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Attn: SLIKKSTER, GA-8KNXP Help

C

chicsdiggit

Member
Hey Slikkster, it's the guy with the BIOS Flash problem. We left off needing to change the Optical drives around so they will work, since you said IDE 3 and 4 don't support optical devices. You suggested that I move my Plextor Plexwriter Premium and Toshiba SD-M1712 to IDE channel 1 or 2, in a master/slave relationship, with the Plexwriter as the master. I moved it to channel 1. The move required me to disconnect my mass storage 180 GXP deskstar hdd and connect it to IDE channel 3.

Previously, the setup was Plexwriter Premium and Toshiba SD-M1712 on IDE 3 and 4, while the 180 GXP was on IDE channel 1, and on channel 2 was the Sony DRU-510A.

The PC boots up just fine, but it no longer recognizes ANY one of my three drives (the two previously mentioned, and the Sony DRU-510A) and when I am in Windows, none of the optical drives will respond. The only indication I get that they are there is a LED light showing that the Plexwriter Premium has power. Whereas before, it would recognize the Toshiba and Sony DRU 510A in the IDE scan during boot, and in Windows, the Plexwriter Premium was able to read CD-R's, just not write them. I hope that is enough info to go on this, I appreciate the help.



EDIT: On the GA-8KNXP manual, it says:

* On-Board IDE 2 IDE controllers provieds IDE HDD/CD-ROM (IDE 1, 2) with PIO, Bus Master (Ultra DMA33/ATA66/ATA100 Operation Modes
* IDE3, 4 compatible with RAID, Ultra ATA133,/100, EIDE

End Manual

Now the Plexwriter Premium is EIDE(ATAPI), and the Sony DRU-510A and the Toshiba SD-M1712 are simply ATAPI. How am I supposed to set this up on this board? Thanks
 
I can only suggest you doublecheck how you have your jumpers set on the optical drives, and how you have the IDE cables connected. Something must be amiss there. They should definitely show at boot time.

Is there anything in the pc bios itself that has to do with what's on what IDE channel?

Did you set the GigaRaid bios for ATA and NOT raid?

Edit: Just saw this in the .pdf manual for the motherboard: Important Notice: Please connect first hard disk to IDE1 and connect CD-ROM to IDE2. The red stripe of the ribbon cable must be the same side with the Pin1.

Ok, this IS important. This is saying that they want you to put the Hard drive on IDE 1 (master) and limit your opticals to IDE 2. I have to keep looking to see if the GigaRaid will support atapi or not. I've seen mixed info on that.

Edit again: Ok, I'm not sure why they limit CDROMs to IDE2, unless they're really saying that if you have a hard drive on one, keep it by itself. There's no reason why CDROM-type devices shouldn't work on IDE1. But, hey, I didn't make the board.

So, do this. Try taking one of the DVD-writers out of the equation for this test. Leave the Plextor in the mix, though.
Also, keep the Toshiba drive on IDE3. But I want you to check the bios to make sure the Gigaraid settings are correct, so the Toshiba drive is seen as a normal ATA drive instead of in a Raid configuration. The Gigaraid controller is by default set to Raid. You need it set for ATA.

Go into the PC's bios settings. Open up the Integrated Peripherals section. About halfway down the page you'll see "Onboard H/W Gigaraid" (set this to Enabled) and right below that it will say"Gigaraid Function". Set this to ATA (not Raid).

So, you should have one optical on the Master position of IDE2, One in the Slave of IDE2 (make sure you check the jumpers on the backs of the drives to see that they are in the appropriate position for master or slave). One of those drives should be the Plextor.

The Toshiba should be on IDE3. Check the Gigaraid settings in the bios as mentioned above.

 
So you want me to connect the 180 GXP to IDE 1? I have three optical drives. Should I slave the Sony DRU 510A with the 180 GXP, and then do a master/slave with the Plexwriter Premium and the Toshiba DVD on IDE 2?
 
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I thought the Toshiba was the 180G hard drive. So, to be clear:

Put the 180G hard drive on IDE3, but make sure the Gigaraid settings mentioned in my previous post are set for Enabled and ATA.

Put two optical drives on IDE2. Make the Plextor the master on IDE2. For this test, make the Toshiba DVD the slave on IDE2. Remove the Sony writer for this test configuration.

Ensure that the jumper pins are correct on the opticals for this configuration (Plextor Master/Toshiba DVD Slave).
 
Ok, I put the 180GXP on IDE3, and the gigaraid is set to ATA. Also, I diconnected the Sony writer, and master and slaved the Plextor and Toshiba to IDE2. There is nothing connected to IDE1 and 4 now.

