What Is A Marvell Port? Should I Even Bother With This Driver?

[dragonborn123]

Let me preface by saying this is my first build, and I have about a thimble's worth of knowledge regarding the subject. After searching online, I couldn't find anything that seemed relevant to my question, so I thought I'd ask the users here. What is a Marvell port, and what does it do?

I've also been having issues installing the Marvell drivers for this mobo, and I'm wondering if its worth worrying about. As a casual gamer, am I likely to need the driver?

 

[alexoiu]

What motherboard?

 

[dragonborn123]

What motherboard?

It was the embedded link. Here's a plain text link: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga990fxaud3

 

[alexoiu]

The Marvell devices controll the 2 SATA ports on the back panel:
2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3894#sp
If not using the back SATA ports for connecting some external drives, then no need to install the driver.
Why having issues with the driver - have you checked if the device is enabled in BIOS?

 

[dragonborn123]

The Marvell devices controll the 2 SATA ports on the back panel:
2 x Marvell 88SE9172 chips:
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s connectors on the back panel supporting up to 2 SATA 6Gb/s devices.
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3894#sp
If not using the back SATA ports for connecting some external drives, then no need to install the driver.
Why having issues with the driver - have you checked if the device is enabled in BIOS?

I took a look at the Marvell settings, and it appears to be enabled. My trouble with the driver is that the Marvell driver I downloaded from the Gigabyte website doesn't have a setup or executable, just a bunch of miscellaneous .sys and .info files. If anything, it looks like it's a bootable driver because it has an .oem file. So overall, I'm just very confused about the driver and how to install it.

Here's the driver page if you'd be willing to take a look (I'm running Windows 8 64-bit): http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4672&dl=1#dl

 

[alexoiu]

Download the Marvell 9172 driver (the 43.13MB one).

 

[dragonborn123]

Download the Marvell 9172 driver (the 43.13MB one).

I only see a 0.41MB Marvell driver available. Where exactly did you find a 43.13MB option?

 

[alexoiu]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3894#dl
for Windows 7 64 bit

 

[dragonborn123]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3894#dl
for Windows 7 64 bit

Ok, I just did, and it appeared to install properly. However, is that the right driver? I am running Windows 8.

 

[alexoiu]

Since it installed...
You can check in Device manager, under storage controllers.
What you can also do is right click the Marvell device in Device manager, select Update driver and browse to the downloaded folder for Windows 8 (the one without exe).

 

[dragonborn123]

Since it installed...
You can check in Device manager, under storage controllers.
What you can also do is right click the Marvell device in Device manager, select Update driver and browse to the downloaded folder for Windows 8 (the one without exe).

It installed but then the pc crashed and entered recovery mode (after which all of my drivers were uninstalled). I guess I'll try device manager again, but last time I had difficulty actually finding the Marvell device (wasn't sure what it was or what it did, so maybe now I'll have more luck narrowing it down).

EDIT: Here are my list of IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers: AMD SATA Controller, ATA Channe 1, ATA Channel 0, Standard Dual Channel PCI ID Controller, Standard SATA AHCI Controller. Is it one of these? I can't seem to find anything else that looks like what I'm searching for.

 

[alexoiu]

Check under IDE...controllers

 

[alexoiu]

Try this driver: http://66.226.78.21/downloadsite/drivers/all/SATA/Marvell_SATA3(v1.2.0.1032).zip

 

[dragonborn123]

Well, I just tried updating the Standard SATA AHCI Controller with the marvell driver. It installed, and suddenly a marvell controller appear under storage controllers, but the Standard SATA AHCI Controller I was updating disappeared. Don't know if that's to be expected, but it did allow me to install the driver.

 

[alexoiu]

It's OK then.

 

[dragonborn123]

It's OK then.

I think the driver is finally in working order (just restarted to make sure everything was functioning properly). Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it.

 

[alexoiu]

You're welcome. Good luck!