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Forum overview » Hardware » I can't boot from promise ultra100 tx2 controller. WHY?? (1/1)
| I can't boot from promise ultra100 tx2 controller. WHY?? |
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duhmez
Senior Member
Posts: 583
From: Canada, West siiiiiiiiiide!
Joined: 2002-04-26
Member No.: 9046
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 2003-04-10 21:29:02
I got my shiny new Asus A7M 266-D motherboard with dual AMD 2600+ CPU. I see no options to bot from my promise controller. there is no "Boot other device" option.
In the "other" all there is is network (int18h) or SCSI.
I tried as scsi and it did not work. I tried setting everything to disabled and no work.
How can I make the pc boot off the promise? I've booted off the promise before on my Abit, it has a "boot other divice" option that will sniff out all its buses and find a bootable parititon automatically.
If I can't bot off it I will cry, as I will lose my current installation and have to reinstall fresh. If I can make the promise boot, ten I can keep my OS intact.
Is it really possible that this shiny new motherbopard is INCAPABLE of booting from a third party IDE controller ?!?!
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| Post #124239 |
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AlecStaar
Account Disabled
Posts: 51
From: A discrete point in the Space-Time continuum...
Joined: 2001-02-09
Member No.: 5224
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2003-04-10 21:42:07
Couple questions:
1.) Is this a RAID controller? If so, are you trying to bootup off a RAID 0 stripeset OR array?
(I'm not sure you can man... others here may have feedback on this!)
2.) Are you trying to bootup a single drive off of it, non-RAID type??
(Sorry, obviously only other alternative you have... have to ask, need data... "NUMBER #5 NEEDS INPUT!!!" etc. lol! Again though, this assumes that IS a RAID controller in the first place!)
* See, in order for me to bootup & use my onboard Highpoint HPT-370 controller here as a booting device, afaik, I can ONLY have a single drive on it set to do so (yes, I can have others on the controller's two channels & cables but NOT in raid array), not two or more disks set into a RAID array or stripe spanned set, etc.
See my "P.S." also about the BIOS device stuff too, important... @ least iirc, from my HighPoint controller standpoint @ least & odds are yours is NOT radically that diff. & hopefully this will help you!
Again though, this assumes that IS a RAID controller in the first place!
APK
P.S.=> The highpoint controller part of my Abit VP-6 Dual Pentium III CPU motherboard's pretty specific about it, iirc, about there being restrictions & also having to set ALL the disks for booteables one, 3 of them, to the HPT-370 unit only, & no others in the 3 entries as well... only HPT-370 unit on ALL 3... with single booting non-RAID or spanned disks to bootup from it! I SHOULD go read it, but this is sticking out like a sore thumb here in my mind for some reason... junkyard of computer trivia, but not always 110% accurate operating on RAM memory here alone! apk
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| Post #124240 |
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Champion_R
Senior Member
Posts: 266
Joined: 2001-10-25
Member No.: 7418
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2003-04-11 05:10:17
Maybe a boot device has to be set in the RAID controllers BIOS. Then try setting the boot device as SCSI.
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| Post #124246 |
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jimf43
Senior Member
Posts: 397
Joined: 2001-10-12
Member No.: 7287
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2003-04-11 08:26:14
Is there a jumper to enable the promise on the motherboard? Make sure it is enabled.
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| Post #124249 |
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AlecStaar
Account Disabled
Posts: 51
From: A discrete point in the Space-Time continuum...
Joined: 2001-02-09
Member No.: 5224
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2003-04-11 09:23:34
"Maybe a boot device has to be set in the RAID controllers BIOS. Then try setting the boot device as SCSI."
Great point also Champion... I am assuming its like the BIOS settings I have for my onboard HPT-370 RAID controller & that his is an add-on board, not onboard mobo firmware.
(Alot of SCSI devices have that option as you stated! )
* I am not sure if this device of his is a RAID controller either, I was only pointing out what I have to do with my HighPoint-370 onboard motherboard firmware RAID controller... maybe his is same way, especially having to set his BIOS boot device options as his controller only (assuming it is a RAID type like mine is that is).
