EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

[pcuser]

I've got 5 hard drives / 1 DVD drive hooked up to Intel ICH10r, but I needed to hook up another 3 Sata drives to the system. So I took my Highpoint RocketRaid 2300 PCI-e 4 port SataII hard drive controller from my A8N-SLI Deluxe board and plugged it into the EP45-DS3R.

If I have no drives attached to the RocketRaid everything boots up fine (Gigabyte bios does it's thing, then RocketRaid bios, then Vista loads). As soon as I add even 1 drive to the RocketRaid card, Gigabyte bios does it's thing, then RocketRaid bios does it's thing and then I get a blinking cursor sitting on a black screen.

The strange thing is that even if I hit F2 (or delete, can't remember), the system will NOT go into the Gigabyte bios after the RocketRaid bios does it's thing. It will just sit there with a blinking cursor on a black screen.

Please note, on my A8N-SLI Deluxe it will work whether there are 0, 1 or even 4 drives attached.

My bios boot configuration is is configured to the correct boot drive on the ICH10r. Oh and I do have the PCI-e bus locked at 100MHZ. Remember that the system boots correctly with no drives attached but as soon as I add drives, nada.

Anyone got any ideas? Thinking it's some kind of IRQ problem that doesn't happen unless drives are attached to the Rocketraid controller. Thanks ahead of time for any input I receive. :)

System Specs
Gigabyte EP45-DS3R
Intel Q6600
G-Skill 8500 4GB
PC&C Silencer 750
Vista Ultimate 64
etc...

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

Wel for one, are you sure this controller card is P45 and vista compatible? If so, when you do have a drive hooked up to it, what do you have set as your first boot device in the BIOS?

Ya, I am really not sure man. Could be a IRQ issue, can you manually assign it another IRQ to see if that helps?

What do you have Init First Disply set to in the BIOS, should be PEG? And do you have legacy USB Storage detect set to disabled? Just some random things to check out

[pcuser]

Re: EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

Lsdmeasap:

Thank you for replying.

"Wel for one, are you sure this controller card is P45 and vista compatible? If so, when you do have a drive hooked up to it, what do you have set as your first boot device in the BIOS?"

This card is installed on my A8N-SLI Deluxe which is a Vista 64 system. It is not a Vista problem. That said, I never seen an issue where a STANDARD PCI-e x1 card was incompatible with a certain chipset. I'm sure that it can happen though. But this is a Marvell chipset based adapter. I've seen plenty of P45 boards w/ secondary Marvell chipsets added for additional Sata ports. As soon as I add a drive to the controller, I cannot get into the Gigabyte bios to see if maybe it's switching the boot device, but if the card is installed WITHOUT a drive attached it boots fine (and is shown correctly in Vista64) and I've checked the bios and the settings are correct.

Ya, I am really not sure man. Could be a IRQ issue, can you manually assign it another IRQ to see if that helps?

I do not know this Gigabyte bios very well, but the only option to assign IRQs has to do with the PCI slots, not the PCI-e slots. BTW, the bios is F10.

What do you have Init First Disply set to in the BIOS, should be PEG? And do you have legacy USB Storage detect set to disabled? Just some random things to check out

Init First Display is set to PEG. Legacy USB storage detect is set to disabled.

I seriously think it may be a bios issue that only Gigabyte will be able to solve. Let me know if you think of anything else. :)

---> After writing this, I found this thread (Need help buildin network storage server - Building - PC Hardware) and it is possible that this controller isn't compatible with P45 based motherboards....

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

On the MAIN Page of the BIOS hit Control + F1 and then go into that IRQ page and change to manual and you can set more IRQ's

Yeah, that is why I asked for sure if it was P45 compatible, have you asked them directly about it yet?

[pcuser]

Re: EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

I'll try Control-F1 now. Yeah, I'm awaiting a response from them about P45 compatibility.

Thanks. :)

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: EP45-DS3R + RocketRaid 2300x = Stalled/Blinking Boot

Good luck with things, and please do post back when you get a official answer from them incase anyone asks in the future