Promise S150 SX4 hangs whole system during system boot (POST)... Plz help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Morten
  • Start date Start date
M

Morten

Hi there!

Just bought a Promise S150 SX4 SATA RAID controller, but my frustration and
anger have been growing ever since. :-/

My system detects the card right away, and the card starts to look for
drives. At the moment, I don't have any drives attached to it, so it should
just continue.

I have tried to plug the card into a machine where it works (a Dell Optiflex
270 running with Hyperthreading), so I know what should happen after it has
searched for attached drives. (It should show the amount of installed memory
on the controller card.)

However, after a short drive search, the cursor jumps to the right side of
the screen, and the whole system freezes completely. (Only way out is the
reset switch.)

No other PCI devices is installed, and I have tried to move the card through
all PCI slots, but the result is the same.

I have talked several times with Promise Tech Support. (They told me to
upgrade the MoBo BIOS and the controller's BIOS.) System still hangs.

Today I even went out and bought a new motherboard (A7N8X-X) with CPU and
RAM, but the problem is still the same on the new motherboard. BIOS is brand
new.

I have tried all sorts of BIOS settings, different RAM blocks on the
controller (a 64MB block of SDRAM PC100, and a 256MB block of SDRAM PC133).

Please, does anybody have any ideas on how to solve this riddle? I think it
has something to do with bus mastering, RAM timings, or conflicting
interrupts.... (not sure!)

Plz help anybody!!!

~Morten :-(
 
I had one on an A7N8X-Deluxe and I did not encounter that problem. I
was able to boot with no memory, and even with a stick of unsupported
registered/buffered memory. The card's bios just gave a warning
message, and then continued. Just a guess, but try adjusting the PCI
bus latency, if that exists in your BIOS. Did you run the RAM tester
from the Promise website? If that doesn't work, and you tried in
multiple motherboards, then it sounds like you have a faulty board,
and you need to either return it or RMA it.

Shailesh

http://www.somacon.com/fasttrak_sx4/
 
Hi there!

Just bought a Promise S150 SX4 SATA RAID controller, but my frustration and
anger have been growing ever since. :-/

My system detects the card right away, and the card starts to look for
drives. At the moment, I don't have any drives attached to it, so it should
just continue.

I have tried to plug the card into a machine where it works (a Dell Optiflex
270 running with Hyperthreading), so I know what should happen after it has
searched for attached drives. (It should show the amount of installed memory
on the controller card.)

However, after a short drive search, the cursor jumps to the right side of
the screen, and the whole system freezes completely. (Only way out is the
reset switch.)

No other PCI devices is installed, and I have tried to move the card through
all PCI slots, but the result is the same.

I have talked several times with Promise Tech Support. (They told me to
upgrade the MoBo BIOS and the controller's BIOS.) System still hangs.

Today I even went out and bought a new motherboard (A7N8X-X) with CPU and
RAM, but the problem is still the same on the new motherboard. BIOS is brand
new.

I have tried all sorts of BIOS settings, different RAM blocks on the
controller (a 64MB block of SDRAM PC100, and a 256MB block of SDRAM PC133).

Please, does anybody have any ideas on how to solve this riddle? I think it
has something to do with bus mastering, RAM timings, or conflicting
interrupts.... (not sure!)

Plz help anybody!!!
Click to expand...


I know the feeling. I've had tons of problems getting my SX4 to work
too. Unfortunately Promise support is terrible.

It's most likely a problem with the memory you installed on the card.
The SX4 is EXTREMELY picky about the memory you use.
90% of the problems with this card are caused by it.

You defintely need to try their memory tester tool. But even that
isn't enough.
I tried 4 different modules before I found one that work. 2 modules
(one PC133 one PC100) were refused by the memory tool. A third one
(PC133) was accepted by the tool, but caused all kinds of really weird
problems during booting and in windows). And finally the fourth one
(Dane Elec PC100) worked fine.

On their site there is a small lists of memory modules that they have
tested. (very short list IMO). Try to get a module from one of those
brands.

Cost me a week of frustration to discover all this. But now the card
works fine and I am very happy with it.
But they really need to fix that memory issue. All those modules I
tried had been working fine for years (and are still working fine) in
several desktops I use as servers.

Marc
 
Hi there!

Just bought a Promise S150 SX4 SATA RAID controller, but my
frustration and anger have been growing ever since. :-/

My system detects the card right away, and the card starts to look for
drives. At the moment, I don't have any drives attached to it, so it
should just continue.

I have tried to plug the card into a machine where it works (a Dell
Optiflex 270 running with Hyperthreading), so I know what should
happen after it has searched for attached drives. (It should show the
amount of installed memory on the controller card.)

However, after a short drive search, the cursor jumps to the right
side of the screen, and the whole system freezes completely. (Only way
out is the reset switch.)

No other PCI devices is installed, and I have tried to move the card
through all PCI slots, but the result is the same.

I have talked several times with Promise Tech Support. (They told me
to upgrade the MoBo BIOS and the controller's BIOS.) System still
hangs.

Today I even went out and bought a new motherboard (A7N8X-X) with CPU
and RAM, but the problem is still the same on the new motherboard.
BIOS is brand new.

I have tried all sorts of BIOS settings, different RAM blocks on the
controller (a 64MB block of SDRAM PC100, and a 256MB block of SDRAM
PC133).

