Boot problem

[Hackworth]

I just put together a system for a friend using an Asrock 939Dual-SATA2
Socket 939 motherboard
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081), 1 GB
dual-channel memory, an Athlon 64 3200+, a Maxtor 200GB SATA150 hard disk
drive, an ATI Radeon 9600 AGP video card, and onboard sound. There are no
other PCI card sinstalled yet.

Everything works perfectly *except* that it can never find the operating
system (Win XP SP2) on the first try when I cold boot. I always have to hit
the reset button.

I'm using the latest-and-greatest BIOS (1.05), all of the hardware drivers
are the latest versions, and I've played with every likely candidate in the
BIOS settings.

In the "old days," you could set a delay of 1-4 seconds in the BIOS to give
the hard disk a chance to spin up so that the boot firmware would read the
drive and load Windows. There is no equivalent setting on today's
motherboards, but it feels so much like that's what I need. Any ideas as to
what else I could try?

 

[Dude]

Everything works perfectly *except* that it can never find the operating
system (Win XP SP2) on the first try when I cold boot. I always have to hit
the reset button.

if I had to guess, I would say your hd jumpers are not in the right
spot

cold boot is looking on a certain ide cable / based on the bios
settings.

however, it finds it and uses it...but something is wrong either in the
bios
or the jumper settings on the hd

is the hd plugged into the 0 ide slot at the motherboard?

 

[Chris Hill]

I just put together a system for a friend using an Asrock 939Dual-SATA2
Socket 939 motherboard
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081), 1 GB
dual-channel memory, an Athlon 64 3200+, a Maxtor 200GB SATA150 hard disk
drive, an ATI Radeon 9600 AGP video card, and onboard sound. There are no
other PCI card sinstalled yet.

Everything works perfectly *except* that it can never find the operating
system (Win XP SP2) on the first try when I cold boot. I always have to hit
the reset button.

I'm using the latest-and-greatest BIOS (1.05), all of the hardware drivers
are the latest versions, and I've played with every likely candidate in the
BIOS settings.

In the "old days," you could set a delay of 1-4 seconds in the BIOS to give
the hard disk a chance to spin up so that the boot firmware would read the
drive and load Windows. There is no equivalent setting on today's
motherboards, but it feels so much like that's what I need. Any ideas as to
what else I could try?

One component you didn't mention is the power supply. Last time I had
a problem like this, though, it was the video card. I replaced
everything else and had the same problem; expensive lesson.

 

[Dude]

One component you didn't mention is the power supply. Last time I had
a problem like this, though, it was the video card. I replaced
everything else and had the same problem; expensive lesson.

i understood the post to say
he can boot consistently
?

 

[Hackworth]

if I had to guess, I would say your hd jumpers are not in the right
spot

cold boot is looking on a certain ide cable / based on the bios
settings.

however, it finds it and uses it...but something is wrong either in the
bios
or the jumper settings on the hd

is the hd plugged into the 0 ide slot at the motherboard?

As mention in the OP, we're talking about a SATA drive here... not IDE.

 

[Jonny]

I just put together a system for a friend using an Asrock 939Dual-SATA2
Socket 939 motherboard
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081), 1 GB
dual-channel memory, an Athlon 64 3200+, a Maxtor 200GB SATA150 hard disk
drive, an ATI Radeon 9600 AGP video card, and onboard sound. There are no
other PCI card sinstalled yet.

Everything works perfectly *except* that it can never find the operating
system (Win XP SP2) on the first try when I cold boot. I always have to hit
the reset button.

I'm using the latest-and-greatest BIOS (1.05), all of the hardware drivers
are the latest versions, and I've played with every likely candidate in the
BIOS settings.

In the "old days," you could set a delay of 1-4 seconds in the BIOS to give
the hard disk a chance to spin up so that the boot firmware would read the
drive and load Windows. There is no equivalent setting on today's
motherboards, but it feels so much like that's what I need. Any ideas as to
what else I could try?

Don't know what you mean by "old days". Recently upgraded to below and has
bios built-in delay option for hard drive spin 1-4 seconds:

Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G
BIOS Type Award Modular (08/19/05)

 

[Hackworth]

Don't know what you mean by "old days". Recently upgraded to below and
has
bios built-in delay option for hard drive spin 1-4 seconds:

Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro-G
BIOS Type Award Modular (08/19/05)

That's great! I haven't seen that option on a mobo in a long time. I haven't
used a Gigabyte motherboard for several years--not that I have anything
against them but I just haven't used one in a recent build--so obviously
they're still including that option in the BIOS.

 

[Hackworth]

I just put together a system for a friend using an Asrock 939Dual-SATA2
Socket 939 motherboard
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081), 1 GB
dual-channel memory, an Athlon 64 3200+, a Maxtor 200GB SATA150 hard disk
drive, an ATI Radeon 9600 AGP video card, and onboard sound. There are no
other PCI card sinstalled yet.

Everything works perfectly *except* that it can never find the operating
system (Win XP SP2) on the first try when I cold boot. I always have to
hit the reset button.

I'm using the latest-and-greatest BIOS (1.05), all of the hardware drivers
are the latest versions, and I've played with every likely candidate in
the BIOS settings.

In the "old days," you could set a delay of 1-4 seconds in the BIOS to
give the hard disk a chance to spin up so that the boot firmware would
read the drive and load Windows. There is no equivalent setting on today's
motherboards, but it feels so much like that's what I need. Any ideas as
to what else I could try?

OK, I'm a pretty stubborn guy and I hate to give up, so I kept trying to get
this motherboard to boot up from the SATA hard disk. If all else failed, I
was just going to get a plain old PATA disk and boot from that.

The problem turned out to be related to the onboard SATA. Apparently, this
is an "issue" with this board, as lots of folks who own it have been having
cold boot problems when trying to boot from the onboard SATA... at least
with certain hard disks. Even the most recent BIOS doesn't seem to fix it...
there's some sort of timing thing going on.

So, to solve the problem, I just enabled the single onboard **SATA II**
connector and plugged the 200GB Maxtor into that thing... and it worked! I
can cold boot to my heart's content, and of course the other two (SATA I)
connectors are still available if the person for whom this system is
intended ever wants to add another SATA hard disk.

It was a pain in the butt and I wasted lots of time, but now I know about
the problem in case anyone else needs help with this thing.