help needed

Berno

Berno

Berno

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Joined
22 Sep 2005
Posts
193
Hi all

Iv just changed my northbridge fan on my DFI SLI-DR motherboard as the dam thing packed in. just installed a thermalright sli NB cooler.

Instalation was easy, had to remove the mobo to get at the back of the white plugs

Put the motherborad back in and connected it all back up. but my windows fails to load

Im running 2x WD 80gb sata hdd's in raid. the array is detected at startup but fails to load juts get black screen with boot failed / boot from CD

Any idea's iv tried 2 new sata cables and tried sata 3 and 4 ports

Iv had this computer apart loads of times as im always upgrading and never had any problems before.

Any chance iv damaged the nf4 chip??

Computer starts up ok and im able to get into bios etc.

Seems like a hdd or raid problem to me rarther than a damaged part?

Any help would be great
 
Have you checked that the boot priority settings in the BIOS haven't changed - ie the board is set to boot from the RAID array?
 
Well as far "AS" i know the array is setup correctly

When i power up the comp it goes through all the normal stuff bios screen/pci device listing etc.

When it gets 2 verifiying DMI pool data it jumps to "boot from CD".
Then i get the following messages in this order.

Nividia boot agent
Pxe-e61: media test failure check cable
Pxe-mof: exiting nvidia boot agent
Disk boot failure, insert system disk

Maybe im missing something?
Have cleared cmos and and tried new sata cables
If i unplug 1 hdd the array flashes red at startup and dispalys and error messsage

When both are plugged in the system appears to start as nomal and the array is detected "healthy"

Cheers
 
It sounds like either the boot order is set incorrectly and is ignoring the array or the board is trying to boot from the array and not finding a Master Boot Record to boot from.

The former is easy to sort but the latter is a bit tricky, I *think* it's a case of running fdisk /mbr from the recovery console but I'm not 100% sure so I'd suggest a quick bit of reading up on that is in order.
 
Berno said:
When it gets 2 verifiying DMI pool data it jumps to "boot from CD".
Then i get the following messages in this order.

Nividia boot agent
Pxe-e61: media test failure check cable
Pxe-mof: exiting nvidia boot agent
Disk boot failure, insert system disk
Click to expand...
This message is when your motherbaord is trying to boot from the network. To me this is saying that your hard disks are not being recognised as having a valid OS installed. Your motherboard is trying to boot from CD and then the network. Not trying your hard disks at all.

As rpstewart says, check your boot order. It could be that when you tested the board without the drives attached, the BIOS dropped your drives from being an available option.

I am not a RAID expert. So quick questions - have you definately reattached the cables in the same order? Or accidently swapped the drives over? What does the RAID software tell you about the state of your RAID set? If you boot into the XP Recovery Console, does this see the OS as available? (fixmbr isn't going to work unless a windows partition is located... and hopefully shouldn't be needed as all you have done is unplug the drives.)
 
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MAllen said:
This message is when your motherbaord is trying to boot from the network. To me this is saying that your hard disks are not being recognised as having a valid OS installed.
I am not a RAID expert. So quick questions - have you definately reattached the cables in the same order? Or accidently swapped the drives over? What does the RAID software tell you about the state of your RAID set? If you boot into the XP Recovery Console, does this see the OS as available? (fixmbr isn't going to work unless a windows partition is located... and hopefully shouldn't be needed as all you have done is unplug the drives.)
Click to expand...

Yea its like my drive's arnt been recognised as having windows, Iv also noticed when i power up the HDD LED stays on for about 5 seconds then goes out.
The normal point id expect the LED to come as the drives are used to load windows doesnt happen just goes to the above messages.

Now what u wrote got me thinking, I did make a misake and put the 2 sata cables in SATA ports 5 and 6 which on the DR model is used for Silicone raid or whatever its called.

Only 1 and 4 ports are used for nvidia raid which my system was using, has this mistake changed some setting??.

This to me sounds like the base of the problem as this is the only thing i did out of the ordinary.

Software problems isnt my strong point so im really struggling to find a solution, any ideas on what to try next

Both drives appear to be running normal and the array is showing as healthy on startup. iv tried brand new unused sata cables so that 1 thing ruled out

Many thx for the advice and help so far
 
Silicon and nVidia RAID are different and not interchangeable. Have you tried your drives both reattached to their original controller in their original order?

What does the nVidia RAID software say about the state of the array?
 
The nvidia raid software is showing as:-

Boot id Satus Vendor Array Model name
------------------------------------------------
Yes 1 healthy Nvidia Stripe 149.06g

So I cannot c any problem here this

For a spilt second i forgot that the other 4 sata ports are controlled by silicon
thus i powered up the system thinking it was back in its original setup

When i booted up, it went into silicon raid sortware and this may have been where it went **** up.

The sata cable on the scond attempt were put back in ports 1&2 nividia raid.

I have tried new cables
Hdd's seem to be working as normal
Cleared CMOS and rest everything
boot priority is the nvidia array
Its set to boot from hdd's 1st then CD

cheers
 
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Do you have one of the "press f11 to change boot order" options when you boot your PC? What happens if you try this? Does it offer your hard disk?
 
hi

As far as i know i havnt got this option, it just goes from the dfi lanparty picture straight to press f10 for nvidia raid or f4 for silicon

Gets stuck on verifying DMI Pool Data just has a flashing curser underneath
 
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