Crucial C300 and M4 dont work together on Asrock Z68 Extreme4en3

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Hi all,I have been using a Asrock Z68 Extreme4Gen3 motherboard with a C300 128GB 2.5" SATA SSD without issues for the past couple of years. OS is Win7 SP1. I recently tried to add a 256GB M4 2.5" SATA SSD to the same computer, and that's when my troubles started.

1. The C300 used to work well on the Intel SATA 3 port of the motherboard, but the M4 is not detected on the same port(s) The M4 works well on the Sata 2 ports or the Marvell Sata 3 port.
2. The C300 and M4 don't work together regardless of which ports they are connected to.
3. Both SSDs are not seen in BIOS if both are connected at the same time. If I connect only one SSD, it works fine, subject to condition 1
4. No issues with another HDD or two ODDs. They work on any port.

The Mother board BIOs is 2.30 (latest), the C300 is running 0007 and the M4 is on 0704.Tried everything, including BIOS reset, reflash, upgrade / downgrade, changed Sata and power cables.Any suggestions for a fix?

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Re: Crucial C300 and M4 dont work together on Asrock Z68 Extreme4en3

So the M4 is only detected by itself on one of the SATA II ports, right?

There really is no reason the SSDs cannot be used together on the same board, that I would blame the SSDs for that is.

Questions:

In the BIOS, Storage Configuration screen:

Are you using AHCI or RAID mode with the Intel SATA ports? Either of those is a must when using SSDs, or really any drive. If you are using IDE mode, you can change to AHCI mode with a registry edit. Microsoft even has a downloadable program to do this for you. Search on "change from IDE to AHCI".

If SATA Aggressive Link Power Management is enabled (it is by default I think), set it to disabled, as it can cause problems with some drives.

Most ASRock boards have a setting that appears if you click on a drive in the list of SATA ports, called SATA Device Type. Settings for this option are SSD and Hard Disk Drive(r) (typo in BIOS). Set this to SSD for SSDs of course.

Is there any chance that one of the Intel SATA III ports is bad, or have you tried both SATA III ports with each SSD? Have you tried a different SATA data and power cable connection with each SSD?

Sometimes an SSD connected to the SATA ports for the first time won't be detected on the first startup/boot after it is installed. It might take a restart or even two before the drive is detected.

[fullerms]

Re: Crucial C300 and M4 dont work together on Asrock Z68 Extreme4en3

So the M4 is only detected by itself on one of the SATA II ports, right?

For the M4, Intel = Only Sata 2 or Marvell Sata 3
For the C300 = Any port

Questions:

In the BIOS, Storage Configuration screen:

Are you using AHCI or RAID mode with the Intel SATA ports?

AHCI

If SATA Aggressive Link Power Management is enabled (it is by default I think), set it to disabled, as it can cause problems with some drives.

I always do that, and checked again. It is disabled

Most ASRock boards have a setting that appears if you click on a drive in the list of SATA ports, called SATA Device Type. Settings for this option are SSD and Hard Disk Drive(r) (typo in BIOS). Set this to SSD for SSDs of course.

Does not make any difference, I tried it before posting.

Is there any chance that one of the Intel SATA III ports is bad, or have you tried both SATA III ports with each SSD? Have you tried a different SATA data and power cable connection with each SSD?

Yes. Both ports, different cables. The HDD and ODDs work on the same ports / cables.

Sometimes an SSD connected to the SATA ports for the first time won't be detected on the first startup/boot after it is installed. It might take a restart or even two before the drive is detected.
Tried that too.