APK
P.S.=> Good luck there duhmez... apk
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| Post #124250 |
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jmmijo
Senior Member
Posts: 1294
Joined: 2002-05-29
Member No.: 9759
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2003-04-11 15:11:51
""
* I am not sure if this device of his is a RAID controller either, I was only pointing out what I have to do with my HighPoint-370 onboard motherboard firmware RAID controller... maybe his is same way, especially having to set his BIOS boot device options as his controller only (assuming it is a RAID type like mine is that is).
APK
P.S.=> Good luck there duhmez... apk"
The device that duhmez is talking about is the standard UDMA or Ultra 100 ATA controller. Promise has the Fasttrak 100 which is indeed their RAID controller card.
It seems for some reason that this particular ASUS board is not recognizing this card as a SCSI device, which is what these cards are usually seen as by both the system BIOS and OS. The boot from SCSI device is what the BIOS needs to be set for. Check the Advanced settings and check what the First Boot Device is set for, make sure this is SCSI.
Also check which slot you have the Promise controller in, perhaps another PCI card is taking precedence over this card, i.e., try changing the slot that this Promise controller is installed into
Good luck.
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| Post #124264 |
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AlecStaar
Account Disabled
Posts: 51
From: A discrete point in the Space-Time continuum...
Joined: 2001-02-09
Member No.: 5224
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2003-04-11 16:59:04
"The device that duhmez is talking about is the standard UDMA or Ultra 100 ATA controller. Promise has the Fasttrak 100 which is indeed their RAID controller card."
Cool then, my stuff does not apply to him then, & it was only trying to relate what I have seen on my onboard RAID firmware controller anyhow, in the hopes it WAS a RAID type controller!
"It seems for some reason that this particular ASUS board is not recognizing this card as a SCSI device, which is what these cards are usually seen as by both the system BIOS and OS. The boot from SCSI device is what the BIOS needs to be set for. Check the Advanced settings and check what the First Boot Device is set for, make sure this is SCSI."
This sounds as logical as anything I have read so far, & probably is the cause... but, didn't he try this already?
"Also check which slot you have the Promise controller in, perhaps another PCI card is taking precedence over this card, i.e., try changing the slot that this Promise controller is installed into
Good luck."
THIS IS THE MOST LOGICAL THING OF ALL... I've hit this myself, albeit with an Adaptec 2940UW controller card, that the ONLY slot in my motherboard that would run it right was the bottom most one... while other cards were in place, no matter where else I stuck it, it only ran in the bottom most slot!
* Jmmijo, I've suggested this before to folks as well in the past & overlooked it this time & I would not doubt you've hit the nail on the head!
APK
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| Post #124268 |
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duhmez
Senior Member
Posts: 583
From: Canada, West siiiiiiiiiide!
Joined: 2002-04-26
Member No.: 9046
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2003-04-11 17:00:02
It is not a raid card, just additional fast IDE controllers. (I have ultra100 TX2 and ultra 133tx2 installed inthe machine)
There is no options to configure it in the bios as it is not part of the motherboard, unlike the HPT 370.
On my old mobo I was booting off the promise by choosing "none" as all the boot devices, and enabling "boot other device" which will sniff all the buses and find a bootable drive automatically. (I did not choose scsi even though I believe this would have worked, it's just easier to set "boot other device enable" This is an excellent feature that I really enjoyed with my abit. (It's a VP6 BTW)
Then I just go tmy new dual board in (Finally) Installed all hardware without a hitch. I knew that I could just boot off the promie as normal and plug and play would configure the new mobo and I would not need to reinstall. ("W00T" I was thinking, glad to have the Ultra 100), makes for a way easier migration of motherboards for NT based os.
Then the hell began. No "Boot other device" option like the abit had, so I figured, no problem, I'll just set it to scsi and all will be well. It just doesn't work.
