Help with BIOS (?)

17 Mar 2005 6:19 PM

pgx

I am working long-distance on a machine I built.

ABit AN7
AMD +2600
Seagate 80G SATA
WD 160G PATA
Win2K

Computer originally built with just the SATA drive as boot. The 160G
drive was added later (by someone else) but the machine booted
correctly from the SATA.

Last time I was there, I disabled the second IDE controller in the
BIOS (with the 160G drive) to try to isolate intermittant freeze.

Today, I walked the user through enabling the controller, and when the
machine tried to boot, it complained about a missing OS, obviously
trying to boot from the PATA which has as no OS.

Disabled the PATA again and it booted normally. I spent some time
with the user trying to find the correct way to have both drives but
to boot from the SATA. We could not find the correct combination.
The boot options do not include SCSI (which is what my machine is set
to), and the various options the user reads me don't ring a bell.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Phil

17 Mar 2005 6:37 PM

kony

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 18:19:42 GMT, p**@pgrahams.com wrote:

Show quoteHide quote

>I am working long-distance on a machine I built.
>
>ABit AN7
>AMD +2600
>Seagate 80G SATA
>WD 160G PATA
>Win2K
>
>Computer originally built with just the SATA drive as boot. The 160G
>drive was added later (by someone else) but the machine booted
>correctly from the SATA.
>
>Last time I was there, I disabled the second IDE controller in the
>BIOS (with the 160G drive) to try to isolate intermittant freeze.
>
>Today, I walked the user through enabling the controller, and when the
>machine tried to boot, it complained about a missing OS, obviously
>trying to boot from the PATA which has as no OS.

Most likely, you need to set the boot order differently in
the bios. The secondary IDE controller shouldn't be
responsible for freezing and should be left enabled in all
but very obscure uses... or bugs (see below)

>
>Disabled the PATA again and it booted normally. I spent some time
>with the user trying to find the correct way to have both drives but
>to boot from the SATA. We could not find the correct combination.
>The boot options do not include SCSI (which is what my machine is set
>to), and the various options the user reads me don't ring a bell.
>

See the notes for bios 16 then update to the newest bios,
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/bios_revision.php?categories=1&model=158

17 Mar 2005 7:44 PM

pgx

kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:

|
|Most likely, you need to set the boot order differently in
|the bios.

On my (local) bios, there is an option for SCSI boot. There doesn't
seem to be one on the ABit bios

| The secondary IDE controller shouldn't be
|responsible for freezing and should be left enabled in all
|but very obscure uses... or bugs (see below)

The freezing is another problem, but, I had tried everything!
Secondary controller was a last resort - and didn't help.

|See the notes for bios 16 then update to the newest bios,
|http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/bios_revision.php?categories=1&model=158

I have already installed Bios version 18. The system worked fine with
both drives and this bios, but it doesn't after just disabling the
secondary, and then re-enabling it. I assume something else changed,
but I can't think what it might be, and nothing the user reads over
the phone seems like the winning option.

Phil

17 Mar 2005 11:33 PM

Kawosa

p**@pgrahams.com wrote in
Show quoteHide quote

news:m3nj31lbl8dlv6egbqkc2gvbao8dhrnkfh@4ax.com:

> kony <spam@spam.com> wrote:
>
>|
>|Most likely, you need to set the boot order differently in
>|the bios.
>
> On my (local) bios, there is an option for SCSI boot. There doesn't
> seem to be one on the ABit bios
>| The secondary IDE controller shouldn't be
>|responsible for freezing and should be left enabled in all
>|but very obscure uses... or bugs (see below)
>
> The freezing is another problem, but, I had tried everything!
> Secondary controller was a last resort - and didn't help.
>
>|See the notes for bios 16 then update to the newest bios,
>|http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/bios_revision.php?categories=1&mode
>|l=158
>
> I have already installed Bios version 18. The system worked fine with
> both drives and this bios, but it doesn't after just disabling the
> secondary, and then re-enabling it. I assume something else changed,
> but I can't think what it might be, and nothing the user reads over
> the phone seems like the winning option.
>
> Phil
>

You may have a RAID utility program installed in the Program Group. This
may be your resolution.

18 Mar 2005 12:58 PM

pgx

Kawosa <kaw***@email.coma> wrote:

|>
|You may have a RAID utility program installed in the Program Group. This
|may be your resolution.

Don'tthink so. The RAID is all in the BIOS, and it appears to
initialize in either configuration.

Phil