More SATA probs ....(long)

[pjgtech]

Right, over the last six weeks or so, my pc has twice refused to start,
usually giving a "Windows system file is missing" message.

I think I have narrowed the problem down to the SATA drivers for my Serial
ATA hard disk (Maxtor 120Gb).

Somehow Windows "loses" the SATA controller info, and cannot recogniose
the hard disk and therefore cannot load windows, hence the error message.

I have to manually reload the SATA controller driver by re-starting the
pc, pressing Del to get into the bios, set the floppy drive to be first
device loaded (hard disk is usually first).

Restart the pc and put the SATA drive disk into the floppy drive, when the
pc starts note the message which says "press F6 during boot up to load
raid/scsi drivers" and press F6. Load the SATA driver and windows starts
ok.

I did this the first time it happened about six weeks ago. Everything was
then fine for a few weeks, and then it happened again.

So now I'm getting paranoid about the hard drive (what with SATA being
fairly new technology and all?)

So I decide to buy a new SATA drive (need more space anyway) this time I
buy a Samsung (eg: not Maxtor) SATA 120Gb drive and install it ok, and
again install the SATA driver via the F6 option at start up and windows
loads ok and everything is working ok again.

Then this week, the same thing happens, windows "loses" the SATA
controller info and I have to re-install the driver at the F6 prompt yet
again.

Now, I think this cannot be a problem with the hard disk (not *both* of
them?) but could it be a m/b problem? The m/b is not losing the time or
anything else, so I don't think its the cmos battery.

Regarding SATA drives, I am aware that there may be a problem with NForce
chipsets that has been fixed with BIOS updates.

But my m/b is a Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2, eg: not the older vanilla
nForce chipset (nb: this board is Rev 2.0). I have trawled the Asus
website but found no further info on this, but I have updated the m/b bios
anyway (from v1004 to v1007).

Anyone else have any more info on this, like what might be causing the
SATA controller driver loss? or a cure for it/

Thanx (posted elsewhere so sorry if you see this more than once!)

Peter

*Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~pjgtech/home.html

 

[JAD]

You have done and thought about all the normal troubleshooting
techniques accept a couple of things.
Are you using the same 'sata' cable for both drives?
Long shot : memory problem? try changing the speed/timing settings.
Did you load an OS on the samsung or are we talking as a blank master
and the Bios failed to see it?
Have you enabled 'fast' boot? Short memory test?


found this

requires 291832739 bios and driver updates if you are going to use the
SATA and Raid functions built into this board.

 

[pjgtech]

Are you using the same 'sata' cable for both drives?

No, both sata drives have separate cables, the asus m/b has two sata
connectors (primary and secondary) and they are using these, and these are
recognised ok on post during boot up and by the bios and in windows system
info.

Long shot : memory problem? try changing the speed/timing settings.

Hmmm, it could be this, but I've had the same memory settings since I
built this pc, and I've run a long memory test (using memtest) in the past
which passed ok, so I don't think its the memory in this case.

Did you load an OS on the samsung or are we talking as a blank master
and the Bios failed to see it?

I had the os (win xp home) originally on the maxtor, but when I got the
samsung, I deleted the original xp installation from the old maxtor drive,
and re-installed from scratch onto the new samsung drive.

The bios seems to see the os ok. And (most of the time) the system works
ok, its just that every now and then the sata controller driver seems to
be "lost" or xp cannot see it?

Have you enabled 'fast' boot? Short memory test?
Yes.

found this

requires 291832739 bios and driver updates if you are going to use the
SATA and Raid functions built into this board.

Where can I get this bios update and driver from? it doesn't look like an
asus or sata driver? and I've already updated the asus bios to the latest
(v1007)

Thanx for all the info....

*Peter* - http://www.cix.co.uk/~pjgtech/home.html