Boot problem using both SATA and PATA devices with ASUS P5..

Hi,

I have just purchased a new PC with the configuration listed below:

Motherboard: ASUS P5WD2 Premium
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 650 Prescott 3.4 GHz
RAM: 2 x A-DATA 1024MB DDR2 PC4200 533MHz
Hard drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6V300F0) 300 Gb (SATA)
DVD: NEC ND-3550 DVD +/- RW
Video card: XFX GeForce 7900GT eXTreme 520MHz

Some days ago I started to install Windows XP pro and I kept getting a
boot-up problem. To cut things short (and not list everything done in
order to identify the problem) I have now updated all drivers (at least
what I think including Windows update) and also the BIOS for the
motherboard. When running the system with one hard drive (the drive
listed above which is a SATA drive) everything works fine. The problem
starts when I try to install my two older ATA hard drives on one of the
IDE channels integrated on the motherboard (one Maxtor DiamondMax Plus
9 (6Y200P0) and one Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (6B200P0)).

With all three disks installed when I try to boot after a shutdown
(from Windows not power off during for example boot-up) it usally works
fine and I can use the disks like normal. If I now try to restart from
windows the system always hangs in the black Windows screen with the
little bar going left to right. In this case I have found out that if I
now turn off the power and restart again the system goes into the
screen where I can select to start in fail safe mode, from last working
configuration or a standard boot. If I here select the last working
configuration the system hangs once again. If I however repeat this
same procedure once again I successfully enter Windows. I have tried
this many times and the pattern is there although I have no clue why! I
am quite sure that the problem is related to the ATA hard drives
becuase if I just remove the IDE cable for these drives everything
works fine. If I put back the cable the same problem occurs again. I
have repeated this several times with consistent results. For the
record both of these disks works fine on my old PC.

I am no expert in these kind of issues but from my own research (and
please correct me if I am wrong) the problem seems to be related to the
ITE IT8211 ATA controller on the ASUS motherboard. I have updated the
driver for this controller from ASUS support web but this does not
help. I have also discovered that this has a BIOS of it's own (at least
no update was done when I updated the BIOS using ASUS BIOS update
utility) which I have not updated since there is no more recent version
available on ASUS support web (I am currently running 1.3.1.61). If I
check for a BIOS update for IT8211 at Integrated Technology Express
they have a version available called 1.7.1.56 but it can only be used
for PCI cards and for motherboard chips they refer to the motherboard
manufacturer. I have no idea if the BIOS version issue is relevant but
I thought that I would mention it.

Does anyone know how I can get around the problem without buying new
SATA disks? Is this a BIOS issue? I have never experienced anything
similar but then again it is my first time mixing SATA and ATA disks on
an ASUS motherboard.

Any help would be appretiated!

Regards,
Henrik

Hi,

Thanks for the input by I have actually managed to solve the problem.
Thanks anyway.

Regards,
Henrik


Mark skrev:

> You wrote in news:nospam-2307061450450001@192.168.1.178 thusly:
>
> > The quickest way to solve your problem, is to buy one of these and
> > connect your two IDE drives to it. There are other IDE cards that
> > might be a bit cheaper.
>
> I would have preferred he went into a little detail. Like, is he using
> an 80-pin cable? Is the drives configured for all CS or M/S?
>
> > PROMISE ULTRA133 TX2 PCI IDE 66M PCI Controller Card ($32 USD)
>
> That's a nice card as long as you don't care about contacting Promise. I
> have one inside this computer with four drives attached, total of 8
> drives inside the computer not including two optical. I would also
> consider getting the last driver and firmware that were available for it
> and if installing XP for the first time, works fine with F6 extra driver
> hardware trick.
>
> --
>
> Mark