Asus BIOS fix for SATA data corruption

Hey guys,

Just got an email from Asus about the SATA data corruption issue on the A7N8X DX. Now this BIOS is for the rev 1.04 and 1.06 motherboards but there is also a new BIOS for the rev 2 boards that may coincide. here's the email excerpt that is relevant...


"An e-mail will be sent containing the latest beta BIOS from ASUS, which includes the requested Silicon Image fix that you mentioned. Please update your BIOS with this fix and let us know if you continue to have problems."


The BIOS is the Beta 1004.002 that is posted in the Asus Beta download area. There is also, I think, a corresponding 1005 Beta BIOS for the rev 2 boards. Don't hold me to it!

If you try this, run your OS on the IDE port and do some testing of the SATA RAID drives to be sure it actually works. I've installed the BIOS but haven't yet removed the .281 drivers and installed the .28 drivers to check. I'm a little nervous because I'm running on the SATA RAID only. Try at your own risk. I really hope this works for us all!

Yes, the BIOS fix from Asus does correct SATA data corruption. The BIOS is no longer beta and is a final release. The fix is incorporated into BIOS 1004 for rev 1.x boards and C1005 for Rev 2 boards.

For those using the patched and crippled SATA .281 drivers you'll need to roll back to .22 drivers or you can get the newer .28 drivers from Silicon Image The .281 drivers will not uninstall from within Windows, you'll need to boot into safe mode to update the drivers or they will not update.

Now I have a sweet 100 MB/s write speed and 112 MB/s read speed in Atto and 67.7 MB/s in Sandra (Sequential Read = 105 MB/s and Sequential Write= 91 MB/s). I tested for data corruption by doing things that I know caused errors 100% of the time before the fix and had no problems.