Burleyboy

Got it. It was as simple as copying the raid files, not the folder, to floppy. Since it's working I don't think I'll push my luck by updating bios. Thanks a lot

How did you update the sil bios to 5.4.0.3? I downloaded the bios and read the read me file in it, and it stated "5403.bin - motherboard BIOS for OEM use in development. This BIOS is not intended for general end-users. End-users with a SiI3114 onboard a motherboard, please contact the motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade" All the others say they're for sil3114 add in card. As you can see by my old sig that I have run sil software raid from Windows. Just not installed Windows on them. The 1.5.5.0 driver package is the one I tried and it couldn't find txtsetup.oem. So if you can tell me how you updated your bios to 5.4.0.3 that would be great. I'm kind of worried because of the message in the read me file it could possibly screw my dfi bios. Barring that I'll just copy the contents of the sil image folder and the dfi pagkage to "seperate floppies" making sure txtsetup.oem is in it, and hope for the best. The problem is if the f6 disk doesn't work, I destroy my existing nfr raid and I'll have to reinstall for the 3rd time today. When I bought the sli-dr dfi only provided the 32 bit drivers and I had x64, so this whole sil raid has never worked out for me. PITA. Thanks

I'll try and update the silicon Image bios and see if that helps. I think the 1.2.8.0 package is the base driver for non-raid, but I'll double check. Whats strange is I explored the dfi and silicon image drivers and they both contain atxtsetup.oem file. It's just not there when I need it to setup windows on raid. It was suggested to me to manually copy the txtsetup.oem file to floppy instead of extracting. I kind of remember thats what you need to do but i cant remember if you copy the whole folder, the contents of the folder or just txtsetup.oem and system file or what. Thanks for your help.

I'm trying to find sil3114 f6 raid drivers to install Windows. I've downloaded the windows 64 bit raid drivers from DFI and the same on Silicon Image's site, that correlate to the silicon image 5.2.1.6 bios, and extracted them to floppy. In bothe cases setup cannot continue because "File txtsetup.oem could not be found. Anybody here get the sil raid to install Windows? If so, what drivers did you use? I sold my Venus to my son and am in the process of a new build. I've got a q6600 and an 8800 Ultra sitting here. I was going to order the DFI p35 board, it looks like a great one, but I'm trying to hold off til I get a look at DFI's x38 board. I reverted back to my sli-dr and therein lies the rub. The 8800Ultra swallows all four nf4 sata ports on the sli-dr. Someone please tell me you got sil raid working, and how. I really want to use this card. Thanks

I've never been one to recommend how others should spend their money, but Newegg is having a really great deal on the Samsung 226bw monitor, at $325 after a $30 rebate. They are as good as all the reviews are saying. I got one yesterday and the picture, performance and looks are amazing. There is a lot of discussion on hardforum.com and other sites about the fact that this model uses 2 different panels, the S model made by Samsung, and the A model, made by AOC, or something like that. The A model supposedly has a few more backlight bleeding and banding issues. There are a few who say it's just nerd frenzy and the A model is just fine, but no one has said the A panel is better than the S. I saw the A and the S at CC and Bestbuy, and they both looked beautiful. So who knows. I ordered the monitor last Friday when it was $325 with rebate and free shipping, but I didn't want to risk getting the A panel and canceled. I went to Bestbuy where they had 3 in stock, and told the guy about the difference, and of coarse he couldn't let me open the box, but he assured me I had 30 days and I could return it for any reason. I told him I was gonna take it to my truck and open it, if it was an S, I was keeping it and if it was an A, It was coming back. It was an S panel. I had to pay $413 w/tax, $88 dollars more than Newegg, and it was well worth it to me. I've been waiting a long time to get an lcd monitor, but always put it off due to price, but frankly, mostly because they looked like .. The color, sharpness, focus and readability on this thing surpasses the 19" Viewsonic I had. With 2ms response time and 1680 x 1050 native resolution games such as Oblivion, Farcry and Half Life2 look fantastic, and so far all my games have accepted 1680 x 1050. I guess Battlefield 2142 doesn't, but I don't play that. The only area it doesn't excell in is low res internet video clips, but they're watchable. You would just have to see this monitor, it is beautiful. If anyone is looking for a 22" lcd, this is the one to buy. There are no guarantees, but according to the forums Newegg has consistently shipped the S panel, and for $325, get two.

Did you install the software from the disk that came with your X-Fi? I kept trying to download it from Creatives site, but could never find it. I then realized I had to install from disk, and then could update from Creative. It is a lot nicer and more feature laden. Did you install the audio console from the Creative disk, or just the drivers? If not install audio console and you'll be good.

I agree with you that it won't change boot priority without user intervention, but mine has switched boot priority when I've loaded "optimized settings for this page" in the Genie bios settings. Page two with the memory settings. I thought it was kind of odd, as it didn't change any of the settings on any of the other pages, just the hard drive boot order.

