Soltek K8AN2E-GR & HDD/OS problem. Help :(

[sn8ke]

Ok, I recently upgraded my computer with a new CPU, Motherboard and ram.

Athlon64 3000, Soltek K8AN2E-GR 250gb, 512mb Mushkin pc3200.

The hardware works fine. I had some power issues, but got a new Fortron PSU and it runs now. I haven't installed anything on this new computer yet. This problem arose at the initial Windows XP (sp2, but also tried sp1) installation.
I was using a spare 10gb IDE drive to install windows on (fresh format). After the windows setup that copies files (still in "DOS") and it reboots after "15 seconds". Afterward, I get an error "Missing operating system" and it hangs. I know about the MBR and tried that, but it didn't work. I also tried this on another spare 30gb drive and I got the same error. They were both set as master on the main IDE channel. CDRW is master on secondary IDE. This motherboard has onboard SATA Raid and Promise controller. Is this what's causing the problem? I don't want to use RAID, just regular IDE. I set the mobo jumper to disable raid, but got no results. I also tried different BIOS settings, same thing. Tried a different IDE cable as well. Any ideas on how to get XP up and running? I know the computer itself works fine, Knoppix linux distro works fine on it. I know that installs to the RAM, but still should prove the hardware is all working.

Any input is very appreciated. Thanks..

 

[Imyourzero]

I don't know if this will help you but I just set a system up using this mobo less than 24 hours ago and I was having a similar problem. When I built the system I put a 74 GB Raptor on SATA1 and a 200 GB Seagate jumpered as master on the primary IDE channel. I put the DVD burner and DVD-ROM on the secondary IDE channel. I disabled the Promise chip via the jumper and in the BIOS since I wasn't using any of its ports. Winows installed fine onto the Raptor but when I finally got to the desktop, my Seagate HD wasn't showing in "My Computer." Only the Raptor, the DVD-RW and the DVD-ROM. Upon further inspection, it also wasn't showing up when I first powered on the computer. As the computer would boot up, no devices were found on the primary IDE channel. I couldn't figure out why the Seagate wasn't showing up as a drive letter so out of pure curiosity I powered off the computer and reversed the channels (put the DVD-RW and DVD-ROM on the primary IDE channel and the Seagate on the secondary IDE channel). For some reason after that, everything works great. After booting back into windows, I can now see all my drives as they should be. Weird!

I haven't fooled around with the Promise controller yet; I'm just happy everything is working now. This system is incredibly fast. Maybe later when I have nothing to do I'll reverse the channels again and try to get everything working that way. I can't see why there would be any reason that the optical drives are seen on either channel but the Seagate is only seen on the secondary channel, and I'd like to try to make it work the other way because I know it should...

 

[krose]

That is really odd. I have 2 Raptors on the Nvidia SATA, A Western Digital 120 on Primary IDE Master, DVD ROM on Primary IDE Slave, DVD burner on Secondary IDE Master and ZIP drive on Secondary IDE Slave. I have the Promise disabled. All drives work fine. Which IDE drivers are you using? I had a problem with the Nvidia driver. it corrupted my ZIP discs and caused a hangup during shutdown of Windows (2000 Pro SP4). I changed to the default Windows IDE driver and all IDE devices are recognized and work fine, and the system shuts down properly now. Of course, that doesn't explain sn8ke's problem since he doesn't have the OS fully installed. Are the jumpers on the HDD correct for a lone master? For example, with Western Digital HHD's you must remove the jumper. Don't know about other brands.

 

[WT]

Major bummer for me was when I realized the third IDE port was not for additional optical drives, as I had hoped for, but was instead the Promise RAID setup. I hafta pull the case out of its cozy new desk and re-run IDE cables to go back to the Secondary IDE instead.
As Krose mentioned above, make sure you aren't using the Nvidia IDE drivers just to rule out corruption on the Seagate.

 

[Imyourzero]

I don't know about sn8ke but I am using the Microsoft IDE drivers. When I installed the nVidia unified driver for the mobo, I unchecked the nVidia IDE driver because I knew some people were having issues with it.

 

[sn8ke]

Hmm, what do you mean drivers? I basically put all the hardware together, cpu, fans, vid card, ram etc and attatched a hard drive and formatted and tried to install winxp. The last system I built myself was an athlon xp. The mobo was pretty basic, it had no raid or any other fancy features. Did I miss something? I never installed anything, besides when I tried to install xp.

I will try switching the IDE channels for the drives later tonight when I get home. I wanted to try to install the HDD on a friend's computer and try to load windows on it there, but I didn't have time.

The 10gb shows up as a slave drive in his computer. It has basic files in c:\windows. nothing else.
The 30gb drive when set as master on his computer boots into windows, but freezes shortly after detecting a ton of new hardware. The 30gb when installed in my athlon64 comp as master said "error loading operating system". I guess it detects it though? The drive was from a friend's AMD K7 (i think) 500mhz system. Maybe the hardware change was too big?

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: sn8ke
Hmm, what do you mean drivers? I basically put all the hardware together, cpu, fans, vid card, ram etc and attatched a hard drive and formatted and tried to install winxp. The last system I built myself was an athlon xp. The mobo was pretty basic, it had no raid or any other fancy features. Did I miss something? I never installed anything, besides when I tried to install xp.

The mobo should have come with a CD. After you installed the CPU and mobo and booted into Windows, you need to install the nVidia unified driver off of the CD (or download it from their website). I would not install the nVidia IDE drivers though; just use the ones provided by Microsoft...

 

[sn8ke]

Yeah, I know that. The problem is, I can't install windows...

It copies over the initial setup files, and when it reboots itself, I get that "missing operating system" error.

I am pretty much stumped on this one...

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: sn8ke
Yeah, I know that. The problem is, I can't install windows...

It copies over the initial setup files, and when it reboots itself, I get that "missing operating system" error.

I am pretty much stumped on this one...

D'oh, sorry...I see that now. Did you ever try switching the IDE channels? It solved my problem...every single one of my drives works now.

 

[sn8ke]

Nope, it didn't help unfortunately....

I just installed my previous master C: drive I had in my computer I just upgraded from. It has xp pro on it. It tried to boot into windows, but BSOD'd. I got as far as the "boot windows xp professional with bootscreen, boot windows xp professional" option (option is due to custom bootscreen mod). A second attempt gave me the screen that said "We apoligize for this inconvenience, but Windows could not boot successfully due to recent hardware or software changes. Options: Boot Windows in Safe mode, Boot windows normally" (not exact words of course..). I just shut down and didn't try to boot. I don't want to screw anything up on there.

I noticed that drive's jumper was set to Cable Select. I tried the other hard drives as cable select, but it didn't help. I tried to format and install windows onto the 10gb when it was cable select, but I got the same Missing Operating System error.

This is getting rediculous. Is it possible the motherboard is screwed?? I don't know what else to try.

 

[imported_Bucko]

This was new for me.
Hit the ESC key (right after the post beep) and select your drive to boot from. It will always check that drive first. Sometimes I also manually selected the drives in the bios screen by changing to auto and then doing the check drive.
I think this could have been posted in other thread,

 

[Imyourzero]

I would try installing Windows with as few drives as possible, just for the sake of simplicity, and then add the rest later after you (hopefully) get Windows installed.

First I'd try using only one IDE cable on the primary IDE channel and putting the 10 GB or 30 GB drive on the master connector (jumpered as master or CS) and put the CDRW on the slave connector (jumpered as slave or CS). See if you can format the drive and install Windows that way. Oh and make sure that both drives are being detected in the screen when you first boot up your PC.

If that doesn't work, try the same thing but with the IDE cable connected to the secondary IDE channel instead of the primary channel.

If THAT doesn't work, try installing Windows with the HD on the master connector of one IDE cable and the CDRW on the master connector of another IDE cable. Hook both IDE cables into the primary & secondary IDE ports on the mobo. See if both devices are detected as master devices. If that doesn't work, switch the channels so that the CDRW is on the primay and the HD is on the secondary.

All I can say is that what *should* have worked for me didn't work for some reason, so I had to mess around with the drive config until everything was recognized. I'd suggest the same thing to you if you haven't already tried all of the above.

Keep us posted!

 

[sn8ke]

All that is in the computer is the necessities: processor, ram, video card, cdrw, hard drive. I don't have anything PCI, and the video card is AGP. I will try what you suggested about using both cdrw and hdd on the same IDE. I emailed Soltek, below is the reply.

Dear customer:

Thank you for contacting Soltek.
We never met this kind of problem before. It seems something is wrong with HDD,
below is our suggestions.
1. Please run CLEAR.ROM to clear your HDD as attached.
2. Preparing a WinXP disc.
3. Please check if both HDD and CD-ROM are detected correctly on the POST
screen.
4. Please set "First Boot Device" to [CD-ROM] under Advanced BIOS Features
before installing WinXP.


He attatched the clear.com file, but my email blocked it. Anyone know where I can download it? A google search didn't come up with much.

 

[bumskee]

so what's the prob with these boards?? mine is playing up too.. I was dumped with BSOD so I turned off the promise raid controller off the bios, should I be using the jumper? even then still once in a while I get the BSOD.. it's driving me nuts. I can't install alcohol coz half way through the installation BSOD and it hangs..

ahhhh....driving me nuts....I guess I am not alone in having issues with them though..

 

[Imyourzero]

Originally posted by: bumskee
so what's the prob with these boards?? mine is playing up too.. I was dumped with BSOD so I turned off the promise raid controller off the bios, should I be using the jumper? even then still once in a while I get the BSOD.. it's driving me nuts. I can't install alcohol coz half way through the installation BSOD and it hangs..

Yes. If you're not using the Promise controller, you should disable it with the jumper and in the BIOS.

Mine is the shiznit after getting it set up correctly. EVERY board is going to have issues, and the issues with this board aren't nearly as common or serious as some other boards...cough*MSI*cough

 

[bumskee]

yeah I guess you are going to have issues always, but I been building xp systems and they have always been so smooth. I just uninstalled Nvidia IDE controller and tried but still BSOD. plus my wacom driver takes ages to load..used ot be faster..

maybe it's time to send an email to soltek and see what they say?

 

[sn8ke]

Hey again. Sorry, internet has been down for a couple of days, I couldn't reply.

It seems i've fixed the problem for now..
I started messing with boot sectors and the dos partition and then reinstalled XP again. This time after the reboot, it continued to setup XP. I got the idea because my 40GB master drive from my last system tried to boot into windows, while these 2 borrowed drives did not. I figured there was something wrong with the dos partitons or boot sectors on the drives. It seems to be running strong now. I installed the Soltek drivers, but I didn't install the nVidia IDE driver. Are there any tweaks or driver updates out for this board?

I'm having an annoying problem where my mouse trails off by itself sometimes. It's a optical Logitech Mouseman Wheel mouse. I've never had this problem before, so I guess it's either XP SP2 and driver problem, or the motherboard. I've tried USB and a USB>PS/2. It's not a major problem, but I'd like to sort it out.


Thanks for everyone's help, you really helped me narrow it down. Now the real test will be when I install my 40GB master and 160GB slave drives. I hope I don't have any problems.

 

[RedMullet]

ACK, i have the exact same problems as you had. cant get past the "missing operating system" when i boot. How do you change your boot sectors and dos partition? I allready disabled the promise in bios and the jumper. I know this is supposed to be a great mb, but its getting frustrating. on my 3rd day with this problem. any help is appreciated

 

[sn8ke]

Well, do the dos partition first. I'm pretty sure that's how I fixed mine. Load up a bootdisk, or if you're like me and don't even have a floppy drive installed, boot up with a bootable CD. I used Windows 98 to boot. I went into Windows (98) setup, then exited. It left me at the dos prompt with A:. Just switch to the cd drive by typing the drive letter, like D: and hitting enter. I then ran fdisk and deleted the partitions through there. I rebooted and tried to install XP again. I let XP format the drive before installing files. After that, it worked. No guarantess it will work for you, but I think it should.


By the way, doing this will destroy any data on the drive.