[Denisejm]

Hi,

I have Windows XP Pro x64, SATA.

About a month ago, I needed to format my pc. Since then, whenever I boot up, a window opens for about 30 seconds. It says, "Press Ctrl + S or F4 to enter RAID Utility." After the 30 seconds has gone by, it says "No Valid Device! Press Ctrl + S or F4 to enter RAID Utility or any key to continue." It then waits another 5 seconds or so to continue to boot up Windows.

I checked in CMOS and BIOS to see if I could turn off the message but RAID is disabled because I never plan on setting up a RAID Array.

Does anyone know how I can stop this window from opening? A 30-second ASUS splashscreen is bad enough.

Just call me impatient.

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Check for SATA type in the BIOS. A lot of mainboards flag this up as being available in RAID, AHCI or IDE. Set it to IDE.

[Neil Jones]

Check for SATA type in the BIOS. A lot of mainboards flag this up as being available in RAID, AHCI or IDE. Set it to IDE.

[Denisejm]

Hi Neil . . . thanks for replying.

I checked through BIOS and CMOS and there was no mention of SATA. I looked in every option.

I also went into Ctrl + S to see if I could turn something off or change it to IDE and I kept receiving messages that said that I don't have a RAID Array set up (so I can't change anything).

On the plus side, I can see now why the ASUS splash screen stays on for about 30 seconds . . . it's because it's loading and accounting for what is installed in my pc and the ext hdds that I have connected.

Any other ideas about how I can turn this off would be greatly appeciated.

[Neil Jones]

What motherboard model do you have?

[Denisejm]

It's an ASUS A8V-VM SE (micro).

When I was in BIOS, I disabled the splashscreen and what appears now is a list of what is starting up and a list of components (CPU, ext hdds, etc).

[wannabe1]

Hello Denisejm...

You need to disable the Silicon SATA Controller. In BIOS Setup, under the "Advanced" heading, select "Onboard Device Configuration" and press "Enter". In the resulting list, select "Silicon SATA Controller" and press the + or - key to toggle it to "Disabled". Press F10 and say Yes to save the setting and exit BIOS Setup.

The first boot after doing this may take a bit longer than usual, but you will not be prompted to enter the RAID Utility. Once Windows completely loads, reboot again and you should be back to a normal boot...sans the RAID Utility prompt.

wannabe1

[The Skeptic]

Download the Raid driver from ASUS and install it. Boot the computer and click Start > Run. Type msconfig and select Selective Mode. Click Startup and uncheck the entry related to RAID and reboot.

[Denisejm]

Thanks wannabe1 and Skeptic. I'll be rebooting tonight and I'll let you know how things went.

[Denisejm]

Hi

I just went into BIOS -> Advanced Settings ->Onboard Device Configuration. When opened, this menu consisted only:

Configure Win627EHG Super IO Chipset
- Serial Port Address
- Parallel Port Address
- Parallet Port Mode
. . . ECP Mode DMA Channel
- Parallet Port IRQ

I opened each category but there was no mention of Silicon SATA Controller


I couldn't find the ASUS site where I could download the RAID driver.

[The Skeptic]

The driver is available here.

[Denisejm]

I went through the site with a fine tooth comb and didn't see a driver for SATA or RAID.

[The Skeptic]

Of all the driver downloading sites that I know of no one is as miserable as ASUS's. Please use the link that I gave you and search for the driver. You have three parameters that you have to load: In the first search line choose "motherboard". In the second choose "socket 939". In the third one choose A8V-VM SE. Click search and this will take you to the page I linked to in my previous post.

Now, for some reason which I do not Understand ASUS have RAID driver available to LINUX only. However, in UTILITIES go down with the long list of drivers and find "Make VIA raid driver disk". This driver is the same for XP, XP 64, and 2003.

Edited by The Skeptic, 02 June 2008 - 12:09 PM.

[Denisejm]

You have three parameters that you have to load: In the first search line choose "motherboard". In the second choose "socket 939". In the third one choose A8V-VM SE.

This was the track that I followed but I wouldn't have thought to "Make VIA raid driver disk/"

It's too bad I can't upload a screenshot of the files that were opened. It has 2 main .exe files. I chose "MakeDisk.exe." Nothing happened automatically. There are 2 folders:

AMD 64 (folder)
- 2003x64 (folder)
...viamrx64.cat (file)
...VIAMRX64.INF (file)
...viamrx64.sys (file)
- txtsetup.oem (file)
- VIAMRX64 (file)

I386 (folder)
- NT4 (folder)
...viamraid.inf (file)
...viamraid.sys (file)
- NT5 (folder)
...viamraid.cat
...VIAMRAID.INF
...viamraid.sys
- txtsetup.oem (file)
- VIAMRAID
txtsetup.oem (file)

If you can't follow the paths I used, I can explain better. I don't know what to do with it from here.

[Denisejm]

Wannab1, do you (or anyone else) know why "Silicon SATA Controller" wasn't in"Onboard Device Configuration?"

In BIOS Setup, under the "Advanced" heading, select "Onboard Device Configuration" and press "Enter". In the resulting list, select "Silicon SATA Controller"

I couldn't find it under any of the submenus. Is the ASUS A8V-VM SE supposed to have an option to change "Silicon SATA Controller?"

[The Skeptic]

Please enable RAID in the BIOS. Go to device manager and see if you have any yellow markings there.

The driver in the ASUS utilities is meant to be burned to to a floppy, which I doubt if you have. I would like to try another approach.

Download the driver to a new folder made especially for this. Extract all the files to this folder. Go to Control Panel > Add new hardware. Let the computer search for the driver automatically. If that doesn't work brouse for the folder in which the driver is stored and let the computer load it.