RAID controller freeze on boot

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 14:06

Hi. I have attached a brand new 2TB HDD to a 2-port PCI RAID controller. When the PC boots, I get to the PCI controller BIOS screen, which then sticks, showing the BIOS version (4.2.47) and the make and model of drive attached.

Any ideas on whats causing this?

Thanks

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 14:51

Sticks as in doesn't go any further?

If so check the BIOS boot order and make sure the system isn't trying to boot from the 2Tb disk.

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:07

Yeah, just sticks at the controller BIOS screen with a blinking cursor.

I checked the boot priority, but the drive doesnt even appear there.

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:08

I assume if you disconnect the HDD but leave the SATA controller in place the system boots?

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:12

Yeah, thats right.

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:23

Is the drive spinning up OK, not making any wierd noises?

Do you have an onboard SATA controller that you could use to test the drive, even if it means temporarily disconnecting another disk?

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:39

Done that and the drive is fine. Works well with other machines. I am attempting to update the BIOS of the RAID controller, but in all honesty, I am clueless when it comes to BIOS prompts.

I have extracted the Windows update util and the latest BIOS version, I have followed the instructions to run the update, but each time, I just get given a set of instructions. This is what I am following:

SiFlashTool [/BusNum:xx /DevNum:xx] [/File:filespec] [/v]
Where:

BusNum / DevNum: These parameters specify the PCI bus and device number respectively of a Silicon Image storage controller. These parameters only need to be used if there is more than one Silicon Image storage controller in the system.
File: This parameter specifies the path and name of the BIOS image file to be programmed.
/V: This switch causes the program to only display the version number of a controller's BIOS. No BIOS image is programmed when this switch is used. The /File parameter is ignored if specified along with this switch. If /BusNum and/or /Devnum are specified, then only the BIOS versions of controller's at the specified PCI locations are displayed.

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 16:34

What's the exact command you're running to do the update?

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 20:37

I was using "SiFlashTool [/File:r4284]" - but that didn't seem to work.

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 22:03

The square brackets designate an optional parameter, they shouldn't be included in the command string.

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:01

I ran this command: SiFlashTool /File:r4284.bin

And this time, I got a message back, but I don't know if this flashed the controller. This is what came back:

Silicon Image Flash BIOS programming tool version 1.0.
Selected Sil 3112 on PCI bus: 0x04 device: 0x09.

Does this mean the card is flashed?

rpstewart · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:13

Run siflashtool /v and see what version number it displays, if it's different to what you started with then the flash has worked.

philjayj · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:28

Nope, the flash didn't work. Says the BIOS date is 29/01/2004.

miniyazz · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:37

Ignore, too slow by about half an hour

IAmATeaf · 1 Jul 2009 at 09:38

Try giving the full path to the file for this: /File:r4284.bin

EDIT: Not too sure if this is the same or similar card but this guy had the same results as you but then found a way to do it using updflash: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1143682.html