Now the IDE scan only shows under its four possible drives, under drive 0: IC35L180AVV207-1

I don't know if this is relevant, but under the BIOS and Integrated Perhipherals, one setting is:

On-Chip SATA Disabled - Disable SATA Controller (current setting)
Auto - When no device is plugged into IDE1 or 2, SATA controller will re-map to IDE controller
Manual
 
Ok, that drive in the bios, IC35L180AVV207-1, is the Hitachi Deskstar 180GB, so we're making progress.

Hang on while I check some other stuff.
 
Additional Info:

With the previous setup, all the optical drives were recognized in Windows, but the Plextor just failed to write. Additionally, when it did the IDE scan during boot, it only showed the Sony and the Toshiba, and not the Plextor nor the 180 GXP.

I am going to a meeting for about 3 hours starting in 1/2 hour.
 
Ok, the problem with this dang board is the various raid controllers. I think I see what's going on here. Look in your Integrated Peripherals section. About 12 items down is:

"Onboard H/W SATA" which defaults to "Enabled". Well, you're thinking, that's my Serial ATA. But this is the SATA that you're not using. You should be using the one near the top of the Integrated Peripherals that says "On-Chip SATA".
I'm guessing this is how yours is setup, anyway. Your "On-Chip SATA" is probably set for Manual, right?

The problem with the one labeled "Onboard H/W SATA" is that when it's enabled, the IDE controllers 1 and 2 are Disabled. That's according to the Integrated Peripherals screenshot on Page 47 of the manual.

1. So, let's do this. If you see that what I've written is true, that is to say that "Onboard H/W SATA" is set for Enabled, set it for "Disabled" instead. That should give you recognition of devices on the IDE controllers.

2. If this works, then go ahead and make the Sony DVD Writer a Master on IDE1.

Now, once everything is working (I'm dreaming here), see if it boots up correctly.

3. If it does, reflash the bios, AFTER making note of ALL the current settings (current when everything is working). Then, reset the newly flashed bios to the settings you tediously recorded.

 
Slikk, if I use the On-Chip SATA, then will my raptors still work properly through the SIlicon Image RAID controller? Right now, the On-Chip SATA is set to 'disabled'. You are saying that the H/W SATA 'enabled' makes IDE1 and 2 'disabled'? Just checking to see if I am on the same page.

EDIT: the On-Chip SATA was set for 'disabled'
 
Ok, I did switched the On-Chip SATA to 'auto', and the Onboard H/W SATA to 'disabled', and connected the Sony DVD Writer as Master on IDE1. What I got was the "NTLDR is missing" That clued me in on the fact that the time I tried to flash the BIOS, it said the same thing. I wonder if the On-Chip SATA is default set to 'auto', and it should be switched back to 'disabled', and the Onboard H/W was switched to 'disabled' when it should have been 'enabled'.
 
I have an idea. Should I just put the Sony DRU and the Toshiba on IDE2 in a Master/Slave relationship with the Sony as Master? Then I can hook up the Plextor to IDE 3, since those channels support EIDE, which is what the Plextor is. Finally, I can move the 180 GXP from IDE3 to IDE1. I would leave the settings in the BIOS, as is, with the Onboard H/W SATA 'enabled', and the On-Chip SATA set to 'disabled'. What do you think?
 
Leave all as is with new bios and change On-Chip SATA to Manual and "SATA Port 0 Configure as" to "SATA Port" and SATA Port 1 to SATA Port. Leave On-Board SATA to disabled for now.
 
OK, now that I did what your last post said, there is no IDE Scan during boot, and the drives are not recognized in Windows. The"SATA Port 0" option can only be configured as that, or "SATA Port 1" and "IDE Primary Master/Slave" and "IDE Secondary Master/Slave" I set the first one as SATA Port 0, and the second one down is defaulted to SATA Port 1.
 
Ok, good. Set them for IDE Primary Master/Slave and IDE Secondary Master/Slave and try again.
Right underneath that setting, set the SATA Raid Function to "Disabled". (again, to be clear, I'm referring to the "On-Chip SATA)

The problem with the manual is that it doesn't say which SATA controller is which in the Integrated Peripherals section.

So, do what I said above (IDE Primary Master/Slave and Secondary Master/Slave). If you get a NTLDR error, go back and set the Onboard H/W SATA to Enabled and the Serial ATA function (right below Onboard H/W SATA) to Raid.

This all assumes you are using the most current bios.

Edit: Ok, finally I found some info about which bios settings are for which controllers. Sheesh...you'd think Gigabyte would have spelled that out.

