Abit An7 small problems
Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2004 1:24 pmI've build a system around an7 and it contains:
- XP 3000+ (400 MHz FSB)
- 512 MB DDRRAM Kingmax Superram (2x256)
- Maxtor 6y080mo sata hdd
- Gigabyte R96P (Radeon 9600 Pro)
- Aero 7 lite cooler
- 350W power supply
The computer works fine, but from time to time on boot I get the message:
boot disc failure, please insert boot disc... (something like that)
This happens very rarely and randomly (you never know when it would
happen), so I'm not very concerned but I wanted to know what is the
problem.
I noticed that in theese cases in the booting sequence the part where
SataRaid controller is searching for drives is missing. After restarting
the computer the missing part of boot is shown, the hdd is found,
everything is fine and the computer works as it should.
Because the hard drive works after restart I excluded it from the problem.
I think that this has something with the SataRaid controller or the mobo.
I tested the hdd with the PowerMax test utility and the disc passed the 'basic
test' and the 'advanced (full scan) test'. I didn't make the 'burn in' test
because I still think that the hdd isn't the problem.
If you carefully read my post you would know that I mentioned that the
system stops the boot sequence and displays the 'boot sector failure..'
message before SI 3112a sata-raid controller does the searching of
connected drives. Actually I think that the system stops because it doesn't
find the SI 3112a controller. I think that there is some BIOS bug that does
this, and I was asking if anyone else had similar problem.
If you see on www.abit.com.tw the changes made in the ver. 15 (mine
version) of the AN7 BIOS you would see that something similar to this was
fixed:
-Fixed the issue that SATA HDD boot up fail without PS/2 Mouse (which I
have).
So I think that this is still a motherboard issue - a bug which is not
still fixed or a bug that was made fixing the mentioned bug.
Another thing that I wanted to ask is the following:
- When I was installing the Nforce drivers that came with my mobo (ver 2.45 - AN7 series, in nforce control panel for audio driver and for control panel it says
ver. 3.75) on a fresh WinXp Pro with SP1 + other updates, I got a message that was something like this: 'USB2.0 requires SP1 ... please install sp1..' although I had installed the SP1before that.
After this I had some device (probably Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller)
with a yellow mark on it. I clicked properties-> update driver, pointed to
the cd that came with the motherboard and I think it founded the driver it
needed, installed and now I have the Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
under Universal Serial Bus Controller (without red or yellow signs), but
Win says 'No drivers are installed for this device.'.
I don't have any USB2.0 device so I can't do a test, but I think that I
don't have USB2.0 properly installed on my computer. Is this true and will
it help if I install the latest nforce drivers from www.nvidia.com ?
One more thing:
What is this used for (this text is from the change log of AN7 ver. 15
bios):
- Add an option to enhanced USB 2.0 device compatibility. User may set the
option to "enabled" in "Integrated Peripherals / OnChip PCI Device / USB
2.0 Device Compatible".
- XP 3000+ (400 MHz FSB)
- 512 MB DDRRAM Kingmax Superram (2x256)
- Maxtor 6y080mo sata hdd
- Gigabyte R96P (Radeon 9600 Pro)
- Aero 7 lite cooler
- 350W power supply
The computer works fine, but from time to time on boot I get the message:
boot disc failure, please insert boot disc... (something like that)
This happens very rarely and randomly (you never know when it would
happen), so I'm not very concerned but I wanted to know what is the
problem.
I noticed that in theese cases in the booting sequence the part where
SataRaid controller is searching for drives is missing. After restarting
the computer the missing part of boot is shown, the hdd is found,
everything is fine and the computer works as it should.
Because the hard drive works after restart I excluded it from the problem.
I think that this has something with the SataRaid controller or the mobo.
I tested the hdd with the PowerMax test utility and the disc passed the 'basic
test' and the 'advanced (full scan) test'. I didn't make the 'burn in' test
because I still think that the hdd isn't the problem.
If you carefully read my post you would know that I mentioned that the
system stops the boot sequence and displays the 'boot sector failure..'
message before SI 3112a sata-raid controller does the searching of
connected drives. Actually I think that the system stops because it doesn't
find the SI 3112a controller. I think that there is some BIOS bug that does
this, and I was asking if anyone else had similar problem.
If you see on www.abit.com.tw the changes made in the ver. 15 (mine
version) of the AN7 BIOS you would see that something similar to this was
fixed:
-Fixed the issue that SATA HDD boot up fail without PS/2 Mouse (which I
have).
So I think that this is still a motherboard issue - a bug which is not
still fixed or a bug that was made fixing the mentioned bug.
Another thing that I wanted to ask is the following:
- When I was installing the Nforce drivers that came with my mobo (ver 2.45 - AN7 series, in nforce control panel for audio driver and for control panel it says
ver. 3.75) on a fresh WinXp Pro with SP1 + other updates, I got a message that was something like this: 'USB2.0 requires SP1 ... please install sp1..' although I had installed the SP1before that.
After this I had some device (probably Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller)
with a yellow mark on it. I clicked properties-> update driver, pointed to
the cd that came with the motherboard and I think it founded the driver it
needed, installed and now I have the Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
under Universal Serial Bus Controller (without red or yellow signs), but
Win says 'No drivers are installed for this device.'.
I don't have any USB2.0 device so I can't do a test, but I think that I
don't have USB2.0 properly installed on my computer. Is this true and will
it help if I install the latest nforce drivers from www.nvidia.com ?
One more thing:
What is this used for (this text is from the change log of AN7 ver. 15
bios):
- Add an option to enhanced USB 2.0 device compatibility. User may set the
option to "enabled" in "Integrated Peripherals / OnChip PCI Device / USB
2.0 Device Compatible".