2 yr. old Dell XPS 410, Dell Bios version 2.5.3 (their latest) 11/22/2007, SMBios 2.3, Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz, factory installed Raid 1 (2-250GB HD) originally with Vista 32-bit, now upgraded to Windows7 Home Premium. Have had 6 Raid 1 failures since April of '09, all with 'degraded or with drive failure'. Dell HD diagnosis on all occasions showed disks "passed." Also passing on 'chkdisk and SFC/scannow"diagnosis. All failures were on disk 1 except for one (disk 0). I started with Dell (Intel) Matrix console 7+, then moved to Intel site for 8.5 (had 2 failures) and then moved to their latest 8.9 and have had 2 more failures in 3 weeks. (Intel says this issue has been reported but that they are thus far unable to re-produce it). I have case numbers with Dell support and with Microsoft. Because of 2 different O/S's and 3-4 different Intel Matrix console updates/drivers, could this possibly be a bios/firmware issue ? After reading through all of this thread, I wonder if my issue may be somewhat different because of all of the previous versions of Matrix Console drivers that I have used and still had problems. Based on this thread, I have reverted to version 8.8 to see if my results are better. Any help and thoughts would surely be appreciated.
I also have experienced this problem. Using a SuperMicro X8STE i7 MB and 4 Seagate 500GB drives, Raid 5. Windows 2008 server, 64 bit. Using 8.9 Matrix Storage Manager, the second drive - Port 1, would degrade out of the volume after about 6 hours or so. We first replaced the drive (twice), took the drives out of the RAID Cage, then replaced the MB. Each time we would rebuild the raid - which takes about 24 hours. The second drive would alawys fall out of the RAID.
On a whim, we found these issues about V8.9 on the Intel site. We have since moved back to 8.8 and the raid is holding steady at the moment.
Intel - I suggest that you remove your faulty software from the download pages. You are causing harm to your customers, integrators distributors and other manufacturers who are all links in the supply chain and depend upon a reliable raid controller driver. You have cost us a couple of thousand dollars in time, shipping, RMAs, etc.
Can an admin please sticky this to the first page:
The Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.9 has been replaced by:
Intel Rapid Storage Technology and the current version is 9.6.
It is not easy to find that the name of the software has changed, so there are still likely people out there that are having this issue and are blaming hardware.
I spent three hours searching the web to find out that it was just a software name change and that there was a newer version then 8.9, which was causing a lot of false positive drive failures.
Thanks.
Here is how to correct and save your data at same time.
1) If you have drives that are marked failed, simply mark them them as normal.
2) Uninstall the Intel Matrix Storage Manager from control panel
3) Reboot, (bios should show good RAID SET) let Windows perform the disk check and allow to complete
4) Boot into windows
5) Download the 8.8.1009 drivers http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17412&ProdId=3154&lang=eng
6) Install the drivers, reboot.
7) Make sure to mark the 8.9.0.1023 drivers to ignore in Windows update, or you will be back to square one.
Intel (India) Engineers have no clue to the problem and are following the ignore and hope it will go away ISO 9001 procedure.
Here is how to correct and save your data at same time.
1) If you have drives that are marked failed, simply mark them them as normal.
2) Uninstall the Intel Matrix Storage Manager from control panel
3) Reboot, (bios should show good RAID SET) let Windows perform the disk check and allow to complete
4) Boot into windows
5) Download the 8.8.1009 drivers http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17412&ProdId=3154&lang=eng
6) Install the drivers, reboot.
7) Make sure to mark the 8.9.0.1023 drivers to ignore in Windows update, or you will be back to square one.
Intel (India) Engineers have no clue to the problem and are following the ignore and hope it will go away ISO 9001 procedure.
Your do know this problem got fixed in Rapid Storage Technology that replaces Intel Matrix Storage Manager?
Revereted back to 8.8 in October 2009 and have NOT had one problem since doing so. This was the anser for me and I am NOT going to update to 'newer drivers.For me, thre is no need t do so.
Will uninstalling and reinstalling 8.8 work on a Win 7 Pro 64-bit system? Do I have to wait until I get a failed drive to do this or just uninstall/reboot/reinstall?
