Any Ideas On This? MOBO vs CPU vs. SATA

Hi all...I'll start by admitting I'm totally stumped here.

Building a machine...here's the list of the guts of the thing:

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe mobo, AMD 64 socket 939 3800 CPU, base HD setup is twin WD Raptor 74 Gig drives [SATA II], ATI Radeon X800XL [PCI-E] video card. Two GIGS of Muskin RAM [I called both ASUS and Mushkin directly to veryify that the RAM was compatible with the mobo] Antec 550W PS. [For those of you that are familiar with SLI, I do have the mobo set for a single video card...]

This mobo has onboard connections, two banks of four slots for SATA and SATA II hookups, with different RAID software utilities depending on which bank you use.

Ok...the machine powered up first time, fine. Recognizes 2048 MB of RAM. Entered BIOS, submenu, NVIDIA RAID tool accessed, set up RAID 0, [was planning to use the 10K RPM drives for OS and program files, and add 300 gigs of slower drive for data storage after the OS install.]

Exit RAID Utility, it tells me there's a "healthy" array...but now BIOS doesn't see the drives anymore. BTW, they were both formatted before I set up the RAID.

Here's what I've tried so far...removing drives, rebooting, reconnecting drives...switching from one SATA bank to the other, and, depending on which bank I use, tried the appropriate RAID utility...both tell me I've set up "healthy" arrays, tried four different sets of SATA cables [all brand new].

I'd say that one out of five tries of connecting/reconnecting drives, they show up...and then, whether I use RAID tools or not, they won't be there after the next reboot.

At one point, I actually got the XP Pro OS install to start, thought I was on my way, then came the OS install reboot...and you guessed it, no drives seen, system hang. Low level formats all around, tried it all again...same problem.

Tried using one drive...thinking I can live without RAID if I have to...same problem...with both/either drives...they just disappear.

Of the thousands of support site topics I've looked at, no help, the only thing I can find is that there's a new BIOS update as of late April 2005, which does not list CPU/HD issues compatability as one of the "fixes" it addresses...

I have more than enough power, more than enough RAM, I can enter BIOS and configure away, only to get back to square one.

So, the question is, 1] any ideas on someting stupid I'm missing? 2] Anyone seen this problem before?

On the CD that came with the motherboard, place the sata drivers on a floppy disk. When you run the Windows install, press f6 when it asks you to. Follow the directions, insert floppy, correct sata drivers, etc. Continue with installation. At reboot, Windows will work.

Hey,

For what it's worth, I've setup 3 Giga-byte SLI Boards, I had intermittent trouble detecting drives on one of them. I switched bios from the latest to an earlier one and haven't had troubles since.

Also, I'm dealing with Maxtor Drives and I know that they have firmware updates to address some of the issues with their drives not detecting. Have you contacted WD's Support?

This is all assuming that loading the drivers during WinXP Setup didn't do it for you.

Thanks for the quick replies, guys.

MPC doc...you are a legend!

That was the fix. Other than having a Homer Simpson "DOH" moment... it kills me that nowhere in any of the mobo or hardware documentation does this "little" step show up!

I started from scratch, reformatted both drives, doublechecked the BIOS settings, created the SATA/RAID driver floppy. Went back in, rebuilt the RAID, inserted the XP CD, waited for the SATA/RAID third party screen, installed the drivers, the XP install finally saw the combined drives, and it's up and running.

And...I gotta tell you...the install took only 18 minutes! I think I'm gonna like this hdwe. config! I've just started the long, long, long process of tweak, software, driver, application installs, but this thing is noticeably faster than even my current 64 machine.

Thanks again, Mobile PC Physician, and Silent One for the quick replies, and the correct answer. [BTW, Silent One, I had checked with WD, and they had nothing to offer!]

Ahhhh, good ol' WinDrivers forum...best techs on the planet.