Question X79 Extreme6 Motherboard BIOS Failure

[pcbugfixer]

G'day tom's Hardware Forum

I have a ASRock X79 Extreme6 motherboard on witch I have installed a “8 Channels PCI-Express Serial ATA III Host Controller Card” to be able to have 10 WD8003FFBX Red Pro 8TB Hard Drives installed in 2 x 5 Bay ICY dock cages (https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=242) these are all functioning and I have managed to sequence them so that bay 1 for example is the master C: drive, bay 2 is the D: drive, etc. to Bay 3 to 5 E:, F: and G: drive and the second rack bay 6 to 10 for drive H: to L: .

On HDD 1 (Master(s) C:\ Drive) I have install Multi OS’s allowing 250 or 500GB for each OS.

Using the BootIt UEFI v1.1.17 to create more than 4 primary partitions, actually up to the maximum, that I can fit on a 8TB HDD. If at 250GB partitions then I could fit 32 partitions?, which I might use eventually.

The graphic card is a nVidia GeForce GTX 960.
Installed RAM / Memory is 64GB

Having installed into the different partitions;

1. - Win7Pro 64bit
2. - Win8.1Pro 64bit
3. – Win10Pro 64bit
4. - Win10Ent 64bit
5. - Ubuntu Desktop
6. - Ubuntu Server
7. - Win S2012R2
8, - Win2016DC
9. - Win2019DC, and
10. - Win2022DC (having problems with this installation, running out of drive letters)

This now leaves me with 2.64GB free space on the master HDD which I have spare and don’t know what to do with as I have run out of drive letter assignments and therefore unable to load / install any other Operating System.

NB: I had a difficult and major task in finding the drivers for all the OS’s able to use and configure the same hardware on this system workstation. I still have some issues with the nVidia, although the display works on all OS’s.

Should you ask me how I did all this after almost 2 years I would simply say “I just don’t know how I managed to do it and have a dickens of a time trying to remember all the different configurations.

- And now I needed a long break due to other workloads.

Now to the current problems / issues;

Then one of the WD8003FFBX Red Pro 8TB Hard Drives failed and then the RMA took some time to replace it (under warranty) the replacement drive connected in bay slot 3 crashed the system trying to boot into Win10Pro 64bit. Trying different bay slots which resulted in the same failures.

I then tried connecting the HDD directly to SATA connector port on the Motherboard and the drive still caused the system to crash. Obviously there was / is a compatibility issue here and I asked that another replacement drive be sent which Western Digital did however the same issues occurred.

Trying to check the BIOS (F2) found that the BIOS was corrupt and simply stopped the settings to function freezing the system. Lucky I thought, as I had another X79 Extreme6 motherboard and after a day’s work replacing the motherboard on the 2nd day I booted up the workstation with e new board (without the 2nd replacement HDD) and other than some minor driver and location corrections the Workstation booted to the Win10Pro 64bit desktop.

Then trying the second replacement HDD the system again crashed and this time rebooting I checked the BIOS and the ruddy thing was also corrupted and simply stopped the settings to function freezing the system

So Folks my dilemma is now that trying to get support from ASRock to have the 2 failed boards refurbished is like trying to fly to Mars and I simply gave up.

The alternative seems to me to be a different X79 Extreme? Board on which I can use the same Zeon CPU, nVidia card, memory, etc., and possibly more than 9 SATA connectors on the motherboard so that I don’t have to use the “8 Channels PCI-Express Serial ATA III Host Controller Card” card to connect all 12 SATA devices, 10 HDD and 2 optical drives, directly to the motherboard.

For this I need some help and advice choosing the right board.

I was thinking of the X79 extreme9 board, as the SATA connectors suggests to have 12 listed in the Connector on the Specifications.

If this is a good alternative I need to source a “New Board of the X79 Extreme9” to be delivered to me in Australia post code 2319 at an affordable price.

Please reply to my post with any recommendations or alternative suggestions ASAP please.

Regards
Roger Hass / PC-Bug Fixer now in Tanilba Bay NSW 2319 Australia

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, I might be mistaken because it was a lot of information, but kudos for breaking up the bullet points so it wasn't just a big mess. Tx for that, but, I can't say that after several reads I see anything at all about you trying to replace the CMOS battery at all. On either board.

I think that is where you ought to begin on a board this old that seemingly still works but only has BIOS issues. Almost a foregone conclusion if you didn't already replace it.

 

[pcbugfixer]

I replace the CMOS batteries on all my workstations every 2 years and the current lot still have 15 month to go before the next replacements are due.

That said, I however considered that the battery on this board might have been faulty so I replaced it anyway and made absolutely no difference.

However, after completing a few customer installations on the remote connection to DE and USA I finally had time to put the grey matter in gear and considered the possible algorithms to fix the BIOS issue, which resulted in my re-flashing the board using the UEFI Flash option and the freshly downloaded v3.10, surprise, surprise, the BIOS is working.

However the SATA HDD still crashes the system.

and now I also have an issue with the Device Manager and the PCI Memory Controler which is not loading and I have no drive to fix it.

I tried the IDs for he device but none work on this station.
D's
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&SUBSYS_205114F1&REV_01
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&SUBSYS_205114F1
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&CC_058000
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&CC_0580

PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&SUBSYS_205114F1&REV_01\4&315225F3&0&08F0

Compatible IDs

PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30&REV_01
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2D30
PCI\VEN_14F1&CC_058000
PCI\VEN_14F1&CC_0580
PCI\VEN_14F1
PCI\CC_058000
PCI\CC_0580

Should anyone have a solution for me I would very much appreciate it

Please reply ASAP, if yu have a solution.

Regards
Roger Hass / PC-Bug Fixer now in Tanilba Bay NSW 2319 Australia