can't get SATA working on P4G8x Deluxe

  • Thread starter Thread starter CraiginNJ
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CraiginNJ

I can't seem to get SATA drives to be recognized on my P4G8x Deluxe
board. Can you help? Here's this situation:

1. I originally had installed the Silicon Image RAID drivers during
initial Windows XP Pro installation, as per instruction, assuming I
would someday need that to use SATA at all even if I never used RAID
features. The current Silicon Image RAID drivers on the PC are the
current ones available from Asus (version 1.0.0.22 10/17/2002) and
Windows won't let me update it since it's already current. (BTW, I
think I tried once a couple of years ago to upgrade to a more current
version from the SI web site, but it locked up my PC and I had to
restore my PC from an image backup.) Otherwise, Windows is currently
up to date with all patches & fixes (SP2 + beyond).

2. I've plugged in the Samsung sp2504c power cable & SATA cable to
the SATA1 port on the motherboard.

3. BIOS is set up for Onboard ATA device = enable and Onboard ATA
device first = yes. (BTW, I've also tried "no" with the same
results.) I do not have "SCSI" in the boot sequence because I only
want this SATA drive as secondary storage right now. There's no sign
in the BIOS that this SATA drive exists.

4. SATA Raid firmware can be entered during boot sequence (after the
BIOS) if the SATA drive is connected. It does list the SATA drive in
SATA interface position 0 and reports its full capacity size (and
nothing in position 1), but it won't let me create a RAID set (of 1
drive) using it, reporting "Not enough single devices to create RAID
set." Nor will it let me delete any RAID set -- it seems to think
there is none. It does offer to let me do a low-level format of the
disk, but I haven't dared try that yet (I don't want to screw things
up worse).

5. When I get to Windows, Windows does not recognize the SATA drive.
What's more, in Device Manager the "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATA Raid
controller" is "disabled" and whenever I try to enable it my PC
instantly reboots. I've seen two things happen after that reboot:
Either (1) the PC just reboots, and everything looks the same as
before, including the Silicon Image controller is still disabled, ...
or (2) the PC stops on reboot because it is no longer able to
recognize the existence of the boot primary IDE drive (nor the SATA)
and I don't have an alternative set up (e.g., no boot floppy in floppy
drive). In the latter case, I can undo this damage by disconnecting
the SATA drive completely and rebooting; somehow that enables the BIOS
to see the IDE HD again.

6. BTW, the Samsung sp2504c has jumper than can be used to force it to
limit itself to 1.5Gbps instead of automatically adjusting up to
3.0Gbps if supported. I haven't played with that because it seems the
drive is seen by the Sil Img firmware already.

What's up? Is there a solution for me ... other than replacing the MB
with a completely modern one a little sooner than I'd like?

Craig in NJ
 
I can't seem to get SATA drives to be recognized on my P4G8x Deluxe
board. Can you help? Here's this situation:
5. When I get to Windows, Windows does not recognize the SATA drive.
What's more, in Device Manager the "Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATA Raid
controller" is "disabled" and whenever I try to enable it my PC
instantly reboots. I've seen two things happen after that reboot:
Either (1) the PC just reboots, and everything looks the same as
before, including the Silicon Image controller is still disabled, ...
or (2) the PC stops on reboot because it is no longer able to
recognize the existence of the boot primary IDE drive (nor the SATA)
and I don't have an alternative set up (e.g., no boot floppy in floppy
drive). In the latter case, I can undo this damage by disconnecting
the SATA drive completely and rebooting; somehow that enables the BIOS
to see the IDE HD again.

6. BTW, the Samsung sp2504c has jumper than can be used to force it to
limit itself to 1.5Gbps instead of automatically adjusting up to
3.0Gbps if supported. I haven't played with that because it seems the
drive is seen by the Sil Img firmware already.
Click to expand...


Some SATA controller chips don't properly work with newer SATA 2 (3.0Gbps)
unless the drive is jumpered to SATA 1 mode (1.Gbps). I recommend
changing the drives jumper first to see what happens.
 
Some SATA controller chips don't properly work with newer SATA 2 (3.0Gbps)
unless the drive is jumpered to SATA 1 mode (1.Gbps). I recommend
changing the drives jumper first to see what happens.
Click to expand...

Yes, the drive came with a slip of paper mentioning the 1.5 jumper
being needed in rare cases; but no, using the jumper didn't help --
same result as I reported above.

BTW, I also tried using "low level format" (before trying the jumper)
but it just seemed to freeze up the PC. There was no formatting
progress indicator and keystrokes had no ... except Ctl-Alt-Del.

Is there anything else that is supposed to be done to access SATA
drives from a P4G8x Deluxe? Maybe my MB is simply defective?

Craig in NJ
 
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