Gee - more peculiarities - 8k5a2+ and 8kha

l333

Member
Sep 13, 2002
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I have an old 8kha - I recently purchased the 8k5a2+

I am used to the old 8kha and its failure to reboot or requiring a "push" to even cold boot on occasion - {no it's not the power supply - I have tried many and am using an Enermax 350} but I like the board and went ahead and bought the new one - the 8k5a but gee more weird things here as with the 8kha.

this unit has its own "peculiarities" -
1- if I allow the bios to do a memory check - it keeps saying "ok" but continues to recycle the memory check and will never complete the boot process.

2-this unit takes longer to reboot on a fresh XP install than the old 8kha -{yes quick boot is enabled} - reboot time is about 1 min 5 sec with virtually no programs in start menu. The old 8kha reboots in 50 secs and it loads a few small programs.

My memory is crucial 2100 - maxtor 7200 ata 100 hard drive.

I am not using Raid and don't intend to but could the long reboot time have something to do with "Raid capable??

Anyone else have same problems - symptoms?? Suggestions?

Thanks
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
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Do you see the Hishpoint bios? Make sure in the "Integrated Peripherals" menu, "Onboard PCI Device" menu section you change the Highpoint IDE RAID option from "Auto" to "Disabled". This should stop the HP bios fro mshowing up and decrease load time. I've never heard of the memory cycling thing...you sure your Crucial is OK?
 

l333

Member
Sep 13, 2002
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Insane - my thanks - your disable raid trick took 15 secs off my reboot time which was not a real inconvenience - just a "what is wrong" irritation

As to the memory - i assume it is good - as the bios check continually recycles it always says "ok" - in addition this memory check did this "looping on my first install before I overclocked my chip - I am now running my Athlon XP 1600 at 1900 {1.64} and everything is absolutely stable and cool - I did not increase voltage - so as the machice is running perfectly even overclocked and the memory test "looped" before I overclocked I am assuming my 2 - 256 Crucial 2100 sticks are good.

As to the highpoint raid drivers - I will eventually want to use my 2 extra ide slots for an extra hard drive or Dvd writer {obviously not as a Raid array}

My question is am I correct in assuming that to use the two extra IDE slots I will have to use the Raid drivers to access them even though I will not use Raid?

Thanks again to Insane for the quick and problem solving response!!
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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(I don't have this mobo.)

Do you have the short test or long test enabled? The long test will cycle through three times I believe, besides being longer.

I have an older mobo that cycles through the long memory test five times before it is satisfied. It takes several minutes.

It sounds odd for there to be a bug in the BIOS for this standard memory test which has been around for so long. Maybe this is one of the cases that resetting the CMOS will help. Or reflashing the BIOS.

 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
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My question is am I correct in assuming that to use the two extra IDE slots I will have to use the Raid drivers to access them even though I will not use Raid?

There should be an option in the BIOS to use onboard IDE controller (South Bridge) for those two extra IDEs. If you disable the highpoint RAID chip and keep everything else for IDE to AUTO/AUTO DETECT, you should be fine. Thank god for that too, if you aren't using RAID, that Highpoint Raid boot gets a little bit more annoying every time you see it....especially if you are installing new hardware/drivers/proggies. :-/

Chiz

 

l333

Member
Sep 13, 2002
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8K5A 2+

Well - I have only one problem left to solve - I did disable raid in bios as Insane suggested - that took off 15 second reboot time - but I would still like to be able to use all 4 of my IDE devices seperately - after removing the Raid setting nothing can be seen except IDE 0 and IDE 1 - as Chizow suggested I looked thru the bios - all my IDE are set to Auto - but I find nothing in the 8K5A bios to enable the Southbridge. So at the moment I am limited to IDE 0 and 1 - can I use IDE 2 and 3 without the Raid enabled and the drivers? Am I missing a bios setting?

Thanks to Insane 3d -

to KF {yes I was an idiot - I did not allow enough time for the bios to check my memory 3 times}

to Mem - that bootvis looks great - I shall try it.

and Chizow - you have me on the right track - I don't want to use Raid to use my 4 IDEs but can't find how to enble all in bios.
 

Lorne

Senior member
Feb 5, 2001
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The Raid bios checks itself problem now is that with updated raid bioses they dont allow for non HD drives to be used on them (This may not be for all Raid controllers)

What you may need to do Is put your HD's on the HP372 and your CD/R's on the main controller, Set the bios to boot the HP first and in the HP bios tell it what drive should boot.
As long as your not using it as a raid but as a ATA controller the drivers can be installed from within XP or 98x, If your intention is to run raid you will have to install the drivers durring the first few seconds of the XP install.
I have the 8KTA3+Pro, The older brother to yours and went through the same proccesses.
 

Insane3D

Elite Member
May 24, 2000
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Originally posted by: chizow

My question is am I correct in assuming that to use the two extra IDE slots I will have to use the Raid drivers to access them even though I will not use Raid?

There should be an option in the BIOS to use onboard IDE controller (South Bridge) for those two extra IDEs. If you disable the highpoint RAID chip and keep everything else for IDE to AUTO/AUTO DETECT, you should be fine. Thank god for that too, if you aren't using RAID, that Highpoint Raid boot gets a little bit more annoying every time you see it....especially if you are installing new hardware/drivers/proggies. :-/

Chiz

No, that's incorrect. The extra two IDE ports (red) are controlled by the Highpoint 372 chip, while the regular IDE ports (blue) are controlled by the 8235 Southbridge. You can not have the extra two IDE ports controlled by the Southbridge as well. You can use the Highpoint IDE ports for extra drives, in a non-RAID configuration, but you can't use ATAPI drives (DVD, CDRW, CDROM, etc) on them. If you decide to use the extra IDE ports, you will need to enable the Highpoint controller in the bios again, and your boot time will be extended by a little while the HP bios comes up and detects the HD's connected to it.

Unfortunately, this is always the case, whether you use a add-in ATA controller card or the integrated HP chip, they will all have their own bios and add a few extra seconds to the boot time.