I have a late-model LSI 9201-16i that came with firmware Phase 19. I read somewhere in the (non-pdf) manual that 9.3 doesn't tolerate old firmware, so I updated it to the latest which is Phase 20. I created a pool just fine and all appeared good, until it didn't. Before long it was throwing a torrent of disk errors from all disks. I did get the Alert as advertised, but assumed later firmware is better. Wrong. It must be Phase 16. For those with similar travails, you'll need to roll back the LSI firmware. But you can't just "update" to older firmware, so you need to erase what's there first. Here's how:
1. Make a DOS boot stick; I used freeware named Rufus and FreeDOS. Add the following files to that stick: sas2flsh.exe, the Phase 16 *.bin firmware file, and the *.rom bios file. These files are on the LSI site; click the Archive link if needed to get back to Phase 16.
2. Make sure that no other LSI cards are installed except the one you're intending to roll back so that you don't inadvertently operate the wrong one. After booting the target system with that stick, erase nearly everything from the LSI HBA with:
sas2flsh -o -e 6
DO NOT REBOOT AT THIS POINT. You'll brick your card if you do as it won't have any program with which to talk to you.
Then load the new firmware and bios with:
sas2flsh -o -f [name of the firmware file which you should shorten to 8 characters.bin, in my case it's 9201-1~1.bin] -b [mptsas1.rom or whatever your bios file is]
3. You're done. Reboot into FreeNAS and move on to your next debacle.