Z170 Extreme4, m.2, etc. troubles

Replying to netjrb:

Yes I have had RAID enabled the first time I installed a 950 Pro in my Z170 EX7+, as the Win 10 drive. I've never had any problems using a 950 Pro on our board. That was IRST 14.5, which BTW has been removed from Intel's downloads.

I've used 14.8 a month ago, and very recently I abandon RAID mode for AHCI, which is only used by a Samsung AHCI SM951. Otherwise I have a 950 Pro and Intel 750 in this PC currently.

Recently I bought another 950 Pro to try them in RAID 0 as the OS drive. That worked out fine too, I never had the problems you have with the "hang" or system freezing I assume (IRST 14.8, with the 2.10 UEFI version installed, that has, "Update RAID ROM and EFI driver".

I always install Windows with CSM Disabled, even with SATA SSDs. I want to use the EFI boot loader and fully use the UEFI firmware our boards have, rather than run it in emulated BIOS/Legacy mode, which happens when CSM is Enabled.

Whatever CSM setting(s) you used when you install Windows determine how it operates. I know you had to at least set Launch Storage OpROM policy to UEFI only. What happened when you set CSM to disabled?

I installed the Samsung NVMe driver, which results in an entry under Storage Controllers in Device Manager. That means that the Intel IRST driver is not controlling the 950. The version 14 IRST software can control NVMe PCIe SSDs, but RAID must be enabled, and two or three 950 Pro's are in a RAID array. If you have the IRST Windows driver package installed, with the IRST Windows UI, you won't see the 950 Pro listed as a recognized drive for use in a RAID array, unless two or more are in the PC.

When you create a RAID array out of 950 Pros, the Samsung NVMe driver cannot see the SSDs, and won't install. That is trying the driver installation after the Win 10 installation. The Magician software can't handle RAID anyway, and only partially recognized the RAID 0 array of 950s. Pretty much like it does not completely recognize SM951s.b The IRST driver completely controls these SSDs when in a RAID array. I did not try installing the extracted files from the Samsung NVMe driver during the Load Driver phase of a Custom Install.

How did you install the Samsung NVMe driver?

The RST PCIe Remapping option should only be enabled if you want to create and use a RAID array of PCIe SSDs. I never see those options appear in RAID mode until I have more than one 950 Pro connected to the board. Are you saying you see the Remapping option with one 950 Pro installed, and using RAID mode? I don't recall that happening.

What version of IRST are you using. Please be more specific than just 14. There is 14.0..., 14.5..., 14.6..., 14.7... (never released officially), and 14.8....

Did you check the Windows logs for any clues about your freezing/hang issue?

Wow, your 850 Pro works Ok on the ASMedia SATA ports?   I have all kinds of strange stuff happening with an 840 Pro on an ASMedia SATA port. Win 10 manual TRIM will not complete, that semi-hangs the TRIM function, I must kill the process in Task Manager. AS SSD will not run on my 840 Pro when using an ASMedia SATA port, it just fails immediately. I tried running the TRIMcheck program on the 840 Pro, the program never finishes the first step. Two strikes against TRIM with a SSD on the ASMedia ports, does that mean no TRIM support by ASMedia? What driver are you using for the ASMedia chips?

Which reminds me, the IRST driver, since version 11.6 I think it is, has had strange compatibility problems with the ASMedia chipset, and/or driver. I don't want to go into details here, but a simple thing to try is putting your 850 Pro on an Intel SATA port, since IMO that might be causing your issues.

What is it that makes you think RAID mode and the 950 Pro might cause your issues?

Hi,

I use Aida64 for that information, additionally CrystalMark and ASS SSD benchmark both show transfer speeds that support the fact that only pcie 2.0 x4 is used, i.e. R: ~750M W:~750M.

Yes, I have connected the "normal" SSD drives to ports that are not shared with the M.2.

• "With CSM set to Disabled, the three CSM options we see when CSM is Enabled are all set to UEFI Only, or should be. ASRock has has the CSM option work this way since my Z77 Extreme4 board's UEFI. In theory there could be a bug in any board's UEFI, but I've never seen it with any of my ASRock boards."

Ok, easiest way to reproduce it on my board is to set the "Video OpROM Policy" to legacy only and then disabling CSM. Then it can be observed that during boot up the visual appearance of the load screens (not windows but Asus's) differs from the uefi only setting being active under CSM before disabling the CSM. Thus, I would reason the setting does not default to uefi only when CSM is disabled.

Agreed, I too have observed and read about the poor performance of Windows default driver, thus I use the Samsung NVMe driver.

• "CSM cannot be Disabled if you installed Windows with CSM Enabled and the other options left on Legacy. That is just a reality."

Yes, I figured that those are not changeable after install. I am installing with CSM enabled and all policies set to Uefi Only (this works ok in 2.40 but other bioses are unstable).

• "The only advice I can give you about the freezing UEFI is if you are setting the BCLK to anything but AUTO, that seems to cause the freezing, at least with some versions of my Z170 board."

Thanks for the tip, I use (and have used) AUTO for it.

Clear CMOS

Load Default settings (boot)

set XMP memory profile (3200MHz, 16-16-16-36-2N)

set serial port to disabled

set fan-tastic profile to custom (lower rpms) (note. system runs very cool, no overheat possibility)

set sata mode to RAID

change SSDs to solid state (as opposed to default hdd mode)

set M2_1/SATA3_0_1, SATA_EXP0 Switch to force M2_1 or leave it to AUTO

set CSM OPROM policies to Uefi Only, leave CSM enabled

set fast boot active (or leave disabled, either works)

Hi,