The P4C800-E has a RAID ROM that says:
"FastTrak 378 (tm) BIOS Version 1.00.0.37
(c) 2003 Promise Technology, Inc. All rights reserved"
The PC-DL has a RAID ROM with file name SATA378.bin that says:
"SATA378 TX2plus(tm) BIOS Version 1.00.0.33
(c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. All rights reserved"
Actaully, my PC-DL Raid Rom says
"FastTrak 378 (tm) BIOS version 1.00.0.37"
(c) 2003 Promise Technology, Inc...
Scanning IDE drives..."
but it only finds teh SATA drives, not the PATA drives that
ARE attached to the fastTrak 378 RAID controller port (_NOT_ the
traditional IDE channels).
Now, I could be very mistaken, but the TX2plus board from Promise
is a PATA/SATA controller without RAID on it. (That means the
TX2plus board from Promise uses the non-RAID 20378 BIOS.) Maybe
if you use the Promise ATA driver for 20378 instead of the RAID
driver, you'll pick up the two IDE drives ? (Note: That doesn't
solve your failure to RAID the two PATA drives, but it _might_
gain access to them for vanilla PATA operation.)
first of all, how would I 'use the Promise ATA driver for 20378
instead of the RAID driver'?
Would I in the BIOS choose:
1) Onboard Promise Controller is [Disbled]
2) Operating Mode (for the promise controller) is set to [IDE]
or are you suggesting that I download the driver for the TX2plus and
install that?
secondly, you are right that this doesn't solve the RAID issue, cos
what I really need is for the Fastrak 378 RAID Adapter to see the
drives so I can merge both the SATA and the PATA drives into a single
0+1 raid in XP.
If I want plain vanilla IDE, I can simply hook them up to the
traditional IDE Channel 1. I am about to just do this out of
frustration, but the manual says the SATA and PATA (plugged into the
RAID adapter) is the ideal combo. It is maddeneing that their
instructions do not work.
In any case, I don't understand what the SATA378 module is doing
in the PC-DL BIOS. The manual states that RAID modes are supported.
Perhaps you can ask Asus tech support why the other module
(FastTrak) isn't there.
There is no such thing that I can find online as ASUS tech support.
I went to their site and went to a page titled 'how to get support'
http://www.asus.com/support/english/techref/getsupport/index.aspx
They told me to look on their FAQ and Knwledge base (which SUX!!) or
else:
' we will strongly suggest you to contact any authorized ASUS dealer
or ASUS Royal Club member to serve you in a professional manner.'
I ordered my board online so that nullifies my Royal Club membership.
LOL!
I would hope that there is no difference in the object
format of included modules between Award and AMI, so that will not
be an excuse for using the SATA378 module.
My PC-DL is indeed using Award Bios. I don't see how I can benefit
from the AMI bios settings or the driver 'to use the Promise ATA
driver for 20378 instead of the RAID driver'. I still don't quite
get what you mean by 'using the SATA378 module'. I am trying to use
it. I am plugged into it. I have enabled it in the bios. what else
can i possibly do to make it work like it is supposed to?
thanks for your suggestions.
Thomas[/QUOTE]
I started with Leythos comment, that the PC-DL would not work with
the Promise IDE connector. The manual states basically the same
info for the Promise PDC20378 that it does for the P4C800-E Deluxe.
And, as far as I'm concerned, the manual that comes with the product
is your contract - if a feature is stated in the manual, then Asus
has to deliver on their end of the bargain.
So, I was looking for a root cause as to why the 378 IDE port is dead.
Leythos owns enough of these motherboards to state a fact with
authority. I tried to extract the BIOS module from each of the
two boards, the PC-DL and P4C800-E Deluxe, to see how they differ.
The reason I do this, is I've found a couple of other boards, where
a problem with the way the BIOS is assembled, was the source of a
poster's problems.
Now, I find it strange that you are getting a Fasttrak message on
the screen, when the SATA378 module in the PC-DL doesn't have that
text string inside it ? I didn't disassemble all the different
versions of the BIOS, so maybe you are using a version of the BIOS
that has the Fasttrak BIOS module in it ?
The download page for the P4C800-E has two drivers for the 20378.
It has an ATA driver and it has a RAID driver. I would expect
putting the 20378 in IDE mode, then installing the ATA driver,
would do the trick. But, since I haven't even touched the
Promise 20378 on my P4C800-E, I cannot say what combo of motherboard
setting and driver, installs and/or works.
So, what we do agree on, is your Promise IDE port doesn't work.
The Asus tech support is available as a toll phone call (you
pay the bill), so you can go that route. If tech support is
busy, they will do call-backs. They will take your number and
give you a call when they get to your entry in the queue.
Filling out the web page with the trouble ticket info, speeds
up the call, so you shouldn't have to answer as many fool
questions.
Here are the components and possible problem areas:
1) Promise chip will have config pins on it. If the config pin
is wired to a logic level that declares the chip as having
only SATA ports or only running in ATA mode and not RAID
mode, then the config pin will cause the enumeration inside
the chip to declare the chip differently to the software.
That is how the driver installer knows whether it should work
or not - the enumeration does that.
2) If the Promise chip is sitting on a PCI card, there is a flash
memory sitting next to it. The flash memory contains a code
module that loads during POST. The code either contains
a RAID setup program, or ATA program code. In both cases, the
code will support INT13. The INT13 service in that code, is
how the BIOS can boot from the device. If the code is disabled,
then you cannot boot from the device, but you can still use
the disks in data-only mode when the OS is booted. As in (1),
if the chip is strapped via a config pin, to only do a particular
function, then only a certain driver type will install in the OS.
3) When the OS is finally running, the call after the last INT13
read/write operation, will require a Windows driver. If the right
driver is installed, and it matches the enumeration and device
type, then, voila, you get a disk or disks appearing in
Disk Management, ready for formatting.
Your problem could be type (1) - chip is strapped such that
portions of the chip will never work. Or it could be (2), the
a code module of the right type is not included inside the Asus
BIOS - the Asus BIOS in the flash chip is a tiny file system,
and currently there are 14 files inside it, one of which I see
is SATA378.bin. If you have installed the Windows RAID driver
and utilities for the 20378, and you still cannot see
anything on the IDE port, then again, that points to (1).
I don't understand why Asus would do this, when every other
board that uses the 20378 supports full chip operation.
I cannot see a reason why a dual processor board would prevent
this chip from working, as a P4C800-E with a HyperThreaded
processor running WinXP Pro would also look like a dual processor
to any software.
HTH,
Paul
