Help updating SIL3114 controller BIOS.

Technojunkie

Technojunkie

Technojunkie

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Joined
22 Mar 2006
Posts
46
Hi all

Anybody any experience updating the BIOS on a SIL3114 based SATA controller card?

I got a new 1TB drive, plugged it into the card, and booted up the PC. It gets to the part in the POST where it tells you what drives are attached, recognises the new drive, then hangs.The drive itself is fine because I've tried it on another PC.

BIOS update needed here I though because the card is a few years old, so I downloaded SiFlash and the new BIOS from the Silicon Image website and tried to flash them, but I keep getting "Error code (0x00000002) when trying to open BIOS". I've tried every BIOS versions, old and new and still get the same error.

Sod this I though, booted up in DOS and tried a flash using UPDflash. This does one of three things. (Even with the same BIOS version)
1. Tells me the new BIOS are not compatible
2. Tells me that no Silicon image controllers are detected,or
3. Absolutely nothing...apart from a flashing cursor.

How the h*ll are you ment to update the BIOS on this thing?

I'm sure it's a BIOS issue because the controller works fine with drives of a smaller capacity both SATA I and SATAII. I've tried forcing SATA I mode on the new drive just in case, but I still get the same problems.

Anybody any ideas before I bin it and buy a new one?

Cheers
 
jbloggs said:
You may find something Here that may help.

Are you using the latest drivers?

What does the error code refer to?
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply mate, but I've decided to buy a new one.

I saw the doc on the SI wesite that you posted before but it still doesn't really help.

I've tried the latest drivers and went backwards through them one at a time and still no joy.

The error code doesn't seem to relate to anything I could find. If you strip out the crap and assume it is error code 2, the this means that the BIOS are already up to date, which isn't correct.


Best regards
 
What chip is on the controller card ? Flash chip or PROM ?

I had similar problems, fixed it by flashing firmware on the card shifting into another slot and buying another VIA SATA card for another drive. It was a right hassle... in my case I had loads of boot device causing headache for my motherboard.
 
sithlord said:
Yep its was UPDFLash v 336 from silicon images site.
Its for pure dos (I hope you know what pure DOS is).. but it was the only thing that worked.
I booted off a disagnoses CD which had NTFS drivers and it detected all my devices.

But I have a feeling its not the source of your problems, Id say its your motherboard.
Click to expand...

Doesn't get much purer than booting 6.22 straight from floppy!

I kind off ruled out the motherboard by plonking the SATA card in a test machine. The onboard MB Promise controller recognised the drive ok, but the SIL card doesn't
 
sithlord said:
What BIOS version are you currently using on it ? Does it show it when booting up ?
Click to expand...

It's running 5.0.39, and yes it shows up.
During the boot sequence when the SIL controller is found, it recognises the drive then the system hangs

For what its worth. I've tried it with a 400G SATA II drive and it works fine, I'm assuming this proves that the card has auto speed negotiation.

However I've also tried a 750G SATA II and it's the same as the 1TB...system recognises the drive then hangs.
 
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