sesiom Posted April 21, 2005 Posted April 21, 2005 I haven´t a single problem with my Diamondmax 10!. I bought the bulk version and I'm very happy with it . With dfi's floppy sata driver installed and NCQ enabled, I noticed that this monster is VERY fast indeed! see the performance of these maxtor babies @anand review: http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2396&p=14 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AthlonAlien Posted April 21, 2005 Posted April 21, 2005 BAD NEWS! :mad: :mad: :mad: --------------- Okay, here's the deal... with my new updated firmware... the drive works fine IF I set my boot order to Floppy, CD-ROM1, CD-ROM2, Hard Drive. However, when I set my first boot device to the Maxtor drive... the same old problem returns (lock-ups, restarts, undetectable drive, windows inconsistency errors, etc.). :confused: It seems like the drive is having trouble initializing and/or spinning up to speed, and while the system is checking the other boot devices, somehow the Maxtor is able to "catch up" and become "ready". I am furious at this... :mad: I called Maxtor back and they said they didn't have any other ideas and that they would do some checking and call me back. I asked about a replacement... they said 7 days... to me, that isn't good enough. Just the overall 'attitude' this time... it was very upsetting... like they didn't care. I agreed to "let them check" on the problem for 2 hours... If they don't respond with a PERFECT solution, I am shipping this drive back today and ordering a different brand. I may overnight it, so I can have it for the weekend. This is just totally unacceptable to me... The "techs" aren't as knowledgeable as I had originally thought. It seems as if ANY type of variable confuses them. I am just completely disgusted with the entire situation... 2 weeks fighting with a drive... that's ridiculous?! :sad: Here's the showstopper... Maxtor was wanting to swap my drive out for an EXACT replacement... they said it may possibly have an older firmware than I am using now?! :mad: That is the stupidest thing I have EVER heard... After I tried to explain it to them... that's when they finally said they would check the issue out and call me back?! -LaTeR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AthlonAlien Posted April 21, 2005 Posted April 21, 2005 Okay, I have calmed down a little bit now Maxtor just called me back... they escalated my issue to a Level 3 tech. They said they were sorry for my inconvenience and decided to give me an advanced RMA replacement. My new drive ships out tomorrow... here's the good part... they are giving me a free upgrade from my DiamondMax 10 6B300S0 to a new MaXLine III 7B300S0 :nod: According to them, that is their newest drive and it includes newer firmware... Hopefully the new drive will deliver the satisfaction the first one didn't... I'll post back and let you know... -LaTeR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raffin Posted April 21, 2005 Posted April 21, 2005 AA, Does the disappearing Maxtor drive issue still happen if you set the HD delay to 10 seconds in the DFI BIOS? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FutureDFI Posted April 21, 2005 Posted April 21, 2005 I had problems with my DM 10 and i made a thread for that few weeks ago. If it was a sticky may had prevent ppl byuing those drives. Also Maxtor as far as i know does not support NF4 not even NF3 for their diagnosis utilities. So if u have a problem, let say bad sectors, u have to test the drive on an Intel based platform wich is annoying. look at the link. http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...ht=aware+maxtor regards Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angry_Games Posted April 26, 2005 Posted April 26, 2005 bump for users...added this thread to the non-critical sticky also Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AthlonAlien Posted April 27, 2005 Posted April 27, 2005 raffin, Setting the HD Delay to 10 seconds in BIOS does nothing... the problem still persists. Also, after running the system a lot more this last week... I have seen the problem arise 3 times EVEN WHEN I AM BOOTING TO THE OTHER DEVICES FIRST. It happens A LOT more whenever I boot straight to the HD. Perhaps my hard drive is bad in some crazy way... Anyways, my new 7B300S0 should be here tomorrow... so I will let you know how it goes... -LaTeR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raffin Posted April 27, 2005 Posted April 27, 2005 Thanks AA. I tried flashing my Maxtors to the latest firmware using a DOS 6.20 boot disk, but the flash util couldn't detect them while connected to the onboard SATA contoller. I should have a SATA to IDE converter for the drives tomorrow and will attempt flashing through the onboard IDE. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe111 Posted April 29, 2005 Posted April 29, 2005 For those who may be interested, I'm running (2) Maxtor 250GB Maxline III drives on NV Raid 0, and am experiencing disk corruption problems as well. The 300's and the 250's are essentially the same except for size. Rgone referred me to this thread when I asked him about my drive corruption problems with the Maxtors. It sounds like a very similar scenario. Initial setup of my SLI-DR proved to be problematic and XP would not install without numerous BSOD's...It was finally accomplished with one stick of DRAM and loose timings. Subsequent testing of this configuration (with the original shipping bios) resulted in a number of corruption events requiring a reformat and reinstall. I flashed the bios...tried both 414-3 and 310p. Got both Dimms installed and running initially with 414-3 but experienced the corruption problems mentioned above. Flashed to 310p and things seem to be working better but I am afraid that really pushing the system will result in additional corrupttion issues. Currently I am able to run at 285x9.5 without the corruption problem (so far) but the board has more there. The limiting factor is definately either the drives or the controller....Benchmark tests will execute and complete when running from CD but lock up or cause a hard crash if attempted from the drive array or if the test requires disk I/O. I have contacted Maxtor by email and received the same response as "Alien"...due to the nature of the problem, call. I don't know if the firmware issues apply to the 7B series of disks (maxline III) but the constant reformatting and reinstalling of XP is getting old. I have used Maxtor for a number of years and own four other Maxtor drives - they are fast and dependable. Any contact with their technical staff I have had in the past has been swift and competent. I'm sure that they are becoming very aware of this problem as it doesn't seem to be occuring in disks of the other manufacturers. (It's not showing up in the forums or if it is, I just haven't found them) It may turn out that these drives just aren't up to the task at 300x9 or 290x9.5....I hope that's not the case. Performance should not be limited by disk drives. I will post again if the call to Maxtor reveals any definate fix or firmware update for these drives. Additionally, if anyone following this thread knows if or how it would be possible for the NV controller to unlock (or it's frequency to vary) I would be interested to know. I believe it is (or should be) locked at 100MHz and cannot be changed. Is this correct? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AthlonAlien Posted April 29, 2005 Posted April 29, 2005 Well, my 7B300S0 didn't show up yesterday... :confused: According to the tracking number, it won't be here until Monday!! :mad: Maxtor is REALLY upsetting me... Everytime I talk to them, I become more frustrated! It has gotten to the point where I told them not to E-Mail me anymore. They did again, and I have notified my ISP :nod: If the new HD has ANY issues at all, it wil be going back as well... and I will be washing my hands completely clean of Maxtor and switching over to another brand... I'll update again when (if) the new drive ever arrives... -LaTeR Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe111 Posted May 1, 2005 Posted May 1, 2005 Contacted Maxtor by phone from work but they couldn't pull up the information I had submitted on line in their website and I didn't have the serial numbers so they weren't willing to discuss much. The good news is the drives are behaving themselves now and I haven't had any corruption problems. It seems that there may be nothing wrong with the Maxline III drives, just a problem with the operator (me) and the multitude of settings on this DFI board. It appears that the drive problems were related to some of the settings I was attempting to use during testing....in some cases they were extreme, and as I have now learned not well balanced. The drives corrupting during a hard crash should have been an indication that the problem lied elsewhere. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groo21 Posted May 2, 2005 Posted May 2, 2005 Ok, I've been trying to assemble a stable system for about a week and I keep getting problems after windows reboots, it won't ever start again. I suspect the problem as a hard drive problem. I am running my memory below stock timings (3-3-2-5-2T) and have verified its stability with > 12hrs of memtest86. I can generally get windows to install, but inevitably during one of the many reboots required in an install the system hangs and will not come up anymore. I should note I'm using BIOS 310 for the SLI-DR and the latest NFORCE drivers as well with all stock settings. The last 2 variables for this are my motherboard and harddrive. Giving everyone else's experience, I suspect the Maxline III I'm using. My system specs should be in my sig Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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