Silicon Image SATA Driver = XP Hang

[MrCheerio212]

My mobo is the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-K8N%20Pro.htm

According to the deatiled spec's it's using a Silicon Image sil3512 controller.

Okay well... I have to find a driver to download and use the floppy to get XP installed, great. Everything is running fine and I'm proceeding to install all my drivers and software.

So I notice that on the CD that comes with my mobo has a driver that specifically says Silicon-Image Serial-ATA Driver.

Okay great, I install it and on the next boot with the blocks loading on the windows xp screen it just stops all of a sudden. So I hard reboot and do last known good config, which lets me get back into windows.

I search everywhere trying to find a different driver (off Gigabytes website also) and they all do the same thing. Freeze booting up, when the blocks are going accross the screen.

So I figure yea okay I'll goto Silicons website and download the driver directly from them. Oh great I can't find jack diddly squat from their website.

Can someone please help me solve this problem. I just totally setup this new hot rig, and it's driving me crazy that in device manager theres my SATA controller with a big yellow exclamation point and whenever I install a driver windows won't boot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

[Preacher]

Did you install the SI controller driver on XP initial install by pressing F6? Or are you attempting to update to the latest version?

BTW, no reason to post the same question twice.

[MrCheerio212]

I did install the drivers, but when XP finished installing in device manager it comes up as a Mass Storage Controller with a yellow explamation point.

So I try to install a driver for it and everytime I try... it will lock up during the XP startup (ie. bar going across the screen with the big XP logo in the back).

[MrCheerio212]

Oh yea sorry bout double post also... I wasn't sure which thread to put it in.

[primesuspect]

Are you sure you don't have another mass storage controller in there? In your device manager, does the SiI controller show up?

[MrCheerio212]

No it doesn't until I install the Silicon SATA Driver

[Preacher]

Have you tried older and newer versions of the drivers? Have you gone to Gigabyte's Forums and search for "Silicon Image SATA Driver problems"? More than likely others have the same problem and possibly a resolution. That's how I fixed all the little gremlins in my Abit board.

Are you also sure that the current BIOS of the SI controller and your Windows driver are compatible?

[MrCheerio212]

I can't even find Gigabyte's main forums.

I call Gigabyte and I end up talking to some korean person that can't say my name.

I have tried older and newer versions of the driver and get the same problem.

[LawnMM]

If its the same raid controller as included on the NF7-S I can post the drivers for you, I had XP hanging trying to install it too, then I downloaded the drivers off I think it was the Silicon Image site and those worked.

[Straight_Man]

Ok, did you put in the BASE driver from the /other folder on CD onto your floppy, or did you pull another Silicon Image driver from elsewhere on the CD onto floppy???

Try looking here:

http://www.motherboard-forum.com/gigabyte/How_do_I_setup_SATA_w8knxp_45619.html

The second post has a reasonable set of things to do, if you still have no luck after doing that I do not know what to say. I CAN tell you that the XP internal Silicon Image driver is for an earlier Silicon Image RAID chip.

John.

[MrCheerio212]

Thanks I just got from class I'll check the site out.

[MrCheerio212]

If its the same raid controller as included on the NF7-S I can post the drivers for you, I had XP hanging trying to install it too, then I downloaded the drivers off I think it was the Silicon Image site and those worked.


Can you post that driver for me please :-)

[Spinner]

The most common SI SATA drivers can be found in the downloads section here at Short-Media, your controller is sil3512 if I'm not mistaken, the one on the NF7-S is the sil3112, but there is one driver package for both.

So this one in the Short-Media downloads is the one you want: http://www.short-media.com/request.php?171

...and here's the official download link: http://www.siimage.com (type in 'drivers' into the search box)

If you continue to have problems with those drivers (the ones here at Short-Media are the latest). Then make sure your SATA BIOS is the uptodate. If you're not sure if it is, or how to find out, let me know and I'll make you a BIOS file for your board with the latest one.

Cheers

[SARRAS]

"Mass Storage Controller with a yellow explamation point"

Your board also has a GigaRAID PATA RAID controller on it doesn't it? If so this could well be the driver you need, not the Sil SATA one. SEE Again on your mobo CD - look for GigaRAID drivers.

[MrCheerio212]

"Mass Storage Controller with a yellow explamation point"

Your board also has a GigaRAID PATA RAID controller on it doesn't it? If so this could well be the driver you need, not the Sil SATA one. SEE Again on your mobo CD - look for GigaRAID drivers.


I disabled that in the BIOS already.

Anyways just an update. I got it working after I reformatted it and used a different set of drivers when setting XP up. This time it went through the process of actually installing the device after Windows first boot.

I used the drivers from silicon's website.

There was a problem the first time I tried this getting an error when I pressed F6 and then told it to look on my floppy for a driver, but I rebooted and recopied the drivers on the floppy and tried again and it worked.

I'm all up and running now, thanks for your help guys.

[Deacon]

Hello there.. same Problem withe the new GA-7n400 Pro 2 (Rev. 2) Board here:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/22202/

Same SATA Chipset AND NO Drivers avaiable! WHY is Gigabyte releasing Chipsets without Driver Support?? This cost about 10 Hours testing and finding the Problem.. poor Gigabyte never again

:-(
Deacon

WHERE are Drivers for the 3512 Chipset?

[Spinner]

Hello there.. same Problem withe the new GA-7n400 Pro 2 (Rev. 2) Board here:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/22202/

Same SATA Chipset AND NO Drivers avaiable! WHY is Gigabyte releasing Chipsets without Driver Support?? This cost about 10 Hours testing and finding the Problem.. poor Gigabyte never again

:-(
Deacon

WHERE are Drivers for the 3512 Chipset?

The drivers Gigabyte have on their website, supposedly just for earlier revisions of your motherboard, do in fact support the SATA controller on your board (version 2). I downloaded the driver from Gigabyte (listed for controller 3112) and had a look at them, and you'll notice that in the release notes, the drivers are in fact for '3x12' i.e supportive of both the 3112 controller and the 3512 controller. The reason you may have encountered problems with them is simply because they are very old versions of the driver, v1.0.0.28. You can get the latest version either here from the Short-Media downloads section, or direct from Silicon Image. The latest version is v1.0.0.40. That should solve your problems.

Gigabyte had posted drivers for your controller, they just didn't label them correctly, and of course, hasn't kept them as up to date as they should have.

[Spinner]

Also, I took the liberty of modding that FB bios with the latest Serial ATA BIOS for your controller. The one contained as part of the FB bios was again a little out of date. The BIOS version I've attached to this post now carries the latest Silicon Image 3512 controller BIOS v4347. That should insure you get the best out of your controller.

Let me know if it works okay, and welcome to Short-Media. :)

[TheSmJ]

Speaking of XP hanging when using your RAID controller, my NF7-S would always hang (or appear to hang, it would start eventually, but it would take 30+ minutes) at a black screen when using the latest BIOS (which contains the latest RAID controller BIOS). Has anyone had this problem? Would a BIOS modded with a newer version of the RAID controller BIOS (assuming there IS a newer version (?)) fix this?

[Spinner]

Speaking of XP hanging when using your RAID controller, my NF7-S would always hang (or appear to hang, it would start eventually, but it would take 30+ minutes) at a black screen when using the latest BIOS (which contains the latest RAID controller BIOS). Has anyone had this problem? Would a BIOS modded with a newer version of the RAID controller BIOS (assuming there IS a newer version (?)) fix this?

I've used a variety of versions of the SATA BIOS for the 3112 controller on my NF7-S, and never had any problems. I'm currently using version 4.2.47 with the v1.0.0.40 drivers and BIOS version 22. Where exactly does it hang?

[TheSmJ]

It would hang right before the first windows load screen, before anything fades in. Even the Windows XP install CD would do this, but it gets stuck for around 30 seconds, rather than 30 minutes. The problem would go away entirely when either the array was deleted, or the RAID bios itself was disabled.

[Spinner]

What's drives are we talking about here? Is XP on the array or on another PATA disk? Let me know more about your setup. Considering it does it even before any drivers are even loaded (e.g early in the boot process and even when running XP setup), it would be fair to conclude it is some sort of hardware conflict, or dare I say it, malfunction.

Does it still do it if there are no disks plugged into the SATA controller, but the controller itself is still enabled?

[Woon]

Speaking of XP hanging when using your RAID controller, my NF7-S would always hang (or appear to hang, it would start eventually, but it would take 30+ minutes) at a black screen when using the latest BIOS (which contains the latest RAID controller BIOS). Has anyone had this problem? Would a BIOS modded with a newer version of the RAID controller BIOS (assuming there IS a newer version (?)) fix this?