I had a 7800gtx on my sli-dr and lost the #3 nf4 sata port. The bottom one #4 I could get a sata cable on, but at an angle. Right angle cables don't work very well as they all seem to be angled in the direction toward the other ports. If you get what I'm saying, you could use a right angle on the bottom port, but if you use one on the top #3 port it points at and blocks the #4, so it's basically useless for using on more than one port. I had the 7800gtx ACS3 model, and it was 8.98 " or 228mm and I had to angle the sata cable on at an angle. Anything more than 228mm, you will lose both sata ports 3 and 4, unless you use a right angle on port #4. That and the gc sitting right on top of the chipset, were the reasons I moved to the Expert.

I've been running a raid1 on 2 seagate 250 Gb sata drives on the sil3114 controller for six months, and it's worked fine up til now. The raid is for about 110Gb of wave files and driver and program backup's. A couple of days ago, I went to Windows update, and there were about 12 x64 updates, so I installed them. Windows updates have never caused a problem before, this time it did. Whatever it did, it screwed both drives of my sil3114 raid1. I was unable to rebuild the array, no matter what I tried. Ripping all those cd's to the hard drive and tagging everything, represents a full 2 days work, so I'm trying to find a fool proof way to ensure I never have to do it again. I rip all the waves, as well as install Musicmatch and Creative Mediasource with all the tag information to the raid1. I thought I was reasonably safe with a raid1, but wasn't. It's obvious you can't really be safe with a raid1, as any bad . you put on one drive, loads on the other as well. I've came up with the best solution for me, to keep from losing all that work again, but I have a few questions. My plan is to setup a raid1 again on the sil3114, rip all my music back to the hard drive, and then simply unplug the 2nd drive in the array, and switch it back to sata, instead of sata raid1. It's all been tested out, and it works in every way as far as rebuilding the array, or just deleting the partition in the first drive and copying it all back from the 2nd. I'm just going to load all my music on the raid1, and unplug power and sata connector to the 2nd drive, and leave in the case. I have 2 questions that might seem kind of lame, but I need to be sure. Is there any limitation on how long you can leave data on an unpowered hard drive? I assume that if you don't disturb the drive, it should remain uncorrupted or degraded in any way, for as long as I need. If I update the sil3114 drivers in the future, do you think that could cause any problems, if I need to rebuild from the "safe" drive?

The whole story of this, my first order with Monarch, would read like a 20 paragraph cluster****, so I'll just say I think they are more than slow. I think they are out and out lying about availability. After waiting almost a week for them to do a simple credit on a return, I finally placed an order for a X24800 on monday night. I had to call them to make sure they didn't screw up the billing, as I still haven't received an e-mail stating the order was going to ship. They told me all was good, that it would ship on thursday. Didn't happen. They then assured me it would ship on Friday. Nope. I will be so glad when I get this chip, mostly so I never have to deal with these cs'ers ever again.

It was first class mail. It wasn't too bad until I added 4 36" sata cables, each in their own pkg. 1 TT green led fan for my daughter and some cable ties. Ain't no thang, the prices on the sata cables, made up for it. I would have ordered more, but couldn't think of anything else I needed. Unlike other companies, I had an e-mail within a half hour with the order status. Good company, so far.

I ordered a tube of AS5 and a green led fan on friday afternoon, and it was in my mail this morning. Not bad. About the same amount of time it would have taken Monarch to clear my cc and ship. I was all set to place an order for another fan and some sata cables, but decided to see if there was anything else I could use to bring down the shipping cost. Their shipping costs are very reasonable, but I still hate paying $12 to ship $22 worth of goods. They have a great selection of sata and sata2 cables, clear, uv reactive, right angled, and a lot of different lengths. It's nice to finally find a vendor with a good selection.

Thanks a lot. So, just stick with the Windows processor driver and install the optimizer. The Windows processor driver date that loads in x64 is 10/01/02, I didn't think CNQ had been around that long.

AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Processor Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (x86 and x64 exe) 1.3.2 - Allows the system to automatically adjust the CPU speed, voltage and power combination that match the instantaneous user performance need. Download this Setup Installation program (EXE) to automatically update all the files necessary for installation. This package is recommended for users whom desire a graphical user interface for installation. This .EXE driver is a user friendly localized software installation of the driver designed for end-users. This driver supports AMD Athlon 64/FX processors on Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 SP1 x84 and x64 Editions. I'm going to be installing an X2 4800 soon on Windows x64 Pro, and wan't to make sure I have the right processor driver. I've downloaded the dual core optimizer and this processor driver. Is it saying it supports XP 64 or is it saying it supports the 64 bit edition of Windows 2003? I can't find an AMD processor driver that specifically states it's for Windows XP x64. Anyone running dual core on x64, that can let me know for sure?

I would not risk it. Monarch seems to be shipping mostly ccbwe's lately. I received a ccbwe 0608mpmw and returned it unopened. You do not wan't to deal with Monarch on a return. Not only was I charged the 15% restocking fee, which I knew I would be, I was charged 15% on $310.00, not the $230.00 that was billed on my card. After a week and a half, I'm still trying to reorder using my credit from the return, to re-order an X2 4800. I couldn't even apply the credit to the order. I had to purchase the X2 4800 outright, and they will apply the credit back sometime in the next 30 days. Unbelievably slow and unsophisticated systems. If I was you I'd order somewhere you can choose your stepping. I've never used Monarch before, and unless they undercut their competition by at least 50%, I never will again.