Greetings Gents,

I do believe I have figured this issue out. After disconnecting my optical drive at 9:30am Eastern yesterday, the light was doing it's normal thing as of 4:30 this morning. I consulted my MB user manual and believe I have things in order.

This MB has 3 sets of SATA headers:
6 Intel - SATA1 thru SATA6 for RAID purposes. Using Intel drivers. I don't do RAID, but I do have my HDDs in SATA1 and 2.

2 Marvell - SATA_6G_1 and SATA_6G_2. Using Marvell drivers. I have an external connector connected on SATA_6G_1. Was connected to the next one...

1 JMicron - SATA_E1. Using JMicron drivers. I now have the optical drive connected here. I believe I had this on the Intel side before.

As of this writing, everything seems good to go. I'm thinking, however, that I should have my 2 HDDs on the Marvell connections. Would this be a reasonable assumption since both drives are 6G? Whew! Everything was much simpler with IDE/EIDE.

Normally just using the Intel headers, if you're not using their RAID capability, any ROM drive should be fine in either of the last 2 channels. ;-)

I know that they can be prone to causing problems in the 1st 4 when attached to them (most good mobo manuals will state the best position for ROM drives anyway.).

Cheers.

Normally just using the Intel headers, if you're not using their RAID capability, any ROM drive should be fine in either of the last 2 channels. ;-)

I know that they can be prone to causing problems in the 1st 4 when attached to them (most good mobo manuals will state the best position for ROM drives anyway.).

Cheers.

Interesting. I have always put my ODD on SATA1. With the boot drive on SATA0 & the RAID setup on the remaining SATA headers.

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Normally just using the Intel headers, if you're not using their RAID capability, any ROM drive should be fine in either of the last 2 channels. ;-)

I know that they can be prone to causing problems in the 1st 4 when attached to them (most good mobo manuals will state the best position for ROM drives anyway.).

Cheers.

Interesting. I have always put my ODD on SATA1. With the boot drive on SATA0 & the RAID setup on the remaining SATA headers.

I've had a few here built by the tech shops in both towns either side from me here that have exhibited funny problems just because of that. Mainly it's the more budget mobo's that have biggest problem with it and then there are more higher class mobo manuals that will state a connecting preference for the last 2 channels.

This is why, for several years now, that those that I build myself, the ROM on an Intel controller is always connected to either of the last 2 channels (1 of my 1st builds I did for someone else did this, I prefer to avoid those problems again). ;-)

It looks like I be building another 2 soon so I'll try with 1 back up the list and see what happens (but I will let that person know what I'm doing and the reason why), though I've never had to built a RAID setup before.

Cheers.

I've always connected my ODD's to the last ports on a controller, because every motherboard manual I've come across recommends that.

Friend of mine was getting system freezes and hangs and BSODs during the win7 installation a year or two ago. Fought with it for days, swapping out hardware, trying different RAM and CPUs and HDDs.. turns out.. ODD was on SATA_1. Moved it to SATA_5 and problem was solved.

Also as another note about having ODDs near/at the end of the ports.. in my external hotswap enclosure, it has a 1-to-5 eSATA port multiplier. It supports ODDs just fine, but if you connect an ODD to the first internal port.. none of the remaining channels will show up or be accessible.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

Greetings everyone,

It's been over 24 hours and the HDD/ODD light is still normal. I would say that the issue has been resolved. Woohoo! :)

Yes, I'm still going to upgrade the PC with a new MB and CPU and perhaps new RAM, there's just no urgency now. This will not happen really soon. It will take me a couple 3 months to do this. The actual upgrade won't take but maybe an hour, not including re-installing Win 7 and my apps. It's ordering the parts that will take time.


@Glenn savil: I checked with Task Manager before and after the issue with the light, meaning that after the light was working normal and then when I saw that the light changed to solid on, no flickering. There was no change in apps, processes or services concerning the resources. That was not the cause of the issue. It turns out that the way I had my SATA optical drive connected was. That issue is resolved. About legit or non-legit versions of Windows, I have not and never will use a hacked version of Windows, only legit.

@Wiggo: Thanks for the idea of using only the Intel headers. I will switch my 2 HDDs to the SATA1 and SATA2 connectors and the optical drive to the SATA6 connector.

