Problems with CFX3200-DR? Post here (merged)

[NonDecepticon]

Is the ability to see FAT32 partitions on IDE drives in RM DOS doable on this board, or am I setting something wrong? I've always had a small FAT32 partition to use for flashing/backing up devices in RMD as loading firmware from the hard drive, although technically not as safe as directly from the floppy, is much faster. The first thing I noticed with this board (after the successful fireup on the first try which had me grinning) is that RMD is not able to see the FAT32 partition any longer. If I try any DOS commands on the partition (appears as C: as it's the only FAT parition I use), I get the ARF error. I've had to use a floppy for booting and another floppy for loading firmware.

 

Also, I will be getting some Hitachi SATA2 drives soon and am wondering if the newer versions of the boards BIOS and/or the newer versions of the Hitachi feature tool have been able to recognize SATA2 drives on the ULi controller to set the bandwidth the 300MB/s. I recall reading about having to have the controller set to AHCI mode in order to work in 300MB/s, but I'd like to know for sure if this works.

[spajdr]

I too am running 2.13 driver but still get the cold freezes every 2 to 3 times.

(OFF TOPIC): its still lost then? did he put insurance on that postage?

 

Ye installed drivers? i didnt install it, is it really needed?

I just put diskette when installation of windows wants it, and that was all, i know i can choose something thru that driver, but when testing sandra with HDD benchie i didnt see any performance decrease.

[bmorgan98]

Ye installed drivers? i didnt install it, is it really needed?

I just put diskette when installation of windows wants it, and that was all, i know i can choose something thru that driver, but when testing sandra with HDD benchie i didnt see any performance decrease.

 

Sir you are installing a driver when you f6. that is a driver. no i dont install the uli package of nvidias site.

[CPDMF]

I decided to give the ULI another shot with the 7/28 beta bios and the F6 drivers from dfi.

 

Set up with 4 X 36 gig Raptors in RAID0 16K stripe default 4K cluster. I only used the F6 drivers and did not install any ULI software after Windows was running..

 

I made it through 20 passes of HD tach and Atto plus a few hours of BF2. Finished up then unplugged my floppy drive and disabled the controller like I always do and it locked within 30 seconds of booting back up. Plugged the floppy back in, enabled the controller and it's fine.

 

Don't know if it will help anybody else but it is working for me and I can duplicate the issue at will.

[bmorgan98]

I decided to give the ULI another shot with the 7/28 beta bios and the F6 drivers from dfi.

 

Set up with 4 X 36 gig Raptors in RAID0 16K stripe default 4K cluster

 

hmmm have you always tried with the 4 raptors? Are the f6 drivers the beta drivers or the drivers that cames with the board?

 

edit: just after checking the event log again (curious since i got a slight freeze during san andreas) and there stood an m5288 error and disk warning with it. this after a week with out incident ARGH.

[CPDMF]

I tried with 2 and 4 but never had any success until now. The F6 drivers are the betas from dfi.

[Nemesis.ie]

I've not completed thorough testing on this, but so far it's looking good .... I used a partition tool to convert my FS to 16k allocation units.

 

I now have the array with 16k stripes and 16k AUs.

 

This is with BIOS 728, beta driver (seemed OK with 2.13 too) and RAID util disabled (not tried turning it on again yet).

 

Bear in mind I have never reformatted/installed Windows since I had this array on the ASUS board, the updates were all done "on the fly".

 

I managed to run 3 passes of HD Tune with no drop below 119MB/s (4 x drives per sig).

 

I'll do some more testing tonight and let you know. I was almost about to buy a RocketRaid 2320 .... and maybe another 4 drives but if I can save the expense that would be better.

[Nemesis.ie]

Still no freezes since moving to 16k AUs.

 

I've done a few passes of HD Tune at max accuracy and it only dips if I kick off something in the background and it drops as expected, not a 3 second pause.

 

Fingers Xed!

 

When will the disk controller BIOSes co-exist is my next question, I want to be able to see both from backup utils. At least I can see the SiI in windows but it's not ideal.

[bmorgan98]

Still no freezes since moving to 16k AUs.

 

I've done a few passes of HD Tune at max accuracy and it only dips if I kick off something in the background and it drops as expected, not a 3 second pause.

 

Fingers Xed!

 

When will the disk controller BIOSes co-exist is my next question, I want to be able to see both from backup utils. At least I can see the SiI in windows but it's not ideal.

 

 

hmm i cant get to grips with this at all. i move my 2 raided raptor onto uli slots 2 and 3 and with a 64k stripe and so far its ok. but i cant seem to change cluster sizes because of sp2.

[Lane]

you say you are using the F6 disk delivered with the mobo?.

 

have you try an other thing. i have use the 7/28, 16K, and F6 beta driver (last given for fix the prob.) then i have use the driver on CD for install the ULI..

no one freeze since many many weeks now..

 

Hmm yes, one thing when flashing the 7/28: i have use the clear rest CMOS technik by Happygames ( flashed in winflash 3x without reboot, then reboot, get off the batery, reflashed in DOS. then.

 

BE CAREFUL: -VERIFY the thread of HG for this FLASH METHOD.. for don't do a mistake cause i say that by memory, and my memory can be bad... i don't think this last part is really needed too.

 

need say i have the feeling Uli have perverted their driver.. cause i know more of 30 peoples using Cfire with same board, with Raptor in Raid ( new and old), same HDD as mine, and have never get any problem with it.. but they have use the first series of the board, buyed some days after release of the motherboard.

[Nemesis.ie]

RE: AU size change and SP2 .... I have SP2 as well.

 

Maybe it's the util you are using to change the size?

 

Do you get an error message or?

 

I changed my existing fully installed OS.

[bmorgan98]

RE: AU size change and SP2 .... I have SP2 as well.

 

Maybe it's the util you are using to change the size?

 

Do you get an error message or?

 

I changed my existing fully installed OS.

 

yea i used partition magic to change the cluster size before i installed windows i used partition magic 8 (dos) to format the drive first then install windows. i cant seem todo it after windows install it complains about compression being enabled on ntfs. i get "error reading partition" or something like that after the first part of setup.

 

What app did you use and was it a dos app?