Crazy IS7-E

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I've just built a computer using this board. I installed XP Home on a Maxtor Sata Hard Drive. and then found it would not reboot. I got a message saying disk failure etc. I changed the priorities of the hard drives in the bios so that IDE 1 came first and it booted. I've had several failures to boot since only to find that the bios had changed the priorities for no apparent reason. When I installed the graphics drivers (nvidia) IDE 1 completely disapeared and I had to reset the Bios. The setup I have is as follows IDE 1 Maxtor 60 GB 5400 HD as master, IDE 2 CD ROM, Writer Etc, IDE 3 Maxtor 80GB Sata HD. I am completely baffled. There is nothing on the IDE 1 drive, it shows up as drive D in windows yet the machine refuses to boot unless it is there and has numero uno priority! I tried changing it for a better HD and found that I couldn't get the computer to boot at all. I've had various messages during these experiments including "NTLDR missing" and even "your CPU is unserviceable visit Soft Menu" This M/B is one unstable piece of shit. Has anyone else out there had similar problems and should I be RMAing it pretty soon? Paul

 

[TomG]

you running the newest bios (1.6 I believe...)? some have posted that you need to have IDE Bus Master mode enabled for this issue which can be found under the Onchip IDE settings.

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
I'm using the latest bios 1.6 and I've tried bus mastering on and of and not noticed any difference. Paul "TomG" wrote:

you running the newest bios (1.6 I believe...)? some have posted that you need to have IDE Bus Master mode enabled for this issue which can be found under the Onchip IDE settings.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
... bios so
that IDE 1 came first and it booted. I've had several failures to boot since only to find that the bios had changed the priorities for no apparent reason. When I installed the graphics drivers (nvidia) IDE 1 completely disapeared and I had to reset the Bios.
The setup I have is as follows IDE 1 Maxtor 60 GB 5400 HD as master, IDE

2

CD ROM, Writer Etc, IDE 3 Maxtor 80GB Sata HD.
I am completely baffled. There is nothing on the IDE 1 drive, it shows up as
drive D in windows yet the machine refuses to boot unless it is there and has numero uno priority! I tried changing it for a better HD and found that I couldn't get the computer to boot at all.
I've had various messages during these experiments including "NTLDR missing" and even "your CPU is unserviceable visit Soft Menu"
This M/B is one unstable piece of shit.
Has anyone else out there had similar problems and should I be RMAing it pretty soon?
Paul

 

[TomG]

hmmm... a previous poster had indicated that having that setting enabled allowed him to get things worked out... even though that setting is supposed to be for DOS mode only.

not too sure what to tell you. I have SATA and PATA both populated and don't have any issues with that on an IC7-G. the bios settings are pretty much identical in that area between the two boards. I can't understand why you would need to have the PATA set as first priority but I have read a number of posts regarding having PATA hard drives and SATA mixed and having problems for some reason.

 

[TomG]

just thought of something... have you tried enabling the raid mode and raid bios? a regular, non-raid drive will still work on the SATA channels even though raid mode and bios are enabled.

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi Tom
Thankyou for your advise but there is no raid mode on the IS7-E. Paul "TomG" wrote:

just thought of something... have you tried enabling the raid mode and raid bios? a regular, non-raid drive will still work on the SATA channels even though raid mode and bios are enabled.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP
This IP is dynamic so it *could* change!...
over 118,000 FTP users served!
... enabled allowed him to get things worked out... even though that setting is supposed to be for DOS mode only.

not too sure what to tell you. I have SATA and PATA both populated and don't have any issues with that on an IC7-G. the bios settings are pretty much identical in that area between the two boards. I can't understand why you would need to have the PATA set as first priority but I have read a number of posts regarding having PATA hard drives and SATA mixed and having problems for some reason.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

... and not
noticed any difference.
Paul
"TomG" wrote:

you running the newest bios (1.6 I believe...)? some have posted that you
need to have IDE Bus Master mode enabled for this issue which can be found
under the Onchip IDE settings.

--

Thomas Geery
Network+ certified

ftp://geerynet.d2g.com
ftp://68.98.180.8 Abit Mirror <----- Cable modem IP ... on a
Maxtor
Sata Hard Drive. and then found it would not reboot. I got a message saying
disk failure etc. I changed the priorities of the hard drives in the bios
so
that IDE 1 came first and it booted. I've had several failures to boot since
only to find that the bios had changed the priorities for no apparent reason. When I installed the graphics drivers (nvidia) IDE 1
completely
disapeared and I had to reset the Bios.
The setup I have is as follows IDE 1 Maxtor 60 GB 5400 HD as

master,

IDE
2
CD ROM, Writer Etc, IDE 3 Maxtor 80GB Sata HD.
I am completely baffled. There is nothing on the IDE 1 drive, it shows up
as
drive D in windows yet the machine refuses to boot unless it is there and
has numero uno priority! I tried changing it for a better HD and found ... "NTLDR missing"
and even "your CPU is unserviceable visit Soft Menu"
This M/B is one unstable piece of shit.
Has anyone else out there had similar problems and should I be RMAing it
pretty soon?
Paul

...