The Intel Raid controller (which you are NOT using) is the "On-Chip SATA". This should be set to manual and set to Primary Master/Slave and Secondary Master/Slave as outlined above. The SATA Raid function setting right below the "On-Chip SATA" should be disabled. This should map your IDE ports so the bios will find those optical drives.

The Silicon Raid controller is the "Onboard H/W SATA". This needs to be set to enabled, and the Serial ATA function set to Raid right below that. (I've read where on some newer bios revisions the "Serial ATA function" just below "Onboard H/W SATA" might not appear in the menu of choices. If so, just make sure Onboard H/W SATA is set to enabled.

You need to make sure that SATA appears in the boot order of your bios and is set to boot from that.
 
Slikkster, I have done all that. It boots just fine, but it still only recognizes the Hitachi Deskstar when it does the IDE scan. The Sony is on IDE1, and the Plextor and Toshiba are on IDE2 as Master/Slave. Finally, the Deskstar is on IDE3.
 
Chics,

I found some interesting info about this board that is counterintuitive to logic.
But first, you need to check and verify somethings.

You have a second pc to look at. You already looked to compare how things were wired. But I need you to go back to that other pc (the one the bios flash worked fine on) and take a look at how the SATA drives are hooked up.

If you recall, there are 4 SATA connectors; 2 for the Silicon Image Raid and 2 for the Intel Raid controller. On the drive we are troubleshooting, your SATA drives are attached to the Silicon Image controller.

I need you to look at the second pc, and see which controller (primary and secondary) the SATA drives are hooked up to.

Compare it to this one. They may be attached to the Intel controller on the machine that's working fine, vs. the Silicon controller. Please compare both and report back.
 
Can you look at the bios of the other machine and see what the settings are for all the pertinent stuff? Like what the On-Board SATA Chip settings are (and the settings below that entry) and the Onboard H/W SATA settings?

Compare them to what you have on this machine.

I'm assuming the bios revision is the same now for both.
 
the BIOS's are different, since the computer we are working on refuses to be flashed. I can't tell which BIOS is on the computer we are working on, since it does not call it "F9" or whatever in the BIOS.
 
Ok, let's get some things straight. You've been making these changes (bios settings) and you haven't tried to reflash the bios on this pc? I need to see what kind of error you will get, if any, if you have it setup the way I described, AND flash the bios to the latest version, or at least the F9 version.

You see, if it's setup correctly and then flashed, it may just work. So, to refresh your memory, try flashing the bios.
You never said the flashing itself wouldn't work; just that you would get that ntldr error, which is NOT a bios error.
It's simply XP saying it can't find the boot files.

So, flash the bios. Then, before trying to boot into Windows, make sure the bios settings are correct, as often times when bioses are flashed, you lose your previous settings and have to change them.

Make sure (again, do this before letting the pc try to boot all the way into windows after flashing) that the settings are as below:

The Intel Raid controller (which you are NOT using) is the "On-Chip SATA". This should be set to manual and set to Primary Master/Slave and Secondary Master/Slave as outlined above. The SATA Raid function setting right below the "On-Chip SATA" should be disabled. This should map your IDE ports so the bios will find those optical drives.

The Silicon Raid controller is the "Onboard H/W SATA". This needs to be set to enabled, and the Serial ATA function set to Raid right below that. (I've read where on some newer bios revisions the "Serial ATA function" just below "Onboard H/W SATA" might not appear in the menu of choices. If so, just make sure Onboard H/W SATA is set to enabled.

You need to make sure that SATA appears in the boot order of your bios and is set to boot from that.
 
Hey Slikkster, well I configured the Deskstar to IDE 1, and I did a master/slave for the Plextor/Toshiba respectively, and finally I moved the Sony DRU to IDE 3. The Plextor and the Toshiba finally work for burning, and I have yet to test the Sony.
 
Well, I'm not sure how you got to this config. Haven't seen you in awhile. Are you saying you couldn't get an IDE scan without putting the Deskstar on IDE1? Why did you move it there vs. leaving it on IDE 3?

At least the Plextor is working. Have you been able to flash the bios?
 
When I tried connecting it with the Deskstar on IDE3, and the Plextor and the Toshiba on IDE 1 and 2, it didn't recognize either for some reason. Finally, I just tried the current config and it worked. Since the Plextor is slaved with the toshiba, and I want to burn using those two drives, does burning take a performance hit because they are slaved on the same IDE drive? For now though, I am happy that they are all working. I didn't get around to flashing the BIOS yet, but soon I will do that. I'm betting it's like you said, I just need to make sure that the BIOS settings are correct.
 
Well, chics, at this stage, even though it doesn't really make sense, I say go with what works. But see if you can flash the bios again. You can always reflash back.
 
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