A7N8x won't boot with Promise FastTrak S150 SX4

[rebturtle]

I'm trying to upgrade my RAID card, from my HighPoint 1540 to the Promise FastTrak S150 SX4. If I boot up without creating an array (using my Raptor - C drive), everything's fine. Whenever I create an array though, the system hangs at bootup. I can't get it to boot with the array, or even boot from a floppy or CD ROM. I've tried it in every PCI slot I can fit it in (the first 2 are blocked by my AGP waterblock) and there are no other PCI cards in the system. I have tried loading Windows on it directly with and without the Raptor attached and still can't get past "windows is inspecting your configuration..." Any ideas? Has anyone else had problems with the A7N8X and controller cards? I have too many other specs to list here. You can view them all at the link below. Thanks, guys.

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[snotling]

during setup you must provide a floppy with the drivers of your PCI SATA controler. you are invited to press F6 at the bottom of the screen to do so.

 

[rebturtle]

I know. I have the floppy, and I've familiar with the process. The main problem is that the system freezes before I even have the <i>option</i> to press F6. If I try to use the setup as a D drive and boot with my current C drive, the system freezes right after POST, with a completely blank screen . Ctrl-Alt-Del won't even work. You have to manually restart with the button. It doesn't make sense. I searched some old posts and fond someone else with the same mobo and same RAID card, that had no problems so I guess it's not a compatability issue. I'm stumped.

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[miahallen]

Just an idea, try changing your boot sequence in BIOS to boot from a SCSI controller instead of the HDD. It worked for me with other equipment...

Good luck!

 

[snotling]

are you creating your array as a mirror?

and if so, wouldn't your RAID controler try to rebuild the mirror at that point?

 

[rebturtle]

I'm trying to build an independant RAID 5 array. I toyed with it some more today and it won't even boot past POST without <i>any</i> drives attached. It's like it's getting worse the longer it runs. I had to pull it out just to get my system to boot. I've tried everything I can imagine. Manually allocating IRQs, changing boot orders, removing my SATA (C) drive, attempting to boot from CD, floppy, and HDD. I'm lost. It shouldn't be this complicated. Something is wrong and I'm going to contact Promise tech support tomorrow. I may just have to RMA it. It's really ticking me off, since it was a $170 RAID card!!

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[snotling]

Is it PCI-X?

 

[rebturtle]

Not necissarily. The card is designed to work at 33MHz in a standard PCI slot, and at 66MHz in PCI-x slots. It is compatable with both, with higher performance in PCI-x.

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A>

 

[snotling]

yeah, on paper they do.

I've had more than one of those "backwards compatibility" issues in the past. One of them toasted the MoBo... don't worry I'm talking about prehistoric dual-Pentium-pro boards!

your's should be fine.

have you visited this page? (SCSI BIOS for your controler maybe you could try an update... and see the hardware compatibility list)
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=112&category=All&os=100

 

[rebturtle]

Yeah, the newest BIOS they report is 2.00.0.21, and my card boots up showing 2.0.0.3. Maybe I should revert it to an older BIOS - lol. Actually the memory could be the culprit. I have Kingston KVR133x72C2/256 (CL2) RAM, and only KVR133x72C3/256 (CL3) RAM appears on the compatability list. I'm gonna give Promise a call before I forget. Thanks everyone for the help & legwork . I can always count on the people in this forum for their experience & great ideas.

*edit* Couldn't get a hold of tech support in time, but I did finally get it to boot into DOS so I could test the RAM with their memtest utility. It passed with flying colors. At least I don't have to RMA <i>that</i>!

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rebturtle on 11/10/04 07:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[fishmahn]

the newest BIOS they report is 2.00.0.21, and my card boots up showing 2.0.0.3.

Seems to me 3 is less than 21, so maybe an update would be in order.

Mike.

 

[rebturtle]

Yup. After talking to tech-support they said I had to update the bios to the "newer" version. At first glance I was slightly confused at how one version had .0...and the other had .00.... I don't know what that is about. When I looked at the two versions I was thinking .3 is bigger than .21 - in decimal format instead of version. Oh well. It all works now, although I had to abandon my old C, since it ran off of the onboard Silicon Image SATA chip, which produced a conflict at bootup, even after flashing the BIOS. That's alright, now it's fast <i>and</i> secure. I was able to load Windows in about 18 minutes!! Thanks again for all the help, guys!!

<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com" target="_new">rebturtle</A>
<A HREF="http://www.rebturtle.com/turtletech.htm" target="_new">My System</A>