Hi, I have this problem too! Mine is Abit NFS-V2. I thought by updating my motherboard BIOS to 2.2, the problem would go away, but it didn't. It is not only slow in booting up my WinXP, in fact, even after booted into the windows desktop, my applications ran even slower than from my IDE hard drives! I am really very sad... can anyone help me? :werr:

[TheSmJ]

What's drives are we talking about here? Is XP on the array or on another PATA disk? Let me know more about your setup. Considering it does it even before any drivers are even loaded (e.g early in the boot process and even when running XP setup), it would be fair to conclude it is some sort of hardware conflict, or dare I say it, malfunction.

Does it still do it if there are no disks plugged into the SATA controller, but the controller itself is still enabled?


These are 2X WD800JB drives. Windows XP is infact installed onto the array. The fact that only the new RAID bios causes this problem seems to rule out the possibility of a hardware conflict. More like a BIOS bug.

[TheSmJ]

Hi, I have this problem too! Mine is Abit NFS-V2. I thought by updating my motherboard BIOS to 2.2, the problem would go away, but it didn't. It is not only slow in booting up my WinXP, in fact, even after booted into the windows desktop, my applications ran even slower than from my IDE hard drives! I am really very sad... can anyone help me?

What BIOS version you start with? Mine work fine with version 20

[Woon]

What BIOS version you start with? Mine work fine with version 20

Mine was 2.0 before I updated to 2.2. Please help...

[TheSmJ]

So this was a problem even with 20? Strange.

Is the array running with default settings (16K)? What drives are you using? What SATA-PATA adapters are you using?

[Deacon]

I now flashed my GA-7N400 Pro 2 Rev. 2 to the newest Bios "FB" from the Gigabyte Homepage.. and it runs also like the FA very buggy.. only one out of 10 times it boots up.. 9 times it hangs on blank screen. Win XP runs very instable and gives Blue Screen after few minutes:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

very poor for Gigabyte.. i will return this MB and never buy Gigabyte again..
Deacon

[Straight_Man]

Either RMA board or make BOOT drive an IDE drive if it not already booting from IDE. XP does not like SATA Boot right now, with Silicon Image.

There are multiple mode options, probably. And, for XP running the combined drives as an IDE map is probably easier than trying for a pure SATA box-- with XP, that is.

Second, when you choose the combined modes, be careful. An active BIOS can remap drives some. For example:

I have different board, but it has a Silicon Image 3114 on it. You can run the SI with IDe like this:

2 IDE and two true SATA. 6 IDE as far as Widnows is concerned, with secondary IDE not available and primary available with 4 SATA hookups mapped as IDE (SI chip handles which mech would be accessed when secondary IDE master is invoked by Windows, Widnows does not know there are TWO drives on channel that feed basicly as one drive to Windows). I run an Abit board, it is an active BIOS, and I had to redo Window's drive maps in recovery console to be able to have drives mesh to real mech right becasue I added drives AND changed BIOS mapping. BIOS did a logical remap of boot order when I did this pair of things-- what Windows "saw" as what drive it should have as C drive, CHANGED.

Board or RAM most likely, or timings of RAM, you are getting low and high RAM violates. Possible strained PSU, possible device mapping violation and that last is in the manual. Possible also you have RAM that is mismatched and is being misdetected and set to wrong speeds-- a RAM pair with a bad place in low RAM can cause this chaotic RAM error thing, so can a marginally overloaded PSU. So can a radically corrupted installation of Widnows, and bad RAM or worms (malware) can corrupt things like this. MyDoom.f is also a worm, for example, though unlike other worms it does not replace .exe files and leaves DLLs alone. Bad RAM can cause a defective (corruptly built on the fly as you install) windows and\or driver install, so can not grounding board right with studs. So can a bad HD or HDs, or HDs not getting powered right due to a PSU overload that is bad enough that the PSU is unstable.

Now, also think about this--- say CMOS battery is low on juice, active BIOS gets to reconfigure itself every time it is booted from "cold state," ie when box has been off for over 10-15 minutes to an hour(time off to trigger fault is inversely proportional to how dead CMOS cell is). Does this happen mostly from a cold start, with box off, but after box has been up will it only wamr boot??? Then look at CMOS cell replacement, they run $1.00 to $2.00 and a CR2023 or a DL2023 will normally work on these boards.

That is the basic "laundry list"....

John D.

[Spinner]

I now flashed my GA-7N400 Pro 2 Rev. 2 to the newest Bios "FB" from the Gigabyte Homepage.. and it runs also like the FA very buggy.. only one out of 10 times it boots up.. 9 times it hangs on blank screen. Win XP runs very instable and gives Blue Screen after few minutes:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

very poor for Gigabyte.. i will return this MB and never buy Gigabyte again..
Deacon

Well firstly, did you not try the BIOS I made you? the one with the latest SATA BIOS on? Regardless, after what you've said now, it seems the motherboard or at least your computer, has a few other issues over that of getting the SATA controller to work. However, if the machine posts okay, and your only problems are getting XP to boot up, I suggest you re-install the OS before sending it back, just to make sure. Try the BIOS I made ya, and see if that helps. Make sure after a flash you fully clear the CMOS, i.e reset it, remove the battery and power cord from the machine for a good few minutes. Also if you do decide to re-install again, make sure you use the latest SATA drivers as well. (v1.0.0.40).

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showpost.php?p=109064&postcount=18

[brian_r]

Hi, I'm having much the same problem with a GA-7VAXP Ultra. I recently purchased 2 x Maxtor 6Y120M drives. I created a raid 0
installed XP (yes using the F6 option) and all looked well. The system
would intermittently (1 in 3) not reboot, it would shutdown and not come
back up. In the system logs I am getting SCSI timeouts.
OK so i trying installing on one disk with no raid, using the SATALink
drivers. Again, installs no problems but am still getting timeouts.
So, I try the same on the other disk and am still getting the same errors.
The system board is a Rev1.2 and I'm running bios F6. I presume my settings
in the bios are correct or I would not be able to install in the first
place.
I have also installed the SATA as a secondary drive while using an ide as
the system but still get timeouts.
Have i got a duff motherboard ? But then why can I install in the first
place. I have also been able to format both SATA drives from the ide booted
system. Cables?

[Spinner]

Hi, I'm having much the same problem with a GA-7VAXP Ultra. I recently purchased 2 x Maxtor 6Y120M drives. I created a raid 0
installed XP (yes using the F6 option) and all looked well. The system
would intermittently (1 in 3) not reboot, it would shutdown and not come
back up. In the system logs I am getting SCSI timeouts.
OK so i trying installing on one disk with no raid, using the SATALink
drivers. Again, installs no problems but am still getting timeouts.
So, I try the same on the other disk and am still getting the same errors.
The system board is a Rev1.2 and I'm running bios F6. I presume my settings
in the bios are correct or I would not be able to install in the first
place.
I have also installed the SATA as a secondary drive while using an ide as
the system but still get timeouts.
Have i got a duff motherboard ? But then why can I install in the first
place. I have also been able to format both SATA drives from the ide booted
system. Cables?
Okay, well your motherboard also has a Promise ATA133 RAID controller on right? The SATA controller on your board is the 3112A if I'm not mistaken. I had a quick look at the latest BIOS available for your board and noticed that it is still using a very old version of the SATA controller BIOS, from Silicon Image. So... like with Deacon, I've updated the latest BIOS for your board, 'F6', with the very latest SATA controller BIOS, which is v4.2.47 for your controller. You should flash it and see if makes any difference.

The problem you are having, could very well be cured by updating your SATA controller BIOS, but it also may have something to do with the way your have you CMOS Bios configured. If you still have difficulties after flashing to the BIOS I've attached, then I recommend you go through your CMOS Bios boot settings and double check the right controllers are set into the right boot order and that things like 'Boot other device' are firmly disabled. Some boards can get a little confused sometimes when it has to deal with multiple controller types. You may find disabling the ones you don't need will help. Also make sure you are using the latest SATA controller drivers for your controller. Which as I said before is 3112A, the latest drivers are v1.0.0.40, and they can be obtained here in the S-M downloads section.

Let me know how you get on.

[EQuito]

Win XP runs very instable and gives Blue Screen after few minutes:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL or
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREAIncrease vdimm and/or vcore, sounds like your RAM and/or CPU need more juice.

