I tried unplugging all my hard drives except one and the new serial drive, just to see if I needed more power. My power supply is 480 watts. It is an Antec power supply. Thatmade no difference.I do not know what to think.
The drive worked on fiends PC. I odered a new controller.
I probably don't have to tell you how notoriously bad those Gigabyte boards are for SATA, but I would always suggest you run your controller in RAID mode, not base. That essentially just means it's fully turned on, it doesn't mean you have to have two disks and be running a RAID array. But either way, let us know how you get on with your new controller.
You want it like Tmod said, so you can see the SI3x12 BIOS dialogue pop up during post, just before it starts searching for a boot CD/floppy/parition. If you can see that dialogue flash up, that means you're running the controller in RAID mode.
alrght now, what t hell! I got a new controller and it still isnt even recognized! Remeber that it works in a friends computer. All I can think of is that m power supply isnt supplying proper requirements. I ordereda i serr power adapter. My power supply only has 1 serial power plug. I am going to try using a known good ide power plug. Any other suggestions are very welcome, I am beginning to get frustrated!
In reference to the above post; putting it in raid mode still makes no difference . I must either have something that is defective or I am just being ignorant....
I have noticed that serveral people have been helped on this forum and I thought I would give it a try. I have the dreaded Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro 2 Rev 2 Motherboard. I currently have the FK bios installed. My Serial ATA is enabled and set to BASE. I have my boot options set to cdrom first and scsi second. I downloaded some drivers from Silicon Images Website and used them to install windows on a Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm -36.7GB drive. The drivers allowed me to see the drive from Windows 2000 Setup utility and to format the drive and copy over the installation files. I believe that my SIL 3512A chipset bios is at version 4.3.33. When I reboot my machine after going through the windows 2000 setup process the computer doesnt boot the hard drive. I get a blinking cursor like its ready to boot but doesnt. The drive is showing up in the bios when the Silicon Images screen comes up in serial ata device 0. Does anyone know why I can make the first step of the Windows 2000 process see the drive but after that it would boot from that drive? Any help would be greatly appreciated. After reading this forum I believe I will need to use tmod or spinners modded bios for the motherboard. Then couple that with the newest windows drivers from the downloads section here at Short-Media. Which ones do I want to use for the onboard chipset on the GA-7N400 Pro 2 Rev. 2? Thanks for the help.
I does not have a SATA option in the order selection. To tell you the truth I am not sure if scsi includes SATA or not. I would need to do some research to see if scsi does or does not include SATA. I was under the impression from other posts and forums that SCSI was the correct option to choose when using SATA, I will look for some documentation on it.
It looks like there is another boot option called:
scsi/raid control boot order
where the only thing listed is the Silicon Image Raid Controller Card
Then choosing SCSI trys to boot from this list I am assuming.
It looks like there is another boot option called:
scsi/raid control boot order
where the only thing listed is the Silicon Image Raid Controller Card
Then choosing SCSI trys to boot from this list I am assuming.
Yeah that's right. For a start I would flash to the latest BIOS for your board, with the latest SI 3512 BIOS, see attached.
Obviously make sure everything is as it should be in your BIOS like Tmod suggested. Make sure like you said to associate your SATA controller with the SCSI boot option, and make sure it's second only in the boot order to the CDROM.
alrght now, what t hell! I got a new controller and it still isnt even recognized! Remeber that it works in a friends computer. All I can think of is that m power supply isnt supplying proper requirements. I ordereda i serr power adapter. My power supply only has 1 serial power plug. I am going to try using a known good ide power plug. Any other suggestions are very welcome, I am beginning to get frustrated!
Make sure 'boot from a third party controller' is enabled in your mobo BIOS.
With this PCI card SATA solution, do you see a device listing dialogue associated with this new controller upon post? or do you just get nothing clarifying the card or the drives existence?
Did you use a different SATA cable when you tried your drive in your friends system?
Turns out to be a driver issue, I emailed Giga-byte my issue and they sent me thier drivers for the SATA chip on the motherboard. I went ahead and used Tmod's modded BIOS for KJ on the 7N400 Pro 2 Rev 2. Thank you guys so very much for all the help and quick responces. It was greatly appreciated.
I tried both of my cables that I have, on his pc ,and his cables. It worked with all of them on his. WHen I installed drivers for the onboard raid controller, it showed the controller during boot process and listed it under device management. The same with the pci card I bought. I cant even get the drive to be recognized at all in disk management or buring boot process , (or bios for that matter).
Ack! I wrote a really long thing and lost it all. Sigh.
Very short version of what I had originally typed...
I have a GA-7N400 Pro2 revision 1 board. I got a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200gb 16mb cache SATA drive and tried to use it. It didn't work and kept freezing Windows 2003 Server before getting to the startup screen. After lots of fiddling, and loading the BIOS Spinner did here, I found a way to actually use the drive, but it is a long and complex process that isn't what I want. This is the only way it will work from a hard shutdown however.
a) unplug the drive
b) go into BIOS and select BASE
c) load the system using a saved profile with the SATALink drivers (note: the drive does NOT get recognized in the SATALink BIOS screen)
d) once the system is logged in and running, plug the drive in
e) restart the computer via Start menu
f) go into BIOS and select RAID
g) load the system using a saved profile with the SATARAID drivers (note: the drive IS detected in SATARAID BIOS screen when this is done)
h) use the system fine with the drive
Now, things to note are that when the system is shut down and cold booted, it doesn't matter which setting it is on, (BASE or RAID,) the SATA BIOS doesn't recognize a drive at all, meaning there is no way I can boot from that drive, (which is what I want.) Once the drive is recognized in windows however, I can restart and it will then be recognized in the SATA BIOS and start up fine so long as I have it set to RAID, (setting it to BASE will freeze it still, as will setting it to RAID and then trying to plug it in when cold booting.)
Does anyone have any ideas as to what it can be and if there is a way to fix this? What I really want to do is boot from the SATA drive, which I technically could do now, but if I have to shut the computer down for whatever reason, I wouldn't be able to boot it back up, which obviously is no good.
I tried both of my cables that I have, on his pc ,and his cables. It worked with all of them on his. WHen I installed drivers for the onboard raid controller, it showed the controller during boot process and listed it under device management. The same with the pci card I bought. I cant even get the drive to be recognized at all in disk management or buring boot process , (or bios for that matter).
Make sure you disable the onboard solution in the mobo BIOS so you know exactly what you're looking at upon POST.
Also, remove any PCI cards (with the exception obviously of the SATA controller), and also try the PCI SATA card in a few PCI slots as well.
Have you managed to confirm yet whether the drive is recieving power? Can you hear it spin up? (forgive me if you've already answered that).
Have you got a SATA to PATA adapter you can use to test the drive on the standard onboard PATA controller? That would be usefull to clarify exactly what the problem is. You can pick them up for a few quid if you haven't.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what it can be and if there is a way to fix this? What I really want to do is boot from the SATA drive, which I technically could do now, but if I have to shut the computer down for whatever reason, I wouldn't be able to boot it back up, which obviously is no good.
The thing is, what you are trying to do is such a simple thing, the problem is your motherboard... in fact, let me re-phrase that... the problem is GIGABYTE.
As I've said before, look around these forums alone and you'll see that 99% of all SATA related issues are when using this controller type on GIGABYTE boards. I've setup dozens of machines using the same chipsets and SATA controllers and various motherboard models and makes and all without a hitch.
GIGABYTE consumer level motherboards are very poor quality and are ridddled with problems like this, basic fundemental problems which shouldn't ever happen.
As we are doing, we can try and find some quirky way to get the damn thing working for you, the way it should, but at the end of the day, this isn't an end user issue (i.e. your not not doing things right), this is a hardware issue. It's not the Silicon Image controllers, it's not the mobo's chipset, it's GIGABYTE, the people who connect those two things together.
The day they stop putting monkeys and soldering irons in the same room together is the day they'll start making useable motherboards.
