Help - POST problem

[bumblebee13]

Ok, i've started my computer up for the first time and pressed delete to enter the bios - my computer then procceded to check all the hardware. As it flicked through the various components everything went fine untill i got to the hard-disk, i'll type out the messages leading up to it and the error message itself:

2048MB OK
USB DEVICE(s): 1 Hub
Auto-Detecting 4th Master . . IDE Hard Disk
4th Master: External Disk 0 RGL10364
Ultra DMA Mode-5 S.M.A.R.T Capable and Status OK
Auto-detecting USB Mass Storage Devices . .
00 USB mass storage devices found and configured.

4th Master Hard Disk Error
Press F1 to Resume

That's the message, there's a bit before wihch all seems fine but that's the run up to the disk error - i'm not too sure what to do now and as this is my first build am rather worrying.

The relevant (let me know if you need more details) components i have are an Asus P5W DH deluxe and 2 x Hitachi DeskStar 160GB SATA hard-drives.

Please help, thanks.

EDIT: Here are all components:

Antec P180
Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz
Corsair XMS2 800MHz C4 2GB
ATI Connect3D X1900XT 512MB
X-Fi Xtreme Music
Antec TruePower II 550W EPS
BenQ DW1650
Sony Floppy Drive
2 x 160GB Hitachi DeskStar - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=235260 link if you want more info
Asus P5W DH Deluxe

The way i've connected the hard-drives is in this way:

If you look at this picture http://www.asus.com/999/images/products/1198/1198_l.jpg

You will see in the bottom left two SATA hard-drive ports - i connected my hard-drives, using 2 orange SATA cables provided with my mobo to each of these 'EZ Raid' ports - designed so you can easily make a Raid config.

If i need to be more precise the two orange ports are called 'EZ_RAID2' and 'EZ_RAID1' - the upper port in the picture being number 2.

I've then powered the two hard-drives using a 2 in 1 Sata Power Cable supplied with the mobo which is then connected to a molex - so that the single molex effectivly powers both hard-drives... i hope that's enough info, if you need more let me know.

 

[Mondoman]

Please list brand and model of all your components (especially all drives, and which interfaces they are connected to). Also, what happens when you press F1 after the message?

 

[bumblebee13]

Ok i edited the above post and just realised you said all drives - i've also got a floppy drive - this is connected to 'Floppy' part on the mobo, just south of the 24 Pin power connecter if you look at the picture...

I've also got a DVD drive which is connected to the 'PRI_EIDE' part of the mobo, which if you look at the mobo picture is inbetween the blue USB ports ports and the red 1394 port on the far left - hope that helps.

And as for pressing F1, i haven't yet, i'm too scared to do so, do you think it would be a good idea to press it?

 

[Mondoman]

Yes, press it. My guess is that either you will go into the BIOS, or the system will just halt.

BTW, thanks for the excellent complete posting of components and the detailed description -- it helps us out a lot!

 

[bumblebee13]

Woo! It went into BIOS! Now i'm just confused as to what the hell the problem was don't suppose you could shed any light on what you think it was

 

[Pain]

What ever it thinks the 4th master drive is. I assume the 2 deathstar disks are SATA, and you then have just 1 regular IDE drive connected? Looks like there is a USB hub connected and it thinks there's an external drive, is that true?

 

[Mondoman]

I'm not sure which drive it means by "4th Master", but it may be mis-identifying the DVD drive as a hard drive. In any case, since you haven't set up the two hard drives as a RAID array yet, that may be puzzling the system a bit. In general with RAID arrays, there is some special procedure to assign SATA drives to the array in the normal BIOS or an add-on RAID BIOS. Only after you've done that can you go ahead and boot from the Windows CD to install Win. Even there, you need to have special RAID drivers on a floppy for the Win install to access during the install process (you'll get to a point where it asks if you have drivers to install or something like that). Also, make sure your Windows CD is SP2, otherwise there may be drive size limitations.

 

[bumblebee13]

Nope i have just the two SATA DeathStars no other hard-drives... i've got a gut instinct that it might think that my DVD drive is a hard-drive! Seeing as nowhere in my BIOS can i see it registering either of my DeskStar Hard-drives.

All it's saying is that under the fourth IDE master is [External Disk 0] and the weird thing is that if you click on this for more info under it's size it give 'O MB' - hence nothing!

Plus to further back up my idea i connected my DVD Drive to a place which i meant for IDE hard-drives, yet i also assumed i could connect my DVD drive here as it seems the only logical place to do and don't DVD drives work on IDE anyway?

 

[bumblebee13]

Seems you and i have the same idea...

The problem is i can't see my SATA hard-drives anwhere - it's not a case of the DVD drive being there and the SATA hard-drives being there as well but instead just the DVD drive (or so i think it is)... and at the moment i have no clue as to how to get my SATA hard drives and get rid of this DVD drive being shown as a hard-drive.

Anyone have any idea how to do this?

