Very Odd SATA/Seagate/A7N8X Deluxe problem

[Speedy3D!]

For about a year now I've had this problem and have tried just about everything I can think of to fix it.

The problem lies with my computer's inability to restart (soft or hard). Whenever I try and restart windows, or even restart before windows starts my computer hangs after the initial BIOS post. It stops just before it starts windows again, almost like I have no disk installed. It just hangs at the part that says Updating VMI (DMI? can't remember) information...

Now, I have no problem whatsoever booting the system up after it has been powered down. So, for as long as I have had this problem I have simply been shutting down then turning back on my computer whenever I need to restart. Now, I have previously used this same setup with an IDE HDD and had no problems rebooting so my guess is that the problem lies with the SATA controller/MB/HDD, but which it is I'm not sure.

My system config is below:

Antec 430W Truepower
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe rev1.04 BIOS is v1004 Uber
AMD Athlon XP Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ w/default voltage
1GB (2x512) Corsair XMS PC3200 (6-3-3-2) in slots 1&3
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP8x
Seagate 7200.7 120GB SATA connected to onboard sata controller port #1
Pioneer dvd106 slot load dvd drive
Pioneer DVR-A06
Creative Audigy 2
Divico Fusion HDTVII

Now, I have tried just about every version of the A7N8X bios (and sata bios) up to the recent 1008 version with no luck. I have tried shuffling the boot prority around with no result either.

My best guess as to what is happening is that when I restart my HDD is not being shut down, or not being shut down properly causing it to hang just before windows should start to boot up.

This problem has been bugging me for quite some time and I was wondering if anybody had any additional ideas on how to fix it for me. I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

[OLtimrNewbie]

Hi Speedy; I feel in awe of a golden member that asks a great question. I usually see great answers from the golden members! I use pretty much the same configuration( the drives are smaller 80 Gb's) and haven't had any problems. BUT I believe it was on this site; the A7N8X thread that I read a similar problem. Has something to do with recovering from S3. Hibernation ???? There is a BIOS update that addressed S3. ASUS site says that the Bios rev 1001E 2002/12/23 fixed that problem; on the Rev 1.04 board; Maybe somehow it didn't get fixed on YOUR 1.04 board.