Good luck!

[Spinner]

Yeah, crank of ze juice! :rarr:

[Deacon]

thx Spinner for that great support here.. i'm not at home this week and i'll try ypur bios next week, when im back.

"Increase vdimm and/or vcore, sounds like your RAM and/or CPU need more juice."

this was only a joke i think ;-) the system also runs instable with fail-safe defaults.. so the cpu is only running on 1 GHz instead of 2,1 GHz..

but one thing that is very strange is that booting problem.. i think thats no driver problem here.. the system only boots 1 out of 10 times. 9 times i have a blank screen and nothing happens.. this also happens, when i try to boot the blank board without any hard drives connected..

i tested several RAM Chips and they re all ok and worked fine in other Systems.

PS: I found this

The BIOS files attached here are intended for use with ADD-IN cards, not motherboards. To get the latest SiI3x12 BIOS for your motherboard, please go to your motherboard manufacturer's website for updates.
http://12.24.47.40/display/2/kb/article.asp?aid=10443

at the Silicon Homepage.. is this the bios u put in the Mainboard Bios? Cause they say here its not for MB :-(

thx
Deacon

[Spinner]

thx Spinner for that great support here.. i'm not at home this week and i'll try ypur bios next week, when im back.

"Increase vdimm and/or vcore, sounds like your RAM and/or CPU need more juice."

this was only a joke i think ;-) the system also runs instable with fail-safe defaults.. so the cpu is only running on 1 GHz instead of 2,1 GHz..

but one thing that is very strange is that booting problem.. i think thats no driver problem here.. the system only boots 1 out of 10 times. 9 times i have a blank screen and nothing happens.. this also happens, when i try to boot the blank board without any hard drives connected..

i tested several RAM Chips and they re all ok and worked fine in other Systems.

PS: I found this

The BIOS files attached here are intended for use with ADD-IN cards, not motherboards. To get the latest SiI3x12 BIOS for your motherboard, please go to your motherboard manufacturer's website for updates.
http://12.24.47.40/display/2/kb/article.asp?aid=10443

at the Silicon Homepage.. is this the bios u put in the Mainboard Bios? Cause they say here its not for MB :-(

thx
Deacon
Okay, well firstly you have nothing to worry about with the BIOS's I made for you and Brain_r. Unlike the drivers, there are distinctly separate BIOS's for the 3112 and the 3512 controllers. This is noticeable in their version numbers, v4.2.4.7 is the latest BIOS on the Silicon Image site for the 3112 controller and v 4.3.4.7 is the latest for 3512 (yours). When you download either of the BIOS packages from Silicon Image, they are made up of three files. One for the RAID bios (on an add-in card), the other for the IDE bios (on an add-in card), and the third file for OEM use with motherboard BIOS's. That is the one which I of course used. So you have nothing to worry about. I do this all the time, and haven't had a bad flash yet. ;) (touch wood)

As for everything else, well... Yes you are correct, it would seem there is more than a driver or controller BIOS problem here. Could you list me your full specs please, as you can't expect your system to run correctly until you have all your components setup and configured properly in your BIOS. If your CPU is designed to run at 2.1GHz (3000+?), then it needs to run at it's native speed otherwise you may as a result run into issues with booting up. Like you seem to be. So please list your full specs in as much detail as possible and we'll see if we can't get you up and running. Currently, my gut tells me you're just experiencing config problems and that there isn't anything wrong with your board as a piece of hardware. So we need to get all your settings as they should be, then we'll be able to get a better idea of what's going on.

Cheers

[brian_r]

:cool: Now I really don't want to seem ungreatful and really i'm not but that patched bios has blown away the PATA raid from the bios. Not that i was using it anyway but i just thought i'd let u know. At least the board is still running....Thank dog for small mercies. Anyway will probably get the SATA drives attached tomorrow night all being well and update u then. Cheers Spinner :cheers:

[Spinner]

:cool: Now I really don't want to seem ungreatful and really i'm not but that patched bios has blown away the PATA raid from the bios. Not that i was using it anyway but i just thought i'd let u know. At least the board is still running....Thank dog for small mercies. Anyway will probably get the SATA drives attached tomorrow night all being well and update u then. Cheers Spinner :cheers:

Oh right I see. I admit, your particular BIOS wasn't the easiest to work on, simply because there was no room for the updated SATA bios (which I thought was strange). But the only thing I removed to make room was the EPA logo. It won't do any harm not being there, I mean, I could remove all the hard drive controllers and everything but them would still work fine. They all just essentially clip on to the actually motherboard rom itself, it works with and without them. The SATA controller works though right? and it's version 4.2.4.7 right? Let me know and I'll try and do another one with everything working next time. That's a strange one. Don't worry though, you can just flash back to the official if it doesn't suit your fancy. Sorry about that. Let me know that the SATA is working though please.

Cheers

EDIT: Okay, I've just double checked my work (so to speak), and all controllers are in place in the modified BIOS I posted, so I can only assume there was a reason why an up to date SATA Bios wasn't included in the latest release from Gigabyte. I mean the SATA controller that comes officially with the latest BIOS release for your board, is actually very old, which I thought was strange. So you may find your BIOS just can't take the latest SATA controller rom. That may be the cause of why you can't use the PATA controller. So, if when you check, the SATA controller is up to date and working fine, and you have no need for the Promise ATA133 RAID controller, then there is no harm in continuing to use it. But if the SATA controller turns out not to work either, then just flash back the official.

[Deacon]

first of all thx again to spinner for your post. You are doing a very fine job here.. much more than the Gigabyte Support ;-) i can't wait to test your bios.. i remember that the problems in windows startet, when is installed the drivers form that gigabyte driver cd.. i think that cd also installed old sata drivers, that could cause that blue screen problems.. before installing that drivers i copied my old files from an old ide hd to the new sata device and it worked fine for more than one hour powerusing that sata controller. Only strange thing left are that booting problems..

perhaps its a problem with the booting graphic adapter?Cause it only shows blank screen?

Here are my detailed System Specs:

GA 7N400 Pro2 Rev 2 (Sata Controller 3512)
AMD Athlon 2800+ (333 FSB)
2 * BlueMedia 512 DDR RAM 400 Mhz CL 2,5 (Dual Channel) (tested and 100% ok)
Samsung 160 GB SATA 7200rpm / 8 MB (No RAID)
350 Watt Supply
Asus Geforce 4 Ti4200 (not new but working fine)
NuTech DDW-081 8xDVD-Writer

I configured the bios with optimal defaults.. running RAM at 400 MHz and FSB with 166 MHz (CPU at 2800+ 2,081 GHz) and fails safe defaults 100 MHz FSB with only 1 GHz CPU Power.. on both configs system hangs in Windows XP.

i often heard of people using 400 Watt Power.. is it possible that there are problems because i only use 350 Watt?

One funny thing is that the system worked very stable and booted fine with the "wrong" F6 Bios for the Rev. 1 of the Mainboard.. of course with this bios the sata controller was disabled (cause new rev has othe sata chipset).. that was before i realized that i have a new revision of that board with new sata controller and new driver and that i am a new gigabyte betatester.
Story here *g*:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/22202/

thx
Deacon

PS: Sorry for my bad english i'm german
PPS: Is it possible that u could check out what Sata Bios is in an Bios? Cause, when Gigabyte releases a new Bios "FC" i first want to know if its "old" again like their poor drivers for that new chipset..

[Spinner]

first of all thx again to spinner for your post. You are doing a very fine job here.. much more than the Gigabyte Support ;-) i can't wait to test your bios.. i remember that the problems in windows startet, when is installed the drivers form that gigabyte driver cd.. i think that cd also installed old sata drivers, that could cause that blue screen problems.. before installing that drivers i copied my old files from an old ide hd to the new sata device and it worked fine for more than one hour powerusing that sata controller. Only strange thing left are that booting problems..

perhaps its a problem with the booting graphic adapter?Cause it only shows blank screen?

Here are my detailed System Specs:

GA 7N400 Pro2 Rev 2 (Sata Controller 3512)
AMD Athlon 2800+ (333 FSB)
2 * BlueMedia 512 DDR RAM 400 Mhz CL 2,5 (Dual Channel) (tested and 100% ok)
Samsung 160 GB SATA 7200rpm / 8 MB (No RAID)
350 Watt Supply
Asus Geforce 4 Ti4200 (not new but working fine)
NuTech DDW-081 8xDVD-Writer

I configured the bios with optimal defaults.. running RAM at 400 MHz and FSB with 166 MHz (CPU at 2800+ 2,081 GHz) and fails safe defaults 100 MHz FSB with only 1 GHz CPU Power.. on both configs system hangs in Windows XP.

i often heard of people using 400 Watt Power.. is it possible that there are problems because i only use 350 Watt?

