Help! This should not have happened!!

[SkyDiver]

Hi All,

I've got an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (Rev2) MB w/ an Antec NeoPower 480W PSU. I'm getting ready to build a Core2Duo system with SATA2 HDD's.

I know that I've got SATA on my current MB (but never used it), so I thought I would load up the new drive and see if I could ghost some data onto it.

I had to move a jumper to enable SATA. When I booted up, it recognized the drive, but appeared to be only for RAID. Since it looked like it would not work, I disconnected the drive, and removed the power cord that I had attached to the PSU specifically for this SATA HDD.

Now, when I re-start, I get no POST at all. Why in the world would this happen? It was just a hard drive (and enabling SATA on the MB).

Does anyone have a clue why I am not POSTing? The PSU should have had plenty of power for an extra HDD and I put it on its own cable. (modular PSU's are great!)

Thanks.

 

[Seekermeister]

It might help if you gave your specs. You mentioned moving a jumper to enable SATA, but said nothing about moving it back. I don't know anything about such a jumper, because SATA HDs have none. So I assume that this was something on your MB, but I'm not familiar with such a jumper.

 

[mechBgon]

Try clearing the CMOS.

1) unplug the computer from the wall outlet

2) remove the CMOS battery from its holder

3) move the CLRTC jumper to pins 2-3 for a little bit, then move it back

4) put the battery back in, plug in the system, and try it now.


If that doesn't help, check that your RAM and cards are still securely seated.

 

[SkyDiver]

Sorry about that.

There is a jumper on the motherboard to enable SATA. There is very little info in the manual about SATA other than how to enable it by moving the jumper.

I did disable it, but I misplaced it the first time I tried and left it enabled after taking the drive cables out. It is definitely disabled now, but no POST.

 

[Seekermeister]

I'm curious why that you said that this was only for raid? Most MB SATA controllers with operate either in raid or straight SATA.

 

[mechBgon]

It's a Silicon Image 3112, it's for RAID0 or RAID1. Real useful, eh?

 

[SkyDiver]

Well, when I fired it up, there was a long delay in the BIOS display, then it recognized the SATA drive and seemed to hang on the screen where it said to hit Ctrl-S to set up RAID.

I went in there and it saw my "0" drive, but no other drive. I exited without saving and nothing else happened. I can't remember if I re-booted it. I think I did, but it was hung at that point.

I know that there was a BIOS revision for the SATA controller that I never flashed because I didn't have any SATA drives and I don't like flashing unless I've got a good reason.

 

[SkyDiver]

mechBgon, I guess I should have investigated my hardware a little more thoroughly. You are right. Why put it on there if it is only for RAID? Answer: So we can market a RAID-enabled machine. (I'm in Marketing)

 

[Seekermeister]

You sound like a candidate for a SATA controller card.

 

[SkyDiver]

Update: As usual, it appears that my problems are related to user error. It turns out that at some point in the process, I moved the CLRTC jumper instead of the SATA jumper. Whenever I did this, I did not remove the CMOS battery. I hope I removed the power cord, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, it does POST, but I went into the BIOS and updated the date and time, then saved and exited. When I rebooted, it did not POST again. Did I fry something? What happens when you clear the CMOS w/o removing the battery?