a7n8x boot problem upon restart

  • Thread starter Thread starter Arnaud Lesauvage
  • Start date Start date
A

Arnaud Lesauvage

Hello !

I have a strange problem here :
MB A7N8X Deluxe.
2 Maxtor HDDs on the SiI3112 controller, RAID0.

The RAID array is the boot disk (there are no other disks except for a cd-rom
drive).

Everything went fine until I got some bad clusters on my RAID array. I had to
open the PC and install a floppy drive in order to repair my installation (it
went very fine). I then removed the floppy and restarted the PC.
The problem the system will boot fine if I COLD boot the computer (after a power
down, it boots just fine).
If I warm boot the computer, whether restarting from Windows or pressing the
"hard-reset" button, the boot process hangs after the POST. It checks for a
bootable CD-ROM but it seems to be unable to find my bootable RAID array. After
some time, I get a classic "BOOT DISK FAILURE" error.

I tried to change my boot sequence and it did not help. I tried to reset my BIOS
to factory defaults and it did not help either.

Anybody has an idea of what's wrong here ?

Thanks a lot !

Arnaud
 
Arnaud said:
Hello !

I have a strange problem here :
MB A7N8X Deluxe.
2 Maxtor HDDs on the SiI3112 controller, RAID0.

The RAID array is the boot disk (there are no other disks except for
a cd-rom drive).

Everything went fine until I got some bad clusters on my RAID array.
I had to open the PC and install a floppy drive in order to repair my
installation (it went very fine). I then removed the floppy and
restarted the PC.
The problem the system will boot fine if I COLD boot the computer
(after a power down, it boots just fine).
If I warm boot the computer, whether restarting from Windows or
pressing the "hard-reset" button, the boot process hangs after the
POST. It checks for a bootable CD-ROM but it seems to be unable to
find my bootable RAID array. After some time, I get a classic "BOOT
DISK FAILURE" error.

I tried to change my boot sequence and it did not help. I tried to
reset my BIOS to factory defaults and it did not help either.

Anybody has an idea of what's wrong here ?
Click to expand...

Well... no, thats a bit strange.

What BIOS are you using? What board version?

If it's an older version, try the latest, or if you're daring... I have my
own concoction of the latest BIOS (1008) and SATA BIOS (4.2.50), it's only
for Rev2.0 boards though.

Ben
 
Thanks for your answer Ben.

Ben said:
What BIOS are you using? What board version?
If it's an older version, try the latest, or if you're daring... I have my
own concoction of the latest BIOS (1008) and SATA BIOS (4.2.50), it's only
for Rev2.0 boards though.
Click to expand...

I just checked with AsusUpdate : Board Rev2.0, BIOS 1007.
I am a OK to update the BIOS (it cannot hurt), but how can I update my SATA BIOS?
 
Arnaud said:
Thanks for your answer Ben.



I just checked with AsusUpdate : Board Rev2.0, BIOS 1007.
I am a OK to update the BIOS (it cannot hurt), but how can I update my SATA BIOS?
Click to expand...

Flashing the BIOS did not help.... :(

I've read something about a deffective 5V power line...?
In the BIOS, it reports the voltage as 4.82V, but this looks like "in the range"
to me...
 
Arnaud Lesauvage said:
Hello !

I have a strange problem here :
MB A7N8X Deluxe.
2 Maxtor HDDs on the SiI3112 controller, RAID0.

The RAID array is the boot disk (there are no other disks except for a cd-rom
drive).

Everything went fine until I got some bad clusters on my RAID array. I had to
open the PC and install a floppy drive in order to repair my installation (it
went very fine). I then removed the floppy and restarted the PC.
The problem the system will boot fine if I COLD boot the computer (after a power
down, it boots just fine).
If I warm boot the computer, whether restarting from Windows or pressing the
"hard-reset" button, the boot process hangs after the POST. It checks for a
bootable CD-ROM but it seems to be unable to find my bootable RAID array. After
some time, I get a classic "BOOT DISK FAILURE" error.

I tried to change my boot sequence and it did not help. I tried to reset my BIOS
to factory defaults and it did not help either.

Anybody has an idea of what's wrong here ?
Click to expand...

It's worth checking both drives using the Maxtor HD diagnostic
(PowerMax) from a boot floppy. Note their comments regarding
SATA RAID though:

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=22
(use short version to avoid URL wrapping):
http://tinyurl.com/5hksx

HTH
 
Details all on my site.
Flashing the BIOS did not help.... :(

I've read something about a deffective 5V power line...?
In the BIOS, it reports the voltage as 4.82V, but this looks like "in
the range" to me...
Click to expand...


Yeah, that should be fine if it's constant 4.82V.

Dunno, it's a strange one.

Ben
 
Ben said:
Details all on my site.
Click to expand...

I am not sure I want to go that far. Everything worked fine before, so I don't
see the point in flashing the SATA BIOS...
Yeah, that should be fine if it's constant 4.82V.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I thought.
 
Rob said:
It's worth checking both drives using the Maxtor HD diagnostic
(PowerMax) from a boot floppy. Note their comments regarding
SATA RAID though:
Click to expand...

Powermax successfully detected my drives on the SiI3112 controller. I don't
quite understand Maxtor's warning : do they mean that PowerMax will not work
with SATA RAID controllers, or will it only not work with the SATA RAID
controllers listed ?

Anyway, the installation test was okay but not the other ones.
BUT !... (yes, there is a but), Powermax gives me an error code but does NOT
tell me what kind of error there is. I know that my drives have bad sectors, but
that should not prevent them from booting after a restart.
I did not find a document explaining powermax's error codes, does anyone know
more about that ?
Error codes where :
drive1 : deace271
drive2 : de99d17d
 
Arnaud said:
I am not sure I want to go that far. Everything worked fine before,
so I don't see the point in flashing the SATA BIOS...
Click to expand...

Indeed. Thats just for those who like to experiment, for types that must
have the latest.

Ben
 
Usually when you have problems with a Raid array configuration, you have to
rebuild the Raid array. If it is RaidO you will loose all the data on the
array and have to reinstall all your software. If it is a Raid1 array you
can go to the Raid configuration and rebuild the array.
 
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