Pluging in SATA cable causes no boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry

I am booting from SCSI.
The only option I have enabled in the bios is to boot from other.

I have two SATA drives I would like to connect to the mobo, but when I
plug them the boot fails.

I have already installed the drivers for the mobo.

Suggestions please?
 
I am booting from SCSI.
The only option I have enabled in the bios is to boot from other.

I have two SATA drives I would like to connect to the mobo, but when I
plug them the boot fails.

I have already installed the drivers for the mobo.

Suggestions please?
Click to expand...

After you've plugged in the SATA drive(s), recheck the BIOS setup to
ensure that the BIOS is still set to boot from the SCSI drive.
 
After you've plugged in the SATA drive(s), recheck the BIOS setup to
ensure that the BIOS is still set to boot from the SCSI drive.




After you've plugged in the SATA drive(s), recheck the BIOS setup to
ensure that the BIOS is still set to boot from the SCSI drive.
Click to expand...

Plugging in the SATA causes another BIOS option. My BIOS has this:

Removable device priority this has one option Floppy
Hard disk priority This has one option My SATA
CD priority This has one option. My burner

I see no way to change or modify these. They all list the only device
I have plugged in.

I then have:
Boot 1st disabled
Boot 2nd disabled
Boot 3rd disabled
Boot other < This is the only one enabled

The boot 1st options do not include SCSI. The choices are Removable,
Hard drive, Legacy Lan, CD and Disabled

My mobo is a P4SCT and the manual is http://www.supermicro.com/support/manuals/index.cfm

Thanks for your time.
 
1st boot............CD
2nd boot..........Hard drive

My god.......I haven't seen a mobo with so many switches/jumpers for
ages............hope your having fun
peter
 
Terry said:
Plugging in the SATA causes another BIOS option. My BIOS has this:

Removable device priority this has one option Floppy
Hard disk priority This has one option My SATA
CD priority This has one option. My burner

I see no way to change or modify these. They all list the only device
I have plugged in.

I then have:
Boot 1st disabled
Boot 2nd disabled
Boot 3rd disabled
Boot other < This is the only one enabled

The boot 1st options do not include SCSI. The choices are Removable,
Hard drive, Legacy Lan, CD and Disabled

My mobo is a P4SCT and the manual is http://www.supermicro.com/support/manuals/index.cfm

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...

With your current setup, of the SCSI board and the SATA disks plugged into the
Southbridge, do you observe the SCSI BIOS loading ? Can you see the SCSI BIOS
enumerating whatever disks are connected to the SCSI bus ? Or have the SCSI
messages disappeared.

The reason I ask that question, is there is a "low memory area" used by add-in
BIOS modules. The low memory area is in the 640KB part of the memory space. They
can only free up about 128KB for add-in BIOS modules to load. Now, your motherboard
has a RAGE-XL video chip, and it also has an AGP slot. If you plug in an AGP
video card, like an Nvidia one, you lose 64KB right away. That leaves only
64KB for the rest of the devices. The SCSI card has an add-in BIOS module,
that gets loaded during POST. If it loads OK, you should see text messages
from the SCSI BIOS. The Rage-XL may have an add-in BIOS (it tells the system
about VESA video modes, selects a clock rate, and stuff like that). If the
Southbridge has a RAID option, that may require an add-in module as well.

I would try disabling any device, where you suspect an add-in BIOS is
involved, and see if your
Boot 1st disabled
Boot 2nd disabled
Boot 3rd disabled
Boot other This is the only one enabled
Click to expand...

configuration will then work.

HTH,
Paul
 
With your current setup, of the SCSI board and the SATA disks plugged into the
Southbridge, do you observe the SCSI BIOS loading ? Can you see the SCSI BIOS
enumerating whatever disks are connected to the SCSI bus ? Or have the SCSI
messages disappeared.

The reason I ask that question, is there is a "low memory area" used by add-in
BIOS modules. The low memory area is in the 640KB part of the memory space. They
can only free up about 128KB for add-in BIOS modules to load. Now, your motherboard
has a RAGE-XL video chip, and it also has an AGP slot. If you plug in an AGP
video card, like an Nvidia one, you lose 64KB right away. That leaves only
64KB for the rest of the devices. The SCSI card has an add-in BIOS module,
that gets loaded during POST. If it loads OK, you should see text messages
from the SCSI BIOS. The Rage-XL may have an add-in BIOS (it tells the system
about VESA video modes, selects a clock rate, and stuff like that). If the
Southbridge has a RAID option, that may require an add-in module as well.