Can't boot off and retain my OS on the onboard because the AMD ide controller drivers obviously were not installed. I even tried putitn the HD back in the old machine, upgrading the via IDE drivers to the IDE (These rivers were not written, are you SURE you want to upgrade" I say yes) Then I copy AMDEIDE.SYS into my system directory and power down. Hoping the new AMD driers will be installed as my primary IDE and hoping it will boot off it when I put the HD back in the new machine. (This was especially difficult because the stupid AMD reference driver for the IDE is a %^%#^ 8 MB .exe installer, with no option to extract the files off it that I needed. I had to install a temp win2k on another oparittion then instal the AMD IDE driver so I could get at the files (Which were ~350K)
So no option I choose will allow booting from my Promise card. So I give uo and reinstall windows, configure a bunch of drivers and settings, install a bunch of crap, change admin password and create new admin aco****. I logon as the new admin aco**** and configure a few more things. Then I reboot. Now the system will not accept my password for the new admin account or the builtin admin account. I figure SAM got corrupted. Dunno how. So I boot into dos with my snazzy Dos dual boot (bootgui=0 I learned from APK way back) and replace all the files from %windir%\repair to my system32.
This got me back going but losing all the configuration changes I had made (bout 2 hours worth.)
I hjave the second to newest mobo bios too nad the newest suports fatser cpu's, nothing mentioned about supporting IDE booting from third party controllers. I checked all over the internet to see if otherws wioth this mobo are having problems booting from third party IDE card and it seems most just install and boot from the default.
So where I am at is im booting off the onboard and I did a fresh instal of windows; million softwares, patches, Games to reinstall. (I have 300 Gig in this pc and tons and tons of software and games were setup tweaked, and installed.
Other than that, the hardware has been working well.
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| Post #124269 |
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AlecStaar
Account Disabled
Posts: 51
From: A discrete point in the Space-Time continuum...
Joined: 2001-02-09
Member No.: 5224
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2003-04-11 17:20:36
"It is not a raid card, just additional fast IDE controllers. (I have ultra100 TX2 and ultra 133tx2 installed inthe machine)"
Cool then, jmmijo pointed this out & knows this piece of equipment, I was too lazy (& in a hurry today, I start new job monday... finally nailed one again, HURRAY!!!). I did not look up the board type & what it does because of laziness (lol) & rush... I knew others would tell me!
"There is no options to configure it in the bios as it is not part of the motherboard, unlike the HPT 370."
Right, got ya... does it have BIOS options then like a SCSI controller (true SCSI) does, where you may set it as the booting device in its OWN bios?
"On my old mobo I was booting off the promise by choosing "none" as all the boot devices, and enabling "boot other device" which will sniff all the buses and find a bootable drive automatically. (I did not choose scsi even though I believe this would have worked, it's just easier to set "boot other device enable" This is an excellent feature that I really enjoyed with my abit. (It's a VP6 BTW)"
Good choice on your VP6, I think you know I have one also... they're nice & you're right, there is that option too right in the BIOS!
I think I have an idea what your hassle may be then... you might not like it: I think, iirc, that EIDE/IDE on most motherboards (if not all) is limited to up to 2 IDE/EIDE controllers MAX on them... someone may correct me here, but this is sticking out in my mind too as a 'factoid' etc.
"Then I just go tmy new dual board in (Finally) Installed all hardware without a hitch. I knew that I could just boot off the promie as normal and plug and play would configure the new mobo and I would not need to reinstall. ("W00T" I was thinking, glad to have the Ultra 100), makes for a way easier migration of motherboards for NT based os.
Then the hell began. No "Boot other device" option like the abit had, so I figured, no problem, I'll just set it to scsi and all will be well. It just doesn't work."
Right... That is a hassle, & I think you are limited to 2 IDE/EIDE controller circuits MAX (again) on most motherboards... sounds like you have 3 there... do you?
"Can't boot off and retain my OS on the onboard because the AMD ide controller drivers obviously were not installed. I even tried putitn the HD back in the old machine, upgrading the via IDE drivers to the IDE (These rivers were not written, are you SURE you want to upgrade" I say yes) Then I copy AMDEIDE.SYS into my system directory and power down. Hoping the new AMD driers will be installed as my primary IDE and hoping it will boot off it when I put the HD back in the new machine. (This was especially difficult because the stupid AMD reference driver for the IDE is a %^%#^ 8 MB .exe installer, with no option to extract the files off it that I needed. I had to install a temp win2k on another oparittion then instal the AMD IDE driver so I could get at the files (Which were ~350K)"
Duhmez... how many IDE/EIDE controllers (onboard & offboard) in total do you have there now on this particular system & installed plus enabled? If over 2 of them, I think this may be your hassle then...
