[Doby]

Dave,

At this point I would wipe out the raid config and try to install the OS on a single sata but yes you will later have to format and reinstall to set up the raid but this way we will see if the OS will install and if everthing is stable, if and when the OS installes. This will eliminate a lot of steps and help us to tell if its hardware related or a bad config in bios or with the raid setup or drivers.

I Ain't no expert with raid but the few systems I did setup I pretty much did what you described and luckly it worked. I know when either trying to install a raid array or even a single sata and I choose the wrong driver the system would just sit there and not move on to the next screen, it would never reboot so I am thinking there is some hardware that is causing the problem that we can more easily track down by doing a single drive install.

I am going to be away for the weekend so I will ask for additional staff help, maybe someone with more experiance with raid can give us some pointers.

Keep us posted on how the single sata install works and if the OS would install if everthing is stable.

Rick

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I'm having the same problem. I've spent a week of 12-14 hr days trying to get WinXP to install.

DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR then
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

Athlon64 X2 4200
1gig of the fanciest Corsair XMS I could find
Asus GeForce 6600 PCI-E
2x WD Raptor 10k 74gb
Antec NeoPower 480
BenQ DVD burner

The DFI installed on the Sil3114 controller until I flashed the bios to the latest, then it'd hang on "Setup is starting Windows" Had several days of fighting it then flashed a couple other bios revs and it failed to come back from one of 'em so I happily shipped it back and snagged an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, stuck it in, flashed it to the latest, and it does EXACTLY the same thing. I tried installing on one drive then creating the RAID 1 array on the fly. Windows would boot and the initial progress bar would make two passes then freeze. Undo the array and it boots fine, redo array, crashes.

I build these things for a living...this is probably number 75 or so. Never had so much freaking trouble with a computer.

[Edit] If I have no arrays defined on the 3114 and load the driver it doesn't hang. Add an array, hang.

[Update] I've tried every trick I can think of and searched various forums (there's quite a few ppl who've had this problem, all with the 3114; none have found a solution. For about 3/4s it seems to spontaneously start working) and tried all the various (nonrediculous) suggestions ppl have put forth to no avail. I've swapped out all possible hardware (I don't have a spare mobo, X2 cpu, or Raptor) but it's not the disk, memory, or optical.

Soooooo, since it's been a week and I've made no progress I had to cut my losses and use the Nvidia controller. Installed without a hitch but this bloody thing is fragile. It's already come unglued twice, once spontaneously. XP pitches some kinda fit when you try to boot and rebuilding, or deleting, creating, and rebuilding is necessary to get it working again. Really sucks when you have to teach the buyer how to rebuild arrays cuz you can't be sure it won't happen again. The 3114 is solid. I've used it before w/ other mobos and when it works, it works.

Edited by rccola, 07 August 2005 - 07:42 PM.

[rccola]

I'm having the same problem. I've spent a week of 12-14 hr days trying to get WinXP to install.

DFI Lanparty UT SLI-DR then
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

Athlon64 X2 4200
1gig of the fanciest Corsair XMS I could find
Asus GeForce 6600 PCI-E
2x WD Raptor 10k 74gb
Antec NeoPower 480
BenQ DVD burner

The DFI installed on the Sil3114 controller until I flashed the bios to the latest, then it'd hang on "Setup is starting Windows" Had several days of fighting it then flashed a couple other bios revs and it failed to come back from one of 'em so I happily shipped it back and snagged an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, stuck it in, flashed it to the latest, and it does EXACTLY the same thing. I tried installing on one drive then creating the RAID 1 array on the fly. Windows would boot and the initial progress bar would make two passes then freeze. Undo the array and it boots fine, redo array, crashes.

I build these things for a living...this is probably number 75 or so. Never had so much freaking trouble with a computer.

[Edit] If I have no arrays defined on the 3114 and load the driver it doesn't hang. Add an array, hang.

[Update] I've tried every trick I can think of and searched various forums (there's quite a few ppl who've had this problem, all with the 3114; none have found a solution. For about 3/4s it seems to spontaneously start working) and tried all the various (nonrediculous) suggestions ppl have put forth to no avail. I've swapped out all possible hardware (I don't have a spare mobo, X2 cpu, or Raptor) but it's not the disk, memory, or optical.

