"GiLLiGaN" said:
Hi,
Anyone can tell me where i can disable SATA in bios plz
When i boot, i have the screen for DETECTING and i want to bypass this.
Thanks in advance for your help.
GiLLiGaN
The P4C800 has 2 SATA and 4 PATA ports on the Southbridge.
The P4C800 Deluxe has 2 SATA and 4 PATA ports on the Southbridge,
plus it has a Promise 20378 controller with 2 SATA and 2 PATA ports.
If this is the Deluxe, in "Onboard Devices Configuration", set
"Onboard Promise Controller" [Disabled]. That will stop it from
detecting drives. (I disabled mine right away.)
For either of the boards, the Southbridge has two modes, Compatible
and Enhanced. If you are using Enhanced, then all six ports will be
checked for drives. If you are using Compatible, then four of the six
ports are being checked.
Since you wish to disable the SATA ports on the Southbridge, selecting
"Onboard IDE Operate Mode" [Compatible Mode] and "IDE Port Settings"
[P-ATA only] would disable the SATA ports.
A second way of doing it, would be to select "Onboard IDE Operate
Mode" to [Enhanced mode], and Enhanced Mode Support On [S-ATA] (because
that mode offers the best performance on the P-ATA ports, if you
can believe it!). Enhanced mode, AFAIK, only works with a modern OS
like Win2K/WinXP, so this option is for one of those OS. Otherwise,
use the Compatible mode mentioned above.
Now, you have a total of six ports enabled in the
BIOS. Go back to the Main Menu page, where there are six
items (Pri IDE Master, Pri IDE Slave, Sec IDE Master, Sec IDE Slave,
Third IDE Master, Fourth IDE Master). For each of the six items,
you can enter the item and set the "Type" of the device to
[Not Installed]. The Southbridge SATA ports are the Third and Fourth
IDE Master, so set those two to [Not Installed]. If either of your
IDE cables isn't full, you can disable the corresponding position
by setting it to Not Installed as well.
I'm not sure that will speed anything up, as there is a 35 second
timer that times the detection of all Southbridge ports. So,
experiment, and post back whether setting unused ports to
[Not Installed] speeds up the process any. I don't think the timer
affects the Promise controller, as its detection process is
sequential and happens after the Southbridge detection is finished.
On my P4C800-E, I notice after all disk detection is done, the screen
clears, leaving a flashing underline in the upper left hand corner.
There is another delay, and I don't know exactly what is going on at
that point. That probably wastes another 10-15 seconds right there.
My best guess,
Paul
