GA-EP45-UD3P rev1.6 for 3TB drives

[gto4ben]

If anyone is interested, I also updated the GA-EP45-UD3P rev 1.6 with the latest Realtek 8111C ROM. No noticeable improvement in performance or stability but appears to work fine.
ICH10R southbridge - v11.6.0.1702
8111C ethernet - rtegrom252.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
Gigabyte SLIC

If anyone is interested, I also updated the GA-EP45-UD3P rev 1.6 with the latest Intel OROM 12.0.0.1783. No noticeable improvement in performance or stability but appears to work fine. I'm testing it with RST 11.6.2.1002. If anyone is brave enough to try the new RST 11.7.1.1001 or the new RST beta 12.0.0.1083, let us know how that works out.
ICH10R southbridge - v12.0.0.1783
8111C ethernet - rtegrom252.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
Gigabyte SLIC

If anyone is interested, I also updated the above GA-EP45-UD3P rev 1.6 FE BIOS with the latest Intel OROM 12.5.0.1815. and I'm testing it with RST 12.5.0.1066. Also included in the new Realtek 8111C rtegrom 2.53. After one day of testing, boots and sleeps fine. No issues so far. I really like the RST 12 series. The performance tab makes it easy to review your cache and link power management settings
ICH10R southbridge - v12.5.0.1815
8111C ethernet - rtegrom253.lom

I've had this motherboard for a while in my HTPC and ran without a hitch. I've recently repurposed it for a server and have a 3TB drive...hence how I finally found this site a couple days ago.

Anyway...I've been trying to re-flash the BIOS with this latest build you posted, but it seems as if the flashing program isn't working at all. I followed the directions as posted here for the AWARD BIOS. Unfortunately, all I get is a screen with a flashing "Please Wait"...it just sits there. After 30+ min, if I reboot the machine, it boots with the original BIOS intact.

Is there an updated instruction set to flash this motherboard? Can I use the Gigabyte flash utility (FLASHSPI.EXE) instead with the posted file?

I've never had my bios flash hang on any of my GA-EP45-UD3P rev1.6 (three MB and countless flashes). That said, I've had an Intel MB bios flash hang like yours when the bios memory timings were set too aggressive. Simply enter the bios, load "Optimized Defaults", reboot and try using Q-FLASH again (the END key at boot). If your memory is marginal, "Fail-Safe" defaults may work for you. If your OS is running, Gigabyte has a "@BIOS Utility" that can update the bios within Windows. As a last resort, changing your RAM to a known good stick may solve this as the bios will be forced to re-detect the SPD of the new memory. This assumes the bios was not corrupted during download. You may want to download a fresh copy just in case.

I haven't had the need to use FLASHSPI.EXE but it should work with the above bios. You'll need to make a bootable USB drive, or a floppy drive with some with some version of DOS that can run this executable. Remember to set the Boot Menu drive order to have the USB stick or floppy drive to start first.

[gto4ben]

If anyone is interested, I also updated the above GA-EP45-UD3P rev 1.6 FE BIOS with the latest Intel OROM 12.6.0.1867. and I'm testing it with RST 12.6.0.1028. Also included is the new Realtek 8111C rtegrom 2.54. After one day of testing, boots fine. No issues so far. RST 12.6.0.1028 not only has Link power management but the added the ability to enable Dynamic Storage Accelerator. Although this feature was not intended for this board, it does not appear to hurt. I gained a small percentage improvement on my RAID0. As before, the performance tab makes it easy to review your cache and link power management settings.
ICH10R southbridge - v12.6.0.1867
8111C ethernet - rtegrom254.lom

[Engmus]

GTO4Ben,

Thanks for continuing to update this BIOS Set, im reworking my aging LGA775 one last time and im now using the bios you uploaded.

Thanks again.

Tony

[gto4ben]

For those interested in something bleeding edge but working:
ICH10R southbridge - v13.1.0.2030
8111C ethernet - rtegrom258.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E
Gigabyte SLIC

System booted up with the RST 12 series as well as the latest RST 13.0.0.1072 beta

[kcbaltz]

Sorry if this is a bit newbish. I've been building PCs for a long time, but haven't really messed with custom BIOS's before.