One funny thing is that the system worked very stable and booted fine with the "wrong" F6 Bios for the Rev. 1 of the Mainboard.. of course with this bios the sata controller was disabled (cause new rev has othe sata chipset).. that was before i realized that i have a new revision of that board with new sata controller and new driver and that i am a new gigabyte betatester.
Story here *g*:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/22202/

thx
Deacon

PS: Sorry for my bad english i'm german
PPS: Is it possible that u could check out what Sata Bios is in an Bios? Cause, when Gigabyte releases a new Bios "FC" i first want to know if its "old" again like their poor drivers for that new chipset..

I think for some reason I got the impression your machine wouldn't post (power on self test), but after reading back it seems the only problems you are having are Windows related, e.g it fails to load up the majority of the time, correct? A power supply problem would be a possiblity for a system that doesn't POST i.e turn on at all, but for a system, like yours, that powers up fine, but just doesn't enter Windows, it is very unlikely to be a PSU problem. You said it yourself, problems started arising when you changed the drivers. However a good PSU is always a good idea, and 400W would be ideal, but in this instance I don't think your problems are PSU related, unless of course you have any other reason to suspect it.

This is what you need to do. Firstly, you need to confirm for 100% certainty, that your board is revision 2 of that model. It will be either labelled on the board itself under the model name or it should tell you on a sticker on the side of one of, probably the last, the PCI slots. (I know the original BIOS that came with the board indicated it was revision 2, but let's be certain).

Presuming it is revision 2, then flash the BIOS I made you. Which is a modified version of the latest from Gigabyte, FB. You'll need a ready prepared floppy disk with v1.0.0.40 of the SATA drivers. (you can get that from the downloads section here at Short-Media). Then you need to perform a re-install of Windows XP onto the SATA drive. You should do a clean install, an install not initiated from the current OS, and fully format the SATA drive, not a quick format. Hopefully after you've done all that, your system should be running great. If it's not, then we'll think of something else to try.

Do the above, then post back. That is presuming you can confirm with your own eyes that your motherboard is revision 2.

Cheers

p.s (After you've flashed the BIOS, spend a few minutes making sure everything in the BIOS setup is as it should be. e.g CPU speed, FSB etc (the settings you listed before as the 'optimal defaults' were fine. Also don't forget to reset the BIOS after flashing)

The modified BIOS I posted: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showpost.php?p=109064&postcount=18

[Deacon]

k thx again for this. I'm very sure that the motherboard is the rev. 2 of that board, although i've no sticker on it or on the case. But i take a look on that sata chipset and its definitive the 3512 Chipsetnumber written on that chip.. i think this is the only difference between the rev. 1 and rev. 2 .. thats also the reason why the rev. 1 bios F6 works fine, but without the sata controller detected..
one strange thing left is that the boards first bios that was installed was an strange "FA" Bios dated from 10.2003.. that i cannot find anywhere on the gigabyte site or in forums. on gigabyte they post the "FB" Biso as the "first release"..

ok on sunday i'll be able to test your bios and the new sata drivers.
thx
Deacon

[Spinner]

k thx again for this. I'm very sure that the motherboard is the rev. 2 of that board, although i've no sticker on it or on the case. But i take a look on that sata chipset and its definitive the 3512 Chipsetnumber written on that chip.. i think this is the only difference between the rev. 1 and rev. 2 .. thats also the reason why the rev. 1 bios F6 works fine, but without the sata controller detected..
one strange thing left is that the boards first bios that was installed was an strange "FA" Bios dated from 10.2003.. that i cannot find anywhere on the gigabyte site or in forums. on gigabyte they post the "FB" Biso as the "first release"..

ok on sunday i'll be able to test your bios and the new sata drivers.
thx
Deacon

Yes, I also wondered about that. Because like you said, the 'FB' Bios is listed as the first release. Though that could mean it is the first release above that of what the boards are shipped with. At the end of the day though, if we can't get 'FB' in any shape or form to work, then, as you've already tried it and know it works, I can mod the 'F6' bios with the appropriate SATA controller bios for your board, i.e. 3512. So we have a number of options available to us. But yea, try what we discussed before hand and post back.

Cheers

[Deacon]

Yes.. great idea to mod de F6 Bios with the new Sata Chipset Bios.. that would be very nice, because i got the best result with that F6 Bios.. i have a copy of that FA Bios on my Computer and if you like to check out what it is.. i can post it here.. but not before sunday ;-)

thx
Deacon

[Spinner]

Yes.. great idea to mod de F6 Bios with the new Sata Chipset Bios.. that would be very nice, because i got the best result with that F6 Bios.. i have a copy of that FA Bios on my Computer and if you like to check out what it is.. i can post it here.. but not before sunday ;-)

thx
Deacon

Sure, post 'FA' when you get chance, just so I can have a look at it.

[Deacon]

Hello again,

im now back for testing ;-) .. i just flashed your bios und upgraded the windows xp sata drivers to newest version 1.1.0.52 .. runs fine since 5 Minutes *g*... Some Hours ago i tried the new drivers with the old FB bios and it took a bit longer until bluescreen :-( i hope the problem is gone with that old sata bios but i think its not over yet :-(

do you think its possible to build that new sata drivers in that F6 Bios of the Revision 1 Board? Is the SATA Controller the only difference between Rev. 1 and Rev. 2 ?

I also changed all the screws of the mainboard and i now use small red round protection papers (lol i do not know the english word for "unterlegeplättchen") so that there couldnt be any short circuit.. i ve read something about that anywhere on another forum.. but the booting problem was still there with the old FB Bios..

k so far
Deacon

[Spinner]

Just to clarify, the latest SATA drivers are v1.0.0.40, you mentioned "1.1.0.52"??

Anyways, if you feel you need it, attached is a modified version of the 'F6' bios. However, I urge you to stick with the correct BIOS release for your board. Before you even consider switching to 'F6', you should at least perform a re-install of the OS just to rule out a software glitch.

So if the problem you were having is cured, then great! But if it does return, the next thing you should do is a re-install of Windows while you've got the latest BIOS for you mobo and latest SATA controller BIOS flashed.

Keep us posted.

Cheers

[Deacon]

thx again (and again ;-)) for that highspeed answer :-)

Mhm .. there is this this Version Number on my Driver Details of the SATA Controller in Windows XP Hardware Manager.. but you're right on the installation readme there is 1.0.0.40.. one more thing to wonder about.

Now the bad news. i flashed your F6 Bios with the new SATA Controller, because i think its not a Problem of Windows Drivers, i had a lot of Problems while booting with the FA,FB and modded FB Bios..like blank screen.. hangign while counting ram (no error message) .. or even hanging an showing cryptic signs on the screen. So i think its definitve a BIOS Problem.. or perhaps CPU is damaged (RAM is ok i think cause i used several RAM Chips).

The modded F6 Bios boots fine until .. "verifying dmi pool data"... then it hangs :-( i tried a lot of configuration and i also cleared the cmos by setting that jumper.
One other Problem is that booting from the backup Bios (org. FB) also hangs on this postion. From this i conclude that it also could be a more worse Problem than Software. Perhaps this Dual BIOS Feature istn working correctly, because sometimes wehn system hang during booting between that crypted signs i can see the Version Number of the Backup Bios.. although it should boot with the "normal" Bios..

i ll try the reinstall the orig. FB Bios .. cause with that i had the best results. System booted 5 out of 10 times and windows works between 5 Minutes and 2 hours lol after all i only can say that there is anywhere a worse problem with that board.. or CPU.. the CPU Temp was about 50-55 °C.. is this too hot? The BlueScreen errors during Windows came very sporadic and often show messages like "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" or "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA" also some other errors or simply no error only bluescreen standart text. Sometimes the screen also went blank and system hang.

THX alot for your help but i now think there is a hardware defekt on that Board/CPU .. i will return this :-(

thx
Deacon

[Spinner]

Firstly, with regard to the driver version thing, you probably aren't looking at the correct device. You SATA controller driver component is under the 'SCSI and RAID controllers' category in device manager, almost right at the bottom of the list. The device itself should read something like 'Silicon Image SiI 3512 SATARaid Controller'. That should show the driver version as v1.0.0.40.

