internet connection.  I had to shut down, remove the card, boot up and I had internet connection again.  It makes no sense but that's what happened.

 

 

I can't return any of the parts I bought.  I've had them for over 30 days.  Hindsight is perfect.  I now know that I should have left my system the way it was and just bought a laptop for the internet.

 

Do you think that any PCIE adapter card that I buy will have the same problem with my motherboard and Windows 10?  Do you know of one that will work?

 

 

 

[whipdancer]

I would suggest trying your video card in the 8x slot to see if it works.  If it does, then try the controller card in the 16x slot. It can't hurt to try.

You can try to use the Windows Vista drivers for your controller card and see if that works.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. It's one of the issues with new parts on a system that old.

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by whipdancer

[hitman2158]

Looks like an IRQ problem. Probably your network adapter shares the IRQ with the 8x slot.

 

I would suggest to try with a Linux Live Distro to find out, if this only happens with Windows or also with Linux. Download Ubuntu or whatever you want. Burn the ISO onto a DVD or use an Image Writer to bring it on a USB stick. 

 

Find a distro here: https://distrowatch.com/

 

Find a writer here: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-tools-make-bootable-usb-iso-file/

 

Rufus is okay as well as YUMI or UNetbootin 

 

Good luck

[Denise]

Thanks, everybody, for all your help and suggestions, much appreciated.

If I ever come up with a solution or if I never come up with a solution, I'll let you know.

 

[Denise]

I found a solution to this problem but it's not ideal.  I kept the IO Crest 8-port SATA III PCIe 2.0 x2 Controller Card Green, SI-PEX40071 and connected 4 hard drives to it.  I also bought a Semlos 4 Ports PCI Sata Internal Raid Controller Card Sil3114 Chipset 013577 and seated it into one of the PCI slots on my motherboard and connected 3 hard drives and the DVD drive to it.  Those hard drives are a lot slower but all of my hard drives are connected now and available for use.