Could be what jmmijo said too though, I've seen that happen & had folks here move other cards around to cure hassles like that which you seem to be seeing as well... wouldn't be the first time Plug-N-Play NEEDS to have a card in a certain slot too either though!
Still... if you have more than 2 IDE/EIDE controller in place on that box, I think you hit a wall trying to use 3 @ once...
"So no option I choose will allow booting from my Promise card. So I give uo and reinstall windows, configure a bunch of drivers and settings, install a bunch of crap, change admin password and create new admin aco****. I logon as the new admin aco**** and configure a few more things. Then I reboot. Now the system will not accept my password for the new admin account or the builtin admin account. I figure SAM got corrupted. Dunno how."
Hmmmm, so... you have 3 IDE/EIDE type controllers in place there (even though this one recognizes as SCSI it's not & we both know it)... & you could install the OS to it?
See, again, I remember a fact that usually IDE/EIDE is limited to 2 controllers of that type MAX @ once in a system... no more than 2, even if they recognize out as SCSI... but, this may be OLD data too & things might have changed, especially since this add-on card can be recognized as SCSI type when in fact, it's not really!
"So I boot into dos with my snazzy Dos dual boot (bootgui=0 I learned from APK way back) and replace all the files from %windir%\repair to my system32."
Whooosh... that's outta the OLD Win9x days... I've known you that long man? I forget over time how long I've known folks out here... I just know that I know alot of you like yourself & DosFreak from spots online & forums!
(Boy, Time surely flies...)
"This got me back going but losing all the configuration changes I had made (bout 2 hours worth.)"
Well, if it can be figured out man, we will... lots of good solid minds @ work on this madness chipping away @ your stone there.
"I hjave the second to newest mobo bios too nad the newest suports fatser cpu's, nothing mentioned about supporting IDE booting from third party controllers."
That SUCKS... have you written their technical support staff or called them? Sometimes, that IS the best or RATHER, fastest answer... if anyone knows about doing add-on cards & such, it would be they as they probably have fielded calls such as yours before with folks looking to upgrade/expand their systems!
"I checked all over the internet to see if otherws wioth this mobo are having problems booting from third party IDE card and it seems most just install and boot from the default."
Right... hopefully, it's not what I am suspecting... that you are @ the 2 enabled IDE/EIDE controller limitation max that seems to be nagging @ me here & sticking out in my mind...
Again, that may be VERY old as a limitation & may in fact have been bypassed (especially since that type resolves out as SCSI & jmmijo seems familiar with it... I think he may be right though, about putting it into another slot & trying it that way... without other boards in place!
Only that one, video card, & disable other controllers... try this idea, please... it's solved things for me before, go back to basics... hardware 101: If a board does not work, remove all others except disk controller (this one only enabled/online/installed in slot) & video & give it a go installing an OS to it!
"So where I am at is im booting off the onboard and I did a fresh instal of windows; million softwares, patches, Games to reinstall. (I have 300 Gig in this pc and tons and tons of software and games were setup tweaked, and installed.
Other than that, the hardware has been working well."
I think this is the answer man... or placing the card into another slot, but this is the SURE way to test it:
Install that new EIDE controller only + video card, & disable other IDE/EIDE controllers... NO OTHER BOARDS IN SYSTEM!
Try this idea, please...
It's solved things for me before, I have suggested it to others here & solved their hassles (one not TOO long ago too)!
Just go back to basics... hardware 101: If a board does not work, remove all others except disk controller (this one only enabled/online/installed in slot) & video & give it a go installing an OS to it!
APK
P.S.=> Give that last paragraph a go, cannot hurt & if it works (it should)? You have it the way you like it and can work on it from there enabling the other IDE/EIDE controllers as you are able to afterwards... good luck! apk
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| Post #124270 |
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jmmijo
Senior Member
Posts: 1294
Joined: 2002-05-29
Member No.: 9759
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2003-04-11 18:22:53
Copied and pasted from Promises website FAQ's:
288 How can I Boot from Ultra100, CMOS, SCSI, Configuration?
Cause: change the Boot Sequence in your CMOS, PCI Slot preference, Motherboard Compataibility.