Please, does anybody have any ideas on how to solve this riddle? I
think it has something to do with bus mastering, RAM timings, or
conflicting interrupts.... (not sure!)

Plz help anybody!!!

~Morten :-(
Click to expand...

Sounds like the exact same problem I had...

You're gonna kick yourself if this is it (though really you should kick
Promise), but do you have a PS/2 mouse attached to the machines you're
trying the card in? If not, find one, attach it, and see if it works. I
know it sounds completely absurd, but I tried this card in 4 different
machines, all different mobos and chipsets, and it worked in none of them.
Promise tech support was of course useless. Then I saw some customer
reviews on newegg.com that mentioned not being able to get this to work
without a PS/2 mouse attached. Sure enough, my file server now runs
happily with an otherwise completely useless PS/2 mouse hanging out the
back (the machine is entirely remotely managed, heh). Reported the problem
to Promise, but they neither replied, fixed it with a BIOS update, or
bothered to even mention the issue in their FAQs.

So, to summarize, try the card in a machine with a PS/2 (not USB) mouse
attached and see how it goes. Hopefully that's all it is -- if not, I'm
out of ideas.

Best of luck,
Mike
 
Sounds like the exact same problem I had...

You're gonna kick yourself if this is it (though really you should
kick Promise), but do you have a PS/2 mouse attached to the machines
you're trying the card in? If not, find one, attach it, and see if it
works. I know it sounds completely absurd, but I tried this card in 4
different machines, all different mobos and chipsets, and it worked in
none of them. Promise tech support was of course useless. Then I saw
some customer reviews on newegg.com that mentioned not being able to
get this to work without a PS/2 mouse attached. Sure enough, my file
server now runs happily with an otherwise completely useless PS/2
mouse hanging out the back (the machine is entirely remotely managed,
heh). Reported the problem to Promise, but they neither replied,
fixed it with a BIOS update, or bothered to even mention the issue in
their FAQs.

So, to summarize, try the card in a machine with a PS/2 (not USB)
mouse attached and see how it goes. Hopefully that's all it is -- if
not, I'm out of ideas.

Best of luck,
Mike
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, one last thing that you might reasonably wonder about based on
another post in this thread (Marc's) regarding the poor memory
compatability of this card... The memory module I'm using with the card is
a Kingston KVR133X64C/256, which is one of the (few) modules tested and
approved in Promise's memory compatability list. Also tried a few other
modules in my testing; all had the same problem.

Mike
 
Previously Cisephys said:
news:[email protected]: [...]
Sounds like the exact same problem I had...
Click to expand...
You're gonna kick yourself if this is it (though really you should kick
Promise), but do you have a PS/2 mouse attached to the machines you're
trying the card in? If not, find one, attach it, and see if it works. I
know it sounds completely absurd, but I tried this card in 4 different
machines, all different mobos and chipsets, and it worked in none of them.
Promise tech support was of course useless. Then I saw some customer
reviews on newegg.com that mentioned not being able to get this to work
without a PS/2 mouse attached. Sure enough, my file server now runs
happily with an otherwise completely useless PS/2 mouse hanging out the
back (the machine is entirely remotely managed, heh). Reported the problem
to Promise, but they neither replied, fixed it with a BIOS update, or
bothered to even mention the issue in their FAQs.
Click to expand...

Pretty surreal! Does this card have a "GUI" in its BIOS? Next thing
to expect will probably be that it requires you to have a soundcard
so it can curse you...

Arno
 
Previously Cisephys said:
news:[email protected]: [...]
Sounds like the exact same problem I had...
Click to expand...

Pretty surreal! Does this card have a "GUI" in its BIOS? Next thing
to expect will probably be that it requires you to have a soundcard
so it can curse you...

Arno
Click to expand...

heh, nope, nothing of the sort... That I could almost understand, if there
was some embryonic gui in there and they just didn't test their mouse
routines very far. But there's nothing I can see that would cause the card
to look for a mouse.

Another fun fact -- it doesn't have to be a mouse plugged into the PS/2
mouse port (just makes it easier to explain that way). I tried plugging a
keyboard into the PS/2 mouse port, and it booted fine, although of course
the keyboard didn't work very well. Also tried just sticking a USB -> PS/2
adapter in there, that didn't work, so I think it requires an actual living
device on the other end. Fun fun fun.

Mike
 
heh, nope, nothing of the sort... That I could almost understand,
if there was some embryonic gui in there and they just didn't test
their mouse routines very far. But there's nothing I can see that
would cause the card to look for a mouse.
Click to expand...

Most likely its just another symptom of the significant
problem that some Promise cards have with IRQs.

In other words its having a problem with the IRQ the card
is using being shared with the OS/2 mouse port or something.
Another fun fact -- it doesn't have to be a mouse plugged into the
PS/2 mouse port (just makes it easier to explain that way). I tried
plugging a keyboard into the PS/2 mouse port, and it booted fine,
although of course the keyboard didn't work very well. Also tried
just sticking a USB -> PS/2 adapter in there, that didn't work, so
I think it requires an actual living device on the other end.
Click to expand...

Which supports the IRQ possibility.
Fun fun fun.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the world of Promise steaming turds |-)
 
Yup. I finally found out about the mouse. Promise tech support actually told
me.... (!)

Anyway: They might as well have told me to turn the TV on and reboot....
Anyway: It works totally fine now...

Thanks for all the responses!

Cheers,
~Morten
 
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