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| Thread ID: 73650 | 2006-10-27 10:36:00 | Soltek motherboard problem | mors_sum (11363) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 494785 | 2006-10-27 10:36:00 | Hi, Recently my GA-K8NS motherboard died, possibly due to a power surge. Since I can't live without my PC, I immediatly ordered another board, with the same chipset, the Soltek K8AN RL. My PC now loads the BIOS, at least, but then it hits problems. I have three Hard Drives; one ATA, and two (non-identical) SATA drives. Previously I was duel booting XP (long story) with one install on my ATA drive, and one on my first SATA drive. However, I am now unable to 1) boot into windows or 2) see all 3 drives on my new motherboard. It can always find the ATA drive, but regardless of which SATA ports they are plugged into, my BIOS will not see more than one of my SATA drives at any one time. And when I have the ATA drive and the first SATA drive in and working (the two with XP installed) it won't boot, as if it can't recognise them as boot drives. I have moved the jumper on the motherboard to disable RAID. If anyone has ANY idea why this is happening or can help me in any way, it would my much appreciated. |
mors_sum (11363) | ||
| 494786 | 2006-10-27 20:51:00 | Well its similar but not exactly the same board. You need to go into the BIOS first and make sure its happy seeing all 3 drives there before you even consider Windows. Secondly Windows will not like the fact that it is a different board so a fresh install would be best. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 494787 | 2006-10-27 23:39:00 | Yeah, I plan to do a reinstall when I have time regardless (it needed it anyway), getting it to see all three drives is the biggest problem. I have enabled SATA in the BIOS and I can get it to see one or the other SATA drive, just not both. Does anyone know if this is a common issue, or if it's possible that this was a faulty motherboard off the shelf? | mors_sum (11363) | ||
| 494788 | 2006-10-27 23:46:00 | If theres an option in the BIOS to disable RAID, disable it in the BIOS too. I take it you've connected power and data to BOTH SATA hdd's? I would also go into the BIOS and put 2nd/3rd Master (for the SATA's) to AUTO and before anything else make sure the BIOS detects BOTH SATA's before going any further. One of these SATA's arent SATA 2 is it?? If it is and the mobo only supports SATA 1, then u need to jumper this SATA to SATA 1. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 494789 | 2006-10-28 00:02:00 | I think one of the SATA drives is SATA2, but my motherboard should still support it. RAID should be turned off in both the BIOS and with the jumper, and I've checked the power to both drives - if I unplug one drive and leave the other in, then I can boot and see the one which is plugged in; I can then unplug that and plug the first one back in, and see that drive too. It is only when I have both plugged in at once that suddenly my BIOS can't see either of them. Having looked at my motherboard specs at www.ascent.co.nz it seems that I have 3 SATA ports, 2 of which will support SATA 2 and the other one just SATA 1. I have my SATA2 drive plugged into the correct port, but is it possible that my motherboard doesn't like running both a SATA1 drive and a SATA2 drive at once? |
mors_sum (11363) | ||
| 494790 | 2006-10-28 00:16:00 | The link u gave that mobo doesnt support SATA 2. SATA-300 headers on that link says 0. SATA-150 headers = 2 SATA-150 is SATA 1. So, if u do have a SATA 2 hdd, jumper it to SATA 1. So, no that mobo doesnt support SATA 2. |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 494791 | 2006-10-28 01:35:00 | OK, I pulled out the HDD and it does have a jumper; it seems it can be limited to 1.5 Gb/s, or unlimited (3 gb/s), but it was already set to limited. I just noticed in the bios (this was with my ATA drive unplugged and both SATAs in, with the bios showing no drives at all) that it has a list in the standard CMOS section, showing all the drives or empty drive cables. It showes IDE 0 (master) as my optical drive, then IDE 0 Slave as empty, IDE 1 Master and Slave as empty (my ATA shows up here as slave when plugged in) and then IDE 2 (Master) as empty (this is where a SATA drive appears if it is plugged in) - but it only has one place in IDE 2. Does this mean it only supports one SATA drive unless they are in RAID? Picture here, in case you can't understand the gibberish above: i11.photobucket.com |
mors_sum (11363) | ||
| 494792 | 2006-10-28 01:55:00 | Hmm, it looks that IDE Channel 2 Master is what the SATA should be on (it should be on AUTO not NONE) . Unless theres an option under IDE 2 which lets it detect 2 SATA's (whats the point in having 2 SATA headers if there's only 1 option in the BIOS)? It looks like there should be another entry in your BIOS . But, its missing . Most mobos I've seen have 3rd and 4th Master in the BIOS (like these 2 two) . I would download the manual for this mobo, from the site if u havent got it . How old is the BIOS on this system?? |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
| 494793 | 2006-10-28 02:00:00 | Yeah BIOS update is the next step, there is a later version out, but I don't know how to do it without having a floppy drive or windows - the only other BIOS update I've done was from windows. *UPDATE* - having checked the BIOS version it seems I do have the latest one (N1.2RL) |
mors_sum (11363) | ||
| 494794 | 2006-10-28 02:10:00 | Ok, well this ( . soltek . com . tw/soltek/download/download_all . php?isbn_st=SL-K8AN%2FSL-K8AN-RL" target="_blank">www . soltek . com . tw) Looks like the download site for the mobo . You could see if u can get a mate to format a floppy (make it a system disk), and see if someone has a USB flash drive . One that can be made bootable . Then u can copy the BIOS update to this (unzip it if its zipped), (and if the BIOS / system) supports booting from USB , you can flash a BIOS this way as well . This is what I used to use (until I lost the USB flash disk/drive)! So, now I'll have to buy a USB floppy and do it again . Since, I dont have a floppy on either of these pc's . |
Speedy Gonzales (78) | ||
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