@BilBg: TThrottle monitors the 860 continuously to regulate the temps, not me. I check CPU %ages occasionally because they tell me when it is time to clean my air intake filters. When TThrottle cuts back the %age to less than 100%, I clean the filters. Quote from Link:

If it really disturbs you, disconnect the LED and you won't see it anymore.

That statement was not for any test purposes.


So gents, I now consider this issue resolved. :) Thank you all for your input (not just the ones I mention in this post). ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Good to hear you resolved it .

I.D.E all ways had a primary and secondary port , master/slave you had to set

and i've all ways treated S.A.T.A the same 0 master 1 slave 2 mater so on blah blah

But now i know for shore you get prob's if you don't and optical drive all ways on last port's

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Greetings,

Well, 6 weeks of working just fine and then BAM! It happens again. Hard drive light continuously on without a flicker to indicate drive access. I ran my WD HDD diagnostics: drives passed. I looked in Task manager: nothing out of the ordinary. I ran MalwareBytes: PC came up clean. I decided to restart the PC...

Hmm, stuck during POST. Went into the BIOS (old fashioned version of it) and the 2 HDDs were detected on ports 1 and 2 (0 and 1) of the Intel controller. Port 6 (5), the last port, showed strange characters where the optical drive should have been detected. I shut down the PC...

This time I put the optical drive on port 1 of a different controller. Went into the BIOS and the optical drive was detected (not on an Intel port). Rebooted the PC...

Everything seems to be working ok, so far. Soon, within a couple months, I will have a new MB, CPU and perhaps faster RAM too. If this problem shows it's ugly head on the "new" PC, then I will start suspecting the Optical drive as having some sort of problem. I have seen none in it's normal operation burning DVDs or playing CDs (listened to Christmas music on my headset during the holidays). :)

This is really weird... Will stay in contact... :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Siran d'Vel'nahr

I'm wondering if you need special or a updated firmware for the optical drive could i ask you what the make , model , manufacturer are , you say the B.I.O.S has funny chr's at the end ?

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Due to most things being downloadable rather than buy on CD/DVD etc, and I don't watch movies. I have removed optical drive from PC case and use a USB connected device, only connected when needed.

[Thought bubble] I wonder if there are PC cases without CD, floppy or card reader slots, so I can fit fan blowing directly at CPU. [/thought bubble]

Siran d'Vel'nahr

I'm wondering if you need special or a updated firmware for the optical drive could i ask you what the make , model , manufacturer are , you say the B.I.O.S has funny chr's at the end ?

Greetings Glenn,

I just checked and the firmware is the most current. It's an ASUS DVD-RW DRW-24B1ST i SCSI (Small Computer System Interface, if I remember the acronym correctly) ;)

The funny characters were like foreign language characters with the little squiggles and stuff. They showed up on SATA port 6 of Intel SATA block. My 2 HDDs showed up on ports 1 and 2 of that block.

My DVD/CD burner just had a major coronary when I tried to erase my backup DVD to do a backup. Not sure if this is related to the connection or what. All I got was the drive and a CD in a blister pack. So no real installation information. :(

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Due to most things being downloadable rather than buy on CD/DVD etc, and I don't watch movies. I have removed optical drive from PC case and use a USB connected device, only connected when needed.

[- snip -]

Greetings WK,

I use the DVD-RW for doing monthly backups of certain data that I need to keep safe. Besides, you cannot install an OS without an optical drive. Not that I know of anyway... ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Besides, you cannot install an OS without an optical drive. Not that I know of anyway... ;)

Indeed you can. Installing Windows from bootable USB is far faster than using DVD-ROM. I can have Windows 7 installed and ready in under 10 minutes using USB 2.0.

Greetings,

A question for the Gurus:

Does the optical drive need to be on the same SATA block as the HDD(s) when doing a backup from the HDD(s) to a DVD? I'm not sure about this which is why I ask the dumb question... ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

Besides, you cannot install an OS without an optical drive. Not that I know of anyway... ;)

Indeed you can. Installing Windows from bootable USB is far faster than using DVD-ROM. I can have Windows 7 installed and ready in under 10 minutes using USB 2.0.

Greetings Oz,

I stand corrected and learned something in the process. Thanks! :)

Question: Is it a flash drive or some other USB device?

