Help with MSI K7T Pro2A bootup is RIDICULOUSLY SLOW... is it RAID controller card? or did I mess up with the settings??

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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Whenever I boot up my computer, it literally sits there for a cool 10-15 seconds, before it jumps to the next screen that shows you the whole computer (in that box), then it says Verifying DMI something... and then the computer boots up...

It just sits there, after it has checked the RAM, and after it has initialized all the drives, it just sits... waiting... for a long time... Is there something I did wrong? I have a Abit HotRod 100 RAID controller running 2 IBM 45gb Deskstar's, a Iomega 12/10/32 In master IDE 1, a DVD-ROM in master IDe 2, and Zip 100 in slave IDE 2... Running 256Mb of RAM running 2-2-2 @ 133?, Cpu, 1ghz @ 1.25ghz...

Can anyone help me with this? it's quite annoying to sit there and wait for days...

Also, my CPU temps range from 30-45Celcius, or 90-110Farenheit(sp?) .. is that normal? please, any info would be apreciated
thanks
 

bluesky

Golden Member
Nov 13, 2000
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The temp looks normal, actually lower than mine, which not oced 1 gig.
Must be better a hs.:)
Maybe you oced bit too much? Why don't you lower the setting and see what happens.
 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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changed the ram back to 3-3-3, and still slow as heck... i dunno what's wrong... could there possibly be anything else? it seems as if it's trying to initialize something that's not there?

Could it be the RAID card?
 

slvrbullet

Member
Dec 15, 2000
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My Pro 2A has a wait in it as well. Mine comes after the Creative SOundblaster is intialized. IT is annoying, but I'm not sure what to do about it.
 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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Well, I don't have a sound card connected to my mobo, and am using the onboard audio... the only thing I could think of, is the network card? It's this incredibly LONG delay... I can't say how much it ANNOYS me... after it checks the RAM, and lists all the drives connected to the mobo, it STAYS THERE... for a GOOD 15 seconds... while 3 of the other Computers I finished building all w/ MSI k7Tpro2a, none of them have that problem except for me!

WTF?

what could it be? hm... time to start ripping stuff out.. the first thing to go, RAID.
 

clhill

Junior Member
Jan 1, 2001
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I have a long boot up delay that started after installing my network card. I tried it without the network card and it booted up quickly with no pause.
 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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Ok, now this is frustrating now... I took out the network card, still, the heavy long delay was there, then I took out the SCSI RAID controller, again, heavy delay... so, then I figure I would use a different video card, so I swapped out the AIW Radeon for a Gladiac... STILL delay.. I unoverclocked it, as well as put the memory speed ratings down to CAS 3-3-3 @ 100mhz... But, to my surprise, still nothing but a LONG delay... I even decided to unplug my CD-RW and DVD-ROM that was conneted to the motherboard... Nope.. NADA....

I then flashed my BIOS to the new v2.2, and now my multiplier settings are all messed up, but I figured out how to fix that... but, oh well... Im about ready to just live with it..

 

thebestMAX

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
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Mine WAS doing exactly the same thing but then I changed some BIOS settings and it now boots much faster. Settings I changed were in the Power profile. I also set my drives manually rather than letting the auto detect work.

I also have an IBM deskstar.

Does your zip 100 work? Cant get mine to.

Look at my computer in my sig. We are running almost identically except for the RAID. What OS are you using?
 

Davegod75

Diamond Member
Jun 27, 2000
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having your cdrom on the ata-100 controller will really slow down your boot time. Take it off. For that matter zip drives on the ata-100 controller also have problems. I'm sure it's your cd-rom slowing the boot though
 

thebestMAX

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
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Disconnected my rw-cd completely and removed drivers. Didnt speed up boot delays. Did same with zip100 and 3 1/2 floppy even. Save your time.

Problem DID begin after I installed my RW-CD over plain cd but running OK now.

Full boot w/o memory check is about 45 sec.

 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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My ZIP drive works fine on the ATA-100 controller... If we aren't supposed to have any CDROMS on the ATA-100 controller, where else could we have it? are both controllers ATA-100? or is it just the one with the blue sided connectors?

Oh, theBESTmax, I'm running a dualboot Win98SE and Win2000...

Well, I will try disconnecting the CD-ROMS and the Zip.. I don't think that'll work, but right now I'm desperate enough to just try anything...

