HPT366 bios screen hangs

pieroxy · Post by **pieroxy** » Fri Mar 28, 2003 9:41 pm

Hi there, I just bought an ABIT BP6, hooked up two Celeron 533 and I'm having a very disturbing problem. For info, I'm having a NIC card, a SB64PCI and an Adaptec 1200A RAID card. No devices are connected to the HPT366.

First time I hooked everything up, it hangs on the blue BIOS screen of the HPT366... Used of these little tricks, I tried to switch my three cards from different slots configurations. After an incredible high number of retries (maybe 20) it finally worked and my Linux booted up.

I turned the power down and moved the unit out of my living room to my garage (It's my server) and booted it up. I hang again with the blue BIOS screen, and the combination of cards/PCI slots didn't work anymore

.

A little pissed off, I tried new combinations removing the SB. Found one 15 retries later and added the SB on top of that, already half convinced that it wouldn't work. It didn't, and hang on the HPT366 BIOS. I removed the SB and it didn't work either!!!!!! I had to find a new card/PCI configuration.

It was 1AM and I was really pissed off at this point!!!!!! Already felt bad about my poor HDDs and CPUs (not mentioning the Mobo) from these already 35 power down/up

. So I tried another combination (what else could I do) and found one after 20 other retries. So all in all, it works, and I'd really like to hook up my SB in there but I am *really* scared of shutting down the unit!!!

What's wrong? Anybody had a similar problem ? Please help!!!!!!

pieroxy · Post by **pieroxy** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 12:40 am

I got the (a) solution for that. Very simple in fact, just follow me:

Problem with HPT366 BIOS => Remove the HPT366 BIOS

Simple heh?:shock:

I just flashed my Mobo with the RU BIOS w/o HPT366 BIOS, works like a charm!

Of course, if you want this stupid^H^H^H^H^H wonderfull controller to host some drives for you you're not on the right track with my fix. But giving the bad image this controller has on these forums, I guess a $50 ATA PCI controller is a better option.

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:20 am

Before you removed the HPT366 BIOS, were you trying to use PCI Slot 3 during this whole process?

pieroxy · Post by **pieroxy** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 11:53 am

were you trying to use PCI Slot 3 during this whole process?

Well, certainly. As I mentionned in my first message, I tried more than 15 combinations, so some with slot 3, some without...

But that was not the worst thing. As soon as I would shutdown my machine (unplug the power supply, not only the power button), the combination I tried didn't work anymore. That was the big thing: I just couldn't rely on my PC anymore. Spending 30 minutes to find a working set for my PCI cards is one thing I can live with. Spending 30 minutes to find a working set for my PCI cards at every power down is something I can't

But truth be told, I don't need the HPT controller, so I'm happy with my current config

. That said, just ask me if you want any more infos.

And thanks for the good forum!

hyperspace · Post by **hyperspace** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 1:47 pm

If you were going to use the HPT366 controller, I just wanted you to know that the HPT366 shares an IRQ with PCI slot 3. You should be able to use any PCI card in slot 3 if that card and its driver set will share IRQ's. That said, if your system is working, good deal.