Screen blank after IRQ list, afer RAID mirror rebuild

[dez93]

Hi all. Completely lost, really appreciate any help.

[summary: after raid0 mirror rebuild, PC wont display anything after the IRQ allocation table screen at boot, when booting to either primary (the raid mirror) or win XP pro cd]

Background: SATA mirrored RAID 500gb, 2 seagate (i think) drives, running xp pro. Had the drives maybe....8 months? Tops. The mirror has been degrading and i've repaired it 3 times using the bios option, and it's been fine for a while after (a number of weeks with no problem). I've been meaning to do something about it but once the mirror's repaired, how can I diagnose the fault if there is one? Take one out each time and chkdsk? What if the problem's gone?

Anyway, so the mirror degraded again yesterday so I rebuilt, forgot to save when I exited, and rebooted. Watched some movies, did a load of other bits, all good. Powered off. This morning, RAID saying it's still degraded. I'm thinking maybe it isn't but it says it is cos i didn't save after the last rebuild the night before, but i rebuild anyway and save. It finishes and I save and it reboots and goes through the first few boot info screens, does the IRQ allocation list, then the screen goes blank, and everything seems to be on. A little burst of CPU churn then no more. initial guess: hard drives screwed (the sata raid mirror is the boot drive). restarted a few times, same thing happens.

Remedial measures attempted:
1. BIOS: load defaults. Result: something like NETCPL (definitely not the right name) missing. Figure it's related to the raid config which needed to be specially loaded with a slipstreamed xp pro sp3 disc. Screens still go blank.
2. BIOS: load optimised: NETCPL thing doesn't appear, screens blank.
3. BIOS: switch raid slave to primary boot. no change. switch it back.
4. BIOS: boot to CDROM. Stick the xp3 slipstream disc in there (w/ RAID drivers). does the same thing, irq list, blank screens. Second guess: either
a. RAID and/or HDDs and/or optical drive is dead, or
b. something else is wrong. video card works fine and hasn't had much to do recently, no intense gaming sessions or anything, and the boot screens display fine. I don't know enough to know what the computer runs after the IRQ list.

If anyone's got any diagnostic tips, questions, probing techniques, please please let me know. Thanks in advance - completely locked out of the system right now & it sucks.

 

[Swampster]

dez93

OK, presuming your RAID is plugged into ports 1 & 2, with the system off and unplugged, remove the power and the data cable from the drive attached to the higher numbered port and try the boot again.

This time, go into the BIOS settings and make sure it recognized the remaining HDD.

Presuming it does, then try to boot. It will fuss about a broken RAID, and just select whatever is necessary (based in displayed instructions) to acknowledge the message without attempting a repair.

If this doesn't at least get you past the POST, try the same thing with drive 1 unplugged and drive 2 connected.

Still no joy, unplug BOTH drives and see it it will then boot to the CD drive (presuming you still have this in the BIOS boot options).

The results will test first to see if one or both of the HDD's are defective, which will stop a POST, and then whether or not taking the RAID controller out of the sequence helps, which will also stop a POST.

Post your results, and we can go from there.

 

[dez93]

swampster, thanks for the comeback.
tried unplugging one the other then both. didn't ask about the broken mirror (i think that screen is usually next)m and with the booting to cd i got the error message:
NTLDR is missing. press ctrl alt del to restart.
I'll google that now but any background info very much appreciated.
cheers
dez

 

[dez93]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
possible reason 1: non bootable cd. tried original (non slipstream) win disc. didn't work.
possible reason 2: hdd improperly setup in BIOS. no tips on how to fix this given, and why would it prevent the cd boot from working?
possible reason 3: corrupt NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM file. Solution: load from winCD. Doh!
possible reason 4: misconfig with boot.ini file. solution: edit the file in root of windows. How can I get there?
possible reason 5: attempt to upgrade from FAT32: no.
possible reason 6: new hdd added: "Adding a new hard disk drive to a computer that already has Windows installed on it may cause the NTLDR error to occur". Might be the case if one's died and they both seem to be formatted. But how do I know which, since neither work on their own, when BOTH should work independently.
possible reason 7: corrupt boot sector / master boot record. Solution: fix with recovery console. On winCD. Doh!
possible reason 8: windows seriously corrupted. SolutionL: reinstall. from.............................................doh!
possible reason 9: loose or faulty IDE/EIDE cable. They're sata drives, the cables were in place and in perfect condition.
possiible reason 10: god hates me. solution: reinstall faith using winCD.

Additional info: inside case quite dusty. Cleaned it.

 

[dez93]

forgot to mention (/forgot completely): when it wouldn't go past the IRQ screen the first few times, I entered the BIOS and loaded fail-safe defaults - after this, I got the NTLDR error. I then loaded optimised defaults, and it went away. I wonder if this is to do with the RAID controller I loaded with the XP SP3 slipstream disc?
Even if it is, I still don't understand how I now can't use my optical drive.... continued assistance appreciated like crazy!

 

[Swampster]

Does it show up in your CMOS?

 

[dez93]

yep. master on IDE4. Nothing else on there - I've got 2 IDE drives attached via an ATA100 controller on the PCI port (since my mobo has no other IDE ports which reach)

 

[dez93]

anyone got any idea? i figure there must be something i can do in the BIOS to bring things back up, since I can't access any drives...