3Ware Controller Initialization hangs

Question

I have a RAID array using a 3ware controller which has failed - (not simply degraded, but multiple drives failed, so the array needs to be discarded.)

I rebooted the computer to try and get into the 3ware BIOS Manager. However, when booting, the system says "Waiting for 3Ware Controller to Initialize...", and simply hangs forever.

I googled around looking for solutions, and found some sporadic anecdotes about similar situations. The consensus seems to be that... seriously, this can potentially be solved by removing the 3ware card, blowing on it, and reinserting it. (Apparently this solution was devised by Nintendo.)

Anyway, I actually tried that - I reseated the card and reinserted it. After rebooting, I still have the same problem - hanging forever.

Has anyone experienced this issue before? Is it likely the card itself is somehow damaged?

Solution

Don't know if that's going to help anyone but on my side this issue was resolved by booting offline. I have no idea what could be the relation between the NIC and the controller but it's the only cycle that worked.

Comments

[ganesh]

Does the card have a BBU? If it has one, try disconnecting that. (It was what broke on my 9750).

[Psycogeek]

Thought , the drives get scanned when the bios hits at init , the drives can get scanned again when you jump into the bios (Q is not quite clear if it only hangs when passing the cards bios) When drives on any systems HD controller are failing to react to the init, much of the software keeps waiting for the responce from them. We see this all the time when a OS will not respond or responds Very slowly. Remove the connection to the drives. If there is something wrong with one (or2) drives but nothing wrong with the card, removing the offending drive should get you in.

[pacoverflow]

Did you ever solve this problem? I just installed a new 3ware RAID card in my computer and it freezes on bootup right after printing out the 3ware controller message.

[Grey Wulf]

I tried what Psycogeek suggested, it seemed to work.