Port 01 message on boot

J

jinxy

Hello, I am trying to figure out why I keep getting a "port 01: "
message when I try to boot. The machine in question is an Acer Aspire
AX1300 Slimeline. It is running Vista home prem. sp/1, AMD athlon x2
7550 dual core 3gb ddr2 pc6400, 320hdd. The mobo looks like a
DA061/078L. Heres what I get on boot: AHCI options rom bios revision
01.05.92
port 01:
AMD data change
update new data to DMI !
boot fron AHCI cd-rom
nvidia boot agent 259.0542
pxe-E61: media test failure-check cable
pxe-mof- exiting nvidia boot agent
disk boot failure
insert system disk and press enter.
I have checked the sata cable and replaced it with a known working
one. I also have changed the cmos battery, still no boot. I have
disabled the boot from network and made sure that the first boot
device is the harddrive. Now if when I boot, I enter the set up page
and load default settings, the pc boots and runs fine. When I shutdown
and restart it goes right back to the port 01 again. Am I missing
something or could this be a failing hdd?
Please enlighten me if you have any input.
Thanks -J
 
P

Paul

jinxy said:
Hello, I am trying to figure out why I keep getting a "port 01: "
message when I try to boot. The machine in question is an Acer Aspire
AX1300 Slimeline. It is running Vista home prem. sp/1, AMD athlon x2
7550 dual core 3gb ddr2 pc6400, 320hdd. The mobo looks like a
DA061/078L. Heres what I get on boot: AHCI options rom bios revision
01.05.92
port 01:
AMD data change
update new data to DMI !
boot fron AHCI cd-rom
nvidia boot agent 259.0542
pxe-E61: media test failure-check cable
pxe-mof- exiting nvidia boot agent
disk boot failure
insert system disk and press enter.
I have checked the sata cable and replaced it with a known working
one. I also have changed the cmos battery, still no boot. I have
disabled the boot from network and made sure that the first boot
device is the harddrive. Now if when I boot, I enter the set up page
and load default settings, the pc boots and runs fine. When I shutdown
and restart it goes right back to the port 01 again. Am I missing
something or could this be a failing hdd?
Please enlighten me if you have any input.
Thanks -J

I suspect the hard drive, is underneath the optical drive housing. I
can't see it elsewhere in there. For cooling, it looks like the
tiny power supply and its fan, are the only source of air movement ?
If I'd received that machine, the very first thing I'd have done, is
run Speedfan and HDTune, to check system temperature and the hard
drive temperature. HDTune can read out temperature via the SMART
statistics. HDTune can also read other statistics, such as the
number of "Current Pending" or suspect sectors. A growing count
there, can mean failure isn't too far away.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/83-103-210-S05.jpg

The "update new data to DMI!" worries me a bit, because that
could mean the BIOS will flash the DMI segment in the BIOS chip,
each time the computer starts. While the BIOS flash chip is
good for a fair number of cycles, this still isn't a very good idea.
Updating DMI happens, if there is a mismatch between the current
detected hardware state, and the hardware state recorded in the DMI
segment of the flash chip. It's a form of inventory recording. And
it's consistent with your hard drive failing to be detected.

You can try pulling the hard drive, and connecting it to another computer.
Then, download the hard drive diagnostic. If the drive is made by
Seagate or Western Digital, chances are good you can find a diagnostic
for it. (For my Seagate drives, I have "Seatools for DOS" on a floppy.
That's a self booting test diskette.)

Other than that, if the drive tests good, it could be a bad SATA port.
You could try swapping ports between the hard drive and the optical
drive. The motherboard might only have two SATA connectors, in which
case, your options there are limited. The chipset probably supports
more ports than that, but they wouldn't waste a few extra cents,
adding them to the motherboard.

I hope you have backups, for the data on that hard drive! The
drive could be dead.