Okay now onto the other stuff. Well I recommended to you in my last post that before you did anything else you should re-install Windows. As far as I can tell from what you have told me, you don't have any problems with the computer posting, it is all just problems with booting or running Windows itself. All this constant flashing of your BIOS isn't going to help matters. I'm not saying there isn't a problem with your motherboard or whatever, but currently there is more reason to think Windows is the cause of your troubles, not your hardware.

In short, before you send the board back, before you do anything, you need to flash your BIOS back to the modded one I made you 'FB' (as it clearly isn't the problem now you've tried the modded 'F6'), and then re-install Windows from scratch. A fresh install with a fully wiped hard disk.

You also need to make sure that after every flash you reset your CMOS Bios at the very least. The flash utility you use should have the ability to do this automatically after flashing if you add the correct '/x' line after the primary command, along with doing a few other things that resetting the CMOS jumper will not do. There maybe some information about this in a readme document that may come with official BIOS releases for your board.

There is no point in sending your motherboard for replacement when you have no solid reason to do so. Currently, as I have said, your problems are in Windows, no where else. If you computer wasn't posting, or starting up at all, then there'd be reason to point the finger at hardware components, but currently, in my opinion, there is no reason to. If after a fresh re-install of Windows, you still experience problems, then we can start to troubleshoot your hardware, but missing out a vital stage of the troubleshooting process is frankly fool hardy.

I understand your frustration, and of course, it is you that is seeing first hand the way your PC is behaving, but I can only advise you by what you have told me. Just take the time to check your PC doesn't just need a fresh OS installation, you may find, that's all it needs.

Either way, let me know how you get on. :smiles:

Cheers

[Deacon]

never had such feelings with a mb :-).. i found someone with exact the same problems in a german forum. he found out that the problem is the system-clock.. if it is 166 or above system hangs and runs very instable even during booting in that forum he said that the Board gives to much Vcore (0,5 V above standart) to the CPU in 166 MHz Mode and thats not good for most AMD CPUs and System stability . so i switched the system clock back to 100 MHz .. CPU now only was detected as a 1,25 GHz CPU i think its because of the multiplier of 12,5 of the AMD 2800+ CPU (2,075 GHz) .. 12,5 * 100 MHz -> 1,25 GHz ; 12,5 * 166 MHz -> 2,075 GHz.. but System in Windows was stable!!! After hours of testing, gaming and burning some DVD no Problems accured.. -> the Problem never was SATA Driver or Controller :-(

but.. the strange booting Problem still happend.. when i switched on the pc next time the monitor kept blank and nothing happens (only cooler running) and the Speaker did one "knack"-sound.

BUT today Giga-Byte released NEW FC Firmware for the Rev. 2 Board.. and look at the Top Bugfixes..

Fix KINGMAX DDR 433/400 can¡¦t boot
Fix KINGSTON DDR 400 can¡¦t boot
Fix Quamtum HDD delay too much time before boot OS

k i have no kingston DDR .. but i have 400 MHz DDR and i HAD that booting Problem!! I immediately flashed the new bios.. booted up fine and i had no problems for hours again.. so i now switched back the system clock to 166 MHz.. for test. and its frightening.. system runs since 2 hours without any error at 2,075 GHz and 166 MHz! Couldn't they release that Bios 2 weeks ago???? i hate to be betatester :-( but i hope this is the happy end *g* i will post if the system does any strange things again *g*

do you think its possible to see the complete changelist of that FC Bios?

thx again for the great support you did and your commiseration :-)
one good thing after all is that i learned a lot of new english words :-)

thx
Deacon

[Spinner]

Well I'm very pleased you got it sorted. It's funny right, I've just picked up a Gigabyte board myself, not the same as yours, a KT600 based board, but I did immediately notice at 166mhz FSB (I'm actually running at 2800+ as well on that) that the voltage was a little high. I wonder if it is quite common behaviour across recent Gigabyte boards then.

As for the BIOS release, well... he he, I'm just glad they released it sooner rather than later. By the time we would have got to that part of the troubleshooting effort, this thread would have gotten very long indeed. The problem with teething flaws in early BIOS revision's is, you can't very easily pin point problems, because the essential rules of function are thrown out the window. Even if we could have pin-pointed the problem eventually to the memory and its relating clock speed, we still wouldn't have been able to do much about it, simply because it's a flaw, not an error. I must say though, you gave me the impression you had no problems with POSTing, I resolved to thinking you just had problems loading Windows. If I had realized sometimes the computer itself wouldn't actually startup, perhaps we would have got to the bottom of things sooner, still. he he. I guess that's the language gap to blame. :wink:

Nevertheless, all is well and good and if anything our troubleshooting tennis match will resolve to helping others with similar, or perhaps not so similar problems.

I also noticed there is now an 'F7' bios for earlier revisions of your boards model. This revision also seems to have the same fixes as the 'FC' bios. As for more detailed revision information, if there isn't anymore in the readme file of the BIOS pack, then you sadly probably can't find out.

Anyways, just to round things up nicely, attached is a modded version of the 'FC' bios which contains the latest SATA controller BIOS v4347.

Cheers

[Deacon]

Good Morning :-) yeah i also realized that they dindn't updated the sata bios again. i ll try your new bios.. sorry for my bad english, i tried to figure out that booting problem here on my post on the second page:

"but one thing that is very strange is that booting problem.. i think thats no driver problem here.. the system only boots 1 out of 10 times. 9 times i have a blank screen and nothing happens.. this also happens, when i try to boot the blank board without any hard drives connected.."

i never thought that was a windows only problem, cause it even hang while booting and windows showed that bluescreens not on specific points - so that i could conclude any driver problems, it just hang anywhere after a few minutes running.. I have to thank you again, cause without your help i would have gave up a week ago :-) i never had such a great discussion in a forum.

I atached some pics of the Troublemaker (PC) .. so that you see what we are talking about all the time *g*

keep on great support here..
thx
Deacon

[Straight_Man]

never had such feelings with a mb :-).. i found someone with exact the same problems in a german forum. he found out that the problem is the system-clock.. if it is 166 or above system hangs and runs very instable even during booting in that forum he said that the Board gives to much Vcore (0,5 V above standart) to the CPU in 166 MHz Mode and thats not good for most AMD CPUs and System stability . so i switched the system clock back to 100 MHz .. CPU now only was detected as a 1,25 GHz CPU i think its because of the multiplier of 12,5 of the AMD 2800+ CPU (2,075 GHz) .. 12,5 * 100 MHz -> 1,25 GHz ; 12,5 * 166 MHz -> 2,075 GHz.. but System in Windows was stable!!! After hours of testing, gaming and burning some DVD no Problems accured.. -> the Problem never was SATA Driver or Controller :-(
.
.
.
thx again for the great support you did and your commiseration :-)
one good thing after all is that i learned a lot of new english words :-)

thx
Deacon

Yeah, there is alos a voltage setting way around the CPU overvoltage in some cases, if you set voltages and CPU clocking manually-- for some boards. My MSI board also does this, but I got it to 150 MHz base by setting the voltage for CPU LOWER in BIOS than it detected and set by itself. CPU voltage is now within .02 volts of what it wants. Box is hyperstable but slower than the OC I wanted, base limit for FSB is 150 with a higher multiplier than standard. Basicly, I BYPASSED the automatic voltage and set it to be UNDERVOLTAGED by .5 volts for CPU voltage. Actual is .01-.02 under nominal for CPU and floats in that range (yes, I logged the voltages for 15 days with MBM, all of them).

Happy a BIOS fix worked, problem is with immature BIOSs, as Spinner says, they are not final and they are not nearly universally tested at release, they are tested in limited scenarios with hardware the mfr has available to test with adn knows lots of the details of. Then they hit the real world and you get things like "this, that, and the other does not work." True, mfr did not imagine that specific hardware set of major components scenario, or know enough about that specific hardware combo. In the real world, each box is unique and uniquely excentric (IE, each box has its own quirks).

John D.

[Spinner]

...In the real world, each box is unique and uniquely excentric (IE, each box has its own quirks).
Truer words have never been spoken.

Thanks for the pic's Deac', a nice looking rig. I especially like the curly SATA cable. Might have to get some of those myself. ;)

Cheers

[skunkcabbage]

Not sure about the relevance of this, but I just installed the Sil3112 drivers from windowsupdate on my machine (Asus A7N8X-deluxe), and the bloody driver doesn't work! I now have the yellow mark of doom under device manager. Perhaps Microsoft should have done a bit more quality control before releasing this patch? Any suggestions for how to un-windowsupdate my machine?

