[RESOLVED]HE SAID HE QUIT SHORTCUTTING>> "My Build Won't Bo

[chynn]

Moved the following posts from another topic, because I was hijacking it with my problems ...

[chynn]

Ah, the watched pot never boils soon enough ...

 

So far, my build is going great. Things boot like they're supposed to, the BIOS settings work, like they are supposed to. Almost finished with the 2nd pass on MemTest. Only think is the CAS for my OCZ memory is defaulting to 2.5, but that's OK for now because it seems like the memory is stable at the SPD settings. Gonna install XP Pro next.

 

I'm going to stick with the 12/07 BIOS until something goes worng ... misspelled that one on purpose ... will let you know how things go to keep the thread bumped.

[chynn]

Don't mean to hijack this thread with my own problems but I have good news and bad news.

 

Got the RAID 0 array made and installed a slipstreamed XP+SP2 I made myself into a 12K partition on the RAID 0 array. Install went perfect, including formatting the drive and using F6 to load the 6.70 SATA RAID and NVATABUS drivers.

 

N.B. I had to make my own drivers disk because the floppy that came with my Expert motherboard was empty ... not even formatted ... so much for DFI quality control ...

 

Then the you-know-what hit the fan. Removed the floppy and CD-ROM from their respective drives and booted into XP. Bammo!!! Instant boot loop.

 

PC would boot and POST completely and try to start Windows. The splash screen started to display; then the screen went black; then the PC rebooted; PC POSTs; PC tries to start XP; screen goes black; PC reboots ... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseum ...

 

No motherboard drivers of any kind have been loaded yet. Only the OS and the NF4 SATA and bus drivers. The IBM IDE drive is disconnected and was disconnected during the XP install to force all of XP to be installed on the RAID partition.

 

FYI, because this is a gaming rig, every device that can be disabled on the motherboard has been disabled to free up IRQs. For example. all the USB ports, COM1, IRDA, Onboard audio, Onboard 1384 port, Marvell (PCI) LAN2, IDE RAID, etc.

 

I have, to the best of my knowledge, followed the setup directions in this forum ... although there are none for the Expert motherboard.

 

I am using PS2 connectors for my mouse and keyboard. I have loaded the Failsafe BIOS options (F6 key) and run MemTest on the OCZ memory (3 cycles).

 

Anyone have any ideas why this might be happening??? I'm afraid the I am getting bitten by the dreaded DEP (execute protect) error during the XP boot cycle because the 12/7 BIOS may not have turned that function off at boot time.

 

And I'm still waiting for Angry to get back to us ... but I'm a patient guy so this is not a complaint ...

[chynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RGone

6.70 SATA RAID The F6 disk you made from this has not really loaded raid drivers and everytime windows goes to boot up there is on the M$ drivers and windoors cannot boot raid array. That sounds like your personal problem there not what they are talking about in gaming.

 

RGone...

 

 

 

Thanks for the help, RGone, it confirms what I thought might have happened.

 

I downloaded the NF4 RAID drivers .zip file from the DFI web site and opened it. Sure enough, the NF4 DFI driver set is from the nVidia LEGACY or PATARAID folder; I had installed the drivers from the SATARAID folder.

 

So after making another drivers disk with the 6.70 Legacy drivers on it, I cranked up my new build to reinstall XP with the correct drivers ... and sure enough things got worse in a hurry.

 

For starters, no boot screens. my Samsung 193P LCD monitor times out and "goes to sleep" before the BIOS loads.

 

Second, even though I hear a single short beep indicating the BIOS has found a graphics card, one of the red POST sequence lights (no VGA) stays on.

 

Last, just before I shut the system down last night, I noticed the BIOS device list was showing three IDE drives. I have NO IDE hard drives connected to the system ... only the NEC 3550 DVD reader/burner on Primary 0. The other two drives are WD Raptor SATA drives.

 

What could have gone wrong with my system overnight? I changed nothing; all I did was completely power down the system ... it is connected to an UPS which I turn off when finished using my system.

 

P.S. RGone, could we move these hijacks to another topic please? I should like to keep this forum concentrated on the 12/7 versus 11/2 BIOS issue.

[chynn]

Well, I think I may have figured out what I did wrong during my build (I hope).

 

First, I did not use the one memory stick, one graphics card, first boot procedure ... I stuck all my stuff into the motherboard and "let 'er rip" ...

 

Second, and a big, very stupid, oversight, I did not put the memory settings into the Genie BIOS. I saw that the CAS, RAS, etc. settings were within spec (or looser) and went no further. Later today, I found the memory settings for my OCZ memory in their forum. Big oops!!! I know my voltage and drive strength settings were out of spec ... both were too low.

 

So, even though I was able to run MemTest successfully, I think the memory failed on me when I attempted to load XP onto the RAID 0 array. After that, who knows what went wrong.

 

Right now, the motherboard tray is out of the RC-830 case; the battery as been pulled, and the Clear CMOS jumper has been moved to drain the CMOS. It's going to stay that way overnight. I shall bump this post again tomorrow night after I try to get things running again.

 

I realize I am "hijacking" this thread with my build updates, but there's a reason for it. I am hoping that these updates will trigger your respective memories and that you all might remember an oversight that "might" help me because, if you look at my sig, you will see I am running an FX-60, so it looks like I shall have to try to play WoW and EQ2 on the 12/07 BIOS ... no 11/02 fallback for me ... rats!!!

 

So I hope you all will tolerate these "asides" from the main issue in this thread, which is whether the 12/07 BIOS is buggy, or not. I have asked RGone to move my build questions out of this thread, but nothing has happened yet.

 

FYI, I do hope those of you running X2, dual-core CPUs have loaded both the AMD dual-core CPU driver and the Microsoft dual-core hotfix?

 

I may be wrong here, but I believe you can load the dual core driver and hotfix without affecting your ability to OC providing you DISABLE Kool'N'Quiet in the BIOS.

 

And I have read that some games, WoW for example, do not like dual-core CPUs. You have to set the processor affinity to CPU 0 in the Task Manager as soon as you start the game; otherwise, wierd things happen while you're playing.

 

Hope this helps ...

[chynn]

The title says it all.

 

I'm up and running on the new build. I'm very happy with it. Game playing is superb. Very smooth and very clean ... no jaggies at all ... screen images look like digital photos.

 

Everything that went wrong I could attribute to something I forgot to do or ignorred because I was lazy or in too much of a rush to get the box built.

 

Hope this helps ...

[palehorse]

And I have read that some games, WoW for example, do not like dual-core CPUs. You have to set the processor affinity to CPU 0 in the Task Manager as soon as you start the game; otherwise, wierd things happen while you're playing.

I have yet to find any game that acts strange with my DC chip, including WoW, and I've never had to set any games' affinity manually...

 

call me lucky I guess...