I would try disabling any device, where you suspect an add-in BIOS is
involved, and see if your


configuration will then work.
Click to expand...


At boot, I get a message from the SCSI card saying that I have one
drive installed.

I don't see any message when I plug in the SATA. The SCSI message is
the same.

It will get to the boot and I get a message.....Boot from CD

I know what is happening, I just don't know how to fix it. It is
trying to Boot from CD. If there is no boot disk in the drive, it
will pause and have to hit enter to get it to boot from SCSI.

When I plug in the SATA I still get .....boot from CD. When I press
enter then it tries to boot from the SATA, but because there is no
boot section on the drive it never tries the SCSI.

I need an option to boot from SCSI (or other) at 1st boot, but there
isn't one.

Thanks for you time
 
Plugging in the SATA causes another BIOS option. My BIOS has this:

Removable device priority this has one option Floppy
Hard disk priority This has one option My SATA
Click to expand...

All bootable disks, including those connected to PCI controllers
containing boot ROMs, should appear under Hard Disk Boot Priority.
 
All bootable disks, including those connected to PCI controllers
containing boot ROMs, should appear under Hard Disk Boot Priority.
Click to expand...
I just checked that and the SCSI is not listed under Hard Disk Boot
Priority.
When I plug in the SATA it is listed, but no SCSI.

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
Terry said:
At boot, I get a message from the SCSI card saying that I have one
drive installed.

I don't see any message when I plug in the SATA. The SCSI message is
the same.

It will get to the boot and I get a message.....Boot from CD

I know what is happening, I just don't know how to fix it. It is
trying to Boot from CD. If there is no boot disk in the drive, it
will pause and have to hit enter to get it to boot from SCSI.

When I plug in the SATA I still get .....boot from CD. When I press
enter then it tries to boot from the SATA, but because there is no
boot section on the drive it never tries the SCSI.

I need an option to boot from SCSI (or other) at 1st boot, but there
isn't one.

Thanks for you time
Click to expand...

OK, this is the first thing I found, after trying to find info on support
sites, that suggests what the problem is.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36189&highlight=award+boot+scsi

The suggestion is, that the BIOS cannot deal with more than one "SCSI-like"
device.

With just the SCSI controller connected, can you boot from SCSI ?

When you plug in the SATA, do you lose the ability to boot from SCSI ?

Based on the above thread, I would be tempted to buy a SATA controller
card, and plug that into your computer. Don't use the SATA on the motherboard.
Now, you have the option of repositioning the SCSI card and the add-in SATA card.
Controllers are enumerated in slot order. If the SCSI card is in "PCI Slot 1",
it is supposed to be enumerated first. You would position the SATA card in slot 2
or some lower slot.

The problem with peripherals on the motherboard, is they are not strategically
positioned, so that you can use the PCI slot numbering to influence the order
the controllers are seen in. The motherboard chips would likely all be "above" the
PCI slots, and get checked first.

By testing a separate SATA controller card, you are trying to position the
SATA "below" the other devices.

That is the best I can find so far, and is not a very practical solution.

You should contact Supermicro Tech Support and verify this suggestion,
before wasting money on a new SATA card.

Also, according to Rojakpot, and also this separate document, "Boot Other"
doesn't do what I thought it does :-) It controls whether the entire
three boot options are tried or not. "Boot Other" disabled, is only supposed
to honor the contents of "Boot First". When "Boot Other" is enabled, then
all three boot options "Boot First", "Boot Second", and "Boot Third" are
tried.

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Down...HW___6-Award_6.00PG_BIOS_setup_guidelines.pdf

At the moment, as near as I can tell, there is no explicit control of SCSI.
So I'm not sure whether it appears ahead of other potential boot devices
or behind them. Perhaps Supermicro Tech Support can help clarify. I was
not able to find a FAQ entry on the Supermicro site that addressed the
issue.

Paul
 
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