Paul
 
J

jinxy

I suspect the hard drive, is underneath the optical drive housing. I
can't see it elsewhere in there. For cooling, it looks like the
tiny power supply and its fan, are the only source of air movement ?
If I'd received that machine, the very first thing I'd have done, is
run Speedfan and HDTune, to check system temperature and the hard
drive temperature. HDTune can read out temperature via the SMART
statistics. HDTune can also read other statistics, such as the
number of "Current Pending" or suspect sectors. A growing count
there, can mean failure isn't too far away.

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/83-103-210-S05.jpg

The "update new data to DMI!" worries me a bit, because that
could mean the BIOS will flash the DMI segment in the BIOS chip,
each time the computer starts. While the BIOS flash chip is
good for a fair number of cycles, this still isn't a very good idea.
Updating DMI happens, if there is a mismatch between the current
detected hardware state, and the hardware state recorded in the DMI
segment of the flash chip. It's a form of inventory recording. And
it's consistent with your hard drive failing to be detected.

You can try pulling the hard drive, and connecting it to another computer..
Then, download the hard drive diagnostic. If the drive is made by
Seagate or Western Digital, chances are good you can find a diagnostic
for it. (For my Seagate drives, I have "Seatools for DOS" on a floppy.
That's a self booting test diskette.)

Other than that, if the drive tests good, it could be a bad SATA port.
You could try swapping ports between the hard drive and the optical
drive. The motherboard might only have two SATA connectors, in which
case, your options there are limited. The chipset probably supports
more ports than that, but they wouldn't waste a few extra cents,
adding them to the motherboard.

I hope you have backups, for the data on that hard drive! The
drive could be dead.

    Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I downloaded and ran the WD hard drive tools, and the drive passed
both the quick and extended tests.
I tried switching the hdd to the sata port where the dvd is installed
and still a no go. Next I put the drive into another tower and it ran
with no hiccups. Is it possible that sata port 01 is dead? If so is
there a way to replace it or use a work around? And why would it power
up and run OK after the loading of the default settings if the port
was dead or dying? Any ideas are welcomed. Thanks for your inputs.
-J
 
G

GlowingBlueMist

I downloaded and ran the WD hard drive tools, and the drive passed
both the quick and extended tests.
I tried switching the hdd to the sata port where the dvd is installed
and still a no go. Next I put the drive into another tower and it ran
with no hiccups. Is it possible that sata port 01 is dead? If so is
there a way to replace it or use a work around? And why would it power
up and run OK after the loading of the default settings if the port
was dead or dying? Any ideas are welcomed. Thanks for your inputs.
-J
Possibly going into the BIOS and ordering it to reset to factory default
settings, saving them, and then booting might flush out the problem.
Replacing the battery as you already mentioned does not always reset
some values that are not shown on the menus. By ordering it to do a
factory reset the motherboard reloads "all" of the BIOS from the default
ROM. If after trying the above if it still does not boot, go over the
settings and set them to what you had been using in the past and try
another boot.

If the above does not get it to boot, check to see if you have some
option in the BIOS that tells the computer to treat the SATA drive as
some form of IDE. On some BIOS if you leave the setting for SATA rather
than IDE it assumes you are trying to run some sort of RAID hard drive
setup.

If your hard drive has an optional jumper for selecting the SATA mode
transfer speed, try placing the jumper in the opposite position.

There are optional SATA cards you can insert the computer to add to or
replace the internal SATA ports relatively cheaply. Just make sure it
is compatible with one of your empty motherboard slots.
 
P

philo

jinxy said:
Hello, I am trying to figure out why I keep getting a "port 01: "
message when I try to boot. The machine in question is an Acer Aspire
AX1300 Slimeline.

Slime Line?

I'd be suspicious



It is running Vista home prem. sp/1, AMD athlon x2
7550 dual core 3gb ddr2 pc6400, 320hdd. The mobo looks like a
DA061/078L. Heres what I get on boot: AHCI options rom bios revision
01.05.92
port 01:
AMD data change
update new data to DMI !
boot fron AHCI cd-rom
nvidia boot agent 259.0542
pxe-E61: media test failure-check cable
pxe-mof- exiting nvidia boot agent
disk boot failure
insert system disk and press enter.



