P4PE Promise 376 SATA/RAID onboard controller disappeared from BIOS! :-(
What to do?
Used to work!
The PDC20376 could be defective, and is not being enumerated
properly at POST. If the chip cannot be seen, there is no
reason for the RAID BIOS to load at POST.
The more likely reason, is the bit that controls enabling the
chip has changed.
1) The first thing you could try, is write down all the custom
settings you have made in the BIOS setup. Then, go to the
Exit menu, and select Load Setup Defaults. This will attempt
to restore the factory defaults for the BIOS, and should
cause the PDC20376 to be enabled.
When the computer POSTs again, re-enter the BIOS and restore
your settings. When the computer POSTs a second time,
see if the RAID BIOS loads.
2) If that doesn't work, you could try clearing the CMOS. Be sure
to unplug the computer before trying this procedure, as failure
to remove +5VSB feeding the motherboard, can lead to damage to
a component when using the CLRTC jumper.
When the computer POSTs, you will probably need to reset the
clock. If the clock setting isn't zapped, then the CMOS wasn't
reset.
3) If that doesn't work, reflashing the BIOS chip is the third
thing I would try. Sometimes a portion of the flash chip gets
corrupted, and reflashing the chip clears the DMI/ESCD area, as
well as refreshing the code in the rest of the flash chip.
The best way is to use a floppy based approach to flashing,
reading any warnings listed in the "More" link on the Asus
download page, for whatever BIOS you plan on flashing.
http://www.asus.com.tw/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=P4PE&Type=All
aflash221.zip (program to flash the BIOS, if using the DOS method)
p4pe1007.zip (latest release flash file)
You can use EZflash, by pressing <alt> <f2>, or you can prepare
a DOS boot disk, and use aflash that way. Either of those two
methods is safer than using a Windows tool.
In terms of the code in the BIOS chip, there are two sections.
The mini boot loader is in the "boot block". This is a small
code segment, that implements CrashFree among other things. If
you flash the BIOS and select "N" when asked whether you want to
flash the "boot block", then if the flash fails, you can always
use EZflash to try again. Selecting "Y" for both the boot block
and the main body of the flash code, means you have no "safety
net" if the flash fails.
I'm not certain if the interface is exactly the same, between
aflash and EZflash. I would examine both methods, by getting them
to show their interfaces, and I would select the method that
offers the option to say "N" to flashing the boot block.
There are many versions of P4PE board, so make sure that you
download a matching BIOS from the correct download page.
When flashing the BIOS, you computer should be in its most
stable configuration. For example, if your floppy is getting
read errors, this would be a bad time to be reading the BIOS
code from the floppy. Similarly, if you are an overclocker,
and you are constantly getting memory errors, this could
ruin the flash. Check the memory with memtest86 from memtest.org,
just to make sure your computer is healthy in the memory
department.
After flashing is complete, when the computer POSTs again,
enter the Exit menu and select "Load Setup Defaults". That
is to make sure any stored data structures get refreshed to
match whatever version of BIOS you happen to have flashed.
If, despite all this preparation, the board won't POST after
the flash, there is always badflash.com .
HTH,
Paul