[Spinner]

Not sure about the relevance of this, but I just installed the Sil3112 drivers from windowsupdate on my machine (Asus A7N8X-deluxe), and the bloody driver doesn't work! I now have the yellow mark of doom under device manager. Perhaps Microsoft should have done a bit more quality control before releasing this patch? Any suggestions for how to un-windowsupdate my machine?
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11196

This may be why you are having troubles. If you want the latest drivers (which work) get them from the S-M downloads section. v1.0.0.40.

[HJ123]

Also, I took the liberty of modding that FB bios with the latest Serial ATA BIOS for your controller. The one contained as part of the FB bios was again a little out of date. The BIOS version I've attached to this post now carries the latest Silicon Image 3512 controller BIOS v4347. That should insure you get the best out of your controller.

Let me know if it works okay, and welcome to Short-Media. :)

Sounds like you might be able to help me:

Mobo: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, rev. 2.0; BIOS: 1007 (latest update)
Hard Drive: Seagate ST380013AS (SATA, 80 GB)
OS: WinXP Pro (fresh install on single hard drive, listed above)
SATA Controller: Silicon Image 3112

Problem: I did the F6 during setup, OS installed fine, everything seems to work, but... Under Device Manager, SCSI/RAID Controllers, I've got the yellow question mark by a generic RAID Controller listing (doesn't identify as the Silicon Image); I know that since I've got only 1 hard drive, I can't set up a RAID array of any sort (and don't want to at this time). However, on the Controll Panel, there is a listing for Silicon Image ATA Controllers; the Properties there on the Device Info tab show [controller Sil 3112 Revision 2, PCI Bus 1, Device 11, IRQ 18 (0x12)]; on the Flash BIOS tab [nothing; everything shows as "unknown"].

I have tried several times to first of all "confirm" the driver/controller installation (mobo documentation gives the "check under SCSI/RAID Controller Properties in Device Manager" route--see above, it just shows generic RAID Controller with the yellow question mark), and to do a reinstall (via the "update driver" route). Also, an updated driver for this continually shows up under "Driver Updates" on Windows Update. All to no avail. In fact, EVERY TIME I've installed/reinstalled/updated this driver, the PC freezes during WinXP boot (it clears POST on the mobo). I can't find ANY mention of SATA in the mobo BIOS, but the board supposedly natively supports SATA (thus the Silicon Image controller on-board). The machine runs fine without this, but somehow I have the feeling I'm being "cheated" by this not working the way it would appear it's supposed to.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance...

[Spinner]

I can't find ANY mention of SATA in the mobo BIOS, but the board supposedly natively supports SATA (thus the Silicon Image controller on-board). The machine runs fine without this, but somehow I have the feeling I'm being "cheated" by this not working the way it would appear it's supposed to.
Hi mate. You are making use of the SATA controller, if you weren't you wouldn't be able to run Windows at all would you? Because you're running Windows on a SATA hard disk. Which can only work on a SATA controller and your motherboard only sports one. The SI 3112. The problems you seem to be having are probably just a result of the SATA drivers not being installed properly. When you press F6 at the start of the Windows setup, it should later then prompt you to insert a driver disk, to allow it to obtain the drivers it needs to properly run the controller in question. In your case, the Silicon Image 3112 SATA controller. Did you do it like that? or did you just press F6 without giving it a driver later on?

The onboard SATA is listed as 'SCSI' in your motherboards BIOS, refering to the boot order settings. However you have obviously got it roughly setup correctly as your Windows installation on the SATA drive is booting up fine. As for your problem in Windows. Like I mentioned earlier, it sounds like you didn't correctly, if at all, supply the Windows Setup program with a disk containing the SATA 3112 controller drivers upon installation. (Correct me if I'm wrong bud.) It probably wasn't too fussy about this because you were only installing onto a single disk and not a RAID partition. Hence why you were able to install Windows onto your SATA drive and have it work ok without the proper drivers installed.

Usually downloading the drivers off Windows Update would do the trick, but seeing as the latest ones Microsoft have put up don't install correctly, it would be easier just to install them manually (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11196&goto=newpost). Download the below linked to SATA drivers from the SM-Downloads section:

http://www.short-media.com/request.php?244

Extract them, then use the 'update driver' feature in device manager (navigate to the location you extracted the files to) to give Windows the drivers it needs to properly detect, operate and run the Silicon Image 3112 SATA controller. (Update the driver in 'Safe Mode')

That should do the trick. If not, let me know.

On a side note, even though it would appear to be already enabled ('cause you're running a HD on it), for reference, you disable/enable the SATA controller on your board by way of a jumper on the motherboard it self. It's located right under the CMOS battery, just above the SATA controller chip. When the controller is enabled, its own BIOS and drive detection module, should appear during post, just before Windows usually starts to boot up.

Let us know how you get on. :)

Cheers

[Spinner]

Thanks for the reply. I haven't yet had a chance to try the new driver, but I will. Just some additional info, re: your comments/suggestions.

I realize the controller is working, since I'm obviously able to use the hard drive. I'm mostly frustrated that WinXP Pro doesn't seem to properly recognize the controller, and thus may not be making full use of the advantages of SATA. Don't really know that, just suspect.

In the BIOS, I have boot order of: FD, HD, CD. Should I try to put SCSI in there somewhere (maybe in place of the HD), even though technically it's not a SCSI drive, but just identified as such by WinXP? And, strangely--for a board that claims to natively support SATA--I can't find a SINGLE reference to SATA in the BIOS...

When I did my install of WinXP (fresh, on this new hard drive), I *did* do the F6, and supplied what appeared to be the latest driver for the SATA controller (from I believe the SI website), on floppy; it clearly showed as for the Silicon Image 3112. After that, there was never a prompt for further driver installation--WinXP did not appear to go through a "new hardware found" routine (I kinda assumed it did in the background during the install, just never prompted me for further action).

And, I *did* check the mobo SATA jumper while assembling this PC; seemed to be set correctly. Would it even work (BIOS be able to see the HD) if it wasn't?

Thanks again for your help. :usflag:
Yes, you should put SCSI as first or second boot, depending on you startup routine preference. I have your exact board in one of my PC's, and yes sadly it doesn't have any out right reference to the SATA controller in the BIOS, except under the term SCSI. Which these days is sometimes wrongly used as a basic term for third party hard disk controllers.

The controller shouldn't work when disabled on the mobo, it was just something I wanted to double check with you. Hopefully manually installing the drivers (v1.0.0.47) as linked to in my above post will sort it. If it doesn't then we'll try some other things.

Cheers :)

[HJ123]

Yes, you should put SCSI as first or second boot, depending on you startup routine preference. I have your exact board in one of my PC's, and yes sadly it doesn't have any out right reference to the SATA controller in the BIOS, except under the term SCSI. Which these days is sometimes wrongly used as a basic term for third party hard disk controllers.

The controller shouldn't work when disabled on the mobo, it was just something I wanted to double check with you. Hopefully manually installing the drivers (v1.0.0.47) as linked to in my above post will sort it. If it doesn't then we'll try some other things.

Cheers :)

Well, I tried the newer driver update you suggested--same #$%^. Hangs during boot, had to hit "reset" and choose "last good config." Maddening. :mouldy:

I'm really hoping not to have to do a reinstall of XP here--I customize my GUI quite a bit, and even though this PC is only 2 weeks old, it would be a real chore to reinstall. Especially this soon...

Any thing else you think I should try? I did set the boot order to FD, SCSI, CD, other. That part works fine. Thanks again for your help.

[Spinner]

Well, I tried the newer driver update you suggested--same #$%^. Hangs during boot, had to hit "reset" and choose "last good config." Maddening. :mouldy:

I'm really hoping not to have to do a reinstall of XP here--I customize my GUI quite a bit, and even though this PC is only 2 weeks old, it would be a real chore to reinstall. Especially this soon...

Any thing else you think I should try? I did set the boot order to FD, SCSI, CD, other. That part works fine. Thanks again for your help.
Firstly, uninstall the driver, or whatever then reboot into safe mode. Then do the following:

1) Clean out the C:\Windows\Temp directory

2) Go to the C:\Windows\system32 directory, make sure you are in detail view and right click on the header (where name, file type, date modified...is) and select more and check the box for Company. Then double click on the Company header and then delete all of the Silicon Image files in there. Do the same for the C:Windows\system32\drivers directory.

