problem with P4C800-E & controller cards

Xanarax · 03-04-2005, 07:05 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!

**twajetmech** · 03-04-2005, 01:30 PM

Asus may be right on this one, but I'd be curious to know the other components in your system (like my sig)

Xanarax · 03-04-2005, 02:49 PM

In my system, I have a Aspire X-SuperAlien Aluminum Case (blue), PC P&C Turbo-Cool 510 ATX power supply (510 watts, maximum throughput of 650 watts) modified with 14 power connectors, Intel P4 2.8c GHz (M0) with Hyper Threading overclocked to 3.5 GHz, PC P&C Bay Cool III (cools 3 hard drives at once), Thermalright SP-94 with 92mm Vantec Tornado Fan (Arctic Silver 5 used between heatsink and CPU), ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard, P4C800-E Deluxe BIOS 1019, 2 sticks of OCZ PC4000 512 MB Enhanced Latency Gold RAM, two WD 250 GB hard drives for my bootable OS (Windows XP Pro SP2) connected to the RAID controller (mirrored), a WD 250 GB (master) and Seagate 200 GB (slave) connected to the primary IDE controller on the motherboard, an NEC 3500A DVD burner (master) and a Sony 52x32x52 CD-RW (slave) connected to the secondary IDE controller on the motherboard, an nVidia 128MB FX 5200 plus video card in the AGI slot of the motherboard, and two controller cards: in slot 3 is a Promise Ultra/ATA 100 controller card, to which I have connected to it a WD 180 GB hard drive, and in slot 4 is a Maxtor-branded (OEM) Promise Ultra/ATA 133 controller, to which I have connected to it 2 250 GB Maxtor hard drives.

Ultimately, if I'm able to get the 2nd controller card (the Maxtor) to work, I'll have a WD 180 GB and Seagate 200 GB on the first controller card, and 2 Maxtor 250 GB drives on IDE 1 and 2 Maxtor 200 GB drives on IDE 2 on the second Maxtor controller card.

I wanted to post this because Promise told me to disable some devices in the BIOS. This is what I got displayed on the screen right after it went through the second controller card BIOS (the Maxtor) in slot 4 - which is causing the problem:

PCI Onboard PCI Bridge
PCI Onboard PCI Bridge
PCI Onboard PCI Bridge

PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ5
PCI Bridge RAID IRQ5
PCI Slot-3 Mass Storage Device IRQ5

PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ10
PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ10
PCI Bridge VGA IRQ10
PCI Bridge Firewire Cntrl IRQ10
PCI Slot 4 Mass Storage Device IRQ10

PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ11
PCI Bridge Ethernet IRQ11
PCI Onboard IDE IRQ11

PCI Onboard Multimedia Device, IRQ14
PCI Onboard SerialBus Cntlr IRQ14

PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ15

As you can see, the "PCI Slot 4 Mass Storage Device IRQ10" is also being used by 2 USB controllers, a VGA bridge, and the firewire controller. How to get it to go to a different IRQ I have no idea - but could that be causing the problem - that they're all using the same IRQ?

03-04-2005, 07:05 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!

03-04-2005, 01:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
twajetmech I helped the forums. Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: LGA, NYC Posts: 2,387 OS: XP-Pro Sp2 & XP-Pro Sp2 Tablet Edition, Vista Ultimate My System	Asus may be right on this one, but I'd be curious to know the other components in your system (like my sig) __________________ PSU Selection/Info // Bench test // Thermal Paste // Memory Selection // Bios Beep Codes // CPU-Z// Posting System Specs

03-04-2005, 02:49 PM	#3 (permalink)
Xanarax Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2 OS: XP SP2	In my system, I have a Aspire X-SuperAlien Aluminum Case (blue), PC P&C Turbo-Cool 510 ATX power supply (510 watts, maximum throughput of 650 watts) modified with 14 power connectors, Intel P4 2.8c GHz (M0) with Hyper Threading overclocked to 3.5 GHz, PC P&C Bay Cool III (cools 3 hard drives at once), Thermalright SP-94 with 92mm Vantec Tornado Fan (Arctic Silver 5 used between heatsink and CPU), ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard, P4C800-E Deluxe BIOS 1019, 2 sticks of OCZ PC4000 512 MB Enhanced Latency Gold RAM, two WD 250 GB hard drives for my bootable OS (Windows XP Pro SP2) connected to the RAID controller (mirrored), a WD 250 GB (master) and Seagate 200 GB (slave) connected to the primary IDE controller on the motherboard, an NEC 3500A DVD burner (master) and a Sony 52x32x52 CD-RW (slave) connected to the secondary IDE controller on the motherboard, an nVidia 128MB FX 5200 plus video card in the AGI slot of the motherboard, and two controller cards: in slot 3 is a Promise Ultra/ATA 100 controller card, to which I have connected to it a WD 180 GB hard drive, and in slot 4 is a Maxtor-branded (OEM) Promise Ultra/ATA 133 controller, to which I have connected to it 2 250 GB Maxtor hard drives. Ultimately, if I'm able to get the 2nd controller card (the Maxtor) to work, I'll have a WD 180 GB and Seagate 200 GB on the first controller card, and 2 Maxtor 250 GB drives on IDE 1 and 2 Maxtor 200 GB drives on IDE 2 on the second Maxtor controller card. I wanted to post this because Promise told me to disable some devices in the BIOS. This is what I got displayed on the screen right after it went through the second controller card BIOS (the Maxtor) in slot 4 - which is causing the problem: PCI Onboard PCI Bridge PCI Onboard PCI Bridge PCI Onboard PCI Bridge PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ5 PCI Bridge RAID IRQ5 PCI Slot-3 Mass Storage Device IRQ5 PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ10 PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ10 PCI Bridge VGA IRQ10 PCI Bridge Firewire Cntrl IRQ10 PCI Slot 4 Mass Storage Device IRQ10 PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ11 PCI Bridge Ethernet IRQ11 PCI Onboard IDE IRQ11 PCI Onboard Multimedia Device, IRQ14 PCI Onboard SerialBus Cntlr IRQ14 PCI Onboard USB Controller IRQ15 As you can see, the "PCI Slot 4 Mass Storage Device IRQ10" is also being used by 2 USB controllers, a VGA bridge, and the firewire controller. How to get it to go to a different IRQ I have no idea - but could that be causing the problem - that they're all using the same IRQ? Last edited by Xanarax; 03-04-2005 at 03:06 PM.