What it's doing it trying to perform a network boot.

Go into the bios and be sure to set your hard drive as either the first boot
device
or else second right after cd/dvd
 
J

jinxy

Slime Line?

I'd be suspicious

It is running Vista home prem. sp/1,  AMD athlon x2


What it's doing it trying to perform a network boot.

Go into the bios and be sure to set your hard drive as either the first boot
device
or else second right after cd/dvd




- Show quoted text -

After entering the bios to set the drive as first boot, I see that the
drive in not recognized. If not then how does it boot after I restore
the defaults? There seems to be no slots on this mobo to add anything
to. I will keep looking for a solution to this problem. Keep your
ideas coming. Thanks again in advance.-J
 
P

philo

or could this be a failing hdd?
- Show quoted text -

After entering the bios to set the drive as first boot, I see that the
drive in not recognized. If not then how does it boot after I restore
the defaults? There seems to be no slots on this mobo to add anything
to. I will keep looking for a solution to this problem. Keep your
ideas coming. Thanks again in advance.-J


well, if resetting to defaults does the trick
it sounds like your cmos battery is dead

it's very easy to replace...
it's about the size of a nickle and costs maybe $3
 
P

Paul

philo said:
or could this be a failing hdd?

After entering the bios to set the drive as first boot, I see that the
drive in not recognized. If not then how does it boot after I restore
the defaults? There seems to be no slots on this mobo to add anything
to. I will keep looking for a solution to this problem. Keep your
ideas coming. Thanks again in advance.-J


well, if resetting to defaults does the trick
it sounds like your cmos battery is dead

it's very easy to replace...
it's about the size of a nickle and costs maybe $3

If resetting the CMOS fixes it, and the problem doesn't
come back, it's pretty hard to say what it is. It could
have happened, before the battery was changed. That would
be a comforting hypothesis.

*******

If the problem keeps coming back, it could be a BIOS
bug, or even a software bug. I don't really know if
there is any mechanism, that protects the CMOS RAM
area. It would have the usual operating system
"no direct access to hardware" thing, but depending
on the OS, it would be a simple matter to add code to
a driver, to mess with it. Perhaps a clever motherboard
company, could add an ACPI object to the tables the
BIOS passes to the OS, that could cause writes to it.

The CMOS is divided into areas. Two areas are
protected by checksums, and if there is
corruption, it would be noted at BIOS startup.
But the high areas of the tiny CMOS RAM (256 bytes),
aren't documented, and two designers could potentially
use the same location. And then, you'd have a bug.
The high areas of CMOS RAM wouldn't be covered by a checksum,
unless it was incorporated into the BIOS code (an added
feature).

If it was a problem like that, it would take a lot of trial
and error, to isolate what does it.

Paul
 
J

jinxy

If resetting the CMOS fixes it, and the problem doesn't
come back, it's pretty hard to say what it is. It could
have happened, before the battery was changed. That would
be a comforting hypothesis.

*******

If the problem keeps coming back, it could be a BIOS
bug, or even a software bug. I don't really know if
there is any mechanism, that protects the CMOS RAM
area. It would have the usual operating system
"no direct access to hardware" thing, but depending
on the OS, it would be a simple matter to add code to
a driver, to mess with it. Perhaps a clever motherboard
company, could add an ACPI object to the tables the
BIOS passes to the OS, that could cause writes to it.

The CMOS is divided into areas. Two areas are
protected by checksums, and if there is
corruption, it would be noted at BIOS startup.
But the high areas of the tiny CMOS RAM (256 bytes),
aren't documented, and two designers could potentially
use the same location. And then, you'd have a bug.
The high areas of CMOS RAM wouldn't be covered by a checksum,
unless it was incorporated into the BIOS code (an added
feature).

If it was a problem like that, it would take a lot of trial
and error, to isolate what does it.

    Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The cmos battery has been replaced with a new one , and the same thing
happens. The hdd is only being recognized once in a while, lets say
one out of every 4 or 5 boots. I am going to replace the drive and go
from there. Will post back with my findings.-J
 

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