Solved Windows 8 very slow boot when raid controller is present

Dalexx

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My motherboard is an MSI P67a-GD65 (B3) with a Marvell SATA 6G controller on it. I use that controller to mirror a pair of 1TB drives.

When I go to install windows 8 (technet RTM\Final version) or even after I do install Windows 8, the inital boot screen will take about 3 1/2 minutes to load. I can see my USB keyboard go from power on to pwered off, then finally back on. Windows 8 will then continue the install or after the install, pop-up with a screen asking me which OS I want to boot.

So even after a full install, I load all the drivers, everytime I reboot the system I have to wait 3 1/2 minutes for it to even offer me the option screen of which OS to boot to. Just the windows symbol and the Circle dots rolling around.

I unplugged everything possible and disabled different intergrated components until I found out that it was the on-board raid controller that was causing the delay. With it disabled. Windows brings up the boot option instantly.

Just for a test, since I was dual booting and wonder if the Windows 7 boot sector was the problem, I took out the SSD drive and put in a standard SATA drive and performed a clean install. Same results, with the Marvel controller enabled, Windows will just sit and poll for 3 1/2 minutes every time it is booted.

I've upgraded the motherboard's bios to a bios thay was released July 26th 2012 (version 4.20). No change.

Any idea what it's polling for and why it's hanging ? Any possible BCDEDIT options to tell it not to poll ?

Thanks for any suggestions. I know I kinda skimmed alot of things you might want to know, Just trying to keep it short and concise.

Dale
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7-SP1 / Windows 8.1 pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI\Intel
    CPU
    I2600K
    Motherboard
    MSI P67a-65GD (B3)
    Memory
    8GB Gskill Ripsaw
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 780GTX - nVidia
    Sound Card
    SoundBlaster Z
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    PSU
    Antec 1200W
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech G19
    Mouse
    Logitech MX518
    Internet Speed
    30/3
    Antivirus
    Norton
I have used the Windows 7 driver for the Marvell controller, but in this case, the problem seems to be long before windows 8 even gets going. Once it's up and running, it worked fine without the driver if I had the controller set to IDE mode and only required the driver in AHCI mode. Either way, I've loaded all the newest drivers I could find.

I may be stuck with just waiting around until something is released, assuming they ever do.

Thanks for the reply.

** Update **

Well, after getting a few leads, I was able to find a firmware update for the Marvell 91xx controller from 2010. Though some of the other threads I found reported it killed their cards. I opted to go ahead and give it a spin. Only negative side effect I had was when windows 7 booted it, it still saw the controller, said it was re-loading the driver and then I couldn't see the drives any longer after the next boot. Fortunately I had made a recent ghost of the system, so I was able to restore. Windows 7 loaded up and didn't have a problem on the next boot.

Windows 8 now boots and loads normally. Yeah !

I'll include a link to the drivers\firmware I found. Most of the directions are in french on the webpage, but the actual firmware install is english. Just boot off a win98 disk and run the Go.bat file.
Marvell drivers
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7-SP1 / Windows 8.1 pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI\Intel
    CPU
    I2600K
    Motherboard
    MSI P67a-65GD (B3)
    Memory
    8GB Gskill Ripsaw
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 780GTX - nVidia
    Sound Card
    SoundBlaster Z
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Asus 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    PSU
    Antec 1200W
    Case
    Thermaltake
    Cooling
    air
    Keyboard
    Logitech G19
    Mouse
    Logitech MX518
    Internet Speed
    30/3
    Antivirus
    Norton
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