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WilsonJFlag for United States of America

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system does not start when PCI IDE RAID controller is connected to a DVD wrter

Hi everyone,

I need help with this little problem.

I am building a brand new system here are the specs

MotherBoard:      Intel D915GEV (Audio and Video integrated 4 SATA Connectors BUT ONLY ONE IDE controller)

Processor:          Intel Pentium 4/ 3.2E GHz 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology (Prescott Core)

RAM:                 1GB DDR2 Kesington

HD:                    Seagate 80 GB Barracuda SATA interface

Additional IDE Controller:  Silicon Image's SiI 0680 (Just a Regular 32-bit 33/66MHz PCI interface; Supports software RAID function
                                      (RAID 0, 1, 0+1); 256 Byte FIFO per ATA channel; Large FIFO independent; Supports Ultra DMA 6/5/4/3/2/1,
                                       PIO 4/3/2/1/0, DMA 2/1/0 modes; IDE drive types support ATA, Fast ATA-2, EIDE, Ultra ATA/33, Ultra ATA/66, Ultra
                                      ATA/100, and Ultra ATA/133

DVD:                  Two DVD writers NEC 2500 and NEC 3500

Now Straigth to the problem.

I was forced to  buy a PCI IDE controller since this particular motheboard only has one IDE and I did not want to connect the writers as master and slave i felt that when connecting both writers on the same channel the transfer rate is very slow, I thought I will solve that problem by getting the IDE RAID controller. (DMA was enable for both drivers when i connected them on the integrated IDE channel)

Little did I know when I install the controller and connected one of the writers to it, the controller takes over the bios and forces the system to boot from the controller and since it does not find a HD connected to it, it just halts giving me a cursor on the left upper section of the screen.

Here is what i have done to try to correct the problem.

I disable the integrated IDE controller (same problem)
I disable a feature on the bios that let or impede the additional PCI IDE controller to boot from a HD attached to it (same problem)
I try different combinations (attaching both writers, only one writer, using only one channel, both channels, master, slave back and forth) same problem.
When I leave the Controller with nothing connect to it, the systems regains control of the booth sequence and reboots normally from the HD attach to the motherboard SATA connector.
There are no jumpers on the card to disable the RAID feature maybe that is whats causing the problem

Is it something wrong with this particular IDE RAID contoller or all IDE RAID controllers are design to connect HD's only?

Another solution which I just thought of, is to get a SATA to IDE adapter so I can connect the writers directly to the motherboard using the other 3 SATA connectors, again I am not sure if these adapters are design to connect only HD's the manufacturer(High Point Technology) only talks about connecting HD's (I've just e-mail their tech support and I am awaiting an answer)

Thank You for your time in helping me solve this problem.
Avatar of Callandor
Callandor
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If you press F10 during POST, you will get a choice of default boot devices - if one of them is the SATA drive, this would be the way to make it work.

Motherboard spec
ftp://download.intel.com/design/motherbd/ev/C6860201.pdf
From a quick look at this I would think that your card is designed for RAID's.  Not just a hard drive controller card.  If you did not want a RAID then you should just put in an IDE controller card.  That should fix your problem.  
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huntersvcs
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tmj883

Most PCI IDE RAID cards are not designed to handle optical drives, Iggy79 is most likely correct, a simple PCI IDE card for the optical drives.
T
How is this problem working out for you?  I just wanted to check up on it.
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ASKER

The problem persist, i was not able to troubleshoot unitl last night and what i end up doing was rearranging the dvd's set up i left the 3500 as the master and the 2500 as the slave under the same ide channel from the motherboard this seems to work better i felt the system was performing way faster than before.

I uninstalled the PCI IDE RAID card which I believe will only work with HD's and as a matter of fact last night I connected an old IDE HD to it, which had no OS and again it tried to boot from that HD disabling the SATA booting sequence so in other words it just halts when it doesn't find an OS. I guess I made the wrong choice when i order the controller with the RAID feature, I believe Iggy79 is correct a simple IDE controller would do.

I also took the risk and order an adapter from Newegg GWC Serial ATA to IDE Converter Model "AD3300" $16.99 that will connect the IDE dvd to the SATA connector on the motherboard.

I will give you an update on any changes.

Thanks for your help guys

Wilson,
It is my pleasure to help.  But if the problem is fixed you should probably close this ticket.  People can still post to it after that.  And if you need any more help just let me know.