EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

[rodius]

Hello,

I have just assmbled a new machine:

Gigabyte Ep45DS4 with BIOS F7
C2D 8400
2*2 gigs Corsair XMS DHX C4 (4-4-4-12 2.1v)
Wd Caviar Blue 640gigs SATA
Pioneer DVD RW 212 SATA
Sapphire Radeon HD4670 512megs DDR3

I set the SATA contoller in AHCI mode and installed XP using an nlited disk (added mass storage drivers).
The installation went fine but:
- the hd and the dvd were not detected as removable > no "safe hw remove" icon in the task bar
- the diagnostic led for IDE, SATA light at boot up: according to the manual, this means that there is a problem with the connected periferals but, while I may understand that there could be a problem on the SATA controller, I'm puzzled regarding the IDE port as there are no IDE devices attached
Does this mean I have a bad board?
I tested the HD with WD's diagnostic tools and it says that everithing is fine with the unit...
Any suggestion?

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

It is normal for those and or several LED's to light or not light up at boot time, if they remain on during windows operation that is when you have a issue.

You can use HotSwap
HotSwap!

Or a Microsoft app/program mentioned here for "Safely Remove Hardware" issue >>

HotSwap! work fine but I found another solution. This one can be used in a batch file to find drives and other devices or you can manually launch using a shorcut.

You can also use it to reboot. There are a bunch of other options.

DevCon is free and works on 32 and 64 bits. Download, extract and make a shortcut to DevCon using the rescan option. It will find any drives you have just turned on and log them into windows.

To call in a batch file, copy devcon.exe to C:\windows\system32 then use "DevCon rescan" in your batch file.

You can download from >>

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q311272

But I am not so sure either will work, I did try hotswap a while back but I was in RAID not AHCI so not sure if that matters or not

ICH9R/10R does support hotswap but the driver does not provide the icon for safety reasons I think, not sure. I know the Intel Matrix Storage manger is suppose to correct that but I have never seen it myself.

You can use the above mentioned apps or just uninstall the drive from device manager and then remove it and you will be fine, I have many times with ICH9R and ICH10R

[rodius]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

It is normal for those and or several LED's to light or not light up at boot time, if they remain on during windows operation that is when you have a issue.

That's very reassuring

You can use HotSwap
HotSwap!

Or a Microsoft app/program mentioned here for "Safely Remove Hardware" issue >>

You can download from >>
The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager

But I am not so sure either will work, I did try hotswap a while back but I was in RAID not AHCI so not sure if that matters or not

I will give them a try

ICH9R/10R does support hotswap but the driver does not provide the icon for safety reasons I think, not sure. I know the Intel Matrix Storage manger is suppose to correct that but I have never seen it myself.

Tried to run this from Gigabyte's drivers dvd but, since the controller is AHCI and not RAID, it says there the system does not have the requested resources

You can use the above mentioned apps or just uninstall the drive from device manager and then remove it and you will be fine, I have many times with ICH9R and ICH10R

Will try this as well.

Thank you for your prompt reply!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

Are you SURE you installed your OS as AHCI then? That supports AHCI and RAID

You want the latest always, not what is on a CD >>>
Download Search Results

Different host as the above link has been broken off and on today, so just in case >>

http://www.station-drivers.com/telechargement/intel/sata/intel_msm_8.8.0.1009(www.station-drivers.com.exe

Read me for install tips and how to verify if you are in AHCI Mode >>

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/17412/eng/readme.txt

You MUST also have the latest Chipset Drivers installed first >>>
Software License Agreement

[rodius]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

Are you SURE you installed your OS as AHCI then? That supports AHCI and RAID

In Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers I have Intel ICH10R AHCI so I assume is AHCI mode.
Anyway, I will download all the drivers and apps from Intel and re-run them.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

Ahh, ya that sounds like it is AHCI then for sure.

Just checking in with you, everything ok?

[rodius]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

Yeserday I chatted with an Intel rep and he said (providing a link on their website: ) that the chipset actually supports hot swap but it's up to the mobo manufacturer to enable it.
So, it seems that Gigabyte did not enabled it on this particular model

One more question: yesterday I installed some more stuff on the new machine and I noticed that the ram led (a green one) is always on.
Should I worry, or is it lit because of the out-of-specs memory (DDR2 6400 4-4-4-12 2.1v)?

Thank you for your help!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

Well it is enabled, the drivers just do not label things properly per Gigabyte boards I believe as many (Maybe All) do not show the icon

That memory is in spec. Do you mean the LED Just to the right of the ram at the top? If so that is the APCI system power light which indicates what Power State the CPU is in. The bottom Green one is S0 meaning the System is not in a suspended or power save state but is in full function mode (Working G0/S0/C0) >>>
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface: Information from Answers.com
Everything You Need to Know About the CPU C-States Power Saving Modes | Hardware Secrets

See page 22 of your manual for all the LED info, here is a shot of the LED's I believe you are suffering to >>



GIGABYTE - Support&Download - Motherboard - Manual - GA-EP45-DS4 (rev. 1.0)

[rodius]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

You are right: the green led is the ACPI one.
I needed to go veeeery close to the mobo to read the labels
Please forgive me, but there are so many light on this great board that sometime someone cold get confused

Thank you very much for you help!!!

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS4 and diagnostic leds

I thought that may be the one you had mentioned. Sounds like all is well then!

Post back anytime if you need more help with anything