System w/ATA card won't boot without F1?

Question

I use Promise Ultra ATA cards in both of my 8400s. On one of those system I had to replace a storage drive and decided to go with on onboard SATA [drive I replaced had been on the card]. Since this switch opened up a spot on the ATA card I moved one of the DVD drives to the card [had been on the mobo]. Since then, when the system boots up and I see the ATA bios screen, instead of booting it hangs and I get a "Press F1 to continue, press F2 to enter setup mode" message.

I've compared both systems in terms of setup and all of the hard drive [and other] settings are identical.

Once I hit F1 everything is fine, but I'd like to figure out why it's doing this.

I should add that the boot SATA drive is on the mobo.

Anyone come across this?

dg

Message Edited by dg27 on 05-12-2007 11:02 PM

ManyDimensions · Answer

dg27   It seems that the BIOS is not correctly passing the Promise ATA card information at POST.   I would try this:   Power down the system, remove the card. Power up the system and boot to Windows XP desktop. Uninstall the driver for the card using control panel. Reboot to Windows XP desktop again.   Turn off computer, reinstall the card but do not attach anything to the card. Restart the computer to Windows XP desktop Let XP find the new hardware and install the drivers.   Shut the system down. Attach the non bootable drives to the card. Restart Windows XP.   Check for proper operation.

dg27 · Answer

I would not have thought to try that--will do so and report back. Thanks! dg

RoHe · Answer

Before you do all that, clear CMOS, using instructions here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/syssetup.htm#wp1052704

Then run bios setup and remove the drive(s) you moved over to the ATA card from the boot sequence, save the changes and exit.

Ron

dg27 · Answer

Took a while to get to this, but thought I should report back that clearing the CMOS did the trick.

I disconnected the DVD and existing hard drive that were on the card, cleared the CMOS, reconnected the drives, then rebooted. On the Promise card BIOS screen a message quickly flashed that mentioned an invalid installation, but after going into setup and updating the boot order [deleting the drive that no longer exists], saving the changes, and rebooting everything was fine. Starts up just fine now. Thanks!

dg

RoHe · Answer

:)

chong67 · Answer

I use to have a card like this too trying to go from ATA 33 to ATA 133.   Say you want to autoboot but it will not even come up unless you are there to hit F1.

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System w/ATA card won't boot without F1?

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