Help with P4P800 Deluxe

[Bharat]

Hello people

I had a posting some time ago regarding my friend's PC, with these specs :

ASUS P4P800 Deluxe (Bios 1010)
Corsair XMS 3200 LLPT 512MB
RAID DISABLED
ATI Radeon 7500 VE AGP graphics card
Using On-Board Sound
Primary IDE - Western Digital 13GB
Primary Slave - 40x Samsung CD-Rom
Secondary Master - Western Digital Cavair 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache
Secondary Slave - HP 9300 CD-RW
Q-Tec 400W PSU

The CPU is a P4 2.40C, using standard Intel heatsink and Arctic Silver III.

Here's the info from the box :

Pentium 4 Processor 2.40C GHz 1.5.25V MAX
System Bus 800 MHz, 512KB L2 Cache, PGA-478 Pkg

PROD CODE : BX80532PG2400DSL6WF
MM# : 852314
FPO/BATCH # : 3312A097
VERSION # : C30333-002
Made in Costa Rica.


Now, the problem we've got is a weird one. Every time the PC is switched on, it does not detect the hard disks, and hence, pops up an error, something like it's unable to locate a boot device ?

We simply press the Reset button, and it resets, goes through the POST and picks up the HDs and boots fine. But this has to be done EVERY time the PC is switched on. And it just takes ages trying to boot. I've disabled the RAID totally.

This is really annoying. We updated the BIOS all the way from 1006 to 1010, but it's still happening. I've tried 2 different sets of IDE cable (including the original ones that came with the m/b), but no luck.

I found it very annoying that there is no USER setting for the IDE devices anymore, it's only AUTO or CDROM or Disabled ?

Has anyone got any ideas ?

 

[egale]

You are running a 13gb hard drive? This is an old drive! What is happening is that when a pc boots, it searches for devices. It won't find a hard drive until it spins up to speed. As drives get older, they take longer to spin up to speed when they are cold. The grease on the bearings thickens with age so it takes a bit longer for them to spin up. If they don't spin up fast enough, they are not detected in the bios. When you do a warm restart, the drive is warm and has been spinning so it is now ready when the bios looks for it.

There is probably a setting in the bios to extend the wait time the system will look. This will give the drive the extra milliseconds it needs to get ready. I am not sure exactly where it will be but if you go through all the settings in the bios, you will find it. Once you do, you should have no problem booting.

 

[Bharat]

What the hell ?

This is an interesting idea. Maybe the 13GB one, but then, why the 80GB one does not get recognised ? Or is it just giving up detecting ?

There is a setting in the BIOS and I've changed the wait time, but that did not seem to make any difference.

But I'll try and swap the HDs around, maybe even run just the 80GB one and see what happens....Thanks


Any other suggestions/ideas are welcome.

 

[Big Lar]

Why don't you give bios 1008 a try.

 

[Budman]

page 4-9 of the users manual,select ide configuration.

page 4-11 , onboard ide operate mode select Compatible mode.

after you reboot go to manual 4-30 and select boot device priority,select the order you wish.


And tell your friend he should read the manual if he has other problems.