My own advice not working - HELP

Here's what I got and I'm out of idea's...I'm stumped..

Windows XP Pro SP2
1.5GB Memory
2.8GHz
MSI Mobo PM8M-V P4M800 with latest BIOS

Microsoft Wireless USB Keyboard and Mouse. Other USB devices:

Scanner
Printer

Device Manager has all USB drivers loaded (2.0).

Problem #1

Initial boot (cold) Mouse works, keyboard does not, again shown in Device Manager

Reboot Keyboard now works, only takes one restart. All USB ports working. Have reinstalled keyboard drivers and software Intell -pro

Nothing showing in event logs.... It may just be coincidental, but this started after putting in a new mobo/processor and a SATA harddrive, which is my second problem, although may be related....

Problem #2

Boot drive is a SATA, installed on SATA 1.
2 IDE drives hooked to IDE #1
2 DVD/CDRW's hooked to IDE #2

Sata drivers loaded. I do not have a option to boot from SATA in my SETUP. Have RAID enabled.

The only way I can boot from the SATA (my C: drive) is set the first boot device to CDROM.

I also have "Boot Priority" and have to set it to "Add-on Cards" This is the only way to boot from the SATA

I have been in contact with MSI tech support and they could not figure it out. They did send me a later BIOS (not on there web page yet) but said may or may not fix the problem and may end up with the same configuration.
__________________

May I suggest a SATA card and disable the onboard RAID mess.

After read my manual for the MSI K8N Neo 4, That is what I figure I will have to do if I wanted to boot from the SATA hdd.

Does the Sata drive show up in the Boot Sequence in the BIOS?

In the good book. ;)
Intergrated Perpherals, SATA device Configuration, and that is where I made my guess about getting a card.

Hey Train how's ya doing.

If I change in SETUP SATA to IDE, nadda, if I disable RAID, nadda

Sata drive not showing up at all in boot sequence.

Ya thought maybe a card, but this board is suppose to support SATA....

Maybe just SATA Raid like mine does. :(
Good to see you too!!
Be doing just spiffy now. :D

On Gigabyte Mobo's I usually disable Sata and IDE raid, then in the Bootdisk priority I choose the Sata drive which it lists by Make/Model, doesn't your MSI do this.

Are there different drivers for Raid and Non raid SATA.

Have you tried disconnecting your IDE drives to see what happens.

This board, your choice is ON CHIP SATA (Enabled/Disabled) SATA MODE (RAID or IDE), boot priority does not show RAID or SCSI as an option regardless if RAID is enabled or disabled. Appears PCI SATA card will be the only option. Going to disconnect IDE drives and see if it boots and with what configuration....

Murf, you are in the big leagues which means I can't help you. Sure wish I could cause you have helped me plenty of times over the years. Hope you get it going soon.
Don't like reading about my mentors having problems; especially the mods but then, you are human also. :D

Hey, even us that know a little have problems. This one is baffling, I've given up and ordered a SATA PCI card...Still haven't figured out the keyboard problem yet....

For your first problem I'd be very supicious of the keyboard mouse drivers, my son has a very similar problem with his system using a wireless Logitech mouse, he is going to revert back to his wired mouse to see if the problem disappears.

Instead of getting a PCI card I'd be inclined to return the Mobo, after all it's not working as it should.

I have had this keyboard/mouse for about a year, and never had problems with it. This started after installing the SATA drive, I ghosted my drive, transferred to SATA then did a repair/install.

Have reloaded the drivers, got to see if there are updated drivers.

I think the conclusion is like TRAIN said on SATA, it supports SATA RAID. Card here this week...

Going to dig around MSI today,

I may be stating the obvious to you but you did enable usb keyboard support in the bios didnt you?
The other thing that comes to mind is perhaps one of the services is not starting correctly.

104456

Nothing is obvious to me at this point. Went in and doubled check USB in SETUP and it is enabled... Different settings, but enabled.

Hum, Services, need to check those...don't see any that would affect but will double check..

Hi Murf
Perhaps an application like Dependancy walker [freeware] may highlight an issue with a system file.

I'm confused I thought all Motherboards, especially recent ones supported SATA as Raid and Non-Raid.

Partially resolved thanks to Philgo and a PM:

Here is what I did.