 

[TomG]

uh, sorry about that. I didn't realize that the IS7-E does not include Raid for the SATA channel.

 

[I. E.]

Paul,
The IS7 (Bios 1.6) I was setting up is now working great but at first, I had problems very similar to yours. I had a Raptor on SATA1 in IDE mode and did a fresh load of XP with SP 1 onto it. Once the system finally booted (only with SATA set to Auto) and looked stable, I tried to connect a Maxtor IDE drive from the old system with XP on it to copy off some data files. Whenever the Maxtor drive was connected to either the IDE1 or IDE2 connectors, XP failed to boot from the Raptor and the monitor screen was blank. I had to remove the XP install on the Maxtor with a utility called Delpart before XP would boot the Raptor drive on SATA1 with the Maxtor on the IDE.

My best guess is that the XP loader only wants to see one drive with a XP boot on the system. However, I must also mention I was still having problems with XP seeing all the CD drives and the Maxtor drive. Plus, I was not able to boot in the Enhanced mode at the time (which is what you want to be in), it would only boot with OnChip Serial ATA set to Auto.

FINALLY, I used a suggestion that was given by Old Egypt to the owner of an IC7 Max3 having similar problems getting a Raptor drive to boot from the SATA in the Enhanced mode. Only after setting IDE Bus Master to Enabled (which the manual says only needs to be enabled for DOS)in the OnChip IDE device menu I was able to boot to the Raptor using the Enhanced mode which allowed XP to see all the IDE devices and the maxtor drive correctly.

Of note: I noticed that whenever I made changes to the SATA mode it screwed up the Hard Disk Boot Priority. So whenever I made OnChip SATA mode changes, I saved and exited the BIOS and then went right back into the BIOS to verify all the settings for boot priority and SATA settings.

Hope you find this helpful,

John

Paul Lower wrote:

Hi
I've just built a computer using this board. I installed XP Home on a Maxtor Sata Hard Drive. and then found it would not reboot. I got a message saying disk failure etc. I changed the priorities of the hard drives in the bios so that IDE 1 came first and it booted. I've had several failures to boot since only to find that the bios had changed the priorities for no apparent reason. When I installed the graphics drivers (nvidia) IDE 1 completely disapeared and I had to reset the Bios. The setup I have is as follows IDE 1 Maxtor 60 GB 5400 HD as master, IDE 2 CD ROM, Writer Etc, IDE 3 Maxtor 80GB Sata HD. I am completely baffled. There is nothing on the IDE 1 drive, it shows up as drive D in windows yet the machine refuses to boot unless it is there and ...

 

[Paul Lower]

Hi
Thanks for your email. I have now set the sata mode to enhanced and the IDE bus master to enabled and achieved stability for the time being. Ide 1 is still number one priority and I can only assume that during installation of XP it put some sort of dll file on the pata drive which makes it impossible to boot with the sata drive without the pata being present. Its not what I was aiming to do but I will settle for it for now as long as the system is stable. Paul "I. E." wrote:

Paul,
The IS7 (Bios 1.6) I was setting up is now working great but at first, I had problems very similar to yours. I had a Raptor on SATA1 in IDE mode and did a fresh load of XP with SP 1 onto it. Once the system finally booted (only with SATA set to Auto) and looked stable, I tried to connect a Maxtor IDE drive from the old system with XP on it to copy off some data files. Whenever the Maxtor drive was connected to either the IDE1 or IDE2 connectors, XP failed to boot from the Raptor and the monitor screen was blank. I had to remove the XP install on the Maxtor with a utility called Delpart before XP would boot the Raptor drive on SATA1 with the Maxtor on the IDE.

...

Maxtor

Sata Hard Drive. and then found it would not reboot. I got a message saying disk failure etc. I changed the priorities of the hard drives in the bios so that IDE 1 came first and it booted. I've had several failures to boot since only to find that the bios had changed the priorities for no apparent reason. When I installed the graphics drivers (nvidia) IDE 1 completely disapeared and I had to reset the Bios.
The setup I have is as follows IDE 1 Maxtor 60 GB 5400 HD as master, IDE

2

CD ROM, Writer Etc, IDE 3 Maxtor 80GB Sata HD.
I am completely baffled. There is nothing on the IDE 1 drive, it shows up as drive D in windows yet the machine refuses to boot unless it is there and has numero uno priority! I tried changing it for a better HD and found

that

I couldn't get the computer to boot at all.
I've had various messages during these experiments including "NTLDR

missing"

and even "your CPU is unserviceable visit Soft Menu"
This M/B is one unstable piece of shit.
Has anyone else out there had similar problems and should I be RMAing it pretty soon?
Paul