SATA saga

[NoneOfBusiness]

Tonight's instalment...

Replaced graphics card (ATI 9600 Pro) with another card (nVidia FX5200) and
removed my TV card from the system. Result? No change. System continues to
reset (although I got 5 full minutes out of it tonight).

Life is too short. It's a new motherboard for me tomorrow.

I presume that one of the many system resets that I forced when I was trying
to get the SATA drive to work (before using the third party driver) has
damaged something on the mobo. I'll never know what. But four wasted
evenings is enough.

BTW Asus technical support (UK) is garbage. I received a couple of (short)
e-mails from some guy but his advice was crap (for example, he was unaware
that you can restore the original BIOS using the motherboard CD).

Bobby

Did you run Memtest against each stick of memory?
Did you try another PSU?

When you installed the SATA drive and had the case open those many
times, did you ground yourself so that static didn't inadvertently
damage a component?

But anyway, if it is memory, another board isn't likely to help as you
will probably still have issues. Ditto for power. You cannot assume in
this field that just because it worked before that it will continue to
work now. Shit happens and computer components fail. Thats life.


When you reset your CMOS after flashing, did you do it by jumper on
the motherboard? And did your PSU have power at the time you did this?
If yes, YOU could have damaged the board. Also, if yes, unplug power
from your pc and do the jumper again.

I still wish you would have listed your components. One of us here
maybe could have narrowed down the problem even more. The more
information you can give about your system the better.

Let us know how it goes with a new mobo. I have my doubts that this
will solve your issues but good luck anyway


"Murphy had to have computers in mind when Murphy's Law was
postulated."

 

[NoneOfBusiness]

Many thanks to the person who told me to go

I am not an MS Sock Puppet by any stretch of the imagination. if i
didn't need to have windows for my work, i probably would not be using
it. I would only have FreeBSD or some other flavor of *nix
As for a licensing problem b/w ms and via, i have to point out, SO
WHAT? That doesn't make the VIA drivers bad, or the MS ones.

FYI. forum postings by themselves don't alwasys indicate widespread
problems with hardware or software designs. of course you will hear
issues there as that tends to be what forums are for. What about all
of us users that have no issues at all with them?


Buying intel is not always a perfect answer either. I have had
numerous issues with Intel products, in fact more so than VIA or
nVidia. go figure. But by all means, if you want an overpriced, power
hungry, overheating CPU that performs subpar for its clock speed, by
all means buy a Pentium 4. I will keep my Opteron 242's (at 1.6ghz
each by the way) until dual core opterons are out....works for me,
WELL.

 

[NoneOfBusiness]

Thanks for taking the time to help.


I now have two (apparently) working sets of drivers - one for the Promise
controller and one for the VIA controller.


I did manage to restore it using the Asus EZ Flash utility that is
built-into the BIOS ROM. It restores the original BIOS from the CD-ROM which
came with the mobo.


I reset the CMOS this evening (before restoring my old BIOS - see above).


I am. In fact, it resets (not BSD) even when I let it sit at the log-in
screen. Alothugh I still get the occasional BSD.


I was beginning to think this too. I have two memory sticks (both 3200 DDR -
one is 512Mb and one is 256Mb) so I removed each one. No difference. The
machine still resets.


I have a 550W no-name PSU - that was working perfectly prior to me upgrading
the BIOS.

So I am a complete loss. I've checked everything. Now that I have restored
my original BIOS and using my original (PATA) HD, I am back to my original
configuration - but the damn thing still refuses to work.

My PC was fine with the original BIOS and my original PATA hard disk. Since
messing around with the BIOS and installing the SATA drive, it resets
constantly.

The only thing I can think of is the graphics adaptor (an ATI 9600 Pro). Is
it worth replacing this? I feel like I'm grasping at straws.

I am on the verge of buying a new mobo. And it *will not* be an ASUS board.

Bobby

Just a thought. If it is resetting, chances are that it is BSOD'ing
and you are not seeing the error. Please uncheck the "Automatically
Restart" option in Startup and Recovery in My Computers properties. It
should show the BSOD now. please post the error message.

 

[johnf]

All these bright suggestions, but no solutions.
What struck me from all that's been said is that everything always worked
fine UNTIL you fiddled with the BIOS.
I think before I went out & bought enough bits to build a new PC, I'd dig
deeply into what may have changed in the BIOS that may have caused this.

If you look at your drive(s) setup with a program such as Partition Magic,
it never shows the SATA drive as the main C drive, but the last in the
chain.
Nothing's ever what it seems to be.

