Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - problem with P4C800-E & controller cards

Xanarax · 03-04-2005, 08:05 AM

Hello, everyone.

I'm new to this web site. I've scoured the net for a solution to my problem, as well as spent a number of hours on the phone with both Promise and ASUS technical support (level 1 and 2). I'm hoping that one of you can help me with this problem.

I am currently using an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. I have two hard drives connected to the onboard Promise RAID controller (PATA, not S-ATA), mirrored, which I'm using for my operating system (Windows XP Service Pack 2). I am not using the S-ATA controller. I have two additional hard drives connected to the onboard primary IDE controller, and a DVD burner and CD-RW connected to the onboard secondary IDE controller.

My problem lies with using two controller cards. I initially installed a Maxtor ATA/133 controller card made by Promise (that came with a retail hard drive kit) in PCI slot 5 and installed 2 Maxtor 250 GB hard drives to it. It worked just fine.

I then connected a second Promise ATA/100 controller card (I believe this card came with a Western Digital retail hard drive kit) to PCI slot 2, connected a hard drive to it, booted up, and after the system went through the FastTrak RAID BIOS, the ATA/100 BIOS, and the ATA/133 BIOS, I got a blank screen with a blinking cursor. No Windows XP splash screen.

I took the drive off of the ATA/100 controller card and rebooted. Same problem. I then took the 2 Maxtor 250 GB hard drives off of the Maxtor ATA/133 controller card and it booted up just fine.

I called Promise and they suggested that I move the controller cards to different slots. I moved the Maxtor ATA/133 controller card from PCI slot 5 to PCI slot 4. Same problem. I moved the ATA/100 controller card from PCI slot 2 to PCI slot 1. I then saw the Windows XP splash screen, but the progress bar kept on cycling and cycling in an endless loop, to the point where I had to manually power off the computer. I moved the ATA/100 controller card to PCI slot 3. Blank screen with no blinking cursor.

Promise then suggested to disable quick boot. When I did this, after I got through all of the BIOSes, a listing of all of my ISA and PCI devices is displayed, the computer beeps, and at the bottom is a message that says "Press the Esc key to boot" with a 9 second countdown. Pressing the Esc key brings me to a blank screen, and not pressing the Esc key brings me to a blank screen.

I made sure that the controller cards had the latest drivers (with the Maxtor controller card, I updated the driver from Maxtor's web site since Promise said it was an OEM controller card and to use the driver from Maxtor's web site. The ATA/100 controller card I updated from Promise's web site).

When on the phone with Asus, they recommended that I flash the BIOS from a floppy. They said the motherboard BIOS is getting confused because of the number of devices to boot from. They said the controller card is conflicting and trying to take priority over the onboard controllers. By flashing the BIOS from a bootable floppy, they mentioned that the BIOS would be flashed with a /pdmc option, which would erase the ROM chip and write it new. This would disable the boot priority on the controller cards and allow the motherboard BIOS to determine which devicees take priority in the boot sequence. So I did as they instructed. It still didn't work.

Asus then told me that they thought it was an "upper memory management" problem and that they couldn't fix the problem. Is it an upper memory management problem? Is it an IRQ conflict?

I know both controller cards work by themselves, but it's together with hard drives connected to both cards that I'm having a problem. Any suggestions?

Help!

03-04-2005, 08:05 AM	#1 (permalink)
Xanarax Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2 OS: XP SP2	problem with P4C800-E & controller cards Hello, everyone. I'm new to this web site. I've scoured the net for a solution to my problem, as well as spent a number of hours on the phone with both Promise and ASUS technical support (level 1 and 2). I'm hoping that one of you can help me with this problem. I am currently using an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard. I have two hard drives connected to the onboard Promise RAID controller (PATA, not S-ATA), mirrored, which I'm using for my operating system (Windows XP Service Pack 2). I am not using the S-ATA controller. I have two additional hard drives connected to the onboard primary IDE controller, and a DVD burner and CD-RW connected to the onboard secondary IDE controller. My problem lies with using two controller cards. I initially installed a Maxtor ATA/133 controller card made by Promise (that came with a retail hard drive kit) in PCI slot 5 and installed 2 Maxtor 250 GB hard drives to it. It worked just fine. I then connected a second Promise ATA/100 controller card (I believe this card came with a Western Digital retail hard drive kit) to PCI slot 2, connected a hard drive to it, booted up, and after the system went through the FastTrak RAID BIOS, the ATA/100 BIOS, and the ATA/133 BIOS, I got a blank screen with a blinking cursor. No Windows XP splash screen. I took the drive off of the ATA/100 controller card and rebooted. Same problem. I then took the 2 Maxtor 250 GB hard drives off of the Maxtor ATA/133 controller card and it booted up just fine. I called Promise and they suggested that I move the controller cards to different slots. I moved the Maxtor ATA/133 controller card from PCI slot 5 to PCI slot 4. Same problem. I moved the ATA/100 controller card from PCI slot 2 to PCI slot 1. I then saw the Windows XP splash screen, but the progress bar kept on cycling and cycling in an endless loop, to the point where I had to manually power off the computer. I moved the ATA/100 controller card to PCI slot 3. Blank screen with no blinking cursor. Promise then suggested to disable quick boot. When I did this, after I got through all of the BIOSes, a listing of all of my ISA and PCI devices is displayed, the computer beeps, and at the bottom is a message that says "Press the Esc key to boot" with a 9 second countdown. Pressing the Esc key brings me to a blank screen, and not pressing the Esc key brings me to a blank screen. I made sure that the controller cards had the latest drivers (with the Maxtor controller card, I updated the driver from Maxtor's web site since Promise said it was an OEM controller card and to use the driver from Maxtor's web site. The ATA/100 controller card I updated from Promise's web site). When on the phone with Asus, they recommended that I flash the BIOS from a floppy. They said the motherboard BIOS is getting confused because of the number of devices to boot from. They said the controller card is conflicting and trying to take priority over the onboard controllers. By flashing the BIOS from a bootable floppy, they mentioned that the BIOS would be flashed with a /pdmc option, which would erase the ROM chip and write it new. This would disable the boot priority on the controller cards and allow the motherboard BIOS to determine which devicees take priority in the boot sequence. So I did as they instructed. It still didn't work. Asus then told me that they thought it was an "upper memory management" problem and that they couldn't fix the problem. Is it an upper memory management problem? Is it an IRQ conflict? I know both controller cards work by themselves, but it's together with hard drives connected to both cards that I'm having a problem. Any suggestions? Help!