P2B-DS Dual PIII 700 1013 BIOS - Problem with installing Windows

[patnik]

Subject: P2B-DS Dual PIII 700 1013 BIOS - Problem with installing Windows


Hello,

I just got computer with Asus P2B-DS, Dual PIII 700, 1GB. I have
problems installin Windows 2000 or Windows 2003. Setup does not
recognize any storage devices. I tried different SCSI card, different
PCI IDE controller, different hard disks.
BIOS level can see all drives. I even installed Linux Madrake on IDE
drive, but Windows just hangs. SCSI card can see all of its drives.
If I press F6 to install additional drives, it show NONE as drives
that it found so far.
Jumpers are 7.0x and 100MHz on motherboard.

Can somebody please help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[P2B]

Subject: P2B-DS Dual PIII 700 1013 BIOS - Problem with installing Windows


Hello,

I just got computer with Asus P2B-DS, Dual PIII 700, 1GB. I have
problems installin Windows 2000 or Windows 2003. Setup does not
recognize any storage devices. I tried different SCSI card, different
PCI IDE controller, different hard disks.
BIOS level can see all drives. I even installed Linux Madrake on IDE
drive, but Windows just hangs. SCSI card can see all of its drives.
If I press F6 to install additional drives, it show NONE as drives
that it found so far.
Jumpers are 7.0x and 100MHz on motherboard.

Can somebody please help.

Thanks in advance.

Windows 2000 consistently installs without special procedures on a
P2B-DS with SCSI drives attached to the onboard controller only, so I
suspect it is being confused by the presence of the PCI IDE controller.
I would suggest trying the install to a SCSI drive with no IDE drives or
add-in controllers present to verify that works as it should.

Beyond that there are several BIOS parameters which might change the
installation behavior when the PCI IDE controller is present:

HDD Sequence: defaults to IDE as the boot drive, can be changed to SCSI

Onboard PCI IDE Enable: defaults to both channels enabled, either or
both can be disabled

ONB AHA BIOS First: defaults to other SCSI BIOSes - which your PCI
controller may emulate - having priority over the onboard SCSI BIOS, can
be switched to onboard priority.

HTH

P2B

 

[patnik]

Thanks for the response. The first thing I tried was to load Windows
with only SCSI drive connected on the on-board controler. If that
worked, I wouldn't even try anything else.
Unfortunately it didn't, so I tried using IDE disks, and then
different SCSI card and different IDE controller.
I can recheck by BIOS settings, but I think they are correct.

Thanks

 

[Tim]

Hi,

What SCSI ID are you using? Boot discs should be on zero (or one).\
Is the SCSI bus terminated correctly?
Can you get into the SCSI Bios at boot and do a scan? Do you see the discs
there with the correct ID?

- Tim

 

[P2B]

Thanks for the response. The first thing I tried was to load Windows
with only SCSI drive connected on the on-board controler. If that
worked, I wouldn't even try anything else.
Unfortunately it didn't, so I tried using IDE disks, and then
different SCSI card and different IDE controller.
I can recheck by BIOS settings, but I think they are correct.

Thanks

What Tim said

If the SCSI BIOS can find a drive at ID0, and the BIOS HDD sequence is
set to SCSI first, the only reasons I can think of for W2K install not
finding and using it are incorrect termination or oddball disk format.

The latter would only apply if the disk came from something other than a
PC, and can be corrected by doing a low level format from the SCSI BIOS.

HTH

P2B

 

[patnik]

HDD is SCSI 0, and CD is SCSI 6. I can do CTRL+A and enter in SCSI
BIOS. I did low level disk format, and disk verify. SCSI bus of the
HDD is terminated.

 

[P2B]

HDD is SCSI 0, and CD is SCSI 6. I can do CTRL+A and enter in SCSI
BIOS. I did low level disk format, and disk verify. SCSI bus of the
HDD is terminated.

That really *should* work!

I'd try re-flashing the BIOS - to the latest version:

ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Slot_I/INTEL_Chipset/i440BX/P2B-DS/1014ds03.zip

 

[Tim]

During F6 driver install and on the point

"it show NONE as drives that it found so far."

This is normal (last I noticed). You then press S insert the floppy, and
follow through from there. You will see the driver load.

Does this happen?

- Tim

 

[patnik]

The only option that works is Mandrake Linux 9.2 from SCSI CD to IDE
drive. Every other combination of drives or OS fails.
If I do F6 to install additional driver, Windows says it already has
driver for that controller.
Windows installation fails at the point where it asks:
Press Enter to install Windows
Press R to repair
Press F3 to exit.

At that screen computer freezes. It does not accept any keyboard input
any more.

Patnik

 

[P2B]

The only option that works is Mandrake Linux 9.2 from SCSI CD to IDE
drive. Every other combination of drives or OS fails.
If I do F6 to install additional driver, Windows says it already has
driver for that controller.
Windows installation fails at the point where it asks:
Press Enter to install Windows
Press R to repair
Press F3 to exit.

At that screen computer freezes. It does not accept any keyboard input
any more.

I've been running and building P2B-DS systems for over 5 years and never
had one behave like that.

At this point I'd have the board out of the case, running on the bench
power supply, and stripped down to processors, video, one stick of RAM,
SCSI CD and HDD. I'd clear CMOS, run memtest86, and try the OS install
again if memtest reports no errors. If it still failed, re-seat the
processors, try another video card, then swap the BIOS chip. Not much
left after that but a motherboard problem.

P2B