Soooooo, since it's been a week and I've made no progress I had to cut my losses and use the Nvidia controller. Installed without a hitch but this bloody thing is fragile. It's already come unglued twice, once spontaneously. XP pitches some kinda fit when you try to boot and rebuilding, or deleting, creating, and rebuilding is necessary to get it working again. Really sucks when you have to teach the buyer how to rebuild arrays cuz you can't be sure it won't happen again. The 3114 is solid. I've used it before w/ other mobos and when it works, it works.

Edited by rccola, 07 August 2005 - 07:42 PM.

[Disciple86]

I had a same kind of problem, I couldn't install windows xp either and it just hanged on that "setup is starting windows" screen.

After couple weeks I maniged to get it work and it was all because of one BIOS setup option called APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller). That is made just for pentium systems and it should be disabled if you have AMD processor like I do.

Even that in my MOBO manual there is written that the default option for this is disabled, it always changed it to enabled when I loaded the default setup. I wish this could help someone out of this problem.

Thanks.

[rccola]

Checked that but it was disabled by default in the Asus mobo. System still running fine on nVidia...still vulnerable to the wrong proggie tho.

--Ryan

[Millsy]

Thank you again for all the wonderful ideas as to how I can approach this problem.Sorry to hear a fewof you are in the same boat.

I haven't checked in with you on my install woes in awhile (I've had some time off and travel for work has picked up again). In any event, the saga continues... here's the latest:

I "cheated" a bit by disconnecting the 2 SATA HDs and then connecting one 60GB PATA. It worked! I got the OS loaded up and got some basics drivers installed – even got Internet connectivity through my wireless LAN. This tells me that it was the NvRAID drivers the whole time (still not sure how to fix that issue as I have tried several different versions of the drivers). The system was running smooth.

If you recall, during my troubleshooting phase, I had unhooked all unnecessary cards, connections, and other hardware and left only the VGA, CDROM (I used this instead of a DVD), floppy, & PATA HD. After I got the OS running, I decided it was time to connect all these items and then load up the drivers (FYI - I decided to leave the 2 SATAs disconnected and try to configure a RAID 0 array later). At the same time, I also decided to take off the noisy chipset fan that Asus shipped with the board and put a passive heat sink on the northbridge. In order to do this, I had to take out the MOB - what fun! I did that this weekend and then plugged everything else in that wasn't in before. I started up the PC and guess what - the OS wouldn't load! It POSTed fine, but spun into “registry limbo” just after the initial Windows XP screen came up and before the screen that allows you to put in your admin password - I was staring at a blank, black screen (no error messages and no ability to hit CNTL-ALT-DEL to get out of the mess - it was stuck!). I was sure that it was because of one of the pieces of hardware that I connected. Sooooo, one-by-one, I pulled off each "unnecessary" piece of hardware (AGAIN!). No luck - I still can't get the OS to fully load up. I even tried Safe Mode, but that gets stuck in the registry too. Nothing else changed, so it's odd that I didn't boot up.

The way I see it, I have two options:

1. Reload the OS (that would be tons of fun!)
2. Try to create a boot disk from my XP machine upstairs to see if I can get the system up, so that they I can load rivers for the hardware I didn't have previously. This might be interesting though as the XP version upstairs is not MCE 2005 - not sure if that matters with regard to the boot disk though.

I also tried to run System Recovery, but wasn't able to get that rolling. At some point, after I get this all fixed, I still have to set up the RAID (I'm going to try and set up RAID on the 2 SATA's separate from the PATA with the OS on it).

Now you are up to date. Let me know your thoughts on the current issue. I’m about ready to nuke it. Just kidding of course - this is fun, right? Hope all is well where you are and thanks again for the help.

[biyectivo]

Hey Millsy,


First of all, good luck with your problem!

I bought an Athlon 3500 processor and a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum Motherboard. I am NOT using Raid or SATA for that matter - just standard IDE drives (no more money!)

I built the computer yesterday and configured the BIOS and I ended with the same problem as you have.

I can tell you some things:
1) There is a Microsoft KnowledgeBase article about this problem. The link to that article is here.
2) Do NOT mess with ACPI - leave it disabled.
3) If you haven't already, download the latest RAID drivers from your motherboard manufacturer.
4) I can guarantee this is not a hardware fault problem. There is nothing wrong with your memory, processor, motherboard or even drives. Check that you don't have your SATA cable folded in a 90° angle - angle must be acute (<90°) or else you'll have problems!