I am getting sick of this board anyways. I think my cpu is about to go south anyways. I have had this board and a barton 400 fsb 3000+ since they first came out. I had it clocked up to 2.6 . My temps are dramatically higher lately. Having it clocked normal, its temps are 54 celcius. I even went and bought a swiftech mcx462-v with a 92 mm tornado fan for it. It didnt help temps one bit and is louder than ever. What are peoples opinions on either an FX53 or an amd 4000? What are peoples suggestions for boards for these? I am really not trying to spend a ton on DDR2 right now. I am wanting to just use my 1gig of corsair dualchannel ddr400. Any suggestions? I would want the board to work with the aforementioned Maxline 3 (300gig sata 150 drive) I have been having problems with. I see that the 4000 go fo 689 US dollars on newegg right now (oem)
I am getting sick of this board anyways. I think my cpu is about to go south anyways. I have had this board and a barton 400 fsb 3000+ since they first came out. I had it clocked up to 2.6 . My temps are dramatically higher lately. Having it clocked normal, its temps are 54 celcius. I even went and bought a swiftech mcx462-v with a 92 mm tornado fan for it. It didnt help temps one bit and is louder than ever. What are peoples opinions on either an FX53 or an amd 4000? What are peoples suggestions for boards for these? I am really not trying to spend a ton on DDR2 right now. I am wanting to just use my 1gig of corsair dualchannel ddr400. Any suggestions? I would want the board to work with the aforementioned Maxline 3 (300gig sata 150 drive) I have been having problems with. I see that the 4000 go fo 689 US dollars on newegg right now (oem)
My mobo recommendations would be just to stick with MSI, ABIT or ASUS, as in my opinion you can't go far wrong with them. The most important thing to remember though is... don't buy GIGABYTE.
If you want recommendations for new gear then please start a new thread in general hardware. You'll get a better response and wider opinions that way. Thanks mate.
Sorry we seem to have struck a dead end with your HD detection problem. Try a few of the things I suggested above though, we're not totally out of options yet.
is ok. I appreciate the fact that people offered suggestions. I am going to try it on my asus server when I can get out to it on monday. (It is located at another house 30 minutes away)
My problem is that I need the features. Other boards don't seem to offer all the features that Gigabyte offers, which is why I changed from ASUS and Abit to them many years ago. Other than this issue, I've never had a problem with them either. As it stands, I can't afford to upgrade and won't be able to for months at the very least. None of the other AthlonXP boards offer everything that I need, (I need at least 10 hd slots, etc, which although some of the new Althon64 and Intel boards offer, I haven't seen any others for the AthlonXP that do, along with everything else I need, USB, Firewire, etc,) which is why, at least for the time being, I really want to try to find a solution to this. When the new NForce4 or VIA boards are actually released with the ability to use NCQ, (which are supposed to be out like 1st quarter this year or something,) then hopefully by then I'll have enough money for a new CPU/motherboard, (most likely I'll need to buy new DDR2 RAM and PCI-E video card too, which is totally lame.) But that won't be till later unfortunately.
Comments
Did you install the drivers for it or are you saying the drive doesn't even show up on the boot screen?
You should see a seperate screen for the SATA portion of the board during the boot cycle.
Yes the drivers for the controller (onboard) are installed. I used the ones included on the motherboard driver cd.
It looks for the drive during bootup, but says no drive found . It is xp pro.
The only other option is a setting in the bios or a dead drive.
Although I have never heard of someone getting a hard drive that is not even recognizable in the bios bootup screen.
You want it like Tmod said, so you can see the SI3x12 BIOS dialogue pop up during post, just before it starts searching for a boot CD/floppy/parition. If you can see that dialogue flash up, that means you're running the controller in RAID mode.
Keep us posted.
Cheers.
ArmondoGates
Or does the SCSI select SCSI as well as the SATA drive?
scsi/raid control boot order
where the only thing listed is the Silicon Image Raid Controller Card
Then choosing SCSI trys to boot from this list I am assuming.