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

I just checked and the firmware is the most current. It's an ASUS DVD-RW DRW-24B1ST i SCSI (Small Computer System Interface, if I remember the acronym correctly) ;)

If it is SCSI, it shouldn't be SATA; they're two different standards. If it does say SCSI, perhaps it is not the same as the SCSI hard drive standard?

My DVD/CD burner just had a major coronary when I tried to erase my backup DVD to do a backup. Not sure if this is related to the connection or what. All I got was the drive and a CD in a blister pack. So no real installation information. :(

It maybe related, maybe not. RW discs have a limited number of times they can be re-used. I found that about 6 or 10 times is the most they can be erased and re-used before they simply quit recording data reliably.

If you've used up the write cycle lifetime of that disc, it may be time to replace it.

Besides, you cannot install an OS without an optical drive. Not that I know of anyway... ;)

Indeed you can. Installing Windows from bootable USB is far faster than using DVD-ROM. I can have Windows 7 installed and ready in under 10 minutes using USB 2.0.

Greetings Oz,

I stand corrected and learned something in the process. Thanks! :)

Question: Is it a flash drive or some other USB device?

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

Yes, it is a standard flash drive. I bought a 4GB (because that's all that's needed) and they're real cheap now, then I use the " Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool" provided by Microsoft to read the contents of a Windows 7 DVD ISO and put them onto the flash drive.

Does the optical drive need to be on the same SATA block as the HDD(s) when doing a backup from the HDD(s) to a DVD? I'm not sure about this which is why I ask the dumb question... ;))

Each SATA port should be its own connection, logically speaking. There is no such thing as SATA blocks, despite how you see them aligned on the motherboard itself.

Even if the SATA ports are on different controllers (e.g. Intel chipset controller for ports 1 and 2, Marvell SATA controller for ports 3 and 4), Windows will see them simply as mass storage devices, and they can all be used interchangeably for copying data.

So to answer your question directly - no, the optical drive does not need to be in any particular SATA port to perform backups of your hard drive(s).

I just checked and the firmware is the most current. It's an ASUS DVD-RW DRW-24B1ST i SCSI (Small Computer System Interface, if I remember the acronym correctly) ;)

If it is SCSI, it shouldn't be SATA; they're two different standards. If it does say SCSI, perhaps it is not the same as the SCSI hard drive standard?

My DVD/CD burner just had a major coronary when I tried to erase my backup DVD to do a backup. Not sure if this is related to the connection or what. All I got was the drive and a CD in a blister pack. So no real installation information. :(

It maybe related, maybe not. RW discs have a limited number of times they can be re-used. I found that about 6 or 10 times is the most they can be erased and re-used before they simply quit recording data reliably.

If you've used up the write cycle lifetime of that disc, it may be time to replace it.

Greetings Ozz,

Perhaps this makes a difference? The properties says "iSCSI CdRom Device" after the model number. I looked at the properties for my HDDs and they are stated as a "ATA device"

Here's something else upon looking in Device manager. I see this:

Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Chipset Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 3B26
Intel(R) 5 Series/3400 Chipset Family 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 3B20

Above that is: ATA Channel 0 (x2) and ATA Channel 1 (x2) (the x2 means there are 2 of each listed)
These are listed in the section: IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers

Hopefully this may shed a bit more light... ;)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath

I think it may be simply a misleading firmware property (happens when the same firmware is used across several models and they don't bother to adapt the properties specific to each model).

According to Asus, that drive is a standard SATA DVD+/-RW drive.

I think it may be simply a misleading firmware property (happens when the same firmware is used across several models and they don't bother to adapt the properties specific to each model).

According to Asus, that drive is a standard SATA DVD+/-RW drive.

Greetings Ozz,

That makes sense. When my PC boots there is a flash of info about my video. They spelled Gforce, Gfroce. lol :D

I shall retire my current disc and whip out a new one for my backups. Thanks for all the info Ozz. :)

Keep on BOINCing...! :)

P.S.: I used "block" to describe the "different" SATAs hoping it would have been understood. This motherboard has 3 SATA controllers on it. I believe my next board will only have one. I hope... ;)

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CAPT Siran d'Vel'nahr - L L & P _\\//
Winders 11 OS? "What a piece of junk!" - L. Skywalker
"Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos using reason as our guide." - T'Plana-hath