 

[Treeman]

Many thanks to the person who told me to go
to the VIA website and download the driver for my specific controller.Wrote:[color=green-[/QUOTE]

Now as you know I may not have done you any favor. On the main page
of
ViaArena.com, they talk about a licensing problem between Via &
Microsoft.
So Via is writing drivers that many folks complain about.
As far as buying Intel, yes hindsight is always 20/20.
Your bios update is probably o.k., it's the drivers from Via & the MS
problem that carries most of the blame.
Keep checking and posting at the Via forums. I think you will get the
best advice from fellow sufferers, not from MS sock puppets.
Treeman-

I am not an MS Sock Puppet by any stretch of the imagination. if i
didn't need to have windows for my work, i probably would not be using
it. I would only have FreeBSD or some other flavor of *nix
As for a licensing problem b/w ms and via, i have to point out, SO
WHAT? That doesn't make the VIA drivers bad, or the MS ones.

FYI. forum postings by themselves don't alwasys indicate widespread
problems with hardware or software designs. of course you will hear
issues there as that tends to be what forums are for. What about all
of us users that have no issues at all with them?


Buying intel is not always a perfect answer either. I have had
numerous issues with Intel products, in fact more so than VIA or
nVidia. go figure. But by all means, if you want an overpriced, power
hungry, overheating CPU that performs subpar for its clock speed, by
all means buy a Pentium 4. I will keep my Opteron 242's (at 1.6ghz
each by the way) until dual core opterons are out....works for me,
WELL.

OK, I'll take a mini Mac. $495 w/ monitor & printer!
(might be a learning curve on the OS)
Actually this thread is too long & life is too short.
Maybe what would be best for the original poster is to set the bios at
the manufacturers default and see what happens. Or get a real person
close by that can set this up for him. As for you, I didn't mean _you_
were a sock puppet. You have to admit that some folks that post here seem
to be.
Best,
Treeman

 

[NoneOfBusiness]

Many thanks to the person who told me to go
to the VIA website and download the driver for my specific controller.Wrote:[color=green-[/QUOTE]

Now as you know I may not have done you any favor. On the main page
of
ViaArena.com, they talk about a licensing problem between Via &
Microsoft.
So Via is writing drivers that many folks complain about.
As far as buying Intel, yes hindsight is always 20/20.
Your bios update is probably o.k., it's the drivers from Via & the MS
problem that carries most of the blame.
Keep checking and posting at the Via forums. I think you will get the
best advice from fellow sufferers, not from MS sock puppets.
Treeman-

I am not an MS Sock Puppet by any stretch of the imagination. if i
didn't need to have windows for my work, i probably would not be using
it. I would only have FreeBSD or some other flavor of *nix
As for a licensing problem b/w ms and via, i have to point out, SO
WHAT? That doesn't make the VIA drivers bad, or the MS ones.

FYI. forum postings by themselves don't alwasys indicate widespread
problems with hardware or software designs. of course you will hear
issues there as that tends to be what forums are for. What about all
of us users that have no issues at all with them?


Buying intel is not always a perfect answer either. I have had
numerous issues with Intel products, in fact more so than VIA or
nVidia. go figure. But by all means, if you want an overpriced, power
hungry, overheating CPU that performs subpar for its clock speed, by
all means buy a Pentium 4. I will keep my Opteron 242's (at 1.6ghz
each by the way) until dual core opterons are out....works for me,
WELL.

OK, I'll take a mini Mac. $495 w/ monitor & printer!
(might be a learning curve on the OS)
Actually this thread is too long & life is too short.
Maybe what would be best for the original poster is to set the bios at
the manufacturers default and see what happens. Or get a real person
close by that can set this up for him. As for you, I didn't mean _you_
were a sock puppet. You have to admit that some folks that post here seem
to be.
Best,
Treeman

Yes i can see that... I work with them as well.. MS this, MS that. Not
even willing to try alternatives.. Oh well, thats life..

 

[NoneOfBusiness]

All these bright suggestions, but no solutions.
What struck me from all that's been said is that everything always worked
fine UNTIL you fiddled with the BIOS.
I think before I went out & bought enough bits to build a new PC, I'd dig
deeply into what may have changed in the BIOS that may have caused this.

If you look at your drive(s) setup with a program such as Partition Magic,
it never shows the SATA drive as the main C drive, but the last in the
chain.
Nothing's ever what it seems to be.

Yeah the poster said he reset to defaults. I guess its possible that
he could be having BIOS issues but its just as likely he is having
memory and/or PSU problems too