Of the four motherboards I installed ALL at the same time, Only mine, is f*cked up... the only difference between the other 3 machines is that 1) I overclocked mine, 2) I have better and more memory, 3) I have a RAID card... 4) I don't have any HDs conneted to the onboard controllers, just CD-RW DVDRom, and IDE Zip... oh well... it has to be one of those things.. because I interchanged all the parts, and still... maybe I should just ClearCMOS and short my bios.. we'll see, I'll keep you guys posted

THANKS for the info

 

Nikepete

Senior member
Nov 21, 1999
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Have you checked your boot order in the BIOS ? Try to set the first boot with RAID setting (if it exists) or SCSI boot (the mobo see the Raid drives as SCSI).
 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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Ok,

I disconnected both cables going into the motherboard which means that both my CD-RW and my DVD-ROM are no longer conneted, the only thing is the FDD and the RAID Controller Card, Gladiac, Network Card, and that's about it... And still, there's a long delay or a pause in the boot screen.... It says "detecting IDE .... NONE" and just sits there.. I think I have enough time to write down the whole BIOS ID String on the bottom of the screen.... And that's LONG...

I wish that others had the same problem, but it only seems as if onlyh a few of us do...

i m about ready to give up.. if anyone has any other suggestions, please!!!!

thanks
 

turtle219

Senior member
Jan 28, 2000
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don't give up, i had the same problem and i narrowed it down to the onboard sound, so i reformated, disabled onboard sound in the bios, and didn't install the sound drivers and BAM! 10 second boot time to windows...
and setting devices u don't have as none helps (ie secondary slave has no device so change settings to none and none)
good luck
 

thebestMAX

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2000
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Just in case you missed it, Power management settings were the cause of my delay.
 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
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Sorry thebestmax for overlooking that, but I will try that.... What I don't quite understand, is if all 4 motherboards that I installed were left at default settings, then wouldn't all of them boot up the same? Or does it have something to do with the individual hardware that may or may not conflict with the power management settings?

I just want to rip out my CPU and install it into another one of these motherboards, but, I don't want to risk messing up my HSF and CPU.... those things were hard to put on, and I'm only guessing hard to take off...

im just gonna clear my CMOS... one more day, one more try, and then, i'm gonna rip the cpu out and swap it. :)

thanks folks,
 

scheck

Member
Dec 1, 2000
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i have this delay in bootup when my network card is enabled. at home i installed the nic but only used dialup to connect to the internet. after i formatted my pc to no avail i thought its probably the network card and it turned out it was causing the delay. however i have yet to try booting the pc with the network card enabled and connected to an internet connection and seeing if the delay still exists.

can anyone confirm this, try booting up their pc with a network card enabled but not connected to a network, and see if they also get a delay in bootup. if its still slow when the network card is hooked up to an inet connection ill be very pissed. except for this, the board has been fine. the delay seems trivial but is annoying as hell.
 

Rhialto

Junior Member
Dec 4, 2000
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I have a nearly identical config:
Radeon,
256 MB ram,
CDRW, 120 atapi super disk,
Promise66 raid controller with two drives striped,
Dual boot 98, 2000

I has always had an annoying (read REALLY annoying) delay on boot up right after it detects the devices on the onboard IDE channels.

I have had endless troubles with this motherboard. It started off oc'ing fine, but as time went on I have had to constantly back off the oc'ing. The promise card has caused me nothing but pain as well with this mainboard.

damn, starting to think about going back to intel. Never had a problem with mainboards for intel procs.
 

kw3i

Golden Member
Jan 18, 2001
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RDsport,the only raid controller you mentioned was the abit one, which is IDE, do you have another scsi raid card in that pc (im sure you dont im just checking). am i dum or did you just mistakenly say it was SCSI in your frustration?

 

RDSport323

Senior member
Mar 28, 2000
773
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76
Yeah, OOPS... I must've accidently said SCSI because Win2000 and win98 detect it as being a "SCSI Controller Card".. thanks for pointint that out...

but Rhialto, FINALLY someone has the SAME exact problem I DO!!! I'm not saying I'm happy for you, but I am glad someone knows what I am talking about... What could it be??? maybe the memory? I'd hate to just turning on and off the computer, to test each component... but if I have to, then I will... does that damage the computer? if you keep turning it on and off during POST?

thanks you guys, maybe I won't give up yet.