 

[bumblebee13]

I've been thinking about my potential DVD drive problem and one thing i've thought of is the fact that the DVD drive is connected using a CD-ROM IDE cable... This is becuase with my mobo came 3 IDE cables (one for floppy, which i've used, one for an IDE hard drive, which i don't have and don't intend to use, and one for CD-ROM, which i'm using for my DVD drive as no DVD drive IDE cable was supplied)...

So could this be a potential problem, thatit's not registering my DVD drive because it's connected using a CD-ROM IDE cable? Or is there no difference between the two?

 

[DaveUK]

I suggest you consult your motherboard documentation.

The IDE cable listed as 'CD-ROM' would make no difference for DVD. Incidentally even the one listed as HDD should work anyway - they are just labelled for convenience.

Have you tried moving the optical drive to a different IDE controller. EG moving the cable from the socket labelled 'IDE 1' to 'IDE2'. Try this.

Next, check the jumpers on the drive itself. What is the drive set to? Master? Slave? Whatever its on, try changing that. Its even possible that the jumper is set to 'nothingness' by mistake.

If that doesnt work, get a new IDE cable (may as well get a round one) and try that.

 

[bumblebee13]

Ah, thanks for the new tips, will try them in the morning hopefully (fingers crossed) that will sort the problem. Weird thing is i don't think i have another IDE location on my mobo even though it's meant to be top of the range - i guess they just assume you go SATA these days :?

Also, any idea on why the hard-drives haven't registered yet? Still can't work this one out...

 

[DaveUK]

Strange... I've never seen a Mobo with just 1 IDE channel, they've always came with 2. Even my A8N32-SLI deluxe, which is recent.

 

[Mondoman]

...This is becuase with my mobo came 3 IDE cables (one for floppy, which i've used, one for an IDE hard drive, which i don't have and don't intend to use, and one for CD-ROM, which i'm using for my DVD drive as no DVD drive IDE cable was supplied)... ..

IDE cables don't care what kind of IDE device is hooked up to them. However, if you only have a single device connected to an IDE cable, it MUST be connected to the end (leaving the middle connector unused). Of course, make sure that you have attached the IDE connector in the correct orientation on each end!
The floppy cable is *similar* to an IDE cable, but is *different*. If you really used an IDE cable for your floppy (it shouldn't fit), take it off an put on the floppy cable.

I suspect that the reason your SATA drives don't show up in your normal BIOS is what I alluded to in a previous post -- the RAID controller has "control" of them, so they won't show up in the standard "individual drive" list in the BIOS. In this case, you just set them up in the RAID BIOS. To get into the RAID BIOS, you usually just press a certain key after the normal POST and device listing. It should then name a RAID BIOS and tell you what key to press to enter it (F10 on mine). Inside the RAID BIOS, the drives allocated for RAID are listed, and you can combine them however you want.

Note 1: On my system, besides plugging the SATA drives into the SATA headers on the MB, I had to (a) enable SATA in the normal BIOS and (b) also in the normal BIOS, specify which SATA connectors (and thus the attached drives) would be considered part of the RAID.

Note 2: Many system have 2 different SATA controllers and sets of SATA headers, and thus have 2 different RAID BIOSes, giving you a chance to enter each during bootup. You need to figure out which controller is controlling yours.

At this point, take some time to fully read the motherboard manual, which hopefully will also tell you how to set up a RAID array.

 

[Mondoman]

Strange... I've never seen a Mobo with just 1 IDE channel, they've always came with 2.

It's the new trend, reinforced by the new Intel chipsets, which will have no IDE controller, forcing everyone to buy new optical drives!

 

[bumblebee13]

I've been thinking about my issue and i've just thought of something i did which *could* have caused this problem.

When i first installed my SATA hard-drives i wasn't too sure how you powered them so i, at first, put a molex power supply into the back of each of them along with the SATA cables. I then realised (before i'd ever started up the system) that you are in fact meant to use the SATA power connectors so i put them into the hard-drives...

Now as i've been reading my motherboard manual i read a bit which went:

'using both the SATA power cable and 4-pin power connector simultaneously will cause daage to the system' (with a big warning sign beside it).

Now i'm 95% sure i took out the molex power cables before i powered up, but do you think if i made the mistake of powering up with both the molex and sata power cables in the back of each of the hard-drives that my problem all relates to that :roll:

 

[mrbobvilla]

I really hope you haven't returned the motherboard or anything yet.

I had this exact same problem and I found out that with this motherboard if you are going to be plugging your drives into the EZ_RAID slots you HAVE to use the orange cables. For me, I am setting up a raid 5 and it was freaking out on me until I used the orange sata cable that has the 90 degree bend (right angle) at the plug. I plugged this into EZ_RAID0 and it worked perfectly and the "4th Master Hard Disk Error" error went away never to be seen again.

So make sure you use the orange cables if you are going to plug things into the EZ_RAID sata ports. Otherwise they won't work. The manual makes mention of the fact that you should use the orange cables in them, but doesn't tell you what happens if you don't. Really stupid if you ask me...

Edit: I'm stupid. I din't knotice you did say you used the orange cables. Well I would double check the connections are valid and then try using the Intel Raid controller ports instead. Hopefully that will get rid of your problem.