Upgrading CPU/RAM/MOBO

[sawyen]

try reinstalling everything again on ur SATA and post back... u might need to check the boot priority as well.. I havent had any problems with it, sorry to hear its such a hassle for your components..

[Fatboy]

Out of curiousity, there's not going to be a performance drop on the Raptor if the OS is on the IDE drive and then all the "critical" apps (Battlefield 2 )are installed on the Raptor? If that's the case, I might go for the IDE drive as the one for booting.

[Fatboy]

No clue what is going on, it's taking a couple of minutes to get past the screen displaying "verifying dmi data pool", it has progressed to installing Windows, so I'll see what happens.

[Dougal]

I'd say that the OS is a critical app, I noticed a HUGE difference when i put XP on the raptor.

[Fatboy]

I'd say that the OS is a critical app, I noticed a HUGE difference when i put XP on the raptor.

That's my plan, but it's not doing too well at the moment!!

I've looked on the web, and it's not an uncommon problem with this motherboard - even so, I am starting to get the feeling that my motherboard is borked.

[sawyen]

I took the trouble to detach my IDE and installed XP SP2 on me gf's 'almost' empty SATA, it booted fine.. everything is working, no errors or any sort of rubbish..

You will need to press 'del' after the post screen (not the del that sends u to uGuru), somewhere after the IDE and memory count screen and the "verifying dmi data pool" screen to enter the VIAs Raid Controller BIOS to recognise your raptor if you're not using an IDE to boot..

Hope all the trouble i went through helps..

EDIT: I am so screwed, when I formatted that SATA to install XP.. I've forgotten that all her DVD rips are in there too.. Boy, wait till she hears this.. (thank me Fatboy... and send flowers to me grave when u have time...)

[Fatboy]

Thank you lots - Sawyen, you're a star.

Just got it sorted, although I still don't know what the problem was? I got XP on the SATA drive this morning, and until recently it did sweet f.a. I plugged in both my older IDE drives, and then it started playing ball - albeit I'm gonna have to fdisk one of them - thankfully not the one with 60Gbs of data (I thought I might have to explain to the wife why all the pics from our wedding went to the hard drive in the sky, along with all my music ripped from my CDs - you have my uttermost sympathies with regards to the DVD rips)

I'm definately gonna back up some stuff now though, as I'm not confident with this new setup yet.

Thanks again.

ps. Any particular type of flowers for the grave?

[sawyen]

bzzzzzz.... *rotting*... AMEN..

[Fatboy]

Definately still got some fun and games happening with my system - which I'll not go into - but it's definately workable now.

[Dougal]

ps. Any particular type of flowers for the grave?

Attach CD's or HDD platters to sticks, shine lights on them

Techy grave.

[Fatboy]

This system is driving me nuts, didn't actually have XP installed on the Raptor, but I'm gonna see if I can get it working now it's formatted etc.

Failing that I'm just gonna back up all my docs etc from my other HDDs and format the lot.

Just got a couple of issues with jumpers on my IDE drives, so I'll look into it again when I'm back from work.

[sawyen]

*rumble up from grave*... ?? Didnt you use the RAID bios I pointed out before to boot your raptor? Once you get ur Raptor sorted out.. stick in your IDE and arrange the boot sequence correctly.. everything should work fine..

*slowly lumber back into grave*

[Fatboy]

*looks round at the creepy IT zombie* ... to be honest, I only did a minimal amount on the system last night. I plugged in both my IDE hard drives and the Raptor, and then it booted up - no waiting around at the "verifying dmi data pool" either.

I'm definately going to try and get the Raptor as the main boot device as you proved it to be possible.

I did have a look for something like that last night after you suggested it, but couldn't find anywhere where "press DEL to ...." was showing. Do you mean TAB rather than delete after the post screen? I know that gets you into the RAID screen (although it then says I have not got enough SATA disks for RAID - shocker). The other slightly wierd thing is that my keyboard doesn't seem to work very well between the POST screen and Windows - so when I press "any button to boot from CD" nothing happens - and consequently cannot use "F6" to install a 3rd party SATA/RAID driver. I think it may be something to do with USB emulation or something like that in the settings under On-Chip Devices, I've sorted the problem when I've been fiddling, it's just a bit wierd thats all. I may use the PS2 interface in preference to USB just to try and eliminate that from being an issue. (Just for reference, its a Logitech wireless desktop setup)

As I mentioned above, I've got to look into the jumpers on the IDE devices, as I don't really want 3 HDD sat in my system - I've run out of power connectors (4 case fans, CPU fan, DVD, CD, FDD, 2/3 HDD and my graphics card)!

[sawyen]

hmn... maybe try flashing a new BIOS? I'm using rev 22.. maybe that might help..

EDIT: me bad... It was TAB and not del.. You should be able to see your Raptor in the RAID screen.. (I will be in my grave if u need anything else)

[Fatboy]

.. (I will be in my grave if u need anything else)

How'd she take the news? (You're in your grave, so that's not a good indication!)

[sawyen]

Not too well...

Well, at least I get to keep my side of the bed and not the living room sofa... I'll have to rip everything out for her again... that includes all the DVDs we got from our friends.. Blockbuster.. here I come...