1. Disconnected both IDE drives, Just left the SATA drive hooked up

2. Reboot got into BIOS (SETUP), enabled SATA, but set it to IDE instead of RAID, set boot sequence to 1)Disable 2) Disable 3) Disable 4) Disable (not sure that made a difference)

3. Booted to Windows (SATA drivers were already loaded-previously) Checked My Computer and the SATA drive was recognized.

4. Shutdown. Connected one of the IDE drives (master), booted it was recognized, Shutdown rebooted went back into BIOS (SETUP) Now I notice under the Standard Setup it shows the SATA as a IDE on Master 0, the 2nd IDE drive on Master 1, the DVD/CDRWs on IDE 2

5. It booted to Windows, shutdown and then hooked 2nd IDE drive, booted up and all drives recognized including the SATA.

6. Shut down, went into BIOS (SETUP), Standard menu all drives there, boot priority now shows the SATA (doesn't say SATA but shows the make and model number..(did not before)

7. Changed boot sequence 1) Hard Drive 2) CDROM 3) Floppy

Boots up great....Now need to see if I get the transfer rate from the SATA I should...damn anybody need a good SATA CARD be here this week..

Thx Philgo

PS: Keyboard may be fixed also, have to shutdown a couple of times to ensure it is.

Glad it worked OK in the end.

Something has sprung to mind, not sure if applicable.
Have you considered that you may now be using the wrong SATA drivers, your Mobo bios might support SATA without using any drivers and you might get conflict with the Raid ones you installed during setup.

Well thanks for all the help will close this one out by:

Ordered and received a SATA/RAID PCI Card duh...ordered the wrong one don't need RAID. So RMA'd it and ordered a SATA PCI Card, be here tomorrow. I have determined that the motherboard supports SATA/RAID, but not SATA as a stand alone. It is booting fine (hangs every once in awhile at the XP Logo) setting it up as previously indicated as SATA/IDE. I uninstalled all SATA drivers, and still had the problem. So the SATA PCI card will do the trick as I am not going to set up an array. Keyboard problem fixed itself so assume it was not loading due to the problems with the BIOS finding the boot drive (SATA).

Hanging at the XP LOGO is baffling me as there are no errors in event logs, it does not do it everytime just once in awhile and when it does have to reboot several times. Then she loads. This started after installing the SATA drive, so we will see if the SATA PCI card fixes that. I went with a VANTEC SATA PCI Card .

Thanks again Philgo

For those interested my fix:


1. Installed a PCI SATA card (I chose a Vantec one). Booted up to windows XP (was booting using motherboard SATA, but took several times to get it).


2. Installed the drivers for the SATA Card, XP found new hardware came up and used it.

3. Removed the SCSI SATA drivers in Device Manager for the on-board SATA.

4. Shut down.

5. Unhooked both IDE HDD's (BTW: I had moved them IDE 1 to IDE 2 and had my burners hooked to IDE 1.) Only drive hooked up was the SATA to the SATA card. Also disabled on-board SATA in BIOS.

6. Went into BIOS and changed boot sequence to CDROM and booted from the XP CD (loaded the SATA drivers (F6)).

7. Entered the recovery consol and did a bootconfig /rebuild

8. Shut down

9. Hooked up both IDE HDD's and booted went into BIOS and disabled IDE#2 where the IDE HDD's were attached (disabled by switching from auto to NONE). Saved and Exit and it booted from the SATA.

10 .Windows XP new hardware came up and found both IDE Drives and installed them. Switched around my drive letters to my likening. Went into boot.ini, now had two entries (which were presented to me the last boot.) during the bootcfg /rebuild I did not enter any text so the boot.ini showed

1st line """"
2nd line ................"Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect/noexecute=optin

Changed it (which I could of done during the bootcfg /rebuild) to:


1st line:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=""SATA Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect/noexecute=optin

Removed the second line, so now it boots straight up without having to make a choice.

The key to my problem was removing the IDE drives in BIOS and letting Windows find and install them, rather than the BIOS. I probably could of done this without the SATA Card, using the mobo sata controller. But since I got the card I am using it and I think the card is faster then the mobo controller.


Summary: I believe that XP default is to boot from a IDE drive. You have to tell it NO you will boot from the SATA. When I did the bootcfg /rebuild, it not only rebuilds the boot.ini file but also the io.sys file telling it where the windows installation is. I'm not sure switching the IDE HDD's to the secondary controller had any impact, and I am not going to find out. It does now boot a lot faster from the SATA then it was from the IDE drive.