Solution: There are two ways to make the Ultra100 be the bootable device. One way is to make sure there are no HDDs on the motherboard controllers. The motherboard will not find a bootable device, and allow the Ultra100 to boot. The other way is to change the Boot Sequence in your CMOS to boot from SCSI first. Since the system will see the Ultra100 as a SCSI controller, this will tell the motherboard to ignore it’s own controllers and allow our card to be the boot device. Some motherboards do not allow this, so it may not be an option for you. You MAY also be able to turn the auto-detection off on your motherboard and set all the HDDs in the CMOS to ´´None´´ or ´´Not Installed´´. This is if you have devices (other than HDDs) connected to the motherboard. Again, this last suggestion MAY work. Your motherboard may not allow this type of workaround.
Here is the link to their FAQ page for this controller, there is another page for their Ultra 133 controller as well:
http://www.promise.com/support/faq/faq2_eng.asp?product_id=11&pname=Ultra100%20TX2#
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| Post #124275 |
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duhmez
Senior Member
Posts: 583
From: Canada, West siiiiiiiiiide!
Joined: 2002-04-26
Member No.: 9046
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2003-04-11 19:56:17
The 2 IDE limit does not apply to these promise cards working, at least not for normal drive operation, I cant comment if it is causing the lack of boot. I am currently runnins the 2 promise cards and the onboard without problems.
I did try all the options listed except removing drives off the primary, and removing all cards. If I was not in such a hurry to get my new machine up and running I would have, but alas I have since reinstalled fresh and am currently doing all my post install configurations. when it comes time for a new mobo in the future, I will try these options. (I like to never ever reinstall my OS, I just ghost it and keep it ging forever. NT + ghost makes for a m,achine that need never be reinstalled most of the time. I keep my c drive @ about 1.5 gigs data on 3 gig partiiton. This ghosts to 2 cd's and I install absolutely everything else onto other drives, tempfiles, email etc all on other drives.
Thanks for the attempt at a solution here, but I have reinstalled and my old OS is deleted, and the machine is runing well still. Soon I'm gonna hit the benchmarks.......
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| Post #124277 |
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jmmijo
Senior Member
Posts: 1294
Joined: 2002-05-29
Member No.: 9759
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2003-04-11 20:30:41
I guess I'm the opposite, I like to re-install fresh and get all the devices and drivers up to date this way. With XP I just do a repair over the exisiting install and every app and setting is still there 
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| Post #124278 |
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AlecStaar
Account Disabled
Posts: 51
From: A discrete point in the Space-Time continuum...
Joined: 2001-02-09
Member No.: 5224
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2003-04-14 20:37:21
"I guess I'm the opposite, I like to re-install fresh and get all the devices and drivers up to date this way. With XP I just do a repair over the exisiting install and every app and setting is still there "
I have to admit to being the same... mainly because tossing in new equipment can throw ghosted out images possibly (just the plug-n-play that the OS keeps in that image as well I'd imagine).
* Part of why I suggested that MASSIVE pain-in-the-you-know-what to him of pulling ALL the other cards out & using only this board as his primary controller & getting himself up & running booting from it first, & then turning on all the others afterwards & IN THE ORDER HE WANTS THEM TO BE IN as non-booting IDE/EIDE controllers!
Duhmez, I know you're trying to beat this problem down without doing that pulling of all other boards & controllers, it'd be the quick & easy way no doubt!
However, it may come down to that...
That's assuming it can be done & it sounds like it can be if the 2 IDE/EIDE controller limit doesn't exist with this board like I was wondering about, & that makes sense since it's picked up as SCSI equipment (when in reality, it's not really).
(I am going at that here using the HPT-370 firmware, the native onboard mobo IDE/EIDE ATA-100 controller, & my CENATEK RocketDrive which is seen as a SCSI controller when in fact, it's EIDE/IDE really).
* Good Luck man, I truly DO hope you can do this & make this new card your booting controller... & make the other ones operate with that as well as secondary etc. ones without yanking the other cards, or turning those other controllers off for the meantime to get this new one booting!
APK
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| Post #124357 |
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