3) Go to the C:\Windows\inf directory and delete any file that starts with Silicon Image 3112 (open the inf files in notepad). Then go down to each file named oemxx.inf and open it, delete any that refer to Silicon Image 3112. Make sure that you delete the corresponding .pnf file as well.

4) Run Regcleaner (SM-Downloads). Delete any Silicon Image entries.

5) Empty the Recycle Bin.

6) Restart normally, make sure you're not connected the Internet, and then when prompted install the latest Silicon Image drivers.

Try that.

[Detectnought]

Well I'm very pleased you got it sorted. It's funny right, I've just picked up a Gigabyte board myself, not the same as yours, a KT600 based board, but I did immediately notice at 166mhz FSB (I'm actually running at 2800+ as well on that) that the voltage was a little high. I wonder if it is quite common behaviour across recent Gigabyte boards then.

As for the BIOS release, well... he he, I'm just glad they released it sooner rather than later. By the time we would have got to that part of the troubleshooting effort, this thread would have gotten very long indeed. The problem with teething flaws in early BIOS revision's is, you can't very easily pin point problems, because the essential rules of function are thrown out the window. Even if we could have pin-pointed the problem eventually to the memory and its relating clock speed, we still wouldn't have been able to do much about it, simply because it's a flaw, not an error. I must say though, you gave me the impression you had no problems with POSTing, I resolved to thinking you just had problems loading Windows. If I had realized sometimes the computer itself wouldn't actually startup, perhaps we would have got to the bottom of things sooner, still. he he. I guess that's the language gap to blame. :wink:

Nevertheless, all is well and good and if anything our troubleshooting tennis match will resolve to helping others with similar, or perhaps not so similar problems.

I also noticed there is now an 'F7' bios for earlier revisions of your boards model. This revision also seems to have the same fixes as the 'FC' bios. As for more detailed revision information, if there isn't anymore in the readme file of the BIOS pack, then you sadly probably can't find out.

Anyways, just to round things up nicely, attached is a modded version of the 'FC' bios which contains the latest SATA controller BIOS v4347.

Cheers
Just a very late addition along the same line. I'm currently building a system also using the dreaded GA-7N400 PRO2 rev.2 m/b and this is where I'm currently at :banghead:. Wouldn't you know that I've only gone and got a maxtor diamondplus 9 150sata 160GB hard drive which the bios seems totally incapable of detecting. I have tried just about everything mentioned so far, even the modded 'FC' bios from the zip file and all to no avail. The board has no problem recognising my Geforce FX5600XT graphics card, the Sony dvd rewriter or the floppy and seems happy enough with the Kingmax 512Mb 500ddr memory which claims to be downwardly compatible to the 333fsb of my AMD 2800XP cpu. It all seems to be pointing towards the Silicon Image Satalink sil3512 chip on my board or is there perhaps some way I can configure the bios to help it find the sata drive. When I follow all the instructions in the manual and try to install windows xp oem that only goes on for a little while before it tells me no hard drive is detected. Can't be short of power as the psu is 550v. A little advice would be much appreciated as I thought the build would be a hell of a lot more straightforward than this. Started with the preloaded 'FB' bios, flashed to the 'FC' bios and lastly tried the modded version. The sata drive is getting power as I can feel it spinning and I have tried using a different sata cable......any clues???

[MediaMan]

It's just something I read somewhere. By chance are you using a USB mouse? If so...try a PS/2 mouse. It may not be related but I read this with SATA PCI based raid cards. A TX4 PROMISE SATA RAID card always hung with a USB mouse attached to the system.

[Straight_Man]

It's just something I read somewhere. By chance are you using a USB mouse? If so...try a PS/2 mouse. It may not be related but I read this with SATA PCI based raid cards. A TX4 PROMISE SATA RAID card always hung with a USB mouse attached to the system.

Some boards have three USB root hubs with one stacked against SATA. Most mouse drivers like to be always on. Mouse on, SATA not on, vice versa, with some resource combos used. So, also try mouse on a different root hub. Root hubs will show up as a pair of stacked USB sockets, in one riser mounted to mobo or on one card riser with ports on it. Typically, with three root hubs, at least one will have different IRQ assignment.

In this case, try to deconflict mouse and SATA if you are trying to boot from SATA especially-- with USB mouse, change root hub you are connecting mouse to to try and deconflict. Other things that use more dedicated IRQ virtuals, like printer and scanner, can go on that hub that is conflicted. Also, try not to connect USB mouse via an external hub, if you have legacy USB support oin to get mouse before Windows is up, BIOS will lag boot trying to probe the hub to find mouse-- WHILE the SATA drive is trying to talk....


John D.

[Spinner]

Okay, before we start thinking about anything else, lets just make sure you're doing everything correctly on a basic level. Just to make sure we're all on the same page. So forgive me if you already know what I'm about to blurb.


Wouldn't you know that I've only gone and got a maxtor diamondplus 9 150sata 160GB hard drive which the bios seems totally incapable of detecting.
Firstly, you're talking about the SATA controller BIOS not being able to detect it right? Just to confirm, a SATA device plugged onto a Silicon Image controller won't show up in the motherboards primary BIOS setup, it will only be detected in the Silicon Image BIOS setup itself. This is a totally different controller BIOS setup to the standard one which controls the rest of the motherboards functions.

The Silicon Image controller BIOS will be probably the last thing you see before the computer searches for boot devices. E.g. In an ideal situation, just before the computer tries to start loading an operating system. Can you see the SI 3512 controller BIOS information pop-up when your computer is posting? If not, you may need to flip a jumper on your motherboard or something to enable it. Either way, when it's setup up correctly you should see the SI 3512 controller BIOS info flash up, and any drives plugged into it, ideally, should show up on the list.


When I follow all the instructions in the manual and try to install windows xp oem that only goes on for a little while before it tells me no hard drive is detected.
Secondly, are you pressing 'F6' at the very beginning of the Windows XP setup? You need to do this in order to instruct the setup program that the disk you want to install onto is plugged into, what is referred to as, a third party hard disk controller. It will then later on in the installation, before it comes to choosing which drive to install onto, prompt you to insert a relevant driver disk so it can start detecting drives plugged into the third party controller you previously told it you had (by pressing 'F6'). In your case, that will be for the Silicon Image 3512 SATA controller. So make sure you're doing that when trying to install Windows XP.

I apologise if the above suggestions and information is stuff you already know, but I have to make sure you're performing all the basic tasks necessary in order to get your hard drive working. Let me know you've put into practice all of the above, and that you've followed everything I've said, and then we can start having a proper think. That is presuming you're still having trouble getting your hard drive to detect. Also, the USB suggestion is definately something you should try.

So, let me know.

Thanks for your patience.

SPINNER :)

[Detectnought]

Thanks for the quick replies, first off I'm not using a usb mouse as I suspected that might overcomplicate things but I do have two extra usb connections which I've connected to the front of the case, when I get a chance in four hours time I'll disconnect them and give it another bash.

What you're telling me Spinner is something I hadn't suspected as I was sure the motherboard bios would show up the sata drive somewhere, but from what you're saying that's not the case. Yes, I have been getting the controller bios sil3512 information popup and when I've tried booting with the sata raid option enabled in the m\b bios (even though I only have one drive) I do get the option to press F4 to set up the raid I want, I try that and it just tells me it can't detect any drive and it makes me wonder can it not detect the one drive I have or is it letting me know I need two for raid.Either way, I have never seen any mention of the diamondplus drive I have connected.

In the meantime I have also tried carrying on regardless on the offchance it might detect it further down the line, to that end I have pressed F6 (on numerous occasions at this point) and loaded the drivers for sil3112 which are the ones that came with the m\b. I've scoured the net and not been able to find sil3512 drivers but from what I've read the sil3112 ones should be able to do the job, 'should' being the operative word.

Does all that help or have just muddied the waters a little more???

[Spinner]

Thanks for the quick replies, first off I'm not using a usb mouse as I suspected that might overcomplicate things but I do have two extra usb connections which I've connected to the front of the case, when I get a chance in four hours time I'll disconnect them and give it another bash.

What you're telling me Spinner is something I hadn't suspected as I was sure the motherboard bios would show up the sata drive somewhere, but from what you're saying that's not the case. Yes, I have been getting the controller bios sil3512 information popup and when I've tried booting with the sata raid option enabled in the m\b bios (even though I only have one drive) I do get the option to press F4 to set up the raid I want, I try that and it just tells me it can't detect any drive and it makes me wonder can it not detect the one drive I have or is it letting me know I need two for raid.Either way, I have never seen any mention of the diamondplus drive I have connected.

