SATA controllers on MSI Neo 2 Platinum question

[zibbledabbit]

I understand that if you want to overclock on the Neo2 Platinum mobo with a SATA drive, it is recommended to use SATA controllers 3&4. Since I am on a very steep learning curve in attempting to educate myself about all this stuff before even attempting to O/C, please be kind in answering this uninformed question. I have had my system up and running for a couple weeks (Athlon 64 3200 winchester, 1 Gb PC3200, single 250Gb Sata hdd, xfx 6600 gt) and successfully booting XP-home with the hdd on the #1 sata controller. Simply changing the sata cable to #3 controller (it is enabled in bios) will post fine, but will not boot into windows. What do I need to be doing? TIA for your help...

 

[Icepick]

Hi zibbledabbit. Go into BIOS. Navigate to Advanced Settings. Go to Hard Disk Boot Priority. Make sure the first drive in the list is the SATA hard drive.

 

[nealh]

what hdd is it? Maxtor DM10 250 gb with 16mg and NCQ have some issues with the Neo 2

I have 2 seagate 200gb ncq hdd on sata 3 & 4..these are locked for o/cing purposes

I disabled sata 1 & 2 in the bios and then you make sure sata 3 is enabled as well as sata dma. hook the sata cable to sata 3 port..if that fails try sata 4

 

[zibbledabbit]

Thanks icepik,

I did check that and bios does list the drive (the only hdd in my system) as first. I also checked to make sure that booting from the hdd was enabled and it is selected in 1st/2nd/3rd boot device (as 3rd, behind floppy and CD). I also used the (F11) boot menu during post messages and the hdd was selected. The only things I noticed during my attempts to get this to work while connected to SATA3 was that the drive light was lit constantly, and (unless it was my imagination) I could barely see a very faint "Windows" logo on my lcd display. I waited at least a minute to see if booting would progress (which it did not), but was worried I may be causing other problems.

Dennis

 

[zibbledabbit]

Hi nealh,

My hdd is the IBM/Hitachi Deskstar 7K250. I did as you suggested above without success. Turned off sata1&2, made sure sata3&4 enabled, enabled dma in bios for sata3&4, and then tried sata3 and sata4 individually as mobo connection. Same negative results; bios/post shows drive is recognized (although in different positions than when connected to sata1), but does not boot. HDD is shown as "third master ide?" when connected to sata1 and works properly.

A couple generic questions -
1) assuming this drive is in fact truely sata (I do use sata power and mobo connectors if that is any indication), why is it listed in bios as above (IDE)? The only IDE drive I have in the system is a NEC 3520 optical.

2) The sata/DMA was disabled in bios (by default?), so what does this do when enabled, and do I also need to enable a DMA setting in XP somehow for this drive? I know I have messed with these settings in Windows in older systems for IDE drives, but looking in device manager doesn't help.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

[nealh]

Some have reported that it is necessary to have RAID enabled to boot off there sata drives...

what bios are you using? make sure it is 1.3 or 1.4

Are there any jumpers on the drive??...if so make sure the drive is master....

also the neo 2 comes with 2 sata cables try switching to the other cable

nothing is overclocked correct???

 

[Jotho]

I performed the same process on my K8N Neo Plat (s754, but prob same idea):

1) With HDD still on SATA1, enable SATA1/2 and SATA3/4 in BIOS and boot to Windows to ensure SATA drivers/controllers are all installed.

2) Power down, switch HDD to SATA3.

3) Power up and enter BIOS. Disable SATA1/2, leaving 3/4 obviously enabled.

4) Boot to Windows, check device manager, and if all went well it seems that Windows never notices that anything was changed.


Hope that helps! It worked for me, and I'm happily running at 240HTT

 

[zibbledabbit]

nealh and Jotho,

Thanks for your replies, but still no joy. I'm using V1.4 bios with no overclocking. There are no jumpers on this drive to set, but it is always detected in bios as 3rd, 4th or 5th master, depending on which sata connector I have it plugged into on the mobo. I tried enabling RAID which resulted in a boot failure (insert a boot floppy) message. I did the sequence offered above by Jotho and got the same non-boot result as I was getting previously (I'm staring at a blank, dark screen following post messages). For giggles, I connected to sata2, which does work fine. Can I correctly assume that this problem is not a mobo (RMA) problem based on the correct detection of the hdd in bios whenever I change the sata connection point? I'm trying to avoid this headache, but I assume a re-install of XP with the drive connected to sata3 or 4 should work? As a longshot, would PIO (on Auto) or UDMA (disabled) settings relate at all to this issue, or should they be changed for some other reason? Thanks for your continuing assistance...

Dennis

 

[nealh]

Ok...when you installed windows did you hit F6 and install the raid drivers??? this can cause some problems

When I installed winxp pro with a slipstreamed SP2 I did not hit F6 and just installed winxp and everything was fine...

I would suggest a reinstall of winxp(hopefully it includes at least sp1)....install winxp and do not hit F6 and install using none of the nvidia raid drivers

 

[zibbledabbit]

nealh,

Yes, when I installed XPhome I did do the F6/raid driver thing (per a "read this first" instruction sheet from the supplier of the mobo). I've got an OEM XP SP2. So just to clarify, are you suggesting this install with SP2 should work ok, or does it need to be a slipstreamed install? Thanks...

Dennis

 

[nealh]

if you have an OEM XP Sp2 I will assume this has XP with SP2 (or are you saying you have an SP2 update disc?)

In either case, reinstall winxp with HDD on sata 3 with sata 1/2 off in bios...do not hit F6(since you will have no need for raid)...and just let XP install...I am pretty sure if at least SP1 is built in there should be no issues with SATA drives....if you have a XP OS with SP2 built in then everything will work without an issue

When I installed winxp pro w/sp2 slipstremaed I did not hit F6 when asked for raid drivers...I just ignored this and used setup to format(not a quick format but the longer one) and installed winxp pro

try this....

 

[zibbledabbit]

Thanks nealh,

I will give this a try. Thanks for all the help...

Dennis

 

[nealh]

LMK how it goes

 

[JonB]

Anybody had success with an optical drive running on the Promise ports? (either of the two SATA or the single PATA)

I've tried and so did a buddy, but it only seems to recognize HDDs. It doesn't recognize that anything is attached during POST and nothing once WinXP is running.

The small green "Serial ATA RAID and Serial ATA" book never actually says it won't, but it only refers to Hard Drives, never to CDs or DVDs.

 

[nealh]

I am confused..you can not get your optical drive to work on the Neo 2

What brand is it? BenQ oem drives that have firmware prior to M9 will have trouble with the nforce 3 ide drivers

FW M9, P9, T9, U9 are ok..in fact when I was flashing with L9 I could not get my computer to even boot with L9 firmware....took off optical and booted winxp and switched to ms ide drivers and no matter fw on the optical drive the system would boot ok

I have Benq 1620(oem IO magic) on ide 1 and Liteon dvdrom on ide 2

2 Seagate 200gb drives on sata 3 & 4 ...

The Seagate is on Nforce 3 2.6 driver, optical are on ms ide drivers

Also do not try to place an optical drive on the sata ports not sure they will work...also use SATA 3 & 4 and disable SATA 1 &2(as these are not locked if you are overclocking)

Hope this helps

 

[JonB]

All optical drives that I've tried (IDE or SATA) work fine on the upper connectors. Those are the VIA chipset connecters. I've Plextor, LiteOn, ASUS, MSI all working.

The bottom connectors are Promise 378 controlled. They don't seem to recognize anything other than Hard Drives (IDE or SATA).

I'm just wondering if anyone ever got an optical drive (CD or DVD) to be visible and accessible on the lower connectors (Promise).

 

[CalvinHobbes]

I have a NEO2 Plat. When I installed XP my two HD's were on SATA 1 and 2. When I read about the overclock issue, I simply moved the cables and everthing worked like it had before. I didn't change anything.

 

[nealh]

Originally posted by: JonB
All optical drives that I've tried (IDE or SATA) work fine on the upper connectors. Those are the VIA chipset connecters. I've Plextor, LiteOn, ASUS, MSI all working.

The bottom connectors are Promise 378 controlled. They don't seem to recognize anything other than Hard Drives (IDE or SATA).

I'm just wondering if anyone ever got an optical drive (CD or DVD) to be visible and accessible on the lower connectors (Promise).

Thats interesting I did not know the VIA sata ports would recognize and optical drive on sata

BTW do you have a native sata optical drive or are you using some type of adapter

 

[JonB]

Native Plextor. Works on VIA SATA, but not on Promise 378 SATA.

 

[nealh]

Interesting...

 

[chrome0011]

When you are setting up windows, when you 'press F6' and get to the install part, make sure you select the right driver for that controller. I use the promise controller for my Plextor 712 and a HD, the other for a RAID setup. The right driver for the promise is the Promise SATAII... something. Not the Promise Fasttrack.