globiboulga Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 OK. I have been runing my rig with a unique SATA drive, which has XP enabled on it. Overclocked it and all and it's all fine. Then I added a IDE drive on it and it all went crazy: The IDE drive is always recognised in BIOS - I have Vista beta 2 on it and it works fine. My issue with it is that Vista is evaluation on it and that I dont have a correct key to have it enabled more than 9 days (There is a definite deadline here). I cant reinstall XP unless I buy it again as my kid destroyed the installation CD a few months back The SATA drive does show up in BIOS when it likes. Most of the time, it does not. If I disconnect the IDE drive, the SATA drive displays the same errant behaviour If I disconnect the SATA drive, it's all fine. Now, I am trying to make these two little beasts work together and, most importantly, to make the SATA drive work ALL THE TIME since it has my OS on it. There is no RAID selection in the bios and everything related to HDD is auto. What do you guys recommend I do? I bought my rig three months ago, so the board BIOS should be up to date (LanParty nForce4 SLI). I am really annoyed about this to be honest, I thought the bios would have no problem getting a SATA drive detected - SATA is supposed to be plug'n' play isn't it? Help would really be appreciated on this. I have 9 days left of internet!!!! Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
globiboulga Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 With Signature Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
red930 Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 In BIOS you have to make sure the SATA ports are enabled. Once they are enabled the BIOS should detect the drive. At that point you can select the drive you want to boot from. Change the SATA data cable just for fun. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kobalt Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 You may search for "Ultra-D amnesia" if your board has problems, (more or less a FYI type of post, since nobody knows the answer.) Make sure your RAM is ok though (via memtest in the BIOS options). As suggested, try a different cable also, to rule that out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GripS Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 "I cant reinstall XP unless I buy it again as my kid destroyed the installation CD a few months back" No problem. I normally wouldn't recommend this but you can download a copy of windows xp off of your bittorrent site of choice and use your LEGAL installation key during the install. You do still have a valid install key correct? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
globiboulga Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 Yes I do have the installation key and the nice packaging thingy... That does not solve the problem though... and I don't want to 'lose' my sata drive or not to be able to install a raptor down the line... Now: - Cable replace: no changes - SATA 1,2,3,4 tried: no changes - I have verified in the BIOS and all SATA are enabled. - I have done a memtest and all is fine I am just baffled that the bios cannot get the sata drive 100% of the time. And adding the second hdd is the only thing that I did to this machine. Before that it was all fine. I just tried the default bios settings and it does not work... I really dont understand that one. I just hope that there is a simple answer to that or that I overlooked an option in the bios but I doubt it. Weird... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
globiboulga Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 An Update. I am now writing this from XP (ie I booted from the SATA drive). Both drives are visible under XP. I did not log in the BIOS to check. As I said, sometimes the BIOS recognises the drive and it boots from it (the SATA drive is the primary boot), sometimes it does not. I have updated the drivers for the IDE and SATA from NVidia but it does not make any difference. I am now contemplating flshing the BIOS as a new version is available. I am, however, kinda convinced this is not related to the problem. I cannot leave this computer on all day, since it is located in the bedroom. My quest therefore continues to get the thing to work every single time. I will post again as soon as I get a definitive solution to the problem or an explanation as to why the bios has this erratic behaviour. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
siddhartha77 Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 I have found that putting in an HDD delay of about 4-5 seconds in the BIOS detects my SATA drive 95% of the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kobalt Posted July 14, 2006 Posted July 14, 2006 I have found that putting in an HDD delay of about 4-5 seconds in the BIOS detects my SATA drive 95% of the time. And the otehr 5% of the time it doesn't detect anything? What do you do then? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
globiboulga Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 This Sata thingy is really annoying. I though Sata was supposed to simplify life... Anyway. For the last two days the rig detects both drives without any problem. I don't know what I have changed (other than removing the SMART option), and I don't really want to know. But, wait it did not stop there... Once under XP, I updated to the latest nForce drivers and... I now get random BSOD when I play online. I reloaded the drivers from the motherboard CD and, still random BSOD. I don't have time to read the actual error there, but there's a nv4 display issue as well, detected under windows... Now I don't have any Lan access (I type this on another computer)... This is getting utterly ridiculous... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoken Joe Posted July 15, 2006 Posted July 15, 2006 First put the computer back to stock speed and test then test with memtest. Avoid using the nvidia IDE drivers they cause instability though obviously this is not the issue if it is not even being recognised. Why do they have them who knows but it is a old known issue, also make sure your connections to the PSU are good disconnect and reconnect and see if you can not change the power cable that the SAT uses. Segate also has a utility to check the drive. It might be bad if so do a RMA. The idea of placing a delay on the drives sometimes works with a borderline drive. I would defanatly check to see if your system is stable though if overclocked that cold be the whole problem. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
globiboulga Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I really don't think this has to do with overclocking... The machine had been overclocked for two months stable (and I mean lots of intensive gaming) before I did put that second hard drive. All comes from the moment I installed the second drive. Now the issues I am experiencing at the moment are all related to drivers, and the latest to Network drivers: I find playing offline never generates that BSOD about the nv4_disp.dll. And my connection is heratic. This is probably caused when I installed the drivers pack from nvidia in an attempt to reflresh IDE and SATA drivers... So, no the overclocking is just fine and stable and cool... I am off to the DFI website to get back to the initial network drivers... And we'll see hot it goes. BTW, the drives are both working flawlessly now... And I did the mem test and the stock speed tries. They did not help. I don't know for sure why the drives are back to normal, all I know is the problem has now switched to a lan issue... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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