System does not boot when connecting hard drive to SATA card vs on-boardSATA controller

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XP Guy

The mother board is GA-8KNXP (Intel 875P MCH chipset).

Originally booted win-2k from IDE hard drive.

SATA drive was added a few months ago, and XP was installed on it in a
dual-boot configuration. SATA controller was set to IDE-emulation in
the bios mode during XP install, and then after all drivers were
installed the controller was set to Native SATA mode in the bios.

Problem is that the system does not reliably boot XP, especially when
the machine is cold.

The 875 chipset is supposed to have integrated SATA controller (2-port?)
but this motherboard also has an Sil SATA controller - which I thought
was 3112 but there are 4 SATA connectors on the motherboard, so it must
be a 3114 chip?

So leaving that issue aside for the time being, I installed a Sabrent
4-port PCI sata card - with SiL 3114 chip. The card was detected while
booting into XP and Win-2k, and the drivers were installed from the
small CD-rom that came with the card.

Then I shut down the machine, connected the SATA drive to the new card,
disabled all motherboard sata functionality in the bios, and rebooted.

During boot, the usual OS-boot menu comes up, I select XP, the screen
goes blank, and the machine is hung. No hard drive activity.

If I select win-2k, the 2k logo screen comes up, the boot progress bar
goes to about 2/3 or 3/4 complete, and it just sits there. Remember, 2k
is booting from an IDE drive.

If I disconnect the SATA drive (but leave the PCI SATA card installed)
and then reboot and select 2K, 2K does boot normally.

I've tried connecting the SATA drive to each of 4 ports on the board,
doesn't make a difference.

During boot-up, the SATA card bios message does come up, and it does
detect the SATA drive.

The card was not showing any (!) errors in device manager under both
OS's.

So why won't XP boot from the SATA drive connected to the PCI sata card?

Why won't win-2k boot from the IDE drive when the SATA drive is
connected to the PCI card, but will boot when the SATA drive is not
connected (but the PCI card is still present)?
 
XP said:
The mother board is GA-8KNXP (Intel 875P MCH chipset).

Originally booted win-2k from IDE hard drive.

SATA drive was added a few months ago, and XP was installed on it in a
dual-boot configuration. SATA controller was set to IDE-emulation in
the bios mode during XP install, and then after all drivers were
installed the controller was set to Native SATA mode in the bios.

Problem is that the system does not reliably boot XP, especially when
the machine is cold.

The 875 chipset is supposed to have integrated SATA controller (2-port?)
but this motherboard also has an Sil SATA controller - which I thought
was 3112 but there are 4 SATA connectors on the motherboard, so it must
be a 3114 chip?

So leaving that issue aside for the time being, I installed a Sabrent
4-port PCI sata card - with SiL 3114 chip. The card was detected while
booting into XP and Win-2k, and the drivers were installed from the
small CD-rom that came with the card.

Then I shut down the machine, connected the SATA drive to the new card,
disabled all motherboard sata functionality in the bios, and rebooted.

During boot, the usual OS-boot menu comes up, I select XP, the screen
goes blank, and the machine is hung. No hard drive activity.

If I select win-2k, the 2k logo screen comes up, the boot progress bar
goes to about 2/3 or 3/4 complete, and it just sits there. Remember, 2k
is booting from an IDE drive.

If I disconnect the SATA drive (but leave the PCI SATA card installed)
and then reboot and select 2K, 2K does boot normally.

I've tried connecting the SATA drive to each of 4 ports on the board,
doesn't make a difference.

During boot-up, the SATA card bios message does come up, and it does
detect the SATA drive.

The card was not showing any (!) errors in device manager under both
OS's.

So why won't XP boot from the SATA drive connected to the PCI sata card?

Why won't win-2k boot from the IDE drive when the SATA drive is
connected to the PCI card, but will boot when the SATA drive is not
connected (but the PCI card is still present)?
Click to expand...

This is what I would do. At this point in time, run no more than
four drives on the board. One IDE connector, two SATA connectors.

http://download1.gigabyte.us/Files/Manual/motherboard_manual_8i875u_e.pdf

ICH5 ---SATA0_SB Remap SATA Port 0 to IDE Sec. Master. \
---SATA1_SB Remap SATA Port 0 to IDE Sec. Slave. \__ 4 drives
---IDE1 OnChip PRI IDE enable /
---IDE2 OnChip SEC IDE disable

IT8212 ---IDE3 Manual claims all modes supported. Code quality
---IDE4 gradually improved with time. Don't bother.

SIl3112 ---SATA0_SII AFAIK, RAID only, as defined by the BIOS code module
---SATA1_SII Known limit with older code, stalls with 1TB drives

If you can convince the ICH5 to use Compatible mode, that enables
four of six drives on the Southbridge. The drives end up mapped
into I/O space. This is a legacy mode, that even works with Win98.
It allows emulation of four IDE (even though two of the drives are
SATA), and can fool Win98 into thinking this is an old board. Interrupts
come in on INT14 and INT15.

