A8N32-SLI build problems

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Scrith

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Joined
Nov 8, 2004
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40
[update - see #13 below for the solution to my problem]

Hello, I'm having two problems with my new A8N32-SLI build:

1. I can't boot from a SATA drive. It never even gets to the point where the Windows loading screen comes up...it just sits there with a black screen after leaving the BIOS boot display. I know that this drive is working fine because I can boot off of it using my other computer (MSI nForce3 motherboard). The A8N32-SLI has quite a few options for the drive (which appears as the 3rd master...I've also tried moving it around to the SATA2, 3 and 4 slots with no luck), but I think I've tried almost every combination and I just can't seem to make it work.

2. When booting with an IDE drive, I can get to the Welcome to Windows screen, but then the display is all garbled (it's the proper blue color, but everything is skewed and un-readable). This happens even when I boot in Safe mode.

I'd appreciate any ideas that might help me solve #1 or #2...it would be nice to at least be able to get into Windows XP with my new computer.
 
This sounds like my problem. I have a thread in the AMDmobos forum detailing my problems.

Read through it, that might help you. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=994465&page=3&pp=20

SOME people have gotten everythign to work by simply enabling the parralell port. Not so for me.

One question though.. what kind of PSU do you have? Listing your hardware will help all these gurus when diagnosing your problem. :)

If i find a fix, i'll make sure to post here immediately. I should mention, i have this problem on both the 903 bios and 1009 bios.
 
hold on here, did you actually run the Window XP install?, and then it wouldn't boot?

Or are you trying to boot from your existing windows install? With a new motherboard, you can't just expect windows to boot right up with your old motherboard configuration.

download the sata drivers from asus, make a floppy with drivers on it, then boot the install xp, hit F6, when it asks for hardware.
 
Hi,

I have a solution to this problem that really works.
Formatting the disk when installing windows isn't enough, you need to FDISK the drive and delete all the partions and then recreate them on the board you will be using.
This forces the drives into LBA mode (they are probably now CHS)

This works 100% although it is a PITA.

Fdisk is your friend.
 
More info...sorry I didn't provide it right away.

No, I did not re-install Windows...I was hoping it would just work from a cloned copy of a boot drive I'm using in a nForce3 system. I gave up on this idea and tried installing windows (including formatting the drive using the Windows installer) and still had no luck.

Currently, when I install Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 (this is an up-to-date Windows installer that we use at work) the first part of the installation goes just fine, but then when it has to reboot the system to continue the installation (and I switch the boot drive to the SATA drive) it just hangs after the BIOS start-up screen with a black screen and a white flashing cursor (it looks like a flashing underscore "_" character). For some reason it just doesn't want to boot off this drive. I've installed Windows with the LBA option (in the BIOS, under third IDE device) on and off and it hasn't made any difference.

I am not loading any raid/sata drivers with the F6 key (I don't have a floppy drive, and it seems to have no problem formatting/installing on the drive).

In the BIOS I am using the following settigns: 2.65V for memory, 4x NB->SB (from 5x), all hardware disabled except SATA 1/2/3/4--including serial/parallel/1394/game/silicon image/audio).

More Info on the hardware:
AMD XP 4800+ w/ Thermalright XP-120 & Nexus 120mm fan (CPU temp is around 38)
Seasonic S12-500 power supply
Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard
1 stick Corsair 1GB RAM (ugh...2nd stick won't fit with the XP-120, new heatsink on order)
Plextor 716SA DVD drive (on sata3 connector)
Seagate 7200.9 160GB SATA hard drive (on sata1 connector)
Seagate 7200.9 500GB SATA hard drive (on sata2 connector)
Antec P180 case w/ Nexus 120mm fans out the back and top
E-Mu 1212M audio card (not installed right now...I'll add it once I can get into Windows).

By the way, after each fail I can't boot with the CD...I have to disconnect the hard drive, then boot off CD, then hook up the hard drive while the Windows installer is loading off CD (otherwise it just goes to a black screen and stays there without the Windows installer loading...my guess is that it is detecting that an install is in progress and trying to load it off the hard drive).

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I'll try some of the recommendations next (first up...re-installing with the parallel port enabled).
 
Hi,

The Fdisk solution is the only one that will work, 100% sure on that.

Thanks for the update, hope you get up and running soon.
 
I always thought the formating utility inside the windows setup was Fdisk?

I used to use Fdisk back when you started your windows install on a floppy, i can dig out those disks and do it again if i have to.

Thanks for the ideas. Good luck Scrith!
 
No,

Fdisk is a really old program from the DOS days used for removing partitions and resetting disks.
Trust me I lost 3 days pissing around with the A8N SLI premium because of this, when I upgraded and had the same problem I solved it in 10 minutes.

There is a version of Fdisk on the ultimate boot cd if you don't have it available anymore or don't have a floppy.

CRAG if you reinstall windows now you won't have the problem because the disk has been initialized on the board already. It's only on the first install that you will need to use Fdisk.