I have an EP45-UD3R. Will it work with the BIOS's provided here for the UD3P?

The reason I'm asking is I have a working system using RAID1 on the ICH10 and I'm trying to increase the disk size. I bought a pair of 3TB drives and I figured to do the upgrade by taking out one member of the array (600GB) and replace with 1 of the 3TB drives. However, at boot the POST shows the new drive as ~750GB and even if I put it in the array to repair the (now) degraded array, RST doesn't see it and complains that "Disk on port Unknown:missing". It does seem to see the drive and reports it as 2.7TB, but I can't repair the array with it.

I've upgraded my BIOS to GIGABYTE's F12, but it doesn't seem to have helped. I have the Intel controller set to RAID (not IDE or AHCI) and the internal IDE set to "IDE". I just tried upgrading the Intel driver to the version recommended on this thread (11.6.[censored]?) , but my system wouldn't boot afterwards (hung on the Windows start screen) and I had to restore a previous config to get things working again.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

[gto4ben]

Feel free to start a new thread and place your request there to avoid confusing the discussion across two different motherboards.
Your GA-EP45-UD3R has a 1.0 and a 1.1 motherboard revision and both have F12 bios updates. Please indicate which MB version you have and I'll update the appropriate latest option ROMs.

[kcbaltz]

Thanks. I would start a new one, but I actually think I've found the solution. I used the BIOS found on the TweakTown forum that matched my board and now the drive is recognized at full size and my RAID array is rebuilt.

http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/480...-bios.html

Next will be to replace the second drive so that both in the array are 3TB. Then, if all goes well, I can resize the partition to the full 3TB (2.7 ).

[calcman]

gto4ben: thanks for the bios images

I've got a GA-EP45-UD3P 1.6, I'm using a Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB as boot, and I've got 5 3TB drives, I tried your latest version of the bios but it only detected my drives in ATA mode, when I switched to RAID or AHCI it seemed like the drive detection step was just skipped.

I was running bios FB originally, but I need to support the 3TB drives. I've currently got Dansolo's image from 2011, FFb mod (http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Gi...ns-F10-FFb)
but since you've got the same board I thought you might have some ideas, so best practices to get it to work.

The only other weird problem I've been having is 1 of my 3TB freezes the boot time detection, though if it's hot plugged in after boot it works, or if it's attached through USB->SATA adapter (the 3tbs were originally in external enclosures), Barracuda XT drive. Any idea what could cause this?

Also, as general information, can someone explain the differences (more the functional/speed issues), of the ATA / RAID / AHCI settings? Is AHCI better then RAID (if I don't need the intel raid drivers?)

[gto4ben]

Dansolo's modification in the link you provided should have worked since its an FFb bios with a 10 series Intel OROM. Have you tried to set the bios to optimized defaults after the flash and then change the bios to use the Intel Raid? There may be some stale settings that need to be cleared.

My bios uses the FE version as the base since I don't have a SSD and I had problems with the FFb if an SSD was not used. The FFb version was created to be compatible with SSDs.

I'm attaching a modified FFb for your GA-EP45-UD3P rev1.6 with the following updates:

ICH10R southbridge - v13.1.0.2030
8111C ethernet - rtegrom258.lom
SATA2 chip - jmb362_C_1.07.28
AHCI-pchahci_1.20E

If it still doesn't work after a set to optimized defaults, I'll send you a version with the latest 12 series OROM. The 13 series is still considered beta but I've not had any troubles with it.

[calcman]

I installed that bios and things are working for me (I'm not sure if I misread what was happening earlier, but at least now I can see it working).

Any idea why switching a 3tb Seagate Barracuda from the ICH10R ports to the GSATA ports doesn't work? The drive can't be read.

Addendum: For the ICH controller, RAID mode works, but AHCI does not. When AHCI is selected the disk discovery just doesn't happen.