Onboard H/W Serial ATA= Enabled
Serial ATA function= Raid
Onboard H/W Raid= Enabled
GigaRaid function= Raid
After you've flashed, try running the setup from scratch, but this time using these drivers : http://www.short-media.com/download.php?d=326. v1.0.0.51.
Obviously make sure everything is as it should be in your BIOS like Tmod suggested. Make sure like you said to associate your SATA controller with the SCSI boot option, and make sure it's second only in the boot order to the CDROM.
Try all the above and then post back.
Cheers
With this PCI card SATA solution, do you see a device listing dialogue associated with this new controller upon post? or do you just get nothing clarifying the card or the drives existence?
Did you use a different SATA cable when you tried your drive in your friends system?
Very short version of what I had originally typed...
I have a GA-7N400 Pro2 revision 1 board. I got a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200gb 16mb cache SATA drive and tried to use it. It didn't work and kept freezing Windows 2003 Server before getting to the startup screen. After lots of fiddling, and loading the BIOS Spinner did here, I found a way to actually use the drive, but it is a long and complex process that isn't what I want. This is the only way it will work from a hard shutdown however.
a) unplug the drive
b) go into BIOS and select BASE
c) load the system using a saved profile with the SATALink drivers (note: the drive does NOT get recognized in the SATALink BIOS screen)
d) once the system is logged in and running, plug the drive in
e) restart the computer via Start menu
f) go into BIOS and select RAID
g) load the system using a saved profile with the SATARAID drivers (note: the drive IS detected in SATARAID BIOS screen when this is done)
h) use the system fine with the drive
Now, things to note are that when the system is shut down and cold booted, it doesn't matter which setting it is on, (BASE or RAID,) the SATA BIOS doesn't recognize a drive at all, meaning there is no way I can boot from that drive, (which is what I want.) Once the drive is recognized in windows however, I can restart and it will then be recognized in the SATA BIOS and start up fine so long as I have it set to RAID, (setting it to BASE will freeze it still, as will setting it to RAID and then trying to plug it in when cold booting.)
Does anyone have any ideas as to what it can be and if there is a way to fix this? What I really want to do is boot from the SATA drive, which I technically could do now, but if I have to shut the computer down for whatever reason, I wouldn't be able to boot it back up, which obviously is no good.
Also, remove any PCI cards (with the exception obviously of the SATA controller), and also try the PCI SATA card in a few PCI slots as well.
Have you managed to confirm yet whether the drive is recieving power? Can you hear it spin up? (forgive me if you've already answered that).
Have you got a SATA to PATA adapter you can use to test the drive on the standard onboard PATA controller? That would be usefull to clarify exactly what the problem is. You can pick them up for a few quid if you haven't.
As I've said before, look around these forums alone and you'll see that 99% of all SATA related issues are when using this controller type on GIGABYTE boards. I've setup dozens of machines using the same chipsets and SATA controllers and various motherboard models and makes and all without a hitch.
GIGABYTE consumer level motherboards are very poor quality and are ridddled with problems like this, basic fundemental problems which shouldn't ever happen.
As we are doing, we can try and find some quirky way to get the damn thing working for you, the way it should, but at the end of the day, this isn't an end user issue (i.e. your not not doing things right), this is a hardware issue. It's not the Silicon Image controllers, it's not the mobo's chipset, it's GIGABYTE, the people who connect those two things together.
The day they stop putting monkeys and soldering irons in the same room together is the day they'll start making useable motherboards.
If you want recommendations for new gear then please start a new thread in general hardware. You'll get a better response and wider opinions that way. Thanks mate.
Sorry we seem to have struck a dead end with your HD detection problem. Try a few of the things I suggested above though, we're not totally out of options yet.
Cheers
If you haven't done so already try making a small partition (10gb) on the SATA drive and make it active.
I may have asked already but is the drive on channel 0?
Tmod
As for the drive, yeah, it is on channel 0.
I need one of you to try out a different bios for me. I have the drivers with the bios flash and I ask that you use them.
Either of you game?
You must be using the internal SATA controller.
Tmod