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Reboots and SATA drives not detected when AE-9 is in

martine-dee
Level 12
Hi folks,

I've got a Sound Blaster AE9 with X299-E. The card on its own works as expected, but it is causing quite a havoc if I have any SATA drives attached.

Symptoms

Two symptoms. The first one, there is a strange cycle of three reboots that is happening when I:

- Reseat the AE-9, or
- Attach any SSD drives to Sata Connectors

I've made a recording of the MOBO state indicator:
indicators while the reboots are happening:

So, it goes up to E7, then it drops back to 00. Then it rolls up to 9A, 88, drops to 00 and shuts down briefly. Then it starts again, rolls to b0, 80, 00... then 60, 61, 8A, 9A, 88, 00... shuts down briefly and starts again. Then again 00, ... A3, 88, b0, 88, AF, 88, 00, ... some time on bd, ... , some time on bC, ... some time on 22, ... some time on b2, ... some time on 9C, and then it travels a bit more to A0 (bios screen telling of inappropriate shut down.

The second symptom is that no SSD drives attached to SATA slots are visible.

Attempts to amend the situation

- I tried relocating the AE-9 to another PCIe slot. I've only got two slots where I can place it and neither works fine. The card's behavior is the same. The only drive that I can use (and am using now) is the M.2 NVME SSD.
- I tried different power and SATA connectors for the drives (no luck)
- I tried to run the card without PCIe power cable (and without the ACM unit that utilizes it)
- I've tried different PCIe power cables (which was unlikely to fix things, because the card works otherwise)
- I've summed up how much power is being used, just in case I don't have enough power. That is like:

* X299-E: 40 W
* RAM: 12 W
* i7-7820X: 140 W
* Dark Rock Pro 3: 30 W?
* GTX 1080 Ti Strix: 350 W
* HDD, 2x SSD, M2 SSD: say 20 W
* AE-9: 75 W

Total: 667 W
Supply: 1000 W

I don't think that this is lack of wattage.

Halp!

What is happening? What can I do? Thanks
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating
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4 REPLIES 4

martine-dee
Level 12
News:

- Using the P1 and P2 SATA connectors made two SSDs visible again.
- Reseating the AE-9 (e.g., to another PCIe slot) still causes a one-off triple to quadruple reboot on next start
- Most of the time, the BIOS is still non-responsive to boot sequence changes

I am still trying to stabilize boot to save my choices and to regain the SATA connectors.

---

I've had a closer look at the docs for my MOBO and the board itself. Found a few things:

1. AE-9 may be seizing some assets. I found this handy piece of information in the manual:

PCIe 3.0/2.0 x4 slot share with SATA_56 ports and SATA_78 ports
when use device in x4 mode. Adjust BIOS settings to use SATA
devices.


2. One ATX power connector was unplugged

The connector is the 4-pin EATX12V_2. It has been unplugged for years. Well, now I gave it some P8/P4 power. I plugged the P4 part of the cable in it. The other two ATX connectors were already plugged.

81757

3. The CPU was not on overclock setting

The CPU_OV, CPU Over Voltage Jumper was on the 'disable' setting. Well, I wanted to OC the CPU above 4.0 GHz, but attempts left me wondering why aren't there options. Here you go, I put it to 'enable' setting.

81758

4. System panel connector had speakers short-circuited with the ground, some items not entirely plugged.

It happens when there is a lack of space (and light). I don't think this was causing something notable. I corrected those.

81756
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating

G75rog
Level 10
Your manual also mentions not using the first Sata port when an M2 is installed.

G75rog wrote:
Your manual also mentions not using the first Sata port when an M2 is installed.


Thanks, I see it.

The M.2_1 socket shares SATA_1 port when use M.2 SATA mode device. Adjust BIOS settings to use a SATA device.


I am reluctant to mention that it doesn't sound like proper English to me. However, from what I make out of it, this refers to the M.2_1, while I am using only M.2_2. I could play with freeing up the P1, but this looks like it shan't make a difference.
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating

martine-dee
Level 12
Okay, by now I stabilized things. Sorta.

I am not reseating the sound card, only using the SATA connectors P1 and P2, and M.2_2. Things are stable for the time being: no more wild resets or such. The BIOS still forgets the boot sequence, but I have F7-F8 for that. I will keep the thread updated with what happens when I try to expand to P3, P4, and P5.

The card works in the following aspects... I can hear the sound through headphones or speakers. I can use a XLR phantom power mic. I tried plugging my S10 earphones into the headset sock and the impedance was just too great for practical use. On max boost I can hear my voice at moment come through the base noise. It is fine with the XLR mic, but that thing costed me additional whooping EUR 150+.
Keep exploring, keep innovating, keep creating