In the meantime I have also tried carrying on regardless on the offchance it might detect it further down the line, to that end I have pressed F6 (on numerous occasions at this point) and loaded the drivers for sil3112 which are the ones that came with the m\b. I've scoured the net and not been able to find sil3512 drivers but from what I've read the sil3112 ones should be able to do the job, 'should' being the operative word.

Does all that help or have just muddied the waters a little more???
The drivers for the 3512 controller and the 3112 controller are the same. So you're using the right drivers. To make sure you could download the latest from the SM-Downloads section (v1.0.0.47) and try those.

Your controller is a RAID capable controller, which is why it's called the 3512 SATA RAID controller, that doesn't mean you need to have a RAID array (i.e. two or more disk) setup before it will work. You can run individual disks fine on that controller.

If I read what you've said correctly though, you're saying that your hard drive isn't showing up at all in the SATA controller BIOS? Correct? You shouldn't even have to enter the SATA controller setup to confirm this, as any hard drives detected will be listed upon POST when the controller information flashes up.

So if that is the case, and your hard drive isn't showing up detected on your SATA controller, i.e. it doesn't list it, then the problem would be with the controller and the disk, not the drivers and Windows XP.

I suggest you try different jumper settings on your hard drive (even though it really shouldn't make any difference under normal circumstances) and double check the drives peripheral connectivity e.g. Swap out your SATA cable, try a different SATA port, etc etc. Also remove any un-essential devices from your system, e.g. PCI Modem etc for testing purposes.

I'm going away for a few days in a few hours so I'll leave you from this point in, in the capable hands of my colleagues. Hopefully by the time I get back (Monday or Tuesday) you'll have it sorted, if not, I'll have a think what else we can try for when I get back.

Try the things I've suggested, and then post back.

Cheers :)

[Detectnought]

Thnx for that, I'll be going home in a couple of hours and will be tinkering around with what you have suggested. Hopefully just something simple I'm overlooking. If nothing else I'll get really familiarised with the guts of this pc I'm trying to breathe some life into!!!! :thumbsup:

[albert58]

If time is money, I have wasted far too much plus hours of lost sleep trying to get the the Silicon Image SATA 3112 card to work without my PC constantly hanging.
I tried updating both motherboard and card bios, installed the latest drivers and trawled through all the forums I could find which was all a total waste of time.
I went out and threw $70 at a Western Digital SATA RAID controller and 10 minutes out of the box and everything is working perfectly and has been for days.

[Spinner]

If time is money, I have wasted far too much plus hours of lost sleep trying to get the the Silicon Image SATA 3112 card to work without my PC constantly hanging.
I tried updating both motherboard and card bios, installed the latest drivers and trawled through all the forums I could find which was all a total waste of time.
I went out and threw $70 at a Western Digital SATA RAID controller and 10 minutes out of the box and everything is working perfectly and has been for days.
Well that's one way to get things working. What's that old phrase...

"You get what you pay for". :)

[Detectnought]

Just a final update in case someone else reads this thread and wonders what the resolution to my problem was. Having determined that the SATA hard drive itself was not at fault that left the finger of blame pointing at the motherboard. I returned it to the online supplier who tested it, found it to be faulty and sent me another one as a replacement. This one was up and running in five minutes using the preinstalled FB bios and the SATA drivers copied from the cd onto a floppy as requested by the manual. This is how it was all meant to be first time round. Good news: PC up and running. Bad news: it took two weeks of trying everything before finally realising it was the m\b, another week for it to be tested and found to be faulty.............C'est la vie!!

[Adrock432]

Just thought I would had my experience so far to the list of unhappy GigaByte
customers.

I bought a new setup, in parts including the GA-K8NNXP, hoping to set my
new computer up in raid (two seagate 80GB drives) but haven't even been
able to get any OS to install.

It detects my raid setup correctly, using the Silicon Image 1.0.0.50 drivers
latest available) but hangs every time when trying to copy the files over.
I have tried every imaginable bios setting /driver combo/OS version to no
avail. Many of my friends work in the IT industry and have had a go as well.
The motherboard bios is fully up to date as well.

I have now taken to rig back to the store I bought the parts at and if they
can't get it going then I'm going to ditch the motherboard and never touch
anything with GigaByte written on it. With the number of problems people
here have been having I'd be suprised if anyone would. From now on it's
Abit/Asus/Aopen for me, all brands which I've used before without a single
problem (I'm currently still running an Aopen AX6BC which I've had for 5
years without any drama).

Adam.

[AndyB]

Well I thought I would add my name to the list.

Same issue here, 7n400-Pro2 Rev2.0 board with a Seagate 200GB SATA drive. Just hangs when copying files on/off etc. For the moment just back on my old HD.

Got latest mobo bios/SATA driver (tried old drivers too) and nothing changes.

I'm about to smash the drive. Tried disabling everything I could in bios to ensure no IRQ conflicts etc and no change.

If anyone has any idea, please!!!

Cheers

[AndyB]

Just wanted to say thanks spinner!

Flashed your modified FB bios to my 7n400 Pro2 (rev2) and all seems well so far (only 5 mins of testing). I'm happy as long as this continues to work, but there isn't a chance you could add this SATA bios to the newer FF bios?

FINALLY an answer! Why on earth dont gigabye include this SATA bios with the official bios's? Argghhh

Anyway, Thanks heaps!

Cheers

Edit: Just for the record and anyone else I'm using the latest 1.1.0.52 drivers from the gigabyte website

[Wormwood]

Hi I,m also having a problem with the SIL3512 SATA raid controller, I recently bought a shuttle barebones (SN85G4v2) with a single sata drive Maxtor Diamondback 160gig.
The Sata controller bios shows the drive but everytime I attempt to install controllers for it during winxp set up it returns an unable to read setuptxt.oem file.
I finally resorted to temporarily installing an ata hard drive and installing windows on that. From there i managed to install the drivers and format and label the sata drive.

My only concern now is if i install windows across to the sata driver will i still need to install the raid controllers still in order to boot from the sata drive?

Sorry if I'm a bit vague on details but i can fill in any when i get home later.

[Drukkie]

Hi there guys....

I've got the same problem as the originator of this thread.....sort of :(

My mobo is the Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro s
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoar...A-K8N%20Pro.htm

I've setup 2 80 GB sata drives in mirror mode. This works fine and boots up fine.
My problem come when i want to connect my other 2 160 GB hDD SATA. From what i understand you can have either 2 drives in raid or 2 drives in basic mode sil3512 , so i bought a seperate PCI SATA controller. With my luck it was a sil3112. as soon as windows picks up the new raid card it gives the IRQ_LESS_OR EQUAL BSOD.

I've tried changing PCI IRQ 2 to something else but it always seems that the onboard raid controller want's to share the damn IRQ with my PCI add-on? I don't want to disable the APC of the mobo as this causes a lot of problems down the road.

I'm going to try and reinstall with the PCI card from scratch this weekend but any suggestions would help a lot.

I'm also going to upgrade all by bios's :wtf:

[scoby56]

I have the 'boots one time out of ten' problem with my PCI 4 Sata channel raid controller (sil 3114), bios ver 5.0.34. on the silicon image web site i can only find ide bios updates. can anyone point me in the direction of a SATA Bios update for this controller. im running xp which is installed on Raid 0 setup.
AMD 2000XP
Mobo = AsRock
768mb
2x80gig maxtor sata in raid 0
1x200gig seagate
Radeon 9800XT
Pci Wireless card.
Ethernet (on mobo)

Once into windows in seems to freeze (sometimes still have mouse cursor movemen sometimes not) at totally randome timescales, requires restart.

If no update is available any suggetions on what to try?

[Menippos]

I have the GA-7N400 Pro2 Rev1 mobo with BIOS F11.
I follow the much-described procedure, putting the drivers in a floppy, setting the BIOS to SATA and BASE, and all.
I boot and press F6 when prompted, choose the right driver for the SATA controller for XP, proceed to install Windows, it finds and formats the drive, it copies the required files for the installation and it does its required reboot.
But here is the problem: As soon as it reboots, the drivers are lost, and it starts the whole process from the beginning. That is, re-installation of SATA controller drivers, re-formatting, re-copying the files, re-rebooting and so on...
What in the name of Mr. Bean am I doing wrong? :confused: