IC7-G OnChip SATA RAID Problem with Add In PCI RAID Card

Hi Folks,

I added a Highpoint RocketRaid 1640 SATA controller to the PCI
interface of my IC7-G. With the card installed, I don't get access to
the OnChip Intel SATA RAID ROM. The Intel RAID seems to work okay
within XP but I can't access the interface (Ctrl-I) when the system is
booting. The prompt never appears. I have tried all the PCI slots and
get the same results. I also noticed that with the RocketRaid
installed, I don't get access to the ROM prompt of a Symbios Logic SCSI
controller I have installed.

Is there any setting in the motherboard I can try that will allow the
Highpoint card to "play nice" with other ROM based boards? I have the
latest motherboard and RocketRaid BIOS loaded.

Thanks,

Steve

<> wrote in message...
> I added a Highpoint RocketRaid 1640 SATA controller to the
> PCI interface of my IC7-G. With the card installed, I don't get
> access to the OnChip Intel SATA RAID ROM.
>
> Is there any setting in the motherboard I can try that will allow the
> Highpoint card to "play nice" with other ROM based boards?
> I have the latest motherboard and RocketRaid BIOS loaded.

Have you tried experimenting with the boot device settings in the upper part
of the Advanced Setup section of the BIOS? If you set the "Bootable Add-In
Device" to Onchip SATA-RAID, you should be able to access the Intel
controller RAID BIOS via the Ctrl-I prompt no matter what other devices you
have installed.

To be honest, the IC7-G's BIOS isn't really designed to handle multiple
bootable external storage controllers, which might be why the Highpoint and
SCSI controller are arguing with each other. If playing with the
motherboard's BIOS as suggested previously doesn't give you a workable
solution, I'd suggest mailing Highpoint Support and detailing the problem to
them. I've found them quite helpful in the past and you may well have turned
up an issue they weren't previously aware of.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

I did play with the setting you mentioned. It did work initially but
after a series of reboots it stopped allowing me to see the Intel SATA
RAID BIOS when the Highpoint was installed. I think the best workaround
is to turn off the RAID features for all the cards and use a software
RAID solution by either installing Linux directly on the system, or use
a Linux virtual machine within VMWare running on XP.

I have a total of 12 disks I want to configure into a 6x6 mirror. I
hope that turning off the RAID functions of all the SATA controllers
(Intel, SIL, and Highpoint 4 port PCI Card) will provide me with 8
usable ports. I can also install a couple of Promise ATA controllers to
handle the other 4 drives (using the primary channel only on each
card).

Steve


Richard Hopkins wrote:
> <> wrote in message...
> > I added a Highpoint RocketRaid 1640 SATA controller to the
> > PCI interface of my IC7-G. With the card installed, I don't get
> > access to the OnChip Intel SATA RAID ROM.
> >
> > Is there any setting in the motherboard I can try that will allow the
> > Highpoint card to "play nice" with other ROM based boards?
> > I have the latest motherboard and RocketRaid BIOS loaded.
>
> Have you tried experimenting with the boot device settings in the upper part
> of the Advanced Setup section of the BIOS? If you set the "Bootable Add-In
> Device" to Onchip SATA-RAID, you should be able to access the Intel
> controller RAID BIOS via the Ctrl-I prompt no matter what other devices you
> have installed.
>
> To be honest, the IC7-G's BIOS isn't really designed to handle multiple
> bootable external storage controllers, which might be why the Highpoint and
> SCSI controller are arguing with each other. If playing with the
> motherboard's BIOS as suggested previously doesn't give you a workable
> solution, I'd suggest mailing Highpoint Support and detailing the problem to
> them. I've found them quite helpful in the past and you may well have turned
> up an issue they weren't previously aware of.
> --
>
>
> Richard Hopkins
> Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
> (replace nospam with pipex in reply address)
>
> The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

one thing I have seen interfere with ROM's on add-in cards is the setting of
the USB KB and mouse support... frequently, if the USB support is set to
BIOS as opposed to OS, the BIOS USB support is mapped into the ROM space and
"steps" on the add-in card ROM. I can see this happen with an add-in SCSI
card or other devices that have their own ROM and enable/disable the USB
BIOS support setting.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified



<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Hi Folks,
>
> I added a Highpoint RocketRaid 1640 SATA controller to the PCI
> interface of my IC7-G. With the card installed, I don't get access to
> the OnChip Intel SATA RAID ROM. The Intel RAID seems to work okay
> within XP but I can't access the interface (Ctrl-I) when the system is
> booting. The prompt never appears. I have tried all the PCI slots and
> get the same results. I also noticed that with the RocketRaid
> installed, I don't get access to the ROM prompt of a Symbios Logic SCSI
> controller I have installed.
>
> Is there any setting in the motherboard I can try that will allow the
> Highpoint card to "play nice" with other ROM based boards? I have the
> latest motherboard and RocketRaid BIOS loaded.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Steve
>