Tale of woe... Shuttle / ASUS

[Ampzilla]

Here's the system I'm trying to get running...

ASUS A7V333 mobo, BIOS 1011, w/o RAID, rev 1.02
256M Muskin PC2700, single stick
AMD Athlon XP 1800+, w/Thermaltake Volcano 5
New Antec 400W PS. SL-400W (dual fans)
WD Caviar 13.6 Gig HD master
WD Caviar 540M slave
Cyberdrive 48x MAX CD-ROM
Hercules 3D Prophet 2 MX (GeForce 2 MX) latest drivers
Enlight 7237 mid-tower case (replaced PS with the Antec)
Win 98SE

(old board = Shuttle AK31A Rev 3.1 w/256M stick of Crucial PC2100)

The original power supply in the Enlight smoked, so I replaced it with the Antec. When I got that back together the HD's would not be detected. Figured the mobo IDE channels were wiped, so bought the ASUS. Installed it last weekend and it booted straight into Windows. Didn't even go into safe mode! Ran the latest 4 in 1 drivers from VIA. All was well for 2 days. Was playing Unreal Tournament for about 15 minutes when the thing locked up. Hit the reset but never was able to get back to Windoze. I bought the Mushkin stick thinking that might be it, but no change.

Right now the system completes the POST (the little voice says so) but it hangs after detection of the hardware and assignment of IRQ's etc. Sometimes it hangs for a long time on the primary drive but eventually finds it, then it says 'disk boot failure'. I tried the drives in this PC (K6-2/450) and they boot/work just fine. I tried all the usual tricks including resetting the CMOS, playing with memory settings, UDMA settings etc.etc. I removed the board from the case & booted to a floppy into Win 98. When I tried FDISK it says 'no hard drives found'. To me this is a mobo problem, but it's so similar to the Shuttle 'failure' that it scares me into thinking I'm doing something basically wrong. Tried other IDE cables too. NADA

This is driving me (& my wife) nuts! Sorry this is so long, but thought you should have the history. Any suggestions
appreciated!!

 

[Technonut]

Strange stuff..... I would:

Install just the WD Caviar 13.6 (Make sure the jumpers are set as Master) On the Primary IDE port.
Install the Cyberdrive 48x set as Master on the Secondary IDE port.

I would then clear the CMOS, setup the BIOS, and boot from your Bootdisk. See if FDISK will work. If it does, FDISK and FORMAT the drive. Install 98SE. Once in 98SE I would install DirectX 8.1 first (should be on either your mobo CD or GeForce installation CD) and reboot. Then install only the latest VIA AGP driver and reboot.

EDIT: When in the BIOS, make sure that your IDE channels are set for Auto Detect and the drives showing up.

I would then shutdown and install the modem. When detected, load the drivers, reboot and run Windows Update. Install all critical updates. Reboot. Then install the GeForce drivers and reboot.

I did not see a sound card listed, so I assume that you are using onboard sound? I would now go to device manager and install the latest drivers. Reboot.

If all is well, shut down and Install your WD Caviar 540M. Personally, I usually only run mobos with onboard RAID to run all of my drives as Master on their own channel. In your case, I guess I would stick with Slaving the WD 540M off of the Primary IDE, and setting the CDROM as Master on the Secondary. If it gives you any trouble, just Slave the CDROM off of the Primary, and set the WD 540M as Master on the Secondary.

EDIT: If all else fails, download WD's Data Lifeguard utilty and run it. (You may even want to try that first. )

 

[Buz2b]

Good time to take things back to the "basics". First priority is to get that drive recognised by the boot disk so you can FDISK/Format that sucker. I know you said you tried different cables; do it again, even if you have to use the secondary IDE cable. Make sure you have the cable flipped the right way (red stripe towards the power plug). Also, try setting the drive to CS (Cable Select) instead of Master. Worth a shot. Also, unplug all other items except the floppy; no other HD or optical drive. Take out all PCI cards also. Just get down to the CPU/HSF, the video card, ONE stick of RAM, the floppy and HDD. Reset the CMOS with the ATX MB cable unplugged. If it is a regular jumper, leave it off for at least 5 minutes. Then replace jumper and ATX cable and try booting to the BIOS. Set the IDE to AUTO detect and then boot to the floppy. Cross your fingers and see if it will detect anything on FDISK. Then get back here and tell us of your sucess! (one must be optomistic!)

 

[Ampzilla]

Thanks a lot guys for the suggestions! I tried the WD Data Lifeguard tools. and below is what it told me.

============= Data Lifeguard BIOS Check Log File ========================

Int 13h Devices: 0
ATA Devices: 1
ATAPI Devices: 0

=========================================================================

IDE Drive 1: BIOS is not controlling this drive at all.

System BIOS is NOT controlling your drive(s) properly:


=========================================================================

I thought possibly a BIOS flash might help. It worked flawlessly, but didn't change anything. While I was
checking the board out visually etc, I put my finger on chip U33, just to the right of IDE ports, and couldn't
keep it on for more than 1/2 second. I think that means the temp is about 100'C on that IC. It's probably
the culprit! Bottm line - this things's going back tomorrow! I already have the RMA number. I see on
asusboards.com forums that this board has some reliability problems! Hope the next one's a goody. Wish
me luck and thanks again! :disgust: