sATA adapter:Silicon Image 3112 sATA (PCI card) Problem

[gbltong]

NEED HELP on Silicon Image 3112 sATA PCI card

Computer Config:

ABIT BP6(Intel440BXchipset)Motherboard
2x Celeron 300A @450 MHz
256 Mb PC100 RAM
Bios: V.1.28 RV
HighPoint HPT366: V.1.28 (OnBoard)
Video: nvidia TNT Pro

120Gb ATA Maxtor on HPT366 onboard controller
80Gb sATA Maxtor on Silicon Image 3112 PCI controller

OS: WIN_XP Pro

Problem:

Motherboard/Bios recognise Silicon Image 3112 controller (appears before HPT366's display) at POST with or without the sATA hard disk.

Existing XP OS allows Silicon Image 3112 (non-raid option) driver properly installed as newhardware item without the hard disk attached. (No ? or ! under the SCSI icon in CONTROL PANEL/System).

ReBooting the system with the sATA hard disk attached, POSTing works but XP unable to boot and request flopy boot disk be inserted.

Apparently, Win_XP was unable to find the boot record on the ATA hard disk when the sATA hard disk is attached to the Silicon Image 3112 sATA PCI card.

If I boot up the sytem with the Silicon Image 3112 card(but without the sATA hard disk);

Then illegally hot plug the sATA hard disk on after system boot up, XP 's CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM shows the sATA hard disk but does not assign a drive letter to the disk. PARTITION mAGIC v8.0 indicates also a non drive letter referenced sATA drive and was unable to operate on it.

What has gone wrong?? Two ScSI devices are not allowed on the XP system or BP6 does not allow such config?? (THe V1.28 RV Bios detects both ScSi devies!!


GBLTONG 2004.11.08

[gbltong]

Correction:


If I boot up the sytem with the Silicon Image 3112 card(but without the sATA hard disk);

then illegally hot plug the sATA hard disk on after system boot up, XP 's CONTROL PANEL/SYSTEM shows the sATA hard disk exists. I can then get XP to assign a drive letter to the sATA disk and use the disk.

XP will just not allow me to boot with the sATA hard disk attached!!

What has gone wrong??


GBLTONG 2004.11.08

[Dave Rave]

check the bios for the boot option of ide or hpt or some other word, secondary / auxilliary ?? (help)
depending on what order they get put into bios will affect which controller is assigned ide controller 0 / 1 / 2
and therefore which hard drive on which master / slave combination on which controller the boot block is saying to boot to will be different.
(plz, someone, help me, i obviously can't write for cr## when i can't boot a bp6 into bios to look as they're all headless)

[hyperspace]

check the bios for the boot option of ide or hpt or some other word, secondary / auxilliary ?? (help)
depending on what order they get put into bios will affect which controller is assigned ide controller 0 / 1 / 2
and therefore which hard drive on which master / slave combination on which controller the boot block is saying to boot to will be different.
(plz, someone, help me, i obviously can't write for cr## when i can't boot a bp6 into bios to look as they're all headless)

It would be EXT. From the BIOS manual, charter 3 (BIOS Features Setup Menu), on pages 3-12 and 3-13.


(3-12) Boot Sequence:

When the computer boots up, it can load the operating system from the floppy drive A, hard drive, SCSI or CDROM. There are many options for the boot sequence:

A, C, EXT*
C, A, EXT
C, CDROM, A
CDROM, C, A
D, A, EXT (at least 2 IDE HDD can be used)
E, A, EXT (at least 3 IDE HDD can be used)
F, A, EXT (at least 4 IDE HDD can be used)
EXT, A, C
EXT, C, A
LS/ZIP, C

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Important note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

*EXT: This option lets you boot your computer from a SCSI drive or ATA/66 drive that is connected to IDE3 or IDE4. It has to co-operate with the "Boot Sequence EXT Means." (refer to the following setup item.)

(3-13) Boot Sequence EXT means:

This option lets you boot your computer from a SCSI drive or ATA/66 drive that is connected to IDE3 or IDE4. It has to co-operate with the "Boot Sequence." (refer to the above setup item.) For example, if you want to boot your computer from a SCSI drive, you have to set the "Boot Sequence" to "EXT, A, C" or "EXT, C, A" first. The set the "Boot Sequence EXT Means" to "SCSI".

Hope this helps...

[MeatBall]

I recently installed a Sunsway/ST Labs S-ATA controller based on the Sil3114R chip, and found that when connecting more than one HD, the pc locks up after POST (It gets as far as the BIOS summary, where it should start the boot sequence). When connecting two drives everything looks ok in the Sil BIOS, I can make RAID 0 stripesets or RAID 1 mirrors, but it just won't boot. With just one drive everything is ok. I run a RU BIOS, and there is no newer official BIOS atleast, so I don't know what to do.

To top it all off, Sunsway/ST Labs has decided to put a OTP (One-Time Programmable) EPROM instead of a flashable EEPROM on the controller, so I can't apply the latest Sil3114 BIOS (5.0.44) that I suspect might fix my problem as the changelog mentions system hangs. Currently the Sil 3114 has 5.0.35 BIOS.

Anyone got this type of controller to work on their BP6?

[gbltong]

Many thanks for the suggestions.
I tried the EXT option but problem persists.
It is now quite clear that if two or more SCSi controllers(silicon image and HPT366) are installed, the simple minded XP will tried to boot from the first SCSi device located by the Bios, namely the Silicon Image SCSi Controller which controls the sATA hard disk that contains no BOOT record.
REMEDY 1 : a BIOS that has EXT1 and EXT2 option?
REMEDY 2 : MODIFY XP's BOOT.INI or other boot file to make XP search for a boot record from all SCSi controller devices.

HELP needed!!

gbltong 2004.11.09

[hyperspace]

Did you have XP running, before adding the Silicon Image 3112 SATA PCI card?

[gbltong]

to: HYPERSPACE

YES, I have XP up and running for quite some time before installing the Silicon Image 3112 sATA PCI card.

[gbltong]

to: HYPERSPACE

YES, I have XP up and running for quite some time before installing the Silicon Image 3112 sATA PCI card.

[hyperspace]

to: HYPERSPACE

YES, I have XP up and running for quite some time before installing the Silicon Image 3112 sATA PCI card.

You may want to consider saving your important data and re-installing XP to the drive attached to the SI card. Use the drive attached to the HPT366 for DATA and paging file. May get a little performance boost for the OS in this configuration.

[gbltong]

TO: Hyperspace

Sorry for not replying early.

Follow your advice ( Use sATA pci-HardDisk as Win-XP Boot device ) and it works! Thanks!!

Performance of my sATA Hard Disk(with regard to program startup/data retrieval) , as compared to ATA Hard Disk, is more or less the same. Anyway to improve the situation?


RGDS.

P.S. : What will happen if both sATA and ATA hard disks contain boot code ??