MSI P6N-SLI RAID Problems

[rkoenn]

I installed this MB using my RAID 0 array of 2 Seagate SATA HDDs from an ECS nForce 570 motherboard. It took the drives fine booting from then and went through the hardware configuration changes and I had a fully and nicely functional system with the original RAID array from the ECS nForce 570 motherboard. I had to do some changes to get all the hardware working but after numerous reboots everything worked without a clean install. Then this morning I started up only to find it not booting. It does not recognize the RAID array and not only that, it will not let me into the RAID BIOS configuration utility, it seems to just skip it. I tried everything I know of, checked all the BIOS settings and no luck. It sees the 2 drives but will not go into the RAID setup menu during boot, does not even offer the option using the F10 key. I even attached 2 new SATA drives and still no RAID setup menu. I reset BIOS, reflashed BIOS, everything I can think of. If anyone has any idea what to try next please let me know. I could try loading windows again but can't even do that on the old drive, the new drives, et. al. Kind of desperate and not knowing what to do.

Since this problem began I purchased another board as MSI said it was probably faulty. However the new board has the same problem. I cannot get the system to recognize the RAID array and it will not let me enter the RAID BIOS setup, it goes from POST straight to the boot attempt. I even tried 2 new clean drives with the same results. MSI made some suggestions about BIOS setup that did not fix the problem. When I have RAID turned off the options for boot devices show the 2 SATA drives but with RAID enabled I only get FDD and DVD drive boot device options. I even slowed down the POST and still do not get the F10 RAID BIOS setup menu. Has anyone else setup RAID on this board? Is there possibly a BIOS setting I am missing, I don't think so and have setup up a few RAID arrays before with no problem like this. I am very suspicious that the BIOS has a problem or that it is firmware incompatible with the Seagate drives. Stumped and very frustrated and now with 2 boards that won't do RAID.

 

[rkoenn]

The problem is resolved. This afternoon I tried everything again, also changing the SATA cables and disconnecting the DVD drives. I also removed the sound card and flashed the new BIOS but the problem continued. Finally not knowing what else to do I removed one of the memory sticks, they are high performance Super Talent memory. I tried booting and again withe existing RAID array and the machine booted, it also showed the RAID BIOS setup prompt. Once I had verified it would boot twice I installed all the other devices and it continued to work. Finally I switched the memory modules and reinstalled both. It booted perfectly and after an evening out I returned and it booted perfectly again. So if anyone ever experiences such a problem keep this in your data base. I still don't understand why it wouldn't show the RAID setup and also that I did nothing prior to the first incident as far as hardware reconfiguration. I would have expected a memory quirk to be exhibited as a hard crash, blue screen, etc., not the disabling of RAID setup and functionality. And also the memory is performing perfectly now, possibly just a bad connection in the socket.

 

[Spanki]

Very strange. So, you ended up using the same memory, with the same (default?) timings, but just re-seated them and now everything's happy?

 

[rkoenn]

Exactly, I simply booted first by removing one, then switched it with the other one and finally put both in in dual channel mode and everything is fine. Leaving it off last night while in bed it came on perfectly this morning. I think my woes are over but it was definitely one of the weirdest problems I have ever run into.