I have not returned home so I haven't checked - but I bet you $1 in my case I didn't disable ACPI in BIOS.

If you DO have ACPI enabled and you want to use a HAL, check the Microsoft article on using a third-party HAL.

I will be posting later with updates, again good luck!

[biyectivo]

[UPDATE] lol, this has to be some of the funniest stuff yet.

The setting in my BIOS is NOT ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) but APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller). Microsoft's article relates to ACPI. However I disabled APIC and setup loaded fine!

I found a webpage here that talks about this curious solution. Hope it helps.

Note: I have not upgraded my BIOS yet but probably will do it right now, before installing Windows XP Professional, just in case.

Hope it helps! Will keep track of the topic the following days

Edited by biyectivo, 16 August 2005 - 08:50 PM.

[dsenette]

sweet...glad you found it! congradulations...

[biyectivo]

[UPDATE] I am experiencing random (?) lockups with my PC - there is probably something misconfigured.

Also, I noticed that with the latest BIOS the APIC problem disappears - i can install Windows XP Pro even with APIC on.

[dsenette]

do not post inside of a nother thread start your own thread in the proper forum

[biyectivo]

I was not trying to get a solution dsenette, just following up with my solution so they can see if it really worked.

As I said I managed to install with APIC.

I managed (apparently) to get rid of random lockups by setting the memory timings manually in BIOS and disabling Cool'n'Quiet and D.O.T.

Also disable DEP on Windows XP if you use SP2 (look in Google for details - involves modifying boot.ini)

Hope it helps.

[EdrichE]

Hi Millsy,

Did you manage to fix your problem? I'm having a similar problem with an Asus A8N-SLI Premium Mainboard, AMD64 4000+, etc. trying to move an existing Installation to the new Board.

I can boot into Safe Mode, but not Normal. If I boot Normal I get STOP Error 0x0000007E (blablabla...). Tried doing I repair WinXP SP2 Install, but setup "hangs" when at Restarting Computer Screen after copying files and saving settings. If I reset it goes to the Blue STOP Error Screen again.

Let us know if you got yours working.

Cheers,

Edrich

[rccola]

I've had mixed results moving an existing installation to a new mobo. Sometimes it works just fine but usually there's a unresolvable issue and I must reinstall.

[sandyg]

Millsy -

Very similar system, Asus Deluxe same as yours, same processor, I am runing 4 400g SATA's raid 5 on the secondary controller and 2 400g (SATA 1 and 2) + Plexstor 716 Sata on the primary SATA 3, SATA 4 is empty. I also, and I think fortunatally, have a IDE Samsung DVD RW drive on one of the secondary controllers. Hauppauge pvr350, XFX 6800 Video. 2G total OCZ in 2 sticks. 600W OCZ power.

Here is what I found, and not a solution at that.

I got XP loaded up fine off of the Samsung Drive, and by chance it was set to boot before the Plextore 716. Got it up, loaded all the drivers for the Asus and the rest of the needed stuff. Even loaded the Plextor utils from the Samsung drive. Fired them up and looks like it sees the Plextor fine.

As soon as I put a disk (CD or DVD) into the Plextor it spins up, then stops spinning after a few seconds, then the system is locked. DEAD, no CTRL ALT DEL, nothing, dead. Have to reset the power before it will come back. If I try to boot with any disk in the plextor drive, will lock up as soon as it spins up.

I don't know if this is similar but it seems that something is messed up with the SATA drive as a DVD. I will move the Plextor off to SATA4 which is not being used and see if it matters.

I might have a bad drive, but sounds like the same problem you have run into...

Sandy

[Millsy]

Hey Gang -

Sorry about not replying back sooner. Not trying to be rude, just traveling a lot for work lately (heading to Ireland on Friday!!). Anyway, I haven't had a ton of time to troubleshoot this latest issue, but I do agree with Sandy in that I thnk there is some problem with the SATA DVD. I returned my Plextor SATA for the same model, but in IDE. Just got it in today. It is supposed to be a lot quieter and not noticeably slower. Hopefully it will solve the "hanging" issue. If not, then I am going to reload the OS (when I get back from my next trip). Keep your fingers crossed for me - I'll let you know how it goes!

Thanks again for all your help and support!!

Dave