Boot Up Problems

WingaWinga MrSouth Africa Icrontian
edited April 2006 in Science & Tech
I have finally managed to load windows and most of the appropriate drivers onto a new rig I have recently built. The details of this can be found here: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43276
I am experiencing 2 problems...

1) HotBoot/ColdBoot
When I restart the computer in windows it hangs just before the black Windows XP startup screen. If I boot-up cold from the start button it does not do that. It does however take ages to boot into windows from there.

2) Raid Driver
I am unable to find or load a Raid driver. When the computer boots up it indicates that it has found new hardware, then says that it was unable to load the appropriate drivers and the device may not be working properly.
The funny thing is that it does not apperar as a conflict in device manager.

Please note that I have not enabled the raid array.
I did not want my harddrives configured with RAID.
I have 2 80gig Maxtor SATA II HD's.

Any advice on resolving my problems will be appreciated.

Comments

  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    UPDATE:

    I have managed to sort out problem number 2 by disabling the SATA controller in the BIOS.

    Can anyone give me an idea whether the first problem is a windows problem or something that may be fixable in the BIOS. I have spoken to a few computer techs and they say they have not come across this problem before :wtf::scratch:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    Run msconfig and enable the bootlogger (see pic). Maybe we can spot the stinker in there. :)
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Thanks for the help Prof.
    I have enabled the bootlogger. Where do I look for the results?

    Now even when I boot from cold, the PC hangs on the windows XP screen and refuses to load from there. Even pressing Ctrl Alt Del does not reboot. It just freezes. The only way I get into windows now is through safe mode. Even then it hangs for about 2 minutes after loading the Mup.sys file. Eventually it clicks over into the welcome screen.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    Winga wrote:
    ...I have enabled the bootlogger. Where do I look for the results?
    Look in C:\Windows for a file named ntbtlog.txt

    Attach a copy here and I'll have a look. :)
    Now even when I boot from cold, the PC hangs on the windows XP screen and refuses to load from there. Even pressing Ctrl Alt Del does not reboot. It just freezes. The only way I get into windows now is through safe mode. Even then it hangs for about 2 minutes after loading the Mup.sys file. Eventually it clicks over into the welcome screen.
    When you say "most of the appropriate drivers" does that include all of your chipset drivers?

    Another thing you might try for tersting purposes is to shutdown and unplug all of your USB devices, then see if the boot process goes normally.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    This log is a mile long!!!!!

    I only included a small part of it as it already tells quite a damning story :(
    I will wait for your feedback before making a comment on "all the appropriate drivers" :-/

    Service Pack 2 1 1 2005 00:29:32.500
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
    Loaded driver ACPI.sys
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\WMILIB.SYS
    Loaded driver pci.sys
    Loaded driver isapnp.sys
    Loaded driver ohci1394.sys
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\1394BUS.SYS
    Loaded driver pciide.sys
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS
    Loaded driver MountMgr.sys
    Loaded driver ftdisk.sys
    Loaded driver dmload.sys
    Loaded driver dmio.sys
    Loaded driver PartMgr.sys
    Loaded driver VolSnap.sys
    Loaded driver atapi.sys
    Loaded driver disk.sys
    Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS
    Loaded driver fltmgr.sys
    Loaded driver sr.sys
    Loaded driver KSecDD.sys
    Loaded driver Ntfs.sys
    Loaded driver NDIS.sys
    Loaded driver Mup.sys
    Did not load driver ACPI Uniprocessor PC
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Realtek AC'97 Audio
    Did not load driver NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
    Did not load driver Communications Port
    Did not load driver ECP Printer Port
    Did not load driver MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
    Did not load driver Standard Game Port
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Realtek AC'97 Audio
    Did not load driver SMCWPCI-G 54Mbps Wireless PCI adapter
    Did not load driver Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
    Did not load driver NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator
    Did not load driver Communications Port
    Did not load driver ECP Printer Port
    Did not load driver MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device
    Did not load driver Standard Game Port
    Did not load driver Audio Codecs
    Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
    Did not load driver Media Control Devices
    Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
    Did not load driver Video Codecs
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
    Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
    Did not load driver Direct Parallel
    Did not load driver Processor
    Did not load driver Realtek AC'97 Audio
    Did not load driver SMCWPCI-G 54Mbps Wireless PCI adapter
    Did not load driver Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    Go ahead and include the whole thing as an attachment.

    For what it's worth, most (if not all) of that Did not load driver... stuff is normal. What we'll be looking for is something that says "Failed".
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Here's the attachment.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    I would be willing to bet that your boot problem is due to having the SATA Controller disabled. If you're using two SATA drives you're going to need that. Even if you're not using the RAID capability you will probably need to load some of the drivers related to the controller itself - even if you used the floppy when you first installed Windows.

    Try re-enabling the SATA Controller and make sure you have the latest drivers. Note that some of the chipset drivers warn you: To avoid crashing file system, please do update the chipset driver before updating Bios version 1006 or later, so make sure you have a recent BIOS version.

    You have some other missing drivers related to the MB which you're going to need. I don't see an AGP driver and other things like that loading, for example.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    I have eventually resorted to re-installing windows and this has brought on a new problem.
    The 2 SATA II drives show up in the BIOS and They must be working okay because I managed to load windows on them previously.
    Now I get to the windows installation screen where it allows you to partition the drives or install the operating system. No matter what option I choose from there it just freezes. The HD light stays on and it refuses to load anything from there out.

    It allows me to load the SATA drivers from the floppy disk that gets made from the ASUS Driver CD. Without that windows setup doesn't recognise any hard drives at all.

    I am desperate for a solution as I have spent two days battling with this and am no closer to getting my rig up and running :(
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    What version of the BIOS do you have?
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    I think it's version 5.1.39 at least that's what it shows on the bootup screen just before it prompts you to go into the RAID configuration menu.
    (SiI 3114 SATA RAID Bios Version 5.1.39)
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    I mean the BIOS for the MB. There are some drivers they tell you not to use if you have some versions of the BIOS. Hit the {Pause} key as soon as the computer starts and see if you can spot the version and/or the date it was released. :)
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Phoenix Award BIOS v6.00PG
    ACPI BIOS Revision 1009

    I have used the drivers from the disk provided although I have downloaded the newer versions from the net as you directed and are keen to use them. If I am able to update the BIOS I would like to try that although it seems I need some sort of operating system in place to do that. There does not seem to be a facility within the BIOS to do so.

    I have not asked Larry what HDD he used, as he seemed to have no problem with his setup. Then again he's forgotten more things about computers than I know :D
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    Your current BIOS is the latest non-Beta version, so I'd stick with that. For future reference, the best way to update the BIOS is to run the flash program from a bootable floppy - no OS required on the drive. (No drive required, for that matter.)

    I'd try to see if you can get through the Windows installation again using the updated drivers for the SATA Controller via the F6 method.

    Another thing which would be worth a shot is to drop all the settings in the BIOS to "slow" levels. You can bump things up to "high performance" once you get things going and have all your drivers installed.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    I have tried with the drivers on the disk as well as the new drivers that I got off the ASUS web site. No Go :( I am beginning to fear it may be an incompatibility problem.

    Speaking to a few techies that I know they suggest I try load windows onto a new IDE HDD I have lying around then once windows is installed try installing the 2 SATA drives and cloning the date from the IDE HDD to the SATA drive. Do you suggest I try that?
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    I am happy to report, that after slapping a good ol' fashioned IDE HDD into my rig she loaded windows without a hitch. All the drivers are installed and there are no conflicts. She feels smooth and is very quick.

    Now for phase II.
    I am going to install the two Sata drives again, this time using windows to help me. If I manage to get them up and running and they show up as healthy drives I shall attemp to reload widows on them, remove the IDE and hopefully that will be the last of my problems.

    If you forsee any pitfalls in this line of attack or have another suggestion, pleeese let me know before I tackle this. :banghead:
  • EssoEsso Stockholm, Sweden
    edited April 2006
    When I tried to install Xp on my PC (DFI Ultra D) on the SATA2 drive with one IDE drive connected, I had some problem.

    The solution was to disable the IDE drive in the Bios setup.
    Since this was the first time for me I didn't try to change the boot order.

    Also at the first start up duriing XP installation (first picture), hit the key F6 immediatley.
    And install the SATA drivers for your mothertboard.
    Wait until it requests the floppy, it takes an minute or so.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Glad you got it sorted. Some of the newer motherboards, Intel and AMD, with their multiple drivess format can be problematic to set up. Many boards these days have up to three different drives controllers - primary IDE, secondary IDE (RAID chip), and an SATA controller. These boards can be stinkers at first OS installation.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Mike
    I beleive your whole problem lies in the BIOS setup. You did clear it as I asked previously??? There are several places in the BIOS on your board for configuring the HD's and their controllers. Are you going to use RAID? I would actually advise not to. For now go ahead and see if you can get the SATA drives going from in Windows. You will need to Initialize them in "Disk Management". Right clik on 'My Computer' > Manage > Storage (in big box on right) > Disk Management (also on right). When you get there a box should open asking you to initalize the new drives.
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Thanks for the tips and advice guys. Larry - yes, I did reset the BIOS.
    I will not be surprised if my problem isn't sitting in the BIOS somewhere. My inexperience and a complex MB has given me many long hours of frustration :banghead:

    I have tried to get the SATA drives running from windows with limited success.
    It picks it up in windows as 74.5 gigs allocated. If I choose to partition it, it allows Primary or Extended. (Logical is greyed out) In both options, when I want to partition the drive it only allows me 10 748 megs maximum.
    No matter which of the two options I choose, when I finish the wizard, the computer just hangs at this stage and does not finish the partitioning.

    If I dont partition the drive and ask it to allocate the full 74 gigs (primary) it allows me to reformat it. Formatting takes exceptionally long...3 hours for an 80Gig sata II HDD? Once that is done it shows up as a healthy drive and I can use it!!!
    However this sucks as I only wanted to allocate 20-25 gigs for the OS.

    I'm going to disable the IDE drive now and see if I can load windows onto the SATA drive. Will let you know how that works out :eek:
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Well that didn't work at all.
    It seems I am stuck at this stage with the OS on an IDE HDD and my backup and storage on the SATA II. That's the exact opposite to what I wanted, but at least it works.

    Will I see a noticible difference in performance if I kept it that way????
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Well this confirms my drives have an incompatibility problem.
    http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=articles&go=read&arc_id=59

    My search has also brought up a few forums that have addressed this problem.
    http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php/t14267.html (see especially the last few posts)
    It seems no real solution has yet been found. I'm taking the drives back to the store I bought them from and swapping them out for another brand. I don't see why I should set the drives to SATA I when I paid for II. :rant:

    So to date my Rig is still not up and running. Oh well, they say all good things come to those who wait. I'm sure the end result will be worth it :rockon:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    It sounds like you're on the right track. Good luck with the new drives. :)
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    You won't see much of a difference between SATA and SATA 3.0 (or II). Most STA 3.0 drives will also need to be enabled via a firmware tool from the drive maufacturer. Get Seagate or Western Digital drives and be done with it
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    Larry you are a sage man. Sometimes we have to bump our heads before we willing to listen :D
    I insisted on replacing my bum drives with a SATA II because that is what I paid for. The only drive they had in stock was a 160Gig Hitachi.

    I popped that in the rig and it loaded everything up without a hitch. She is up and running and performing like a dream. :celebrate

    The only problem I now have is the partitioning of the HDD. In my initial windows setup, I partitioned 32 Gigs for the OS and other miscelaneous stuff.
    I went into Disk Management to partition the unallocated section into another 2 drives and it will only allow 8 megs or the whole drive :(
    So now I am sitting with 32 Gigs and 128 Gigs as opposed to the 32,48 and 80 that I wanted.

    Right now I can live with that unless anyone knows how to get around that one.
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2006
    Winga wrote:
    Larry you are a sage man...
    I'll second that. :respect:
    ...Right now I can live with that unless anyone knows how to get around that one.
    A program like Partition Magic will take care of partitions with data on them. If the partition is empty (or you can move data to another partition and make it empty) you could delete it and try again. What did you get when you tried to create a new partition in the free space?
  • WingaWinga Mr South Africa Icrontian
    edited April 2006
    It didn't allow me to make a partition bigger than 8 megs on the second part of the drive.
    When I initially installed the drive I partitioned it in windows setup for 32 Gigs. The rest I left with the intention of splitting it into two extra partitions when windows was loaded, using Disk Management. Well it didn't want to know my troubles.

    I have made peace with that and am now happy to report that I have a healthy and very slick Rig that is just begging to be put through it's paces.

    It had to happen to a complete NooB that the two hard drives I initially got for the system were incompatible. :banghead:

    On the bright side.......(although at the time I didn't think there was one) I have learned a lot about Raid and the different arrays. I printed all 52 pages of the NVIDIA Raid users guide and have studied it from cover to cover.
    I can load Windows in my sleep I have had to reload it so many times and I have come to learn what a lot of the functions in the BIOS are for, which I would not have done if the initial setup had gone off without a hitch.

    Most importantly...I fixed it myself. I was determined not to call in any professional help. :rockon: Now that it's all sorted, I can unglue myself from my monitor and reacquaint myself with my family........ :vimp:
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