Scsi gurus

[Loop2kil]

I'm trying to add a scsi raid setup to my system and can't seem to get to the card's bios to setup the raid. The option to ctrl-m into the bios never appears..it just goes through and loads windows xp from my raptor.

here is what shows up in device manager... "PCI Memory Controller"

http://i240.photobucket.com/al...210/loop2kil/scs1i.jpg

my card is the Perc 3/dc

here is the link to card:
http://support.dell.com/suppor...ERC3sc/en/ug/index.htm

 

[MustISO]

That's strange I've never seen a PERC card not show up during post. Are you sure the card is installed correctly? Maybe there's something in the Mobo BIOS that needs to be enabled to allow booting from other devices.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Man, are you ever screwed . . .

I have no idea. Clearly the mobo boot config is not recognizing the controller bios. Could this be a termination or address issue? Could it be an IRQ conflict? Is there a way for you to build a boot/driver diskette to start the computer without launching into Windows?

I've seen the "PCI Memory Controller" , too. I think thjat is typical for some hardware when WIndows is confused.

 

[Loop2kil]

Originally posted by: heyheybooboo
Man, are you ever screwed . . .

I have no idea. Clearly the mobo boot config is not recognizing the controller bios. Could this be a termination or address issue? Could it be an IRQ conflict? Is there a way for you to build a boot/driver diskette to start the computer without launching into Windows?

I've seen the "PCI Memory Controller" , too. I think thjat is typical for some hardware when WIndows is confused.

I did try disabling my other hd's so it wouldn't jump right into windows and i got the no boot disk error.

 

[OdiN]

Have you tried putting it in the very first PCI slot? Sometimes cards prefer that slot - though this is going back a few years lol.

If you're seeing PCI Memory Controller, try loading the Intel INF or if AMD thier chipset software.

If that doesn't work - it may just be incompatible. Sometimes drive controllers in newer motherboards which have so many controllers packed in already will not show up due to limitations and conflicts.

 

[Loop2kil]

Originally posted by: OdiN
Have you tried putting it in the very first PCI slot? Sometimes cards prefer that slot - though this is going back a few years lol.

If you're seeing PCI Memory Controller, try loading the Intel INF or if AMD thier chipset software.

If that doesn't work - it may just be incompatible. Sometimes drive controllers in newer motherboards which have so many controllers packed in already will not show up due to limitations and conflicts.

I was kinda thinking it might be one of those 'Dell server only' raid cards....like there's something OEM about this type of card.

 

[Zepper]

You have to free up an area in upper memory for some cards' bioses in your BIOS setup screens. The card's docs should tell you what address the BIOS starts at and how much room it needs. Theoretically that should happen automatically, but when it doesn't, the card disappears... Maybe your card has a jumper to set it to manual BIOS addressing or Plug'N'Pray and to adjust the starting address in case there is a conflict.

.bh.

 

[Loop2kil]

Originally posted by: Zepper
You have to free up an area in upper memory for some cards' bioses in your BIOS setup screens. The card's docs should tell you what address the BIOS starts at and how much room it needs. Theoretically that should happen automatically, but when it doesn't, the card disappears... Maybe your card has a jumper to set it to manual BIOS addressing or Plug'N'Pray and to adjust the starting address in case there is a conflict.

.bh.

That makes a lot of sense too, because I remember going in under device manger in windows and adjusting the 'resources' for it to something that had no conflicts. Even though i fixed it under windows, it will still need to fixed somewhere else( the bios).

Let me look around and see what i can find.
Great post and thanks for the iDeer.

 

[Loop2kil]

http://support.dell.com/suppor...n/ug/chap4.htm#1052213

here's the section for my card(perc3/dc) with many jumpers listed...see something that could be the culprit?

 

[Zepper]

All I can see is that the BIOS needs to be enabled (pins unjumpered - kind of stupid as most would think to enable somethings you should put a jumper on the pins - c'est la vie... I guess it's PnP, so you don't get to set the upper memory start address, etc.

The rest is beyond my ken as my last SCSI host adapter was a simple LSI U-160 for a PCI slot. Maybe the top SCSI guy (Peter) will stop by and lend a hand.

.bh.

 

[heyheybooboo]

It's hard to tell what your problem is. You're clearly in a mixed SATA, IDE and SCSI environment. It may be the BIOS on the controller since it is 'bootable' and will load before Windows. Since you are not using a SCSI hard drive to boot the system this may be your first conflict.

Can you watch your config at boot? Are you getting a ""SCSI Boot Device Not Found""?

Maybe you have a termination/address ID problem. Terminate a channel you are not using if applicable with the jumpers. Disable the external/internal channels you are not using.

What kind of cable(s) are you using? If there is not a termination block on the cable you must set a termination jumper on the last physical device of each channel.

Have you set the IDs on all your devices? This is typically done with a combination of jumpers on each device. In the device documentaion there should be a schematic describing pin positions on the device for address IDs.

Each device should have its own individual ID. The controller must also have an individual ID different from all other devices. As an example, my controller is ID7, CDROM is ID3, my scanner defaults to ID2, my boot drive is ID0, cd burner ID4, data drives ID 5 & 6.

Any extra info you can provide would help a great deal.

 

[heyheybooboo]

And as opposed to above you may need to disable the BIOS on the controller if it is seeking a SCSI boot device . . .

Who Knows? You're Screwed!

(j/k)