Inexplicable PC Problem: Genius required

Tristan · 08-11-2004, 17:41

I'm hoping someone on here will be able to help, as this one has me completely flummoxed...

I've got an ASUS A7V8X motherboard with a built-in Promise SATA RAID controller. There are currently two drives connected to this, and I also have another HDD attached to one of the regular IDE controllers.

I should point out that I built this system myself a couple of months ago (though the M/B is from an older system), and when I turned it off last night, there was not a single problem. It was running *perfectly*.

So imagine my surprise today when I turned it on to find that it wouldn't boot up. In fact, it wouldn't even get as far as trying to get into Windows: it froze at the POST screen, just after checking the IDEs. So I went into the BIOS menu and reset the config data to defaults. No joy. Okay. I changed the RAM with some I had spare. No good. I removed all PCI cards except the graphics card. Still didn't work.

Now, the A7V8X BIOS has a built-in flashing utility. I could get into this without any trouble, so I fired up someone elses PC and downloaded the latest BIOS (which was the same as the one installed, but what's the harm?). It flashed perfectly well, but didn't help. In desperation, I downloaded the latest beta BIOS, which *still* didn't help.

Then I did something that, with retrospect, I should have done at step one: I used the jumper on the motherboard to clear the BIOS memory. And voila: Windows was booting! A freak occurence, I thought, that had been fixed. Not so: it does the same every time I reboot, requiring me to take the side off the case and mess about with the jumpers.

From what I can tell, the ASUS BIOS is working perfectly well: the problem is when it hands over to the Promise BIOS for the RAID controller.

I'm pretty au fait with computers generally, but I don't have the slightest clue what could have caused this, or how to fix it permenantely short of getting a new motherboard. Any and all ideas will be gratefully received, because at the moment I'm having to keep the thing switched on 24/7 (which, given that it's in my bedroom and contains a total of 6 fans, isn't going to do a lot for my sleep).

(I'm also backing things up just as fast as my DVD writer will burn!)

Thanks in advance,

Tristan

SOSAGES · 08-11-2004, 17:47

ahh the joys of random errors

did you get the latest promise bios?

Tristan · 08-11-2004, 18:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by SOSAGES

ahh the joys of random errors

did you get the latest promise bios?

No, for the simple reason that I can't find it!

The controller is a Promise Fasttrak 376, which isn't listed on the Promise site. The ASUS site doesn't have separate RAID BIOS images for download either, so I assumed it was contained in the main BIOS download (this was the rational behind me trying the latest beta release).

poolking · 08-11-2004, 18:11

http://www.asus.com/support/download...e=K8V&Type=All

Try that page 7 or 8th from the top.

Neil · 08-11-2004, 18:13

Have you got the latest chipset drivers (VIA 4 in 1s?) & SATA drivers from ASUS? The ASUS site lists the lastest as 4.49, but I found much better performance from the 4.53's from VIA: http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

I have the ASUS SATA drivers somewhere if you need them.....

Scrubbs · 08-11-2004, 18:43

I might be talking out of mu A*$e here but.... It couldn't be something like an internal battery?
Please feel free to ignore

I won't mind

ZrByte · 08-11-2004, 18:49

Have you tried maybe downgrading the bios? you'd be supprised how often that works.

darkangel · 08-11-2004, 20:09

i doubt the battery would be an issue have u been losing bios settings?
The drivers would not be an issue either as the are loaded when the Os loads
i would say a power supply or heat issue are more likely sources

Neil · 08-11-2004, 20:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkangel

The drivers would not be an issue either as the are loaded when the Os loads
i would say a power supply or heat issue are more likely sources

But what would happen if the drivers weren't loaded when the O/S loads?

darkangel · 08-11-2004, 20:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neil

But what would happen if the drivers weren't loaded when the O/S loads?

the chipset drivers for the mobo would matter little but the sata drivers being damaged etc would prob cause it not to detect the hard drive as xp does not have sny generic sata drivers

mmm · 08-11-2004, 20:55

My vote would be for the power supply, clearing the bios just slows the boot doen and lets the voltages stabilize before being used?

Tristan · 08-11-2004, 21:01

Thanks for all the replies so far.

It started doing it from cold this morning, so I don't think it's a heat issue. Also, I haven't lost any BIOS settings, and the mobo is only a couple of years old, so I think the battery is okay.

The PSU is an interesting one, I hadn't considered that. The thing is, wouldn't that affect the whole BIOS process, not just the RAID controller? The other thing is that when I was testing, I swiched off "quick POST", so that it spent a long time checking the memory before going on with other tasks -- wouldn't this have given the voltage time to stabilize?

Richard M · 08-11-2004, 21:11

The RAID array could be corrupt and might need rebuilding?

I know sod all about RAID BTW but I do run a Raptor off a Promise controller on my mobo.

ZrByte · 08-11-2004, 21:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tristan

Thanks for all the replies so far.

It started doing it from cold this morning, so I don't think it's a heat issue. Also, I haven't lost any BIOS settings, and the mobo is only a couple of years old, so I think the battery is okay.

The PSU is an interesting one, I hadn't considered that. The thing is, wouldn't that affect the whole BIOS process, not just the RAID controller? The other thing is that when I was testing, I swiched off "quick POST", so that it spent a long time checking the memory before going on with other tasks -- wouldn't this have given the voltage time to stabilize?

Did you try downgrading the BIOS as per my suggestion? This sorted out a friends SATA controller, though the problem he was having was different it was related to the firmware of the SATA wich AFAIK is inclusive in each BIOS release for asus boards.

altis · 08-11-2004, 21:54

I vote for the PSU too!

These days it's the first thing I change if I am seeing random probs. And I usually keep a spare one on the shelf - just in case. PSUs contain some highly stressed components and are often designed down to a price so, in the end, reliability gives. I remember once going back to a place that I'd worked before. They'd started using PCs as part of the product and in the corner of the test area was a pile of PSUs about 4 feet high - all dodgy ones that had been replaced!