Gigabyte 965P S3 ICH8 Sata2 Does Not Work

I have tested two of these boards (Computer World replaced the first no
questions asked,thanks guys) and cannot get the ICH8 Sata controllers to
work normally - period. Installed OS many times using all four ICH8 SATA
ports as boot or data drives or boot only with no stable set up - IDE, Disk
and Controller errors reported, PIO only, slow IO, system file corruption,
format failures, install OS failures, basically a total waste of space.
The onboard Gigabyte SATA2 (JMicron) however works 100% fine either as a
data or boot system drive or both I assume in AHCI or IDE mode (I have only
tested RAID 0). This would suggest that it is not my other hardware such as
RAM or CPU that is the cause. The problems begin as soon as I attach drives
to the southbridge SATA ports 0,1 and SATA ports 2,3. I have tested BIOS
versions 2, 4, 5, and 6.
System Config includes Geil 2 * 1GB PC2-6400 DDRII 800, Intel Core 2 Duo
E6400, New Coolermaster Case-PS, Pioneer DVR-111DBK, Geforce 6600GT or
Geforce 7100GS
Tested Intel Chipset driver versions including current 8.1.1.1010 and
8.1.0.1006. OS is Win XP SP2. Replaced/verified all SATA cables and
drives. I currently have another Core 2 Duo setup on GA-965P-DQ6(rev1.0)
which uses ICH8R southbridge no problem at all. Is the ICH8 implemention on
the GA-965P-S3 a complete failure? Has anyone got this working anywhere?
Because I am totally scratching my head over this one. I have read other
posts with same problem but yet to see any real solutions to what appears to
me to be insurmountable.

You could have a defective board(s), but there is nothing inherently
wrong with the design ... I'm running one that I'm typing this on, been
rock solid since September, and the drives are on the ICH8 port (not the
JMicron / Gigabyte port). However, the likelihood of two defective
boards is extremely small. The ICH8 chip is an Intel chip, not a
gigabyte chip, and virtually every Core 2 Duo motherboard has one of the
variants of ICH8.

You realize, I presume, that the ICH8 ports do NOT support RAID of any
type. Use the latest BIOS (but all of the BIOS' from 4 on have been
mostly ok).

[Actually, I should note that I have the 965P-DS3, not S3, but I think
that the only difference is that the DS3 has solid caps instead of
electrolytic.]


Chris Gillespie wrote:
> I have tested two of these boards (Computer World replaced the first no
> questions asked,thanks guys) and cannot get the ICH8 Sata controllers to
> work normally - period. Installed OS many times using all four ICH8 SATA
> ports as boot or data drives or boot only with no stable set up - IDE, Disk
> and Controller errors reported, PIO only, slow IO, system file corruption,
> format failures, install OS failures, basically a total waste of space.
> The onboard Gigabyte SATA2 (JMicron) however works 100% fine either as a
> data or boot system drive or both I assume in AHCI or IDE mode (I have only
> tested RAID 0). This would suggest that it is not my other hardware such as
> RAM or CPU that is the cause. The problems begin as soon as I attach drives
> to the southbridge SATA ports 0,1 and SATA ports 2,3. I have tested BIOS
> versions 2, 4, 5, and 6.
> System Config includes Geil 2 * 1GB PC2-6400 DDRII 800, Intel Core 2 Duo
> E6400, New Coolermaster Case-PS, Pioneer DVR-111DBK, Geforce 6600GT or
> Geforce 7100GS
> Tested Intel Chipset driver versions including current 8.1.1.1010 and
> 8.1.0.1006. OS is Win XP SP2. Replaced/verified all SATA cables and
> drives. I currently have another Core 2 Duo setup on GA-965P-DQ6(rev1.0)
> which uses ICH8R southbridge no problem at all. Is the ICH8 implemention on
> the GA-965P-S3 a complete failure? Has anyone got this working anywhere?
> Because I am totally scratching my head over this one. I have read other
> posts with same problem but yet to see any real solutions to what appears to
> me to be insurmountable.
>
>