Crazy isn't it?
 
If it turns out to be something like having to use Fdisk to format your drive before installing Windows with this motherboard, I am going to be amazed at Asus for not providing a boot CD and information about that!

OK, well I can verify so far that enabling the Parallel port does not help.

Also, I tried deleting my existing partition and doing a slow format from the Windows installer, but this did not solve the problem.

I'm downloading the Ultimate Boot CD now...I'll try formatting with that next. I am getting the one from ultimatebootcd.com...hopefully that will be ok?
 
I just booted with my winxp cd and formatted my drive that way, through the setup no need for fdisk, i just deleted the partitions and created a new one then choose the normal format not the quick.

the part about the parallel port being enabled so far seems true, i was having issues and went back and enabled it and it worked. check out the asus message boards.
 
Yep that's the one, its not listed under disk tools though. It's under mainboard tools (if I remember correctly)
Connect the disk you intend to install windows on only, this will make sure you don't make any costly errors when deleting partitions ;)
 
You were right! I had to use fdisk (actually, xfdisk on the Ultimate Boot CD). Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 is not able to install to a SATA drive on this motherboard.

How can that be? Are us three people the only ones that are having this problem? I can't believe I had to create a boot CD on my own and run a program like xfdisk in order to make my computer work...how can Asus let that happen?

Some details: In xfdisk I erased the existing partition, created a new one, then changed it to NTFS. The partition created by xfdisk was 8MB larger than the one that the Windows installer was creating (this seems strange, doesn't it?).
 
Haha excellent, hate to say I told you so, but. . . . :D
Crazy isn't it? I wonder how many "defective" boards have been returned because of this?
 
Scrith said:
...how can Asus let that happen?
Click to expand...

Perhaps they expect people to be sensible enough to do clean installs when they change motherboard rather than trying to use a drive that has already been used on a different chipset and is hence full of unreadable information.

 
Forthy said:
Perhaps they expect people to be sensible enough t do clean installs when they change motherboard rather than trying to use a drive that has already been used on a different chipset and is hence full of unreadable information.
Click to expand...


I always thought thats what the format feature in the XP setup was for?
A bit unreasonable statement there Forthy, formatting you should expect, but fdisk shouldn't be required the first time.
And we see some people haven't required fdisk, just a few. Luckily I helped get the guy started. So my 3 days pissing around wasn't entirely in vain :)
 
Sikpupi said:
I always thought thats what the format feature in the XP setup was for?
A bit unreasonable statement there Forthy, formatting you should expect, but fdisk shouldn't be required the first time
Click to expand...

This guy found that the windows setup format feature did work...

Javelin3o4 said:
I just booted with my winxp cd and formatted my drive that way, through the setup no need for fdisk, i just deleted the partitions and created a new one then choose the normal format not the quick.
Click to expand...

Besides, if it doesn't, it's not ASUS' fault but MS' surely?

As you say, it makes you wonder how many boards have been returned just on the basis that somebody used an old SATA disk and couldn't get past this stage!

 
Forthy, you needed to read a bit further. I gave up on the idea of using an existing partition right at the start.

I formatted this drive (slow and fast) around 10 times using the Windows XP Pro installer and it never was able to finish installing (after the first reboot), because it could not boot off the drive, even after the Windows XP Installer deleted all partitions on the drive, created a new one, formatted, and installed a new version of Windows XP Pro.

The only way I could make the installation work was to run xfdisk off the Ultimate Boot CD, as recommended by SikPupi.
 
And as I have just said, I don't see how ASUS can be held accountable for MS's inefficeincies with the format program?

I was simply answering the question you posed "how can ASUS let that happen?".

It's the same scenario when one comes to the press f6 screen the first time and realises that they have to hook up a floppy drive from the attic because the installer isn't clever enough to look for the drivers on the CD.

Hopefully these issues will be fixed with Vista, who knows :p
 
Forthy said:
It's the same scenario when one comes to the press f6 screen the first time and realises that they have to hook up a floppy drive from the attic because the installer isn't clever enough to look for the drivers on the CD.
Click to expand...

Well that's something we agree on, I don't use RAID because I can't be bothered opening up my box and messing about finding a floppy disk drive :)
 
CRAG I was reading some of your posts on various forums, I think that the XFdisk solution would help you too. Definately a problem with the Nvidia SATA controller, but the fdisk solution works 100%


**EDIT** and with that post I finally get promoted to "Limp Gawd"
Goes and gets a coffee whistling "aint no stopping us now"
 
Forthy said:
Perhaps they expect people to be sensible enough to do clean installs when they change motherboard rather than trying to use a drive that has already been used on a different chipset and is hence full of unreadable information.
Click to expand...

I agree with doing clean installs on hard drives, i've never had luck with using an old copy of an install...

BUT here's the thing.. for the last 10 or so builds for myself and other people, i have NEVER had to use fdisk utility, back in the day, thats the way i installed windows.. by booting into my old boot98, bootME, disc and using fdisk. When xp come out, i started using the formatting utility with the windows insaller (always the slow one).

