A8V Deluxe...no SATA or display

[Dreamstalker]

First build, A8V Deluxe motherboard and two SATA drives (HDD and
CD-RW). Both are on the non-RAID SATA headers, but neither are
detected.

I tried to boot into bios to try and figure out something in
settings, but I have no display on a 17" Cornea TFT monitor.
It's getting power, but no signal. Prior tests with an old CRT
worked fine (I have no room for a CRT in my dorm, so only have
the TFT now). I have no other TFT monitors to test it with...got
this one secondhand and no mention was made of any drivers (my CD
drive isn't being detected anyway, so I wouldn't be able to
install them).

 

[Paul]

First build, A8V Deluxe motherboard and two SATA drives (HDD and
CD-RW). Both are on the non-RAID SATA headers, but neither are
detected.

I tried to boot into bios to try and figure out something in
settings, but I have no display on a 17" Cornea TFT monitor.
It's getting power, but no signal. Prior tests with an old CRT
worked fine (I have no room for a CRT in my dorm, so only have
the TFT now). I have no other TFT monitors to test it with...got
this one secondhand and no mention was made of any drivers (my CD
drive isn't being detected anyway, so I wouldn't be able to
install them).

Is there a 2x2 ATX12V power connector on the motherboard ?
Check that you have connected a cable from the power supply
to that connector. It powers the processor Vcore circuit,
and the computer won't POST without it.

So, the fan on the power supply and the fan on the CPU
are running ? Is the power supply an Antec ? What is
the brand and model number of your supply ? For a basic
build with a gutless video card, you should have a PSU
with a rating of at least 12V@15A.

Another thing you should be using, is Vocal POST. Connect
amplified computer speakers or your stereo line level
input, to the Lineout green connector on the back of the
computer. There could be some Voice messages telling you
what is wrong. See section 3.3.1 in the manual, for a
list of the messages, because they are hard to hear.
Some of the messages will be delivered immediately, but
for some faults, like a missing keyboard, it can take
30 seconds before the message arrives.

HTH,
Paul

 

[RTP]

Are you conencting to your monitor via DVI. If so it could be your
signal is going out on the standard D-Sub (??? name) port. If you can
get via that you may be able to set it up. Not sure if there is a
setting in the Bios for this.

You need to make sure you plug the CD-RW on the via SATA ports I think.
Don't believe the Promise ones support ATAPI.

Cheers
RTP

 

[Dreamstalker]

Is there a 2x2 ATX12V power connector on the motherboard ?
Check that you have connected a cable from the power supply
to that connector. It powers the processor Vcore circuit,
and the computer won't POST without it.

Yup, got that.

So, the fan on the power supply and the fan on the CPU
are running ?
Yup.

Is the power supply an Antec ? What is
the brand and model number of your supply ? For a basic
build with a gutless video card, you should have a PSU
with a rating of at least 12V@15A.

Case: Thermaltake SViking
PSU: Fortron Blue Storm 500W

I fixed the display issue; that case has the dreaded "toolless
PCI" bracket (which is also misaligned). That had come loose
when I was transporting the rig last weekend and allowed the card
to loosen in the slot just enough so it wasn't detected. Will a
hex-head screw work to hold the card in, or a screw and washer?

Setup detects both drives, but the Promise RAID controller wants
to find them as well, and can't so I get "no bootable device"
(I'm not using RAID) and bios doesn't see them either. One
person tells me to enable RAID, one says I don't need to...would
it hurt things any to enable the controller and see what happens?

 

[Paul]

Case: Thermaltake SViking
PSU: Fortron Blue Storm 500W

I fixed the display issue; that case has the dreaded "toolless
PCI" bracket (which is also misaligned). That had come loose
when I was transporting the rig last weekend and allowed the card
to loosen in the slot just enough so it wasn't detected. Will a
hex-head screw work to hold the card in, or a screw and washer?

Setup detects both drives, but the Promise RAID controller wants
to find them as well, and can't so I get "no bootable device"
(I'm not using RAID) and bios doesn't see them either. One
person tells me to enable RAID, one says I don't need to...would
it hurt things any to enable the controller and see what happens?

An onboard controller needs support at two levels. It needs
code to run it in the BIOS, and later needs a driver to run it
in Windows.

The BIOS is responsible for providing INT13 services to the OS
while the boot process is happening. If you set the Promise to
RAID mode, then the RAID BIOS loads, and it takes care of where
to get the data from (like the striping pattern). If the
Promise is set to non-RAID mode, there is still a need to talk
to a standalone disk and get data from it. It could be the same
BIOS code module, only fed a flag that says whether RAID or
non-RAID services are required.

The RAID and ATA drivers for the Promise do the same thing at
the OS level. If you set the Promise to non-RAID mode, then
F6 install the Promise "ATA" driver, you should be able to
install onto a single hard drive. The ATA driver might even
continue to work if the Promise is set to RAID mode - not all
controllers work the same way, and some controllers are
more exclusive about mixing RAID and non-RAID operation, than
others. (Based on what I saw on my P4C800-E, I get the impression
the Promise code still uses a reserved sector, even when the
"ATA" driver is running. So, maybe that means the ATA driver
will work no matter how the Promise is set up in the BIOS. I
only tested with the BIOS set to non-RAID.)

As for a SATA ATAPI optical drive, it is best to check a site
like plextor.com, as they have compatibility info on there.
I don't think the Promise gets too high a rating. The Asus
manual warns that IDE ATAPI don't work on the Promise, but
for the SATA side of things, it is best to check the
optical drive manufacturer's web site.

Paul