If you enable all six on the ICH5...

ICH5 ---SATA0_SB SATA controller set to SATA port0.
---SATA1_SB SATA controller set to SATA port1.
---IDE1 OnChip PRI IDE enable
---IDE2 OnChip SEC IDE enable

that sets Native mode, the BAR moves to PCI space, and
interrupts are via INTA@ rather than the INT14/INT15 that
the Compatible mode uses. This requires a different driver.

I would use the first configuration, because it's supposed
to work with anything, and would not require pressing F6 and
offering any drivers (that's a function of Service Pack level).

If you have WinXP slipstreamed to a late enough Service Pack,
it will support Compatible or Native. SP1 may be enough there,
but if you're going to the trouble of slipstreaming, you'd
go to SP3 anyway.

On Win2K, I don't remember the details there. Whether it has
Native mode support in SP4 or not. Large disk support is
in SP3 and SP4, so perhaps Native will be there as well.
In any case, using the first config, both OSes should work.

The time to make all the ports work, would be "back in the day",
when all this info was fresh. It would be a major research project,
to dig up all the quirks on this thing now. That's why I'm recommending
an attempt at Compatible mode.

*******

Back in this era, drivers had the "chicken versus egg" problem.
You must select the correct host port mode and driver combination,
at install time. If not, you have the option of bouncing the
hard drive to an alternate controller, while upgrading the driver.
That will probably work. But just changing a port setting
in the BIOS, out of the blue, will result in an inaccessible
boot volume error.

That leaves the question, of guessing what might actually
be happening to it right now. Maybe Win2K doesn't have a driver
for the SATA port (in Native mode). And it's getting confused.
Maybe it's booting from IDE, attempts to probe the SATA one,
and runs into a problem. It's not actually tripping over the
IDE one, but running into problems when enumerating all the disks.

With regard to plugging in PCI cards, you need INT 0x13 capture
turned on for that to work. That is needed to enable the boot
prom on the plugin card. Now, no such setting is listed in the
BIOS for this board, which means it is always turned on.

The other possible problem, is running out of "low" address space.
The ROMs on the storage card(s) and on the video card, share
a 256KB space in low memory. If that space is exhausted as the
BIOS probes the PCI slots, that memory is supplied on a first
come first serve basis. A card in slot 6 might not be able to
load its ROM, and then you cannot boot from that card. To
experiment with this, try disabling the SIL3112 and the
IT8212 chips in the BIOS. Plug in your four port card. And
see if it is now bootable. You'd need a driver in the OS, and
with the hard drive plugged into the Intel port, you can install
the SIL3114 driver (or whatever). Then move the cable over.

Some RAID controllers support JBOD (so a single disk will work),
and some don't. For those plugin cards, they can come with a
RAID or a non-RAID code in the flash chip onboard. And back when
SIL3112/SIL3114 cards were popular, new owners were always reflashing
them. If the card supported JBOD, you would not think that would be
necessary.

Paul
 
Problem is that the system does not reliably boot XP, especially when
the machine is cold.
Click to expand...

I sure cant undestand why temperature would matter. Maybe you need to
reseat your RAM. Or there is a poor solder joint somewhere. I'd also
unplug and replug all connectors. Temperature makes metals shrink and
expand, so that is why I'm saying to check all settings. Also be sure
the system battery is good, or you may be losing the settings. Will it
boot from a CD right away? Paul knows a lof more abotu stuff like this,
but I thought I'd throw this in.
 
I sure cant undestand why temperature would matter. Maybe you need to
reseat your RAM. Or there is a poor solder joint somewhere. I'd also
unplug and replug all connectors. Temperature makes metals shrink and
expand, so that is why I'm saying to check all settings. Also be sure
the system battery is good, or you may be losing the settings. Will it
boot from a CD right away? Paul knows a lof more abotu stuff like this,
but I thought I'd throw this in.
Click to expand...
I concur. Google the term "chip creep" for examples.


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I sure cant undestand why temperature would matter. Maybe you need to
reseat your RAM. Or there is a poor solder joint somewhere. I'd also
unplug and replug all connectors. Temperature makes metals shrink and
expand, so that is why I'm saying to check all settings. Also be sure
the system battery is good, or you may be losing the settings. Will it
boot from a CD right away? Paul knows a lof more abotu stuff like this,
but I thought I'd throw this in.
Click to expand...

Normally things fail when too hot. I had a work computer that started
failing just after 5pm, so I sat and stared at it so long that I noticed
the light from the window creeping up the side of the computer - wham,
it crashed! The RAM was el cheepo.
 
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