Now that i've got my rig running on the SIL controller, i'm going to insall that old drive and see if an Fdisk allows me to boot and install with it.
 
I agree Forthy, Asus shouldn't be held accountable for Microsoft's installer. But they should have some sort of warning or something for their customers ('if creating partition on a new sata drive, use fdisk rather than the windows installer"), since I think quite a few people probably run into this problem (and never figure out the solution..they either switch to a non-sata disk or return the motherboard, I guess).

Perhaps this is something that people who build systems with unusual drives (like scsi disks) have gotten used to, but for me it was kind of shocking to realize that, even though the Windows installer seemed to be working fine (it deleted my existing partition, created a new one, formatted it, and copied quite a few files to it without any warnings or errors) it was doing something that wasn't going to work.
 
Sikpupi said:
CRAG I was reading some of your posts on various forums, I think that the XFdisk solution would help you too. Definately a problem with the Nvidia SATA controller, but the fdisk solution works 100%


**EDIT** and with that post I finally get promoted to "Limp Gawd"
Goes and gets a coffee whistling "aint no stopping us now"
Click to expand...


Well i've went back (cuase i'm the curious type) and i still can't get this to work. Maybe i'm doing something wrong, or maybe its that i'm using an old copy of Fdisk thats causing this.

I simply erased the partitions using FDISK then created (1) partition.. then when going to Windows to install, it did not see the HD. I'm guessing cuase it formated the drive as a FAT 16 or FAT32 drive? I think the FDISK utility i have only does it in 16bit if memory serves me.

How will using the XFDISK utility be different? Exactly what am i trying to acheieve with this?

Thanks in advance. :)
 
Oh crap, i have a8n32 on it's way but my main raptor drive is partitioned into several small partitions, bleh, gonna take alot of backing up. :(
 
CRAG said:
I simply erased the partitions using FDISK then created (1) partition.
Click to expand...

I think you should just delete all the partitions and not create on with fdisk.
Sooo just delete all Non Dos partitions and then exit. Use the windows installer for creating partitions.

Go try it again ;)
 
Scrith said:
You were right! I had to use fdisk (actually, xfdisk on the Ultimate Boot CD). Windows XP Pro w/ SP2 is not able to install to a SATA drive on this motherboard.
Click to expand...

Ain't system building fun? :)

My slipstreamed SP2 installed into a WD2500KS SATA 2 on the nVidia SATA 1 port with no fuss-no muss first try. So I gots to disagree: Windows XP with SP2 does install itself on this MB just fine on a SATA drive...and it went straight into SATA 2 mode with no complaints.

Getting my pair of WD800JBs with SATA adapters in raid 0 on nv SATA ports 3 & 4? That was a different story. It took a flash of BIOS 903 (mine came with 703) to get it doing that. I always thought it was weird how HDs disappeared from the BIOS low-level POST as soon as they went into a RAID array...some know-it-alls (who shall remain nameless) even told me "Of course they do, it's supposed to work that way!" Well oddly enough, the BIOS that finaly allowed my RAID 0 to work also continues to detect HDs as individual units during POST whether or not they are used for RAID...maybe I was on to something...you think? :)

I've been reading and learning about this MB for 2 months now. The A8N32 has been blamed for everything--including global warming. All I see is just the same I have always seen with any MB from any vendor making its way into the mainstream and letting us stick whatever piece of HW we want in there: growing pains...and as everyone knows growing pains are PITA.
 
My system was running fine until I move it into a new case. Then the damn thing would see any of my SATA drives. Downgraded my BIOS to 0520. I assume that since I had my optical drives on my IDE 2 controller that that was the problem. Moved the optical to IDE 1 and it works like a charm. The board must need to have some sort of drive connectd to IDE 1 for the board to run right. Will try later with the newer BIOS's and will see what happens.

HARDWARE:
case - Chenbro Gaming Bomb II
mobo -A8N32-SLI Deluxe
cpu - 3000+ Winchester (Opteron 144 ready and waiting)
memory - 2 X 512MB OCZ 4200EL
hard drive(s) – 1 x 300GB Maxtor Maxline III SATA
graphics card – 1 x EVGA 6600GT
sound card - Onboard
power supply - Antec Neo Power 480
cooling system - Koolance EXOS Al
shipped bios 0703
current bios 0520

[
 
My last issue has been getting stuck at a black screen after the WIndows Loading screen finishes (just before the blue Welcome to Windows screen). This was happening about 1/2 the time when I booted. I solved it by turning off USB 2.0 support (I don't need it right now in the BIOS).

By the way, I've found that the Marvell Yukon ethernet controller (ethernet #2 in the BIOS) is faster (and, somehow, smoother) than the nVidia ethernet (#1 in the BIOS), and only uses 1 IRQ (the nVidia one required two, one for the net port enumerator or something like that).
 
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