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Howdy [H], it's been a while since I posted in this subforum 
My main rig hasn't changed much in quite some time. The latest addition is an extra 2GB of RAM, bringing the total to 3GB. Windows XP only sees 2.5GB of this, but I'm fine with that for the time being, because I'm holding out for Vista ... 64-bit Media Center FTW
The upgrade that came before that was a pair of 500GB Seagate SATA drives, back in January. I happened to have a Promise FastTrak S150 TX2 Plus (big name, dinky card) laying around, so I popped that card in, flashed its BIOS up to 1.00.0.37, hooked up the drives, and built a mirror. At that point, I had A8N-SLI BIOS revision 1001 installed ... I hadn't had any problems that would have been rectified by BIOS fixes, so I just left it alone.
Today, however, I determined that the next step in my upgrade path would be to install a dual-core CPU to replace my 2-year-old 3500+. I figured I should probably prepare my system for the upgrade, and I highly doubt BIOS 1001 supported any of the more recent CPUs, so I grabbed version 1014 from Asus's website and flashed away. That's where the problems started.
Normally, when the system boots, it goes through the system BIOS, then the Promise BIOS, then to the POST summary screen (or into the BIOS, if I hit Delete), then to Windows. When I went up to 1014, the Promise controller decided not to detect my mirrored set and hang the system. Regardless of whether I hit the Delete key or not, the card would search for the drives, act like it didn't find them, and just sit there doing nothing indefinitely. I had absolutely no trouble getting into the OS when I removed the Promise card from its PCI slot, though.
After trying various BIOS revisions, it appears that the last version the Promise card can boot with is 1008. This is obviously not 1014, which means that my computer is giving me an ultimatum: ditch the Promise card, or no shiny new CPUs. At this point, I determined that my computer is female, and she thinks she's married to me.
Obviously, I do not want to ditch the Promise card at this point. My four on-board SATA ports are all taken up (two 120GB and two 160GB Seagate drives, non-RAID), and I am not about to enable the on-board RAID because I hate connecting a floppy to this thing. I mean, it was bad enough connecting it tonight to flash the bloody BIOS -- it made me feel dirty. How can I get the latest A8N-SLI BIOS revision to play nicely with my Promise card?
My main rig hasn't changed much in quite some time. The latest addition is an extra 2GB of RAM, bringing the total to 3GB. Windows XP only sees 2.5GB of this, but I'm fine with that for the time being, because I'm holding out for Vista ... 64-bit Media Center FTW
The upgrade that came before that was a pair of 500GB Seagate SATA drives, back in January. I happened to have a Promise FastTrak S150 TX2 Plus (big name, dinky card) laying around, so I popped that card in, flashed its BIOS up to 1.00.0.37, hooked up the drives, and built a mirror. At that point, I had A8N-SLI BIOS revision 1001 installed ... I hadn't had any problems that would have been rectified by BIOS fixes, so I just left it alone.
Today, however, I determined that the next step in my upgrade path would be to install a dual-core CPU to replace my 2-year-old 3500+. I figured I should probably prepare my system for the upgrade, and I highly doubt BIOS 1001 supported any of the more recent CPUs, so I grabbed version 1014 from Asus's website and flashed away. That's where the problems started.
Normally, when the system boots, it goes through the system BIOS, then the Promise BIOS, then to the POST summary screen (or into the BIOS, if I hit Delete), then to Windows. When I went up to 1014, the Promise controller decided not to detect my mirrored set and hang the system. Regardless of whether I hit the Delete key or not, the card would search for the drives, act like it didn't find them, and just sit there doing nothing indefinitely. I had absolutely no trouble getting into the OS when I removed the Promise card from its PCI slot, though.
After trying various BIOS revisions, it appears that the last version the Promise card can boot with is 1008. This is obviously not 1014, which means that my computer is giving me an ultimatum: ditch the Promise card, or no shiny new CPUs. At this point, I determined that my computer is female, and she thinks she's married to me.
Obviously, I do not want to ditch the Promise card at this point. My four on-board SATA ports are all taken up (two 120GB and two 160GB Seagate drives, non-RAID), and I am not about to enable the on-board RAID because I hate connecting a floppy to this thing. I mean, it was bad enough connecting it tonight to flash the bloody BIOS -- it made me feel dirty. How can I get the latest A8N-SLI BIOS revision to play nicely with my Promise card?